again - Poker Player Newspaper

Transcription

9
NEW Feature: PAGE
Poker Celebrity
Crossword!
12
36
14
17
20
Erick Lindgren
Player Profile
by Phil Hevener
PAGE
PAGE
Entertainment
Best Bets
17
44
POKER PLAYER
Vol. 9 Number 15 January 23, 2006 A Gambling Times Publication www.pokerplayernewspaper.com Copyright ©2006 Bi-Weekly $3.95 USA/$4.95 CANADA
Tournament Shannon Takes
Kickoff 2006 Nicky Hilton New
Six major events are Years Eve Event
kicking off the New Year’s
Players interested in
direct sign-ups and
casinos interested in
holding satellite events
for the Heavyweight
Championship of Poker
($100,000 buy-in) should
contact: Stan Sludikoff
– 310-674-3365, srs@
gamblingtimes.com; Jerry
Reed – 650-327-4810,
[email protected]; or
Dick Gatewood, 702456-7777 *ask for Poker
Room, DickGatewood@
boydgaming.com.
Participation is limited to
100 players, so, it will be
first come, first served.
major tournament schedule
in what is surely going to be
a robust poker tournament
season. As we go to press
in this first issue printed in
2006, it is too early to bring
you results, all of which will
appear in the next issue of
Poker Player…to the extent
those events have been completed.
First to launch was the
Aussie Millions at the
Crown Casino in Melbourne,
Australia on January 4.
Twelve events are scheduled,
culminating in the $10,000
(AUD) buy-in No Limit
Hold ‘em Championship
that will end on January
19th. Also launching on
January 4, but in a later time
zone, was the Grand Casino
Poker tournament, a WSOP
Circuit Event, in Tunica,
Mississippi. Here we have
some 22 events that end
with a $10,000 (US) buy-in
Championship which finishes up on January 27.
PokerStars Caribbean
Adventure, taking place at
the Atlantis Casino in the
Bahamas, is a one event
tournament that began on
January 5th and will be
(Continued on page 9)
Gold Coast Sponsors
”Beat the Pros” Tournament
and pros. Scheduled to
appear, from the pages of
Poker Player Newspaper
are: Editor/Publisher, Stan
Sludikoff (top left), Writers
Debbie Burkhead (top right)
and George Epstein (bottom
left), and Aussie Millions
Winner, Peter Costa (bottom
right).
The opening event will
begin at 6:00 p.m. on
the celebrities fall aside,
Shannon left little doubt
she was the champion this
day.
Shannon is no stranger
to major poker tournament
A Word from the
“Mad Genius,”
Mike Caro
Today’s word is...
“AGAIN”
Turn to page 6 for more
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Three tournaments will be
held at the Gold Coast Casino
in Las Vegas, starting January
19th, and will be hosted by
Poker Player Newspaper.
These special events will feature three nights of no-limit
hold ‘em tournaments. Each
event will offer special bounties and added prize money
from the Gold Coast.
Come play against your
favorite writer, columnist
By Joseph Smith
Shannon Elizabeth won
the first ever Nicky Hilton
Caesars Palace New Years
Eve poker tournament.
Outlasting all the top
name pros and watching
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5
Caro’s Word: “Again”
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
One of the most perplexing problems facing a
sophisticated poker player is
when to stop raising. Should
you elevate the pot one last
time or call a truce and see
what happens? Often there
are advantages to just calling. But there are advantages to taking the initiative
with a re-raise, too.
What should you do?
Well, here’s a lecture I gave
years ago that can give you
some valuable insight.
When should you
raise AGAIN?
What I’m going to teach
you today will earn money
for you in all forms of
poker, but we’re going to
use seven stud as an example.
OK, imagine this. You’re
in a seven stud game and
you begin with a hidden
pair of tens and a nine
showing as your up card.
The action gets down to just
you and an opponent with a
six showing. You raise. He
reraises. Should you raise
again with your buried pair
of tens?
Of course, you need to
think about many things.
Do you want to just call, so
that your hand can be more
deceptive on later betting
rounds? Or do you want to
leverage your advantage
right now? Or, do you really
have an advantage at all?
You raised the last-remaining opponent with a higher
card showing, something
that is quite typical and
expected in serious stud
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
have a strong hand. So,
in sophisticated games,
an aggressive opponent is
likely to reraise with many
medium-strong hands. He
may, of course, actually
have a strong hand, or he
may have a weaker hand
that he’s trying to use to
slow you down and keep
you from betting on later
rounds or even to bluff you.
Let’s say that in this case,
you’ve decided that you
don’t want to be deceptive
with your pair of tens. You
just want to decide whether
one more raise is worthwhile or whether you’re in
trouble.
Costly advice
Now there is a common
piece of poker advice that’s
very costly. It says that
when you’re in doubt, it’s
usually worth a raise to find
out where your opponent
stands. If he raises again,
you’ll have a clearer idea
about his hand than if he
just calls. But, wait! This
extra raise designed to
gain information is usually a poor choice. When
you make a raise that you
wouldn’t normally make
on the basis of the strength
of your hand, you’re sacrificing money, because
the more sensible decision
was obviously more profitable. But, by making this
sacrifice, you’re hoping that
you’ll get something in the
way of information about
your opponent’s hand that
will be worth the cost of a
substandard decision.
But, I’m telling you
that it isn’t usually worth
it. Even if your opponent
has a very powerful hand,
chances are he might try to
disguise it and not put in
that one last raise. So, you’ll
only gain bad information
about what he holds. And
if he has a medium-strong
hand, he may raise or just
call at whim – and that
doesn’t provide valuable
information. Guess what?
The tired-old advice that
you should raise to gain
information is generally
wrong.
OK, so here you are with
your hidden pair of tens and
a nine showing, raising the
last remaining player who
has a six showing, and he
reraises. Now what? You’ve
already decided that this
time you won’t call just to
be deceptive and you won’t
raise just to try to gain
information. So, you’ve
decided to either reraise or
just call simply based on
your prospects of having the
best hand right now.
Should you risk one more
raise?
The key
Here’s the key. Ask yourself whether this is a tricky
opponent who likes to hide
like a snake in the grass.
Have you often seen him
just calling at this point
with three-of-a-kind or a big
buried pair just to mislead
you? If you have seen this,
then it’s less likely that he
has a big hand now! Why?
Because many of his strongest hand would have been
used for deception – he
would have just called in
an attempt to confuse you.
So what disproportionately
remains are many mediumstrong hands that this tricky
opponent chooses to overplay. And since your two
10s are certainly at the top
of the medium-strong spectrum, chances are you have
him beat. Usually go one
more raise.
However, if your opponent is not tricky and plays
transparently, then his
reraise probably means
more. He wouldn’t have just
called with a strong hand
– he would have always
reraised with it. So, since
that’s what he did, a big
hand is more of a threat
than it would be with a
trickier opponent. You
should just call in that case.
Yes, as I’ve said many
times before, you should
be less willing to value bet
or make the first borderline
raise against tricky opponents. But when you’re well
into a raising war, it’s different. Most of the time, he’s
already decided whether to
confuse you by just calling
or to push a medium hand
beyond its limits. Now its
just a matter of whether you
can profit from going one
more raise. Against a tricky
opponent, you’re usually
more likely to win with
your strong hand at this
point in the raising war than
you are against an equally
aggressive, but less deceptive opponent. So, against
the less-deceptive opponent,
just call. Against the tricky
POKER PLAYER
A Gambling Times Publication
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ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
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Wendeen H. Eolis
EDITORIAL CONSULTANT
Phil Hevener
CONSULTANT
Contributing
Columnists
Nolan Dalla
George Epstein
“Oklahoma Johnny” Hale
Ashley Adams
Diane McHaffie
James McKenna
I. Nelson Rose
Nic Szeremeta
Rich Wilens
John Vorhaus
Poker Player will be published Bi-Weekly
by Gambling Times Incorporated,
Stanley R. Sludikoff, President.
Volume 9 Number 15.
Copyright © January 2006 by Gambling
Times Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without
written permission is prohibited.
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PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT
This notice will certify that 50,000 copies of Volume
9, Number 15 of Poker Player were printed at Valley
Printers, 16230 Filbert Street, Sylmar, CA 91342.
Distribution to newsstands, card clubs, poker rooms and
other distribution points throughout the United States,
Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Europe.
Shannon Takes Nicky Hilton New Years Eve Event
play, having entered events
in the Rio’s 2005 WSOP
including the main event,
where she lasted past the
brutal first day. The actress
is a serious tournament
poker player, probably as
a result of her Texas lineage. Shannon is a native
Texan, born in Houston,
an area that has produced
many accomplished actors
and even more remarkably
accomplished gamblers…
especially high-dollar
Poker stars and movie stars—Phil Laak & Paul Lord with Jennifer Tilly
poker players, so no surprise she can play.
Half of the new tournament poker room at
Caesars Palace was cordoned off for the players,
dealers, fans, media, wellwishers, friends, a Hilton
sister, actress Jennifer
Tilly, friends of Nicky
Hilton, bodyguards and
the curious. The 92 players entered in the tournament included an ‘A’ list of
poker professionals attract-
(Cont’d from page 1)
ed mostly to the exposure
and fun, the event being a
part of Nicky Hilton’s New
Years Eve party at Caesars’
Pure Nightclub. The event
offered an approximate
$120,000 prize pool.
The tournament was
officially named the Nicky
Hilton & Kevin Connolly
host a New Year’s Eve
Poker Tournament. At
least, that was the name
on the glossy flyer. The
...and here’s Nicky Hilton with Joe Awada!
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
7
Back to Basics
STUD SENSE
By ASHLEY ADAMS
Yeah I know you’re an old hand. You read these
columns more for amusement than instruction. Hell, let’s face it.
With all of your experience and common sense at the table you
could write the column. I know. I know.
Even so, every now and then, it helps even the most seasoned
veteran player to return to the basics – if only to remind himself
of the rudiments of good play. It is possible, after all, that even
the best of us, in our desire to be tricky and unpredictable, stray
too far from the core elements of winning play. So with an eye
toward fundamentals, let me return to the basics.
If you’re not up against advanced players, don’t waste energy
and money on fancy plays. Play straightforwardly. If you think
you have the best hand on Third Street, raise the maximum
amount. Generally speaking, you want a Premium Pair when you
raise. And, if you think that you have the raiser beat, you should
re-raise him.
Stay away from lower pairs unless you can get in very cheaply
or unless you have the top kicker and it’s at least a King. Then
you can call one bet. But be careful. You need to make top two
pair or trips or the hand is worthless.
Yes you can play three to a flush or straight. But you need to
be quite selective. Flushes need to be live – with no more than
two of your suit out on Third Street. You want a high card among
them so you have a second way to win – by getting a Premium
Pair on Fourth Street. 3-straights are playable – if they’re open
ended, if they’re live with all of the primary and most of the secondary cards yet unseen – and if they are a higher hand than 567,
or if there’s only the bring-in bet. You don’t want to play straight
or flush draws, even if they’re fully live, for two bets or if the pot
will be heads up going to Fourth Street.
Trips are playable, of course. They’re your best starting hand.
They should generally be played fast, with a raise, in the typically loose low limit game. But if you think there’s a fair chance
that everyone will fold to your raise – either because the game is
especially tight, your image is very tight, or because no one has
yet called the bring-in and the bet is to you – then slow play them
by just calling until Fourth Street. Realize that if you have three
or more callers on Third Street, there’s a fairly good chance that
your low trips won’t win if they remain unimproved.
As the hand progresses, you need to keep in mind the basic
principle that you should play your draws cheaply and that you
should make your opponents pay dearly to chase you when you
are in the lead. Accordingly, if you have what you gauge to be
the best hand on any particular street, you should bet and raise.
And if you have a drawing hand you should generally check and
call. If you are chasing with the second best pair you should fold
by Fifth Street if you’ve even played that long.
On Sixth Street and the River, the pot is generally so large
when compared to the size of an individual bet, that it doesn’t
make sense to fold unless you are nearly certain that you are
either beaten or drawing dead. On the River, calling and losing is
a mistake that costs you a single bet. Folding with the best hand
is a mistake that costs you the whole pot. Take that into consideration before you easily concede to a bet on the end.
All of this being said, it is important to vary your play from time
to time against observant opponents, lest they take advantage of
the obviousness of your play. But bear in mind that most players
err on the side of deviating too frequently from simple, direct and
sound play. “Varying my play” is too often a convenient excuse
for just indulging the natural desire to play more hands.
Ashley Adams is the author of Winning 7-Card Stud,
(Kensington Press 2003). He has been playing 7-Card
Stud for 40 years—and profitably in casinos for the past
10 years. He has played in casinos all over the world,
including England, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Hungary,
Canada and the United States, but plays most frequently
at at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard Connecticut.
Professionally, he is a union organizer and an agent for
broadcasters. He can be reached at: [email protected]
8
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
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WHAT’s LUCK GOT
Kickoff: 6 for ’06
$10,000 No Limit Hold ‘em
the first to end, on January
WPT Championship tourney,
11th, which is when Poker
.that will end January 23rd.
Player is on press. Some
Last, but not least of these
724 players either anted-up
major January poker touror won the $7,800 buy-in
naments is the L.A. Poker
to create a $5.6 million dolBY LEE “COOL HAND” GARCIA
Classic at the Commerce
lar prize pool. The winner
I’ve seen poker books that ner in the long run, but if
Casino in Los Angeles.
will get over $1.36 million.
That’s what a young kid
tell you to follow their strat- I go to L.A. for a week of
There are 28 events that
Hollywood Park’s Poker
told me the other day, as he
action, I didn’t go there to
egies and you will always
run through February 21
Derby is in full swing with
racked up a 4/8 Hold’em
lose. I went there to win that record crowds reported by
win. Some even say that
with another WPT $10,000
table. He couldn’t miss a
week, period! If everybody the first day, January 6. The
luck doesn’t matter. But as
buy-in No Limit Hold ‘em
hand, and had killed 5 pots
Championship that starts
ten events end on January
in a row just before I left the much as I respect those gen- didn’t think like that, then
why did crazy hands like
on February 16th and will
15th with a $2,000 buy-in
table. Two days later, he was tlemen, I look at how they
fare on TV and conclude that 10/2 win championships?
last a total of 6 days. If you
Hold ‘em finale.
hanging around the poker
It’s because luck does come
they, like me, need LUCK
can’t wait for our next issue,
The Gold Strike World
room trying to borrow the
into play in any game with Poker Open, in Tunica,
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results will be found earbuy-in to a $35 tournament!
a flop.
circle.
lier on our web site: www.
Mississippi began on
I said no.
Recently, at the Paradise January 9, featuring eleven
I agree that playing solid
pokerplayernewspaper.
He said he was a good
cards will make you a wincom
investment because I saw
(Continued on page 19) events that culminate in a
him win $600 that day. Since
he brought it up, I asked him
what happened to the money.
He related that he was in a
game with some crazy players that played everything
and he couldn’t protect his
good hands. He felt he was
the victim of some bad luck.
“That’s funny,” I replied, “ A
couple of the players at that
table made the same remarks
about you, and I remember
you said you didn’t believe
in luck!”
I offered to buy him lunch
and we talked awhile. I
reminded him that when he
was winning, he acted cocky
and smug. He was making
comments like
“Want
my autographed book?”
When I had cautioned him
to tone down as his luck was
sure to change, he sang out;
“What’s luck got to do with
it” just like Tina’s song! He
believed he was winning by
playing the right hands at
the right time, and that was
The Mirage Poker Showdown – A World Poker Tour Event
purely his skill. He said luck
was never a factor in his
May 4 – 17, 2006
game.
I commented that if he
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didn’t believe in good luck
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cede that he lost with infeMay
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rior playing skills. We batted
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he saw the foolishness of
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lost for 77 straight days and
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more important?
TO DO WITH IT?
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
9
Bad Beat, Good Behavior PART 9: NLHE Small Buy-In Tournament Strategy
You came into the home stretch of a major
tournament with five times as many chips as
SMALL STAKES TOURNAMENTS
POKER COUNSELOR
By John Carlisle, MA, NCC
the average amount. You had your eye on the
top prize, but things went awry along the way. You flopped
the nut flush, only to lose 1/5 of your stack when a guy’s
flopped set turned into a full house on the river. Soon after
that, you lost more chips when you put some lady all-in preflop with your pocket Aces, only to see her Jack-10 turn into
a straight. Now just about average in chip stack, you are still
focused on winning the whole event. Another tough beat on a
coin flip hand cripples you, and you flame out near the button.
Above is a script that way too many of have followed a time or
two in our poker careers. And when we do, there is a certain
expectation that we are expected to abide by: exit gracefully.
Sportsmanship is a buzz word in the realm of poker these
days. The antics of poker whiners and complainers have been
exploited by television commentators. Magazine articles have
been dedicated to bashing those who stomp away after tough
beats and ugly suck outs. Internet chat rooms light up with
activity each time Hellmuth or Matusow is shown displaying
any “improper” behavior. Suddenly, we are asked to mind our
manners at the felt. Is poker really a gentleman’s game?
Let’s face it: televised whiners are a part of what appeals
to the masses watching that TV screen. Anticipation of the
“Matusow blow-up” holds fans to the channel as much as an
all-in cliffhanger. People turn on a poker show if Hellmuth
is playing just to see what he will say or do next. Phil Laak
is part player, part entertainer when a camera is near. This
is a true fact, as it is human nature to be engrossed with
these types of unpredictable personalities. They are compelling. They are interesting. They are just plain fun to watch.
Trying to deter their behavior is not only fruitless; it is probably counter-productive in the quest to improve TV ratings
and overall poker exposure. So, I’m giving a free pass to the
famous players who exhibit some of the unsportsmanlike
behavior at the tables due to the presence of TV cameras.
That does not, though, give us free reign to pout and cry at
our own home games and casinos. For many of these camera
magnets, it is all part of their chosen “characters”. We have
no such excuse as we climb the poker ladder toward personal
success. If we display boorish behavior at the table, it serves
no positive purpose. It labels us as an arrogant ass who is
immature and infantile.
Thus, hold yourself to a higher standard. If a series of bad
beats causes you a much earlier exit than you’d hoped, challenge yourself to handle the situation with a touch of class
and grace. If you are able to handle your disappointment
and temper at that moment of disgust, you’ll be more likely
to control tilt and emotions while still in play. In addition, an
even emotional state allows you to more accurately review
your play. You should attempt to learn from each loss via
critical self-evaluation. Allowing emotional tidal waves will
cloud the memory and thought processing, making productive
self-evaluation a near impossibility.
Don’t fault the pros on TV for playing it up for the camera.
The precious face time that they earn helps ratings while
assuring their personal marketing power. On the flipside, there
is no need to follow their lead. You should always be working
to improve yourself and your game, in wins and in losses. Wild
antics and emotional swings will not help you by any means.
Stay in control and stay focused on your long term goals.
Now go make it happen.
Making Effective Deals
I was the chip leader by a
small margin when we eliminated a player in 7th place
in a 45-player tournament. I
then made a critical mistake
that cost me from making any
real money in the tournament.
The blinds had just increased
to a sizeable amount. The top
four positions paid, so everyone at the table agreed to a
deal giving 5th and 6th place
their money back out of 1st
and 2nd. The table was playing very, very tight as no one
wanted to be the first person
out of the money. I had taken
advantage of this to build my
stack from below average to
take the chip lead.
However, as soon as we
made the agreement, the
madness started. It was
almost like someone flipped
a switch from “tight” to
“maniac” for the entire table.
I open-raised on the next
hand with A-Q and had two
players push all-in behind
me! They were both shortstacks, and the pot was laying me the right odds to call.
Surprisingly enough, I had
both players dominated with
A-4 and Q-8 (sooooted, of
course). But the turn brought
an 8 and I was now an average stack. I ended up going
out in 5th place a few hands
later when I pushed with 6-6
In addition to being an avid poker enthusiast, John is a
certified Counselor in the state of Pennsylvania. He has
a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from West Virginia
University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a
minor in Sociology from Lock Haven University.
You can ask the “Poker Counselor” your
question at [email protected].
10
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
By Jeremiah Smith
and lost to Q-J.
I had no idea that such a
simple deal could alter play
at the table so dramatically.
Because of the structure of
most small-stakes tournaments, it is almost always in
your benefit to make some
form of deal. But I am often
surprised at the deals I see
people make. I saw a threeway chop between a player
who had 75% of the chips in
play and two short stacks, just
because he was thrilled at the
prospect of making money.
Since making the mistake I
described above, I will almost
never expand the bubble if I
have a fair amount of chips
left. However, I will be the
first person suggesting a deal
if I am the shortstack. If
this seems a bit selfish, well,
that’s because it is. The key
concept is to know when to
make the best deal. The crucial point in making a good
deal is making it in your best
interest.
I am offering some very
simply options that can be
calculated quickly at the
table. This way you can
always be aware of what your
best option is. If you want
to take this idea further, the
only book that I have found
that covers deal-making is
Sklansky’s Tournament Poker
for Advanced Players (and
even then it is for heads-up
deals). You can find a few
discussions online that cover
deal-making with very indepth calculations.
As a general rule, I usually don’t make a deal until
we are down to three players
because that’s where 50%
or more of the prize pool is
concentrated. Keep in mind
that we are discussing smallstakes live tournaments, as
online play flows differently.
There will always be one
player at the table asking for
a “chop,” (an even distribution of the remaining prize
pool among the remaining
players) no matter what the
size of the stacks at the table.
Sometimes this can be in
your best interest. Sometimes
it’s better to divide up the
prize pool according to the
percentage of chips in play
each person currently has.
This is especially helpful if
the blinds have negated any
play other than an all-in fest.
How do you know what’s
the right thing to do? There
are several factors that go into
making the proper deal at the
end of a tournament:
• Your stack size in relationship to your opponents
Shannon Takes Nicky Hilton New Years Eve Event
tournament got under
way about a quarter past
eleven Saturday morning,
kind of early for some of
the nocturnal poker pros.
They often play through
the night, so some of
them had come to this
tournament after playing
all-night in a cash game,
no sleep. The tournament
was under the direction of
Caesars Palace Tournament
Director, Paul Lord, pres-
ent on the floor to referee
the tables. Considering the
ego enriched crowd and
the New Year’s holiday
cheer the tournament ran
smoothly from start to final
hand. A tribute to the pro-
Nicky Hilton
fessional staff of the poker
room at Caesars Palace.
