WSOP Main Event down to 27 players

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Internet

This year's main event is down to 27 players. Many big name players were able to go deep in the tournament this year but were unable to make the final 3 tables. For a short period of time the producers at ESPN were drooling over the possibility of having both Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth at the final table. Neither of these guys were able to survive to move onto day 7.

The most popular player left in the main event at this point has to be Brandon Cantu. Brandon is well known for being an aggressive player and he's my pick to win the tournament. He's also rather personable, so it will be interesting to watch the coverage on ESPN this year. Also among the final 27 is Phi Nguyen, another well known player.

Aside from a few people other people who have mediocre reputations in the poker world, the rest of this year's final 27 is unknown to the public. It's going to be an unprecedented year for TV coverage. It's possible that this will be the only year that ESPN delays the final table for such a long period of time. However, there have been minimal complaints so far. The main reason for this is that not many people will actually be directly affected by the new format. I also think it is becoming more apparent to the players that if you are able to make the final table, you are going to have a much greater opportunity than players have had in the past. The issue of delaying the table is merely one of convenience.

The TV coverage at this year's main event is already shaping up to be entertaining. Phil Hellmuth showed up on day 1 dressed as a military general, accompanied by an army of Ultimate Bet girls. Some of you might have seen the most recent UB commercial featuring Hellmuth dressed up with the UB army. If you haven't, consider yourself fortunate. If you are interested in watching more of Phil's table antics, you won't be disappointed this year. Phil was forced to sit out of the tournament after being given a penalty for berating another player.

Some of you might be aware that for a long time Phil Laak has been dating Hollywood actress Jennifer Tilly. This year, Phil enlisted the help of a Hollywood make-up artist to make him look like an old man. Phil was able to make it through most of day 1 without anyone knowing who he was, including the tournament directors. In an interview with the guys at PokerRoad.com, he said that he even went around talking to people he knew and nobody was able to figure out who he was.

For those of you who can't wait to watch this year's World Series, coverage will begin July 22nd on ESPN. The main event final table will not be be played until November and then it will air shortly after on television. Stay tuned for updates and analysis as the tournament field gets narrowed down to the final 9 players.

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Internet Poker | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2008 Internet

Let's start with the bad; I was watching Poker After Dark on NBC last night and I saw a commercial for Duplicate Poker. I went to check this out a few months ago after a friend told me about it. Here is how the site works...each table is dealt identical cards; the cards that each player receives and the cards on the board are the same for each table. It looks like money is paid out according to how you perform relative to the other players in your seat. The tag line is that this is supposed to take the luck out of poker.

I really didn't take the time to read much deeper than that. Right away it's obvious that this type of poker is prone to collusion. If you have a friend anywhere in the tournament, they will be able to tell you what at least 1 other player at the table has. I can think of numerous ways to collude in a format like this. Although it's an interesting idea, I'm gonna suggest that nobody wastes their time with this one.

Now it's time to discuss the Ugly. This is sort of a no-brainer in the poker industry. The ownership at Ultimate Bet is becoming notorious for internal scandals that are still being uncovered. It is alleged with sufficient evidence that members of Ultimate Bet's upper level management have participated in efforts to cheat against their players. This is problem that is unique to UB and Absolute Poker, which is under the same ownership. All of the other major internet poker rooms go through great efforts to ensure things like this cannot happen.

Now on a positive note, I've seen some great steps taken in the recent year or so with regards to software and security. The two largest poker rooms on the internet; Pokerstars and Fulltilt poker have emerged as the leading Mac software clients for online poker. Poker stars' Mac client is nearing the end of it's Beta phase, but it is running well and helping to bring in fresh money for the players.

Fulltilt has had their Mac client running for a few years now. Their lobby interface is a little bit easier to read than the one at Pokerstars. There is also a forum that the software developers appear to actually read where you can make suggestions about the software and tournament structures. A lot of the unique software ideas at Fulltilt have come from this forum.

As an American player, I'm not able to play on the ongame network or any of the other sites that I learned to play on several years ago. I play exclusively on these two poker rooms and I suggest that anyone who hasn't set up an account there go and check out these sites. You can navigate there through the links at the top-left of this page.

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Protecting Your Chip Position

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Internet

In a poker tournament, the size of your chip stack can play a huge role in determining the outcome of future hands. For a skilled player, having a large chip stack can allow them to play a style that is more likely to yield good results.

If a player is able to continuously exercise an advantage against their opponents, it would be foolish to jeopardize their ability to do so. In a tournament where you have a significant chip advantage over most of your opponents, you should be weary of the other players with large stacks. It would be wise to avoid playing large pots against these players without having a dominant hand.

The extent to which you must be aware of the other players with large chip stacks is often determined by your position at the table. If there is a player sitting directly behind you with a lot of chips, this will be to their advantage. This is especially true if that player is very aggressive.

A common mistake that new players make when they obtain the chip lead is playing too tight. These players believe that it would be foolish to risk their chips without a great hand. They are usually able to coast pretty deep in the tournament, and they'll sometimes make a descent profit. However, these players are making a big mistake by playing in this fashion. They don't understand that there is a huge difference between risking your chips and risking your chip position.

