Cash Games During New Orleans WSOPC Event

Date: Thu, May 21, 2009

Unfortunately, the glory of winning a circuit event was not in the cards for me this year, so after missing the money in three tournaments I decided to just play cash games. I had heard that cash games in New Orleans were action packed and it was pretty easy money. This sounded great to me as I had tournaments and expenses to cover, so the last four days of my trip I decided to see if the critics were correct. I found that although the critics were correct, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
The first day I was there I decided to play 5/10 NL Hold’em. There was no max buy in which was right up my alley and there were a few people who had over 6k in front of them. There were a few guys playing a decent size pot as soon as I sat down; there must have been about 2k in the pot. I was astonished when the players flipped over their cards and one guy had a pair of 6s that came on the river which was the lowest pair on the board and the winning hand was pocket 7s. This seemed like a great game to be in with this much action going around. There were a few similar hands where there were big pots and mediocre hands that ended up winning.
I got into a pot with Kc8c, and the flop came Ac 10c 8d. I immediately bet out $45 and got called by a bald headed guy to my left. The turn came 3d. I checked and my opponent bet $50 and I raised to $170 hoping he would put me on a big hand and fold. He ended up calling, so I had to put him on a big ace at the very least. The river was a Qh and I was hoping this would be a scare card for my opponent. I bet $260, and he ended up calling me. I was sure that he was going to flip over AJ, AQ, AK or maybe two pair. Instead, he ended up showing me 10s 6s. He said that he “just had a feeling I was bluffing.” This made me completely perturbed because if he had such a good read on me then I need to reassess my career in poker. After intently scrutinizing his every move I found that he had trouble laying a pair down in any situation. This meant that I couldn’t pull a lot of bluffing moves against this player because he was going to call me down with bottom pair on the board.
There were some really good local players in New Orleans, but it seemed like the vast majority of tourists playing had minimal knowledge of advance poker plays. This makes the games hard to beat when you are not catching any cards. It limits the plays that you are able to make against more advanced players who may be able to lay down top pair to a bluff. On the flip side, there were great opportunities to make a substantial amount of money. On several occasions I was able to make the most out of my winning hands knowing that my opponent would not be able to lay down top and middle pair even if they had no kicker. Although this type of play limits one to play more ABC type poker, it can often be more profitable as you can gain maximum value from winning hands.

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Weekly Sit & Go Tip: Avoid Predictability

Date: Wed, May 20, 2009

One of the biggest advantages experienced poker players have over novices is that the veteran is much better at changing up his play and minimizing how predictable he is to the others at the table. Being able to mix it up and avoid playing like a robot is especially important in a Sit & Go tournament because any opponent that knows what they’re doing will be able to easily pick up on your routines and habits and be able to use that information against you.

For example, if you fold every hand for say 14 straight rounds and then all of a sudden open up a pot for four times the big blind in early position and end up showing a big pair like A-A or K-K at the end, and then do so again 16 more hands down the line, everyone at that table is going to know that you’re only playing premium starting hands and are making the typical raises with them. The eventual result will be that no one is going to get involved in a pot with you unless they hold an absolute monster.

Now obviously with a Sit & Go you don’t have enough chips to open up your hand selection too wide, but it you’re confident enough in your game then you can definitely try to get involved more on the button and in other positions with slightly marginal hands (like suited connectors) that could possibly flops big. As long as the table sees you involved in multiple pots they probably won’t ID you as a player that’s sticking to one particular style.

Another predictable issue that beginning players have is that they are too pushed around by aggressive opponents. They’ll check every time they miss a flop, fold to every bet after that check, and never make an effort to trap a player. Once an opponent picks up on this, they are going to punish you every time they are in a hand with you. Even if they too miss the flop, they’ll stil continue to bet at it since they know you will fold if you didn’t make your hand.

You would be amazed at how many players enter auto-mode when at a Sit & Go and have no idea just how easy they are to read and predict. These are the types of players whose blinds you want to raise and bully around. If they end up raising you or betting heavy on the flop or turn, then you know they probably made their hand and now you can get away from danger, and the good news is any money you lost in that particular hand will probably be greatly overshadowed by profit gained by being aggressive with them in other pots.

The next time you enter a Sit & Go tournament take some mental notes on your own game. Do you play the same cards the same way every time in the same position? If you notice it, so will someone else. Try to add multiple layers of variation to your game at certain times so that you can fool your opponents, lower your predictability factor, and become more of a force at the tables.

