Double Nut Flush Draw

When the Stars Align

2010-12-14T07:32:00.002-05:00

It doesn't happen too often, but every once in a while I have a night where it just seems I can do no wrong... a Friday night cash game proved to be one of those times, but I had to overcome some early adversity to make it happen.

With the blinds 25/50 cents, I buy in for $40, and turn that into $75 within the first 10 hands. I had hit a few flops, and bought a few nice pots, but nothing significant happened until I ran into a very tough situation.

UTG, I'm dealt 66, and decide to bump it up to $3, and 3 guys call. Our cash games, due to the low stakes, are typically fairly loose, so when the flop comes down 6h-5h-3h, I'm not feeling too good about my situation. I've flopped the top set, but straight and flush possibilities exist, and 2 of the guys that called me are known for especially loose play.

I decide to see where I stand, and bet $9, hoping to make flush and straight draws fold their hands. The one guy who isn't really loose is first to act, and he re-raises me $42 more, putting himself all-in. The other 2 guys fold, and I'm left with a very tough decision. In my gut, I suspect I'm already beat, and that he's made either the straight, or a medium flush.

I show my cards as I fold them, and most of the table goes nuts, amazed that I didn't call the bet, but I didn't want to risk all the money (and then some) that I had already won in a situation where I'm likely beat, or at best even money vs straight and/or flush draws. My opponent shows his cards, revealing Ad-4h for the open-ended straight flush draw.

A little rabbit hunting revealed I would have made a full-house on the turn, and quads on the river, just to emphasize a point I guess. It took me quite a while to recover mentally from this hand, as I kept replaying it in my head.

I kept wondering what would have happened if I'd checked the flop, and called the $5 bet likely to be made by one of the other players. I didn't know what the flop and turn would bring, what if instead another heart came down, my hand would have been all but useless then.

I concluded I played the hand properly, and just chalked this one down to being one of those situations that happen in poker, where no matter how you play a hand, you'll never feel good about it. When I did start to focus and play poker again, the rest of the night was fantastic.

Every bluff I made was perfectly timed, most over-bets I made to make it look like I was trying to steal the pot was called, and I had a lot of great starting hands and flops. I wish every night of poker could be like this, as I walked away with $170 profit on my $40 buy-in, and aside from that one hand mentioned above, I was never at risk of losing large chunks.

Poker Survivor

2010-11-19T07:41:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted anything here in a long time, partly because my life has gotten much more complicated recently, but also because I haven't been as enthusiastic about playing/watching poker as I used to be. I think this is changing, as I am once again getting the itch to play poker more often, and to watch and talk about poker.

I've still been running the monthly poker tour that I've been a part of for the past 8 years, and this months tournament is the first one in a while that is building a bit of hype, as it is our 2nd edition for Poker Survivor. The basic style of poker for this format is Hold'em, but it varies from a standard tournament in a few different ways.

Each table is their own tribe, and unlike normal tournaments, you don't balance tables after eliminations, and the tribes are dispersed only at the Merger, which for smaller sized tournaments would mean the final table. Every blind raise (or every 30 minutes) a card is dealt face-up to each player at each table. The player to receive the lowest card is sent to Exile Island, where they will face the other Exile(s). The chip leader can declare immunity to this prior to the cards being dealt face-up.

Each Exile must take 50% - 100% of their chip stack to Exile Island, without knowing how much their opponent(s) will be taking with them. Play continues as normal at the Tribal tables. The Exiles battle and each time a player is eliminated, the person who claimed the elimination gets the Immunity idol.

The eliminated player returns to their Tribal table with whatever chips they left behind, or they are eliminated if they took all their chips to Exile Island. Once only one player remains on Exile Island, they are sent back to their Tribe.

The immunity Idol can be used by it's owner to prevent bad beats. When all-in, but before any hole cards have been revealed, the owner of the Idol can play it to prevent him/her from losing any chips in this hand. If he does lose the hand, he gets all chips back that he put in the pot. If he wins the hand, he still takes it all. Basically, he's free-rolling, but once the Idol has been played, it is lost.

As always, I'm interested in hearing other peoples variations on poker, or their thoughts on this format.

Poker Tournament Formats

2010-04-28T12:39:00.008-04:00

Looking to spice up your poker tournaments? Here are a list of some different ideas for your next game, most of them I have tried at least once. Give them a try, let me know how it goes, or tell me about your ideas. I'm not going to list different forms of poker, such as Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, HORSE or many other games that are all well documented on the web, and played at WSOP events. You can look elsewhere for those, I'm trying to offer something else.

Riverboat - Inspired by the movie Maverick, the idea is to split your group of players in tables of even number of players. For example, if you have 20 players, 4 tables of 5 would be ideal. Then each table plays until there is only one player left at each table. No merging of tables or sending players to another table for balance. The winners of each table play at the final table, until a champion is decided. This format can be adapted with a variety of other tournaments listed below.

Heads-up - Already fairly common, but worth mentioning. This can be done with any number of players, but 8 is the minimum I'd advise trying this with. Players are divided into pairs, each player plays until one person has all the chips. Winners advance until there is only one player remaining. See http://www.printyourbrackets.com/ for printable bracket structures of single or double elimination for almost any number of players.

Royal Rumble - Inspired by the WWE, this one probably works best for single-table tournaments, but could be applied to the final table of a larger tournament as well, or incorporated into a Riverboat structure. 2 players are randomly chosen to start play heads-up. Then, after a predetermined set period of time, another name is randomly chosen to enter play, and so on until all players had entered the game. The blinds only raise at a set time after the last player starts. The advantage to be chosen last could be negated by the likelihood that he will be the short-stack at the table.

Teams - Players are divided into teams, randomly or otherwise, and are assigned a point value based on their final position in the tournament. If you have more than one table, I'd recommend splitting up teammates to different tables. This one could work as a normal tournament style or as a Riverboat style.

Survivor - Based on the TV show, this is a very complicated format, but the one time I ran a tournament of this format, everyone agreed it was a lot of fun. The unique feature is that at a predetermined time (we did every 30 minutes) 1 player from each (tribe) table was randomly selected to go to Exile Island (a separate table). We only had 2 tables, so in this case the 2 players played heads-up, with an Immunity Idol on the line. Each player could chose to bring as much of their existing stack as they wanted to risk to Exile Island, without discussing it with their opponent. If one player was able to eliminate the other, the winner would get the Immunity Idol, and both players would return back to their initial table with the chips they had won/lost, unless they had brought everything with them, and lost.

The Immunity idol can then be used in a variety of ways, depending on how much power you want it to have. My initial idea was that the bearer of the idol could use it on the flop or turn to prevent any more community cards from appearing this hand. This would be especially helpful if the idol bearer flops a set, but wants to avoid seeing a flush card hit on the turn or river. They play the idol (which means they lose it) and all hands are revealed. Another possibility is that on the river, before hole cards are revealed, the idol bearer has the option to use the idol, and thus guaranteeing him that he gets back all money he invested in the pot. Several other possibilities exist, but it has to be powerful, as the idol is very hard to get, and can only be used once.

Bounty Hunter - There are several ways to run a bounty tournament, but I'll outline my favorite. You take a portion of the tournament buy-in (10% to 100% depending on what you like), and give everyone a special poker chip (or whatever) to signify their bounty. When you eliminate someone, you collect their bounty. When the tournament is over, you cash in all the bounty chips you collected for the value you determined before the tournament began. For example, if you have a $50 buy-in, and you set aside $10 for the bounties, the remaining $40 of every buy-in goes to the main pot, but the $10 left over goes in to the bounty pot. Remember, when you are eliminated, you give your opponent only your personal bounty, not all bounties you have collected.

Re-buy/Add-on - A great way to get more money in the game, and tons of options to customize, both Re-buy and Add-on can be used individually or together. Re-buy is simple, when a player gets eliminated, they have the option to re-buy into the tournament for the initial buy-in, getting the initial starting stack. This should be done immediately after that player is eliminated. Add-on is an option to pay a specified amount of money to get a specified amount of chips. There is a lot of flexibility with this rule. You can chose to have limits on one or both, or at specified times. This one in particular requires more effort from the Tournament Director.

The Next Level

2010-04-14T14:16:00.004-04:00

As I've all but given up online play, my focus recently has been on improving my game at the table. I now have a sound understanding of different strategies and when to use them. I know what kind of player I am, what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I know how to use that knowledge to my advantage. I know about pot odds, implied odds and the thin bet. I have successfully used all this knowledge to my advantage at one point or another during a cash game or tournament, and hopefully I have learned from my failed attempts as well.

Still there is one major area that I have yet to truly attempt to utilize while playing poker. One skill set that is blown out of proportion in the movies, but is underdeveloped probably by 95% of all poker players.... reading tells.

For years Hollywood has portrayed the tell as being something so obvious that it's comical. From teeth tapping in Maverick to Oreo cookies in Rounders and many other extremely obvious examples that even an 8 year old could pick up on, most poker players realize that poker tells are never this obvious, and as a result, they don't even bother to look for them anymore. But tells are still there to be read, you just have to know what you're looking for, and what they mean.

Like many poker players, I've read numerous articles on tells, but then when I sit down to play poker, I get lost in the excitement, and rarely perceive anything that I think could even possibly be a tell. You see, picking up a tell takes hours of research, a great memory and keen observation. Sadly, I seem to lack the memory of the attention span required to do this successfully.

So.. as many of my previous blogs have done, in this one I'm going to challenge myself. I have a Championship game this Friday, after a 10 game regular season, for which I am the defending champ. I'm going to focus on one or two players at my table, and watch them as closely as I possibly can. I'm going to watch for things like how they place their chips in the pot and how they react immediately after seeing the flop.

For information on tells check out these links:

http://www.pokertells.com/

http://www.playwinningpoker.com/poker/tells/

http://poker.about.com/od/strategyadvice/a/basictells.htm

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-spot-poker-tells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqF8m12JSDE

Rush Poker - analysis

2010-02-26T10:08:00.007-05:00

Ok, so the company I work for has finally got their website up and running, and I'm listed as a blogger, linked from the site. Guess it's time to update this damn thing.

My last online experience ended about a month ago when Full-Tilt poker introduced a new concept, called Rush-Poker. Basically, the concept is that as soon as you fold your hand, at any point in the hand, you are immediately brought to another table with new players, and another hand starts. As impatience has long been my biggest weakness, I was immediately intrigued, so I checked it out.

Pros: You don't have to waste time while waiting for someone else to fold a hand, especially if you folded rags preflop. This is likely the reason for the invention of Rush-Poker. You can also avoid playing weaker hands out of boredom, knowing that if you laying down your K-10 preflop to a raise, you can just fold 5 times in the next 10 seconds and find a much better hand to play with.

Cons: As always, strengths can be made into weaknesses, and this is also the case with Rush Poker. As you are immediately taken to another table the very moment you fold any hand, any time, you don't have the opportunity to watch the rest of the hand play out. Yes, preflop folds with nothing are easy to walk away from, but if you've been forced to fold a strong hand on the turn, it's often nice to see how the rest of the hand would have played out.

Also, because you can be more picky about starting hands, so too can your opponents. This means most people are playing only premium starting hands. I suggest taking an opposite approach, play weaker hands preflop, try to see some cheap flops and bust people who just can't lay down their great starting hand.

My personal experience was pretty interesting. With my Freeroll winnings up to almost $100, I bought in for $40 with a 25/50 cent blind level. Within 3 sessions lasting about 2.5 hours, seeing at least 500 hands in that time, my bankroll had gone from just under $100 to well over $375. I was feeling pretty good, playing very well and avoiding the "bad beat".

Again, strength can be weaknesses. Much more quickly then that money came my way, it disappeared in an astonishingly quick fashion. Several bad beats and bad plays on my part, and the money was all but gone. I haven't played on-line since, but I'm sure eventually I'll get the itch.

Results of the dress test...

2010-01-19T14:16:00.002-05:00

Well, to be honest, I'm not sure that dressing differently had any impact, but then again, I didn't exactly get any cards to make an impact with. I finished 9th out of 20 people, but I did managed to pull off a nice bluff early on. Making my opponent fold AK with a flop of K-4-2, I held 43 from the BB.

I thought I was ahead, and bet out on the flop. He re-raised, but it felt like he was just trying to steal the pot from me, hoping his Ace high was still good, so I re-re-raised. Not sure my clothing had any impact, as less than 30 minutes earlier, I told that particular player how I was going to play very tight and aggressive. He figured me for trips or 2-pair, but either way, I got very lucky there.

Overall, I'm not sure this one tournament was enough of an experiment to say if the clothes affect the play, so I'll give it another try next time, maybe even get a few decent cards to work with so I can have more in-depth analysis. I really was card-dead all night, it's pretty amazing I finished 9th.

Image is everything... or is it?

2010-01-15T15:18:00.004-05:00

I'm playing in my normal monthly live tournament tonight, and I'm going a slightly different route to see if it has an effect. As much as I try to play a more standard, basic style of poker, I usually let myself get carried away and start to play too many pots and take too many chances. As much as I'm trying to improve, I have to accept that in all likely hood, it will happen again, so I might as well embrace it, right?

So what am I going to do differently? The answer, change my clothes.

I'm not talking about finding a new lucky T-shirt, or a hoodie to hide behind, I'm talking about a complete style change. You see, normally, I wear jeans and a t-shirt, maybe a ball cap, but always very casual attire. Combined with my style of play and extreme familiarity with most of the players in these tournaments, and I've been quite accurately pigeon-holed into a specific type of poker player.

I'm the type of player that every time I make a bold move, everyone else at the table yells "BLUFF, BLUFF, CALL HIM!". I love it, because I get paid off more often than most on my big hands, but it also means I get busted on bluffs because of my reputation. They know against most people they should fold, but because I am who I am, and nobody likes to get bluffed, they make the call anyways.

My hope is that by changing my appearance, by wearing a nice pair of dockers and a button-up black dress-shirt (a fine Xmas present from my Aunt, btw), is that perhaps subconsciously my opponents may give me more respect than I would normally get, which is very little. Only time will tell, but I know the way a person dresses can have a great impact on the subconscious, we're all very shallow by nature, but will it be enough to overcome a table image I've spent years to build?

unbefawqinglevieble!

2010-01-02T10:38:00.002-05:00

Might be time, already, to take a break from playing online poker. It's been a while since I've had a good ole fashioned bitch-fest, but I think this is deserving of it.

I've played in 3 tournaments in the past 24 hours, and have taken some pretty ridonkulous bad beats. The first 2 both happened on hand #2 of the tournament.

Bad beat #1: I have QQ, get all-in preflop against JJ, the river brings a Jack, and I'm done.

Bad beat #2: I have AA, get all-in on the flop vs QQ and JJ, with a board of 4-6-8, the turn brings a Jack. Amazingly, because the other 2 players played the first hand and both lost, I got credit for the kill and collected the knockout bounty, and was eliminated a few hands later.

Bad beat #3: I'm getting somewhat short-stacked and need to make a move, so UTG I push all-in, and get one caller, from the player beside me. Amazingly, he called almost 50% of his stack with 10-J, and my A-J is looking pretty good... until the flop. The flop is 10-J-6, and his 2 pair are ahead... until the turn. An Ace on the turn makes me a HUGE favorite now...until the river. A miracle 2-outer hist, a 10 on the river, he makes a full-house to beat my 2 pair.

Stupid poker.

Finally some time, and some luck

2009-12-30T08:45:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, with the kids sound asleep, I was able to play some online poker, and have had some success. After fizzling out early in 2 consecutive tournaments, I decided to play 2 tournaments at the same time. $3.30 and $6.60 buy-ins to my favorite 90 player, double-stack, turbo, knockout tournaments. I find these formats very comfortable, because you have enough chips to play with early on thanks to the double-stack, but the turbo structure means it never lasts more than 4 hours. The top 9 pay, and I am happy to report that I cashed in both tournies.

As with ever tournament, there always seems to be 1 or 2 significant hands that either knock you out of contention, or put you in a very good position to win. Both tournaments had such hands.

In the $3.30 tournament, in which I won the whole thing for a prize total of $72, I actually had 2 very significant hands, and both against the same guy. The first hand, I was getting pretty low in chips, so when the table chip leader re-raised me all-in, and I had KK, it was an automatic call. Well, he had AA, and I was sure my night was done. The flop was 10-J-4, and when a Q showed up on the river, I knew I had 6 outs to win. I could hit one of four nines to make the straight, but somehow, online poker loves a little more irony, and I hit one of 2 remaining aces to make the highly unlikely straight and double up. 3 or 4 hands later, after an awesome rush of cards, I was in 1st place, with 25 players left, and I cruised into the final table.

Now down to the final 6, the blinds are getting pretty steep, and my chip stack is about average. The guy I played that previous hand against made a nice comeback, and is the clear chip leader. UTG, I raise the standard amount with AK, and he immediately re-raises me all-in. I'm not a fan of AK, but hard to lay it down in this situation, so I make the call, risking it all.

As I had hoped, he had an Ace as well, but with a Q kicker, and when a K hit on the flop, I felt pretty good about the situation, and I doubled-up again off of him, putting me about even with him. From there, I was very patient, picked my spots nicely, and by the final 3, I had at least 80% of all chips in play. It was just a matter of time... or so I thought.

That same guy managed who I'd double-up off of twice managed to eliminate the 3rd player, and after a few wins against me, he was the chip leader, but for some reason I never felt like I was losing control. I'm very comfortable heads-up, and I knew he was just on a bit of a rush. He was clearly not used to heads-up play, and from that point on, I dominated the match, until his all-in with KQ was beaten by my A-10.

Meanwhile, in the $6.60 game I was playing at the same time, I didn't have as much luck, and I was in severe danger of not even breaking the top 30 until this hand came along.

Holding K-Q, UTG, I make a small raise. It was a pretty weak move, as I was fairly short-stacked, and I knew that if someone pushed me all-in, I may have to call. Luckily, I got 3 callers, and already the pot total was almost equal to my chip count, so any decent flop would probably have me pushing the rest of my chips in. To call this flop decent is the understatement of the year.

The flop is K-K-Q, I flop the nuts and a full-house, almost impossible for any hand to beat at this point, so with 3 others still in the hand, I have to check and home for some action, but everyone else check too.

The turn is a J, I figure this should be enough now with 4 high card, 3 to a straight, 3 to a flush on board, that someone will make the first move. I was wrong, and checks all around bring the river card, which thankfully is a 10. Doesn't make 4 cards to the flush, but at least I know someone has to have an Ace, I should get pair here.

I bet half of what I have, and I'm immediately re-raised all-in, and that bet is immediately called by the next player. The last player folds, showing an ace, and making the very disciplined play. I show my KQ, and the other two hands auto-fold, more than tripling-up. The guy who called first claimed he had the Ace as well for the straight, the other guy says he had JJ for the lower full house.

I rode that one hand into the final table, but was completely card-dead, and finished 7th, collecting about $12 for my efforts. Still, in 2 simultaneous tournaments, I made more than 8x my investment in less than 4 hours. I've actually found that I play better poker when I play 2 tournies at the same time. It does make things harder to focus on understanding your opponents style of play, but I also find I play a more sound style of poker, and don't make dumb moves that I'm sometimes prone to doing.

Tis the season

2009-12-22T08:22:00.003-05:00

Ok, I guess my plans of playing some poker recently were ill-conceived. Between a full-time job, wife, kids and the Christmas season upon us, I have had no time to play poker. I have watched some poker, tho, especially the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championships.

Lots of fun poker to be seen here, but heads-up is unlike any other form of poker. I have always felt I've been pretty good at heads-up play, and I have a pretty solid record to back it up, including winning a recent double-elimination heads-up tournament, where I went 6-1 in 7 matches played, but I've come to a specific realization about heads-up poker.

There is less skill involved in heads-up play.

It's still very tough to play, and requires a lot of skill, but when it's down to one-on-one play, luck seems to be a much greater factor. You are forced to play a lot more hands, of a lot poorer quality than (hopefully) you would normally want to play. So now you can justify calling a small preflop raise with a marginal hand, maybe even a terrible hand, knowing that your opponent may have raised preflop just to try and make you fold. Also, knowing it is just you vs him, and no chance of a 3rd party entering the pot, you know that even a brutal hand like 7-2 isn't that big and underdog versus 2 unpaired overcards, so calling a $200 raise with $400 already in the pot is mathematically the right thing to do.

