Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Poker blogs, poker blogs and even more poker blogs.
"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
Thomas Jefferson
I meant to post last evening, but it obviously didn't work out. I received an email from my buddy, Dann, this morning in response to my "uber-post coming."
It simply said:
"NOBODY LIKES A TEASE."
True enough, so allow me to pour myself a Guinness and commence to rambling. We've got a full docket today: interesting poker news, WSOP satellites, brand new poker blogs and my own drunken ramblings on bankroll management. Sadly, I've already been drinking (damn happy hour!) so please excuse any typos or stupid statements. Hopefully, my dozen fifteen readers won't mind.
Anyway, thanks for visiting this humble poker blog. I heartily encourage anyone at work right now to take the time and visit the poker blogs on the right. If you are tired of the nonsense on RGP and the attack dogs on the poker message board forums, you'd be wise to peruse this community if you are interested in real poker content. Nuff said.
Ready to kill some time? I'll try to deliver on my promise.
Per my latest online poker adventures: Saturday and Sunday I played largish NL multi table tournaments. Finished on the bubble both times. Dern frustrating. So Tuesday night, I was itching to redeem myself, or at the very least, build a big stack for the third evening in a row. That's often half the battle in these giant tournaments. Also, learning how to play properly with the big stack is perhaps an even more important lesson. One I had been failing.
So Monday evening I signed up for Party's nightly $30 NL multi table tournament. 1400 players. Paid out the top 135 places. First prize is 8k. I hit some cards, outplay the typically bad players and build up to 35k, the 15th biggest stack in the tourney after a few hours. I'm feeling good.
Big mistake.
All it took was two hands, one was a terrible misread and the other a suckout, to chop my stack and I end up limping into 70th place. Sure, I made a little money, and it's a moral victory considering the 1400 player field, but I'm still disappointed in my play.
I could write an entire post about playing with a big stack in a tournament. Lord knows I've made every mistake in the book.
For the record, I'm playing far looser and aggressive in tournaments than I ever would in NL ring games. As a matter of fact, because of all the great poker blogging tips about the NL ring games on Party, I've been playing them the last few days. And yes, it truly is insane. If you are able to practice extreme patience and not let the egregious bad beats effect you, these are veritable ATM machines. Sure, I've had Mister Runner Runner beat me three pots in a row, but you *will* get his stack, over the long haul, if you can successfully tag and track him.
On any given day, at any given moment, the improbable triumphs over the probable, and appears to do so frustratingly often. But, over the long haul, luck gives way to the favorite.
In that very vein, I discovered this Epic comment by the Dude, who FINALLY took my advice and decided to quit playing at Poker Stars for a bit and try out Party Poker. Oh the humanity - this event portends Armageddon - I'll bet the four horsemen are dusting off their saddles right now. For the record, allow the Dude to speak:
---
while some might find it fun to lose repeatedly to good international poker players at pokerstars, i on the other hand have finally seen the light. i just used IGGY and doubled my money on a .5/1 table at party in literally 15-20 minutes. why didn't you tell me about this sooner? i'm only an average player at best, but these party poker players make me feel like i could do this for a living. put simply, they are terrible.---
Thanks for trying it out, Dude. Funny how everyone who tries Party Poker is always shocked at how loose the games are, especially after playing somewhere like Stars, Paradise or UB. Damnit, feel free to use my bonus code, IGGY, or not, but please, just give it a try. Your bankroll will thank me. Again, as someone wiser than me stated, 'it's not shilling if it's true.'
Segue:
Interesting debate on 2+2 about which game has more luck - no limit or limit. That's not necessarily the way I would look at it - I would prefer to figure out which game has a greater "edge" to the skilled player, no limit or limit. One of the few things I agree with Russ Gorgiev about is that pot-limit is the most difficult game to play of all. Too bad I can't talk my home game into playing it, damnit.
Snippet from said debate:
---
If what you believe in is "short-term" luck, ask yourself whether, given basic math, a short term "cards" variance is accentuated or diminished financially by the amount of money which can be potentially risked in each case.---
Doesn't the fact that there is a LIMIT to losses in any given hand in limit holdem sort of overwhelm a luck of the cards factor, compared to where there is no such limit ? (The corrollary, that there is a limit to the amount won in a given hand, also supports the same proposition.)
In a Guinness-fueled way of thinking, this kind of ties back into risk management in poker. Or degree of risk, per your poker bankroll. I remember reading an old column by Mike Caro talking about "Plodders" versus "Adventurers." The point of his piece: it was nobody's business but your own how much of your bankroll you risked on a single wager or on a single bet.
As a limit grinder, I consider myself a plodder. As a no-limit tourney player, I'm an adventurer. When I moved to Vegas in '92 on my birthday, I had begun reading about that magical elixir, money management and/or betting systems relating to other games besides poker. To misguided minds (me, back then) or others who bandied about the term money management - it meant some kind of magic salvation from losing. I know people today who still believe in this clap-trap - a secret to beating casino games where the odds are against them.
Caro's point was that the more you risk, the more you stand to gain, and the more likely you are to go broke in the attempt. Whether or not the risk is worthwhile is a wholly personal decision. Only you know what the factors in your life are.
So allow me to come full-circle with this thought - money management systems DON'T WORK. I see it over and over, this pre-conceived notion of Stop-win or Stop-loss sessions. I read about it on RGP, 2+2 and even in a few poker blogs. Hell, I've been known to do it, even though it's utterly incorrect. IE: once I win/lose X amount, I'm done....
Losing in poker, by Mike Caro:
----
Player react differently when they're behind. It's practically a universal trait - this single tendency is responsible for more bankroll failure among capable players than any other fault. We've all done it - gotten punished, sucked out on by horrible hands and lost a nice chunk of money. Beyond a comfortable loss. From that point on, adding to the loss doesn't seem like the same thing, dollar for dollar. In fact, since the sorrow of losing is already heavily felt, additional losing doesn't register at all.----
Mike Caro calls this "crossing the threshold of misery." Once you're past it and feeling sufficiently singled out and betrayed by the Poker Gods, you just quit caring. Low limit players turn $38 worth of bad cards into $80 losses. Middle limit players stretch $460 into $1000 losses. It happens every day.
Why? Again, because players are looking at session based results. Each time you sit to play, it's not a win-lose proposition. You don't need to play to "get even." The correct attitude is very different. You are always EVEN at the start of every hand - no matter what's happened, you should only pay for a hand what it's worth NOW. And the next hand, and the next.... This is an important concept - it prevents you from squandering your bankroll.
Poker is hard. Even if you are winning. Hell, I know certain guys who stop playing quality poker once they are winning significantly. That's because the money won isn't yet theirs in their minds. So they treat it as less important.
Tip of the day: play each hand as you think it *should* be played. Forget about the last one. Forget about the last hour, the last session. You are even from that moment on.
Geez, I sure can ramble, eh? I can tell you are getting restless, so let's get to the good stuff. The best of poker linkage for today:
I feel obligated to link to a Mike Caro column and this one should prove to be enlightening to any of you tournament players out there.
Conceptual Problems With Poker Tournaments And How To Fix Them
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players have to decide whether they want to sacrifice profit and play for the first-place trophy or go for full profit and lean more toward survival and finishing close to first place. Tough choice, especially if you're an egomaniac like I am, interested in proving that he's the best. The only way to do that in proportional payout tournaments is to sacrifice and lose money!---
Mike Caro > Phil Helmuth
Damn, I'd love to see the Mad Genius at a WPT final table.
Per all this talk about poker tournaments, there has been some hub-bub the last few days about Pokerstars not allowing table chat when you are involved in a hand in the multi-table tournaments.
Some folks think it's great, others hate it. I'm ambivalent as I only use chat as a weapon very rarely in ring games, and that's mostly to deflect attention from the fish.
I hate online table coaches. Pet peeve. See the archives for prior rants on said topic.
I've posted about this before, too:
A message board snippet to the online naysayers who say online poker is rigged and that anyone who says they win is a shill:
--
I find it amusing when people imply that anyone who claims to have--
made a nice chunk online must be lying (one word there: projection).
It's really not rocket science, people. You don't have to be
world-class to do it. You just have to be better than most you play
against, and that's not hard to do. There are a stunning number of
really bad players in the online poker world. With patience and good
decision-making, a lot of their money will find its way to you. It's a
different game than B&M.; There are more weak players. That can lead to
some bad beats, but in the long run, you WANT those fish chasing after
everything. The percentages work in your favor.
Amen.
Per the poker blogging scene: I'm gearing up for another guerrilla-style public relations campaign for us. I love to pimp the poker blogs! Our burgeoning corner of the BlogSpace keeps expanding by leaps and bounds. The article I wrote for PokerSavvy.com seems like ancient history - it's time for me to crank it back up again.
Speaking of our fine friends at PokerSavvy, they re-launched with an "updated design" this week. It was surprising to see that the new design was simply the addition of giant, garish flashing banner ads for Absolute and the very unpopular Royal Vegas Poker. Geez, I hate giant blinking banner ads - who on earth clicks on these things anymore? I think most people (or me, anyway) just want valuable, timely content, not giant freaking banner ads that annoy and obstruct.
Poker Blogs > Banner Ad sites
Hell, I'm probably being too harsh and should just ignore the banners - I enjoy the site, so allow me to link up their latest column:
Winning Online Tournaments, Part I
Here is some great, late-breaking news about the United States and the effort to halt online gambling in Antigua. It seems that Antigua and Barbuda, the Caribbean island nation, has won a World Trade Organization ruling in a finding that U.S. legislation criminalizing online betting violates WTO commercial services accords. Read the spin from the Las Vegas Sun newspaper:
U.S. loses WTO ruling covering online gambling
As TheFatGuy so eloquently once told me, gambling is the world's second oldest profession.
It's a conundrum. Poker's popularity is exploding while the government seeks to shut it down. I don't have any clue where it's all leading, but I'll be paying attention, that's for sure.
Well hell, I promised an uber post and doing my damndest to deliver. It's harder than it looks, trust me. So let me link up some quality poker blogs and news and we'll see what I have left over.
There's been some noise about the new poker magazine, ALLIN, that is publicizing itself all over the damn place. They have zero free content on their site, just a single page leading to their yearly $18 subscription order form. Hard to say if it will be worth a damn, go look for yourself.
ALLIN Magazine
I read a hilarious thread on RGP where this
Oh the humanity.
The site is www.ukpoker.com and it redirects to http://www.poker-in-the-uk.com. Once you get there, he announces (between all the garish banner ads) this:
---
This page now acts as a gate to the website WWW.UKPOKER.COM---
This site is SUBSCRIPTION ONLY and you can purchase your subscription by visiting WWW.BITPASS.COM & signing up as a SPENDER.
Subscription rates are as follows:
Daily Subscription - 25c
Weekly Subscription - $1.00
Monthly Subscription - $3.00
Yearly Subscription - $30.00
Rinse and repeat: Oh the humanity.
He got flamed pretty hard but I'm still surprised to see a subscription based poker site like this. Thing is, how many other content orientated sites charge a subscription? Salon? Porn? ESPN?