Tournament namesake,
Nicky Hilton, has apparently been exposed to
some poker lessons. She
played for more than two
hours outlasting many of
the pros that started the
contest. The pro player
community included
2005 World Series of
Poker Tournament of
Shannon ponders her next move.
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
11
Texas Flop ‘Em
POwer POKER PSYCHOLOGY
By JAMES A. M C KENNA, P H D.
I’ve often wondered from where the
name of Texas Hold ‘Em came. How
often have you played the odds and waited for decent
cards to play and been beaten by a player who was
playing garbage? It’s not unusual for a pocket pair
of Aces to get beaten with two small pairs. The frequency of this made me want to re-name the game to
“Texas Flop ‘Em.” A lot of players in both low limit and
high limit will play “no fold ‘em hold ‘em” just to see
the flop. I know that when the antes and blinds are so
large in tournaments, this attitude prevails. After all,
the “Dolly Hand” (2, 10), works for Doyle Brunson.
Some games are seldom played based on what
players are holding. It becomes a matter of playing
people vs. playing cards. The play often starts after
the flop. In the end, it’s the flop combined with what
your hole cards that makes your hand. Often, when
the flop comes, good hole cards become second best
to players who have garbage to match the pot. In fact,
players in late position have an advantage when there
are a lot of bets before them. These bet are saying
that the players before them have good cards. So, a
call with garbage could have the right pot odds—at
least to see the flop. With the right flop, the garbage
hand could have the advantage over those players
with good hole cards. How often does a small pair
become trips?
So, as a research project for this article, I started to
play what I call “Texas Flop ‘Em” and others might call
“Selected No Fold ‘Em Hold ‘Em.” By that I mean that
if I am in the blinds with at least one good card, I might
even call a raise to see the flop. Secondly, if I am just
to the right of the button or on the button, I definitely
would do the same thing if no one has raised. However,
even if someone raises and there are not many callers,
I will still stay to see the flop. That was the plan for my
research project. If the flop didn’t help my hand, I’d lay
it down to any bet. I know, I know, a lot of good players
do this as a routine. After all, I learned this from players who would play with any two cards and beat my
good cards. It was time for pay back!
What I discovered is the difference between playing
your luck and playing the odds. Most of the hands that
I would play in this experiment would have been poor
odds, except for the hands where everyone checked
and I had position. I still beat the players who where
playing the odds and I was playing my luck. Of course,
a lot of these players that I beat with my poor cards
and great flops were players who had already played
with me. They knew that I ordinarily played good starting cards. So, this change up probably helped.
When in position, this Texas Flop ‘Em style was ripe
for bluffing—particularly if you have a reputation for
being a tight player. While I had a lot of fun with this
“Flop ‘Em Research,” I made more money bluffing
good players. Actually, when not bluffing, Texas Flop
‘Em works better with loose players who are playing
the same game themselves. So, whether you are holding them or flopping them, Texas Flop ‘Em attempts to
get all you can from each hand. That’s what people are
seeing in the big stakes tournaments and that’s what
new players are bringing to the game. As for me, I like
Hold ‘Em and will play Flop ‘Em just to change up.
James A. McKenna, PhD., has been a practicing individual
and group therapist for over thirty-five years. His knowledge of human behavior combined with over thirty years of
gaming experience gives him a unique perspective on the
psychology of the gamer. His book, “Beyond Tells-Power
Poker Psychology,” was recently published by Kensington
Press. Write to him at [email protected].
12
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Sam Mudaro, BA, MBA, is a practicing tax
accountant and financial executive originally
from New York with over 35 years of analytical business expertise. He and his wife Eva
are nine-year Las Vegas residents. Sam uses
simulation software to analyze and develop
strategies for Omaha Hi/Lo and other forms of
poker. Reach Sam at: [email protected].
Y
ou’re in the big blind.
You look at the flop
and then down at your cards
and voila, you have an open
ended straight draw. Should
you continue with the hand?
How about if there is any
kind of action?
Today I will give you a
test. Look at the first chart
below and decide how many
of the starting hands combined with the given flops
you would play. Would you
play them for a single bet?
Write down answers before
you continue and look at the
second chart.
Straight Draws
Hand Flop Made % Won
A-4-T-K 2-3-9
28,147 67.6%
2-5-T-K 3-4-9
9,215 75.4%
3-6-T-K 4-5-9
6,908 78.8%
4-7-T-Q 5-6-K
6,856 81.6%
5-8-2-Q 6-7-K
6,216 75.4%
6-9-2-Q 7-8-K
5,776 74.6%
7-T-3-4 8-9-K
6,145 74.1%
8-J-3-4 9-T-2
7,530 74.3%
9-Q-3-4 T-J-2
7,836 66.0%
Article 68 - Single Straight Draws.doc
T-K-3-4 J-Q-2
20,448 82.5%
Let me advise you as to
how I set this simulation up
and explain the chart. I dealt
this flop 1,000,000 times
to a tight player sitting at a
tight full table, holding the
indicated hands. None of the
cards held by our tight player
were suited thereby eliminating any flush possibilities.
The flop was rainbow. I
chose these particular cards
so that there would only be
one straight draw. Except
for the first line, the straight
draws are all open ended.
Additionally only the first
hand would have the nut low
draw.
The “Made” column indicates how often a straight
was completed and the “%
Won” indicates how often
the straight won. I should
mention the our tight player
for all but the A-4-T-K only
saw the flop, turn and river
about 5% of the time. This
would indicate that once
committed passed the flop,
the hand was played to the
river. The hands are arranged
in no special order of relevance except that the first
hand was not open ended.
The T-K-3-4 while second in frequency completed
maintained the highest win
percent of 82.5%. The A-4-
Sam Mudaro is the...
T-K with the nut low draw
while completed the most
could only manage a win
percentage of 67.6%. The
second worst! The least
completed 6-9-2-Q had the
sixth highest win percent.
So which hands would you
play? Can you rank the
hands in terms of profitability?
notIf you have read my
article you should know that
profitability and win percent
are not correlated. A high
win percent is not indicative
of a winning hand. A low
win percent is not indicative
of a loosing hand and visa
versa. The only true measure
of profitability is net win.
In Omaha H/L or any split
pot high/low game, you
may experience a 100% win
percentage and loss money
every time you play the
hand. This occurs when the
high hand collects half the
pot and you must split the
low with the high or all the
remaining callers. You will
receive one quarter of the pot
or less.
Before we look at the second chart let me clarify one
more point. Our tight player
only played the 4-7-T-K, 5%
of the time. That is approximately 50,000 times out of
1,000,000. Let me further
point out that our tight player
would have started with
this hand from the big blind
100,000 times. It is logical
that with this hand he only
saw the flop when he could
get in cheaply. Now lets take
a look at the second chart.
Hand
A-4-T-K
2-5-T-K
3-6-T-K
4-7-T-Q
5-8-2-Q
6-9-2-Q
7-T-3-4
8-J-3-4
9-Q-3-4
T-K-3-4
Straight Draws
Flop
W%
2-3-9 5.73%
3-4-9 0.79%
4-5-9 0.58%
5-6-K 0.43%
6-7-K 0.47%
7-8-K 0.38%
8-9-K 0.61%
9-T-2 0.72%
T-J-2 0.65%
J-Q-2 2.07%
Net
1.27
(1.04)
(1.38)
(1.52)
(1.47)
(1.55)
(1.32)
(1.17)
(1.35)
(0.67)
The difference between
these two charts is that
here we are looking at the
net win. This is how much
money we earned or lost
when playing this hand. The
“W %” is now the win percent as compared to the total
number of hands played. As I
Single
Straight Draws
have stated many times
before, win percent, in and
of itself is irrelevant in determining whether a hand is
profitable or not.
So were you able to pick
the only profitable hand and
the worst? The A-4-T-K is
profitable but not because
of it’s straight potential.
Remember it had the second
worse percentage for winning with a straight. There
are no doubts about it. This
hand is profitable because of
its nut low potential. Only
one of the four fives would
complete the straight while
any of the twelve other
remaining low cards (6-8),
would complete a low.
The hand with the draw to
the nut high straight, which
had the best win percentage
when making the straight,
came in second best, but is
still a losing hand. It will
cost you on average 67 cents.
Amazingly the 2-5-T-K,
which is very similar to the
A-4-T-K, except your low
draw is to the second nut
low, cannot show a profit. It
will cost you $1.04 on average each time you play it.
This once again reinforces
the concept that in Omaha
H/L you want to be drawing
to the nuts.
It should be apparent that
pursuing a straight draw,
even an open ended straight
draw is a losing proposition. Your straight draws
need some help as in being
coupled with a nut low
draw. Also note the A-4-T-K
is not open ended. Would
two straight draws perform
better? How about if our
straight draws are coupled
with a flush draw or pair on
the flop?
So what have we learned?
Single straight draws in
and of themselves are not
worth pursuing whether
they are high or low straight
draws. They all need some
additional redraw help as in
being coupled with the nut
low draw. Next time we will
take a look at what to expect
when we add some help as in
the form of a flush draw and
maybe flopping a pair.
Boyd Unveils Strip
Development
Boyd Gaming Corporation
announced that it will
develop a multi-faceted,
world-class resort complex on its 63-acre site on
the Las Vegas Strip. The
development, scheduled
to open in early 2010, is
expected to be among the
most significant projects
in Las Vegas’ ongoing
evolution that continues
to transform the city into
one of the leading resort
destinations in the world.
The Company expects that
the development will be a
prime leader in Las Vegas’
key growth centers of
casino gaming, luxury hospitality, including worldclass dining and nightlife
experiences, shopping,
meetings and conventions,
and entertainment.
The $4.0 billion dollar
development, to be named
Echelon Place, will combine the $2.9 billion wholly-owned Echelon Resort
with hotel and retail joint
ventures between Boyd
and key strategic partners.
The Echelon Resort will
be wholly-owned, and
operated principally by
the Company, but include
operating arrangements
with leaders in the hotel,
restaurant, nightlife and
entertainment industries
who will bring unique
brands and industry-leading reputations and relationships to the project.
The development master plan, Echelon Place, is
expected to be fully developed in one phase and will
integrate several elements:
tive business and meeting facilities. Echelon
will include an expansive
4,000-seat theater with a
large stage and stadium
seating designed to accommodate major concerts
and production shows. In
addition, a more intimate
1,500-seat theater will
house smaller shows and
touring acts.
Nicky Hilton New Years
Champions winner Mike
Matusow experiencing
a New Years Eve card
mugging, then walking
away after not winning
a race. Layne Flack, Jim
Miller, David Williams,
Evelyn Ng, Chip Jett, John
Phan, Scott Fischman,
Antonio Esfandiari and
Cyndy Violette playing
in the tournament. One
by one the players were
eliminated, then Shannon
Elizabeth won the last all-
in of the tournament and
was crowned the champion of the Nicky Hilton
New Years Eve Poker
Tournament.
I cover many of the
major tournaments including WPT Championships
and all the events of the
WSOP. One of the differences I noticed with
this crowd was the steady
stream of catered service food coming to the
tables, much of which was
nibbled on then forgotten. This is something I
don’t see much of at the
major tournaments. Food
is delivered to players but
it is always consumed by
someone. The tournament
was a great test for the
new Caesars Palace Poker
Room and they get high
marks. I thought it a fitting
event for the opening the
poker room after a sixteen
year absence of live poker
at Caesars Palace.
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Echelon Resort
The Company will own
and operate the 3,300room Echelon Resort,
encompassing two
upscale hotels, a 2,600room Resort Tower and
a 700-room Suite Tower,
each containing its own
luxurious spa. Both hotels
will connect directly to
Echelon’s extensive public
areas containing a 140,000
square foot casino, 25
restaurants and bars, and
lushly landscaped pool and
garden areas. Echelon
will be a contemporary
and upscale resort, complemented by extensive,
high quality and innovaw w w. p o ke r p l a y e r n e w s p a p e r. c o m
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
13
Ace-Magnets
STRAIGHT SKINNY
By RICHARD G. BURKE
On a busy Friday afternoon in mid-winter in my local poker room, I folded my
hand in a ten-handed $4-8 Hold’Em game. Just on
my left, LindaMae raised and everyone except the
Big Blind folded. The Flop came Aa-6s-7d. The Big
Blind bet $4 and LindaMae mucked her pocket Kings.
“Damn Ace-magnets!” she swore quietly. While I waited for the next deal, I wondered whether Kings really
do attract Aces the way funerals draw politicians.
Given that she held pocket Kings, the probability
that one or more Aces would flop is (1-C(4,0)*C(46,3)/
C(50,3)), or .2255. So LindaMae was unlucky on that
Flop, because three times out of four no Ace would
fall: 77.4% of the time the Flop would be Ace-less.
Furthermore, if there were no Ace on the Flop, then
the probability of no Aces on the Turn or River is
given by C(4,0)*C(43,2)/C(47,2)), or .8353. So, if an
Ace hadn’t flopped, then five times out of six there
wouldn’t be one on the Turn or River either. Putting
those two events together, starting with pocket Kings,
the chance is 64.7% that there won’t be an Ace on
the table after all the cards are out. Pocket Kings are
NOT Ace-magnets; it just seems that way.
(With no Ace on the table, it’s a little more likely
that one or more of her nine opponents would have
been dealt pocket Aces. That chance is .0543, about
1 in 19.)
The table shows the probability that there would be
exactly 0 through 4 Aces on the tableau. The table
also shows the probability that 0 through 4 Aces
would be dealt among the players versus the number
on the tableau.
# Aces on
Tableau
Prob.
Prob. of # Aces among the players
0
1
2
3
4
.02
0
.647
.12
.35
.36
.15
1
.308
.21
.45
.29
.06
2
.043
.35
.49
.15
3
.002
.60
.40
4
.00002
The table shows that for exactly one Ace on the
tableau, it’s a 21% chance that no Aces were dealt
among the nine opponents: so, it’s a 79% chance that
one or more Aces were dealt. Because most play AceAny in low-limit Hold’Em games, when there’s exactly
one Ace on the tableau, four times out of five somebody will have a Pair of Aces or better.
I wouldn’t have criticized her for calling one small
bet, because her pot odds were larger than her cards
odds: counting the house rake, she had pot odds of
$24 for $4, better than the about 1 in 5 odds that an
Ace wasn’t dealt. If the Turn card didn’t improve her
hand, then counting the rake and bad-beat drop, her
pot odds to see the River card would have been $40
for $8, about equal to 1 in 5. A call there wouldn’t
have been all that bad either.
LindaMae reasoned differently. The Big Blind was
a solid player and because of her early-position, preFlop raise, he surely put her on a big Ace or big pockets. She reckoned that: a) he wouldn’t have bet into
her post-Flop unless he had a good hand, e.g., Two
Pairs or a Set; or b) he had a weak Ace and was probing to learn if she had a better Ace. Either way, headsup and having only two outs, her Kings were headed
for the muck. I couldn’t disagree.
Mr. Burke is the author of Flop: The Art of Winning at
Low-Limit Hold ’Em, available from amazon.com,
gamblersbook.com, and kokopellipress.com. E-mail your
Hold ’Em questions to [email protected]
14
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
shoot him.”
In Victorian England,
“cardsharpers” were considered by polite society to be
on the same criminal level as
grave robbers, opium fiends,
and women of ill repute.
SWAT yells, “All clear!”
Detective Sweeny enters The
Misdeal and is told I’m not
among the identifiable dead.
He leans over
Dorothy to check her
pulse.
Straight To Hell
A Poker Player Murder Mystery by Robert Arabella
I was just a run-of-the-mill
cardjacker when I became
the protégé of the legendary
card mechanic Steve The
Sleeve. This was years ago,
after Steve had cheated himself into a first place finish
at the World Heavyweight
Championship Of Poker.TM
(Never heard the story? Not
surprising. The Casino, not
wanting a “Black Sox” style
poker scandal, hushed the
whole thing up.)
Steve The Sleeve didn’t
invent rat-holing—stealing
and hiding good cards from
one hand to play in later
hand—he just perfected the
“now-you-see-’em/now-youdon’t” card switches that
turned any five blanks into
crooked straights and false
flushes.
The story goes that Steve
got sloppy one night at The
Misdeal and, as punishment
for cheating, Nickel and
Dime hacked off his right
hand. Just in case anybody
forgets the pound of flesh
Steve paid for cheating, his
right hand—the WHCP ring
still on the finger—floats in
an alcohol-filled glass jug
behind the bar. They never
found the rest of Steve The
Sleeve’s body and everyone
believed he had been murdered.
Only now, unless I’ve
wandered into a remake of
“Night Of The Living Dead,”
it would seem the reports
of Steve’s death have been
greatly exaggerated.
I begin to say, “What the
fu…” and then suddenly turn
away when from outside
Detective Sweeny shouts into
a megaphone, “Thayer! You
are surrounded. Come out
now or you’re a dead man.”
I turn back around and
the man I though was dead
and gone is gone. He’s taken
Calamity Jane’s “chocolate
chip” with him.
I write a two-word note
on a playing card and put it
into Dorothy’s hand just as
Detective Sweeny tells the
SWAT Team, “If you find
that poker-playing son of a
bitch Jack Thayer in there,
“Sharpers” caught attempting
to cheat their betters were
invariably sent to be executed
on the gallows, which is why,
to this day, the hangman’s
noose is tied with a cheater’s
knot. If I’m caught in the
bombed-out ruins of The
Misdeal, my life will also end
with an execution.
After searching through
what’s left of the poker room,
“Dead,” says Sweeny,
“probably stabbed by Thayer
just before he blew himself,
and everybody else in this
card room, to smithereens.”
In Dorothy’s hand, Sweeny
finds my note, reads it, and
stuffs it into his pocket.
“Five poker rooms full
of players all murdered for
some deranged card cheat’s
sick revenge. I hope he goes
straight to Hell.”
I have not gone to Hell,
only into the hellishly small
crawl space under The
Misdeal’s bar, hiding from
the police with the dust bunnies and dead spiders.
After the police have all
gone, I crawl out from under
the bar, pull down one of the
few unshattered bottles from
the shelf, upend the whiskey—and stop. Next to me
is an alcohol-filled glass jug.
It’s empty now but I recognize it as the place Steve The
Sleeve’s severed right hand
used to float.
I now know who’s been
blowing up poker rooms—a
dead man— just like me.
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
(To be continued in the next
issue of Poker Player)
15
Informal Protest
DEBBIE BURKHEAD INTERVIEWS...
There ought to be a law with some of these bad undisciplined people in general, and bad poker player people
in particular. I am deadly serious this time. If you
listen to these so-called experts on their advice that
bad players make for easy money, you have not been
watching or playing very much. Even when the main
Robert Daily
POKER
Dealer Vibes
By Donald W. Woods, Jr.
event has the blessing of prime time
television, it is usually rewarded with;
you guessed it, a bunch of bad beats
and ridiculous play usually rewarded
in a prime time come from behind victory. Starting to become fairly common to see a bad
player call a raise, get baited to continue -when the
odds call for him/her to fold- continue coming with a
piece of hand, to a wondrous conclusion of successive
glorious cards to win the pot, survive the headlock
that had certain catastrophe written all over it. Not
only that, but, usually in the process of walking into
the lions’ den with a t-bone steak suit on, against all
odds, knocking out in the interim a more deserving
opponent, and finally adding more chips to his/her
ever increasing stack. Yeah, I am steaming; somebody
needs to incorporate a way to identify these culprits.
Perhaps, we can begin a national commission that
over sees all games played in the U.S. $40-$80 and
under. Formulate over a course of a prescribed date
all the players’ data for the designated games, and fed
into a main computer frame. Once a player’s score is
tabulated, a number designating them a bad player, is
assigned. Similar to the jersey’s worn in professional
sports, a player must compete as an international bad
player, identified by the appointed jersey and insignia:
B.P.O.A. Depending on how many of these bad players
that are determined by the commission, the numbers
on the back of the jerseys could be a…skies the limit!
Oh, what is B.P.O.A., Bad players of America!
So why have I devoted so much time and energy to
expound on bad players? The answer is simple: they
are taking over, man! Bad players, real bad drivers, bad
attitudes, bad understanding, bad work ethic, bad products, bad acting, bad chemistry, bad marriages, bad
karma, bad management, and finally bad luck. For all
intent and purposes, these bad players are for the most
part, inexhaustibly lucky individuals, as you will see
repeatedly a bad player make a bad decision, come out
smelling like a rose. Just once, can we see the coyote
catch the roadrunner? What is the chance of Mr. Magoo
getting an assortment of moving violation tickets?
Pick any game; stand by it for any length of time.
Ok, some bad player just won a big pot, right. Here is
the deal though. Chips won makes that player even
more powerful, so bad players chips won, does not
necessarily mean that he will give them back. It usually means he will win some more; especially the back
breaking hands, everybody to the last card, three players all in, a miracle needed, Bam! Wow, “what a card
he/she will exclaim” Then while he/she is stacking this
monstrosity of a pot, you are certain to hear those
famous words: “The pot got too big, I had to stay”
Yeah, but now I got to GO, get away from these Bad
players of America, inc.
Donald W. Woods, Jr. is a 9 year professional dealer. Some
of his diversified interests include, track and field coach
at the high school level yielding a championship in 2002.
He is currently penning an original script, outside the
poker arena, for his maiden voyage to movie-land.
For more information, contact him at
[email protected]
16
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Robert Daily was born
in Dallas, Texas in 1943.
He graduated from Bryan
Adams High School in
1961 and followed that up
by earning a BBA degree
in accounting from the
University of Arkansas.
Robert enlisted in the
United States Army in 1966.
He spent the majority of
his tour of duty as a pilot in
Southeast Asia and was honorably discharged in 1969.
Following his discharge
from the Army, Robert took
an assignment in the gaming business as a pit dealer
in a casino in Tehran, Iran.
To prepare for his new
appointment, Robert trained
in all table games for a year
at a London Casino prior
to reporting for his Iranian
Casino assignment.
The Iranian Revolution
that hit in 1979 ended his
employment in Iran. Robert
claims his Persian language
(Farci) skills are rusty but
welcomes the opportunity to
brush-up.
In 1980 Robert went to
work for an Asian Casino
Company that operated several casinos in the
Pacific Rim Countries as
the Director of Operations.
