The Inside Straight

New Activision Game Looking for Champions

Face Some of the Poker Greats in the New Video Game

By Bob Pajich



Although more than 8,700 people played in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event, millions of poker fans didn't play in what has become the biggest poker event of the year. With the release of its new game, video game publisher Activision looks to make the excitement of the main event – as well as many of the WSOP Tournament Circuit events – available to everyone.



Now on store shelves is Activision's newest poker game, World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions, which aims to immerse video game fans into the life of a professional poker player. The game is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation PSP, and computers.



"People want to be able to experience the World Series of Poker and we provide a way to experience it without anteing up $10,000 to participate in the main event," said Steve Williams, brand manager and director of trade marketing for Activision.



World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions follows last year's successful release of World Series of Poker, which generated more than $20 million for the company in North America alone. This year's game is packed with features and professional players that weren't in that edition, and it looks like this is the console poker game to own to get a taste of what it's like to be on the poker tournament trail.



The World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions game feature 32 players and characters who populate the real poker world. T.J. Cloutier, Erik Seidel, Antonio Esfandiari, Clonie Gowen, Jennifer Tilly, Scott Fischman, and even Card Player's own Jeff and Barry Shulman are some of the professional players who will be found in this game.



The action is called by ESPN's Norman Chad and Lon McEachern, and poker lessons are given by five-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Ferguson. A sound studio was set up in Las Vegas earlier this year to record the voices of all those who participated in the game, and Chad even wrote many of his own off-the-wall lines for which he's known.



The players look spot-on, because developers spent many hours using the latest 3-D technology to make sure all the details are there, all the way down to Joe Hachem's jazz patch.



"You actually feel that you're sitting at the table across from them," Williams said.



But the game is not just about looks. Activision did its best to make sure the pros in the game play like their real-life doppelgangers. A questionnaire was filled out by all the players to help developers incorporate the nuances and superstitions of the real players. The questionnaire tried to determine how the players play certain hands in certain situations, how they would go about drawing for a straight or a flush, and other strategic situations that make each player play differently.



"We wanted to make sure we had that in here," said Donna Johnston, the game's producer. "You're definitely going to see a difference from playing Jesus Ferguson when you're playing T.J. Cloutier and Mark Seif."



Those who own the Xbox 360 and the new video camera that was just released for the system will be able to put themselves right into the game by using the state-of-the-art program called DigiMask. Players can take a picture of themselves, and DigiMask will create the video version of it. The examples Activision sent of the DigiMask feature look great, and it looks like a whole lot of fun to mess around with.



When players start the game, Ferguson takes them as a protégé. Players play in WSOP Tournament Circuit events, trying to rack up enough points along the way to get into the Tournament of Champions. Players also win bracelets, trophies, and other awards that they can use to decorate their own poker room. The more achievements that are made, the more items that are won and unlocked.



Players can invite other players who are online into their poker rooms to check out their booty, and also to play some poker. For the more serious players, a leader board will be maintained that keeps track of how well the World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions community is doing. But be warned, the systems keep track of both wins and losses. Although players can re-up in games, this is marked and reflected on the leader boards.



Also while playing online, players can use their console cameras and microphones to broadcast themselves to players everywhere, making a poker face an asset. Users will be able to chat with friends and enemies while playing, giving the game a more social aspect that is reminiscent of kitchen penny-ante poker games.



Card Player is also heavily featured in the game. Besides the Shulmans, poker tips taken from Barry's book pop up during load screens, and players can unlock different Card Player gear, like shirts and hats, which they can dress their characters in. And when a player wins the Tournament of Champions, his picture is put on the cover of a Card Player magazine in the game. If you ask us, that's worth the price alone.

PartyGaming Continues to Grow

Poker Side of the Business Brought in $2.9 Million a Day
By Bob Pajich



PartyGaming, the publicly traded online gaming site that's home to PartyPoker.com, PartyPoker.net, PartyBingo, PartyCasino, and PartyGammon, again reported that its revenues are up.



Revenues for the first six months of 2006 surged to $661.9 million, which is a 51 percent increase from the first half of 2005 ($437 million). The company also reported that it's achieving its goal to increase the number of customers outside the United States.



During the first six months of 2005, only 14 percent of total revenue was generated from customers located outside the U.S.; this year, almost a quarter of the total revenue (23 percent) came from outside the U.S.