It's against my philosophy, per the web. There isn't a site out there that I would personally pay for. A basic tenet (and attraction) of the web (for me) has been 'information wants to be free.' I'm happy to have even two dozen people read my Guinness fueled rants, I simply can't imagine charging people, no matter how uber my posts are. There are hundreds of poker sites and I cant think of a single one that charges for access.
So eff him and his subscription. Real poker blogs will always be FREE. I'm not writing these uber-posts to make a buck - I mean, if you sign up with my bonus code, great, but that's not why I'm doing it. I love poker and I love to write. This blog is just an excuse to practice both and hopefully to entertain a few people. If you get some value and use my code (that's IGGY for Party Poker!) then so much the better. At least I'm trying to provide some value - pay it forward as Grubby says.
For my one local reader (hi Mom!), here is a local (Wilmington) WSOP satellite tournament the weekend of April 2nd.
25k guaranteed first place.
2004 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Championships of Ohio
I can barely keep up with the new poker blogs. Let's give a shout out to the new kids on the block. Please visit these guys and show your support. I really admire anyone who takes the time to write up their thoughts:
The PokerNerd gets an additional pimp because #1 he's funny #2 he writes long posts.
Adventures of a Poker Nerd
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Some obnoxious kid named Hollywood Dave or something like that was in the middle being a total jackass. Think Tobey Maguire minus human growth hormone plus heroin.---
As far as I'm concerned, Iggy is the king of the bloggers. He's more of a "hub" for poker bloggers, i.e., he doesn't write much about his own play, but it's the first one I look at every day.
The Pokernerd also explains that he hates country music and why he thinks Def Leppard's Armageddon It video is over-rated. For the record, I don't write much about my own play because I think it's boring. Face it, grinding is like watching paint dry.
I have very high hopes for this next blog. Must read. Experienced players and some solid writing. What else can you ask for? Please keep it up guys!
All-In: Confessions of a Chicago Poker Duo
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Finally, I wrote Roy Cooke of Card Player Magazine an e-mail asking him to explain exactly what he means by, “…the recurring sum of volume times edge will equal expectation, and over the course of time will equal earn.”---
Here is what he replied: “What it means is if you continuously add the amount you bet times the edge bet at into a field that that number will equal your expectation over the time of the equation.....Assuming luck to be a neutral factor over time...the recurring field will equal your earn.”
Next up, Icey in the world of Poker - he's a college student playing on Pokerroom and some other Godforsaken site. Cmon, my man, if Party Poker is good enough for the Dude, it's good enough for you!
Icey asks the question that I think ALL bloggers can relate to:
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Is anybody out there reading this???
--
And lastly, a 17 year old poker player who claims to have three years of texas hold em experience YET states that he likes QQ over AA. Oh the humanity.
The Diary of an "Extremely Young" Poker Player
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To date, I have never won a Texas Hold 'Em hand, in real life or online, with Bullets.---
Good gravy. While I admire a 17 year old trying to learn poker, he obviously has a way to go. Good luck Alex and let me know if I can help!
Also, make sure to read Hdouble - great post (per always) about playing online versus bots, specifically against Poki. Hank then uses his giant chess club brain to deconstruct poker bots. Great stuff.
Is this an uber-post yet? I'm hoping to stay sober enough to post this great thread between Sklansky, Abdul and Carson from the archives, but the Guinness is beginning to take it's toll. Plus, I don't get to play tonight, either. I found this wonderful thread where Barbara Yoon, the fiercest pit bull in RGP's dog pound, has her formidable incisors sunk deep into Mason Malmuth's meaty left thigh. I fear it shall have to wait.
So let's hit the rest of the best poker linkage, shall we? And thanks if you've read this far.
Travel Channel Poker Challenge
This is the first article in a series that Mathew Hilger is calling the Top 10 Mistakes of Online Players. Each month he will be speaking about a particular common mistake.
Top 10 Mistakes in Online Poker
---
I keep track of all my hand histories using Poker Stat and Poker Tracker software. These two products provide you with a wealth of information, including how often you see the flop. One interesting analysis I did was to look at the top 20 winning players that I had played at least 2000 hands against. I then did a benchmarking study for different criteria. In this particular analysis, I found the range of hands played by the winning players was between 18-28% with most players falling in the 20-22% range. This analysis was done for a relatively tight game so you ought to see slightly higher percentages in looser games...but this should give you a good idea. In general, most players should be playing between 15%-25% of your hands.---
The next one is : Mistake #2: Drawing to Outs that Won't Help You Win.
A very important topic, imho.
K, time to hit the news desk.
I'm jealous of these folks. We've got gambling boats aplenty around here, but nary a one spreads poker.
After 2-year fold, poker returns to city
---
Poker — not the type on video screens — is back in Vicksburg for the first time in two years.---
The first of what Horizon casino managers hope will be many hands was dealt Tuesday afternoon in an area set aside from the slot machines and other table games. Players said they were happy to see competitive play return.
“You can never have enough poker,” said Mack Boyd of Brandon.
From TechNews - The British Internet security firm mi2g Intelligence Unit -- in a written statement earlier this month -- said there is a correlation between organized crime and hacking attacks that are both politically and ideologically motivated.
Global Extortion: Online Gambling and Organized Hacking
Here's some hope for us all. And another tangible reason to play on Party Poker.
Olympia poker player cruises to $441,163
---
He started playing on PartyPoker.com about seven months ago and is on the Web site about twice a week. The Olympia High School graduate sometimes travels for work, but plays at the Hawk's Prairie Casino and Restaurant when he's home.---
Who didn't know this?
Dealing them in: Poker TV shows lead to rise in home games
---
In her 25 years of selling poker supplies, Odessa Woodert said, she has never been busier.---
Two or three sales of chips, cards and other basics used to be a pretty good week, she said. Now, that's an average Saturday.
Poker at college continues to go through the roof. What I wouldn't give to be playing poker with nubile young co-eds:
What happens in Vegas...
Gambling not strictly limited to Sin City; Aggies ante up in town, on campus
---
"Poker games are permissible on campus as long as they follow Chapter 47 of the Texas Penal Code," said Sgt. Allan Baron of the University Police Department. "But if you are going to play poker, just make sure you take other student rules and regulations in mind when doing so."---
Wow, that's huge when Texas cops say poker is permissible. I think TheFatGuy should head back to college ala Rodney Dangerfield.
Damnit, I am done. I hope this was a worthy post. I didn't even get to rant about Sklansky.
The main thing that bothers me about Sklansky literature is that he doesn't discuss multi-way / loose game pots very often. And that's online poker, in my humble five year experience. If you are playing heads-up on the flop more often than not, for the love of God, change tables. Or change sites.
Play on Party Poker. Use my damn bonus code (IGGY). This is hard work - writing all this out. Trust me, ask any blogger. Hell, I give so much and ask for so little. :)
I won't even tell you how long this post took to write up. I measure these things in beers. Let's just say I'm Guinness-fueled and be done with it. But I'm happy, I stood and I delivered a freaking UBER POST.
Thanks a ton for reading, I truly appreciate it.
Link of the day:
Are You Being Served?
"You haven't lived until you've made a lawyer crawl on his hands and knees," writes former process server John Marcotte. His job exposed him to people from all walks of life, but mostly deadbeats.
Sunday, March 21, 2004
"Luck is not chance
It's Toil
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned"
Emily Dickinson
Is it wrong to quote Dickinson in a poker blog?
Probably, but I think she hit the nail on the head, so it stays.
Thanks for reading - hope you enjoy today's content.
First off, I'm playing two WSOP qualifiers this evening. I'll keep you posted on how I do. I'm stinging a tad from a sad situation last nite. After banging the 3.6 tables for about $120, I decided to sit in a qualifier for the WSOP tourney tonight on Empire. Only 60 players signed up, with the final nine getting paid, and the final six winning seats. For some reason, this was a limit tournament, which surprised me, but still, I ran up a big stack and was playing extremely well, thanks to TheFatGuy coaching me. When we were down to 15 players, I had a large chunk of my stack in at the turn with top pair and then - DISCONNECT. Argggggggggg. Talk about the worst timing ever. When I finally got back to my table, my stack had been vaporized, and I ended up on the bubble, finishing tenth.
Oh the humanity. I'm still irked.
Here's a classic quote from Scott:
--
thefatguy: limit tournies are like dry-humping
thefatguy: you both know what you want but you can't quite get there
--
So I'll be taking a crack at the $150 buyin tourney this evening. I don't understand why in hell these are limit tournaments. It seems bizarre to be playing a limit satellite tournament to the NL championship event. Maybe it's just me.
But it was another fine weekend of poker on Party. With the exception of the Great Disconnect on Saturday evening, I had a fine time at the tables. I even discovered that with the new software, I am able to play SNG's again. For the fun of it, I played in a $30 NL yesterday, and finished second. I suppose I should play some more of these, to sharpen up for the next poker bloggers tournament.
Speaking of which, I like how PokerStars will run a private tournament for RGP, but not for the poker blogging community. Damnit, I'm gonna fire off another email. The fact that these sites can just ignore new business is indicative of how much money they are raking in. Literally.
All poker bloggers please hit Felicia's site for details on the upcoming poker blogger tournament next Sunday at 9pm. She's done a great job setting us up with a custom tourney structure.
Whoa - this is the most amazing post, ever, in a poker blog. I don't want to spoil it, but you must go read this entry before it's gone. For the record, she said YES.
cardplayer's journal Congratulations, Steve!
Hell, how do I segue after that?
Let's try this: here's an interesting RGP post about the legality of wearing a mask in a poker tournament:
---
While packing for Reno and the WPC, I came across an old Halloween---
mask, basically a skeleton head, death mask with wild purple hair,
which of course got me to thinking that it would be pretty cool to
show up at a tournament table wearing this thing. I mean to hell with
wraparound shades and a baseball cap. Is there any rule against
wearing a mask at a tournament?
He never received a straight answer, but I'm waiting to see if Matt Savage will respond. How flexible are the rules on this, I wonder? Personally, I'd go for a welders mask.
Also, from poker pro Tommy Angelo, a final word in a long thread about wearing sunglasses at the tables:
---
As to sunglasses, I can see how they might be helpful to any player under bright lights in high-stress games, but at a regular casino, at mid-limit, sunglass-wearers smell like fear.---
One last interesting note, per RGP. I discovered an old thread with Adbul and John Feeny giving the old back and forth. Fascinating. Here's a snippet relating to luring your opponents into dominated hands, while avoiding dominated hands yourself as a clear path to victory. Feeny first up, with a follow up by Abdul:
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I might quibble a bit, however, with the assertion that this preflop accomplishment "gets you most of the way to victory". As you know, it's generally accepted among top hold em players that most of your profit comes after the flop. There are games which are exceptions, but post-flop play is typically the key to winning more than a little.---
--
Unfortunately I cannot really argue with you here, as it would be a silly argument. I can argue that table selection is the most important thing, as a good player with bad game selection skills might be only breakeven in expectation. Or I can argue that hand selection is the most important thing, as someone who plays very well after the flop but has horrible hand selection skills will be destroyed. Or I could argue that any number of other things are most important, but really everything is interdependant.
