Inside Straight

World Poker Tour to Move to Fox Sports Network
It's WPT's Third Home
By Bob Pajich

The World Poker Tour has a new home. Fox Sports Network (FSN) has come to an agreement with World Poker Tour Enterprises to broadcast season seven of the WPT. FSN now has the rights to broadcast 26 one-hour episodes of the WPT in the United States, which are being filmed now.

The show will be broadcast on Sundays, and a time slot is still being worked out, said a WPTE spokesperson. The amount that FSN paid for the rights and details of the contract weren't available at press time.

This will be the third network home for the WPT. The Travel Channel ended its relationship with WPTE after its first five seasons. GSN quickly picked up the show (and began broadcasting it earlier this year), but upper-management changes sealed its fate as the new bosses decided to move away from gambling shows.

FSN has regional networks in 16 major-league-sports cities, and its affiliated networks reach more than 80 million homes in the U.S. GSN, on the other hand, is seen in 66 million homes. The Travel Channel broadcasts to 84.4 million homes. (All figures are courtesy of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.)

California Online Poker Law to Protect Residents
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine Says Protection is Main Issue
By Bob Pajich

The proposed California law that is the first step to allowing online poker rooms in California made it through its first committee, and its sponsor, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, hopes to see it lead to a law that will give the residents of his state a place to play online poker, regulated by a governmental party in the United States.

The proposed law, which is the first of its kind on a state level, calls for the California Gaming Commission and the attorney general's office to study the issues of online poker concerning "regulatory oversight and licensing, technological issues, underage and problem gambling matters, methods of play and types of games that may be legally offered, economic benefits to state and local governments, and the means by which those games and forms of gambling may be conducted and operated."

Protecting California residents, Levine says, is the impetus driving his proposal.

"There's obviously a huge poker boom in the United States right now," Levine said. "A law like mine is needed to provide protection for California online poker players in light of federal legislation that forces poker players to offshore gaming."
His proposal, which made it through the Senate Governmental Organization Committee by a vote of 6-1, also calls for the attorney general's office to determine if regulating intrastate online poker would violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Levine thinks that it won't, because the UIGEA doesn't clearly address the issue of intrastate gambling.

Obviously, Levine doesn't agree with the UIGEA.

"To do what they did just flies in the face of reality. You cannot prohibit people from playing online. It just doesn't work that way," he said.

The money that the state would get from online poker is another reason it should be allowed there, Levine said. A conservative estimate done by the cardrooms states that about $1 million a year would be generated from the new enterprise of online poker.

Levine's proposal now sits in the Appropriations Committee and will undergo further study.

Washington State Lawmaker Wants Internet Gambling Taxes to Go to Social Security
Jim McDermott's Second Bill Concerning Online Gambling Taxation
By Bob Pajich

A Washington state lawmaker introduced legislation last month that would amend the Social Security Act to establish a trust fund that would be filled by taxing Internet gambling in the United States. This is House Rep. Jim McDermott's second go at introducing a bill that pushes for taxation and regulation of Internet gaming.

Its name is the Investing in Our Human Resources Act of 2008 (H.R. 6501), and the fund would be used to "provide opportunities to individuals who are, or were, in foster care and individuals in declining sectors of the economy," according to its introduction.

According to the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative (SSIGI), the Social Security Administration would receive an average of about $1 billion a year by regulating and taxing online gambling over the next 10 years.

SSIGI is a dot-org lobbying organization that "promotes the freedom of individuals to gamble online with the proper safeguards to protect consumers and ensure the integrity of financial transactions."

McDermott's resolution doesn't estimate the amount that could be earned by tapping into online gambling's earnings pipeline, nor does it define how the United States government should go about taxing and regulating the industry that it's currently trying to snuff out. This bill simply stakes a claim for a chunk of online gambling revenue that currently passes to and from American customers for Social Security. It was introduced on July 15, and it has two co-sponsors, Connecticut Rep. John Larson and California Rep. George Miller. All three men are Democrats.

The lawmaker introduced his first bill concerning online gambling in March. H.R. 5523, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2008, calls for an amendment of the Internal Revenue Tax Code of 1986 to regulate and tax online gambling.

H.R. 5523 calls for the IRS to set up an office to license, regulate, and collect taxes from online gambling companies. This bill calls for online sites to pay a monthly licensing fee and taxes, as well as collect taxes from players for the government. It has no co-sponsors.

This proposal remains in the House Ways and Means Committee, as does the most recent one, H.R. 6501. (H.R. 6501 also is in the House Labor and Education Committee.)

CPTV's 'The Scoop' is Staying on the Air
Adam Schoenfeld and Diego Cordovez Keep the Train Running
By Bob Pajich

"The Scoop," Card Player TV's show featuring Adam Schoenfeld and Diego Cordovez, will not end with the World Series of Poker. Instead, the show will continue to bring its unique perspective on the world of poker to Card Player readers all year.
Each Friday, a new episode of "The Scoop" will premiere. Schoenfeld and Cordovez spent the summer playing WSOP events and talking with big-name players for Card Player Media, and that will continue through 2008.

Some of the people who passed through the Card Player studios were Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Brad Booth, Erik Seidel, Jerry Yang, and Jeffrey Pollack.

