Player of the Year Race Enters Home Stretch
Mizrachi Continues Impressive Run
By Michael Friedman
As 2006 begins to wind down, the Card Player Player of the Year (POY) race continues to heat up, as three impressive stars have moved into a virtual three-way tie for second place. With everyone's sights set on current POY front-runner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and his whopping 5,961 points, the remainder of 2006 should be as hot as the Las Vegas desert during the middle of the World Series of Poker.
Close on Mizrachi's heels are Alabaman Shannon Shorr and Californians Nam Le and John Hoang, with 4,476, 4,225, and 4,092 points, respectively.
Leading the race for most final-table appearances is Hoang at 13, while Mizrachi has 10, and both Shorr and Le have seven tables each.
The top five POY contestants are rounded out by the "Poker Brat" himself, Phil Hellmuth, and his four WSOP final-table finishes worth $1,260,815.
After three cashes at the WSOP, Mizrachi took home a Bellagio Cup II title when he won the $1,000 no-limit hold'em event. Hoang finished second to Mizrachi in that event. Mizrachi had two quiet months following his Bellagio victory, but resurfaced at the World Poker Tour Festa al Lago tournament at Bellagio, capturing 13th place, $41,745, and 96 POY points.
Mizrachi's closest competitor in the POY race is Shorr. After cashing in two WSOP events, Shorr had a monstrous showing at the Bellagio Cup II. He recorded four cashes during the event, including two victories worth more than $1 million and 2,496 POY points. Shorr recently finished third at Borgata in the $1,500 no-limit hold'em event, and seventh in the Festa al Lago $2,500 no-limit hold'em tournament.
Not far behind Shorr is Le. After recording six cashes during the WSOP, Le continued his impressive 2006 campaign with a second place in the $300 no-limit hold'em event at the Legends of Poker and a second-place finish in the Festa al Lago $3,000 no-limit hold'em event.
Hoang is the ironman of the group, making the most final tables on the POY candidate list. Continuing an impressive post-WSOP run, he finished second behind Mizrachi at the Bellagio Cup II, third in the Legends of Poker $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, and second in the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event at the Festa al Lago tournament.
Phil Hellmuth's impressive performance during the WSOP has enabled him to remain in the top five despite having not cashed in an event since the WSOP.
One of the POY top-10 list's hardest workers has to be the No. 6 man, David Daneshgar of Westlake Village, California. Scoring a fourth-place finish in the Legends of Poker $1,500 no-limit hold'em event and a fourth-place finish in the $6,335 buy-in EPT Championship in Barcelona, Daneshgar has made a late push that could see him surpass Hellmuth if he cashes again in 2006.
Joining Hellmuth in the "WSOP-only" column is WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen, currently in seventh place. After making four final tables and winning two bracelets, Madsen's position on the top-10 list appears secure for the moment.
Sitting eighth is Parkland, Florida's Alex Jacob. After making several final-table appearances at the WSOP, Jacob went on to win the 2006 U.S. Poker Championship in Atlantic City. He collected $878,500 for his efforts.
Rounding out the last two spots on the POY list are Team FullTilt members Allen Cunningham and Erick Lindgren. Cunningham, who won his fourth bracelet and finished fourth in the WSOP main event, and Lindgren, who finished second in the $5,000 shorthanded no-limit hold'em event, both had standout WSOP performances, but have not had substantial cashes since the WSOP. 
Poker After Dark Comes to NBC
Late-Night Poker Programming Features Well-Known Poker Pros and Hostess Shana Hiatt
By Lisa Wheeler
NBC began taping Poker After Dark at the South Point Hotel Casino in Las Vegas recently, with an estimated 52 episodes in the making. The show will debut on Jan. 2, 2007, at 2:05 a.m. EST, six nights a week.
Poker After Dark is NBC's second poker program, as the first, the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, sent ratings through the roof earlier this year. NBC executives expect the late-night poker show to satiate viewers' appetites while competing directly with ESPN's reruns of the 2006 World Series of Poker.
Each hour-long show will feature six professional poker players competing for $120,000 in a winner-takes-all format. Players include Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman, David Benyamine, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, and more.
The show's hostess is none other than former World Poker Tour hostess Shana Hiatt, a familiar face in the poker industry who lights up the screen and will bring her own style and professionalism to Poker After Dark.
Each night of original programming will feature an intimate look at one table as it develops over a week, culminating with a winner on Friday night. Saturday night's show, called "The Director's Cut," will recap the week's events with Hiatt and the winner of the week reviewing the week's action and offering commentary.
Poker After Dark is produced in conjunction with Poker Productions, the only television production company owned and operated by top professional poker players. Producers Mori Eskandani and Eric Drache bring 63 years of combined poker experience to their company, and both have played a key role in producing some of television's best poker shows, including both seasons of NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, two seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker, three seasons of Fox Sports Net, and NBC's Poker Superstars and CBS' Intercontinental Poker Championship.
Antigua and Others Gear Up for Lawsuit Against U.S.
Antigua Says U.S. Still in Violation of World Trade Organization Sanctions
By Michael Friedman
The small Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda recently met with representatives from the European Commission, Japan, and China to discuss its Internet gaming case against the United States. The larger nations are acting as third-party representatives in the country's World Trade Organization dispute with the U.S. government. They also held briefing sessions with representatives from Brazil, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Antigua and the U.S. have both filed submissions regarding U.S. compliance with the WTO's decision that the U.S. was violating international trade agreements with its gaming policy. Antigua maintains that the U.S. is still not in compliance with the WTO's decision. According to Antigua's legal advisor, Mark Mendelson, there is more to this case than just gaming, and he hopes that the international support will spur the U.S. into compliance with the WTO's previous decision.
