Inside Straight

888.com Announces Poker Open V
By Brendan Murray

888.com has announced the launch of its fifth Poker Open Championship which will be filmed for Sky Sports in Maidstone, England from Oct. 27 to Nov. 7.

This exclusive event has only 108 seats on offer, meaning every aspiring champion will get a shot at their own few minutes of fame. 888P.com is giving 35 online qualifiers a chance to star alongside 65 professionals, and eight celebrities, including Shane Warne and Ronnie O'Sullivan, in the battle for the $250,000 guaranteed top prize.

Marketing Director for 888.com, Matt Robinson, said, "The 888.com Poker Open Championship is certainly a highlight in the poker calendar. Now in its fifth year, the competition is attracting some of the best players in the world which makes for an even more competitive tournament than last year. The TV cameras will no doubt capture all the excitement and unexpected turns from start to finish."

The action will be aired every Tuesday night at 10 p.m. between January and June 2009 on Sky Sports.

Bet365 and PokerStars Sign Bracelet Winners
By Brendan Murray

World Series of Poker 2008 bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard and WSOP 2007 bracelet winner Alex Kravchenko have signed sponsorship deals with Bet365 and PokerStars respectively.

Hougaard, a former national table tennis coach, will write a poker diary blog at Bet365 which is to include strategy tips. He will also play regular bounty tournaments at Bet365, as well as representing the company at poker tournaments around the world. He cashed in two WSOP events during the summer, before taking down event 36, the $1,500 no-limit hold'em event and the $610,000 top prize.

Kravchenko made poker headlines in 2007 when he won his first WSOP bracelet and $228,466 in the $1,500 Omaha high-low split eight-or-better event, but this was just a drop in the ocean for the Russian. He went on to cash in five other WSOP 2007 events, including the all-important main event, where he finished fourth for $1,852,721.

He is noted among the European poker community due largely to his fifth place finish in the 2007 WSOP Europe £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, but also because of his expansive trail of international tournament achievements.

Barcelona Heads Up Hoedown
By Brendan Murray

The €2,500 World Heads Up Poker Championship is due to take place in Casino Barcelona from Oct. 20-25. The event has grown in prestige, stature, and popularity over the years to become one of Europe's top tournaments.

With the date set, the venue arranged, entries capped at 128, and many poker notables already signed up including Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, last year's champion Jeff Kimber, Marc Goodwin, Dave Colclough, and Paul "ActionJack" Jackson, the only thing missing, at the time of writing, is a sponsor. But with such an attractive package on offer, this should not be an obstacle for very long.

The sponsorship package includes guaranteed TV broadcasts, with SKY Sports signed up as the main UK broadcast channel. The entire event will be filmed over the five day period, including the semi finals and final. The show will then be ready to go within three days of filming.

The World Heads Up Organisation's consultant, Peter Singleton said, "I can confidently predict that this year's event has the potential to be the biggest and best yet. By using the more advanced production options available, we can now take quite a big step forward and offer a ground breaking TV poker show. [This] will enable SKY to broadcast the show the week following Saturday`s final, so it will still be 'hot off the press' so to speak. This 'new' format will give the show added appeal ... resulting in far higher viewing figures, more 'live' poker action, and capturing even more of the atmosphere surrounding this event."

Tony Cascarino Hits Net in Bolton
By Brendan Murray

Tony Cascarino, the former Chelsea and Republic of Ireland football star, won the Bolton leg of the BlueSquarePoker.com Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in early September, collecting £52,850 for his victory over 174 competitors.

Cascarino beat Ali Mallu by overcoming a 4:1 chip lead. After drawing level, Cascarino won two all-in hands in a row; calling Mallu's 8-4 push with Q-7 on a 7-4-3 board, and showing K-K to beats Mallu's K-8, leaving his opponent with just 60,000 in chips.

Play finished a few hands later when Cascarino again called an all-in from Mallu with A 8, well ahead of his opponent's 9 3. The flop fell a welcome 10 5 3, giving the football pundit the nut flush and his first major victory on British soil.

