Poker Strategy
Monday, March 23, 2009 - John Greene
Let’s talk about an unpleasant fact that most poker players are going to have to deal with at some time or another: sometimes, you shouldn’t play. Whether it’s mere tiredness, a run of bad luck that has you spooked, or even that thing none of us want to discuss – old age – sometimes you need to take a step back and let yourself recharge. This is especially important in the weeks leading up to the WSOP and other big tournaments, where you can burn yourself out without even realizing it.
So, let’s say you self-diagnose and decide you need some time away from the poker tables – what can you do to get your edge back? Get yourself a Nintendo DS. No, I am not making this up. Yes, I know how crazy it sounds, but the DS has a plethora of games that can help you rebuild your reflexes and memory skills in a low-stress environment that doesn’t involve putting thousands of dollars on the rail and looking over your glasses at someone else.
The Brain Age series of memory, concentration, and math is the most famous, and for good reason. Using the built-in tutorial, you create a personal regimen of math, geometry, and reading tutorials that build up your retention and processing ability on the fly. When I first started playing the game (after a particularly disastrous wipeout in a tournament series that shall go unnamed,) my “brain age” was fifteen years older than I actually am. After a couple of weeks using the original Brain Age game every morning after breakfast, I got my cognitive skills down to that of a teenager, and we know how devious and tricky they can all be.
Much sillier but no less valuable is Elite Beat Agents, in which you help a group of dancing and singing superstars bring joy and harmony to the world using the DS’s stylus. No, I am not making this up. The little plastic pen with the Ds allows you to tap, drag, and spin various controllers on the game’s touch screen in time to the game’s music and what starts off as a pretty simple timing exercise becomes a real workout of your reflexes in the final levels, even on the easiest settings.
Then there’s Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which I’ve now claimed as my planes-and-trains game of choice. No, it has no redeeming qualities, but getting to explore Liberty City and deal drugs out of the back of a van from a device that fits into my pocket is amusing as all get out. I just have to make sure I have the Crosswords game cart nearby so the better half doesn’t call me out on my “therapy.”
So, the next time you’re experiencing table burnout, maybe it’s time to focus on another type of game for a while. I’ve found that it helps tremendously, but you don’t have to take my word on it. Try it out yourself!
Tags: brain age, elite beat agents, grand theft auto, nintendo DS, Poker Poker Poker, video games
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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - smokin_aces
Last Wednesday, DENERODAY won the Ultimate Bet Blog Tournament. We asked him to share his thoughts on his preparation for the Sunday 200K (first prize for the Blog Tournament was a seat at the 200K) His original post is here.
“Well here we are two days before the 200K! Sense last weeks Blog tournament I haven’t had much time for poker, only playing in a couple tournaments. Saturday will be my day to bone up on my play. I already have myself signed up for two $100 and one $1000 tournament and intend to play each as if it was the 200K. I consider myself a fairly tight, passively aggressive player. In the past I played alot of Lowball (5 card draw low) and this tought me alot of patience. All I can do is play my best game and hope that “OLD MAN RIVER ISN’T AGAINST ME”. You all know what I mean, flop the best, make your move, get called by second best and watch him take you down on the river. I never hold this against a player because I usually make them really pay to make that draw. Well we’ll see how it goes and I will be back to hopefully report some good news.”
Good luck DENERODAY!
Tags: blog, blog tournament, DENERODAY, Poker Strategy, Sunday 200K
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Saturday, February 21, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
When the dust settled after the preliminary four tables, there were twenty-one contestants left on the show. Now it was up to Phil and Annie to draft nine players each for their team. Standing there for the draft in front of the cameras and bright lights was pretty intense. Plus, I was having flashbacks to last season when a number of contestants were called by name, jumped for joy, and then later found out that they were in the group being cut. Did it make good TV? Yes. Was it cruel? Maybe. Did it have me on edge? Definitely. So I stood there keen to spot any “Survivor” twists that might be coming.
Starting off the draft, one player was singled out as having played the best in the prelims. This player received all kinds of gushing comments, but neither Phil nor Annie said the player’s name for a while. I’m sure each of the contestants, myself included, was hoping deep inside that they would be that player. But because “being the best” wasn’t really my strategy for round one, I knew it wasn’t me. Finally, Annie Duke revealed the identity of this player with her first pick – Darryl.