Online gaming sites are trying to diversify their customer bases because of the recent political climate in the U.S. Certain politicians and the federal government are working hard to stop online gambling here, and a bill prohibiting online gambling will face Congress sometime this fall. The Justice Department has even started to arrest and charge CEOs of online sportsbooks.



In fact, despite PartyGaming's good financial news, its stock on the London Stock Exchange dropped about 10 percent after news got out that Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks was detained by the U.S. government. Stocks fell from 117.25 pence to 105.75 pence the day the report came out in September.



But the report, like many of PartyGaming's recent quarterly reports, has noted record profits and amazing growth. Some of the highlights of PartyGaming's report for the first six months of 2006 include:



• Poker is still performing strongly. Revenue delivered by poker the first six months of 2006 grew by 22 percent. More than $502 million was brought in by poker so far this year. During the first six months of last year, poker brought in $412 million. About $2.9 million was earned by poker every day.



• Compared to 2005, PartyCasino has taken off. It generated 527 percent more revenue than last year. So far, $159.2 million was brought in from its casino site, compared to $25.4 million last year.



• PartyGaming revealed some business strategy in the report. The company wants to continue expanding its customer base outside the U.S., as well as introduce new games and products. Also, the company is looking to expand, and it will do that by buying other online sites.



• Up to now, all the games played on PartyGaming's platforms have been developed in-house, but that's going to change. In the future, the report says a few games will be licensed through third parties. This will accelerate the pace at which new games could be added.



• As of June 30, more than 19 million people have registered at one of PartyGaming's sites. Last June, that number was 9 million. The first six months of 2006 brought in 519,532 new people, and 43 percent of those came from outside the U.S.



The financial report for the third quarter of this year is due out Oct. 20.

Third-Annual Turek Poker Charity Event for Multiple Sclerosis

World Poker Tour and FullTiltPoker Sponsor MS Research

By Lisa Wheeler



The third-annual Turek No-Limit Hold'em Poker Tournament, sponsored by FullTilt and the World Poker Tour, took place recently in Port Chester, New York, and $25,000 was raised for Multiple Sclerosis research.



Andy Bloch, the 2006 World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event runner-up, donated the top prize. Turek charity-event champion John Sias won a $10,000 seat in a WPT event, while Chuck Petruccione won the second prize, donated by the WPT, to participate in its boot camp. Petruccione also won a FullTilt framed jersey signed by Clonie Gowen after knocking out bounty player Matt Matros.



Other prizes were awarded to the first five players who made a winning flush or full house, and to the top three women finishers.



Former New York Jets and Giants player John "Goumba Johnny" Sialiano was also marked as a tournament target. Sialiano has turned to performing comedy live and over the airwaves in New York. He kept the audience and tournament participants in stitches while dodging bounty hunters at his table.



Jason Daloia, whose mother-in-law suffers from MS, has organized the Turek No-Limit Hold'em Poker Tournament for the past three years. The event has helped raise more than $67,000 for MS research.

Poker Superstars III Final Four Rounding Out

The End Has Already Come for Most Players

By Bob Pajich



And then there was one – one spot left, that is.



Out of the eight players who made it to the Poker Superstars III version of the "Elite Eight," three will battle next week to see who makes it to the final four, and who are finished with this tournament.



Last week, Todd Brunson outlasted Mike Matusow, Card Player COO Jeff Shulman, and Gus Hansen to claim the third seat in the final four. Next Sunday, those three players will play to determine who takes the fourth and final seat.



A week before, Johnny Chan outlasted Freddy Deeb and Carlos Mortensen to claim the second spot in the final four. Antonio Esfandiari was the first man in, winning his table the first time around. Each person who makes it into the final four wins $30,000.



The last few rounds have truly been a test of the players' shorthanded skills, and the matches to determine the two players who will play for the championship continue with that theme.



Poker Superstars III started with 32 players, who played five sixhanded matches in which points were awarded according to places.

The top 16 point leaders moved on to the next round, where they played at least two matches, fourhanded and then threehanded. The players then performed the same poker dance when it was down to eight players, until there were four left.



Once the final four is determined, the players will pair off and play a best-of-three match to find out who will play a best-of-five match for the championship. Those matches will be aired in a few weeks. The last player standing will receive a not-so-paltry prize of $400,000. The runner-up will receive $140,000.



Poker Superstars III is aired on FSN every Sunday at 8 p.m., but check your local listings, as some local stations air it at different times. And check www.CardPlayer.com to read about the complete coverage of this series.