The episodes are archived and can be found in CardPlayer.com's large collection of online videos. Check each Friday to see a new episode of "The Scoop."

Borgata Poker Open to Guarantee a $5 Million Prize Pool
World Poker Tour Main Event Scheduled for Sept. 14-18
By Kristy Arnett

The sixth-annual Borgata Poker Open championship event, which is scheduled for Sept. 14-18, will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million.

That means that the winner of the $10,000 buy-in tournament will take home at least $1,424,000, as well as a coveted World Poker Tour title. Past winners include Noli Francisco, Daniel Negreanu, Al Ardebili, Mark Newhouse, and Roy Winston.

Harrah's Collected More Than $13 Million in Juice During 2008 WSOP
$4,106,400 Came From Main-Event Players
By Bob Pajich

Harrah's collected $13,116,845 in juice during the 55 events of the 47-day World Series of Poker this summer. That's 6.77 percent of the $193,793,093 that passed through the cages and Harrah's electronic payment system this summer. The total prize pool was $180,676,248.

Not surprisingly, Harrah's earned the biggest chunk of change from the juice charged for the main event, which attracted 6,844 players. Of the $10,000 buy-in, $600 went to the casino, for a total of $4,106,400.

The second-largest event for Harrah's was event No. 2, $1,500 no-limit hold'em, which attracted 3,929 players. In this and all of the $1,500 events, $135 from each buy-in went to Harrah's. In this event, Harrah's collected $530,415.

The largest vig collected for an event was $2,000 for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, which attracted 148 players, earning Harrah's $296,000.

All in all, Harrah's attracted 58,720 entrants in 55 events, with players hailing from 118 countries.

Players Creep Up, But Erik Seidel Remains No. 1
John Phan and David Benyamine Move Into Second and Third Place With Recent WPT Final-Table Finishes By Kristy Arnett

The 2008 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) race is past the halfway mark, and with the finish line still so far away, the competitors aren't slowing down. With the World Series of Poker (excluding the main-event final table) and the first event of Season VII of the World Poker Tour in the books, the leader board inevitably has seen lots of changes. However, the one place that has remained constant throughout the summer is the only one that matters in the end.

Like Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Michael Phelps, Erik Seidel has been ranked number one for what seems like forever in 2008. In actuality, he snagged the top spot back in April after winning the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic, on top of placing second in the Aussie Millions main event, and has kept his lead by making two WSOP final tables. Seidel will need to continue adding points to his score, because his closest two competitors are simply on fire.

After winning his first and second WSOP bracelets this summer, John Phan rocketed into fourth place in the POY standings. He then continued his great run at Bellagio, and made the final table of the WPT Bellagio Cup IV. He finished in fifth place for almost $194,000 and 1,000 POY points. With momentum on his side, he currently sits in second position, a mere 399 points behind Seidel.

In the same fashion, David Benyamine carried over his success at the WSOP to the Bellagio Cup IV. After making three WSOP final-table appearances, with a win in event No. 37, world championship Omaha eight-or-better for almost $536,000, Benyamine was still unable to keep a spot in the top 10 on the leader board. Then, he made the WPT final table along with Phan. Benyamine finished second, which was good for more than $840,000, 2,000 POY points, and third place on the leader board with 4,148 points.

Also cracking the top 10, which should be no surprise to anyone, is David Pham. He won the POY race in both 2000 and 2007, and finished second in 2004. At the Bellagio Cup IV, Pham had three top-10 finishes, including ninth place in the main event. These finishes, along with the three final tables he made at the L.A. Poker Classic and a WPT final table at the World Poker Challenge earlier this year, have taken his point total to 3,582. Arguably one of the most consistent players on the circuit today, Pham is a fixture on the leader board year after year, and will likely remain a top contender in the race.

Shannon Shorr broke into the top 10 by continuing to make final tables of preliminary events of major tournaments. He started out the year by making three final tables at the Five-Star World Poker Classic, accumulating a good starting base of points. At the WSOP, he came close to winning his first bracelet in event No. 7, $2,000 no-limit hold'em, but he had to settle for more than $349,000 and 1,000 POY points. Then at Bellagio, where he has a history of considerable tournament success, having won the Bellagio Cup II main event in 2006, Shorr won a preliminary event and finished third in another at the Bellagio Cup IV. He now has 3,388 points and is in seventh place. With fewer than 1,500 points separating first and 10th place, it is still anyone's race.

Hand 2 Hand Combat
FU_15 Leads Out With a Monster for Deception
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.

Event: $100 PokerStars rebuy no-limit hold'em tournament
First Prize: $27,001
Players: 255
Blinds: 100-200
Stacks: FU_15 -- 5,900; Villain -- 8,245

Craig Tapscott: OK, Nick, set this up for us.

Nick "FU_15" Maimone: This hand was one that played out to perfection in the second hour of the tough nightly $100 rebuy event on PokerStars. I was in the small blind, and the Villain was in the hijack position (two before the button) and raised three times the big blind.

Villain raises to 600.

