CardPlayer.com Launches New Online Poker Section
New Section Includes an Online Player of the Year Contest, Detailed Room Reviews With User Ratings, Video Content, and More
By Shawn Patrick Green
CardPlayer.com is gearing up to launch a massive new section, and online poker players are finally going to get the attention they deserve from the world's leading poker authority.
The new section is going to be tailored specifically to online poker enthusiasts, whether they be online poker neophytes, experienced players, or those simply interested in the industry. Readers will have access to player rankings, poker room reviews (by both the
Card Player staff and fellow users), online-specific strategy articles and poker news, exclusive multimedia content, and tournament listings.
Here's what to look for in the new online poker section of CardPlayer.com:
• Online Player of the Year - Similar to the traditional
Card Player Player of the Year race, the
Card Player Online Player of the Year (OPOY) pits Internet players against each other to finish deep in the biggest tournaments on the biggest poker sites and earn points toward their leader-board standings.
• Online player results and profiles - Individual player profiles and results from the biggest names in Internet poker to the relative unknowns.
• Tournament results - An easily sortable and filterable listing of results from online poker's biggest tournaments.
• Online poker room reviews - Detailed and objective room reviews are available on the major poker sites, with new rooms being reviewed on a regular basis.
• User ratings - For those who want to know what thousands of their fellow players think of a particular site and all of its individual features - or want to make their own thoughts known - the new section offers user ratings. Ten different aspects of each site are available to rate and view, and these ratings are combined to calculate an average score for every poker room.
• Strategy and getting-started articles - Whether you're here to get started in online poker or to hone your skills, the new section will offer free guides and columns from top online players to suit your needs. New articles will be available on a regular basis.
• Tournament listings - Rather than opening up each individual poker site's software clients and browsing their tournament listings on a one-by-one basis, users can visit the new online poker section and view them all at once, filter the listings any way they see it, and dive right in.
Poker Movie Lucky You Hits Theaters First Weekend of May
Producers Promise Authenticity
By Bob Pajich
The poker movie
Lucky You, starring Eric Bana, Robert Duvall, and Drew Barrymore, opens nationally on May 4.
With both the writer and director of
Lucky You formerly nominated for an
Oscar, sets that include Bellagio's poker room and Benny's Bullpen at Binion's, and an all-star lineup of poker superstars, it's a movie that promises poker authenticity as well as a good love story.
Set in 2003, Bana plays tough poker sharp Huck Cheever, who lives the untamed life of a professional poker player. Duvall plays the part of his father, L.C. Cheever, who left Huck and his mother long ago. The two cross paths during the 2003 World Series of Poker, where L.C. already has two bracelets.
"Like Huck, Eric Bana is a blaster; he came at his part full out," said director Curtis Hanson. "During the rehearsal period, he not only worked on his scenes, but immersed himself in learning the game of poker. He is a true chameleon."
Barrymore plays Billie Offer, Bana's love interest, and when the two characters meet, their lives change forever.
Serious poker fans will be most interested in the film's portrayal of the
WSOP main event and the "Big Game" that still goes on at Bellagio. The producers of the movie made sure they got some of the most respected poker players to both act in the movie and be consultants, to ensure that eagle-eyed poker fans come away from the film impressed.
Players who actually play in the Big Game - Daniel Negreanu, Sam Farha, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, and others - play themselves in the movie. Other players, like John Hennigan, actually act. Hennigan, for example, plays a rival of Bana's, and they clash during the
WSOP.
The producers hired Doyle Brunson, Matt Savage, and Jason Lester, who made the final table of the 2003
WSOP main event, as consultants, to make sure that all of the poker details in the film were right. The list of poker players in this film is astounding, and includes Johnny Chan, Hoyt Corkins, Antonio Esfandiari, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Chau Giang, Dan Harrington, Karina Jett, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, and many others.
The moviemakers got lucky themselves while filming. When they heard that Bellagio planned on remodeling its poker room, producers secured the fixtures of the old room, packed them up, and moved them to California. Everything from the light fixtures to the wall paneling was retained and reassembled on a soundstage, where the scenes of the Big Game were filmed.
Filmmakers also re-created Benny's Bullpen on a soundstage, which is where the
WSOP main-event final table was played for the last time in 2003, the year that poker changed forever when Chris Moneymaker won the real championship - something that probably doesn't happen in the movie.
Go to luckyyoumovie.com for more information and to view a trailer of the film.
Levels of World Series of Poker Blinds Changed
Double the Starting Chips Equals Double the Blinds
By Bob Pajich
Players in all of the
World Series of Poker events this year will start with double the amount of chips, but the levels of the blinds will also change.
The change affects all 55 events, including the $10,000 main event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship event. Players will start with $20,000 in chips in the main event and $100,000 in the H.O.R.S.E. event, and $3,000 in chips in the $1,500 buy-in events, $4,000 in chips in the $2,000 buy-in events, and so on.
