Yesterday I played the PokerStars $4.40 (180 players) tournament. From the first hand of the first level there was one player that went All-In on every hand. Needless to say I was excited considering we all had the same $1500 stack and after 2 hands he had not achieved his goal of doubling up quickly. So, as usual, I decided to wait for at least pocket QQ’s and call my all too aggressive opponent. Low and behold I picked up pocket AA’s and limped and just as reliable as an alarm clock my hyper-aggressive opponent obliged me with the All-In re-raise. I hit the set on the flop and he was drawing dead thereafter. So, don’t be upset when you see this kind of play at your tourney table. Consider it a gift from the poker Gods. It’s easy money!

The immortal words of Mike Matusow couldn’t be further from the truth. Just ask Annette Obrestad the latest multi-millionaire “kid” poker sensation. This 19 year old just took down the World Series of Poker Europe for a whopping $2 Million dollars and change! Not bad considering she’s barely a year out of High School.

I’ve never been a big fan of kids playing poker but this young lady might just change my mind. Not only is she tearing it up on-line but she has the live game chops to back up her growing reputation of being a hyper-aggressive monster at the tables. Annette has won over $1.5 Million dollars online on PokerStars and Full-Tilt and has just consummated an endorsement deal with online mega site Betfair based in Europe. The world has been waiting for a big time female main event winner and I think we just found one. So just how far can $3.5 Million dollars take you?

Can you say Vegas baby?

I don’t know about you but I sure would like this issue to be resolved. It’s been a little over one year since the Internet Gambling act was passed. Bill Frist and his cronies flew this bill underneath the radar and contended that it was our moral responsibility to refrain from gambling. I’m not going to re-hash the argument as I am sure many of you are aware of the sordid details that have been alleged of online gamblers. The fact of the matter is that I do not believe for one second that the US is going to allow the potential of benefiting from a billion dollar industry go by the way side. Rest assured that the Internet Gambling Act was simply a stop gap measure to allow American casino’s to begin posturing to host there own internet gambling sites and ultimately be the beneficiaries of the windfall from online poker. Sure, PartyPoker and Full Tilt will still be the major players along with PokerStars but, as we all know, corporations have the final say in all money making matters here in the US.

Also, I believe we will ultimately see online poker legalized in the United States and taxed accordingly in the very near future. Nothing wets the appetite of the government like cold hard cash and online poker taxes will provide plenty of it. As for the morality of playing online poker? Well, if we can play the lottery or bet on horse races and have no issues with those activities then poker is certainly a far cry from moral bankruptcy in our society. The fact of the matter is that anything can be addicting and we all need to exercise discretion accordingly. It’s really as simple as that.

See you at the tables.

Making the value bet. It’s probably one of the most over looked tactics in poker. Everyone wants to win the big pot and that’s understandable. Who doesn’t want to send a guy to the rail? However, the importance of the value bet cannot be overstated whether in a cash game or tournament.

Time after time, particularly with players new to the game, we see players that hold the best hand after the river that will push their opponent out of the pot. Why would anyone in their right mind want to do that? The idea of betting on the river is to keep your opponent in the pot. Yet, we see all-in bets almost as if it is second nature by the player with the best hand.

So what should you do when the river hits and you have the best hand?

The first thing I want to do is evaluate how many chips my opponent has in his stack. Second, I want to determine how much my opponent will call based on his stack size. Only then can I move forward and make the correct bet in order to reap the benefits of a well played hand.

Just think about it the next time you have the nuts and the last card has been dealt. You need to make a bet that you are fairly confident will be called. Only then are you truly getting your moneys worth.

Recently I posted about how easy it is to pick up chips. People will “give” you there chips if you allow them to. Well, here is a perfect example of 2 players that are clearly BEAT that continue in the hand anyway. This hand was played in the PokerStars $5.50 (360 Player) tourney.In this hand JeanGrae called an un-raised pot along with the 2 other players. Once the flop hits DAWGNU2 bets out $150 and was re-raised by Sanne.ro All-In. Of course JeanGrae is going to call here even with the small kicker as it is still likely he has the best hand and at worst is facing a straight draw and / or an over pair. DAWGNU2 makes a crucial error by calling the All-In bet by Sanne.ro. It was an EZ lay down at that point. DAWGNU2 got the information he needed and instead decided to “donate” his entire stack. Sanne.ro also made an error by going All-In after the turn. Even after he hit the 2 pair he had to know it was no good at that point. This hand was played early in the tournament and all of the players invovled had over $1000 in there stack. Pay attention to what is going on in the hand and FOLD when you are beat. Why get busted when you don’t have to?