As a player with a dominant chip stack, you should be willing to apply some pressure and use your chip stack to your advantage. What is important is that you retain your ability to play like this. This means you can throw chips around as you deem necessary, but you should avoid playing big pots.

Here is a common example where I see a lot of players make mistakes. They will be in a situation where they are facing a large raise, and they believe that they are likely to be in a coin-flip situation. In this scenario, they happen to be against the only other person at the table who can dent their chip stack. Folding the best hand to a raise here would only be a small mistake in a tournament. However, taking a dominated hand against the other chip leader would be a much larger and more costly mistake. This is especially true when you feel that you are able to outplay most of the other players at the table.

To put it simply, there are better ways of using your chips here than to risk your whole tournament life on a coin-flip. With a dominant chip stack, a good player will have plenty of opportunities to outplay their opponents and use their chip stack to their advantage. Even if a player is getting the correct pot-odds to make a call, it can often be the correct decision for them to fold their hand depending on the size of the other player's chip stack and their position at the table.

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Vomitous Home Game Poker Antics

Date: Fri, Jul 11, 2008 Internet

Here is an entertaining hand from my home game. It was a friendly buy-in, but that's not to say that there was no blood on the table. As the cards were being dealt, I realized I had left my phone outside in my car. Since I had a second before the action would be on me, I ran outside to grab it before I got my cards. As I was outside someone yelled out, "It's raised to 150, you want in?"

Although I hadn't seen my cards yet, I was in a mood to give some action so I told them to throw my chips in for me. They shouted out that the flop had come down; 10-9-7 with 2 clubs, and the action was on me. I thought this sounded like a pretty good flop, the kind I would be likely to have a piece of. So...I thought it would be worth making a feeler bet to see what everyone had. Not to my surprise, the whole table called me. Perhaps this was because I hadn't even been inside the house since the cards were dealt, let alone seen what my two cards were.

When they told me that the board paired with another 7, I thought that I had better check to make sure that I was not hopelessly bluffing into someone with the nuts. The player directly to the left of my seat made a pot-sized bet and was called by 2 other players. I thought that this might be a good time to come inside and look at my cards. After looking, I quickly threw in the chips to call the bet and used a quote from my favorite Australian Poker player; Tony G "What do you think this is?"

I checked the river and once again there was a bet and 2 callers. I wasn't sure what to think of the table at this point. Likewise, they had no idea what to think of me. After all, I had put a good portion of my stack into the pot without even looking at my hole cards.

Of all the things that the table thought might happen, they probably didn't think I would check raise them for the rest of my chips on the river. After the first two players folded, the last guy was sitting and wondering what in the world just happened. Personally, I was impressed that the first 2 guys folded. I thought I had made it pretty clear that I was out of control with no brakes. Unfortunately for the last guy, he was smart enough to realize this... for some unknown reason I had just decided to go crazy in this hand.

What he didn't know was that I had also flopped top set and made a full house on the turn. While I didn't actually suck-out on anyone, that's a pretty bad beat if you ask me. If I ever lose to someone who was playing their cards from outside the house without even looking, I'll probably have some choice words to describe their playing style. But I must admit that it felt pretty good to put all those chips in blind and then look down to see a full house.

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Why call when you can raise?

Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 Internet

This is a fairly easy concept to understand yet so often ignored by beginning players and even some seasoned players that I've played against. It applies to tournaments and cash games alike. It's either fold or raise, never call - that's the mantra that the top poker players all abide by.

Very often I see a lot of limp-call plays, while this could be a viable strategy in certain situations, limp-calling is almost a sure way to gradually lose your money at a poker table.

Limp-calling a preflop raise is a weak play, especially if you're out of position to the aggressor. This will get you into a lot of trouble and here are a few reasons why:

1) It costs a player more money/chips on the ensuing streets to continue in the hand. So by limp calling you might hit a hand where it's hard to escape from thus costing you a lot of money. For example we're playing 1/2 NL and you hold A/10 and you limp from MP, you get a raise of $8 from LP and you call. The flop comes out 10xx. You put in a continuation bet of $10 and get raised $15. Now you're in a tight situation. You decide to call as you've invested a lot of money in this hand already. The turn is a blank. You want to bet out again but don't want to be re-raised so you just check. The bandit fires out $25. You reluctantly fold. Or worse case scenario you call all the way to the river and see that the bandit had had you beat all the way through.

Putting this in perspective, you could've raised preflop to $6 and then release your hand if you've been re-popped thus saving you a lot of aggravation and money.

2) You're allowing other players to see flops cheaply. You're in EP with a decent spec hand like 5/6 spades for example. You decide to limp in and two players call and the SB and BB come along for the ride. This is a bad spot. You're in a multiway pot and in middle position with a marginal hand. If you had raise pre-flop most likely you'd be facing a smaller field which gives your fold equity a better chance to come through.