Phil made his first pick next. I really wasn’t expecting Phil to pick me high in the draft for one reason. The day before the prelims started PokerH0 came to me with an odd proposition: basically he wanted me to be a sleeper agent for Team Hellmuth. He proposed that I play “mediocre” or even outright bad so that Annie wouldn’t draft me. Meanwhile, Phil could draft me lower and use his upper picks to take players from Annie’s top tier. Because he had played with me a lot before, H0 said that I would be a near lock to make Phil’s final three. Very sneaky. It also gives you an idea of just how bad these two coaching teams wanted to win. Annie and I had never played together live or online, but Shawn Rice and I had several hours together during a WPT event and knew each other a little from online. Because Rice knew me, I doubted whether the plan would work and I told H0 that I just couldn’t go out on national TV and intentionally make myself look like a donkey (looking like a donkey unintentionally was still a very viable option of course!). In any event, Phil chose “ShipItMuppet,” a long-time UB grinder as his top pick.
When Shaundle and Jason were the number two picks for Annie and Phil respectively, I can honestly say I was getting nervous. Unless I went to Phil’s team, I figured I needed a reasonably high draft pick to make the final table. For her third pick, Annie started off by saying she was going with a player who she thought was probably an “unrecognized talent” and that it was very close between this pick and Shaundle. To me, this sounded like the Darryl build up all over again. And I was mentally prepared not to hear my name. So, when she picked me third I was pretty friggin’ psyched. You can see my excitement on the show. It was such a relief to go in the top three because I now felt like the spot on the final table was mine to lose. But as the first semifinal match would show, I had no reason to feel so safe.
The structure for the semifinals was the same as the prelims – 10k in chips, one player from each team would be eliminated and the table winner had immunity. On top of that, we were playing for team points that would affect starting stacks at the final table. The final table starting stack was going to be 100k. But whichever team won the semis would get 10k off the losing teams stack (so the starting stacks would be 90k vs 110k). This was huge. And just to make it more cutthroat, each semifinal table winner would also get $1000 cash.
The first semi table was full of surprises. Annie’s team consisted of Darryl, Niago and Patrick. Darryl lost a race early to Muppet. Patrick played great poker but couldn’t outlast Niago, who won the table. So the first shocker of the show came when Annie was faced with the decision of whether to cut Darryl (who probably was the most experienced player at the table with the most lifetime winnings) or Patrick (who played a solid error-free table). I think in Annie’s mind, fairness ultimately won out and Darryl was cut. This was both good news and bad news for me. First, it effectively meant I moved up to the number two spot on Team Duke. Second, the Niago-Patrick one-two finish staked us to a healthy point lead. The bad part was that it showed me just how easy it would be to take a “bad beat” here and be off the show.
The second semi table was a disaster for Team Duke. My teammates were the first three busted. Now it was Team Duke that faced the huge point deficit going into the third and last semifinal table. Specifically, we needed to bust two of Phil’s players in 6th and 5th or else Team Hellmuth was guaranteed the chip lead on the final table. Even if we busted two of Phil’s players first, Team Hellmuth would still get the chip lead if his remaining player won the table. The table lineup was like this:
Seat 1 – Me (Team Duke)
Seat 2 – David (Team Hellmuth) – a very talented and successful on-line cash player. Perhaps his most impressive claim to fame is being a lifetime winner in heads up cash games against Tom “drrrrr” Dwan.
Seat 3 – SassyTexan (Team Duke) – Tight, aggressive and solid. Sassy was at my prelim table and when Annie gave me my choice for a table mate, Sassy was my first pick. I knew her solid play would keep the two of us from getting mixed up in any needless confrontations.
Seat 4 – Brad (Team Hellmuth) – my first impression was that he could be pretty wild.
Seat 5 – Jon (Team Duke) – probably the most inexperienced player in the field. Like Brad, I expected him to be unpredictable.
Seat 6 – Jason (Team Hellmuth) – another talented young on-line phenom. Jason is routinely ranked in the top 100 for on-line multi-table tournaments. He would be aggressive and the most dangerous. Fortunately, I would have position on him.