Main Event
Blinds for the main event will start at $50-$100 and will change every 120 minutes. Last year, the blinds ran for the same amount of time, but started at $25-$50. There are several changes to the levels of the blinds throughout the day, but for the most part, the blinds simply double every two hours, just as they did last year.
In this year's main event, there won't be a $150-$300 or $250-$500 level. Instead, the blinds will jump from $100-$200 to $200-$400, and run for two 120-minute periods, the second with a $50 ante.
At the beginning of the second day, the blinds will be $500-$1,000 with a $100 ante. Last year, they were $250-$500 with a $50 ante.
In the later rounds, the $50,000-$100,000 level was cut. Instead, the blinds will jump to the $60,000-$120,000 level (level 27). By the time players reach level 41, the antes will be very high. They will go from $400,000 to two levels of $500,000, and then to $1 million (with blinds of $3 million-$6 million).
H.O.R.S.E.
The players in the H.O.R.S.E. $50,000 championship event will start with $100,000 in chips, but the blinds, antes, and betting limits are much more aggressive in the early rounds than they were last year.
For example, in the first level - hold'em - the blinds are $300-$600 and the limit is $600-$1,200. Last year's first level started at $100-$200 blinds and $200-$400 limit.
In razz, stud, and stud eight-or-better, the antes and bring-in are $200 each, and the completion is $800. Last year, those amounts were $100 for the antes and the bring-in, and $300 to complete.
The 2007 levels slow down at around level 13, and by level 21, the structure slows more than last year to give players who made it this far a slightly better chance to maneuver.
For example, this year at level 40, the betting limit is $15,000-$30,000, the blinds are $9,000-$18,000, the antes are $3,000, the bring-in is $5,000, and the completion bet is $15,000. Last year, the numbers were: limit, $30,000-$60,000; blinds, $20,000-$40,000; antes, $5,000; bring-in $10,000; completion, $30,000.
The game changes every 30 minutes, and limits increase every hour during flop games and every 90 minutes during stud games.
Other Events
Players will get more play in the seven-card stud events. For example, in the $2,000 buy-in stud event, players start with $4,000 in chips, antes start at $5, the low-card bring-in is $10, the completion bet is $25, and the limit is $25-$50. The $3,000 buy-in stud eight-or-better event follows the same structure.
The razz events also follow this structure, with some minor changes (slightly lower completion bets). Structure levels for these events run for 60 minutes up until the final table, then change to 90 minutes.
The blinds in the limit hold'em events will start at $25-$50 with a limit of $50-$100. The limits pretty much follow the same structure as last year (doubling every level), and the levels run for 60 minutes.
In the pot-limit and no-limit events, including the $5,000 pot-limit championship and the Omaha events, the blinds will start at $25-$50, and the structure levels will run for 60 minutes.
WTO Again Rules Against U.S.
Panel Says U.S. is Violating Rules by Pursuing Online Gaming Sites
By Bob Pajich
The World Trade Organization has again sided with Antigua in a dispute between it and the United States concerning online gambling.
The WTO panel has rejected the U.S. appeal of a decision it made in April of 2005 that said Antigua was right in claiming the U.S. violates WTO rules by working to prohibit its residents to play on online sites outside U.S. borders. The panel said the U.S. is violating the WTO's general trade agreement because it allows remote gambling, particularly betting on horse races, to take place within its borders.
Tiny Antigua, which now derives most of its income by housing online gambling books, made the initial filing because the U.S. began to charge and issue warrants for the arrests of operators of the online gambling firms located there.
In the appeal, the U.S. asked the panel to throw out the initial conclusion that the U.S. wasn't in compliance with WTO rules. The panel refused.
The report also noted that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which was passed long after Antigua's initial complaint, has the same loopholes that exist in the laws that were on the books when Antigua first filed. These loopholes are the main reasons that the panel ruled the U.S. is violating trade laws, because it allows certain types of online gambling transactions to take place within its borders but actively tries to stop the same services from being offered by companies located outside the U.S.
It's unclear how this will change the current online gambling climate in the U.S. By WTO rules, Antigua will be able to place sanctions against the U.S., but that will have little effect on the U.S. because of Antigua's size and lack of exports.
This ruling will come into play if and when a larger, more powerful country, like the United Kingdom, decides to challenge U.S. law on this issue. Later this year, the UK will allow online companies to be based there, and depending on how much officials in the UK want to pursue U.S. customers, the UK may ask the WTO to intervene to allow free trade of online gambling.
NETELLER, U.S. Attorney's Office Enter Agreement to Return Funds
A Plan to Return Seized Money to Online Players Will Be in Place in 75 Days
By Allyn Jaffrey Shulman
NETELLER announced recently that it has signed an agreement with the U.S. government that will allow the company to distribute about $55 million that was seized earlier this year as part the crackdown against online gambling.
But poker players whose money is stuck in transit will have to wait at least 75 days until they see the money land in their accounts. To be perfectly clear, players shouldn't expect to see their money in their accounts in 75 days. The company is coming up with a plan to get the money back to U.S. customers, which will take up to 75 days.
