advanced poker play

Introduction

Poker fans will be relieved to hear that all’s well on the World Poker Tour at present with the latest tournament, the WPT Classic, taking place at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. 72 players started out and on day 5 we’re down to 6, battling it out for the $1.8 million 1^st prize – not bad for so early in the year?

Who’ll be in the final?

Going in to day 5 Carlos Mortensen held the big stack of nearly 1.7 million chips, having tripled it late on in the session with some big hitting poker plays.  Most of the 22 staring the day were males but it was good to see Mari Lou Morelli mid-stacked with 456,000 chips and old favourite Annie Duke hanging in at 21^st with 241,000 chips; whilst the short stack was John Cautela on just 219,000. But for me the poker player to watch at the start of play was Tri Huynh with just short of a million chips. In the end Annie Duke just failed to make it to the final two tables going out in 19^th place with $45,773 in prize money.  In the small blind she had to go all-in with her by then 80,000 chips holding Ah and 8c, the river showed a J, 7, 2 and two 3s giving Tim Begley the hand having a pair of 4s in the hole. Tim was then denied a place on the last poker table of the day, when his pair of Queens were topped by a pair of aces and tens from Tri. Three more players left before the end of the days play, leaving a final day’s table of 6.

At the final table

So, who might emerge champion at the end of that final table? Well despite being in the lead at the end of day 4 not Carlos, who went out in 9^th place with prize money of just over $100,000. Short stack is Michael Kamran on 680,000, but the leading poker player is way out in front with 4,995,000 chips – Andras Koroknai, who’s 1.5 million chips up on second place Raymond Dolan. However, don’t give up yet on WPT newcomer Tri, who is in third place albeit with about half the poker chips that Andras has.

Introduction

February 14^th could just pose a problem for some of you St Valentine’s Day lovers out there this year, the question is quite simple really – who do you love more your partner or your poker? OK, so why might you have to decide between your poker and your partner this year, after all St Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, what could possibly keep you away form your partner?

High Stakes Returns

Well the dilemma you might be facing is that GSN starts the new season of High Stakes Poker on Sunday 14^th February. With a line up already set to include big name poker players like Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu – competing in games with eye-watering $200,000 buy-ins, you might just struggle as to where your love truly is. No problem you might think, what time does it start and ill work around that. Well, unfortunately no matter whether you were thinking of whisking her, or indeed him, of out for a romantic lunch or dinner -you’ll have to miss some of the action. Starting at 12pm (ET) there’ll be an eight hour “I love poker” marathon with the main event, “High stakes poker”, beginning at 8pm (ET). Either ways you’ll look pretty well stressed to go out for a meal, get some love-making in and watch all the great poker action.

Problem – what problem?

No worries if you can’t be with a loved one this Valentine’s day as instead you can use presenters Gabe Kaplan and the lovely Kara Scott, a European poker player and TV presenter as eye-candy. Based at the fabulous Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Kara will be providing the feedback from the High Stakes poker table, taking us through all the big plays and table goings-on. There’ll also be regular spots with players talking about their strategies and approach to playing poker in these sort of high pressure games. Another potential problem solver is that the programs are currently scheduled for repeats at 11pm Sundays and  2am Monday mornings – so I guess if you haven’t got work in the morning you’ve an opportunity to catch up with the action, when the smooching action’s over.

Introduction

We all know it’s been some time now since you needed to be sat at home in front of your PC to play an online poker game, so long was you had a web enabled cell phone – you could be playing internet poker anywhere and anytime. The great news at the start of this year is that the WSOP Hold ‘em Legends game is now available on everyone’s favorite cell phone – the iPhone.

What’s on offer

In a nutshell you can enter any of the 25 various cash games and tournaments; that are set in seven different venues including places like Caesars Palace and the Rio Las Vegas. However, don’t think you’ll have to be playing alone like many cell phone poker video games – as you can select a multi-player function whenever you have a good internet signal. Also, don’t worry if you’re in an environment with a poor internet signal, as you can even play heads-up using a Bluetooth connection with a particular friend on a peer-to-peer basis. Having registered your user/player name and initiated an avatar you can go straight to one of the local-pub, $1 – $2, cash games with your ‘start-up’ $100 bankroll. When you’ve built your bankroll up to four or five hundred then you can start to move up through the Legends games with ever increasing buy-ins. Make it to the final and you’ll be sitting at a $250k Main Event two table tournament.

