Poker News

Poker books go into great detail discussing the various strategies necessary to get to the final table of a tournament. However, not as much has been written about final table playing strategy.

Take What the Table Gives

This is a simple concept but one that can’t be overlooked. In fact, this philosophy applies not only to poker, but also to sports like football and basketball.

Sometimes, late in NFL games, the team protecting a lead will often go into a prevent defense, trying to defend against the long pass. Trying to throw a bomb against that type of coverage isn’t a very good idea. Instead, the opponent takes what the defense gives, and throws shorter passes while continuing to move the chains.

In the NBA, Kobe Bryant has the ability to blow right by players who guard him too closely. But, if someone lays off of him, he’ll just pull up and shoot a jump shot.

Pretend for a second you’re the Laker’s star, and the defense is playing tight and guarding the rim. Well, they’re giving you an open look at a 15-foot jumper! Would you try to drive the lane or take the easy shot?

I hope you said the easy shot.

At the final table of a poker tournament, you, too, must base your choices on how your opponents are playing -- in other words, what they’re giving you. If the table is playing passively, and everyone is waiting for others to get knocked out, that's your cue to drive the lane and play aggressively.

Conversely, if there are overly aggressive, wild players at your table, then the best course of action is to sit back and wait for them to pick each other off.

You cannot win a tournament when there are still nine players at the table. So, your goal in the early stages of final table play is to set yourself up for the short-handed battle to come.

Adjust

One of the most difficult challenges novices face at a final table is making the necessary adjustments for short-handed play.

During most tournaments, play is nine-handed all the way down to the final table. As you get down to six, five, or four players, though, the correct playing strategy will change dramatically.

It’s true that a player may succeed by waiting for premium starting cards on his way to the final table. However, if he continues playing that way short-handed, the blinds and antes will surely eat away at his stack.

Hands like A-7 offsuit, cards you wouldn't play in a nine-handed game, become raisers when play becomes short-handed. To stay afloat you need to win one set of blinds per round. If you’re playing four-handed, that means you need to pick up a pot one out of every four hands. If you fold A-7, you may not get a better chance for a while.

Play the Players and Your Stack

The cards become less important at the final table than they were in the early stages of a tournament. At the final table, shift your focus to determine who you can steal pots from and who you can trap. You’ve got to play the players.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to play the players when you don't have many chips. If you’re on the short stack, you'll be forced to sit back and wait for a good opportunity to either double up or to steal the blinds.

It’s a much rosier picture if you’re one of the bigger stacks at the final table. Now you have virtual free reign to attack and pressure your opponents. There’s no need to be reckless; the other players will be forced to respect your stack size since any hand they play could be their last.

So let’s review. Let the game come to you in the early stages. Make the necessary adjustments once play becomes short-handed. Finally, always be aware of your stack size in relation to the others.

If you focus on those three key elements, you'll often find yourself playing heads-up for the title.
By Daniel Negreanu

Categories: Poker Tips and Strategies  

In Week 4 of the World Series of Poker, the pros continue to dominate as they show the world the skill that exists in tournament play.
In the last week or so, young gun John Phan picked up his second bracelet of 2008, Layne "Back-to-Back" Flack won his sixth bracelet, Barry Greenstein won his third bracelet, top pro David Benyamine picked up his first bracelet in his third 2008 WSOP final table, Italian pros Dario Minieri and Max Pescatori picked up bracelets, Kenny Tran picked up a bracelet, longtime pro Mike Rocco won his first bracelet and longtime Dutch pro Rob Hollink won his first bracelet.

We now have more than 20 pros who have won events during the 2008 WSOP at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, I have been shut out. We are entering the final week of the WSOP, and I'm so frustrated I can hardly stand it.

It was only last year that I smiled tolerantly as the other pros made excuses for not making final tables. They focused on excuses rather than improving their game. Then those same pros skipped valuable WSOP tournaments because they couldn't handle not winning or because they couldn't handle the constant pressure to play mistake-free poker. Many were psyched out because of subpar first-week results.

I once heard 18-time golf major champ Jack Nicklaus say, "In the majors, I went to the golf course with the idea of winning. I went to the course a week early to eliminate all my excuses for not winning. I let the other guys complain about the course conditions, like the speed of the greens or the thickness of the rough."

I love Nicklaus' philosophy, but now that I've had a subpar WSOP, I need to keep that "No excuses" philosophy at the forefront of my mind. My lack of success has me feeling down and out, and my results haven't been anywhere close to what I hoped for (at least two bracelets in 2008).

