The Inside Straight

Card Player Named Official Magazine of 2006 World Series of Poker
Live Updates, Exclusive Content, and Even a Printed Newspaper to be Provided
By BOB PAJICH

Card Player magazine has been named the official magazine of this year's World Series of Poker. The partnership gives Card Player exclusive rights to the real-time coverage of all the WSOP events this summer.

As the official magazine of the WSOP, CardPlayer.com will offer hand-by-hand reporting from the tournament floor, streaming video of player interviews, real-time chip counts, and everything else that makes CardPlayer.com the place to visit to keep up with tournament poker year long.

Card Player also will provide all of the content for the WSOP's official website, www.worldseriesofpoker.com, as well as AOL.com.

The partnership doesn't stop online.

Card Player will produce a daily on-site WSOP newspaper for the duration of the Series. The newspaper, which is a first in the WSOP's history, will offer event recaps and interviews with winners of the events, as well as other stories. It will be provided for free at the Rio.

"We're thrilled to be in business with Card Player," said Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the WSOP. "Real-time online coverage of our tournament will be better than ever and satisfy the information needs of fans worldwide. There will be only three online sources for our official news, updates and results: Card Player, worldseriesofpoker.com, and AOL."

Barry Shulman, Card Player Media chairman, had this to say about the partnership:

"Working with the World Series of Poker once again demonstrates Card Player's commitment to providing the world's premier poker multimedia coverage, and we are excited to be the official magazine of the World Series of Poker."

Card Player also will publish the official program of the 2006 World Series of Poker. The WSOP takes place at the Rio and runs from June 25 until Aug. 6. Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for all of your WSOP needs.

GSN High Stakes Poker Reloads
Season Two Recently Premiered
By MICHAEL FRIEDMAN

When GSN decided to air its new show High Stakes Poker, people held their breath and waited to see how players would handle the possibility of extreme swings in their bankrolls. As if playing for the largest stakes on television wasn't enough, GSN's new show put the game's top players into the public spotlight and had poker fans drooling at the only live televised look into the world of high-stakes cash games. Fans also got to see top-flight players like Daniel Negreanu endure the rough beats inherent in cash games, after several flopped straights were outdrawn in huge pots.

With a minimum buy-in of $100,000, the high-stakes action immediately appealed to poker's top players, and with legends like
Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth Jr. involved, it wasn't long before the producers had a full lineup of players ready to do battle.

Instead of following traditional poker television formats, High Stakes Poker's creators banked on the fact that their action was the only place to find a real game on television. With the recent debut of the second season of High Stakes Poker, GSN and its players have succeeded in finding an audience, and this season looks as though it will continue to expand upon last year's expectations.

The first season was filmed in November of 2005 and featured legends of the game like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Barry Greenstein taking on players like Negreanu, Sam Farha, and Los Angeles Lakers owner and poker aficionado Jerry Buss. The second season, taped after the World Poker Tour Championship in May, should surpass season one's excitement, with new additions to the cash-game lineup that include Phil Laak, Gus Hansen, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.

There are some changes to the show from season one to season two, as locations have changed from the Golden Nugget to the Palms Casino, and the second season has expanded from last year's 13 episodes to 16.

Leading GSN's expert analysis and often humorous color commentaries are Welcome Back Kotter's Gabe Kaplan and A.J. Benza. Kaplan's quick wit and insight into the game and its players appear to be among the key reasons for the show's successful first run.

Another key reason for the show's success is the fast action at the tables. Negreanu made his presence felt by buying in for a cool million dollars and nearly losing a good portion of it before coming back, while the wily Farha seemed to be untouchable, as he caught a run of cards that left everyone else at the tables feeling the heat, especially Barry Greenstein, whose pocket aces got cracked by Farha's kings.

With players like Laak and Matusow in the lineup for season two, fans can expect some of the best trash-talking to ever grace the felt. Hellmuth sent censors running last season after he went on tilt and dropped several f-bombs. Matusow, of course, is no stranger to controversy and should provide fireworks at the table when he starts running his now famous mouth.

Freshly Minted Pro Winds World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit Event in New Orleans
Gavin Smith Crushed by Kings, 'Disappointed' With Second
By BOB PAJICH

Big-time poker returned to the Crescent City in a big way last month when the World Series of Poker Circuit took over Harrah's New Orleans. The $10,000 main event attracted 170 players, which meant that winner would receive more than a half-million dollars, and was one of the first events - poker or otherwise - to be held in the city since Hurricane Katrina.

