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Badugi Poker

2008-10-08 00:00:00

This article talks about Badugi Poker - I'm sure you've all seen the "Badugi Coming Soon" in the PokerStars Lobby. I learned that Badugi actually has different hand rankings than normal poker, which is something that threw me for a loop when I tried playing at a home game the other day.

If you read a little down in the article it talks about the hand rankings, and how you can actually end up with a hand between 1 and 4 cards total depending on the suits and cards in your hand. Anyways, I thought it was cool, and now I'm ready to tear up Stars once they release it.

KGC outs UB cheater and no one seems to care

2008-09-30 00:00:00

Recently I met with the new management at UB and I openly wondered why they have not just thrown the cheater under the bus. After all it makes sense that they stand to benefit greatly from doing so.

That of course has not been the desired result at this point. What I think is becoming clear is that there is indeed "new management" at UB and they are trying to put the pieces of this puzzle back together.

Whether it is too late or not is for the customers to decide.

The Collapse of AIG and Poker

2008-09-18 00:00:00

With the recent $85 BILLION (with a B folks!) dollar tax bailout of insurance giant AIG, one has to wonder why the citizens of the US are being forced to bankroll a degenerate poker player like their CEO. If youâ��re wondering where the parallel is consider this: Some of the bets they were making on the sub-prime lending market were 20-1 long shot odds. No different than chasing that long shot draw when the other player is pushing you all, itâ��s a reckless call to make.

When youâ��re playing with backers money (investors) itâ��s that much more sickening to watch. I mean if you back your pal in a poker tournament for $500.00 you at least know heâ��s playing a poker tournament. But you would at least expect to him to not donk off the cash like itâ��s a free roll or play money.

Thatâ��s almost exactly why these morons at AIG did. Against the advice of auditors and even Federal Regulators, who were warning them against this sort of long shot bet, they did it anyway.

And they took one hell of a bad bet doing it. Iâ��m not one for Government poking around in peoples business but this may be one case where a little more Government oversight may have helped prevent the meltdown of a mega-company like AIG.

Gary Wise article on Joe Hachem for ESPN

2008-09-09 00:00:00

Even if Joe can be a douche at the tables his story is quite good and he is undeniably a great player. I enjoyed this article a lot.

A nice summary of Super System: A Course in Power Poker (Doyle Brunson)

2008-08-04 00:00:00

I came across this interesting summary of Doyles book. Sure beats reading the book. More summaries to come I hope.

Bubble play

2008-07-23 00:00:00

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff but still an interesting look at the pyschology of playing an MTT around the bubble stage.

More coverage of UB scandal

2008-07-16 00:00:00

This story has lit up poker forums. Hollywood could not create a script this good. Some very big names in poker have had their names drug through the mud. (Even some little names like mine)

WSOP Event 5: $1000 Rebuy Symphony - Day 1

2008-07-08 00:00:00

The players who played these re-buy event are like cats but with more then â��nine tournament livesâ��, after a fall they go deep in the pockets and stick in the tournament to have another chance at the title. Whenever theyâ��ve lost they bought back in the tournament and whenever they had less of the beginning WSOP Event 5 stack they received through a re-buy the starting chips amount 2000 but only for the first two hours. In those kind of events you need to know from the beginning how muck are you willing to spend on re-buys if you catch a series of bad beats and you go broke. You could say that some poker pro players are so determined to win that they spend lots of money in order to have a chance later on in the tournament and double up. Daniel Negreanu is holding in present the record for the most re-buys in WSOP event with 46 reload times in 2006.

These year the $1000 No-Limit Hold'em w/Re-buys event attracted 766 players and 2.258 re-buys. The price poll will top out at $2.894.094 and the first 72 players will have cash into their pockets: first place will cash $636.736 and the rest of the 71 placeâ��s will win a total $2.237.358.

2008 WSOP event had many pro players like: Gavin Smith, Greg Raymer, Jonny Chan, Mike â��The Mouthâ�� Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren and so on, but some of them where sent home early including Robert Mizrachi, Men Nguyen, Barry Greenstein and before dinner Gavin Smith and Eli Elezra. At the end of the day the leader board still had names like Negreanu, Smith, Ivey, Juanda, Hellmuth and Raymer. Interesting was the fact that after the dinner break was over some great pro poker players were eliminated from the tournament: Jamie Gold, Erick Lindgren and Mike Matusow.

