Blond-haired, boyish, and astonishingly all-American looking, Erick Lindgren initially appears too wholesome to be mixed up in anything as risky as high-stakes gambling. After a few minutes of small talk, though, it becomes immediately clear that he bets six figures the way that most us bet ...
World Series of Poker: What's New for 2007 New Rules and Schedules Affect All Players By Bob Pajich Players who have arrived in Las Vegas early to play in many of the preliminary World Series of Poker events that already have taken place have ...continued
"The poker room at the Mirage in Vegas is the center of the poker universe. Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, the legends, consider it their office." - Mike McDermott, Rounders A mirage suggests the unattainable, a misleading ...continued
If you ever try to interfere with me or cross my path again, you do so at the peril of your life. - Bob Dylan, "Floater" In the damp spring of 1863 just outside Rome, Georgia, 450 Confederate cavalrymen under Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford ...continued
The emergence of poker in America hasn't affected any city more so than Las Vegas. Walking through the opulent poker rooms can feel a lot like walking into a church devoted to the religion of poker, with the sounds of chips replacing the organ. ...continued
If you don't like waiting till the World Series of Poker hits the airwaves, I hope you've been checking our CardPlayer.com expanded coverage from all of this summer's biggest tournaments. We redesigned our site to act as your poker hub for ...continued
Recently, I went to Monte Carlo to play in the European Poker Tour Championship. It was a $10,000 buy-in tournament with almost 700 players and a first prize of €1.8 million (more than $2 million). I was excited to be there, and pumped up to play ...continued
Recently, I've played in three separate televised events that allow you to show your opponent your cards if you are in a heads-up pot: High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Unfortunately, tournament ...continued
If you didn't watch the action at the final four tables of the World Series of Poker main event last year, you missed some great verbal sparring between Jeffrey Lisandro and Prahlad Friedman. Here's a brief synopsis of what happened: The pot ...continued
Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself. - Harry S. Truman Everybody knows that it takes a lot of ego to be a winning poker player. But not so many know that it also takes humility to go beyond winning to greatness. It's hard to be humble ...continued
Have you ever played against someone who seemingly never bluffs? Of course you have. In just about every low- or medium-limit game, there's at least one player who is capable of only a straightforward approach. He bets when he has something, folds ...continued
Sometimes you get two challenges in the same hand: Does the aggressive play of an opponent indicate a hand that beats yours, and if so, does he indeed hold it or is he trying to buy the pot? Recently, I played a hand that had both of these aspects. ...continued
As a poker coach, I've had a wide variety of players ask me for advice. Some are middle-limit players who are trying to take their games to the next level. Some are regulars on the tournament circuit who just want to bounce ideas around. Some are ...continued
This is the second straight "Play a Hand With …" column that I've written for Card Player. It's amazing, isn't it, how a single hand of poker can spawn a discussion that lasts a couple of orders of magnitude longer than ...continued
No-Limit Hold'em Poker Comes to the Mayfair During the early '80s, New Yorkers started to cash in the World Series of Poker, both in the main event and some of the other games. I first encountered Stu Ungar at the Mayfair playing rummy, but I ...continued
One of the toughest things about poker is that the variance that the luck factor brings to the game can really mess with your short-term results. I often receive questions like the following from readers of both this column and my blog: "Could ...continued
My friend James R. Blackburn passed away on May 4, 2007, after a long illness. "Blackey," as he was known to all, was closely linked to the game of pot-limit Omaha, as he loved to play the game and had a lot to do with the rapid growth of ...continued
Beginning players are afraid to make mistakes because they don't want to look like a beginner. Experienced players are afraid to make mistakes because they also don't want to look like a beginner. It isn't a big leap to say that most ...continued