An Interesting Experiment
October 31, 2009
I assume that we all know how the poker pyramid works? Thousands upon thousands of piss poor poker players (PPPP’s) deposit money at the bottom of the pyramid, which they then lose to slightly better players, who in turn repeat this process at a slightly higher level, and the process then repeats until your last $20 deposit ends upon making 1/50th of a big blind for Phil Ivey or Tom Dwan.
The thing that strikes me when I read about the exorbitant amounts of money flying around in the upper echelons of the poker world though is that to fund this ever expanding world of hedonistic excess and poor dress sense; how much money must be being lost worldwide for it to keep going? Yes I understand that there are poker sponsors out there, yes I understand that reputedly all the top FT pros have shares in the site which basically means they’re taking a slice of the rake, but still, there are literally millions of millions of dollars, Euros and pounds being pumped into the cycle every year. I’m only a small fish in a small pond, so I’m always going to struggle to grasp the enormity of the poker industry as a whole, but even so, it still staggers me.
As I thought about this today, reading about Ivey’s last million dollar pot, and Townsend’s multi million dollar downswing, it struck me that it’d be great to see the paper trail of someone’s money being deposited on a poker site. Obviously we’d have to ignore rake and player withdrawals, but just imagine being able to see that last $50 deposit being passed onto some Scandi, who sucked out on you in a .25/50 cash game, then blew it on a $50 Turbo SNG and lost it to a mid stakes grinder, who used a couple of hundred on a Sunday million seat, and so on.
I know this could never happen, I know it’s ridiculous, but the concept just interests me, that’s all!
UKIPT
October 31, 2009
It has finally been announced that the most eagerly awaited UK and Ireland Poker Tour will be hitting us throughout 2010. We have seen a few tours come and go but the UK has been pretty much limited to 2 tours, the GUKPT and CBMPT. Now all this has changed, originally there was speculation that PokerStars were trying to buy an established UK tour i.e. GUKPT, but it now seems that they have cherry picked the best venues from the UK and Ireland and started their own tour, culminating in a £5000 event that looks from the dates to be at the opening of next years London EPT.
With PokerStars backing it will undoubtedly be a success, especially with the guarantees on offer £100,000 for the £500 events and €250,000 for the €1000 events. The full schedule is as follows;
The big surprise to me is that Brighton is holding the £1000 event whilst DTD is only holding a £500 event?
Satellites are already underway for the Galway event from $2.22/111FPP’s or steps from $7.50/500FPP’s
This is a no brainer to try and qualify for, as I think we all know that this will be huge for UK poker in fact it may leave the already established tours struggling.
What is it about women poker players?
October 30, 2009
As far as I’m aware, seeing a genuinely attractive woman playing poker in your local poker game is about as likely as seeing Roland De Woolfe lay down Kings pre flop. It’s a shame but that’s how it is.
The thing is, when I see an even mildly attractive female playing poker, someone who I’d probably class as an ‘eight pinter’ in any other situation, they suddenly jump six pints up the scale and I just don’t get why. I also have the same affliction with comediennes, I find women who make me laugh irresistible, but that’s another issue.
The thing is that, granted, there are a few unbelievably attractive female players out there, Vanessa Rousso and Liv Boeree for example, but there are some supposedly attractive female players out there who if you saw them in the local you’d probably leave to your wingman. Take that scut Brandi Hawbaker for instance; yes, she’s so filthy that she’d give Sklansky a hand shandy but if you asked a hundred men in the street who weren’t interested in poker what they thought of her, she’d probably average seven out of ten, yet because she played poker she managed to end up with a full tilt sponsorship deal (albeit basically being a sticker on her baps)
I’ve found myself drifting into some very disturbing thoughts about some very ugly women whilst playing poker and I just don’t understand why. I’m quite happy with my Asian sensation at home as it happens so it’s not like I need to go looking elsewhere but it must be something within a male poker players make-up that makes female poker players seem that little bit special. Or maybe, I’m just a pervert (oh yes that’s it).
When all said and done though, I wouldn’t give Kathy Liebert a poke in the whiskers for a big clock 
Wish You Were Here?
