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I’ve recently taken an extended break from poker. The main reason for this is that I ran really, really bad for about a month and it really started to effect my play at the tables.
I know that bad beats are going to happen from time to time. This is unavoidable if you play a lot of poker. You just have to not let it bother you. Early on in my poker career, bad beats would really cause me to play poorly. I would tilt easily and just give away money sometimes. Fortunately, I have been able to escape this and I deal much better with bad beats now.
In the past few months though I started to go back to the way I was earlier in my poker career. For about a month, I went on the worst run that I’ve ever had. I can’t even count the number of times that I was run down by one or two outers that took my whole stack.
I even switched to tournament poker for a little while trying to switch things up. Well, things didn’t go much better there. I actually got deep into a tournament as the chip leader which, if I had held on, would have been the biggest score of my poker career. Unfortunately, I was run down by four underpairs when all the money went in preflop. This all happened within an hour and I was eliminated out of the tournament scoring just a min-cash. That was really, really depressing. I really feel like I should have won that tournament.
So, I decided to take a little break and went to visit family for a few weeks. I am back now, feeling refreshed and ready to give it another shot. I have been catching up on some of the cash game action on TV and am starting to feel really motivated.
Let’s get the cards in the air and see what happens.
August 31st, 2010 9:53:53 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
Even though it looks unlikely that there will be no legislation on the federal level to regulate Internet poker in the United States there is a politician that thinks the next 8 months will have the first state to legalize online gambling.
New Jersey Senator Raymond Lesniak recently stated in a phone interview, “I believe we will have established Internet gaming with poker-type games by the end of the year. It means a lot to New Jersey because we have a wealthy state and a densely populated state. It will be a big boost to the economy if we are able to get it going.”
Legislation was introduced by Lesniak in the New Jersey state senate in January of last year, which would allow casinos in Atlantic City to run online gambling websites that would have poker games and casino games for New Jersey state residents. A bill similar to this one was already introduced in the state assembly of New Jersey. There has also been a hearing on that bill in the New Jersey senate and Lesniak is planning another hearing later this spring and then there will be a vote this fall.
There is talk on the federal level that Senate Majority Leader and Nevada state senator Harry Reid could introduce another similar bill regarding online gambling regulation. A Reid backed bill may gain momentum even though it is not clear how much a bill from Reid would be endorsed by the poker community after he will not be looking out for his constituent casinos in his home state of Nevada.
Since it is already May there is no movement on the online gambling bill by Barney Frank on the federal level so it looks unlikely a bill would pass this year. The best thing that can happen is a talk about the issue on Capital Hill.
If New Jersey if online poker would become legal it may have a domino effect that may pressure the federal government to get the ball rolling on the issue.
Earlier this year Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association chairman Joe Brennan Jr. said, “If it looks like the states are going to start moving on this one by one, the federal officials might realize they have to start some sort of federal license tax or the states are going to take over and they will be cut out.”
Also, Lesniak has introduced New Jersey state legislation that would offer betting on sports and he filed a federal lawsuit that challenged the law that makes it illegal to bet on sports in every state except Montana, Oregon, Delaware, and Nevada. Lesniak has stated that he would like to get a decision on this by the end of this year so New Jersey could look further into that bill.
August 27th, 2010 10:19:42 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by Jason Green | No Comments
In my opinion, this is now the best time of the year for poker coverage on television. ESPN just started airing the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event last Tuesday. From now until early November, Tuesday nights will be “poker night” on ESPN with two full hours of main event coverage. What’s great about ESPN’s coverage is that they not only focus on the poker, but spend time during each broadcast covering the backstories and personalities of the event. It’s really enjoyable to watch.
One other poker show that is currently airing that I really enjoy is the PokerStars.net Big Game. This currently airs early every morning(in the 1:30-2:00 am area) on your local FOX affiliate. The premise behind the “Big Game” is that PokerStars brings in an online qualifier(they call them the “Loose Cannon”) to play in a cash game with five other pro players. They are staked 100K and are allowed to keep anything they make over that amount.
In another twist, the Loose Cannon who earns the most money during their week earns a NAPT(North American Poker Tour) passport which gives them a free entry into each NAPT event during a particular season.
They are currently into the fourth week of the PokerStars Big Game with two more weeks to go. I highly recommend that you watch this if you get the chance. Other than ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP main event, I find nothing more enjoyable than cash game poker on television.
Currently, Poker After Dark is running new episodes on NBC at 2:05 each morning. The problem is that PAD in most cases airs SNG events where everyone starts with 20K in chips with the winner getting 120K. These SNG’s have become very boring to me and where I used to watch every episode of PAD, I now just skip the SNG events.
Where Poker After Dark excels though is when they have a cash game during a particular week. Those are really enjoyable because they usually have the biggest cash game players in the world playing in these. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, etc are just some of the big names who play. The next new cash game on PAD won’t air until early October so keep your eyes open for that.
August 14th, 2010 4:29:41 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
I’ve played in many live poker games where friends sometimes soft play each other. I’m really not a big fan of this. In my opinion, it’s a form of cheating. Personally, I’m a really aggressive player who will try and take as much money off an opponent as I can, even if they are my best friend. I’ve even joked before that “I would check-raise my grandmother out of her social security check if I had to.” Now that may not actually be true, but it should give you an idea of how aggressive I am at the poker table.
One particular home game that I play in on a regular basis, most of us have known each other for years and some are really close friends. Sometimes, the really close friends will just check a hand down on one or two streets when after their hands are turned up, at least one of the players should have been betting their hand for value.
The bottom line is that when you soft play friends at the table, other players get hurt by these actions. The ones that suffer the most are the aggressive players who mistake the soft play as playing styles being exhibited by these friends. These actions cause the honest players to make poor decisions during the play of future hands based on the misinformation that they have received. Even worse, soft playing causes aggressive players to not get the maximum value on their big hands because others in the pot who are soft playing each other choose to just bet and call instead of raise as they probably should given the strength of their hand.
As I stated earlier, soft playing is a form of cheating. If you feel the need to do this I would advise you to just stick to the play money games. You won’t upset as many people there.
August 6th, 2010 5:34:27 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
In my personal opinion, there is no more satisfying moment in poker than when I am able to see a flop cheaply with a speculative hand that flops a monster. It’s even better when your opponent holds a big hand himself and you are able to stack him.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me define what a speculative hand is. It’s a hand like a small pair, suited connectors(8s9s), suited one gappers(4h6h) and other such hands.
Most of the time, you are going to miss the flop with these hands. This is why you want to see flops cheaply with them. You can then easily fold your hand if you don’t hit the flop hard.
I played a hand recently which illustrates this point clearly. I was playing full ring 50NL Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker when I was dealt the 4d5d in the big blind. The player UTG min-raised and was called by UTG+1 and another player in late position. I decided to call the min-raise with my speculative hand. I was hoping the UTG raiser had a big pocket pair and that if I hit the flop hard, I could stack him.
Well, the flop came A23 rainbow and I flopped the nuts. The player UTG leads out and is smooth called by UTG+1. The middle position player folds and I decide to raise. UTG then 3-bets small and is 4-bet by UTG+1. All three of us end up getting all in and I stack A2 & A3.
Quite a few times over the years I have been able to flop a big hand by seeing a flop cheaply with a speculative hand. When you do and your opponent also has a big hand, many times they will never see it coming and stack off with a big pair. As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t hit the flop hard, just fold. Don’t get stubborn if you flop a weak one pair hand or a weak draw and decide that you have to go broke with it. This is a mistake that many players make.
July 31st, 2010 4:58:30 PM UTC | Posted in Poker by windizzle | No Comments
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