How to avoid sucking in Poker Tournament...

Everyone likes to talk about what you can do to be better in poker tournaments and it’s definitely helpful in improving your game when you listen to this advice.  However, sometimes it’s actually better to focus on the negative and talk about what you can do to stop sucking in poker tournaments.

The first thing you should do is avoid continuation bets or any other sort of automatic bet on the river.  Some players have the tendency to raise or bet despite knowing that their opponent could have the better hand.  The thinking is that, even though the opponent has the better hand, they may be fooled into folding to a big bet or raise.  But the reality is that you shouldn’t ever bet or raise on the river unless you think you’re at least a 51% favorite to win the hand. 

Another thing you need to do to avoid failing miserably in poker tourneys is applying too much math to certain situations.  You need to realize that when your chips are out in a poker tournament, you are done for.  Unless it’s a rebuy, there is no bringing extra chips into the equation so you can’t treat a tournament like a cash game.  You have to look for specific points where you can make a big move on a weaker player instead of determining your entire play through mathematical odds.

One more thing to keep in mind is that you should also cut out distractions if you’re playing online.  It’s way too often that I see friends playing a tourney with their TV on, music in the background, chatting on facebook, etc.  There is no way you’re going to play well through all of these distractions so you definitely need to cut them out.

Can Poker really be Taught?...

There are hundreds of poker coaches and training sites that would have you believe the game is definitely teachable.  And why wouldn’t the game be teachable since it all seems to be a matter of learning percentages, odds, starting hand requirements, reading opponents, and using similar skills.  But the more and more I think about it, there are just some things that a coach or training site can’t teach.

Sure it’s easy to teach players not to play hands like K-9 in early position or what you should do based on the implied odds you’re given, but we all know that there’s plenty more to online poker than just this.  For one thing, you have to be very disciplined to be a good poker player.  And many poker coaches do their best to teach this in preaching to players not to make foolish raises or play out of position.  But in the end, there are some people who just can’t remain disciplined whether it is with their bankroll, their raises, or any of the other hundred factors that go into making a great poker player.

There are also people who don’t want to learn the game of poker because they are so stuck in their own ways.  No matter what an experienced coach or training site tells them, they shrug off this advice in favor of their gut feeling or misguided intuitions.  So in the end, there are just some people who are incapable of learning the game due to their own personality flaws.  And it doesn’t matter whether that flaw is being bull-headed or a lack of discipline because it’s all going to prevent you from reaching your full potential as a player.

Bobby’s Room is Bigger than Ever...

For those of you who follow poker closely, Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio is a familiar name.  It’s where the best and richest live poker players go to work every day in an attempt to add to their already huge bankrolls.  The blinds are normally $4,000/$8,000 and the people there play everything from 2-7 Triple Draw to Pot-Limit Omaha. 

But I recently saw a video on the Internet of Jean Robert-Bellande talking about how the blinds have gone up to insane amounts.  $8,000/$16,000 to be exact which is the biggest regular poker game I’ve ever heard of (not counting the little challenge Andy Beal issued to Phil Ivey and all the Full Tilt fund babies of course).

Bellande went on to say that all of the regulars are in Bobby’s room like Phil Ivey and David Benyamine along with Tom Dwan who I didn’t know played there.  However, he brought up something even more interesting when he said this French business guy by the name of Surriol (???) was the one doing all the winning.  According to Jean, Surriol had all of the chips and all of the other players were sitting on short stacks.

He also mentioned that the pots they were playing for were $200,000 - $300,000 every time at least.  To be perfectly honest, playing for that much money would make me absolutely sick even if I was rich.  I don’t know how these guys are able to do it and they must have nerves of steel to put that amount of cash on the line. 

Even Robert-Bellande, who’s a well noted player, can’t handle that kind of limit as he plays at the $200/$400 limits.  I don’t think he’s alone though since almost every other player can only dream of playing for that kind of cash.

Licensed Online Poker could be a Fact fo...

California is one of, if not the most, cash-strapped states in America.  Their overspending has already raised questions across the country about what California will do about the financial crisis facing the country.  And despite reports from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that there is no financial crisis in California, everybody knows there is one.

Seeing as how this is the case, it seems as if California has no choice but to license online poker.  It’s the only way that California is going to get out of the financial mess they’re in because they can’t just start taxing residents like crazy.  And regulating online poker for state revenue isn’t exactly out of the question for the Golden State since has already dove into the gambling world before.

California licenses horseracing through Internet services like YouBet and TVG to bring revenue into the state already.  Plus residents of California do an estimated $800 million worth of gambling over the Internet as it is meaning that’s money the state isn’t getting any tax money from.  So licensing poker themselves would prevent some of this outflow of untaxed money to offshore sites.

And for those who think the UIGEA will prevent California from licensing, think again.  The state is definitely in the right to license poker as they see fit under their state rights.  So the real question here is when will California become the first state to begin licensing poker.

There is no real way to predict when this will happen, but I assume legislators will try to get something going before the end of the year since the Golden State will want to get in on the online poker deal before the UIGEA is repealed.  Plus around 10 million people already play poker in California’s cardrooms so moving the game online isn’t such a leap.

Moneymaker’s Return Busted...

Ever since his win in the 2003 WSOP Main Event, it’s safe to say that Chris Moneymaker’s poker career has been on a major downslide.  In fact, that is a bit of an understatement because out of all the major tourneys that Moneymaker has played in since his big win, the 2004 WPT Shooting Star event is the only one he’s actually had much success in (he placed 2nd there). 

But I thought that was all about to change in the World Poker Open Championship as he held a massive chip lead going into the final table.  Out of the 2.5 million chips that were in play, Moneymaker held over 1 million of them with his closest competitor - Chad Brown - holding 433,000.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity for Moneymaker to re-establish himself as a legitimate pro and grab his first notable win since the 2003 Main Event.

Unfortunately for Moneymaker, this was not to be as he blew the huge chip lead he had amassed and was struggling just to stay in the tournament with 3 people left.  Eventually, Jeremy Gaubert would knock Moneymaker out in third place en route to winning the World Poker Open Championship.  Being knocked out of the tournament not only meant that Moneymaker would be making a lot less money ($60,000 instead of $182,000), but it also meant that he had missed his chance to prove he isn’t a total lost cause.

And the only people who are going to know about Moneymaker’s 3rd place finish are those who really pay attention to poker.  The rest of the casual poker followers will probably never hear a word about Chris Moneymaker taking 3rd place in a mid-high profile tournament.  And they will keep on believing that he is a huge joke in the poker world.