It was a wild tournament with many loose players early for the blind all-in move on multiple hands and many tables with seats opened because of the lack of four, and in some cases, five players during the re-buy period. The top 5 players, at the end, of the day, were: Phil Ivey $175,500 ; Amit Makhija $161,100 ; Jeff Williams $145,700 ; Marco Johnson $132,600 ; Jesse Chinni $129,000. A great presence was Phil Hellmuth because he spread his frustration through all the players from his table and made his usual poker symphony: â��Iâ��m raising every, pot.â��, â��Who do you think youâ��re playing?â��, â��Iâ��m one of the top players, good luck bluffing me.â�� , to put allot of pressure on his table.

3-Betting in Poker

2008-07-05 00:00:00

Introduction To 3-Betting In No-Limit Holdem

In No-Limit Holdem the term â��3-betting' describes re-raising a raiser before the flop. There are three main reasons for doing this - to get more money into the pot with the best hand, to win the pot immediately by getting your opponent (or opponents) to fold or to isolate a weak opponent with the intention of out playing them later in the hand.

This article will look at the fundamentals of 3-Betting in NL Holdem poker cash games, we will start by looking at the 3 reasons outlined above. Factors which affect the size of these 3-bets will be examined next. Finally adjustments based on the tendencies of opponents, including their perception of you, will be discussed.

Read more:

"Raise" and Walk!

2008-07-03 00:00:00

The most important thing for a poker player who wants to become a professional poker player is self â�� control. But, there are many of good players that failed to do so even if the theory from the book is well known by them. I believe that the need for revenge and to be able to take back the money that are yours is a factor who increase the hate feeling and indirectly the tilt mode.

When players are in tilt they tent to be very aggressive with poor cards and some times they just not realize this factor. Itâ��s like the stock market, when your stockâ��s decrease and you expect them to double in a very short time but 90 % of the time it doesnâ��t. For me is very hard, even if Iâ��m self aware of my poor poker decisions after a number of two or higher bad beats on ring tables. I know the theory, Iâ��m aware of the fact that if Iâ��m not gone stop playing I will lose all my bankroll, but sometimes I have trouble to just quit the game for a while.

Why? Well just because I need to demonstrate myself that my poker skills are better then my opponent, because I want to recover my money and show him that in the long run Iâ��m a good poker player with the knowledge and patience to be able to win at the end. A good poker player after a major bad beat leaves the table and take a short brake in order to put his thoughts back in line. Even if I know that Iâ��m facing a fish is a little bit tricky to push the poker hands to extreme (loose aggressive), because I might get caught bluffing even if my opponent has nothing but a king high card and because of his inexperienced play that forced him to pay all my raises blindly.

The bankroll is important, Iâ��m like a father to my money and because of that I need to protect them. How do I protect them? Itâ��s simple: when I loose I just take a break (even a day or two), and if I win I try to play as much as I can keep my concentration awake.

Not 1 but 2 WSOP Wins for John Phan

2008-06-25 00:00:00

John â��the Razorâ�� Phan got his first taste of what a WSOP bracelet winner feels like in last weekâ��s $3,000 No Limit Holdâ��em event and he could not wait to feel that way once again. John Phan won his second WSOP bracelet yesterday in the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Low Ball (Event #40).

John Bon Phan is no stranger to poker success, having 92 total cashes, 15 1st place finishes, and almost $4 Million in lifetime earnings as a professional poker player. In the 2-7 Triple Draw event, Phan overcame a large chip deficit and a verbal fight involving Gioi Luong.

Andrew Robl's condo (Good2CU online)

2008-06-23 00:00:00

Fairly entertaining video of an internet baller.

10 Steps of Poker Hand Analysis

2008-06-19 00:00:00

Experience is a great teacher, but it is not the only one. Most good poker players did not get that way simply by playing. Reading strategy books and articles, discussing play with others (preferably good players), and carefully analyzing hands youâ��ve played, are just a few of the ways to improve your poker game.

Analyzing Poker Hands

Analyzing a poker hand is not necessarily a simple task, but like everything else, it becomes easier with a little experience. On the basic level, if you have Ah Kh on a board of QdQcJdJs10d, you could say wow, a straight, and go crazy, but the simple truth is that on that board, a flush, a full house, quads, and even a royal flush are easy to make, and you are probably behind here.