October 30, 2009
Having recently came back from a bit of a poker holiday to the West of Ireland I find myself a little confused by the whole notion of combining the two, poker and a holiday. Personally I had great difficulty reconciling myself with the idea of spending 13 hours a day for the duration of a trip in an exhibition hall whilst I had this on my door step (see pic).
Now this is probable my age coming through here but the thought of visiting a place of interest or city that I have never been too before and then spending the whole time playing poker just does not appeal anymore. I guess it might be easier if I was playing for millions because then of course if you win you can spend the money on really seeing the world but when you playing for lesser sums it becomes a bit harder to justify the time.
Maybe I just don’t love poker enough these days to spend huge amounts of my precious and increasingly rare leisure time sat with people I don’t know and probably won’t like flipping for stacks. Or possibly the knowledge that as a middle aged man its likely I might never get another opportunity to see the wonders of the place I’m visiting which in turn makes it much harder to waste the opportunity currently afforded.
Whatever the reason there where hundreds of people who didn’t mind at all wasting an opportunity to see the wonders of the west of Ireland! Most of them were quite young or locals which is understandable, after all it’s a lot easier in your youth when you have time on your side and you positively know you will have another chance to visit the place again.
Matt Lambourne in his blog here discussed the other side of the coin, where he makes the case that you might also be affected by the desire to stay in the competition to the detriment of making moves that you believe are correct.
I can see how both would conflicts of interest might prove to be issues to different types of people. My advice would be that the next time you enter a satellite to the PCA or WSOP think to yourself, “What do I want a poker trip or a holiday?” because as a combination they really don’t work very well at all and if all you want is a trip away it might be easier to play a standard tournament and use the money for a dream trip away.
Added Value at DTD
October 29, 2009
This is some serious added value, so I just thought I would let you all know.
As most are aware, the second leg of the £1 million Grand Slam competition is due on the 18th of December, this is the competition that caused all the speculation of DTD closing due to the massive overlay. You know the one £250,000 guaranteed.
Most of you also know that DTD guarantees all of its comps at the moment too. If you decide to play the £30 unlimited rebuy for the next 6 weeks you will also be in for a little surprise. DTD are ADDING a seat to this amazing comp that uses the Monte Carlo EPT structure over 3 days. So not only does it guarantee £3500 but the top prize will include a seat.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, DTD have just announced 120 seats will be won via satellites!!
Live Satellites – 60 seats guaranteed
Saturday 12th December 2pm start time £50 Rebuy, 20 SEATS GTD
Sunday 13th December 2pm start time £50 Rebuy, 20 SEATS GTD
*Last chance Live*
Thursday 17th December 8pm start £50 Rebuy (replaces the £50 Freeze Out) 20 SEATS GTDOnline satellites – 60 seats guaranteed
Monday 7th December 8pm €30 Rebuy 20 SEATS GTD
Monday 14th December 8pm €30 Rebuy 20 SEATS GTD
*Last chance online*
Wednesday 16th December 8pm €30 Rebuy 20 SEATS GTD
Still not impressed?
OK then how about this?! An unlimited amount of seats will be given away to any players that earn 10,000 FPP’s
The Qualifying Period for this promotion will start on 1st November 2009, and stretch through to 13th December 2009
ALL PLAYERS* that generate 10,000 FPPs in this period will bag themselves a seat worth £1090!
To register for this promotion, you MUST email Simon Nowab who will confirm your entry to the promotion
*not in conjunction with any other promotion (including rake back)
WOWZER!!!
Become Bigus Chipus with PartyPoker
October 29, 2009
PartyPoker have announced details of its latest promotion as the LSE listed online poker room announce the return of ‘The Gladiator’. Starting on the 1st of November and running till the 30th customers of the popular online poker room who manage to accrue the minimum of 10 points for just five days will be rewarded with entry to a $5,000 freeroll!
As a player gains more points on more days the bigger the prize gets, there’s 3K in cold hard cash to be won so don’t miss out. For the hard core grinders out there PartyPoker.com has a mass incentive, if you gain 1,000 points for every one of the 30 days the promotion runs you will be rewarded with a seat at next years Aussie million worth AUD$10,500!