"All meetings went well. A great thing about our case is that you don't have to care about gambling at all to be on our side on the WTO legal issues. I would say that our support with these other countries is probably quite strong, and having them on our side on the important issues is of very great help to our case. It can only enhance the credibility of a small country to have some of the major players in the WTO agreeing with our position," Mendelson told
Card Player.
In Mendelson's opinion, the response from the U.S. to the ruling has left a lot to be desired, and the recent actions of the U.S. Congress are further proof that the U.S. is continuing to flout the WTO's decision.
In 2003, Antigua filed a complaint with the WTO that the attempts by the U.S. to stop its residents from accessing online gambling sites violated WTO policy. Gambling services are considered commerce, and Antigua claimed that these attempts to stop the free trade of this commerce violated WTO agreements because the U.S. allows forms of gambling in most of its states.
In 2004, the WTO agreed with Antigua, and in 2005, it upheld its ruling after the U.S. appealed. The WTO ordered the U.S. to comply with the rulings or face sanctions by Antigua, but Antigua is the smallest member of the WTO and its sanctions are toothless. The U.S. has remained virtually silent about this case.
The parties submitted their recommendations on the case, and a WTO panel is scheduled to receive a rebuttal from Antigua and Barbuda on the U.S. submission sometime this month. The WTO panel is scheduled to issue a final ruling in January or February of 2007.
Getting the Word Out: Poker Players Alliance Media Blitz
In Order to Set the Record Straight, Members Hit the Airwaves
By Bob Pajich
Michael Bolcerek, the president of the Poker Players Alliance, visited the living rooms of hundreds of thousands of people in October via a media blitz by the PPA that resulted from the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in September.
The PPA sent press releases to media outlets everywhere, stating that Bolcerek, Mike Sexton, Annie Duke, and Greg Raymer were making themselves available for interviews to talk about online poker and the Act, and many organizations took the PPA up on it. Bolcerek's disgust was on display in the interviews.
"We're obviously dismayed and angered that the bill went through," Bolcerek told
Card Player. "This is an egregious increase in the federal government's involvement in your life."
Bolcerek has appeared on
Fox, CNN, CNBC, and more than 60 local stations around the country, to get these messages out: Poker is a game of skill; the government is unfairly imposing upon its residents' lives; the best public policy is to tax and regulate poker; and poker players should continue to fight.
The hypocrisy of the whole thing seems to be what the mainstream media has constantly mentioned.
"They're starting to pick up on the fact that it exempts certain online wagering like lotteries and horse racing," said Bolcerek. "I think what you see is a trickle effect throughout the general media, saying, 'What's going on in Congress?'"
The media blitz is still going on. Each day, Bolcerek fulfills a few interview requests, ranging from magazines focusing on the poker industry, like
Card Player, to newspapers like the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which ran a feature story on the UIGE Act recently.
Grassroots
The nonprofit PPA considers itself a grassroots organization, and like other organizations in the past, it has used guerrilla-like tactics to share information. For example, the PPA marketing director came up with the idea of using the popular video sharing site YouTube.com as a resource.
The PPA has posted 22 videos of interviews and commentary concerning the UIGE Act, which most likely would have been missed in this day and age of media saturation. For example, the PPA posted Rep. Shelley Berkley's (D-Nev.) fiery speech criticizing the attempts of conservatives to attach the UIGE Act to a vital defense bill. (Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist succeeded in attaching the UIGE Act to an unrelated act to strengthen port safety). The video was originally broadcast by
C-SPAN.
Those interested in seeing the interviews that Sexton, Bolcerek, and Duke did recently, go to YouTube.com and type pokerplayersalliance into the search box. It's also interesting to see what the mainstream cable newscasters like Wolf Blitzer said about the passage of the Act.
The media blitz also helped bring in about 5,000 new members to the PPA in October. In less than a year, the PPA has grown to more than 120,000 members. Bolcerek looks at the Sierra Club, and notes that with half a million members, it's an organization that is able to influence policy.
Bolcerek, of course, encourages all poker players to join the PPA, but also to become politically active. He wants players to visit the PPA website and see which members of the House voted to send what became the UIGE Act to the Senate - and then vote against them.
Lifetime Gambler Was a Tough and Cordial Player
By Bob Pajich
The poker community lost one of the gentlemen of the game when "Boston" Billy Duarte died of cancer recently. He was 68.
Duarte was a big-bet poker player with an expertise in pot-limit Omaha. In an interview he did with
Card Player a few years ago, Duarte said that during the last 20 years, he probably played more pot-limit poker than any other player alive.
In fact, Duarte would travel great distances to play in a good pot-limit game. This is what he told
Card Player in 2001: "I've played just about everywhere you can imagine. Sometimes I'd fly somewhere and the game would last only two days. Before hold'em became popular, I flew to Australia twice for a month just to play pot-limit draw poker, mostly with ranchers, once outside of Perth and another time about 100 miles from there in some desolate area."
Duarte started to play draw poker in 1962, but was introduced to poker as a child at his family's kitchen table. He went on to cash in many tournaments during his lifetime, and his tournament winnings totaled more than $620,000. Almost $130,000 of that came from two cashes at the 2006
World Series of Poker. He cashed nine times in all tournaments he played in 2005, making four final tables.
Duarte, who was raised on the outskirts of Boston, spent some time in the Marines, where he served as a member of the color guard at the White House. He then briefly attended Harvard before leaving to pursue a career in gambling. This eventually led him into the greyhound racing business (after winning a lot of money by betting on the sport), where he raised the fast dogs for years, until he moved to Colorado, where he said he always wanted to live. He also had a home in Oceanside, California.
At the poker table and away from it, Duarte was a soft-spoken man who appreciated poker etiquette, as well as the skill of the younger players he came up against in his later years. His even disposition enabled him to take his losses in stride, and he encouraged other players to do the same.