The entire series started May 18, with a $550 buy-in no-limit hold'em event, and ran until the final day of the $10,000 buy-in event on May 25 ($9,800 went to the prize pool, $200 went to Harrah's). The series consisted of nine events, including two $1,080 mega-satellites and a $230 ladies-only event. All tournaments were no-limit hold'em.

Canadian poker pro Gavin Smith looked ready to pick up his first major win of 2006 when the final table began. He basically was the chip leader from day one and brought in more than half the chips ($645,800) to the final table of 10. And although Smith would manage to build his chip stack to more than a million, he could do no better than second and its $293,930 prize.

The winner of the $10,000 event was Peter Feldman, a 28-year-old poker player from Michigan who recently left a position with his family's business in order to focus on more on poker. So far, 2006 has been kind to him. Besides winning $532,950 for winning this circuit event, he just missed the TV table at the World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Open in February. For that seventh-place finish, Feldman took home $73,914.

Feldman came to the final table second in chips with $223,400. Once heads-up play began, Smith out chipped Feldman $1,019,000 to $682,000, but that wouldn't last long and showed how one mistake can change the outcome of a tournament.

Several hands after Harrah's officials brought out the prize money, which was stuffed into the mouth of a preserved alligator named Mardi, Feldman woke up with pocket kings when Smith looked down to see pocket fours. Smith raised and Feldman immediately pushed all in for his remaining $385,000 in chips. After going into the tank for a long while, Smith decided to try to end the tournament right there.

The kings held, and all of a sudden, Smith found himself looking up at Feldman, who took the chip lead $1,252,000 to $450,000. But that was just the beginning of a heads-up match that lasted more than four hours.

Smith ended up almost drawing just about even with Feldman only five hands later after he flopped two pair with 9-5. A 2 on the turn also gave Feldman two pair (nines and twos), and it was anybody's match again.

About four hours and 100 hands into the heads-up battle, kings would again be Smith's dagger to the heart, only this time, he held them. He even had a small chip lead and when Feldman moved all-in with pocket sixes, he called instantly. A 6 on the flop - and another on the river - gave Feldman a 7-to-1 chip lead, but not quite to victory.

Smith mounted another comeback and was in position to retake the chip lead when the final hand of the tournament occurred 12 hours after the final table began. Smith got all his chips into the pot with K-Q preflop, and Feldman called with A-J. An ace on the flop and one on the river ended the contest well past 2 a.m.

"I'm never satisfied with second," Smith said. "I'm disappointed. I am proud that I never gave up. On that hand with the kings I was ahead and was 4.5-to-1 as the favorite. I was that close to winning the tournament. But it didn't work out. I thought he played fantastic. He was patient and played heads-up very well."

On Feldman's decision to take up poker full-time, he had this to say: "It turned out to be a pretty good decision, so far."

The rest of the final table, and the prizes they won, is as follows: Matt Russell, Houston, Texas, $161,500; George Abdallah, Houston, Texas, $129,200; Kenny Brown, Gulf Shores, Ala. $96,900; Dana Diephouse, Baton Rouge, La. $80,750; Allie Prescott, Memphis, Tenn., $64,600; Ben Gordon, Pensacola, Fla., $48,450; David Babin, Norco, La. $32,300; and Brian Townsend, Santa Barbara, Ca., $22,610. The prize pool was $1,615,000 and everyone who placed 18th or higher cashed at least $16,150.

MANSIONPoker Introduces the Poker Dome to Las Vegas
Mayor Oscar Goodman Unveils New Poker Experience at Neonapolis
By Lisa Wheeler

MANSIONPoker COO David Kinsman introduced Americans and the world to "speed poker," an exciting and unique way to view and play the game, when the Poker Dome Challenge kicked off in late May in Las Vegas.

Kinsman believes that after fans and participants experience the Poker Dome, with its stadium seating, fast-paced action, and spectator-friendly arena, they'll finally lay to rest the question of whether poker is a sport.

It appears Kinsman has the eyes and ears of more than just fans and participants. The mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, is behind the project that promises to breathe life into the historic Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street Experience, with the Poker Dome making its home inside the Neonopolis over the next three years.

The Poker Dome Challenge will run as a 43-week series, broken up into six seven-week blocks. Six preliminary heats - each sixhanded, with one winner ($25,000) from each - will determine the semifinal round. A semifinal round will be played every seventh week. The winner from each of the semifinal rounds will pocket $50,000 and a seat in the grand finale, where they will vie for $1 million on March 17, 2007.

Players compete within a soundproof room equipped with several cameras. Completely isolated from the audience members, the six players will vie for the prize money. A separate theater house will enable spectators to witness the live action on 12 plasma screens, while seeing each player's holecards, chip counts, and heart rate. Players will have 15 seconds to act, or their hand be declared dead.