A spokesman for the popular online card room said ”Gladiator is back and is stronger than ever before. In this colosseum you don’t have to worry about lions – just sharks, donkeys and fish! This promotion isn’t all about maximus PartyPoints, it is about spreading play over a period of time for maximus rewards! It is simple and offers great value and we encourage players to challenge themselves and take a closer look.”
Adjust and Re-adjust
October 28, 2009
As I mentioned in my last little piece (and numerous others I’m sure); I do really rather well in my little local cash game. I’m not one for thinking that I’m any better than I really am at poker so I’m pretty sure that I must be on a bit of a heater as I don’t seem to be constantly moaning about bad beats these days. This said, I’m always seeking to try and establish what I do well, and what I don’t. I’ll concede that this piece is me being a little big-headed but it’s nothing complicated, it’s just a simple summary of something I learnt a while ago which may strike a chord with some of you. It’s not intended to be a high level strategy piece, it’s just a bit of common sense which lots of people seem to ignore for some reason.
Thinking about last weeks game, I ran through several significant pots, some large, some small and the thing that struck me was two things. 1. A clear plan from the outset, and 2. A nice adaptation to the players in the pot, not just what I think of them but most importantly what they think of me.
You see it amazes me how much information poker players are willing to give away just for the sake of arrogance and bravado. To a man, every player I play against regularly will happily discuss their thoughts on every single hand they are either involved in, or just happen to be watching, and will only too happily tell me ‘what they would have done there’. More importantly, they’ll also tell me what they think I would have done there and this genuinely amazes me. Now it may be somewhat exaggerated in my local friendly game but knowing poker players as they are I’m sure that nationwide, 90% of players are the same. They’re so interested in looking and sounding good to their other players that they put their image first and their profitability second.
Once I realised this sometime ago, I started changing my play. I already had most people sectioned into styles, but I’ve tried to mix my game up to the point that I can genuinely get most of them to believe I’m doing something quite specific quite easily or alternatively, to have no clue where I am. The most insightful observation about my play I heard recently, and most flattering I must say was that one fella doesn’t put me on hands anymore. He said that he reckons I make up the hand I have in my head, and then play exactly as if I truly believe I have that hand and play it that way. He was spot on with this; I often play AA and 7-2 off in exactly the same way. The point is, I know when I want to do it and more importantly who against.
So where does fit into my introduction, well I’ll give you a little summary. You see the players I face regularly fit into categories which I’ve broadly outlined below. I have a style that suits each and I’ll play one style against one player, ensuring another has taken note, then completely flip my style when I can isolate this other player and then play accordingly. Everyone thinks they have me pegged, so they think that they’re really clever and so they’re happy. I know that they don’t so I win money from them and I’m happy. It’s a strategy I truly believe in and suggest you try it if you don’t already. I’ll give you an example:-
Some of the types of players I play against regularly are:-
The station. Everyone has one, there’s no poker to be done here. Raise, re-raise and hammer the pot, nothing clever, just extract value. Super stations are my favourite though as they believe that the bigger the bet is, the more it’s a bluff so you can bet twice the pot on every street and have it all in by the turn.
The smart arse. Thinks they know how to play but really they don’t. They’ll fire strategy and stats at you but completely out of context. These are my favourite opponents to play against on as we can get a clear idea where we are. If I’ve recently shown a bluff they’ll make the hero call on the river if we’ve checked the turn. If I’ve just shown down the nuts against the station, they’ll lay down trips if there’s a flush and/or straight apparent on the board. As long as I know what they think of me we can get full value for our good hands, and get away from theirs.
The know-all. This player will happily tell all-and-sundry how they should have played every hand. They don’t try and talk poker fundamentals, they’re a more old school version of the smart arse. They justify every decision with their own brand of a logic that suits whatever backs up their argument at that specific moment in time. Often this will completely contradict something they said just half an hour earlier. Although they tell you how good they are, just watch them play. The image they try and portray verbally will often be the opposite of their poker style. If they’re a big aggressive looking bloke, often you’ll find that their logic and attitude is a cover up so they can talk themselves into folding regularly but defend themselves by telling everyone how they know what you have, and how they’ll ‘get you next time’, blah, blah, blah. When they fold out a hand they should be extracting value from, they’ll make out like they bullied the opponent off the pot, when really they’re crying inside. This said, their style can be anything from Nit to Station but they’re easy to read, just get them talking, find which one they are, which they think you are and adjust.
