Poker Predictions and Resolutions for the New Year

Predictions:

World Series of Poker:

The Main Event will break a record for most Day 1D players. The World Series will not turn away any players this year but find themselves having to play 11 handed in some areas. Phil Hellmuth's entourage will be bigger.

No player will match Jeffrey Lisandro's three bracelet's in one series. In fact, only one player will win two. Phil Ivey will suffer a similar hangover as player of the year from two years ago Eric Lindgren did this year.

Doyle Brunson will not make a final table or a day two.

A woman will win a bracelet and make it to the Main Event final table.

An internet pro will go from waking up to play poker online, to waking up as the best online poker player in the world AND the best live player in the world by virtue of winning the main event. He will be young, cocky, and a tad geeky. Joe Cada won't have to worry about sharing the endorsement dollars. The young gun will be well more well known than Cada by the Pocket Fives crew but unknown to the rest of the world and Norman Chad.

Bax and Sheets will back another final table player.

Chris Moneymaker will make a final table and contend for a bracelet.

Johnny Chan will also go deep in a NL Hold 'Em Event but not win another bracelet.

Phil wins! Phil wins! Phil Hellmuth will win another bracelet and add to his impressive ITM finishes.

One of the many 1k stimulus tournaments (the first one in all likelihood) will set a record for participants if they decide not to cap the total.

A name pro will make the Main Event final table. The entire poker world will be behind him and he'll go out softly just like Phil Ivey this year.

POKER WORLD IN GENERAL

U.I.E.G.A. will be repealed, overturned, nullified, and rendered moot. Hey, no reason not be optimistic.

After the repeal a major European poker site will become a major player in the United States market. Players will time their sleeping patterns to play online poker in the softest games from around the world.

Middling players will continue to flock to Asia to play in softer games and cheaper living expenses.

Rounders2 will get off the ground. It will focus on online poker and Mike McD will have become a Phil Ivey type character that is well rounded in all games, live and online.

Two major poker magazines will merge.

A player will win two major Sunday tournaments at the same time on one Sunday. The Internet will crack in half.

Another major cheating scandal will be uncovered. Rather than online superusers it will be a team of live players who have started to play together after the economy hurt their bottom line. It will also involve floor and dealers as periphery assistants.

Major poker rooms in Las Vegas will close.

Somebody will consider a round the clock poker channel.

An upstart will win the NBC heads up championship. It won't be Tom Dwan but it will be a youngster like Jonathan Little.

More and more young players will give up the game.

Poker training sites will merge.

Greg Raymer will contemplate running for office. His Pokerstars job will keep him playing poker.

Daniel Negreanu and Eric Lindgren will win their team prop bet this year as both have successful World Series.

Phil Ivey will lose an unheard of amount of money playing craps. It will make the national news.

A current major sports star, a Michael Phelps sized star, maybe Phelps himself will go deep in a major tournament.

Manage your tournament poker structure with an App

Recently decided to invest in a mac. Was worried about where to play, and as you know, and as I've written about in the past there is one online poker site, bwin, that takes care of us. In fact, it's always taken care of us. Frankly we mac users are a little cooler than pc users, or at least that's what Mac's advertising is selling.

So when I want to play poker on a mac, I'm obviously heading over to bwin's poker platform. What do I do when I'm playing live. Well, usually I use my phone to set an alarm to configure blinds and antes for a small tournament when I play at my boys house. Now, there's an app for that.

Bwin is again, on the bleeding edge and technology savvy freaks will enjoy their iPhones even more. Got an iPhone? Well, now when somebody is complaining about a blinds and antes structure you'll be the man, large and in charge. Now the tournament director is in your pants. (Get your mind out of the gutter)

The app, like all apps for the iPhone, is available in the Apple’s iTunes App Store. iTunes, is like a superstore. This is a far better App than your Peppermint Patty wallpaper. Search for Tournament Clock. Is it hard to use you may ask? And that's fine, I'll answer that...

No, the interface is just the opposite, it's dang near intuitive (as though it can guess what you are thinking--course that would be weird because then it would be aware you are thinking--iPhone's aren't that sophisticated... yet). Let's just say it is simple and easy to use.

Features include a toggle that allows you to adjust your home tournament's blind structure and level time limits. Or just jump right in using the “Quick Mode.” This is a blessing for all of us, who have difficulty setting our phones remembering which level is next or figuring out what the average chip stack is.

There is a wide latitude of things you can do with this intuitive, excuse me simple and easy to use interface. You'll be humming along in no time, probably right after you load it and it can't be any simpler to use. Us mac users and iphone owners can attest to how easy apple makes their computing and bwin has matched that simple sophistication. The best feature is being able to expand on the tournament organization and manipulate the variable controls.

You can go as far as creating profiles of the players, yeah, your friends. Put their pictures up there and what seat they are in, and then boot them when the bust out. Obviously, bwin is capable of putting together a solid product, with over 20 million customers who bet on sports, play poker, blackjack, roulette, and play casino games they are an industry leader. They've already diversified by streaming audio and video of events you can bet on, now they are taking their online poker knowledge to your live tournament game.

High Stakes Poker New Season

There is no better poker show than High Stakes Poker. You can see many of last years episodes and my reviews deep in this blog. So, you know how excited I've been for details of the sixth season of High Stakes Poker to be released. Now they are here. There is you usual variety of online poker players and live poker players and some new dynamics at play.

The first is a bit of the female touch. The new co-host is Kara Scott, who takes over for AJ Benza. Benza tipped us off of his depature in his blog "Benza Neat" and specualtion varied about who the new female would be. Vanessa Ruosso, Annie Duke, Vanessa Selbst? No Kara Scott, the pretty lady who went deep in back to back Main Events and won Norman Chad's heart on ESPN. She'll act like a field reporter co-opting the Poker After Dark format. Odd because the Poker After Dark format should have copied the High Stakes Poker format.

One is the best show on TV. The other is video Ambien. Poker After Dark is the Ambien if you haven't picked up on the fact you out cold before the opening credits every night. Scott's duties report from the High Stakes Poker suite, interviewing poker players about poker strategy, big hands and the table dynamics. We do no think she'll be interviewing the cocktail waitresses or the dealers.

There will be a minimum cash buy-in of $200,000.

A partial list of the players who are expected to compete this season (subject to change) includes:

Patrik Antonius
David Benyamine
Doyle Brunson
Tom Dwan
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Sammy George
Barry Greenstein
Phil Hellmuth
Andreas Hoivold
Phil Ivey
Mike Matusow
Allan Meltzer
Daniel Negreanu
Dennis Phillips
Lex Veldhuis
Yevgeniy Timoshenko

News and Views

Pokerpages has gone bye-bye! Or at least it will shortly. The venerable poker tournament site is closing its doors at the end of October. Can't say I hadn't heard of such a rumor but now the cat is out of the bag so to speak.

Also, out of the bag is Cardplayer's first family the Shulmans can play some poker themselves. Editing all those strategy articles every month must have helped out as Barry and Jeff are on the precipe of accomplishing something no other poker family has done. That's win two main events.

Yes, Jeff Shulman is a November Niner and has a great chance to take down the WSOP Main Event title. His father, Barry, just won the World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event. He's a main event bracelet winner (even if you have put the European equivalent of an asterisk after it--which may be an asterisk, or it may be a short man from Gaul who beats up Romans). Doyle Brunson has done that but his son hasn't. Barry Greenstein hasn't done it and neither has his son Joe Seebok.

Also, of note was the fact that two November Niners, the french guy and the English guy, made the final table in London as well. That's crazy. The two old hobbyists already accomplished a final table this year as well. When you run good you run great.

There is some chatter that the operators of Pitbull poker tried to flee Costa Rica in the middle of the night.

Did we mention Seebok? He just signed with Ultimate Bet. At one point, there was a fear they'd be fleeing in the middle of the night too. Seebok seems to think they'll soon be on the up and up too. Hmmm. Didn't he and Greenstein say they thought Russ Hamilton was telling the truth when he spoke to them. Hmmm.

Alright, speaking of rigged, Rigged in Riga is going on still. That's a great promotion offering a chance to see Latvia.

Fun Video

Ran into this customizable video this past weekend. It's a fun way to poke fun at your friends. Especially if one of your friends is a combustible force of nature who has a tendency to get into trouble. You don't know any of those do you?

http://www.pnnbc.com/

Here's how it works poker fans. Upload a photo of your friend, submit it to the website and then send him a link asking him if he got into trouble recently. Then see if he falls for it.

Some more poker pranks:

At the World Series, borrow Doyle Brunson's scooter and do wheelies down the aisles.

