CP The Inside Straight

Baby-Faced Millionaires

Tournaments Keep Churning Out Younger and Younger Champions

By Bob Pajich

Phil Hellmuth was 24 years old when he became the youngest World Series of Poker main-event winner in 1989. Because of his age and a baby face that made him look five years younger, his WSOP bracelet put Hellmuth in newspapers and on televisions all across the land.



He claimed his first WSOP bracelet and $755,000 by beating 178 players. He's still the youngest player to win the WSOP main event, although it's a record that is ripe to be bettered.



During the last few months, a handful of major tournaments were won by players so young that it makes 24 look and feel like middle age. Thanks to online poker sites, which famously allow players with limited capital to win their way into huge tournaments, more and more baby-faced players are playing their way into millions of dollars.

Nick Schulman

Jeff Williams

Mike Schneider

Jeff Williams was 2 years old when Hellmuth won the main event. Recently, he won €900,000 and the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final, held in Monte Carlo. He outlasted a field of 298.



A week later, Mike Schneider, who's 22, outlasted 527 players at the PartyPoker.com Million V, winning $1,280,000. Both Williams and Schneider are American college students, and both are the youngest players to win their respective tournaments.



Poker writers everywhere couldn't help but notice that Williams looks a lot like Bobby Baldwin, who won the WSOP main event in 1978, beating 42 players and winning $210,000. At the time, he was the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet. He was 27. Stu "The Kid" Ungar took the record from Baldwin two years later. He was 26.



But that was then, and this is now. Players younger than 30 are now as common as diamonds in a deck of cards.



In November, Nick Schulman won $2,241,995 at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. He outlasted 783 players. If that tournament had been held in September instead of October, Schulman wouldn't have been allowed to participate, because he wasn't 21 yet.

David Williams

Scott Fischman

Erick Lindgren

Williams and Schneider both qualified for their tournaments through online satellites (Williams at PokerStars.com and Schneider at PartyPoker.com). They are definitely part of a generation of very young players who are sharpening their skill sets by playing online.



To Lee Jones, the poker room manager at PokerStars.com, it makes total sense to him that this is occurring.



"Younger players have grown up with computers in their homes and schools. They've played video games since they were 5 or 6 years old. Playing poker online is a natural extension of all the time they've spent on computers as youngsters," Jones said.



And because players in America have to be 21 years old to play in a casino, players who are 18 years old have three years to spend playing online before getting into a major event. That means these players are playing in tournaments with tons of poker experience despite their young ages. That is perhaps the biggest difference between young players now and back in the day: Experience is so much easier to get nowadays.



"Before the advent of online poker, younger players had to learn mostly by the seat of their pants and experience. There weren't many good books, either. So, they went in, paid their dues (at the table) like everybody else, and eventually became older seasoned players," Jones stated.



Online poker has had an enormous impact on major live tournaments. Jones estimates that about half the players who entered last year's WSOP main event qualified online. And every month, online sites are expanding their satellite offerings to include more major tournaments, giving players more chances to get into a more diverse list of huge events cheaply.



The Old New Guys
The poker world is changing extremely fast. It was only a few years ago that successful players like Scott Fischman, David Williams, Thomas Keller, and Eric Lindgren were considered the new kids on the block. Although it's somewhat ridiculous to think of these guys as old poker salts, they are definitely not part of the new young breed of players.

Bobby Baldwin

Stu Ungar

Phil Hellmuth

This group, and many others, are really part of the first group of young players to come in and start winning tournaments from day one. They came in, faced many past champions and poker legends, and won.



And they showed young players watching on ESPN all across America that it was possible to come in and win WSOP bracelets and the huge amount of money that comes with them. Young players – and future players – everywhere watched Fischman brag to the TV cameras that the average age of the members of the poker "crew" he called himself a member of was 24 years old.



Fischman has cashed in 41 events in three years and has won more than $2.3 million in live poker tournaments. There's no doubt that he will have tournament poker successes for many years.



Now it seems like every other month, a player like Schulman shows up – 21 years, one month old – and nearly passes Fischman's lifetime tournament winnings with one victory, which is exactly what happened to him in November.



