Winning Wisdom -- Gavin Griffin

At only 27 years old, Gavin Griffin already holds one of the most impressive collections of poker's most prestigious titles. The former poker dealer won the $3,000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event at the 2004 World Series of Poker, a win that, at the time, bestowed upon him the record as the youngest bracelet winner in history. Since then, he has accumulated more than $4.5 million in live tournament winnings, and made history again by winning the European Poker Tour Grand Final Championship, which boasted the biggest first-place prize in EPT history at the time, more than $2.4 million. Griffin continued his quest for major titles at the 2008 World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Classic, where he snagged a triple crown by winning the coveted WPT title and the $1.4 million first-place prize.

Gavin:

Thanks for sharing your ideas in Card Player. With poker growing like crazy all over the world, and you being a member of Team PokerStars and playing a lot of international events, I wanted to know if you think players from different locations approach the game in different ways. In your opinion, are players from, say, Italy and Brazil much different? Are there any new ways of playing that you see emerging? What general and specific trends have you seen with players from different areas of the world, and what is your opinion of the growing legion of international poker players? I hope to play with you in an EPT event someday.

- Shawn

Hi, Shawn:

I'm happy to share my ideas in Card Player, and I am glad that people are still sending me good questions to answer. I have played in many different countries over the last year. I have played in Poland, Monaco, England, Spain, Brazil, and Australia. I also have played in different parts of the United States, including Los Angeles, Atlantic City, and, of course, Las Vegas. All of these places have their own style of play. There is one common theme, though. Everywhere you go, the good players all play a similar style. They are aggressive, fearless, and willing to play pots after the flop. The bad players in each locale definitely have tendencies that can be identified and used against them.

In general, the bad players in Atlantic City play too tight preflop and aren't willing to get away from big preflop hands post-flop. This is true of many different places around the world. In Las Vegas, the bad players tend to be too passive, and in Los Angeles, the players tend to be too loose and aggressive. The Brazilian players were a bit passive and probably folded too much. The Australians were quite a mix, and were sometimes too passive, sometimes too aggressive, sometimes too loose, and sometimes too tight. The main thing that you need to know about players from around the world is that if they make a mistake, you have to capitalize on it. You need to be paying attention to each individual player and realize what each is doing wrong and then adjust your game to take advantage of it. It doesn't matter if players are making mistakes if you are going to let them get away with it.

Finally, it is getting so difficult to play no-limit hold'em tournaments all around the world. There definitely are still bad players everywhere, but the style and level of bad can be successful in the short term. The majority of people around the world know how to play no-limit hold'em competently. This makes it much tougher to play tournaments, and creates much higher variance than there was a few years ago during the height of the poker boom. You can play tons of hands per week on sites like PokerStars, and there are several training sites that can turn you into a competent no-limit hold'em player in a matter of weeks. There is a lot of information being shared in the current poker climate, and it shows in the level of play in your average poker tournament, especially the high buy-in tournaments.

Good luck in the future, Shawn, and maybe I'll see you around while I'm traveling the world playing poker.


Can You Fold This?

Hi, Gavin:

I recently flopped a full house and folded in my small-stakes home game, which, understandably, drew some criticism. We were playing $1-$2 pot-limit Omaha (the average stack was probably $120), and six players called the big blind and saw a flop of J 9 9. The small blind bet the pot ($12) and the three players between us folded. I smooth-called with the A J♣ 9 4, hoping to build a three-way pot, but the button (a tight-passive player) re-potted, which is a rarity in this friendly game. The small blind folded, leaving it up to me. I had $83 left, and was certain the button had a huge hand. After thinking for a while, I folded, and my opponent turned over the A A J 9, for a likely chop, had I called.

I believed my opponent would make that bet only with J-J or J-9. The other players told me what a bad fold I made, because there is only one more way to make J-J, while there are four more ways to make J-9. However, the way I saw things, I was going to have to call off my whole stack, hoping my opponent had the same hand as me to win half of a $48 pot. And if he had the J-J, I'm basically drawing dead, and I probably lose a $214 pot. What do you think? Good fold or bad?

- Nate B. in Danville, Illinois

Hi, Nate:

That's a tough spot you are in. An argument can always be made for folding something other than the nuts in a pot-limit Omaha game. You also decided to go with your read of the situation and follow your instincts. I will almost never disagree with someone who does that. Against the hand that your opponent had, you chop 95 percent of the time and lose 5 percent of the time. You can never win the whole pot. Against Q-J-10-9, you both win about 14.5 percent of the time and tie the other 71 percent of the time. Against A-Q-J-J or some other combination of J-J, you win 4.88 percent of the time, tie 0.12 percent of the time, and lose the other 95 percent of the time. Looking at those numbers, I don't think it's a bad fold at all. There isn't all that much money in the pot, and you are up against someone who is either tied with you and has redraw outs, or has you absolutely crushed. I think you made a good fold and showed good discipline. Good luck in that game in the future and use your poker discussions to become a better poker player.

Gavin Griffin is a member of Team PokerStars. Visit his website at www.gavingriffin.net.