Win Your Tuition at AbsolutePoker

New Contest Giving Away a Full Year

By Bob Pajich



In this age of poker, more than one student in America has funded his or her higher education from money earned at the poker tables, either grinding away the cost of books and student fees by playing relatively small-stakes games or imitating some of the new-age poker whizzes and rocking the big tournaments for thousands of dollars.



AbsolutePoker is giving away a full year's tuition in more or less one fell swoop during its Win Your Tuition promotion that's now going on at the online poker site. It holds its Win Your Tuition promotion twice a year, and this fall's version ends Nov. 15.



Last month, AbsolutePoker flew the final six players in spring's event to New York City, where they played at the CroBar, surrounded by friends and family. David Wood, a junior management major from Purdue University was the last man standing, so this year of school for him is on AbsolutePoker. Justin Rausch, a senior chemistry major from Penn State, came in second and won one semester of tuition.



The Win Your Tuition contest has been going on since 2005. According to AbsolutePoker, the promotion has attracted students from more than 300 schools in 17 countries. Past winners include students from the University of Florida Law School and Carnegie Mellon University.



The contest is made up of 24 weekly qualifiers that take place from now until November. The top 50 players from each qualifier are entered into the final tournament, and the winner of each qualifier receives $100. The top six players will then play for the grand prize on Nov. 15.



AbsolutePoker has worked hard to appeal to college students. Besides the Win Your Tuition contest, the site has begun to award internships to several students each semester. To top it off, an internship takes place at AbsolutePoker's offices in Costa Rica. The online site pays for the flight and lodging, and even pitches in some spending money. The site also offers fundraising for college organizations. For more information, visit AbsolutePoker.com.

Make Something Happen

By David Apostolico



I'll leave it to others to discuss whether poker is a sport or not. However, there are many similarities between poker and sports.



Managing a baseball game is often referred to as a chess match in the late innings, when managers (at least in the National League, where there is no designated hitter) have to manage their benches and bullpens and try to find favorable matchups by staying one step ahead of their counterparts. Certainly, a good poker player tries to both anticipate and induce moves in their adversaries. There is another aspect of baseball, though, that I find more analogous to poker – at least no-limit hold'em tournaments.



During the course of a long season, baseball teams and players are going to hit some dry spells. The hits just won't drop and runs are scarce. It's the baseball equivalent of being card-dead. In a baseball game, as in a poker tournament, players do not have the luxury of waiting things out. They must try to make something happen or they will lose. Players and managers will resort to some time-honored strategies to stir things up during those droughts. Poker players can do the same. When the infield is playing back, a smart player will try a bunt to break out of a slump. Poker players can also take what the opposition is willing to give them by going after those small pots that are checked around.



More aggressive managers will try a hit-and-run, which can stimulate a rally but also cost the team an out if it fails. A poker player can use late position to raise an unraised pot no matter what cards he holds. Even if called, he'll have position the rest of the hand. He's willing to risk some chips in order to make something happen and take down a pot. Of course, there is also the straight steal in both baseball and poker. Finally, there's the sacrifice, whereby you give up an out to advance a runner. In poker, you must sometimes call a bet from the big blind in order to slow down your opponents. You sacrifice some chips for future opportunities. All of these strategies have the same end goal – playing to win.



Poker tournaments are unlike cash games. You should not be playing to win a few pots and stay ahead. You should be playing to win. That means taking some chances and not playing not to lose. With the start of football season, let's take a look at one of the best games of the last bowl season for a lesson.



Last year's Sugar Bowl between West Virginia and Georgia was a classic. It was high-scoring, with a lot of big plays, and it came down to the wire. Most importantly, West Virginia played to win, and that is the primary reason many pundits are picking them to win it all this year. Ahead by three points with just a little over one minute to play, West Virginia was looking at fourth down with six yards to go. It sure looked like Georgia would get the ball back for one last drive. Not so fast, though. West Virginia faked the punt, ran for the first down, and secured the victory. That was a big-time call.



How many football games have you watched a team sit on the lead, afraid to make mistakes? They are forced to punt the ball back to the opposition and then play a prevent defense that allows the other team to march right down the field and score.