Poker Dome Challenge Australian Keith "Bendigo" Sloan invented the speed-poker format. "We have the best blind structure in speed poker," said Sloan. "Blinds will increase every 20 minutes, and the whole thing shouldn't go longer than five rounds." He added, "This is really the most exciting way to determine the best all-around speed-poker player."

Each speed-poker event will last approximately an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

The Tropicana Hotel will host the first of several events on Saturdays, until construction is complete at the Neonopolis. FOX will air the edited version every Sunday. Fans are encouraged to participate in what Kinsman describes as "a new Las Vegas poker lifestyle."

TitanPoker.com Hires Supermodel/Actress as Spokesperson
Joanna Krupa to Play in This Year's World Series of Poker
By BOB PAJICH

TitanPoker.com has signed supermodel and actress Joanna Krupa as its spokesperson.

Over the past 12 months, Krupa has appeared on the cover of Maxim's U.S. calendar and was also featured on the cover of Playboy. Krupa was voted "sexiest woman in the world" by magazines in Australia, the U.S., South Africa, England, the Czech Republic, and Germany.

Krupa's endorsement contract will keep her very involved in the poker world, representing TitanPoker.com at public appearances and autograph signings. She will also play for TitanPoker.com in the World Series of Poker main event, and in future months, TitanPoker.com players will be given a chance to win a behind-the-scenes pass to a swimsuit calendar shoot featuring her.

In preparation for her WSOP main-event appearance, Krupa will be playing regularly on TitanPoker.com.

PartyPoker Guarantees $1 Million Prize Pool on Sundays
Guarantee Has Nearly Tripled Since Last Year
By BOB PAJICH

PartyPoker.com is doubling its guarantee.

The online site announced recently that its big Sunday tournaments now have guaranteed prize pools of $1 million. The guarantee was formerly $500,000, and it was only a year ago that the prize pools were guaranteed for $350,000.

Players can buy into the Sunday Million Guaranteed Tournament directly for $215, or win their way in through a number of daily satellites that run 24 hours a day and start for as little as $3. Players also can win an entry using their Party Points.

The tournament takes place every Sunday at 4:30 p.m. EDT.

PokerStars Sponsors Aston Martin Race Team
Look for the Two Green Le Mans Cars at Local Tracks
By BOB PAJICH

PokerStars.com is now in the racing business. The online poker site has extended a relationship with Aston Martin Racing following a successful partnership in March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring race, where the team recorded a double-podium finish.

The new deal will see Aston Martin's two DBR9 race cars branded with PokerStars.com throughout the remainder of the American Le Mans Series, two events in the United Kingdom, and the world-renowned Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in France later this year.

The partnership will also involve both brands working together in a number of ways over the coming year, including the use of a fully themed show car at public events like the World Series of Poker. The partnership will also offer players at PokerStars.com the chance to get involved at races across America and Europe.

Tomas Enge from the Czech Republic and Darren Turner from the UK will drive the green cars. Enge drives car number 007 and Turner drives 009.

The American Le Mans Series schedule is as follows: New England Grand Prix Race, Lakeville, Connecticut, June 29-July 1; Grand Prix of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 13-15; Grand Prix of Portland, Portland, Oregon, July 20-21; Generac 500 at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, Aug. 17-20; Grand Prix of Mosport, Bowmanville, Ontario, Sept. 1-3; Petit Le Mans, Braselton, Georgia, Sept. 27-30; Monterey Sports Car Championships, Monterey, California, Oct. 19-21.

The races are shown on CBS Sports and the Speed Channel.

The Venetian to Host $500,000 Freeroll
Players Qualify by Logging Hours of Poker Play
By BOB PAJICH

The Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino poker room in Las Vegas recently announced it will hold a $500,000 freeroll in August.

Players can get into the freeroll by accumulating 50 hours of rated play in July (players having accumulated 200 hours of play from May through July also qualify). The tournament will be held Aug. 11-13. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 200 players in the tournament. Players need a Players Card to participate and track hours of play.

The Venetian is billing its new 36-table poker room as the most luxurious on the Strip, boasting 21 large-screen plasma televisions in a room that's "draped in rich leather and wood," according to its website. The room opened in April and several promotions are taking place to attract players.

A bad-beat jackpot was started, and poker players can obtain a parking pass that gives them special valet parking as well as access to an exclusive "poker parking only" area on the fifth floor of the parking garage.

The pass is limited in availability and can be obtained from the poker room manager.