If you can spare the coin, buy an iPod load it up with crap music and figure out a way to trade it with your favorite pro without him knowing. If you can follow him into the bathroom, ask him to hold your iPod while you pee and say you will return the favor. Perfect candidate for this Phil Hellmuth.

On day two of a tournament, after getting permission from the dealer to play a prank, get back early, switch your small chip bag with the player with most chips on the table and just wait for his reaction.

When not in a hand after you've already folded shove all-in. Do only at a table with a sense of humor, especially a dealer with one.

Durrrr Challenge Returns...

Yes, the much ballyhooed and initially much railbirded challenge that kind of fizzled away has returned. I'm a Mac, Patrik Antonious and I'm a PC, Tom Dwan have turned their online battle back on.

We don't know if Patrik is actually playing his poker on a mac, but he could if he played on bwin, and of the stereotypes he's definitely the cooler more hipster of the two. Dwan is kind of IBM of the online world.

To review: durrrr offered anybody in the world heads up action in PLO or NL Hold’Em. His challenge had many suitors but Patrik Antonius was the first in line. Dwan offered odds to anybody (but Phil Galfon) of 3 to 1 that he was favored over 50,000 hands. If he lost, the winner would get what he won plus 1.5 million. If he won, he’d keep what he won plus 500k.

For mac lovers, the good news is the durrrr Challenge is back and Patrik is having some success. When it schreeched to a halt Dwan upped his lead to over 700k. Some time has passed since then. In fact, the rest of the World Series of Poker came and went.

However, Dwan and Antonius aren't afraid of playing each other. In fact, it's been suggested they've been playing all along. They've just been playing in front of fewer railbirds in live play at Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio, Las Vegas. The latest edition of the challenge had quite a different result then the previous one. Antonius was wounded when Dwan reclaimed the lead and built on it. But this go round Antonius was the big winner. The 700k separation became just over 334k after it was all said and done.

The two have played almost 22,ooo hands. With 28,000 hands to play and the challenge 8 months old it doesn’t look like resolution will come any time soon. Maybe by next World Series? We can hope.

-Durrrr has won 11,620 of the hands.

-The big Swede won 9,751 of the hand

(Durrrr wins more often)

-Durrrr has been winning on average $2,529.15 per winning hand

-Patrik has been winning on average $2,979.38 per winning hand

(Patrik wins more pots)

-Patrik won the largest pot ($477,555.50)
-PCs outsell Macs

-Macs swear they are better machines

-PCs are more susceptible to viruses

-Macs get more chicks

To close to tell who will win this race... Stay tuned.

Read is Right in Live Play Foray... Decision is Wrong

I raised in middle late position with a suited ace. He called on the button. I hadn’t played many hands and he had played a good amount. He had twice the chips of me. The flop came king high with two of my suit. I put out a small blocking bet that he seemed willing to call because of the price.

I couldn’t put him on the king here. I’d expect him to defend his hand a little bit. Second pair was an 8 but I couldn’t really give him an 8. If he had two 8s in the hole (a set) doesn’t he repop a little bit here for fear of the flush draw and/or wanting to extract a little value in the hand. In his situation I will at times give the guy a card with such a hand and reevaluate if the flush hits, but hope it doesn’t and extract another bet out of him, so I couldn’t rule out him doing the same thing to me.

The turn didn’t give me a flush but paired my weaker kicker. I decided to bet out a little bit bigger here, and he flatted again. Which is a little offputting. I didn’t think my image at that table was of a two barrel bluffer. So I have to give him something. I don’t think he’s got a weaker flush draw but he might. I can’t give him top pair either.

The river is brick city, not either of my two bad kickers, any of my three aces, or any of my suit (12 outs?). I decide to check and hope that he ends the hand with a check behind me. Then he throws out a strange bet. He overbets bigger than the pot.

Now, I can’t beat top pair, I can’t beat second pair, and I can’t beat many pocket pairs, but the bet is not a value bet. Clearly he doesn’t want a call. Unfortunately, it’s enough of my stack that I don’t think I can shove over the top and have him capitulate.

Then it is clear as day to me. The man has pocket 10s. He had a strong enough hand to call a small bet post flop, I tied him to the pot a little bit that his call on the turn is half-float, half-bluff buster. Probably a fold if I third barreled, but maybe not. Now, his river bet is trying to get a king with a crappy kicker to fold, or perhaps JJ. Or the old, I don’t know where I’m at, let me bet a lot and hope I win (typical of these donkaments). I don’t give him Jacks or queens because I think he pushes back probably preflop and maybe post flop. Nines make sense too but for some reason I see 10s in my head.

I tell/ask “You got 10s”. That got a reaction. In fact, it was enough of a reaction it was possible he was faking it. Ha-ha. Damn. I stew. Okay, he would fake to indicate a stronger hand than he had. So that mean’s he’s weaker than 1010? All that he would do that with was maybe A8 (which I don’t think he calls the turn with) to try and get 9s out of the hand. Or he’s got that flush draw (which is hard to give him because I hold the same draw).

The bet was so big and other than 10s I had to include a variety of flush possibilities as his hands. The reaction threw me and I reluctantly called. He sheepishly turned over his 10s thinking he was bested. Ouch. I mucked.

Terrible, terrible call by me. It was for way too much of my stack. I should have trusted my read and given myself more credit when I called his hand. I could have gotten away from the hand and had plenty of chips to play with (my normal tournament strategy unless I have a strong read). Then the guy, really turned the screw and said he would have folded to a shove (even though I had so little left that the pot would be offering him 5 or 6 to 1).

I guess he ‘s thinking he can’t call there if he thinks I’m shoving knowing his hand. Oh well, I thought that was an interesting hand. Ironic too, because my biggest criticism of Daniel Negreanu is he calls out his opponent’s hand and still calls with a loser. Me too, apparently.

Obviously, after that hand I searched out the roulette table, as I often do. I play online roulette frequently but there is a difference from when I play roulette online and when I play live. Online roulette is a nice little action rush and then I move on to everything else I'm doing that day. Live sometimes can be too much of a get-even charge. Good thing I got even. No chance, I'll think the ball landed on red and it really landed on black. Sometimes I really like roulette.

Gus Hansen's Downswing.

Can you say Tilt? Can you say the woes of variance? Puggy Pearson has a great quote (found here with others):

“The real things to know is that folks will stand to lose more than they will to win. That’s the most important percentage there is. I mean, if they lose, they’re willin’ to lose everything. If they win, they’re usually satisfied to win enough to pay for dinner and a show. The best gamblers know that.”

Sounds like Gus Hansen is dealing with just one of those swings. The high stakes pro who just earlier this year was crushing the games is discovering just how painful variance can be. Tom Dwan was able to regroup and regather after some brutal soul searching. Can Gus Hansen do the same? It's ironic that just this week Daniel Negreanu when discussing the Poker Hall of Fame talked about Dwan's credentials.

Negreanu mentioned being a great young player winning everything and then struggling to become a young player who couldn't win anything. He said Dwan still has to endure that, pull himself up by bootstraps and rebuild himself as a player. Maybe Negreanu wasn't following the trials and tribulations of Durrrrr who went on a streak almost as bad as Hansen's. And Dwan seemed to rise from the ashes.

The question is can Hansen. Perhaps no other player has struggled so quickly and for so much as Gus Hansen. Right now he is down 5 million. Like the gambler in Pearson's quote how far will Hansen let this downswing take him? Until he loses it all? Will he be satisfied with winning anything?

Poker is a brutal game even for the pros that play the highest stakes. David Benyamine was recently noted for his downswings and now he's back winning again. Hansen has a couple of role models, who like himself, had the talent to survive their rough patches and hand on. We hope Hansen can do the same.

ChampionChip From Sunday

The ChampionChip contest at bwin poker had another stellar field. Over 1300 players logged on to play for the prize pool. As usual it was an appetizing desert that awaited the final table. A ChampionChip cookie if you will. Don't know if the winner celebrated Indy 500 still with a glass of milk, but I'd have to imagine I would. ChampionChip cookies aren't easy to make.

Step one make it past 1297 players into the final table. The oven is blazing but once you can get to the final table the sweet aroma of the ChampionChip wafts into your nostrils and your mouth waters. USD4ME entered as the chip leader doing the most salivating. He had 627k in chips in seat 6.