CT: So, from the small blind, you decided to …

NM: Well, before I discuss the hand, there are several crucially important things to consider:

1. Stack sizes
2. Image
3. Metagame

In regard to stack sizes, I was about 30 big blinds deep, and the Villain was about 50 or so. If either he or I was under 20 big blinds or so, I would not have played this hand the same at all. That's because I would not be optimally using my stack to just call out of position. If I had between 20 and 25 big blinds, a fold would likely be the best choice. And if I had less than 20, a three-bet shove would probably have been my play. I thought, however, that I was deep enough to take a flop out of position against my opponent to try to double my stack.

CT: So you called, and …

NM: In regard to image, I have a super loose-aggressive image, even to the point where many regulars don't think I am a solid player. They actually tend to give me about half the credit of an average regular. With this accounted for, I must adjust on a daily basis and take it into consideration. I have played with the Villain many times, and I think he's a fairly solid and straightforward player. I haven't seen him get out of line too much or make too many strange plays. So, if I had to assign his raising range here from the hijack position, I would roughly estimate it to be any pair, and hands like J-10 suited, K-Q suited, and A-10+ suited. In other words, not complete air or trash, but still wide enough for 7-7 to play well against.

CT: So you …

NM: Don't forget metagame. When I'm playing, I like to do a lot of things to get under my opponent's skin through my betting and raising patterns. Since I have a very loose-aggressive image, people often assume that I slow-play my big hands and play my weak hands very aggressively (that is, lead out as opposed to check-raise).

Thus, in this hand, I thought I could trick him if I flopped a set or a huge hand by just leading out and representing a diamond draw, a weak ace, or even a middle pair of tens. So, I took the line I did to induce him to play back at me lighter. Now, obviously, great spots are when you have a big hand and your opponent has a weaker big hand or is trying to represent one. This hand is a great example of making a big hand and your opponent having nothing, but because of your line, he tries to represent a big hand and doubles you up. OK, enough of that. Let's discuss the hand.

CT: Sounds good to me. So, you look down …

NM: I looked down at the 7 7, and since I'd already analyzed all of the prior factors we've discussed, I elected to call.

FU_15 calls 500 from the small blind.

Flop: A 10 7 (1,400 pot)

FU_15 bets 800.

CT: Most amateur players would check in this spot. Share the plan here.

NM: I chose to lead out for 800 into a pot of 1,400. It's a bet that's a little more than half of the pot, allowing him to call with weak hands (floating the flop) or to raise me if he has a made hand such as A-Q or better.

Villain calls 800.

CT: So, what range are you putting him on now with the flat-call to your raise?

NM: At this point, I decided his range was a lot of hands, like K-Q, Q-J, weak aces, possibly diamonds, and possibly 10-10 or slow-played A-A. But since there were two diamonds on the flop, I decided that 10-10 and A-A were extremely unlikely.

Turn: 6 (3,000 pot)

NM: This was a great card, because it could in almost no way affect the hand unless he had 9-8, but I don't think he would have called the flop with that.

CT: What's the proper bet amount here to keep him hooked or to induce a move?

NM: I wanted to go ahead and bet an amount that again could allow him to think that I would fold to a raise.

FU_15 bets 1,050.

NM: The bet is a very small one. It almost looks like a "blocking" bet, meaning that I might have a draw and want to see a cheap river. This concept is widely debated, but I know that people make this semibluffing bet all the time, especially online. Anyway, I left myself with 3,450 behind, telling my opponent that I still had more than three times my turn bet left in my stack, and if I had diamonds or complete air, I could fold.

CT: Did he take the bait?

NM: Sure enough, he shoved all in on me with the K Q, for just a gutshot-straight draw.

Villain shoves all in. FU_15 calls 3,450 more and is all in.

River: 10

FU_15 takes down the pot with a full house.

CT: Most players never would have gotten that much value out of that hand.

NM: True. But I knew my opponent well. Therefore, although I flopped a set and my opponent had nothing, I maximized value for my hand by taking the line that I did. If I had check-raised the flop or the turn, he would have folded. If I had just slow-played and check-called, he likely would have just checked his hand down and we would not have played a big pot. This hand was a crucial turning point in the tournament. I went on to make the final table and finish eighth for about $3,000.

Nick Maimone is a 21-year-old recent graduate of Furman University, where he majored in economics. He began playing in small-stakes sit-and-gos, then moved up to limit cash games and eventually to multitable tournaments in early 2007. He has cashed for more than $800,000 during the past 12 months in online tournaments.

Final-Table Takedown
Tony Dunst Wields Fold Equity and Hand Ranges as Weapons of Stack Destruction
By Craig Tapscott and Tony Dunst

In this series, Card Player offers an in-depth analysis of the key hands that catapulted a player to a top finish, online or live. We also will reveal key concepts and strategies from the world's best tournament players, as we venture inside their sometimes devious and always razor-sharp poker minds.