Before his victory at Foxwoods, Schulman didn't even think of himself as a tournament player. He didn't think he knew the right kind of strategy to play in the major tournaments. But then he won $175,000 in a $500 buy-in tourney on PokerStars.com. There for the side games, he got into the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods through a $1,000 supersatellite.



He says that if the legal gambling age were 18, there would be a lot more WPT and WSOP champions younger than even himself. And he says that winning a major tournament nowadays is much harder to do than it was when Hellmuth won, just because of the sheer size of the fields.



"I can't imagine a field as skilled as it is now, back then," Schulman commented. "There were way more young kids (at Foxwoods) than I expected."



He's not knocking Hellmuth's accomplishment, though. Schulman acknowledges how much easier it is to learn how to play good, solid poker in this age of the Internet, compared to how it was less than a decade ago.



The thrill he experienced at Foxwoods is something he's going to continue to seek. Although he started the year not planning to play in tournaments, he's going to play in them now.



"They're a lot of fun, and the upside is just too big," he said.



One day, Hellmuth's record of being the youngest WSOP champion will probably be broken, Schulman stated, but he thinks it's a long shot that anyone will come close to matching the record 10 WSOP bracelets that Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson have collected.



The reason? The fields are too big and the players are too skilled, said Schulman. But that doesn't mean he's not going to try, starting at this year's WSOP; that is, if he can battle through the many players younger than himself who are looking for what they saw on television only three years ago.

Borgata Ultimate Supersatellite

Top Six Players Win $60,000 Packages to Four Major Poker Events

BY BOB PAJICH

On Sunday, March 19, 419 players sat down in the poker room at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City to try to win what was accurately called the Ultimate Supersatellite Poker Tournament.



For $1,000, players competed for seats in four major tournaments: the $25,500 World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio, the $10,000 WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, the $10,000 World Series of Poker main event, and the $10,000 WPT Borgata Poker Open.



Thanks to the large number of entrants, six players walked out of the Borgata with entries in those tourneys, plus $4,500 in spending money.



Steve Zoine, Jason Griffin, Herbert Cheng, Frank Lindner, Joseph Grebanier, and Andy Garnick all won an Ultimate Supersatellite package worth $60,000. Players who finished seventh through 11th won entry in the $10,000 Borgata Poker Open in September. They are Charles Minter, Anthony Salerno, Joseph "Black Cat" Lopes, Ronald Wilson, and Josh Spiegelman.



Just about all of the players who cashed have major tournament poker experience, which means there's a good chance that one or two of them will be able to turn the $1,000 buy-in into something much more valuable. A WPT championship or a WSOP bracelet would certainly qualfy.

Poker Goddess Joins Team Martin's Poker

Liz Lieu Latest Addition to Martin de Knijff's Team

BY BOB PAJICH

Liz Lieu is the latest successful poker player to join the poker team at MartinsPoker.com. She joins Martin de Knijff, Patrik Antonius, Alex Stevic, Tobias Persson, Cecilia Nordenstam, Peter Eichhardt, Henric Olander, and Ingemar Backman.



Lieu is happy to become part of the team. The players compete as individuals, but the "team" concept refers to their working together to improve, as well as traveling and hanging out together at tournaments.

Liz Lieu

Liz Lieu

Liz Lieu

"The idea of participating in a team really appeals to me. When I met Martin and the other members of the team, I immediately noticed that this was a crowd that I wanted to be a part of," she said. "It is going to be very exciting to represent Team Martin's Poker from now on. It will be so much more fun to go to different tournaments knowing that there is a team backing you when you do well, and if you get knocked out, there are other players to cheer for."



Lieu has been playing poker since she was 18 years old, but didn't enter tournament play until 2005, taking fifth place in the first World Series of Poker event she played. Tournament players didn't know whom they were running into. Lieu is one of the top cash players in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, consistently beating the high-limit games in those cities.



In 2005, she finished in the money on the tournament trail eight times, and she just recently appeared on the cover of Card Player College.

Buy Some Motor Oil, Slide Into the World Series of Poker

ExxonMobil Giving Away a Seat to the Main Event

BY BOB PAJICH

A quart of Mobil Delvac 1300 Super motor oil costs about $2.99. Starting in April, it could be worth a lot more.



ExxonMobil is giving one of its customers a $12,000 World Series of Poker prize package that includes entry into this year's main event. And to win it, the only thing people need to know is how to put something in the mail, even if they know how to change their own oil.



