FBI Agent Navarro Tells All at Poker Seminar
Expert of Nonverbal Behavior Finds Skills Translate to Poker Table
By Bob Pajich
Joe Navarro has a skill that all poker players wish they possessed, a talent that is so powerful that the federal government had him on its payroll for more than a quarter of a century. Navarro knows how to look at someone and figure out if the person's lying or not. He's able to spot what most of us would interpret as a minute hand motion, and understand what it means with an accuracy rivaled not even by machines.
One Sunday toward the end of November, more than 100 people packed into a conference room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to hear what the expert in nonverbal communication had to say about poker tells.
Navarro is now retired from the FBI, and knew so little about poker only a few years ago that when Phil Hellmuth called him to give a presentation at a Camp Hellmuth, Navarro apologized, told him he didn't know who he was, and hung up the phone. Navarro was first introduced to the poker world by Annie Duke, whom he first met during the taping of a show pitting lie detectors against human beings. Hellmuth's persistence was nothing short of fantastic for players who know that playing people, and not the cards, is such a large component of the game.
To understand people, Navarro believes that you first have to understand the brain - or, more precisely, the different parts of the brain that control the instinctive reactions that helped get humans through the adolescence of the species thousands of years ago, before people communicated verbally.
"Foundationally, if you understand the brain, at the table you will not have any problem interpreting behavior," Navarro told the packed house that included pros Bobby Hoff, Mark Seif, and World Series of Poker Ladies Champion Mary Jones.
The study of poker tells - or any kind of "tell" that people transmit and interpret throughout the day - is rooted in many different academic disciplines. It's the study of anthropology, neurology, sociology, anatomy, and a lot of other words that end in "y," and this is one of the reasons that people can't study at a university what Navarro has learned through his years of training and working in the field.
Each person who attended his seminar received a copy of his book,
Read 'em and Reap - A Career FBI Agent's Guide to Decoding Poker Tells, a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that Navarro hangs his seminar on, and enough information to fill several days (a seminar that Navarro gives to FBI students covering generally the same concepts takes three days). He calls his book a contribution to poker literature. It's not meant to replace Mike Caro's book on tells; it's just another way to look at the subject, he said.
Navarro starts his seminar from the very beginning, and in this case, it's when humans had a much smaller brain, called the limbic system. It's also known as the reptilian brain because of its evolutionary age and basic functions. This is the part of the brain that told our ancestors to be still when a bear was near, to run from danger, and to scratch when itchy.
"It's this brain that reacts to the world around you," Navarro said. "The limbic brain does not think."The limbic brain is where the actions that can tell us so much about a person in certain situations originate.
The limbic brain is the transmitter of tells, but translating what those motions mean is the difficult part. Navarro, who considers himself a teacher above everything else, is the translator.
Navarro's skill set translates from the world of crime-fighting to the poker table because, he says, poker conjures up so many raw and primitive emotions. It's a game of aggression, thought, and interaction, which are some of the components that helped human beings make it this far down the evolutionary chain, and some of the things that champion-caliber poker players have in their tool boxes.
And that's why his book and appearances have attracted such an interested audience, some of whom have seen Navarro more than once to hear - and learn - what he has to say.
In the Caesars poker room, his students put some of the things that Navarro went over earlier in the "classroom" to work. As Navarro observed and listened to the poker players, the players seemed like they wanted to please him and sit exactly how he told them (the way Hellmuth sits now, with his hands folded under his chin, a hat pulled down low). When a player read another player perfectly, Navarro smiled. His students were getting it.
To get more information about Navarro and his future appearances, visit NavarroPoker.com.
Fathers and Sons Do Battle in World Poker Tour Special
Winner Receives Entry Into the $25,000 WPT Championship
By Bob Pajich
Poker is a game that's been passed down from fathers to sons since the game of poque was played on Mississippi riverboats, sometimes to the dismay of the fathers, especially when the sons start raking in too many pots from them.
The
World Poker Tour took this special poker bond between fathers and sons and added a twist to it when it filmed its Fathers and Sons tournament special, a single-table tourney that awarded a $25,000 seat into the
WPT Championship.
With usual
WPT final-table rules revised, six father-son duos teamed up in a match featuring Doyle Brunson and Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein and son Joe Sebok,
Card Player publisher and media mogul Barry Shulman and Jeff Shulman; season three
WPT World Poker Open Champion John Stolzmann and Steve Stolzmann; season four
WPT World Poker Challenge Champion Romeo Simon and Michael Simon; and
WPT host Vince Van Patten and his father, Dick Van Patten.
Starting with $250,000 in tournament chips, the sons kicked off the sixhanded game while their fathers looked on. During the game, the fathers often "tagged" their sons out to show them how the game should be played - even if they were in the middle of a hand.