On either side of him, Bummmr_ in 5 with almost 400k in chips and MOUSTAFA74 in 7 with a little over 311k in chips. Second place in chips was maverikk21 with 530k all the way over in seat 1. ELFoff in seat 4 with 423k was the next biggest. Seat 8's MOUUUUUU was the shorty with 81k. He wasn't the only one looking a long way up as bulrik had 129k (seat 2), Tigerlillybaby 274k (seat 9) and weedooo just short of 300k(seat 10).

If the final table was the oven part of baking the cookies, the final five was the cooling off part. If you think you can taste the ChampionChip cookie while it's in the oven, when you can get to the final 5 it's all you can do to stop yourself from getting too crazy trying to get it. Taste it? You are practically digesting it.

In seat 1 maverikk21 accumalated 671k but lost his hold on second place. In seat 5: Bummmr_ basically maintained with a little over 350k, while the chipleader increased his large stack and held on to his lead as USD4ME moved up to almost 1 million in chips. Seat 7's MOUSTAFA74 was nipping at his heels with 783k. Finally weedooo in seat 10 chipped up just a bit to 451k.

The chipleader did get a little crazy with the cookies cooling as USD4ME busted in third place. he would soothe himself with 20k. MOUSTAFA74 and USD4Me both flopped the top pair . Only problem for USD4ME was he was outkicked.

In heads up play the cookies are ready to eat. There just a plate in the middle and it's going to go to the eater of the player who takes it first. MOUSTAFA74 had quite the head start with over 2 million in chips and weedooo's 543k couldn't make up the difference.

The ChampionChip went to MOUSTAFA74 and we don't know if he downed a glass of milk with his $48k or not. weedooo had to make do with 31k. While we don't know if any of the players were playing on mac, we do know they could have been as bwin is mac friendly.

WPT for sale?

I'll get you part two of that Pokernews series, soon as I youtube it. In the meantime a little news brief. It looks like one of my favorite sites is thinking about joining the fray and expanding the brand a little bit. Every few weeks there is a new suitor for the WPT, but this one looks like it has legs. Bwin, the popular European online casino, to buy?

What I read places WPT CEO Steven Lipscomb in Gibraltar. That's an English piece of land at the southern tip of Spain. Yeah, it's weird but anyway that's kind of Europe's Costa Rica for casino online sites and that is close to all kinds of European players.

Soon, as the U.I.E.G.A. gets put down you're going to find out a lot about these European sites as the market will be full with competition. Which is a great thing. Anybody wanting to play online casino will have some regulated options. One site in particular might come in a little more well known than others and that's bwin if they buy the WPT.

The WPT story is an interesting business legacy. At first their stock IPO'd at $8 a share. They, though some Brits dispute it, were the first to offer pockt cams, and poker on TV suddenly became worth watching. The travel channel had a new show, that had little to do with traveling, though they gave some lip service to it early on, and the WPT took off.

Well, imitation being flattery and all, isn't entirely true, because soon the poker shows flooded the dial. The WPT was just one of many and ratings suffered, so did the stock price. Also, the WPT perhaps managed itself a little carelessly as a circuit and forgot about the bottom line.

Recently it was reported that Lipscomb had cleverly secured a piece of any sale made this year. So, buyers might know the clock is running out and their is a motivated seller. Bwin, isn't afraid of taking risks, offering a play casino online, and is probably one of a few playing chicken. The two organizations are old friends with Bwin doing online satellites for the WPT Venice stop.

It would be great for bwin to inject some life into the flailing WPT. Let's hope so.

Part III

The Moneymaker effect is profiled in Pokernews third installment of the history of the World Series of Poker. Mike Sexton and Gavin Smith recognize the moneymaker effect even if the term still feels foreign to Chris himself.

Chris's story, is a fairy tale that couldn't have been scripted. Playing heads up against the ultra-smooth Sammy Farha, the picture of a regal professional gambler, a shark in a nice suit, and Chris is anything but intimidated. He knocked off Phil Ivey on his way to the final table and his run basically ignited the poker boom in the United States.

Maybe Joe Hachem in Australia can empathize a little bit, but Chris' story is a global one. He's as much a Cinderella as any underdog in sports and certainly the biggest in World Series of Poker history. To his credit despite his success he seems to be a first class guy even with the burden of expectations weighted on his shoulders.

His journey from everyman to The Man, is mirrored by the explosion of a niche game into a global past time. A qualifier through a poker website, online poker has Chris to thank for billions of dollars earned. The top youngsters in the game all cite Moneymaker as one of their influences in picking up the game, and online qualifiers represent everybody's dream. His poker school was the main event and his bluff on Farha has gone down as one of the biggest of all time.

Doyle Brunson delivers some insight that might be a little surprising, same with Amarillo Slim, who outright admits he "resents" what poker has become in particular the online game. Brunson who padded his wallet in side games laments only their disappearance as the tournaments have taken over the game.

It's a far cry from a gambling conference that the World Series got its start as. Even though Phil Hellmuth closes talking about the game like it's still a reunion, these days it's anything but, rather the game has become unbridled growth.

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

The WSOP this year has had a celebrity element to it. Not the Matt Damon/Ed Norton photo op appearance after the release of Rounders (your DVD probably has that covered) but a saturation and merging of celebrity with a fondness for poker and the pseudo-celebrities that poker players are. The bad thing is, both are beating the other at their own games.

Phil Hellmuth has defined making a spectacle of himself. His entrance was more over the top than any before it. Remember when a Hellmuth late main event entrance was when he'd awkwardly climb over some ropes at Binions and squeeze into a seat at that dump. Now, he's regaled as Caesar with an entourage bigger then the bubble at some WSOP circuit events this year.

Meanwhile, the celebrities are dipping their toes into the Main Event pool, yet, nobody cares, there is no extra media attention. Maybe if they won it, but so far the media coverage is mostly the poker media, and I include Andrew Feldman of ESPN.com as poker media. George Costanza is going deep in the Main Event? Didn't see that on CNN or on the cover of the magazines by the counter at the grocery store.

So, besides the fun of it, why are celebrities participating if they aren't making a spectacle of it. For most of them, whether they won't to admit it or not, it's all about getting into the next tabloid. Remember when Spiderman tried to play in abstract anonymity (okay, I'll grant him that by not using his real name) yet everybody could tell Peter Parker was in the field. Was that because he took poker seriously?

Now, the yahoos who we didn't watch on Bravo's Celebrity Poker are going deep in the Main Event. What happened to Jason Alexander he went from being astounded his pocket aces got cracked (like that never happens) one year, to sitting on a mammoth chip stack for part of this year.

The awful dreck that is "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" which tried to capitalize on the ratings of Celebrity Apprentice, which were attributable to Annie Duke's war of words and wills with Joan Rivers, sent multiple players to the Main Event. Torrie Wilson, John Salley, Lou Diamond Phillips, were obscure before NBC decided to low budget another reality TV show, and their performances at the Main Event seems to bump their celebrity quotients just as minorly as sharing a camp with two Baldwins, three Pratts, and super model that steals granola bars in Costa Rica.

Okay, the b list stars and the stars of poker, who at best are b-list themselves, treat each other with reverence and both groups feel like somebody when recognized by somebody equally as mediocre in public stature. Notice when the big stars play it's like they hide from the camera.

There are several top online pros that nobody knows who they are. Maybe it isn't super users in covert mode but big time A list stars like Clooney and Pitt who don't want the Q rating to go down by being associated with poker. Wonder if they sit around at home and play mac poker. Are they tethered to an online feed like all those 18 and 20 year old future stars in their parents basements. Maybe Lou Diamond Phillips who is on the money bubble right now was right there with them. Perhaps he can play himself in Oceans 111 if he wins the main event.

Poker Island Promotion

Therre is a an old question if you could have any two items on a deserted island what would they be?

Some poker players could probably manage with a solar laptop with internet connection and unlimited food. If the island wasn't entirely deserted it might even be a paradise on earth.

Now, some poker players are trying out that answer. Luckily for them, the island isn't deserted, they have an internet connection, and they have all the food they can eat. Plus, accommodations aren't a Gilligan's Island style hut it's a luxury villa. Then throw in cards, chips, and live opponents and you have to wonder why anyone would ever leave this paradise.

One of my favorite promotions in online poker, the bwin Poker Island is happening right now and players are getting that type of an experience of a lifetime. This isn't an episode of Gilligan's Island, where everybody wonders why the Professor can't just build a boat if he can build a coconut radio and bamboo TV, any Professor on this island will be more Howard Lederer than comic straight man.

Poker island sounds like dream but it is a reality. What's at stake for these poker players? Just an oportunity to win a huge prize package to next year’s Aussie millions. Even better as Melbourne, the host of the Aussie Millions, is another paradise on the other side of the world. Can you imagine if they had a perverse sense of humor and offered a prize package to Tunica, Mississippi? The cliche the journey is better than the destination would never have been truer.

