Poker News

Sit & Go Game Replay with Collin Moshman

CardRunners instructor and SNG Guru Collin Moshman present this strategy video that is a replay of a SNG game. Moshman is one of the most recognized SNG players online and has written many strategy books towards the subject.

Here’s the official teaser from CardRunners:

Replayer: SNG
Moshman delivers one for the small stakes guys, focusing on the Stars 9-man $6.50 turbos. He emphasizes fast playing hands as the weaker players are prone to call, and you won’t wont to leave value on the table by getting tricky.

Here’s some information from the thread of the video:

Stats: # Hands/VPIP/PFR/SB Open-raise/BB Fold to Steal

The example in SNG Strategy assumes we somehow know our opponent has a hand that’s flipping against our AK. In a low buy-in SNG, in practice you’ll often end up against a hand you have dominated, so you have enough equity against his range to compensate for the ICM tax. In general, I would be willing to play for stacks with AK against an unknown player in a low-stakes SNG.

At CardRunners you’ll find SNG pros like Collin Moshman, author of Sit n Go Strategy and a regularly updated CardRunners blog.

Isildur1 to Battle Tony G in Second PokerStars SuperStar Showdown

At 4:00pm ET on Sunday, January 2nd, new PokerStars pro Isildur1 will face off against his rumored former backer Tony G in the second running of the SuperStar Showdown. The stakes will be at least $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and text found on the PokerStars Blog succinctly sums up what we can expect: “Well, this should be good.” Both Tony G and Isildur1 are expected to buy in for $150,000.

Tony G is a sponsored pro of PartyPoker and, earlier this year, tried to bring the mystery Swedish player to the Big Game IV. Isildur1 agreed, but then ultimately pulled out of the appearance, leaving Tony G to lament in a PartyPoker blog entry, “To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have spent so much time talking to him and reassuring him recently, but he’s just not going to come.” Tony G had offered to lend Isildur1 his Kermit the Frog outfit to preserve the Swede’s anonymity.

Posters on TwoPlusTwo were largely looking forward to the master versus apprentice showdown on Sunday. One member of the online poker community exclaimed, “OMG this is going to be freaking awesome. Isildur1 will pump up the variance and Tony will never fold, especially at these stakes. Can’t wait!” Another poster remarked, “I seriously doubt [Tony G] can keep up with the pace at two tables, let alone four. He doesn’t care about money at $25/$50 anyways. I will be very surprised if Isildur1 doesn’t win this.”

Other posters, however, were not content with the $50/$100 stakes set forth in the SuperStar Challenge, which sees players battling for 2,500 hands. One TwoPlusTwo member explained, “It’s kind of awesome that Tony G is facing off against Isildur1, but why can’t they play real high stakes?”

Weighing in on the upcoming SuperStar Showdown was PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu, who noted that he won’t be facing off against Isildur1 anytime soon: “I’m very excited to see this match; should be entertaining either way. I don’t plan on challenging Isildur1 because I’m just not good enough, especially four-tabling, but I do want to practice these matches at small stakes, 2,500 hands at maybe $5-$10, and see if I can get used to it. If that goes well, I may try this challenge next year, we’ll see. I’d be comfortable doing a challenge like this in Eight Game if there were people interested, $400-$800.” Negreanu is a four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner.

Last week, Isildur1 squared off against Isaac Haxton in the inaugural SuperStar Showdown. In the end, Haxton booked $41,000 in profit over 2,500 hands and was declared the winner. The rail featured a hodgepodge of poker talent, including Kevin “ImaLucSac” MacPhee and Chad “lilholdem954? Batista, and resulted in a 90-page thread on TwoPlusTwo.

According to PokerStars, the loss to Haxton resulted in Isildur1’s PokerStars bankroll plummeting to just $10,000. However, he has since parlayed that sum into over $300,000. Many believe the identity of Isildur1 to be Viktor Blom; however, Blom has not issued confirmation that he is the man behind the curtain. Blom took 16th in the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event for £33,000.

The SuperStar Showdown may travel to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January for a live installment, according to the PokerStars Blog. Interested challengers can fire off an e-mail to showdown@pokerstars.com to toss their hats into the ring for a shot at Isildur1 and eternal poker glory.

CardRunners Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

The popular poker training site CardRunners is turning five years old. Given the major milestone, CardRunners is giving new members $100 off and dishing out some of the holiday season’s hottest electronic items.

Poker players who sign up for CardRunners between December 6th and 12th will see their $100 signup fee waived in honor of the site’s fifth anniversary. A press release distributed by CardRunners this week lauded, “In honor of the fifth anniversary, we’re waiving the $100 sign up fee during the promotion. Join between December 6th through 12th and you’ll receive access to our daily videos and in depth training archive, strategy forums, promotions, and more for only $30 a month.”

In addition, CardRunners is shelling out one prize every day during the promotional period. These aren’t just fruitcakes from your grandmother, either. Instead, CardRunners is giving away a brand new MacBook Air computer, a buy-in to a 2011 World Series of Poker event, a digital SLR camera, an iPad, and an Xbox Kinect. The latter two represent what could be the most sought-after gifts of the 2010 holiday season.