So now you're going to see a flop, after calling a small riase, maybe you hit bottom pair, maybe not. Your opponent makes the obvious continuation bet. If you hit something, maybe anything at all, you could probably feel pretty comfortable pushing all-in here, but if you didn't hit anything, it's pretty hard to call in this situation unless you plan on smooth-calling to bluff on the turn or river.

No matter what happens, catching a piece of the flop is more important than ever. All 4 matches I watched last night showed how important it was to be lucky. One player would catch something on the flop, and you could tell they were very comfortable in the hand, because they knew the odds are less than 30% that any 2 random cards connect at all with a random flop.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow actually made one hell of a brilliant lay down, playing against Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Mike raised preflop with K-3, Chris called with Q-10, and the flop was K-10-10. I cringed immediately, knowing this could mean the end of the always entertaining Matusow, but after he checked the flop, and called Ferguson's bet on the turn, he was able to fold on the river and not pay off anymore. He did it almost without hesitation, and I was very impressed.

Overall, my point is very simple. Luck is a significant factor in poker no matter what style of game you're playing, it just seems to be a little more prevalent during heads-up, but Mike proves that skill is still the deciding factor in most cases, you just need to have the skill and discipline to make the right plays, despite what odds may dictate.

Short and Sweet

2009-12-11T15:16:00.002-05:00

I'm starting to get back in to poker again, after having very little interest in the world of poker for many months. I apologize to all my loyal readers (that's a joke, I have none) and I hope that soon I will be back to blogging at least 2-3 times per week.

My upcoming plans include a trip to the local Casino, where I will probably bring $500 to a $2/$5 game, and to resume playing online again.

Another quick update

2009-08-20T08:14:00.002-04:00

So with some time off recently, and over $380 to work with, I played a lot of poker online. Unfortunately, I did not play well. In a little over a week, I managed to lose almost exactly half of what I once had. Through a combination of bad beats, bad play and stupid tournament choices, I can easily say that it was just not a very good week for me to play poker online.

To be fair, I think that bad play was the most relevant influence on why I did so badly. I know a lot of people like to tell the bad beat stories, myself included, but looking back on what my feeble brain can recall, I realize that it was my bad play that probably hurt me the most.

An obvious example of this happened in a 700 player $20 tournament. I had been doing quite well through most of the tournament, and actually sat in first place for a short period of time, but for most of the tournament I was around 20th position. Quite comfortably in the money, as this tournament paid the top 70 players. I had a lot of early success playing suited-connectors, but I didn't know when it was time to tighten up and play more traditional hands.

I ended up finishing 74th, and the hand that killed me was a perfect example of why you have to be aware of the situation when you're playing in every hand. I had 7-8 suited, and a player in middle position raised about 4 times the BB. Being in the BB, I often defend my blinds with mediocre hands, and did just that here. The flop was 2-4-10, all Spades, and I decided to bet out at it by making a more than pot-sized bet to try and scare of a higher flush draw, and my opponent called.

The turn is a blank, and with so much invested in the pot, and having my opponent out-chipped, I decide to just push all-in to take the pot down right now, not wanting him to catch some miracle full-house or catch a spade on the river to make a higher flush. My chips are barely in the middle when my opponent calls, flips over A-K of spades for the higher flush, and all of a sudden I went from being comfortably in the money to being very short-stacked. All because I defended my blind with a marginal hand.

The next part seems very debatable, but I folded pocket Aces preflop. I know, most people think I'm nuts, but hear me out.

This time playing a 90 player tournament, top 9 pay, and we're down to the final 15. I'm the tournament leader, with a healthy margin between myself and 2nd place, who's also at my table. On the button, I'm dealt AA and immediately thinking "JACKPOT!" until the first player, a short-stack, pushes all-in. Then the next player with considerably more chips raises all-in. THEN (and this is what made this so difficult) the 2nd place player comes over the top and goes all-in too!

2nd place has about 75% of my stack, the other player has 50%, and who cares about the short stack. As I mentioned earlier, I folded. I had a buddy who used to always say "The Lord hates a coward" when justifying his bad calls, and if this is true, then the Lord certainly hates me. I folded because I knew (or at least I thought) that in a hand with 3 other players, pocket Aces wasn't even the favorite to win the hand.

In theory, I was correct. Against hands like K-Q, 8-9 and 4-5 all different suited hands, pocket Aces has only a 44% chance of winning the hand, but what this theory doesn't take into consideration is that who in their right mind is pushing all-in with any of those hands, unless they are severely cripple in chips?

The actual cards in play were much different. 2nd place had KK, and he didn't want to mess around, so that's why he tried (successfully) to force me out of the pot. The middle-stack before him had A-Q, and again he was trying to isolate himself with the short-stack to get the kill. The short stack had 99, which is more than good enough from that position to push all-in.

Calculating the odds, I would have been a 59% favorite to win the hand, even against 4 other players, as in this situation I would have had everybody drawing to very few outs. the KK and 99 had only 17% chance of winning, basically needing to spike a set to win. A-Q was in by far the worst shape, at only 5%.

The flop was Q-7-6, so KK was still the best hand, and my Aces would be in great shape. The turn was another Q, and the hand that was in the worst shape preflop was now ahead of everyone, and would have left me drawing to 2 cards left in the deck. The river, just to add insult to the pocket kings, was a 9.

The short-stack more than tripled-up, winning the main pot with a full-house. The A-Q takes down the rest of the pot with a set of Queens, and pocket KK loses a massive portion of his chips, and doesn't make the money.

So am I justified in making that lay-down? Was folding pocket Aces a smart decision based on proximity to making the money, and the fact that I was already in 1st place. Most people would say it was a bad fold, and I agree that it was only massive luck that would have made me lose that hand, but why would I want to risk to much when I knew all I had to do was just coast into the money and pick and choose my battles?

Poker is a game of skill, luck and instinct, and I just wasn't feeling good about the hand. Probably not a good enough reason to fold by most people's standards, but I felt pretty good about it when I realized I would have lost a lot of money on the hand. I finished 8th in this one, when 2 hands of KK lost to A-Q. "How bout them Cowboys! Woooooooooooo!"

Then I played 3 live, 8 player tournaments, and could do no wrong for most of the night. I finished in 2nd, 1st and was cruising along nicely in the 3rd one when I ran into a situation i couldn't get away from. I had A-Q, and the flop was Q-Q-9. Turn and river were blanks, but my opponent had Q-9 for the flopped boat. I guess I should have raised preflop, but I was trying to be sneaky, hoping to catch a flop just like that one. That's poker.

Quick update

2009-07-30T18:35:00.003-04:00

No posts for over a month, then 2 in one day. I try to stay consistent.

As I had the afternoon off of work, I decided to play a game online. As I expected, I was not able to grind it out and stick to my usual $3 tourneys, so using my latest winnings, I entered a $12+$1 90 player Double-stack, Turbo, Knockout tourney... and I won it too!

$288 for my efforts, + various knockouts, meant my account now sits at just over $380. I'm very happy about the win, it is easily my biggest cash in online poker. Now I just have to stay focused, and not let myself play in any cash games, which has always been my Achilles heel.

The most amazing part of my recent success isn't that I'm making money, because in general I was cashing in about 1/3 of the tournaments I was entering previously. The most amazing part is that I've won three of the last four 90 player tournaments I have entered. A fantastic streak to be sure, especially when you consider that just a few months ago I was complaining about being able to make it to the final table (top 9 pay) but I was never winning, or even finishing in the top 4.

Now I have 3 victories in short-order, and I actually think I know what I'm doing that has made the difference. Obviously poker is a game where luck is a significant factor, I'm not claiming to be the next 'Great One" of the poker world, but I know I was in some key situations that I managed to avoid getting in to trouble, whereas previously I may not have been able to get out of the way.

I picked my battles, not the other way around. I was very patient, waited for my opportunities, and was fortunate to take advantage of them and not take any devastating bad beats. Well, that's not entirely true. With 12 players left, I lost half my stack when I called an all-in preflop. I had A-K, my opponent had A-Q and flopped two Qs to win the pot. I thought that was all for me, but I avoided going on tilt, and got all-in shortly afterwards in a great situation to make all the lost money back and then some. From that point on, I was very patient and focused... and lucky. You always have to be lucky to win.

So now, I'm left possibly with the answer o my question at the end of my last blog entry. I knew I couldn't keep myself from playing larger buy-in tournaments, but now I at least have enough of a bank-roll to justify playing in $6 to $12 tournaments. More to follow soon as, not shockingly, winning has rekindled my desire to play poker.

Recent activities

2009-07-30T10:29:00.008-04:00

For the first time in many years, I am going through what I have seen many other people go through. Summer comes along, and all of a sudden there's so many other things I would rather be doing then sitting around a poker table losing my money to fish. Mix in the demands of a full-time job, a wife and 2 kids, and I haven't had much time for poker, live or on-line.

In fact, for the past 3 months, I have only played live poker 3 times, at the monthly tournaments that I help run. Hopefully, this trend will change soon, but at least I know my interest in poker is returning, as I have played a few games online, and with significant success.

Last week, with the wife and kids safely asleep, I decide to check on my account at Full Tilt Poker. All my loyal readers (hi Tom) may recall my attempt at getting into the WSOP without contributing a penny of my own money. I started by winning a Freeroll which gave me $15 for 6 hours of poker beating out 2700 players, then I did it again a few weeks later.

After some success playing small buy in 90 player tournies, my account was briefly in excess of $200, but then reality happened. I got over-confident, buying in to more expensive tournaments, and took some of the world's worst beats. When I checked my account just last week, I had $3.85 left.

Just enough to buy in to my favorite 90 player, $3.30 Double-stack, turbo, knock-out tournament. Guess what? I won! $72 added on to my account, and I'm back in business.

Proving that I cannot learn from my mistakes, I immediately buy-in to a $26 tournament, and after another brutally bad beat (my QQ vs 55 preflop, he makes a miracle straight by the turn) my account is quickly depleted significantly.

So I go back to what I know, and win another $3.30 Double-stack, turbo, knock-out tournament. My account now sits over $100 again, and my quest to win a free buy-in to a WSOP event starts all over. This time I have almost a year to get the job done.

Do I play it safe like Joey Knish, and try to slowly grind it out, or do I swing for the fences like Michael McDermott?

Just an interesting hand

2009-06-09T13:03:00.004-04:00

I played in a cash game recently, $20 buy-ins with the blinds 25/50 cents. I took quite a few really bad beats, but the hand I want to focus on was not a bad beat. It was just a pretty interesting hand where you can see how 3 people got all their chips in the middle.

In the SB I'm dealt KdQh. One player from an early position raises the standard amount. Being a cash game, which are generally played quite loosely amongst this group, I don't even hesitate to call the raise and defend my blind. The BB also calls, and we see the flop.

The flop brings Qd-7d-5d. I've flopped top pair and the King high flush draw. This is one of my favorite situations to be in, as you have so many possibilities, and yet it's still a hand you can fold if you have to.

First to act, I decide to check to see what the initial bettor does, but before he can do anything, the BB makes another average bet, and the other player raises without much hesitation. Like I said above, it's a great hand, because for all the opportunity it has, it is a hand you can fold in the right situation. Of course, I pushed all-in.

See, we have a little rule we play in cash games, called the 7-2 rule. What this means is that if any player can win a hand by making everyone else fold, everyone else at the table has to throw in a specified amount of money into the winners pot. It makes cash games more interesting, because people are more likely to loosen up from the typical tight play of tournament poker. This group loves to win a big pot with 7-2, more as an ego trip than for the money.

So when I pushed All-in, I has a sneaking suspicion that at least one of my opponents had 7-2... I was wrong. BB thinks for a bit, then calls and the other guy thinks even longer, and also calls. I correctly called one hand down to the right suits, but the other was a huge surprise.

I flip over my pair of KdQh, BB shows Ad6c and the initial bettor shows 8d-4d. This last hand surprised me because he raised preflop with such a weak hand, but it is a cash game, and he was on a hot-streak that night, so I won't criticize him for that.

As any remaining diamond gives the BB a higher flush than me, and the other player already has the flush, I'm in really bad shape, hoping for any combination of K-K, Q-Q or K-Q on the turn and river to make a full-house or better. The turn was a diamond, so now the only player on the flop to have nothing but a flush draw is miles ahead, and I'm eliminated officially eliminated from the hand.

Amazingly, the 6d hits on the river, giving the initial better a straight flush to over come the Ace-high flush. I'm not sure there's a whole lot to be learned from this hand, but it was quite interesting to watch it play out.

Did I play it wrong?

2009-05-20T08:50:00.003-04:00

The big monthly tournament I help organize and play in happened recently, and I had several hands that left em wondering if I had misplayed them when all was said and done. We played a Riverboat style of Hold'em. Inspired by the movie Maverick, you have to beat everyone at your table to advance to the final table. My table had 5 players.

Just the 2nd hand of the night, I am dealt 5-8 off-suite, and I'm BB. UTG raises a standard raise, everyone else folds, and I decide to call. Already, I have made a bad play here with a very weak hand, can't justify this at all. Miraculously, the flop is 8-5-8, I flopped the boat, and I'm feeling pretty good about my bad decision to play rags.

I check, and my opponent, who is known to make continuation bets, does exactly that. He makes another pretty standard bet. I can't seem too eager, and now have to try and make him think I'm on a draw of some kind, but obviously I make the call.

The river brings a Q, and I'm pretty happy about that, because it may give him another excuse to bet. I check again, and this time he checks too. I figure that we probably has nothing. If he had A-Q, he would probably try to win the pot right there after he got called on a bluff on the flop.

The river is another Q bringing 2 pair on the board. I decide I have to try and make some money off this pot, as he likely has Ace high, and would check it down if I were to check here. I bet, not real big tho, hoping he'll call with Ace high and the 2 pair on board. Instead, he raises, about 2 times my bet.

I didn't see that coming at all. He's an aggressive player, and has be known to take risks to win big pots before, so I certainly considered the possibility he had nothing, not even Ace high. He could also have A-Q, but I rule this option out, because he didn't bet on the turn when he hit his card. He could also have a medium-high pocket pair, making his hand better than the 2 pair on board.

Risking about half my remaining chips, I make the call, feeling my flopped boat is still probably miles ahead. I push the chips in, and as I do so, I see him reach for just one card, and I immediately get a real bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. He flips over a Queen, and I realize I'm now severally crippled just 2 hands in. I still can't understand how he didn't bet on the turn, unless he though he was beat, which would have been one hell of a read.

I managed to rebuild my stack not too long afterwards, and was even the chip leader at my table for a period of time, but didn't manage to win my table due to another weirdly played hand, playing against the same guy.

With 4 players left at the table, and the chips moving steadily from one person to the next, I was now the short -stack, but still had almost 80% of my starting stack. I find 10-10 with my hole cards, and I raise it up to about 25% of what I have left. The same guy as before, from out of position, thinks long and hard, asks me for my chip count, counts out that many chips, then after about 2 minutes of deliberating, he decides just to call.

The flop is 4-8-J, not a terrible flop for me, and with enough money already in the pot to almost double me up, I push all-in hoping he doesn't have the Jack. He does, of course, with a hand 10-J. Again, I have no idea how he even called my raise, let alone considered pushing me all-in. I guess this was a lesson that successful poker doesn't always make sense to me. This guy went on to win the tournament, in relative ease.

Ok, it's been a while....

2009-05-11T14:22:00.002-04:00

I've been busy, I hated poker and I'm also a brutal slacker. These are the main reasons why I haven't blogged in quite a long time.

Since my last blog, I have not played a single game of poker online. Frustrated by bad beats, I still have around $15 left in the online account, which was at one time at over $200 ($200.15, to be exact). Of course, as it's all money won from Freerolls, it doesn't hurt quite as much to know I've lost $185, but it still hurts.

I have played in several live games since that time, and my luck has indeed changed, without using the Slumpbuster. I won a 19 player tournament, which was the Championship event to a 11 game season that I had otherwise done quite poorly in. Although I lost countless coin flip opportunities for eliminations in this tourney, I never took a bad beat, and actually got to dish one out for a change. I pot-committed myself to call an all-in with A-9 when a very conservative player came over the top. I knew he had me beat, but the pot-odds dictated I had to call here, and I caught a 9 on the flop to outdraw my opponents A-Q.

It had been 4 years to the month since my last win in this annual series, and it felt great to finally get back into the win column of a multi-table event. In the same month, I also won my Keeper-League Hockey Pool, something I had not been successful in once in the first decade I had been in it, another victory a long time in the making, but it made for a fantastic month.

Much more recently, as in just 3 days ago, I played a cash game with up to 7 guys. Start time was scheduled for 7:30, but only 4 of us were able to actually make it on, or near, starting time. So just for fun, we played some old school poker, and had a great time. Games such as Guts and In-Between, Kings and One-eyed Jacks (with the Power-King), Razz, Stud, Draw, Omaha, Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple made for a fun evening, and reminded me that there's more to poker than just Hold'em.

Then the real cash game began. I started off well, despite consistent terrible play all night. Early on I caught a few lucky flops with mediocre hands, and then spent the rest of the night hoping for the same kind of luck. I lost money on the night, and although I had possibly the worst string of cards I've ever had, I can't complain, because it was my play that made me lose money.

This Friday will be the start of a new season in the above mentioned yearly poker series, and I'm hoping that my multi-table tournament skills are getting better. I had done quite well in the last 6 tournaments of the season, placing at least in the top half in all of them, better than that in most.

because all I have are bad beat stories....

2009-03-20T09:34:00.002-04:00

I've been busy recently, and haven't played much poker, but I did manage to get into a tourney yesterday. The usual $6/90 player kind I always play, and although I made it quite far, I ended up with nothing but a bad taste in my mouth.

Down to the final 14, top 9 pay out, and I'm dealt pocket Aces. I hadn't been playing very many hands at all, so much so that earlier in the tournament I made the minimum raise UTG with 2-3 suited, and everyone folded very quickly. As a result, I'm left wondering what to do with this hand.

I'm the BB, so really it's an ideal situation to be in. Everyone folds until it gets to the Button, who limps in. The SB folds, and I'm left with a tough decision. My concern is if I raise, the player on the Button will fold because I have created such a tight table image for myself, and I'll have lost a great opportunity to double up. On the other hand, if I let my opponent see a cheap flop, I'll be putting myself in position for yet another bad beat.

I decide to make a relatively small bet at 3x the BB. The blinds are getting pretty high, so even though it doesn't seem like much, I know there's still a decent chance my opponent folds. He makes the call, and we see a flop.

10-J-6, with no flush draw.

I'm first to act, and not really sure how I feel about this flop, but unless he has 10s or Jacks, I'm likely still ahead, so I bet out about half the pot-size. Seems again like a small bet, but at this point the pot represents about half of my entire stack, my opponent doesn't have a lot more either.

He calls, and the turn brings a K.

Now I'm feeling a little more comfortable, thinking maybe he has a hand like A-K, and he'll push all-in here. So I check, and sure enough, he immediately pushes all-in. As this is all part of my brilliant master plan, I don't even hesitate to call. He flips over K-Q for top pair with the open-ended straight draw.

I have to avoid him hitting any 9 (4), any Q (3), any K(2) or one of the 2 remaining Aces. By my calculations, I'm more than an 80% favorite to win this hand, but when the Ace hits on the river, giving me a set of Aces but giving my opponent a straight, I was understandably pissed off.

I can't really fault my opponent, although at that stage of the game calling a raise with K-Q off suite may have been a bit weak, but then my raise wasn't huge, and he did have a solid hand.

Now my online account sits at less than $50 for the first time since winning $92 after winning the money in the first place from 2 freerolls. Still making something from nothing, but considering just 3 weeks ago I'd managed to get build my bankroll to just over $200, things have really gone downhill.

I will need to win some money soon, or I may be back to playing freerolls, and that's not an attractive thought at all. A long way from my dream of playing in the World Series of Poker without investing a single penny on my own, but as the saying goes, all you need is a chip and a chair.

Why am I so dumb?