The Nit. Pain in the arse but just convince them get them to get a read on you and they’ll stick with it. If you have position on them and you’ve shown some bluffs then they’ll call down medium value bets but not the same value bets that you’d fire at a station. A lot of the time straightforward bluffing should do the job but if you get called then generally shut down. I wouldn’t advise a three barrel unless you have a very, very specific plan but a turn bet might do the job if they look uncomfortable on the flop. Don’t worry, they won’t try and hide it, and will probably outright tell you!
The loose-cannon. Usually drunk but impossible to read and don’t waste your time portraying an image to them. You can only try and extract value as you would a station but be prepared to get value-owned when you flop TPTK with your AK on a K83 board and they end up showing down bottom two pair at showdown. These players are profitable but you have to be able to know that at some point they will tilt you and you’ve got to deal with it.
Internet TAG. ‘Standard’ as they would say. They’ll have the goods pre flop but they won’t get tricky post flop, aside from C-Betting 95% of flops of course. Try one move post flop and let it go if you meet resistance, they’ll have it if they call, if they don’t they’ll fold.
There are numerous variations to these main themes but the point is that it isn’t about having one style to combat each. If you can identify those to play level one poker against then good. The next stage of value is to play level two against the others who think they know how to play but really don’t. They’ll happily tell you how they play and, more importantly, how they think you should play so use this to your advantage. I used to either bluff everyone or try and slowplay far too much. I was a one dimensional player and still am to some extent.
The point is; mix it up and enjoy it, but make sure you’re doing it for a reason, not just because anything beats being a nit .
Black Belt Poker Free Roll Extravaganza
October 28, 2009
There can’t be a better week than this to get over to community/staking/training poker site Black Belt Poker and get yourself signed up. There are a whole raft of free roll tournaments this week adding plenty of value to membership.
The free roll fest starts tonight with the white belt free roll which is open to anyone who joins the community site here and then downloads the poker site software and links the two accounts, this has no deposit restrictions so anyone can play. Currently 59 players registered for the $50 free comp.
Tomorrow see’s the yellow belt free roll which pays out $100, this is open to anyone who joins the community site and then downloads the poker site software, links the two accounts and then makes a deposit of any value. Currently 29 players registered for this $100 free comp.
Then the big one on Sunday, a $5,000 depositors only free roll with $200 bounties on Nik Persuad and Neil Channing and $100 bounties on the sites brown belts. This looks like being tremendous value with four days to go there are only 121 players registered which makes the value per seat at present over $40.
The Shulman Show
October 27, 2009
What is it with successful poker players? Normal individuals who are usually rational human beings have a taste of success and somehow it goes straight to their head. The mildest mannered man after a smidgen of the limelight somehow turns into Dr Jackal for no apparent reason.
The CEO of Cardplayer Magazine and recent winner of the World Series of Poker Europe apparently gave an unsuspecting female player who had just been knocked out of the $550 MTT at Caesars Palace, the mother of all rubdowns. A two plus two’er apparently defended the woman by saying that she had 3-1 equity for calling but Shulman insisted that she played terribly. Another player also said the play was correct when the new bracelet winner exclaimed “oh ok hahaha, you have no chance to win this tournament, that was a horrible, awful call”. He then turned to the 2+2 forum member and said ” You’re wrong, believe me, you dont need to teach me how to play poker. If you think thats the right play you’re awful and you have no chance to win a tournament.” Whether Shulman was right or wrong, this is not the behavior that is becoming of a ME winner.
To top his behavior issues off, later on in the same tournament Shulman ripped into a female dealer by saying that she had already cut the cards to which the dealer (backed up by the rest of the table) insisted that she didn’t. Angered by the dealers comments Shulman exploded, “Yeah I know exactly what you did, you’re just a fuckin lazy ass, This is what they take extra money out of our prizepool for to pay fuckin shitty lazy ass dealers”.
Bravo old man Shulman, hope your son is a better ambassador!!
Student Wins Irish Masters 2009 title
October 27, 2009
A 24-year old student, Michael O’Sullivan has taken down the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Masters poker tournament, collecting a first prize of €143,000 for outlasting the 397 strong field in the €1,650 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event.