From the same 2001
Card Player interview: "I've always thought, too, that people should be able to accept their losses, and should never lose their tempers at the table by throwing cards or criticizing dealers. As for me, if someone beats me in a pot, I know that I'm losing that money, but I sure don't want to lose anything else. I don't want to lose my self-respect. I can never blame a dealer for some hand that I lost."
Duarte was a longtime smoker, but quit a few years ago after he contracted Lyme disease, which put him into a coma. When he came out of it, someone asked him if he wanted a cigarette, and Duarte asked why he would want that. He had no recollection of smoking and never smoked again.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer just recently. After flying to the East Coast to say his goodbyes, he returned to Las Vegas to play in the $1,500 seniors event at the
Festa al Lago tournament.
Duarte lost his wife of 44 years, Lorraine, in 2000, with whom he had seven children. He is survived by his children, Brenda Beller, Beverly Johnson, William Duarte III, Lori Fortin, and Roger Duarte, his brothers, Roger Steven Duarte of Cape Cod, Massachussetts, and Robert Duarte of Berkley, Massachussetts, and 15 grandchildren.
He was laid to rest in Colorado.
Players Remember 'Boston' Billy Duarte
Billy Duarte was both loved and respected in the world of poker. His table manner endeared him to many, and his poker skills - especially in pot-limit Omaha - put him in a class all to himself. Longtime friends Stan Goldstein and Lee Watkinson both testified to Duarte's character, and the following are some of the nice things both players had to say about "Boston" Billy.
Stan Goldstein
Goldstein wrote: "Moments ago, I said my final goodbye to my best friend, William Duarte Jr. It was 5:25 p.m., Monday, Oct. 23, 2006, at his home in Berthoud, Colorado, surrounded by his family, all of his surviving children, many grandchildren, and myself.
"Billy was 68 years old and not one minute of that time was wasted. This was a man who lived, loved, worked, played, and savored every precious day he was given. We will all miss him greatly.
"I'd like to tell you a little bit more about him. He loved his family, poker, dog racing, baseball, and gardening, and, boy, did he love to laugh. Very few people know what a practical joker he was. He'd tell me stories from when he was 8 years old, when he was a high-school basketball star, and when he was in the Marine Corps. There were countless more times, but they all had the same thing in common: At the end of almost all of them, he made me laugh like a son of a b----.
"He also spent 44 years as a devoted husband to Lorraine, the only woman he ever loved. Lorraine passed away, also from cancer, six years ago.
"Since that time, Billy has traveled the poker trail with me, but a little piece of him was already gone. The wonderful stories he told me about her made me feel as if I knew her, even though we had never met. He is survived by five of his seven children, who all have made me feel like part of their family. His 15 grandchildren were the reason he kept working hard to the very end.
"I'll always remember his last trip to California and Vegas. I drove him from Colorado with an old friend from his days in the dog business. When we left Commerce Casino for the last time, he told all the no-limit players what a pleasure it was to know all of them.
"He was wrong. The pleasure was all ours."
Lee Watkinson
Watkinson spent many, many hours at Commerce Casino trying to stay out of pot-limit Omaha pots contested by Duarte. He credits Duarte with teaching him to love the game of poker, instead of looking at it as a job.
This is what he wrote about the $10-$25 pot-limit Omaha game at Commerce Casino: "What I found was that the game centered around a giant of a man with a booming deep voice. The game started when he got there and broke up when he left for the night. If he left town for some reason, the game seemed to go on hiatus until he got back. The funny thing is, he wasn't the big sucker in the game, far from it. In fact, he was probably the best player in the world in these games, and he won virtually all the money, and everyone knew it. The thing was, he was so much fun to play with that when he wasn't there, they just didn't want to play.
"The thing about Billy was that he loved and respected the game and the people who played it. He liked to win, but I think, more importantly, he wanted to have a good game, where everyone had fun and was treated well.
"When I won the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the 2006
World Series of Poker, he sat there and coached me through the entire final table. And believe me, I listened to every word he said. I don't think I would have done it without him there.
"The poker world will not be the same for me without the giant of a man whom I have and will continue to look to as a model for what I would like to bring to the table someday, and when I cash out, I will be happy if I have earned a small portion of the love and respect that Billy has."
Aussie Millions Qualifiers at FullTilt Hopping
There are Still Plenty of Chances to Win a Trip Down Under
By Bob Pajich
A round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, costs a person about $2,000. FullTiltPoker is sending as many couples as it can there for as little as $4.40.
Qualifiers for the
Aussie Millions Poker Championship are still taking place at FullTiltPoker, one of the handful of sites that has vowed to keep serving U.S. customers despite enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. The prize packages to this event are a hefty $18,000, and include round-trip airfare for two to Melbourne from Los Angeles, entry into the
AMPC, a 10-night stay at the Crown Casino Resort, and $3,000 in spending money. The trip will take place Jan. 8-20.
There will be players in the tournament who got there for less than what it costs for a Fatburger value meal, minus the fried egg. There also will be at least 28 players who will have gotten into the
AMPC through freerolls.
FullTilt already has awarded 14 seats specifically through its freerolls, and will award 14 more in November and December. Players can use their FullTilt Points to get into the monthly freerolls. Players also can qualify by earning 10,000 FullTilt Points in one month or by being in the top 25 on the
Aussie Millions multitable qualifier leader board or the sit-and-go leader board. See the site for more details.
There are still plenty of ways to get in for people who prefer the cash path. On Dec. 10, FullTilt will hold its 20-seat guaranteed tournament, which costs $535 to enter; but, of course, there are cheaper ways to get into this tournament: Direct multitable qualifiers cost $8.80, $26, and $75. Players can also play a $75 sit-and-go tournament. Players can get into these qualifying tournaments for as little as $4.40, $8.80, and $12.