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How Many Poker Books Do You Really Need

Date: Tue, May 19, 2009

I have to admit, I have a very obsessive personality. When I get interested in something, lets use poker as an example, I have to learn everything about it and buy any relevant materials that’ll help me become more knowledgeable on the subject. As a result with my poker obsession, I am currently the proud owner of more than 20 poker books (not to mention a healthy stack of poker DVD’s as well), all of which I’ve read front to back at least once.

Have I incorporated strategies from all 20+ books into my game? To be honest, I don’t know, and I think that’s because I’ve given myself a little sensory overload by throwing too many theories and tips into my brain without trying to properly absorb them the way I should. So now a question I pose to myself and to you is; is it better to read multiple instructional poker books to try and open your mind to as many strategies as possible, or would the average player benefit from re-reading the same two to three books they seem to identify with over and over again?

The two books I know for sure that really changed my game are “Playing Poker Like The Pros” by Phil Hellmuth and “Harrington on Hold’em: Volume II” by Dan Harrington. I instantly related to the styles of Phil and Dan upon cracking open their books, which is probably why I was able to retain a large amount of info from those pages. However, neither of these were one of the first five poker books I ever bought, so how would I have known how well they were suited for me unless I continued to buy book after book?

I think the final solution is research, of which I admit I did none when choosing my poker books. If I had read user reviews and found out what types of plays and techniques each book tried to teach, I’m sure I could’ve made much better decisions in the selection process. If you’re looking to pick up a book or two to help advance your game and you don’t want to open up an entire library in your house just to have a place to keep a couple dozen poker manuals, hit the description and comment sections on sites like Amazon.com as well as some poker sites in order to get a good upfront idea on which poker books are right for you.

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WSOP Circuit Event #11- Inducing a Call With Aces

Date: Mon, May 18, 2009

Getting pocket aces in a tournament is a gift that doesn’t always come around very often, and it is important to try to extract as many chips as possible from these situations. In some cases it is extremely difficult to get an opponent to stack off to you, but having a good idea about the player and the situation will give you a better chance of doubling up with aces. In a recent tournament I was faced with two situations in which I had to play aces differently in order to get all the chips I could.
The first time I had pocket aces I had just under the starting chip stack and had only played one round at the table I was sitting at. There were a lot of big raises preflop, and the players seemed to be pretty aggressive. I had just won a decent size pot with ace high, so I knew my image was fairly aggressive as well. The blinds were 200/400 and I picked up aces in early position. At this point of the tournament I was willing to go home or double up. Without slow playing aces, I wanted to be able to disguise my hand in order to extract as many chips as possible.
I raised to 2,150 hoping that my raise would look weak from early position. The intention of raising so much was to make observant players believe that I had a vulnerable hand like AK, AQ, JJ, or a smaller pocket pair that I didn’t want to see a flop with. These hands can be easily dominated after the flop, and I knew that a few of these players were capable of putting me on a hand like this from the raise and would possibly call me. It folded around to a kid that was shuffling around chips like he was going to raise me but instead just decided to call. The board came out 9 high, so I put on the show acting like I was in a real dilemma of what to do. I knew that if I bet out right away the kid would probably put me on a big hand and fold. I put the kid on a strong hand like AK or JJ and knew if I checked it he would assume he had the best hand. Since I wanted the kid to put all his chips in, I was willing to risk a free card by checking. I checked and he declared all in. I called and he turned over QQ. I barely had him covered and was able to fade the other two queens in the deck.
A round later I was dealt pocket aces again. Instead of raising a huge amount I decided to play the hand a bit differently to disguise my hand. I was in early position and made a raise of 850. A fairly active player reraised me to 3500, and everyone else folded around to me. I knew that it would be really hard for my opponent to put me on aces after just having them so it seemed logical that if I pushed over the top he would put me on a weaker hand. I took some time to contemplate my decision so it looked as if I was weak. If I were to reraise him I would only be leaving myself 3700 behind, so I decided to just go all in instead of reraising. He ended up calling me and turned over QQ which was the exact situation I was faced with before. The flop came king high, and my hand was able to hold up. I realized that if I had just called his raise preflop he probably would have laid down his hand after the flop when the king came.
Thankfully I was able to assess both situations correctly in order to attain the maximum value from my aces. Had the situations been different I probably would have chosen a different course of action with my aces. Sometimes successful plays come as much from knowing your opponent as from understanding the situations surrounding the hands.