In order to be eligible to win a prize, you’ll need an active CardRunners membership. In addition to the five aforementioned electronic items, CardRunners is giving away a free “leakfinder” session with instructor David “Raptor” Benefield and a 75-minute coaching stint with Matthew Janda. Prizes will be available by following CardRunners on Twitter (@cardrunners) and as part of an online poker tournament on Saturday, December 11th at 3:00pm CT.

The December 11th tournament is a $5 Rebuy that will have $5,000 added to the prize pool, making for exceptional value for players who buy in. Text found on CardRunners’ website explains, “Instructors are offering bounties on their heads, and CardRunners will be giving away a surprise bounty for busting any Team CardRunners Red Pro.” CardRunners instructors are Red Pros at Full Tilt Poker, the industry’s second largest online poker site. You can find the password for the $5 Rebuy in the forums on December 6th.

Players who take advantage of CardRunners’ Truly Free Poker Training can also partake in the fifth anniversary celebration. Racking up 5,500 Full Tilt Points, or FTPs, equates to a one-month membership at CardRunners. For players who are unable rack up the full number of FTPs needed, partial memberships are available in increments of 25%. The best part is that no FTPs are deducted from a player’s account in order to receive free training; instead, they are merely a way to keep track of play.

CardRunners boasts over 2,000 poker training videos in its library and features a team of instructors that includes Brian “Stinger” Hastings, Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen, Poker News Daily strategy columnist John “JimmyLegs” Wray, and CardRunners Video Challenge winner “Nikachu.”

Recent videos added to the site include “13 Scariest Small Stakes Leaks of All-Time” by Pawel “Verneer” Nazarewicz and “Razz Starting Hand Power Rating System” by “Doctor Razz.” You can also check out videos covering Pot Limit Omaha leaks, high-stakes No Limit Hold’em leaks, and knockout sit and gos.

CardRunners and StoxPoker merged on May 1st. At the time, StoxPoker boasted a library of nearly 1,400 videos, which were absorbed into CardRunners. Visit CardRunners for more information on the fifth anniversary celebration.

Scariest Small Stakes Leaks by CardRunners

Two CardRunners instructors present a fantastic video about the scariest leaks made by Small Stakes poker players. Both Verneer and Przytula are well respected instructors and private coaches who team up for a fantastic video about improving your game the Small Stakes. If you enjoyed this video, check it out at CardRunners as this video has been made free for all to watch in its entirety.

Here’s the official teaser:

It wouldn’t be an All Hollow’s Eve without a few tricks from your favorite poker training site. In this Halloween special, Przytula and Verneer present the 13 scariest SSNL leaks. Filled with humor and entertainment, it’s the perfect Halloween treat!

CardRunners offers daily new videos from the best online poker pros in the world, including Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen, Brian “Stinger” Hastings, and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen. There are pros specializing in all stakes and games to help you learn poker.

PKR.com London Calling Festival recap

Organisers of the PKR.com London Calling festival were hoping to offer something new to small stakes players at the Fox Poker Club in London and they certainly succeeded, attracting thousands of players to the month long series.

No Limit Hold’em Full Ring Theory with CardRunners

RonFar3 features his theory and perspective on No Limit Hold’em Full Ring in this video brought to us by our friends at CardRunners. RonFar3 is a huge winner at the small stakes on PokerStars and recently became a CardRunners coach back in August of 2010.

Official CardRunners Preview:

We introduce new instructor RonFar3 with some serious style: a new series showcasing the true theory behind your decion making. He kicks things off this week reviewing general full ring theory, pre-flop theory, and the thinking behind all the decisions you’ll have to make.

Some comments from RonFar3 from the video’s thread:

I typically play 24, though as of late if I’m playing off peak hours I’ve found it difficult to always be able to get 24 quality tables open. As a result occasionally now I’ll play a session where I’m on average playing 16 or 18 tables.

I hope whatever advice I may have given you ended up being helpful. There’s a couple guys I chat with regularly going for SNE this year that are currently a little behind pace, and have a tough road ahead of them especially heading into the final months of the year when VPP/hand averages inevitably drop on Pokerstars. SNE at small stakes is a tough grind.

I actually very much would like to produce an episode dedicated to HuD stats and how to use them effectively because I think it is one of my strengths as a player. Perhaps one will get made later on in the series.

My HuD is set up as follows, though I do make use of stats found in mouseover popups quite frequently, I’d imagine more frequently than most:

VPIP/PFR/AGG/Hands
3b/Ft3b/Steal/BB Fold to Steal
Fold to Cbet/Fold to Turn cbet/Cbet%

Off the top of my head the popup stats I tend to reference the most are TurnCbet%, 4bet%, and positionally specific stats (ie. button steal %, UTG PFR%, etc.)

Poker News in Brief: Sep. 27- Oct. 3, 2010

So busy, in fact, the PokerListings news team may have let a few stories slip through the cracks.

Fortunately, we've collected them all in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week, UB gives away Anthrax tickets, Cake offers some fun in the sun, an Italian wins the latest PokerStars IPT stop and a whole lot more.