But anyway, once you enter a pot, pot odds dictate that you should continue contesting it quite frequently, so your pre flop play tends to set you on a course for the rest of the hand. If you are calling tight raises with hands like KJ, no matter how creative your postflop play is, you're not going to be able to reduce the effect of this disaster by much.
Abdul rules.
Damn, Stars support got back to me quick:
--
We have received, over the last few months, a veritable tidal wave of--
requests for private tournaments and cash games. Given that, we're
going to suspend doing *any* private events (except those for which we
have a prior commitment) until we can review the whole process and
decide exactly how to proceed with them.
Please accept our apologies for not doing your tournament or cash
game at this time. When we have reviewed the private event
situation in detail and have a reasonable plan for doing them, we'll
consider all offers.
Boooooooo. That's the same thing you said three months ago.
So let's see what else I have for you today. How about a brand new LionTales, with our poker blogging hero, Richard, cashing in this latest event. Congrats, Richard!
Welcome to the Party: The 2004 PartyPoker Million Cruise
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We snagged Andy "The Rock" Bloch away from a Chinese Poker game with Phil Helmuth, Jr., who was in the process of buying and drinking every bottle of Dom Perignon aboard ship---
Ever since Fuzz ran his $50 buyin at Party up to a grand, he hasn't needed any of my help. So I've been helping Hawkman, a brand-new hold em player and friend. He sent me his stats, but I'm too lazy to grab them right now. Anwyay, abridged version: after a week, he has tripled up on the 50.1 tables. About twelve hours of play. Let's see if he can't run his bankroll up to a grand in a month or two.
But I'd be remiss if I didn't post this email from Fuzz this morning:
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i was playing party poker .50/1 last night and i won a 36 dollar pot. That---
has to be one of the biggest pots won at a .50/1 table. Needless to say i called it a night after that. God i love the taste of fish in the wee hours of the morning.
A buddy sent me a PDF from this site
KickAss No-Limit Holdem Poker - I thought it had some interesting points, but it's not anything I would personally pay for. I am, however, researching taking poker lessons from a top pro. I am looking at doing this in early April, when I take a hiatus from this blog. I need some time to gather my thoughts and decide what concepts I'd like to explore and discuss. I think this will prove to be an excellent decision on my part - to deepen my understanding of the game and gain a better feel for some trouble areas. Money well spent.
Oh yeah, I wanted to post this question and response by Gary Carson. A top-of-the-trees viewpoint about TOP.
---
Im about half way through "The Theory of Poker" and I have just finished---
The Free Card chapter. In it, Sklansky explains the importance of not
giving someone a free card if you have the best made hand, or second best
made hand becuase another player's draw could hit and you gave it to him
for free. In turn, he explains how important it is to GET the free card
when you are on a draw. Yet, after rereading Mr. Carson's book "The
Complete Book of Hold'Em Poker" a short while ago, Ive been playing his
suggested strategy and have been raising on the flop with flush draws.
Yes, I do lose a little bit when I dont hit, but I usually rake in huge
pots to cover those losses plus some when I do hit...a profitable play. I
also figured that if I raise on the flop with the draw, it might encourage
other players to think I have a made hand instead of a draw and therefore
if I do hit the flush, that might be the last hand they expect I have.
Yet when I read Sklansky's suggested strategy, I think that if I cut the
losses from not hitting and win mediocre pots when I do hit, maybe I will
even win more money. Both techniques seem profitable to me, does anyone have any suggestions???
--
The Theory of Poker explains a bunch of fundamental poker concepts, and does a
pretty good job of that. It does not do a good job of explaining when those concepts are applicable and when they aren't.
The idea of raising solid draws for value isn't one that The Theory of Poker covers. Sklansky thinks of playing draws in terms of either free cards are semi-bluffs, not in terms of value.
There are times you should take a free card with a draw, times you should semi-bluff, times you should bet for value. If you're playing in good games you should usually bet/raise for value.
I spent some time in 2+2 this morning, and realized that GrannyMae is back. Sigh. What a dingbat. I guess Granny's real age to be around 18.
Anyway, here are the latest two David Ross posts:
Playing online for a living week 46
Playing online for a living week 47
---
Reviewing my rake numbers has me wondering what percentage of players can actually win. Since I started with poker tracker, I’ve won $15,350, and paid $14,600 in rake. Assume an imaginary 6 player table, with all of us paying 14,000 in rake, plus my 15,000 in winnings, that’s 100K that the other 5 have lost in total. Unless I’m missing something, those are pretty spectacular losses. It’ll take a lot of opponents to make up that 100K. Clearly I need to look at moving up in stakes if possible to reduce the rake as a percentage of my earnings.---
Yet another new poker blog! John started blogging this weekend so go check out:
BadBlood plays Poker
Well, I need to run so I can't get to my Party Poker tips for the day. Allow me to link up a couple of news articles and be on my merry way.
USA Weekend: A fluff piece with sound bites from Chris Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, and such other experts as Lou Diamond Phillips and Richard Karn. Nothing of any value, but it looks like really good fish food to me.
Poker faces
---
Daniel Negreanu. "Patience and discipline are the most important aspects of becoming a winning player. Learning that through poker can give you that virtue in life. You're waiting in line at the bank or stuck in traffic. It can teach you that calm, Zen-like feeling."---
Here's an editorial on:
Poker: A game of chance or a science? Backstory: The Green Bay cops shut down all the hold em tournaments going on in bars.
Here's a long article speaking yet again about the cultural juggernaut that is POKER. And this one is worth reading. Can you say MORE poker shows on TV???? Woohoo!
Oregon Live
---
On "Late Night Poker," Phil Hellmuth Jr. has just played a bad hand. The announcers can't believe it.---
"What induced Phil to play that hand in the first place, Barney?" asked Jesse May, disgust dripping from his voice.
"Position, arrogance, desire to control the game," analyst Barney Boatman replied.
---
What in the name of "Amarillo Slim" Preston is going on with all this poker on TV?
"Enough is enough, I'm tempted to say, but there's more in the works," said James McManus, the author of "Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs and Binion's World Series of Poker" and a world-class poker player.
And how does McManus know more poker shows are in the works? Well, because he's helping develop one himself. He can't talk about it (he's signed a nondisclosure agreement), but he can help explain the full house of televised poker and the insatiable demand for the game that's sweeping the country and making math popular again.
Wow, McManus developing a poker TV show. This poker thing just keeps getting more and more insane.
I suppose that's enough for now. Hope you enjoyed the post and actually read this far down. I'm off to make dinner for the family and prepare to play some tournament poker tonight. Hope you enjoyed a great weekend.
Link of the Day:
Speaking in the Nerd Person
The Joel Furr FAQ "is not provided out of a sense of personal vanity." How could anyone get that idea from a 19,900-word, 93-question, 315-Joel list that answers everything from favorite soft drink to feelings about fish?
Friday, March 19, 2004
Wow, Jeremy finally tried PokerTracker. And he has the best write-up of it I've ever seen. Sure, I've been blabbing about it since my first week of blogging, but Jeremy really wrote a stellar review over at Love and Casino War. Go read it now and learn why I've said a million times - I wouldn't play online without it.
As an added bonus, the always gracious J is offering a free copy of PT for the best essay on why you're the biggest fish (worst player) who has ever graced an online poker room. Kudos to the fine folks at Love and Casino.
Two page article about online poker from the New York Times:
Online Poker: Hold 'Em and Hide 'Em
Also, here's a new poker blog! He's been lurking, but now I'm outing him. Solid, lengthy poker posts, with plenty of NCAA ranting in between. Please check out:
Adventures of a Poker Nerd
Thursday, March 18, 2004
"Putting green dye into Corona doesn't make it IRISH, you fokkin' bastards. Hoist a pint of Guinness, or get the hell out of my bar."
Wil Wheaton
Damn, Wil is eminently quotable. I hope everyone guzzled lots o' Guinness yesterday! I did my fair share, not even realizing it was St. Paddy's Day.
Be sure to hit Wil's site, as he has another poker post up. This time, a shout-out to Grubette who sent Wil an informative and hilarious breakdown of poker players as Star Trek aliens written by the Poker Pundit, Andy Glazer.
Star Trek Character Amalgam Makes Practically Perfect Poker Player
Amalgam. I learned a new word today.
The big news of the day is that fellow poker blogger, Paul Phillips, won the WPT event shown on the Travel Channel last evening. Apparently, Paul played some top-notch poker. From Grubette: "Dewey must've gone all-in 6-7 times in a row (with a condescending flick of a finger) and Paul stayed even and level-headed."
Speaking of the World Poker Tour, PRGod brought this interesting nugget of info to me at work today. From MediaWeek:
World Poker Tour to Launch Radio Show
The World Poker Tour, which airs weekly on the Travel Channel, is developing a national radio show to launch sometime this spring or summer. To develop, produce and market the new programming, WPT has retained network radio veteran Dan Forth, the former president and CEO of Sony Worldwide Networks. In addition to a live, weekly talk program, WPT is working on a daily, 60-second feature focusing on everything from betting strategy to the latest tournament news.
I'll keep you posted on any futher details.
Here's a couple random notes about Empire offering WSOP seats and Party's guaranteed One Million Tournament:
3 guaranteed seats to the WSOP March 17, 2004
This Sunday (21st March) at 9pm EST, Empire Poker are running a qualifying tournament to the WSOP final in Las Vegas and are guaranteeing three places. The buy in to the Saturday main event is $150 + $12 and qualifiers for the main event are running on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. Entries to these satellites is either $27 + $2 (one seat for every 6 players) or $18 + $2 (one seat for every 9 players).
Party Poker Guaranteed $1 million online tournament March 14, 2004
Party Poker have announced a guaranteed $1 million tournament on the 17th April at 4:30 PM ET. Direct buyin for the tournament is $600 + $40 and there are a number of single table and multi table qualifiers starting at $10 + $1. Winners of the "Million Dollar Qualifiers" will be registered automatically for the Million Dollar Guaranteed Tournament on April 17th. Players can win multiple entries to the Million Dollar Guaranteed $600 +$40 Tournament. Players who have played more that 3000 raked hands between 0:00 hrs ET March 12th and 23:59 hrs ET April 16th will start with 300 extra chips.
Note to self: play some damn qualifiers!! Actually, I'll probably pony up the $150 into the main Empire event if I have the free time.
For the existing Party Poker players who would like to take advantage of the bonuses! and second identity on Empire, or perhaps just to play in the Empire WSOP tourneys, here's two workarounds for you. Please consider using bonus code IGGY1 at Empire. :)
Use two computers, with two different IP's.
OR:
Go to another computer, different IP address...a neighbor..if you're on cable, use dial up and AOL, the library, Kinko's, your work, etc.
Download the client using a different email address from the email you normally use...MSN, Hotmail, Excite, Yahoo...these are free to set up
Use a different screen name from Party...
Hopefully you'll use my bonus code and get a 20% sign up bonus...
Once you've registered...Empire will send you an email confirmation for the new account at the new email you used....verify the account.
Once you're in a verified...you can then go to your home computer....use the Empire client with the verified user name and password that was set up on the other computer.
Shazam! This worked for a friend of mine, so I thought I'd pass it along.