Event: 2008 Bellagio Cup IV no-limit hold'em tournament
Players: 165
Buy-in: $3,000
First Prize: $193,720
Finish: First
Key Concepts: Fold equity, opponents' optimal hand ranges

Tony "Bond18" Dunst is originally from Madison, Wisconsin, but now resides in Melbourne, Australia. He started with sit-and-go poker, then went to limit, and in 2006 made the transfer to tournaments, live and online. In early 2008, Tony won the Full Tilt $65K Guaranteed and the PokerStars $20K Guaranteed tournaments for a total of $45,000. He's been playing major live tournaments regularly since the 2006 World Series of Poker. He maintains a very entertaining blog about his travels on the live tournament circuit called "Around the World in 90 Days," and also posts in-depth strategy articles at various poker sites.



The action is folded around to Dunst in the cutoff. He squeezes open the J 10 and raises to 30,000. The small blind calls.

Craig Tapscott: What's your read on the player?

Tony Dunst: He's a mid-50s guy. He's surprisingly aggressive for his age, but he clearly is not a professional. We've played some smaller pots together, but nothing major. His call is nothing strange, since he was fairly loose preflop. I imagine that he can have a fairly wide range here.

Flop: Q 9 7 (80,000 pot)

The small blind leads out for 60,000.

TD: Thus far in the tournament, I haven't been playing with the small blind when he was out of position, and his leading into this flop is odd and a bit unexpected.

CT: Does this pin down his range at all?

TD: I'm not sure what to think of his range here, but I think he could be leading a medium-strength top pair or a middle pair to find out where he's at. I'd be pretty surprised if he was leading with a draw, since check-shoving seems way more natural in his position. Either way, with more than 130,000 in the pot and him having only 240,000 behind, a shove here with my draw is very standard. I believe I have a considerable amount of fold equity against his range, though I do think many of his top-pair hands will wind up calling. That said, doing anything but shoving against his lead is a bad play.

Dunst moves all in. The small blind goes into the tank, gets out of his seat, and then calls.

TD: When I table my J 10, he winces and reveals his 10 8. I think he has taken the worst possible line. Not only is his preflop call a considerable leak, but leading and calling a shove on the flop is much worse than check-shoving and creating fold equity for himself.

Turn: 6

River: K

Dunst wins the pot with a king-high flush and takes a massive chip lead, with 1 million of the 1.5 million in chips in play.



TD: Keith is a young and aggressive online player who goes by the handle "damurdera3," and we've known each other for quite some time. He's played quite well and is certainly an aggressive and thinking player. For the first 20 minutes of heads-up play, every time he completed in the small blind, I looked down at a good hand in the big blind and wound up raising, always the same amount. He has given up almost every time I have raised his limps.

Keith completes to 12,000. Dunst raises 25,000 more to 37,000 total with the K Q. Keith reraises, making it 112,000 total. Dunst shoves.

CT: You obviously thought the shove was a positive expected value move. Explain why.

TD: After having blasted so many of Keith's button limps, I was not surprised to see him limp-reraising, thinking perhaps that I was automatically raising his limps since he was giving up so easily. Since I think he's capable of making this adjustment, I think K-Q becomes a shove here, especially since even against a lot of his calling range, I'm in pretty good shape: 5-5+, A-8+, K-Q+. The K-Q still has 38 percent equity. I think we get enough folds to make the shove a positive expected value move.

Keith calls with the A Q.

Flop: A 10 8♥

Turn: 6

River: 6

TD: I bricked my massive 12-out draw that I flopped. If Keith believed I was going to shove quite light on his limp-reraise, I think he took a very good line preflop. That said, I certainly wouldn't change mine, given the history involved.

Ferrera wins the pot of 900,000.



TD: I lost the pervious hand about 10 minutes ago. Since then, I've ground back a few chips without winning any major pots. Both of us are playing quite aggressively from the button.

Dunst raises 30,000 from the button with the 8 6. Ferrera calls.

CT: You would raise with almost any two cards here, correct?

TD: Position is everything in heads-up poker, and you need to be highly aggressive on the button. I'd be raising with almost every suited hand (and limping with the worst ones), every pair, every ace, every king, most queens, and a ton of connecting hands.

Flop: 8 6 3

Ferrera checks. Dunst bets 45,000.

TD: I flop gin with the top two pair, and when Keith checks, I make my standard 45,000 continuation-bet.

Ferrera check-raises to 105,000.

TD: This is his first tiny check-raise of the match, which is kind of a curveball; most of the time when people use small check-raises, they have a big hand, but Keith is certainly capable of doing it with a bluff or a semibluff. I decided it was unlikely that he would check-raise a club draw, and that if he was bluffing, I wanted to give him one more street to continue doing so.

Dunst calls.

Turn: J

TD: The J on the turn is a total dud card and changes basically nothing. The only way it really hits him is if he was totally bluffing with overcards or had a flush draw with a jack in his hand. When Keith checks, it's pretty odd, since I expected him to fire again; however, my bet with two pair here is automatic, since I am attempting to play for stacks.

Ferrera checks, and Dunst bets 150,000. Ferrera shoves all in, and Dunst calls. Ferrera turns over the A 4 and is drawing dead.

River: 7

Dunst wins the pot of 1,360,000.

CT: Ferrera must have put you on total air.