Still, I need to show up every day ready to play. I need to write off that I haven't been tearing it up.

The WSOP is long and grueling, with 55 poker tournaments that happen back-to-back-to-back over six weeks with sometimes two tournaments in one day. Ideally, you find a way to finish in the money (roughly the top 10% of the field), then you find a way to make a final table (generally the final nine players) and then you dig down deep and find a way to win a bracelet.

If you play great poker and get eliminated, then come back the next day and play great poker again.

The WSOP eventually rewards great poker, so my daily mantra is, "Play great poker, play great poker, play great poker." And I'm telling myself, "Phil, keep your head held up high. Show up, stand up, buck up under the pressure and the spotlight and be all that you can be."

Should I be feeling down and frustrated? I've been in the money twice this year. I did make one final table, and I still have the big three WSOP records: most cashes (65), most final tables (40) and most wins (11). Most important, we have the future to consider.

One more week of poker remains here at the WSOP. That's about seven more tournaments.

I entered the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E tournament — a combination of Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven-card Stud and Stud Eight or Better — but I was eliminated early.

H.O.R.S.E. was designed to crown the world's greatest all-around poker player, and in 2006 it seemed to work when the late great David "Chip" Reese won it.

For many years, Chip was considered the best all-around poker player in the world, and his winning H.O.R.S.E. seemed to confirm his greatness.

Besides Chip winning it all, we had a star-studded final table that had a few of the guys who play in the biggest side games in the world every day, including Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein.

However, there were some at that final table who had never even played some of the games before. In 2007, we had a few surprises at the final table as well.

A few surprises should be expected each year because the H.O.R.S.E tournament is limit poker, and in limit poker there is more luck than there is in no-limit poker, where you can bet any amount at anytime.

Still, when it comes to showing the world a great final table, H.O.R.S.E is as good as it gets. You can bet that there will be at least four known great players at the final table this time.

Looming large is the Main Event, which starts next Thursday. Just writing about the opportunities in the next few weeks makes me feel like running to the gym, losing this massive load of frustration, turning my attitude into a champion's attitude, playing perfect poker and winning another bracelet.
By Phil Hellmuth

Categories: Poker Stories & News  

Before the World Series of Poker began, Daniel Negreanu was looking to give anyone 5-1 odds that he'd win a bracelet this year.

Negreanu found a customer in fellow top pro Phil Ivey, although they settled on a different kind of bet: One pays the other $200,000 for each bracelet won.

So it's no surprise that Negreanu could be heard shouting "Me 1, Ivey 0" after winning Event No. 20 ($2,000 limit hold'em) by defeating Ugur Marangoz in heads-up play and outlasting 479 other players.

For Negreanu, it's his fourth career WSOP bracelet and already his third cash at this year's World Series. He'll pocket $204,874 to push his career tournament earnings to more than $9.7 million -- third most all-time behind past WSOP main event champions Jamie Gold and Joe Hachem.

And, he's one up on Ivey in one hefty prop bet.

Categories: Poker Stories & News  

If the size of the fields at the World Series of Poker is an indication, interest in no-limit Texas hold ’em tournaments continues to run high.

The turnout for no-limit hold ’em events at the World Series, taking place through July 14 at the Rio with the championship final table set for November, has been exceeding last year’s figures.

The no-limit fields have also been skewing younger and less experienced, reflecting no-limit poker’s unceasing popularity among the new breed of players that has driven the game’s growth in recent years.

World Series events featuring limit games or forms of poker other than hold ’em, meanwhile, have generally been attracting an older, more experienced crowd and in some cases having a drop-off in the number of entrants.

The recently concluded limit Texas hold ’em tournament, for example, carrying a $1,500 buy-in, attracted 883 entrants. The tally was down from 910 players in the same event in 2007 and 1,069 players in 2006.

The downward trend stands in stark contrast to the situation before 2003, when World Series of Poker limit hold ’em events routinely drew more entrants than no-limit events, according to World Series spokesman Nolan Dalla.

From the middle of the 1980s, when California legalized hold ’em, and throughout the 1990s, limit hold ’em was the dominant form of poker spread in public card rooms, Dalla pointed out. While it was nearly impossible to find a no-limit cash game in most card rooms back then, today limit tournaments are rarities.

The winner of this year’s $1,500-entry limit hold ’em tournament, Jimmy Shultz of Charleston, S.C., was playing in his first World Series event. Shultz, who earned $257,049, said he would donate 25 percent of his win to the Charleston Fire Department.