During this period, Robert,
also played tournaments and
high stakes poker in Asia,
Western and Eastern Europe,
winning two no-limit tournaments and making four additional final tables. It’s that
experience that has driven
Robert to continually strive
to grow poker into a generally accepted and respectable pastime and profession,
not only for himself but for
poker players and professionals around the world.
From that time until now, he
has been playing and working in poker.
When Colorado passed
legalized gambling Robert
returned to the States to
assist in the opening of several Colorado Casinos.
In 1992 Robert left
the States for Alma-Ata
Kazakhstan, Russia to
accept the position of Casino
ROOM
MANAGER
Manager and Director of
Joint Ventures for Casino
Mirage where he trained
poker players and dealers
and opened the first known
casino style poker room in
the former Soviet Union.
Robert still retains his conversational skills in Russian..
In 1994 Robert returned
to the States and took the
position of Manager of
Table Games and Poker at
Harvey’s Casino in Central
City Colorado.
In 1996 Robert left
Colorado and headed for
Las Vegas, accepting a position as a Pit Supervisor at
the Rio. When Harrah’s
purchased the Rio, Robert
remained in Table Games in
the High-Limit Salon and
Dice Pit.
In December of 2004
Robert was appointed to
Manage Tournament Poker
and to take on the responsibilities of the World Series
of Poker Operations.
Shortly after the 2005
World Series Robert also
assumed the responsibility
of the Rio Poker Room.
To date Robert holds the
positions of Manager of
Tournament Poker, operating and directing all the
marketing and special Poker
Tournaments for all six of
Harrahs’ Las Vegas properties, Rio Poker Room
Manager, and will continue
his Operational Manager
duties for the WSOP. Robert
will also share the CoTournament Director’s title
along side Michael Matts,
the Cardroom Manager at
Caesar’s. Robert will direct
day shift while Michael will
handle the swing shift at the
2006 WSOP.
Robert married Brazilian
born Beauty Queen, Maria
Lorenz in June of 2001.
They happily reside in the
Green Valley area of Las
Vegas and still consider
themselves newlyweds.
DB: How many poker tables
are in the Rio poker room?
RD: By the time this article
is printed, we will have 15
tables.
DB: Are you expecting to
expand anytime soon?
RD: We will not add tables
at this time but there will
AT
THE
RIO
be a total reconstruction of
the Rio poker room during
the 2006 WSOP. We want
to improve the ambience,
create a more friendly and
warm room, plus upgrade to
a “state of the art” room to
improve the overall operational functionality. In other
words, we want the players
and employees to get that
“warm and fuzzy” feeling
when they walk into the
room..
DB: What live games are
offered in the Rio poker
room?
RD: We will spread any
game, of course. We have
a wonderful crew of dealers and floor supervisors
that can expertly handle all
the games. However, our
most popular games have
become a no-limit hold’em
game with $2-$5 blinds and
a minimum buy-in of $100
and a maximum of $500,
also $4-$8 and $6-$12 limit
hold’em tops the favorite list
of limit games. Plus, limit
$2-$6 and $2-$10 anytime
spread games are growing in
popularity. We might be the
only room in the city offering a spread limit game. The
spread game is an easy transition from limit to no-limit.
Our players seem to like it.
DB: Are you offering any
daily tournaments?
RD: Yes, seven days a
week at noon we run a nolimit event. The buy-in is
$40 with one $40 rebuy and
one $40 add on. We also run
a Monday thru Thursday
night no-limit tournament at
6:00 p.m. with a $70 buy-in,
a $70 rebuy and a $70 add
on.
.
DB: What incentives does
the Rio offer it‘s poker players?
RD: We comp our live
players $1 per hour and they
can use their comp anywhere in the casino. Daily at
10 a.m. we offer free poker
lessons to interested players.
We are considering offering
special room rates for poker
players and instituting an
incentive for Rio and WSOP
logo wear items such as caps
and shirts and other logo
items. Those programs will
rick Lindgren is not
your daddy’s kind
of poker player. Not
yet 30, he’s a product of
what’s happening now in
the poker world, playing
the game of life as though
he had been dealt pocket
aces in a heads-up encounter, handling the routine
of news media interviews
smoothly, with enough
E
The idea, he says, well .
. . its’ pretty much there in
the title, offering strategy
for building chip stacks
which obviously has a lot
to do with surviving long
enough to get to that final
table.”
The book has been
written with Matt Matros
who previously wrote a
poker book and made the
– make a lot of money
playing poker.
Lindgren slipped into
his high profile status the
old fashioned way, making the right bets when the
chips were down, so to
speak. His recent big wins
PLAYER
ERICK
BY PHIL HEVENER
Lindgren
Profile
pizzazz in his responses
to explain his reputation
as one of poker’s rising
young personalities.
The junior college
dropout from northern
California who earned allconference honors as a basketball and baseball player
before discovering the big
bright world of professional gambling, has so much
more than poker table strategy to talk about at a time
when the poker industry is
responding to the presence
of corporate sponsors anxious to tap into rewarding
possibilities.
Lindgren knows all
about that.
There’s his link with
Knob Creek Bourbon, the
company sponsoring both
him and Howard Lederer,
another of poker’s success stories. A Knob Creek
spokesman says the company likes the connection
with youthful winners, people of substance. Couldn’t
ask for better demographics.
Lindgbren also eagerly
awaits the formal release
of Daniel Negreanu’s
STACKED, a new home
video game for all the
most popular formats that
enables the person at the
controls to sit down to a
high stakes game of poker
with Negreanu and some
of his friends, a list of personalities that just happens
to include Lindgren.
But wait a minute,
there’s more, like his justpublished book, which is
intended to help a world
of wanna-be champs do
exactly what he has done
include the Poker Million
III and the 2003 WPT
event in Aruba. Those two
wins, by themselves, were
worth $1.5 million in prize
money.
This past year he was
second in the World Series
of Poker circuit tournament at Atlantic City,
fifth at the WPT’s LA
Poker Classic, he won the
WPT’s second Professional
Poker Tournament, was
fourth at the Mirage Poker
Showdown and fourth in
this past World Series of
Poker’s $3,000 buy-in no
limit hold’em tournament.
Like so many of poker’s
shining stars, this member of the “Full Tilt crew”
spends more time than ever
on the road, skipping from
one major tournament to
another.
But Lindgren has more
than poker table activity on
his mind these days, balancing, as he is, the interests of Internet affiliations,
sponsorships and, oh yes .
. . let’s not forget his new
book.
“That’s right,” he nods
cheerfully, “I just came out
with the book, it’s called
Making the Final Table. It
draws from his recent success of the last year or so
at the World Poker Tour
and, as Lindgren explains
it, “explores the style that
is popular with a lot of the
young players. It’s a really
aggressive style, playing a
lot of hands.”
Poker Player is pleased to welcome Phil Hevener back to its pages.
Hevener was the Managing Editor of Poker Player from July 1983 to
December 1985. Phil wanted to produce his own publication, which he
did with Larry Hall. They called it, “Las Vegas Style.” A popular journalist who writes for many major publications, Phil was replaced in 1985 by
Gary Thompson, who is now the spokesman for Harrahs Entertainment.
final table at a World Poker
Tour championship event.
Why the partnership with
Matros?
“My English is not good
enough to do it all on my
own,” he laughs, turning the response into a
wisecrack, So Matt came
through in a big way.
Besides, I just basically
wrote it to make my mom
proud.”
The 29-year-old
Lindgren is fast approaching 10 years of making his
living in the poker business
– “I feel old,” punctuating
that remark with a grin. He
took a big step, demonstrating his commitment three
years ago when he moved
to Las Vegas and bought a
house.
He can clearly see the
impact of the Internet on
the poker business. “It
allows a lot of people to
play a lot more than they
would otherwise and you
can play a lot of hands in a
hurry on the Internet. The
other factor is that a lot of
people with an interest in
poker don’t have a regular
casino close to where they
live. The Internet allows
you to hop on for 15 or 30
minutes at a time, any time
they want to and find a full
game.”
Lindgren’s role as a
member of the Full Tilt
team has helped polish his
personal profile, just as it
does all the other members,
but it also helps whet the
appetite of people who
have the chance to improve
their games while also
developing a connection
of sorts with the biggest
names in the poker business. Think of it as marketing that slides along the
cutting edge.
“When I’m on Full Tilt,
I might be in a small game
or I might be over in a fifty
and a hundred no limit
game, but no matter where
I am you can come and ask
me questions. It is a fun
way to connect with the
people who see the World
Poker Tour and watch us
play for these huge prize
pools. They have an interest in poker but don’t otherwise have a chance to
see the kind of life we lead
here in Vegas. No matter
of what game I’m in you
can come and ask me questions.”
The convenience of
Internet poker is a big
plus for a lot of people but
Lindgren concedes there
is nothing like live poker.
“It is easier to bluff when
you are at home than when
you look across the table
at someone else and realize you have nothing, but
for me there is nothing like
the camaraderie of going to
the tournaments and seeing
all the people who play in
these things. It’s a closeknit group.”
What’s his favorite
game?
“Right now I enjoy
these tournaments (which
means a lot of hold ‘em).
I’ve really gotten into the
tournament mode. But I
see myself a few years
down the road in the big
(cash) games with Doyle
(Brunson) and Chip
(Reese) and those guys
fighting it out in the biggest cash games. That
would be the pinnacle of
poker to me.”
But in the meantime, he
says, the poker economy
“is going through the
roof,” thanks in large part
to action that continued to
be driven by the Internet.
“There are so many more
games in more places available to everyone.
Lindgren adds after a
moment of thought, “There
are so many more games
available. It a long way
from the days when you
had to be sitting in one of
several rooms in Las Vegas
to be part of whatever was
happening.”
These changing times
also mean that the often
long journey up the ladder of success is not what
it used to be. Things can
happen in a hurry now. A
man can play thousands of
hands on the Internet in the
time it once took to climb
in the car and drive from,
let’s say, LA’s Commerce
Club, to the Stardust in Las
Vegas.
“I remember that climbing the ladder could be a
slow process. There was a
definite limit to the number
of hands you could get
out and you had to be careful about playing within
your bankroll,” he says. “I
know it took me awhile. I
started with the 3-6 games
and then I went to 6-12 and
then the 10-20 games.”
Where did he get his
start as a serious poker
player?
“The 3-6 games at this
Indian casino in northern California is where I
started and I suppose I was
mostly recreational at the
time, but even as I became
a professional I took my
time at each level.”
His point is that it was a
“long process,” going from
the 3-6 level to the 40-80
games and beyond.
“Now people are learning so fast on the Internet.
These kids are treating
it like a video game and
before they know it they
are in the 50-100 and the
no limit games on some of
these sites.”
What does this mean to
the live games in the growing number of big poker
rooms in Las Vegas and
elsewhere?
“All of the money being
made on these Internet sites
eventually comes to the
games in places like Vegas
where the people with it
want to play as big as possible.”
Any plans for other projects, possibilities that might
be shaken loose by his success at the tables?
“Nothing much at the
moment,” he says, giving
the response one of those
high wattage Lindgren
grins.
He and several other
poker players did have
roles in the upcoming Drew
Barrymore and Robert
Duval film Lucky You, but
this hurry up and wait stuff
associated with movie making is not his cup of tea.
“That’s hard work, the
kind of thing that’s probably not for me.” He’s keeping it simple. “I just like
to play poker. This next
year I’m thinking I want to
focus more on poker and
cut down on my traveling a
little bit.”
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
17
LESSON 67:
An Interview With
The Mad Genius
Part 2
Lessons from mike caro
university of poker
BY DIANE M C HAFFIE
I discovered an old column in which Mike Caro interviews
himself, as The Mad Genius. Those of you who are wondering about the
nationally advertised book, Caro’s Professional Hold ’em Play-by-Play and
why it hasn’t appeared in bookstores should find the following reprint of the
interview self-explanatory. It should also and make my frustration clearer,
demonstrating the difficulty of my job as director of operations at MCU.
Below, Mike Caro (MC) interviews The Mad Genius (TMG) back in early
1995, eleven years ago and yes; he’s talking about the same Professional
Play-by-Play series we expect to see at the bookstores in 2006.
His opening remarks included: “When you’re interviewed, you get to say
what you think, and you’re quoted verbatim. Trouble is, you don’t get to pose
the questions. Since many people accuse me of having a split personality,
insisting that the Mad Genius and Mike Caro seem like two different people,
let me use one to interview the other.”
MC: Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed.
TMG: I agreed out of respect for you.
MC: You’ve announced a series of books and videos for years called
Pro Poker Play-by-Play. You even had a conspicuous ad running for a year
shouting that the series is coming soon. Some people started to laugh after
a while, saying you’ll never put out any more books or videos. Your ad got
everyone excited by saying, “You’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Well, we’ve never seen it period. What happened?
TMG: Nothing happened.
MC: Obviously nothing happened! That’s the whole point. Is anything ever
going to happen, or is this series just a publicity stunt?
TMG: No, it’s not a publicity stunt. But I wasn’t expecting that question.
This project, which will completely and permanently redefine the standards
by which poker literature and instructional material is judged, will begin to
appear in the near future.
MC: Well, you keep saying that, and you convinced everyone by your
“Coming Soon” ads, but where are the products to prove it?
TMG: If I really convinced everyone by my ads, then I don’t need any products to prove it. But I do need products to make money, and so you’ll see the
first of the Play-by-Play series real soon.
MC: What about your latest Power Poker Seminar Video?
TMG: What about it?
MC: You’ve been advertising it, but nobody’s seen it yet. Is that just a
publicity stunt?
TMG: Ah, get a life! No, it’s not just a publicity stunt. I’m actually taking
orders. The ad is for advanced orders, and it says so. The target completion
date is November 30, 1995 or shortly thereafter, and we’re in final edit and
right on schedule. Didn’t you see the stupid cameras at the stupid seminar.
MC: Yes, I saw the cameras. No need to get so defensive, Mad Genius. I
was just asking.
TMG: Well, what kind of an interview is this, anyway. I didn’t think you
were going to ambush me. I’m about ready to walk out of here. Can’t you ask
about topics that are less aggravating?
MC: Sure. How come your newsletter is consistently behind schedule. You
announced it as a monthly publication, but it seems to come out a lot less
often. Is that a more acceptable question?
TMG: Sure, that’s a great question, you sonavabitch! I’ll tell you straight
out: We’re not taking any orders beyond issue number 14. We’re just now
shipping issue number six, and each issue is going to be a little better than
the last one.
MC: How come you can’t get anything done ahead of schedule? You’re not
the only one with a lot of projects to juggle. Other people seem to manage.
TMG: Sit on it!
The video that Mike talks about did get published. The Newsletter went
quarterly. His columns in Poker Player are always late, since you would
expect nothing else from a professional procrastinator. We’re still holding our
breath on the book.
Diane McHaffie is Director of Operations at Mike Caro
University of Poker, Gaming, and Life Strategy. Her
diverse career spans banking, promotion of major financial seminars and the raising of White-tailed Deer. You
can write her online at [email protected].
18
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Locket Caper
A Joe & Hobby fiction by
David J. Valley
H
obby and I were in
a heap of trouble.
Being the good citizens that
we are, we cooperated with
the LAPD to entice Pete
Francone, a top level hood,
onto Lazybuns to connect
him with a multi-million dollar crime. When he boarded
I gave him a priceless stolen locket. He had planted
it in my jacket the night
before during a poker game
when he thought the Feds
might catch him with it. We
planned Francone would be
nabbed by the cops when he
left the yacht. Instead, he had
four armed frogmen sneak
aboard to take command.
They had Uzi automatic
pistols pointed at us. Hobby
was immediately on attack
alert, like a guard dog ready
to pounce.
“Don’t move, Hobby. We
don’t stand a chance,” I cautioned.
“You bastards won’t get
away this. It’s mutiny on the
high seas. I’ll see all of you
hang!” Hobby spouted.
“Shut up,” Francone said.
“You been watching too
many movies. You, Captain
Hobby, go to the bridge and
get us underway. Don’t try
any cute stuff. These boys
can drive your boat outta
here, but they might bang it
up a bit.”
“I’ll do it, but someone
will have to cast off the
lines.” Good idea, Hobby, I
thought. That should get the
cop’s attention.
“We took care of that,”
one of the frogmen said.
“We cut the lines; we’re
adrift.”
“Damn you,” Hobby sputtered. “We might ram someone!”
“So get moving, and put
us on a course of two-sevenzero,” Francone shouted.
Hobby sprinted for the
bridge with two armed men
closely behind. To one of the
remaining gunmen Francone
said, “I forgot something.
You make sure this bucket
hauls ass!”
“You’ll never get away
with this Francone, the cops
and Coast Guard will be all
over us in minutes,” I said,
trying to believe it.
“Think I’m stupid. It’ll
take the Coast Guard at
least 20 minutes; and forget
about the cops, they can’t
do shit. Soon you’ll both be
fish food and we’ll be long
gone.”
This is grim. I’m outnumbered two to one and Hobby
is facing three armed gunmen. Hobby is a fantastic
martial arts expert, but he
can’t work miracles. My
only chance is to employ
one of Hobby’s burglary
deterrents. I changed my
tune to that of a frightened
man. “Francone, maybe we
can make a deal. You don’t
need me. Just let me grab a
life jacket and drop over the
side.”
“What’s in it for me if I
let you?”
“I know where Hobby
keeps a lot of cash. I’ll
tell you if…” I said with a
whimper.
“Sure, where is it?”
“Behind that painting in a
wall safe,” I said pointing to
the far bulkhead.
“Take a look,” Francone
ordered the frogman who
pushed aside the painting
revealing the safe.
“So what’s the combination?”
“He doesn’t keep it
locked; it should open.” By
now Francone was getting
very interested. I managed
to move slightly behind him.
I covered my ears and shut
my eyes just as the safe door
opened and the flash-bang
went off. The frogman was
down and Francone was
staggering. I picked up a
heavy vase and cold-cocked
him. After disarming the
frogman I tied him securely
with electrical cord then did
the same to Francone. Two
down—three to go.
I thought the noise of
the explosion might bring
someone and decided to wait
inside the doorway with my
tried-and-true vase. It soon
paid off. The door slowly
opened. A frogman cau-
tiously entered only to be
met head-on by my noggin
basher. After securing him
I made my way toward the
bridge. With a quick peek I
saw a frogman was guarding
the door with his weapon at
the ready.
If I were a soldier and he
were an enemy combatant, I
wouldn’t think twice about
surprising him with a hail
of bullets, but I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of
killing someone under these
circumstances. A better strategy might be to play a waiting game; surely someone
would get curious enough to
investigate what happened to
his cohort. I’d lie in wait and
take another one out of commission.
Before I could move I
heard voices from the bridge.
I was going to have company before I was ready. A few
feet away there was a slight
recess into which I pressed
flat against the bulkhead. I
couldn’t hide, but I might be
able to surprise him.
He walked toward me. In
an instant I’d be seen. My
focus was on his weapon.
In close quarters an Uzi can
chop you into hamburg. I
slammed down hard, dislodging the gun. It went
sailing, but unfortunately,
I lost the grip on mine too.
It went tumbling across the
deck. He was bigger than me
in every direction, and one
mean looking dude. It’s been
many years since I was a
battle-hardened Ranger and
there was no time now for a
refresher course.
The brute sized me up
quickly; with a confident
smirk he moved in. I was
focused on his right eye
and pointed toward it. It
momentarily confused him
enough so he didn’t see my
right foot flying towards
his crotch. I didn’t score
a bull’s-eye, but even one
crushed nut is enough to
deter the strongest of men.
As he began to crumble his
chin came to a point where
it could be intercepted by
my fast rising knee. It would
have been better for him if
his mouth were closed. The
quick mashing of his jaws
was like breaking glass with
a hammer. He was out cold.
I had another casualty to tie
up.
Only one to go, but
frankly, I was not concerned.
No matter that a weapon
WHAT’s LUCK GOT
TO DO WITH IT?
(continued from page 9)
Casino’s daily tournament
in Tacoma, I was in the
blind with 5/3 offsuit. Brian,
in first position, had soft
played pocket aces and let
me in. The flop came 7/6/4
but I had checked dark. He
bet and I gladly went all in
with my straight. He called,
then turned a 3rd ace and
river’d another 7! There
you have a great example
of luck beating luck. Brian
gave others a chance to outdraw him, but he lucked out.
So, how much luck or
skill come into play at our
poker table? You need to
look at several variables
before you decide that.
1. What’s the limit?
2. Is it loose or tight?
3. Are there any drunks or
fools?
4. Is the mood loud or
quiet?
5. Are you catching cards?
6. Is anyone on a rush
7. How many callers per
hand?
These are a few of the
things I consider when I
decide what hands to play.
Usually, the higher the limit,
the less luck comes into
play, but don’t ever assume
that. Read your players to
determine who respects
raises. I’m always cautious
if there are drunks and fools
in the game, as they seem
to have an uncanny drawing ability against me. If the
table is loud, and everyone
is aggressive, I tend to play
more suited connectors than
pairs, because I do better
with those hands against
many callers. They’re easier
to throw away if I flop nothing. I like an action table,
but I play extremely tight
until I see I’m making
hands.
You have to admit that
what you have seen on TV
is not how you plan on playing each day. Playing a live
game with hard cash is not
like going all in to survive
in a tournament. Some of
those hands are the worst
plays possible, and sometimes they’re lucky and win.
But luck plays a large hand
with good cards as well. I
remember one hand in the
2004 Series where a guy put
a player all in with pocket
threes, while he held a pair
of aces. The three hit the
river. He did the right thing,
but it was good luck for
the threes. No book in the
world can prepare you for a
kick in the teeth from Lady
Luck. No amount of skill
could have changed that
outcome.
In the games that I usually play, 3/6 to 10/20 limit,
I would have to give luck
a 70% importance rating.
That is not to say, however,
that skill is not important.
On the contrary, you must
have the skills required to
read other players’ hands,
catch a bluffer, and conserve chips for opportune
moments.
I have always preached
against aggression in low
limit games until you know
the hand cannot be beat.
That is simply because you
need a tremendous amount
of luck to have your preflop pair hold up against 5
to 8 callers. With that many
players, many big cards are
out and the “junk” cards
have more outs to hit the
board. I get tired of hearing bad beat stories about
someone rivering a set of
deuces. We call it bad luck,
but in reality, the small pairs
went up in value because
the big cards were out.