TD: Well, Keith knows that he made a considerable mistake in this hand. To elaborate on that, we need to run down how my range reacts to his small flop check-raise. When he check-raises small and I call, I have a range of big hands, medium draws (big draws are almost certainly shoving on the flop), and one-pair hands. With the one-pair hand and medium draws, I am almost certainly going to check behind on the turn for pot control and to get a free look when I'm drawing. After having been check-raised once, it makes no sense for me to bet a hand like 8-7 with no clear plan if I get check-shoved. The superior line is to check behind and call many of his river bets, depending on the card and the size of his bet. The only real hands in my range that can fire on the turn are the ones that are looking to get check-raised. This is a good example of why you need to be thinking about your opponent's range, and what is the optimal play against each portion of that range.

SpadeClub News

Tournament Schedule

$5,000 Weekly
Aug. 10, 4 p.m. ET
Aug. 17, 4 p.m. ET

WPT Boot Camp Giveaway
Aug. 9, 3 p.m. ET
Aug. 23, 3 p.m. ET

$40,000 Mega Monthly
Sept. 7, 4 p.m. ET

To view a complete list of SpadeClub tournaments offered, please visit www.spadeclub.com/how-to-play/tournament-schedule.

SpadeClub Spotlight
By Lisa Anderson

SpadeClub has two more winners of the $5,000 weekly tournaments that occur every Sunday except for the first Sunday of every month, which is reserved for SpadeClub's $40,000 Mega Monthly tournament.

Gary "22Frosty" Frost took first place in SpadeClub's $5,000 weekly tournament on June 28, after hours of intense tournament play. Frost has been playing and coaching sports all of his life, and he fell in love with the game of poker during his retirement. He loves the fact that poker is able to fill his competitive void, and on SpadeClub, he can play all the poker he wants for only $19.99 a month.

Tate "colsha" McDaniel won the July 6 $5,000 weekly event and was excited to take home his $1,500 share of the prize pool. McDaniel said this of SpadeClub: "I would like to thank SpadeClub for providing a fun, clean atmosphere to play online. On other sites, you have to deal with a lot of things that take away from the enjoyment of the game. On SpadeClub, I think we all like to see our fellow players do well and have success at the tables."

To view complete interviews with SpadeClub winners, please visit www.spadeclub.com/news/landing.

Promotions

WPT Boot Camp Giveaway
SpadeClub already has awarded two free WPT Boot Camp seats and will continue to do so until all eight have been given away. During the next couple of months, SpadeClub will be giving away six more WPT Boot Camp seats to the first-place finisher of the bimonthly freerolls. Become an Exclusive member to play an upcoming event, and you could walk away with a free WPT Boot Camp seat from SpadeClub.com.

For more information and to view the tournament schedule, please visit www.spadeclub.com/promotions.

Tales From the Table
SpadeClub member Joe "Shamrock17" Girardi said, "SpadeClub has become the leader in allowing players the opportunity to brush up and fine-tune their game without the risk of losing money. Nowhere online is this possible without having to commit to online gambling and risking money to enjoy the game of no-limit hold'em. SpadeClub offers the player a friendly atmosphere and the chance to compete with some very good players. The SpadeClub community continues to grow, and we all should strive to make SpadeClub the place where players will want to come to enjoy the wonderful game of no-limit hold'em."

Submit your own tips or comments from the table along with your SpadeClub screen name to: [email protected]. If we publish your tip or tale, you'll receive a free SpadeClub T-shirt along with the pride of being published.

Benefit of the Club
SpadeClub offers members a complete poker community in which players can create their own online poker persona. SpadeClub members can create their own personal poker profiles in which they can upload their own avatar pictures, edit personal interests, request friends, post comments, write blogs, and network with poker players from around the world. Many SpadeClub members use their profiles to leave comments of congratulations to other players on their big wins, to ask questions, to discuss their latest poker hands, and to get poker tips from other SpadeClub members. Become an Exclusive member on SpadeClub and take advantage of all that the SpadeClub community has to offer.

Online Zone
Dipthrong Lands Two Major Wins on a Single Sunday
By Shawn Patrick Green

One Sunday recently, Mark "dipthrong" Herm took down the Bodog Poker $100,000-guaranteed tournament, earning $23,600, which is certainly an exciting accomplishment. Two hours later, however, that accomplishment was magnified when he also took down the Full Tilt $750,000 guarantee. It is fairly unprecedented to take down the flagship tournament on two sites on the same day, but it doesn't stop there; just one week earlier, he had taken down the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan, another huge Sunday event. Herm earned more than $215,000 within the first two weeks of July in Online Player of the Year-qualified finishes alone.

Herm's career as a serious poker player started off with a punch -- literally. It all started when he was kicked out of college in his hometown of Philadelphia during his second semester.

"I got in a fight at some party. It was a drunken … I don't even remember," Herm said, laughing. "At the time, I had been playing poker. After I got kicked out, I got back in, and I had planned on going back the next semester, but then I had been playing poker and doing really well. So, I just haven't been back."

That was about three years ago, and now the 23-year-old poker player is making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not that punching a guy in a drunken rage is the best way to make a positive life change, but, hey, it seemed to work out all right for Herm.

Card Player got the chance to talk to Herm about his accomplishments, what role confidence plays in playing good poker, and strategies for playing big-field tournaments and using aggression.

Shawn Patrick Green: The two tournaments you won on Sunday were two very similar yet significantly different types of tournaments. What kinds of strategies brought you victory in each of them?