Irish Masters Last Chance

Paddy Power Poker is giving players one last chance to qualify for the Irish Winter Festival.

The site’s final group of online super satellites for the Irish Masters will guarantee a specific number of Irish Masters entries, including 20 packages up for grabs Oct. 10.

The IWF Last Chance Saloon will run through Oct. 21.

"The Last Chance Saloon satellites have always been a favorite for our players but now there's an even bigger incentive to get involved with an enormous 60 seats guaranteed over the 12 day period." said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for paddypowerpoker.com.

The Irish Winter Festival 2010 will take place in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin Oct. 22-25.

UB Anthrax Giveaway

UB has branded Anthrax frontman and Team UB pro Scott Ian’s tour bus and is giving away two tickets to every concert on the Anthrax tour through Oct. 21.

At 1 p.m. local time at each tour stop, UB will ask followers to throw a specific picture up on the UB Facebook wall. Fans will have 90 minutes to do so and a winner will be randomly selected to receive the tickets.

UB shwag is also up for grabs for the first three people to post a picture of themselves standing in front of the tour bus on each stop.

Titan Sending Winners to Vienna, Marrakech

Titan Poker is offering players the chance to win seats in the DeepStack Open Vienna 2010 and DeepStack Open Marrakech 2010.

Titan Poker is hosting an online qualifier satellites series to both events, with Stage 3 Sit & Go satellites starting from €0.22 + 0.02.

Packages include cash for flights, accommodations and buy-ins.

The DeepStack Open Vienna 2010 tournament will be held at the Montesino Casino in Vienna, Austria, Oct. 14-17, while the DeepStack Open Marrakech 2010 tournament will be held at the Casino de Marrakech in Morocco, Nov. 20-22.

UB Gets Low

October promises to be a boon for low-limit online poker players on UB.

Tagged as the Perfect Play, UB's month-long line-up of micro-stakes tourneys and contests is offering up to $100,000 in prizes to small stakes players.

There is a wide range of promos including a tournament leaderboard, deposit bonus; double loyalty rewards points on designated cash game tables and more.

For more information check out UB.

Cake Offers Punta Cana, Aussie Millions Seats

Cake Poker is running satellites for the Punta Cana Poker Classic and the 2011 Aussie Millions this month.

The $250,000 guaranteed Punta Cana Poker Classic is set for Nov. 10-14 in the Dominican Republic and Cake is offering the chance to win a $3,100 prize package, including the $1k buy-in, $1,000 in cash to help with travel expenses and four nights hotel accommodations at the Moon Palace Hotel and Casino,

Plus, Cake is also offering seats to the 2011 Aussie Millions held at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia this January.

These $14,000 packages include the main event buy in, ten-nights at Crown Promenade and $2,500 for travel expenses.

"With the weather turning cooler, we're all thinking about getting away to warm places,” said Cake Card Room Manager Lee Jones “Punta Cana and Melbourne, Australia have great weather with fantastic poker action.”

For more information check out Cake Poker.

Italian Wins IPT Nova Gorica

A 23 year-old Italian took down the PokerStars Italian Poker Tour Nova Gorica main event Tuesday.

Luca Topazio, whose previous best cash was for €2k at a tournament in Sharm el Sheikh, got the better of the 384-player field to collect a €190,000 first-place prize.

He beat fellow Italian Luciano Prevedello Dellisanti heads-up, leaving Dellisanti with €120,000 for second.

Sixty-one players won their seats to the event on PokerStars and with 384 players total; the prize pool reached €744,960.

The next stop in the IPT’s second Season is in San Remo Oct. 13-19.

Visit PokerListings.com

$12 Turbo SNG Strategy with Collin Moshman

In this CardRunners strategy video, noted author and coach Collin Moshman brings his high level of expertise to the world of Sit & Go play. We’re giving Collin Moshman the name “Mr. SNG” to our esteemed SNG wiz. This week he’s doing one for all the small stakes guys with a $12 turbo 9-man on FTP. Focusing on overall ranges and utilizing SNG Wizard for his decisions, he’ll help you begin grinding out that bankroll.

Bot ring discovered and stamped out at PokerStars

PokerStars last week froze ten player accounts after discovering an illegal bot ring making the rounds in the small stakes games. From NL50 to NL200 6-max, the bots had played over 8,000,000 hands between them and accumulated $57,839.

Bot ring discovered and stamped out at PokerStars

PokerStars last week froze ten player accounts after discovering an illegal bot ring making the rounds in the small stakes games. From NL50 to NL200 6-max, the bots had played over 8,000,000 hands between them and accumulated $57,839.

Ashton Griffin – Poker Player Profile

Known as Ashman103 online, Ashton Griffin is one of the most recognizable and fierce online cash game players around. He found the game playing small stakes with his mother and sister, but eventually began playing $60 Sit-and-Gos online. After some moderate success, Ashton took a few shots and found himself with only $200 remaining in his account. In less than a month, he turned that into $10K, at which point he decided to quit school to focus on poker.