That's no way to play football, and it's no way to play poker. You have to play to win. In no-limit hold'em, the first person to make a play for the pot usually wins it. You can't sit back and hope your opponent doesn't want it. Compare the end of a poker tournament to the end of a football game. Down the homestretch, checking and calling is the equivalent of running the ball up the middle, afraid to risk an interception. Betting and raising is the equivalent of going for the first down and the win. Many coaches think it's too risky to put the ball in the air, just as many players think it's too risky to commit their chips to the pot. The bigger risk, in my opinion, is giving the ball back to your opponent (or checking to him and giving him the opportunity to control the betting). That's playing not to lose. If you are going to play, play to win!

David Apostolico is the author of Lessons From the Pro Poker Tour, Tournament Poker and The Art of War, and Machiavellian Poker Strategy. He can be reached at [email protected].

Another Gaming CEO Arrested by U.S. Government

But a New York Judge Lets Him Go Home
By Bob Pajich



Sportingbet PLC, an online sportsbook, voluntarily suspended trading its shares on the London Stock Exchange after its chairman was detained by the United States government on Sept. 6, but when trading continued a few days later, the company lost almost half its value. Sportingbet owns popular poker site ParadisePoker.



Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks was arrested at JFK Airport, but a week and a half later, he was on his way back home to the United Kingdom after a judge ruled that an extradition warrant in his name wasn't good enough to keep him in custody.



Dicks resigned from Sportingbet before the hearing took place.



This arrest comes two months after David Caruthers, CEO of BetonSports, was arrested in Texas on charges of racketeering and fraud. Caruthers remains in house arrest, awaiting trial in St. Louis.



In 1998, Jay Cohen and two other executives were indicted by the Department of Justice for violating the Wire Act. Cohen returned to the United States to fight the charges. He lost, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.



At a local level, Richard Lee, the sixth-place finisher in this year's World Series of Poker, is being investigated for running an online sportsbook out of his home in San Antonio, Texas. That investigation is being run by the San Antonio Police Department.



Although Lee's house was raided and thousands of dollars worth of property was seized recently, charges have yet to be filed.



Online gaming stocks fell that week in September as the news of Dicks' arrest spread, because most customers of online poker and sportsbook sites live in the United States. PartyGaming shares fell about 10 percent to 105.75 pence, 888 Holding fell about 15 percent to 144 pence, and Empire Online lost 3.1 percent to 70 pence.

Jennifer Leigh Death by Jennicide

By Craig Tapscott



If you underestimate Jennifer Leigh, as most players do, it may just be the end of you. Many opponents have fallen prey to her innocence, soft-spoken manner, and infectious giggle. It's no act, cross her heart and hope to die. Yet why is it that no one ever believes she's got the goods until she flips over the winning hand? The truth be told, Leigh's a complex woman who knows exactly what she's doing.



"I'm a professional poker player. I want people to completely misread me," giggled Leigh. "I love it when there's information out there about me, how I played a hand and so on. Come on. Think I'm a b——, please. It gives me action at the table. I love it."



Online, Leigh is affectionately known as Jennicide, where she's booked countless final tables and wins. During the first week of September, she killed, reaching the final table of the $200 PokerStars Sunday event, finishing fourth out of 5,699 players for more than $45,000. A week later, she took down a $100 buy-in at PokerStars for $5,400. The beautiful 23-year-old is on a roll.



Recent live cashes include: 42nd at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $13,500, 18th in the World Series of Poker $1,000 no-limit hold'em event for $16,500, and 45th in the recent World Poker Tour Legends of Poker for $15,530. Still, the Internet is where she feels most at home.



Be forewarned, the high-limit cash games on the Net are her stomping grounds. "One of my biggest achievements is being a winning tournament as well as cash-game player," said Leigh, "being able to be diverse and open myself up. From my experience, playing only tournaments is the ultimate grind. For me, the limit cash games lower the variance in between multitable tournaments."



Craig Tapscott: Where did you attend school and when were you introduced to poker?



Jennifer Leigh: I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and attended the University of Delaware, where I majored in political science and philosophy. Robert Boyd, Dutch's brother, introduced me to poker. We grew up together on the computer within the hacking subculture, and were both hackers when I was only 12 years old. But I got out of that because I knew a lot of people getting into trouble (giggling). So Robert got me into playing poker with $5 sit-and-gos online.



CT: What drove you to improve so obsessively?