So you got drawn out on again? Has the deck forsaken all logic known to man? It may seem that way sometimes. Recently I went through a period where I got drawn out for 2 weeks. Hand after hand after hand. Soooo very frustrating but I never wavered or changed the way I played the game. I stood on my core belief of getting in with the BEST hand. If you continue to do so you will reap the benefits of your convictions.

I promise.

Oh yes they are at every table, every tournament, and in every cash game. They are the animal most feared by the best players in the world. I am referring to the proverbial “Donkey.”

How do you defend against the Taliban like tactics of a Donkey? They come out of nowhere. They play bad cards in all the wrong places. Yet, they seem to win pot after pot. Some of them even manage to get deep into tournaments making poor decision after poor decision only to have the deck bail them out time after time. Get in with the best hand against a Donkey and they manage to hit that inside straight draw at just the “right” time.

Sickening?

Perhaps.

Frustrating?

Absolutely!

Playing against a bad player is the absolute worst scenario a poker player can encounter. Why? Because using your brain no longer gives you an advantage. As any skilled player will tell you it’s all about out thinking and out playing your opponent. A bad player is not sophisticated enough to understand complex plays and therefore is too dumb to understand it and fold his hand. Ultimately, he will make sporadic calls, moves, and plays when he shouldn’t and, unless you have the “nutz”, your complex play may send you right to the rail with a few four letter words spewing from underneath your breath on the way.

So here is a bit of advice when playing against a Donkey:

1. Make sure you have a hand before getting involved with him.
2. Don’t get all of your chips in the middle unless you are sure you have the best hand.
3. Don’t try to make sophisticated moves on bad players. They will not understand and may possibly call when you think it’s obvious they should fold.
4. Be patient. Once you have identified the donkey you don’t necessarily have to make it your mission to knock him out. If someone else does it. So be it. The bottom line is that he is no longer at your table.

There you have it. Take your time, identify the Donkey, and play accordingly. Believe me they are not hard to find. Just make sure it’s not you.

Heeeeeeeeeeee Haw!!!!!!!!

Chip Leader! Fish Eater! What’s in a name anyway? Nothing seems to go wrong for this guy and he never seems to take a bad beat. He’s always in the right place at the right time with the right cards. No matter what you call him you definitely can’t call him broke. During our trials at the tables in various tournaments we have all ascended to chip leader at one time or the other. Hopefully this happens to you on a regular basis. Being chip leader early in a tournament is an added luxury, a status symbol if you will – a perilous one at that. It means that no one can bust you out of the tournament at that particular time. You have everyone covered. What a wonderful feeling. But it doesn’t mean that you will march on to victory once all the “blood” has been spilled.

Too many times I hear players, especially players that are new to tournaments, complain about how low there stack is compared to “that guy over there.” Why? Because they are worried about the chip leader and his stack more than there own. Whether he is at your table or someone else’s being the chip leader early in a tournament should have very little to no effect on how you play your game. Just ask anyone that’s ever won a tournament and they will tell you that early in a tournament they most likely grinded out small pot after small pot building there stack. That’s the way the game is played and that is how you are able to protect your stack. By keeping pots small you can build your stack and get away from hands without hurting yourself too badly. If you manage to pick up a big hand and double through. That’s great too! The fact of the matter is that in a tournament one or two double ups can literally take you from being an average stack to the top five in chips. Good players know this and do not push early just because someone gets off to a blazing start. Also, most players that are chip leaders early in a tournament rarely win that tournament. Sure it does and has happened but that is extremely rare and requires both a great deal of luck and skill to pull off for an entire tournament. Roy Winston recently won the WPT 2007 Borgota World Poker Open this way taking down $1.5 Million Dollars as chip leader from start to finish. That is an amazing feet for any player professional or amateur!