Poker on the iPhone

Needless to say playing poker on an iPhone is simplicity itself. The touch-screen means you can move your chips around as easily as if you were sliding them over a real poker table and all the on-screen operations are highly intuitive, for example to fold simply slide your cards into the muck area. If watching the whole of a game play out is just too time consuming for you, simply tap the screen and the game will fast forward to its conclusion. Now that Google have finally launched their Nexus cell phone – let’s hope we can soon get some decent competition going as to who offers the best mobile poker games.

Introduction

It is a well established fact that most if the top professional poker players, at some time or other, show up at the PokerStars online poker tables to play cash games and tournaments. Most often they’re only interested in playing the really high stakes games and will usually end up in games against themselves or the high rolling online celebrity poker players. Well, all through December everyone has the opportunity to sit at an online poker table and ‘play the stars’.

Terrific Tuesdays

In a move that PokerStars will hopefully try and retain or at least re-introduce throughout the year, every Tuesday throughout December you can log to poker games at PokerStars – and you could just find yourself playing a poker table with Daniel Negreanu or Peter Eastgate etc. Even better, if you don’t want to play them online they’ll be available to chat with you online or you can just watch them playing poker online – and be treated to a true master class for free. A Christmas treat for all poker fans if ever there was one, especially for those that can grab a few days off over the Christmas period to really get some serious poker playing in at the poker websites.

Fancy your chances?

If you do fancy your chances against a poker pro then the buy-ins are as low as $11 with $1000 being added to the prize pool. To play, you’ll need to be online any time from 12:00 ET on the December Tuesdays. There are some special Team Pro Tuesday tournaments – Outlast the Pro – that will start at 13:00 and 20:00 ET, prompt each Tuesday until December 29^th. Quite simply, if you stay in the tournament longer that the pro, you get to split the remaining cash with the other players still in it. All entry details can be found at the PokerStars website. Also, look out for the Freeroll Fantasy Satellites that are qualifiers for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the New Year.

Introduction

Rather disappointingly we will be entering the New Year without a final resolution to the on-going problem just how legal is online poker in the USA. Until the decision from Congress is made all of us internet poker players are still pretty well in a state of limbo, whereby we can continue to play online poker – only because the authorities have no real appetite to test it out in the courts. One of the key points surrounding this debate is, of course, the old chestnut of whether poker is a game of skill or mere chance?

Comparing poker with other card games

The single biggest problem for poker being seen as a game of skill is that it is all too easily associated with casinos and casino card games. This immediately sets up a barrier between poker players and the rest of the population, who can only see casinos as dens of vice and trickery. Leaving aside the fact that all too often those who are against legally opening up online poker to the nation have never played the game or been inside a casino, it isn’t just online poker that they want to ban – but all online card games. That is, all online card games that you’d normally associate with casinos – but not strangely gin rummy or bridge. Now then, correct me if I’m wrong but how often are they played in casinos? Quite simply they aren’t, but they are played in the genteel and middle-class homes all over the States. Those two card games are determined to be games of skill, and there’s no argument here about that. But, why is poker discriminated against just because it is played in casinos? You can’t really argue that a casino card game like Blackjack really is a game of chance – but poker?

The skill in poker

A key fact as to why poker should be seen as a game of skill is that even in a casino the ‘house’ doesn’t share in the winnings. The ‘house’ is simply paid a buy-in fee for each round thereafter both the house and the dealer have no interest in who wins what and, most significantly, the house or its dealer cannot win from the table. In that circumstance alone, a poker game is entirely between the people playing the game who have the sole interest in its outcome. Secondly the very rules that govern poker gives all the players around the poker table with a statistically equal chance of winning before the flop. Thirdly and finally for now, poker is a game that not only requires skill but skills that are used alongside a strategy, making it more like chess and bridge, than a mere game of chance. If that were not the case, and all was just down to pure chance, then why hasn’t a rookie yet won the WSOP?

