"Well, I came to Vegas in 1974, and I really just came for a weekend." It might not have been David "Chip" Reese's plan to spend more than 30 years in Las Vegas and to become one of the most respected poker players in history, but that's what happened. Reese grew up ...
As we go to press, we are just a few days away from the main event. It's been well over a month of back-to-back-to-back huge events, and as everyone expected, some great stories have unfolded. First, Phil Hellmuth, Card Player columnist and ...continued
World Series of Poker Action Continues to Build Bigger and Better Than Ever By Tim Peters By the time this issue of Card Player goes to press, the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker will be under way, and the field will certainly be the ...continued
I came into the 2006 World Series of Poker with high hopes of winning a bracelet, and things looked good early on, as I found myself deep into the $2,500 buy-in shorthanded no-limit hold'em event. Down to the final eight players, I was sitting on ...continued
Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) jumped off the stage in New Orleans to dispense high-fives among the audience members. Savage, you see, was playing heads-up poker on CPS (Celebrity Poker Showdown) on Bravo, and felt he needed an energy boost. After ...continued
We were several hours into our $40-$80 limit hold'em game at The Venetian. A local pro player limped in from in front of me and I looked down to see the A K. I was faced with two options: limping in with the intent of trapping players yet to act ...continued
I have often joked that knowing what an opponent has is vastly overrated. Everyone has been in the situation of knowing that he's beat, but calling the last bet anyway. This phenomenon is so well known that it has a name - the crying call. One of ...continued
Chip Reese admires his prize money and bracelet after winning the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. The Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino can hold more than 200 poker tables, and, at any given time, houses enough players and dealers to ...continued
A H.O.R.S.E. Is, of course … hold'em (H), Omaha eight-or-better (O), razz (R), seven-card stud (S), and stud eight-or-better (E). During the 2006 World Series of Poker's inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, Card Player talked to a handful ...continued
Andy Bloch's life started in an extraordinary way - a childhood growing up in Orange, Connecticut, followed by an education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1992, with two degrees in electrical engineering, Bloch started a career ...continued
With all the hype surrounding the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at this year's World Series of Poker, it quickly became the most highly anticipated tournament of the season. Every professional poker player was chomping at the bit to compete in the ...continued
Poker players love to use the phrase "it depends." What do you do with A-K in no-limit hold'em when someone has raised in front of you? It depends. What do you do with 7-6 suited in the big blind if there has been a raise and a call? It ...continued
Confusion in the Press There seems to be some confusion in the press regarding what bill just passed in Congress. It has been reported that the "Goodlatte" bill passed in the House. Actually, what is referred to as the Goodlatte Bill, ...continued
In the summer of 2005, the state casino in my home country, the Netherlands, started a new event, the Holland Casino Poker Championships. Six qualifying events all around the country would lead to 18 finalists battling for the semiofficial title of ...continued
Team USA: (left to right standing) Phil Myers, Tom McEvoy, Michael Ebert; (seated left to right) David Smith and Joe Harwell I just returned from Barcelona, Spain, where I represented Team USA in the PokerStars.com World Cup of Poker. Players from all ...continued
Poker players love to have the nuts, so much so that they have many terms for this desirable holding. The Official Dictionary of Poker lists the following as synonyms for the nuts: the berries, the Brazilians, the Brass Brazilians, the chingaderos, a ...continued
This is the fourth in a series of columns comparing limit hold'em to no-limit hold'em. It is aimed at experienced limit players who have decided to make the switch to no-limit. In the first three columns, we covered some of the general ...continued
If you hang out in cardrooms often enough, you will eventually witness an altercation between two or more players. While playing Chinese poker at Wynn Las Vegas recently, I heard a commotion at the table next to mine. Apparently, one player had called ...continued
Poker often takes a lifetime to learn, but don't tell Nam Le that. This self-assured 25-year-old has already earned more than $2.6 million in less than three years on the tournament circuit, and in February of 2006, Le captured his first major ...continued
How good is your crystal ball? Can you see into the future? If you can't, you are going to have to make some good guesses as to what the future holds in order to make the best decisions at the poker table. No, I am not talking about sensing ...continued
The first Poker Author Challenge tournament was held at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in March. It was very successful, and will probably become an annual event. Following a book fair/book signing, the $120 buy-in open tournament took place with 218 ...continued
An interesting scenario arose for me in the $1,500 pot-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. I took down 14th place and a $21,000 payday, but I won't bore you with how the ladies (pocket queens) let me down a couple of times toward ...continued
In 2006, the governor of the state of Washington, Christine Gregoire, signed into law Senate Bill 6613, banning Internet gambling in her state. This ignited a firestorm of criticism, a lot of it coming from poker players. Part of the law states that ...continued
Depending on when this issue goes to press, there's a good chance that we will already know who our 2006 world champion is, but I'm writing this before the start of the $10,000 main event. Of course, I hope that I somehow win the whole ...continued
Big Denny was in his usual foul mood. "Hey, Maxey," he griped, "ya ever see how many of dose poker camps dey got goin' now?" "Sure," I said. "There's the World Poker Tour Boot Camp, Howard Lederer's ...continued
If someone had told me I could go 10 days without a cellphone, Internet/e-mail/online poker, or a television (TiVo, actually), I would have said it was impossible. What I recently found out was that not only could I do it, but it could be wonderful. ...continued
"I've got a song, I ain't got no melody …" I've been writing for Card Player off and on since ... well, I don't know. I'm no Linda Johnson when it comes to writing persistence and longevity, but I'm pretty sure ...continued
"Shooting an angle" is the term used when a con artist attempts a scam. Some are premeditated, whereas some are spontaneously opportunistic. Obviously, unethical angles include marking a card and using secret signals with team members. That ...continued