Gumball and AbsolutePoker

AbsolutePoker took the wheel this year as one of the primary sponsors of the Gumball 3000 Rally, an exclusive rally for millionaires and their high-performance cars that was started by Maximillion Cooper. With an AbsolutePoker Ferrari F430 in the race and a significant presence at all of the Gumball checkpoints, parties, and especially at the event's online race headquarters, AbsolutePoker was able to bring the excitement of racing around the world to its online poker-playing audience, giving them the chance to win places at the Snoop Dog concert in Las Vegas and the wrap party at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills.

A Matter of Conviction
By David Apostolico

In Hunter S. Thompson's essay "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" (first published in the National Observer, May 25, 1964), Thompson takes a look at Hemingway's abilities during his twilight years. When Hemingway is asked what it took "to break in on the literary life, or anything else creative, for that matter," Hemingway replies, "There's only one thing I live by - that's having the power of conviction and knowing what to leave out."

Playing in a no-limit Texas hold'em tournament clearly requires a lot of creativity, and Hemingway's advice is dead-on accurate. Specifically, you have to have the power of conviction and know when to fold. I try to evaluate my play after every tournament, and without exception, the biggest mistakes I make are not following my convictions. This is both good and bad. First, let's look at the good. My convictions are typically very accurate. Now, the bad. I do not always follow my convictions. When I don't follow my convictions, I have completely squandered their power.

Observe the play in any tournament, and what clearly separates the best players from the rest of the pack is their faith in their convictions. Not only do they make great reads, they follow through on those reads. They'll lay down strong but losing hands. They'll call their opponents' bluffs. And they'll attack when they sense their opponents are vulnerable even if they don't have the cards to back up the attack. By doing these things, they are exploiting their convictions to maximum power.

Now, Thompson makes some interesting observations about the ability of a writer to sustain his power of conviction. He contends that it is extremely difficult for any writer to sustain such conviction over an extended period of time, due to "the mean nature of a world that will not stand still long enough for them to see it clear as a whole." Thompson states further that "it is not just a writer's crisis, but they are the most obvious victims because the function of art is supposedly to bring order out of chaos, a tall order even when the chaos is static, and a superhuman task in a time when chaos is multiplying."

Substitute poker player for writer in the previous sentence and it would still ring just as true. In a no-limit Texas hold'em tournament, tables consolidate, blinds and antes rise, the size of chip stacks change, and any player can go all in at any time. The changes that take place during a tournament are chaotic, to say the least. Now, couple that with how tournaments in general have changed over the last few years. The fields have expanded exponentially and the pace of play has increased dramatically. It's easy to see how one could waver in their convictions in such a drastically changing environment.

So, how can a player expect to survive and thrive in this universe? First and foremost, a player must be acutely aware of all of the changes taking place and adjust to those changes. Do that and you will gain the confidence necessary to place trust in your convictions. Once you have that trust, follow through on those convictions and utilize them to maximum power.

David Apostolico is the author of Tournament Poker and The Art of War and Machiavellian Poker Strategy.

The elimination matches of this year's Poker Superstars Invitational III tournament are coming, to a close and there are some big names who will not make it into the second round of 16 players after it's all said and done.

But first, those who will most certainly advance to the second round are Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Card Player COO Jeff Shulman, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Hellmuth, Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, and Johnny Chan. The way the tournament is shaking out, it looks like the second round will be made up exclusively of players who earned 20 points or more.

Jennifer Tilly put herself back into contention by winning her last match. A third-place finish in her last match will move her forward. Mimi Tran and Cyndy Violette also have a chance to make it through the first round, but in somewhat of an unlucky break, they play their final match at the same table, and each needs a win to ensure advancement.

Two of the past three World Series of Poker main-event champions have their work cut out for themselves. Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem both need to win their final match to advance. Greg Raymer has been stuck in the basement since the tournament started. He was able to accumulate only 10 points in five matches.

With one match to play, Gus Hansen will need to win his table to advance, but for others like Raymer, hope is lost. Raymer and Ted Forrest were the only two players who really didn't have a chance to make it into the second round going into their fifth elimination match. But don't feel too sorry for Forrest: He won the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship earlier this year.

Poker Superstars Invitational III is shown on FSN every Sunday at 8 p.m. local time.

Ramdin Donates From His Heart
Friend of FullTilt Gives Big
By MICHAEL FRIEDMAN

Around the world, there are plenty of impoverished people who know nothing of the game of poker and find little relevance between the game and their lives. This does not mean, however, that poker players are not touching the hearts of people in remote locations found in some Third World countries.

Friend of FullTilt Annand "Victor" Ramdin has had a stellar 2006 with his $1.3 million cash after winning the Foxwoods Poker Classic, a final-table appearance on the PartyPoker Million V cruise, and an 11th-place finish in the World Poker Tour Championship in May.