For all his skill and competitiveness at the tables, Ashton Griffin has never been known for bankroll management or tilt control. At one point in August of 2008, he ran his account up over $1 million, but it was all gone just a week later. Whereas most players would blame bad luck, Griffin knows why he lost his money. In an interview with PokerListings, Griffin said that game selection and ego were his main problems. “I was playing a mix of $500/$1,000, $200/$400, $300/$600, and $2,000/$4,000 Limit O8. Most of my losses were to [Phil] Ivey and [Hac] trex [Dang].”

After battling back to about $500K, Griffin made a public prop bet on the 2+2 forums that he could make $500K in a year playing no higher than $25/$50. He promptly lost the bet when he dumped $400K in one sitting. He then played on a stake to scrape together $10K, and once he was back on his own feet he won $600K in less than a month. The incredible run also won him $23K in a second prop bet, which he used to buy in to a Full Tilt Online Poker Series $25K heads-up event. He won the tournament for $551K and just like that, he was back on top.

Due to his age, Griffin has limited experience on the live tournament circuit. In 2008, he made the final table at the Latin American Poker Tour, taking seventh in Costa Rica for $28K. More recently, he notched his first big score, taking down the 2010 North American Poker Tour $25K Invitational High Roller Bounty Shootout for $560K.

While his volatile nature and his extremely public swings are often what put him under the spotlight, Ashton Griffin is also an incredible poker talent who will be a force at the tables for years to come.

Scotty Nguyen in Pokerista.fi interview: “Ilari Sahamies who?”

Pokerista.fi interviewed the poker legend Scotty “Baby” Nguyen on March 26th as he was promoting Expekt in Helsinki.

-Scotty representing @ Motellet

Scotty told having chosen Expekt especially because the site does not force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Unlike at Full Tilt or PokerStars, at Expekt he is not obliged to play any certain amount of online hours.

Scotty likes to play only now and then with small stakes and is still winning from these games - although he claims not to enjoy playing that much (“I am scared of stealing some old lady’s money”). According to his own words he does not feel well at all if he as a pro ”accidentally” takes money from a beginner or from someone who is suffering from economic problems.

“Ziigmund is a Baby!”

Scotty stated already in the beginning of the interview that he hardly follows the highest stakes online games. But still it was quite surprising that he did not recognize Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. Showing the picture of Ilari did not make it any easier for him: Nguyen only shook his head slightly embarrassed, smiled and continued in his very own style: “I’m sorry, I’m really bad with faces. All these young guys – they are all Babies to me.”

Despite he finds it hard to remember faces and names, Scotty gives high respect for both online and live professionals. For example the playing conditiong of 76-year Boyle Brunson doesn’t cease to amaze him. Scotty says he really values Doyle’s performance and is sure that he himself won’t probably be able to play poker on the top level in the same age.

Scotty is also very sure that poker will become more and more popular. Texas games will keep their place as the most popular game form and Pot-Limit Omaha – “a funny action game where everyone likes to gamble” – is a good runner-up.

Partying and grilling at Boot Camp

Scotty’s and Expekt’s co-promotion “Scotty’s Boot Camp” shall be a great experience for the players who will qualify there. That is to say Scotty is planning to introduce some Las Vegas nightlife for his “students”. Besides, these players get to feast at Scotty’s barbecue where the maestro himself will be in the role of the grill master. And poker will be discussed there too. Of course.

“Baby, you gotta see the parties at Vegas, and the Babes.. the Babes! We are gonna go all around and check out the Babes, you really gotta see the Babes! Such amazing Babes there, Baby!” (There is no expression on the face of Scotty’s wife who sits next to him, so it looks like she is fully accustomed to her husband’s stories.) ”We’re gonna have an amazing barbeque at my house, on my backyard – you don’t wanna miss it! This is your only chance to have Scotty Nguyen cook for you!”

-The Expekt representant in Boot Camp equipment

WSOP and being sober

Scotty - who is nearly always spotted holding a beer - recently surprised the poker world by giving a promise to stay completely sober while playing live poker tournaments. According to Scotty this decision was based on the negative feedback from the fans after he had messed it up loud during the $50 k H.O.R.S.E. tournament in 2008. Scotty talks long about how much his fans mean to him and clearly understands the value of fans in this more and more showbusiness-alike live poker circus: “They are the reason we’re here!”.

Last year Scotty announced that his goal was to win 4 million dollars from WSOP. But all this turned against him as someone always recognized him and made him to listen to annoying comments. The pressure from the tables was huge; people were shouting like“Hey Scotty, how can you win 4 million if you can’t even make it to the final tables?”.

This year he is not up to expressing any public goals. Instead, his only aim is to play the best possible game he can. To the question of bracelets he gave a laconic answer: “Hey man I gotta win my sixth so I get one closer to Hellmuth”.

Scotty Nguyen has earned an amazing 11,1 million dollars from the live tournaments, and at the moment he is holding the fifth place on the tournament money list of all times.

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Scotty Nguyen in Pokerista.fi interview: “Ilari Sahamies who?”