The $2,500-entry half Omaha high-low split/half 7-card stud high-low split tournament tends to attract players who appreciate the nuances of those games rather than the raw excitement and brute force of no-limit hold ’em, according to Dalla.

Four players at the final table were 44 or older, a makeup typically not seen at a no-limit tournament final table. Farzad “Freddy” Rouhani, 44, a native of Iran who lives in Germantown, Md., won the $232,911 top prize.

The $2,500-entry no-limit hold ’em event that concluded Monday night, however, featured one of the least experienced final table lineups ever in the World Series. All nine players were competing at their first World Series final table, and four of the nine had never cashed in at a World Series event.

Duncan Bell, a 32-year-old poker pro from Vancouver, took first place ($666,697), finishing atop a field of 1,395 entrants. The turnout represented an 8.1 percent increase compared with last year’s field of 1,290.

The international flavor of the World Series was evident in the tournament, with players from 12 countries finishing in the money: Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, England, China, France, Germany, Romania, Russia, Scotland and the United States.

The $10,000 world championship 7-card stud tournament, which also concluded Monday night, generated a field of 158 players, many of them top-level professionals. The event drew 180 last year, when the buy-in was only $5,000.

Eric Brooks of Philadelphia won the tournament’s $415,856 top prize, beating a tough final table that included Las Vegas pros Minh Ly and Erik Seidel and veteran Vasili Lazarou. Brooks said he would donate 100 percent of his winnings to the Decision Education Foundation.

One-table satellites.

Single-table satellites for the World Series are conducted all day at the Rio in a room just across the hallway from the main tournament room. The single-table satellites, which award tournament buy-in chips that can be used for entry into World Series events, have various structures.

Here is a rundown:

• Single-table satellites with buy-ins of $125, $175 and $225 provide players with $1,000 in tournament chips, and blinds increase every 15 minutes. The $125 satellites award two $500 tournament chips and $120 cash to the winner; the $175 satellites award three chips and $120 cash; and the $225 satellites award four chips and $120 cash.

• Single-table satellites with buy-ins of $275 and $325 provide players with $1,500 in tournament chips, and blinds increase every 20 minutes. The $275 satellites award five chips and $120 cash; and the $325 satellites award six chips and $120 cash.

• Single-table satellites with a $525 buy-in provide players with $2,000 in tournament chips, and blinds increase every 20 minutes. They award 10 chips and $120 cash.

• Single-table satellites with a $1,030 buy-in provide players with $5,000 in tournament chips, and blinds increase every 20 minutes. They award 20 chips and $150 cash.
By Jeff Haney

Categories: Poker Stories & News  

Poker players are used to seeing green on the felt of a poker table, but when the thousands of players arrive at the World Series of Poker (”WSOP”) later this month they will see their first “Green”—as in environmentally friendly – tournament poker table.

And the World Series of Poker winner will go home with his or her very own “Green” table courtesy of its manufacturer, New Jersey-based EGM Green. EGM Green’s Tournament Poker Table made from 98% sustainable materials will be on display at this year’s WSOP. EGM Green is a venture by Executive Gaming Monthly (EGM) to bring Eco-Friendly gaming products to the casino and luxury markets. The company holds that applying sustainable design principles to poker tables and other casino products can significantly reduce volumes of waste, decrease use of natural resources and lower impacts on ecosystems.
Some of the details on the table’s manufacturing include:

All wood is FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified
All paints and stains used in the table are formaldehyde free
The table is assembled with water based adhesives
The EGM Green Tournament Poker Table has not only been created using sustainable design principals and resources, but its purchase can enhance the Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ rating for the properties deploying the tables on the casino floor.

“We are pleased that the Harrah’s has chosen to debut the table at the WSOP,” said EGM Green President Eric Hansel. “Casinos are taking up the mantle of sustainability and leading the charge is Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. EGM Green is positioned to help drive sustainable change by offering green products developed for casinos.”

The EGM Green table will be featured in the exhibit area of the WSOP in the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino®, where representatives from both EGM Green and Harrah’s will talk about what their companies are doing to tread lightly on the Earth.

The EGM Green Poker Table may soon be showing up at socially conscious casinos around the country, but it won’t be sacrificing the convenience and quality that poker players are accustomed to at the table. Casinos will be able to add options that feature wood footrings, padded armrest rings, dealer accessories, 15 standard wood finishes, custom finishes and eco-friendly casino-grade poker supplies.

For more information visit http://www.egmgreen.com

Categories: Poker Stories & News