On specially marked bottles of the oil, a mail-in sweepstakes entry form will be attached. Motorists with WSOP dreams must simply send the sweepstakes form to the right place and hope it's chosen sometime after June 15, when the contest ends.



A number of other poker-themed consolation prizes will be awarded, but ExxonMobil didn't share the specifics of what those prizes will be.

PokerStars.com Makes Every Sunday a $1 Million-Guaranteed Day

Site Breaks Milestone With 100,000 Playing Simultaneously
BY BOB PAJICH

PokerStars.com is guaranteeing that all of its Sunday multitable no-limit hold'em tournaments with buy-ins of either $215 or $530 will offer a prize pool of at least $1 million. The site's guarantee used to be $750,000.

The starting time for the Sunday tournaments is 4:30 p.m. EST. The $215 tournament takes place every Sunday except the last Sunday of the month, when the site holds the $530 buy-in tourney.



Satellites for these tournaments run 24 hours a day and start for as little as $3. Because of the satellites – and the large pool of players at PokerStars.com – the Sunday tournaments are attracting thousands of players.



Recently, 5,326 people played in the $215 buy-in event. In January, $140 million was awarded in tournaments alone. And the tournaments and their prize pools should only get bigger. In February, for the first time in the site's history, 100,000 players were logged on to the site at the same time. It was only three years ago that the 10,000-player milestone was broken.

PokerRoom.com Turns an Amateur Player Into a Pro

First 'Become a Poker Pro' Tournament Wraps Up

By Bob Pajich



Life will never be the same for Jim Davenport. On March 5, Davenport won the inaugural PokerRoom.com Become a Poker Pro freeroll tournament. By proving his mettle and winning the tournament, PokerRoom.com gave him an endorsement deal worth $250,000.



The endorsement package includes a $60,000 cash prize and travel expenses and buy-ins for at least 12 major poker tournaments. Some of the tournaments are the World Series of Poker main event, the World Poker Tour Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, and the World Poker Tour Championship.

Jim Davenport

Davenport is a 25-year-old University of Southern California graduate and works as an investment banking analyst. Players could probably figure out that he went to USC by his username at PokerRoom.com: JDtrojan3.



Billy Pero, a 31-year-old electrician and father of newborn twins, took second. He received a $13,500 WSOP main event package from PokerRoom.com.



The two were part of a 10-player group that made it through several free online qualifiers to make the final table, which was held on a cruise ship off the coast of the Bahamas.



Poker fans will be able to view the final table and interviews with the players on the PokerRoom.com website throughout this month.

Tips From 'The Circuit'


CardPlayer.com's hit radio show The Circuit brings you updates, interviews, and strategy from the biggest names in poker, and broadcasts from all World Poker Tour events.



The following is a discussion between co-host Mike Matusow and guest David Williams on early-levels tournament strategy, as broadcast on The Circuit from the L.A. Poker Classic:



Mike Matusow: I've been told, and have always played like this, that until the antes get in the pot, you should play snugger than a rug. And that's the truth.



David Williams: That's something that I follow.



MM: Mike Sexton will tell you that Stu Ungar never played a pot, never played a hand, until the antes went in there. So, I always stuck with what Mike Sexton told me.



DW: Yesterday, Tuan Le was at my table. During the first level, he found a way to dust off his $20,000 (starting stack). He was trying to raise every pot when there was what, $75 in the middle?



MM: $75 in the middle and he has $20,000 in chips.



DW: And he was raising every hand. "Raise! Raise! Raise!" He was like, "Ha, I play every hand," and all of a sudden, he was broke in the first level. For what? To try to win $75? When you wait for the antes, you can pick up some real money.



MM: Right. So my advice to everybody out there is: Until the antes get in there and you can start playing a little poker, just play solid and tight and try to wait on some cards and hope they come your way.

For this and all archived "The Circuit" shows, go to www.cardplayer.com/audio/thecircuit.php.



Tune in to The Circuit and put it to work for your game.

Raymond Charles Clark has …



Hey, Guys:

I just wanted to drop you guys a line to say that your show is a great learning tool. I learned so much in the conversation between Daniel and Mike. It's nice to see a couple of "old-timers" (I just read Daniel's blog) giving everyone the value of their years of experience. These shows, and the audio from the final table that I downloaded, have helped immensely in understanding the mind of a professional poker player.