Ramdin recently donated $100,000 of his winnings to Guyana's first lady Varnshnie Jagdeo. The first lady runs a nonprofit group that provides surgeries for children of Guyana as part of her Kid's First Fund "Heart to Heart Campaign."

In the past, Ramdin has worked with fellow professionals Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey for the nonprofit group Guyana Watch. The group also helps children in need of surgery. Ivey, Greenstein, and Ramdin literally provided physical assistance to the noble team of eight to 10 medical doctors and their supporting staff of 25 while in Guyana.

According to John Mair of Stabroek News in London, Ramdin said that he wanted to do something with his winnings that "had an impact" and was in line with "the Dharma" (an individual's duty, fulfilled by observance of custom or law) of his religion, Hinduism.

The $100,000 will have immediate impact upon the lives of 13 children and four adults.

Ask Jack
Jack McClelland

Want to know how a multimillion-dollar poker tournament is run? Have a question about a specific tournament poker rule or past ruling you've encountered?

Card Player is giving you a chance to pick the mind of one of the game's finest - Bellagio Tournament Director Jack McCelland. You can send your questions to [email protected] , and McClelland will share his 25-plus years of industry experience with you.

Jack, I was in a small-stakes multitable live tournament and my table was broken down. I moved to another table and was in seat No. 2. The button was in seat No. 1. Another new player moved with me into seat No. 3. Seats No. 4 through 9 were occupied.

My question is, who should post the blinds for the first hand of this table? The tournament director ruled that I should post a single big blind and would enter on the first hand. After this hand, I would be the small blind and seat No. 3 would post the big blind (seat No. 3 would have also played the first hand).

I was hoping I could sit out the first hand, since you cannot enter on the small blind, but I was overruled and had to post the big blind.

Was the tournament director's ruling correct?

Jack McClelland: Please e-mail me with more information. If possible, I need to know if the blind was in seat No. 2 or seat No. 3 on the previous hand. Then I can give a better ruling.

2rock from Poland: Which blinds structure, amount of starting chips, and so on is optimum for a one-day tournament (14-18 hours) with a maximum of 100 players, and why?

Thanks in advance … respect.

JM: Players should receive $5,000 in chips with 60-minute levels as follows:
Levels Blinds Ante
1 $25-$50 -
2 $50-$100 -
3 $100-$200 -
4 $100-$200 $25
5 $200-$400 $25
6 $300-$600 $50
7 $400-$800 $75
8 $600-$1,200 $100
9 $800-$1,600 $200
10 $1,000-$2,000 $300
11 $1,500-$3,000 $500
12 $2,000-$4,000 $500
13 $3,000-$6,000 $1,000
14 $5,000-$10,000 $2,000
15 $10,000-$20,000 $3,000

This gives the players plenty of play for their money.

Kelley Steele: I am at the final table and raise to $30,000. A player then goes all in, the dealer says that my $30,000 has him covered, and tells us to turn our cards up. We turn them up and he wins the hand, but it is determined that he went all in for $35,000, so the floorman makes me pay the extra $5,000. Is this correct?

JM: You should not be penalized for the dealer's error. However, if you said "call" when the other player moved all in, you owe the extra $5,000. But if the dealer told you to turn up your hands without counting the chips, you should be responsible for only the lesser amount, $30,000 in this case.

Wayne: I am interested in starting some seven-card stud and deuce-to-seven no-limit tournaments in my home game. I would like a quick rundown of an efficient chip, blinds, and ante structure for these two games. Thank you.

JM: Seven-card stud - Players start with $5,000 in chips
Level Ante Low Card Limit
1 $15 $20 $50-$100
2 $2 $25 $100-$200
3 $25 $50 $200-$400
4 $50 $100 $300-$600
5 $75 $100 $400-$800
6 $100 $200 $600-$1,200
7 $100 $300 $800-$1,600
8 $200 $400 $1,000-$2,000
9 $200 $500 $1,500-$3,000
10 $300 $500 $2,000-$4,000
11 $500 $1,000 $3,000-$6,000
Deuce-to-Seven - $5,000 in chips

Level Ante Blinds
1 - $25-$50
2 - $50-$100
3 - $100-$200
4 $25 $100-$200
5 $25 $200-$400
6 $50 $300-$600
7 $75 $400-$800
8 $100 $600-$1,200
9 $200 $800-$1,600
10 $300 $1,000-$2,000
11 $500 $1,500-$3,000

How to Win With Big Slick in Early Position

Let's discuss how to win when you're dealt big slick (A-K) in early position in no-limit hold'em.