O’Sullivan who is a well known online cash game player with some respectable live cashes defeated Michael Murphy (And the winner for the most Irish sounding heads-up clash ever goes too…) heads-up when his big slick outdrew Murphy’s pair of Jacks when a heartbreaking ace fell on the river.
Seventh place finisher Paul Dooley had something extra to celebrate after winning the paddypowerpoker.com’s IWF Sole Survivor last longer promotion for outlasting the 61 other online qualifiers from the popular I-poker site, winning himself a prize package worth €20,000 in the process.
Final Table Payouts
Michael O’Sullivan €143,000
Michael Murphy €88,500
Gary Mealy €55,300
Matej Kokalj €44,800
Igor Kurganov €35,900
Stephen Devlin €28,400
Paul Dooley €22,400
Graham Masters €17,900
John Cassidy €13,500
Decent Numbers at the CBMPT
October 27, 2009
Despite, Dusk Till Dawn having a remarkable weekend, the Irish Winter Festival and an APAT event, finally the Coral British Masters Poker Tour hit some decent numbers! The cap for each event was 140 runners, the £200 side event fell just short at 138 but the £500 main event reached its capacity and managed to fit another 10 alternates in for a total of 150 players. It seems that the tour is finally finding favour with the poker players after a few disastrous tour numbers in previous legs.
The result is quite strange but it is correct, when the players were 3 handed a deal was done. They all recieved a fix price and then they played for the trophy and the seat in the £10,000 STT
PRIZEPOOL
150 Entries
Total pool £75,0001st…..£13,500…..John Gardner
2nd…..£20,000….Richard Lewis
3rd…..£16,500…..Chris Brice
4th…..£6,250…….Tom Piccirilli
5th…..£4,200……Adrian Pound
6th…..£3,050……Trevor Pearson
7th…..£2,350……Ady Eaton
8th…..£1,900…….Neil Blatchly
9th…..£1,600…….India Storrar
10th…..£1,350…..Richard Cole
11th…..£1,250…….Nick Dobson
12th…..£1,150…….James Williams
13th…..£1,050…….Robin White
14th…..£1,000…….Danny Hernon
15th…..£950……….Nick Romanello
DTD’s 2nd £100 comp in their 20/20 finished like this
Entry: £100
Starting Chips: 10000 Type: Freezeout
Total Prizepool: £28,000 GTD Prizepool: £20,0001 Fraser Bain £8,661
2 Richard Horton £5,064
3 Thomas Gibson £3,038
4 Anon £2,132
5 Terry Brown £1,599
6 Ying Liu £1,199
7 Ghalib Hussain £933
8 Eddie Lundon £666
9 Peter Seager £533
10 Rhys Jones £373
11 Antonio Crofts £373
12 Ricky Woolley £373
13 Stuart Rowe £373
14 Jono Beck £267
15 Gemal Husnu £267
16 Callum Wright £267
17 Neil Mcdonagh £267
18 Ian Mcdonald £267
19 Matthew Anderso £150
20 Shadi Al Khalaf £150
21 Roger Brush £150
22 Gary Orme £150
23 Jamie Wilkinson £150
24 Shane Mossop £150
25 Jason Bright £150
26 David Griffiths £150
27 Andrew Murphy £150
Christophe Benzimra Wins 2009 Warsaw EPT
October 26, 2009
The winner of the 2009 Warsaw WPT sponsored by PokerStars.Com is French business man Christophe Benzimra. The 47 year old from Nice runs a Plexiglas factory in Bucharest, Romania and takes back home approximately €358,644 for his victory and a seat in the Season 6 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.
Benzimra beat Italian pro Alfio “aLFiosNob” Battisti heads-up, with Battisti a Supernova Elite on PokerStars taking approximately €200,520 back home to Italy with final table big stack Oleksandr Vaserfirer finishing in third for €120,311.
The big name at the final table was PokerStars professional Luca Pagano who smashed a whole raft of records upon making his 5th EPT final table but will be a little disappointed on his 4th place having come in to the final table second in chips.