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Jamie Gold Joins Poker Icons

Date: Fri, May 15, 2009

Poker Icons, one of pokers fastest growing player-representation agencies, has just announced that 2006 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold has joined their roster of poker pros. Gold, who holds the WSOP all-time money position thanks to his $12,000,000 first prize winnings in the 2006 WSOP, will retain Sean Fredricks as his personal manager.

"I'm very excited about joining Poker Icons. Their international presence and expertise in poker makes this relationship fit perfectly. I'm really looking forward to this partnership." says Gold.

Gold’s first event as a Poker Icon representative will be at the Sunflower Children Charity Poker Tournament on May 17th where he will join actor Edward Norton in an effort to raise as much money as possible for the foundation. "Charity work is so close to my heart,” noted Gold, “and I'm blessed to be able to make a difference in combination with my poker career."

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Running Bad and Dealing With It

Date: Thu, May 14, 2009

Right about now I wish I wasn’t the guy delivering you weekly SNG tips, as I am currently running soooo bad in those tournaments right now that I feel like I’m not qualified to dole out any instructional info. Luckily for my self-esteem, the more I think about my recent losses, the more I realize that I was just getting unlucky an incredible amount of the time, and for the most part was getting my money in the middle with the best of it. But what can you do when no matter how well you play you still get felted?

Personally it all comes down to why I’m getting knocked out. Am I changing my style as I lose or am I maintaining strong play even when I catch bad beat after bad beat? After going back and analyzing my hands from the last two weeks worth of SNG’s, I can confidently say that I got outdrawn way above average and am just experiencing one of those famous downward swings you hear about so much. By identifying the problem and the cause of the problem, I’ve enabled myself to make an informed decision on how to move forward with my game.

However, some players will think that they are getting beat because they are just playing poorly. Well, are you? Are you getting frustrated with your losses and shoving all-in whenever you get raised or calling off all your chips on a draw? Blow-up’s like this are such a common reason why emotional players end up losing way more chips than they should. You need to be able to step back and address the situation instead of just pushing forward and trying to aggressively get your money back. That mentality is like losing ten straight hands of $5 blackjack and then betting $50 on one hand trying to get even (something I’m ashamed to say I have experience with).

If you’ve started losing more than usual lately, take a moment to go through your online hand history and see if you can figure out why it all went wrong. The difference between getting outdrawn versus making a terrible call can be huge when deciding what course of action to take in the future.

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New Orleans Circuit Event Review

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009

The events at Harrah’s New Orleans for the World Series Circuit event has improved this year compared to previous years. In the past, starting chips stacks have been pretty mediocre. However, this year they have added a substantial amount of chips to the events. The $550 buy in events feature 40 minute levels and 8,000 in chips. The $340 buy in offers 7,000 in chips which give the players plenty of time and chips to play. Even better than the starting chip stacks are the addition of several levels. Levels like 75/150 and 150/300 give players even more play time to exert their skills to claim the top prize. Another nice feature is there are two events each day. The first event of the day starts at noon, and then there is another event that starts at 5 p.m. which gives the players an option to play on an early and late schedule.
Although the general structure of the tournaments are vastly improved, Harrah’s seems to be making cutbacks during the hard economic times. Players no longer get food vouchers when they register for tournaments. Usually they offer a free buffet voucher for all tournaments, but this year they don’t even give a free drink voucher. The weekday tournaments don’t seem to be getting the same amount of players as last year, but towards the end of the week the entrances should pick up. Overall the changes to the event seem to be for the best, and it really gives players great structure for their money.

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Hand of The Week- Pushing Without The Nuts