2009-03-16T09:52:00.003-04:00

The title is a rhetorical question, so please don't feel the need to answer it. It seems when I get into the habit of playing poker online, I eventually make the same mistake, and it costs me every time. For more than the past month I have been playing quite frequently online, in various tournament styles and buy-ins, but the one thing that had remained the same was I was only playing tournaments. You see, in the past, just like recently, I have always done well in tournaments, but cash games would destroy me.

The best example of this happened about a year ago. Much like this time around, I had made some money in a Freeroll, managed to get it up to about $75 in a cash game, then got crushed by one hand. My opponent and I were both all-in preflop, and when the cards were flipped over, we both had AA. Like anyone here, I assume a split pot, but when 5 (yes, all 5 cards) clubs hit the table, and my opponent had the Ace of Clubs. This hand is actually where I first thought of the term Double Nut Flush Draw.

Then yesterday, I'm feeling a little bored, but I know I have to leave in about an hour. I hadn't had much opportunity over the past few days to play poker, even missing out on a live game Friday night, I didn't have enough time to play in a tournament, so I decide to play in a cash game. knowing how badly, the play is at the absolute smallest levels, I decide to join a 25/50 cent table. I buy-in for $50, which puts me about average at this 6-player table. Apparently I had not fully learned my lesson.

I'd like to say I'm making a long-story short here, but what happened didn't take too long. Within my first 10 hands, I'm dealt KK in the SB. The player on the button raises the usual amount, I decide to re-raise him, not wanting to worry about him catching an Ace on the flop. He calls almost immediately, so I'm putting him on either a mid-level pocket pair or something like A-Q.

The flop brings K-J-6, and I'm pretty happy right now. I've made top set, so I check, and my opponent immediately raises all-in, having just a few dollars less than I do. No thinking here, I have the nuts, with no obvious flush draw, and barely a straight draw available.

He flips over pocket Aces. He had tried to slow play me by just calling my raise, and likely thought the flop worked out perfectly for him. the turn is, obviously, an Ace, and I'm down to $5 left. I leave the table, turn off the program, consider trashing my computer.

I turn around and see my wii remote lightsaber for the new Forces Unleashed video game I had recently bought and muttered to myself. "Next time you're fucking bored, play your video game instead of dumping money in fucking cash games!" Luckily, my kids were upstairs.

Time to vent

2009-03-07T16:55:00.004-05:00

As the title suggests, I am not happy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I was playing on-line, but this was ridiculous. From my experiences in many, many freerolls, I have always played by the theory that you don't play the first few hands unless you have a monster. I don't know if there was any way to avoid this, but I just never saw this coming.

I had recently come in 2nd place in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/Knockout tourney. The winning had me reach the $200 barrier for the first time. Earlier today I decided I was going to try and take the next step up, and play in a larger buy-in tourney. I figure that if my only real problem in the smaller buy-in tournies was the few morons playing recklessly, playing in a $26 tourney should be easier, because the larger buy-in should eliminate most of the stupid fish.

I was wrong...

After folding the first hand, I'm dealt As/Kh, and I'm first to act. I raise it up double what a pot-sized bet would be, to make sure I only get serious callers. The bet represents approx. 1/6 of the starting stack. I get one caller from middle position, and the BB calls as well.

The flop is 10-J-Q, all spades.

I have top pair, with the nut flush draw, and a potential Royal Flush draw to boot. BB checks, as do I, believing that even if I don't have the best hand now, I'm probably still the favorite against almost any hand.

The other guy bets, this time almost 1/3 of what we have left, and the BB folds. Not wanting to mess around with my first tournament at a higher buy-in, I decide to push all-in. My opponent calls, and shows 8-3 of spades.

8 f'ing 3 of spades? Seriously? He called a preflop bet with nothing already invested in the pot with this hand? As you may have guessed, the turn and river didn't improve my hand, and that moron was rewarded for making an absolutely stupid play.

My first attempt at playing a higher buy-in level was stopped after 2 hands, and is one I will not soon forget. I expect that kind of stuff in a freeroll, but even in $3 tournies you don't see that kind of stupidity.

Flopped Quads

2009-03-05T13:29:00.005-05:00

I have been playing a lot of poker recently, both live and online, but there was one hand I played recently that has really stuck with me. Playing in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/knockout tournament online, I was in tight at the final table, probably putting me 4th with just 7 players remaining, and one very dominant chip leader.

I get dealt pocket Queens UTG. I still have enough chips to make anyone, even the chip leader, fold a marginal hand. I decide to limp in, hoping that someone else raises so I can re-raise, but no luck. Everyone else folds, and the BB checks.

The flop is Q-6-Q. JACKPOT!!!!!!

Or is it?

This is an unusual situation, you don't flop quads too often, so I quickly have to figure out what to do here. My opponent checks, and every instinct is telling me to check, hoping he'll sense weakness, and make a move for the pot on the turn. Then I think (this is what always gets me in trouble)

"Hmmm, maybe if I make a minimum bet, he'll think I'm trying to steal the pot, and re-raise me"

So I click the bet button, and fire out the minimum bet. We each have about the same amount of money, and he calls my bet. Now I know I've got him right where I want him. He's likely got an ace, thinking that it might be good here. He's already proved he's willing to put some money in the pot, the next card should be my big payoff.

The turn brings a meaningless Jack, and he immediately checks again. I pause, mostly for dramatic effect, because I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to wait a while, make him sweat, then place the minimum bet again.

"This time for sure, he'll re-raise me, positive his Ace-high is good. He will think it's a continuation bet, otherwise why would I keep the betting so low? He hehehehehehe. Ha hahahahaha." (imagine evil laughter, like Dr. Evil or Jaba the Hutt laughing as his brilliant plan is about to unfold with the brazen confidence that nothing could possibly stop him now)

My opponent folds.....

"Hmm, that didn't figure in to my plans"

I take down the pot, which is still significant, because the blinds are so high at this point, but I'm still left wondering where, if anywhere, I went wrong. The it hits me.

"You idiot, you should have checked on the turn. Your flopped quads, there was no card in the deck that you were afraid of, why not let him see a free river, maybe let him think he caught a very lucky card."

Of course, there was a possibility that my opponent could have caught a card on the river to make a Royal Flush, but if you're gonna play poker worried about odds like that, you're never going to win money gambling.

It also occurs to me that a check on the turn would have shown even more weakness than a minimum bet. It would have looked like I was surrendering, hoping to just show-down the cards, and would likely fold to any bet on the river.

Frustrated by my play of a hand that should never be frustrating, I finished in 4th position, collected another $36, and my total is climbing back towards my peak of $150. Still not too shabby considering I stared off with $0 and 2700 player freerolls, but I'm starting to think winning $10,000 to pay for my buy-in at the main event of the WSOP is about as likely as flopping 4 of a kind and thinking you misplayed the hand...

Bad Beats Break Bank

2009-02-25T12:57:00.003-05:00

Ok, the bank isn't broken, but the poker gods have not been smiling favorably on me recently. A bankroll that was once at $150 is now down to $80. I have played in several different types of tournaments with buy-ins from $3 to $24, and using different strategies to see if I get different results.

In one tournament, I had decided I was going to try and play less than 20% of the hands forcing myself to play only premium hands. Usually, I tend to see a minimum of 40% of the flops, and often this number is over 50% when playing online. I won't call large raises with weak hands, but if I can see a flop with a hand like 7-8 suited for a very small amount, I like to take that chance at hitting a flop no one will ever suspect could be dangerous.

Another tournament I decided that I would not play any pocket pair under 10s. This came after playing in a tournament where I realized I was losing a lot of money with these weak hands as more often than not, I would have to fold to any bet on the flop. Excluding straight or flush draws, you're really only looking for 2 cards in the deck to make your hand by making trips or quads, if that doesn't happen, you'll likely have to fold the hand at some point or try an make an amazing call against a potential bluff. Especially when out of position, folding these hands seems to be cost-effective.

Later, I tried playing a positional game. With obvious exceptions, I played with the concept that position is power. If I were UTG, I would throw away a hand like A-8 preflop, recognizing that someone acting behind me were to raise it up, I would probably have to fold, so why bother trying to play it at all. In poker, you always want to be the aggressor. You want to be the one making a raise or a re-raise, not just calling everything. It's a lot easier to be the aggressor when you have position (meaning you act after they do) on your opponent, because you're able to get more information than they are, as you've had the advantage of watching them act first.

I was recently watching a televised poker event, the World Poker Championships, or something like that. A select 9 countries are asked to send 6 players to this single-table tournament, round robin style where everyone watched each player play against their table. It's a weird format, but rather enjoyable is you have a country in the tournament to cheer for.

Daniel Negreanu was a member of Team Canada, and one of his teammates was the chip leader in the table starting with 9 players, but was now down to just 4. Daniel called for a team "Time-Out" where he and the other teammates could consult with the player in the tournament for 1 minute to discuss strategy. Of course, being the only professional amongst a group of amateurs, they all listened to the advice Daniel gave.

"Be the aggressor. Don't call any bets, either raise or fold. If you think you hand might not be good, get the hell out, don't give anything away." Ok, that wasn't a direct quote, but it's probably pretty close.

Anyways, back to my point, if I ever had one.

No matter what style of poker I was trying to play, I lost. Usually it was to some horrific bad beat, but sometimes it was just bad play. Even the best strategies have a fatal flaw, the fact that there is no right way or wrong way to play. Long-term, there seems to be a certain style of play that will be more successful than others, but within any one tournament, especially one that only lasts 3 hours, it seems that luck truly is the biggest factor.

The Journey Continues...

2009-02-18T09:37:00.002-05:00

Since my last post, where I had managed to bring my extremely modest $10 Freeroll earnings to just over $100, I have played in several $3 or $6 buy-in, 90 player tournaments, similar to the one previously described. In the past, I had always tried to make the big money by entering massive 2700 player tournaments, but had never had any real success. I am finding many benefits to these smaller SNG tournies, from a higher calibre of play to shorter time from start to finish.

A few days ago I was playing in a $6/90 person Turbo, Double-Stack, knock-out tournament, when I got absolutely destroyed closing in to the final table.

With about 15 players remaining (top 9 pay) I am dealt 66, and decide to raise it up 3x the BB, hoping just to steal the blinds. I'm sitting about 8th at this point, and have enough money to last a while longer, so anyone re-raising me here significantly would have me folding instantly. Everyone folds until it gets to the Button, who thinks for a bit, then calls my raise. I'm putting him on a hand such as A-8 or K-J, something like that. He has more chips than I do, and is in position.

The flop brings A-4-3.

Being first to act, I decide to test where I stand. I did raise preflop, so if he doesn't have an Ace when I bet here, he'll likely fold. I make a pot-sized bet, he calls immediately, and I know he must have an Ace.

The turn is a 6.

I've spiked my set! Woohoo! The 6 does bring straight and flush draws however, so I decide to keep betting, now that I've sucked out a miracle on the turn. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard as I make another pot-sized bet, which has now become more than half of what I have left. He's probably not too worried about the 6, likely giving me credit for an Ace with a pretty good kicker.

He pushes me all-in, and I'm thinking he's made 2 pair with A-6, A-4 or A-3. I don't take too long to call, expecting to see that if he's not drawing dead, he has at most 4 outs on the river.

Then he flips over pocket Aces. I gotta tell you, I really didn't see that coming (twss), and I'm left drawing to the last remaining 6 in the deck to win this hand. It seems to happen more often than it should online, but not this time. I'm eliminated in 15th position.

Luckily for me, the heartache would soon be forgotten. I enter a $12 tournament, same format as the others, and finish 4th to add another $97 to my total. I now have more than $150.

The first hand of this tournament was about as good a start as you can possibly have, really. I'm dealt A-J in the BB, it gets raised by UTG, and the Button calls, as do I.

The flop is A-J-A.

I have flopped the boat, and of course I check, hoping for action, and I'm not disappointed. UTG bets pot-sized, Button raises all-in. Obviously, I call, so does UTG.

I show my full-house, UTG has KK and probably should have folded to the all-in raise, but had already invested more than 1/3 of his stack on this hand. The player on the button had JJ for a lower full-house. The both need a miracle to win, and I hit the 4th Ace on the turn, just to rub it in their faces I guess. Not a bad way to start a tournament.

My online luck continues...

2009-02-11T09:15:00.008-05:00

As a result of the massive winnings from my recent Freeroll success, I decided to play a little more online poker last night. Using as major portion of the $10 I had won, bringing my account balance up to (you guessed it) $10, I entered a $6, 90 player SNG (Sit N Go) No Limit Hold'em tournament. This one had a few special rules.

On top of all the normal rules, this was a Turbo - Double Stack - Knockout tournament. Turbo means the blinds raise 2x as fast as normal (a format I normally try to avoid), but the Double Stack part provides some balance to this by starting off with 2x the amount of starting chips.

The clincher for me was the Knockout format. What this means is that for every entrance fee of $6, $5 was put towards the pot for the final table, but $1 would go to a player every time you could eliminate someone. It's basically putting a $1 bounty on the head of everyone in the tournament. I have always loved this format, as for whatever reason, even when I don't do well, I tend to get more than my fair share of eliminations.

After a very, very slow start that saw me surrender 1/3 of my chips to blinds, I'm finally dealt a decent hand of J-9 while in the BB. Amazingly, only one player limps in from an early position, even the SB folds, so I get to check and finally see a flop. The flop is 7-8-10 with no obvious flush draw, and I couldn't be happier. I check, and my opponent, who has lots of chips, throws out a small bet.

I assume he's just trying to steal it here, bully me out of the pot, so I decide to just call and hope he makes another bet on the turn. The turn is an Ace, which I'm hoping my opponent loves. Either he has an Ace, or now he can at least represent one. I check again, and as I suspect, he bets again. This time a more significant bet that will cost me about 1/3 of what I have left.

At this point, with the Ace of clubs bringing a potential flush draw and also a gut-shot straight possibility, I decide it's time to make my move. I push all-in, and my opponent insta-calls. He flips over 6-10, for the lower, often referred to as the ignorant end, of the straight. This is why you shouldn't play garbage cards just because you have a lot of chips, a lesson he pointed out after this hand.

With no flush draw, he's just hoping for a Jack on the river to chop the pot, but another 7 means I double up, and from here the cards start looking much more attractive. A little while later, I'm now sitting in the top 5 with about 25 players remaining, and a miraculous hand occurs.

The previous hand I had been dealt KK and flopped quads, won the pot, obviously, but never showed my hand when I won the pot. This hand, I'm dealt AA on the Button. One player limps in, and I decide to continue to be aggressive and raise it up about 5x the BB. SB folds, but BB calls, as does the Limper. All 3 of us are in the top 10 in chips, and I had been doing a great job of picking off the short-stacks while avoiding the other big stacks, but that would be pretty hard here.

The flop is J-7-2 rainbow, the BB checks, and the limper immediately bets the size of the pot, which is quite substantial. I decide to finish this right now, and push all-in. I have both players covered, but would be a short-stack if I lose.

The BB calls without hesitation, much to my surprise, but the limper thinks using all the standard time available, then calls for more time to think. After another 40 seconds (that's a lot of time online) he calls as well. The BB shows AJ, the limper who spent so much time thinking shows QQ, and I flip over my AA. I'm in a dominant position, but as is often the case in online poker, things can change very quickly.

The turn is a Queen, and I jump out of my chair and yell at the computer. I've been on the receiving end of these beats way too often, and already my temperature has risen.

Luckily, I don't have to wait too long to see the most miraculous Ace on the river I've ever seen. My opponent hits a 2-outer on the turn, and then I catch a 1-outer to take down the massive pot and become the dominant chip leader. Unbelievable, even for online play, that one blew me away. I folded A-10 the very next hand, just because I wanted to take a breather.

At the end of the tournament, I lose the heads-up battle to a very good player, and have no regrets. he slow played A-9 to perfection, caught 2 pair on the flop when I hit middle pair, and just waited for me to make my move, and I was done.

Now, my online account that had $0.05 in it 4 days ago has over $100. I won $88 for finishing 2nd, and collected 9 bounties on my way to finishing 2nd.

Freerollin to the WSOP Update

2009-02-10T15:00:00.003-05:00

From Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker to the now hundreds of other stories you've likely heard about, online qualifying for major poker tournaments seems to be the way to go. Even professional poker players are doing it. Why pay $10,000 to enter the Main Event when you can pay $500 and therefore have 20 chances to qualify in a satellite tournament. Your odds might be 25-1 on winning, but if you get lucky and win one of these events, you could save thousands of dollars. Even the pros like to save some cash.

A while back I wrote about my plan to gain access into a World Series of Poker event, while using absolutely no money of my own. This link right HERE will serve as a reminder for all my loyal reader. Since then, I hadn't played much online, making it that much more difficult to achieve my goal, but this past weekend I decided to play a few Freerolls.

In case you're not familiar with a Freeroll, it is a free tournament to enter. There are usually many entrants, the play is typically quite poor, and often the blinds will raise very quickly. Most online sites (Party Poker, Pokerstars, Full Tilt, etc.) have them, but only some of them have actual cash payouts, while others offer merchandise or tickets into another tournament.

I play at Full Tilt for a variety of reasons, but the Freerolls are one of them. A standard Freeroll at Full Tilt will have 2700 players, and will pay out to the top 27 players, with a top prize of a whopping $15. No, it's not much money, and the odds are severely stacked against you, but you're risking absolutely nothing to play, so all you need is a little free time.

So like I said, I played a few Freerolls on the weekend. Saturday night, I registered for a No Limit Hold'em Freeroll that filled up within 5 seconds. No exaggeration here, I'd never seen it fill up so fast. Sadly, I lasted only marginally longer than 5 seconds, eliminated on the 2nd hand when I had AK, lost to a maniac holding 10-3 with 4 people all-in preflop. This is the type of craziness you can expect from a Freeroll.

One rule I always stick to in one of these insane tournaments is that i never, EVER player the first hand I'm dealt. I don't care if it's pockets Aces, they go into the muck. Within the first 20 minutes of a Freeroll on a normal day, the field will already be narrowed down from 2700 to under 1500. The play is so loose early on, you have to either get lucky, or just wait for the fish to choke on the hook before you begin.

Sunday evening, I decide to register for the Limit Razz Freeroll. As play begins, I truly began to understand the benefits of playing Limit poker in a Freeroll. The play was more predictable, and although I'm not very familiar with Razz as the only time I ever play it is online, I got off to a pretty good start.

A little while later, I remember that the registration for the NL Hold'em Freeroll is about to begin, and a short while later I'm playing 2 Freerolls at the same time. Not only that, but playing 2 very different forms of poker, at different stages of the tournament. As time progressed, I realized that we were getting pretty close to the money in the Razz game. A player at my table had been chirping at my for at least the past hour about what a terrible poker player I was, so you can imagine how happy I was to eliminate him from the tournament, on the bubble. What a great feeling, and even better feeling to know we had made it into the money... all $1 to those finishing 10th-27th. The final table is where the BIG money is at, lol.

Meanwhile, over at the Hold'em tournament, I'm doing quite well also. With just 75 players remaining, I'm sitting comfortably in the top 20, despite never once seeing any of the big 3 hands (AA, KK, AK). To be honest, this is probably a good thing, helps keep me out of trouble, playing small hands, picking off the short stacks when I can.

It's at this point that I realize I recognize the name of a player at my table. A quick glance back at my Razz table, and sure enough, same guy sitting with me at both tables. No, it's not a miracle, but worthy of at least mentioning. Anyways, some more time passes, I make a few nice hands in both games, and now I'm at the final table of the Razz game, and we've just broken the bubble for the Hold'em game.

It's hard enough to get into the money in one game, and I rarely even try to play more than one at a time, but this was quite an achievement for me. I think playing in more than one tournament at a time helped me play better, because I was never bored, and as a result, never played anything stupidly as I'm often prone to doing when I get a string of bad cards. On the other hand, there were also a few times when it became overwhelming, making big hands in both games, and the time running down for each.

I folded JJ preflop with no raise accidentally once, as I was so focused on an all-in situation in the Razz game. A few hands later, i was eliminated from the Hold'em game in 18th position, as a result of confusion. I had raised about 4x the big blind from an early position with A-J suited, the guy on the button pushed all-in. I had failed to realize how big his re-raise was, and didn't even hesitate to call him. Turns out he had almost as much money as I did, and I was 4th at this time.