David Sklansky – Poker Player Profile

Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, David Sklansky attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out after only a year. He then got a job as an actuary and quickly became extremely proficient in the field. Upon discovering a faster way to do the required calculations of his job, he took the methods to his boss who then promptly dismissed them.

In Al Alvarez’s book “The Biggest Game in Town”, Sklansky expressed his displeasure over the situation with his boss, saying, “I knew something no one else knew, but I got no recognition for it.” It was then that David realized the workforce wasn’t for him, so he turned to poker. “In poker, if you’re better than anyone else, you make immediate money. If there’s something I know about the game that the other person doesn’t, and if he’s not willing to learn or can’t understand, then I take his money.”

On the tables, Sklansky proved his talent in the 1982 World Series of Poker by winning two events: $1K Draw high and $800 Mixed Doubles. A year later, he picked up his third bracelet, winning the $1K Limit Omaha event for $25.5K. In 2006, he recorded his biggest live tournament score when he finished third in the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $419K. All told, Sklansky has over $1 million in live poker earnings.

Despite his prowess on the felt, David Sklansky is more widely known as the foremost poker author in the world. Published in 1976, Hold’em Poker is regarded as the first true poker book. Often collaborating with other authors like Mason Malmuth and Ed Miller, other important works by Sklansky include “Hold’em for Advanced Players”, “Poker, Gaming, & Life”, “Sklansky on Poker”, “Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big with Expert Play”, “Theory of Poker”, “Tournament Poker for Advanced Players”, and “No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice”.

Currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, David Sklansky still regularly participates in tournaments and cash games all over the world.

Full Tilt Poker under the investigation of FBI?

Online-casinos.com writes about a rumor that Full Tilt Poker is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the USA. UIGEA’s deadline is near, June first, and it is believed that the Feds are moving rapidly to prosecute someone right away.

It seems that the FBI agents have been interviewing online players of Full Tilt Poker. Even the small stakes players have been visited without warning by the FBI agents who then asked questions about the player’s transactional activities with Full Tilt Poker. The Feds have stated that they are not gathering information about the players but about Full Tilt Poker.

It is now speculated that this is going to lead into a case against Full Tilt Poker eventually. Washington state is one of the few of U.S. states which prohibits online poker. This seems like the perfect way for an FBI investigation as it could result in real convictions for firms offering online gambling to those who live in Washington state.

If the rumor is true and Washington state sues FTP, it will cause more strength for UIGEA and the downfall of UIGEA is nowhere in near vicinity.

Source: online-casinos.com

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Full Tilt Poker under the investigation of FBI?

Poker: As Seen on TV?

Ever since I first saw Tom Chambers' online poker screenname I have been a fan. The online poker pro may not be a household name, but his humorous online moniker, "LearnedFromTV" tends to stick with you. I have always found it pretty amusing and I find it a little ironic that "LearnedFromTV" helps people learn over the internet, providing online videos for Poker Savvy.

Poker Savvy is just one of many examples of online poker education programs that the dedicated online grinders turn to for help. However, these subscription-based programs are often time consuming and cost prohibitive for the small stakes grinders. Innumerable poker books serve as an alternative means for players to obtain their poker education. A lot of people complain that poker books are too dry, too mathematical and just too boring. So, instead of books and programs, many players heed Chambers' suggestion: learn from TV.

In general, there is nothing wrong with learning poker from television programs like the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on ESPN, World Poker Tour (WPT), High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. Any time you are watching people play hands of poker, there is something valuable to learn, even if it is an amateur versus a known pro. In a game where successful players are those who can figure out the thought processes of their opponents, poker on TV is an opportunity to try to get into players' heads and ask yourself why they played a hand the way they did.

Unfortunately, several people who pick up poker tips primarily from what they see on their TV fail to consider some important factors, and may walk away thinking it is a good idea to play K2 because Gus Hansen did, without realizing he made a particular play under a very particular set of circumstances.

Remember that televised poker is intended to be entertaining. Oftentimes, poker tournaments created for TV have fast structures and are designed to create a lot of all-in action before the flop. A good example is the NBC Heads-Up Championship. A number of pros have gone on record that the structure is one of the worst ones around and that the event very quickly becomes a crapshoot. WPT events prior to Season VI have a similar problem, with the blinds so big by the time players reach the final table that there is not a lot of post-flop play.

While most poker tournaments, televised or not, reach a point where players will have to move all-in preflop for their tournament life, there are large portions of the tournaments where players are seeing flops, playing with deeper stacks and not frequently reraising all-in before the flop. High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark are two shows that depict a more realistic example of what poker games are like. On Poker After Dark, every hand is shown, even the "boring" ones where a player raises and everyone else folds. High Stakes Poker, a deep-stacked cash game, has very few all-in preflop showdowns because they are relatively uncommon in an actual cash game setting.

You also have to remember how much is edited out of these tournaments in order to fit in their allotted time slot. Mike Matusow has said in several interviews that he thinks amateurs overvalue the importance of bluffing and he thinks TV is to blame. Matusow claims he only pulls off one or two big bluffs in a typical tournament day and he only does so after setting the bluff up over hours of play. Perhaps he folded for several rounds in order to establish a tight image or perhaps he bet a hand a certain way so he could repeat the same betting pattern later and reap the benefits.