People are also winning their trips to Australia each week in direct qualifiers that cost $322 and $1,060. The $1,060 weekly qualifiers have been taking place on Mondays, and the $322 qualifiers on Thursdays.
Players can get into the $322 qualifiers by entering multitable tournaments that cost $8.80, $26 and $75, and single-table tourneys for $48. Feeders to these tournaments run around-the-clock and also cost as little as $4.40.
To get into the $1,060 direct qualifier, players can play in any of the following: $26, $75, and $109 multitable tourneys, $75 and $150 single-table tourneys, and both single-table and multitable freerolls. Qualifiers for these tournaments also cost much less than the actual buy-ins.
Wireless Texas Hold'em Coming to Casinos
Harrah's Brand Moves Toward the Future
By Michael Friedman
Progressive Gaming International Corp. (PGIC) is set to help casinos make more money than ever before with the introduction of a new way to play Texas hold'em. Using the
World Series of Poker "Peer to Peer" Texas hold'em game, players will be able to play poker on wired or wireless devices away from the traditional poker table.
Players will play poker on a secure intranet server managed from within casinos that have the legal jurisdiction to offer it. This unique service will enable players to play poker in restaurants, clubs, and possibly even their rooms. This futuristic solution not only benefits players by giving them greater access to the tables, but also helps casinos make use of unused gaming space.
According to Harrah's Senior Vice President of Gaming Ken Weil, this product is a perfect fit for casinos around the globe. "We are pleased to partner again with PGIC in leveraging the most powerful brand in poker worldwide, the
World Series of Poker. Many regulated operators do not have poker rooms. The World Series of Poker "Peer to Peer" Texas hold'em gaming system provides operators with the ability to offer their patrons the opportunity to participate in exciting Texas hold'em poker game competitions that capture the excitement of an authentic
WSOP experience," he said in a recent press release.
PGIC President and CEO Russ McMeeking sees a profitable future for his company. "We believe that the 'Peer to Peer' system, both the wired and wireless versions, has a potential global marketplace of over 5,000 legalized gaming venues. We are delighted and honored to partner on this very exciting global initiative, which is intended to leverage our extensive acquisition and development investments in secure thin-client wired and wireless server-based technology," he stated.
World Poker Tour Boot Camp Sending a Player to 15 Events
The Battle for the Season Pass Will Take Place in December
By Bob Pajich
Someone who attends the granddaddy of all
World Poker Tour boot camps next month will go home with entry into 15
World Poker Tour events.
The "Battle for the Season Pass" boot camp and Caribbean conference seminar/tournament will take place Dec. 4-8 at Nassau's Crystal Palace Casino in the Bahamas. The cost is $3,995, and includes a five-night stay at one of the Cable Beach Resorts, airfare from Miami or Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, all meals and parties, and buy-in for the tournament.
The $157,700 prize will be awarded in a three-day tournament that will take place near the end of the seminar. Special cocktail receptions, luncheons, and dinners are scheduled to take place during the event for the players' pleasure.
The grand prize includes entry into these events:
Mirage Poker Showdown, Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, Grand Prix de Paris, the
Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker, Borgata Poker Open, North American Poker Championship, Foxwoods'
World Poker Finals, Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, PokerStars.com's
Caribbean Poker Adventure, Tunica's
World Poker Open, Commerce Casino's
L.A. Poker Classic and
WPT Invitational, Bay 101's
Shooting Star, World Poker Challenge, and
WPT World Championship.
The winner of the grand prize won't have to quit his day job and become a poker tournament pro (although he might want to). The winner will have the flexibility of entering these tournaments over three years, and also will receive vouchers for airfare and hotel accommodations.
The top six finishers all will receive a prize: second place will get a $25,000 championship seat, third place will get a $10,000 seat, fourth a $5,000 seat, fifth a
WPT Invitational seat, and sixth place will get to attend a
WPT boot camp, worth $2,895.
But the trip isn't just about the tournament. Throughout the week, seminars from some of the most successful players on the planet are scheduled, and players will get a chance to mingle and shoot the breeze with the following: T.J. Cloutier, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Mark Seif, Clonie Gowen, Marcel Luske, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Mike Sexton, Chip Jett, and Karina Jett.
For more information about this event, please visit www.wptbootcamp.com, or call 866-WPT-BOOT.
A Poker Lesson From Sir Isaac Newton
By David Apostolico
Poker is both a science and an art form. In this article, I'd like to take a look at a long-standing law of physics and see how it can help our poker game. Let's go back to junior-high science, when we were learning all kinds of things that we never thought we'd use in the real world, especially if we wanted to play poker. Sir Isaac Newton's Law of Inertia states: "Unless acted upon, a body at rest stays at rest, and a body in motion stays in motion."
What does this have to do with poker? Well, how many times have you been sucked into a hand? How many times have you heard a player at the table mumble about being pot-committed to justify throwing away more chips on a losing hand? Or, my personal favorite, the player who moans that he knows he's beat but he has to pay to see the cards. In all of these circumstances, players let momentum take over their play. Once they throw in a few chips, they can't stop themselves from continuing down the path. They can't defy physics.
Fortunately, you can use Sir Isaac's law to your advantage. Let me offer an example from a
U.S. Poker Championship event I played in recently. The blinds were $25-$50 and I was in the big blind. A player in middle position made a mini-raise to $100 and two players called before the action got to me. I had 4-3 offsuit and the price was right to see a flop. The flop came down 7-6-5 rainbow. This was a good but dangerous flop for me. I had the ignorant end of the straight, but I didn't want to lose to a higher straight. I bet out $500 immediately. The initial raiser called instantly and the other two players folded. The turn was an ace, and I bet out $1,000 before the card hit the felt. My opponent called before my chips hit the felt. Now, as the dealer was turning over the river card, I could see my opponent with chips in his hand, ready to call.