On Poker Island players from around the world will be playing in around the clock poker games. If it sounds like a made for TV special, it kind of is, Survivor meets the World Series of Poker. All the drama will take place June 15th to July 14th on poker island.

No need to take a three hour tour under the incapable hand of a skipper to crash in the island. No, all it takes to get to this poker island is to win a couple of online poker tournaments. The best part is the first step in the ladder can be won for free. Doesn't matter the size of your bankroll as freerolls give anybody with a bwin account an opportunity to win.

Unfortunately, this years qualifers are over, (www.bwin.com/pokerisland) completed June 23rd, but now all the winners are on the ilsand settling who will be this year’s king of the island and Aussie Millions prize package champion. Each week a weekly champion is crowned and qualifies for the grand final. The grand final takes place July 14th and pits each of the weekly champions verse one another. The champion of the grand final wins a VIP Package for the “Aussie Millions 2010” poker tournament in Australia worth $25,000. To get a better idea of what's going on at poker’s paradise island visit www.pokerisland.tv right now.

New Poker Interface

Bwin's online poker site just released an upgraded poker software with a ton of new features. They are significant upgrades which make the interface easier to use and navigate and are already earning rave reviews.

They include:

Tables and functions you can resize - Now you can conviently multi-table with tables the size of your interest. Playing different buy-ins when you play online poker? Make the bigger buy-ins bigger size do you can make decision easier in regards to your bankroll.

You can also control three separate fields of table information. Chat, the virtual table, and promotions each have resizable fields of their own, so you can set up your table exactly as you like it.

The Lobbies have more table and tournament information - No longer do you have to go to each specific table when you want to play online poker to find out the table information. You can browse all the tables at once from the main lobby. Compare one to another and make your best game selection.

Also, there are filters on the poker lobbies that you can preset to your liking. In the respective tournament lobbies their are excellent up to the moment bits about ranking, add on and rebuy information, real time table information, all in one place.

As always there is a Mac Version - We've touted bwin's Downloadable Mac client in the past, and the new Mac online poker version has everything the window's version does so even Apple heads can sit down and play poker online.

The playing experience has already been topnotch at bwin but these new features will make it even easier. Some of them are exactly what players have been asking for, but most go one step beyond. Definitely some cool, user friendly upgrades, and tweaks in all the right places.

PokerNews Video about the history of the WSOP

Pokernews does an excellent story on the history of the World Series of Poker's origin. Although, there is still an air of mystery or a gloss of history over many of the early events the birth of how people first began to play poker tournaments. The first aspect that's weird is they never mention the name of the man that used to host the gambling convention that preceeded the WSOP. Doyle said they (the Binions) asked if they could steal the idea and the "man" in Reno said they could. He was done with hosting it. I guess technically you could say the WSOP is older than 40 years old OR if you just measure it based on the history of hosting poker tournaments less than 40 years old.

The next year, they played poker for three days and voted the best overall player. Depending on which source you listen to it was either a unanimous vote for Johnny Moss, or a unanimous vote (of Moss being the second best player with each voter voting themselves best player). Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson almost make it sound like at the time, Moss was a bit of a fish, and the title of best player was granted just to keep Moss coming back. Doyle gives the man credit where is due saying Moss was the best No Limit player he's ever seen, but if you read between the lines Moss wasn't the same player at the beginning of the WSOP. Interesting.

Another aspect of the history that is still not 100% clear is the tentative acceptance that Amarillo Slim was the first to suggest the freeze out poker tournament. Ironically, because he's most whistful about the old times, and the state of the game he played a huge role in creating. Without freezeouts or tournaments there is no Moneymaker explosion, no poker explosion, and no giant WSOP in the sprawling RIO convention center.

This is an enjoyable video, even if I've covered most of its contents in the body of this text. It gives a better insight to the forgotten history of this game. Now poker is fueled by online poker tournaments. In fact, most of the Main Event and THE World Championship of poker is created by online poker tournament satellite winners. In fact, the easiest way for World Series hopefuls to get there is to play poker tournament online.

Surely, the future episodes of this series will cover the transition from live players to online players. And the changing dynamics of the game of poker.

Durrrr Challenge Update

Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius shocked online poker railbirds by getting together to continue the challenge. Not much changed. Actually Antonius padded his lead a little bit and perhaps more important chewed out another 874 hands. The Swede now leads the youngster by $447,684. If you factor in the odds of the bet, where Dwan is on the hook for 1.5 million if he is bested, right now Tom is looking at an almost 2 million dollar deficit to the Nordic one.

Thought things were going to slow down during the world series? So did we. Antonius thought better of dropping 40k into the big event, and Dwan thought nothing of it, and promptly was one of the first players out. Thus, the two had some time on their hands.

The Durrrr challenge is schedule for 50,000 hands. If Antonius is up even 1 cent over that span he wins 1.5 million from Durrr plus whatever he wins (see first paragraph). If Durrrr wins, he keeps his winnings plus 500,000. Things aren't looking so good for Durrrr as the challenge is now over 15,000 hands old. Meaning while there is still a lot of time to go, if Patrik keeps incrementally increasing his lead he may get too far ahead.

Due to the multi-tabling nature of the challenge, play is either PLO or No Limit Hold 'Em sometimes two big pots can happen at once. On one screen, Durrrr raised$1,200. Antonius reraised to $3,600 and Durrrr called. Antonius clicked bet $6,000 after the flop and Durrrr called. On the turn, the big guy checked and Dwan bet $19,200. After a moment, Antonius went over the top moving all in for over 52k. Dwan called. The river paired the board and Dwan took down the pot with aces up.

At the exact same time on a different screen. Antonius was busy opening for $1,200 and Dwan three-bet. Antonius four bet it, and Dwan five bet it to $32,400. Antonius called. Dwan moved all in on the flop for his remaining $28,800 and Antonius called. After the river, and seconds after scooping the other pot, Dwan won another huge pot.

More amazingly Dwan also won the biggest pot of the session. Yet, he still gave up ground. Has to be frustrating for the youngster. Only seconds after hauling in that last six-figure pot, he dragged another, worth 122.5k.

WSOP NOTES FROM EARLY 09

The 40th annual World Series of Poker is upon us.

Wait, did you come here for the latest High Stakes Poker update? Seems we feel into a bit of a lazy rut, just updating the episodes. That being said, we will get the 13th and final episode of the season up soon. However, in the meantime we should turn our attention to the WSOP

Players from all over the real and online world have congregated in Vegas and the online players will discover they got more chips than normal to play with. Sure, most of our ilk are fumbling the chips anyway, although if there were a prize for doing trips with your mouse or artistic points for tossing a laptop in the pool we'd win those for sure.

However the ratio of chips to buy-in has once again increased. It started at 1-1. Then doubled to 2-1 in '07 and this year it is 3-1. That means the players in the 40k special tournament got 120,000 in chips to start with. Course the blinds and antes didn't start at the same place. Do they really think we are that stupid. Pollack in the USA Today spins it saying they did it to "create more play and more value for everyone... You have a bigger gas tank, if you will." Who's buying this? Is anybody?

Effel, in the article, credited his wife with the idea for the 40k buy-in. Which will create a "final table for the ages" though many of the TV names are already eliminated except for Chris Moneymaker. Which would be a HUGE story but does anyone really expect him to final table this? If you do, bet it because you can get great odds, even now, with him second in chips and only 88 players left. For more on the 40k event go here.

The Binion Cup is another idea created to celebrate the history of the World Series. They are going to give the winner of the event a vintage 1970 Corvette, a trophy named the Binion Cup, and bragging rights. No, prize money.

If poker players had any balls or since of solidarity, these champions would make an example of themselves and get a piece of the TV money ESPN feeds to Binions. They should sit out and ask for a small prize pool to be added to the event. Most of the old champions are just that old, and probably could care less about a vintage Corvette. It'll be more a hassle selling it for them.

Not to get off on a rant here but it looks like I already have. Harrahs has a tidy deal with ESPN, yet the players still pay admin fees and have to tip out the dealers. The only way the casinos are going to give players a piece of the pie is if the biggest players make a stand. The Champion Cup is made for TV. Stage a sit out and don't give Harrahs or ESPN their made for TV event. They might stop squeezing the players so much if the biggest players make a stand.

It could only happen at an event like this, because right now the casinos know in any other event if Phil Ivy, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth don't show they'll still have a 1000 other players in search of a bracelet.