The twist in this tournament came at the end, when the remaining father and son squared off against each other for the $25,000 seat in the
WPT World Championship, which will be held in April 2007 at Bellagio in Las Vegas.
The show will be aired on Father's Day (June 17) in 2007, and if you don't want to know how the tournament ended, don't read on.
Sebok and Greenstein found themselves heads up against the Brunson boys. They entered the heads-up match with a 3-to-1 chip lead, and Sebok chipped away at the Brunson stack against Todd before Barry stepped in and took Doyle down for the win.
Greenstein then won the $25,000 seat after the two went all in on the first hand of the money match without looking at their cards, in order to avoid battling each other.
Scheduling Conflict Delays Pro-Am Equalizer Broadcast
Show Will Hit the Airwaves in January
By Bob Pajich
A scheduling problem with
ABC stations in the western part of the United States has caused the broadcast schedule of the
Pro-Am Equalizer tournament to be reworked.
The show was supposed to be aired on Saturdays on
ABC starting at the beginning of November, but the scheduling problem was large enough for
ABC to look at other dates.
The show will now be aired on
ABC's sister network
ESPN on Sundays. The complete new broadcast schedule is listed below.
The show, which was filmed in Las Vegas in September, features six heats of six players, with the winner of each heat advancing to the championship table, where each will be guaranteed at least $25,000. The winner of the whole thing receives $500,000, the runner-up wins $150,000, and all the rest of the players to make it to the final win $25,000.
Each table is made up of four professionals and two celebrities. To make things a little fairer, the equalizer is that the celebs start with $150,000 in chips, $50,000 more than the professionals.
The professionals are Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Mike Matusow, Sean Sheikhan, Gus Hansen, Jamie Gold, Huck Seed, Jeff Madsen, David Benyamine, Gabe Kaplan, Gavin Smith, Andy Bloch, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman, Clonie Gowen, David Williams, Ted Forrest, and Allen Cunningham.
The amateur celebrities are Cheryl Hines, Jose Canseco, Nicholas Gonzalez, Yancey Arias, Shana Hiatt, Jason Alexander, Shannon Elizabeth, Don Cheadle, Cindy Margolis, Jeremy Sisto, Jennifer Tilly, and Penn Jillette.
The eight-episode show premieres Jan. 7, with two episodes running back-to-back starting at 4 p.m. Two more shows will be aired on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. The next episode airs at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, then again at 4 p.m. on Feb. 11. The final two shows will air on Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The show also will be re-aired late-night, starting Feb. 7.
Barry Shulman Releases New Book
52 Tips for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker Now Available
By Michael Friedman
The world's biggest poker tournament is down to the final two players and there are millions of dollars on the line. Your opponent makes a huge raise. Should you reraise, call, or fold?
Card Player Media Publisher and
World Series of Poker bracelet winner Barry Shulman answers this question and more in his second book,
52 Tips for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker (138 pages, $14.95), a collection of poker tips and advice that is sure to improve the game of players at all skill levels.
Building on the success of his first book,
52 Tips for Texas Hold'em Poker, Shulman gives players a thorough analysis of what it takes to become a winning no-limit hold'em player.
"With
52 Tips for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker, I provide poker enthusiasts with a surefire way to improve their game. Following the instructions from the book will greatly help to increase a player's number of cashes and will help players move their poker bankrolls out of the red and into the black," Shulman said.
52 Tips for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker covers a broad range of topics, from learning how to identify the different types of players at the table, mixing up your play, and the importance of player position, to hand-specific information such as how to play particular hands like A-K or how to make the most of a small pocket pair.
Top professionals have offered high marks for Shulman's second effort. 2004-2005
World Poker Tour Player of the Year Daniel Negreanu has nothing but praise for Shulman's insights on how to become a winning no-limit hold'em player. "This is an excellent second book in the
52 Tips series, which aims to improve your poker game. The nuances of the no-limit variant of Texas hold'em poker are explained in a manner that is easy to read and understand. Any fan of
Card Player magazine will enjoy it," Negreanu said.
According to poker icon and 10-time
World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Shulman has scored another winner with his second effort. He said, "I highly recommend
52 Tips for No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker to players of any skill level. The tips will make learning and improving your poker game easy and fun."
People interested in buying the book should visit the online
Card Player store www.pokerstore.cardplayer.com.
Tony G Wins Betfair Asian Poker Tour Championship
Donates Half of Prize Money to Charity
By Bob Pajich
Tony Guoga, better known on the tournament circuit as Tony G, won the
Betfair Asian Poker Tour main event and $451,700, giving the Australian a place in history as the first victor of the first major poker tournament held in Asia.
Guoga said he will give half of his winnings to charity.