Date: Tue, May 12, 2009

I was playing 5/10 NL Hold’em at the Venetian in Las Vegas, and there was one guy at the table, named Paul who was really spicing the game up. He was obviously there for a good time and he had endless pockets. He would make blind raises of $180 preflop, and at one point he was playing his entire hands blind. There were also a few tourists at the table, so they were viable targets as well. The game was great for anyone who could hit a hand. For some reason when I sit down at games like these that are so juicy and some donk is just giving their money away I can never get a piece of it. I was sitting at around $2,000 and started calling $180 six way pots preflop with hands like 6s7s because I knew I was live and if I hit I was going to get paid off big. It didn’t take long of not hitting to dwindle my stack away.
When my stack reached $1,200 I began to tighten my game quite a bit. I was only playing hands where I could be the aggressor. I sat at even for several hours, and then around 7 a.m. Paul said he was going to have to go to bed soon. He started racking up his chips, and a few of us locals knew that the game was going to die as soon as he left. I only had a few hands to make my night profitable. Then he said it, “This is my last hand.”
Paul made it $80 without looking at his hand. I called on the button with pocket 9s. Billy, a local cash game player, looks down at his cards and makes it $380 to go. Billy is a smart aggressive player. I knew that he was just trying to isolate Paul being that it was his last hand so he could make some money for the night. It was hard to put him on a hand because he could be doing this with any two cards. Surprisingly, one of the tourists called. I put him on a hand like AQ or AJ. Paul looks at his hand and then calls. I figured he had a decent hand because when he looked at his hands and made a call he usually had pretty good hands. I made the call with my pocket 9s. In this position I probably should have pushed the rest of my stack, but I was uncertain what kind of hand Billy had. If he had woken up with a big hand, I wanted to try to outplay him postflop and capitalize on my position.
The flop came K 8 Q rainbow. Billy thought about it for awhile and then checked. Everyone else checked behind him. When it came around to me to act, I was going to push but I thought it was really strange that Billy thought for so long and then checked. Normally he would continuation bet with so much in the pot. I decided to check in case he was trapping. The turn was a 6. Again it checked around to me, and I pushed all in for $790 more. Everyone folded and I scooped the pot. After the hand I found out that Billy had pocket 10s, the tourist had AQ, and Paul had AJ. The only way I could have won the hand is if I pushed my stack, but a smarter play would have been to push preflop or on the flop.
Now, I would like to state that it is never a good idea to play a hand big just because it is the last hand of the night. Cash game should be waged over the long term of the game, and making big cashes every session shouldn’t be the goal. However, I’m a poker player just like anyone else I sometimes have a hard time listening even to my own advice.

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WSOP Adds Bracelet Ceremony for 2009

Date: Mon, May 11, 2009

In an attempt to bring additional recognition to the winners of some of lesser-viewed preliminary tournaments at the World Series of Poker, the WSOP has announced that they will be hosting a special ceremony every day to honor the winners of these events. Every WSOP event winner will be invited to return to the Amazon Room at the Rio on the following day at 2:20pm, where they will receive their bracelet during a live presentation hosted by WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

“Essentially, we are going to take the bracelets which in some instances have been awarded under the cover of darkness by whoever happened to be around at two in the morning, and bring them into the spotlight where they truly belong,” said WSOP Commissioner Pollack.

I love this new concept. When I saw Johnny Chan take down Phil Laak in a Limit Hold’em event a few years ago, the tournament didn’t wrap up until like 3am, with only about 50 spectators in attendance. Chan received his bracelet immediately, posed for a few photos and then just went on his merry way. I’m sure he and anyone else that had won that event would’ve loved to have been presented the bracelet while the poker room was packed the following day, so this appears to be a great way to make sure that every WSOP event winner gets the maximum amount of exposure possible.

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Weekly Sit & Go Tip: Knowing When To Quit

Date: Fri, May 8, 2009

Sit & Go’s are in my opinion quite possibly the most fun form of poker available online. The quick tournament-style format enables players to enjoy a fast-paced 45min of poker and apply a wide range of styles, from conservative to aggressive, all in a short period of time. On the opposite side of the coin, the quick turnaround of these games can lead to some sizeable losses to your bankroll if you let yourself slip up a little and play at a level of quality lower than your usual performance standard.

Say you take a really bad beat in a SnG and get knocked out. Now you turnaround immediately, enter another SnG, again play correctly, only to still get eliminated before making the money. Many players at this point will continue to enter additional Sit & Go’s, with their quality of play dipping more and more each time to the point to where they will start to make bad plays, chase cards, and shove it all-in during less than optimal situations.

Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, then you need to start setting rules for yourself when it comes to when to quit playing SnG tournaments. There’s a difference between playing poorly and losing and playing correctly and losing. If you feel that you’re still playing your best poker and are playing a level of SnG that you can routinely beat, then by all means continue to play. But if you find yourself in the alternate scenario, where you push all-in with second pair and lose, now you’re just throwing your money away.

Believe it or not, unlike cash games where you can just reload and try to get revenge on the players at the table, Sit & Go’s are easy to walk away from if you aren’t playing your best. When you lose a SnG you are sent back to the main table selection screen and have to go through a few steps in order to enter another tournament. Take this time to give yourself a break to mentally access whether or not you should be continuing to play. If you’re itching to get back to another SnG just because your fuming mad at the bad beat you just took, maybe it’s time to go do something else for a hour or so.

No one is there to watch out for you online, so you’re going to need to develop self-discipline and make your own tough decisions.