Maybe it was the real odds
coming out and the skill was
in determining that it was
worth calling all bets.
The rating I give luck is
for my set of circumstances.
Your take on it depends on
the game you’re playing, at
the time you’re playing. It
depends strictly on YOUR
variables. The important
thing to remember is that
playing solid cards alone,
or depending on luck alone,
will not give you the chips
every day. You must be sufficiently skilled to lay down
good hands at the right time,
and lucky enough to win
with bad hands at the right
time.
Write to Lee Garcia at [email protected]
Online Seven Stud High-LowHigh-Low -
Things I Didn’t Know
BY
boy, little did
I know what
I was getting into when I
started playing seven-card
stud high low (and sevencard stud) online.
Oh,
Things I DIDN’T
KNOW….
• There are so many creative screen names; it’s like
seeing a license plate and
trying to figure out what it
really means. That, too, is
pure entertainment!
• A very few players are
crude and hostile and hide
behind the screen names
and call you everything not
included in Webster’s. Just
turn off “player chat.” Let
them vent without upsetting YOUR game.
• Some players treat a
$6, $11 or $33 buy-in as
if it were being invested
in a bubblegum machine–
money seems to be no
object. I have found those
players start playing poorly,
continue to play poorly and
lose every single tourna-
KOJIF
ment. Checking the full
tables–he or she is there,
playing in two, three,
sometimes more, tourneys–
losing every one! I want
them at my table every
time I play. (Obviously,
they have not read any of
the poker books or articles
offered in Poker Player
Newspaper.)
• In the middle of a tournament, a player will ask
“what’s low?” If the answer
comes back “8 or better”
– well, you can guess the
next question. No, the
answer is “8 or lower.”
• A player will sit in,
invest the $33 buy-in and
then say something to the
effect, “Oh, I thought this
was no-limit hold’em.” I
also want that player at my
table!
• Some players will
raise, re-raise, and re-raise
on a pair of sixes! (No,
they don’t win!) If you
sit back and be patient,
enjoy the “view”-you will
see them losing hand after
hand. Yes, again, my table
please.
• I didn’t know that I
would be up against players
from around the world–literally–from places I don’t
think one could find on the
map…yet he or she found
poker. Amazing! What a
fabulous thing for poker!
• I didn’t know there
were so many cities in the
US named “Moscow”,
“Hollywood” or
“Mesquite.”
• There is an entirely
new language online such
as “c” meaning “see” and
“nh”
meaning “nice hand” or
s@#t meaning – well…you
know.
• Some players will
hold up a game, hand after
hand after hand, instead of
learning about or using the
“away” button that allows a
player after the fold to “sit
out” without delaying the
game for others.
• Some players will con(Continued on page 31)
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
19
Locket Caper
Low System Resources?
TRUE POKER
Part 2
(Continued from page 18)
By Peter “The Poet” COsta
So it’s Boxing day morning and I’m chilling out by playing a little online poker.
The problem with early mornings is that
the selection of games is limited. I therefore decided
on the ultimate chill, heads-up challenges.
My strategy for these tends to be one of a very slow
and grinding approach that leads to frustration for
the opponent. As Surinder Sunnar (one of my friends
and great European player) agreed - the slow way, is
the painful way. This has worked very well for me over
the years. In fact, I think my record of 13 wins in a row
and numerous nine’s and ten’s - suggests that it’s not
too bad a strategy. Anyway… having tired of playing
one table’s at Partypoker (they don‘t offer heads-up)
- I decided to move on to Pokerstars. However, when
trying to register, a pop-up message said “Low System
Resources”.
Not sure what this meant as I had no problem with
Party. Eventually though, it allowed me to join a waiting customer. Well…I soon found out what the messages meant!
First problem - the cards are dealt but I can only see
one of my two cards. The 8c seemed rather lonely so I
informed my opponent that I had a problem and waited
for him to offer some sort of abandonment. Instead, he
made a standard button raise. I decided to call while
busy typing my message. Second problem, I can only
see two cards on the flop - but at least the highest one
was another 8. With no offer coming from my opponent, I knew the challenge was on. This was going to
be fun!
So what would you do here? Well… since it was
only $200 - I moved all-in. First blood to me - but the
problems increased! Second hand and again I can only
see one card, but at least it was an Ace - all-in again.
The problem continued over next five or six hands.
Sometimes I could see both my cards, and sometimes
all the three cards on the flop - but never both at the
same time. Either way - it didn‘t much matter as I took
a 2-1 chip lead within the first level. My somewhat perplexed opponent was by now ready to make a stance.
Sure enough, the next time I moved all-in (again with
just a single Ace), he called with A-8. As the flop of
K-K-4 unfolded - my opponent typed a “good game”
comment in the chat. Hehe - I must have A-K. In fact,
my opponent informed that I had A-4 and that he knew
that I was bluffing again. Bluffing again? It was obvious that he did not believe that I had any problems
apart from being a crazy idiot! Some people just don‘t
know how lucky they are! Without the problems, he
could have suffered a slow and agonizing match.
So… what about this supper-aggressive (even if it
was enforced) style of play - would I consider using it
more often? Truth is, I have used it on occasions and it
sure drives the opponent into tilt mode. However, as is
the case in poker - calling with the best hand does not
mean that you win the pot. In other words - it opens
the door to getting unlucky. Personally, I try to keep
that door closed as much as possible.
In the “ real world of poker” - I sadly had to miss
going to Australia (first time in four years) for the
Aussie Millions. With so much happening in poker right
now - I decided against the long flight for what is basically one big tournament. However, I know that by the
time of the main event - I will probably feel gutted at
missing out on what is becoming one of the world’s
greatest events.
PS - the problem turned out to be with my laptop
and a new one was needed.
Until next time - play well, get lucky and never
allow your resources to get too low!
20
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
was pointed at Hobby; I’d
lay odds that he’d come out
the winner. I sneaked up
to where I could see into
the bridge. Hobby was at
the helm. The gunman was
about six feet behind. From
where I was, I could see
that Hobby was stealthily
unscrewing the knob of the
throttle. It came loose and
dropped to the floor. Hobby
bent over to pick it up and
launched a lightning kick. It
tore into the guard, knocking aside his weapon. With
a flurry of hand slams and
kicks the formidable frogman was reduced to doll
rags.
“Well done, Hobby,” I
exclaimed as I entered the
bridge. He looked at me
with eyes agog like I was an
apparition.
“Joe, how the hell…”
“One for you, four for me.
I can be physical, too! But I
must confess, if it were not
for your booby trap, it never
would have happened.”
“Fantastic! But, now what
do we do?” Hobby asked.
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“I see you’ve already
reduced speed. What do say
we stay on this heading and
contact the Coast Guard. I’m
sure Francone’s boat is out
there waiting to intercept us.
Maybe we can get the Coast
Guard to haul them in, too.”
It wasn’t long before
we spotted a blinking light
from our intended intercept,
slightly off to our starboard.
Hobby had the CG on the
radio. They were within
1000 yards and had us both
on their radar.
“Lazybuns, we are moving in rapidly. Once we put
our spotlight on the bogey
and close in, I want you to
rapidly divert and return
TUSCANY
Suites & Casino
to port,” said the CG commander.
“Aye, Aye, Sir,” Hobby
responded.
When I got back to the
stateroom, Francone was
conscious and to say the
least, incredulous. “I can’t
believe you two bums took
out my whole team. But
it’s not too late, we can
still make a deal. I’m talking very big money, more
money than you can imagine.”
“I don’t think so, but I can
untie your hands so we can
play a little poker.”
Write to author David Valley
at: [email protected]
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21
Poker Publications
Proliferate
Quizzes from Mike Caro University of Poker
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
By Byron Liggett
Despite the preponderance of poker publications to suddenly appear in 2005, POKER
PLAYER Newspaper has clearly become the choice of
American poker players coast-to-coast. Here’s why –
First published in more than a decade ago, PP was the
founding publication of Poker. It was the first to recognize
the drama, talent, and potential of The Game. It was the
first to present players and personnel, issues and how-to’s.
Not only was it first, POKER PLAYER has The Name!
There’s no confusion here. It’s about poker, and for players.
One doesn’t have to ask, “What kind of cards is the magazine about?”
It calls itself a “newspaper” because it was designed
and created for hometown poker players everywhere.
It’s distributed not only to big glamorous casinos, but to
small poker rooms at the neighborhood level. It’s not just
for celebrities and pros; it’s for everyone who enjoys the
game.
POKER PLAYER’s distinct size was selected to set itself
apart from all the standard, glossy copycats clamoring for
attention. PP is similar in size to two historically popular
magazines, Look and Life, icons of American culture.
The content in POKER PLAYER reflects its effort to serve
the vast majority of players, not just the stars. Here you
read about players, poker rooms, and promotions not just
in Las Vegas or London, but in La Center WA, Pendleton OR,
Oroville CA, Black Hawk CO, Gary IN, Niagara NY, and many
more. If Arlo Gutherie were still around, he’d no doubt have
a copy in his pocket.
POKER PLAYER considers it a privilege to be the publication read most in poker rooms all across the nation.
Dedicated to being the people’s poker publication, PP’s
New Year’s resolution is to continue to expand and serve
poker at the grass roots in 2006.
D. R. Sherer, author of the popular “The No Fold’em
Hold’em Series” of books was in Reno recently. The
retired attorney and former Army Officer turned professional poker player has published six volumes on the game.
His first book, “How to Win with Little Cards and Send
the Rocks to the Bar”, is now in its second addition. Its
thesis is that while “It takes skill to win with big cards. It
takes even more skill to win with little cards.” Sherer goes
on to discuss position, situations, game conditions, and
strategies in a common, easy to follow fashion.
Sherer’s initial success led him to publish two works
on poker tournaments. One volume discusses types of
hands to play in limit and no-limit Hold’em tournaments.
The other work is titled, “Poker Tournament Tactics for
Winners”.
“Omaha Hi-Lo for Winners” is considered one of the finest works on the game. Well known poker pro Rod Peate,
is unequivocal in his endorsement of the book, declaring
“Whatever he has to say about the game is something one
had better listen to.”
Sherer, known far and wide as “The Sheriff”, has been
ranked among the world’s best tournament players. He was
described by one WSOP champion as “a dangerous force at
the table”.
D.R. Sherer says, “I was practically born playing poker.
It was my family’s game of choice.” In fact, poker is often
a family affair for the Sherers. Accompanying D.R. was his
beautiful wife Sofia and young son David.
Sherer’s books are available at the Gambler’s Book Shop
in Las Vegas or you can order directly online at: nofoldem.
com.
Byron Liggett, originally from the Northwest, lives in Reno
and has been a gaming & poker writer, columnist and consultant for 25 years. email: [email protected]
22
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
asked & answered:
This series is based on the MCU library of research and advice found at Poker1.com.
Each issue, Mike Caro presents 10 new questions covering a category of poker, targeted
for beginner, intermediate, or advanced players. Quiz #37 is about poker tournaments,
targeted at advanced players. (Answers and explanations appear in the next issue.)
Tournaments
(level: advanced)
1. Early in a tournament,
you should…
a. try to eliminate opponents whenever you get the
chance;
b. play conservatively if
there is no rebuy and play
more aggressively if there is
a rebuy;
c. never bluff;
d. all of the above.
2. In a shoot-out tournament, the winner of all the
chips at the table advances
and everyone else is eliminated. A good tactic in such
tournaments is to…
a. play similarly to the way
you would in a non-tournament cash game;
b. play very conservatively
in the first half hour;
c. avoid making smallprofit raises, putting an extra
premium on survival;
d. all of the above.
3. Who was the main
visionary behind the push
for shoot-out tournaments in
the 1980s?
a. Eric Drache;
b. George Hardie;
c. Bob Thompson;
d. Craig Kaufman.
4. Which tournament
director was the first to offer
a non-smoking tournament
as a major event?
a. Jack Straus;
b. Jack McClelland;
c. Phyllis Caro;
d. Eric Drache.
5. According to Mike
Caro’s estimates, how often
should a world-class player
win the first-place trophy
in a field of 1,000 typical
tournament players (ranging
from poor to superior and
mostly average or slightly
better)?
a. Once in 1,000;
b. Once in 300;
c. Once in 50;
d. Once in 25.
6. How many championship bracelets at the World
Series of Poker do Doyle
Brunson, Johnny Chan, and
Phil Hellmuth have combined?
a. 29;
b. 7;
c. 11;
d. 18.
flop in a tournament.
a. True;
b. False.
7. Given no other information, if all three remaining
players are equally skillful
and playing similarly, what
are your chances of winning
first place with $20,000 in
chips if two opponents have
$500,000 each? (choose
closest answer)
a. about 1 in 1,000;
b. about 1 in 5;
c. about 1 in 50;
d. about 1 in 500.
10. Who pays the biggest
mathematical penalty in a
typical proportional-payout
poker tournament?
a. The person who is last
to get knocked out before
reaching the money (the
bubble);
b. The second place finisher;
c. Whoever takes the big
blind last;
d. The first place finisher.
8. Actually – despite
elaborate arguments – there
is never a time when you
should fold aces before the
WATCH FOR
ANSWERS IN OUR
NEXT ISSUE!
9. The winner of a poker
tournament always got lucky.
a. True;
b. False.
If you do not remember the questions, you will find them on our
web site—Download previous issues at
http://www.pokerplayernewspaper.com/
to last issue’s questions
backissues
answers
Q #1 ANSWER: (a). It’s true
that if players know you’re
scrutinizing them, they’re
often more likely to try to
deceive you, making an obvious tell more likely.
they’re less likely to bluff
if they miss another one.
They’re more likely to seek
sympathy by not betting and
just showing you that they
missed again.
Q #2 ANSWER: (d-all of
the above). If you hold a
medium-strong hand on
the final round and are bet
into by a player who’s humming softly, you can often
discover whether to call or
not. Try reaching for your
chips, making certain your
opponent notices, then folding if he keeps humming, and
calling if he stops humming.
Players who are bluffing
are stressed, and you can
increase their suspense by
seeming as if you might call.
At that moment, players
who aren’t worried usually
will carry on unperturbed,
but players who are bluffing
usually will become less animated and quieter.
Q #4 ANSWER: (b). It’s false
that the sadder the voice
announcing a bet, the weaker
the hand. It’s just the opposite. Sounds of sadness mean
strength.
Q #3 ANSWER: (c). When
players complain about missing a lot of hands in a row,
Q #5 ANSWER: (a). It’s usually safe to bet a mediumstrong hand if your opponent
is threatening to call.
Q #6 ANSWER: (b). Although
people sometimes say there
are almost no tells in biglimit games, that’s false.
Tells abound everywhere.
They may be more subtle and
harder to spot among sophisticated players, but you’ll
still see them often.
Q #7 ANSWER: (d-all of the
above). Weak players, more
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26
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Time. Some events
C start after the hour
...........AM, PM
O A,WkP................Week
..... Additional gameD &.times
on this day. Call.
E ........Hold’em
.No Limit Hold’em
.Limit Hold’em
N .............No Limit
L ................... Limit
.............Stud
..7-Card Stud
..5-Card Stud
........ Omaha
H/L .High/Low Split
Pi...........Pineapple
Po...........Pot Limit
Pn.........Panginque
Mx ..Mexican Poker
DC .Dealer’s Choice
MONDAY
•GOLD BAR DENOTES ADVERTISER
TIME
|
HH ...... Headhunter
B ............ Bounties
Sp .............. Spread
Al .........Alternates
Z........... Freezeout
Cz ................ Crazy
E..........Elimination
TUESDAY
GAMES BUY-IN| TIME
Q ............... Qualify
Sh ...........Shootout
+ ..Re-Buys and/or
Add-Ons allowed
F ............... Freeroll
Lad ..... Ladies Only
Men ........Men Only
DAILY TOURNAMENTS
NOW! Get Tournament Listings at our website:
Note: All tournaments are subject to change. Check with the Cardroom for any updates. Cardrooms—
please send your schedules to Tournament Editor A.R. Dyck, [email protected]
| WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
|
FRIDAY
| SATURDAY |
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
$
$
$
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
SUNDAY
GAMES BUY-IN
Aladdin
Arizona Charlie’s
LAS VEGAS & NEVADA SOUTH
Caesars Palace
Cannery Casino
Carson Valley Inn
Circus Circus
Col.Belle-Laughlin
Flamingo Laughlin
Golden Nugget
Harrah’s Las Vegas
Luxor
Nevada Palace
Oasis-Mesquite
Rio Suite Casino
River Palms
Speedway
Stardust
CALIFORNIA—
LOS ANGELES NEVADA NORTH
Virgin River Casino
Atlantis Casino
Boomtown
Cactus Petes-Jackpot
Carson Valley Inn
Circus Circus
Eldorado
Harrah’s Reno
Harvey’s Tahoe
Peppermill
Rainbow Cas. W Wendover
Reno Hilton
Club One Casino
Commerce Club
Hawaiian Gardens
$
/
$
/
DA I LY TO U R N A M E N T L I ST I N G S CO N T I N U E O N PAG E 28
Debbie Burkhead interviews Robert Daily
be forthcoming soon.
DB: Is the room convenient
for local poker payers?
RD: Absolutely!!! Of course
the location of the Rio
makes it convenient for both
locals and non-locals. The
room is convenient to valet
and self parking with both
covered and open parking
near the doors. The room is
located adjacent to the Race
and Sports Book and across
from the famous Carnival
World buffet. The room is
convenient in every respect.
DB: What promos does the
Rio offer at the moment?
RD: We have two major
promotions. We have high
hand jackpots that start at
$40 and cap at $599. There
are 26 different hands that
pay and players that accumulate 80 hours or more of
live play per month, qualify
for our FREE ROLL tournament for a seat into the main
event at the 2006 WSOP.
These are two great promo’s
that are not only popular
but provide a vehicle for
our guests to experience the
opportunity of the WSOP
and all that implies.
DB: What is your prediction for entrants into the Big
Dance at the 2006 WSOP?
RD: We are preparing for
8800. Our estimates are
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
27
Time. Some events &. ........ Additional
Limit Hold’em
start after the hour
gametimes. Call. N ..........No Limit
A, P ....... AM, PM
..... Hold’em L ................ Limit
Wk .............Week
.No Limit Hold’em
..........Stud
MONDAY
CALIFORNIA—SAN DIEGO CALIF—
& INLAND EMPIRE
L.A.
TIME
B ......... Bounties
Sp ........... Spread
.7-Card Stud
..... Omaha Pi........Pineapple Pn......Panginque DCDealer’s Choice Al ......Alternates
.5-Card Stud H/LHigh/Low Split Po........Pot Limit Mx .Mexican Poker HH ...Headhunter Z........ Freezeout
DAILY TOURNAMENTS (CONT’D FROM PAGE 27)
|
TUESDAY
GAMES BUY-IN| TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
|
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
FRIDAY
Cz ............. Crazy + .......... Re-buys
E...... Elimination and/or Add-ons
allowed
Q ............Qualify
Sh ........Shootout F ............Freeroll
| SATURDAY |
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
SUNDAY
GAMES BUY-IN
Hustler Casino
Normandie Casino
Casino Morongo
Casino Pauma
Harrah’s Rincon
Lake Elsinore
Lucky Lady
Oceans Eleven
Sycuan
Viejas
Village Club
CALIFORNIA—NORTH
Artichoke Joe’s
Bay 101
Cache Creek
California Grand
Casino San Pablo
Garden City
Gold Rush
Golden West-Bakersﬁeld
Kelly’s Cardroom
Lucky Chances
Lucky Derby Casino
Oaks Card Club-Emeryville
Sonoma Joe’s
Tachi Palace Casino
Blue Water Casino
Bucky’s Casino
SOUTHWEST
AZ
Casino Del Sol
Cliff Castle
Fort McDowell
Gila River/Wild Horse Pass
Gila River-Vee Quiva
Harrah’s Ak Chin
Hon-Dah Casino
Paradise Casino
Midnight Rose
Ute Mountain
CO
KS Harrah’s Prarie Band
Cities of Gold
NM Isleta Casino & Resort
NM
Route 66 Casino
OK
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Comanche Red River Cas.
OR
WA
Chinook Winds Casino
Wildhorse Casino Resort
Blue Mountain Casino
Chips Bremerton
Chips La Center
Chips Lakewood
Chips Tukwila
DA I LY TO U R N A M E N T L I ST I N G S CO N T I N U E O N PAG E 29
Debbie Burkhead interviews Robert Daily
in the range of a 20 percent increase over 2005.
Therefore, my over/under is
about 7500.
RD: No, management has
informed us that the WSOP
will remain at the Rio for at
least the next three years.
DB: Rumor’s are that
the WSOP is moving to
Caesar’s, any truth to that?
DB: Have you seen your
Co-Tournament Director’s
new room at Caesar’s?
28
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
RD: Yes !! It has great
potential. It looks great, I
believe it will be one of Las
Vegas’ finest poker rooms.
I watched and chatted with
the players. They were having a good time enjoying
all that is Caesars. Michael
told me he is already getting a large contingent of
repeat and regular players.
The employees are enthusiastic, up-beat. positive and
are doing an expert job in
executing Harrah’s famous
customer service standards
and enhancing the entertainment factor for the play-
ers. Obviously, in time, the
Caesars room will become
one of the main stays in Las
Vegas poker. Congratulations
to Mr. Matts and his professional staff for a successful
opening.
DB: Who is responsible
for making your job a little
Prima Network Awards Bad Beat Jackpot Just Shy of $100,000
Christmas came a day late
for ten poker players who
won the Bad Beat Jackpot
on the Prima Network.
In November, Prima
launched the progressive
jackpot with a $50,000
contribution. From that
point on, the jackpot grew
to $92,814 until Dec. 26,
when a player from the
Gaming Club card room
broke the bank.
At a $1/$2 bad beat table,
DoctorHowser held pocket
nines versus Eldkvarn’s
10c - 8c. A flop of 7c - 9c
- 6c turned the weaker
starting hand into the nut
straight flush, at the same
time giving DoctorHowser
the third nine. Eldkvarn
smooth called the $8 bet,
and the turn showed the 8s,
prompting the all-in push
for $13.50 and call from
Eldkvarn.
But the river turned this
bad read into a bad beat.