The first hand of the table really affected my strategy for the whole tournament. Brad raised from the button, Jon min raised from the blind and Brad put in a fourth bet that was just barely above a min raise. Jon called. The flop came down three baby cards with two diamonds. Jon check folded to a half-pot cbet from Brad. From the outside, it looked like Jon had a weak ace, maybe AJ to A8, that missed and Brad probably had a reasonable overpair or a big ace. As it turns out, Jon had the AQ of diamonds and Brad had tens. I probably wouldn’t have thought about the hand again, but I got called into the coach’s booth before the button orbited the table again.
The hand before I got summoned to the booth, I flopped bottom two pair in a multi-way pot between Jason, myself and Brad. Jason had top pair (queen) with a weak kicker and we went to war on the turn. Jason made three queens on the river and checked to me. Being counterfeited on the river, I knew the only way to win was to bet. Jason made the easy call and I tabled my “busted monster” and read the hand out loud as “queens and eights.” I congratulated Jason on his nice suckout and he got defensive, insisting that his queen on the flop was ahead of my eights. He missed the fact that I had flopped two pair. This started a lot of sarcasm and ball busting from me. I had just asked Jason if a pair of queens beats two pair in his home game when I was summoned to the coach’s booth.
In the coach’s booth Annie asked me to go back to the table and talk about a hand from the prelims where Jason got all in with two over cards and a flush draw versus a pair. She wasn’t allowed to tell me what cards other players had during the semi table. But as we had only played a few hands, only one of which had significant action. I was able to deduce that Jon had a hand like AK or AQ of diamonds on the first hand. This revelation was edited out of the show as aired. But knowing this fact changed my approach to the game. Jon had clearly made a huge error. Barring a brain fart by Sassy or myself, Jon would probably be Annie’s choice for elimination. Combine this with the elimination of Darryl in the first match and the performance of Team Duke’s players on the second table and I figured that my spot on the final table was nearly assured. This pushed my strategy back toward the style I employed during the preliminaries, but Annie also told me to take some more risks because Phil’s players were “playing scared.”
Throughout the semifinal table I never held a pair – not even deuces. Nevertheless, I cultivated a tight image, won a lot of pots with well timed bluffs and reraises and only had to show down two more hands during the whole match.
The first elimination of the match came when Jason raised from early position. I held KQ in the cutoff. Normally I would consider playing here, but David was on my left (on the button) and had checked his hole cards already. When he checked them, his posture changed ever so slightly. He leaned forward a bit, which I interpreted as he had a hand. I didn’t want to get caught between two of Phil’s players in a situation where I might be dominated so I bowed out. As it turns out, David’s suited Ace-Ten caught top pair, but got busted by Jason’s top two pair.
The big hand that made the show for me was when Jon opened in early position with KK five-handed and I had AK in the blind. I had a stack size of about 15 big blinds. This is a good size stack to reraise with. With that in mind, had this been a regular online SNG, I would have moved all in 100% of the time. And after sitting there for over an hour without a pair, AK looked like the nuts to me. But two things made me go with a different line. The first was my read on Jon. As soon as he checked his hole cards his demeanor changed. On the show that aired you can see his head rolling around on his shoulders like a Stevie Wonder bobble head doll. He was suddenly very relaxed and excited, but trying to hide it. Everything pointed to him having a HUGE hand. Based on my read, he had QQ at a minimum. The second thing that made a reraise my less favored move was that, this being team play, I didn’t want to bust Jon at this point, or worse, get busted by him. I couldn’t be sure that he would fold 99 in this spot.
Taking all that into account, I almost folded preflop. And based solely on my read, had Phil and Annie NOT been watching my hole cards, I probably would have folded. Ultimately I decided that the problem with folding was that if my read was wrong, I would have played AK like a total rube and Annie might cut me based solely on this play. Also, I felt like there was little chance of Jon bluffing me on the flop if he had a hand like AJ or AQ and if an ace hit, I could just open-shove – thereby letting him know that I’ve got a real hand. As it turned out, I blanked the flop and checked folded to Jon’s all-in bet.