It’s best to take your time and play against the players at your table. Keep it simple and that is about as straight forward as you can get. During breaks it’s ok to walk around or take a peak at the leader board to see how you stack up. Otherwise, don’t sweat the small stuff. Your concern should be geared toward where you stand at the time being and let the rest of the field even out as you play. Keep in mind that the value of chips goes up as the tournament moves forward and the chip leader you saw an hour ago may be busted out of the tourney 2 hours later. So, stay focused, and keep building that stack. Maybe you can be the Chip Leader Fish Eater when it counts – at the END of the tournament!

Indeed a profound statement from a profound writer. When William Shakespeare first uttered those words and put his pen to paper one must wonder if he had poker players in mind. The very fact that poker players must live by this credo cannot be overstated. Whenever you choose to sit down at a poker table, in a cash game or tournament, you must be of sound mind. Many times the tasks and worries of day to day life can become a heavy load to bare. The last thing you need is to be unfocused and have a wondering mind as you attempt to process partial information hand after hand for hours at a time. All the while your bankroll is dwindling as fast as the second hand moves around the clock. Yet you have no idea of what has happened to you or your game.

On the other hand poker players, being predatory creatures by nature, salivate when a player is unfocused and will do anything and everything to reassure him that his foolish call on the river wasn’t that bad a play. We want him to remain in his pre-occupied state of mind simply because it’s profitable. The fewer players that are “in-tune” to the task at hand the easier it is to extract the maximum profit. It’s really as simple as that. Have you ever tried to hold two phone conversations at one time? Well, being pre-occupied at the poker table pretty much puts you in the exact same state of mind. One of those conversations is going to suffer from lack of attention and you are not going to process all of the information correctly if at all. So, as is human nature, you may have two phones up to your head but you most likely will mentally “check-out” of one conversation or the other to focus your attention on what you deem important at the time. That means the other conversation has fallen upon deaf ears.

Think of your card game in the same manner. If you are having personal problems or are unhappy and unable to devote your complete and utter attention to the game then you do not need to be at the tables. Your play will no doubt suffer and ultimately your bankroll will reflect that suffering. Do yourself a favor and resolve any issues that may interrupt your peace of mind before you hit the poker room. You’ll be glad you did.

Remember, “To Thine Own Self Be True…”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Every since Jerry Yang won this years WSOP NL Championship I have heard various undertones of disapproval ranging from outright rage to subtle innuendo.

“How can a Christian be a poker player? Isn’t he violating the Bible?”

Well, I don’t believe we can resolve that argument within the content of this text. But we sure can take a look at it and at least find some common ground. I, like many others, sat and watched Jerry Yang kiss the photo of his children and pray with his family along with Lee Watkinson and his wife at the Final Table of the 2007 WSOP NL Championship. I must admit, as a fellow Christian and believer in Christ, I found it quite refreshing. Certainly more appropriate than Hevad “Rhein” Khans foolishness at the tables after winning a hand. However, after a while I posed this question to my wife:

“If both of them are believers and God is no respecter of persons then whose prayer gets answered?”

We both kinda laughed it off and continued watching the tournament. Many times I have been blasted for my belief in Christ both online and live. I never bring it up but I do have shirts and hats indicating that I am indeed a believer. I never mention it at the tables other than when someone chooses to approach me with there disapproval.

Online it happened when I told a gentlemen I would pray for him after he went into a profanity laced rant after I busted him out of a tournament. I even had the best hand but that didn’t seem to matter much to him. So, rather than retaliate with the same childish and meaningless banter, I told him I would pray for him instead. “Where’s the sin in that?” I thought .

Why stoop to his level?

If I didn’t know any better I would have thought that all poker players were devoid of any kind of belief in a higher power other than pocket aces. Several times I have debated the fact that guys can go out and spend hundreds of dollars over the weekend on various activities for the sake of having fun. They can even take there rent and mortgage money to the golf course and gamble half of it away, come home broke, and that even seems to be “OK.” But if I use my “disposable” income to partake in an event of the same cost in a poker room AND I can actually bring home money then somehow that’s “wrong” and any chance of entering the pearly gates are completely voided. That story just doesn’t add up in my minds eye. The key word here is “disposable” income. As long as you are not doing anything illegal with your money then I think your pretty good with the man upstairs too. That doesn’t mean He’ll approve of your trips to the strip club but I don’t quite think He’s gonna send you to hell for playing at the poker tables either.