Out came the 9d, giving DoctorHowser four
nines, and though still not
improving his hand to beat
Eldkvarn, it did give him
a good enough hand to
take home the $32,484.91
bad beat jackpot. Eldkvarn
walked away with a bigger
bankroll as well, winning
$16,242.45 for standing up
to such a formidable hand.
The ten players divvied
up the prize pool as follows:
DAILY TOURNAMENTS (CONT’D FROM PAGE 28)
MONDAY
MIDWEST
NORTHEAST
NORTHWEST
PACIFIC N’WEST
TIME
WA
TUESDAY
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
|
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
FRIDAY
| SATURDAY |
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
GAMES BUY-IN|TIME
SUNDAY
GAMES BUY-IN
Final Table Cas., Everett
Goldie’s
Little Creek Casino
Muckleshoot Casino
Northern Quest
Suquamash Clearwater
Wild Grizzly
MN Fortune Bay Casino
Northern Light Casino
Shooting Star Casino
MT Black Jack’s Casino
4 Bears Casino
ND Dakota Magic
NE Rosebud Casino
SD
Dakota Sioux
Gold Dust Cas., Deadwood
Rosebud Casino
CT
Foxwoods
NJ
Caesar’s Atlantic City
Harrah’s Atlantic City
Tropicana
Trump Taj Mahal
Akwesasne Mohawk
NY
IA
IL
IN
MI
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
|
GAMES BUY-IN| TIME
LA
MO
Turning Stone
Catﬁsh Bend
Isle of Capri
Winn-A-Vegas
Hollywood Casino-Aurora
Belterra (Florence)
Caesars Indiana
Trump Indiana
Chip-In’s Island
Gold Strike Casino Resort
Grand Coushatta
Horseshoe CasinoShreveport
Harrah’s St Louis
Isle of Capri
Copa Casino
MS Grand Casino(Tunica)
FLORIDA
Pearl River Resort
Dania Jai-Alai
Derby Lane
Hard Rock
Palm Beach Kennel Club
Palm Beach Princess
Pompano Park Casino
Seminole Hollywood Cas.
St Tropez Cruise
CANADA Casino Regina
easier?
RD: The word “little” is an
understatement. There is
no doubt that Harrah’s total
commitment to POKER
has opened the doors to a
renewed and refocused dedication for the operational
side of poker. My supervisors, Howard Greenbaum
and David Patent are very
supportive and they know
and understand poker. I can
speak poker lingo and I am
understood. What a thrill
that is for me. Through
Howard and David, Harrahs
has provided the tools necessary to execute tournaments and maximize poker
revenues not only at the
Rio but throughout the city.
We’ve developed a highly
professional staff of dealers
and supervisors that compliment our overall devotion to
poker.
DB: Any last comments?
RD: Of course; I can be
found at the Rio Poker
Room. Come by for a chat.
I love to talk poker. I or
one of the tournament staff
will be happy to address
any and all questions about
the Rio poker Room or the
WSOP. Also, as the organizer of the WSOP, I want
the poker playing public to
know that the 2006 WSOP
will not only be larger but
more organized than the
2005 event by successfully
addressing the major issues
such as; bath rooms, food
and smoking. It will truly
be the BEST EVER. Come
share the experience...and
Good Luck.
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
29
PART 64,
S & G’s
In the last issue of Poker Player, I deviated from the usual content of this column,
improving performance
Damon Runyon
By TOM “TIME” LEONARD
“All life is sixto-five against”
which is Limit Hold’em aimed at improving the play of beginner and intermediate
players, to discuss No-Limit. With the unprecedented
soaring popularity of poker and specifically internet
poker and more specifically tournament poker, we’re
going to take some time off from Limit Hold’em and
talk about No-Limit Sit & Goes. For the uninitiated, Sit
& Goes are one table tournaments that commence as
soon as there are enough players seated. There are no
scheduled starting times and they run 24/7 limited only
to filling a table with ten players. These mini tournaments come in all sizes and flavors but today let’s focus
on the No-Limit Hold’em variety. They can be a virtual
gold mine for experienced, disciplined players and I’ll
explain why so you can get your piece of the pie.
First, there has never been such an abundance of
players with little to no experience willing to risk their
hard earned cash in poker games. There are so many
players that starting these games never seems to be a
problem. In fact, when a table starts and another one
opens up for players to be seated you need to be quick
or you can be closed out of that table. Even being the
first player seated, I’ve never had to wait more than a
couple of minutes for the table to fill up and get under
way. Plenty of weak, inexperienced opponents…….
sounds like a target rich environment to me!
Second, and this is certainly an extension of the
weak, inexperienced players syndrome, there seems
to be an all-in mania that must be fueled by the televised No-Limit tournaments. Some of the coconuts
who inhabit these one table mini tournaments don’t
think they are really playing the game unless they are
shoving their whole stack into play. What tends to happen, if you’re a sane player, and are being selective
about starting hands, is that before you know it several
players are knocked out early and several others have
doubled up. That’s OK…..many of the players who have
doubled up are ripe to give it back
Third, with the all-in mania infecting so many novice
players, you should be taking advantage of this frailty
in their game plan. This can best be done through
patience and waiting for a strong hand. Once you have
the hand and hopefully position as well, just make a
moderate bet which may well encourage a raise. You
can then come over the top and trap a weak player for
all of his chips. If you bet big or go all in initially, you’ll
frequently chase your customers away. If you check
with the thought of check raising, it becomes too easy
for many players to get away from their hands. But if
you just make a sensible bet and then they try to bully
you and you come over the top it becomes very difficult for weaker opponents to get away from their losing hands.
Our goal for this session is simply not to join in the
feeding frenzy that seems to exist in these single table
tournaments but to lay back, assess your opponents
and attack their inexperience. Force them to make a
decision for all their chips, but on your terms. These
popular S & G’s can be a valuable learning experience
and profitable as well!
See you next “TIME”.
No stranger to the green felt, Tom “Time” Leonard has played
poker for more than 30 years and has been a serious student of
the game and writer on the subject since 1994. He has regularly
played the cardrooms of Atlantic City, Las Vegas and California.
His experience as a sales and marketing professional have
helped him hone his skills at “selling” a hand and “buying” a
pot. Tom can be contacted at: [email protected].
30
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
By Byron Liggett
Damon Runyon is a distinguished writer for his
talented perception and
portrayal of an America
not commonly given to
glory. In the years between
World Wars, he wrote of
bettors, bootleggers and
Broadway.
After the scandals of
political corruption and
payoffs of the 1920s, the
Stock Market collapse
in1929, and ensuing Great
Depression ‘30s, Runyon’s
tales of gamblers and
gangsters who endeavored
to beat the odds found a
sympathetic audience.
His characters lived
on the edge often caught
in life’s roll of the dice.
Criminals, hustlers, con
artists, and cheats filled
his frequently humorous
stories about big city backstreets and underground
figures of the Prohibition
Era.
Damon Runyon’s stories were often filled with
real life characters. One
such story, featuring notorious New York crime
czar Arnold Rothstein as
Nathan Detroit, was eventually made into Guys
and Dolls, a hit Broadway
musical.
But Runyon’s roots
were far from the Great
White Way. Born in
Kansas in 1880, he grewup in Pueblo, Colorado.
At age eight, his mother
died of TB. His three sisters were sent to live with
grandparents in Kansas
not to be seen again for 30
years. He and his father, a
typesetter, shared a shanty
with one cot.
He got a job as a reporter for a Pueblo paper when
he was 15. Eventually he
moved to Denver, became
a well known member
of the Press Club where,
one biographer says, he
spent “many hours with a
whiskey in one hand and a
poker hand in the other”.
In 1910, Runyon headed
for New York where he
got a job as a sports writer.
He covered baseball and
boxing in the Big Apple
for ten years. His beat, as
well as his personal gambling activities, brought
him into contact with
gamblers, touts, jockeys,
bookies, boxers and bad
guys. Runyon learned who
was who, what was what,
where it went, and who
got it.
Despite his firsthand
knowledge of just how
crooked was horse racing
and sports; Runyon was
nevertheless an inveterate
gambler. Sunday nights
were always “wash” nights
at Lindy’s, a high class NY
restaurant and rendezvous.
Here, he would meet with
his bookies to settle the
previous week’s action.
Runyon had a front row
seat for Prohibition, an
era when crime became
a national pastime and
the underworld seemed
to have more power than
the government. Reporter
and aspiring commercial
writer, Runyon counted
among his associates the
celebrities of early organized crime.
Sports were just beginning to emerge as big
league entertainment and
as fertile ground for graft.
The leading kingpin of
crime, Arnold Rothstein, is
believed to have been the
one behind the 1919 World
Series fix.
When newcomer
Jack Dempsey upset
Jess Willard in a major
title fight, it was fixed.
Realizing that Al Capone
and others were all banking underdog Dempsey
because they already knew
the outcome, Runyon
bet all he could get on
Dempsey. At the time, it
was common practice for
reporters to bet the sports
they covered.
Although the much
bigger Willard was the
heavy favorite, each of
Dempsey’s hands was
taped around a lead pipe.
With a tremendous right
and left, Dempsey dropped
Willard to the canvas with
a severely broken jaw and
crushed ribs. The end for
Willard, it was the beginning of the Dempsey legend.
In 1928, Runyon
was dining with Arnold
Rothstein at Lindy’s when
the king of crime received
a phone call. Rothstein
had to meet someone at
the Park-Central Hotel.
The two buddies walked
together to the nearby
hotel. Waiting in the lobby
for the gangster, Runyon
heard the crackle of pistol
shots. The King was dead.
It seems that at the
end of a three day, high
stakes poker game with
other mobsters several
months earlier, Rothstein
owed $320,000. Overly
confident of his position
and power, he claimed the
game was fixed, refused
to pay, and left. Bluff or
belief, he bet his life…
and lost.
Reporter Runyon’s
inside accounts of the sensational front page murder
brought him wide recognition. His short-stories,
filled with gambling and
underworld characters,
told in the vernacular,
using the colorful language, slang and accents
of New York, captured the
public’s imagination and
interest. His stories began
appearing in the foremost
magazines of the era
– Collier’s, Cosmopolitan
and Saturday Evening
Post.
For Runyon, in the
Game of Life, the odds
“are six to five against”
winning. He accepted
gambling, hustling, conning, and cheating – all
part of the human condition – were simply efforts
to beat the odds. His stories and characters reflected a gambler’s understanding and compassion, best
summed up by his admonition, “The race is not
always to the swift, nor
the battle to the strong, but
that’s the way to bet it.”
Hollywood, too, recognized there was a market
Avidity
BY GIL DUROSS
Avidity (e vid i te), n.
enthusiastic, ardent;
keenly eager; an
enthusiasm for the
undertaking.
I’ll say! Rounding the
Casino’s last turn and
headed for the Poker
Room, I notice any given
group of poker players looks like a herd of
aging Claimers, laced on
Butuzolen, going three
wide into the Clubhouse
Stretch. That the entire
Casino has been designed
without a single corner,
every wall is rounded, is
not happenstance. The
uninitiated might think
that the Casino architects
were concerned that a
loose nickel might roll
into a corner and remain
there, unspent. Not true.
What the architects were
actually concerned about
was the possibility that a
player might get pressed
into a corner by the swell
of chance-taking humanity
behind them and be held
up there, out of action.
They needn’t have been
concerned. We poker
players, in our delicious
anxiety to get into play,
act as though we fear
management might run
out of money before we
get there. Like there’s
going to be some kind of
Casino Cop at the Poker
Room entrance with one
hand up, halting everyone. “Sorry, guys,” he’ll
say. “Someone else has
already won all the money.
There’s none left for you.
You’ll have to come back
another day.”
Yeah, that’s going to
happen. And yet, there we
are, exuding the wondrous,
boundless enthusiasm of
the poker player, charging
down the corridors, threatening the stability of walker-assisted slot players
and fanny-packed Keno
players in our eagerness
to get into action. What
we should keep in mind is
that in 1912 people rushed
the White Star Lines
office, hoping that tickets
would still be available for
the maiden voyage of the
Titanic.
Things I Didn’t Know
sistently delay the game.
Let’s say he or she has a
“bring in”–it’s like brain
surgery; they just don’t
seem to get the hang of
“bring in”–you have no
choice – post it!
• There are tens of thousands, if not millions, of
people playing poker 24/7
in online casinos. The numbers are truly astonishing.
• The graphics are outstanding; from avatars to
tables to the “famed” dealers. You can choose your
avatar on some sites; you
can choose the color for the
cards! If you’re losing with
a red deck, try blue, pink
or numerous other colors or
options the sites offer.
Things I DO
KNOW…
One can have many hours
of pleasure, for very little
money, playing poker online. From dozens of daily
free tournaments (based
on points accumulated) to
heads-up games, sit and
go events, multiple ring
games, high hand jackpot
games – the list goes on
and on. If you are a beginning player, it’s a terrific
way of “getting your feet
wet”. Once you are comfortable – enjoy the best
of both worlds–online and
in your favorite casino.
Unlike playing poker
online…to go to “live”
casinos…suggest you may
want to wear something
other than your bathrobe!
• Many great and loyal
seven-card high-low players daily sit in on these
events and often have
the following complaint:
“There aren’t any casinos
that I have found that offer
high-low seven-card stud.”
Casino poker room managers – are ya’ listening? If
so, please note those games
and/or tournaments in your
next ad in Poker Player
newspaper.
• You will “meet” some
great people online who
share wisdom, knowledge
and a terrific sense of
humor.
Look through this issue
of Poker Player newspaper
and you will find many
terrific poker sites-some
offering “sign-up bonuses.”
(Please be sure to read any
restrictions that may apply.
Sometimes, the bonuses
are valid only for “ring
games” and not tournament
play.)
I’ll meet you online at
the seven-card stud highlow table…good luck!
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
31
Perks and Picks
Poker continues in popularity in Las Vegas with several
more new card rooms recently opened or soon to be
opened. After a 16 year absence from live poker, Caesars
Palace is now back in action with a fabu-
Card Room Roundup
The Bargain Bin
By H. Scot Krause
lous, new $12 million room. The 30-table
room is located next to the Race & Sports
Book, but there are already plans for
expansion. Now under the Harrah’s umbrella, there is
already talk of hosting the future World Series of Poker
events here.
Several miles south of Mandalay Bay, Boyd Gaming/
Coast Casinos has opened the beautiful new South Coast
Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Blvd. The 8-table designated non-smoking poker room is actually set-up in a
“temporary” location near the Race & Sports Book until
an expansion opens in the spring. The room will move to a
new, even larger location. Six plasma screen TV’s line the
walls for sports viewing while playing. They are spreading
a variety of low to mid-level limit games and should begin
low-limit morning tournaments this month.
South Coast comps poker players at the rate of $1.25
per hour for the first four hours of daily play. Thereafter
it’s 50 cents per hour up to a maximum of $9 per day. The
comp can be used at any restaurant. A full day’s comp
($9) will just about cover one of the excellent specials
offered in the Coronado Café featuring a Prime Rib or Tbone special for $9.95 served 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. Graveyard breakfast specials priced from $1.95 for
bacon and eggs to $3.95 for steak and eggs are also served
Monday through Thursday from midnight to 6:00 a.m.
Through January 31, all Coast Casinos including the new
South Coast, Barbary Coast, Gold Coast, Orleans and
Suncoast are offering “Jackets for Jackpots.” Win a Coast
Casino’s logo jacket by hitting designated jackpots on
slots or video poker machines (as posted in the casinos.)
Double points will also be offered at all five Coast Casinos
on Super Bowl Sunday, February 5.
The Suncoast poker room is expected to open in
February. Stay tuned for details.
Harrah’s Entertainment begins integration of slot
clubs this month. The former Caesars Entertainment
Connection Club card rolls over into Harrah’s Total
Rewards system beginning at Paris and Bally’s. Caesars
Palace will follow suit in February. Check with the appropriate club prior to playing to make certain you have the
right card to record all your play, for both tables and slots.
In other Harrah’s news, Harrah’s Las Vegas, centerStrip, has opened its new Flavors Buffet offering continuous live cooking stations and including freshly prepared
seafood, all-you-can-eat crab legs and fresh cut Prime
Rib. Breakfast is offered from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
for $12.99, lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for $14.99,
dinner from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for $18.99 and on
Saturday and Sunday a Champagne Brunch is served from
10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. for $18.99.
The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas continues to
run good promotions for poker players. Among them is a
great promotion for low-limit $2-$4 players. Weekdays,
Tuesday through Thursday, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. drawings are held for $100-$500 by random drawings according
to seats.
That’s it for this week!
3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas,
702.731.7110 or toll free 877.427.7243
attempted the same jump in
Caesars Palace opened
1989 and was successful.
its doors to the public in
Caesars palace has been
1966 and was immediately
the scene of many chamaccepted as the most luxuripionship boxing matches
ous place in Las Vegas. Las
staged in the outdoor sports
Vegas’ original entrepreneur,
arena, now gone after being
Jay Sarno, borrowed $10
replaced with more family
million from the teamster’s
oriented attractions in the
pension fund and began
early 1990’s. Gran Prix racconstruction of the resort
ing enjoyed a brief stay at
in 1962. His goal was to
Caesars’ strip side racetrack.
produce a Las Vegas hotel/
The Omnimax theatre was
casino that would provide
guests with the experience of added and thrilled the masses
with realistic surround video
visiting the home of a king.
and sound movies. The largThe original Caesars Palace
opened with 680 guest rooms est game arcade in Las Vegas,
the Atari Room, opened on
on the 34 acre site owned
the open air second floor
by Kirk Kirkorian at the
above the poker room.
corner of Flamingo and the
The racetrack was bullLas Vegas Strip. The famous
dozed to make way for the
fountains were an immediForum Shopping Mall which
ate hit and quickly became a
opened in 1992 and recently
must see for Vegas visitors.
completed its second expanOn New Year’s Eve in 1967
sion. The showrooms of
motorcycle daredevil, Evel
Caesars Palace have featured
Knievel, attempted to jump
over the fountains and failed, all of the top name stars
including Liberace, George
breaking many bones for
Burns, Gloria Estafan, Dean
the huge crowd of watchers.
Martin and Frank Sinatra.
His son, Robbie Knievel,
H. Scot Krause is a freelance writer, gaming industry analyst and researcher, originally from Cleveland,
Ohio. While raising his three year-old son, Zachary, Scot
reports, researches, and writes about casino games,
events, attractions and promotions. He is a ten-year
resident of Las Vegas. Questions or comments are welcomed. Card room managers are also invited to send
your specials and promotions to: [email protected]
32
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Nevada 89109
www.caesars.com
In recent years the outdoor
Roman Plaza has opened
on the strip corner, once
again championship boxing
has been broadcast worldwide from Caesars and the
Colosseum was constructed
to house the Celine Dion
musical show. Elton John’s
Red Piano also performs
from the showroom.
Caesars Palace has
changed hands a half dozen
times in the last four decades
with each new owner continuing to maintain and
improve the resort. Now
under the flag of Harrah’s
Entertainment the hotel has
grown to 3348 guest rooms,
has one of the largest sports
books in the world, miles
of exclusive shops, world
class restaurants, Cleopatra’s
Barge and after a sixteen year
absence, a poker room.
Caesars Palace opened the
poker room on December 21.
The fourteen thousand square
foot facility is divided with
eight thousand square feet in
Inside the poker room at Caesars
the live gaming area and six
thousand in the tournament
area. The poker room is located adjacent to the sports book
next to the Pure Night Club.
The entrance to the room features eleven original LeRoy
Neiman paintings. Poker
room manager, Michael
Matts, has over a decade in
gaming including managing
the live poker games during
the WSOP. He opened the
Rio’s poker room and now
brings that experience to
Caesars Palace.
The poker room is one of
the most spacious to be found
anywhere, offering 30 tables
in the live game area and an
additional 33 tables in the
high ceiling tournament area.
Large sound damping fabric
panels control the noise. The
poker player is surrounded
by luxury and conversations
are at normal levels without
players having to talk over
the casino sounds of the slot
machines or screaming fans
in the sports book. Digital
boards display the wait list
for games and a service bar
assures fast drink service.
Food comps are available at
the standard rate of $1 per
hour of play with no maximum limit.
Caesars Palace poker room
spreads limit Texas Hold’em
$3-$6, $6-$12, $10-$20,
$20-$40 and up. No Limit
Hold’em is available in $1-$2
with a $100-$500 buy-in, $2$5 with a $200-no max buyin, $5-$10 with a $500-no
max buy-in and up. The room
will spread almost any poker
game and limits if there are
enough players.
Tournaments are offered
twice daily every day at
12:00 Noon and 7:00 PM.
Tournament Director, Paul
Lord, brings a decade of
poker experience to the operation including the WSOP
and he has designed one of
the best tournament schedules
and structures to be found in
any poker room. The tournaments are mostly $120 buy-in
with one $100 rebuy No-limit
Hold’em. The exceptions
are Monday and Tuesday
Noon tournaments being an
$80 with one $50 buy-in,
Tuesday 7:00 PM is a Limit
$120 buy-in with one $100
rebuy, Wednesday 7:00 PM
is Omaha High $120 buy-in
with one $100 rebuy. The
Friday and Saturday 7:00 PM
tournaments are $530 buy-in
No-limit Hold’em freezeout with no rebuy. Players
begin play with $1,500 in
tournament chips ($4,000
for the two $530 buy-in
tournaments) and the blind
levels are forty minutes. This
tournament structure was
designed to attract the amateur and expert alike with the
larger starting chip count and
longer sessions it becomes
more of a game of skill
instead of a lucky shootout.
Caesars Forum—Now that’s shopping!
Two major poker tournaments are already scheduled
for the new Caesars Palace
poker room. The first will be
the NBC National HeadsUp Championship that will
fill the tournament area for
three days, March 4, 5 and
6, 2006. The World Series of
Poker Circuit Series will be
at Caesars beginning April 28
and concluding May 10 with
an ESPN filmed championship event. Caesars Palace
has made a long term commitment to the game of poker
and offers one of the best
poker rooms to be found on
the planet. Contact the poker
room direct at 702.785.6566.