NETELLER signed an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and Navigant Consulting on March 20 that will allow the eWallet to return millions of dollars that were seized as part of the investigation into the Canadian company. The company had been in negotiations with the government to allow it to return the funds since early February. The company says it will take about 75 days for a distribution plan to be developed and implemented.
Here is part of NETELLER's announcement:
"The Group is pleased to announce that on 20 March 2007, it signed agreements with the U.S.A.O. and Navigant which, among other things, outline terms and a timeline under which NETELLER will work toward the orderly distribution of funds to its U.S. customers. Per the agreements, the Group anticipates that within the next 75 days it will announce a plan by which the funds will be distributed to U.S. customers."
About a week after the announcement, NETELLER released another statement reiterating that the 75-day schedule is only to implement a plan, and that it will probably take longer than that before players receive their funds.
Player of the Year
J.C. Tran is Burning Up the Poker Trail
The way J.C. Tran is playing,
Card Player readers should get used to reading about him in these pages. Simply put, he is on fire. With the year barely a quarter gone, Tran has won more than $2 million. He has made three final tables, all of them in
World Poker Tour events, and that accomplishment is enough for him to again take the lead in the Player of the Year race.
Tran took the points lead by winning the
WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno. He now has 3,504 points.
Consistency is really the key measure of greatness, and it's something that Tran has seemed to master. One glance at his tournament results on CardPlayer.com makes the mind boggle. Last year, he made 10 final tables, won more than $1.1 million playing tournament poker, and wound up third on the Player of the Year leader board. He also won the
World Championship of Online Poker event at PokerStars.
Since October of 2006, Tran has cashed eight times, all final-table finishes, and won two medium buy-in events. Since October, he's cashed in poker tournaments in every month except January.
Michael Mizrachi, the man who won last year's Player of the Year award, might want to invest in a pair of asbestos-laced gloves so that he doesn't get burned while shaking his friend Tran's hand in congratulations. Players who don't know Tran might want to buy a fire extinguisher, because no one has yet found a way to stop him from burning up the poker world.
Look Out!
David Pham is one of the toughest players ever to slip on a pair of sunglasses, and he truly is one good run of cards away from capturing his first major title of 2007. Just look at how well he's doing in 2007: So far, he's had seven cashes for $345,625. They include a third-place finish in the
WPT World Poker Challenge and two victories in the
Winnin' o' the Green poker series at The Bicycle Casino (no-limit hold'em events with $1,000 and $500 buy-ins). His seven cashes include five final-table appearances.
Pham sits third in the Player of the Year standings with 2,010 points, 1,494 points behind leader J.C. Tran. But to show how perilous a spot in this year's top 10 is, the 11th-place competitor is only 410 points behind Pham. That's how tight the race is. But if Pham keeps winning, he may end the year looking down on everyone else.
Maybe it's because there are so many tournaments out there, or maybe it's because there are so many good players playing in them, but the Player of the Year race is as tight as it ever has been.
Even though J.C. Tran has 3,504 points, one victory in a major event will put just about anyone in the top 10 right on his heels. Anyone in the top 30 will throw himself into the top 10 with a top-three finish in a major event. There are simply too many players with hundreds of points to even begin to think about predicting who will win this thing.
Here are some point totals as an example: Andrew Black has 960 (tied for 44th place). David Ulliott has 1,140 (36th place). Daniel Negreanu has 1,160 (35th place). Chau Giang has 876 (63rd place). With so many months of tournament poker to play, none of these players - or the ones surrounding them - are out of it. Every week, the POY leader board seems to change. It's been a fun year so far, and it looks to continue.
Online Hand-to-Hand Combat: Shaniac Suffers a Momentary Lack of Reason
By Craig Tapscott
Want to study real poker hands with the Internet's most successful players? In this series, Card Player offers hand analysis with online poker's leading talent. And, as an added bonus, you can check out live video commentary provided by the pros and PokerXfactor.com at www.CardPlayer.com/h2hc.
Event: $200 no-limit hold'em PokerStars Sunday $1.5 million-guaranteed anniversary special
Players: 10,508
First Place: $271,000
Stacks: shaniac - $62,305; Villain - $54,080
Blinds: $400-$800
Antes: $40
Preflop: Shaniac has the A
6
in early position and raises to $2,400. Villain calls from the button.
Craig Tapscott: Ace-rag suited seems like a bit of a weak hand to raise from early position, but I suppose this could fall under the category of "mixing it up."
Shane Schleger (shaniac): I had just acquired a big stack, and I guess I was feeling a little frisky; A
6
is definitely a weak hand to deserve a raise from early position. Even with antes in play and a large stack, I estimate that I'd fold this hand about 90 percent of the time or more, and raise or limp in equally the rest of the time.
Flop: 10
6
6
($6,360 pot)
CT: That's kind of a good flop for your hand, to say the least.
SS: My holding goes from a frivolous preflop stab to a legitimate monster.
CT: Is it time to bet or slow-play?