Those hours of folding don't make it on TV though, so the big bluffs that do make the cut are shown without context. Online pro Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers has somewhat of an undeserved reputation in the poker world because he moved all-in over the top of a raise from WPT host Mike Sexton with the meager holding of 4-9 during an episode from the 2008 WSOP. It was one of the only hands in the two hours of coverage of the event that featured the young pro and the commentary from Norman Chad left the impression that Sowers was a maniac, moving all-in with any two cards at any time.

What viewers didn't see was that Sexton was raising a ton of hands and was likely playing a very wide range of cards. Sowers said after the event that Sexton had been raising his blind for two days, so he picked a spot to fight back and got a little unlucky that Sexton happened to be holding pocket queens. As a result, Sowers, who impressively final tabled the very first WSOP event he ever played, became "that kid who reraised with 4-9" because of the power of television.

Hopefully these examples will get you to think about televised poker a little differently. They may call it reality television, but don't think for a second that it isn't highly produced, highly edited and leaves out a vast majority of what poker tournaments are all about. I still stop and watch every time I catch poker on TV and I do think there is a lot that people can pick up from watching. Just don't think that the television can offer you all you need to learn about how to become a good poker player.

Victory Poker Officials Recap First Two Weeks

On February 6th, the crew from Victory Poker celebrated the launch of the new Everleaf/UPN network site at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. Now, one week after the festivities and two weeks after its debut, Victory Poker appears to be chugging along.

The diverse team of pros at Victory Poker includes Andrew “good2cu” Robl, who finished third in a $5,000 Limit/No Limit Hold’em event during the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $144,000, outlasting everyone except for poker superstars Erick Lindgren and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo in the 332-player field. Robl told Poker News Daily how Victory Poker has been faring in its first few days in operation: “The launch went really well and there was a lot of buzz and hype in the poker community. Overall, people’s reactions have been positive and the website has been getting a lot of traffic.”

Officials from the USA-facing room told Poker News Daily that Victory Poker’s website has been seeing 1,500 visitors per day. According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, the Everleaf/UPN family of sites has seen its traffic grow steadily since the end of January. On February 1st, a peak of 623 real money ring game players took to the network’s felts. Now, that number sits at 698 and is growing steadily. Robl added that the traffic figures were “better than we expected.”

Winning a date with Sara Underwood is one of the promotional opportunities on the horizon for Victory Poker users. Underwood, the 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year, is a sponsored pro of Victory Poker and finished fourth in a charity poker tournament held during the site’s kickoff party in Sin City. Other promotions that allow customers to interact with Victory Poker pros in a live setting will follow.

Some in the industry questioned why Victory Poker would join the relatively small Everleaf/UPN network rather than a larger USA-facing entity like the Cake Poker Network. Robl explained, “A lot of sites have become so big and so corporate that there’s no real feeling of a community. Our pros will be playing on the site and even playing small stakes. You can come on Victory Poker and play $0.50/$1 with Antonio Esfandiari. That’s pretty cool.”

Other Victory Poker pros include former DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Alec “traheho” Torelli, former Full Tilt Poker pros Paul Wasicka and Lee Markholt, Chinese Poker guru Danny Wong, “Flying Bilzerian Brother” Dan Bilzerian, and online poker pro Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Despite the strong group, Robl commented that the site will expand its roster of pros: “We definitely want to get more pros involved – maybe some foreign players – but we’re going to be very selective. We only want elite players. We don’t want to be like PokerStars or Full Tilt and have 200 pros.”

Despite being in business for less than half a month, Victory Poker has already had a considerable amount of exposure in the live arena. Wasicka recently took down the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Championship in Tunica, earning $139,000. He defeated Larry Gurner heads-up in a final table that also included Lock Poker’s Matt “All In At 420” Stout, Carter “BdyBldngpkrplyr” Phillips, and Dwyte Pilgrim. Wasicka earned his first gold ring as a result, but gained fame in the poker world for finishing as the runner-up to Jamie Gold in the 2006 WSOP Main Event for $6.1 million. Wasicka donned a Victory Poker patch in Tunica, giving the nascent room some much-needed face time.

Robl is passionate about Victory Poker succeeding. He explained that the team at Victory Poker is dedicated to seeing the site flourish: “We all want Victory Poker to do really well. We really believe in our vision for the company and we’re all going to work very hard to bring Victory Poker into the top five or 10 poker sites.”

Other Everleaf/UPN network sites include flagship room Everleaf Poker, Minted Poker, and Poker4Ever.

E-Books: Future of Poker Training

In the last two years, poker training sites have exploded.  Mainstays like DeucesCracked and StoxPoker, which have been around for years, are contending with upstarts like Drag the Bar, which just wooed Dusty “Leatherass9” Schmidt into its ranks.  Over the years, these sites revolutionized the way poker players learned through videos.  Moving into 2010, the poker training market might be moving toward an old friend in the form of books, but this time with a digital twist.