But this hand also highlights two of my strategies for any poker game, particularly hold ‘em. The first is when to look at your hole cards. There are a lot of theories out there. Some very good players like Chris Ferguson suggest waiting until it is your turn to act. I used to do this, but think it is probably not the best plan. By waiting until the action is on you to look at your cards, you not only slow down the game, but you also ensure that almost everyone is looking at you when you do check your cards. That’s bad. Most players give up tells (1) when they first look at their cards (2) when they make a bet and (3) when they face action from an opponent. You can’t avoid all eyes being on you when you bet. And if you are heads up, your opponent, if she’s good, will certainly be watching you in the third scenario. So why draw attention to yourself in the one scenario you control: when you look at your hole cards for the first time?
Therefore, one of the things I like to do is look at my hole cards when no one is looking at me. Even when I’m under the gun I usually look at my first card before my second even arrives because players are usually watching the dealer pitch cards to them instead. Just knowing the rank of my first card under the gun vastly narrows my probable plays. Preferably, I look at my cards while the action is at the opposite end of the table. If timed right, I only miss one player checking his cards while I check mine. All things being equal, I’ll try to time my peek with the tightest player at the table. If he raises, I don’t need any tells. I know he has a hand. Besides hiding inadvertent tells from opponents, this has the added benefit of allowing me to prepare myself for how I want to act when the action is on me.
I will often recheck my hole cards when the action comes to me. But I will never show genuine surprise or excitement when I look down at AA or KK. The reason is I checked my cards earlier and I’ve been preparing myself for several seconds for how I want to look when I check the second time. So now I can try to give a false tell if I want to.
Case in point, on the show when I had the AK, the action was on me but I was staring at Jason for some time while I thought about what line to take. Once I knew I was going to call, I pretended to ask the dealer if the action was on me. Then I acted sheepish, like I just realized the table had been waiting on me, checked my hole cards (for a second time) and nonchalantly called Jon’s raise. If you watch the show closely, you can pick up on it.
The second strategy this hand highlights is that you have to constantly reevaluate your options. When I first saw I had AK, no one had acted yet. Like I said, given my drought of hands and my stack size, I was hoping someone would raise just so I could autoshove. When Jon raised, I had to reevaluate based on my read. And even after that, I had to reevaluate the whole scenario based on the team aspect of the game. After each evaluation, my plan changed. I went from shove, to fold, to call.
Ultimately, Brad went out 5th. Jason would later lose a heads up battle with Jon when Jon’s AQ sucked out on Jason’s AK all in preflop. The end result was a final table where each player would start with 100k in chips. Without giving too much away, the final table was crazy. There was some great poker. Some amusing hi jinks. And some bold bluffs that really blew up. So be sure to tune in!
Tags: bestdamnpokershow, players, poker media, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Strategy, VIP
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Saturday, February 7, 2009 - Phil Hellmuth
Plenty of history and prestige were at stake at the World Poker Tour’s no-limit Hold’em Championship at the Bellagio in December 2004, not to mention a first-place prize of $1.8 million dollars. On the third day of the five-day marathon tournament, the following hand came up between Player X (an amateur) and me.
Everyone had been randomly reshuffled to new tables at the $15,000 buy-in event, with 45 players remaining (out of 400 entrants). With the blinds (required bets) at $3,000-$6,000 and a $500 a man ante, Player X (with $164,500 in chips) opened for $15,000 in the 7-seat, and, sitting in the 3-seat, I looked down at K-K (holding $285,000 in chips).
What to do? Although I loved having pocket kings, I couldn’t decide how to play them. Should I “smooth call” (underbid) the bet and hope to extract a lot of chips from my opponent later on in the hand? Or should I re-raise the bet before the flop and give the amateur a chance to re-raise me?
On the one hand, smooth calling entailed merely calling the current $15,000 bet in order to disguise the strength of my hand and make it seem much weaker than it was. Later on in the hand, I would try to draw another $40,000 to $120,000 into the pot when everyone would assume my hand was weak. However, a re-raise before the flop would alert my opponent to the strength of my hand and likely cause him to fold before the flop. The benefit of the re-raise was that it might cause my opponent to move all-in with a hand like J-J, Q-Q, A-K, or worse; thus causing me to be a huge favorite for a ton of chips.