JL: The intriguing part was that I won my very first $5 sit-and-go. I had no idea what I was doing. I was very aggressive; I have that nature from playing video games. Every time I played, I was always the warrior, up close, killing all the monsters. At the start, I looked at poker like an RPG (role-playing game). Then, I got addicted. Put a new type of poker game in front of me and my instinct is to excel, to be the best that I can be in a very short time. I will sit there 24/7 trying to do it.



CT: Any secrets learned?



JL: The best part about online limit hold'em is the fact that I was able to print out my hand histories. If I booked a loss or a big win, I would go through with a highlighter, all the bets I won, lost, and so on. I would count the bets where I lost the most value.

I eventually created my own database. By doing it myself, since I'm a very visual person, I can look at the hands and kind of remember the ones that I really butchered, and then review and learn from them.



CT: Who's your favorite player?



JL: My favorite player in the world is Jennifer Harman. I think she's a strong woman and is certainly someone who inspires me.



CT: Any advice for young players?



JL: The biggest thing for young players is not to make the mistake I did, and be so consumed by the game that it affects your life outside of poker. I lost many close friends because I didn't go out anymore, and my grades dropped. I was even put on academic dismissal. Remember, if you do find poker as your true calling, stay in school. You need your education and a backup plan.



CT: How about for women?



JL: The biggest thing is – don't be intimidated by men. Don't fall into the thinking that because you're a woman, men are stronger than you. You really need to have confidence. Embrace that … enjoy yourself. I appreciate everything that's come my way. I'm really loving this life that was dealt to me.



Beneath Jennifer Leigh's golden locks and sentence-ending giggles resides a keen intelligence. Venture deeper and you'll discover an intriguing woman who's succeeding on a road less traveled. It's well worth the trip.

Red Rock Casino Resort Spa Poker Room Review

By Lisa Wheeler

The Red Rock poker room is a favorite of Southwest Las Vegas locals, with services and amenities that cater to a demanding clientele. Well-planned, the poker room is only a short walk from valet service or parking garages. Nestled between the sportsbook, an independent beverage service station, and the affordable Turf Grill, the poker room holds down a sweet spot inside the casino. There are also restroom facilities for poker players' exclusive use. This nonsmoking, luxurious, and spacious room boasts 20 red-felt-covered tables that have a clear betting line and are banked by soft leather, each with a card shuffler to quicken play.



Upon entering the poker room, players slide their Station Casino Players Club card through the kiosk located at the front entrance, and then specify their game of choice to a courteous and welcoming floorperson. The information is organized by the Bravo system, which enables the staff to quickly identify an open seat, while players can follow a game list with ease. Bravo also enables members to track their accumulated Players Club points. These points may be redeemed for cash toward casual or fine dining at any Station casino.



Along the walls of the poker room are several large plasma screen TVs that broadcast various sporting events. There's also a keno board and a larger monitor dedicated to the Station Casinos' cumulative progressive jackpot standings. The $150,000- minimum jackpot qualifier starts with a beaten hand of quad tens or better. After one week, if the jackpot has not been awarded, the qualifier drops to four nines, then four eights, and so on.



The April grand opening of the Red Rock Casino drew plenty of poker action, and after a successful six-month trial period, the heavy cardroom attendance shows little sign of waning. And the action couldn't be better, as Red Rock Casino has lured many gamers away from the Strip.

Online Hand-to-Hand Combat: Rizen Suspects Larceny By Craig Tapscott



Want to study real poker hands with the Internet's most successful players? In this new series, Card Player offers hand analysis with online poker's leading talent. And, as an added bonus, you can check out additional live video commentary provided by the pros at www.CardPlayer.com/hand2handcombat.com.



Event: No-limit hold'em $200 Winner's Choice satellite tournament on FullTiltPoker



Prize: Top two spots receive a $12,000 package to the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker event of choice



Stacks: Rizen – $1,925, Villain – $2,750; blinds – $25-$50



Preflop: (nine players) Rizen is in middle position with the Q Q; Villain is in early position and raises to $150; Rizen reraises to $450, and Villain calls.



Eric "Rizen" Lynch: Preflop, I really don't think this hand is all that interesting. Villain makes a standard raise, and with Q-Q, I make a pretty standard reraise, and he flat-calls. Sometimes people slow-play A-A or K-K this way, but it easily could be something like 8-8 to J-J trying to flop a set, or a big ace hoping to hit a flop, although I think this is a poor way to play a big ace; either push to see all five cards or fold here.



Craig Tapscott: Do you ever consider the speed of a bet or push as a variable for a decision?