"I had a great sports career," said a jubilant Cascarino after his win, "but even this I think has overtaken some of [the] things I have done in football. I just enjoyed it. I've had a strange year and this has made a big difference for me in the poker world."

The final table payouts were:

1 Tony Cascarino £52,850
2 Ali Mallu £30,600
3 Roberto Romanello £21,900
4 Rob Sherwood £14,900
5 Kevin O'Leary £11,400
6 Dennis Clough £8,750
7 Surinder Sunar £7,000
8 Sid Harris £5,250
9 Greg Hunt £4,400

The BlueSquarePoker.com Grosvenor UK Poker Tour returns from Oct. 16 to 19, 2008 to the G Casino, Thanet, Kent.
Elsewhere, the Grosvenor Grand Prix, Europe's largest pot-limit hold'em tournament, will play out for its sixth year at the Grosvenor casino in Walsall from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.

The event's sponsor, BlueSquarePoker.com, is holding online super satellites on selected Thursday evenings from Sept. 11 to Oct. 23.

Blue Square Poker will also be adding £25,000 to this year's prize pool, with the winner set to walk away with the top cash prize, and a seat into both the GUKPT grand final, and the £75,000 Champion of Champions tournament.

Full Tilt's Million-Dollar Cash Game is Back
By Brendan Murray

Season three of the Million Dollar Cash Game played out in London on Sept. 17 and 18, and is due to be broadcast on Sky Sports in January 2009. The series is sponsored by FullTiltPoker.com and produced by poker TV specialist, Emblaze Productions.

The event was very exclusive, and only those who received a personal invite attended. The guest list included a world-class field of poker notables, such as Phil Hellmuth, Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, and Tony G. The list was also largely populated by Full Tilt-sponsored pros, such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, and Eli Elezra.

French poker king David Benyamine, and the ultimate champion, Doyle Brunson, were also expected to make an appearance.
Phil Ivey broke a record in the series last year when he won a pot worth $807,400 - the largest amount won in a single hand during a televised cash game.

The record may or may not have been broken again this year, but one thing is for sure, these players do not go down without a fight. Poker enthusiasts will have to wait until next year to see what went on in this nail-biting event.

Devilfish Reality TV Show Causes a Stir
By Brendan Murray

September saw irreverent poker legend, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott take to the small screen in Britain, with his new five-part ITV series "How to Become a Poker Millionaire."

The series followed four losing poker players, as Ulliott put them through an intensive month of training, while eliminating a player each week. The winner received a seat at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Street-wise Ulliott, poker ambassador of DevilfishPoker.com, has millions of dollars of tournament winnings under his belt, as well as WSOP and World Poker Tour titles to his name. "Making the show was brilliant fun," he said. "I really put the players through their paces and taught them a lot of the tricks of the trade that cost me a fortune and years to learn."

The series was produced by John Giwa-Amu and Caradog James of Red & Black Films who are building on their seven years industry experience and BAFTA success with one of the most innovative poker TV shows ever produced.

The producers are hopeful the show will be broadcast internationally, but fans across Europe who cannot wait can find streaming versions of it on the web.

Sebastian Ruthenberg Wins European Poker Tour Barcelona
By Rebecca McAdam

The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Open kicked off a hectic three weeks in European poker attracting a record 619 players and generating a €4.95 million prize pool in mid-September. On a final table that would give the United Nations a run for its money - with a player each from Denmark, Belgium, Canada, America, Italy, Ireland, and two from Germany - the first to go was Denmark when Martin Nielsen got all of his chips into the middle preflop and the young American, Jason Mercier called him down. Their cards were:

Nielsen: A 2
Mercier: 10 10
Board: K 5 5 2 K

Nielsen was eliminated in eighth place, and took home €119,000 in prize money.