Last nite was a fine one for me on Party - I table-hopped like a madman until I discovered a particularly vociferous 3.6 table. A player named BadBeats was suffering his namesake, left and right, and continually screeching at his offenders. Outstanding stuff, especially once I was situated at the table and offered to buy him Poker for Dummies, if he would send me his address.
I know, I know, Rule #1, Must Not Tap On The Aquarium Glass....but this feller was already worked into a lather, I only helped nudge him off the ledge. He tilted out approximately $200 before he left, much to the chagrin to the rest of the table.
Suffice to say, yet another fish tagged and released.
Damnit. I promised to write about loose games, so I'll offer a few drunken perspectives, and then finish this post up.
Per position: if there are only a couple of maniacs in the game (as opposed to a table full of them), you are typically better off having them on your left than your right. Some conventional wisdom says to keep the maniacs on your right in order to isolate them, but in the damn LOOSE games on Party, you're simply not going to be able to isolate. You are better off having the maniac on your left so you can check-raise your strong hands and your strong draws. Being able to check-raise strong draws is a big advantage, something I'll discuss later.
Per preflop: I'm pretty discerning in my starting hand selection, but there is one thing to consider - there is a world of difference between loose, passive games where you can see the flop for one bet and loose, aggressive games where you'll usually have to pay three bets. If it's a passive game with many callers, you can see more flops for a single bet and loosen up a tad. But if it's aggressive, you probably should play tighter. Some mitigating factors here - being suited is a large advantage in these games. Flushes and sets are king in loose games, so pocket pairs, even baby ones, go up in value. It's a commonly held myth that big offsuit cards go down in value in these games. They still go up in value (any good hand goes up in value) but they go up in value less than the soooted cards do. Offsuit cards are playable, but you want them to be top-tier, not crappy ace rag offsuit, mid offsuit 1 gappers, et al.
With your strong hands, you want to do a lot of raising yourself. A common misconception is that you shouldn't raise preflop because everyone has odds to chase anyway. So what? Think about raising for value, not to thin the field, in these games. Raising before the flop or three betting preflop, and then folding when you miss the flop, should be a routine part of your repertiore. JQs is a fine hand against several loose players and you can often raise before the flop, but when the flop comes somewhat coordinated with low cards and none of your suit - you missed it; it's time to fold. Basic fit or fold, ABC poker.
The wonderful Party Poker mix of players is often a bunch of weak-tight players and two or three pure loonies. The weak-tight players play bad poker by not going after these loosey-gooseys. This creates poker heaven for conscious, sensibly aggressive players. The loosey-gooseys are out there playing 54o each hand, and the tighties are mucking KJo on the button. In a 40% game, you can have three players playing around 85% of the hands and the rest playing 18%. Poker doesn't get much better than this.
Or you can play somewhere else, where the players seeing the flop pct is less than 30%. But why? Damnit, trust me and try Party.
That's enough of the Guinness-fueled rambling. Sorry for the awful generalizations and generic advice.
So, anyway, let's see what I have for my humble readers tonight....First in the queue is the new issue of Cardplayer. Always worth a read.
For the new players (Dude!), there is a perfect column by Lou Kreiger written just for you, called:
Pot Odds Made Easy
---
Figuring pot odds is a necessary part of any poker player's game. Without it, we don't have any way of knowing whether the odds against making our hand are offset by this fundamental relationship: How much will it cost to keep playing this hand and how much money am I likely to win if I catch the card I need? By understanding the relationship between the odds against making our hand and the money we figure to win if we get lucky, we can play skillful high-percentage poker instead of treating the game like some form of gambling.---
Here's a business wire documentating the dramatic growth of the WPT and poker, in general.
World Poker Tour Events Continue Dramatic Growth; The PartyPoker Million Hosted by PartyPoker.com Sets Records for Number of Entries, Prize Money and First Place Payout.
----
The increase in players catapults the total prize money to $3,847,000, including the $25,000 WPT contributed to the prize pool. With this large prize pool for the tournament, players down to 90th place will go home with a nice payday, and the winner will capture a top prize of $1,000,000, including a seat in the season finale WPT Championship in April at Bellagio, Las Vegas. Last year's champion, Howard Lederer from Las Vegas, NV, walked away with $263,850 when the prize pool totaled $1,013,800. The prize pool is determined by the number of players "buying in" to the tournament - in this case the entry fee is $7,000 per person.----
"We at the WPT can't believe the increase in players for the PartyPoker Million. The fact that last year there were 177 players in this tournament is a testament to PartyPoker.com and its dedication to growing the event ," said CEO of the World Poker Tour, Steve Lipscomb.
This famous brother and sister poker professional duo are up and running fine poker sites:
Howard Lederer
Annie Duke looks to have some thought-provoking O8 articles in her site, so if you play Omaha, go check it out now.
Here's a tease of a site (Coming soon!) featuring many heavyweight poker pro's. Wonder what they'll be selling? PokerMafia T-shirts?
FullTiltPoker
I didn't get time to properly surf the kickass poker blogs tonite, but here are a few notes. First off, where is Royal, damnit? Get in touch, please!
Here's an awesome quote from online pro, Jason, at PokerOdyssey
Zen of Jason
---
Tough day, down about 50 BB's. I'm not going to complain about the beats, because bad beats are an illusion...the games were very good and the beats I took were only proof of that.---
Perfectly put, and the exact attitude you should have.
It's interesting, I've been mentioned here and there in other poker blogs, but I really chuckled at this snippet:
"If guinnessandpoker isnt the first blog you hit every day, you're on crack."
Now that's a testimonial, damnit.
Somehow I discovered yet another new poker blog, this one by the oddly named Nether_Spirit.
He is young and a very new player, so I won't pick on him for this statement per the LL tables.
---
There are gangs of players that that roam the tables looking for loners (such as myself) and gang up on him/her to take his money. I say this because many times it seems that everytime I raised someone would call with a bad hand and get lucky. Or when I tried to bluff someone would call with bottom or medium pair. This leads me to believe that they are trying to keep me honest. Either that or they are retards.---
Yes. They are indeed, profoundly retarded. I play with them every night.
Felicia is truly hooking us up for the Planet Poker WPBT III. Stay tuned to her site for details. Also, her uber-intelligent husband, Glenn, grew so weary of hearing me talk about PartyPoker that he gritted his teeth and signed on. Suffice to say, after one evening of play there, I have his permission to state: Party Poker: ENDORSED BY GLENN! So go sign up now.
I always enjoy Daniel Negreanu's columns. Go read:
Learn ... or Lose
Alrighty then, I suppose this qualifies as another
Improv Comedy Sucks
Quote: "Improv is the Special Olympics of comedy. People don't attend expecting to see a great performance, they attend expecting to see a friend or family member do their best in the face of a serious deficit in ability."
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Party Poker & Empire Poker Blog
"There's a king on the flop, it holds up, and I bust him out. It's the first time I've ever busted anyone out, and I feel like Howard Fucking Lederer."
Wil Wheaton
Amen, Wil. That's a damn good feeling, ain't it?
I've really gotta thank our man, Wil, for linking to the poker blogs. I believe there's a ton of poker playing folks who simply don't know that we're out here, blogging away, every damn day about poker. Hell, I've been cranking 'em out nearly every day for seven months. So thanks a ton for the exposure, Wil, it's truly appreciated. Any new readers, thanks for coming, and I hope you return, and also check out my fellow bloggers on the right. There's a veritable plethora of great blogs there.
Thanks to the Dude, you get a bonus post today. The Wall Street Journal (subscription) had an interesting article on poker that I have republished below this post. Enjoy.
To my regular readers, thanks again for reading, and let's start the Guinness-fueled ramblings, shall we?
Damn, it appears that several of Mr. Wheaton's readers play at pokerroom.com, home of the Mac and Linux friendly software. That being said, if any of them are playing there on a Windows machine, they should be drawn and quartered. Pokerroom looks to be about the 7th or 8th most popular poker site. Geesh, cmon guys, get with the program. 7th? 8th? Why on earth would you do that? Pokerroom?? It's an obvious choice for the Mac and Linux crowd, but geepers; if you are on Windows, why not just go play on Yahoo?
Party Poker > Poker Room
I was asked to wax poetic about loose, aggressive games, my favorite, and the norm these days. Let's face it, loose games like today, didn't exist four years ago. Or even a YEAR ago. And instead of whining when things changed, I adjusted and learned how to beat these games, too. Anyone can do it. It's not like you're playing a table full of Phil Ivey's.
But first, allow me to state some emails from a few of my readers, who just started playing at Party Poker. I love hearing this stuff.
Here's some incredible numbers from a player, Dann, who bought in for $50 and ran it up to a grand, rather quickly, only playing 1.2. Consider that Fuzz did the same thing in 50.1, it only took him longer.
Here's the email:
---
If anyone would find this interesting, I thought it---
might be you.
I had a rough early-week, but I bounced back today and
finally (!) turned the $50 Party bonus into $1,000.
Here are the stats:
Initial bankroll: $50
Current: $1,019.93
Time frame: Feb. 8 to March 14
Total Hands: 11,238
$1/$2 (6-max) - 4,948
$1/$2 - 6,290
BB/100 Hands: 4.48
$1/$2 (6-max) - 3.91
$1/$2 - 4.93
Win/hand: $0.09
Total hours: 166.90
BB/hour: 3.02
Total rake: $550.75
Total opponents: 2,190
I'll probably spend the next few days in PokerTracker
disecting everything. Small pairs and AXs were costing
me dearly, but I think I started to fill those leaks
pretty well a few weeks ago (and even climbed back
into positive territory).
I guess it's time to start considering my move up to
$2/$4, but I hate to give up the 6-max games. My
BB/100 rate was lower, but I got more hands logged and
it was easier to tag fish (who seemed to reappear day
after day).
$6/hour is nothing to brag about, but I didn't get
paid anything per hour for sitting on my ass, chucking
grenades at hookers in Vice City or watching reruns of
McGyver.
Party rocks.
This next one is interesting, too. I have a buddy who has played in my home game for the last year. He has never, ever, broke even in this game. He has lost every time. My home game, despite the massive amount of liquor being consumed, is a fairly tough game. It's certainly tougher than Party, that's for sure.
But being a fellow ENTP, he started asking for literature and began studying the game. He fired up a play account, and gained experience through sheer repetition. And he started consistently winning. He grew tired of me beating on the drum about PartyPoker and finally bought in for $50 this past weekend.
His first session?
---
Level .50/$1---
Minutes 88
Won $58.50
Hands BB/Hr. 76
VP$IP 22.37
ASF 55.70
For the unitiated non-PokerTracker users out there, that's almost an average of six players seeing the flop, every damn hand. They call that FRESH FISH, where I come from.
I think he's hooked now. Sure, that's not a normal session for an hour and a half of 50.1, but it's really not that hard, if you take the time to study and wait out the swings. Taking a shot at beating the 50.1 games on Party Poker is a no-brainer.
For the record, he posted Abdul's starting hand chart to his monitor.
K, couple of
I am loathe to even blog about this, despite the fact I love to share knowledge and help, if I can. I rarely post hand histories or bad beat stories in this blog. It's not what it's about. I'm trying to pass along experience. Sure, I play for fun, I wouldn't bother if it wasn't fun, but the questions I sometimes get from new players, "What do you do in this certain situation?" isn't the right question. There is NO correct answer for that. What you should be asking is, "What should you *consider* doing in this situation."