He flipped over QQ, and I knew I had made a major error, one I never would have made if I'd realized his re-raise was about 20x the size of my raise, AA would be the only hand worth calling into those pot-odds. So, I finished in 18th, and time to focus on the final 5 in the Razz game.

At this point the blinds were so high, it was as close to no limit as you could possibly get. One player had over 50% of the chips, while the other 4 tired to survive. Antes alone were getting pretty big, and I got lucky to make a "wheel" (A2345, the best possible hand in Razz) to double, up, which allowed me to finish in 3rd spot.

Here's some interesting stats:

Razz - $9 profit - 6.5 hours played

Hold'em - $1 profit - 4.5 hours played

The time is now 3:15am, and I have to be at work by 8:00am. My daughter decides she can't sleep anymore, and I'm up with her until 7:00am. Sleep for an hour, and I'm off to work.

1 hour of sleep, 11 hours of table time and only $10 to show for it. I've had worse.

Random Funny Poker Pics

2009-02-04T15:33:00.003-05:00

Ok, this is even more lame than the Poker Hottie feature I ran months ago, but after suffering through consecutive bad nights at the poker table (read the 2 most recent blogs to have a good chuckle at my bad luck and bad play) I have decided to take some time away from playing poker. So here it is, some random funny poker related pics.

I'll have a real update soon, but I want to make sure it's more positive than the bitching and whining I've been doing recently.

The Luck Factor

2009-01-19T15:35:00.005-05:00

To some, I'm a whiner, to others, I'm preaching to the converted.

Luck is a significant factor in poker, I don't know too many people that would argue against that. Depending on who you talk to, it can range anywhere from 80% skill vs 20% luck to 20% skill vs 80 luck. Regardless, these are the 2 key elements of poker. So why is it that certain people seem to take more bad beats than others?

I have been playing Texas Hold'em for the better part of this millenium, or the past 7 years, whichever you prefer. From the very start, I have been known for taking more than my fair share of bad beats. Early on, it was so bad that I was very close to giving up completely, but 2 things kept me going.

1) I knew that I still had much to learn about the game, and somehow I believed that my lack of knowledge was a contributing factor to my success at the poker table, even when it came to the numerous bad beats.

2) I had just purchased tables and poker chips for the poker league I help organize with monthly tournaments, I felt the obligation to keep playing as the unofficial supplier. Plus, my wife would have killed me if I quite playing after spending that much money on supplies.

I read several books, many blogs and websites about strategy and statistics, played more often live and online to get as much knowldge and experience as I could, and not surprisingly, the bad beats went away. Maybe it was the Slumpbuster, or maybe it was that I learned how to not put myself in situations where I could be given another bad beat.

Most players who tell a bad beat story rarely tell the truth. At least, they don't tell the whole truth. The exception to this rule is when the beat was so horrific, there's no need to embellish it to make it seem worse. What I'm eluding to is that in my experience, the majority of all bad beats can be explained.

For example, just a few days ago, I was playing a small tournament, and after a fairly short period of time, I was considerably short-stacked. When I pushed all-in, the guy who called me said "I probably shouldn't do this, but what they hell". I immediately stood up, knowing my night was over after hearing that, and the cards did not disappoint. I pushed all-in with K-Q, and was called by 10-9, and he hit a 9 on the river to beat me.

I was more than a 65% favorite to win or tie the hand preflop, but all thatr means is I'll lose 35% of the time. There were several factors that went into how this hand player out.

1) I allowed myself to get short-stacked by some weak play early on. It wasn't bad luck, I just made a poorly timed move or two. So when I pushed all-in, the chip leader who was in the Big Blind didn't actually risk that much money compared to the blinds.

2) The person who called me had been dealing bad beats to many of the usual suspects that night. He was clearly on a roll, feeling good about his chances in every hand he played. Some nights, it just seems that certain players are unstoppable, and if they recognize this trend early on, there's very little you can do about it.

3) Like I said before, I have a reputation for taking bad beats. Everyone knows it, and there have been several instances where I know people play hands against me they wouldn't play against others for just such a purpose. A great example of this happened years ago, when a good friend of mine called my all-in of about 8x the big blind, just myself and him in the pot, so no other reason for him to try and steal the pot. He had 7-2 off suit vs my pocket aces, and made a straight and a flush by the time the river card fell.

This last reason is probably the biggest reason I still take bad beats. When I'm in a hand where others are playing crappy hands, they're increasing the chances of me taking another bad beat, giving themselves something to laugh about. Meanwhile, in reality, I probably make a lot more money off these people in the long run, because the odds are in my favour. Yes, I take several bad beats, and yes, they love to remind me of it, but nobody remembers the other pots I take down when their crappy cards don't hit anything.

After being eliminated from the tournament mentioned above, in 6th place out of 7 people, one player said "Did you 2 tag-team the poker god's wife?" You see, as much as I had taken a few bumps that night, the guy who was eliminated 1st had a much worse night. His luck disapearered about 4 years ago, who knows if it will ever come back.

I guess my point, if I actually have one, is that some people do seem to have more good luck than others, some people seem to have more bad luck than others, but in the long run it is skill that will decide whether you're succesful or not. As the saying goes, you have to be good to be lucky, and lucky to be good.

Lesson Learned

2009-01-13T11:33:00.004-05:00

Going in to a poker game a few nights ago, I was told by one of the usual suspects that a new guy would be joining us. Of course, my first question was "Does he know how to play?" I was then warned: "He knows the basics of the game, thinks he's much better than he actually is, and he's a calling station".

In case you're not familiar with the term Calling Station, it refers to the type of poker player who calls everything. They won't raise you unless they they have the nuts, and they don't like to be bluffed. It stems from a general lack of knowledge of the game, and a fear of looking stupid by making a move that's either too aggressive or too passive. Once you have identified this type of player, simply wait until you've hit a big hand, then string them along.

So back to my recent poker session, I had shown up late, and had missed two previous 8-person tournaments, but got there just in time for the 3rd tournament. I take my seat, and recognize everybody but the new guy sitting directly to my right. Several hands are played, an elimination occurs, then a few hands later, I make my big mistake.

In the Big Blind, I look at my hole cards to see K-9 of spades, a decent hand from this position. A player from a late position (the same player from one of my recent blog entries where I made a questionable call for all my chips with Ace high on the river) limps in, the dealer folds, then the new guy calls from the big blind. Although I consider raising it up right here, I opt to see a flop, and check.

The flops brings As-9h-3s, an awesome flop for me, now holding the nut-flush draw and middle pair with the top kicker. I love to play these kinds of hands, there's so much potential of improving the hand, plus I'm still holding middle pair, and considering the pot was not raised pre-flop, there's a pretty good chance I'm well ahead at this point.

The new guy checks, I check as well, hoping to entice a bluff from the other player in the hand, and that's exactly what happens. He figures the pot is there to be stolen, the blinds likely don't have an Ace, so he tries to represent the Ace in hopes that even if either of the blinds have a middle or bottom pair, they will respect the raise. A great idea, from that position, but it didn't work.

The new guy calls after a moment of posturing, which has me worried now that maybe he does have an Ace. If he does have an Ace, I have to assume he has a weak kicker based on his lack of pre-flop raise. Even Calling Stations know enough to raise with a big hand pre-flop, and for them a hand of A-10 or better is usually accompanied by a raise. If this is the case, I'm still actually a very small favorite to win the hand (50.1% to 49.9%). Of course, he could also have a flush draw, in which case I'm in great shape, and I can't rule out the possibility that he has a set of 3's, but I would've expected him to either raise pre-flop or re-raise on the flop.

I decide to see where everyone stands, and raise it up quite a bit. The player in late position folds, obviously caught trying to steal a previously uncontested pot, but the new guy calls from the small blind. At this point, I'm pretty sure he has either a weak Ace or a flush draw. Anything else should have either made him fold or re-raise in that situation.

The turn is a blank, he checks and I make another average sized bet, yet again he calls. The river card is another blank, but I still feel pretty good about my pair of nines, despite the fact that i missed the flush draw. He checks again, I know he hasn't improved upon his hand, if he had anything at all. Having invested roughly half of my chips already in this pot, I decide to push all-in.

My thinking is that if he does have me beat, obviously checking at this point isn't going to help me, and if I have him beat, he probably won't call anyways. I don't think he would have played a set so passively, so I feel pretty confident that a bet of this size would push him out of the pot. Really, it's a brilliant strategy... or so I thought.

He looks me over, seemingly perplexed at why I pushed all-in. Not worried that calling this bet would leave him with barely enough to cover the blinds, he says "Well, I've got no idea how you play, but it seems like a bluff to me." He calls with A-7, revealing almost exactly what I had suspected. I applaud him for a great read, and walk away from the table to think about where I went wrong.

I forgot that I was up against a Calling Station, he'd hit top pair on the flop, and probably would have put all his chips in the middle at that point if he had to. All the subtleties of how I played the hand, all the possible hands that have him beat, all the poker logic in the world wasn't going to make him fold that. Then again, maybe he did just have a great read on me, but how would I blog about that?

Navigating a Mine Field

2008-12-29T11:31:00.004-05:00

Whether you are playing poker on-line, or in a large tournament full of players you're not familiar with, it is crucial to pay very close attention to every player at your table to try and figure out what type of player they are. The general rule is that you try and play the opposite style from the rest of the table, so if the table is playing very tight and conservative, it's time to bluff and steal some pots. Conversely, if it's a very loose table, full of bluffers and overly aggressive players, just sit back, wait to make a good hand, and let them throw their money at you.

But what do you do, when you sit down at your table and think to yourself "Hey, I'm the only one who knows what the hell is going on... oh crap!"

Some players might look forward to this opportunity, believing that this table would be easy to run over, but from my experience, I would much rather play at a table full of players who know what they are doing. I call it Navigating a Mine Field, because in poker terms that's how it feels. Like every hand could be your last.

Here's a few common indicators that you are surrounded by landmines.

The most common version of these weak players will quote a few lines from Rounders, may even reference some poker they saw on tv, and may briefly have you convinced that he knows what he's doing. Then you see him play. He will call pre-flop bets with garbage, and in fact will probably play almost every hand dealt to him early on. When you actually see the cards they play (and they'll generally show every hand, win or lose, because they don't know they don't have to show and they're honestly not sure if they won or not until someone says something) you'll realize that they were just hoping to make a hand, it wasn't based on any sound principles or statistical logic.

If they are questioned on a hand that they won where they obviously got lucky after making bad plays, they will say things like "we're gambling, you can't win if you don't play" or "There always seems to be 2 kings on the flop, so I couldn't fold a king preflop".

Point out how badly they played on a hand they lost, and you'll likely hear the reply "I thought for sure he was bluffing" or "I had a pocket pair, you can't fold those". Win or lose, they will always try to justify their poor play, but to anyone who knows how to play poker, they will be as transparent as the glass of Vodka usually sitting beside them as they play.

The most annoying guy to play with is the guy who is truely clueless. Not only has he no idea what he's doing at the table, but he doesn't even give the courtesy of paying attention. You have to keep nudging him on the arm to get his attention, then explain to him what has happened so far in the hand, then tell him what his options are. They are the most frustrating, especially in a tournament format when the blinds are raising rapidly and you're on a short stack. They don't realize how inconsiderate they are, so any attempt you make to hurry them up is seen as being rude, and probably will only encourage them to play slower and stupider.

The commonality for all weak players is that they don't understand the odds, nor do they understand the etiquette. They will act out of turn, not realizing that this could be important information to other players. They will make illegal bets, they will talk about the cards they folded during the hand and they will likely need instruction on how to deal when it's their turn.

The most dangerous player of this ilk is the player who knows they're being fishy. They actually have more poker knowledge than their play would indicate, but for whatever reason, they just don't care about playing an intelligent game. They will chase every straight and flush draw, no matter what the bet or the odds, and just hope to get lucky. Maybe at one point they even tried playing poker smartly, but probably took a series of bad beats, and just decided to play for fun, winning would happen if it were "in the cards". These players have another advantage, because they know what type of player you are, and can take advantage of that. More than anyone else else, these players can make or break a tournament, because their insane play will either lead to their early elimination, or for someone else.

The common theme amongst these various types of players is that they really don't know or care about how badly they are playing, so you can rarely be certain about what hole cards they have. They could have limped in with 5 other players holding AA, or they could call a massive preflop raise with Q2.

Personally, I haven't figured out how navigate such a situation. 1 or 2 players can be avoided, but when it's clear you're up against a large group of fishy players, I think it's best just to stick to the most simple of strategies. Play a tight, aggressive game, and hope like hell that if they decide to chase, you don't get hurt too badly.

Online Poker Games

2008-12-21T23:27:00.004-05:00

The following article is brought to you by the good people at Pokerstop.com

Know the sort of adds different poker variants and game structures offer you. Build you bankroll by playing in tournaments, generate loyalty points by playing in cash games.

When you decide that online poker may be a fun and entertaining way to generate some extra income, that is the object of your playing becomes the making of money, you need to know the exact expected value in all the different games, variants and structures available out there.

Take Texas Holdem for instance. It is a game much better suited for beginners than Omaha. It features a much more temperamental short-term variance, but in this case that is in your favor, because you’ll be able to confront experienced players from relatively equal footings for the short-run. In Omaha, rookies never get any benefit out of schooling and the structure of the game provides an insurmountable advantage to those who are skilled. That’s right, in Omaha the luck factor is much less relevant than in Texas Holdem. The same goes for 7-Card Stud.

In conclusion: if you’re a skilled player, you’ll definitely want to take unskilled opposition on at the Omaha tables, if you’re an unskilled player however, you should avoid Omaha and Stud. If you’re skilled and you have to do battle with another skilled player – again, you’re better off moving the hostilities onto a Texas Holdem table.

The other question is: should you play in poker tournaments or cash games at the beginning of your poker career, when you’re attempting to build up a bankroll?

The answer to that is easy: tournaments. Both MTTs (Multi Table Tournaments) and STTs (Single Table Tournaments) provide much better expected value for the average player than cash tables.

Cash play – especially if it’s NL Holdem we’re talking about – requires a great deal of discipline. One wrong move and you can kiss the fruits of months of hard labor goodbye. You’ll also pay rake on every single hand that you play, and you won’t be allowed to settle for anything less than victory there.

Tournaments do not charge you rake on every hand. You’ll pay a one-time and you’re done. Also, in a tournament, you will not necessarily be required to win in order to turn a profit.

Another Hand for Debate.

2008-12-17T13:05:00.004-05:00

I was recently playing in a 6 player tournament to mix it up from our usual weekly cash games. This was actually the 4th (and final) tournament of the night, in what we call the "Superstars" format where all players compete in 3 round-robin tournaments and are then given bonus chips based on their performance to use in the 4th tournament.

Exactly half of the cash is paid out to the top 2 in each of the first 3 tournaments, and the other half is reserve for the top 2 in the final tournament. The blinds are raised quite quickly, taking some of the skill out of the game, but to accommodate 4 tournaments in one night, it is necessary.

Having now explained the logic behind the tournament style (not that it's at all relevant to the story, just thought others could make use of it in their home games) I'll now try to explain how I played one very pivotal hand that led to my victory in the 4th tournament. As always, your feed back would be appreciated. (all chip counts are approximate)

Final 3 (Top 2 Pay)

$25000 on the table

blinds are $300/$600

Dealer has $8500

Small Blind $5000

Big Blind $11500

For the record, I'm the small blind, so I'm playing with the short stack, but I'd just tripled up a few hands before when my all-in with 66 was called by both players, and I was very lucky and made a 6-high straight after the 2 big stacks smartly checked it down the entire way to try and get the elimination.

Despite the blinds being very high in relation to my stack, at least I have something to work with, and then I'm dealt A-9 in the small blind. The dealer folds, and as I'm considering my action, I see the Big Blind appear to fold his cards, and they're now sitting between him and the dealer.

I ask him "Did you just fold?".

This player is a very calm, collected individual and simply replies "No."

I stare at him for a few seconds to see if he gives me a little smile like I caught him folding his cards when he's in the Big Blind and I haven't raised. I've played hundreds of games of poker with him, he's been easily the most successful poker player in our group, and is known as being a very solid, probably tight, and always aggressive player when he's involved in a hand.

I think about it for a few seconds, and decide that despite any facial expressions giving it away, he probably was planning on folding, and therefore must have a very weak hand. I have a very good hand with my A-9 in a 3 handed game, and decide this is as good a time as any to steal his blind and continue my momentum.

I raise it $1200 on top of his $600 blind, expecting him to admit I caught him acting out of turn, and then he would fold. To my surprise, he does call, and my read here is that he's trying to defend his accidental fold, and plans to steal the pot from me later in the hand.

The flop brings 3-6-Q rainbow, and I decide to check it here to see what my opponent does. He checks as well, and at this point I'm pretty sure he has nothing. If he'd hit anything, after I had checked the flop, he would have bet and try to win the pot right there.

The turn is another K, not a card I'm really afraid of, but at this point I really don't have much money left. I'm hoping my opponent will check it down to the river and that Ace high will hold up as the winning hand. He checks and the river brings a 6, pairing the board.

I stick with the plan, although at this point I'm wishing I had bet on the turn. I check, and my opponent quickly grabs 20000 in chips and puts them in the pot. I still only have Ace high, and with only 32000 left, it really forces me to a very tough decision. I start to think about how the hand has played out so far, trying to imagine what he could have.

I'm pretty sure that, having played with him before many times, he would have bet when he had a pair, either on the flop or turn, so his bet on the river when the board has paired reinforces what I had thought all a long. He has nothing, he knows he can't win the hand by checking, so he fires off a large bet hoping to make me fold even if I think I have him beat. Being wrong would leave me with 12000, and the blinds are shortly going to raise to 4000/8000.

I call, knowing that if I'm right and he has absolutely nothing, he won't call my re raise, no matter how small it is, and if he has any kind of a pair, my re raise would be so small he would have to call, and I'd be done.

His head drops, a painful expression on his face shows me I was right. He flips over 2-5, expecting to see at least a pair when I show him my cards. I show Ace high and rake in the chips, my hands actually shaking a bit as this was a very difficult call to make. Normally quite vocal when he feels his opponent has made a brutal play, (I've been the recipient of several tirades before) he was strangely quiet here.

From here, I go on to win the tournament, despite losing a potential elimination all-in when my JJ loses to the short-stacks 99.

OK, that's about it, please feel free to ad your comments by the link below. I'd love to hear different opinions, it's the best way to learn, and I am just a student.

You decide

2008-11-26T14:48:00.005-05:00

I played in a poker tournament late last week, and have been struggling with one hand in particular that caused my entire table to criticize me for a perceived bad decision. I will explain the entire situation, giving my reasoning for how I played this hand, then I would appreciate it if you could let me know if I played it like a donkey or not.

Vital Stats

Starting Chips: $3000 Blinds: $25/$50

My Stack: $5000 Opponent's Stack: $1100

Still in the first blind level, I have had a lot of success, and find myself in the Big Blind. Everyone folds around to the dealer, who limps in and the small blind calls as well. I look at my cards, and have A-5 of Diamonds, which I figure is the best hand, but decide to check, hoping that if an Ace is flopped, no one would give me credit for having one in my hand.

The flop comes down Ah-Kd-Ks, and I figure to be miles ahead of the other 2 players in the hand. The Small Blind checks, so I decide to try and play the hand as planned. No one expects me to have an Ace, so I bet $250. I hear the SB make a noise as if to say "BULLSHIT!" as I make the bet. It's subtle, but I've known him for a long time, and played many, many hands of poker with him.

The dealer thinks about it for a minute, but folds, and the SB pushes all in with supreme confidence and absolutely no hesitation. Like I said, I've played a lot of poker with this guy, he's renown for making huge bluffs, and is generally not very successful with them. His raise is $800 over top of my $250, and I now have a lot to consider.

If he has a King, he's got me slaughtered, but with no "acting" before pushing all-in, I really don't think he's got a King. He could have a better Ace than I do, in which case there's still a decent chance we could chop, but the fact that he limped in preflop leaves me skeptical that could have an Ace when he was getting so short-stacked.