I bet out another $2,000 as the innocent 2♣ was laid before us. My opponent called almost simultaneously. I turned over my straight and he chuckled in surprise before mucking his hand. I found out later that he had A-8 when I overheard him describing the hand to his buddy. That makes sense. He had an open-end straight draw on the flop, top pair on the turn, and no help on the river. The problem, however, was that he was basically reacting the entire hand without thinking things through. He was a fast and loose player, but he could be very deliberate and reflective when he needed to be.
He could have saved himself some money if he had raised the flop or turn. He would have found out that I had a good hand and had him beat. I was able to put him into a rhythm in which the laws of physics took over and he couldn't stop himself. He was reactive and helpless to my motion without being proactive.
Now, Newton's law of "a body in motion stays in motion" is not an absolute. There's a nice qualifier at the beginning that states "unless acted upon." That's a fairly big qualifier. You don't have to continue throwing chips into a pot when you're behind. You have control over your actions and can act by sending signals to your hands to pick up your cards and throw them in the muck.
More importantly, you have the ability to disrupt your opponent's motion. If you're up against an aggressive opponent, he's going to keep firing chips until stopped. He's a body in motion that is going to stay in motion unless acted upon. Pick up some chips and make a big raise. That's usually a strong enough action to stop his momentum.
Finally, let's look at the other part of Newton's law: "a body at rest stays at rest." If you're playing a tournament and are running the risk of being blinded out, you absolutely cannot afford to sit still. You have to fight inertia. Even if you aren't getting any cards whatsoever, don't allow your body at rest to stay at rest. Take some action before it's too late. While you still have enough chips to force others to fold, make a move. It sure beats being blinded out. Lack of inertia is a sure way to lose.
David Apostolico is the author of numerous poker strategy books, including Lessons From the Felt, Lessons From the Pro Poker Tour, and Tournament Poker and the Art of War. You can contact him at [email protected].
Ari Engel Looks Within to Win
By Craig Tapscott
Ari Engel is a soft-spoken, shy guy who looks like he's still too young to apply for a driver's license. Sitting next to him during any of the 2006
World Series of Poker events, you would expect his mother to come by at any moment, grab his ear, and drag him home for supper. The truth is, Engel graduated from NYU with a finance degree, is presently ranked No. 1 in the world in online tournament poker, and will raise you off your hand with any two cards if he detects weakness.
In the fall of 2003, Engel discovered the beguiling world of poker. "During my last year at NYU, my roommate was playing online poker all the time," shared Engel. "It seemed that he turned $20 into $1,000 every night, then lost it all by the end of the night. This taught me about the role of bankroll management. I just watched him play and never played a hand myself for months. Then, I started playing the smallest possible stakes in $5 sit-and-gos under my friend's account."
Poker was fun, but school was over. A job on Wall Street was in Engel's game plan after graduation. He knocked on doors, carrying the weight of a $110,000 school-loan debt on his shoulders. None opened. A cousin offered him a job in a computer start-up company. Bills had to be paid, so he took it. One evening, friends in a local home game told him about a new poker site where they were killing it. The following weekend would change Engel's life.
Craig Tapscott: Please share your experience over that fateful weekend.
Ari Engel: My friend told me he made $1,000 at Bodog, and that it was crazy there. So, I decided to deposit some money on this new site. But I didn't feel entirely comfortable doing it, as my parents are against gambling, but I decided I wasn't going to invest a lot, so I deposited $150 on a Friday. I didn't stop playing until Monday morning, at which time I had $10,000 in my account.
CT: How did your parents react to that?
AE: Well, I called my dad and told him I might be on to something. He agreed, but said I couldn't quit my job. I didn't like my job. It wasn't what I wanted to be doing. The next day, I left work early, went home, and made $5,000 playing. At the time, I had the huge debt, but I decided that if there ever was a time that poker was going to work - it was now. I quit my job.
CT: What was your initial game plan for success in tournaments, since you had a cash-game background?
AE: When I started multitable tournaments, I played much more aggressively, but basically standard poker. Then, over time, it's definitely been slowly, I tried to apply self-honesty. Poker, like any capitalistic activity, rewards risk-taking. The fear of failure will lead to the demise of even the most brilliant mind at the poker table.
Self-honesty is a must. In fact, self-honesty is probably the most important characteristic a poker player can have. You have to be able to honestly evaluate your play based on your decision-making, and improve accordingly. Although you can't win every tournament, you have to play them all to win. Therefore, success in a poker tournament means winning it. I have played more tournaments this year than just about anyone on the planet, yet I continue to see mistakes in my game. This is no shock, as we all are humans and make errors. The key is to evaluate those errors and learn from them. Being content with "not failing," moderate success, or getting deep in a tournament is a recipe for disaster.
CT: What's your favorite aspect of the game?
AE: It's very much a mental challenge for me. But the best part about it is not working very hard. I'm just sitting in my bed looking at a computer screen. It's pretty cool that I can make a living this way.
CT: How many tournaments do you average a day?
AE: Probably 12 to 15.
CT: How will the new legislation affect you?
AE: I'm very concerned. I'm pretty confident that for a good player, there will be ways around it, but I don't know if that will be enough to make a living. If you had asked me two months ago if I planned to be doing this in 20 years, the answer would have been yes. And the answer now is, not yes.
Ari Engel is always a gentleman at the table and very entertaining to watch play. He plays as Ari, or more famously, BodogAri, at most online sites. Pull up a chair and watch, listen, and learn.
Trump Taj Mahal a Gem on the Atlantic
With 78 Tables, the Poker Room is the Center of Action
By Johnnie Walker
For years, poker on the East Coast has been defined by the house that Trump built on the Jersey shore, and despite recent competition from newer rooms in both Atlantic City and Connecticut, Trump Taj Mahal is still a poker mecca that should be visited at least once by those who set their watches to Eastern Standard Time.