3) You lose fold equity. If you're the first one to raise a pot then it's all eyes on you. Players will be aware of this and you can control the pot especially if you're in position. On the flip side, players will give you credit for a big hand if you're raising in EP and this gives you the advantage of controlling the pot from OOP. Of course there are times when you can limp-call a raise depending on the situation (trapping for example) but more often than not it's the exception rather than the rule. Additionally, by being the aggressor it increases your chances of bluffing out an opponent.

4) You disguise your hand. Good aggressive poker can help offset a cold run of cards. If you're raising with spec hands and people are folding to you, you increase your chances of dragging a huge pot when you finally get a monster. Sooner or later, a player is going to play back at you and most likely it will be a hand that's not as strong because you've been raising do damn much. Or you can be aggressive with a marginal hand and hit the flop hard, which can bust a big PP. The reason why you're playing spec hands is to try and snag a huge pot if the flop hits just right. By raising you're already building the pot for your spec hand, plus it gives you extra ways to win the pot (bluffing for example). You can't do this by limping in or limp calling.

5) You're bleeding chips. By constantly limping or limp calling you're slowly bleeding away your chips. You can't rely on hitting hands to win pots, you have to utilize raising to win some pots as well.

6) Getting outplayed on ensuing streets. Very good players know how to play the flop, turn and the river. They're experts at reading your hand, knowing when to push and knowing when to value bet. If you're a relatively new player and have trouble outplaying players post flop, on the turn or at the river, then being aggressive PF is a way to offset your inexperience playing post flop, turn and river. Good tight players will fold to a good PF flop bet but if you're limping or limp-calling then you're giving the more experienced, more talented player the advantage and they will take advantage of this.

These are just a few reasons why playing passively pre-flop can get you into trouble. I'm sure there are other reasons why limping or limp calling is such a poor strategy.

Of course there are situations that you can limp or limp call and mixing up your play is essential but the frequency that you're limping or limp calling should be less than your raising frequency. I would say a 70-30 mix is a good starting point.

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Jeet Kune Poker

Date: Wed, Jul 9, 2008 Internet

To be a great poker player, you have to learn how to play against many different types of opponents. A player who tailors his game towards destroying weak opponents will have a hard time being successful if he is at a table full of players good players. Bruce Lee used to say that he didn't believe in styles. "Water can flow or it can crash, be water my friend."

It is important to mold your game so that it is suitable for the table you are sitting at. I often hear players like Phil Ivey who are about to begin a big tournament say that they don't have any sort of plan on how to attack their table. It is best to take a few minutes to observe your table and gauge your opponents when you first sit down. This will allow you to avoid costly mistakes and capitalize on some of your opponent's weaknesses.

There are some opponents who are willing to call off all of their chips with some very weak hands. It would be foolish to lose all of your chips trying to bluff someone like this just because you didn't realize what type of player you were up against.

For those of you who aren't familiar, Jeet Kune Do is the martial art started by Bruce Lee. This translates to "The way of the intercepting fist". In other words, this means observing your opponent and coming up with an attack/defense that is tailored towards your opponent at that particular moment in time. Just as in no-limit poker, the proper reaction could be any one of a near infinite combinations of aggressiveness and passiveness.

Jeet Kune Do was Bruce Lee's interpretation of a combination of several martial arts. Some of these martial arts were devious, some were considered passive and some of them were deadly. Bruce believed that it was necessary to train in all of these arts. Any poker player who wants to be successful should have the same sort of mind-set regarding poker.

Since the beginning of the internet poker era, experimenting with different playing styles has become very easy. As I was learning to play, I would decide that in some tournaments I would try to raise nearly every hand. On other occasions I would try to never raise at all. This was crucial in helping me realize how certain opponents would react to me, and what type of adjustments I would have to make as a consequence of that.

Several years and X dollars later, I began to be able to understand my opponents. I began to learn that poker was not so much a game of stealing and running over opponents, but more a game of dealing with people. In some cases you may have to take the aggressive route, but in other scenarios playing passively might yield better results.

Consider a scenario where you are trying to bluff an opponent. Perhaps he is expecting this because of your aggressive playing style. If you try and bluff him immediately, he is likely to call you because he will suspect you might be attempting to bluff him. However, if you display some passiveness early in the hand, when you try to bluff on the later streets, it is more likely to appear as though you have actually improved your hand. Sometimes limping in before the flop will have this kind of effect on your opponents. Your opponents will likely use the reasoning; "If he was trying to bluff, wouldn't he have started the hand by raising?" By limping in, it will sometimes appear as though you are just trying to see more cards and improve your hand.

For more about this topic, check out my blog entry titled Switching Gears

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Math vs. Instinct

Date: Sun, Jul 6, 2008 Internet

I had a conversation recently with a poker playing buddy of mine. He's not what you would call a math guy. He goes by instinct and "gut feeling" and never even thinks about the math aspect of poker.

I've tried to explain the virtues of knowing the math when playing poker and he just doesn't get it. More precisely he thinks the math part is over rated.