So I conclude that with no obvious flush draw, my opponent likely has a small pocket pair or a complete bluff, and I'm leaning towards the bluff again based on his lack of preflop action. There's also the possibility that he's makiing a play against me, playing the player, not the cards. In this case, I look like a genious, because he assumes I am bluffing at this pot, because I did't raise preflop, so he doesn't suspect an Ace, and I wouldn't likely bet if I had a King. Therefore, maybe he's just trying to push me off my bluff, regardless of what he has.

The cards get flipped over, and he's got K-3, and I'm in terrible shape. I've only got about a 12% chance of winning at this point, and another player at the table blurts out "let's see runner-runner diamond for the flush!".

Well, as you might have guessed, that's exactly what happened. I still had only a 22% chance when the 2nd diamond hit on the turn, but caught my miracle, and caused the first elimination of the tournament as a result. I actually did feel sort of bad for the guy, it was a terrible "beat" and I've been there many times before.

Then came the onslaught of criticism from every other player at that table for the next 30 minutes. To them, it was painfully obvious what the other player had, and they couldn't understand my call with just an A-5. Shocked by my unusual luck in winning the hand, I was flustered to explain my decision adequately, which only added to their disapproval.

My decision was based on the reputation of my opponent and the amount of chips he had. If I were playing someone else, or if he had more chips in front of him, I probably don't make that call in that situation. Now that I've said my peace, I'd love to hear back from anyone, good or bad.

The Slumpbuster

2008-11-22T13:15:00.001-05:00

In all forms of competition there seems to be a time when even the best competitors appear to be performing at a level less than they are capable. There seems to be no logical reason for it, and no explanation on how to fix it. This is commonly known as a slump.

On an average week, I play in three to five No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, and although it’s not for big money like the pros play, the level of play is generally pretty good, and each tournament is taken very seriously. As every poker player should do, I keep track of statistics and make notes about each tournament I play in. 2006 was my best year in four years of playing Hold’em, but I endured a two month period that had me leaving the table shaking my head in disbelief.

I’m sure every poker player has suffered the notorious “Bad Beat’. This is when, for example, you’re holding Ace-Jack, the flop brings AJ- 4, and you push the remainder of your chips into the pot, knowing you almost certainly have the best hand. One player, usually with a lot more chips than you, calls your all-in, and flips over Ace-4. You both have 2 pair and you pair of Jacks beats his pair of fours, but when another 4 shows up on the river, giving your opponent a full-house and the winning hand, all you can do is stand up from the table, shake your head and walk away.

In the example used here, you pushed all-in and were a huge favorite to win the pot, but poker is a game of statistics, which means if there’s an 80% chance for you to win the hand, then there’s also a 20% you will lose. When the improbable 20% chance actually comes through, we curse the Poker Gods for their cruelty. The two month slump I most recently went through featured a string of 15 consecutive tournaments where I never finished in the top 50%. I’m sure this is something every poker player feels he has dealt with. Almost every hand I was eliminated with, I was a statistical favorite.

There are a lot of reasons why this happens. I was playing too many hands early in the tournament, and taking too many chance, resulting in being shortstacked after a few blind raises, forcing me to play hands more aggressively than I would otherwise like to do. But what about the other times?

To answer this, I look to the slump. I feel I was playing well, but for no logical reason, the Poker Gods seemed to be conspiring against me. Now, I don’t honestly believe that there is some supernatural force watching me play poker and making bad things happen to me, but this form of superstition can be found in all forms of competition, especially during a slump.

So how do you break out of a slump? In professional sports, I have heard many stories of players doing a variety of things to stop a slump. Anything from altering a superstitious pre-game ritual to altering their style of play or even shaving their heads. Then you have the Slump-Buster.

"Slump-Buster" is a term I first heard about from an interview on the Jim Rome Show with baseball star Mark Grace (pictured here while playing for the Cubs). Now retired. Mark Grace describes the type of woman who he believes helped him overcome on-field struggles.

When Grace (who’s name now appears to bring new meaning to the term “irony”) would find himself in a hitting slump he would seek out "the gnarliest, ugliest chick" he could find and attempt to "lay the wood to her". If he was successful, the next day he was sure to break out of his slump, hence the phrase.

Now, I’m not recommending that you do anything of this sort, but instead I’m offering a fresh idea. An offering so great, that the Poker Gods will most assuredly look down upon you, and grant you favour and good fortune at the poker table. The next time you find yourself in this type of a slump, and you peek at your hole cards to find pockets Aces, fold them. If possible, show everyone at the table what you’re doing. You’ve just made poker’s ultimate sacrifice.

Does it sounds crazy and superstitious? Of course it does, there’s no such thing as Poker Gods, and it’s idiotic to lay down the best hand possible. On the other hand, it’s worked for me...twice, and I won’t hesitate to do it again if I feel I need to.

Poker Hottie - Clonie Gowen

2008-11-06T14:02:00.011-05:00

As a former Miss Teen Oklahoma, Clonie is recognized as one of the best female poker players in the world. She is a mother of 2, and enjoys scuba diving when she's not playing poker.

Clonie started playing poker while living in Dallas where she had to drive to Shreveport, Louisiana on weekends to find a game. She soon earned national recognition when she followed up her Top 10 finish at the World Poker Tour Costa Rica Classic with a win at the WPT Ladies' Night event in 2003, then the highest rated WPT show ever broadcast.

She made two more television appearances in 2005, placing seventh in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold 'em Ultimate Poker Challenge tournament and third in the FullTiltPoker Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Since then, Clonie placed third in the FullTiltPoker Pro Showdown at the Red Rock Casino and is a two-time winner on Poker After Dark, collecting $120,000 for each individual performance.

In 2008, Clonie cashed in four separate events at the WSOP and took down the single largest win of her career, banking nearly $438K for her victory at the Bellagio Cup’s $5K No-Limit Hold ‘em event. Her career earnings exceed $700,000.

Away from the tournament table, Clonie has served as a guest commentator for the Ultimate Poker Challenge and the European World Poker Championship in Dublin and is a regular columnist for All In Magazine. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Poker Association and frequently hosts tournaments and charity events as part of her mission to help beginning players learn the basics of tournament play so that they too can become successful tournament players.

Poker Hottie - Liz Lieu

2008-10-30T09:14:00.013-04:00

As suggested by the banner above, every week I will be featuring a female poker player or hostess to present a softer side of the poker world. Women rarely get the credit or attention that they deserve in the world of poker, here's my tribute to them.

This Weeks HOTTIE - Liz Lieu

Liz Lieu (born August 2, 1974 in Vietnam) was primarily a limit Texas hold 'em cash games player for a number of years, before embracing tournament play at the 2005 World Series of Poker. Close friend and fellow poker player John Phan encouraged her to enter the $1500 no-limit hold'em event, she ended up in fifth place with over $168,000 in prize money. She went on to place 12th in the $5000 no-limit hold'em event the same year and cashed in the $3000 tournament as well.

The next stop was the Bellagio's 2005 Festa Al Lago tournament, where she placed fourth in the $2500 no limit hold'em event and 16th in two other top tournaments in the series, taking home more than $80,000 for less than a week's worth of work. She went on to finish in the top ten spots at the World Poker Finals, Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and the Gold Strike World Poker Open.

Lieu's first tournament win came at the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, where she won the $1000 limit hold'em event. Her second tournament win came when she won the same event in 2007.

In 2006, Lieu was honored by the WSOP and ESPN as a "Final Table Grand Marshall" along with Johnny Chan. Back in September 2007 Lieu signed an exclusive partnership with Chilipoker and acts as an Ambassador for the poker room. As of 2008, Lieu has earned over $690,000 in live tournament play.

Poker Hottie - Isabelle Mercier

2008-10-22T10:16:00.011-04:00

This Weeks HOTTIE - Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier

Born in Victoriaville, Quebec, Isabelle did not always have her sights set on a career in poker. She earned a Law degree from the University of Montreal and practiced law for 6 months before moving to Paris, France to earn her Masters Degree. It was there that she worked as the Poker Room Manager of the famed Aviation Club de France, where she was twice nominated as Staff Person of the Year at the European Poker Awards.

In 2002, at the Masters Classic of Poker in Amsterdam, Isabelle finished 2nd in a large tournament and made more than 50 times her initial investment as a result. 2 years later, she won her first televised event in the 2004 WPT Ladies Night tournament, where Mike Sexton gave her the nickname "No Mercy".

Since then, Isabelle has cashed in at dozens of tournaments around the world. Her biggest prize total came in 2006, when she finished 5th in the $5,000 buy-in the World Series of Poker No Limit Hold'em event, taking home over $175,000.

More recently, Isabelle has released her own instructional DVD, and a biography entitled Profession : bluffeuse: Pokerstars has put together a very nice website for Isabelle, check it out at http://www.isabellemercier.com/

Poker Hottie - Shannon Elizabeth

2008-10-15T13:33:00.006-04:00

As suggested by the banner above, every week I will be featuring a female poker player or hostess to present a softer side of the poker world. Women rarely get the credit or attention that they deserve in the world of poker, here's my tribute to them.

This Weeks HOTTIE - Shannon Elizabeth

I'm sure most people know who Shannon Elizabeth is. She is a very beautiful, very famous actress who has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. Most notably, in my opinion, is her appearance in the first American Pie film, where she attempts to seduce Jason Biggs' character in his bedroom. What many people don't know is that she has a tremendous passion for poker, and has had some success playing against the best in the world.

Elizabeth, who describes poker as her second career is one of the leading celebrity poker players around. She visits Las Vegas up to three times each month to participate in poker games with the top players to play in private games and televised events alike. Shannon played in the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker and won a special tournament celebrating the opening of a new poker room at Caesars Palace hotel in January 2006, beating out 83 celebrities and poker professionals to win $55,000.

She has also cashed four times in the World Series of Poker in 2006 and 2007, but again busted out of the Main Event early. In 2007, she advanced to the semi-finals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in a field consisting of the top poker professionals before losing to eventual champion Paul Wasicka. Among the four opponents she defeated were three World Series of Poker multiple bracelet winners: Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein, and Humberto Brenes.

Her success and popularity amongst the poker world had become so great that she was at one point sponsored by Full Tilt Poker.

Poker Hottie - Evelyn Ng

2008-10-08T13:48:00.023-04:00

Born September 14, 1975 in Toronto, Evelyn is now one of the most recognizable faces in poker. By the age of 14, Evelyn was an accomplished pool player, similar to her the future boyfriend Daniel Negreanu. By age 17, she had expanded into dealing blackjack and poker games. It was artound this time that she met Daniel. He helped her develop a style of play designed to combat aggressive players. She achieved fame on the WPT circuit in 2003 after placing second in the Ladies' Night I tournament, beating out several top-ranked feamle poker players along the way.

Ng was included as one of the characters in the video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, and not just as eye-candy. Formerly associated with PokerStars, she is now part of Team Bodog along with fellow pros David Williams and Justin Bonomo.

She also appeared on Criss Angel Mindfreak as a professional poker player. Criss, having little experience in poker, attempted to psychologically persuade Ng to repeatedly pick a losing hand from a set of covered/open cards. As of 2008, her total live tournament winnings exceed $330,000.

On top of her skills on the poker table, she may be even more skilled at Guitar hero. Check out the video in the Youtube bar on the right. She rocks!

WSOP Update #19

2008-07-11T12:54:00.003-04:00

Money money money money... MONEY!

Day Three has come to a close, and 473 players remain. With the top 666 collecting from the prize pool, a huge sigh of relief was felt within the room when bubble boy Steve Chung was eliminated in 667th position. A break was called for all remaining players to celebrate, and not surprisingly, after playing Hand-for-Hand for the hours leading up to this, the play quickened, and almost 200 more players fell in the remaining hours of the day. Don't feel too bad for Mr.Chung, thanks to Milwakee's Best Light, Steve's entrance into next years Main Event is already paid for making 668th place the worst spot to finish.

Remaining Notables:

Jeremy Joseph 1,458,000 - chip leader by almost 400,000

Alexander Kostritsyn 887,000 - 6th cash in WSOP 2008

Shahram (Shawn) Sheikhan 724,000 - never won a WSOP title

Phil Hellmuth 475,000 - looking to become a 12-Star General

Victor Ramdin 471,000 - cashed 3 times in 2008 WSOP so far

Mark Vos 468,000 - one WSOP bracelet on his wrist

Hoyt Corkins 439,500 - 2 WSOP championships

Mike Matusow 438,500 - 3 bracelets, one this year

Evelyn Ng 414,500 - best finish is 24 in any WSOP tournament

Allen Cunningham 386,500 - My pick to win prior to the event

Gus Hansen 355,000 - No bracelets, finished 61st last year

Hevad Khan 338,500 - finished 6th last year

Chip Jett 318,500 - no bracelets

Thomas Keller 294,000 - "Thunder"-struck once in 2004

Johnny Chan 252,000 - 10 WSOP Champ, looking to tie Hellmuth

Kido Pham 228,500 - won $170,000 a week ago

Robert Mizrachi 138,000 - 1 title last year, 5 cashes this year

To start Day Four, the blinds are $2,500-$5,000 with a $500 ante, so all players on this list are ok for now. The next person eliminated, and there are several below the starting chip count of 20,000, will get over $27,000 for their trouble, and the minimum prize at the final table for finishing 9th is over $900,000.

The Spectacle of Poker

2008-07-09T13:53:00.007-04:00

Poker has come a long way from the dingy, dark-alley-up-a-dark-staircase-into-a-poorly-lit-smoke-filled-room games that were played back when guys like Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier, Stu Unger and Johhny Moss were making a name for themselves. Finding the right game, travelling on buses, eating fast-food and worrying about getting beaten up or worse were just part of the lifestyle. You got in, made money, and got the hell out as fast as you could.

Luckily, thanks primarily to the invention of the hole-card camera and on-line play, Poker is celebrating a period of massive success. Today's top players can command appearance fees comparable to top TV & movie stars, musicians and athletes. They can be seen on TV, not just as participants in one of dozens of different televised poker games, but also in commercials for online poker sites. As the game gets bigger, so too do the egos of the top players.

Probably the best example of this is Phil Hellmuth. Possibly the best player in poker (just ask him, he'll tell you), Phil is also one of the most recognizable players. If he was successful at the table, but introverted and hiding from the spotlight, we would still know who he is for his 11 WSOP titles, but it's Phil's antics at the table and away from the table that make him the social phenomenon he is today.

Phil is known for never being shy about saying what's on his mind. In an age where most players have been trained to be aware that the media is always watching, Phil doesn't seem to care. When giving exit interviews, just after being eliminated from a tournament, Phil will say what's on his mind, even if it means calling his opponents donkeys, or worse. That's what makes Phil so great to watch, you never know what he's going to say or do, because he runs on emotion. He manages to control it while playing poker, just barely, and he loves the attention.

Last year, at the WSOP, he tried to make a dramatic entrance into the Main Event. Instead, he managed to destroy a race car, sponsored ultimatebet.net. Somehow, this actually worked in Phil's favor. All the media attention was on him, more so than if he didn't crash, and ultimatebet.net managed to use this to their advantage in TV commercials, saying unlike their cars, their website will never crash.

This year, with many people wondering what Phil would do to make his grand entrance, he did not disappoint. Phil arrive to the main event, fashionably late, of course, in a military vehicle that pulled up to the front doors. When Phil got out, he was wearing a 11-star military outfit, one star for each bracelet he's won at the WSOP. He was also accompanied by 11 ladies dressed in military fatigues, who walked him into the Main Event room, for all to see.

“I’m glad he didn’t crash this year,” said World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “If Phil was able to make an entrance that is bigger than anyone else’s entrance and do it without injuring himself or any of his colleagues, I think that’s a good thing.”

I wonder what's in store for 2009?

WSOP Update #18

2008-07-08T09:10:00.004-04:00

All 4 Day Ones are complete, and some interesting statistics have been released. 6844 players have entered the tournament, and over half (3663) of those player managed to survive Day One. One table was so desperate to make it to Day Two, that they managed to make one hand last 10 minutes... and they never even saw a flop. There was only 30 minutes left in the day, but one player at the table was so infuriated with the slow play, he called a tournament organizer over to make a ruling. From that point until the end of the day, the dealer was instructed to give each player at that table no more than 30 seconds to make any decision.

With a total prize pool of more than $68,000,000, the winner receives $9,119,517. To prove that you do have to go through Hell to and back to win this tournament, the top 666 players make it in the money. Due to the massive size of the tournament, a lot of information is still unavailable, but once both Day Two's are over, the tournament should be at a more manageable size. Tournament organizers expect to have under 1500 players remaining on Day Three.

WSOP Update #17

2008-07-05T08:50:00.003-04:00

Day One B has come to an end, and this time a lot of the big names managed to survive the land mines and make it to Day two. 615 players still remain, after starting off with 1,158. Among those still alive are:

Robert Mizrachi - 142,400
Erick Lindgren - 92,325
Barny Boatman - 80,600
Tony Hachem - 76,050
Hal Lubarsky - 70,700
Hoyt Corkins - 67,525
Erik Seidel - 64,925
Patrik Antonius - 64,125 (who lost over 35K on the last hand of the night)
Vanessa Rousso - 48,450
Alex Kravchenko - 45,300
Hoyt Corkins - 67,525

The dearly departed include:

Humberto Brenes
Ross Boatman
Orel Hershiser
Ram Vaswani
Greg Raymer
Dewey Tomko
Tuan le
Daniel Negreanu
Andy Black
Ted Forest

WSOP Update #16

2008-07-04T08:36:00.004-04:00

Day One Begins!

After much anticipation, the first day of the WSOP $10,000 Main Event has begun. 1,297 players started off on Day One A, and they now expect to have around the same number of entrants as last year (approx 6,500) compete in this years event, meaning the Top prize for winning will likely be somewhere around $8,000,000. Each player starts off with $20,000 in chips.

As the tournament is so massive, not all the details are available, but here's what I have been able to find out so far.

Notables still in the hunt:

Mark Garner - $194,900 - Leads after day 1

Ray Romano - $61,000 - Yes, the actor

Barry Greenstein - $20,000

Notable Eliminations:

Alan Smurfit

Josh Arieh

Gavin Smith

Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond

Katja Thater

David Benyamine

David "Devilfish" Ulliot

Freddy Deeb

Eli Elezra

Mark Garner, the Day One A chip leader, finished 25th in this event 2 years ago. Not many players, even the biggest names in poker have that kind of experience, it will be interesting to see if he can use that experience and the early chip lead to improve upon his performance in 2006.

WSOP Update #15

2008-07-03T10:59:00.005-04:00

2 events closed out yesterday, and David Daneshgar has added a WSOP bracelet to his impressive list of accomplishments. David won the $1500 No-Limit Hold'em event, and is taking home his biggest prize to date with the top prize of over $625,000. He managed to out-last 2692 players and overcome a 2-to-1 chip deficit heads-up, eventually winning the tournament with pocket Tens.

Although not a household name like Hellmuth, Brunson, Negreanu or Ivey, Daneshgar has been successfully playing poker at the highest level for more than 4 years, and has cashed in at more than 20 major poker tournaments in that time. Previously, David's greatest poker accomplishment was winning the 2006 Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and the grand prize of more than $330,000.

In the other event, Matt Graham won his first WSOP title, and $278,180 in winnings after beating 822 others in the $1500 Limit Hold'em Shootout tournament. Matt has been having a fairly successful 2008 WSOP campaign, as this is his 4th time cashing in, but his at the final table, and he made it worth while.

Similar to Daneshgar, Graham has been playing top-level poker for several years, and has made various final table appearances in some pretty big tournaments, including a victory in the 2008 World Poker Challenge.

Finally, play has begun for Day One of the Main Event. No word yest exactly how many players are involved in the first day of action, but as they entered the room, and the chaos as everyone tried to find their seats, the players were greeted with a free bottle of All In energy Drink or All In water and Everest Poker seat cushion, all for just $10,000. Tournament Director Jack Effel is trying to direct traffic, getting everything ready to go, including setting up the feature table for Day 1, which will rotate as the day goes on, trying to include various celebrities and top ranked poker players.

WSOP Update #14

2008-07-02T14:00:00.004-04:00

With the 2008 version of the World Series of Poker gearing up for the massive $10,000 Hold'em Main Event, a few other tournaments have come to a close, and a couple of notable names came close to victory.