The Taj has one of the oldest poker rooms on the East Coast, and with 78 tables, it's still one of the largest in Atlantic City. It makes sense that the room Donald Trump built feels a little like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, with its hundreds of players finding their seats, the loudspeakers ringing out players' names and announcements of new games, and the general bustle of money being exchanged.
But the Dow has nothing to do with the fates and fortunes of the players there, and they know it. Shouts of miracle rivers and bad beats ring out through the night, and the low-tech brush board adds a lot of charm to the room (an electronic system will be in place sometime next year).
The poker room achieved some sort of notoriety in
Rounders. It's there that Matt Damon's character stole a huge pot from Johnny Chan in a scene that Chan still claims wasn't filmed that way.
For the tournament player, the Taj is home to the
United States Poker Championship. The $10,000 buy-in event attracted 261 players recently, generating a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. The Taj also runs a variety of tournaments that change daily, starting at as low as $50.
With so many tables, the Taj spreads just about any game requested, making its game selection second to none. Regular limit hold'em games range from $2-$4 to $40-$80, and the room will spread higher games if requested.
No-limit hold'em games range from $1-$2 blinds up to $5-$10, and management will spread any game as long as there are players.
Atlantic City - and the East Coast in general - is known for its seven-card stud players, and the Taj is sort of the capital of the game that was unseated by Texas hold'em in recent years. With regularity, the Taj spreads everything from $1-$5 to $75-$150 limit stud games.
Management also spreads a wide range of Omaha games, making it one of the most well-rounded poker rooms in the land, as far as game selection is concerned. The Taj even spreads sixhanded no-limit hold'em games that start at $1-$2 blinds, as well as $40-$80 sixhanded limit games.
The room's comfort is enhanced by 40 42-inch plasma televisions, and no matter what NFL team its poker players are rooting for, all of the games can be found at the Taj via the NFL Ticket. The Taj also is running a football promotion this season in which players can win up to $5,000 per week and $50,000 for the season.
Additionally, munchies from several of the snack bars that surround the poker room can be delivered right to the tables.
The room is now undergoing an upgrade that includes automatic shuffling machines at each table and an electronic brush board system. The upgrades will be complete in early 2007.
Address: 1000 Boardwalk Avenue
Phone number: (609) 449-1000
Website: www.trumptaj.com
Number of tables: 78
Most popular games: $1-$2, $2-$5 no-limit hold'em, $2-$4, $3-$6, $5-$10 limit hold'em
Other games: Stud, Omaha
Player Room Rate: $65 Sunday through Thursday, $85 on weekends
Tournaments: Held daily
KB: In no-limit hold'em, how do you approach betting against a board pair when you have the nut flush? I've run into three full houses in this situation lately and it's killing me.
Scott: There are a lot of things to consider if you have the nut flush when the board is paired. For example, when did the board pair? What were your opponent's actions during the hand? How deep are the stacks? If I have a lot of chips and the other player does, as well, most of the time I will just check-call and try to keep the pot small. If the board was paired on the flop and the other players are giving a lot of action, you should not even draw to the flush. If you are drawing to the flush and get there at the same time as the board pairs, you should bet out, but if you get raised, you must wonder how the other player can raise you if you have the nut flush. Most likely, he has the full house and you can fold. My general advice to you would be to bet your flush when the board is paired, but then back off if you get called.
Mitchell Feinman: I was the long-haired dude at the table with you with 11 people left recently at a Venetian tournament. I was curious about your opinion of my play. The cutoff called, as did I with pocket eights. You raised all in, the cutoff folded, and I called. You won with A-J, as you hit a jack on the flop. You seemed to have about 10K-15K in chips more than me (after the call, I had about 45K). I thought you had two overs, but I went in with what I believed was the best of it. My friends said I should have waited for another opportunity when I was in the money. What was your thought process at that time? Did you win the tournament?
Scott: Hey, Mitch. I do vaguely remember that hand. First of all, the blinds were pretty big and we both had a below-average stack. I am pretty sure that the blinds were in the neighborhood of $1,500-$3,000 with a $500 ante, and once you and the other player limped in, the pot looked ripe for stealing, not to mention that I did have A-J, just in case I got called by a hand like yours. In my opinion, you didn't do anything too terribly wrong; however, you could have played it a bit differently. Your best option would have been raising after the player on your right limped in. If you had raised, I would not have been able to play my A-J, because I would have realized that you weren't going to fold to my all-in bet, and it wasn't a good time for me to take a coin toss at that point. If you do limp in, you must make up your mind beforehand as to whether or not you want to play it for all of your chips, because it is very likely that somebody will push all in from the blinds to pick up what looks like a lot of dead money. What I mean is, if you are going to play to win the tournament, limping in with a predetermined idea to call an all-in bet from the blind is an OK play; otherwise, you should fold to the all-in bet. I hope that makes sense - and, by the way, I got third place.
Justin: I played in a tournament recently and can't decide if I made the right decision in a tough spot. Here's the situation: The blinds are at $100-$200 and about to increase to $200-$400. There are eight players at my table. I have $3,600 in chips and raise from early position to $600 with A-K offsuit. Everyone folds around to the big blind, who thinks for a second and says, "All in," and he has me covered. This player had been playing fairly passively, not betting, raising or otherwise risking many chips. I know that players in this situation don't generally push unless they want to get called, but do I have enough chips left to fold? I ended up making the call, mostly because if I folded, I would have had only seven-eight times the big blind with the impending level change. He had aces and I got bounced from the tourney. Thanks. With the help of your column as well as The Circuit radio show, my tournament bankroll is at an all-time high.