Mark Herm: Early on in tournaments, I play pretty nitty, pretty tight. But then, later on, especially in these Sunday tournaments, you can really take advantage of people because they don't know how to play, and you can use some absurd ultra-aggression to pretty much own the field. I do a lot of three-betting, a lot of reraising preflop, including three-bet shoving on people. I also just open up a ton of pots around the bubbles, like the money bubble and the final-table bubble.

SPG: So, does your strategy depend upon the blinds structure getting high and both you and your opponents getting short-stacked? Is that what you're saying is kind of key to your strategy, to take advantage of the incorrect play of others in that situation?

MH: Yeah. The big thing is that when people get short-stacked, anything under 15-20 big blinds, and I have a really big stack and I'm in late position and have to get through only a couple of guys, instead of trying to steal by raise-folding, if they are short-ish, I'll just shove anything that looks decent, like 8-6 suited or any ace, any king. My shoving range is really wide compared to a lot of people, and a lot of people don't like that kind of style, because it is obviously super-high variance. But, it is also a positive EV [expected value] play, in most cases.

SPG: So, in a sense, you're almost biding your time until you can get into that situation, to take advantage of people who can't play very well under those circumstances, and, from there, play a more deep-stacked game?

MH: Exactly. If you're deep-stacked and in position against opponents, you can really make it tough for them. You can three-bet them in position, so they either need to call for their entire tournament life, four-bet shove you, or fold, [the latter of] which is what they usually do. And all of these guys in the Sunday tournaments, they don't know what they're doing. It's not like you're playing the daily $100 rebuy or the nightly $150 [PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand], where there is a good number of decent players. In these tournaments, people really don't know what they're doing.

SPG: Bodog's final table ends hours before Full Tilt's even starts. Did having a guaranteed $23,600 in your pocket affect your play at all in the Full Tilt tournament?

MH: Not really. I wasn't really paying attention to the Full Tilt tournament as much during the final table at Bodog. I really don't even remember what I was doing at Full Tilt. But it gave me some confidence, for sure, after I won at Bodog, to go on at Full Tilt and do what I was going to do. It was kind of like I was freerolling; it didn't really matter what I did at Full Tilt. So, that was probably to my benefit. I was using more aggression, probably.

SPG: And you had won the Sunday Mulligan the weekend before. What are your opinions on the notion of playing the rush or playing better with more confidence? Do they really factor in that much?

MH: Yeah, with the confidence, I was playing really crazy. I was going with my reads on a lot of hands, and it worked out, for the most part; I was making pretty good reads. And the aggression was working out, as well.

They definitely factor in a ton. Without confidence, I play tournaments really differently. Confidence is huge, and I think it is a really underrated thing. That's why you see people go on big strings of cashes. You're more confident in your reads and you're more willing to play aggressively and kind of gamble. I don't know if gamble is the right word, but you're more willing to push the envelope a little bit. You're more willing to get it in. You need that kind of thing to win these big-field tournaments; you need that kind of gamble. You can't fold to a win, obviously.

SPG: Can you go over a few hands from either tournament that illustrate the key kinds of decisions that you made to lead you to victory?

MH: Yeah, there was a hand when we were already in the money, and I was three-betting people preflop. I three-bet a guy in position, he flat-called from the cutoff, and then he donked [on the flop] when he led into me for about a pot-sized bet. In these Sunday tournaments, a lot of time when they lead-donk into you -- like, say they're out of position, you raise preflop, and they lead into you on the flop -- it's almost never a hand. I just raised a ton of his flop bets with about 200 people left in the event. I raised a ton of flat-callers' bets with air, and it worked every time. There was a ton of pots that I picked up doing that.

SPG: How did you progress to where you are now in poker?

MH: I started out playing full-ring limit hold'em online, grinding like $2-$4 on PartyPoker at 12 tables back when I was in college. I was kind of a bonus-whore type, as I would deposit money on sites to try to clear bonuses. So, I put money on Absolute Poker and played limit hold'em, and then I started playing sit-and-gos. I really liked them, and I started playing a ton of them and going for the weekly leader board that they have. I went through a string where I won the leader board a couple of weeks in a row, and back then you used to play Mark Seif heads up for like 1,000 bucks.

So, I did really well at sit-and-gos, and I did that a ton, and then I started playing in tournaments. And back then, a kid I met online named "djk123," he played on AP with me back in the day, like three or four years ago. I started talking to him on instant messenger, and he pretty much taught me how to play tournaments. He was a crucial, instrumental factor in my getting good at MTTs [multitable tournaments]. He would always give me advice, and he has taught me a ton. And I think that I have contributed a little bit to him, simply by talking about hands. I think that is what made me really good, talking to him and other people.

SPG: What was the most valuable lesson you learned on your way up?

MH: Just that aggression, in tournaments, is crucial to win. I think that's the biggest thing.

SPG: You hear about aggression a lot. How do you make sure that you're using aggression correctly? Because it can be killer for some people who over-apply the concept.