Introduction

Despite the virtual flop of NBC’s “Face the Ace” poker TV show earlier this year another new poker show will be hitting our screens in the New Year. Provisionally titled “Shuffle up and deal” the new poker TV show will be airing in 2010 through MyNetworkTV, which is part of the Fox Entertainment Group, which in turn is controlled by the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Mike Sexton

Despite the millions of people who play online poker and at regular poker tables, TV poker shows have failed to capture the imagination of the viewing public and so it can only be hoped that this new poker show can find the magic formula to keep the viewers tuned in and wanting to follow it week by week. With Mike Sexton lined up to host the show it will certainly be led by someone with the gravitas to quickly establish that ‘Shuffle up and deal’ is a serious contender for being a long running poker show. Mike is, after all, not only a respected journeyman poker pro but one of the great promoters of the game and is universally accepted as being an ambassador for poker internationally.

The show’s format

The format for ‘Shuffle up and deal’ is that amateur poker players select poker cards from a display to make up the best five card poker hand possible. The winners of each round then get to play for a jackpot, which is reportedly starting at $250,000. The intention is to try and pick up casual viewers by using such a quick and easy to follow format, which for the general viewer and non-poker playing public will virtually amount to a sort of ‘pick-a-card’ format. At first glance this seems reasonable enough given that the satellite channel is available to around 50 million homes.  However, it will remain to be seen if poker enthusiasts find there is enough of a sense of strategy about it, to keep them away from their own favorite internet poker games.

Introduction

One week after Joe Cada won the 2009 WSOP comes the news that Patrik Antonius has made a record online win for playing internet poker. The biggest win in online poker history came during an all-Scandinavian match between the Finn and the mystery Swedish online poker player ‘Isildur1′, who had himself previously taken apart top pro poker player Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan.

The game

The game being played in this historic poker match was heads-up pot-limit Omaha, at $500 and $1000. Until the identity of Isildur1 can be found out we can only presume he, or she, is one well heeled amateur as before long the pot had reached a six figure sum. The all important hand came when both players had stacks around $450k, with Isildur1 having the slightly bigger one by about $10,000. On the turn both players had pairs of Queens and pairs of Aces, but isildur1 was better placed also holding a King, whilst Patrick had a 6, 9, Q and A as his hole cards, with 5, 7, Q and A on the table. Whether an inspired guess or truly top-class poker play, Patrik went all in and forced Isildur1 to call, creating, at $878,958.50, the then world record online poker pot.

The river

When the river card was turned over the 8 of diamonds was revealed, giving Patrik the Straight and the pot. How long this new record will stand can only be guessed at, but the way Patrik is playing online at present – don’t be surprised if he surpasses even this big win soon. I don’t know what resources Isildur1 has at his/her disposal, but the pair of them were immediately back at it with Patrik quickly sitting on $1.575 million! Patrik, already the number 1 all-time money winning Finnish poker player, now has another title to add to his CV and quite a handy addition to his $3+ million poker winnings since 2002.

Introduction

This week-end, Saturday November 7^th, sees the return of the 2009 World Series of Poker tournament – along with the usual cast of stellar poker players. Top of the list at present is Darvin Moon with his record stack of 58,930,000 chips; however, and as we all know, starting off with the biggest chip stack isn’t necessarily a recipe for success. The eventual winner of the WSOP this year will net around $8.5 million as well as the coveted 2009 WSOP winner’s bracelet.

Also in the field

Also in the field are top caliber and favorite players like Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman, although Phil Ivey finds himself back in seventh stack position with a paltry 9,200,000 chips compared to Darvin’s massive stack. However, Jeff Shulman is ’sitting pretty’ in fourth place with 19,580,000 chips in his stack. Eric Buchman and Steven Begleiter occupy second and third positions behind Darvin. James Akenhead is last in the field with a short stack of 6,800,000 chips.