The answer to nearly every poker question is always: 'it depends.'
There are some
But the fact remains, loose games are the most profitable, and ones you should learn to beat. When it's six-handed to the flop every hand, that is a game RIPE for the plucking. To say otherwise is to contradict the Fundamental Theorem of Poker which states:
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it, if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
It's all about variance. You will have higher variance in these loose games and that's why it's important to play within your means. Make sure you can play with full impunity. You cannot play with scared money and win, least of all on a loose table. You can expect to have a fair number of losing sessions, sometimes big losses. In the loose/aggressive game, your win rate will be higher than a tight one but you must weather the swings and not allow your play to change. Here's a typical example: you play for awhile, get some big hands cracked, etc etc and you'll be down a fair amount. Then you drag a monster pot when your flush gets there, against a smaller flush that doesn't get the idea that his flush is beaten until he puts in a bunch of raises, and against a straight that can't figure out his hand is no good when 3 flush cards are on the board, and all of the sudden you've won back your losses, and booked a decent win for the session. It sounds like a paradox, but you are more likely to book a win in a saner game with mediocre, weak players than you are in a crazy game against maniacal idiots, but the times you DO win in the maniac game, your wins will be huge.
Oh the humanity. I haven't even started rambling about starting hands yet. Let's just move on and I'll address that topic in my next post. Or better yet, go buy Gary Carson's book, Hold Em, and learn from him.
I'm always preaching about table selection. Game selection. That's a big reason why I believe anyone wanting to win money should be playing at Party Poker. They flat out have the most games, by a wide margin. And the most fish, by proxy. Do the math.
Anyway, so I'm sitting in a fun, chatty little 2.4 table last evening when suddenly I realize a complete MANIAC, as only Party Poker can have maniacs, has sat at my table. Chat ceases, as we all light candles to the poker gods, that larryl1 has sat at our table.
It was amazing, astounding, asinine. It was poetry in motion.
I just reloaded PokerTracker so I could give you the facts:
He played a total of 24 hands over 40 minutes. He lost $150 in that span. This is 2.4, mind you.
He saw every flop but one.
He preflop raised nearly 50% of the time.
He went to a showdown 65% of the time, winning 14%.
I'm too
OK, I'm gonna start the poker linkage, cause all this talk about Party is driving me to play.
Can you believe it, I found even more new poker blogs today?
I think this new poker blogger has been playing with Pauly. I'm jealous. Please go read:
The Rock Garden
----
----
Have you ever been invited to play poker and found yourself in a situation you did not like or even regretted? I am potentially going to be subjected to a drug test in the near future for a change in careers. Unfortunately not all the smoke at the table was from cigars or cigarettes!
Dave played in his first "real-life" NL tournament this past weekend. Fun stuff.
Don't Poke(r) Me
----
I had two goals: 1) to win, and 2) to get to say "So how much you got left?" before raising someone all in.----
Well hell, since I'm the self-professed Johnny Appleseed of poker bloggers, I'm happy to discover that I inspired Micheal to start a poker blog. I was truly saddened to hear the story of his beloved dog being killed. But damn, cut back on the poker, bro!!!
SkibareAndPoker
---
Someone recently posted a question on WPT fan something like "Is anyone else consumed by poker and not getting the sleep they should?" Well, I for one am one of those people. I was fine until I got to work and then the adrenaline dropped off and I was napping at my desk on a regular basis.---
Shift gears and read this:
An insider column by Nolan Dalla about tournament poker pros that I had forgotten to link to. The behind the scenes reality. A must read:
So You Wanna' Be a Tournament Pro? Fuhgetaboutit!
On said topic, another one. Go learn:
The Tournament Poker Rollercaster (you have to know when to get off)
Since I mentioned Gary previously, I thought this post from RGP was apropos. I've blogged before about Pokerroom posting these stats - please dig through the archives.
---
I was looking at the hand EV's on pokerroom.com. They've used actual playing---
data and record hand results by position.
What I thought was interesting was that AA and KK had higher EV in the blinds
than any other position. That's counter-intuitive to me, no other hand has
that pattern in position EV.
What does that mean?
I think it demonstrates the importance of raising on early betting rounds with
those hands, and trapping people in for multiple bets when you know you're
best. Also it suggests to me that the limp/reraise is an important tool with
those hands, becuase raising to thin the field isn't really what you want to do
(I'm assuming that early position results would be improved if more players
limp/reraised).
Anyway, I just thought that was a really interesting result.
Gary Carson
Allow me to leave you with one poker news link.
Top poker hands ready for the deal
Alrighty then, I seriously appreciate anyone who managed to read this far. It's tough to crank these posts out, but anyway, if you appreciate this humble poker blog, please sign up on Party Poker with bonus code IGGY. It makes it all worthwhile.
Actually, a link from Wil made it worthwhile.
Two Links of the Day:
Guinness = Nectar of the Gods. Nuff said.
Secret 'Essence of Guinness' Exported to Africa
But soaring demand from Africa, where Guinness is seen as a macho drink and nicknamed "Viagra" after the virility drug, has led to severe capacity constraints.
Scientific proof! Guinness bubbles sink!
Sober analysis verifies, explains odd behavior in popular stout (MSNBC)
Today's Wall Street Journal article about the World Poker Tour.
Thanks to the Dude for the tip.
--
How Mr. Lipscomb Turned Weak Hand Into Surprise Hit
He Finds Drama in Poker For the Travel Channel; Cutting to a Worried Mom
MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- Sports producer Steve Lipscomb rocked back and forth in his chair, shouting orders to five cameramen and feeding lines to his announcers.
"I want to see his face, I want to feel his pain!" Mr. Lipscomb barked after a player made an error.
The sportsmen being followed so frenetically were playing cards. On this day, six men were engaged in 130 hands of Texas Hold 'Em poker at Foxwoods casino here, competing for a prize pool of more than $3 million.
Mr. Lipscomb is the creator of the World Poker Tour on Travel Channel, a cable network best known until recently for its coverage of vacation spots and shopping malls. Since the channel started showing poker a year ago, it has enjoyed the best ratings in its 17-year history. The shows have been imitated by Bravo, Fox Sports and NBC, while ESPN, which previously dabbled in poker, has given its coverage a makeover.
To make drama out of a bunch of guys sitting around a table, Mr. Lipscomb has borrowed in equal parts from the Olympic Games and World Wrestling Entertainment. Smoke machines set a noir mood, while biographical sketches get up close and personal with such stars as Christopher Ackerman, a 23-year-old college student nicknamed "Smack," and cowboy Hoyt Corkins, who keeps 60 head of cattle back home in Alabama. Most important, Mr. Lipscomb has found a way to show the audience the cards.
The 42-year-old Mr. Lipscomb, a stand-up comedian turned lawyer, stumbled into poker in 1999 when he produced a one-time feature on card players for the Discovery Channel. It scored big ratings, and he
decided to make a career out of poker.
He uses five cameramen to film the tournaments, with two overhead cameras built into the set. Soft lights are built into the table, illuminating the players' faces without the glare of the overhead bulbs used in older poker shows.
"If I can put you in a close-up on the guy whose brain is sitting there ticking while his lip begins to quiver and sweat runs down his brow because he is potentially about to lose the million dollar prize,
"That's gripping," Mr. Lipscomb's says. The camera is also apt to flash to a player's sister or mother during pivotal hands.
Mr. Lipscomb's biggest advance is displaying the cards held by each player. Older poker coverage had left people ignorant, so they would watch a player rake in a big jackpot without understanding the tactics behind the victory. "You have to give the person at home the feeling that they're sitting in the seat making million-dollar decisions on every hand," Mr. Lipscomb says.
In Texas Hold 'Em, each player gets two cards face down that aren't seen by other players -- the "hole" cards -- and keeps betting as five "community cards" are dealt face up in the middle of the table. Players who fold and players who bluff their way to victory are under no obligation to show their hole cards.
World Poker Tour isn't the first to show the hole cards. A British program called "Late Night Poker" did so by using a glass table. Players would look at their hole cards, then place them face-down on the table for cameras to record.
Mr. Lipscomb wanted to use the traditional green-felt poker table for his show. And he wanted viewers to see the hole cards at the exact moment the players did so they could experience the same elation or
disappointment. His solution: a lipstick-size camera attached to the table that points in the same direction as the player's line of vision. It captures the cards as soon as they are picked up.
Even though the games are taped for future telecast, showing hole cards went against all the close-to-the-vest instincts of poker players. Mr. Lipscomb assured them that no one present at the tournament, including the announcers, would know what the hole cards were. The feed from the cameras would be sent to a room occupied by a single technician, watched by a guard.
Worries about the integrity of the game quickly faded after the tournaments went off without a hitch and players started to attract fans. Players "were very anxious to have a stamp of legitimacy," says Mr. Lipscomb. "They went from being the black sheep of the family to the hit of the family reunion."
Mr. Corkins, the Alabama cowboy, played poker professionally from 1989 to 1992, then took an 11-year hiatus. This time, his cowboy hat, mirror shades and Southern drawl have made him a star. "It's become a whole lot more fun," says Mr. Corkins. But he hastens to add: "The money is what it is all about."
At the Foxwoods tournament, which is open to all comers for a $10,000 contribution to the pot, the number of players grew to 313 from 89 the previous year. The tournament, which ran last week, averaged 1.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The attention helps boost ratings for other shows on the Travel Channel, which is owned by privately held Discovery Communications Inc. World Poker Tour is 80% owned by Lakes Entertainment Inc., the Minnetonka, Minn., casino operator. Last month, Lakes announced it was looking to raise $20 million in an initial public offering for WPT shares.
Besides his role as World Poker Tour's chief executive, Mr. Lipscomb until recently also ran a subsidiary of the tour that looked for sponsorship deals for some players. However, the tour now is breaking off of
the subsidiary as an independent business. Some observers had noted the potential for favoritism in Mr. Lipscomb's joint roles, but WPT Senior Vice President Audrey Kania says that wasn't a factor in the spinoff decision.
Producing a WPT event costs about $350,000. The day before one recent tournament, Mr. Lipscomb showed the free-lance cameramen hired for the event how to crouch down between players and told them to remember a cardinal rule -- always catch players shuffling their chips before deciding on a big bet. "The dribble down the court is the shuffling," he said. He reminded them to zoom in on the guy who loses so the audience "can experience that emotion."
During the rehearsals, one of the cameramen was always falling one second behind the action. He was gone by the end of the run-through. "I've fired more people in the last year than I had in my whole life," Mr. Lipscomb sighs.
Meanwhile, the announcers -- poker pro Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, a rugged-looking son of the actor Dick Van Patten -- rehearsed one-liners. They debated which is funnier: "He has more chips than
Famous Amos," or "more than Frito Lay." Mr. Lipscomb joked that both would have to be scrapped because neither was an advertiser. "More chips than Intel" fared better. Mr. Sexton also practiced some oft-repeated lines about Texas Hold 'Em. "It's the Cadillac of poker," he intoned. And, "it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master."