"I want people to know that poker is sport. This is not a large amount compared to what people like Bill Gates give to charity, but it is a gesture to show that it's not all about the money - it's about the competition, as well," Guoga said.
The charities to receive the money are in Australia and Asia and will be determined by Betfair.
Guoga outlasted nearly 400 players in the event that took place at the Mandarin Ballroom of the Meritus Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. The tournament buy-in was $5,000, and many people qualified through BetfairPoker.com.
Local player Joshua Ang finished in second place, winning $233,200. He also received the Merlion trophy, which is a symbol of Singapore. The trophy was awarded to Guoga, but he gave it to Ang so that it would stay in Singapore.
Several well-known pros made the trip to Asia, including Liz Lieu, Gus Hansen, John Phan, Harry Demetriou, and Mel Judah. They joined players from 32 countries who qualified through Betfair.com or bought in directly.
In March, another major poker tournament - the
Asian Poker Classic - will take place in Goa, India. Sponsors expect about 200 players to attend that one.
Final results were as follows:
1. Tony Guoga, $451,700
2. Joshua Ang, $233,200
3. Lee Nelson, $116,600
4. Samuel Lehtonen, $102,000
5. Jeff Kimber, $87,400
6. Mark Whent, $72,900
7. Hans Vogl, $58,306
8. Hendrik Dahlgaard, $43,700
9. Brendan Walls, $29,200
10. Neil Yong, $17,500
World Poker Tour Introduces New Poker Hostess Sabina Gadecki
By Lisa Wheeler
Sabina Gadecki follows Shana Hiatt and Courtney Friel as the
World Poker Tour hostess as the
WPT kicks off its fifth season of popular poker programming.
Gadecki's television debut was at The Bicycle Casino's 2006
Legends of Poker tournament, but her career began as a beauty pageant contestant, winning Miss Western Massachusetts and Miss Polonia back in 2002.
According to
WPT representatives, their second hostess, Courtney Friel, did not renew her contract after the fourth season and producers looked for new talent. Gadecki was discovered when her New York agent submitted a photo of the young model to the
WPT and they responded. A request for a demo followed, and Gadecki was provided with sample clips of veteran hostesses Hiatt and Friel opening televised episodes and conducting interviews with poker players. After reviewing the material, Gadecki collaborated with some of her closest friends and set out to videotape her own comical version of an impressionable clip.
Donning cliché Vegas-style attire and cowboy boots, Gadecki mimicked Hiatt in animated fashion, literally kicking off her boots as she delivered the line, "So kick off your shoes and stay awhile." She closed with a brief narrated bio, and then spontaneously turned the camera on her friends who were assisting with the amateur production, thanking them for their help. When her agent reviewed the completed project, he warned, "They'll either think you're crazy, or they'll love it."
WPT producers contacted Gadecki's agent and she began touring in June.
Gadecki is currently studying at Fordham Univeristy, majoring in international business with a minor in communications. She recently finished her first year of a two-year stint at the William Esper Professional Actor Training Studio.
Honing her statuesque and lean figure with years of formal dance study, Gadecki is a member of a troop named TADAH (tap, acting, dance, and hip-Hop), led by renowned choreographer Jared Grimes, who's responsible for the early dance teachings of Mya and Mariah Carey. Gadecki also attends ballet and hip-hop classes at the Broadway Dance Center.
Comedy Festival Featured Daniel Negreanu, the King of Poker Clowns
Tournament Saw Litany of Stars Go at It
By Lisa Wheeler
The always entertaining poker pro Daniel Negreanu held his own recently in the company of
The Comedy Festival cast at the Caesars Palace Las Vegas PURE nightclub for an evening benefiting the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
"I'm a huge fan of comedy," said Negreanu, "and I'm very excited to be a part of the charity poker tournament."
Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Mark Wahlberg, and Chris Albrecht of
HBO were the official hosts, while Negreanu and FBI counterintelligence expert Joe Navarro coached players participating in the no-limit Texas hold'em tournament.
"This event is for a wonderful cause," said Navarro. "Look how many celebrities are here tonight, and they chose a poker tournament as their fundraiser. It's great."
Anteing up the $15,000 for charity were
Entourage cast members Adrian Grenier, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Jerry Ferrara, and Jeremy Piven. Other celebrities who participated were
HBO Curb Your Enthusiasm's Susie Essman, Las Vegas' comedy queen Rita Rudner,
Last Comic Standing's Ross Mark, renowned Olympics and boxing sports broadcaster Jim Lampley,
The Wire cast member Andre Royo, and Roseanne Barr.
Last year's event generated more than $350,000, and
HBO CEO Chris Albrecht was confident that 2006 projections would exceed that amount.