Pechanga Poker
Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006
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jPokerPlayerJAN06.indd 1
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
33
12/21/05 6:50:35 PM
The second in a three-part series. . . PART 9: NLHE Small Buy-In Tournament Strategy
Teaching How to Play Winning Poker
SENIOR S SCENE
By George “The engineer” EPSTEIN
In the first part of this series, we told you how
the course came to be and how it evolved; and
why the classroom environment is ideal for
teaching the game of poker.
About the course. In all, the course consisted of seven sessions, each 1½ hours long.
The first hour was spent on lecture and class
discussion. The last part of each session was
devoted to actually dealing and playing hands
of hold’em. That gave the students hands-on
experience and an opportunity to ask questions in real time. We played only with chips. No
money was involved.
The course content was organized around
my Poker for Winners! book. It helps to have
a textbook to which the students can refer
before, during and after the course. Some
brought questions to class based on their reading of the textbook prior to class. Discussing
their individual questions was helpful to all of
the class members. (I always encourage class
participation in discussions.) Sometimes there
were questions or comments about previous
class lectures.
We started with some introductory material
and briefly covered the basics of both 7-card
stud and Texas hold’em, followed by poker terminology and pertinent definitions unique to the
game of poker – such as spread limit, structured
limit, pot-limit, and no-limit games; table stakes;
string bets (it helps to demonstrate this);
“cards speak;” going “all-in;” jackpots and
bonuses, and the difference between “monster
hands” and the “nuts.” We showed how to look
at your hole cards so that you don’t inadvertently expose them to opponents. Later in the
course, we also discussed check-raises, slowplay, raising/reraising to reduce the size of the
playing field (RSPF), “tells,” overcards and overcalls, assessing and “reading” your opponents.
(After this class, one student thanked me for
helping her to understand these terms. Poker
does have a language of its own!)
Then we delved into my four Basic Rules for
Winning at the Game of Poker. (I only teach
WINNING poker. With these rules you are
guaranteed to be a winner over the long run
-- not every session but certainly the majority). We concentrated on Texas hold’em because
that’s the game they really want to play. (In
subsequent courses, we focused only on Texas
hold’em.)
After learning the four Basic Rules, we
explored “made” vs. “drawing” hands – what
they are and the best overall strategy in each
case. (It’s very important to understand the
difference between these, and the appropriate
strategies in each case.) I presented what I call
my “A-B Chart” to show why, from a basic probability standpoint, it is to your advantage to
start with a strong hand. This also served as an
introduction to an understanding of the concept
of probabilities and odds.
We spent considerable time discussing and
analyzing various strategies. As part of that, we
probed further into basic probability theory and
its application in key decisions while playing
WINNING poker. For example, why do we want
to play against fewer than four opponents when
34
we start with a made hand?
What is the best strategy for
playing A-K? (That strategy may differ from the
way many poker players play this hand.) When
and how should we play small pairs? When does
it make good sense to raise with a drawing
hand? Why is occasional bluffing statistically
a good move – if you do it properly? How does
position effect our decisions? (Very important!)
I even gave the class some homework exercises (no grades) to calculate the card odds
for several typical situations. They learned the
difference between “chance” and “odds.” And
we discussed how to calculate the pot odds and
the meaning of “implied pot odds;” and how to
use this information along with the card odds
in making important decisions. (I treat poker
as an investment: You want to get the best
return-on-investment, ROI.)
By then my hold’em algorithm had been
published; so we included it as part of the class
instruction: how it was developed and how to
use it. As in every rule, there are always bound
to be exceptions; we explored the exceptions
to the hold’em algorithm criteria.
Later in the course, just prior to our own
tournament during the final session of the
class, we took the time to review the hold’em
algorithm and concomitant basic criteria, and
how to use these. Both classes were combined
for our own tournament – with wrapped prizes
for the top five players with the most chips
at the end of two hours of play. It was a lively
event – even though we were not playing for
money!
Ready to go out into the real world. At
this point, my students were ready to go out
into the world of brick-and-mortar poker casinos and online playing. Following the seventh
and last class, the special hold’em tournament
hosted by the Hustler Casino (which we discussed in part I) gave the “graduates” a great
real-world experience – although many of them
had been playing for quite a while before they
enrolled in the class. (Some had never before
been in a poker room, although they had visited Las Vegas or Indian casinos in the past.)
Several stayed to play in cash games after our
tournament. One of the men, Allen B., sought
me out that evening as he was preparing to
leave. “Today,” he said, “has been one of the
most enjoyable days of my life!” One group of
students formed their own Friday-night home
game. (They invited me to participate, but I
declined. I would feel guilty if I won; and what
if I lost. . .)
Part III will conclude this series with a
discussion about teaching philosophy; some
advanced concepts; and other pertinent topics.
George “The Engineer” Epstein is the
author of The Greatest Book of Poker for
Winners! (T/C Press, PO Box 36006, Los
Angeles, CA 90036). His new algorithm
booklet, Hold’em or Fold’em?, is a big
hit. He is currently writing a new book on
Rules & Strategies for WINNING at Texas
Hold’em. George can be reached by e-mail:
[email protected].
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
SMALL STAKES TOURNAMENTS
Making Effective Deals cont’d from page 10
• Your stack size in relationship to the blinds
• The number of players
remaining
• The frequency of blind &
ante increases
• Your ability in relationship
to the other players
Some sample deals:
Blinds: 2000/4000
$100 buy-in, $7500 prize
pool
75 players, 1500 starting
chips
1st: $2500 2nd: $1500 3rd:
$750
You: 40,000
Player A: 26,500
Player B: 46,000
You only have 10x the big
blind, and it’s costing you
6,000 to play every 3 hands.
Even though you and Player
B have a slight lead over
Player A, this is not a bad
place to chop 3 ways because
the blinds are so large ($1500
each). He is one hand from
being even. If possible, try
to take a little off the top
for 3rd place, then chop 1st
and 2nd with the other chip
leader (for example: $1625,
$1625, $1000). If Player A
only had 8,000 chips, offer
him an extra $100 then chop
the remainder (again, the size
of the blinds means the cards
dictate the play not the players).
Blinds 3000/6000, 500 ante
$50 buy-in, $4900 prize pool
98 Players, 2000 starting
chips
1st: $1500 2nd: $800 3rd:
$400 4th: $300
You: 125,100
Player A: 40,200
Player B: 15,300
Player C: 8,400
Player B & Player C only
have one hand left each, so
making a deal at this point
would not be in your best
interest. Once they are eliminated, you may need to reassess the situation. Generally
it is in your best interest to
play it out, unless you feel
that Player A is a significantly
better player than you are.
If you do not want to play
heads-up versus them, try
offering $100 or $200 off of
the top as opposed to an even
chop.
You can write to author
Jeremiah Smith at:
8811 Rio Grande Falls Ave.,
Las Vegas, NV 89118
All American Poker Players Wanted!
Attention All American poker
players! You’ve been called
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A royal decree by William
Hill, the premier gaming
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It was decided to announce
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players in Poker Player
because of this publication’s
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Per Scavenius, E-Gaming
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Player to WilliamHillPoker.
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Why Tournament Players
Initially Fail in Live No Limit
Hold’em Ring Games, PART 2
In part one, I discussed why tournament players might initially
fail in a live game. Part two expands on the differences in
strategy.
By Dr. Scott Aigner, M.D.
The successful tournament player usually
has either a good preflop strategy or a good post flop strategy.
Although one needs to do both reasonably well there are players who do well in tournaments when they are outstanding in
just one of these areas and only reasonably good in the other.
An example of a player who does very well with an excellent preflop strategy is John Juanda. He is capable of reading
weakness in a preflop raiser and coming over the top even
when he doesn’t have a hand. There are other players who
have a very strong preflop game other than John too. That is
not to say that John cannot play a good post flop strategy too,
just that his preflop game is outstanding compared to his post
flop play.
Daniel Negreanu on the other hand excels in post flop play.
His loose style allows him to
See a lot of flops and outplay his opponent post flop. He can
also get his money all in preflop when he has a huge hand like
aces or kings as well. These all in situations are pretty easy
plays though and do not require a strong preflop strategy.
Even Daniel has admitted that he is nowhere close to Juanda’s
ability in preflop strategy. Still Daniel’s style and his post flop
strategy does very well in structures where post flop play can
be utilized, especially in the early to middle rounds of a large
buy in tournament.
Daniel is able to make adjustments when the blind to stack
ratio becomes smaller for all of the players stacks but generally he does not need to do this often because he is still able to
see flops when he has the huge stack at the table. He can also
bully players when he has a large stack as well. He is willing to
gamble when he has a coin toss situation if he does meet some
resistance against a small stack and the result is not going to
make a huge difference in his overall lead should he lose a few of
them in the later stages of the tournament. The ability to change
gears is an important aspect to Daniel’s tournament strategy.
Comparing these two strategies to a cash game one will see
immediately that a strong preflop strategy just does not have
equal footing because the stack size to the size of a raise or re
raise still requires most players to play their hand beyond the
flop. One rarely makes an all in move preflop except in those
instances when two players have big hands like aces. kings, or
queens and face a similar holding against another opponent.
The only time a strong preflop strategy can be utilized is
when one of the players is relatively short stacked. Anytime a
player’s stack is less than 40 times the BB then an all in situation can occur preflop (or after the flop at the latest). One
hand that does not play as well in a deep stack vs. deep stack
situation is A-K. One will see the a-k all in preflop play occur in
max capped games where the stack sizes are relatively small
compared to the BB. In fact, most capped games play very
similar (if not exactly) to the early levels of a tournament and
using tournament strategy to double up in these settings is the
right strategy compared to the games where a max is not utilized. The very low capped games play very similar to a rebuy
tournament. As this article reveals the strategy in a no limit
hold em game can be very different depending on whether
there is a maximum a cap and when a cap is not utilized. Not
all no limit hold em games are the same!
Dr Aigner is a board certified Urologist. He has multiple final table finishes in major tournaments including a WPO bracelet in 2001. You can contact him at
http://www.PokerStrategyForum.com
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Each issue’s crossword puzzle
honors a poker celebrity and will
be about that person’s life.
Today’s puzzle honors poker’s
mad genius, Mike Caro. Crossword by Myles Mellor.
ACROSS
NEVER PLAY Poker with
a man CALLed “DOC”
36
X
X
X
X
Poker Player
1. Mike Caro’s parrot and
poker apprentice
6. Major poker tournaments, for short
10. Bluffer, in a way
11. __ wrote “Caro on gambling”
12. And “Caro’s fundamental
secrets of poker” ___!
14. Mike wrote the lead column in “The ____”
17. Is poker an __ or a science?
18. __ limit hold ‘em
19. You and me
20. Lord of the Rings character
21. Bill
23. The Mad Genius of
Poker (goes with 37
across)
24. Diamonds, slang
25. Mike hosted one of
his many seminars at
Harveys at Lake ___ ?
28. TV company
29. Winners look forward to
the ___ out
30. Trademark, for short
32. First name of the city
1
2
3
where Mike Caro first
started playing poker for
a living
34. Cold as ___?
36. Knock out
37. See 23 across
40. Tournament elimination
point
41. Revealed, the hand for
example
42. Danger
44. Railway
45. “The greatest” boxer
46. State where the Trump
Taj Mahal is
47. ___ City (evil place?)
49. Major quality that Mike
has fought for all his life
50. Nashville locale
51. Computer department
DOWN
1. Mike Caro was involved
in this- the first successful poker website
2. Expression of exasperation
3. Joker
4. Doyle Brunson described
Mike Caro as “The finest five-card ___ poker
player alive”
4
5
6
10
5. __ him blind?
6. Sea shell
7. Ideal seeker, like Mike
Caro
8. Mike Caro is famous for
this “hat” in the poker
world
9. Situation ideal for rapid
development
13. The computer Mike Caro
produced that played a
poker tournament on TV
with Bob Stupak
15. Augusta locale
16. Hawaiian garland
22. Mike’s wife’s first name
26. Airline
27. Naval rank
31. Mike’s educational facility for poker players
33. Ancient (slang)
35. Another quality that
Mike Caro has stood for
all his life
37. Break the rules
38. Internet giant
39. Road warrior (abbr.)
43. Wedding vow
46. Forces of gravity, for
short
48. Fashionable
7
8
11
14
18
15
19
22
25
Word
12
16
17
20
21
23
26
13
24
27
28
29
30
32
9
33
31
34
36
37
38
39
35
40
41
42
43
44
46
49
45
47
50
48
51
The correct solution to the puzzle will be found only at:
www.pokerplayernewspaper.com. It will be posted on the cover date.
Boyd Unveils Strip Development
Shangri-La Hotel,
Las Vegas
Boyd announced it has
entered into a management
agreement with ShangriLa Hotels and Resorts,
Asia Pacific’s leading
luxury hotel group, to
include a Shangri-La Hotel
within Echelon Place.
Synonymous in Asia with
luxurious and comfortable
hotel accommodations,
fine food and caring service, the distinct nature of
each Shangri-La upscale
property demonstrates an
exclusive charm and personality that large chains
cannot approximate. The
Shangri-La Hotel, Las
Vegas, which will be
owned by the Company
and operated by ShangriLa, will include 400 guest
rooms and suites, a 20,000
square foot CHI spa, well
appointed premium meeting space and two restaurants. Shangri-La will
have its own porte cochere
and lobby.
Delano Hotel and
Mondrian Hotel
Boyd has entered into a
50/50 joint venture agreement with the Morgans
Hotel Group, an innovator
and continuing leader in the
lifestyle/boutique hotel sector, for the development of
two signature hotels within
Echelon Place, Delano
and Mondrian, at a cost of
approximately $700 million, both to be managed by
Morgans. The Company
will contribute the land and
Morgans will contribute
$97.5 million in cash to the
venture, and the venture
will arrange non-recourse
project financing to develop
the properties.
Delano in South Beach
Miami has been an international destination for
glamour, entertainment, and
sophisticated nightlife for
over a decade, and played a
catalyzing role in the revival of South Beach. Delano
Hotel Las Vegas will
include 600 guest rooms
and suites, a destination
nightclub, lobby bar and
Asia de Cuba restaurant. It
will also feature an Agua
Spa with fitness center,
private pool and recreation
area, and a separate porte
cochere and lobby.
Today, Mondrian’s
elegant urban resort is a
Hollywood haven for both
business and nightlife.
Mondrian Hotel Las Vegas,
accommodating equally the
refined business traveler
and the leisure escapee, will
include 1,000 guest rooms
and suites, a distinctive bar
and restaurant, meeting and
conference space, private
pool and recreation area
with Skybar, and a separate
porte cochere and lobby.
Las Vegas
ExpoCenter
The Company will develop, own, and operate the
Las Vegas ExpoCenter
at Echelon Place to meet
the growing demand for
convention and exhibition
space integrated into large
luxury resorts on the Las
Vegas Strip. Las Vegas
ExpoCenter will feature
650,000 square feet of
exhibition and pre-function
space and 175,000 square
feet of meeting and conference space. Combined
with the meeting space
within Echelon Resort, the
total meeting and exhibition space at Echelon Place
is expected to exceed one
million square feet, highlighted by over 200 meeting rooms.
Retail Promenade
Boyd is in discussions with
potential strategic partners
for a 50/50 joint venture
development of a retail
promenade at Echelon
Place. Plans call for over
350,000 square feet of
unique shopping, including
a mix of luxury, affordable
luxury and bridge retailers,
as well as a variety of din(Continued on page 41)
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
37
Metaphysical Poker & Life
Charlie Shoten
Playing
Winning No-Limit
Hold’em & Life
Legal Technicalities And
Creativity In Florida
POKer AND
THE LAW
By I. NELSON ROSE
Silly laws create silly barriers, which call for
silly solutions. In 1996, the Florida State Legislature, undoubtedly acting with the best intentions, created a mess when it
passed a law allowing pari-mutuel outlets to run commercial
poker rooms. The tracks and jai alai frontons had lobbied for
years. But to get enough votes, they had to accept restrictions
which were – well, just plain silly. Commercial games had to be
run under rules established for penny-ante social games.
How exactly can you run a cardroom when “the winnings of
any player in a single round, hand, or game may not exceed
$10 in value”? This was hardly poker: Players put in little more
than a dollar and then the cards were dealt. No more bets were
allowed.
Operators tried creative ways to get around the law. I was
hired as an expert witness on behalf of the state in one case. I
testified that, no, the game is not “poker” where players try to
get close to 21 without going over.
Finally, in 2003, the legislators relented, a little. Now a
“maximum bet may not exceed two dollars in value,” with an
additional limit of no more than “three raises in any round of
betting.”
This at least allowed poker to be played. But then came the
explosion of interest in no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments.
The regulator, the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering in the
Department of Business and Professional Regulations, issued
rules in May 2004 that limited wagering and entry fees in
tournaments. Calder Race Course in Miami and Dania Jai-Alai
immediately sued. They convinced a trial judge and the Florida
First District Court of Appeal that the Division did not have the
power to limit tournament entry fees.
Abiding by the courts’ decisions, the Division eliminated limits for tournaments in its rules. The result was easy to predict:
pari-mutuel outlets began running lots of no-limit tournaments.
The Division found this more than a little disturbing. It issued
an emergency rule, repealing all of its tournament regulations.
The law requires all sorts of safeguards before a regulation
can take place. But, of course, sometimes there are emergencies, when government officials simply don’t have the time
to hold hearings and ask for public comment. Was this one of
those situations? The Division thought so:
“There exists an immediate danger to the public health, safety, and welfare due to the conduct of statutorily unauthorized
poker tournaments.” The emergency rule made it clear that all
poker games, whether in tournaments or not, are limited to $2
maximum bets and three raises per round.
So, is this the end of no-limit Hold ‘Em tournaments in
Florida? Derby Lane in St. Petersburg and Dania Jai-Alai have
come up with creative solutions. The $2 limit does not apply
to entry fees, they say. Contestants are charged about $45
to enter, but are then given chips worth far less than a penny
each. Even when a player goes all-in, the bet is technically
never more than $2. The tournament winner ends up with a pile
of chips worth a few dollars, and the bulk of the entry fees,
which can total more than $1,000.
So far, the Division is allowing these tournaments. Of course,
even the World Series of Poker could be played under this interpretation of the law. I doubt a lawmaker who voted for $2 limits
would be happy knowing that prizes of $1,000 are being won or
lost on single hands.
But when you write silly laws, such as imposing ridiculously
low limits on commercial poker games, you should not expect
everyone will play along.
Professor I Nelson Rose will be teaching International
Gaming Law as part of Whittier Law School’s Summer
Abroad Program in France in July 2006. For more information, contact Prof. Rose through his website,
www.gamblingandthelaw.com.
38
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
course we may choose.
• The more open and available (PRESENT) we are
to the data available, the
freer we are to consider
the most choices possible
and the more successful
we will be.
• The PRESENCE of the
leader of the Wolf pack
into, and whom you think
you should be.
I have thought about this
for many years. When I was
in college, I would answer
the question, “What’s bothering you, Charlie?” with,
“I’m more of what I am not
BEING PRESENT is the
than what I am. I finally
ultimate blessing in poker
understand that answer,
and life. Just get rid of those
after spending my entire life
distractions that keep you
spinning my wheels in any
from being who you really
“O,
there
has
been
much
direction other than being
are. If you are not who
throwing about of brains”
who I really am.
you really are, you are no
—William Shakespeare
As I EXPERIENCE
one and nowhere. Call
any
hurtful feeling, I
Mapquest for driving
“Do not let such a
embrace it and ASK
directions. Without your
smokescreen fool us”
FOR
and PRAY for my
current location, they can—Charlie Shoten
INTENTIONS to help me
not help you.
notice and let go of those
To me, PRESENT is
is felt by all of the other
ideas and thoughts about
the most intriguing word
wolves – just as all of the myself and others that limit
in the English language.
players at the poker table
my vision of the world and
Think about it. Do you love
can feel the dominance of all the possibilities that a
to receive a PRESENT?
any one player. A domigenerous universe presents
Can you participate in
nant player at the poker
to me. They may appear
any activity without being
table enjoys a big advanconstructive or destructive
PRESENT? Wouldn’t you
tage.
but should never be judged,
say that Michael Jordan and
just relinquished. In poker,
Tiger Woods are beautiful
The Thought
blaming the dealer, bad luck
to watch because they play
Terrorists Within
or any idea you have about
their sport with the mastery
yourself – good or bad are
of being PRESENT in the
Are you real or are you
all examples of distractions.
moment?
Memorex? Wouldn’t it be
Do not become attached
Let’s get back to poker
wonderful to know and live
and explore the exercises
the Real You? You can’t get to any idea or concept
because you then
we can do to put ourbecome a prisoner of
selves in the most
your belief system.
optimal and effective
Each moment is new
PRESENCE at the
and to be perceived
poker table.
as a clean slate. You
will always be able to
• Do not TRY to do
make your best choice
or be anything.
in poker or in your
TRYING is not
life. Your instincts will
only ineffective, but
start to work for you
gets in the way. It is
because you are not
another distraction
cluttered with old, usewe want to let go of.
Imagine
less and hurtful memo• Our belief in our
the thrill of
ries of past experiences
natural forces (like
being introduced to the Real You and
anymore.
those that regulate
finding that you’re A- OK...
You can now begin
our blood pressure
to play winning No-Limit
and breathing) and our
anywhere from nowhere,
Hold’em poker or you can
intention to notice and
so accept it. After all, some
embark on any journey your
let go of hurtful thoughts
force made you what and
heart desires. YOU ARE
are all we need to free us
who you are. Only you are
from them.
responsible for having taken RICH!
• Distractions are thoughts
a road to depart from whom
Comments? Questions?:
that cause fear, resentyou really are. Wouldn’t you
[email protected]
ments, jealousies, expecagree a rose is a rose and
Don’t miss the book,
tations, or any other
knows it is not a daffodil?
“No-Limit Life”:
feeling that can block out What would you have to let
www.nolimitlife.net
our ability to make an
go of? Simply all of your
(Best Book Award: USA
unbiased choice.
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Book News 2005) Category:
• We are not attached to
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
39
Rebuilding Mississippi Gulf Coast
Mississippi: 1990 - Legislature approves dockside gaming. Over the
years, Mississippi’s economy and infrastructure benefited immensely as
the gambling tax revenues flowed into state and local coffers. By 2005,
the coast casinos generated tax revenues to the tune of $500,000 a
day, according to the state Gaming Commission.