Canada was next when Samuel Chartier went all in against Irishman Fintan Gavin preflop. Chartier held K 10 and Gavin A 9. The board ran out J 7 2 J 3, and Chartier was eliminated in seventh place, taking home €178,000 for his efforts.

Soon afterwards the Irishman was at it again when he raised preflop to 160,000 and Jason Mercier reraised all in. Gavin made the call and they flipped over their cards:

Mercier: 7 7
Gavin: Q Q
Board: K 3 3 A 5

And with that Mercier was eliminated in sixth place for €227,000.

Gavin continued his roll when he made a large bet against German Dren Ukella on a flop of 10 9 2. Ukella moved all in and Gavin made the call and they flipped up their hands:

Gavin: Q 9
Ukella: A 4

Gavin's hand held and the German took home €292,000 for his fifth place finish.

Italy was next to go, after two pivotal hands. First, Mazzia lost a 2 million pot to Kitai when his pocket nines fell to Kitai's pocket tens. Knocked down to under 100,000 for the second time at the final table, there was no coming back for the Italian, and he was all in on the next hand against German Sebastian Ruthenberg. The board read Q J 10 A 8 when Mazzia flipped over Q-8. Ruthenberg held J-9 however, and took down the hand with a straight. After a performance that was at times gutsy and others just plain lucky, Mazzia was eliminated in fourth place, and took home €351,000 as his faithful Italian fans cheered him on.

With three left, Kitai moved all in with A Q and ruthless Ruthenberg called him down with pocket fours. The board rolled out J 7 6 K 2 and Kitai's deep run in the tournament was over. The Belgian player was eliminated in third place, earning €455,000.

On the third hand of heads-up play Gavin moved all in preflop and Ruthenberg made the call. They then turned over their hole cards:

Gavin: 7 4
Ruthenberg: K 9
Board: A 7 2 K 8

Gavin was eliminated in second place, taking home €792,000 and Ruthenberg became a champion, as well as a poker millionaire, with his €1,361,000 winnings and his first EPT title.

PartyPoker.com Breaks Bad Beat World Record
By Brendan Murray

The PartyPoker.com Bad Beat Jackpot made history in August when several lucky players won a share of $1,013,381.63. The jackpot can only be won on special cash game tables if a player loses when holding four of a kind eights or better. The main players involved in the record-breaking pot were German "Judith75", and Scottish "Hiyall".

On a $0.50/$1 limit table, the action began when "Shoulderguy" raised with pocket kings, "Judith75" called with pocket nines, and "Hiyall" called with A Q. They each saw a piece of the action when the flop came down K 9 10. Chaos ensued when the turn was dealt, the J, and the river, the 9.

"Hiyall" hit the royal flush on the turn and was sitting pretty with a hand considered to be a 649,739/1 chance. "Judith75" made quad nines on the river, while Shoulderguy's full house fell to the bottom of the food chain. The quad nines were vindicated however, when they earned "Judith75" $354,683.57 - the largest slice of the bad beat prize pool.

The winner of the hand, "Hiyall" took home the second biggest chunk of the jackpot, $177,341.79, plus the original pot which was worth $24. The other players at the table won $22,167.72.

A spokesperson for PartyPoker.com said, "Online poker history has been made by setting a new world record for a bad beat jackpot. To hit seven figures is quite something!"

The online poker bad beat record was previously $992,000.

Mind Over Poker
A Tale of Two Hands
By David Apostolico

Let's take a look at two fairly similar hands with different results and see if they should have been played differently. In the first hand, the blinds are 500-1,000 with 100 antes. Player MP (for middle position) limps. Player MP is sitting on about 12,000 in chips. Player SB (for small blind) limps from his position and has only 1,600 left. Player BB (for big blind) checks his option.

Player BB has about 10,000 behind. The flop comes 9-7-2 rainbow. Player SB acts first and moves his last 1,600 in. Player BB folds. Player MP says he has nothing, but he has to call. Player SB turns over A-10. Player MP turns over K-J. The turn and river bring blanks and Player SB wins a nice pot.