MH: I'll give you an example. In tournaments, when I had a resteal [sized] stack, I used to just shove it in with pretty much any two cards without a good read. More recently, I've gotten good at watching the table and understanding bet-sizing from people. Like, say the big blind is 1,600, and someone makes it 3,800 when they're weak and 4,800 or 5,800 when they're strong; I think that is crucial to recognize. I still resteal a lot, but I won't do it unless I have a pretty solid read on someone. So, I have toned it down and adjusted a little bit. You really have to pick your spots pretty well, and you can't just do it [be aggressive] every time or it's going to bust you in too many tournaments.

Generation Next
Attack of Spewzilla
By Craig Tapscott

One year ago, Christian Harder, a baby-faced 19-year-old freshman at George Mason University, loved playing online poker tournaments. But he had a problem, a serious one -- one of which he was painfully unaware. If only nightly meetings or 10-step programs were viable solutions for his affliction, Harder would have been a regular, and most assuredly would have completed each step with flying colors. So, as a last resort, close friend and tournament player Shaun Deeb staged an intervention.

Deeb sat Harder down and slapped a little cold, hard reality into him. "Dude," said Deeb. "Stop spewing chips. You're a major spewzilla. Quit it, before you trash your roll."

Most likely, those were not Deeb's exact words, but pretty close. Harder was a good player making stupid mistakes and wasting chips in bad spots. Deeb's advice corrected a major leak in Harder's game. "I would flop middle pair during the first level and get it all in against aces, or something just as dumb," said Harder. "Because I spewed chips, I was a marginal winner. That awareness has improved my game 100 percent."

Since that fateful day of spew reckoning, Harder, aka "charder30," has cashed for close to $1 million online. He also has gone on a "live" killing spree. At the European Poker Tour 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure -- his first live buy-in for more than $1,000 -- he captured seventh place for $200,000. Three weeks later, he took down eighth place and $126,000 at the EPT German Open. Not bad for a recovering spewtard. Obviously, rehabilitation suits Harder like a well-worn straightjacket, but will it continue to keep him from bluffing all in on the river when drawing dead? Only time will tell.

Craig Tapscott: What other leaks did you become aware of?

Christian Harder: I was making mistakes with shallow chip stacks. With 20 big blinds, it's very bad to call when out of position with anything that you're not going to just check-raise all in on any flop. If you're calling three big blinds, you're calling off 15 percent of your stack. You have to win that pot so many times post-flop to be right, which you won't if you're out of position and unlikely to improve.

CT: Any other leaks?

CH: I would play way too straightforwardly. When I had aces or kings, I always would three-bet somebody; things like that. Now, many times I'll just flat-call and win more chips.

CT: There has to be more.

CH: [Laughing] I learned that I just couldn't constantly be aggressive post-flop and try to bluff people off every hand, especially if they held top pair. The truth is that you can be a big winner by playing solid poker; there are lots of players who do it. That's mainly because 75 percent of the players in multitable tournaments have no idea what they're doing.

CT: One more?

CH: I've learned to value-bet much better. I've learned from seeing so many hands that a lot of players don't know how to value-bet thinly. I think they get too intimidated and play way too passively.

CT: What do you pay most attention to at the table?

CH: Betting patterns. I constantly ask myself, "What are my opponents trying to represent?" Next, it's board textures and how my opponent reacts to them. If it's an A-7-2 flop after my preflop raise and my opponent check-calls, his range is really narrow and he has A-X most times. I don't try to bluff in this situation too often.

CT: Do you play 30 tournaments a day like your friend and savior Shaun Deeb?

CH: [Laughing] Not nearly as many. It all depends on how I feel each day. But I do have major ADD (attention-deficit disorder). Even if I 12-table, I'm talking on AIM, reading poker forums, and instant-messaging people. I miss a lot at online tables. You know, in some ways, if I focused on only one table online, I think I could do a lot better.

CT: You should get the hint, considering your success in live play.

CH: Well, I've learned to pick up a lot of information live by just paying attention and reacting to how players put their chips in the pot, what they say, and so on.

CT: I thought you wore headphones most of the time during live play.

CH: I have them turned off a lot. That way, I don't have to talk to idiots.

CT: That works.

Adjusting to Deep-Stack Play
By Justin Rollo

With major online tournaments like the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker approaching, many players will need to make the adjustment from playing short-stack online tournaments to those with far deeper structures. The list below should help you to make the adjustments necessary for a successful transition to these prestigious deep-stack tournaments. This does beg the question: Why should I play in these deep-stack tournaments? Simply put, the deeper the structure, the more decision points there are in every hand of poker. The more decision points there are in a tournament, the larger the edge for those who understand playing deep. Hopefully after reading this column and practicing some of the points mentioned, you'll gain this edge.

A. Position is even more important!

We always harp on position as being a massively important part of poker. However, in most regular online tournaments, the only time position usually matters is preflop. The generally shallow depth of stacks, 20 big blinds and lower, handcuffs players into playing preflop poker. When the stacks become deeper, you can play more hands creatively and utilize position post-flop.

B. Hand values change.

Some hands become far less valuable when playing deep-stack poker. One-pair hands such as A-Q and A-J become far less powerful, and hands such as suited connectors and small to medium pairs become relatively stronger, due to the increased implied odds you receive from the added stack depth.