EPT Warsaw 2009 Final Places and Payouts
1 – Christophe Benzimra, France, €358,644
2 – Alfio Battisti, Italy, €200,520
3 – Oleksandr Vaserfirer, Ukraine, €120,311
4 – Luca Pagano, Italy, €85,938
5 – Ruslan Prydryk, Ukraine, €71,041
6 – Clayton Mozdzen, Canada, €56,144
7 – Alexander Klimashin, Russia, €44,687
8 – Anatoly Gurtovoy, Russia, €32,082
9 – Alexander Debus, Germany, €20,625
Full House at DTD
October 26, 2009
Dusk Till Dawn had technical problems with their first 20/20 weekend as the online site didn’t cease registration when the event had reached its cap of 270. At the start of the day there was 283 registered, so DTD decided to add another two tables and made the cap for that Saturday only at 288, even with this increase the alternate list was 36 long and 40 more were turned away. Unfortunately only 9 of the 36 got in as the comp started really slow, this did however have an adverse affect on the whole comp IMO. Because the start was so slow it meant that even with 10k starting chips the middle levels were a bit of a shovefest with the average chips getting as low as 10 BB for a couple of levels. Thankfully by the time the bubble was reached it was back up to 20 blinds and remained around that mark for the rest of the tournament, in fact the heads up battle was immense and went on for 4 levels eventually finishing with the blinds at 30k/60k with a 6k runner. This sounds high but there was 2.97million chips in play. The result as follows;
£29,700 prize pool
1 James Moult £9,214
2 Robert Cowburn £5,387
3 Luke Diaper £3,232
4 Richard Stevenson£2,268
5 Mark Mccluskey £1,701
6 Michael Bell £1,276
7 Robert Cannon £992
8 Mark Attridge £709
9 Sean Byrne £567
10 Troung Nghiem £397
11 Thomas Och £397
12 Mark Lewis £397
13 Rhys Jones £397
14 Xiaoguang Zhou £284
15 Michelle Bennett £284
16 Shane Brown £284
17 Barry Neville £284
18 David Heaton £284
19 Sam Arnold £150
20 Patrick Donoghue £150
21 Gary Kimbell £150
22 Paul Newman £150
23 Russell Escritt £150
24 Anthony Phillips £150
25 David Wattam £150
26 Christopher Hunt £150
27 Chin Chai Koh £150
The competition eventually finished at 4.15 GMT just to give you an estimate for those that are thinking of playing this in the future.
Congratulations to Bunny, who took his first win at DTD in the £15 FO side event.
At one stage there was 19 cash games, and 3 competitions being played at the same time.
Sunday also reached capacity for the same event (270) and 10 alternates managed to get into this one. This competition is still being played as I type.
Super Luca Smashes EPT Records
October 25, 2009
Italian professional Luca Pagano smashed a whole host of EPT records yesterday including most final table appearances and most cashes when he reached the final table of 2009 Warsaw EPT sponsored by PokerStars.Com.
The 31-year-old from Treviso, Italy, started the day as one of shortest stacks but rallied to reach his fifth EPT final table and 12th EPT cash second in chips with 984000 still some way back from Ukrainian chips leader Oleksandr Vaserfirer whose sat on 1854000.
In third place is Canadian, Clayton Mozdzen sitting on 978000 and these front runners are unsurprisingly considering the location joined by three more eastern Europeans a Frenchman and another Italian to do battle for the €358,644 first prize.
Updates from the PokerStars Blog can be found here
Final Table
What’s the difference?
October 24, 2009
I don’t know what different poker skills are required to be a good ‘cash game player’ or ‘tournament player’. Does anyone else out there know the difference honestly?
I got knocked out of my local poker tournament game this week where the first prize was £120. I then proceeded to turn £35 into £170 on the cash table so in essence getting knocked out of the tournament was the most +ve thing to happen to me all night! The thing is this is quite a common occurrence for me, I don’t keep records of my poker results anymore but I remember that when I did for about three months it showed that although I was £150 down on tournament play I was over £500 up on cash play.
Obviously we’re working with a very small sample size so most of this is nonsense but it did get me thinking? Am I a better cash player or tournament player? Is cash more skillful and therefore better suited to me (it is the law that anyone who plays poker thinks they are better than everyone else?)