SS: For a variety of reasons, and despite the possibility that a bet will force him to fold hands (like A-Q and A-K) that I want to "catch up," my default line here is to bet; whether I hit the flop big, missed it completely, or have a decent hand that I want to protect or get value with, I often will fire a standard continuation bet on the flop.
Shaniac bets $4,200. Villain calls.
Turn: Q
($14,760 pot); shaniac bets $7,800, Villain calls.
CT: With two smooth-calls from the Villain, are you worried that he has a monster?
SS: Not really; my only vague fear is that he flopped a full house with 10-10, but against a random opponent, it's probably equally likely that he thinks he's trapping me with an overpair. The turn does put a flush and a straight draw on the board. If my opponent is tricky or loose, it's possible that he "floated" my flop bet with a hand like K-J, intending to take the pot away from me even if he didn't improve, but now he also picked up a draw. In retrospect, I don't like the size of my bet here; $10,000-$11,000 would have served my purposes much better.
River: 9
($30,360 pot)
CT: What's going through your mind now?
SS: Well, this is where I blow it. Even if a tiny fraction of the post-game analysis that I offered above was present at the time, my river action betrayed it completely. In my zeal to extract "value," I got caught in the momentum of the hand and ignored the fact that the only hand I could beat on the river was a bluff or overplayed two pair.
Shaniac bets $21,800, Villain raises $17,840 to $39,640 and is all in, and shaniac calls $17,840.
Results: Villain shows the Q
Q
for a full house and wins a $109,640 pot.
CT: How would you have played it differently?
SS: There are two possibly correct plays in this scenario: check-calling or check-folding, and I did the exact opposite, making a large bet and then calling my opponent's all in. It's a good illustration of how a lapse in concentration, and a simple but enormous mistake on one street of one hand, can unnecessarily cause the destruction of a formidable stack. It also illustrates the importance of slowly and carefully analyzing the dynamics of a hand as they change from street to street.
Shane (shaniac) Schleger is a full-time tournament player. He regularly plays the highest buy-in online tournaments and has followed the live tournament circuit for two years. In 2006, he finished ninth in the main event of the U.S.P.C. and won the $300 rebuy event at the L.A. Poker Classic for $256,000.
Of Love and Poker
By Shawn Patrick Green
Notable Internet poker pro Jon "PearlJammer" Turner and his romantic interest, XTraCey, seem to enjoy using final-table appearances to express their love for one another - and both players had that opportunity recently.
First, XTraCey gave a lovingly mushy shout-out to Turner when she made the final table of the enormously successful $1,000 buy-in version of the
Sunday Million tournament on March 25. She outlasted 1,703 entrants to get to that final table and ended up outlasting four more before finishing in fifth place. She earned a huge $79,000 for her finish.
One week later, PearlJammer bested 855 players to secure a seat at the Bodog $100,000-guaranteed final table, all the while sporting a picture of his love as his avatar. He carried her image through to a fourth-place finish and a $6,500 payday.
No More Stars in Lee Jones' Eyes
PokerStars Poker Room Manager Lee Jones has bid adieu.
"And all four people still reading this," Jones said, just moments before the March 25
Sunday Million final table closed down at the end of the tournament, "will be the first to learn that this is my last
Sunday Million final table as poker room manager at PokerStars. I'm moving to a role at the
EPT (
European Poker Tour)."
Jones, who is also a columnist for
Card Player magazine, was known for the quirky witticisms he used to send players off after their eliminations and his high degree of professionalism. Whenever Jones had a Sunday off (or simply couldn't make it in time), it was guaranteed that at least one player at the
Sunday Million final table would bemoan his absence. He will surely be missed on PokerStars.
'Big Jew' Pocketing More Than Gelt
Ira "Big Jew" Mazie is gunning to become a fixture at the UltimateBet $200,000-guaranteed tournament's final table. On March 11, 2007, he made the event's final table, eventually busting out in fourth place and pocketing $13,000.
Then, just three weeks later on April 1, Mazie was among the final nine players again in that tournament. This time, however, he drove it home and took down the first-place prize. With the $45,000 he collected there, his total winnings came to $58,000 in less than a month from those two tournaments alone.
Those two scores constituted Mazie's biggest cashes to date, and his only two five-digit cashes on record. Before now, he'd gotten quite a few payouts in the four-digit range, including two for almost $9,000 at the end of 2006.
Pbdrunks' Winnings Deserve a Toast
Top-rated Internet poker player Joshua "pbdrunks" VanDuyn has been racking up winnings for some time now. He recently took ninth place ($12,000) in the PokerStars
Sunday Million anniversary tournament on March 11. It wasn't his biggest cash, but inasmuch as it was the largest poker tournament of all time (with 10,508 entrants), it was likely among his biggest accomplishments in online poker. VanDuyn followed that up by making a second
Sunday Million final table just two weeks later, an incredibly impressive feat. He ended up finishing in eighth place in that tournament, for $26,000.