“Cause, if there’s a hell below…We’re all gonna go!” -Curtis Mayfield

HELP!

Deuces,

CIII

“…the only game I know is DO or DIE!”

…just make sure your willing to lay them down when your beat.

Slow playing pocket Aces is not the way most people would advise you to play the hand. Aces are the strongest No Limit hand one can get and by not raising pre-flop you are opening yourself up to a world of potentially bad things happening should you not have the discipline to lay them down. The worst thing that can possibly happen is you allow smaller hands into the pot with no raise or a small raise. This allows hands like 22 – 88, or small connectors and suited connectors to hit the jackpot on the flop. It can also put you at a severe disadvantage when betting because you have no idea of “where your at” in the hand.

So, how can I profit from this play?

Well here is how I like to slow play pocket Aces. Let me be up front about my thinking before we get into the hand. I am strictly talking about No Limit tournament play. I would NEVER slow play Aces in a cash game and never have. It’s not my style and the risk is far too high in a cash game.

I would not recommend this play to anyone that is not willing to lay down the hand when facing a strong bet or re-raise after the flop. You really need to know your table and what the players are capable of. Ideally, early in a tournament, I prefer to limp with Aces under the gun or 2 to the left of the Big Blind. The first level in particular makes for a very sneaky and well disguised play simply because players are still feeling each other out on the first level or two. Again, if you facing a strong bet after the flop there is a strong likelihood that your pocket Aces are no good especially if there are several players that see the flop. It’s time to pack it in and lay them down.

By limping with Aces you will most likely have the option of re-raising to narrow down the field pre-flop. Use it! Sure, there will be times when your re-raise will prompt your opponents to fold. However, the aggressive player that picks up KK, AK, and sometimes QQ will not fold to a re-raise and at the very least want to see the flop. At this point you have already profited from the hand and may even be able to get all the chips in the middle pre-flop if you’re lucky.

I also believe that by defying convention it allows you to catch people by surprise when the flop hits you. Therein lies the key to playing Aces this way. Hitting the flop is HUGE! Imagine your set of Aces vs AK when the flop comes down A X X or A K X. Now your in the ideal scenario and you can put pressure on the player that is “in position” while he has no idea of what he is up against. Indeed a very sneaky way to disguise the strength of your hand while players are still profiling each others play.

Sneaky?

Perhaps.

Profitable?

You better believe it!

So the next time you see a player limp under the gun and he re-raises you he might just be playing those pocket Aces. It just might be me.

Is TV good for the game? I am sure many of you have tossed that question around the table or in conversations with your buddies. I suppose it can be viewed as a double edged sword at best. Seeing Chris Moneymaker make the Final Table and then take down the prize was probably one of the biggest sporting triumphs in history. I mean it was David versus Goliath and true to script David came out the victor. People love it when an underdog makes good.

Or do they?

Listening to various radio shows along with chat at the poker tables and forums there seems to be mixed feelings amongst us amateurs. However, the professional players couldn’t be happier that Moneymaker brought the game of poker to the fore. From a pros perspective it brings in more inexperienced players with loads of expendable cash ready to be consumed by the seasoned professional players. On the other hand, amateurs seem to feel that Moneymaker didn’t quite deserve all of the post WSOP hype that continues on his behalf by his host site of PokerStars considering he hasn’t done much since. The bottom line is that poker on TV has become big business now. You are beginning to see more corporate sponsors and the stigma of poker being some smoke filled room of bad guys has officially been lifted. Today you have shows like the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship, Poker After Dark, Discovery Channel World Poker Tour, and GSN’s High Stakes Poker broadcast almost 24 hours a day.

On the down side TV can distort the game of poker quite a bit. In particular the World Poker Tour when you only see the play at the Final Table with 6 players left and the blinds coming down fast on the participants. Add in the editing and your really not seeing the true essence of what Poker is all about. No table at the begining of a tournament is going to see players pushing All-In pre-flop on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, many new players to the game see this and believe this is the way poker is played. On the contrary the PPT probably portrays tournament poker in it’s purist form of standard raises, bluffs, and well played hands post flop. The PPT or Professional Poker Tour shows the tournament in 4 stages prior to the Final Table and you get to see how the tournament unfolds from the first card in the air. Indeed an accurate portrayal of tournament poker by none other than highly skilled professionals.