The thing is that during the game we had a discussion about who does well in the cash game and some of the reasons given were ridiculous. For example, someone actually said “well he plays almost every hand so he always does well in cash.” I didn’t bother pointing out that this was about the most ridiculous theory I’d ever heard relating to poker but I kept my mouth shut as I couldn’t come up with anything myself.
When I think about the reasons, the only thing I would come up with is that cash allows me to take advantage in certain spots of the players I know inside out. In the tournament, due to the fast structure I often get caught making the right move at the wrong time and as I’m far too aggressive; sometimes the people who let the cards decide their fate seem to do better than me. In cash poker though, I seem to be far more relaxed and not in a rush to get all my chips in the middle as fast as possible (although I still play pretty LAG in certain spots against certain people)
To me the answer is that cash allows you to mix up your play far more than a tournament does. Due to the structure of tournaments there are far more spots where you have to take risks when you might not want to otherwise. I can’t imagine shoving 8BB’s in a cash game just to take the blinds, but I’ll do it with any two at certain spots in a tournament. I think cash allows us to mix up our game that little more. We can wait out the lunatics but still pound on the fish and the nits who still don’t know what floating or c-betting is!! This makes it sound like I think cash is more of a skillful game but I don’t necessarily believe that to be correct
I’m not saying that cash is better and if I’m honest I don’t know what truthfully makes someone superior at one discipline but possibly lesser at the other. Many people claim to know but does anyone have the answer really?
Irish Winter Festival Online Schedule
October 24, 2009
As the Irish winter festivals sponsored by Paddypowerpoker.Com main event kicks off in Dublin the Irish poker site have decide to run an online version for those that failed to win entry to the big one.
The online festival main event starts at 7:45pm tonight and is a $15 + $1.50 NLH Freezeout with a tasty $150 added to the prizepool! Sunday will see A $5 + 50c Freezeout event takes place, with Paddy Power Poker adding $100 and on Monday there will be a $3 + 30c Rebuy with $100 added.
There will also be free rolls running through out the weekend starting at 8.45pmeach night with the password to enter the tournament being published on the Irish Winter Festival blog at 6pm every night here.
Irish Winter Festival Online Full Here
The Good, The Bad And The Angry
October 23, 2009
I was playing a little bit of heads up 7-Game variation cash on Full Tilt the other night, just low stakes as I was waiting for Master Chef to come on, I love cooking shows, as long as Jaime Oliver isn’t on it. I used to love the naked chef but his latest shows have all got so preachy, plus I once ate at Fifteen and it was a bit shit.
Anyway I digress, although it was low stakes I was still playing fundamentally correct poker, because I can’t help myself. Playing Razz my opponent brings in with a 7 so I raise with a 2 and get three bet, I’ve got J, 9 in the hole but of course I’m playing his hand not mine.
He bricks on fourth and I catch good and my opponent check calls a bet, he again bricks but decides to check raise me when I catch 10 and he catches a J! I can tell you now that if you ever get check raised by what looks like a worse draw in Razz then your opponent is royally fucked, I’d lay money that my opponent is double paired and desperately trying to get me too fold and this is the sign of an uber fish as well I can read a fucking board can’t I!
Anyway I re-raised and then value bet the river with a 10 low, queue a quite amazing tirade from my opponent, “how can you call a re-raise with J-9 and value bet a 10 you mother****” and so on! I was quite surprised because frankly it was all so standard.
This continued for the remainder of the match, I’d do something standard like calling one bet in limit hold’em with suited connectors and check raising made low with high draw combos on O8 and when I hit my opponent would just explode with vitriolic abuse.
I could never reply back because as any of you who know me can attest I instruct all the sites I play at to suspend my chat when I first sign up, because it’s only a matter of time before they will have to remove it anyway so I might as well save them the time! Anyway stacking a guy four times in one round of 7 game and having him call you a fish is quite entertaining.
It occurred to me though that the reason this guy was so abusive was because he was way out of his depth and just didn’t know the games to any kind of standard, he was playing clearly on level one which is understanding the actual rules but not a clue how the games are actually played.
I’m definitely going to try some more serious 7-game stuff because most of the high stakes players on Full Tilt seem to have switched to 7-game and this is attracting the fish and the fanboys, so hopefully I can catch a few more of these angry young fish!