High Stakes Poker Episode 11

Once again here's a helping of High Stakes Poker. You'll notice it isn't the entire episode rather than make you search for the rest of them on Youtube. I'll post some more. Aren't I nice.



In this episode Phil Laak takes a lot of grief from the other players and himself. He overshoves AA and gets no value for his hand at all. Hmmm, you see kids pull that move in a casino and get called by an old dude but didn't work for Laak this time.



Doyle Brunson turned a set of aces into a double up, despite having to withstand a flush draw twice. The board didn't help as it brought a Q on the turn giving his opponent an open ended straight draw with additional outs both times. However, this show seemed to be the one where they run it twice and the best hand usually winning twice. The only guy not to win was Dwan, surprisingly.



This has been a interesting season on High Stakes. I would be interested to see these guys mix it up in game selection a little bit. Maybe some volatile omaha action. Doyle would probably love it if these High Stakes games were mixed games most. Though Durrrr would have no problem with Omaha, as he plays a ton of online omaha poker maybe with Razz but not Omaha.

As the season is wrapping up here's a dream team type lineup.

Dwan... his performances this year mandates it.
Hellmuth... his blow-ups mandate it.
Jaime Gold... if he can rehab his bankroll to afford to play.
Mike the Mouth... pure entertainment especially if he's running bad.
Phil Laak... but not his sidekick the magician. Though Laak's been so subdued of late, he's probably not realizing his lack of antics is squarely outing him for the nit he is.
Andy Beal... Don't know who he is? You should.
Dario Mineri... His scarf and pipsqueak voice is funny.
Annie Duke... We need a lady and Jennifer Harman is too quiet. Annie is not.
Two wild fishes to round out the rest.

High Stakes Poker Episode 11

Another week, another episode of high stakes poker action. Got to write about more, I suspect. Otherwise I should change the name of this blog to High Stakes Poker Recap.

In big news, the WSOP Circuit Event returns to the birthplace of Poker, New Orleans, and because of a generous structure players have flocked to the event. After some dissapointments for turnouts in recent regional turnouts this was a great sign.

Annie Duke came in second in Celebrity Apprentice. A show that has been doing gangbuster ratings because of Duke's rivalry with Joan Rivers. One highlight was Trump slowrolling Annie Duke.

Okay, now to the High Stakes action. Dario Manieri joined Tom Dwan as a young gun driving the action with any two cards. Quite the contrast sitting right next to Doyle Brunson. Each had their trademark flair, Doyle's hat and Dario's scarf.

Phil Laak tightens up and complains about the Mountain Bike he could have bought with what he lost in the pot. Elie Elezra gets some money back for the old guard taking a number of pots from Dwan and Dario through out the episode.

Magically, the magician Antonio Esfandiari does a disappearing act and isn't attached to Laak's hip. There were three players David Pleat, Baxter, and Meltzer (a record executive whose play has taken some flack) that have not been seen on television in a poker session previously. They didn't add too much, except for Pleat's needling of Laak's tight play and Meltzer critique of his success rate.

Enjoy the episode as two of the better online poker pros discover the old guys can play a bit too. This week I won't give away all the action in the recap--why watch in that case right?

High Stakes Poker

High Stakes Poker was back. The action was kind of boring. Not terrible but kind of boring. It was the tenth episode of this season. The players staring at each other after glancing at their cards included: The Professor; Howard Lederer, Kid Poker; Daniel Negreanu, Salty Joe; Joe Hachem, The Unabomber; Phil Laak, The Magician; Antonio Esfandiari, The Director; Nick Cassavetes, DURRRR; Tom Dwan, and the Swedish Bombshell; Patrik Anotnius.

As per usual, the blinds were $400/$800 with $200 antes. The players were still playing the winner had to show one card.

The first two pots were exchanges between Salty Joe and Antonius. Hachem took the first with middle pair and Antonius threw away bottom pair. In the next hand, Antonius got his chips back pushing Hachem off a hand.

Antonio Esfandiari and Patrik Antonius mixed it up next. Esfandiari limped with 9-9. Antonius raised to $4,800. The big Swede was sitting on suited A-J of clubs. The Magician after a little thought called.

The flop was very favorable to the former tennis player Antonius. A-6-10 with two clubs. Top pair with the nut flush draw elicited a bet from Patrik after Esfandiari checked. BTW, sidenote, how confusing would this action be if we refered to them as Antonio as Antonius.

After a nonthreatening turn card, the lowly the 5 of hearts, it again went check bet (19,000), call. The river was the Ace of spades which was a bit of trouble card for Esfandiari. It made it less likely that Antonius had an ace. He did though. Esfandiari checked yet again, Antonius bet $41,000, and Esfandiari folded.

In the next hand, holding absolutely nothing Nick Cassavetes had a moment of bad timing as he bluffed at Dwan. Perhaps it would have worked if the community cards weren't A-3-Q-Q-A and Dwan didn't hold an A. The full house of Dwan fired back and the Director folded.

Negreanu's bad luck in the television series continued. He had to fold his pair of aces on the river to Dwan's rivered straight. Phil Laak was the next to fall to Dwan's run of luck as Dwan made a full house, and Laak called him with a flush.

In the next hand, Negreanu fell to Laak when the Unabomber's two pair bested Negreanu's KJ (with a king on board). Hachem rode sidecar in the hand to see the flop with 4-4.

Negreanu's next hand again was a loser to Dwan. In a multi-way pot Negreanu held A8 of hearts. Flop was AQ2. Dwan of course held AQ. Dwan bet the flop and Kid Poker called. The turn was a brick. Dwan led out. Negreanu raised $50,000 on top and Dwan called. The river went check-check. And Dwan dragged Negreanu's chips again in the over 220k pot.

The episode ended with somebody finally beating Dwan in a pot. Dwan held J-J. Antonius a lowly 10-6. Dwan raised preflop, Esfandiari called, and Antonius re-raised. Dwan called, Esfandiari folded.

Flop came A high and Antonius c-bet. Dwan called. Turn brought a king and Antonius fired out a large bet, Dwan stewed and folded. When Antonius turned over the 6 as his one card he had to show, Dwan fumed, knowing he had been bluffed.

Next week looks like a lot of fun as Dario Minieri, online Texas Hold'em prodigy in a scarf of course, joins the action. Looks like Eli Elezra taks a couple of pots of the seemingly unbeatable Dwan too.

Another advantage of Online vs. Live

In live play, there are a lot of gray areas that require floor people to make decisions and as a result a lot of times those decisions are not consistent. That can be frustrated. I've played where a floorperson ruled against me and later after a shift change the exact same situation occured except in reverse and a new floor person ruled the otherway. Completely contradicting the initial ruling.

I forget the action specifically but I remember the first floor person's ruling affected my decision and I acted in deference to it. You could say, I got double whammied. In online play, there are no shift changes or multiple rulings or reversals the law.

The are also no options for exploitation by running angles. The players shadiness is reigned in because of it. I read an interesting story from Minnesota about softball of all things, but it makes a great parallel to one of the weakneses of live poker and rulings by the floor compared to online poker tournaments.

Essentially, one team beat the other team by a walk-off homerun, however on the way to the plate the winning run, the girl who hit the homerun high fived her teammates. This is illegal because she touched another teamate before scoring. The angle-shooting manager brought his rule-book to the plate and bitched his way into having the run denied by showing a section where it said the play was illegal.

The umpire saw it was written that way, confered with his team and disallowed the play. On the face of it, good prevailed because the manager showed it was an illegal play (though bitching about that is as bush league as it gets... actually, no, because this gets worse).

What the umpire didn't read, and the manager didn't show him, was the caveat in a subequent section, where in the case of A HOMERUN a warning is given and the run is not taken away. So, the other team, with the angle shooting manager wins the game in extra innings, wrongfully.

The parallel to us who play poker tournaments is simple. Some players have a little more clout than others. Some know the game well and dealers might defer to their decisions. I've been in a situation where the floor defers to their decision (wrongfully) and the players take advantage of this.

In one live poker tournament a player declared a misdeal, despite action being completed by 7 people (all folds) and induced the button and small blind to discard when I sat in the big blind with what turned out to be rockets. The dealer disagreed and then agreed because of who the player was.

The floor did the same. I did not think to go over the floor's head to the tournament director who would have called it correctly. Truth is the guy was partially right, and when I started to debate it with him, got the two players in between us to fold because he was certain he was right. This was a pivitol hand.

None of this would have transpired when you play poker tournament online. First off, the dealer wouldn't have exposed a card (which he didn't the angle shooter did) and there'd be no debate. There are no misdeals nor debates about hands. How vociferously I debated also would indicate the strength of my holding. Which I didn't want to do.

