In just over a year, David Benyamine has entered the lexicon of all of poker's highest-stakes players. And it is likely that, in return, Benyamine has entered a fair number of their wallets and extracted some serious cash. The man who sailed into Vegas with gamble in his blood, a desire to ...
Player of the Year Race Enters Home Stretch Mizrachi Continues Impressive Run By Michael Friedman As 2006 begins to wind down, the Card Player Player of the Year (POY) race continues to heat up, as three impressive stars have moved into a virtual ...continued
Few poker venues rival Bellagio in terms of reputation and popularity. Home turf of the famous "big game," site of the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic and the World Poker Tour Championship, among other major tournaments, Bellagio just might ...continued
Recently, we've been swamped with big tournament news and piles of news about recent online gaming legislation. First, on the tournament front: The World Series of Poker announced that the 38th-annual installment of the event will start on June 1, ...continued
I played for 21 hours straight in the last World Series of Poker event of 2006. We began the one-day event with more than 400 players. I had a fantastic chance to shock the poker world and win my 11th WSOP bracelet - which would have given me the ...continued
I recently played in a World Poker Tour event at Bellagio. In all of the Bellagio tournaments, players start with twice the number of chips of the buy-in. So, in this $10,000 buy-in event, we started with $20,000 in chips, which players really like, ...continued
Some days are better than others. I was having one of those "other" days. I wasn't sick, but I felt a little sluggish mentally. It was a biochemical thing, I guess, as are more of our mental states than we'd like to admit. One of the ...continued
In the first two parts of this series, I looked at records you should keep about your own play and different benefits you could derive from doing it. I suggested that accurate record keeping and analysis would enable you to raise your hourly earnings ...continued
Mike, a longtime Card Player reader, sent me this situation and asked if he had misplayed his hand. Here is what happened in his own words: I was playing in the $1-$2 blinds no-limit hold'em game at the Borgata, and sat down with $140 in chips. ...continued
Editor's note: This column appeared in the December 2006 issue of Card Player Europe. I have just come back from playing in and commentating on the 888.com UK Poker Open. As usual, it turned out to be one of the highlights of the year. Maybe ...continued
A couple of years ago, I found myself in an extremely unusual situation: Playing Omaha eight-or-better, I was in the big blind with A-K-9-9, double-suited in red. Four players saw the flop for two bets, which came J 10 5. I led at the pot with my ...continued
Hi. Come on in. I've broiled salmon steaks. They're a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids. That brown stuff is wild rice, harvested in Northern Minnesota. It's gourmet chow. Dig in. Lately I've had a lot more calls than usual from ...continued
People often ask me what it's like sharing my life with a poker queen like Barbara Enright. Since she's so nice and friendly at the poker table, everyone assumes that she treats me with the same respectful behavior that she shows to her poker ...continued
Players frequently struggle when trying to read hands. I agree that piecing together the clues regarding player tendencies, betting patterns, and so on can be difficult. Recently, though, I played a hand in which I thought I had a perfect read on my ...continued
The small blind is clearly a bad seat in a poker game, since that player acts first on the flop, turn, and river betting rounds. This handicap is even more apparent in no-limit hold'em, where the disadvantage of poor position is more telling than ...continued
It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the new poker books on the market these days. With so many from which to choose, some books that are clearly worth a read are likely to get overlooked. I am writing this review with the objective that the ...continued
Chuck Agnew has been dealing poker at San Jose's Bay 101 for 13 years. During that time, he has dealt 71 royal flushes - and he knows, because he has been keeping track. Three of them produced amazing stories. Royal Flush No. 1 Agnew was dealing a ...continued
If you don't know what is meant by "key numbers" in football handicapping, you should. Because points tend to be "lumpy" in football - with the scoring involving bunches of more than one point at a time - there are some ...continued
I would guess that every experienced poker player is familiar with the following situation: In the middle of a hand, an opponent - who is reasonably well-known to you - does something. It doesn't really matter what he does; maybe he bets, raises, ...continued
My last column said that intuitive players can read and adjust to players better than most people, and these skills are critically important in no-limit hold'em (NLH). Here, I'll describe a system to reduce their edge. The essential first step ...continued