As we discussed last time, big slick is a monster hand that most players pray for, but it can also wipe you out if you don't know the right approach.

The way that A-K can send you home packing is if you go all in (or bet a substantial pile of chips) before the flop and then don't catch anything - or you catch an ace or king on the flop but then get run down by another player who makes a better hand.

Let's look at the first scenario. Moving all in with A-K from an early position is generally a smart move only when you're low on chips or at a shorthanded table. At a full table, you might run into a monster like K-K or A-A. Even if you just encounter a hand like pocket jacks, you're leaving the entire game up to a coin toss.

The second scenario - getting run down by another player even though you hit your ace or king - can be extremely frustrating. For example, let's say you're holding big slick and the flop comes out A 9 8. You're obviously excited, because you flopped top pair. But what if Marty, that new guy who just learned how to play hold'em a couple of weeks ago, is holding the 9 8? Chances are, he's going to clean you out for all of your chips.

Your strategy, then, should be to decrease the chances that someone at the table (like Marty) is going to get lucky on the flop. And you do that by making sure they don't even see the flop in the first place, by making a preflop raise.

The ultimate goal should be to create heads-up action before the flop when you get dealt big slick. Force players like Marty to fold before the flop hits. That will decrease the number of "bad beats" and enable you to focus on a single opponent.

The most difficult way to win with big slick is if you're in an early position and you don't catch anything good on the flop. Here's how I play it: Let's say I'm under the gun in a $1-$2 no-limit hold'em cash game. I look down to see the A K. I have a great hand with terrible position.

Instead of limping in and letting all of the garbage hands at the table see the flop, I make a raise, as discussed: "$15 to play." I'm hoping to get just one caller, or two at the most.

The action goes around the table, and everyone mucks his hand - except for Don. He splashes the pot and calls. So, I've created heads-up action and taken control of the betting, exactly as I wanted to do with my monster hand in this position.

The flop hits: 9 7 2.

I'm first to act. Obviously, this flop is terrible. The best thing I've got going is a backdoor diamond flush draw. So, what should I do now? Should I check my ace high? No. This is where I should fire again, and continue to play aggressively, because the flop probably didn't help Don, either, but he may have started with a pocket pair.

If I check, Don will sense my weakness and might try to steal the pot. My bet will give him the impression that I'm on an overpair and have the best hand, so he'll probably muck his cards.

If he calls and the turn card doesn't help me, I'll back down and minimize my losses. I don't want to dig myself a deeper hole and try to bluff it out.

Or, I may catch my top pair on the turn or river and be able to win that way.

So, no matter what happens, I'm not risking too many chips and I'm putting myself in a great position to win the hand.

Now, rewind for just a moment. What if my $15 preflop bet had multiple callers? Having multiple players in the hand would have increased the odds that someone actually benefited from the 9-7-2 flop. This means that I probably would have made a "probe bet" after the flop, instead. If someone raised, I would have mucked my A-K and lived to see another hand.

So, that is how you play big slick under the worst of circumstances - with scraps on the board and bad position. Let only one or two opponents see the flop and represent an overpair if nothing hits.

Don't risk your entire chip stack on a coin flip unless you're short-stacked or up against opponents who are more skilled than you.

For more tips and poker strategies like this one, subscribe to my award-winning newsletter at www.FreePokerNewsletter.com.

Tips From 'The Circuit'

CardPlayer.com's hit radio show The Circuit brings you updates, interviews, and strategy from the biggest names in poker.

The Circuit broadcasts from all World Poker Tour events.

The following is a discussion between host Scott Huff and guest Layne Flack on protecting big hands early in tournaments and keeping the lead, as broadcast on The Circuit from the WPT Championship at Bellagio.

Layne Flack: In no-limit, it's extremely, extremely important to always know where you're at. Always keep the lead, and if you get the lead taken away from you, that's when your decisions come in.

Scott Huff: Elaborate for the people who perhaps don't know what that means.

LF: As you play deeper into the tournament, you know how everyone's playing against you and what they think of you. Early on, it's a little harder, but if you bet your hands and lead out, and find out how they react to you, that's basically how you get most of your information.

SH: So, when you say having the lead taken away, that's when you're raised by your opponent on the flop after you've shown strength preflop and followed up on the flop?

LF: Yes. Now you have to go into the tank and read the player and see how he perceives you.

SH: Is that why they say good players will bet their big hands on the flop as opposed to always checking and trying to trap?

LF: Most likely. Not a lot of good can come out of paying off with a big hand when you're beat. I mean, that's the worst feeling in the world. So, you're better off leading, and if they move in on you or whatever play they make, you're out only the original bet. But if you play it in a way that you don't know where you're at, and you have to call huge bets, you might lose a lot more with two aces than you were willing to risk on a bad situation.