The digital revolution has fully crossed over into book sales, as Amazon’s e-book device, the Kindle, sold like hotcakes this holiday season.  The device broke sales records in November thanks to hefty marketing, a price drop, and an international release.  Without revealing numbers, Amazon announced that more Kindle books were sold than real books through Amazon on Christmas Day.  The announcement shows a growing segment of the public leaning towards e-book readers.  What does this have to do with poker?  It’s maybe a taste of things to come in 2010 for poker training content.

Two books from well-known poker players, Ed Miller and Schmidt, were recently released.  The books were self-published and both are available in an e-book edition through the authors’ personal websites.  There is little doubt that e-books are the wave of the future and, for authors, it gives them freedom to publish a book like never before.  Will future poker strategy authors create e-books for sale while video training websites die off?  That’s very unlikely.  Will future strategy books be sold and distributed the way that Miller and Schmidt are doing now, with tie-ins to training videos?  Absolutely.

Poker News Daily graciously received e-copies of each book.  We’ll offer a quick summary and unbiased opinion of each.

“Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em” by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn
Cost: $99.95 (35% off until January 15th)

About the Book

This book is the highly-anticipated follow-up to “Professional No-Limit Hold’em,” which had a six-week run at number one on Amazon’s poker and gambling best seller list.  This time around, the authors have focused on beating $1-$2 Six-Max online cash games.  Structured as an example-driven content piece, the book aims to teach critical No Limit concepts.  The authors believe that if a player can consistently beat this game, then they can beat 99% of the games online.  The book is available for e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle.

Impressions

As a player who competes in $0.50-$1 Six-Max games, it would seem that this book is aimed at someone like me.  I want to move up to the $1-$2 games, but there’s a definite barrier, as those games are a lot tougher than the ones I play, but the money to be made borders on a professional level.  The topic and focus they’ve chosen are perfect, as many agree that if you can beat $1-$2 Six-Max, then you’re able to rise the ranks once your bankroll allows it.  The subject matter in the book covers key points such as stealing pots from opponents, barreling, and how to get value.

There are a lot of good topics that can be applied even if you are playing in micro-stakes games.  In addition, readers will find a lot of sections that will make you re-think your game in a more scientific manner. You’ll also understand 3bet/4bet/5bet theory and how to handle opponents’ aggression.

The final part of the part book is summed up nicely by its title, “7 Easy Steps to No Limit Hold’em Success,” and just about every online poker player should read it.  One of the better sections of the final part was “Keep Your Head In The Game,” where the mental aspect of playing poker is addressed.

The price tag seems a little hefty, but for the discounted rate of roughly $65, the book is a tremendous investment.  As a player dying to jump into the games addressed in the book, I feel like I have a lot more knowledge about beating them than I did before reading it.  The book is best read by small-stakes grinders aching to get ahead and increase their “Poker IQ” so that they can climb the cash game ladder.

“Treat Your Poker Like a Business” by Dusty “Leatherass9” Schmidt
Cost: $39.99 (E-Book Version PDF or Printed Version), $59.99 for both

About the Book

Schmidt is the ultimate grinder who has made millions of dollars playing online poker after starting out at the micro-stakes and watching strategy videos.  His career has spanned seven million hands and he plays as many as 20 tables at a time in the mid- and high-stakes levels.  With this book, he’s not promising to make you the next Phil Ivey, but he’ll outline a way to monetize your abilities.  The book’s focus is best summed up in a quote from Schmidt: “All of the poker books and training sites have made poker players’ games better, but they haven’t necessarily taught them to make money.”

Impressions

There are two types of poker books I’ve read in my years of studying and playing the game.  There are those that teach you the facts, mathematics, plays, and strategies necessary to win.  These types of books are extremely valuable if you ever want to improve enough to keep moving up in stakes.  The other type of book deals with topics never covered before, but gives essential tips to surviving in the industry.  “Treat Your Poker Like a Business” is one such book.

The topics covered include bankroll management, how to rationalize variance, why you should be playing more tables, and how to avoid tilt.  Essential topics also include when and how to move up in stakes, discovering new sources of revenue, and how to be more profitable.  The book isn’t a difficult read, but it goes into detail of what Schmidt put together to create a successful formula for becoming an online poker pro.  There are some endearing chapters, one of which is written by his wife about dealing with the social stigma of playing poker professionally.

The story of Schmidt should be one that inspires many of us to start monetizing our skills and passion for the game.  Schmidt’s book is available as a traditional book or a PDF e-book that will load on to any reader like the Amazon Kindle.

PKR rolls out new tournament schedule

The overhaul to the schedule is designed to appeal to a broad range of players and will see several new events added.

The flagship PKR event - the $100,000 Guaranteed Masters - will now run twice a month on alternating Saturdays.

Plus, the $30,000 Guaranteed High Roller tournament on PKR will run every Saturday that the $100K Masters doesn't. This means players will have a shot at a big prize pool every Saturday on PKR.