EL: Yes, but in this particular case, I don't think I did. But in my Stars Sunday win, I snapped off a bluff for a huge pot in the middle stages by calling an instant push when a scary river card made the board A-10-2-J-Q and I held A-2 offsuit in a small blind/big blind confrontation.



Flop: K 5 2 ($975 pot, two players); Villain goes all in for $2,300, and Rizen calls all in for $1,475.



EL: This is the interesting street. Villain open-pushes a very uncoordinated flop for well over the size of the pot. Well, what does this mean? This is a very good flop for A-A or K-K, and a good player would certainly check to the raiser here to extract more. There are virtually no draws here. I believe that A-K also checks. Perhaps if he made a very loose call with K-Q, it might play this way. So, we've pretty much decided that every hand that checks here beats us. So, with what does he bet here? I felt really strongly that he had either J-J or 10-10 here, or even the other Q-Q. Those hands make sense, since it's a very good flop for them in terms of one overcard that's not an ace and no coordinated flop. I even typed into chat at this point, "J-J, huh?" as I was thinking. I eventually decided that if he was willing to play a hand that beat me this way, I was willing to donate all of my chips to him, and called.



Turn: J



River: 8



Results: Final pot, $3,925; Villain showed the A Q, and Rizen showed the Q Q. Rizen won.



CT: Were you surprised at the hand he turned over?



EL: I honestly never figured him to do this with A-Q. This is something I've seen a lot more of lately. It was sort of a weird stop and go.



The lesson here is to use common sense, try to get into the mind of your opponent, and determine what makes sense for him to have. Every fiber in my body told me that this is not the way any sane person would play A-K, A-A, or K-K, which meant the only logical alternative was that I was ahead.



To see this hand animated and narrated with additional analysis by Rizen, visit www.CardPlayer/hand2handcombat.com.


Eric (Rizen) Lynch has been one of the most consistent online and live-tournament winners for the past 12 months. This year, he has won the PokerStars.com Sunday event for $156,000, placed third in the World Series of Poker $1,500 pot-limit hold'em event for $104,000, and followed that success with a 24th-place finish in the main event for $494,000.

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. Tune in at www.CardPlayer.com/thecircuit.



The following is a discussion between hosts Scott Huff, Gavin Smith, and Joe Sebok, and guest Shane "Shaniac" Schleger on rebuy strategy, as broadcast on The Circuit from Bellagio during the 2006 World Series of Poker:



Scott Huff: How do you adjust your strategy for rebuy tournaments?



Shane Schleger: The bottom line with any rebuy tournament, in my opinion, is to buy as many chips as they're offering you. So,

I'm always going to buy the $1,000 (rebuy) that they give me. There's really no stack size that I could have at the end of the break that would preclude me from wanting the double add-on.



Gavin Smith: There's [no amount] that I could have.



Joe Sebok: Certainly there are the two strategies of playing completely maniacally, and moving in and just going completely nuts, which a lot of the professionals do. I personally don't. So my question to you guys is, is that how you guys play? Do you go in there and just shove in, shove in, shove in, and get as many chips on the table as possible?



GS: I would definitely say that I play draws way more aggressively in a rebuy tournament than in a non-rebuy tournament. I'm willing to put my chips in on a draw almost every time and let a guy call me if he wants to call me.



SS: There is a fine line between giving yourself the best shot to accumulate chips and take advantage of the rebuys, and dumping so much money that it becomes unprofitable. I think you just have to be willing to take every gamble that's presented to you in the rebuy period.



GS: A lot depends, as well, on where your table sits in the breaking order. If you are late in the breaking order, you can afford to gamble more, because then there are going to be more chips on the table that you can win at a later time. If you're the first table to break, you don't want to pump that table up and have them go everywhere else in the room.



SS: It's also a matter of image.



JS: You play more maniacally if you think the players at your table are going to believe that's how you play. So, if they don't adjust at the end of the rebuy period and think you're still pushing in with ace-deuce and ace-six and all that crazy stuff, you really can play more insanely (during the rebuy period), because they're not going to adjust and they're going to think, "Oh, this guy's been completely insane." It basically means that they don't understand the strategy of a rebuy tournament.



SS: If you're playing it like a freezout with one or two bullets, you're playing on scared money, basically. You're going to be worried about busting out, whereas Gavin is going to be firing it in, putting you all in and putting you to decisions, and he can accumulate chips from everyone who's buying in only once or twice. And I think that has to be a big edge.