Hi Lo Sweet Chariot
October 23, 2009
The internet poker giant, PokerStars has now broke through the UK sports barrier at a great rate of knots, by becoming one of a number of sponsors for the England Rugby Team joining the likes of O2, Emirate Airlines, EDF, Nike, Greenflag and Land Rover. Their advertisements will be seen a lot more in the sporting arenas around the globe as not only will they be sponsors of Basketball, Hockey, and Football teams, but they will be one of the major rugby stadiums biggest revenue earners.
So now your match day tickets can be won online, along with signed merchandise and VIP Packages etc. If you would like to train with England squad at Pennyhill Park etc, packages will be available, it is a bit late for the first competition that gives you this prize, but their are many more on offer and the competitions are exclusive to United Kingdom and Ireland players. Most are low buy-ins and there are a few freerolls to get everyone into the spirit of it. I must say from personal preference, it is better than the Man U package that CircusPoker are offering 
England Rugby Challenge Freeroll Qualifier Free Daily, October 7 – November 13 19:30 UK Time (14:30 ET) 9 seats to the next England Rugby Challenge $22 Final
England Rugby Challenge $2.20 Qualifier $2.20 Daily, October 7 – November 13 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) One seat to the next $22 Final for every $22 in the prize pool
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (Team Training) $22 October 17 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 1 pair of tickets to watch England team train on October 27
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v Australia) $22 October 31 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v Australia
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v Argentina) $22 November 7 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v Argentina
England Rugby Challenge VIP Final (England v New Zealand) $22, SilverStar VIP and above November 11 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 4 pairs of hospitality tickets to England v New Zealand
England Rugby Challenge $22 Final (England v New Zealand) $22 November 14 20:00 UK Time (15:00 ET) 10 pairs of tickets to England v New Zealand
It seems poker is trying to make more of a surge into the sporting markets now, previously it was mainly the sites with affiliated Bookmakers that I presumed were trying to attract sports bettors more than anything. Is poker now taking over the world
Will we see the Premiership being swamped with online poker sites, I know a few have already broke into Football sponsorship in the UK, but with season tickets being so expensive now, do you think it will be less expensive to win them now;)
Broadway Poker Festival 2009
October 22, 2009
The popular Broadway casino based in the centre of Birmingham has announced there 2009 festival schedule. Running for a full week from the 1st – 8th November the highlight will be the £1,000 + 60 main event which will offer players a choice of starting days with Day 1a starting on Thursday 5th and Day 1b Friday the 6th, the main event will conclude on Sunday the 8th and offer players 15,000 starting chips and 60 minute levels and has an estimated prize pool of 300K and a guarantee of 100K.
Full details of the events on offer can we found here: looks like fans of Omaha or any other poker variants will be disappointed as the festival is only running NLHE events but there is a nice range of buy-ins ranging from £50 all the way up too the £1000 main event and it is a cracking venue.
CBMPT Bristol 2009
October 22, 2009
Well tomorrow (23rd Oct) sees the 6th Leg of the Coral British Masters Tour in Gala’s Flagship casino, Bristol Harbourside. This casino is absolutely beautiful and close to my heart as this another cardroom that I help set up, it is a bit dark and nightclub-esque but still does the job. When I was there last there was an extendable bit that was used for storing purposes, but the original idea was to open this up in festivals, making space for a comfortable 30 tables set away from the gaming area. I am not sure whether this section has opened up yet but believe it maybe.
Friday Event (23rd)
£200 NLHE Start 6pm. 1 day event:- 30 minute levels. 7,500 chips. Alternates accepted for first 2 levels.
Saturday Event (24th and 25th)
£500 NLHE Main Event Start 3pm. 2 day event. 60 minute levels. 10,000 chips. Alternates accepted for first 2 levels.
Sunday Event (25th)
£100 NLHE Start 5pm. 1 day event. 30 minute levels. 7,500 chips. Alternates accepted for first 2 levels.
Hopefully the attendance for this event will be good, but it is competing with the APAT Tour and DTD’s 20/20 which is expecting good numbers. If you do decide to venture down to Bristol for this, best of luck. If you end up donking out early, just take a stroll down to the Harbour and forget your troubles!