Online Players to Watch for at WSOP...

As big as online poker has gotten, there are still plenty of well-known online grinders who are unknown to the general poker population.  In fact, many of these players have to win something at the WSOP in order to gain any sort of fame at all.  Steve Billirakis aka “MrSmokey1″, Jeff Williams aka “yellowsub86″, and James Mackey aka “mig.com” were just a few of the online studs who became more famous after making WSOP final tables. 

As a sort of preview for which online players to watch out for this year, I’d like to mention a few names that I think might do well at the WSOP.  Alex “AJKHoosier” Kamberis is definitely one player to watch for since he’s had some huge cashes in 2008 and is at the top, or near it, of about every online ranking system on the Internet.  In all, Kamberis has earned about $2 million in lifetime earnings through online poker.

Another person to keep an eye out for during the WSOP is Steve “gboro780” Gross who’s having an unbelievable year in online poker and made over $400,000 in the month of February alone!  Some of the finishes that helped propel Gross to this massive amount of money was a win in the Ultimate Bet $200,000, a second place finish in the Full Tilt $1 Million Guaranteed, and a win the FTOPS Event #10.

One more person to watch out for is Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb who plays an enormous amount of online tournaments and has the most experience out of the bunch.  Deeb is a threat in both smaller and bigger tourneys No Limit tourneys so look for him in all of the NLH events.  I definitely think that the 2009 WSOP will turn up another big online winner, but we’ll have to wait till June and July to see.

Will the Economic Downturn affect the WS...

Last year’s WSOP set numerous records such as the most money given out combined at $180 million and the most participants ever at well over 50,000 people.  But that was last year when the recession hadn’t hit America as hard and we were only in a mild freefall at the point.  And you can say what you want about how there is a much larger amount of international players in the WSOP today, but the truth is that it’s mostly comprised of Americans.

Seeing as how this is the case and we may be at the bottom point of the recession (possibly depression), it begs the questions of whether the World Series of Poker will be severely affected by the United States’ economic downturn.  However, despite many other industries having trouble during this time, WSOP officials don’t think the recession will negatively affect the 2009 WSOP.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has stated that the WSOP will run as scheduled and they won’t let economics disrupt what they have going.  He said, “We’re aware of what is happening with the global economy and we’re sensitive to it.  We have an obligation to create an annual festival and improve every aspect of the tournament that we can. We have to ensure that whoever shows up is given the best possible experience.”

Pollack continued by saying, “We could have planned to have a recession World Series of Poker and cut back, but we didn’t think that was the right thing to do.  That wouldn’t best serve our players.”  So for those wondering like I am, the recession won’t affect the WSOP - at least from a scheduled events standpoint.  But as to whether or not it affects the turnout of the event is a question that is still waiting to be answered.

What Direction will Poker go if it’...

There has been plenty of talk as of late about states in the US regulating online poker.  California is the latest place to be pushing the idea around about controlling poker within their state in order to create additional revenue.  In fact, California is so serious about regulating online poker within their state that a bill has already been drafted and it seeks to control all of the Internet poker played by its residents.  The bill even goes as far as to say the “2,300″ poker sites and rooms operating outside of the US are a serious threat to California’s gaming presence.

If this bill passes in California and works out then other states will no doubt be interested in getting their own plan in the works.  This has me wondering what online poker will be like if states start regulating the game on their own.  Obviously, poker rooms and their affiliate sites can’t be too happy about state regulation of online poker because it cuts directly into their business.  Of course the Poker Players Alliance has lobbied for years to legalize online poker, but I highly doubt this is what they had in mind - especially since Full Tilt Poker has such a presence within the PPA. 

Another thing I wonder about is if stuff like rake or bonuses will change drastically with states controlling online poker.  I’m not really sure if things could be better or worse based on what’s current because we don’t know anything different.  However, assuming some states run their own poker operation, the situation could change for the better or for the worse.  This is all hypothetical though as no states have passed any bills to regulate online poker yet.  But if they do, be prepared for some major changes to the game we’ve known for the last few years.

The NFL doesn’t want You playing O...

Ever since Roger Goodell took over as NFL commissioner, the National Football League has received a facelift.  No longer do players go unpunished for their brushes with the law and, if they do get arrested, the penalties handed out are very stiff.  Goodell has instituted a no-tolerance policy for player misconduct and isn’t afraid to suspend people for an entire season if they step out of line.

Unfortunately, Goodell himself has been stepping out of line lately since he and his NFL cronies have decided to wage war against online poker.  And this is by no means any exaggeration either since the NFL has hired one of the priciest Washington lobbyists, opened a PAC donation committee to help with expenses, and is operating a DC office for its crusade against poker.

Of course there has to be a good reason for America’s most successful sports league to start an all-out assault against online poker, right?  Actually there have been no public statements about the NFL’s intentions in this matter other than that they think online gambling is cutting into the core of American morals.  The truth is though that online poker is cutting into the ticket sales and number of $10 beers being sold at football stadiums across the US and the NFL has jumped on the anti-poker bandwagon.

And don’t worry because the NFL has plenty of help from Native American tribal casinos since they too have pledged their undying support (and more importantly, money) to the cause of ending the evil that is online poker.  I hope we can all sleep better now knowing that the world’s biggest professional football league and tribal casinos are doing their best to keep us from harming ourselves by playing online poker.

Stealing Blinds...

I’ve always been what people would call a recreational poker player even though I try to make some money by playing.  Unfortunately, I don’t make enough to classify as a semi-pro or especially pro hence the moniker of rec. player.  But one thing that I’ve always understood as something that can separate a winning player from a losing player is the ability to steal blinds from others.

Sure stealing the blinds isn’t going to rocket you into the Forbes Billionaires List, but it can definitely give you an edge over others at the table - even if it’s just by a little bit.  And the first thing that you need to know about blind stealing is that you need to be in the right type of game to pull this maneuver off.  If you are playing in a micro stakes game then you’re probably not in the right place to try stealing blinds. 

Players in micro stakes will often play just about anything so stealing blinds here is a futile act.  If you’re going to try and steal blinds at the table then you should at least be playing limits of $1/$2 where there are some decent players who actually have a fear of playing a hand when they have nothing.  Stealing blinds also requires you to create a table image so you need to play somewhat tight in order to create an image that you’re not calling with just anything. 

One last thing to keep in mind when you are blind stealing is that you don’t want to have any loose-aggressive players at the table when doing this.  Sure the loose-aggressive players may not always have something when they call, but you also don’t want to have them call when you’ve got absolutely nothing.