Finally, I chose an extremely safe play. I would make a huge re-raise before the flop for two reasons. First, I wanted to protect my hand from being beat (in case players with weak yet still potentially winning hands decide to wait for the extra cards given the relatively low stakes). Second, I wanted to simply move all-in for the rest of my chips on the flop, in the event Player X called the massive re-raise, and a non-ace flop hit (such as Q-9-4 or 2-2-7) — thus protecting my hand from losing one more time. So I raised the bet up to $80,000, making a relatively huge $65,000 re-raise into the $40,000 pot.
One minute later my opponent moved all-in for $164,500. “I call” I immediately announced and turned my K-K face up. My opponent’s face looked ashen as he showed me Ad-Jd (I was a now a 2.5-to-1 statistical favorite). Then the flop came down K-Q-J, and I was about to take the chip lead with $460,000 — the $340,000 in the pot plus the $120,000 I still had in my pile — when the turn card came in as a 10 for him to make straight (K-Q-J-10). I still thought that I would win the hand with a king, queen, jack, or 10, but alas, the last card was an eight.
Oh well, that’s poker!
RAISE OR FOLD
The benefit of re-raising with K-K before the flop is:
a) You take a big chance
b) Risky plays work well
c) You protect your hand from losing
d) All of the above
Answer: C
Tags: Bellagio, pocket kings, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Strategy, World Poker Tour, WPT
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Monday, February 2, 2009 - John Greene
You ever have one of those friends who loves to make sure that you know they’ve read more than their share when it comes to poker books, poker websites, poker news, etc? Not that I’m not guilty of it myself, but I generally assume that my associates know that I am a hyperintelligent poker oracle and I don’t really need to show it off by spouting off knowledge when we could be talking about something else, like how I shouldn’t be buying any more rounds because I paid for the first two or three. (This strategy, by the way, is one of my favorites. When your first few friends arrive at the pub, cover them. By the time the group reaches critical mass, you’re out of the rounds loop because you covered the first few.)
Anyway. This hanger-on in my circle of pals is Jimmy. Jimmy is one of those guys. He’s always using the slang, to the point where a conversation with him requires a translator. Someone wanted to know how the tables were treating me and I told them fine and we all moved on, until Jimmy suddenly pipes up with “Hey, John! I was in a game at the Wynn a couple of weeks ago and punched out at the best time. When I was up by $3,000, I got a Doyle Brunson and saw it was a sign.”
This grinds the entire rest of the conversation (which I think was about Blu-Ray players and how I’m not going to buy one) to a halt. I ask Jimmy which Doyle Brunson and he lets me know it was Ace/Queen, a hand that “the man never plays.”
At this, I rolled my eyes. “Brunson plays that hand all the time. He even changed the wording in his SuperSystem book a while back to say he tries not to play it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jimmy responds.
Don’t you love it when you can wipe a smile off a schmuck’s face when they’re being extra schmucky?
“I know I’ve seen him play it on at least two of those poker shows, plus he got bumped from the WSOP main event in 07 while holding it.”
Jimmy still didn’t believe. He was willing to wager some single-malt on his sureness. Well, then it got interesting for me. I pulled out my Blackberry, fired up Google, and had him at the bar within 60 seconds. While I do think there’s a lot of pocket cards you shouldn’t play, or hands that look stronger than they really are, there’s very few hands that you’ll never play.
Tags: ace queen, doyle brunson, Poker Strategy
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Monday, January 26, 2009 - John Greene
Sometimes, I get asked for help by my friends who are just getting into poker, whether it’s online at UltimateBet or the live games that are taking place in rec rooms, dens, and even in actual casinos across America. I had an interesting experience with one of them the other day. Doug (I’ll call him that, anyway) wanted me to watch him play in some low-staked online games and help him analyze his game after. He’s got a beer fridge that’s usually stocked pretty nicely, so of course I agreed to help out.
Doug is actually pretty sharp and picks up on patterns in betting and the like quickly. He’s really good at knowing when to slowplay and when to just go bezerk. He’s got a real knack for bluffing. I complimented him as I watched him play and learned that he really didn’t have a lot to hear from me, or so I thought. He was on this fourth table of the night when I saw him betting heavily when he had what I’d consider nothing: three-six off-suit. The flop was 7 9 K.