He's a successful player and he's gotten very far relying on gut instinct to get by. He relies on the feel of the game and his gut feeling on what he thinks the other players have. He understands that math plays an important role in the game but he thinks that reading your opponents is more important than determining if the odds are right to make calls etc.

In a way I agree with him. I think that human instinct is a powerful weapon and tool in a poker game. Me being a more logical type of player tends to overlook the instinctual aspect of the game at times. My friend on the other hand often disregards the proper odds and calls with draws that mathematically doesn't make sense. He just feels it.

I attempt to explain to him about the one long poker game theory and that if he continues to make bad calls when it's not mathematically correct, he'll eventually lose more than he wins. I break it down to him by the numbers but he still refuses to budge and he'll always rely on his instinct to guide him.

I tell him that the math aspect of the game is concrete, it's something that you can chew on and rely on in the long run. Instinct is supernatural, it's something that can't be qauntified and thus hard to defend or advocate.

He tells me that it's gotten him this far and he'll continue to rely on his instinct moving forward.

In the end, I just decide to drop it and tell him that whatever he's doing it's working and that If I were him, Iwouldn't change a thing.

Even if the odds are against him.

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Pressing a Small Edge

Date: Fri, Jul 4, 2008 Internet

There are plenty of situations in no-limit hold'em where neither player's hand will be a large favorite over the other's. Most of the time a player will not be worse than a 3 to 2 underdog before the flop.

For example, consider a player who is holding A-K while his opponent has a 9-9. If the cards are turned face up before the flop, this is usually a coin-flip situation. It would be fine for either player to put the rest of their chips in because they would be getting the proper pot odds to do so in most cases. However, over the long run the player who is betting the rest of their chips will have a big edge over the player who has to call the bet for the rest of his chips.

The reason for this is that the player who is forced to make the call will occasionally fold their hand. When this happens, the betting player will win the pot uncontested which is always the preferred method in these scenarios. Although I don't believe it is proper, this is usually referred to as fold equity.

There is nothing wrong with getting called in a situation like this if you are the bettor. Although sometimes when you are deep in a tournament you would much rather not have to gamble, you will do just fine over the long run betting like this in coin-flip situations. This is one of the basic principles that can give an aggressive player an edge over their opponents at the poker table.

When your opponents become aware that you are playing aggressively when you have a small edge, you can then use this information to capitalize on your big hands. Your opponents will always be forced to consider the probability that you are over-representing your hand strength and this can cause them to make mistakes.

For example, it is a pretty common scenario for one opponent to have a pair and the other player will have a flush draw and 2 over-cards. If your opponent knows that you will raise every time you have a strong draw, he will find it difficult to fold against you when the board has any likely draw possibilities. When this is the case, some opponents are willing to call huge bets with bottom pair and sometimes no pair at all. In my opinion, the possibility that your opponent may be drawing is used far too often as the primary reason for calling a large bet.

Because of this, when you can make it appear as though you may be drawing, you can often get your opponent to call large bets with mediocre hands. This will increase your expected profits drastically. You will usually be able to break a player in 1 large hand if you can convince them that you are trying to draw to a flush or straight.

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Switching Gears

Date: Fri, Jul 4, 2008 Internet

Adjusting the level of aggressiveness in your poker game is an essential part of becoming a successful poker player. It is important to know which players you can gain an edge against by playing aggressively and which player's you need to be patient and play passively against. In it's simplest form, switching gears just means changing from being passive to aggressive on occasion. For some of the great poker players, switching gears becomes an art form, especially in no-limit hold'em.

If a player was to maintain the same style of play throughout a tournament, his opponents would eventually learn how to exploit that player's weaknesses. There would be very few opportunities for this type of player to induce mistakes from their opponents.

Here is an example of a common scenario where choosing the correct level of aggressiveness has allowed me to play optimally against certain opponents.

This begins with me raising a few pots in a row. On some occasions I may have good cards, on others I may be bluffing. At this point I have raised perhaps 6 of the last 8 hands. Throughout these hands, I become aware that my ability to bluff is quickly diminishing. Eventually it will reach a point where I know that I will need to have a hand because I will not likely be able to bluff anyone successfully. This is usually helped by turning over 1 large bluff after raising continuously. Doing this will confirm to everyone that I have indeed been running them over with garbage cards.

In this scenario, if I am then able to get some good cards, it is important to continue to play aggressively. I will usually even go into a hyper-aggressive gear at this point. This is a spot where my opponents will begin to make large mistakes because of their perception of me. When a player decides that he is not going to allow me to raise any more, and I am then able to pick up a better hand than him, he is sure to lose a lot of money.

It's a great feeling to look down and see pocket aces after you just showed the table a few big bluffs.

I used to tell a friend of mine that no matter how often I am bluffing, if I ever raise 4 pots in a row, I will always have a monster hand when I raise the 4th time. This is because a player can sometimes get away with bluffing 2-3 hands in a row, but the 4th hand tends to be the point at which opponents will lose respect for their raises. Anytime that you raise several hands in a row, it is important to adjust your aggressiveness according to your hand strength in the subsequent hands.