Children's Hospital Los Angeles is an international leader in pediatric medicine and has been a vital resource for children and families in Southern California since 1901. Proceeds from
The Comedy Festival Poker Tournament will go toward the construction of a new Children's Hospital Los Angeles hospital building.
The FullTilt Online Poker Series Puts FullTilt on Top
FullTilt Online Poker a Success
By Shawn Patrick Green
PokerStars may have continued to re-break its own records in November, but it was decidedly FullTilt on top with its online tournaments that month. The most notable achievement for FullTilt was the successful second run of its
FullTilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), the nine events of which ran Nov. 11-19. The series was a little bit of a roller-coaster ride at first, with two of the first five events requiring overlays due to lagging attendance. However, overall, the series went beyond expectations and culminated in a huge main event.
And Now for the Main Event …
The
FTOPS main-event prize pool was massive, surging past its $1 million guarantee to $1,224,500 with 2,449 players. While not as gigantic as the PokerStars
World Championship of Online Poker's $6.3 million main-event prize pool in September, the
FTOPS prize pool was just as impressive, given the relatively small $500 buy-in. In fact, when compared proportionally against the $2,500 buy-in for the PokerStars tournament, the
FTOPS was more successful per buy-in dollar.
Keith Sexton finished deep in the event, finally cashing out in 30th place for $3,796. It was surprising to see CaseyTheKid, a winner from the first
FTOPS, make it to the final table sporting the special-edition gold football jersey avatar awarded to each event's winner. CaseyTheKid had taken down the Omaha eight-or-better tournament in the previous series. He was the first elimination from the final table in ninth place ($17,143).
Spiked entered the final table in what was virtually a four-way tie for the chip lead. By the time the table was down to four players, he had almost three times more chips than the second-place player. He carried his lead into heads up where he had a 6-1 advantage over dmkai3. It wasn't long before he raked in the final pot to win the event and the $224,635 first prize.
Gary Bogdanski Snags a Custom Avatar
Internet poker pro Gary "GB2005" Bogdanski was the best all-around player at the
FTOPS. What did that mean for Bogdanski? It meant a customized FullTilt avatar, just like the Team FullTilt pros have.
It also meant, of course, a whole lot of clout and respect from fellow players. Bogdanski may very well have to turn off his observer chat from now on when he plays at FullTilt, for fear of being asked the same question over and over again: "Hey, how'd you get your own avatar?"
Bogdanski won with 300 tournament leader board points, just 25 points more than runner-up AAAAJ. He earned his points by finishing deep in three events. He finished so deep that he didn't even have to make a final table to snag the best-player honors. He cashed in the following events:
Event No. 1: Pot-limit Omaha; 12th place, $1,622; 95 leader board points
Event No. 4: No-limit hold'em, shorthanded; eighth, $6,544; 115 leader board points
Event No. 7: Razz; 13th, $887; 90 leader board points
Icing on the Cake: a Bigger Payday and a "Mouth"-"Matador" Final Table
The
FTOPS alone would have been big enough to make FullTilt's month in online poker major news, but the site had more going for it in November than just the series. FullTilt's Sunday $250,000-guaranteed event had been having so much success lately that tournament organizers decided to up the guarantee to $350,000. The first tournament featuring the new guarantee also featured two poker mega-stars at its final table.
Both Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Juan Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen plowed their way through the record-breaking 2,006-player field to make the final table in the event. Matusow entered the final table as the chip leader, much to the excitement of the traditionally talkative FullTilt railbirds. However, Matusow's massive stack quickly came tumbling down after a few pivotal hands before he was ousted from the tournament in seventh place ($9,428). Railbirds were quick to speculate that Matusow's downward spiral was due to one of his infamous "Matusow Blowups."
Mortensen lay low and nursed a short stack during much of the later portion of the tournament. He carried his stack to the final three, where he was eventually unseated, earning $29,689. 1stueyungar1, the ultimate winner of the event, took home $73,821.
The Execution or the Idea?
By Dave Apostolico
In poker tournaments, I both see and make plenty of mistakes. The mistakes generally are the result of either a bad idea or poor execution. The difference is often subtle but huge. There is no excuse for a flawed idea, while poor execution is forgivable if the underlying idea was sound.
What am I talking about? Well, let's say that you sit down at the table and your goal is to accumulate chips early or go home. You're willing to take some chances, as this is a fast-structured tournament and you're not starting with a lot of chips. While some may disagree with this strategy, they certainly could not find a defect in this idea. Contrast that with the player who says he's going to turn his chips into gold. Unless he has magical powers, that's a flawed idea. It's just not going to work, and this player is not going to advance that far.
I use the above illustration to draw an obvious difference between a good idea and a bad one. In the heat of battle, however, the distinction between a good idea and a bad idea is never quite so obvious. Additionally, I think many players confuse a poor idea with poor execution. It's much easier to place the blame on the execution than on the idea. After all, poker is a game of imperfect information. A good idea doesn't always pan out. You can do everything right and still lose. "That's poker" is too often used as a convenient rationalization.