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

Jared from Milwaukee has, sort of …

Due to the phenomenal popularity of The Circuit as an Internet radio show, I'm sure it won't be long before The Circuit: The Movie gets greenlighted. Who do you guys think should play the roles of Scott, Joe, and Gavin on the silver screen?

My picks are:

Scott: Samuel L. Jackson (nobody is cooler than Samuel L. Jackson)

Joe: Emilio Estevez (followed in his dad's career footsteps, but has a different last name; also cheats at bowling)

Gavin: Alan Thicke (Canada's third-best poker player should be portrayed by Canada's third-best actor)

Bling-Bling: Redesigned Gold World Series of Poker Bracelets Flush With Diamonds
Main Event Bracelet is Full of Sapphires and Rubies, as Well
By BOB PAJICH

Players lucky and good enough to win a World Series of Poker bracelet this year will be doubly lucky. They will be the first group of players to receive a newly designed WSOP bracelet that features white gold and plenty of diamonds.

Forty-five bracelets will be won this year, and all but one will be exactly the same. Each winner will receive a bracelet made of 14-karat yellow gold and enhanced with full-cut white diamonds. The center plaques are hand-set with 66 diamonds weighing one-third of a carat and are supported by roughly 35 grams of a solid diamond-cut rope chain.

The winner of the main event will receive a bracelet unlike the other 44. It also will be made of 14-karat gold, but the center plaque will be filled with more diamonds than Marilyn Monroe would know what to do with.

The WSOP champion's bracelet will be set with 170 hand-picked diamonds weighing more than six carats. The bracelet's center features uniquely shaped precious color stones to represent the suit designs: a heart-shaped ruby for the heart suit, a princess-cut ruby for the diamond suit, a black sapphire for the spade suit, and three round black diamonds for the club suit.

And talk about bling-bling. The bracelet's plaque is supported by roughly 58 grams of solid diamond-cut rope chain. It's impossible to overstate the value of a World Series of Poker gold bracelet to anyone who takes the game seriously: It is the equivalent of winning the Stanley Cup in hockey or the Lombardi Trophy in football," said WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack in a press release. "The champion's bracelet at the 37th-annual World Series of Poker will be the best ever -something the winner will take pride in for a lifetime."

Harrah's also announced that TRITON Jewelry, a division of Frederick Goldman Inc., had developed the bracelets as well as a specialized line of jewelry for men and women modeled on their design.

The new line, which will consist of pendants, bracelets, cuff links, rings, a key ring, and a money clip, will feature the WSOP logo and be thematically consistent with the champion's bracelet. The new line of jewelry will be available at independent jewelers and merchants in the fall.

Card Player's
Poker By The Numbers

Jeff: I had the opportunity to read the manuscript of your new book Online Ace and really enjoyed it. It's by far the best book on online poker that I've read. Congratulations.

I have employed the sit-and-go (SNG) strategy you discussed very successfully, but have a few questions/comments for you regarding it.

1. It's hard to employ the strategy in turbo SNGs because of the reduced number of hands you get to see in the early stage. I have had less success with the strategy in turbos.

Scott: Yes, it may be a little harder in turbos, but upon further investigation, you may find that these strategies work even better in them. I can tell you that in the rare free time that I do come by these days, when I hop into a session with the intent of SNG play, I enter mostly the turbos. Basically, what I have found (and this may vary greatly depending on the size of the buy-in) is that other players think they need to gamble more in turbos. Obviously, taking the opposite side of that strategy would be optimal. What happens is, you just reach the different stages at different times, and with a different number of players around for each particular stage. For example, if in a normal SNG, the middle stage has approximately four to six players left and the end has the last four players, the turbo might have the middle stage happening with six to eight players and the end with the last five players. I think you will get a feel for this. It comes down more to the size of the stacks in relation to the blinds than how many players are left. Don't forget that the obvious adjustment of being in all-in mode with eight players left will be a lot tougher than being in all-in mode with only four players left. You may not get a lot of good "spots" to steal and push, since every player is forced into this survival mode and may be forced to call more often.

Jeff: Does the strategy have to be tweaked when playing sixhanded SNGs as opposed to 10-handed?

Scott: Sixhanded is a bit different, for a lot of reasons. I think it mainly comes down to the payout structure. If you notice that first usually gets almost all of the money and second is barely worth shooting for, you must adjust to a winner-take-all mentality. This forces a looser style in the beginning stage because you must get every chip. Also, notice that the blinds always stay fairly low in comparison to the stacks, because more hands are being played per level. This means there's far more skill involved and less pushing all in at the end. It's definitely a tougher form of SNG, and I generally find far better expected value in the full SNGs.