If you’ve never had to watch a friend chase a straight without saying a word until it’s all said and done, I can’t recommend the experience at all. After he lost way, way too many chips, I made him log out and demand to know what the hell he was thinking.
“Well, I was already in because I was the Small Blind and when the Flop hit, I thought I had a chance,” he says sort of meekly.
“You didn’t have a five or a ten in that weak hand, so why didn’t you just take the lumps on the blind and wait until the next hand?”
“Wait, why a five or a ten?”
“Well, those are two cards where at least one of them is in every straight. If you’re going to pin your hopes on a chasing a straight like that, you might as well have your ducks in a row first.”
“I never knew that!”
This guy, who had shown a natural knack for the finer points in the game, never had thought about one of the most basic elements, and this sort of thing happens to all of us at one time or another. When was the last time you looked at the rules or watched a friend play? Even seasoned players like myself learn something new when we review and observe.
Tags: chasing a straight, Poker Strategy, Poker Tips
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Sunday, December 28, 2008 - P0ker H0
Around the Holidays each year, Phil comes back to his hometown of Madison, WI. His family still lives here so he frequently visits. After all the Holiday stuff is done, He rounds up all the old guys and we get a game going. Most of the time we hold it at a good friend of Phil’s, Jon Green’s house, but due to the fact one of the players in this years game owns 2 of the nicest strip clubs in Wisconsin, we are going to move it there instead:) I mean if playing with Phil isnt enough, we get to have strippers massaging and bartending for us.
The game is 5-5 pot limit holdem and what a game it is. The players range from 27 to 70, and great to inexperienced. Im not kidding when I say you could write a movie about everysingle person in this game. Some would be more interesting than others, but Ebert and Ropert would give at least 2 thumbs up for anyone. From “Jimmy Pizza” to “Jimmy Duece”. From “Bald Headed Gary” to Concrete Larry”. From “Ladies and Gentlemen Mr. Jon Green” to “Ladies and Gentlemen the Great P0ker H0″, the list goes on and on. Wayne “Tilly” Tyler, Tim Belstner, Paul Clements are a few others to name. These people have been playing in this home game since Phil won his first bracelet. The youngest player that plays in our game is Mike “Wisco” Murray. He has really come along way since I have met him, and im proud to say he definitely deserves to play in this game.
Every year there is a hand that is unforgettable, and im sure this year will be no different. To prove to you im not lying, read this hand from last year.
In this game it is typical to straddle and in this hand it was straddled 3 times. Phil is first to act and bumps it up large. it fold around to the button. We will refer to the Button player as “SpaMan”. SpaMan reraises and Phil calls. Its only these 2 in the hand and the pot has around 900 in it before the flop comes out. 962 FLOP. BAMMMMMM!!! Spaman flips over his hand. he has J9. but wait? you are asking why he flipped over his hand on the flop? Well in this game it is common for people to try and outplay phil just to say they did it. Anyway, Phil bets the pot knowing this guy has top pair. Spaman thinks and calls. now there is 3kish in the pot and now the board is 962K. Phil checks, and spaman bets out 2600. Phil reraises 4kish, and this is where the fun begins. Spaman really thinks he has the best hand and is talking trash to phil the whole time telling him hes gonna beat him in a hand with his cards exposed. Well, Spaman calls the turn bet. WOW. Now there is 10k plus in the pot. the river comes an absolute blank. I believe it was 962K3. Phil leads out for 8kish and Spaman folds? Phil shows a complete bluff and the place goes nuts.
So many things are crazy about this hand. If Spaman thought he was good on the turn, why not think hes good on the river. Whats amazing on phils end is he knows this guy has 2nd pair and bad kicker, and because he check raised the turn, he could have a king. Phil basically found a way to represent the only card that Spaman would be afraid of. But than you can go back to if he thought he was good on turn, why not river. Its a crazy hand, and was a 17kish pot on a complete bluff if a 5-5 pl holdem game. Just crazy. Phil was just hoping Spaman couldnt possibly think he was bluffing if he could see his cards, and Spaman was thinking this is what phil was thinking. Called him down on every street, and folded the river? It made no sense, but was one of the craziest hands ive seen.