Even more recently, on April 1, VanDuyn made the final table in two tournaments and finished among the top-20 players in another. He cashed in both of the daily $100 (with rebuys) tournaments that Sunday, taking fourth place and 14th place, for $9,000 and $1,228, respectively. He then proceeded to finish in fifth place in the $200 (with rebuys) tournament on the same night, earning $8,476.
VanDuyn's biggest recorded cash to date was for $27,000 on PokerStars in the Oct. 1, 2006, $200 (with rebuys) tournament.
Full Tilt Doubles Your Pleasure
Full Tilt Poker is running daily progressive jackpot bonus poker tournaments that award consistency with cash.
Each day, Full Tilt runs two
Daily Double tournaments that cost $12 each. The tournaments start nearly simultaneously (9 p.m. and 9:02 p.m. ET), and players have to play in both tournaments to qualify for the jackpot.
A dollar from each entry goes toward the jackpot. Money from the jackpot pool is distributed to players according to how they finish. Here are the payouts:
• Cash in both tournaments and share 3 percent of the jackpot's prize pool with players who did the same
• Average the best finish in both tournaments and win 2 percent of the jackpot's prize pool (if other players have the exact same best average, the payout is shared)
• Make the final table in both events and share 20 percent of the jackpot's prize pool with any other players who also made the final table in both
• Win both tourneys and win 75 percent of the jackpot's prize pool
At press time, the jackpot had not been hit; as a result, it has consistently remained at more than $30,000.
Get a Piece of the Action
Those wishing to take advantage of the promotions, overlays, and guaranteed prize pools at these sites can do so by going to the following links:
PokerStars - www.CardPlayer.com/link/etpokerstars
Full Tilt Poker - www.CardPlayer.com/link/etfulltilt
UltimateBet - www.CardPlayer.com/link/etultimatebet
AbsolutePoker - www.CardPlayer.com/link/etabsolute
Bodog - www.CardPlayer.com/link/etbodog
Tournament Results, March 25-April 1
PokerStars Sunday Million
March 25 †
Winner: fouruhaters
Winnings: $291,473*
Prize Pool: $1,712,000
Entrants: 1,712
April 1
Winner: Kid_Poker47
Winnings: $198,359
Prize pool: $1,406,800
Entrants: 7,034
* Payout reflects a deal made at the final table.
† One-time $1,000 buy-in
Full Tilt Poker $400,000 Guarantee
March 25
Winner: YourTimeIsUp
Winnings: $80,408
Prize pool: $437,000
Entrants: 2,185
April 1
Winner: tkilpatrick1
Winnings: $81,122
Prize pool: $442,200
Entrants: 2,211
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee
March 25
Winner: Laptopsmasher
Winnings: $45,000
Prize pool: $200,000
Entrants: 849
April 1
Winner: Ira "Big Jew" Mazie
Winnings: $45,000
Prize pool: $200,000
Entrants: 864
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee
March 25
Winner: Touchdown4me
Winnings: $25,000
Prize pool: $100,000
Entrants: 839
April 1
Winner: jraye87
Winnings: $25,000
Prize pool: $100,000
Entrants: 864
Jared Hamby
Invested in Poker
By Craig Tapscott
In 2005, Jared Hamby switched from the daily grind of limit poker to no-limit hold'em tournaments and never looked back; within the first two months, he had cashed for more than $70,000. Hamby, 25, a former student at Baylor University, had found his niche, temporarily leaving a business career behind for an investment in poker.
"My poker career started on PartyPoker playing limit," said Hamby. "I built my bankroll there, but went broke a few times playing too high. I played tournaments maybe once a month or so. Then I won one and was hooked. It was then that I decided I was going to learn tournament poker."
That would prove to be a modest understatement. The time he had invested in limit poker, learning when a hand was good, and when to fold a monster, proved invaluable. As TheWacoKidd, Hamby tore through tournaments at a fevered pace, eventually reaching the status of a top-ranked online player.
Recently, Hamby went on a tear; within a three-day period, he won three tournaments on three different online sites for more than $28,000. This feat earned him the
Triple Crown at pocketfives.com, a rare occurrence for any online player. [The rules of the crown require a player to win three tournaments, each of which starts within the same seven-day period, across three different online sites.]
In live events, Hamby made the final table in a 2007
L.A. Poker Classic $2,500 no-limit hold'em tourney, eventually finishing eighth for $12,000. This year he plans to play more live tournaments and looks forward to making an impact in this year's
World Series of Poker main event. Last year he plowed through nearly 8,000 players and cashed for a respectable $15,000 while taking his first shot at the coveted world championship crown.
Craig Tapscott: I remember during the 2006
World Series of Poker, you also cashed big online.
Jared Hamby: It was the day after my day one of the main event. I cashed in fourth in the Party Million for $44,000.
CT: How did you succeed so quickly in no-limit tournaments, coming from a primarily limit background?