Card Player's Online Store Is Back In Effect

Card Player is pleased to announce the reopening of its online store. After making several changes to improve the overall customer experience on the site, Card Player's online store is set to provide poker fans with the hippest gear and top-flight poker products.



Featuring a new layout and look, the store is already serving the poker-hungry masses by providing the latest in poker merchandise for reasonable prices. Current top sellers include Card Player hats and books, The Gambler's Guide to Taxes and How to Turn Your Poker Playing Into a Business. In addition to these titles highlighting the business of poker, the store also features numerous books on different types of poker strategy.



In addition to a long list of other poker strategy books, the Card Player store also features some of today's hottest-selling poker DVDs. Now, Card Player is currently running a promotion in which all Phil Hellmuth DVDs are 20% off, so order a DVD and get instruction from the "Poker Brat."



Card Player clothing is also available on the site, and keep your eyes peeled as Card Player debuts several new pieces of poker fashion. Whether you're a fly guy or a hip girl, let Card Player make you a fashion plate at the tables.



Beyond selling merchandise, Card Player's store is committed to also giving its customers the best bargains possible. In a major online promotion for our valued fans, Card Player is offering customers who purchase two or more items a $20 bonus in their UltimateBet account.



Card Player's store is open for business at https://pokerstore.cardplayer.com/.

Cardplayer.com Forum Contest

CardPlayer.com boasts the largest poker forums on the web at http://forums.cardplayer.com/. And now, forum users can win a free one-year subscription to "The Poker Authority" by just sharing their thoughts with our 69,000 registered users.



We'll publish an insightful post each issue, and the author will receive a free one-year subscription to the magazine.



This issue's winner is Snadly, Brad Figler, for his post, "Non-Premium Pocket Pairs." An edited excerpt of this post appears below. To read the full thread, go to www.cardplayer.com/link/forum3.

I have been thinking a lot about some of the trouble I get myself into when playing non-premium pocket pairs in no-limit hold'em. I would define premium pocket pairs as A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and possibly J-J in a very tight game. This post has to do with all other pairs.



When playing online, I tend to do things on auto-pilot. Recently, I have been analyzing my preflop actions when I am dealt a non-premium pocket pair (NPPP). Here is a checklist of things I think about before acting:



Position
What type of position I have is the first question I ask myself. If I am in early or middle position, chances are, I am first to enter the pot. I like to raise from this position, as it gives me a chance to take control of the pot. If this is the case, I am looking to either flop a set or have an ace hit the board. A continuation bet will most likely take the pot on the flop.



Late position is the optimal position for NPPP. If someone has raised, representing a strong hand, I like to call, as it hides the strength of my hand if I do flop a set. If there is a handful of limpers, I limp, too. If there is only a player or two in, I raise to force the blinds out and take control of the hand.



Stack Sizes

This is where I have been struggling as of late when calling raises with NPPP. The odds of flopping a set are approximately 8-1 when holding a pocket pair. This simply means that I am going to miss far more often than I hit.

When I hit, I need to get paid in order to make the play profitable in the long run.



To fix the leak in my game, I have been taking the time to figure out how much I can win if I hit versus how much I have to call to see the flop.



If I am going to call a raise of three times the big blind, I need to be confident that I can win 24 times the big blind if I hit. There is obviously no set-in-stone way of determining this before making the call, but notes on players will typically help. Also, a simple check of their stack sizes will aid in making money on these hands. If I am sitting at a $100 no-limit hold'em table with 50¢-$1 blinds and a short stack with $25 raises to $4, I am mucking any low to medium pocket pair because the implied odds just are not there. If I do hit, I am not making enough money on the hand to justify the call.



The last thing I think about is whether or not I am going to get paid by the player if I do hit. I had an example of this happen to me recently when I was playing with an old Card Player forum member who has been around since the beginning. I know that he is a tight player. We ended up in a pot together heads up. He was sitting to my right, so I had position on him. We both were in early position, and he opened for a raise of three and a half times the big blind. I had a pair of sevens and told myself that I should just muck, because he wouldn't give me action unless he flopped a higher set. I went against my instincts and called anyway. The flop was 9-7-3 rainbow. He checked to me, I bet about half the pot, and he folded.