In the second hand, the blinds are 500-1,000 with 100 antes and everyone folds to Player A in the small blind, who limps in. Player A has about 11,000 in chips. Player B is in the big blind with about 6,000 in chips. Player B moves all in and is immediately called by Player A. Player B turns over A-J offsuit and Player A turns over pocket sixes. A jack-high rainbow flop comes and things are looking pretty good for Player B. That doesn't last long, however, as the turn is a 6 and Player B is headed to the rail.

Both of these hands took place in the same tournament and happened within a few hands of each other. In the first hand, I was Player SB. The reason I didn't push preflop is that even though I was committed to playing the hand, I wanted to save a bullet. With my chip stack, I knew I would get two callers if I pushed in preflop. I also knew that Player BB would be reluctant to raise without a premium hand, since Player MP had already limped. By waiting for the flop to push in - which I planned on doing no matter what - there was the chance that I could force at least one of my opponents to fold, and thereby increase my chances of winning. That's exactly what happened. In fact, Player BB took a long time to fold, and then was kicking himself, saying he should have called and would have won the hand.

In the second hand, Player B asked me if he made the right move. Since this hand took place a few hands after the first one, which he had witnessed, I could see why he would second-guess himself. In fact, if he had checked his option and then gone all in on the flop, Player A would have had a very hard time calling with his pocket sixes. But hindsight is always correct. I don't think Player B had any choice but to move in preflop. With his stack, he still had enough chips to force Player A to fold there. Since Player A basically has a random hand in this scenario, Player B has to believe that he is most likely ahead. Now, Player A happened to have a real hand. However, even then, Player B was only a very slight underdog. There is just no reason to let Player A see a flop cheaply in that scenario. Player B has to move in.

The critical difference in the two hands is that in the first one, I didn't have enough chips to force anyone out, so why not preserve a bullet, albeit a small one? I believe that both Player B and I made the right moves. I was just more fortunate that it worked out for me.

David Apostolico is the author of Tournament Poker and The Art of War, Machiavellian Poker Strategy, and Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business. You can contact him at [email protected].

Hand 2 Hand Combat
's00tedj0kers' Bleeds a Weak Opponent
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: PokerStars $1,000 no-limit hold'em Super Tuesday event
Players: 351
First Prize: $70,000
Stacks: s00tedj0kers - 28,890
Villain: - 34,706
Blinds: 400-800
Antes: 80

Craig Tapscott: Many times, players tend to focus only on the hand they're dealt, and do not also consider the action ahead of them, the stack sizes of their opponents, the other players' table images, and so on. Set this hand up for us with that in mind.

Kory "s00tedj0kers" Kilpatrick: There are around 100 people left, and 45 will cash. I'd been active preflop. I had also continuation-bet almost every flop when I was the preflop raiser, taking them down a majority of the time. I don't think I'd shown down any bad hands, though. I had not had any major confrontations with the Villain prior to this hand, but had noticed that he'd been splashing around a good bit and did not seem like a good player. He also had a propensity to defend his big blind light.

The action is folded to s00tedj0kers in the cutoff, holding the Q 10.

KK: With no resteal stacks behind me and being almost 40 big blinds deep, this is a very standard open for me. I make my standard open at this level to 1,888.

s00tedj0kers raises to 1,888.

CT: Why this size raise?

KK: I believe that it's very important to have a standard raise (somewhere between 2.2 and 2.7 times the big blind, usually) at each blinds level, so as not to give away bet-sizing tells. This also makes it that much more difficult for your opponent to put you on a hand.

CT: I have seen this bet-sizing of less than three times the big blind in online tournaments over the last year or so. During live events, most players will always make it three times the big blind (more if it's a weak player protecting his 9-9, J-J, and so on.), like it's written in stone somewhere to do that. What's the thinking behind and value of the smaller opening raise?