In the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. event, Phil Hellmuth came very close to bracelet number 12, as he finished in 3rd place, losing to eventual winner James Schaaf. In a field of more than 800 players, Phil has (possibly) silenced his critics who say he is a Hold'em specialist. In a career that spans 20, this is just the 4th time Phil has finished in the top 3 of a major non-Hold'em event

Phil Hellmuth's non-Hold'em accomplishments:

2nd - 1993 WSOP No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball - $5,000 buy-in

2nd - 2001 WSOP Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - $5,000 buy-in

3rd - 2003 WSOP Limit Omaha - $1,500 buy-in

3rd - 2008 WSOP H.O.R.S.E. - $1,500 buy-in

Also, Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi finished 3rd in the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Eventual winner Marty Smyth won the tournament and the grand prize of over $850,000 after making a flush on the river. He and heads-up opponent Peter Jetten had both flopped the straight holding K-J and two irrelevant cards with a flop of Qc-10c-9h, but Smyth's K-J both happened to be clubs giving him the open-ended straight flush draw. The turn was a blank, but the 6c fell on the river. Smyth wasn't even aware he'd made the flush and won the tournament, as he thought the split was inevitable. This is Mizrachi's 5th cash-in of the 2008 WSOP, but easily his biggest one, grabbing more than $320,000 in profit.

Tomorrow is Day One A of the Main Event, the first of 4 Day Ones to come. Even Day Two will be split into two different groups (meaning they're actually days 5 & 6) and Day Three (also know as Day 7) will be the first day all remaining players will gather in one room. As they anticipate cutting off the buy-ins at 12,000 this year, and setting a new record for largest live poker tournament in WSOP history, predicting a winner here seems almost impossible. This tournament has a recent history of making names out of nobodies, so good luck to the next nobody to become the somebody everybody wants to be.

WSOP Update #13

2008-06-30T08:14:00.006-04:00

A Nguyen-win situation

While several tournaments have come to a conclusion over the weekend, it was the $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. tournament that has grabbed centre stage. Scotty Nguyen (pronounced 'Win' for those not familiar, which is what makes the headline quasi-funny) earns his 5th bracelet and almost doubles his career WSOP earnings taking down the huge $1,989,120 pot by outlasting the strongest field of any poker tournament, including a very good group at the final table.

With big names like Huck Seed, Barry Greenstein and Erick Lindgren at the final table, Scotty was typically charismatic and entertaining. Scotty has played well over the past year, and is ranked 87th on Bluff Magazin'e Player of the Year standings currently, but winning this tournament should give him a huge boost up the standings. His last big splash in the world of poker came at last years WSOP $10,000 main event, where he finished 11th in the massive 8,000+ field, almost making the final table, but still grabbing a very healthy pay day.

Chip and a Chair, anyone? - As the money and the bracelet were brought out on the table the floor made an interesting discovery under the rail where Erick Lindgren was sitting. They found a single 5,000 chip that Lindgren overlooked when he played his final hand. Now, Erick wasn't able to fully cover the last raise Scotty Nguyen made in his knockout hand, but if he'd had enough chips to match Scotty's raise...well, anyone who knows the story of former World Champion Jack Strauss and his "chip and a chair" story would get an eerie feeling. That said, Scotty DID have Erick covered, and when the extra chip was discovered it was merely added to the mass of Scotty's stack.

Other tournaments underway include the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha and the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournaments.

Several big names remain in the PLO tourney, including Josh Arieh, Michael 'the Grinder' Mizrachi, David Williams, David Singer and Johnny Chan. Again, I'm rooting for Johhny here. Sure he has a lot of bracelets already (10 to be exact), but he's a class act, a nice guy, and had a cameo in rounders. With 381 entrants, only 87 remain after day 1, all fighting for the top prize of more than $850,000.

Conversely, Phil Hellmuth (11 bracelets, making him the all-time leader) is the early leader in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament. Amongst the the remaining 183 other players include Joe Hachem, John Juanda, Mike Matusow and Allen Cunningham.

WSOP Update #12

2008-06-26T09:54:00.004-04:00

The $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. tournament is underway, and after day 1, only 8 players from a starting 148 have been eliminated. Most notably, Phil Hellmuth made an early departure, and in rare form, Phil exited with grace and class. Self-admittedly, he played poorly, and just prior to his elimination said "Well I didn't think it was possible to go out of this (tournament) on Day One...I like to do things that are tough to do."

David Williams was also eliminated from the tournament. With each player starting with $50,000 in chips, and the blinds being relatively small, plus the mixture of Limit and No-Limit poker, it's not surprising that so few players were eliminated on Day One. Expect the action to pick up today, as the blinds continue to increase, and there will likely be fewer than 50 players remaining by the end of Day Two

Sitting near the top are Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren and a host of other very familiar names. Interestingly, among those top names is Patrik Antonius. The reason I find this interesting is because despite the fact that many top players agree he's one of the very best in the world, he's never won a WSOP bracelet. In fact, he's never won any major tournament, despite several strong showings in WSOP, WPT and EPT events.

Elsewhere, the $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better, Erik Seidel looks for bracelet #9 as he sits in 2nd place, with only 9 remaining. Known as one of the 'nice guys of poker', Siedel will be the clear fan favorite at the final table, as he has been using break time, and even time during the hands he folds, to sign autographs for fans. Although the Phil Hellmuth's have their place, it's guys like Siedel, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu who will be the true ambassador's of the game.

WSOP Update #11

2008-06-25T09:56:00.005-04:00

Phan-tastic!

Congratulations to John Phan for winning the $2500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball - Limit event #40. In doing so, John becomes the only player to win 2 tournaments this year, defeating the likes of Robert Mizrachi and David Sklansky at the final table to cash-in for over $150,000. Phan beat Shun Ichida heads-up, where his experience was very evident. Uchida seemed to be waiting for premium starting hands, and let Phan's big stack steal small pots until Uchida had little choice but to make a move, and lost.

The $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better has burst it's bubble! Only 69 players remain, as the top 72 players got paid from a starting field of 720. Notable names still fighting for the bracelet include Erik Seidel, 2005 WSOP main Event winner Joe Hachem, Chris Ferguson and a name I haven't even heard of in a while, Chip Jett. Once considered a top player despite never winning a WSOP tournament, Chip has been snake-bitten. Chip, I'm rootin' for ya.

A few other events are on the go right now, but it seems like the big names of poker are taking some time off to relax and prepare. With the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event and the $10,000 Main event coming up soon, the players want to make sure they're not burnt out. For the Main event, they are anticipating record numbers again, as they have scheduled 4 different group of 3000 players, for up to 12,000 entrants. This means that there will be 4 "Day 1s" 2 "Day 2s", and it won't be until one week after the start of the event, on "Day 3" that all the player will be in one room at the same time. It's a massive tournament, and very impressive that the organizers do such a fantastic job of ensuring.

One issue I am concerned with is the schedule for the final table of the Main event. If you haven't heard, they are planning something entirely different from anything they've done before. From July 3 to July 14, the players will be put through a mentally grueling endurance battle, one of the things that makes this event so great, to get to the final table. From here, the players will have to wait until November 9th to resume play, with and November 10th to crown the 2008 Main Event Champ. And if no clear winner emerges from all of this, a sack race will be held on consecutive Sundays until a champion can be crowned. Ok, that last part may not be true.

The concept, as always, is about making money. The plan is to broadcast the final table live, and they want to wait a few months because they want a chance to broadcast all the other episodes before the final table begins. It's a great idea as a spectator, I will be watching every second of it, but if I were a player at the final table, I'm not sure I would like the idea so much. Aside from dealing with the nerves for that long, and losing your momentum that you'd spent so long building to get to this point, there are a lot of things that can happen in that period of time.

WSOP Update #10

2008-06-23T08:33:00.006-04:00

Benyamine wins first bracelet!

Congratulations to David Benyamine, who won the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, beating 234 other players, and snatching a purse of over $535,000. This is David's 4th top 10 finish this year, which has him in contention for Player of the Year for 2008. The final table included Mike 'the Mouth' Matusow (5th) and EPT star Ram Vaswani (7th) as well as Spartan favorite Toto Leonidas.

Greg Raymer is in 2nd place for the $2500 2008 WSOP - 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball . 238 players started the tournament, and only 30 remain, and the top 24 get paid. This will likely be Greg's first cash performance of 2008, although he's been near the bubble a few other times. Of course, Greg made his name famous in the 2004 WSOP Main Event, winning the biggest pot in poker history (at that time) of $5,000,000, and has cashed in 9 other times since then.

In my opinion, Greg is one of the few truly good players to emerge from the WSOP Main Event since it's massive increase in poularity in 2003, plus, you gotta love a guy with a gimmick, Right Fossil-Man? Other notables include John Phan and Robert 'My Brother's the Grinder" Mizrachi.

WSOP Update #9

2008-06-20T08:41:00.004-04:00

The $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha W/ReBuys tournament is down to the final table. The prize money is bigger than ever for this event, with the winner taking home $577,725. Only 320 players entered the tournament, but with a record 1350 rebuys (an average of 4 rebuys per person), the final 9 players are looking at a nice payday. Among the notables here, Ted Forrest and Layne Flack are both in very good shape.

Sebastian Ruthenberg wins the $5000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, despite being at a final table with many top pros. Chris Ferguson, Marcel Luske and Annie Duke were amongst the players at the final table, with Ruthenberg doing battle with the "Holy One", Chris Ferguson. This was the highlight of the tournament, as the heads-up battle lasted more than 3 hours, and started with Ferguson having more than a 2-1 chip leads.

Ruthenburg would battle back to take a slight chip lead, but was then crippled to having just $200,000 in chips, giving Ferguson more that 2.4 Million chips, and a massive lead. Undeterred, Ruthenberg continued to fight back, and would eventually defeat the much more experienced Ferguson.

A couple of other events got underway yesterday, and many big names are popping up near the top of the leader board.

$1500 No-Limit Hold'em event #36 has begun, and after day one, I'm very happy to see Freddy Deeb's name finally surfaced on a leader board. Not only is he one of my personal favorites, but I'm also told I look and act a lot like him at the table, something I don't take as a compliment. Deeb was the winner of last years $50,000 buy-in World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event, earning more than $2,250,000 in prize money. Freddy is in 42 position, with 186 players remaining from the starting 2447 who began the day, another massive event.

In the $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, less than half the field was eliminated on day 1, as 123 players remain. Once again Erick "E-dog" Lindgren is right in contention, sitting in 3rd place, and is having a fantastic 2008 WSOP. Lots of other big name players remain, including Shannon Elizabeth. This is not the first time she's been doing well in a WSOP tournament, as she has been playing a lot of poker recently. A lot of other top names remain in this one, and all have their eye on the top prize of more than $500,000.

WSOP Update #8

2008-06-19T08:56:00.007-04:00

A couple of interesting final tables will decide a champion today.

First, the $1500 No-Limit Hold'em event is down the the final 9 players, from a starting 2304. Likely one of the biggest tournaments in poker history (aside from the WSOP Main Event, which is expecting 12,000 players this year), making a fantastic payoff for the winner in relation to the relatively low buy-in. This is probably about as close as it gets to a Freeroll at the WSOP, and likely the reason why many of the big names in poker have elected to skip the event. The final table reads not like a list of "who's who", but instead more like "who the heck...". A few players can boast some previous WSOP experience.

Shane Stacey, currently in 6th place, finished 15th in the same event last year. Osmin Darden (possible relation to Paul Darden?) has cashed in previously this year, although only for a little over $3000 from a $1500 buy-in, but currently sits in 5th place. Dean Bui has already cashed in 2 other times this year for a profit of over $20,000, but if short-stacked in 8th place.

At another final table, this time the $5000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, the names are a little more familiar. Howard Lederer (3rd), his sister Annie Duke (4th) and WSOP Main Event Champ from 2000 Chris "Jesus" Ferguson are all in decent shape, as the final table is fairly evenly balanced from top to bottom. Play continued until 6:30am, in order to get to the final table, sparking a visit from Phil Hellmuth, checking in on the action.

Phil hadn't shaved, and was still wearing the same clothes from the day before, Lederer inquired "What are you doing up? It looks like you haven't slept." Hellmuth replied, "After I busted in that yesterday, I've been playing Chinese Poker all night." At least he hasn't crashed a race car into a light pole.... yet. If you don't know what I'm referring to, last year Phil was allowed to drive a Race Car built for Ultimate bet Poker (the site Phil helped create with a buddy of his), and crashed it into a light pole, causing him some injuries that may have hurt his chances at the Main Event. To see the crash, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D1grMtmLLM

It was a real crash, but the commercial turned this into an opportunity to show how, unlike Phil, their website will not crash.

In a couple of other notable events, the $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha W/ReBuys is down to 41 players from the starting 320. With the top 36 getting paid, look for players like Ted Forrest, Clonie Gowen, Eric Seidel and Layne Flack to use their experience to make it in the money.

For the $1500 Seven Card Stud, the most notable name remaining may well be Jerry Buss. Famed owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Buss has 3 previous cashed at the WSOP, as well as a heads-up appearance at the final table of a WPT event, where he was schooled by Layne Flack, who frequently gets invites to Buss's home poker games and Laker games. I guess a good performance here would help Buss recover from a miserable showing by his team in the NBA finals.

WSOP Update #7

2008-06-18T13:05:00.007-04:00

To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of interesting news yesterday from the World Series of Poker. Easily the most notable happenings came from the finale of the $3000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament, where John Phan defeated Johnny Neckar to claim his first WSOP bracelet and $434,789 in winnings. Other than David Singer, who finished 5th, Phan was the only big name at this final table, but his experience paid off, much to the delight of all those in attendance, well, except for Neckar, of course.

They battled heads-up for well in excess of 6 hours (no, that's not a typo), and as the players grew tired, the game got a lot more interesting for the spectators.

First, with Phan continually fighting from the short stack, he decided to buy a round of beers (apparently he's a Corona fan) for his cheering section. Then, Phan grabbed one for himself, looked over at Neckar and said "Gonna have to beat you drunk. Not working good sober". Shortly after this, Phan would double up to take over the chip lead.

A while later, and presumably after the beers set in, Phan and Neckar agree to try something new, and play 2 hands in a row completely blind. Not only that, but thy were all-in blind. Sounds more like something that would happen at my home game, but I guess this is what happens when you play the same person heads-up for so long, you just look for an excuse to finish it. After the river, each player would reveal their hands, one card at a time to build suspense. Phan would win the first hand with a 7-high, and then Neckar won the 2nd round, this time with a monstrous pair of 4s on the river, where he would have otherwise lost the tournament to Phan's King-high.

Very reminiscent of a game of poker I saw from the 2004 WSOP, where a group of well-known players players competed in a hilarious game of Blind Man's Bluff. I don't believe they gave out a bracelet for the event, but I know there was a lot of money involved. Here's a clip from it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pvcWx7DRw, you have to fast forward to the 40 second mark.

WSOP Update #6

2008-06-17T07:38:00.005-04:00

With so many big names at the final table of the $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha W/Rebuys tournament, I guess it's fitting that someone by the name of Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond wins the title and over $800,000 in prize money. Phil Hellmuth would finish in 8th, followed by Daniel Negreanu in 7th, John Junada in 6th, Johnny Chan in 4th, and finally David Benyamine in 3rd, leaving a heads-up battle between Galfond and Adam Hourani. Both players, who can often be found playing high-stakes PLO on-line at Full-Tilt Poker, would then go on to battle for more than 100 hands before Galfond would claim victory

When asked afterwards whether he felt intimidated amid so many high profile pros, Galfond replied with a mix of humility and confidence. "I felt blessed to be here, but I didn't feel outmatched," answered Galfond. "I wasn't afraid. I just wanted to play my best game." Galfond has made several appearances on various made-for-tv tournaments, and is also a noted poker blogger.

The final table is now set in the $3000 No-Limit Hold'em event, and David Singer is looking to add a 2nd bracelet to his collection for 2008. Although he has slightly more than half the chips of the big stack at the final table, David sits comfortably in 3rd place. John Phan is also at the final table, with less chips, but it seems that the grouping between 3rd and 8th is close enough that one hand could easily change the fortunes of any player in that grouping. It's going to be an uphill climb, but I have a feeling Singer will be trying on a 2nd 2008 WSOP bracelet, a feat that would likely put him atop the Player of the Year standings, he currently sits in 13th place.

Here's the top 5 for the 2008 WSOP POY at this point:

Erick Lindgren 185 pts $567,088
Daniel Negreanu 170 pts $378,224
Barry Greenstein 165 pts $390,777
Vanessa Selbst 163 pts $350,391
Jacobo Fernandez-Hernandez 157 pts $425,762

WSOP Update #5

2008-06-16T10:37:00.006-04:00

Barry Greenstein wins $1500 7-Card Razz tournament!

After 3 days of strategic limit poker, Barry added a 3rd bracelet to his collection, and $157,619 to his bank account by out-lasting 452 other players. Barry has already cashed-in 2 other times this year, including one other final table appearance. His heads-up battle with Chris Klodnicki lasted 3 hours, and not long before it ended Klodnicki looked over at a seemingly bored Barry Greenstein and asked "are you tired?" Greenstein's expression didn't change in the slightest as he said "not even close....poker doesn't tire me out at all." Greenstein is on record as saying he has previously played for three days straight. Granted those were in his younger days, but nevertheless, it seems stamina is not an issue for the man known as "Robin Hood", because he donates much of his winnings to various charities.

The $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha W/Rebuys event is down to the final table, and not surprisingly, many big names are still in it. Despite only 152 entrants, the top prize will be well in excess of $800,000 due to many rebuys. This is why so many top pros do well in this event, because they can afford to. With 9 players remaining at the final table, John Juanda and Daniel Negreanu are in contention, but more notable, so are Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan. With Hellmuth holding a record 11 WSOP bracelets, and Chan just one behind, this could turn out to be quite a battle. Phil is the short-stack at the table, and will have to make a move early. I'm sure Johnny will be rooting for someone to take out Phil early, and then hopefully the rest will be like smelling roses, or oranges, for the Orient Express.

In one of the bigger hyped events of the WSOP, Kenny Tran won the $10,000 World Championship Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em tournament. Earning a healthy $539,040 and a bracelet after surviving the field of 256 players, and 8 different Heads-up opponents, Tran was very grateful to his wife and kids for "letting" him play poker on Father's Day.

Finally, the $3000 No Limit Hold'em event is underway, and 81 player remain from the starting 716. This tournament is most notable because Beth Shak is still alive, and thus gives me an excuse to put her picture beside this feature. Giggity!

Freerollin' to the 2009 WSOP

2008-06-14T23:05:00.007-04:00

Ok, I may sound nuts, but here's what I want to do. I want to go to the World Series of Poker in 2009, without putting a penny of my own money towards it. Sounds nuts? Of course it does. Sounds impossible? Well, it's going to be very difficult, but not impossible.

I can't afford to just fly down to Vegas, throw $1500 or more on the table and play in an tournament. I have a full-time job, I have a wife and 2 kids, and I have very little "disposable" income. I put the word disposable in parenthesis because most people that know me and have seen me play poker would argue that all the money I play poker with must be disposable, because it never comes back to me. All this aside, it is a goal of mine to be able to say I played in WSOP event.

Maybe it won't be the main event, maybe it won't even be Hold'em, who knows? But hopefully, at the end of the day, I'll be able to say I sat down and played poker with some of the best players in the world ... and I gave them all my chips.

So my plan is simple, at least, in theory it's simple. I play in some Freerolls on-line where the top players are awarded cash, as opposed to tickets to play in the next level of tournaments. Full-Tilt Poker awards freeroll winners cash, so that's likely where I'll play. With some good luck and decent play, maybe I cash-in a few times, and develop a very small on-line bankroll. It's a start.

Then, I use that cash to play in some small buy-in tournaments. Again, hopefully I manage to cash-in a few times, and increase my bankroll, and so. I think you see where this is going, the idea of starting with absolutely nothing and winding up playing in the World Series of Poker. This strategy involves me playing very well, getting very luck, and most importantly, I'll need to dodge some of the biggest fish in the world of poker. Low buy-in poker is probably the most difficult to make money at, as the quality of poker is often so poor, a good player wouldn't stand a chance.