In terms of daily tournaments, the $5,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack Grand Prix returns to its 20:45 GMT timeslot while the larger $30,000 Guaranteed PKR Primetime kicks off at 19:25 GMT.

The online room also offers the $5,000 Goldrush every day at 20:50 GMT. This event is a $2 rebuy so small stakes players can get in on the action.

PKR will also offer several exclusive tournaments for its Australian and Canadian players.

Australians will be able to play the $6,000 Aussie Classic on Sundays at 8:55 GMT as well as the $3,000 Aussie Open, running at the same time as the Classic Monday to Saturday.

Canadians will be able to play the $3,000 Guaranteed Canadian Open every day at 02:30 GMT.

The Pot-Limit Omaha and Omaha-8 game selections have also improved greatly at PKR with more tournaments, larger buy-ins and more guarantees.

PKR, which bills itself as a next-generation poker room, hit a milestone this summer by registering its three millionth player.

Visit PokerListings.com

Win a trip to the 2010 World Cup courtesy of PokerStars

Poker Stars has teamed up with the Daily Mirror to offer a series of football related freerolls and small stakes tournaments.

High Stakes Omaha Games in Las Vegas

Since the inception of the World Series of Poker 40 years ago, one of the biggest attractions wasn’t the tournament series itself but the side games that occurred after people had busted out of their tournaments. All too often the real sharks of Las Vegas would be waiting in the juicy side games where the home game heroes would end up after their tournament was finished. All too often the result was that the sharks cleaned the tourists out and fattened their bankrolls for the rest of the year.

Times are a little different in Las Vegas 40 years later as poker is offered at just about every major casino in town. The idea of sharks waiting at every cash game is something of the past since so many casual tourists in town have some experience playing poker and don’t mind sitting down at the games when they are out gambling. This means that the fields for the small stakes tables, be it Limit Hold’em, No Limit Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha are so big that good poker players should do well if they can avoid the coolers and bad beats no matter where they play.

More often than not, the biggest game in a poker room is Pot Limit Omaha. Because of the drawing nature of the game, pots are always bigger in PLO games than they are for No Limit Hold’em. When a huge whale comes in to town (someone with ridiculous amounts of money to burn) and wants big poker action, they’re playing Pot Limit Omaha. As famed rounder Sammy Farha was quoted as saying, “If No Limit Texas Hold’em is the Cadillac of poker, then Pot Limit Omaha is the Porsche.”

The days of juicy side cash games at the World Series of Poker aren’t too removed as the venue has changed to the swankier and bigger poker room at the Rio in Las Vegas. With the WSOP in town, the high rollers are constantly on the lookout for a big game to prove their skills in addition to taking home big profits. According to more than one source, one of the biggest games for Pot Limit Omaha is currently running daily at the Rio in the form of a 25-25-50 game. That means that there’s two small blinds of $25 and one big blind of $50 in a 9-handed format. To say this is an action packed game would be the littlest complement one could bestow on the game.

Regular players in that game include popular pro David “Devilfish” Ulliot and other internet PLO superstars such as DJ Sensei, Eric Liu, Harrington25 (not Dan Harrington) and colson10 have been spotted at the main game at the Rio. Many in that main game, as evidenced by recent posts in their blogs, have said that the game isn’t juicy at all and is similar to their regular games online. The idea for them was finding juicy games against lesser competition while in Las Vegas. Omaha does seem to be taking off in Las Vegas this summer as the game is more widespread than it has been in recent memory.

According to reports, the aforementioned Rio has been running 25-25-50 PLO every day and if requested, they have started up a 50-100-200 game during peak gambling hours in Sin City. Also at the Rio was a half 100-200 PLO and half 100-200-400 No Limit Hold’em game with antes which was running regularly through the WSOP week. Finally, the Rio has been known to run a 75-150 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better game and players are encouraged to call in to the Rio poker room to request a seat at any of the big games.

Other hotels in Vegas are also running Pot Limit Omaha, including some of the smallest stakes seen for poker in Vegas casinos for players looking to learn the game live. At the Excalibur Hotel, they are offering up a regular $0.50-$1 Pot Limit Omaha game at their electronic PokerPro table which seems perfectly suited for the game to keep it moving quickly, as most dealt Omaha games run quite slow. Regular PLO games are known to be going at both Caesars Palace and Bellagio.

If you’re in Las Vegas this summer during the WSOP event season and are looking to get in on the action, there’s plenty of mega-high limit games at the Rio, in addition to games at Caesars. For those of you with oil company ownership money, you can always get in on the mixed game action at Bobby’s Room at Bellagio which requires a minimum $20,000 buy-in. If you win in that game, you just might be able to buy that Porsche Sammy Farha was talking about.

Poker Book Review: ‘Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em’ by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta, and Matt Flynn

One of the more anticipated poker strategy texts of the year has finally arrived with 'Small Stakes No-Limit Hold’em', the latest offering from...

Taking a shot

Hi Dr Tom,
I’m a small stakes cash game player who has painstakingly built up a bankroll over the last year by strictly adhering to the rules of bankroll management. However, I’m increasingly tempted to “take a shot” at levels way beyond my means.