I won the hand, but that is a leak in my game. The final pot was eight and a half big blinds and three and a half of them were mine. This particular player would probably muck A-K on a flop of A-7-2 to a strong reraise.



Most players will say that these are extremely obvious points, and I would agree. However, I think that most leaks come from players forgetting the basics.

Atlantic City Hilton Casino and Resort Opens Lavish New Poker Room

BY BRETT DOBIN



The Hilton name has always been associated with a high level of class, and the new poker room in the Atlantic City Hilton Casino and Resort certainly lives up to that standard. The Hilton poker room opened to rave reviews in December. Atlantic City's newest poker room, which has 21 tables, is located on the casino's second level and provides a breathtaking view of the Atlantic City skyline through its large glass windows.



"In order for us to be a full-service casino, we felt that we needed poker. We wanted to open a whole new room, and not just put a few games on the casino floor," said Phil Juliano, executive vice president of the Atlantic City Hilton. "The area where the poker room is now once housed some of the hotel's retail shops. Once we broke ground, we realized how much space there was, and what a great view of the city the room would offer."



The 6,813-square-foot poker room is nonsmoking and is open 24 hours a day. It also features six plasma television screens and a modern decor.



The staff is extremely courteous and understands the needs of everybody from the average player to the seasoned pro. In addition, the comps given in the higher games are the highest right now in Atlantic City.



From a promotional point of view, the Hilton poker room offers groups and organizations the opportunity to hold tournaments. "Our staff will run your tournament for you," said Juliano. "Your group can come in and use our room. We have a fresh attitude, and we are going to keep it that way."



If you don't want to bring your home game to the Hilton, the room also offers a fixed tournament schedule six days a week without a rake. This rakeless structure has never before been done in Atlantic City.



Cash games that are spread include no-limit hold'em, limit hold'em, seven-card stud, and Omaha. While in a cash game or a tournament, players can enjoy a variety of freshly prepared sandwiches, or dine at one of the noodle bars located right outside the poker room. Future plans for the room include the expansion of a ballroom for tournament use.

Cindy Margolis

Cindy Margolis Tries Her Poker Hand

Supermodel, Producer, Actress, and Businesswoman Adds Poker Entrepreneur to List

By Bob Pajich



Cindy Margolis is into poker. Within the last several months, Margolis has launched her own online poker room, teamed up with professional poker player Cyndy Violette to pitch a reality TV show, become the face of the World Poker Tour's official online community Chipleaders, and opened a Los Angeles nightclub with her husband, Guy.



Oh, and she just expanded her business team by adding Poker Royalty, a marketing and player representative agency that specializes in poker business – as if she needed any more help.



Margolis must have the energy level of a Kenyan marathon runner and brains that rival those of any marketing guru. She was one of the first people to take advantage of the power of the Internet by building a site featuring none other than herself. Thanks to her good looks and the nature of curious men, she became one of the most downloaded women in the short history of the Internet.



The poker boom and the country's renewed fascination with Las Vegas have been good for her. In February alone, she played host at four different Vegas parties, including the grand opening of Hooters Casino Hotel.



On Feb. 18, she helped her husband open their own nightclub in California, Guy's North. The grand opening also doubled as a celebration of the launch of her online poker room, CindysPoker.com, and featured such guests as Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Violette.



Her poker room came online in January. She partnered with Mercury Sports N.V., and the software was created by Full House Entertainment. Her username at the site is "CindyM."



She's using her spokeswoman's skills on her site. When players pull CindysPoker.com up, a video of her automatically starts explaining just what can be found there. She also takes this time to reiterate that the Guinness Book of World Records named her the "Most Downloaded Woman."



Violette and Margolis teamed up in December to shop around a reality TV show called House Rules, which would find the hottest home poker night in the country. The players in that game would have a chance to play in a big event. The show hasn't had any takers yet.



It might be hard to find someone in America who has never seen Margolis, either intentionally or unintentionally. She's appeared in many TV shows and movies, including Mad TV, Ally McBeal, The Howard Stern Radio Show, Suddenly Susan, and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.


In all those listed except Austin Powers, she played herself. In Austin Powers, she was a fembot.



Then again, she's made millions playing herself. Only time will tell if poker players will find her online room as attractive as she is.