Internet qualifiers have been littering the WSOP tables since Chris Moneymaker won in 2003 after qualifying through a $39 satellite. He wasn't the first player to use the on-line satellites to qualify, but he was certainly the most famous. In fact, satellite tournaments have been around longer than the Internet, as they were, and still are held live in Vegas and in casinos around the world. All with the dream of the little guy making it big in Vegas.

I could probably put a few dollars into an account at some on-line poker site, make my task a little easier, but this way would make a much better story. And because when all is said and done, likely all I will have left will be a story, I might as well make sure it's a good one.

WSOP Update #4

2008-06-13T12:33:00.007-04:00

Negreanu captures 4th Bracelet!

Daniel Negreanu won the $2000 Limit Hold'em event, taking home just over $200,000. Although Daniel was very happy to get the bracelet and the money, the real story here seems to be a side-bet between Daniel and Phil Ivey. As Daniel was celebrating his victory with his mother (there to provide moral suppost and vegan meals for her son) and friends, he was heard yelling "Me 1, Ivey 0". Apparantly, Daniel and Phil have agreed to pay each other $200,000 for each bracelet the other player wins, hence doubling Daniels earnings on the day. Gamblers gambling on their gambling...nothing makes more sense, really.

I guess this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I've heard some of the high-profile players talk about making $50,000 bets on X-Box games, as well as golf, weight loss and pretty much anything else they can put money on.

16 Players remain in the $3000 H.O.R.S.E. event, and several big names remain in contention for this title. Marcel "how do these damn sunglasses go on?" Luske leads the way as the chip leader, while Jennifer Harmon and Hoyt Corkins are both in very good position. Todd Brunson sits on a short stack, but still has a bit of room to play with.

I guess it's been a good day for the Poker Stars team, as Vanessa Selbst wins the $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha event, and taking home $227,933 in the process. Vanessa outlasted 758 other players on the way to her first WSOP bracelet, becoming the first woman to win a bracelet in 2008 (not including the $1000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em World Championship).

WSOP Update #3

2008-06-12T08:22:00.006-04:00

Well, I (sort of) called my shot and was right! In my last blog, I mentioned that if anyone was going to beat Erick Lindgren in the $5000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys it was going to be Mike "the Mouth" Matusow, and miraculously, I was right. Matusow takes down his 3rd WSOP bracelet and well over $500,000. After defeating Jeff Lisandro heads-up, the Mouth was very emotional, as he often is after any big event, win or lose, and is optimistic about the rest of the 2008 WSOP schedule.

"I don't know much about this game," joked Matusow, "but I know no-limit. If I continue to play like I played this week, it's gonna be a real good World Series."

Daniel Negreanu is still going strong in 4th place in the $2000 Limit Hold'em event, as they're down to the final 10 players. Daniel made a very lucky hand with 10-7 os (his favorite hand, see my interview with him for more) against Derek Lerner where Negreanu rivered a 2nd pair to take down a very large pot, that would have otherwise seen Daniel eliminated from the tournament.

In the $5000 No Limit Hold'em event, several big names are doing very well. 121 players remain from a starting 731. With Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi and Humberto Brenes comfortably near the top of the leader board, other players such as Eli Elezra, Cathy Liebert, Layne Flack (one of my personal favorites) and Gavin Smith will all be working a (relatively) short stack going in to Day 2 of the event.

Another event with notable names got underway yesterday, in the $3000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Personally, I love this style of poker, I think it's the greatest test of a players true skill, as each game Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Eights or Better require different strategies. Some players like to try and get by by focusing on the style of poker they're most comfortable with, but the top players know how to play each game. 160 of the 414 players remain, with Todd Brunson, Shannon Elizabeth, Phil Ivey, Marcel Luske, Jennifer Harmon, Annie Duke and Hoyt Corkins all still in the hunt.

WSOP Update #2

2008-06-11T12:41:00.008-04:00

The $5000 buy-in, No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys boasts one hell of a final table. 7 players remain out of 85, and each of them is a very accomplished player. Here's a list of their chip counts going into the final table.

Erick Lindgren 1,104,000
Barry Greenstein 541,000
Mike Matusow 520,000
Jeffrey Lisandro 461,000
David Benyamine 410,000
Tony 'G' Guoga 394,000
Tom Schneider 162,000

Obviously, Erick Lindgren is the favorite to win as he is the chip leader, plus he's on a hot streak having won another event already this year. Having said that, I'd take Mike "the Mouth" Matusow to have the best chance at pulling off the upset.

No matter how it ends, pitting Matusow and Tony G at the same table could be a great show for the spectators, as both are as well known for being agitators as they are for being good poker players. Mike and Tony show why they chose poker instead of soccer as their sports of choice.

Another interesting game still underway is the $2000 Limit Hold'em event. With 125 players left from the starting 479, there are some very high profile names still in contention. Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu are both doing very well. After winning the first WSOP event he ever entered, Daniel hasn't had a whole lot of success at other WSOP, well, at least not for Daniel. He's won 2 other bracelets, and a few Million dollars, but by his standards, he is only looking to improve. Phil, on the other hand, boasts back-to-back WSOP Main Event titles, as well as 9 other WSOP bracelets, making him the all-time leader in WSOP wins.

To find out more about the World Series of Poker's all-time leaders, click here: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/index.asp

Interview with Daniel Negreanu

2008-06-09T08:17:00.015-04:00

On November 22, 2007, I was lucky enough to be able to Interview Daniel Negreanu while he was at the CFL's Grey Cup (Canada's version of the Super Bowl) in Toronto to promote a Poker Stars charity event and just to enjoy the festivities in his home town. I got to play in a media/celebrity tournament with Daniel, was even able to bluff him off middle pair on a flop, but the real reason I travelled 12 hours (from Ottawa to Toronto and back again during a horendous snow storm) was to talk to Daniel, and see if he was really as nice a guy as he seems to be on TV. I was not disappointed.

You recently decided to join the Poker Stars team. I'm sure you had several suitors, what made you decide to go with Poker Stars?

You're right about one thing, there were a lot of hats in the ring, but for me there was only one logical choice. I played most of my poker even before joining Poker Stars at Poker Stars. I've always felt like the way that they do business is a lot like the way I think and the way that I like doing business - putting the customer first, great support, great software, they were like the leader as far as tournaments go. There are more tournaments being played at Poker Stars on a regular basis than anywhere else. Definitely the hub for tournament poker. And frankly, most people like that and I like it too.

You can play in one tournament after another - there's a whole bunch going on. Plus it just made the most sense for me, you know, thinking about the way things were going with Full Contract poker which was obviously a site that I was affiliated with and that developed and changed, so they merged with Poker Stars and it was all clean and I felt like, for me it was a no-brainer. I talked to my people, if you will, about where to go, and the only place I'd go was with Poker Stars. It's the only one I believe in and I don't like being someone that puts my name or face to something I don't really like, enjoy or use.

In your opinion, what is your greatest accomplishment in poker?

I would say the culmination of 2004 - the entire year. With the way that it finished specifically, I had a great run. With 2004, at the end, I got passed for player of the year in the 2nd last tournament, then in the last tournament with a very large field, I came with the biggest chip lead in the history of the World Poker Tour. I just smoked it, I won the whole thing, so that capped off an amazing year. I won a couple million dollar events that year and like $5 million of winnings and so, it's hard to pick one, but I'd say right then in December of 2004 was just the pinnacle of, like, dude, how good am I? (laughing)

You've always been a great ambassador, not just for poker, but as a Canadian poker player. Is this something you're consciously aware of, or is that just who you are naturally?

I would say that it is who I am, but I'm very conscious of it. I'm very aware of how special, how important it is for Canadians to see Canadians doing well in other places. You know, I grew up being a Mike Weir fan, or any sort of Canadian athlete who did well, you know like Ben Johnson, before he took the 'sterios'. Canadians have a lot of pride in those that represent their country well and I take that very seriously. One of the reasons I started even wearing the hockey jersey in a sense, was to let people know I'm a Canadian and that kind of connected me more to the country. And I take it very seriously. I also feel that Canada is a hotbed of great poker talent. It really is.

What is an average day like for Daniel Negreanu?

Golfing and playing on line. I golf during the day and play poker at Poker Stars at night. It's more convenient. I like to live a more laid back lifestyle. And I'll go to the tournaments and travel. When I come to Canada, I'm going to have some fun. This whole trip, this Grey Cup, I've never been to the event before and it's so much fun so far. People are nuts here. It's great. It's nuts in a great way.

We're seeing more and more "made for TV, invite only" poker events. Which one is your favourite to play in?

Well, I did one that was a lot of fun for me - it was a Poker Stars event, an NHL Charity Shoot-out where they had with me as well as some hockey players. It was mostly fun for me not from the sense of competition, I mean these guys are hockey players, they're not going to beat me (laughing), but it was fun for me in that I got to hang out with these guys - like Brodeur and Luongo - goalies that I've had in my hockey pool before and it was fun to just hang out with them. There are others that I've done and they were fun from a competitive sense, but the one that I enjoyed the most was probably the Shoot-Out.

So you're a big hockey pool fan, are you?

I'm in the most advanced hockey pool you could ever imagine. I'm in the number one hockey pool in the world. I've been in this league for 13 years. We draft 14 year olds. If there's a Slovakian kid with a slap shot who's got head case problems, I know. I know his name is Mike Slovenko or something, you know. Not only do we have a regular roster we have a farm roster of 20 players. I've got the best goaltenders in the world. I've got Lundqvist, Luongo, and Nabokov. Eat some of that! How are you going to beat that! What's better than that?

You have the reputation of being the nicest guy in poker. Is it true?

Nah, it's a bunch of baloney! Nah, I don't know. I don't know what defines 'nice' necessarily. I know that when I play poker, I try to have a lot of fun. I try to engage people. I try to be very conscious of never being someone that thinks they're better than everybody else. I have a group of friends that I grew up with that help ground me, because they don't think I'm nothing but Daniel, you know, they make fun of it when people come asking for an autograph, they're like, "why do you want his autograph? He's just an idiot." I try to surround myself with grounded people, and not really buy into the whole Hollywood blah, blah, blah.

Do you think it's an advantage to be every one's friend at the table?

Yeah, there's no question about it. You know, I know that there's other poker players out there like Phil Hellmuth or Mike Matusow who take the opposite approach, try to get under your skin and make you mad, but I find for me, what works best is people who root for you and then they're easier to play against. They're not trying to get you all the time. When I get knocked out of a tournament often people are disappointed, when they shouldn't be. It makes it easier for them to win, but they groan and say, "ah, I liked playing with him". That helps you in a lot of ways, so I use that to my advantage.

Other players, like Mike Matusow or Tony G, seem to thrive off being an agitator. How do you handle playing at a table with guys like that?

When I play with Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth, it's as simple as this. I understand they're really good people, genuine hearts, except they're 6 years old. I mean, they really are. They're six year old boys trapped in men's bodies. Tony G on the other hand, just gets too nasty sometimes. He did something on a CBS/CBC show that I just thought was way over the top. He was playing against a Russian player, he was degrading him and degrading Russians and I thought, what are you trying to start another war? Are you insane? But I think that overall, jabbing is fun, you know, a little bit of trash talking, but nothing that gets personal or over the top. And nothing with people that don't know you. When I play with Phil and Mike, I needle. I needle them like crazy. You know, I'll do whatever I can to get them off because it's fun for me. Because I know they can handle it and if they can't they shouldn't be dishing it. But I would never do that to someone who came out and played in a tournament for the first time.

You like to talk a lot at the table. Is that just to keep yourself interested in the game, or are you also trying to get a feel for your opponents and where there head is at?

It's just because I talk too much in general. You know, whether I'm at the poker table or not, I just enjoy talking. I just enjoy listening to the sound of my own voice. (laughing) No, that's just who I am. You know, if I was playing poker or whatever I'm doing, if I'm at dinner, you know I like to cook dinner with friends and have drinks and there's like six or eight of us and I like to be in there mixing it up, talking religion, talking politics, you know, whatever, so at the poker table it's just an extension of who I really am.

What do you do to keep yourself focused during a big tournament?

Well, there's a few things that I do. First of all, the day before an event, I avoid everybody, whether its interviews, media. I try to be alone to collect my thoughts and not be drained. I feel like you do too many things leading up to an event and it drains your energy. It sucks something out of you. I like to focus, lay back. No drinking alcohol, I don't do caffeine. I try to eat very well the day before, get a little exercise, and when I take it seriously that way, I do much better. The number one important thing is to make sure I get enough rest. You know, try to think like an athlete would. Like, how would an athlete, if he was playing the Grey Cup game, how would he approach it, what would he do. And I try to think along those lines. Be in the best physical shape that I can and that just automatically helps your mind. Getting oxygen in your brain, making you feel comfortable, and not feel sluggish.

So, I try to just take care of my body. And avoid people. I mean, even parties. I don't like to go …I don't like to talk to a lot of people, because when I talk, I'm blah,blah, blah, so I try to take it easy and just be alone. I also like to watch Rocky. Before a tournament, there's no better music than listening to that! I mean, you watch Rocky and you feel like you can beat anything. Eye of the Tiger baby, he beat Draggo, I mean, Draggo was a machine! And he showed heart and he didn't quit and he kept on going, and if you have that in your mind when you're playing poker, you're like, I'm Balboa, you can't knock me down. It helps you. It sounds crazy, but it's true.

Which Rocky is your favourite one?

My favorite Rocky is Rocky III. The reason for that is actually personal. There's a scene in Rocky 3 where Clubber Lang is training hard. He's just going at it, training hard. And Balboa's at the gym taking pictures, kissing babies, doing all this and taking it very slowly, you know. Doing commercials and doing all this stuff that's not grinding you know, and Clubber Lang kicks his butt. And it's a testament to, you know, you always have to make sure your first priority is the game. All that other stuff has to be put to the side. If you get caught up in that sort of thing, you can easily lose your edge and lose your hunger. So that's why I watch that one (Rocky III) always before tournaments. I'm like, you're not too big for nothing. You've gotta prove yourself every single day.

If any, what adjustments have you made due to the larger tournament fields with so many unknown players involved?

To some degree, anytime you're playing in a tournament with a large field, and you don't really have a lot of information on your opponents, the first twenty minutes is super cool. And I try to really focus during that time - to really focus on what they're doing. And I try to play a relatively basic game where I don't' go over the top with some plays because I really don't know enough about these guys. Once I find out a player's an on-line player, I know somethings about the way that they play because I play regularly at Poker Star and the bigger games, and I know the style of play and the way they think.

That was one of the reasons why I actually started playing more on-line, was to understand the way they think, so that I'd do better in the tournaments when I face them. Playing on line is the absolute best way to learn the fundamentals. You know, I'm fundamentally better now than I've ever been, simply because when you're on line, that's what you're focused on. You have to focus on playing the game well. If you win on line and you're good on line,that's going to translate to good results live.

Which do you prefer to play, tournaments or cash games?

It depends. The small rinky-dink tournaments, are not fun for me. But the same could be said about a cash game. When I'm playing a big game at the Bellagio, that's exciting for me. Or, like, the big huge tournaments that hold a lot of prestige. For me it's all about personal goals. If I set my mind on winning a title, I want to do that. It would be a combination, but both would have to be at the highest levels.

Who do you think is the top player in the world right now?

You know, I would steal a quote from Paul Newman in The Colour of Money, who says at one point, when asked who’s the best pool player in the world, he says, "well the balls roll funny for everybody sometimes." In poker, I think it’s similar, where there’s a lot of guys who play really well and you can put them all in the same hat. I’d say from a consistent perspective, Phil Ivy is a name that’s always mentioned. Patrick Antonius is another one, he’s excellent. Of course when I’m at my best I feel I can play at a level where I don’t think anyone can play better than I can.

Do you have a favorite starting hand?

Ten-seven off-suit. I feel like I owe that hand money because I’ve been so lucky with it over the years.

What hand do you think people mis-play the most?

Ace-queen off-suit. It’s a very difficult hand to play, in that when you play a big pot with it, you’re never in good shape. But a lot of players overplay it because it looks so good. Even when you catch the ace there’s still danger because you can lose to a lot of hands.

Do you have any superstitions while playing poker?

I’m not really superstitious but I’ve always had this weird thing about fifty dollar bills. I don’t like fifty dollar bills. Especially if there’s just one of them, I feel like it’s just dangling. So I’m not really big on fifty dollar bills. All fifty dollar bills. I don’t see the need for them.

I’ve read Phil Hellmuth’s books, is he as good as he thinks he is?

Well, if anybody was as good as he (Phil) thinks he is, they would never ever lose. Doyle Brunson actually said it best. He said "I wish I was as good as Phil Hellmuth thinks he is".

WSOP Update #1

2008-06-06T12:14:00.010-04:00

For those of you not aware, the World Series of Poker began on Friday, May 30th with the World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em event, and some noteable names have added to their already impressive list of accomplishments.

Erick Lindgren Captured his first WSOP bracelet winning the $5000 Mixed Hold'em event. Like Phil Mickelson before he won his first green jacket, Erick was considered the best player in the world without a WSOP bracelet, and I'm sure both are very happy to shed that distinction. The final table at this event boasted some very big names, including Justin Bonomo, Howard "The Professor" Lederer and former WSOP Main Event Runner-up David Williams. Along with the bracelet, Erick won $374,505.

This event was new to the WSOP schedule, with the format being standard Hold'em poker, but they would switch from Limit to No Limit at set points. If you've played both version of Hold'em, you can appreciate the difference between them, and therefore understand the adjustments that it would take to be switching between back and forth. I've never tried it (and to be honest, I hate Limit poker, so I likely never will), but it sounds very tough, and therefore much congratulations are deserved to Erick.

Another early winner is David Singer, a member of the Full-Tilt Poker Team. This is also David's first WSOP bracelet, coming from the $1500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event, cashing in a very healthy $214,131 for his effort. This tournament seems to be one that the big names tend to skip, and the final table was a pretty good indication of that, as most players had no experience being at the final table of a WSOP event.

Singer's recent accomplishments include winning the Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up National Championship, and has been at 3 WPT final tables. In 2008 alone, Singers win total is already over $4,000,000!

Poker Etiquette 101

2008-06-03T09:32:00.016-04:00

As an experienced poker player, there’s nothing more annoying than playing at a table with a rookie. Rookies are sometimes known to call your all-in with 9-7 off-suit because the first time they had sex was in ‘97, and therefore it‘s their “lucky hand“. They’re also prone to claiming that a straight beats a flush, and despite the fact that everyone at the table agrees with you, they still need to see a “Rules of Poker” card to be convinced.

If you’re shaking your head, painfully recalling similar situations, I am truly sorry. Nothing can ruin a night of poker more than a player, or even worse, multiple players, who clearly have no idea what they’re doing. Not only are they often frustrating, rookies can be very dangerous too.

Poker is a game of luck and skill, so even when you catch a rookie making a bad play, they can easily find themselves raking in the chips when they hit a miracle river card. Even worse, when this happens, they now feel they’re an expert, and begin to offer you advice on how to play poker.

I once played against a first-timer, who began critiquing my play 5 minutes into his first real poker game. It was very frustrating, but I quickly learned to to deal with it by outplaying him time and time again. Unphased by the fact that my arms were getting sore from raking in all his chips, he continued to state “I can read you like a book”. Sadly, owning your own copy of Rounders, or watching poker on TV does NOT make you a good poker player.

Aside from making obviously moronic plays, or not being aware of the rules, there’s more ways that a rookie player can make even the most hardcore poker player pull out his hair in frustration. (At least, that’s my current excuse for baldness.)

Know when it’s your turn - No one wants to constantly remind you that it’s your turn to play. It’s ok to be watching a nearby TV, but make sure that when it’s your turn, you’re ready to go.

Know what to do when it’s your turn - Be aware of what the blind levels are, so when you look at your hole cards to see pocket Aces, you’ll know how much you should raise. Also, be aware of how many people have entered the hand, and if any of them have raised.