POKer east
of the ROCKIEs
By DONNA BLEVINS
August 29, 2005: The heavy hand of Hurricane
Katrina devastated most of the 12 coast casinos and the 13th that was
just about to open. The least damaged of the Gulf casinos was the
Imperial Palace, which reopened in December.
October 2005: In a special legislative session, Mississippi passed
a new onshore gaming law allowing Gulf Coast casinos to move their
casinos off the water and build a short distance inland – within 800
feet of the waterfront. Ironically, the proposal was made to the legislature by Mississippi’s governor who initially had opposed gambling during the 2003 elections. This about face by the governor dramatically
illustrates the importance of the casinos’ tax revenue contributions.
Treasure Bay Casino CEO and President Bernie Burkholder credits
this new law for giving the industry a better chance of bouncing back
after the storm. In a meeting of casino representatives in November,
2005, Burkholder said he was tired to chasing down their boat after
every storm, “dragging it back to its moorings and gluing it back in
place.”
With the ability to build on land, bigger casinos mean more tourists
and more jobs. Pre-Katrina casino jobs are estimated at nearly 17,000.
Within five years, authorities have estimated upwards of 25,000 casino
jobs. Historically, each casino job also creates two additional jobs.
The first casino to reopen on December 22, 2005 was Imperial
Palace. The general manager, Jon Lucas, reported that the gaming
areas were expanded and all 1,088 guest rooms renovated.
The Beau Rivage will rebuild in the same location and has scheduled
its planned opening date on the one year anniversary of Hurricane
Katrina, Aug. 29, 2006. According to reports all other casinos with
available land plan to rebuild in new ‘inland’ locations.
Boomtown, a barge facility with limited surrounding land, does
not have the ability to immediately rebuild a shore-based operation.
They plan to refurbish their existing barge and move it to an adjacent
property, most likely by May 2006. Eventually, they hope to build a
land-based facility in the Biloxi area.
Boomtown’s sister property, Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, will move
into temporary facilities according to Len DeAngelo, executive vice
president of operations for the casinos’ parent company, Penn National
Gaming Inc. Plans for a temporary Biloxi Casino Magic structure are still
pending, but the facility will likely be operational within nine months.
The Treasure Bay, which was one of the few actually boats, plans to
build two-story, 70,000-square foot structure on the south portion of
its existing hotel tower. They anticipate renovations will begin in the
first quarter of 2006 and will take about six months to complete.
Executives of the President Casino, whose gambling barge was
washed a half-mile down the beach during the storm and ended up on
land, took a gamble after the storm that the onshore gaming bill would
pass. They immediately began working on a shore-based facility, said
Paul Alanis, chief executive officer of Silver Slipper, the casino’s new
owner. Construction on the 95,000-square foot facility was slated to
begin in December 2005, and the facility is expected to open within
the year.
With corporate offices in temporary locations, it has been a challenge to compile verified information about the progress of the rebuilding. The most heartwarming quote I came across was from the publisher
of one of the local newspapers who said that he would rather look at
the disaster as an opportunity to create a planned 21st Century community with all the features and benefits that technology could provide.
Remember, if you can’t raise, don’t call.
A true entrepreneur at heart, Donna Blevins is a marketing consultant, professional speaker and trainer, as
well as a poker journalist. She looks forward to meeting
you at the final table. Contact Donna to advertise in
Poker Player, to cover your poker tournament or with
article ideas - [email protected].
40
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Boyd Unveils Strip Development
ing, nightlife, and cultural
experiences.
Other Master Plan
Elements
Echelon Place is masterplanned and designed to
optimize access and parking.
Entry into Echelon Place
will be from three of the
four sides of the property.
Valet parking and parking
structures will be located
conveniently to all major
components of Echelon
Place and will provide
covered parking for nearly
8,000 cars. In addition, the
master plan includes a threeacre parcel reserved for
future development.
Development Team
Bob Boughner will leave
his position at Borgata in
Atlantic City and return
to Las Vegas to lead the
development of Echelon
Place as President and
Chief Executive Officer of
Echelon Resorts.William S.
Boyd, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Boyd
Gaming, commented, “We
are very pleased to have
Bob return to reprise our
success at Borgata and lead
the development of Echelon
Place. From concept to
design to construction to
opening to operating, Bob’s
outstanding performance at
Borgata, one of our industry’s finest success stories,
is widely acclaimed. In my
opinion, there is nobody better for this job.”
Joining Bob Boughner
from the Borgata team will
be Kevin Sullivan, who
managed several key development and administrative
areas, serving as Senior
Vice President and Chief
Administrative Officer for
Echelon Resorts. Many of
the design and construction firms involved in the
development of Borgata are
expected to play major roles
in the Echelon Place development, including Tishman
Construction Corporation,
who will serve as construction manager. Bob
Boughner commented, “True
to the evolution of Las Vegas
as a world class destination,
Echelon Place will integrate
a compelling collection of
brands and environments
in a single and auspicious
development. We are assembling an internationally distinguished group of strategic
partners in the hotel, restaurant, retail, entertainment and
nightlife arenas to complement our Company’s own
skills and resources. We will
draw upon our highly successful Borgata experience,
and are committed to developing a resort destination that
can be counted among the
best Las Vegas has seen.”
Boyd’s 63-acre site is
currently occupied by the
Stardust Hotel and Casino.
The Company expects to
operate the Stardust through
2006 as it advances the
Echelon Place planning,
design and permitting process. In connection with
the announced intention to
discontinue operations at the
Stardust, the Company will
record an impairment charge
in the first quarter of 2006
in the approximate range of
$50 to $55 million pre-tax.
POWERFUL ADVERTISING REACH—USE IT!
poker player
Caro’s Word: “Tightness”
CONT’D FROM PAGE 6
opponent, risk that final
raise. It’s worth it.
And that’s all there is to
it. When you’re in a raising
war against one aggressive opponent, ask yourself
if he’s tricky. If he is, go
ahead and make that extra
raise. If he isn’t tricky, don’t
do it.
This is “The Mad Genius
of Poker” Mike Caro and
that’s my secret today.
Mike Caro is widely regarded as the world’s foremost
authority on poker strategy,
psychology, and statistics. A
renowned player and founder of Mike Caro University
of Poker, Gaming, and Life
Strategy, he is known as
“the Mad Genius of Poker,”
because of his lively delivery of concepts and latest
research. You can visit him
at www.poker1.com.
asked & answered:
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E
tend to bluff with extra
force, overact, and bet
extra sadly with big hands.
Q #8 ANSWER: (d-all of
the above). Shifting in
your seat, knocking over
chips, and babbling mindlessly all increase your
chances of being called.
Q #9 ANSWER: (a). A
player staring at his cards
22
usually gives indication
that the hand is weak.
Q #10 ANSWER: (a). It’s
true that you’re more
likely to spot profitable
tells by concentrating on
just one or two players at
a time. When you try to
keep track of everyone’s
behavior, you’ll often fail
to spot the most compelling tells.
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
41
7-Stud—The True Test
BacK in the saddle Again
Book reviews
By OKLAHOMA JOHNNY HALE
Seven Card Stud—Yes, the game is still played—by
a lot of old timers—but the kids now days want to
play the No Limit Hold’em as seen so much on television.
I think that seven card stud poker is the truest test of poker and
requires the most skill to play of any of the disciplines of poker. There
are 52 cards in the deck and to be an expert seven card stud poker
player you must consider each of the cards in each of the seven card
stud hands that you play. If you can be a winner when playing seven
card stud---you can sleep and play No Limit Hold’em poker.
Years ago in California, you could not play the game of seven
card stud—who knows why?—Except it was written into the State of
California constitution that Stud Horse Poker was not to be played!
In the 40’s when I first played in the State of California card
barns—Yes, I was too young to legally play poker way back then—
but I was in the Navy and I could not buy or take a drink! I was old
enough to fight and die!—But with my navy uniform on, I could sit
down and play with the older fellows.
You are right—I was young and lucky—I thought I was supposed
to win each and every time I sat down to play—and did most of the
time—but I have used up a lot of luck—Now I win a hand about each
three weeks.
The only poker games that we could play in the poker rooms
of California were California lowball and Hi draw—these were the
only two poker games that were permitted and of course in those
days the maximum bet was only $20. Oh did I tell you that each of
the card rooms had to close at a certain hour and that they had to
close on certain days of the week.
Many sayings and procedures in poker came out of the
California card barns. For example, the terms small blind and big
blind--these were created because of the $20 limit maximum betting rule enforced by the State of California on the card rooms.
It is really a small bet and then a raise bet--that by rule can
be raised. Now the fellows wanted to play higher, so—they would
bet and raise and straddle and re-straddle each with the maximum
legal bet of $20.
So it went like this (The players dealt the cards themselves)—
First player to act would bet the $10. Then the next player would
raise to $20, then the next player would straddle or raise to $40
and so on, until it got back to the small bettor and the big bettor—after each player had his turn in rotation to call or to bet or to
raise the limit of $20. Each player who stayed in the pot could have
a $100 or more in the pot.
Now hear this—after draw, you could only protect your hand
with a bet of still just the $20. There might be $500 in the pot,
except but only by California state law you were permitted to only
bet $20.
The Hold’em poker game is only a variety of seven card stud.
In both games you start with two cards—which are your personal
cards—and they are unknown to any of the other players. These are
your two men.
In seven card stud you get four more personal cards that all can
see, and if you are still in the pot at the end, you will receive one
more card that only you can see—until all hands are shown.
In Hold’em poker, all the cards are common (except your personal two) and all may use them to make the best five-card poker
hand they can—by playing any of the two personal cards combined
with the five common cards.
That is why it takes much less knowledge of poker to play
hold’em rather than stud—In Hold’em, you only have two cards—
that are unknown—and you do not need to remember any of the
cards—just play the two you have with the five common cards;
while in seven card stud, you must be aware of all the cards and all
the possibilities.
If you sleep and play stud, you may wake up broke—If you sleep
and play hold’em, they may just push you the pot.
Editor’s Notes: You may contact OK-J at his e-mail
[email protected], or play poker LIVE, ONLINE
with Johnny, Carol and Sarah at www.OK-J.com.
Johnny’s book, “The Gentleman Gambler,” is in its
third printing. Contact Johnny for your copy.
42
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Pizza, Pasta and Poker—
The Private & Public Life
of a Professional Poker
Player
by Vince Burgio
300pp paperbound, $19.95
and incidents, this book is
a continuous entertaining
trip down memory lane. In
it you’ll meet colorful characters, dealers, trivia (how
a steak house was named
after a cat, for example);
Vince Burgio is one of the
most likable high-stakes
poker players anywhere.
Forsaking the safety of
his contracting business,
Burgio eased into the world
of poker before leaving
the working-day life for
the game became acceptable and popular. And now
he’s written a charming,
colorful book that bears
the unusual title of Pizza,
Pasta and Poker -- The
Private & Public Life of a
Burgio’s Poker Life
Makes For A
Good Read
Professional Poker Player.
This is not a how-to-winat-poker book. It is more of
a “glimpse of a professional
poker player’s life.” Its purpose is to help the public
understand what goes on
in the lives of professional
players, who “just happen to have not-so-normal
lives.”
Burgio opens up his life
to readers—his ups and
downs, his wins and losses,
discussing who he’s known,
who influenced him and
the lessons he’s learned the
hard way -- and he does it
with humility and style.
With Burgio’s fantastic
memory for people, places
how it feels to move from
low-limit play to the highest stakes games; how this
author faced
and detected
cheats and
how pasta and
pizza (part of the book title)
became an integral part of
his youth and maturation.
Reading this life story
is like following a mapmaker since Burgio lived in
Missouri and Washington,
played in a dozen more
states and served in the
military. Along the way, this
good-will ambassador for
poker made many friends.
So it is that the book is
packed with pictures but not
indexed by name or places.
But the 28 short chapters
packed in a reasonably
priced paperback it presents
itself properly as a slice of
life--with a little pepperoni
and oregano tossed in.
—Howard Schwartz
of his stories had been
made into films. Perhaps
(Continued from page 30) more than any other writer, he defined and characfor his work. In 1934,
terized the underworld of
his story, “Little Miss
Marker”, about a gambler gambling, horse racing,
boxing, and baseball durwho leaves his little girl
ing the Roaring Twenties.
with a bookie to hold
Through his work, he
until he returns to pay his
helped shape America’s
losses, was made into a
image of Prohibition
movie. A big hit, it introand the Golden Age of
duced Shirley Temple to
Gangsters.
moviegoers.
By the time Damon
Runyon died in 1946, 16
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Av i d i t y
ENDLESS SUMMER 12/29/05
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
BUY-IN $20 + $15
PLAYERS 168
REBUYS 491
ADD-ONS 223
PRIZE POOL
$16,755
Nina Reich
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Nina Reich . . . . . . . . . $6,700
E. Charles Wolfe . . . . $3,355
Robert Davis . . . . . . . $1,675
Allen Mittelman. . . . . $1,090
Scott Mackay . . . . . . . . .$840
Warren Plouffe . . . . . . .$590
Clint Mullins . . . . . . . . .$425
Ray Mann. . . . . . . . . . . .$340
Jeff Meinhardt . . . . . . . .$255
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
BUY-IN $60 + $15
PLAYERS 108
REBUYS 90
PRIZE POOL
$11,285
Dylan Morris
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Dylan Morris . . . . . . . $4,515
Arthur Castle . . . . . . . $2,255
Bryan Sullivan . . . . . . $1,130
Kenneth Dalgart . . . . . .$735
Gene Sun . . . . . . . . . . . .$560
Alan Mittelman . . . . . . .$390
Nick Tzanis . . . . . . . . . .$275
Bruce Berlow . . . . . . . . .$220
Federico Schiavio . . . . .$170
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
BUY-IN $20 + $15
PLAYERS 136
REBUYS 437
ADD-ONS 195
PRIZE POOL
$14,590
Jose Oscal
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Jose Oscal . . . . . . . . . . $5,835
Bijan Jazaeri . . . . . . . $2,920
Mark Mosqueda . . . . $1,460
Rita Byrd . . . . . . . . . . . .$950
Eulises Sandoval . . . . . .$730
Jerome Akmal . . . . . . . .$510
Darren Mould . . . . . . . .$365
Kenny Gerber . . . . . . . .$295
Young Song . . . . . . . . . .$220
NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
BUY-IN $60 + $15
PLAYERS 79
REBUYS 62
PRIZE
POOL
$8,035
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Dwayne Copeland . . . $3,215
Matthew Wladron . . . $1,850
Steve Tourouk . . . . . . . .$965
Kevin Isaacs . . . . . . . . . .$560
Henry Chow . . . . . . . . . .$440
Todd Grass . . . . . . . . . . .$360
Mark Sepulveda . . . . . .$280
Antwan Thornton . . . . .$200
Steve Kaufman . . . . . . .$165
Before even entering
the Card Room, we have
often made our first mistake: allowing ourselves
to be ruled by avidity.
Poker Rooms should be
approached with a cautious demeanor. Take a
moment to pause before
the Board and see how
many tables are available
for our favored games and
at our limits. We should
see which of the tables
ranked on the Board have
dots around their designating number, indicating
how many seats are open
at each. We should then
take a casual stroll around
the tables with openings,
appraise the players, and
decide if they are the people with whom we would
like to hazard our hard
won dollars.
Last night, as is my
habit, I took just such
a stroll. It was a busy
Saturday night and there
were openings only at the
lower limit tables. Table
Two had two open seats
among its good steady
players, but it also had
Tommy Twenties next to
the dealer. Nothing is
going to take an early bite
out of an hourly rate faster
than a guy like Tommy
Twenties. He came by
his nickname honestly by
bumming twenty bucks
from each and every sappy
soul in the county - some
of us more than once. By
my calculations he should
be worth about 2.85 million dollars by now, but
there he sits, going over
a mental checklist of reasons why I should duke
him another twenty. The
reasons he comes up with
are, if nothing else, compelling and amusing. I,
personally, have surrendered perfectly serviceable
Jacksons on two occasions: once so he could
have his lucky poker shoes
resoled and once more,
amazingly, so he could
partake of the sumptuous
buffet, lest he grow faint
during one grueling session. I know, I know, but
you’ve got to know the
guy.
With Tommy looking
at me like a spider looks
at a fly, I hurry to take a
look at Table Seven. It is
the only other table with
an opening, but most of
the guys at it are whooping it up like drunken
Shriners. One guy is blind
raising a straddle bettor
while the others are joyously calling the old reprobates. Manny “Moves”
Mahannahan is at Table
Six, too. There isn’t a
position bet he won’t take,
a weak board he won’t bet
at, or a flopped pair that
he’s made a set on that he
won’t bluff. He’s just what
this table needed: another
match at a gas spill. I
take a wistful glance back
at Table Two and catch
Tommy Twenties smiling
at me, trying to wave me
over.
As I’m weighing my
narrow options, a rich old
man, a man against whom
I’ve played before, takes
one of the two remaining seats at Table Two.
Of the 2,652 possible
combinations of pocket
cards, there wasn’t one
he couldn’t find some
redeeming merit in, and
he was always willing to
back that elusive merit
to the bitter end. He, of
course, won many hands
and drove almost everyone
crazy by seeming to make
one hand after another
on the river. I emphasize
seeming. What everyone
failed to notice is that over
the two hours I was there
the old man rebought eight
times at fifty dollars a
pop. Four hundred dollars
in two hours at a 3-6 table,
yet everyone was mad
at him. Everyone at that
table should have added
an average of $20.00 to
their hourly rate and yet
they’re mad at him for
seeming to get the best of
them by winning so many
hands. He also possessed
a charming propensity to
call all bets after his first
raise and then, quite often,
simply fold when he failed
to make his hand on the
river. As long as he was
the only wild hair at the
table, he amounted to little
other than an early “Kill
Button,” and a not very
adept one, at that.
As usual, the shrewdest and most important
risk/reward calculation
has been made before I
see my first suited connectors. If things hold up in
the way they should, my
little perusal of the situation managed to divert me
from the Titanic’s boarding ramp and redirected
me to one for a Carnival
Cruise.
“Okay, Tommy,” I say,
slapping down a twenty
just outside of his reach.
“Let’s hear it. Make it a
good one.”
“Funny you should men-
tion it,” he says. “There’s
a tournament starting up
with a twenty dollar Add
On. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t
ask, but…”
Gil is an avid poker player
and freelance writer. He
can be reached at gd@
adelphia.net
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JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
43
Entertainment
Listings
Entertainment RePORT
By LEN BUTCHER
If you think the women of Crazy Girls at
the Riviera are nothing more than gorgeous and sexy, think again. Crazy Girls
dance captain Rayma Alfred
starred in “Las Vegas Medical”
on the Discovery health channel
recently and ironically, she took
her LPN licensing test this month.
The beautiful, talented Rayma
took a short break to tell me that
she was “really happy the way my
medical documentary turned out
on breast implants. I was really
nervous because I’ve never done
TV spot before. My mom watched it
and said, ‘You did good, that didn’t
Crazy Girls
come out bad at all.’ It was a positive show to help other women,” Rayma added.
As for her future after dancing, Rayma said she studied for her LPN license “so I can have that profession to
fall back on and help fill a major demand in Las Vegas.
Dancing in Las Vegas shows isn’t forever, but it’s wonderful while it lasts. I’ll find something that I can do in nursing a couple of days a week. Every hospital, clinic and
nursing home needs nurses.”
On the Crazy Girls show, Rayma said, “As dance captain,
I hold rehearsals and make sure all the dance numbers are
very clean. I really like Crazy Girls because it’s a professional show in the tradition of the French revue, only better.”
She says she is able to “earn a full week’s pay and
finish my college by working only a few hours a night at
something that I really enjoy. I trained so hard as a dancer all of my life and now it has really paid off.”
Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, she says her heart is
still in the Bayou. I moved here in 1997 and I’m having a
great time in Las Vegas working in the revue.” She admits,
however, that she misses family. “There are five of us.
I’m really excited to be going home and visiting my family over the holidays. I miss the home-cooked Cajun food
too.“
She reminisced: “I’m the oldest and the only one of
four siblings who is in show business. I have a brother
and two sisters. I began dancing professionally about five
years ago. It was in a show called Island Fever on a riverboat on Lake Charles. I began my dance training when I
was very young. I was a cheerleader in middle school and
was on various dance teams. I auditioned to be a Dallas
Cowboy cheerleader and got cut in the finals. Another
Crazy Girl brought me to the Riviera and I was hired. It
was my lucky day.” Crazy Girls is one of the longest running shows on the Strip and worth a visit next time you’re
in town.
Went to see Forever Plaid, one of my favorite shows
again the other night. But this time, they were performing a special holiday season show, so 90 percent of it was
new and I gotta tell ya, it was great. The room at the Gold
Coast is perfect for them and I have a feeling they will be
there for a long time.
Looks like Mr. Las Vegas hasn’t lost his touch. Wayne
Newton has extended his engagement at the Flamingo
and will perform in the Flamingo Showroom through April
of next year. Newton said, “From watching old movies I
thought I understood the importance of what the original
Flamingo meant to Las Vegas. Now, being able to perform
at a more modern Flamingo, I realize the importance of
the hotel still exists within the city. I love performing at
the Flamingo, in the showroom, in the heart of the Strip.”
Len Butcher, a 25-year resident of Las Vegas, is an
online columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal
and a former Managing Editor of the Las Vegas Sun
and of Gaming Today. Reach him at [email protected]
44
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
Poker Player Advertisers are shown in RED along with their ad’s page number
To list your event, contact Len Butcher, Entertainment Editor at [email protected]
ARIZONA
Fort McDowell Casino
Todd Luxton’s
Tribute to Elvis
Sundays, 7:30 & 10:30 p.m.
CALIFORNIA
Agua Caliente Casino
Comedy Shop
Arena Patio
DJ / Karaoke
Live Bands
Ballroom Dance Party
Crystal Park Casino & Hotel Cambodian Dance Party
(20)
Karaoke
El As De Oros Night Club
Jeff Foxworthy
Fantasy Springs Resort
Kool & The Gang
Harrah’s Rincon
Finish Line Lounge
Hollywood Park Casino (5)
Pechanga Resort & Casino (33) Trisha Yearwood
CONNECTICUT
Peter Cetera
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Kid Rock
Mohegan Sun Casino
NEW JERSEY
Tassos Mpougas
Taj Majal Hotel & Casino
Tropicana Casino & Resort Michael Israel Art in Concert
(Atlantic City)
NEW YORK
Kid Rock
Turning Stone Casino
NEVADA-LAS VEGAS
Ricky Martin
Aladdin Hotel & Casino
Magician Steve Wyrick
Donn Arden’s Jubilee!