JH: I guess it was a natural skill set of how my game had developed. Remember, I had seen more than a million hands while playing limit. It also had a lot to do with really good short-stack play - and patience. I've won a lot of tournaments by being a survivor and knowing what to do preflop.
CT: Please share some of the keys for short-stack play.
JH: Don't overvalue a weak ace, because a lot of the time when you get called, it will be from a bigger ace. It's better to push 10-9 suited. When you still have fold equity, use it. When someone open-raises and you can go all in and can make him fold, do it. I don't think people take advantage of that situation enough, and they eventually lose their fold equity. The key is to look for situations to push on one initial raiser.
CT: Talk about blind-on-blind play.
JH: I'm very aggressive with any two cards late in a tournament from the small blind. A lot of people just don't have it in them to pull that trigger there with 10-5 offsuit. But if you combine the number of times you fold with the fact that when you do get called you are usually only a 30 percent to 35 percent dog, it's the right move. And 80 percent of the time, he folds because he doesn't have a hand. Usually, I'm a pretty big advocate of shoving any two from the small blind.
CT: Even against Phil Ivey?
JH: Well, you have to know when to push to make it a positive expected value play. You have to identify the weak players and attack them. You have to adjust your range according to what the opponent knows about your range. I'll take every edge I can get. If it's 2 percent, I'll take it.
CT: I understand that you have improved your bankroll management and invested some of your winnings.
JH: After I started winning tournaments, I talked to people who knew more than me about investing my money. I started a retirement fund, some mutual funds, and bought some blue-chip stocks, basically spreading my money around. Recently, I bought a house, which is my best investment.
CT: Thanks for your time, Jared. Simply reminding players of how to invest their winnings should prove to be the best advice you've shared.
Good No-Limit Hold'em Cash-Game Strategy Starts Preflop
Selectively Aggressive Preflop Play is the Key
By Taylor Caby
Many players model their game after pros on TV. Most of these pros are typically tournament players who have adopted a very loose style of play preflop in order to try to outplay their opponents post-flop. The pros' rationale is that many of their opponents will be inexperienced players who give away the strength of their hand post-flop by their betting patterns or physical tells. This works very well in a tournament environment, because the other players are generally afraid of going broke with stack sizes small enough that going broke on any hand is a very real possibility.
However, the majority of play in casinos and online is cash games. When playing cash games, players generally have deeper stacks and don't feel the pressure of rising blinds. Typically, these players are stronger and more aggressive, and simply calling preflop with speculative hands and trying to outplay them later is very difficult. The adjustment that must be made in your game is to be selectively aggressive preflop.
When you are playing deep-stack poker (players are holding 100 big blinds or more) against solid players, you need to do more than just wait to flop a big hand or wait for another player to show weakness. You need to show aggression in order to succeed. Instead of just trying to see flops with hands like the 8
7
, 5-5, and the J
10
, you should consider putting in a raise or reraise with these hands.
This accomplishes several things. First, you give yourself a chance to drive out players who raise or call with weak hands. Next, you have shown aggression, which gives you a chance to make a bet on the flop and take down the pot, because when you reraise, opponents figure that you have a premium hand and will be very likely to fold post-flop unless they have a nice hand themselves.
When you simply call a raise preflop with the same hand, they won't respect your post-flop raises nearly as much, so it will be much more difficult to bluff on the flop. There's also the chance that you'll actually catch a nice flop. The important thing to remember is that there are more ways to win the pot than simply calling a raise with these hands.
Let's say that you hold the 7
6
and are in late position in a $1-$2 no-limit hold'em cash game with $250-plus stacks. A loose player raises to $8 from middle position and another very loose player calls. You decide to call the bet, hoping to hit a big flop. The flop comes K
10
2
. The first player leads out, the very loose player folds, and it is your turn to act. You could make a raise here if you suspect the player is weak, but this is going to get you into a tricky situation with almost no outs if you are called. Your best play is probably just to fold.
Now let's play the hand more aggressively. Instead of calling the raise preflop, you decide to reraise to $35, a sizeable raise that makes people think you like your hand. If you don't take down the pot right there, at least one player will probably fold his hand. Let's say that you get called by the original raiser and the player in the middle folds. The same K
10
2
flop comes down, the player checks to you, and you bet $60 into the $75 pot. The player sighs, shows pocket eights, and folds, not having improved his hand.
It's plain to see that you should take every reasonable chance you get to show aggression when you are playing no-limit hold'em, because it gives you more ways to win the pot. But make sure that you don't overdo it, because players will eventually stop giving you credit for having big hands and will be less likely to fold against your raises. As soon as players start to adjust to you, you should revert back to playing mostly premium hands aggressively, which will ensure that you get paid off when you make a hand.
Taylor Caby, also known as "Green Plastic," is a 23-year-old professional poker player who recently graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in finance. His freshman year, he deposited $35 onto UltimateBet and ran it up to a six-figure bankroll. Caby plans to use poker to pursue multiple business ventures.