To continue with the original scenario...now that you have successfully bulldozed through a few of your opponents with some aggressive play, the other players will likely begin to try and set traps for you. If you are able to recognize these spots and switch gears, you can take full advantage of some of the mistakes that your opponents will begin to make by compensating for you.

For example, if you hold a drawing hand and your opponent plans to check-raise you on the flop, you can elect to take a free card to try and draw out. When this happens, you will have forced your opponent to play the hand in a way that is far from optimal.

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The Rockets Red Glare...or how I won a poker tournament in my poker league.

Date: Fri, Jul 4, 2008 Internet

I played 2 SNGs yesterday and it was very satisfying to say the least.

Both were $30 buy-ins. $270 in the prize pool.

1st - $150
2nd - $80
3rd - $40

This isn't exactly the WSOP but hey it's still poker and who doesn't like poker? It's the new American pastime.

But before I get to the action, I want to give the readers some background information.

I joined a poker league about a year ago. There's about 30 regular players in this league. The league is broken up into quarters. Each player donates $1 into a quarterly prize pool for every sanctioned league game. The top 10 ranked players in that quarter vie for the quarterly prize. You need to play at least 1 league tournament a week to qualify. The pool isusually between $600-$1,000.

Playersearn points depending on where they finish in the tournaments. The points rewarded are adjusted depending on the amount of players playing in thetournament and the amount of the buy-in (it's based around the PokerStars formula). Some players play up 30+ games a quarter, others only the minimum 16, so we have a weighted average formula that comes into effect. It's not the most perfect way to rank poker excellence but it works for us.

And it's not only Texas hold em we play, occasionally we'll play Omaha hi and hi/lo, Razz, or HORSE.

I bubbled the last quarter and placed 12th overall in the standings. I had a horrible quarter as I only cashed in a handful of games and they were all 3rd or 4th place finishes. Hardly anything to write home about (but certainly something to blog about). This quarter I vowed to make it to the quarterly finals.

The players in the league vary in skill level. Some are pretty good players, others not so much. The majority of players are pretty decent though so the competition can become intense at times.

The 9 players at this particular game are two newer guys that I'm not that familiar with, 3 super aggressive players and 2conservative playersand 1 player who is very unpredictable. Then there's me. I would classify myself as unpredictable also. Sometimes I play super aggressive and loose and other times I'm a rock. It really depends on the situation and the texture of the game.

7k in chips and the blinds start at 25-50. 15 minute blinds. 3 players get paid. $270 up for grabs.

I start off slow and I'm down about 700 by the time the 3rd level kicks in. The blinds are now 100-200. Now the pots start to get interesting. Players who were loose in the beginning are now feeling sorry that they played so many pots early on. You raise the standard 3x the BB and it means something now. The price of playing poker has now gone up where you actually start to feel the sting of losing chips. So far the two most aggressive players are slowly amassing chips. I'm hovering around 6k in chips and I'm picking my spots. I'm stealingblindsand winning enough small pots just enough to stay ahead of the blinds. Jimmy is the big stack. He got there bygoing all in on a open ender against two pair, he backdoored a flush (where have we seen this before?). He's pounding people and he's hitting. A deadly combination. He's in full control of the table at this point.Ray, one of the new players,gets taken out when his A/K falls to Chris Ferguson's 77 (honest to God that's his real name...pretty funny isn't it?). We're down to 7.

Blinds are now 150-300. The players that were gambling too much early on are now suffering the consequences. They're short stacked and desperate to double up. I'm still playing steady and staying at about 6k when I pick up JJ in the BB. There's an early limper (gotta love those limpers, dead money all the way) and Jimmy raises to 1,200. I go all in. He folds. I pick up 1,650 in chips. A few hands later I pick up 2 black 10s UTG. I limp hoping for a raise. I get one caller and the BB comes along for the ride. The flop is 8,9,3. I check. Limper raises 1,000, BB folds and I call. The turn is a blank. I check again. The limper bets out 2k. I go all-in. He goes into the tank and finally makes the call. I have him covered. He shows A/9, not good enough and I take down anice pot.

Now I have some momentum. I have over 13k in chips and there are 5 players left. Jimmy's been running cold and while he's been trying to stay aggressivebut I feelhe's trying too hard to take out the remaining shorties, which causes him to play some very marginal hands that he wound up losing. Jimmy had just about half the chips in play at one point but the shorties have chipped away his huge stack and now he's down to around 22k. Tony is second in chips with around 16k, I'm third. Oleg is fourth with about 9k and Chris is the extreme shorty by this time with about 3k in chips. Chris gets taken out soon after when he goes all-in with J/10 suited against my K/9 suited.

4 players left. Bubble time.

We go back and forth for a level and the blinds are now 500-1,000. The chip leader is now Tony, a super tight player with 30k+. Jimmy has fallen on hard times and he's at 10k. I got hit hard when my straight lost to Oleg's rivered flush. I double him up and Oleg is at 16k and I'm back down to where I started -7k. This is where it gets interesting. I'm on the bubble but I have enough chips to so some damage as long as I can manage to dodge lady luck. There are only 4 of us and the blinds will eat me up. I get the feeling that Jimmy and Oleg are nursing their stacks as they want to cash, so this is my cue to start being aggressive. I have nothing to lose as I'm in 4th place so I'm pushing with any two suited cards as long as one of them is a face card.