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Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso Wins High-Roller Event

Date: Thu, May 7, 2009

The European High Roller Championship event had a total of 779 players who bought into the 25,000 euro event. It attracted a lot of notable pros which included names like Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Nelly, Chris Ferguson, Berry Greenstein, Peter Eastgate, Phil Ivey, and many more. Throughout the event Vanessa Rousso showed she was going to be a tough competitor. She steadily added to her chip stack and maintained a consistent lead over the field of players. At the start of the final day there were eight players left and the chip stack was as follows:
Vanessa Rousso- 1,250,000
Tony G- 875,000
Randy Dorfman- 487,500
David Eldar- 385,500
David Steicke- 347,500
Florian Langmann- 274,500
Andrew Feldman- 202,500
William Thorson- 132,000

David Steicke was the first to go out at the final table, but he made 60,000 euro for his efforts. The final three came down to Tony G, Randy Dorfman, and Vanessa Rousso. Vanessa was eager to prove her worth against the guys and held her own at the final table. After some strong play she was able to show she could compete with the big boys and took down the event for 720,000 euro.

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Ladies Poker Academy June 5 & 6

Date: Wed, May 6, 2009

There is now a place for all the women out there who feel more comfortable learning poker in an environment away from nagging husbands and know it all men. High Heels Poker Tour Academy is offering a 2 day teaching event to give instruction to women. This is a great opportunity to learn what other professional women poker players have found works best in the male dominated setting of poker. This year they have some top notch poker ladies available to hone in on individual skills and offer professional insight and experience related to the industry. Some of the instructors include Barbara Enright, Susie Isaacs, Karina Jett, Lisa Adams and JJ Liu. The event will be held at The Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on June 5th and 6th. Tuition includes instruction from the pros and a free entry into the June 10th High Heels Poker Ladies Event at The Hard Rock Poker Lounge. For more information on the event and pricing go to www.highheelspokertour.com.

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Mercer Wins Ante Up For Africa

Date: Tue, May 5, 2009

The poker charity event, Ante Up For Africa, is an outstanding event that raises money and awareness for conditions in Africa and especially in Darfur. Before the event, poker pros offer advice and coaching for celebrities, musicians, movie stars, etc. This is great for the event because the more people who get involved the better the outcome.

There was a 40 person turnout for the 4,000 euro charity event. PokerStars even added another 100,000 euros to the prize pool. The final table was star studded with poker pros and celebrity appearances. Some of the final nine included Dario Minieri, Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, and Teddy Sheringham. Daniel Negreanu built up a commanding chip lead, but after some struggling ending up going out 5th. Tony Guoga went out in 4th place. Minieri and Sheringham got into an all in hand together. Minieri with pocket 10’s and Sheringham with pocket Q’s, but Minieri couldn’t spike a 10 and was out in 3rd place. Heads up action between Mercier and Sheringham had Sheringham as a favor coving Mercier 3 to 1. However Mercier fought back and when the blinds became unbearable Sheringham was all in wit Ts 4h against Mercier’s As 2d. Mercier held up and became the winner of the event. She stated, “It was great fun to play, but overall I am very proud to have helped raised so much money.”

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Punishing The Weak

Date: Fri, May 1, 2009

A friend of mine was recalling an online no-limit poker game he had been playing in earlier this week to me over dinner recently and told me about how his table during that session had two absolute fish sitting next to each other. They would call off bets on every turn with middle pair or worse, and just had a bad overall understanding of the game. My friend felt so bad for these two that he decided to never try and trap those players when in hands against them, instead opting to just make smallish bets and take down average pots. He asked me what I thought about that and I told him the truth…..he’s insane.

Maybe something has changed in the past few years, but to me playing poker is about winning money. Sure, there might be some instances like in conservative home games where you could ease up and not bully the table, but when playing online and in a live card room, I believe you should only be sitting down to play if you’re determined to pick up every chip off the felt before you leave.

As I’ve said before, poker is ALL about picking on the weak players, because they are the easiest to beat. Sure I might get lucky with a big hand against a top player occasionally, but more often than not I will be winning the absolute minimum against great players. However, those that will call raises and go all-in with mediocre hands are the reasons why pro players even sit down at the table to begin with. It might seem like they only play against other pros while watching them on TV, but trust me, their bread and butter is made during sessions against weak opponents.

Moral of the story, if someone is willing to buy-in to the game you’re playing, they’re also willing to put their stack at risk, and it’s your job to take it from them if possible. It might sound harsh, but to coin an old popular phrase, that’s poker folks.

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