Regardless people are being drawn into the game because of it’s exposure on TV. Viewers are buying books and asking questions, and even jumping into forums to find out more about the game. More importantly, if you’re an off shore Poker site, they are opening up more accounts online and that means additional revenue for the big dogs like PokerStars and Full Tilt. Lastly, the biggest benefactor is the casinos. They are pulling in money not just at the poker tables but at the slots, roulette, and other games available to players that are either waiting to play or have been railed from tournaments. So, overall everyone is a winner in the age of the poker boom. It’s not over yet though. There is still a lot of growth left for the game of poker.

Now where is that 24 hour a day poker channel?

If I had a dime for every time a poker played whined about a bad beat or suck out I would be incredibly wealthy. I used to think baseball players were the worst whiners in sports. They seem to have problems with the silliest things like: how a guy runs the bases after a homerun, how a guy pumps his fist after a strikeout, or how a guy stole a base with his team up by more than five runs. One can suppose that sports are a microcosm of society and therefore we can expect the same behavior within those people that sit at the poker table. But I never dreamed that some of these players, online in particular, would spend hours whining and crying about a hand that took place hours ago. It really is childish and incredibly unbecoming of an adult male or female. So the next time you take a beat and / or a guy sucks out on you do us all a favor and keep your keyboard to your self. No one wants to hear it.

Absolutely!

This is probably one of the most talked about topics in the poker community. I know I have had my share of conversations about it. The fact of the matter is that there is a drastic difference in the play online vs. brick and motor rooms. Online players tend to be hyper aggressive. They will push all of there chips in with any kind of draw or high pair. This is particular true of Sit N Go low buy in tournaments. Having said that it also is a feeding ground for good players to build a nice stack early in tournaments. I believe one of the primary reasons for this is simply due to the structure of the tournaments. On PokerStars the standard time for each level in tournaments of 180 players or more is 15 mins. This is equivalent to 30 minutes playing live in terms of how many hands are played. However, in a live tournament with 30 minute levels you may see a few players make foolish moves like that in the first level or two but rarely when your talking about buy-ins of $150 or more.

Why?

Well, live tournaments in the $150 and up range, at least the ones that I play in, tend to have better structure that lends itself to more play and BETTER players. Usually you will start out with at least $3000 in chips with an add-on or you can take your add-on right away and start with $5000. With 30 minute levels and the blinds at 50/25 there is no reason to be so antsy about pushing draws early in tournaments. Even if you take a hit to your stack early you still have plenty of time to recover and re-build.

Online is a different story. Many times when playing low buy-in Multi-Table tournaments, from $1 – $50 you will have large fields of 1000 players or more. This increases the luck element considerably and building a stack becomes even more critical early in the tournament. Consequently people figure, “It’s only a couple of bucks. What the heck?” and will push early with draws or very sleight edges trying to build a stack for the long haul. The lower the buy-in typically the lower the skill level online. That has been my experience anyway. However, you can build a very nice bankroll playing the smaller Sit N Gos if you can tolerate the bad players drawing out on you from time to time. Good luck at the tables!

Yes, the dreaded Ace King. This is one of the most troublesome hands to play in No Limit poker. So, just how do you play AK? Well, many players tend to over play the hand. They will push or get all there chips in after the flop when they hit an Ace or King. However, it’s never quite that simple. As with most hands you must consider position and the likely holdings of your opponents as well as betting patterns. If you face a big bet after the flop when holding Ace King then you might be BEAT. Position also makes a difference in how you should play this hand. T.J. Cloutier has a very good section in his book, “No Limit / Pot Limit Tournament Hold’em”, which includes a section on how he tends to play Ace King. I learned quite a bit from it and you will too. The bottom line is AK is not a made hand. No matter how good the hand looks it still needs help on the flop and there is no guarantee your going to hit your hand. So know your opponents and what they are capable of before you get to married to it.