High Stakes Poker...

An interesting episode. Most of the poker was lost in the chatter of Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak trying to drum up prop bets. Though Esfandiari who is known for his pushups bets probably hurt "business" by doing more than the minimum. He made it pretty obvious he could do at least 50 pushups. He did 47 and stopped. So next time he's offering odds anybody that's seen the show will have a hard time biting at anything less then 50.

Director Nick Cassavetes was on the hook for $1,000. He bet that Antonio couldn't do a mere 35 pushups. Seemed like Antonio might have had a couple of other fishes on the line but they just couldn't seem to bite quick enough for the other players to take their timeout from the poker.

Partik Antonius was the primary internet poker player on the show and he didn't get too involved in too many hands.

The ones he did, in this episode at least he lost. Against, Daniel Negreanu he called DN's preflop raise with A10 off suit. Daniel had led out with his favorite type of hand 5s6s. Flop came 438 with one spade. DN led again with his open ended draw and Patrik called with his overcards.

An Ace of Spades hit, and now Daniel was open-ended with a flush draw, but it was Patrik with the best hand. Daniel bet out again. Patrick called. River was a 4 of spades. Daniel made his flush, but checked maybe wary of a boat (or with his luck on High Stakes four of kind). Patrik bet his top pair and Daniel flatted for the win.

Later they clashed again with Daniel holding KJ and Patrik 77. The flop came J2J. DN checked raised Patrik and Patrik called. Turn brough an A and DN checked called Patrik's second bullet. The river went check-check.

What's maybe more interesting in the play is how Daniel, I've noticed, doesn't go to his bag of tricks against the other pros as much. Sure, his reading skills are less useful against those guys, but he's at his best chatting during a hand. In High Stakes, he checks his big hand like he's got a big hand. It's almost like these guys get so wrapped up in the meta head games they've don't monitor the information they are giving out and their opponents are too.

Patrik is mister stoic, so perhaps experience has taught Daniel he can't get much a read on him... but I think his game suffers when he doesn't try. Sure he won both pots but maybe he could have won more.

Latest High Stakes

Team Poker

I heard that Chip Reese was an investor away from creating a poker league. Many of his ideas were very similar to the format rolled out by Dream Team Poker. The dream team, is your team, so I hope you got big time friends. The concept of team poker is good one. Big time pros got behind the idea as they didn't turn their nose up at the small buy-in for the event and a ton of them graced Caeser's in Las Vegas with their presence.

The results from the event where teams featuring Justin Bononomo and Jaime Gold have won the last two show skill is still important even in a team format. The fact that those two players have shady clouds hanging over their pasts maybe shouldn't be ignored either.

Dream Team poker works likes this, there are a ton of three man teams competing against one another in a poker tournament. Also, at stake are individual prizes as well as the team prizes. So, if somebody snaps you off and you are left cuddling felt, and as a team player you still got a chance to win some money.

The concept is a good one. Not only because it's a nice tweak on poker but it also shows a side of poker that's not in full view. In fact, it takes something from the shadows and puts the spotlight on it. Everyday non-team poker events have a lot of team poker characteristics. A ton of players trade percentages of one another in every tournament they play. Yet, nobody knows who has a chunk of who. Wouldn't it be nice if they just wore jerseys? Well, here they do. Course that wouldn't stop teams from teaming up with another. Though you can only divvy a pie so many ways.

Dream Team Poker gives the poker player that grew up in a team sport childhood a chance to not be the solitary card player and actual participate in a team atomosphere. That's great because even though many people have a shoulder to cry on over a bad beat they don't have any team-mates. It'd be nice to see the online sites experiment with this thought a little bit as they'd be able to manage a team tournament with ease and could even expand on it.

Why stop at three teammates. Why not five or seven or ten. Course, some online players might later regret informing the site, the network of ip addresses that form their team if those addresses every collude. But exposing cheating is always good for the game. Hopefully some internet poker site will make this available for all to play.

Online Legal Update

A while ago, Anurag Dikshit, former founder and executive at PartyGaming made a deal with the US government so he could set foot in the country again. I believe he paid a few hundred million. He paid a price that was a bit too steep. As PartyGaming just settled, settled exactly what is a good question, for considerably less than that. What was the purpose as PartyGaming is off in another hemisphere making bank with the rest of the world as runners.

Apparently, they are paying the government for that small window that the UIEGA was passed and they were still operating in the U.S. They aren't paying to come back. At least right now. The thinking seems to be, they are playing for a longterm foothold and paying the U.S. essentially to do it. As opposed to the sites that are busy soliciting U.S. business, PartyGaming is cozying up with the U.S. and when the doors are opened they are going to blast through. Perhaps, you could call it currying favor.

What benefits they'd get over Doyle's Room, Pokerstars, or FullTilt is anybody's guess. If the doors are opened and things are overturned, or never turned over in the first place, why would the government stop or hinder the other businesses and what possible preferential treament could PartyGaming get.

Speaking of FullTilt, despite the rumor that the Cyclona Gowen vs Full Tilt Poker Lawsuit was dismissed it's still going full... tilt. Gowen who sued Full Tilt and just about anybody who's ever wore a Full Tilt lid is trying to move the case to the next stage. They want to further the discovery process and get some depositions. Full Tilt meanwhile has been a little more even keeled about things. They have a motion to dismiss the case and are looking forward to the hearing on April 27th to discuss just that.

Course U.S. online poker isn't the only online poker and party poker isn't the only non-U.S. game in town. There are plenty of sites with a whole lot to offer.

Hedge to Win

I checked out one of my favorite poker and sports blogs today, here, and the hedge concept was discussed. This one applied less to hedging in poker and more about sports betting hedging. The author has been gambling on the NCAAAs by filling out a ton of brackets. Apparently he picked the Tar Heels to win and did well enough in his other brackets to have a chance to win some cash.

The only problem is, the way the rankings work. If UNC loses, he wins nothing. Yet, if he hedges he can guarantee a win regardless of whether or not UNC wins. Let's break down the math.

Hypothetically the author to win $1,100 if UNC wins the game. We'll call that outcome A. If they lose he wins nothing. We call that outcome B. Let’s assume he’s risked say $100 to have this opportunity. So technically, if they lose he actually loses his $100 and his profit if they win is only $1000.

Thus: A = $1000. B = -$100.

Can he hedge to make this better for him?

Yes, if he bets michigan state for anything over $100 he guarantees he'll win. Let's say he bets Michigan State to win outright and wagers $101. Now outcome A is lessened but outcome B is increased.

Thus: A = $899. B= $1.

You can see why it might make sense to guarantee himself at least a free roll, although reducing his profit margin if UNC does win.

On top of that North Carolina is big favorite in the game--which actually makes his hedge potentially even more lucrative. Why hedge if you team is a big favorite? The point spread is 7.5 which is a big line for college basketball and that creates a large win zone for the player.
Now there are three outcomes if he bets Michigan State, because he can still win if they don't win outright.

Let's say he bets $250 because he wants to win a little more money. In outcome A, UNC wins and covers the 7.5 points. Thus, he wins $750 (and cost himself $250 by hedging). However, if Michigan State wins outright the player now wins $250 for a profit of $150 for outcome B. However, if UNC wins but MSU covers and loses by a margin of 1 to 7 points there is an even more profit margin with the player winning $1000 for UNC winning and $250 for UNC covering.

Thus: A = $750, B = $150, and C = $1250.

Now there is even more reason for the player to hedge.

The hedge is a good play. Incidentally, as the blogger points out online gamblers should consider betting on the Heels for no other reason than the fact they too are gamblers. Read Sports Illustrated’s article here.

To understand how this applies to poker read bet and win's take. Hedging scenarios are difficult to spot in poker, but for the reasons they are profitable in sports gambling above they can be really proftiable in poker too. Look for them, and exploit them.

Strike Fear in the Heart of Your Opponent!

My friend the PokerBat suscribes to one theory about poker. It's simple. The BETTOR BUSINESS BUREAU of Poker as he calls it. The BBB. Or... more simply: Bet, Bet, Bet.

Agression is king in poker. And the best business in poker is being the aggressor.

The only thing scarier than being bet into time and again is being called down time and again when you are bluffing. Don't worry, you'll learn to see the determined glean in the eye of your opponent who has had enough and know when to check the next time.

You want to strike fear into the heart of your opponent let your chips be your weapon. You want to be the most feared guy on the table, three bet your (preferably) tight opponent three times in a row. He ain't entering the pot unless he's got a hand, and you got control.

