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Deuces,
CIII
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!
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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?
Deuces,
CIII
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It’s here! Finally a web site with all the poker video a poker player can stand. I am talking about http://www.pokertube.com/
With just the click of a button you can have the WSOP 2007 and every event right at your finger tips. No membership is required. Just click and go. Each episode is bundled into an 11 min or less package. A minor inconvience considering you have access to the entire series for free. Did you miss an episode of High Stakes Poker? Well, you can pick up where you left off easily. They have episodes on the European Poker Tour, High Stakes Poker, WSOP 2007, Aussie Millions Cash game, and many many more. Poker Tube also has interviews with the most popular cash game and tournament players on the circuit.
Have some video you would like to upload? You will need to register to do so. Click the About button for details on formats and file size.
So if your looking for poker and just can’t find any on TV stop by Poker Tube to check out the latest action!
Deuces,
CIII
“…the only game I know is Do or Die!”
It didn’t start there though because a card counting system was widely devised and available way back in the 1960’s, but because you still needed some math prowess to execute the system, putting it into profitable play was an entirely different matter. Not only that, once the casinos knew about an available system, they put up hurdles as well like using multiple decks and/or cutting a random portion of the deck out of play.
The midnight madness no-limit holdem tournament at Full Tilt Poker is one of the most consistently high turn out tournaments in the online poker world. Every night, at twelve midnight eastern standard time, you can get in this tournament for only ten bucks plus the one buck administration fee (rake). But whats so good about it? A few things make this tournament a profitable venture including the time of day, the buy in, and the attrition rate.
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.
Deuces,
CIII
“…the only game I know is Do or Die!”
Poker software has always been a part of my evolution as a player. I regularly use a product called Poker Academy Pro to test out various tactics within formats that I will be playing live. However, I recently discovered a real time software package called PokerEdge that is absolutely impressive! I usually do not endorse products but this is a must have for any serious online poker player. Whether you play cash games or tournaments you have genuine real time information on your opponents available to you immediately with on-going updates at the click of a mouse. 
You can find this software at PokerEdge Download the free trial version that is fully functional. The install takes about 10 mins to complete on any Windows XP or Windows 2K pc. Once done you are ready to fire up the software along with your online poker software of choice.
PokerEdge supports all of the major online poker rooms from Full Tilt to PokerStars as well as several UK based poker rooms. All you need to do is find the room you play in from the drop down list and click the Free Trial button and it will initiate your software for you.
Once you have fired up PE you will notice that it has a Main window that allows you to do a search on tables for No Limit, Fixed Limit, and Pot Limit games. Once you click the Update Session button on the Lookup window each player is now listed in relation to how they have played based on there hand histories. An icon will pop up by each players avatar indicating there tendencies. For instance: A weak player will show up as a Fish. A strong player will show up as a Shark. A calling station will show up as a Phone etc.
How convenient is that?
You can customize the information at your discretion too! Want to know what percentage of flops a player sees? Just open the Lookup window and click his screen name and it appears in the window along with several other statistical break downs of his play. All of which are completely customizable.
I used this software during a tournament and it provided some very useful information that I was able to benefit from that I just would not have known without it. I also used it in cash games and did well with it too. I usually do well in cash games anyhow but it did take some of the guess work out of a few marginal calls that turned out to be profitable. 
In summary, this is an outstanding product that any regular online player should have in there arsenal. So, how much does it cost? Well, there are 2 versions of this software. The first is the Basic membership for Low Stakes players. This version tracks limit games up to $3/6 and No Limit up to $.50 Big Blinds. Basic Membership costs $9.95 per month. This is a small fee considering that the serious cash game player will make this back in one hand.
The Gold Membership, which covers ALL Tournament and Cash games from the smallest to highest, is $19.95 per Month. A nominal fee for high stakes players earning far more than $19.95 in a single hand. The interface is easy to use and the PE web site has both a video tutorial and instructions that are fairly straight forward to use.
System Requirements: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Here is a brief breakdown of what you get with PokerEdge software:
On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this software an 8.5
Warning: This software is not approved for play on Pokerstars and is on their blacklist!
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 on for 2 weeks. Hand after hand after hand. Soooo very frustrating but I never waivered 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.
Deuces,
CIII
“…the only game I know is Do or Die!”
by Allen Cunningham
In poker, image matters.
Throughout a tournament, your table image will help determine how much action you’ll get and, ultimately, how you can manipulate your opponents into making big calls or big laydowns at the wrong times.
While establishing a loose, aggressive image early on can help build your initial chip stack, I believe it’s important to develop a tight table image in the later stages of a tournament because it gives you the ability to maneuver at the times when the chips matter most.
When the action is folded around, some players will always raise from the cutoff and the button. The problem with this play is that’s its predictable and can be easily exploited. If you always raise from the button, the players in the blinds catch on sooner or later and will put in a big re-raise with any two cards. You will also find players just calling you with a much wider range of hands from the blinds before putting in a big check-raise on the flop.
Why do they do this? Because you have been presenting a loose table image by raising any time the action is passed to you. During late-stage play, this image … continue reading at Full Tilt Poker
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!!!!!!!!
Decues,
CIII
“…the only game I know is DO or DIE!”
One week ago we asked you who your favorite player was. Well, here are the results:
Phil Ivey is the Do or Die Poker Blog readers choice. He won 85% of the votes followed by Doyle Brunson.
You may be familiar with opponent profiles in other ways too. For instance, you can similarly use Phil Hellmuths guide that applies creature-like characters to your opponents such as an eagle or an elephant. I have added a profile to this guide as well called the monkey specifically in mind for certain internet players.