Year of the Pro?

2008-06-18 00:00:00

Many poker blogs and poker sites are going around touting this as the year of the pro at the WSOP as if they are suprised. Come on...

Phil Ivey's life does not suck

2008-06-13 00:00:00

Poker Road is doing a great job following Phil Ivey around at the WSOP. The High Stakes Dice episode is probably the best.

Most of them are good though, Phil is like a baller magnet. He sits down and four ballers just magically show up. If you have nothing to do for the next two hours trust me, this is how you should fill it.

Grundy is hilarious

2008-06-12 00:00:00

I definitely need to work on my blogroll because this is a blogger I read often and it is normally some of the better stuff on the internet. His twitter posts are some of the funniest I receive from anyone. You might have to cut and paste his address, if you use twitter following Grundy will brighten your day. http://twitter.com/Grundy

Understanding Straight Draws in Pot Limit Omaha (PLO Outs)

2008-06-11 00:00:00

Analysis of Pot Limit Omaha Outs

With four hole cards in every hand, making the equivalent of six Holdâ��em starting hands, the hand values in Pot Limit Omaha tend to run big. Most hands are won with straights or better, so a thorough study of the straight draws is important in mastering Omaha. Given the large pots created by the pot-limit betting format, nailing down the straight draws is crucial.

Whenever the board does not contain a pair or three cards to a flush, the best possible hand is almost always a straight. In fact, only a non-paired, non-flushed board like AK982 or AJ964 does not lend itself to a straight being the nuts. In those relatively rare cases, top set is the nuts, which shows the value in playing high pairs (which can also make top full house).

How to get the action back online

2008-06-08 00:00:00

I have been playing poker for almost 20 years. 15 of those years I have played it as a fairly passionate hobby and in the last 5 years poker has provided me a very good income. In the 15 years I have played seriously (meaning had some idea of pot odds and such) the game has changed quite a bit. For instance, it might surprise a lot of people that No Limit was not the most popular game even say 7 years ago. Limit Holdem was and 7 stud was not far behind. Tournament poker almost did not exist. The games I played in ebbed and flowed but right before the recent poker boom the games were relatively tough. Lot's of guys that had some idea, played premium hands and played those aggressively. The sophistication back then was not as high as it is now but it existed.

6 player tables did not exist. One of the first things I had to learn as an online player was to play short handed. It did not take me very long but those lessons certainly came with a price. The only thing was if I did not learn how to play short handed I had no future in poker.

So that is why I suggested recently when I was asked what can be done to get back some of the action that has been lost since the UIEGA bill was signed that cardrooms experiment with the blind structure. Personally I like the idea of antes more than anything. For instance $5-$10 with a $2 ante at a six handed table puts $27 in the pot preflop for players to fight over. As most people know if you do not have antes or blinds there is no point in playing anything less than AA or KK, so it is the antes and blinds that causes the action. Therefore, if you want to increase the action change the blind structure. Frankly I have no idea why this does not already exist somewhere, it only seems logical at this point that there should be a card room looking for something to differentiate themselves. This is as good as any.

The other option is forced straddle games, or three blind games. As a for instance $5-$10 would now become $2.50-$5-$10. Now I am not suggesting that they do this for all of the tables, I am only suggesting that they do it for some. When it was played in the past No Limit Hold em was often played with 3 blinds. There is also a variant called the Mississippi Straddle (which is most often used playing PLO) where the button is the straddle, in that instance $5-$10 becomes $5-$10 and then $20 on the button. I am not sure of the logic of giving the button even more power and I think over time these games would tend to get a little nitty but if the players would play them I do not see why they should not be offered.

Has Anti-Absolute / UB Sentiment Gone Too Far?

2008-06-07 00:00:00

Interesting slant on the cheating scandal with some excellent well-thought out comments after the article making it a good read.

Rizen and JohnnyBax Sign Over Their Souls

2008-06-06 00:00:00

Two of the biggest online poker players have signed over their souls to the devil this week. Both Eric â��Rizenâ�� Lynch and Cliff â��JohnnyBaxâ�� Josephy have inked deals with the site most hated by the poker community right now: Ultimate Bet....