All agression in poker should be calculated and carefully rendered but like in a prize fight it should be delivered time after time. Your bets should be a jab, jab, jab until you've set him up for the knock out punch.

It's easy to simply call or to throw out one raise but not a second. However, you have to be willing to die to be able to live as Amir Vaheidi once said. It's the truth. Over time the most successful poker players are some of the most aggressive. Even the tight players are aggressive. They got a hand they bet, bet, bet.

It's good business, the BBB.

Stu Unger was a Vegas legend because of his unmitigated agression. Tom Dwan is seeking to become one because of it. Put either of those two guys on a hand at your own peril.

Being unpredictable and thought of as a player who is just gambling is a great way to play this game. You'll get called by weak hands. Strong hands will push back too much and you can get away from a losing holding.

Don't forget though to be unrelenting. Wear down you opponent and think of your bets as punches winding him ever so slightly but long run you will break him.

Drunk Maniacs online...

How do you avoid/exploit them?

In online play, they are simply maniacs. You can't see them to know if they are a drunk. So a maniac is a maniac.

Now you may suspect them to be a drunkard if they are mangling the chat box feature or exhibit extreme inconsistency. Problem is they could be tilting. Or they speak a different language. Or a cat could be walking across their wireless keyboard. No sure way to know they are drunk, inebriated or on something but it can be helpful to figure it out.

At first, your strategy should be to simply play them like any other uber-aggressive maniac. Pick your spots, wait for big hands, punish them and hope they don't draw out on you. This is very similar to a question posed on British Poker's site about online poker but I think there is more to it.

I think there are a couple of key strategies to employ if you think your virtual opponent is popping a few back and getting sauced while playing.

1. Find out if he is. How? You can ask "Is anybody else enjoying happy hour, right now?" or "Who else here is loaded?" Make it a positive question, because if posed negatively he might not cop up to it.

2. Then, if you get a yes, though they may be leveling you, say you are too, but if you are... don't follow the next piece of advice.

3. Encourage more drinking. Make it a prop-fame... "Any time a king hit the flop take a pop! Anytime a queen hits I'll take one (don't)."

4. Turn the needle a little bit. Once he can't differentiate between playful and antagonizing jawing, you've got him teed up.

5. Hit your hand, and felt the angry drunk.

Or... if needling isn't your thing.

1. Act quickly. Get the time function on him as often as possible. This will force him to think quickly. Even the best drunks lose processing efficiency so an online game with short clocks that force action are good places to exploit your advantage. Make it force him quicker.

2. Chat at him, be friendly, when it's about to be his turn. Another thing drunks aren't good at is multi-tasking. You do it as a friend, he won't turn off his chat box. Engage him in conversation and he'll think he's got a flush draw when he doesn't and he'll make more mistakes.

3. Soothe him after his bad plays. You want him around to leak more money. Drunks sometimes will lay off the guy they like when they have nuts, which is good for you too.

AND REMEMBER, you want him to make bad plays, don't get fired up when he draws out on you. That's what you want. If you can't afford to lose that pot, you are in the wrong game.

Latest High Stakes Poker

Latest Winners of Trip to WPT Venice

Earlier this month Bwin held their Sunday WPT Venice qualifier one of their many daily poker tournaments. 61 players sought to join previous qualifiers skburke, KristapsK3, Speezebre, barolmay, Ilawa, Kicker Keni, jojojoxx, claystig1, and_Perbaad_Are at the WPT Venice event. The top three would join bwin's roster.

As the field got whittled down to the bubble these five players remained: indrich (~77k), RipCheaer (~70k), 010peter (just short of 100k), King_Dirk (one of two short stacks with about 31k) and Nikos7714 (the shortest stack at almost 28k). With three prize packages to be award with a value of $7,700 the action was tense.

You might recognize a couple of names on here from my posts about the Aussie Millions. By playing in bwin's poker tournaments, they each won a trip around the world. Once there, King_Dirk, went deep and cashed in a side event, and indrich gave a strong showing but didn't make the money. Once again, they were close to the finish line, and this is the reason the play poker tournaments online, as each was hoping to enjoy another poker trip on bwin with a chance to win a fortune.

The short-stack Nikos7714 held on for as long as he could. He got eliminated when his A9 ran into veteran indrich's A10 suited. This moved indrich to the chip lead at 117k. Of course he knew he didn't need to win all the chips, he just need to avoid elimination and hang on to a top three spot in this online poker tournament.

RipCheader and 010Peter chipped down a bit, with RipCheader being shortest at 43k. 010Peter had 87k and King_Dirk had improved to 56k. The stacks would continue to swing until King_Dirk looked, ironically, at two black Kings.

At this point RipCheader had regained a chip advantage on him. He had AK suited and King_Dirk got all his chips into the middle pre-flop. Like most online poker tournaments, in fact, like any poker tournaments, starting with the best hand doesn't mean you'll finish with it.

King_Dirk, knew if an Ace came, he'd be drawing slim to the case King. It didn't take long for the painful news to be delivered as the flop was Ace high.

Congratulations to 010Peter, indrich, and RipCheader for winning the $7,700 prize package and their trip to the WPT Venice event.

Send them to Poker School

Last week, I played in a micro-limit online poker cash game. The stakes were modest, but enough in these difficult times I was cautious. It was an odd table with several competent players but there were also the donators who were anything but competent. Those guys clearly needed to go to poker school.

In one pivitol hand, the player first to act fires out a 6 times the Big Blind bet. This guy had a small stack. Clearly, not someone offering the implied odds of trying to hit a big hand and felt him. In fact, his stack was so small he barely had a third of the chips of the second smallest stack. On top of that, this guy was playing very tight.

Typically an early raise has induced a lot of folding as the table was playing conservatively. This time the second shortest stack on his left calls and everybody follows suit.
Seems everybody wants to get their virtual chips into play. This was atypical I could only imagine each successive call being weaker than the first. I hold the titanic hand of 4h3h. I of course am considering a steal.

I say considering because there are a lot of variables at play here. The tightish player, first to act, demonstrated a real hand with that large opening bet. If I do raise to isolate, I’ll know where I stand pretty quick on the flop cause my outs probably aren’t his. The second to with his shortish stack showed a willingness to play and has to have a hand of some strength. A raise might give me three way action and I have a hand that plays very easily after the flop. A big problem is my raise and two calls might induce the others to get into the pot, or simply shove all their chips into the center.

Yet, I have no idea what to raise. Too little, and surely I’m just creating a much bigger 6 way pot with a 34 in my hand OR encouraging and giving someone the opportunity to pound it. Too much and they could move their stacks in and I just have 34 in my hand.

What if I just call? My hand plays well in a multi-way pot. I’m going to be a dog but I’m not that bad of shape. My hand had implied value, though my position cut down on my implied odds of getting paid if I nailed it. Still, needing to call 5x with 31.5x in the pot is definitely worth sticking around especially with suited connectors.

Flop comes out 6s5h2h. That's what I was hoping for. Somebody gets an ace or king high flush two of their 9 outs give me a straight flush. A player with 78 could get bold and unable to relinquesh their hand. Even if they hit, I'd have flush outs. .

I check, praying somebody will have a piece and want to fire out a bet for me. I don't have to wait as the initial preflop raiser fires. Even better the next to act raises 2.5x the bet.
Folded around to me. Again, I have to decide to raise or call. UTG looks like he’s going to call the other guy's bet. Do I risk raising and losing him or do I just smooth call and then push on the turn and tie the UTG player to the hand.

I decide wrong and raise. I bet more then either has.

UTG folds after some thought. Thought he might have an overpair like queens or jacks. The other player calls immediately. He's also got the straight. Sure enough the screen reveals 3d4d.
Fortunately, I river a heart.

I wonder how mad he was to lose a big pot when he flopped a straight. I think for once there is some justice in poker. He mangled a bad holding from start to finish and lost his stack because of it.

Let's start from the top when he calls preflop he has no idea how strong or weak the rest of the table is. He calls a raise from early position by a tight player and all he has is 3d4d. Not a terrible decision in general, though probably on its own merits maybe not a profitable one long run. In this situation I don't like it. The opening bettor's stack is so small there is no reward for the risk.

If say, the stack could double you up and it's cheap relative to your stack to see the flop it's a good play. However, there is none of that extra reward at play here. Even worse he only had position on three players (two of whom were in the blind and might not even go to the flop). Then he still had the risk the rest of the table could raise him. Potentially, he could easily flop best and still have to give up on the hand.

When my flush hit, I knew my opponent got what he deserved. Maybe he should take some classes in poker school in the future.