Ken B: This keeps happening to me in tournaments: I am in late position with a premium pair. There are two or three callers in front of me. I raise big (three to five times the big blind), and get one caller. He checks a rag-filled unsuited flop. I make a pot-size bet. He calls. A blank comes on the turn. He checks, I bet big again, and he calls. The same thing happens on the river, and he turns over a set. I am out or crippled. Is there any way out of this? Am I just overplaying my big pocket pairs?



Scott: If there are limpers in front of you, you should be raising five to seven times the big blind, which should prevent people calling with 7-2. If you get one caller after your bigger bet, your next bet should be three-fourths of the pot. If he calls, you can check the turn. At this point, you need to slow down, and you might even have to fold. Call the river unless he pushes all in. Try to keep the pot smaller. It's unlucky if you lose to a set, but it's not always wrong to go broke with aces if a guy flops a set. Right now, your "big" raise isn't big enough if you keep getting called by small pairs. The bottom line is, you may be overplaying your big pairs, but you are also getting unlucky.



Big pocket pairs are great preflop, but it's not often one pair that wins in tournaments.


Tom: I've been playing poker online for about four months. I play mainly small-stakes sit-and-gos to learn the trade, and I've been doing OK, so I decided to try out live poker at my local casino. It hosts a £10 plus £1 rebuy no-limit hold'em tournament on Saturdays, and I was astonished at the enthusiasm of other players to go all in, often with complete trash. I had J-J busted by Q-4 offsuit, for example, after having gone all in against a similar-sized stack. Starting chips are £1,000 and blinds £25-£50, so you can't be conservative, but if you've got K-Q on the button and it's checked around to you and you make a bet of £150, what should you do when someone who initially checked then goes all in – especially if you think he's just trying to scare you out of a pot and you've seen him make this move with trash before? What sort of hands should you play strongly? What sort of good-looking hands are a no-no? Are £10 rebuy tournaments simply a waste of time? Cheers!



Scott: There are two ways to play rebuy tournaments:



(1) fishy and expensively



(2) tight and cheaply



Depending on your style (or mood or bankroll), play accordingly. A lot of players feel the need to buy a large stack during rebuy tournaments, as the advantage at the later stages is hugely beneficial. If you aren't prepared and willing to rebuy to amass chips, you are at a huge disadvantage and should probably stick to the freezeout style.

If you are a tight player, be prepared for bad beats. Ride them out, and hopefully you will get them back in the long term. You should expect to see anything during a rebuy period.


Chowmein: I was recently in a no-limit hold'em multitable tournament on PokerStars, and I have a few questions about a strange situation. There were 108 players, a $109 buy-in, the top 18 got paid, and we were down to 21 players (three sevenhanded tables). The blinds were $100-$200 with a $25 ante, and I had $3,300 in chips. Two people folded and I picked up A-Q. This was my thinking: If I raise to $600, which was standard, and somebody comes over the top, am I committed? The big blind had a decent stack and might call with any two cards for only $400 more. The blinds were going up to $200-$400 in the next few hands, so I decided to raise all in so that the big blind wouldn't call, which I think was an overbet – $3,300 to win only $475. In a few hands, $475 in chips would be meaningless, so should I fold preflop and wait until I have position after the blinds? If I raise to $600, and someone reraises and I fold, I have only $2,700 with the blinds coming at $200-$400. But if I eat the blinds at $200-$400 with my $3,300 in chips, I still have about $2,600 to raise when the button gets to me. What do you think? I ended up raising all in and someone behind me had A-A, and I lost. With all of that info, what would you do? I know that you might not wait until your chips get that low. I know that it was unlucky to run into A-A, but what about the decisions I made?



Scott: You are not committed if someone goes over the top. First of all, you need to consider the player who has made the move. If your read is that he is loose-aggressive, call. Otherwise, folding isn't horrible. A-Q isn't the nuts!



Moving in is also not ideal because of the following: You are only going to get called by a hand that is better than yours, like A-K or any pair. Basically, this is a gray area. What you do comes down to what type of player you are and what kind of players you are against. Going all in is the worst option. You can limp, raise, or fold – and all are correct. There isn't one right answer.