Scott: The hand you describe is a pretty common situation. I like the fact that you were paying attention to the level increase forthcoming, and for that very reason, I don't think you can fold the hand. I have been in that very situation a thousand times, and would not fold the A-K there; however, in an attempt to mix up my game a bit, I have been limping with A-K from that spot. If you had limped with the A-K and then the player in the big blind raised (a player you determined to be passive), you easily could have assumed he had a monster and folded.
Go Camping With Doyle, Win $50,000
Registration is Now Taking Place for Super System Poker Camp
By Bob Pajich
Doyle Brunson and a bunch of his friends are going camping in May, and he's extending an invitation to those who love poker to join them.
The first-ever Super System Poker Camp will take place at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake in Big Fork, Montana, May 18-21. The camp is bringing Brunson, Mike Caro, Todd Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Jennifer Harman together for a poker seminar that just happens to use
Super System 2 as its main text.
More than $100,000 in prizes will be given away during the seminar, which includes poker lessons, daily live poker games and tournaments with the pros, cocktail parties, and even swimming and fishing for those who can't handle all of the nonstop poker action and need a little break.
Each day, registrants will play in a tournament for cash prizes and entry into the camp finale, the
DoylesRoom.com Montana Challenge, in which the winner will receive $50,000. The
DoylesRoom.com Montana Challenge will consist of five camp qualifiers and five authors of
Super System 2.
The $4,000 price tag of the trip includes transportation to and from the airport, a
Super System 2 signed by all of the speakers, a tournament that will be filmed for television broadcast, and a place to sleep.
For more information, visit www.supersystempokercamp.com.
Online Hand-to-Hand Combat: Apestyles Wields the Big Stack
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/h2hc
Event: $100 plus $9 no-limit hold'em rebuy tournament on PokerStars
Players: 135
First place: $15,450
Stacks: Apestyles - $64,481; Villain1 - $20,457; Villain2 - $22,745
Blinds: $300-$600
Preflop: (eight players) Apestyles is in the cutoff seat with the 4
2
and raises to $1,800.
Craig Tapscott: Is this a typical big-stack bully play?
Jon Van Fleet (Apestyles): 99 percent of the time, in any position, I throw a hand like 4-2 offsuit in the muck without a second thought. However, at this point in the tournament, I thought that it would be reasonable to raise with nearly any two cards from this position.
Preflop: Villain1 calls from the button and Villain2 calls from the big blind.
CT: You can't be too happy with two callers, especially the button.
JVF: Yes, but I wasn't planning on going very far with 4 high unimproved, and I had a pretty good idea of where both of my opponents stood. Villain1 had the tightest preflop range of anyone at the table. Villain2 was more of a wild card to me. From what I'd seen in the past, he was aggressive and prone to reraising. I was almost positive that he would've reraised with A-J or better and 9-9 or better.
Flop: A
Q
5
($6,100 pot, three players) Villain2 checks, Apestyles bets $5,200, Villain1 folds, Villain2 calls.
CT: There's not much here for you.
JVF: Well, at least I had a wheel draw (laughing). A lot of the time on this kind of a flop, I just check-fold, assuming someone has an ace. However, that standard check-fold is based on assuming people have more aces in their calling range preflop. So I figured, why not bet?
Turn: A
Q
5
9
($16,500 pot, two players) Villain2 checks, Apestyles checks.
JVF: OK, now I've decided to give up. I figured that Villain2 probably had a weak ace, a flush draw, or maybe a queen. I was positive he did not have the ace-high flush draw, as he would've raised or shoved. Regardless, I'm clearly not putting any more money into this pot.
River: A
Q
5
9
J
($16,500 pot, two players) Villain2 bets $4,500.
JVF: Or am I? The only hand that anyone is betting for value here is the A
or K
. Wouldn't he bet a little bigger for value if holding the nut or second-nut flush?
CT: But it's hard to call with the 4
, right?
JVF: Well, I strongly considered raising this bet for a while, since I could make him fold hands like the 8
or less. He had around 12K behind, so I had some fold equity. I ended up thinking there was a very high probability that he was on some kind of post oak bluff. The oddness of the bet, combined with the 4.6-1 odds I was getting, made me decide to opt for a call.
River: Apestyles calls.
Results: Final pot - $25,500. Villain2 shows the K
Q
, Apestyles shows the 4
2
, and Apestyles wins the pot with a queen-high flush.
JVF: As a disclaimer, I don't think it's a wise idea to be raising with 4-2 offsuit and then betting into ace-high flops. I chose this hand because I played it in a very atypical way and it, luckily, ended well. As far as general advice goes, I'd recommend always folding 4-2 offsuit and being very careful on ace-high flops without a strong ace or better.
To see this hand animated and narrated with additional analysis, visit www.CardPlayer.com/h2hcJon (Apestyles) Van Fleet has won many multitable tournaments over multiple sites. He consistently challenges and cashes in the highest buy-in events. He is never satisfied and is always looking to learn and expand his game.
Ask Jack
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 the chance to pick the mind of one of the game's finest - Bellagio Tournament Director Jack McClelland. You can send your questions to [email protected], and McClelland will share his 25-plus years of industry experience with you.
Brandon Jay: I've been playing in a no-limit hold'em tourney every week for the past year at our local casino. Just recently, I've been told that these tourneys aren't good for my game, due to the fact that the structure is geared more toward catching cards and not playing "real poker." Can you tell me if this is true?
Here is the tournament structure: Everybody starts out with only $200 in chips. That's right, only $200. There's an add-on before play begins of an extra $300 in chips. The blinds start out at $5-$10 and double every 15 minutes. There are no antes in the tourney.
Is this structure good for my game? I really am set on entering the
World Series of Poker next year.