I would caution against finding the easy excuse. When you take time to examine your play, start from the beginning and determine whether the original idea was flawed to begin with. Let me offer an example from a situation I see quite frequently. Player A is getting short-stacked, but he still has enough chips that he has some fold equity. That is, by moving all in preflop, he can still force others to fold. Thus, Player A is actively looking for an ideal situation to push in and win some much needed chips.
Sure enough, Player A finds himself in the cutoff seat when everyone folds to him. He hasn't looked at his cards yet, but no matter. He's pushing all in even if he has 7-2 offsuit. As it happens, he has 6-2 offsuit, but that doesn't stop him from moving his chips in. The button folds and the action moves to the blinds. Well, both the small and big blinds are sitting on extremely short stacks. Both have less than three times the amount of the big blind. Without even looking at their cards, they both call for the rest of their chips and Player A is a substantial dog to win the pot. Was this poor execution or a poor idea?
It was a poor idea. Player A should have realized that both blinds were going to call no matter what, considering how desperate a situation they were in. He was trying to turn his chips into gold, which just isn't going to happen. Now, let's look at the same scenario, but this time both of the blinds have decent-sized chip stacks. They have Player A covered, but they each would take a very serious hit if they called and lost. If Player A decides to move in with his 6-2 offsuit, I cannot find a defect in the idea. He's using position and his chips to try to steal the pot. Player A's idea is a sound one regardless of the result. If the big blind wakes up with pocket kings, it doesn't diminish the quality of Player A's idea.
Another mistake that I see is some players' willingness to bluff the weak player. The weak player is often the last one to try to bluff. There's an old saying that you can't bluff a sucker. There's a lot of truth to that. Weak players are often calling stations, and play their hands in a vacuum. They are incapable of a good laydown. Conversely, better players will make tough laydowns. The point is, do not make decisions independent of other factors. In a tournament, you will often have to make a move if you are not getting cards. That's a good idea. It's a bad idea not to consider other factors, such as the play of your opponents, relative chip stacks, position, others perception of you, and so on.
Take the time to reflect on your play during and after every session. Focus less on the outcome of the play and consider the idea behind it. At the time the idea was hatched, was it a sound one considering all the information that was available to you? Good ideas will help you win chips. Poor ideas will never turn those chips into gold.
David Apostolico is the author of numerous poker 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].
Sorel Mizzi
Building an Empire
By Craig Tapscott
Online tournament superstar Sorel Mizzi is a poker architect, building illusions within the framework of a flop, turn, and river. The house of cards he constructs, more often than not, comes crashing down on opponents who venture within.
"I make some very controversial calls and raises," stated Mizzi. "I have a different way of looking at the game. The biggest thing about poker is knowing what you can do to certain players and what you can't."
In January of 2006, Mizzi set a simple goal: to be one of the top-ranked online tournament players in the world. But after winning 50K online within a week, then losing most of it in the same amount of time, doubts crept in. He reached out to other players for advice, hand critiques, and support. Luck was on his side when an accomplished player answered his pleas.
"JJProdigy helped me to believe in myself more than he actually helped with my game," confessed Mizzi. "He always encouraged me, and was the first to believe I would get ranked quickly if I tweaked my game and also changed my name on all sites for uniformity." Their brainstorming sessions resulted in the name Imperium - Latin for empire.
Since that fateful day, Mizzi has achieved every goal he has set. He has built a solid foundation - mentally, emotionally, and strategically - drafting a unique blueprint for poker success.
Craig Tapscott: How did your tournament game improve so quickly?
Sorel Mizzi: I sent hand histories to every player who was where I wanted to be. I believed I had a natural talent, but it just needed to be refined a little bit. The biggest attribute to my game is my instincts. I still ignore pot odds a lot of the time. If I think I'm ahead in the hand or it's a decent chance that it's a coin flip, I'm calling.
CT: As far as strategy is concerned, what was the main thing you gleaned from JJProdigy?
SM: Position over cards. That made sense. If I was down to 10 times the big blind, he preferred that I fold A-10 from under the gun and push 7-3 offsuit from the button. That is one of the things that has helped me a lot. Now I've developed my own style.
CT: Could you be more specific?
SM: Everything has become psychological warfare. Cards don't matter anymore. For me, poker is a game of pure information. I really don't like playing cards as much I like playing poker. There is a mathematical strategy and a strategical strategy. If people know that I'm going to call them if they reraise me, they're not going to reraise me with air. I want the table image that I'm not going to fold, especially if I'm the chip leader at the table. From a strategical perspective, I think it's the right thing to do.