Although the tournaments are televised as if they're happening live, in fact they are months old by the time they're broadcast. After a tournament, Mr. Lipscomb retreats to his Los Angeles office and spends
six weeks on postproduction. The announcers tape much of their dialogue long after the games end. In theory they don't even have to show up for the tournament, except their presence is part of the draw for the crowds. At Foxwoods, people were lining up four hours before the action started.
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Shiana Hiatt Poker Diary
"When we play, we must realize, before anything else, that we are out to make money."
David Sklansky, Theory of Poker
Poker blogs kick ass.
Create your own - it's free and easy on Blogger.com.
Thanks for reading. Lots of fine poker content today, with the standard ramblings. I'm gonna be verbose because I couldn't blog the last few days. And hell, I may even experiment with some blockquoting.
FYI, I may take another hiatus from the blog in a bit, as I want to spend more time playing and working on my game. I'm not losing, mind you, it's quite the opposite and I just want to concentrate/focus. Yeah, it takes some effort to write these bigass honking posts, and worse, it's difficult to be even halfway interesting, even half of the time.
Thank God for Guinness. At least I'm amusing myself.
Thanks to poker on TV, I've been bitten by the poker bug again. Pauly, from the mighty Tao of Poker, took pity on this cable-less loser and sent me a fantastic tape of poker. Woohoo! It includes the WPT Legends of Poker at the Bike, the WPT Championship at the Bellagio, the US Poker Championships at the Taj, an episode of Late Night Poker from across the pond, and last, but not least, an episode of Hollywood Home Game, featuring a very excitable Fred Savage. Extremely fun stuff for me to view, since I'm always reading about these shows and NEVER get to watch them.
By far, getting the opportunity to watch my personal poker hero, TJ Cloutier, compete at the final table was the highlight. Also, Phil Laak, Mel Judah and resident poker blogger Paul Phillips played. A very entertaining lineup of players. Excellent stuff, thanks A TON, Pauly!
Because this was arguably the best WPT episode, below this post is a reprint of an interesting Sports Illustrated article about this particular episode, and poker in general. It talks about the controversial deal that was made before the winner was determined. It's subscriber-only content, so I thought I'd post it here for everyone to read.
So hell, all that TV NL tournament poker over-stimulated me and I jumped into the first NL tournament I could find last night. Which happened to be a 990 player, 20k guaranteed, $10 unlimited rebuys and one add-on, tourney at Stars, first place paying over 8k. I ended up finishing 80th, winning about $70, and it took four hours. I really love NL tournaments - it's the most enjoyable form of poker for me, but damn, you really need to set aside some serious time to play.
I was pondering Hdouble's thoughtful post, "Poker: Hobby, Sport, or Profit?" and remembered a major attraction for me is the overlay in some of these large online tourneys. They are paying out $60k for first in the weekly $200 NL tourneys. That's something I'd like to be spending more time on. Sure, grinding out small wins is affirming, but I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon. Why not take some shots?
See how TV poker is affecting me? One VHS poker tape, and I'm ready to join the tour. Damn you, Pauly.
Back to Hdouble's introspective post - it's true that poker fulfills many psychological facets for people, not just one. For me, I love to watch my bankroll grow, sure, and that's a major motivation, but I think primarily poker has fascinated me because I am an ENTP personality type and love to learn. I can't help it, that's just the way I'm wired. Poker fully engages my brain - the more I learn, the more I question.
You are never done improving at this game. Someone said once that if you're not getting better, you're getting worse - there's no standing still. Stasis = death.
It's so damn challenging.
And fun.
TJ Cloutier, "You get your money in when you've got the best of it. That's all you can do."
Enjoyed a great evening of grinding on Friday night. Another classic Party Poker weekend. I think I'm playing against tables of Dudes, who disdain odds and any semblance of playing correctly. There's really not any other explanation.
Per Hdouble's post, he offered this quote from a reader:
--
The reader astutely pointed out that although PartyPoker may be the most profitable place to play, it may not be the best. If our goal is not to win the most money, but to challenge ourselves intellectually, then most likely the site with the most fish is not the best place to play.
--
Do I really need to explain the faulty thinking behind this? David Sklansky, in my opening quote, says the EXACT opposite in the Torah, the Theory of Poker. Now who's advice should we take? For the record, Theory of Poker discusses pot odds sixty-seven times, and that's not even counting your hand odds.
Money is how we keep score....
"See, in my world - the world of high-stakes gin and poker - we play for cold, hard cash. It's all business, pure and simple. Anyone who thinks cardplaying is a 'game' - I'll show you a loser. Money... M-O-N-E-Y. That's how you measure success. One dollar at a time. One chip at a time. That's how you keep score."
Stu Ungar
Thanks, Stu.
Again, to win at poker consistently, I keep stressing game selection. Table selection. That's why I keep advising that people should play at Party Poker. As someone told me, it's not shilling if it's true, damnit.
So forgive me, but here are a litany in the 'best-of-posts' from this weekend, relating to online poker:
First up, this accurate, albeit tongue in cheek, post on RGP about Party versus Stars ring games and game selection.
---------------
I try to practice good table selection when I play. On Stars I use the % of players that see the flop as my determining factor. I don't see that stat available on Party, so I have been using the Avg Pot size. This is not nearly as usefull a number, as I have sat with some of the toughest and tightest players using this method. Is there a way to see the flop% stat on party? Is there another statistical way to find a good table?-------------
-----
All Party tables are required to have a flop seen % over 50%. If they do not the table is automatically disbanded and the players instructed to cash out and go to Poker Stars. This effectively eliminates the need for such a statistic.
I'm continually shocked at players who insist that all these BAD players, the massive infusing of white hot schooling fish is BAD for your bankroll. Where is the logic? Where is the constructive thinking? So here's a long, 2+2 whining post about the same old song and dance. He can't beat the fish.
--------
Wow has Poker changed in the last year...You used to go into a Poker Room and sure there were bad players at your table....Great ! I mean it would be you and 5 or 6 others regulars and a few fish (Smelt) sitting at your table. I mean if you had AK and pre-flop raised and a K hit the flop...you bet 6 regulars folded and 2 smelt called...You only had 2 fish to beat in any given hand....Not so hard. I mean if a 3 came on the turn it was a save perfect card for your AK.-------
But not any more...
That 3 is a monster.....there are no safe cards left in any deck, anywhere....None !
Now, because of the World Poker Tour and all of the TV coverage on Poker.....It has all changed....
You go to your local card house and sit down in your favorite game and look around for old Frank, or Buddy or Sammy....your old buddies...and they are no where in sight...Everyone at your table except maybe one player you have ever even seen before....the fish are schooling....You are now like the fish in a tank of barracuda's....not very smart Barracudas either...They saw the WPT on TV....They know a 3 might come on the turn or river......YA that's the new way to play it...You now get AK and there is 7 or 8 smelt seeing the flop and 6 or 7 seeing the river every time, hand after hand...There is no safe card in any deck...The deck is covered....Your K on the flop with top kicker the A is no good....you have to improve it to win. If the flop was K, T, 8 all different colors....the 3 on the turn now just gave one of the fish a pair of 3's with a 4 kicker...and of course a 4 will come on the river.....or if a 2 comes on the turn and a 7 on the river, one of the fish rolls over 7, 2.....Ya I saw it on TV and that is the way you play this game......I saw it! You can now be a math pro, odds pro, EV pro, check raise pro, player reading Pro, you can be so on your game you are like Obi Wan Jedi Master Poker Kanobi.....and it makes no difference to the smelt...You have to flop sets, make flushes and open ended draws to even have a chance of beating the games right now ...
Poker is now like:
Playing on the Freeway at 5 p.m. rush hour...
Being the Bait at the fish hatchery feeding time...
Being in a Mash Pit at a Rock concert...
Being near the door of a indoor concert and being crushed to death by all of the people coming out...
I know, I know you online pro's are saying bring on the fish...I can out play them. I am super Poker online playing man! I mean I am really good....so let me tell you how good I really am!...
In reality....your odds have went way down in the current style of play...You cannot bluff a hand at the river very often......there is still 6 fish to call behind you...You cannot check raise....the fish don't know what you are doing anyway and they just think, wow a bigger pot for me with my monster 7, 4 off suit....
Remember: I saw it on TV and it must be True...........
Replies:
---
Does this mean that you don't know how to bluff less, value bet more, and check-raise for value more?---
This is the old "you make more money playing against good players" fallacy.
Yes, the games have changed. Learn to adjust. They're more profitable than before if you can figure out how, instead of wasting your time whining about it.
This is about the 51 zillionth post on this subject, and the answers don't change. The seasoned veterans and pro's are still right, and the newbies and rookies to the game are still wrong.
Any of you wanting to jump in the fray that is Party Poker, now is the time. It's never been a better time to be a student of poker. EVER.
Another RGP post per Party and building up a small bankroll:
----------
About 10 days or so ago (maybe longer) advice was given to someone with $100 about the best ways to build his bankroll. The one that clicked with me was to use it at the $25 NL tables at Party Poker. I didn't even know these tables existed until the new lobby design. Well, I had $200 in my Neteller account so I said, okay, I'll try that. I deposited $100 and about 4 hours of play later I've tripled my money. I'll probably stay at the $25 tables for a while before I think about moving up to the $50 tables.---
So, thank you RGP.
Davy
Per two emails to me this weekend - I'm not making this shit up.
-------------------
I can already see these games are softer. I'm only up--------
30 bucks after playing 2/4 for about 300 hands, but I can tell the games are soft. I've never seen so many people play, or even raise with A8 offsuit UTG. And the average pot at my table today was around 35-40, I don't think it ever gets that high on a consistent basis at UB. It's also nice to see 6-7 people in almost every pot. I just wish I could get some better cards, I was winning at UB but I'm sure I'll keep winning here.
-------------
I just discovered the blog recently and had been a little discouraged about internet play, specifically mine. I was tired of having to choose from 6 tables and the river always being the exact card that could crush my hand that was the nuts for each previous round (UB anyone?). I took a flyer and threw $100 bucks at PP and I really owe you one. These guys really are that bad. I was down a few bucks on my 1/2 table til I figured out who was who, then it was on. Once I was up about $20 from my original $50 at the table, I planned on going to bed at up $30. I can't stop, though.
Ok, enough on that. I'm beating the drum for a reason, though. It's awesome to get emails like above - I can't coach players in this blog, but I'll be damned if I can't let players know where the softest games are. Party's gone from 20,000 to 45,000 since November - you think all these players are savvy, tricky internet poker players? And with the current WPT season and upcoming World Series of Poker, we're due for another wave of fish. I'd recommend at least TRYING Party instead of insisting that UB or Stars or Paradise is superior. Geezus, try it, you'll like it.
/end Party rant
Whew, since I rambled earlier about motivations and psychology/attitude in poker, allow me to link this new Poker Pages column by John Vorhaus, about thinking versus feeling your poker.
Thinking versus Feeling
--
There's a basic difference between thinking your poker and feeling your poker, a difference so important that if you do nothing but think your game instead of feeling it, you'll probably come out ahead.--
PokerTracker has a huge update - you can now use your Tracker player database to populate your Party Poker notes. Oh my. If you don't own PokerTracker, you need to go download the demo (up to 1,000 hands) and see what I'm talking about. You'll love it.
