Hungarians rush to Online Poker...

A big deal has been made in the past couple of years about how many Russians and Italians have been jumping into the game of online poker.  And there is certainly plenty of evidence to support how many people are getting into poker from these countries due to the large amount of pros and bracelet winners who have come from Russia and Italy over the past few years.  But moving past what’s already discussed all the time, I’ve noticed that a large amount of Hungarians are getting into poker recently too.

I saw this trend after reading about a study done by the National Poker Association (not quite the PPA) that revolved around a Hungarian pro by the name of Peter Trapley.  Trapley, like many successful online players before him, has made an outstanding living over the past couple of years by playing online poker.  He’s earned over $500,000 and has only just recently graduated from college. 

And sure $500k over a few years isn’t amazing when compared to the exploits of durrrr and Patrik Antonius, but you’ve also got to keep in mind that Trapley is from Hungary.  Hungary has a 10% unemployment rate and the average salary in this nation is about $6,800 a year.  So if you’re making $500k over a few years then you’re pretty much a millionaire in Hungary.

Seeing as how stories of people like Trapley have made it around Hungary, there are plenty of other people there trying to make poker their primary job now.  In fact, 1 out of every 40 Hungarians consider online or live poker to be a job which means 250,000 of the country’s 10 million residents are using the felt for income.  It won’t be long before we start seeing this trend show up in the WSOP and other big tourneys.

Making Poker Easier by playing Tight...

For many beginning poker players, every hand looks good.  After all, what’s the excitement of poker if you can’t take your hand into the flop to see if you hit anything?  And this concept works pretty good actually….when you’re playing practice poker.  However, anybody who is playing poker for money should stay clear of this philosophy since it can end up costing a person lots of money in the long-run. 

That’s why you need to play as tightly as possible in the beginning so you avoid bleeding out money.  Now most poker strategists preach that you should play as aggressively as possible so you can be successful.  However, the problem with this is that beginners don’t have the necessary skills to play aggressively from the onset.  Aggressive play takes lots of experience and you simply can’t fake this until you develop the necessary skill set.

With this in mind, you should only be raising pre-flop with premium hands like J-J through A-A (as common strategy dictates) and playing good hands in middle to late position.  Playing premium hands pre-flop is easy, but you’ll have a lot more difficulty with other cards such as A-10 or K-J.  Some beginners will overvalue these hands and it’s a mistake that will end up costing them major money.

Instead, you want to treat hands like A-10 and K-J with caution since they are not able to dominate premium hands and you needs lots of help from the board to win.  Seeing as how this is the case, play tight and try to see flops cheaply until you develop a better feel for when to play aggressively.  When you do develop more skills, you can open your range of starting hands.

Hellmuth to Coach Shulman for WSOP Final...

Jeff Shulman already had a name in the poker world due to his numerous cashes in WSOP and WPT events.   Among Shulman’s numerous cashes include a 7th place finish in the 2000 WSOP Main Event as well as an upcoming November Nine appearance at this year’s final table.

In addition to his playing abilites, Shulman is also well known throughout the poker community as the prime owner of Card Player Magazine.  Seeing as how Shulman has plenty of fame and accolades on his poker resume already - not to mention $2.6 million in live winnings - you think he’d be satisfied with his own level of play.

However, Shulman isn’t resting on his laurels or taking any chances since he as decided to hire 11-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth to coach him before the Main Event final table.  Now some people might find this odd that Shulman would hire a coach since he is already a successful player himself.

But Shulman summed up his choice to have Hellmuth coach him before the final table saying, “The simplest reason why I’m doing this…..I want to win, and I think it will help.”  He also added an important point by mentioning, “I turned on the TV and I was watching Tiger Woods or something, and I realized every single player has a coach.  No matter how good or bad my game is, it can always get better.”

The choice to pick Phil Hellmuth as his coach goes beyond the obvious reason of Phil being arguable the most successful WSOP player of all-time.  Shulman also chose Phil because they’ve been business partners and friends for a number of years.  If Hellmuth’s coaching does propel Shulman to victory, hopefully he won’t trash his WSOP bracelet like he’s stated he would do in the past.

Man wins Female Poker Tournament...

There is a reason why the sports world splits up their leagues and organizations into male and female divisions: men have an obvious advantage over females in most sports due to the fact that (on average) they are larger, have more muscle mass, and produce more testosterone.  And until the recent controversy involving a female runner with both male and female parts, this division has been kept in tact in most sports without any incident.

The game of poker is different though since there is no athletic ability involved and females and males can compete on a similar level.  Because of this fact, some people in the poker community don’t understand why there are female-only tournaments since they are perfectly capable of playing with the men.  Still though, these tournaments exist and men are supposed to stay out of them.

But that wasn’t the case recently when a man jumped in an Atlantic City ladies poker tournament and actually ended up winning the thing.  Abraham Kortoki was the culprit and he said he played in the tournament because he needed to get ready for the WPT Main Event that is going to be held in the same city.  During his tuneup, Kortoki was able to beat a field of 260 women which made many of the female players mad. 

After his big victory, Kortoki claimed that he didn’t do this because of the money and instead was just practicing.  Frankly, I don’t know why he was allowed to enter the tournament in the first place if it’s supposed to be a ladies event, but I guess I didn’t organize the tourney.

Who would pay $85 Million for a Terrible...

I don’t have to tell you that $85 million is a lot of money.  After all, a lot of people out there would actually kill (and have already done so) for this kind of bankroll.  Brian McSmith isn’t going to be killing anybody for $85 million (at least I hope not), but he does plan on getting this kind of money in some manner.  That’s because he has filed a lawsuit for $85 million against the producers of the NBC-based poker show Face the Ace as well as against a company called Poker Productions.

McSmith claims that he was the one who came up with the idea for Face the Ace where contestants choose from 4 doors so that they can find which poker pro they’ll have to play in a heads-up game.  If a person wins, they can keep the cash or choose another door to play for more money.

The concept sounds cool, but it really hasn’t managed to draw any viewers.  In fact, the viewership base of Face the Ace has been downright horrible since a rerun of Finding Nemo was able to beat the show on its debut night.  Still though, McSmith thinks that he is entitled to $85 million for this show idea which has been a mega-failure as far as the television market goes.

Whether or not McSmith receives any of the $85 million he’s asking for, it does sound like he has a legitimate case.  He pitched the idea of Face the Ace to Poker Productions about 2 years ago only to be turned away.  Now that the show is up and running, guess who the creators are…..Poker Productions.  Even if McSmith’s story is entirely accurate, I don’t think any court will award him $85 million for a show that has turned out awfully.