Who is Roy Rounder?

Hi, my name is Roy Rounder. Welcome to my new column "Shark Attack." Here, you'll discover simple, step-by-step tactics and techniques for winning at no-limit Texas hold'em – both in live games and online.



I've been an "underground" professional poker player for several years, and with the popularity of poker right now, making a "surgeon's income" at this game is almost too easy.



Read my column to learn the fundamentals of how I do it – and how you can, too, at any stakes, anywhere. Remember, you don't have to be a "pro" to be a shark!



You also can sign up for Roy Rounder's free e-mail tips newsletter at http://www.freepokernewsletter.com/.

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How to Play Tight-Aggressive
By Roy Rounder

There are four main poker-playing "styles":

1. Loose-Passive

2. Loose-Aggressive

3. Tight-Passive

4. Tight-Aggressive



The first part of each style refers to which hands are being played. "Loose" describes someone who plays a wide variety of hands. "Tight" describes someone who is more selective and plays only good hands.



The second part of each style refers to betting. Someone who's "passive" often calls and doesn't raise much. An "aggressive" player makes frequent bets and raises.



In general, the most effective style is tight-aggressive. I'll discuss the reasons why in a moment. First, however, let's take a look at each style and learn the strategies for winning against them.



Loose-Passive
Loose-passive is the most "amateurish" style of play. These fish like to play a wide range of starting hands and rarely fold before the flop. They'll check-call with hands like middle pair, ace high, and low pair; hence, the nickname "calling stations."



When you spot this type of player, wait for a good hand and then bet into him consistently. Simply "milk" him for chips before the flop and after the flop, turn, and river.

Be selective when you attack. The loose-passive player might have top pair and still check-call. So, be careful.



Loose-Aggressive

This is the "maniac" or "manic" playing style.



A maniac can empty your pockets quickly if you don't use the proper strategy.



You must be patient and understand how to "get under the skin" of a manic player. Do not let him upset you. For instance, a maniac will often play (and raise with) bad starting hands. When he hits, no one knows what to put him on – which is part of the reason he's so dangerous.



Let's say a maniac calls a preflop raise with 4-2 offsuit and the flop comes A-5-3. Your buddy Jerry is holding A-K, so he thinks he has the best hand. The turn card is a king and the river is a 10. Jerry ends up losing a ton of chips to the maniac's straight.



And then what happens is Jerry goes on tilt and starts calling all of the maniac's raises. This is how the maniac can break you. In order to beat a maniac, you must wait for a strong hand. The maniac's weakness is that he hates being raised or "bullied." Also, he easily feels "pot-committed."



When you get heads up with a maniac (and you hold a strong hand), raise him or make small bets in no-limit that entice him to bluff. Let the maniac come to you; let him make the wrong move at the wrong time and you'll take his chips – oftentimes all at once in no-limit.



Tight-Passive
Tight-passive players are fairly easy to beat. If they bet or raise, get out of there! Otherwise, you can consistently represent the flop and bluff them out of pots. Tight-passive players will often "survive" for a long time in a game because they never risk too many chips. But eventually they get "blinded to death." Use bluffs, semibluffs, and aggressive bets to take a tight-passive player's chip stack.



Tight-Aggressive

OK, now we're to the preferred playing style for no-limit Texas hold'em: tight-aggressive.



Tight-aggressive players choose their starting hands wisely. They rarely "limp in." Instead, they usually either fold or raise before the flop. They'll make aggressive post-flop bets if they've got a hand or if they raised preflop.



The reason a tight-aggressive style is so effective is because you risk chips only when you have a strong hand. But when you do risk chips, you risk a lot of them – so it takes only a couple of wins to build a nice stack. This playing style is often referred to as "aggressively smart" or "selective aggression."



The downside of a tight-aggressive style is that it's often easy to read. This style can often build a tight table image, and when that happens, your opponents won't give you action for your big hands.



So, how do you solve this problem?



One solution is to intentionally establish a loose table image – by carefully choosing times to play like a maniac. For example, once in a while, show a bluff – especially near the beginning of the game. Do this when you sense weakness and have good position – just as you'd do with any good bluff.