Amateur or Pro to win?

Just how long this might last if he should win we don’t know, but Darvin considers himself to be an amateur poker player who is merely “riding his luck”. Well if you call making nearly 59 million chips luck – then I guess you’ve got to bet against him finally emerging with the title; however, if he has any ’spare luck’ like that going I for one would be a grateful recipient! Another amateur in the mix is third placed Steve Begleiter, no stranger himself to sitting at the ‘top poker table‘, it is not beyond possibility that Steve could win this poker tournament and yet remain the true amateur. After all Stearns & Co. salaries can make even a big poker win look pretty small fry! Conversely you can never rule out the top pros. So expect Phil, Eric and Jeff to be in at least the final half of the end games, if not in the final mix of this $10,000 buy-in Main Event.

Introduction

Everyone loves a tweet – and poker players are no different to anyone else. So it should come as little surprise that there are now several great poker tweets available for you to both enjoy and keep abreast of all the latest poker news. With a maximum of 140 characters per message twitter is fast and simple to use for both the sender and the receiver whether conveying information about a poker celebrity, tournaments, gossip or even online poker games.

Big Poker Twitters

Currently top of the poker twitters is Joe Sebok, @JoeSebok, not one of the greatest poker professionals you’re likely to have heard of with his best claim to fame so far being making the 2006 WSOP finals table, but, perhaps because he’s one of the younger generation of poker players being just 32 years old, his tweets always seem to hit the spot when it comes to being first with the best poker news and plays. Joe currently has some 950,000 followers.  Perhaps less surprising is that one of the doyen’s of the poker game, Doyle Brunson, has around 100,000 followers of his tweets as @TexDolly.  Tex is probably better known for his amusing asides about the poker game – not to mention his inevitable ‘blondes’ jokes.

Other poker tweets to watch out for

Poker players seem to have been a bit slow to catch on to the power of tweeting for promoting themselves and the internet poker games they endorse. However, other poker tweets to watch out for include: @basebaldy from Eric Baldwin. A WSOP bracelet winner his tweets tend to concentrate on his own play, but do also include comments on funnier moments he encounters during his play. However, if you want a poker tweet with real authority try @Erik_Seidel.  Eight times WSOP bracelet winner Erik has over 4000 followers of his dry poker humor. If you fancy some female poker twittering then there’s always @Maridu from Maria Mayrink whose tweets include the almost philosophical “i long for a world where chickens can cross roads without being questioned about their motives …”.

Introduction

Whilst looking around at the poker news this week it struck me that perhaps some of the pundits who have been saying there’s too much poker in the media at present might just be right. Whilst we’re all waiting for the WPT to resume in the USA in November, the attention in terms of poker tournaments has undoubtedly moved over to Europe during the Fall. To a casual observer of poker in the USA media this could give the impression that all is quiet on the poker front – not so it’s actually just as frantic as ‘the western front’!

Poker in London for example

Last week, Friday to be precise, saw the culmination of the WSOPE Main Event in London, UK, with a $1.25 million first prize and a bracelet. Great – no problem with that, after all the top poker professionals need to carry on earning a living and, why not, have a break in Europe into the bargain. The WSOPE Main Event attracted players of the caliber of Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu, not to mention the eventual winner Jeff Shulman. However, having concentrated that hard on the WSOPE event I’d forgotten that a European Poker Tour event reached its climax also in London, and had been running concurrently with the WSOPE event, ending just a few days later this week. With a similar level of prize money, the EPT event had also attracted top players like Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein from our side of the pond.

Spread the poker tournaments out

Now I’m all for there being lots of poker tournaments for us to follow either through poker websites or on TV, but quite simply the coverage given to the WSOPE completely swamped any that the EPT might have been given, or possibly even deserved. However, surely the point here is that we poker fans would prefer to have a more evenly spread distribution of the top poker tournaments giving us something to look forward to at different times of the year. So come on the International Poker Federation and the World Poker Association – how about getting together and working out some more sensible scheduling for all the various poker tournaments?