I will try to find a better hand this year, but it will be tough:)
Happy Holidays Everyone
P0ker H0
Tags: Hand of the Year, happy holidays, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Play Poker, Poker Strategy
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Sunday, December 7, 2008 - Debo34
I believe one of the most overlooked, underrated factors in poker is preparation.
I’m sure the majority of players have fell victim to this more than once in their poker life. After all some of the places we play are exciting, fun and full of distractions. Take for example the Aruba Poker Classic, or the current tournament I am at in Nuevo Vallarta Mexico. The night before a main event, I always plan on getting a full nights sleep.
Doing this for several years now, I have developed a bit of a routine that helps me to be prepared to take on the multi day tournaments that lie ahead. First off I always try to arrive at the venue at least 2 days before the main event starts. I like to have some fun, check out the sites and hopefully have a full day to do nothing before the tournament starts. I have arrived to several tournaments the day of, or the night before and find I don’t seem to play well. I have been prey to the “night before parties” and ended up feeling bad the next day wishing I were still in bed. These are hard to resist, but I recommend attending with the idea of not staying out too late and keeping the drinking down as much as possible.
Rest is obviously the biggest factor in preparation, but what are some others? I’m sure it’s different for each player, but here are some of my routines.
• Make sure the ipod is fully charged.
• Get my seat assignment the night before.
• Research the players at my table if possible. Usually you can only do this before day 2.
• Have a good meal a few hours before I sit
• Go for a long walk an hour or so before I play.
I know a lot of people that like to play poker the night before a big event. I am not one of those people. Mostly because I feel I am a lot fresher the next day if I don’t. Many of the tournaments hold a super satellite the night before the main event. Many times I have played these for lack of something better to do. There is nothing worse than grinding in one of these until late in the night only to come up a few spots short. It makes coming out focused the next day tough for me. I normally try to avoid any kind of poker the night before.
Of course a lot of poker players are superstitious by nature and do a lot of the same things in preparation. I would say I fall somewhere in the middle of that group. If I find I’m doing well I usually try to keep the same routine. For instance I ate the exact same breakfast in the same restaurant 4 days in a row this year in Aruba. I don’t think this thrilled my wife too much, but she understands to a degree and humors me.
I would recommend doing anything that makes you relax and feel good about putting in a battle that could and hopefully will last several days.
Debo
Tags: Aruba Poker Classic, Debo34, Poker Strategy
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Sunday, December 7, 2008 - Annie Duke
I have been thinking lately about what the word “luck” really means…especially when applied to poker. Last night I was doing a corporate appearance in Phoenix and I got asked the most common question I get asked at those things, “How much luck is there in poker?” The intention of the question is always to get the answer, “Tons.” But I think the question is unclear because it is always unclear to me what the asker means by the word “luck.”
The thing is that I think of luck as an occurrence that goes against what is expected. I think that is a fair definition. So the question I want the answer to is if there is something that will happen 18% of the time and it happens is that really unexpected? If you have Aces and some else has Fives and they beat you, is that really lucky or are you witnessing something completely mathematically predictable? I am confused by this. I think you are just witnessing something that will happen 18% of the time and, thus, is mathematically predictable.
Here is my deeper take. If I get it all in with my 55 in a spot where I am getting 5 to 1 on my money or more then I am making money on the call. I am getting more money out of the pot than I will lose in the long run knowing I will win the pot about 18% of the time. If I hit it or if I don’t it is neither lucky nor unlucky because in either case I was making money on the play. So it is not luck but good play. Now, If I get my money in with 55 in a spot where I am getting 4 to 1 or worse then if I hit the hand I am losing money and if I don’t hit it I am losing money. Doesn’t really matter and it is not lucky or unlucky either way. It is just bad play.
I guess on that I would say that in poker the true meaning of luck would be getting your money in on a hand where you are 100% certain you are taking a bad price hoping that on that one try things will go your way. Then you are going against good math and good play just hoping things work out in a lucky way for you. I guess that is what tilting is: playing in a way that is going to lose you a lot of money in the long run hoping it doesn’t happen this one particular time.
Maybe that is what luck means: Tilting!