LAPC

With almost 700 players, the WPT L.A. Poker Classic is proof poker is dead.

The fad, that is poker, could barely eke out just short of 700 runners in a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament. The end must be nigh.

The Commerce Casino in Southern California played host to the event. After some stellar day 1 tournament poker play highlighted by Daniel Negreanu surging near the top of the leaderboard the field has slowly dwindled. Antonio Esfandiari made a run up the leaderboard on day three only to fall back to pack a little bit later.

Just before the money bubble, the magician had finished his disappearing act and headed for the rail. His AK got bested by AQ... of course. Negreanu also got knocked out when he rivered trips and lost to a Broadway straight. Both players will probably fire up their laptops on the way home to play poker tournament back.

A progressing story is the run made by amateur Kofi Farkye. He finished the second day on the heels of the Magician but it wasn't long until he took over the chip lead. Several of these names on the leader board are probably more recongizable when they play online poker tournaments, but the online handles weren't listed with their generic real life names.

The field is being slowly whittled and it's still anybody's game. More updates to come. Looking to play an online tournament of your own. Bwin has some action here.

Champion Chip Results

The recently concluded and now weekly ChampionChip online poker tournament on bwin saw xxxlolitaxxx win the title. An interesting name to say the least but most importantly it was a winner's name. The action concluded when xxxlolitaxxx turned a straight as his opponent turned two pair.

The straight held as as none of the four cards to make a full house came. That final piece of drama followed up a great tournament as 1642 players logged in to play online poker. Unfortunately for 1641 of them first place wouldn't be theirs that day. For that one, xxxlolitaxxx he got bragging rights and more importantly $55,065 in prize money.

The total prize pool to be divvyed up was over $300,000. Sure enough, xxxlolitaxxx got off to an early start. In short order he was behind a mountain of virtual chips. As they edged closer to the final table xxxlolitaxxx held a 2 to 1 chip advantage over second place.

Once there the chip tallies were: phantomaup, seat 1, $355,273; NeilMc, seat 2, $286,140 (who played for bwin at the WSOP last year); Tlick777, seat 3, $253,712; gregg937, seat 4, $148,654; RioFish, seat 5, $161,435; skwiik, seat 6, $254,518; Oodges, seat 7, $254,967; xxxlolitaxxx, seat 8, $1,447,851; Keiler513, seat 9, $566,128; and barapengar, seat 10, $376,322.

Gregg937 started off as a short stack and would be an unlikely opponent for xxxlolitaxxx in heads up action but sure enough he got there. Players slowly fell by the wayside as RioFish, Oodges, and Tlick went out. Barapengar, NeilMc, and skwiik were next out. barapengar cashed out for $12,579 in fifth place. skwiik nabbed 4th place who won $18,719.

That left the last three eying each other over the virtual felt. xxxlolitaxxx with $2,655,832 in chips only need to get by phantomaup with $577,566 in chips and gregg937with $817,602. The action was fleeting as the tournament wrapped up 12 short hands after phantomaup was eliminated.

phantomaup's A10 didn't improve and the former short stack gregg937's pocket jacks held. The aforementioned turned two pair vs. turned straight followed shortly later and Gregg937 had to be happy with his improbable run to second and $37,438 for second place. Third place phantomaup won $24,958.

Mr. I Play Online Roulette

I played a session with a guy that annouced to our table in the chat box feature he was an inexperienced poker player.

Oh really?

First you have to ask yourself if the guy was just advertising and about to hustle some chips.

Not a gambler? I ask.

He responded, I play strictly online roulette but I play poker with my friends. Thought I'd try it out online.

We started comparing poker to roulette and he said the tournament was fun because you got more value of time for your money.

Yes, I replied if your KK doesn't run into pocket AA on the first hand.

LOL. Yes, you have to option to lose your entire stack on a whirl in roulette, the wheel doesn't dictate decisions. That's a plus of roulette.

The rlette player on my right has revealed his inexperience so I'm not afraid of him. In fact, I'm busy trying to sell him on playing some cash on another table, because he seemed to be truly a weak tight player. He said he wanted to see how the tournament went and he repeated he preferred roulette to anything. He played like an inexperienced numbers guy. He was going to play good cards and good cards only. He knew the had a better chance of drawing a pot.

Some time passes and I've chipped up. A guy I've frequently played with put in a too large raise from the cut-off. I respect him as a player but he's shown a pattern where he bets a certain amount it's kind of a steal. That was the bet size. Mr. "I Play Online Roulette" called.

On the button I look down at AQ suited. The Roulette's player's stack was large but not quite as big as mine. I now had him covered and we were the two biggest stacks still in the tournament. I'm decide I'm pushing and stealing the pot with a shove of almost 20k.

The guy I've played with before almost times out and folds. He types out "Why so much." Drama Queen. Then Mr. "I Play Roulette Online" stewed again almost timing out. I think to myself what your thinking about while the other guy was thinking. I perked up a bit, he must be weak. I hoping for a weak ace. I'd much rather that then a pocket pair.

He calls. No drama queen this time, well there were two queens but they were both in his hand. Now I was drawing slim. What did I do wrong? Besides getting into too big a hand with AQ? Well, that mistake sums it up especially in light of my opponents. I just watched Mr. Online Roulette call a big raise but instead of remembering to play fundalmental poker and credit him with a hand I ignore his range.

I could argue I thought at worse I was in coin flip and had plenty of pot to justify flipping at that juncture but why not a call and a fold with the flop skipped me.

After I busted out, I decided to try out Mr. I Play Online Roulette's own game. Must say we both had better results at the other's discipline instead of own. And he was right in roulette I didn't have to put my whole stack at risk unless I wanted to. There was no rationale in my head to dictate it, except that I wante to gamble.

Big Bounty update

Spainer75 won the January Big Bounty online poker tournament run by bwin. He prevailed in a marathon heads-up duel after a ferocious final table of eliminations. Spainer his final table mates hdezdelorenz, MAE9690, Goldensbush,
Steko83, tommi7, menzengal1981, puggy82,and joop1387 will have the targets on their back for the february edition as the bounties.

Spainer prevailed after coming to the final table as the chipleader. A position he barely let go of, though in heads-up play he was the short stack for a while.

Steko83 and Joop1387 came in as the dogs but Steko83 managed to elude a knockout blow for some time. The $22,000 for first was an enticing carrot and the prize money drove the action early.

As the table convened the chips stacks were:

Spanier75 325,588 in chips
hdezdelorenz 299,729 in chips
MAE9690 206,882 in chips
Goldensbush 169,216 in chips
Steko83 52,015 in chips
tommi7 315,0264 in chips
Mezenga1981 174,200 in chips
Puggy82 295,873 in chips
joop1387 75,233 in chips

Puggy82, who came in as bit of a favorite was the second player eliminated. Puggy left the event $1,951 richer but had to have thought he had a chance to get another win. His pocket 8s met up with pocket jacks preflop.

MAE9690, 15 minutes into the event, looked at a giant stack of virtual chips on his screen below his name. He had to think he was good. As we know it was rare for Spainer not to be chipleader, so MAE's glory was short lived. MAE's 600,000 loomed over the table. Mezanga1981 was the short-stack shy of 30,000. Spainer for the moment was second with 386,000, hdezdelorenz close behind with 300,000 and Stek083 was hanging on with 160,000.

Hdezdelorenze was the first to put a dent in MAE's armor with a double up. Spainer got back the chip lead when he took the newly fleeced MAE out with pocket 5s. MAE won $4,337 for fifth place. Spainer did not go easily into the night like MAE. In fact, he was just getting started.

Moments later he quickly busted two players. A set of Kings for Spainer meant Menzenga1981 could only console himself with the $6,506 for fourth place. Spainer than wielded a King high flush to oust Steko83.

Just as the final table started with Spanier in first, heads-up play began with him at a significant advantage. He held a little under a 2 to 1 advantage, so any slip up by his opponent could be the last mistake of the tournament. On the other side of the coin Hdezdelorenz take over the lead with a victory in an all-in situation.

Heads up play moved about as quickly as peanut butter drips out of jar. After a half-century of hands, Spanier lost his chip lead for the second time in the tournament. Now it would be the end of his night if he made an ill-timed all in.

Still, the action plodded on. 30 hands later Spainier was back in charge with the chip lead. When all the money got all in hdezdelorenz flopped an open ended straight and flush draw. Spanier held top pair and the top pair held as the turn and river were relative blanks.

Second place hdezdelorenz won $14,096. The final table will all be Bounties in the next installment this Saturday, February 15th. Go to the Big Bounty for more information.