C. One pair is no good!

This point builds off the previous one. After two or so hours in most of today's online tournaments, you get to a point at which one pair is usually good enough to continue in most pots. Whether there is a continuation-bet in front of you or you are first to act, one pair holds significantly more value in short-stack tournaments than in deep-stack play.

D. Resteals from the blinds should be used more carefully when deep.

The resteal has become extremely popular in today's online game. In some tournaments, such as a $100 rebuy, it is something that is employed on almost every hand. For obvious reasons, such as usually not going to a flop, resteals from the blinds have become a very effective way to chip up against late-position raises in most tournaments. Resteals should be used carefully when playing deep, as the open-raiser will be able to play a wide variety of hands in position against you. Keep in mind that this point is directly relevant to being out of position post-flop, and that resteals in position still hold a lot of value when playing deep, as does four-betting, which is rare in the generally short-stacked mid-game.

E. Hello, four-betting.

When playing deep with antes, four-betting is introduced to the vast majority of players. With more than 50-60 big blinds, you are given an opportunity to four-bet players in a variety of situations, depending on reads. Make sure that you trust your reads, and be creative when given the opportunity.

Use these tips wisely and make sure to practice deep-stack play, which usually can be accomplished by playing cash or various deep-stack offerings online, and you should be able to successfully make the transition from shallow stacks to deeper ones.

To watch tournament training videos from Justin Rollo, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/pro

Mike Vela Makes a Tough Call With Second Pair
By Mike Sexton, the "Ambassador of Poker" and Commentator for the World Poker Tour



World Poker Tour events at Foxwoods always draw tremendous fields, for several reasons. First, it's a magnificent property. If you've never been to Foxwoods, do yourself a favor and take a trip there. It has a WPT-themed poker room and runs satellites for all bankrolls. And if you're an early bird, no big-time tournaments anywhere in the world start as early as those at Foxwoods -- 10 a.m.

For you trivia buffs, let's start this column with some history lessons. Who was the inaugural $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em champion of the World Poker Finals (which was held in December 1992)? If you said, "Mike Sexton," give yourself a pat on the back. (Hey, Phil Hellmuth talks about himself in every column.) And what was the first casino to become a charter member of the World Poker Tour? Yes, it was Foxwoods, and Foxwoods has always been a wonderful partner of the World Poker Tour.

Speaking of poker history, no player has ever defended his title or captured a second WPT title at the same venue, but that possibility existed here, as Nick Schulman (who won this tournament two years earlier) had a shot to do it. Although he made a valiant effort to win, Schulman ended up third in this tournament.

With five players left, I'm not sure that we've ever had a much closer chip count among all of the players than in this tournament at Foxwoods. Certainly, it was anybody's tournament to win. First place was worth $1.7 million and a coveted WPT title! With the antes at 10,000 and the blinds at 40,000-80,000, the ever-aggressive young phenom Tom Dwan (with 3.5 million in chips) opened the pot for 165,000 with 4-3 offsuit. Nenad Medic (the eventual champion) folded on the button. Mike Vela (the chip leader with 4.1 million) called from the small blind with Q-J. Mike White (with 3.1 million) called another 85,000 from the big blind with the 10 3.

The flop came Q-8-5 with two hearts. Vela led right out and bet 410,000 with top pair. White, with a flush draw, raised it to 1 million. Dwan folded, and Vela made the call. The A came on the turn, and Vela checked his queens. White then bet 1.2 million with his flush draw! Here, Vela had to make a very tough call with just two queens, and he did it. The 9 appeared on the river. Vela checked, and White opted to check, as he didn't want to be eliminated on a bluff. Vela took down a pot of nearly 5 million, and with it, extended his chip lead.

You have to admire the play of everyone on this hand. Dwan tried to pick up the pot (something he does quite often) by raising with 4-3 offsuit, but both blinds opted to fight for it. And you have to love the aggressiveness of Mike White. He raised it to 1 million on the flop with the 10-high flush draw, and after being called, he fired again on the turn (after his opponent checked) when the A came off. I believe that this was a bet that would win the vast majority of times in this situation when your opponent has two queens or less. Unfortunately for White, Vela obviously thought he was drawing to the flush, so he made the call on the turn. (Usually, even if you think your opponent has a flush draw, you're fearful that he has the nut-flush draw and that the ace paired him.)

What's great about poker is the "what if" game. You do have to wonder what Vela would have done had White fired a "third shell" on the river, but you can't blame White for saving his last chips. After all, he did fire two shells in an effort to win the pot. But, what if he had fired again on the river?

Congratulations to Canadian Nenad Medic (known as "the Serb") for taking down his first WPT title. In case you've never heard of Nenad Medic, trust me, he's a player. Nenad is having quite a year. He also won the inaugural event of the 2008 World Series of Poker, the $10,000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em tournament. (Do you want some more trivia? I finished fourth in that tournament. Now I'm learning how Hellmuth writes about himself all the time. He simply weaves himself into the story.)
If you asked the top pros to come up with a list of who they thought were the top five no-limit hold'em players -- for the combination of cash games and tournament play -- I'd be quite surprised if Nenad Medic wasn't on most people's list. He would be on mine.