Bally’s Resort & Casino
O
Bellagio Resort & Casino
Live Music in Keno Bar
Binion’s Gambling Hall
Boulder Station Hotel &
B. J. Thomas
Casino (8)
Buckinghams
Cannery Hotel & Casino
Thunder From Down Under
Excalibur Hotel & Casino
George Wallace
Flamingo Las Vegas
The Second City
Commerce Casino
8:30 p.m. Featuring three top comedians
weekly.
Joker’s Comedy Club, Karaoke Thursdays 8 p.m.
Sunday-Wednesday, 9 p.m.
Fridays & Saturdays, 9 p.m.
Thursdays 8 p.m. to Midnight, Sundays 2-6 p.m.
Fridays 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Thursday through Monday
Presents Banda Nortina Sats 8 p.m.-3 a.m.
Jan 19, 6 p.m.
Jan 26, 8 p.m.
Live Jazz, Tues. 8 p.m.
Jan 22, 7 p.m.
Jan 21, 9 p.m.
jan 20, 8 p.m.
Jan 28, 7:30 p.m.
Jan 13, 8 p.m..
Jan 21, 8 p.m.
Jan 27, 8 p.m.
Ongoing, Wednesday through Monday, 7 & 10 p.m.
Sat-Thu, 8 p.m.
Fridays through Tuesdays, 7:30 & 10:30 p.m.
Fridays & Saturdays 8:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.
Jan 21, 8 p.m.
Gold Coast (39)
Forever Plaid
Golden Nugget Hotel &
Casino
Harrah’s Hotel & Casino
Imperial Palace Hotel &
Casino (11)
Las Vegas Hilton (31)
Luxor Resort & Casino
Gordie Brown
Regis Philbin
Clint Holmes
Jan 21, 8 p.m.
Fridays through Wednesdays. 8:30 & 10:30 p.m.
Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 p.m.
Thursdays through Tuesdays, 8 p.m.
Tue thru Sun (dark Mon), 7:30 p.m.,
Sun 3 p.m. & 7 p.m.
Fri thru Tue, 7:30 p.m.
Jan 20-21, 9 p.m.
Monday through Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Legends In Concert
Mondays through Saturdays, 7 & 10 p.m.
Barry Manilow
Carrot Top
Jan 18-21, 9 p.m.
Sun thru Fri (dark Tues), 8 p.m. & Sat, 7 & 9 p.m.
7 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays; 8 p.m.
Fridays; 7 & 10:30 p.m. Saturdays, Mondays.
Jan 28, 8 p.m.
Jan 28-29, 8 p.m.
Fri thru Tue, 7:30& 10:30 p.m.
8 p.m. (Monday thru Friday)
Jan 27-28, 9 p.m.
Tuesdays thru Saturdays, 7pm; Tuesdays &
Saturdays. 7 & 10 p.m.
Jan 20-22, 8 p.m.
Wednesdays, 9 p.m.
7:30 & 10 p.m. Tuesdays thru Saturdays.
9 p.m. Tuesdays thru Sundays.
Wed thru Mon, 9:30 p.m.
Wed thru Mon, 7:30 p.m.
Tue thru Sun, 9:30 p.m
Sun thru Thu, 7 p.m.
Mon-Sat, 9 p.m.
Fri-Wed, 10 p.m.
Mandalay Bay Resort &
Casino
Mamma Mia
INXS
Paula Tsui
KA.
Impressionist Danny Gans
The Mirage Hotel & Casino (9)
Jay Leno
MGM Grand (47)
Monte Carlo Resort & Casino (19) Magician Lance Burton
The Orleans Hotel & Casino
Palace Station Hotel &
Casino (8)
Plaza Hotel & Casino
Riviera Hotel & Casino
Sahara Hotel & Casino
Sam’s Town Hotel & Casino
(43)
Silverton Hotel & Casino
Stardust Hotel & Casino
Stratosphere Hotel &
Casino
Sunset Station (8)
Texas Station (8)
Tropicana Casino & Resort
Wynn Las Vegas
Etta James
Yellow Brick Road
Laugh Trax comedy club
The Comedy Zone
Crazy Girls
La Cage
Splash
Neil Diamond Tribute
Buck Wild
The Amazing Jonathan
The Platters, Coasters and
Drifters
8 p.m. nightly
Desert Outlaws
Thru Jan 22, 8:30 p.m.
Herman’s Hermits
Jackie Mason
Rick Thomas
Bite
American Superstars
Viva Las Vegas
The Whip-Its
Keith Sweat
Love Shack
Extreme Magic starring
Dirk Arthur
Folies Bergere
Le Reve
Avenue “Q”
Jan 21, 8 p.m.
Feb 7-26, 8 p.m.
Ongoing, Thu thru Tue 2 & 4 p.m.
Ongoing, 10:30 p.m.
Ongoing, 6:30 & 8:30 p.m.
Ongoing, 2 & 4 p.m.
Nightly, 10:30 p.m.
Jan 21, 8 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays, 10 p.m.
Sat-Thu, 2 & 4 p.m. p.m.
Ongoing, 7:30 p.m. & 10 p.m.
Ongoing, 8 p.m.
Ongoing, 8 p.m.
LAUGHLIN
Riverboat Ramblers Strolling
Colorado Belle Hotel Casino Dixieland Jazz Band
Ramada Express Hotel Casino Country Music USA
Charlie Prose
Riverside Hotel Casino
RENO
The Palmores
Atlantis Casino Resort
Smokey Joe’s Cafe
Eldorado Hotel Casino
Ricky Martin
Reno Hilton Hotel Casino
Silver Legacy Hotel & Casino REO Speedwagon
OREGON
Wild Horse Resort & Casino Collin Raye
Fridays & Saturdays, 8 p.m.
Jan 14-19, 8 p.m.
Jan 15-Feb 2, 7 p.m.
10 p.m.-4 a.m.
Ongoing, 8 p.m.
Jan 28, 8 p.m.
Jan 7, 8 p.m.
Jan 22, 8 p.m.
Poker in the U.K.
F
asten your seatbelts
– this column’s
going international! First stop is the
United Kingdom, and
we’re tackling Scotland
in Great Britain and puts in
place an improved, more
comprehensive structure
of gambling regulation,”
according to the website of
the Department for Culture,
Media and
Sport. A
new regulatory body,
like the World Poker Tour.
That’s not to say that
the existing casinos aren’t
great. In fact, poker is
massively popular all over
the UK, where the name
of the game is pot limit.
PL Hold’em and Omaha
are the games of choice,
though standard limit and
remains a favorite all over
the UK.
Note that technically, all
casinos across the UK are
private clubs and require
24 hours notice to join,
though membership can be
obtained on the Web; this
means that the minimum
age for entry is 18, even
SCOTLAND & NORTHERN ENGLAND
By Steve Horton
and the northern regions of
England.
The gambling laws in the
UK have just undergone
a startling change. The
Gambling Act 2005 is the
first such act since 1968,
and “replaces most of the
existing law about gambling
the Gambling
Commission,
was created,
and Internet
gambling is
now legal and
regulated in
the UK.
What does
this mean
to the average poker
player? The
act allows
for a slow
expansion in the number
of casinos in Great Britain,
and such new casinos can
be bigger and more like
the ones in Vegas. This
undoubtedly means bigger
and better card clubs in the
near future, the sort that are
attractive to organizations
no-limit games appear as
well, especially in areas
with more poker demand.
Another poker variant
popular across UK poker
clubs is 6-card Omaha.
It’s the same game as
traditional Omaha with
six hole cards instead of
four. Players can still only
use up to two of them
and the five community
cards to make a hand. As
can be imagined, six-card
Omaha is wild and unpredictable. The hand that a
player starts out betting
and the hand that player
shows on the river might
be completely different.
Though UK players might
be waiting a long time to
see a 6-card Omaha event
at the World Series, it still
Poker Rooms in Scotland & Northern England
# ON
MAP CASINO
SCOTLAND
1 The International
Gala Regency
Casino - Dundee
Gala Maybury
3 Casino,
Edinburgh
Stanley
4 Casino -Berkeley
Edinburgh
Stanley Casino
5 Edinburgh
Glasgow Berkeley
6 Casino
Riverboat
7 Gala
Casino
THE NORTH EAST
8 Grosvenor Newcastle
Casino 9 Stanley
Newcastle
THE NORTH WEST
A Grosvenor Blackpool
2
LOCATION
OPEN
HOURS
# OF
TABLES
GAMES
NL?
HIGH
LIMITS
Aberdeen
Mon, Wed, Fri 8p-5a
4
PLH
N
N/A
Sun, Wed, Thu
2
PLH, PL RbyR
Edinburgh
Sun-Fri
9-15
N, PLH
Edinburgh
Fri 9p
2
PLH, PL RbyR
N 30 PL RbyR
Edinburgh
Mon 9:30p; Sat 10p
3
PLH, PL RbyR
N 30 PL RbyR 10 & 20
Glasgow
Sun-Fri 2p-6a;
Sat 2p-4a; Sun 2p-6a
3
PLH, PL RbyR
N 30 PL RbyR
Glasgow
Sun, Tue 9:30p
3
PLH, PL RbyR
N 50 PL RbyR 30 & 40
Newcastle
Thu, Fri 2p-6a
6
PLH
N
N/A
Newcastle
Tue, Thu, Sun
3
N, PLH
Y
N/A
20
10, 20,
50, 100
Blackpool
Tue, Fri, Sat 9p
Mon 8p; Tue 7p;
Thu 9p; Sat 5:30p;
Sun 7:30p
Mon, first Thu
of month 9:30p
Mun, Tue,
Wed, Thu 9p
12
PLH, PL RbyR
N
50 PLH
10
10
PLH
N
N/A
10
6
PLH, PL RbyR
Dundee
B
Grosvenor Bolton
Bolton
C
Napoleons Casino
Bradford
D
Grosvenor Liverpool Liverpool
E
Grosvenor Manchester Manchester
Empire Street
Wed 9p
* Note: All monetary units are British pounds. £1 = $1.73.
6
3
TOURN. S/
BUY-IN NS
10, 20,
50
N 30 PL RbyR 5 & 10
10, 20, S
Y 30 PL RbyR 50,
100
10
10
N 50 PL RbyR 10 & 50
PLH, PL7, PL RbyR N 50 PL RbyR 5,2010,
PLH
N
N/A
10
if no drinking is involved.
Still, that’s a four-year
jump on the States’ age-21
requirement.
Poker clubs in Scotland
and northern England
can be found in the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee,
Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Newcastle, Blackpool,
Bolton, Bradford,
Liverpool and Manchester.
Some poker clubs don’t
have dedicated dealers and
rely on the players themselves to self-deal, which
might remind a visitor of
their own home game. The
larger casinos, such as the
Gala Maybury, have dedicated dealers.
“Currently we hold
poker events 6 nights
per week; all games are
Texas Hold’em - pot limit
and no limit,” says Ally
Myles, general manager of
Gala Maybury Casino in
Edinburgh, Scotland. “[We
might] possibly introduce
an Omaha tournament in
the near future.”
“Our regular Poker programme is Sun £20NL,
Mon £10PL, Tue £50NL,
Wed £10PL, Thurs £20PL
(last Thurs of each month
£100PL), Fri £10NL,” he
says. [Note: £1 = $1.73.]
“Business as far as Poker
is concerned is very buoyant. With so much poker
being shown on television
and the Internet, it has
certainly created more
interest in the casino,
and the number of players for each tournament
has increased, which has
also resulted in us holding
tournaments six nights
each week, where previously we were holding
poker tournaments 3-4
nights each week.”
The Maybury isn’t just
for buy-in cash games:
it also hosts a major
yearly tournament. “We
hold the Scottish Poker
Championships in the Gala
Maybury Casino Edinburgh
each year,” says Myles.
“We started this two years
ago in the Gala Maybury
- the championships had
previously been held in
Dundee when I was general manager. These events
are European Ranking
Tournaments and attract
major poker players from
all over. We are also entering a Scottish poker team
to play in the Paddy Power
Grand Slam which is being
recorded for Sky Sports
in January 2006 and will
be screened during March
2006.”
The Scottish Poker
Championships, in past
years, has attracted quite
a crowd from all over
Europe. The event in 2005
was held from June 27 to
July 3. The main event,
unlike past years, was a
£1000 no-limit Hold’em
tournament, starting June
30 with the final table the
following day. This tournament was “double chance”
format, which means that
players start with half their
total chips and can take
the remainder at any time
in the first hour as a rebuy
or add-on. While some
players might take all their
chips immediately, others
might choose to start with
fewer chips in order to give
themselves better pot odds.
The winner of 2005’s
event was Liam Flood, a
professional who has made
final tables at events all
over Europe – and won the
£100 pot-limit event at that
same tournament. Flood
took home £12,375.
“I think the interest in
poker will continue to grow
all over the world,” Myles
says. “Budding players
must remember that for
every winner there is a
greater number of losers. I
believe the interest in the
game has grown so much
because everyone can play,
not that I’m saying it’s an
easy game or there is no
skill involved.”
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
45
Smart Guy’s
Revenge, PART
2006 WORLDWIDE POKER TOURNAMENTS
1
Why do you play poker? Do you do
it for fun? To make a living? To put
a few extra shekels in your satchel?
NOW! Get Tournament Listings at our website: www.pokerplayernewspaper.com
>Denotes Advertiser; Poker Association Events also denoted: t=World Poker Tour,
s=World Series of Poker and e=European Poker Tour.
To list your 3-day events contact: A.R. Dyck, Assistant Publisher, at: [email protected]
DATE
KILLER Poker
By John Vorhaus
Maybe, sadly, your obsessive-compulsive
personality won’t let you get away from the game.
If that’s the case (a subject for a different time) I
encourage you to take a good, hard look at yourself
and remember that “sometimes you chase the buzz,
but sometimes the buzz chases you.”
Me… and I’m being totally honest with you now… I
play poker for revenge. Smart guy’s revenge. Little
guy’s revenge. Revenge of the bullied boy who finally
found a schoolyard where fists and muscles don’t
count but guts and bets and bluffs sure do. I know I’m
wrong to do this. I know that poker is a game better
thought than felt, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t
admit that the little boy buried deep inside my brain
gets a certain shiver of delight every time he pushes
someone off a pot. I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t
admit that I was, in some sense, pushing back at all
the bigger, stronger kids who ever pushed me down.
And I know that lying to myself is no way to play
poker.
So I’m prepared to own that little guy. I’m prepared
to acknowledge the child I was, the guy with the fat
I.Q. and the chubby legs, last picked for everything
except, Hey, who can we give a wedgie to? The guy
voted least likely to complete the 50-yard dash.
I was in the bridge club, you know. Hell, I was the
bridge club. The backgammon club and the Dungeons
& Dragons club too. Because even back then I had this
strong competitive urge, but no realistic place in the
physical world to purge it. Basketball? Football? Get
serious. I loved baseball, but I couldn’t run, hit, field,
throw or catch, and I was afraid of the ball. So that
didn’t work.
Games worked. Games worked big time, because
they played to my cranial strength and let me experience the bliss of winning. They worked only imperfectly, though, because while they tested my smarts,
they didn’t test my mettle. Sports test your ability,
but also your character. What I needed was a game
that was a sport.
And then I found poker.
And the smart guy’s revenge began.
Bet into me? Pow! I bet you back! Raise my blind?
I raise you all-in with nothing! I stare you down. I fix
you with a steely gaze that says, “Don’t start nothin’,
there won’t be nothin’.” And you fold! And I feel good.
I know it’s not right. You don’t have to tell me it’s
not right. It’s short-sighted, self-serving, self-indulgent, wrong-head hooey, and it’s no way to play Killer
Poker or even sensible poker. It’s one thing to play
aggressively for strategic reasons, but just to feel
good? Ack!
That’s bad!
But I do it just the same.
And I suspect I’m not alone.
Do you suffer from SGRS, Smart Guy’s Revenge
Syndrome? We’ll talk more about this next time, but
between now and then, just pay attention to yourself
at the poker table and note whether you take any
actions (or many actions) just to feel good. I think
you’ll find that the instances of this are much more
common than you think.
EVENT
LOCATION
Jan 2-15
European Finals of Poker
Aviation Club de France, Paris, France
>Jan 4-11
PokerStars (AdPg48) Caribbean Adventure Atlantis Resort & Casino, Paradise Island, Bahamas
Jan 6-19
2006 Crown Australian Poker Ch’ship Crown Casino, Melbourne, Australia
Jan 5-27
Jack Binions WSOP Circuit Event sGrand Casino, Tunica, MS
>Jan 6-15
Poker Derby
Hollywood Park Casino (AdPg 5), Inglewood, CA
>Jan 9-23
World Poker Open (WPT)
Gold Strike Casino, Tunica, MS
>Jan 19-22
Beat the Pros
Gold Coast Casino (AdPg 39), Las Vegas, NV
Jan 19-22
Scandinavian Open
eCasino Copenhagen (Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel), Denmark
Jan 19-Feb 23
L.A. Poker Classic
Commerce Casino, Commerce, CA
Jan 20-Feb 1
Borgata Winter Open
tBorgata Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ
>Jan. 24-Feb. 2 Seneca World Poker Classic Seneca Niagara Casino (AdPg 7), Niagara Falls, NY
Jan 25-29
Alberta Poker Championship
Casino Edmonton, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Jan 26-Feb 5
Super Bowl of Poker
Sycuan Resort & Casino, San Diego, CA
Jan 29-Feb 1
Borgata Winter Poker Open
tBorgata Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, NJ
>Feb 6-12
Oklahoma State Championship Cherokee Casino in Tulsa, Cartoosa, OK
Feb. 7-17
World Series Event
sHarrah’s Atlantic City, NJ
Feb. 8-11
French Open
eCasino Barriere, Rue Edmond Blanc, Deauville, France
Feb 22-23
World Poker Tour Invitational
tCommerce Casino, Commerce, CA
Feb 27-Mar 3
Bay 101 Shooting Star
tBay 101, San Jose, CA
>Mar 2-26
Winnin’ O’ the Green
Bicycle Casino (AdPg 3), Bell Gardens, CA
Mar 7-11
EPT Grand Final
eMonte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, Monaco
>Mar 11-18
PartyPoker Million IV
tPartyPoker Cruise to Mexico
Mar 21-31
World Series Event
sCaesars Atlantic City, NJ
Mar 27-31
World Poker Challenge
tReno Hilton, Reno, NV
>Mar 29-Apr 9 Oklahoma Johnny Hale Open Cherokee Casino in Tulsa (AdPg 43), Cartoosa, OK
>Apr 3-8
Heavyweight Championship of Poker Sam’s Town (AdPg 42), Las Vegas, NV
>Apr 3-14
World Series Event
sCaesars, Las Vegas, NV
>Apr 6-9
Oklahoma Johnny Tournament Cherokee Casino (AdPg 4), Tulsa, OK
>Apr 10-30
Stars & Stripes
Apr 22-28
WPT Championship
tBellagio, Las Vegas, NV
May 3-7
Western Canadian Poker Classic Casino Yellowhead, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
May 18-28
World Series Event
sHarrah‚s New Orleans, LA
>May 22-Jun 4 America’s Poker Classic
>May 26-Jun 19 The Mini Series
Jun 6-18
World Series Event
sHarrah‚s Lake Tahoe
>Jun 24-Jul 27The Mini Series
Jun 25-Aug 10 World Series of Poker
sRio, Las Vegas, NV
Jul 28-30
Grand Prix de Paris
Aviation Club of France, Paris, France
>Aug 3-Sep 1 Legends of Poker
Aug 30- Sep 3 Edmonton Poker Classic
Casino Edmonton, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
>Sep 28-Oct 15 Big Poker October
Oct 4-8
Canadian Poker Championship Casino Yellowhead Edmonton, Alberta
>Nov 23-Dec 10 Turkey Shoot/Ho-Ho Hold’em Bicycle Casino (AdPg 3), Bell Gardens, CA
POKER
ON
TV
Celebrity Poker Showdown.
Jan 11-13, 15-20, 23-28. (Check local listings for times). Bravo.
E! Hollywood Hold’em.
Thursdays. 10:00 PM. E!
Inside Poker. (For local times/stations, check www.insidepoker.tv).
Learn From the Pros. (Check
local listing for times). Fox Sports.
Poker Royale: Celebrities vs.
Poker Pros. Fridays 9 PM. GSN.
Battle of the Sexes. Fridays 2
AM. GSN.
d
Diamond Jim’s Casino
118 20th St. West
[John Vorhaus is the author of Poker Night and
the Killer Poker book series, and news
ambassador for UltimateBet.com.]
46
JA N UA RY 23 , 2 0 0 6
The WPPA Championship.
Tuesdays 9 PM. GSN.
Poker Superstars Invitational.
(Check local listing for times). Fox Sports.
Ultimate Poker Challenge.
Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday (check
local listings for times/channels).
U.S. Poker Championship.
Tuesdays (check local listings for times/
channels).
World Poker Tour. (Check local
listing for times). Travel Channel.
World Series of Poker. (Check
local listing for times). ESPNC/ESPN2.
Rosamond, California
Exit A 14 Freeway
The Best Little No-limit Tournament in Southern California
The Last Sunday of Each Month $155 Buy-in–No Rebuys $10,000 in Tournament Chips
Call for more info: 661-256-1400
MARCH 1–27
7301 Eastern Ave., Bell Gardens, CA 90201 ♦ (562) 806-4646 ♦ www.thebike.com
The Bicycle Casino reserves the right to change or cancel this promotion at its sole discretion. All promotions and jackpots: no purchase necessary. See Official Rules at the Welcome Center.
From
to Poker Stars
Greg Raymer
Joe Hachem
Chris Moneymaker
2004 WSOP Champion
2005 WSOP Champion
2003 WSOP Champion
Before they won millions, before they were the kings of poker, they were Fossilman, JoeHachem and Money800 on PokerStars.
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Play for at least $500,000 every Sunday at 4:30PM ET
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W o r l d ' s L a r g e s t To u r n a m e n t W e b s i t e

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