CT: You need a good read to be able to do this with consistent success.
SM: Being able to read my opponents is one of my biggest strengths. If I was unable to do this, I wouldn't be able to play poker properly. That's because, like I said, I don't play in a very standard manner. A lot of my play is based on my instincts and what I believe the other player has. I've seen so many hands that I sometimes know a player's hand just by the timing, how fast or slow he calls. Everything makes sense. What he does tells a story about his hand. I read that story very well. I didn't have that skill in the beginning, as I was relying on cards completely.
CT: You mentioned something called the new squeeze play - the three-bet?
SM: You raise in position - say, from the cutoff - late in a tournament and the blinds are starting to get big, and you have a fairly deep stack. The button goes over the top. You know he could be doing that with a lot of different hands. It's a perfect opportunity to resteal. Now, you go over the top of that button raise. It becomes another squeeze. I'm talking about doing that with air, with absolutely nothing.
CT: Do you have any advice on dealing with the donks and drawouts?
SM: Poker is a stressful enough game as it is. Why make it more so by taking bad beats so seriously? Now I realize that they are the people who are feeding me. That's my mind frame. If anything, I'm very nice to the fish. I even compliment their play. Sometimes I can be a bit sarcastic, though (laughing).
Tune in at most sites and watch Imperium entertain (except at PokerStars, where he is zangbezan24, because it doesn't allow name changes). He is an example of a true gentleman at the tables and a very sharp and dangerous player.
Rio Poker Room Review
By Lisa Wheeler
One could say that the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino poker room is one of the best-kept secrets in town - except for the fact that it's always busy and packed with action. Located on the west side of Interstate 15 on Flamingo Road, the Rio is not afforded the Las Vegas Strip pedestrian traffic, and relies heavily on positive feedback and word of mouth. But the modest Rio poker room, with a devoted local player base, holds its own against competing cardrooms in the area and provides some of the city's most popular daily poker tournaments.
As the Rio poker room continues to offer its players generous incentives - such as high-hand jackpots, the $10,000
World Series of Poker Championship Freeroll, and the
Aces Cracked promotion - it will continue to boast impressive attendance levels and lure tourists as well as locals.
During last year's
WSOP, the Rio poker room underwent a drastic renovation. The spacious area is now plexiglass-enclosed, keeping excessive casino noise out while providing poker players with a more private arena. Six 42-inch plasma TV screens hang from the walls and ceiling, with sports and news programs broadcast 24 hours a day. Ten new tables have been covered in new felt with the
WSOP logo, and 100 players chairs have been reupholstered. Historical
WSOP memorabilia has been tastefully hung from the walls, giving the poker room regal appeal.
Nearly a dozen competent floor supervisors and a veteran crew of 35 dealers are well-trained, courteous, and professional. A newly installed QOS automated guest and game list system makes it easier for the staff to meet players' needs.
The popular $10,000
WSOP Championship Freeroll runs every second Sunday of the month and will continue through the
World Series. To qualify, players need to log 40 hours of live play in a month or win any daily tournament. While the winner receives a seat in the main event of the
World Series, cash prizes are also awarded to the top 10 freeroll finishers.
Parking is convenient, and far from the congested Strip traffic. Motorists traveling via I-15 have off-ramp access leading to the Rio's main entrance, and convenient valet parking or the west parking lot leaves players only a few steps from the poker room entrance.
Ask Chip & Karina
How has poker life been for you guys since the birth of your new son?
Karina: Having two kids is not double the work, it's more like quadruple the work. I am very lucky to have two beautiful and healthy kids. It's very hard to balance poker and kids. Thank God that I have a lot of help. My husband is also a great baby sitter who lets me play when I just need to get away. But we don't get away too often anymore, 'cause traveling with two kids is more stressful than just staying at home.
Chip: Having Apollo and Athena has shown me just how hard raising kids can be. It also has raised my appreciation for my own parents and the job they did raising my sister and me. Playing poker for a living is something that is much better suited to the single life than the married-with-children life, but we will continue to try to find a way to make it all work.
Please send any comments or questions to [email protected].
Online Hand-to-Hand Combat: GreenPlastic Executes a High-Level Bluff
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: No-limit hold'em cash game - heads up
Stacks: GreenPlastic - $14,290, Villain - $20,882
Blinds: $50-$100
Preflop: Villain raises from the button to $300. GreenPlastic calls, holding the 5
4
.
Craig Tapscott: What was your opponent's play like up to this point?
Taylor Caby (GreenPlastic): This was an extremely aggressive game. He was raising 90 percent of the time from the button and was calling 80 percent of my button raises. The 5
4
is the type of hand that I will play with stacks this deep, and it is even a hand I will raise with from time to time.