Tags: Annie Duke, Poker Strategy
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Saturday, December 6, 2008 - Phil Hellmuth
High Stakes No Limit Hold’em
OK, out of respect to those who do not want to know what’s coming on PAD (“Poker after Dark”); I will not mention what episode this hand came from, other than to say that it is a PAD high stakes cash game to be aired in 2009. Further, I will not reveal the names of the players in the episode. I will reveal that PAD cash games are now two weeks long, with a redraw (reposition of the players) after “Week one” ends. Although there is a redraw, no chips are taken off of the table, so that the second week has the potential to have some enormous pots. PAD is shown six days a week on NBC at 2:00 am, and it one of my favorite poker shows. I love PAD because of the banter, and because of the fact that they show a majority of the hands. However, if you’re into “Highlight poker,” where only the biggest and most interesting hands are shown, then you can always watch the “Directors cut” Saturday night at 1:00 am on NBC. The PAD cash game features blinds of $200 – $400, and an ante of $100 a man.
It was raised up to $1,200 to go by Player A, and called by Player B. I called $1,000 more from the small blind with 8h-7h. The flop was 6s-6d-4s, I checked, Player A checked, and Player B bet $2,200. I called, and Player A folded. I then announced, “I check” before the next card was turned up. Player B now announced, “I bet $6,400” before the last card was turned up. This was a rare sequence of events, as I have rarely seen someone check, and then have his opponent bet before the next card was even turned up! In any case, the next card was the 5d, and I now was sitting on a straight. I decided to just call the $6,400 bet, and then if the last card was innocuous, I would make a bet. The last card was the 2h (6s-6d-4s-5d-2h) and I bet out $15,000. Player B immediately said, “I’ll make it $38,400 to go.” Uh oh, I had really stepped into this time! I knew that my opponent was a great player, and that he would never raise it up on the end with a mere three in his hand (with a six high straight), or with only trip sixes. Player B had a full house, or nothing. The one exception was that he may have raised it up with a 7-3 in his hand. I studied for a minute, and by now the other players had left the table to go and make their predictions on camera about what was happening. I knew that at least a few of them were predicting that Player B had a full house. Finally, I decided that I had to make the call, and I threw $23,400 into the pot. Player B, who was by now lying on the couch of the set of PAD was told that I had called, and he shouted, “Full house.” Then he said, “Did he really call?” As Player B walked back to the table he could see that I had called, and he said, “Good call, you win.” Whew! One player then asked Player B, “Why did you lie?” Player B said, “Well, you could have been lying when you told me that Phil called, like for example when actually Phil folds his hand, and then you say he called so that you can get a free read from me.” Good point…
The second hand came down after Player B made it a habit of raising it up when I called (limped) before the flop. I limped under the gun with A-7 off suit, as did another player, and Player B made it $2,800 to go. Amazingly two other players called, and I decided that enough was enough. I decided that it was time to make my move, reraise it, and try to pick up the $10,000 already laying in the pot uncontested. So I called the $2,400 raise, and then I raised it up $15,000 more. Player B folded, but Player D called immediately. The flop was J-4-3, and I ruffled my chips, but ultimately I checked. I put Player D on a pair like pocket threes or pocket fives and I didn’t think that I could bluff him. The turn card was a six, and now I bet $7,000. Player D called, and I prayed for a five on the end to complete my straight. Alas, the last card was a nine, and I gave up on the pot. I felt like I couldn’t bluff Player D, so I checked. Player D then said, “I’ll check because I think that you’re ready to call me down.” Of course, I wasn’t ready to call one red cent! I said, “I think you win.” Player D said, “No, I think you win.” This was music to my ears, and I flipped up A-7 to claim the $60,000 pot. All of the other players at the table stared in amazement as I dragged in this $60,000 pot with A-7 high! How could either Player D or I put in so much money without having a better hand than A-7? What did Player D have anyway? He claimed to have queen high! How could he call a $15,000 reraise with queen high? You’ll just have to watch the 2009 season of PAD!
When someone makes a big bet on the end:
1. They usually have a strong hand!
2. Trust your instincts
3. Fold most of the time
4. All of the above.
Tags: Hand of the Week, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Strategy
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