Speaking of which, I wanted to point out that Lord G went through the trouble of tabling his Pokertracker stats last Thursday - it's always fun to traipse thru the numbers, so go take a look.
Poker for the Masses came in 10th in a $30 nl multi, 917 players. Well done!
What kind of an uber-post would this be without the obligatory pimping of the new poker blogs? It's awesome to see this community continue to grow and grow. Go support the new bloggers and read:
First, Bill's poker blog is looking great. First of all, he's a Moveable Type web hippy, and secondly, he has some excellent content already up - go read his March 11th post for some solid perspective.
Hey, a new blogger/player who decided to move from Stars to Party, and is enjoying the results. Show your support for Dogs Playing Poker
----
i'm doing the homer simpson dance around my room, thankful that these poker sites don't involve webcams.----
The Genius of the Poker is yet another ex-blackjack player turned poker afficianado, and he's playing in Atlantic City this weekend. Scroll down to read his long poker trip report.
I discovered RGP veteran, Da Voice, (Rick Charles) and his poker blog on Live Journal. Nothing worth quoting.
Well, I'm gonna wrap up with some poker news linkage, and then hit the tables. Hope you've enjoyed reading this drivel.
First of all, per the WSOP, Horseshoewsop.com is up
and the tournament will be held April 22 - May 28, 2004 at the Horseshoe, downtown Las Vegas. Call 702-366-7344 for more information and room reservations. Per Matt Savage.
Pardon, my Aces are showing
Online tells, part 2
Excellent article about Chris Moneymaker.
Moneymaker has lived up to his name
--
Moneymaker plays most of his poker online for about 15 hours a week at pokerstars.com, the site where he won his World Series entry last year. If you find his handle (Money800) and bring $1,000, he might give you a one-on-one game.--
Yikes, strip poker makes the news. What's going on down there in Texas?
Firefighter Resigns Over Strip Poker Game
--
"How could anybody be that stupid?" Fire Chief Mark Ewald said. "According to our investigation, it went down to where one person was covered only with a towel."--
From the Business page, comes this article entitled:
Investing, gambling and cards
Damn, even the business section of the New York Post is weighing in.
POKER: THE TV SPORT TO WATCH - NO BLUFF!
--
Anheuser-Busch, for example, pays to have its World Select brand named the official beer of the World Poker Tour, the show that ushered in cable television's hottest new sport.--
Too bad Guinness didn't jump on that. Brilliant!
Oh yeah, I wanted to link up Lou Krieger's latest column of common-sense simply called:
Leaks
And there ya have it. Yet another Guinness-fueled, rambling post. I've even more to blog about, but I'll have mercy on you, dear reader, and save it for later.
So thanks for reading and don't forget to just *try* PartyPoker, damnit. Even if you played there before, try it again. See if I'm not right. And if you're new or playing at other sites, hop on with bonus code IGGY and see if you can't build up a bankroll off the schooling fish in low limits. My man Fuzz is still destroying the games down there, maybe I'll ask him to write another missive (see archives).
Lastly, my three little low-limit online tips, posted yet again:
1. Other players bad play will make me far more money than my fancy or brilliant plays.
2. The guy that leads with a bet on the turn after not betting previously, typically has a big hand.
3. Folding costs me nothing pre-flop. If it's a close decision, I can't go far wrong by folding.
Link of the Day:
Young Men Like the Boom-Boom
Blame gay people for the epidemic of adolescent males driving around with their stereo volume cranked up to 11, says noise pollution vigilante Michael Wright: "Disco gave birth to its demon child, the twisted destructive boom car subculture."
Paul Phillips was the subject of a piece in Sports Illustrated, where they basically shed a bad light on the deal Paul made in the WPT Legends tournament. The article can be found here:
http://premium.si.cnn.com/pr/subs/siexclusive/2003/09/22/poker0922/
The RGP thread about deal making in the WPT is here:
http://tinyurl.com/3dapd
If you dont have access to SI, here is the reprint of the article:
T. J. Cloutier, one of the last real road gamblers, stands up suddenly and
reaches across the felt to shake hands. He is done in again, another bad
beat in a never-ending series. Not so bad as at the 2000 World Series, when
a 9 showed up on the river and commenced a slide in which he lost more than
$1 million in prize money on fifth-street pulls. But bad. This time, with
only three players left at the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker tournament
in Los Angeles, he had pocket jacks to the Dot Com Kid's 7s, and all-in --
his chips pushed into one confident pile -- he watches as the young
millionaire, a 10-to-1 underdog, nailed a third seven on the turn.
"That's poker," Cloutier says, walking away, though by the look of his
clenched jaw he doesn't seem terribly convinced of the game's justice at the
moment. Ever since he left the Texas oil fields in the 1970s (he was a tight
end in the CFL before that) to make his living in the back rooms of crawfish
parlors and dance halls -- "fading the white line," as he pursued games
through the South -- he's accepted the contract that says his wit and nerve
can be voided at any time by a 7 on fourth street. But over and over?
The Dot Com Kid, the impeccably dressed Paul Phillips, now has only
tournament veteran Mel Judah to contend with for a first-place prize of
$579,375. This is big money, even for a 31-year-old who cashed out at the
peak of the Internet mania -- he joined Go2Net in 1996 as a tech guy, then
made a bundle in a 2000 merger -- and retired to a life of cards in Las
Vegas. No fading the white line for him. Phillips didn't mean to retire
strictly to a life of cards, but these deep-money tournaments, swelled by an
explosion of "stationary targets," as Phillips politely calls the amateurs,
has made it unlikely he will ever take up golf, as he keeps promising. For a
$5,000 buy-in and three days of concentration here in L.A., he is well on
his way toward another million.
But everybody's getting rich these days at no-limit Texas Hold 'em, in which
each player makes his best poker hand from any combination of his two down
(or hole, or pocket) cards and the five communal cards turned faceup --
three coming at once (the flop), followed by the turn (or fourth street) and
the river (fifth street). Any player can bet all his chips at any time.
T.J., for all his recent bad luck, is still getting rich, pocketing a
third-place prize of $146,775. It's been a long time since he says he had to
worry about "keeping the cheat off me" in rough-and-tumble joints. He once
heard about a rich game in Baton Rouge, found it and inquired of the bouncer
(through a speakeasy-style peephole) whether he could pass safely through
this door again if he happened to win. "You know," the bouncer said
thoughtfully, as if nobody had ever had the sense to ask that before, "you
might try another game."
Now he can play in above-board tournaments made squeaky-clean by
state-licensed casinos, online gambling sites and television exposure.
Mainly television exposure. The World Series of Poker on ESPN is partly
responsible for the boom, but that's only an annual event. The hot new
programming is the World Poker Tour, a kind of reality TV on the Travel
Channel that's turned 13 casino stops from Los Angeles to Costa Rica into
two-hour Greek tragedies. Thanks to color commentators, card cams that
reveal the hole cards to the audience, and pop-up graphics showing the
players' odds -- not to mention the pornographic presentation of the cash,
spilled onto the green felt like a money shot -- man's outlandish hubris is
on full display.
He's going all-in with rags! He's bullying a short-stack scaredy-cat! He's
limping into the pot with American Airlines! (That's a pair of aces to you,
Mr. Dead Money.) Every bluff is now revealed as the product of untold
computations, every bullying all-in raise seen for the science that it is,
the arithmetic of incomplete knowledge. Unless, of course, it's just a bad
guess.
The show, which has put the Travel Channel on the map in a way that World's
Best Bathrooms never did (it's the network's biggest ratings winner for a
series by far, with five million viewers a week), has become a cult
favorite, a kind of Trading Spaces for people with cards. Not only does
viewership increase from the first hour to the second, but it also increases
from show to show -- even when they're repeats. The shows that are in reruns
this fall are getting bigger ratings than the taped telecast of the
inaugural WPT Championship in Las Vegas did last June. By a lot.
And they're fueling a huge poker boom, especially on the Internet. WPT
commentator Mike Sexton says business at PartyPoker.com, his online
employer, has tripled since the tour went on the air. Pokerpulse.com tells
at any given time how many players are online and how much money they're
wagering. The Internet offers novices a chance to sample poker with no-money
games and micromoney games (as well as $15-$30 limit games for the new breed
of virtual road gambler -- be careful out there), which in turn develops a
new customer base for the bricks-and-mortars. The Bicycle Casino tournament
was dying two years ago, with 35 people buying in at $5,000. And since the
World Poker Tour? More than 300 people ponied up $5,000 to enter this year.
There are still live games out there, where shadowy figures are
redistributing $500,000 pots, but these tournaments are beginning to field
entrepreneurs more than outlaws. The Unabomber, the adamantly mysterious
Phil Laak, who made this final table, trademark hooded sweatshirt and all,
calls them actionauts: "You know, guys who drop in from outer space, juice
it up with their game theory, some kind of edge."
Phil Hellmuth Jr., the poker bad boy who won a World Series title at age 24,
is one of 40 or so WPT regulars. His celebrity is such that he talks of
becoming a "brand" with multiple "income streams." Even when he was "cash
poor" as recently as April, he recalls that while the mounting bills did
"seem annoying," he had little concern about his ability to bound back. And
why should he? Hellmuth's book, Play Poker like the Pros (one of about a
thousand books that are available on the subject), has 100,000 copies in
print, and he's about to sign a six-figure contract to write a second. He
was offered $750,000 to do an infomercial but walked away from it. He cashes
in on online poker -- "telecommuting," he says. He can make $10,000 at Poker
Nites, the card player's equivalent of a card-signing show. There are
cruises. Magazine columns. You name it.
Right now in L.A., in the climactic moments of a September tournament that
won't air until next year, Phillips is staring across those bundles of cash
at the 56-year-old Judah, imperturbable and impenetrable behind his shades.
A former Vidal Sassoon hairdresser from London who later turned his talents
to import-export and other enterprises, Judah has the Kid slightly spooked.
For one thing, Phillips, who had emerged as the seemingly uncatchable chip
leader (he had $657,000 in chips to Cloutier's $323,000 and Judah's $143,500
when the final table was seated), has been making some mistakes in this last
hour of play. That last call, when he ousted T.J.? "That's not going to look
so good on TV," he says later. "I survived, but I totally misread his hand."
There were some other plays, he allowed, that weren't likely to reveal
omniscience, yet here he sat, with $901,000 in chips in front of him. Judah,
who had been down to as little as $32,000 in chips, had audaciously gone
all-in four times in a comeback that left him with $645,000 for heads-up
play against Dot Com.
As he stares down Judah, it occurs to Phillips that the difference between
first and second, $285,825, is a lot of money to be playing heads-up for.
While WPT crew members scurry about the set (it's a TV show, remember) to
get ready for taping the climactic match, he hustles Judah over to a dark
corner, where they invite Chris Ferguson, the 2000 World Series champ who is
in attendance, along for the consult.
Ferguson, who is tall and bearded, with shoulder-length black hair flowing
beneath his black cowboy hat, is in this case the bazooka being brought in
to shoot a mosquito. He has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from UCLA
(he's devised numerous computer programs to school himself in Hold 'em) and
is the resident game-theory expert, besides being a 1992 swing-dance
champion. Judah and Phillips want him to do some arithmetic.