Flop: Q
6
3
($600 pot) GreenPlastic checks, Villain bets $600, GreenPlastic calls.
CT: Did you think about raising with the draw to see where you were at in the hand?
TC: Many times I would raise this, but I was worried that he might push me off the hand, as I had been caught in a few bluff reraises previously. I flopped an open-end straight draw with both of us having deep stacks - a good hand. I decided to call and hope to hit one of my cards.
Turn: Q
($1,800 pot) Both players check.
River: 10
CT: OK, you've missed your draw. What now?
TC: Well, I decide I want to steal the pot. I don't want to bet the pot, because it may look like some sort of steal, and with a pair, he would probably call. I want to bet just big enough so that he will fold a very small pair or maybe ace high, but if he calls, I will lose the least amount possible.
GreenPlastic bets $550.
CT: What were you trying to represent here?
TC: This bet looks like I'm trying to protect a small pair, maybe A-6 or 5-5. It's a reasonable bet, and usually he would fold because it isn't worth trying to raise me off a hand here. But in this case, I'm guessing that he hit a 10 and was pretty sure that I was just protecting my low pair; so, he raised me a very small amount.
Villain raises to $1,350.
CT: Are you done with this hand?
TC: No. My bet represented me trying to protect a small pair, which is what I wanted it to do. He recognized it and tried to get value for his 10. I understood this play from him and decided to go one level of thinking deeper. I came over the top of him and tried to trick him into re-evaluating my very small bet and believing that it was instead a teaser with a monster hand.
GreenPlastic raises to $5,500.
CT: I'm sure this froze him.
TC: You're right. He thought for the full amount of time. He folded his hand because now he thinks about my original $550 bet and changes his opinion of my hand. He now thinks I have a huge hand with which I was trying to get him to reraise me. I won with 5 high.
CT: Many online players are calling stations, and would have called you down with only a 10 in their hand.
TC: True. These kinds of plays can be made only against opponents who think carefully and understand that there can be many different reasons for various bet sizes.
To see this hand animated and narrated with additional analysis by GreenPlastic, visit www.CardPlayer.com/h2hc.
Taylor Caby is one of the most successful cash-game players on the Net at the highest limits. He recently graduated with a finance degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Taylor is the co-founder and lead instructor at CardRunners.com, an online poker school geared toward cash games and tournament play.
Ask Jack
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Matt: Here's something I found strange. I recently was playing a game of limit hold'em. Two players were left. The first person raised and the second player mucked his cards directly into the dealer's muck pile. The first person requested to see the hand, so the dealer went into the muck pile and pulled the two cards out and showed them. The player didn't show anyone his cards before he mucked them. The dealer said this is perfectly fine. Is this correct?
Jack: In many rooms, this is acceptable. I believe that a player should never muck his cards directly into the muck. Many things can happen, and none of them are good.
Bob: Love the column, Jack. I was playing $1-$2 no-limit hold'em in a Las Vegas Strip property cardroom recently when this issue came up: At the showdown of a hand that generated a sizable pot, Player A called a $60 bet on the river from Player B, and then flipped his hand up, announcing "Jack two." But when he tossed his cards up, they stuck together and only the deuce was exposed. There were two jacks on the board, so Player B, thinking his hand was no good, tossed his hand into the muck.
Right after Player B mucked, another player not involved in the hand slid Player A's cards apart, revealing that Player A didn't have trip jacks as he had declared, but only a busted ace-high flush draw. Player B was furious (he said he folded a pair), and the dealer immediately called over the manager. The dealer did a great job of explaining the situation, and after listening, the manager basically said that Player B was out of luck, but that he didn't approve of Player A's actions in his poker room and suggested that Player A return the last $60 bet to Player B. Player A refused.
How would you have handled this?
Jack: Both players acted incorrectly. Player A won the pot by deception. Player B acted too quickly on his hand before seeing both of Player A's cards. Player A was the offender in this case, but Player B gave up his rights to the pot by folding without showing his hand.
I would have requested that Player A split the pot. If he refused, I would have shown him the exit and reminded all players that this kind of underhanded conduct was not welcome in my room.
Shawn: I recently played in a low buy-in tournament at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. It was a rebuy tournament and we were playing the final hand before rebuys were no longer allowed. I was sitting out of the hand and watched as a short-stacked player put all of his chips in and declared that he was all in. Two other players had called when the dealer inadvertently mucked the all-in player's unprotected, facedown cards. The player was at first incredulous, and then furious, yelling, "What are you doing? I'm all in!" The floor manager was called, and he decided to retrieve the man's hand based on what the dealer thought the two cards were from within the muck and the man's word that they were the same two cards.
There wasn't any opposition to this resolution from the table, but it seems a bit shady to me. It may be important to note that the man doubled up in the hand. What are your thoughts?