Gambling: Part of Culture, Part of Life

By Tim Peters



Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling by David G. Schwartz (Gotham Books, $30)



To what seems to be the majority of today's poker players – the 20-somethings who have cut their teeth online – the phrase "back in the day" might easily refer to Chris Moneymaker, the first online qualifier to win the main event, back in 2003. Or, if they have a keen sense of poker history, they might think "old school" means Stu "The Kid" Ungar, who won his first World Series of Poker main event in 1980. But poker's real history dates back at least 500 years – and gambling in general "is simply older than history," writes David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (where else?), in this fascinating new book.



Schwartz has traced the roots of gambling back to the earliest forms of civilization. Here's an early example: In Mesopotamia, some 7,000 years ago, the small hucklebones of sheep and goats (located just above the heel bone) were used to "cast lots," an essentially religious practice for divination – predicting the future. "When Mesopotamian fortune-tellers filed down their hucklebones and marked them with insignia, they took the first steps towards modern dice," he writes – hence the origins of "roll the bones," an expression used by some old-time craps players. But it wouldn't be too long before people transformed sortilege (the technical term for telling the future by interpreting thrown objects) into a form of gambling, and eventually people realized they could gamble on just about anything, from "rolling the bones" to sports, from lotteries to card games. "At every juncture of history, it seems, the gambler is nearby."



In fact, Schwartz makes a pretty strong case that the impulse to gamble is a universal one – and that the desire to prohibit the activity is misguided and doomed to fail. Religious leaders have condemned gambling, but bingo accounts for a meaningful contribution to church coffers. Pharaohs, emperors, and kings all formulated laws against it, typically as they raked in gambling-related fees and taxes – not to mention lottery revenues. And with gambling legalized, in some form or another, in most of the United States, recent efforts to criminalize online betting seem particularly hypocritical. Card Player readers following this recent legislation will appreciate Schwartz's history of gambling suppression; we can only hope that members of Congress and state legislators read the book.



Of course, the most interesting sections of Roll the Bones for Card Player readers are those about poker (a comprehensive history of the game is being written by James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street; McManus supplies an introduction to Roll the Bones). Card games in general swept across Asia and Europe during the 500 years between 1000 and 1500 (the origins of playing cards are obscure, but Schwartz offers one historian's guess that they came from sixth-century Korea), and the modern deck, with 52 cards of four suits, was a French creation dating back to 1480. The roots of poker can be found in early forms of "vying" games, in which players used betting to indicate the strength of their hand (or to bluff, of course), like the French brelan and the Italian primero. But poker's clearest antecedent is the German game pochen, which in France became poque, and, in early 19th-century America, evolved to poker (some believe the practice of rapping the felt when checking comes from the German word pochen, "to knock").



Despite its European roots (Schwartz is somewhat dismissive of the notion that poker descended from the ancient Persian game of as nas), the history of poker is very much connected to the history of America. The game came to the States through the French colony of Louisiana (the word "poker" itself is thought to be the result of the American pronunciation of the French poque). When people began playing poker in New Orleans at the beginning of the 19th century, it quickly "became the American social game par excellence." Poker was part and parcel of America's westward expansion, and it has long been a standard element of the mythology of the wild, wild West. By "social," Schwartz means played among friends, but there was really nothing social about the games played by the cardsharps along the Mississippi. Not for nothing was poker sometimes referred to as "the cheater's game" (one of the great achievements of poker's recent history is that legitimate charges of cheating are remarkably rare). Schwartz also covers some of the recent history of the game, in particular the powerful combination of online poker and television that has catalyzed the remarkable growth of the game in the last several years.



Roll the Bones is interesting because gambling is interesting (indeed, one could go so far as to say that gambling makes things interesting). Schwartz makes the colorful history of this sphere of human activity come alive by dozens of separate strands into a comprehensive tapestry, a big-picture perspective that connects those Mesopotamians throwing the bones of a sheep to a vacationer tossing a pair of dice at Bellagio. It might be beyond the purview of Schwartz's book, but I wish the author had devoted more attention to the "why" of gambling: Why do we do it? Why is making a bet on a football game or playing a hand of poker so compelling? Perhaps those questions have more to do with psychology than history. Perhaps the instinct to gamble is hardwired in our brains, an evolutionary mechanism that reflects the ultimate game of imperfect information: life. Schwartz quotes Pliny the Elder (first century): "We are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance is our God." When you sit down to play poker, in a cardroom or online, you're taking part in a drama that spans human history, and Schwartz has written the definitive account of that history in Roll the Bones.