Also, this is the only way for me to play serious poker. I don't like playing on the Internet! What is the proper strategy in this very shaky structure?
Jack: This is a fast-structured tournament. The value in playing these tournaments is that you learn to be very aggressive, to have a chance to win. If you are interested in playing in a major tournament, aggressive play is a must.
The downside of this structure is that you are mostly moving all in and don't improve your skills, such as value-betting, trapping an opponent, and moving a player off a hand by raising a certain amount. If it is the only game in town, it makes it the best game in town.
Tim Mayer: I'm running a league with 20 guys. I want to start with $10,000 in chips and want it to last about four to four-and-a-half hours.
What should the blind schedule be?
Jack: Thirty-minute levels: level one, $100-$200; level two, $200-$400; level three, $300-$600; level four, $400-$800; level five, $600-$1,200; level six, $1,000-$2,000; level seven, $1,500-$3,000; level eight, $2,000-$4,000; level nine, $3,000-$6,000.
Don: I'm playing in my local $1-$2 no-limit hold'em game, and in middle position, I'm dealt the J
J
. The player under the gun (UTG) raises to $7, I call, and everyone folds to the cutoff, who raises another $20. The button and both blinds fold, and UTG and I both call another $20.
The flop comes 10
7
4
. UTG checks to me, and I decide to bet $50, but before I can count my chips and bet, the cutoff checks out of turn and the dealer turns the 9
. I announce my bet, place my chips in front of my cards, and then realize that the turn has already been dealt.
I complained that I was not allowed to act on the flop, but the ruling was made that my bet had to stand. The cutoff threw his cards away, and UTG called. Then, the ruling was made that we had to play the turn, and again I protested, because we were, in fact, playing the turn at that point. UTG, however, was allowed to act, and he checked to me again. I was furious and not thinking clearly, and pushed the rest of my chips in (another $72) and got an instant call from UTG, who had loosely played 8-6 offsuit and had the nut straight.
It's entirely possible that UTG would have called my $50 bet on the flop, but with one overcard and three clubs showing, I don't think he would have chased his gutshot-straight draw.
How should that situation have been handled?
Jack: Every player has to have a chance to act. The turn card should not have played. The river card should have become the turn card, and the old turn card should've been reshuffled and a new river card dealt. I can't understand how your bet would have to stand on the turn if you bet on the flop, it does not seem like a good decision.
Alex Powell: Greetings, and thanks in advance for the information. I watched a lot of the
WSOP events, but do not understand how the payouts go. It seemed that about halfway through all of the events, some players started winning certain amounts of money, and, of course, some went on to the final few tables and on to the one final table. How do the eliminations come about and at what point do the payouts begin? As is the case with most amateur players, my desire is to sit at one of those tables in the future.
Jack: You would have to contact the
World Series of Poker for their payouts. In my daily tournament at Bellagio, I pay five places with 30-59 players, nine places for 60-124 players, 18 places for 125-249 players, 27 places for 250-349 players, and 50 places for anything over 400. For more than 400 players in championship events, I pay 100 places.
Poker in Photography
By Bob Pajich
Poker Face 2, written and published by Ulvis Alberts ($274)
Some would argue that the country's fascination with poker has more to do with the many different shapes and sizes of characters who populate cardrooms and tournaments everywhere than the copious amounts of dollars generated by tournaments in recent years.
Photographer Ulvis Alberts' fascination with the poker face is a good thing for poker fans. Alberts, a Latvian-born photographer, first focused his camera lenses on the
World Series of Poker back in 1977, and returned for the next five years. Some of the most popular and compelling poker figures wound up in his first book of fine photography dedicated to poker,
Poker Face, including Stu Ungar, Puggy Pearson, Benny Binion, Johnny Moss, Jack "Treetop" Straus, and many others.
Alberts revisited the
WSOP with his camera, to capture images of some of the most well-known players of this era, and he combined the two collections in
Poker Face 2, a massive and gorgeous edition of fine-art photographs that contains more than 300 pages.
The book is separated into two parts. The first third is dedicated to photos that were originally published in
Poker Face, and the rest is dedicated to those snapped from 2000 on. The old-school photos are chock-full of cigarettes, cowboy hats, bolo ties, disco shirts, and poker players who look every bit as road worn as they probably were.
The second section is filled with photos of the new breed of poker players, with upside-down sunglasses, iPods, sports jerseys advertising online poker sites, smoke-free tournament rooms, Phil Ivey's fan club, baseball caps worn backward, and piles of money that the old-timers could only dream about. A whole afternoon can be spent just flipping back and forth between the two sections, comparing the way it was to the way it is now.
Even casual poker fans will have a great time scanning the hundreds of photographs in both sections, pointing out everyone from Gabe Kaplan (in a loud Western shirt during his
Welcome Back Kotter years) to Joe Hachem.
There are, of course, many shots of the most popular players to ever sit at a poker table. Doyle Brunson makes many appearances, and the photos of Ungar that are scattered throughout the front of the book are worth the purchase price alone.
The popularity of tournament poker among Hollywood celebrities is also well-documented, which should be no surprise to those familiar with Alberts's work. He spent the 1970s in Southern California photographing some of the most well-known stars in the land, and shots of both James Woods and Jennifer Tilly dot the second section.
The book goes beyond poker photographs. On just about every page of
Poker Face 2, there is a poker quote or axiom that poker fans will enjoy. Extended essays by poker writers A. Alvarez and Paul Zibits, and an extensive alphabetical index, make the book feel a lot like a must-have historical document that serious poker players will covet, but not all will get to have.
Only 2,000 copies of
Poker Face 2 will be published, making the book an instant collectors item. Copies of the original
Poker Face go for around $2,000, and come numbered and signed inside a special collectors-edition box to protect this investment.
Poker Face 2 is available through Pokerface2.com.