Betting the Turn and Chasing 'The Grinder'
By Mike Sexton, the 'Ambassador of Poker' and Commentator for the World Poker Tour
Commerce Casino is the world's largest poker room. In addition to the tremendous tournaments it hosts, it also has (by far) the most big-money poker games of any casino in the world. It is the "mecca of poker" in terms of finding a lot of action.
Commerce Casino hosts two events annually for the
World Poker Tour - the
L.A. Poker Classic and the
WPT Invitational. Both are extremely popular. The hand in this column comes from the
L.A. Poker Classic, which nearly always produces the largest $10,000 buy-in event on the
World Poker Tour.
The tournament is down to threehanded. The pressure mounts as the finish line - and fame and fortune - is near. The antes are $5,000 and the blinds are $25,000-$50,000. Haralabos (a name I've learned to really like) Voulgaris has a well-deserved reputation as being a very tough cash-game player. He's on the button with A-2 and raises it to $125,000. The small blind exits and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (big blind) is now faced with a decision as to whether or not to reraise with A-9 offsuit. As the chip leader, he certainly could justify coming over the top with this hand, but he opts to just call.
The flop is K-Q-J with two spades. I'm sure that neither player likes this flop. The Grinder checks, as does Haralabos, the preflop raiser. On the turn, the board pairs queens, and after The Grinder checks again, Haralabos makes a nice bet of $160,000 (with $315,000 in the pot). It gets the job done, as The Grinder folds.
You have to salute the bet on the turn by Haralabos. He bet into the big chip leader and won a pot that most likely would have been split. Picking up pots like these makes you a tough - and successful - tournament player.
Although The Grinder lost this pot (and in looking back on it, is probably not thrilled with the way he played it), he won the event and has gone on to become one of the biggest stars in the poker world. Congratulations, Grinder!
Some lessons to learn here:
1. Before you criticize The Grinder for not coming over the top preflop (where he most likely would have won the pot), recognize that by calling, he camouflages the fact that he's got an ace in his hand. Had an ace come on the flop, The Grinder might have busted Haralabos, because it's very unlikely that he would put an ace in The Grinder's hand (because he didn't reraise preflop).
2. Obviously, in poker, aggression pays. This pot was won by betting - and would have been won by the player who took command and bet out (or raised if the other guy bet).
3. Taking the lead (being the person doing the betting) will win you a lot of pots, especially in no-limit hold'em. Once you understand this, you'll have a much better chance of reaching the winner's circle.
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Poll
Games are much harder to beat now that everyone has been watching poker on TV.
36 percent agree
64 percent don't agree
Mix It Up
By David Apostolico
As most poker players now know, the 2007
World Series of Poker schedule is out. The big difference from recent years is the addition of more mixed games such as H.O.R.S.E. and H.O.S.E. The new millennium poker craze has wrought a generation of one-trick ponies, and that trick is no-limit Texas hold'em. I've long preached the value of playing a number of different games to help hone your skills. Players may even find that they have a skill set that's better suited for a game other than no-limit hold'em. Unfortunately, most cardrooms have few tables dedicated to anything other than hold'em.
Even in a private game that I participate in regularly, it's impossible to get the troops to play anything other than no-limit hold'em. In our last game, however, one of the hard-core regulars introduced a new wrinkle. The wrinkle was to declare one wild card for each pot. The way it worked is as follows: Before dealing, the player whose turn it was to deal declared something along the lines of, "The five of diamonds is wild." Only the 5
was wild. If you had it in your holecards, you were in great shape. It really got interesting, though, if it appeared on the board, giving everyone still in the hand a wild card.
I was initially skeptical, as I hadn't played a wild-card game since my college days. My reluctance was overcome, however, by my desire to try anything new with this group. To my surprise, the game had great value. The addition of this one wild card changed the game dramatically. It also forced me to heighten my senses. I take pride in sizing players up and determining their potential holdings. Play the same game long enough and especially with the same people and you tend to rely on certain assumptions and beliefs.
Playing with new rules required me to really dig my heels in and do all of the things that I should be doing anyway. For instance, every bet or raise should have a purpose. While I know that, I sometimes get too comfortable and make standard-size raises and bets without thinking them through. Now, in order to determine if someone held the wild card preflop, it reminded me why it is so important to make sure that every bet or raise has a purpose.
The game also reinforced how important it is to read your opponent. Since having the wild card as a holecard was an overwhelming advantage, it became crucial to know if your opponent had it or was bluffing. Furthermore, in order to win some money in this game, you were going to have to represent that you held the wild card in some hands. The game took some players completely out of their comfort zone, which was very revealing, as well.
While I would not want to play this game on a regular basis, it served as both a pleasant surprise and a skill builder for me. You don't need to play such a wild game to get the same benefit. If you are a one-trick pony player, however, I would highly recommend that you mix it up and try some other games. Not only might you discover a new passion, you'll continue to hone and develop the skills necessary to make you a better no-limit hold'em player.
David Apostolico is the author of numerous poker books, including Lessons from the Felt, Machiavellian Poker Strategy, and Tournament Poker and the Art of War. You can contact him by e-mail at [email protected].