I pick up 4k in chips when Jimmy raises to 3k on the button, the SB folds and I push with A/9 suited. He folds.

Jimmy squanders the rest of his chips when his K/Q spades runs up against Tony's KK. Jimmy curses at his luck. Here he was the chip leader at one point with over 1/2 the chips in play but somehow he lost it all. Poker is a cruel game sometimes. Down to 3 and we're in the money. Tony has about 38k in chips I have 11k and Oleg has 14k.

Blinds are now 600-1,200. When the blinds hit 500-1,000 welowered the duration ofthe blind levels to 7 minutes each round.Ipick up the blinds here and there just to keepafloat hoping that the other two can take each other out. I strongly feel that I'm the favorite out of the 3 of us.I'm the most aggressive out of the 3 of us and I'm not afraid to bet when Ismell weakness, even with air.I just need to get heads up with one of them and Ican win this thing. I get my wish when Tony finally chokes out Oleg.

This was a well played hand. Tony was the SB and Oleg the BB. I fold and Tony completes. Oleg checks.

The flop:

3, 7, 9. They both check.

The turn:

6

Tony checks, Oleg bets out 3k, Tony calls.

The river:

10

Tony checks. Oleg bets out 3k. Tony goes all-in. Oleginsta-calls.

Oleg showsQ/8 for the straight butis crushed when Tony shows the nuts. J/8.

I found this hand interesting because I felt that Tony made a real nice bet at the end there. I later asked him if he put Oleg on an 8 (he said he did or at least two pair) and if he did then pushing all-in was a great move even if he didn't have the J/8. It would've been a great move even if they chopped. This move put enormous pressure on Oleg to make the right decision and he had the straight which made this call even more difficult. Oleg made the mistake of re-raising Tony because he was only going to be called or raised by a better hand if he raised, plus he gains nothing if they both have the 8.In retrospect calling would've been the best option in this spot.

It's now heads-up.

Tony has roughly 7x my stack and theblinds are at 750-1,500.

I offer a chop. Tony declines. I needleTony about how we both know I'm the superior player and he knows that it's in his best interest to chop. Besides people are waiting for the next game to start already. I'm trying to get under his skin, in a good natured way. I didn't expect him to chop but I fully expected him to make adeal.I tell him I'll take an extra $20 bucks for me to disappear. He gets $130 and I get $100. Sounds like a fair deal right? Especially with gas prices and inflation these days, it's nice to pick up an extra $20I say.

Tony politely declines. He's playing for points. He wants to win. Fair enough.Shuffle up and deal.

Tony has55k in chips and I have 8k.

I'm the BB and Tony raises to4k. I see K/10 andI push. He calls with K/8 suited. My 10 kicker plays and I quickly double up.

We go back and forth for a few handswhen I wake up with a monster in the SB. TWO RED ACES. How appropriate POCKET ROCKETS for the 4th of July!. I smooth call. Tony checks.

The flop comes outQ, 4, 7.rainbow. Tony bets out 6k. I go all-in. Tonycalls instantly. He has Q/8. I double up again.

I'm the chip leader. I have 38k in chips and Tony is at 25k in chips.Tony, nowchanges his mind and offers to chop.It's my turn to decline. I don't forget toremind him that I offered this deal a little while back. He snickers and we continue to play.

Blinds are now 1k-2k. I maintainmyedge in chips when Tony raises my BB to5k.I look at my hole cards. 33 a pair of boobsI like to call them.

Any pair is pretty strong heads-upbut this why I call 33 a pair of boobs. Besides looking likea pair of boobs (ok maybe this is a stretch), 33 can be so easily dominated and it'sa toss up between two over cards basically, they can easily be counterfeitedand only a boob pushes with this hand unless he/she is short stacked.

I go into think mode. 5k isn't a huge bet. He coud be making a weak play at the pot. If he had a huge hand I think he would just flat call perhaps, given my aggressiveness heads up. If he had a small pair his tendency would be to raise bigger to get me off my hand or just limp in to see the flop cheaply. As a matter of fact I'd be a little more suspicious if Tony would've just completed the BB rather than raise. Sounds weird, but I know Tony's tendencies.

So I guess I'm the boob and I go all in.

I get the feeling that Tony is getting tired of being pushed around.He is seriously thinking about calling.Now I know I have the best hand.He finally calls with J/10 clubs. I'd prefer a fold truth be told, it's a loose call but a correct one once he sees my threes.

Classic race off for the top prize. Flop is A, 6, 8. No help.

Turn is another 6. Uh oh.Why must poker be so cruel.He gains 6 outs. An Ace, 8, 10 or Jack hits the boardand I'm theboob (see what I mean? lol).