KK: In effect, a raise of 2.2 to 2.7 times accomplishes the same thing that a raise of three times does. It's just more profitable to raise smaller for aggressive players like me, because a significant percentage of the time that we open, we are going to be folding to a three-bet. And this saves us chips. By raising smaller, it also controls the size of the pot, which gives an advantage to better post-flop players. This is more commonly seen online because the average stack deep in a tournament is usually 20-30 big blinds, whereas in a live tournament, it's usually 40-50 big blinds, which makes that three-tenths to eight-tenths of a big blind that you save all the more valuable.

Villain calls the additional 1,088 from the big blind.

KK: I was not surprised to see him call. I'm fine with it, because my hand flops well, and I believe that I'll be able to outplay him in position a large percentage of the time.

CT: Do you put him on any type of range here, or could he have any two cards, from your experience with him?

KK: His range is probably not quite any two, but close. He's certainly calling with any pair, Broadway hands, A-X, any suited cards, and lots of connected hands.

Flop: Q Q 5 (4,736 pot)

CT: Nice flop.

KK: Obviously, this is a great flop for me. When he checks to me, I make a continuation-bet, just like I would do with my entire range on the flop.

Villain checks. s00tedj0kers bets 2,222.

CT: So many people would try to trap and slow-play this flop.

KK: Yes. A lot of inexperienced players make the mistake of checking behind on this flop, thinking they are almost never going to get action with their trips. It's important to make sure that you are playing your good hands the same way that you play your bad ones. This allows you to remain unpredictable and tough to play against.

CT: What type of opponent would you check this flop to, if any?

KK: With the frequency that I c-bet, it would definitely be a leak to check behind on this flop against anyone. The only time I could ever see myself doing it would be as a level with history against a thinking opponent, but I'd still say I'm betting this flop 99 percent of the time.

Villain calls.

KK: When he calls, I am immediately thinking that his range consists of low to medium pairs, diamonds, a slight chance of Q-X hands, and possibly some A-X holdings. He knows that I could very easily be c-betting light.

Turn: A (9,180 pot)

Villain checks.

CT: The ace on the turn always makes it interesting. What now?

KK: This is a very interesting turn against this opponent. Versus a regular in the $1,000 event, I'm going to double-barrel this turn about 99 percent of the time.

CT: Why?

KK: Because I would make the same move with my entire flop range. But versus a more incompetent opponent, I was rather unsure of what to do at the time. I thought a high percentage of his range consisted of low to medium pairs, which are probably going to fold.

In that case, he would probably be thinking that if he wasn't already beat on the flop, the ace now has him beat. But at the same time, I didn't want to give him a free card to catch a flush. If he were to have an ace, he may stack off frequently enough on the river following a properly sized turn bet, which makes it more profitable to bet the turn than check behind. I ended up deciding that he's going to check-call almost all rivers if I check, because my hand is so disguised. This gives him a chance to bluff a lot of rivers, and if he has an ace, he's going to bet-call the river enough to make it more profitable to check behind on the turn.

s00tedj0kers checks.

River: 4 (9,180 pot)

Villain checks.

CT: No diamond, so what now?

KK: This is one of many good rivers for us, as the flush does not get there and the only hand that improves is 4-4. Once he checks, there is only one thing left to decide, and that is how much to bet to extract the most value. Although to most competent players it is fairly obvious that I would never be bluffing this river after checking behind on the turn, I thought this player would hero-call almost any bet here. So, I made it about eight-ninths of the pot.

s00tedj0kers bets 7,777. Villain calls and reveals the J 5. s00tedj0kers wins the pot of 24,734.

CT: Do you regret not betting the turn and trying to get more value?

KK: Based on the dynamics present and this particular opponent, I think I played the hand ideally; although, in a vacuum, I think you're going to get hero-called enough by medium-pairs. Also, you may be able to stack enough A-X hands to make betting the turn more profitable. So with this hand, I was able to increase my stack by approximately 50 percent, and put myself in good position to make a run in the tournament.

