Health Scare, and Back and Better Than Ever
May 9, 2008
Wow. Thursday was one crazy whirlwind of a day. Sorry for no blog post, but I had a couple of weird health scares that more or less took over what I had planned to do on Thursday, which was work my first full day back in the office since coming down …
Bodog is your best bet in May
May 8, 2008
Bodog has been in the online poker news a lot lately. First they had some domain dramas with patent pirates, then their boss retires to live in up in the Caribbean.Then this week their longest serving pro, Josh Arieh, announced he has decided to move …
Party Poker Millions VI Cruise Final Table
May 8, 2008
A final table battle on the high seas takes place today aboard the Party Poker Millions Cruise VI. Germany’s Dominik Stopka enters as chip leader, but only by a single chip over Alexander Jung also from Germany. The final nine also include Sweden ’s 2008 PartyPoker Late Night Poker winner Andreas Jorbeck, Johannes Strassmann and Mika Paasonen. All have tasted recent success on the European circuit. Amongst those to miss out on the final table include Thomas Bihl, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Florian Langmann and Christop Haller.
For a summary of all the final table action check the PartyPoker Blog.
Here are the final table players with beginning chip counts, we will add the finishers as they bust out down to the champion.
SEAT 1 – KENNETH GREGERSEN – Denmark - 44,000 9th place
SEAT 2 – RAYMOND ESTALL – UK - 187,000 5th
SEAT 3 – JOHANNES STRASSMANN – Germany - 182,000 7th
SEAT 4 – ALEXANDER JUNG – Germany - 326,000 CHAMPION
SEAT 5 – MIKA PAASONEN – Finland - 236,000 4th
SEAT 6 – DOMINIK STOPKA – Germany - 327,000 2nd
SEAT 7 – CORY ALBERTSON – United States - 90,000 3rd
SEAT 8 – PETER STEINLESBERGER – Austria - 132,000 8th
SEAT 9 – ANDREAS JORBECK – Sweden – 182,000 6th
First-timer nets Sunday Million win
May 8, 2008
Playing poker takes more than a leather backside. Just about every square inch of your body and psyche needs to be tough as cow hide. Heck, sometimes we’d all take a suit of armor. Iron Henry is not a PokerStars…
Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series
May 8, 2008
WSOP players looking for additional poker action during the upcoming 2008 World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas need look no further than Caesars Palace. The Mega Stack Series runs daily from June 1st through July 9th. A variety of tournaments starting at Noon have the structure favored by most tourney players. Bigger starting stacks and 50 minute blind levels lower the “crap shoot” factor found in many lower buy-in events. WSOP players are accustomed to ponying up four figures for a seat but you won’t need that here. Buy-ins range from $225 to $540 and $1060 for the 3 day championship event.
A $10 staff bonus add-on will increase the starting stack for all tournaments by 2,500 chips. No add-on for the championship just 25,000 in starting chips. Event registration begins at 10 AM every day. Grab the free Caesars shuttle at the Rio, conveniently located outside the poker room, and enjoy the short ride to the largest poker room in Las Vegas.
Check out all the details on the complete schedule for the Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series.
Phil Gordon Q&A on All Things Poker
May 7, 2008
Poker Pro Phil Gordon did a recent interview with those folks over at Freakonomics. Phil has always been an keen observer and no-holds commentator on the real life of the professional poker player. Here are a few of this comments.
Q: What percent of your success would you say is attributable to randomness?
A: Randomness, otherwise known as “variance” at the poker table is much bigger and more important than most poker players realize. I have a simple theory: change 10 river cards in any poker player’s tournament career and I would bet that they would be a losing tournament player for their career.
You might need to set aside players like Doyle Brunson here or maybe just up the number to 20 or 30 but Phil’s point is correct. There are several bookkeepers and more than ten chiropractors who would be well known poker professionals today if that one river card had gone the other way. By the same token, there are a couple of guys walking around with a WSOP bracelet on their wrist who should get out before variance brings them down to their true skill level.
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Several of the questions had to do with professional players and their gambling habits, I have grouped those answers together for Phil’s harsh but realistic assessment of poker professionals and money management.
Q: What percentage of professional poker players would you consider to be compulsive gamblers?
A: Ninety percent of the “professional players” I know have some serious “leaks” that affect their ability to hold on to their money.
Whether it’s playing too big for their bankroll or betting on sports or casino games, these leaks have a way of keeping many of them completely broke no matter how much they win on the tournament circuit.
One of the “requirements” to be a great player is being able to divorce yourself from money and its value. Making good decisions at the poker table means that you must have the ability to “put a Ferrari” in the pot if it’s right to do so. That lack of respect for the buying power of money leads to financial problems for many of the best players in the world.
Q: What are the finances of some of the top pros like?
A: Some: poor, reckless, with no shot at improving long-term. Others: multi-million dollar mansions, $5-plus million a year income, and no financial worries. If I had to guess, I would say about 50 percent of the “name pros” you see on television on a regular basis have a negative net worth.
As I said, harsh but true.
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And some poker advice for us from Mr. Gordon, which might run contrary to the accepted wisdom.
Q: What skill is more important in Holdem: discipline in the range of hands you play, or the ability to read the other player?
A: Hand selection is the most important in my opinion. A blind guy who has good hand selection skills could win a world championship. A guy with 20/15 vision who picked up all the tells but played every hand might never win.
Q: What is the most dangerously deceiving starting hand for an amateur player in Texas Holdem?
A: It’s a tie … AQ, KQ, and QJ. Those are death hands to be avoided at all costs, especially if your opponent has made any aggressive move pre-flop.
And you thought he would say AK or maybe JJ, right?
On the Comeback Trail
May 7, 2008
So I sucked it up good in Razz in the Skills game last night. Actually I played the game quite well, got drawn out on a couple of times, made a couple of shitboats thanks to double-pairing on 6th and 7th, you know, the usual razz stuff. I think my fa…