Let's say that you pick up the 8 7 on the button and three players limp in. You raise four times the big blind and everyone folds. That's when you flip over your suited connectors and say, "C'mon, guys, I know someone had my eight high beat." A move like this is usually enough – depending on the table – to get you action for your big hands. That way, when you pick up K-K on the button a bit later and make the same preflop raise of four times the big blind, you'll get a caller or two.



A huge advantage of playing tight-aggressive poker is that many of your opponents won't distinguish between loose and aggressive. As discussed, "loose" is related to which hands you'll play, and "aggressive" is related to betting.



If you raise aggressively with strong hands and then mix it up with the occasional well-timed bluff, you'll be able to throw your opponents off and keep them guessing every step of the way.



Of course, there are many "degrees" in between these four main playing styles.



Even though you should use tight-aggressive as your main style, you must be able to "shift gears" and mix up your approach throughout the game; that way, you won't become predictable.



More importantly, you must learn when to shift gears, how to vary your playing style, and special "tricks" you can use to fool your opponents without risking too many chips.



When you learn skills like these, you'll be able to consistently win at Texas hold'em – at virtually any level – and immediately increase your "poker profits."



To learn more tips and strategies, check out http://www.freepokernewsletter.com/.

Mike: When playing limit Omaha and hold'em, if I am consistently averaging a profit of two to three big blinds per hour over a pretty good length of time, is it a good indicator that it's time to move up to the next level (bankroll allowing, of course)? Do you have any other tips about when to "move on up to the Eastside"? Thanks for the advice.



Scott: That's a great question, and not just because of the reference to The Jeffersons!



"Earning average" has never been a major factor in my decision to move up in levels, mostly because comparing low-limit games to middle-limit games is like comparing apples to oranges. At a $3-$6 hold'em table, success often comes down to catching cards while playing tighter poker than your opponents. You are going to need additional skills to succeed in $10-$20 games, where you need to be able to sniff out bluffs against smarter, trickier competition.



In other words, don't move up just because you are beating the game; move up when your bankroll and skill set allow it, and when you can find a game with players you can read.



You can pay more attention to your results as you look to move up through the middle limits into the higher limits; you want to be winning consistently, feeling confident, and building a bankroll that enables you to play in a comfort zone. There are other significant factors to consider, however: Who is in the game? Are the pots big enough and the players loose enough for you to make money? It's better to stay in a $30-$60 game that you are drilling than to move up to an $80-$160 game in which you are eking out a small profit. Don't move up because your ego tells you that you should be playing a bigger game; move up when it's a good real-money decision!

Matt: I do well in single-table sit-and-gos, and they seem to be great practice, but I was wondering if they can be played for long-term profit?



Scott: Absolutely! I built my initial online bankroll by playing sit-and-gos. Yes, they are also good for practice, but there shouldn't be any distinction between the two: You are always practicing, even when you are playing for profit. If you can find a sit-and-go that you like, put in the hours.

Dubbeemin: I have noticed a strategic decision that comes up frequently in sit-and-gos and other tournaments with blind structures that go up quickly: When I am able to build a big stack, I am looking for spots to pick up the blinds without a contest, sometimes – if my opponents are tight or I have otherwise managed to maintain steady control of the table – regardless of what I am holding. What should I do when someone "plays back at me," moving all in when I have raised with a weak or even a moderate-strength hand? I am often getting good pot odds – say, 2-to-1 or more – to call the reraise, but calling and losing will take away my ability to continue to steal blinds. What is the correct play?



Scott: You've hit upon the primary difference between cash-game and tournament strategy: Preserving power in a tournament can often be more important than doing something just because you have the right odds to do it. If calling and losing means a loss in your ability to steal in a future situation, don't do it. You're not only risking a potential loss in power, but if you call with junk – for everyone to see – you're likely going to face an even more significant loss in the respect department. It's going to be much easier for people to play back against you when they know that you are pushing with junk!


It's OK to fold when opponents push back at you. Eventually, someone will do it when you have the goods, and you can punish him accordingly. If too many people are pushing back at you, you may not have the "control" over the table that you thought you did. Then, it's time to readjust your strategy!

There's Nothing Trivial About Trivia

BY TIM PETERS

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO POKER, by Iain Fletcher (Rough Guide/Penguin, $9.99 in paperback)

I'm confident that everyone reading this column knows the lingo for pocket aces, A-K, and 10-2. But only a real poker nerd knows what to call 9-8, 10-4, 8-8, 4 5, and K-J (if you don't yet qualify for the title of poker nerd, see the end of this column for the names of those hands).