The river is no help and I take down the tournament.Now that's some fireworks for you.There's nothing like coming back fromway behind to win a tournament.

I also finished in 2nd place in the second tourney which was a modified HORSE tournament (we replaced the stud hi round with triple draw lowball 2-7). So all in all a good showing for me in my league.

I apologize for this extra long postand in the future I will try and keep my posts more brief, but I really felt good about this tournament andwanted to sharewhat goes on in my poker league to everyone who happens to read this blog.

So have aHappy and safe 4th of July to everybody out there!

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Things I've learned about online poker

Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2008 Internet

There are clear distinctions between online poker and live poker.

Live poker you get the advantage of looking somebody in the eye. You get to see little tells that betray a person's hand. You get to see how they react to your raises. you get to see how other players react to the flop, turn and river. Combine this with a person's betting patterns and you paint a clear picture of a player's inclinations at the poker table.


Online, it's another story. There is no physical tells that you can see but there are patterns that you can take advantage of. The amount a player bets in certain situations is surely something that a observant player can use to their advantage. Humans being humans, they most likely fall into routines that are repeated over and over again. These are the little things an online player should look for.

Other than that there are other things I've learned playing poker online. These are personal things, or personal observations that I can use to grow as a player.

One observation is that bad beats occur. It's a myth that they occur more online, it just seems that way because there are more hands played online than live. I've gotten my Aces cracked in live games just as many times as online games. The key is how you deal with them. The way I see it is that the more they occur to me, the more I become immune to them. The more I become immune to them, the better player I become. It's that simple.

I'm not greedy. Well, let me re-phrase that, I'm not too greedy. More importantly I'm not too greedy so that I lose focus on why we play poker in the first place...to win money. I'm happy to win a pot no matter how big or small. I see too many players get greedy and limp in with a monster or check a monster only to have their monster get counterfeited because they got greedy. For example, you hit your set and you decide to bet out the minimum because you want to "maximize" your big hand. This is a mistake that can only lead to misery. Too many times have I seen a big hand become a losing one because the player wanted to sucker other players in.Winning a big or small pot is always a good thing. I try to remember that.

Dont' be afraid to value bet your good hands.If you think you're ahead, you should bet your hand. You'd be surprised at how many times you're going to get called with worse hands.

If you think you're beat then fold. Money saved is money earned.

It's better to raise or fold than to just call. This may seem like ABC poker but it's an effective rule of thumb, especially online.

If you have the goods then bet. I see too many players online minimum bet when they have a huge pocket pair. This is just plain silly. This is either because the player is greedy or scared. He's greeedy because he doesn't want to scare off players and he/she wants to win more than the blinds. What usually happens is that they wind up losing to a worse hand because they allowed them to get into the hand cheaply. He's scared because he doesn't want his big hand to get cracked and if they do then they don't want to lose a lot in the process. This is bad playing and if you're thinking like this then you need to seriously change hobbies because poker isn't going to work out for you.

Poker is one long game. Don't be so results oriented. Suckouts happen. That's a fact. It stinks but they happen. It's how you deal with it will determine if you're going to be a winning player or not. If you continue to make good decisions and get your money in when you've got the best of it, then in the long run you'll be on top more often than not.

This is just a short list of things I've learned playing online. I'll be the first to admit I'm not perfect. I still go on tilt and I still make mistakes but I try and learn from. More importantly I try to be more consistent with my sessions online and part of being more consistent is to remember the things I've learned while playing online.

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Sun Tzu and the Art of Poker

Date: Sun, Jun 29, 2008 Internet

Sun Tzu believed that there are certain traits that are essential to victory in any combat situation. These same traits can be used foster success in a poker tournament.

“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight”

When deciding which hands you will raise and fold with, a poker player should take many things into account besides the quality of their starting hands. The consequences of victory and defeat against various opponents should play a key role in a player’s decision-making process.

If an opponent is skilled and possesses a large chip stack, it may be wise to avoid that player in a tournament setting. It would be easier to play against opponents with whom you would not be risking all of your chips.

It is also important to avoid confrontations with opponents with whom you may not have an advantage against. For example, consider a situation where a certain player has been very unlucky on the previous hands. If that player starts to play poorly and make bad decisions as a result of this, it would be unwise to try and execute any sort of intricate bluff against them. It is unlikely that they will be willing to fold any quality hands regardless of your wit and cunning abilities.

Attempting to bluff against players who will refuse to be bluffed is a losing proposition. The ability to judge your opponents willingness to be bluffed is often overlooked as a necessary skill in internet poker.

“He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces”

This quote demonstrates the importance of evaluating your opponents carefully. If a player was to employ the same strategy against all of the different types of opponents, it is unlikely that they would be successful in the internet poker world. It is important to recognize which players represent a threat and which players are vulnerable to attacks.

The strength of your opponent is almost as important as the strength of each player’s hole cards. This is partially because of the implied odds when you are playing against a player with a lot of chips. When an opponent has a deep chip stack, there are adjustments that must be made when playing against that player. Although the implied odds can allow a player to weaken their starting and requirements, that player must also be more careful when they are in these situations.