Kory Kilpatrick, 18, is from Athens, Georgia, and is currently a freshman on the basketball team at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He began playing high-stakes tournaments online in December of 2007 and has since amassed more than $500,000 in cashes. Kilpatrick has multiple wins in the $100 rebuy event on PokerStars; the largest takedown was for $51,000. He also took second in the Sunday Warm-Up on PokerStars for $53,000 recently, and made the final table of the prestigious PokerStars Sunday $200 rebuy event in back-to-back weeks.

Online Zone
Play a Hand With Alex 'AJKHoosier1' Kamberis
Online Player of the Year Contender Analyzes a Tournament Hand, Street for Street
By Shawn Patrick Green

Alex "AJKHoosiers1" Kamberis did well for himself in 2007, but his 2008 is shaping up to be incredible. He already has more than $500,000 in Online Player of the Year-qualified finishes for '08, including a runner-up finish in the Full Tilt $750,000-guaranteed event in July and numerous other first-place finishes. He currently sits in third place on the overall OPOY leader board.

Card Player wanted to pick Kamberis' brain about his tournament play with a specific hand example. We took a look at some of his hand histories and came across a tournament hand that we wanted analyzed, and Kamberis was up to the task.

Full Tilt $75 $14,000-Guaranteed Six-Max Tournament



LegalEagle1 limps in for 1,200 preflop, eazy1mike calls from the small blind, and AJKHoosier1 checks his option from the big blind. The flop comes 8 7 4, and eazy1mike leads out for 2,222, AJKHoosier1 calls, and LegalEagle1 calls behind. The turn is the 4, and eazy1mike now checks. AJKHoosier1 bets 4,400, LegalEagle1 calls, and eazy1mike check-raises to 17,989. AJKHoosier1 calls, and LegalEagle1 folds. The river is the 9, and eazy1mike pushes all in for 20,424. AJKHoosier1 calls, and eazy1mike turns over the J 9 for a busted gutshot-straight draw and a rivered two pair. AJKHoosier1 shows pocket eights for a full house and takes down the pot of 92,242, eliminating eazy1mike.

Shawn Patrick Green: First off, set the stage. There are five people at your table. What has the play been like?

Alex "AJKHoosiers1" Kamberis: I like this hand because I think it'd be helpful to the average online tourney player, since it took place in a small-stakes tourney [the Full Tilt afternoon $75 six-max] that was full of typical bad players. It's somewhat deep in the tournament at this point, so play has tightened up a bit, but overall, people are playing pretty loose-passively and badly. Just think of exactly what you'd expect in a low- or medium-stakes six-max tourney.

SPG: OK. So, did that have something to do with checking your option with a medium-pocket pair? What was your plan?

AK: Yeah, it does. I figure that if I bump it up, I'm going to get flatted [flat-called] a lot, which would basically be a nightmare with a medium pocket pair out of position, since most flops are going to be ugly and really tough to play. So, I decide to keep the pot small, treat my hand like 2-2, and just try to hit a set and get paid big, since, for the most part, these guys are calling stations.

SPG: OK, so you have two opponents going to the flop, and bingo, you flop a set, albeit on a draw-heavy board. With 4,300 in the pot, the player in the small blind led out for 2,222. What is your thought process at this point?

AK: [Laughing] I'm not afraid of much. I lose only to 6-5, and yeah, the board is draw-heavy, but you can't play your hand out of fear; you need to play your hand optimally. Also, at this point, there's really no reason to assume that anyone has a big draw of any kind. I thought that it'd look too strong to bump it up here in a limped pot against the guy leading out into two other players, and with another guy left behind me, I wanted to keep him in and give him the chance to do something silly, like post-flop squeeze, after which I could then come over the top.

I think some people never flat with hands like sets on boards like this because they are too afraid of their opponents getting there, when, in all reality, if they have any kind of real draw, they're probably not folding anyway, and you sometimes really need to mix it up. Sometimes. So, yeah, for deception, amongst other reasons, I just call. I'm definitely not afraid of anything at this point.