Jeff: On the bubble, what is the minimum hand requirement to open with an all-in raise?

Scott: Cards are irrelevant as far as your question goes. You are looking for the spot, not the hand!

Jeff: How big do the blinds have to be on the bubble to make it worth going all in? Example: If you have $2,000 in chips and are in second place out of three players, is it worth pushing if the blinds are $25-$50 to add $75 in chips? I adjust the strategy to switch into ultra-aggressive mode only when the blinds have become $50-$100 or more (assuming I have an OK chip stack). I'm interested in your thoughts on this.

Scott: My answer to your first question should help you a bit. Basically, the end stage or all-in stage is not determined by the number of players but by the size of your stack. You should never be in all-in mode unless you have about seven big bets or fewer. So, if you have 2K, the blinds would have to be $150-$300 to warrant this type of all-in mode!

Life is Hard, Poker is Harder, but Taxes are Impossible
By TIM PETERS

How to Turn Your Poker Playing Into a Business by Ann-Margaret Johnston (Abacus Enterprises, $19.95 in paperback).

Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, once said that "the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." I'm not sure if he ever played poker, but if Einstein had been a successful poker player, he certainly would have added that the hardest thing about income tax is accounting for your winnings.

That's why it's a great thing that Ann-Margaret Johnston, a certified public accountant and avid poker player (she's also a columnist for Card Player), has written this informative little book on the subject of poker and taxes. If you play regularly and with any degree of success, it's a good idea to understand the tax implications of your favorite activity.

One example will illustrate the complexity of poker and taxes: Let's say you played $3-$6 hold'em every Friday night of the year, and ended up a net winner of $1,000 on Dec. 31. You've received no documentation from the casino, but you're an honest person. On the "Other income" line on the first page of your Form 1040, you write in $1,000 and pay the tax on that extra $1,000 of income.

So far, that seems pretty straightforward. But here's the rub: In the eyes of the IRS, you've indicated that you won $1,000. In actuality, you may have won a total of $13,000 and lost a total of $12,000 over the year. It doesn't take an accountant or even much of a mathematician to deduce that your net gain was $1,000. But for tax purposes, you can't use the net figure. You have to report your total winnings on page one and total losses on Schedule A. If you don't itemize deductions, you may be out of luck - and you'll be on the hook for the $13,000 in winnings. (And if you don't know what you won or lost, well, you're in trouble if the IRS ever tracks down your poker income.) Moreover, if your income is high enough that you lose some of your deductions (the so-called "phase out"), you won't even get full credit for your losses. Life is hard, poker is harder, and taxes are impossible.

But don't let the difficulty cause you to look the other way on April 15. It can be especially tempting to forget about the tax implications of cash-game poker winnings, but failure to report them can be considered fraud (which is serious business: as Johnston points out, it's "a criminal offense to sign a tax return that is incorrect and untrue").

If you're a small-scale donkey like I am, it's unlikely that your winnings and losses will ever come to the attention of the IRS. But if you're a serious player, a consistent winner, or a true professional - or if you aspire to be any of those - this book moves into the "must-read" category. It's only fair to point out that if you fit into any of those categories, you're probably going to need a tax professional to help you navigate the treacherous waters surrounding April 15, but it's still valuable to understand the basics.

Regardless of your status as amateur or professional, poker winnings are subject to taxation, but how you account for your gains or losses is different. Essentially, professional players can deduct the expenses associated with their pursuit of their career, like travel and meals on the tournament circuit, while amateurs (that is, people who don't rely on poker for their income) cannot. And if you're striving to achieve professional status, Johnston has a good section on how to structure your business to put it and you on a professional footing (in the eyes of the IRS, if not your peers).

There's a lot of useful advice, in clear, straightforward prose, in Johnston's book, which I would recommend to anyone who gambles enough to raise a tax issue (note well: if you're reading this column, you certainly gamble enough). My only criticism, and it's a mild one, is that in her effort to be entertaining, Johnston prefaces each chapter with a little narrative vignette that illustrates her points about poker and taxes, and adds a little humor. But her anecdotes just aren't that funny, and while I appreciate her attempt to inject some levity into the dry topic of taxes, I don't really want humor from my tax advisor. Nonetheless, she's written a useful book on a topic that every serious poker player should know something about.

If you're a winning poker player, either buy this book or hire a good accountant, because you will encounter the IRS someday. (And if you're a losing poker player, buy a good instruction book - and aspire to need this one someday.)

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