Don’t splash the pot - Don’t just randomly scatter your chips in the middle of the table. When you make a bet or call one, first, state you intentions verbally. Count out the appropriate amount of chips, placing them in front of you, but not mixed in with the rest of the chips. This way, anyone questioning how much you’ve bet can easily see the chips, or ask the dealer to count them.

Don’t take too long - You may have seen players on TV taking a few minutes to make a decision, but keep in mind their decision may mean the difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some decisions do take a while to make, no matter what the stakes are, you want to make the right decision, just make sure you’re actually thinking about your decision, and not trying to milk the time because you want everyone to think you had a really good hand, when you actually had rags.

Keep your highest valued chips in plain sight - You may think you’re being sneaky, but this one is not only bad etiquette, it’s against the rules too.

Don’t talk about your cards until the hand is over - I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a hand when the flop is dealt, and a player who folded pre-flop groans in disgust, or whispers to someone beside them “I would have flopped a straight”. That’s too bad for you, but you’re reaction may now affect how the rest of the hand is played. Poker is a game of information, and players not in the current hand should have zero affect on the outcome.

Finally, be polite - You don’t have to be everyone’s best friend, after all, you are trying to take their money. A jerk who joins a home game and wins never gets another invite, whereas the nice guy has the opportunity to win even more money next time.

More than anything else, try to have fun, make sure you play within your limits and be respectful of the other players.

Tournaments vs Cash Games

2008-06-02T10:41:00.011-04:00

No matter what type of poker you like to play (Hold‚em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, 5 Card Draw, etc.), you always have the option of playing a tournament or a cash game. Each can offer different challenges, and can severely affect how you play, and how others play. First, let’s look at the differences between the two.

A Cash Games (also known as a Ring Game) is poker the way it was originally meant to be played. A group of players gather at a table, establish rules that govern the game, such as blinds, antes, buy-in and type of poker, and proceed to play. Players are allowed to re-buy if they lose all their money, and they can walk away from the table at anytime with their money, called “cashing-out”.

The picture above is a pre-game conversation on the set of High Stakes Poker. Easily my favorite poker show on tv, it features many of the biggest names in poker, regardless of their affiliations with online gaming sites. Seen here (from left to right) are the Dealer, Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Daniel Negreanu, not really sure, Eli Elezra and Doyle Brunson.

Players are also allowed to cash-out some of their money on the table, and play with what they have left. This is a great idea for someone who has just won a big pot, and wants to make sure they don’t lose it all right away. It allows you to make sure you walk away with a profit, but also minimizes the amount of money you can win in future hands.

For example, you bought into a cash game for $100, and after winning a few pots, you now have $300. You’re up $200, and want to make sure that you leave with a profit, so you cash out $150, leaving you with $150 on the table. This protects your investment, but now the most any player can give you in one hand is $150 instead of the $300 you could have earned.

Cash Games are flexible, allowing new players to enter if there’s room at the table, or even changing the game and rules on the fly. As long as the players at the table agree to the rules, pretty much anything goes, even to the point of adding wild cards and playing “dealers choice” where the rules of the game can alter every hand, depending on what the current dealer wants to play.

Tournaments are more rigid. As with most tournament structures, the end result of a poker tournament is to have one player stand alone, with everyone else’s chips. Once you’ve lost all your money, the game is over for you. There’s no option of walking away if you’ve made a tidy profit, or cashing out some of the money. Tournaments have a set buy-in (sometimes re-buys and add-ons are optional for a specific period of time), and have pre-set times where the blinds/antes raise, in order to force action. The longer the tournament goes, the higher the blinds/antes get.

For any multi-table tournament, there should be a Tournament Director. This person’s job is to ensure that rules and codes of conduct are followed. Probably the most important, and most difficult, job of a Tournament Director (TD) is to keep all tables as close as possible to the same size. For example, a tournament of 81 people would consist of nine tables of nine players each (a standard tournament table holds 9-10 players). When nine players are eliminated, the remaining 72 players would merge into 8 tables. Also, when one table quickly eliminates 2 players, the TD will take one player from another table and add that person to the table with the fewest people. It’s important to keep all tables evenly balanced.

A standard tournament has no maximum size. The 2007 WSOP (World Series of Poker) Championship Event had over 8700 entrants (as shown in the picture above), with a buy-in of $10,000. The event was so huge, that tournament organizers had to split the group into 3 different sections, and combine them into one smaller, more manageable group days after the start of the event. In general, to make money in a multitable tournament, you’ll have to finish in the top 10%-20%, but then the payout should be pretty significant.

So which format is best for you? I guess it’s a personal preference, and a matter of circumstance.

If you’re just having a few buddies over for a fun night, I’d suggest playing a low buyin cash game. It allows everyone to play the entire night, whereas in a tournament, there can be literally hours between when you’re eliminated from one game and another one starts. But if there’s going to be at least 8 or more players, then a tournament may be the best option, especially if you have more players than you can hold at one table.

Multi-table tournaments are a lot of fun, and when 4-5 players are eliminated, they can play a cash game until the tournament is over, allowing other players eliminated to join at any time, and ending when the tournament is done to start another tournament.

Folding - Why the simplest action is often the hardest to do.

2008-05-30T09:04:00.007-04:00

Have you ever been in a situation where your opponent has made a bet you know you shouldn’t call? Of course you have, every poker player has. You’re positive that he has you beat on the flop, and even if you’re lucky and he’s on a draw, you’re probably little better than a coin flip to win the hand. These aren’t favourable odds, and not worth the risk, so why is it that I see so many people call in this situation?

Yes, sometimes you catch your opponent on a complete bluff, and you look like a genius when it happens. Maybe you have a really good read on this player, or you know that he’s still steaming from a previous hand. But is it really worth it to call on little more than a hunch? Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

Pre-flop: Under The Gun (UTG, means first to act) raises three times the big blind, two players fold, you look at your hole cards to find As-10h, and decide to call. Everyone else folds, until the Big Blind (BB), who also calls. Poker is a game of information, and so far you have very little information about what either player may be holding.

The BB could easily be holding any two cards at this point. Two players are in the hand for a small raise, and he has already committed 1/3 of the chips needed to call. He knows that he will be able to see the flop for this price, because he’s the last person in order to be able to call UTG’s raise.

UTG can also have a wide variety of hands. A relatively small preflop raise from an early position often suggests strength. They could easily be holding AA, KK or AK, just waiting for someone to re-raise them, in the hopes of getting all-in. Of course, as this becomes more common, it’s easy to take advantage of the situation, and raise with hands like 7-8 suited UTG.

The flop brings, Ad-7c-6c. You’ve just hit top pair, with a 10 kicker. Not a bad hand, but certainly not time to start raking in the chips. Being last to act is generally considered to be a good position, because you have the benefit of seeing what the other players do before you do anything, but it can also put a lot of pressure on you to make the right decision.

BB checks, and UTG bets, this time significantly larger than the first bet. He counts out his entire stack of chips, then pushes exactly half of them into the pot, which is 15 times the size of the first bet, sending the message that he wants to go all-in. It looks like a bluff, and everyone at the table knows it, especially the player making the bet. Everyone has about the same amount of chips, so now you have some pretty important questions to ask yourself to determine if you should fold, call or raise.

Did UTG have you dominated preflop (AA, AK, AQ, AJ), in which case you’d be praying to hit one of three 10s left in the deck. Maybe he only has KK or QQ and is trying to buy the pot, making you fold a superior hand. In which case you’re in great position, if you can make the call. But there’s still another factor left.

The BB is patiently waiting behind you, and you have no idea what he’s going to do, and no idea what type of hand he has. He checked after the flop, but that means nothing. He could have rags, but he could have a variety of hands worth calling the massive bet. Maybe he has 77 or 66 for a set, but no matter what, you likely don’t want to be playing for all your money against 3 players, especially when you have no idea how strong they are.

My advice, FOLD. It’s not easy for everyone to do in this situation, but you can’t lose what you don’t put in the pot. Maybe you did throw away the best hand, but they’re are too many hands that have you beat that UTG would likely have. Plus, there’s still a chance that BB has a strong drawing hand, putting you in even worse shape.

If this seems like a tight play, well that’s because it probably is. I’m generally considered to be a loose player, I like to play a lot of hands, and force myself to make the right reads. I’m not always successful, but the one rule I play by is to be the aggressor, not the calling-station. Force players to fold hands like the one described above, or to make a great play against me.

Incidently, the UTG player was me. I had pocket Aces, but was afraid of the flush, so I played the hand as if I was bluffing. The player with A-10 actually did fold, but the BB pushed me all-in with 77, for a lower set than mine. It was a good night of poker.

Which Player Type Are You?

2008-05-29T11:42:00.011-04:00

If you’re like me, and you tend to play against the same group of people most of the time, then hopefully you’ve noticed that each player has their own tendencies. My core group of about a dozen guys has players that run the complete spectrum of poker styles, from the obviously predictable to the blatantly erratic. Each style has it’s own benefits. Take a look at these player types, and try to identify who in your group fits each category, and also decide what category you best fit into.

THE BANKER

The Banker will play a very simple style of game, will almost never bluff, and will always bet at the flop if they think they’re ahead. These players are just trying to avoid the bad beat, content to win small pots, and not put too much at risk. Bankers tend to stay pretty quiet at the table, letting their play do the talking for them. They don’t play many hands, but when they do, it’s predictably a strong starting hand.

Bankers are often easy to bluff out of a pot. As they don’t like to put too much at risk, they will often fold the best hand, telling themselves that they now live to fight another day. They’re also not likely to do a lot of “acting” when they are holding the nuts, and you bet into them. If they call or re-raise when you try to raise them out of a pot, then it’s time to move on to the next hand.

THE POLITICIAN

The Politician loves to take chances. They will call pre-flop raises with less than desirable starting hands, hoping to catch a flop where they can bluff you off a stronger hand. They are also very talkative, trying to play subtle mind games with you during the hand. For example he’s just bet out at the flop, and while you’re deciding what to do, he’ll turn to another player at the table and say, “I had to bet, I hit top pair, but have a weak kicker”. They would play every hand if they could get away with it, and often make pre flop raises with bad hands, causing strange results when the cards are revealed.

The play of a politician will likely have more influence on the entire table than any other style of player. Often in a tournament, this player will be either double up or be eliminated (or both) before the end of the first blind level. They came to gamble, which you can use to your benefit if you are able to slow-play a strong hand. Let them do all the work, betting in to you, then start raking in the chips.

THE PROFESSOR

The Professor is the guy who knows all the rules, and has read at least a dozen different poker books. They may even contribute to an on–line forum or blog (or even write a monthly poker column), anything to show that they have more knowledge about poker than you. This type of player will calculate pot-odds, even when not in the hand, and is always quick to point out where other players went wrong in any given hand. If they’re not playing a premium hand, it’s almost always suited, or connected, or both.

Only talkative while observing the hand, the Professor is capable of playing loose or tight, but is prone to making bad plays trying to look like a genius. He will also be the first to point out any breach of etiquette that has occurred.

THE CEO

Just like in the business word, the CEO is at the top of their game. They’re able to play a variety of styles of poker, just like the professor, with one major difference. When they change their style of play, it’s a result of knowing whom they are playing against. The CEO will play a variety of hands, but generally stick to the stronger ones. They don’t like to bluff often but they know a Banker can be bluffed off a hand and they know the Politician will try to play and win every pot. The CEO is playing you as much as he is playing his own hand.

To become a CEO, you have to first realize who you are right now. Take advantage of your reputation by changing your style of play for a while. If necessary, show your hand on the river, even if you don’t have to, to get your point across. If you’re a Banker, show everyone that you bluffed, if you’re a Politician, show your big hand. Let them know you’re capable of mixing your game up, then when you do revert to a more familiar style of play, you will be less predictable.

Playing Poker in your Underwear

2008-05-28T13:37:00.008-04:00

I’ve been playing poker consistently for a number of years now, generally with the same core group of guys. Every summer, along with the warmer temperature, a disturbing trend continues. I play fewer live games.

Many of the guys are off at cottages and golf courses, playing Fastball, Softball, Lob ball, Slow-pitch, T-ball or any other bastardized beer league version of baseball you can name. Maybe they're
spending time with friends and family, taking vacations or just trying to soak up a bit of sun. It seems that their priorities are on anything but poker. To me, this is just wrong.

So what is a guy like me to do? The nearest casino with legalized poker is a 2 hour drive away, and I don’t think my wife would approve of me spending weekends playing poker. Shockingly my 2 kids don’t place poker very high on their list of priorities either, at least not yet anyways. Hence my annual pilgrimage to the magical world of on-line poker.

To enter the world of online poker is like walking down the strip in Las Vegas. It’s got all the glitz and glamour you’ve come to expect at any Vegas casino with the convenience of being able to play in your underwear. I’ve never been a big fan of playing on-line. I much prefer the personal interactions, subtle nuances and other intangibles offered at a live game. Being able to watch how an opponent counts out his chips or how they respond to being re-raised is lost with on-line play.

That being said, on-line poker is a lot more than just a guessing game. There’s a lot of information that can be used to your advantage, but you have to make certain assumptions combined with observation to evaluate the skill level of your opponents. Every major on-line poker site offers the ability to write notes about the other players at your table. If you’re like me and have a ‘Swiss Cheese’ memory, then you will find this service to be invaluable. Use it every chance you get to make small comments and reminders about players tendencies.

Did they get caught in a bluff? Did they try to over-bet the nuts? Did they call a sizeable bet pre-flop with a questionable hand? Poker is a game of information, the more you have, the better your chances are of success. Next time you’re at a table with a player you have notes on, be sure to review them, and keep them updated. Also, keep in mind the situation, as every hand is different. Maybe they called a big raise with a mediocre hand, but if they were the dominant chip leader at the table, and there were four players in the pot, it might be worth it to call with a weak hand.

Also be aware of players who always take a long time to make any decision. This could mean several thing, not the least of which being that they’re annoyingly slow, but it could also mean they are playing in at least one other game at the same time. One of the advantages of playing on-line is the ability to play multiple tables at the same time. I’ve watched top-rated players play 3 or 4 games at the same time on-line, each for up to $100,000. These players are more likely to play a very basic, conventional style game. As they are constantly switching from one table to another, often playing more than one style of poker such as Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Stud, Horse and more, it’s harder to bluff or read a bluff because they don’t have a feel for the table. Of course, there’s always exceptions.

Another key to successful on-line playing is choosing the level that’s right for you. Surprisingly, a lot of players play at levels beneath what they can afford. This often decreases the quality of play in cash games, as a masterful bluff might be called just because your opponent can afford to lose the money. As a tournament Hold’em player, I find that playing anything below the $10 entry fee is just asking for trouble.

Poker Tells

2008-05-27T08:17:00.013-04:00

As long as poker has been played, players have been studying their opponents trying to figure out their “tells”. You may observe that when your opponent bluffs, they tend to whistle the theme song to the Dukes of Hazard. Sadly, this type of player rarely exists, and picking up a tell is much more difficult, and requires patience and keen observation.

What is a tell? In poker terms, a tell is an an unconscious action made by one player that can give another player some insight into the quality of their hand. So how can you get information from your opponents? What should you be looking for the next time you decide to put your mortgage on the line to call a big bet? In this case, you should be looking for an exit, because you likely have a gambling addiction. For everyone else, here’s a good starting point for reading your opponents, specifically for No Limit Texas hold’em.

To start with, poker is a game of deception. This means that if someone is playing a hand like they don’t have very much, and seem reluctant to call a bet early in the hand, they likely have a very strong hand. Conversely, if they are acting like their hand is very powerful, often slamming the chips into the pot when they bet as if to say “I dare you to call”, there’s a good chance it’s a bluff. Strength means weakness/weakness means strength.

Body language can also play a strong role in acquiring more information about your opponent. Players who like to bluff will often assume confrontational physical gestures such as crossing their arms, or aggressively leaning on the table staring at their opponent. The idea behind these unconscious actions is to portray strength. Police officers often position themselves to appear intimidating, therefore reducing the chance of actual conflict. The bluffer is doing the same thing.

More information can be gathered by watching how your opponent reacts in various situation, especially in relation to their hole cards and poker chips. For example, watch your opponents when they first look at their hole cards. Did they take longer than normal to look? Did they take a second look? Often this is a sign of a very strong hand. A hand so good, they wanted to make extra sure of what they saw. Once they finished looking at their cards, where did they look next? A player that immediately looks at their chips is often trying to size up exactly how much to bet, again, another sign of strength, but not necessarily a sign of a good hand.

Another common tell occurs after the flop. 3 spades have just shown up, and your opponent is thinking “Hmm, I know I have A-J, I think one of them was a spade” and they peek at their hole cards to see which one was a spade. If they’d had 2 spades, they would have remembered so they probably wouldn’t need to look. Now the turn card brings another spade, they peek at their hole cards again, and bet big. They’ve probably hit their flush, so unless you have a flush that might have them beat, you should probably fold.

They could also realize that this is a good time to try and steal the pot, because they know that if you don’t have a spade, you’re probably not going to call their bet. Poker is as much about playing your position and your opponents as it is about playing your cards.

Finally, you’ll eventually have to figure out what type of player you’re dealing with? Do they play a lot of different hands, or are they very conservative, sticking to strong starting hands. Do they like to bluff, or are they prone to fishing, meaning they will pay a high price to see the next card, hoping to catch an unlikely card to make a monster hand?

The more information you know about a player, the better your chances are of success. Poker is a game of skill and luck, but despite how much you know about a player, no matter how sure you are about how you’ve read them during the course of a hand, there’s always the chance you’re wrong, and even when you’re right, it can turn out wrong. That’s why I love this game.

Here are a few books with more information on the subject of poker tells.

The Slumpbuster

2008-05-26T08:55:00.018-04:00

Hole Card Nicknames

2008-05-21T12:36:00.006-04:00

Here's a list of some of the more common nicknames for starting Hold'em hands.

Pocket Pair

AA - Bullets, American Airlines, Pocket Rockets
KK - Cowboys, King Kong
QQ - Ladies, Sigfried & Roy
JJ - Fish Hooks, Princes
TT - Binary
99 - Gretzky, the German Virgin
88 - Snowmen
77 - Hockey Sticks, Saturn
66 - Route 66
55 - Speed Limit, Presto
44 - Sailboats, Colt 44
33 - Crabs
22 - Ducks

Other Big Hands

AK - Big Slick, Anna Kournakova (Looks good but never wins)
AQ - Big Chick, Little Slick
AJ - Black Jack, Ajax
KQ - Royal Couple
KJ - Kojak

Other Notables

K9 - Canine
Q7- Computer Hand
Q3 - San Fransisco Busboy
J5 - Motown
T4 - Roger That
T2 - Texas Dolly
95 - Dolly Parton
69 - Big Lick
5T - Five and Dime
57 - Heinz
45 - Jesse James
31 - Baskins Robbins

What is the Double Nut Flush Draw?

2008-05-21T10:03:00.015-04:00

In poker, especially No-Limit Texas Hold'em, many starting hands have nicknames. Some are funny, some are incredibly lame, some even have more than one nickname. Others may offer some insight into the perceived quality of the hand, and even the mental state of the person coming up with the nickname. Such is the case here.

I (to the best of my knowledge) came up with the nickname of The Double Nut Flush Draw for pocket Aces. I just blurted it out during a tournament I was playing in, when I called an all-in with Aces vs my opponents Kings pre-flop. In this case, I'm better than a 4 to 1 favorite to win the hand, but as I have a history of taking bad beats, it felt more like a coin flip as my opponent grinned, as if he knew he was going to suck out here.

Sure enough, a King mockingly appeared on the flop, and I let out a now signature sigh, accepting the fates the poker gods had dealt me. But wait.... the turn card brought a 3rd diamond on board, and guess what? I had the Ace of diamonds in my hand. The beautiful river card was a 4th diamond (and not one that paired the board to give my opponent a full-house, been there, done that), and my flush won the pot, much to my delight.

My opponent, now standing up to walk away from the table, was visibly upset, and said to me "Wow, you're one lucky S.O.B.", and shook his head in disbelief. I quickly retorted "Hey, you never had a chance, I had the Double Nut Flush Draw". I resisted the urge to remind him I was more than a 4 to 1 favorite when we got all our money in the middle, content to rake in his chips, and let him think about his "bad beat" for a while.