Of course, knowing poker lingo is no substitute for knowing poker strategy, but sometimes you've got to put aside Harrington, McEvoy, and Sklansky and read a poker book for (relatively) useless but (highly) interesting information – like the lingo referenced above. So, pick up The Rough Guide to Poker, by an English "punter" (gambler, for the Yanks) named Iain Fletcher. Nicely designed and printed, this pocket-sized paperback teems with poker lore, from lingo to history, from the business of poker to the game's cultural imprint.



Fletcher opens with a synopsis of the poker phenomenon and some surprising figures about the business of poker (when PartyPoker's parent company went public in England, its stock was valued at nearly $8 billion). Like most commentators, he credits TV – in particular the World Poker Tour – with "lighting the fuse that set off the global poker explosion." He supplies a useful but brief history of the game, from its sketchy roots (poker may derive from a Middle Eastern card game) to its initial heyday in 19th-century America, beginning in New Orleans, heading upriver along the Mississippi, and on to the Wild West.



Poker, of course, has its own peculiar vocabulary, and "The language of poker" is one of my favorite chunks of this book (I'll never be a great player, so I've set a more modest personal goal: to know all the poker lingo). I confess that I had not encountered the terms "sailboats" (pocket fours), "three wise men" (a set of kings), and "newlyweds" (K-Q) until I read Fletcher's book. One quibble: He says that a set is the same as trips, but of course a "set" consists of a pair in the hole and one community card to make three of a kind, while "trips" means one card in the hole and two of the same rank on the board. There is a difference; I'd rather have a set than trips any day.



Fletcher provides a somewhat obligatory section on how to play (the mechanics of draw, stud, hold'em, and Omaha), and a reasonable albeit decidedly short overview of basic strategy. (If you're trying to get someone interested in the game – say, your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, or husband – The Rough Guide to Poker would not be a bad way to start.) The book includes an overview of where to play – information sure to be dated (and probably unnecessary, thanks to the Web) – but Fletcher has written a terrific overview on "Poker Culture."



Most of us live and breathe the game, but poker has permeated contemporary culture to a degree that no one could have anticipated (one personal example: a CEO I met recently told me an investor asked him if he was "pot-committed" to his company's current strategy). But Fletcher notes that poker has long been a staple of pop culture: "From the early 19th century, gambling, and specifically poker, gained an iconic importance in many artistic pursuits, from opera and the stage, to literature and … the cinema." He supplies an overview of the literature of poker (his "Top 10" list, beginning with A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town, is excellent), songs that feature poker, and the "10 Best Poker Movies" (Rounders and The Cincinnati Kid are of course mentioned, but he includes California Split [Robert Altman, 1974] and House of Games (David Mamet, 1987), which contains a fantastic poker scene and an excellent discourse on tells. As players, we know that poker emanates an almost irresistible force on our own psyches; Fletcher reminds us that the game continues to leave its mark on mass culture.



The Rough Guide also features a kind of "who's who" in the poker world, with short biographical sketches of famous players, past and present, from the very first World Series of Poker champion, Johnny Moss, to the most recent winner, Joe Hachem. A short chapter titled "Anatomy of a Poker Pro" articulates the characteristics of extremely successful players, including patience, self-control, ruthlessness, and humility (a trait I wish more midlevel players would exhibit). The book concludes with a section on the ills of poker and gambling addiction (nicely titled "Off the Rails").



Don't buy this book to improve your game; buy it to add to your enjoyment of the game, your awareness of its traditions and history.



Here are the hands the nicknames in the opening paragraph refer to:



• 9-8: Oldsmobile (as in the "Oldsmobile 98")



• 10-4: Broderick Crawford (after the star of the famous 1950s TV drama Highway Patrol and the radio call "Ten-four," which meant OK; however, if your holecards are the Broderick Crawford, your hand is definitely not OK)



• 8-8: Octopus, Little Oldsmobile, or Snowmen (self-explanatory)



• 4 5: Colt 45, after the gun (not the malt liquor)



• K-J: Kojak (as in the TV show of the same name)

Editor's note: This and other great books are available at CardPlayer.com.