SPG: So, with almost 11K in the pot, the turn is a money-card for you, pairing the board. You come out swinging. Why is it now profitable to push it against them?

AK: Well, as I said, I called on the flop for deception, right? And, as you said, the board is draw-heavy. So, never in a million years are they going think I have any kind of boat here, and if they do have a draw, they're now stone dead, so I put out a smallish bet, not to push anyone out, obviously, but to try to induce some action from those draws. And because my hand is just so ridiculously disguised at this point, between the check preflop and the smooth-call on the flop, the 4 looks like such a stone brick; it's impossible to put me on anything. So, this time, I bet for deception. And I'm obviously trying to get more money in at this point, so I don't want to check and risk missing a lot of value; I need to start building the pot.

SPG: Do you think a lot of people miss value by checking turns, because opponents sometimes mentally check out if they get to see a river and know for sure what their final hand is?

AK: Yeah, I think that's a mistake a lot of people make, either not being willing to lead out when out of position, in general, or thinking that just because they have a stone-cold nut hand, they should slow-play it to get action. Not surprisingly, the best way to get action sometimes is to bet, and I think this was one of those spots.

SPG: OK, so you bet, got called behind, and then got check-raised. What did you put him on, given that you want to maximize your profits?

AK: At this point, I figure his range is between hands like a boat, the straight, a big draw, or something completely ridiculous. Versus all hands but the big draw, my best option is just to call here, since if he has a boat or straight, he's not folding at any point anyway. If he's doing something silly, I need to let him keep doing it. And since there's another player in, I obviously didn't want to push him out for any reason.

SPG: Gotcha. So, the rest of the hand kind of plays itself. The river was a 9, and the other player pushed. You called, and he had J-9 for a busted gutshot draw and a rivered two pair.

AK: Cooler! I mean, yeah, I accomplished everything I wanted to, and I kind of let him get there. I'm not sure if he shoved the river for value or as a bluff, but yeah, J-9 no good. It definitely paid off to play my hand counterintuitively on literally every street, since most people would raise preflop with eights, most people would raise the flop with a set, and most people would slow down when they filled up. So, I did the opposite.

SPG: And you said that this exemplified some of the big mistakes that people make in these small-stakes tourneys. What were his biggest mistakes here, aside from going broke [laughing].

AK: Well, to be honest, the only parts I hate about his play are that he went crazy in a limped pot (almost always awful) and shoved the river, even though I'm calling on the turn with literally only made nut hands, given that he has only another 20K behind. I like his flop lead with two overs and a gutty, to be honest; I lead out in pots like that with hands like that all the time. I'm not sure if he should be completing preflop there with J-9 offsuit, either, but it's close when the button limps.

SPG: Perfect. Thanks for doing the interview! Anything else you want to say?

AK: New videos are coming up at PokerXFactor, and my management is at PokerIcons.com. Sponsor me, please! Thanks to everyone for their support (and money), and I'll see you in London for the World Series of Poker Europe.

Generation Next
Thomas Finneran
By Rebecca McAdam

Galway man Thomas Finneran has had some devastatingly good results in just three years of playing poker, but not much has really been said about this 30-year-old Irishman. Then again, his poker career is only really in its toddler years - all the more reason to be aware of this potential champion. Finishing a respectable seventh in last year's Irish Open, he not only took down the €75,000 prize, but also proved that being "Paddy Last" is not always a bad thing, after out lasting 69 other Paddy Power Poker qualifiers at the prestigious event. He recently demonstrated his online talents when his alter ego "Garbally" placed second for $198,000 in event 12, the $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series IX.

That's the thing with poker, you don't have to be under a certain age to be the next big thing. Finneran has flown under the radar and dodged the spotlight long enough. Players should really know what they're dealing with when they sit down to play with this innocent-looking gent. And he's only warming up.

Rebecca McAdam: How did you get on at the recent FTOPS?

Thomas Finneran: I finished second. I got lucky in a couple of spots; it was a good cash and I'm delighted with the win.

RM: What was the strategy going into it?