Although this player might be able to win a lot of chips if they are able to improve their hand, they can also lose a lot of chips by making costly mistakes. Because of this, it is recommended that novice players avoid playing weak starting hands in these scenarios. In most cases, new players are not able to avoid making the large mistakes, which can cost them a lot of chips. As a player gains experience, they are able to play these situations more profitably by avoiding these big mistakes.

With regards to handling inferior opponents, the consequences of the potential mistakes are much smaller. The most common mistake that poker players will make against these opponents is to not play with enough aggression. This is especially the case in many tournament situations. When the blinds begin to represent a large portion of each player’s stack, it can be fairly easy to win pots before the flop regardless of the quality of your own starting hand. This means that an aggressive player will be able to easily increase their chip stack at the most crucial points of a tournament.

It is also not uncommon to see players make mistakes of the opposite nature. This happens when an opponent’s chip stack is so small, that is becomes unlikely that they will fold any mediocre starting hands. Thus, it is more likely that you will have to go to showdown if you try to bluff that player. Because of this, it is sometimes best to wait for a quality starting hand when you are against a desperate player.

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How folding can help your bankroll

Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008 Internet

It's strange when people think of good poker they usual think of the fantastic bluffs or the courageous calls they've made or seen on TV. We all know that Texas Holdem favors the aggressor in most situations and that's true in most cases but there's also a tatic that seems to be overlooked in poker.

Folding.

I've seen too many players go bust because they couldn't or wouldn't let go of their huge pocket pairs or their top pair top kicker hands.

I've also seen too many players call off small bets on the river with marginal hands even though they knew they were beat.

Besides nobody wants to fold, it's a sign of weakness, it means that you can get run over at the poker tables, it means that you're too passive, the list goes on and on why a lot of players think it's a weak play. And of course nobody wants to be bluffed out of a pot.

Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not a weak play if it saves you money.

If we are to believe that poker is one long game and your decisions over the course of tens of thousands of hands determines if you're a winning player or not then it becomes even more essential that folding is part of that equation.


For example, a friend of mine asked me how he could improve at the online cash games. He's a winning player but he wants to improve his win rate.

He's likes to play 25NL online. He was running a win rate at about 5x BB/100 hands. Basically he's winning $1.25 per 100 hands he plays.

He's a solid player and he's pretty aggressive for the most part. The only hole that I could see was that he wasn't folding his marginal hands enough or wasting too many bets on calling stations. We calculated how much money he was wasting by callingdown withmarginal hands orcalling on draws that were marginal etc.

The results were interesting. Over the course of 100 hands he basically wasted $5 making bad/marginal calls on hands that he lost or when he was chasing without proper odds. That may not be a significant amount but over the course of let's say 20,000 hands that adds up to $1,000 in lost profits.

Again, I'm not advocating folding every hand or even folding against a maniac whose range can be as wide as the Grand Canyon but I'm suggesting that playing smartly is also folding smartly. Aggressive poker is good poker but even the most aggressive players I know have learned how to fold, especially in tight spots where they have a pretty big hand. Learning or knowing when to fold in a tight spot can really save you significant amounts of money.

That'sone of thekeys to being a winning player. I know it's boring and it's not exciting but it's winning poker.

Money saved is money earned, and over the long run that can really add up. Do the math and you'll see what I mean.

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Main Event Final Table To Be Delayed 4 Months

Date: Fri, Jun 27, 2008 Internet

Good luck to everyone who will be playing at this year's main event at the World Series of Poker. For those of you who haven't heard yet, the final table of the $10,000 NL Hold'em event is going to be delayed by several months this year.

The main event will begin as it does every year. Only this year, the players will play down to the final table when the tournament will be stopped for a period of about 4 months. During this time, all of the final table participants will be followed around by cameras so that the viewing public has the opportunity to "Get to know" the players before they play at the final table. It sounds to me like they are going to try and turn this into more of a reality t.v show than a poker tournament.

It seems like the majority of poker players are against this decision. It's going to have a lot of unintended consequences on the way the final table is played. For starters, all of the players will have been able to watch the ESPN footage (with hole card cams) leading up to the final table, before it is actually played. Not to mention that some of these players may have an extra 10 million dollar contract on the line which would provide plenty of opportunities to work out deals behind closed doors.

You could come up with scores of reasons why this was a bad decision, but these are mostly all reasons that pertain to the players at the final table. As someone who isn't even going to be playing in the main event this year, my main interest is in the way that ESPN covers the event. We have seen in the past with champions like Chris Moneymaker, that coverage of this event can have a drastic effect on the poker world. Just as I mentioned above, it appears as though they are following a model that has been proven to increase ratings in other genres of television broadcasting.

I hate to see a tournament structure altered to improve television ratings, but in the long run I think this could be a good thing for poker. Sponsors will be getting a lot more exposure time, and hopefully the new layout will help to attract a new audience as well. In the end, this could result in a lot more money for players everywhere. Perhaps in 2009 we could have a main event that has more than 10K entrants.

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