Jack: First of all, the player needs to protect his own hand. That said, the dealer should not be able to kill the hand on his authority, and definitely not be able to pick the cards and give them back. I would have given the all-in player his chips back and not let him continue the hand, with the caveat that in the future, he protect his own hand with a card cap or a coin.
Tales About Tells
By Tim Peters
Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells by Randy Burgess with Carl Baldassarre (Triumph Books, $16.95)
At a small buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament I played in recently, the turn card brought a third spade to the board, and an inexperienced middle-aged player in seat No. 2 leaned forward about two inches before settling back into her normal posture. It was a subtle gesture, but the card and her action were so clearly linked that I knew, without a shadow of doubt, that she'd made her flush (confirmed at showdown). My insight didn't do me a whit of good - I wasn't in the hand - but I was delighted that (a) I'd noticed something meaningful at the table and (b) I was able to translate the observation into a conclusion.
Are tells really valuable? In a particularly insightful introduction to their book
Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells, authors Randy Burgess and Carl Baldassarre delve into the utility of tells. "Tells are worth far less in a limit setting," they write, especially in small-stakes fixed-limit games, where some players might be clueless. A neophyte might think that middle pair is a monster, and give off signals to that effect; your reads on him or her must go beyond the tell. Moreover, in limit games, players will often have the odds to call regardless of tells that might suggest they are beaten. And the book points out how some tournament strategies can make tells relatively useless, such as when the math of the situation takes precedence.
Still, tells are a vital part of poker, particularly at higher stakes and in no-limit games, and if you want to compete at that level, you have to learn how to take note of those involuntary, detectable changes in a player's actions, body language, and verbal mannerisms that signify something. Burgess and Baldassarre describe the basic tells, drawing distinctions between generic tells - which are almost universal, like trembling hands - and individual tells, like the infamous Oreo cookie tell in
Rounders (strangely, I've never once seen an Oreo at the table). They cover facial expressions, postures and gestures, chip handling, verbal tells, and betting patterns (probably the most important tell for small-stakes no-limit players, and one of the few tells that's valuable online). My favorite is the player who raises six times the big blind with hands she doesn't want action on, like pocket eights or J-J, but puts in a minimum raise when she has aces or kings; she might as well wear a neon sign. They also provide game-specific tell overviews, for limit hold'em, Omaha, and stud, as well as no-limit hold'em.
The authors explain what these tells
probably mean - "probably" because tells are very situational and personal. Take the famous trembling hands tell. A player reaches forward with his chips, hands visibly shaking. Does it mean a monster hand (the standard interpretation)? Or, does the player have a nervous condition? Is he giving off a false tell? Or, is he bluffing and simply can't control his adrenaline rush? All four are possible explanations; to make that observation valuable, you need to know more about that player. You need to see him play a few pots to know what his tremor might mean. It's one thing to notice something; it's another thing entirely to determine what that something implies. In what strikes me as the key lesson of the book, the authors write, "tells are valuable only in context, not in isolation."
Burgess and Baldassarre also discuss ways to develop your powers of observation, from first impressions when you sit down at the table to the kind of clues that can emerge only after a few rounds of play. And they write about how to cultivate your ability to "recognize and respect your intuition," and offer some interesting analysis of the science behind intuition. (Intuition is probably our analysis of tells that we can't identify consciously.) It seems obvious that the great players have a preternatural talent for intuition (they are "feel" players); they can smell weakness, bluffs, and strength. Most of us don't have that innate ability, but I'm convinced that any intelligent, observant player can improve his ability to identify and profit from tells. You need to go beyond observation, of course; you need to turn your observations into decisions that earn or save you bets: whether to raise, call, or fold. This book can help. Even if you're a pure math player, this book can teach you something because it can help you avoid giving off tells yourself. (The next time you play with a friend, ask him to observe your demeanor; could he tell when you had it and when you didn't? You might be surprised at what he notices.)
It would have been interesting if the authors had devoted a little space to online tells, like click tells, but they've done a fine job of articulating the basics of this important element of the game. Of course, the question must be asked: Does the world need another book on tells, after the 1984 classic
Mike Caro's Book of Tells (the current edition is titled
Caro's Book of Poker Tells, Cardoza, $24.95)? I think the answer is a decided "yes." As the authors point out, Caro's original book was focused primarily on draw poker, and is by now quite old (but it remains the foundation text on the topic). And while the
Ultimate Book of Tells doesn't have the same kind of rigor as another excellent recent book on the subject -
Read 'em and Reap by FBI interrogation expert Joe Navarro - it is a very useful addition to your poker bookshelf.
Editor's note: Read any good poker books that we haven't reviewed? Any recent books you think we should review? Let us know at [email protected].