TF: I played tight early on, and as the blinds get bigger, you have to try and steal them the odd time, but I got a lot of chips halfway through the tournament, so I played mainly solid, but made a move or two here and there.

RM: Were there any specific hands that you did well on?

TF: There were a couple of big pots. Midway through the tournament, I had A-5 on the button and I raised, and got reraised by a very aggressive player, and I pushed all in with a lot of chips, and he called with K-Q. Lucky enough, I held up, so that was a big pot for me. I hit a three-outer with A-8, so that was a big pot for me, as well.

RM: When it got down to the final table, whom were you up against?

TF: Well, Ram Vaswani was there, so I kind of stayed out of his way, and Phil Gordon was at the table for a while, so I stayed out of both their ways. But I played real solid, so when they raised me, and I reraised, they gave me a lot of respect. That way, I was getting chips back even though it looked like I was folding a lot.

RM: Tell me about heads up.

TF: Heads up didn't really go so well. He was the 2-to-1 chip leader and the blinds were huge at the time, so it was a bit of a crapshoot. Eventually I picked up pocket fours, and he raised on the button. He was raising every hand on the button. I pushed all in, he called, he had A-10, I had pocket fours, he wins.

RM: Was it one of the most significant finishes in your poker career so far?

TF: It was, yeah. I finished seventh in the Irish Open [in 2007], 16th this year, and I've been knocking on the door in the Internet tournaments. I won the $100 rebuy event on PokerStars a couple of weeks ago, so I've been knocking on the door for a good while, looking for a big win. This was the biggest win to date, yeah.

RM: Are you looking forward to the Irish Open?

TF: Of course. I love the Irish Open, because the last three years I've played in it, I cashed.

RM: Any changes to your game over the years?

TF: Since I cashed in the Irish Open when I finished seventh in 2007, I've been a lot better player today than I was.

RM: What are the differences?

TF: My all-round technical game has been a lot better; say, when the blinds increase, I haven't been doing a lot wrong, I haven't been making too many mistakes. Really, I'm just waiting for other players to make the mistakes.

RM: What do you think about the World Series, do you play in it?

TF: I didn't go this year. I couldn't make it, as I had a few things on. I had been over the two years previous. I love the World Series; it's a great game, but it's a crapshoot. You have to get lucky.

RM: Do you play high stakes over there?

TF: No, I just play the tournaments. I used to play high-stakes cash online, but with poker tracker now and everything, you really have to be up to speed. I don't really need to gamble that much anymore because I'm pretty comfortable, so I'm happy enough.

RM: Let's go back to the start; how did you get into poker?

TF: I used to play in the local pub at home. I used to play old-style poker - seven-card stud, draw poker, and stuff like that - and I used to win regularly at that. I went to Galway in the Westwood, a lot of good players come out of there. It was a good school for poker. That's where I got into hold'em.

RM: What about online?

TF: I just started playing one day and got better and better, and became a winning player.

RM: Differences between online and live?

TF: You can get a lot more reads off players live. Players talk too much, and give away a lot of information.

RM: Would you say you are a better player live than online?

TF: You probably have a little bit more of an advantage live because of the information thing, but online you can play six tables, so it's not as boring, whereas live you just sit there, and you're folding a lot. Poker is really all about folding and playing your quality hands well, so it's probably more boring live.

RM: How many tournaments would you play online, and what type?

TF: I would probably say I play six or maybe eight tournaments every night, like maybe the $100 rebuy. Basically, I would be laying out a grand, maybe, every night in tournaments.

RM: What player would you say you respect the most, online and live?

TF: Online in tournaments, "Pearljammer" would definitely be one of them, but there are a lot of good guys on PokerStars now. There's a lot of good players live, as well. For example, you have about 200 players here today [in the Irish Poker Classic], but realistically there's probably only about 50 or 60 who can win it.

RM: Your greatest poker ambition?

TF: That would probably be to win the Irish Open. Yeah ... that would be sweet.