Ferguson scribbles on some scrap paper and decides, based on their chip
totals, how to divide the combined prize money for first and second place.
Judah and Phillips shake, happy to finesse their fate even a little bit. "I
just want the [winner's] seat at the championship," Phillips says, referring
to the automatic entry and waiver of the $25,000 buy-in fee at the
season-ending WPT Championship in Las Vegas next April.
This sort of deal is sometimes, but by no means always, done in poker.
Certainly T.J. would not have struck a bargain. WPT founder and CEO Steve
Lipscomb is not happy to find out about it and promises to forbid it in the
future. But there is no longer $285,825 riding on the flip of a card.
Of course, any normal person would agree: Judah and Phillips are doing the
sensible thing. Poker seems to be nothing more than a form of God's
mischief, everybody's belief in math or telepathy or game theory just an
invitation to disaster. The treachery of these probabilities, which allow an
Internet player like Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Spring Hill,
Tenn., who never sat at a live table in his life, to win the last World
Series and $2.5 million, is daunting. ("Running a toothpick into a
lumberyard," as Amarillo Slim would say.) You want to protect yourself from
the sickening thud of the bad beat when you can.
And, anyway, look what happens.
Judah, who has moved back into the chip lead, holds a 9-7 to Phillips's
jack-deuce. These are not dynamite starting hands. But the cards are beside
the point; Hold 'em, particularly on the final table, is basically a game of
chicken. So Phillips, hoping to shake Judah down, pushes $90,000 in chips
into the pot. All he can hope for is a miracle on the flop, or that Judah
suffers a failure of nerve or, better yet, a rush of common sense.
But Judah notices something in the way Phillips shovels the chips forth. The
bet is a weak one to begin with and does not signal a strong hand. But more
than that there was ... what? A tell. "No, not a tell," says Judah, too prim
and dapper to resort to vernacular. "A behavior pattern. I knew he didn't
have a hand." A tell. He calls Phillips's bet.
Let destiny do its dirty work now. The flop turns up ace-6-3. Their hands
are still garbage. But here comes a 5 on the turn. Wow! Do you wonder at the
gambler's absolute conviction that even the slightest risk deserves reward?
Both players, free rolling with God's money, are inching toward inside
straights, simply because they were arrogant enough to insist on a little
cosmic opportunity.
Of course there is still the matter of that one card to connect them, and
what are the.... The dealer flips over a 4.
Judah pushes his chips all-in, and Phillips, after enduring a silent
thrombosis or two, responds in kind. The tournament thus chides anyone who
would dare hope to become a "brand" or develop an "income stream" on such
whimsy as Texas Hold 'em. The players' hole cards are turned over. No
calculation, by Chris Ferguson or anyone else, could have ensured this
result. Two inside straights, drawn from rags, with all that cash bundled up
on the green felt! Risk is rewarded; let that be a lesson to you.
It takes a few seconds to comprehend what has happened, except that it was
highly unlikely and tremendously satisfying to anyone who lusts after
chance. But then it sinks in, and you can see it in the crimson flushing
cheeks of the Dot Com Kid. Judah's 7-high straight, as improbable as it is,
breaks his 6-high. There is pandemonium, naturally, not so much that a
winner has been produced but that drama has been so majestically delivered.
Phillips stares at the table just for a second, both amazed and amused by
God's idea of mischief, then reaches across the felt to shake Judah's hand.
As anyone might have told him, of course, that's poker.
Thursday, March 11, 2004
"Your mother has this crazy idea that gambling is wrong.
Even though they say it's okay in the Bible."
Homer Simpson
Damn, I love poker. Reading about it, studying it, thinking about it, and best of all, playing it.
In the interest of not cutting even *more* into my playing time, I'm going to make this short and sweet (at least, by my standards) and get into the Best of Poker LinkageTM and go jump on Party. After my dismal showing in the tourney last evening, I have a serious itch to play, and I'm going to scratch it.
Speaking of which, thanks for the shoutouts per the World Poker Bloggers Tournament II last evening at TruePoker. There were plenty of valid complaints (fast all-ins sucked), but in their favor, they did bump the starting stack size up to t1500 from t1000 after I emailed the request.
There are a ton of great posts about last evening's epic battle - next time you and a beer are sharing quality time at the computer, take the time to read through the links on the right. If you like poker, that is. If you don't, what the hell are you even doing here?
Because I didn't last long enough to personally write a trip report (Grubby took me down early), I simply must insist that you visit Pauly, at the Tao of Poker. A superb writeup of last night's tournament, and not just because he said many nice things about me (none of which is true), but because he's an excellent writer. He does write for a living, after all. There's simply too many funny things to quote, but I'll allow myself this one gem:
--
"What's going on?" she insisted.
"Yo, Mom! I just bluffed with The Hammer!"
"What did you win?"
"Respect."
--
Kudos, my man. Go read about Pauly's wild rush and tilting bullying at the end.
Anyway, congrats to Otis for winning (XL Party Poker jacket!) and a big hoist of the Guinness to everyone else in the money.
For the record:
1. $196 Otis B Dart - Up for Poker
2. $140 ChrisHal - Chris Halverson
3. $112 PaulyMcGrupp - Tao of Poker
4. $84 STICKandMOVE - Stick and Move
5. $28 FeliciaLee - Felicia
Nobody above finished in the money in the PokerGrub Classic I, so it's wide-open on the career earnings list.
I just saw that second place finisher Chris Halverson got his writeup posted, so go visit.
Felicia is running the third tourney so if you have a poker blog, and you want to play, please email her ASAP. The tourney is the Sunday, the 21st, and you must pre-register. Hit her site for more details - time is running out.
Time for me to link up and get going.
Per my Howard Stern - poker post the other day, here is the full audio segment (mp3 - click and listen) of Robert Varkonyi on the Stern show - funny stuff, especially at the end when Howard and Artie discuss quality starting hands. You will enjoy, trust me.
SOOOOTED is a strong hand!
Hrm, not sure how to describe this trip report to Vegas. A poor man's "Tiltboys" perhaps?
The Itch
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Poker Perspectives was posting again, and even played in the tourney last nite. More importantly, Maudie built us a forum to chat in.
Anyone thinking of joining the poker bloggers, please do so. It's free and easy at Blogger.com. And hell, they let poker-playing drinkers like me write whatever I want. What more could you ask for?
Best of all, here are two new poker bloggers, one that has been surreptitiously posting about poker for a while, and the other is brand new.
Please go visit and encourage The Neurotic Fishbowl Archives
Wow, I've also inspired cracksmokers.org to start a poker blog! Woohoo! Now that the crackheads are online, I truly am the Johnny Appleseed of poker bloggers.
Last, but never least, MeanGene is letting his brother post to his blog, one in which he actually admits that he's lost more than he's won, and why.
Here's a great RGP post about LA players in the Commerce Club - I think the PAPER BAG-MAN might be Hdouble.
--
Am I mistaken, or do the weirdest people frequent the Commerce Club,
in L.A.?
I've only been there three times, but here's a sample of people I've
been with or spotted at the tables (I hope I'm not describing any of
the RGP-ers).
BEE-HIVE LADY: About 70 years old, with the most outlandish hairdo (or
wig) I've ever seen. It looked like a giant birds' nest. Imagine Marge
Simpson's hair, but double the size. The ‘do' was covered with nets,
and filled with pins and pearl-tipped needles, and looked like a hairy
Leaning Tower of Pisa. When she looked at her cards, she couldn't tip
her head forward, becasue that would have shifted her center of
gravity foward, and she probably would have tipped over on her face;
she had to cup the cards in her hands and bring them up to her face.
PAPER BAG-MAN: This guy had a paper sack over his head, like the guy
on the old Gong Show. I saw him sitting at a table as I walked through
to my seat. The other people at the table were tossing in chips and
acting like everything was normal. I though maybe it was a joke
(taking the poker-face thing to the extreme) and he'd remove the bag:
but I glanced over at the table a few times, and he still had it on
for at least a half hour, and then was gone.
NEWSPAPER GUY: At my table this Asian guy was reading an Asian
newspaper during the hands. He never put the paper down. He'd glance
at his pocket cards, make his bets, and check the flop, etc. but he
kept reading, even when the betting was robust. Multi-tasking I guess.
And doing OK -- he won a decent amount of hands; and then I guess he
finished the paper, because he got up, folded the paper, tucked it
under his arms, gathered his chips, and left.
FOOD DUET: Two guys, in their 50s I guess, with Jackie Gleason
physiques, were both eating at the table (you can order food at
Commerce, and the waitress brings it to the table on treys they set up
on little wheeled tables of some kind). These guys got into an
argument over who's ordered the best meal for the money, insulting
each other over their menu choices, really taking it seriously (like
the Road Rage movie "Changing Lanes." But their argument was over
whether or not the home-made French Fries sucked or not. So what do
these gastronomic gladiators do? Fist fight? No. Food Fight? No.
Belching Fight? Yes!!! Each trying to outdo the other with awful,
disgusting belches. It's kinda funny in retrospect, but wasn't then.
It's hard enough concentrating on the flow of the game, without
hearing gurgling stomach noises. The Dealer rolled her eyes in
disgust, but didn't say anything else to them (I guess there's no
Casino rules to cover noisy regurgations). They stopped after a while,
but when they both ordered more food from the waitress, I gave up, and
went to another table…
Are things (and people) like this normal? Or did I just 'get lucky'
???
------
Here are a couple news articles to whet your appetite. Yes, poker is still red-hot.
Poker ace turns math skill into riches
--
"I try to follow the wisdom of the Bible," he said. "I like the book of Proverbs, because if I've got a problem, I don't want to get uptight. Whatever happens out there, it's just one day - one step - of the rest of your life."
--
Amen.
Know When To Fold 'Em Tales from a secret life in poker:
--
Championship poker players, once known only to their peers, have become quasi-celebrities. Last year, the improbably named Chris Moneymaker, who had previously only played poker online and with his family until he qualified, won $2.5 million at the World Series of Poker with a personal investment of only $40. (Incidentally, he got part of his airfare from a man named David Gamble.)
--
There's a bunch more where that came from, but I must go play.
Thanks for reading, I'll blog a sober decent post tomorrow. I've gotta go play on Party Poker.
I'll leave you with these two gems to keep in mind, regarding pre-flop play from TwoPlusTwo:
"You should be cold calling so infrequently that you can't even remember the last time that you did so".
"Cold calling raises with medium and small suited connectors is the fast track to the poorhouse. Yes, even with 3 others in the pot."
Also, per my comments in my last post (thanks BG!), how can you know what "correct play" is without knowing pot odds? Can learning positive expectation be learned without odds?
Remember, Hold em is a post-flop game.
Thanks again to all the great bloggers out there.
From Anisotropy:
"It's always great to read something about other people's take on the game and about the swings they go through. It's even better to have those same people supporting you when you are trying to do the same frustrating things they are. Smart people, smart writing and great support."
Link of the Day:
Do Not Taunt Butt Pillow
After people at work laughed at her hemorrhoid relief doughnut, Melanie Loomos dedicated her life to bringing peri-anal relief to the people. The result was Butt Pillow, a present for your ass.