Ask Jack
Bob: A couple of years ago at the World Series of Poker, a player, who was in the money, overslept for the event that he was competing in. I argued with some of my friends that it was not the obligation or responsibility of the tournament director to wake this guy up. Since there were huge amounts of cash involved, it was the player's responsibility to be on time. My friends said that it was the sportsmanlike thing to do to call this player. I say that when you are playing for millions of dollars, it's the obligation of the player to be responsible, just as it's a player's responsibility to protect his cards at the table. What do you think?
Jack: I always call a player's room or his cellphone, if I have the number, if he's running late, even on the first day of play. It is the right thing to do, I believe.
Frank: In a live cash game, there are two players left in the hand on the river. Player No. 1 bets, player No. 2 raises, player No. 1 reraises, and player No. 2 folds. Another player not in the hand wants to see the players' hands, but the player who folded would show his hand only if player No. 1 would show his hand. Player No. 1 refused, so a floorman was called and a ruling was made. The ruling was that player No. 2's hand was shown because he had called the first bet before he raised. Player No. 1's hand did not have to be shown because his final bet was not called. My question is, player No. 2 did not call the reraise, so why was his hand shown and not player No. 1's hand also?
Jack: Neither player should have had to show his hand, because there was no call.
CottonPatch: I work in a poker room in Mississippi. This happened recently: We were playing no-limit hold'em. After the flop, player No. 1 bet $60, player No. 2 went all in for $79, player No. 3 called the $79, all of the other players folded, and then player No. 1 wanted to raise to $200 total. Player No. 3 became upset and said that player No. 1 couldn't do that because player No. 2's all-in bet was less than half of a true raise. Therefore, all other players could only call the $79 all-in bet.
My question is, what are the options for players No. 1 and No. 3? Should players No. 1 and No. 3 have the option to raise, complete the raise to $120, or just call the $79? After all, it's a no-limit game. The supervisor came over and allowed the raise by player No. 1 to $200. Player No. 3 got mad and left the room.
Jack: Player No. 1 can only call $19 more, because player No. 2 needed to have a full raise of $60 to allow a raise by player No. 1.
Embrace Your Losses
By Tim Peters
Zen and the Art of Poker by Larry W. Phillips (Plume, $14)
After a particularly disastrous week on Full Tilt, I decided to give up poker, hurl my computer out the window, and become a Zen Buddhist. A day later, I couldn't bring myself to part ways with poker, but I am definitely planning to apply the teachings of Zen to my game. My newfound wisdom came from an excellent 1999 book by Larry W. Phillips:
Zen and the Art of Poker.
The core concept of Zen is awareness: "to be awake in the present," as Phillips writes in the elegant first chapter of this first-rate book. The objective is to be in the moment, not concerned with the past (the bad beat that some donkey just put on you) or the future ("Please let these cards be aces …").
Phillips connects Zen to poker by talking about the critical importance of "emotional control." He is also clear about what separates Zen and poker (that is, the essential goal of poker - to win money - is antithetical to Zen's banishment of desire). But Zen can, and should, inform your approach to the game. You should play with an awareness of its shifting tides ("variance," in poker terminology), of the need for balance between aggression and passivity, of the importance of patience and calm. Indeed, most players would see an immediate improvement in their results if they could detach themselves emotionally from the game (that is, if they could avoid tilt).
Zen and the Art of Poker is structured as a series of rules, but Phillips is quick to point out (and clearly right to do so) that a philosophical approach to poker by itself won't make you a winner (it simply will make you a more accepting loser). "You cannot apply the principles of Zen until you know the game," he writes. Consider this book as a philosophy and an approach to the game, not an instructional book per se. But it will help you deal with poker's inherent frustrations and challenges.
Take the frustration of not playing, when every hand seems to be J-2 offsuit. Phillips' very first rule is, "Learn to use inaction as a weapon." Fold, fold, fold, and fold some more - if the right cards or the right situations don't materialize. He intersperses his musings on Zen and poker with quotes from various thinkers like Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu: "Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?" If that seems a bit abstruse for poker, think of what Phil Ivey once said to a TV interviewer: "I don't have a strategy. I let the game come to me."
To my mind, the very best bit of this slim volume was about the value of mistakes: "Losses are
not losses, but rather steppingstones toward future correct play," writes Phillips. "Failure, by its nature, moves us in another direction, away from failure … We need to treat these lessons neutrally. Simply learn from them." To do that effectively means to engage the mind but to disengage the emotions, to maintain a sense of indifference to the game and to take your ego out of the equation. (If he's right, and losses are indeed steppingstones, I have a very promising future.)
Finally, recognize that you don't have to become a disciple of Zen Buddhism for this book to add value to your game. What you have to do is acknowledge the realities of poker - the vagaries of chance, the unpredictability of your opponents, the aspects of the game that are, quite literally, beyond your control. The only thing you can master, truly, is your own self. It's easier said than done, of course, but do so and your results will improve.
