7862 Unique players. No re-buys, no re-entries. Two flights in one day and several waves added. Everybody started with a full stack. Those who began the day at either 1:00 or 5:00 PM started with the blinds at 25-25. Later "waves" which began as late as 10:40 PM started with their 15,000 chip stack at whatever level the 5 PM flight was at. Even at level 5, the start of the last wave, the blinds were still at just 100-200 with no ante.
The $1500 entry Monster Stack Tournament at this year's WSOP generated the largest ever field of unique players for a single starting day at a poker tournament. The prize pool of over $10 million gives $1.3 million to the winner.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Fresh Squeezed Lowball
As a dealer at the World Series of Poker, I learn new things every day about Poker and how the pros play this wonderful game.
As you might know, the WSOP is truly a "Series" in the sense that more than just the Main Event which makes millions for its final table players, there is an entire series of championship poker tournaments. In 2014 there are 65 championship bracelets to be given to winners of tournaments across a wide spectrum of games.Today I had the pleasure of dealing the Deuce to Seven Single Draw No Limit World Championship Final Table. It had a buy-in of $10,000 and first prize was the world championship bracelet and over a quarter million dollars.When the players arrived to begin the final table of seven, there was quite a lively discussion of the cards being used. Play was going to be streamed live over the Internet and we were set to play it out on the arena stage where, in order to provide the viewing audience with player's hole cards, special cards are used with embedded RFID chips and readers built into the table. The table, however, is really set up for Hold'em, not 5 Card Draw. The RFID cards weren't going to be used to identify cards for this broadcast, but since the automatic shuffler built into the poker table was set up for these larger size cards, the staff assumed it would be fine to just use these cards.Interesting fact: at the World Series of Poker, smaller Bridge size cards are used rather than the larger Poker size cards except at the final table, where this year we are using Poker size cards with jumbo indexes and the embedded RFID chips. Not only are the numbers larger on these cards, but the pips are smaller and framed in the center of the card. The RFID cards are also much thicker and stiffer than the typical cards used throughout the rest of the tournament.Before play began, one of the players, Brian Rast, asked about the cards saying that he didn't think they would work very well. Daniel Negreanu added that you couldn't squeeze them. "Squeezing" in poker parlance is looking at the card by bending the long edge up with thumb over the index and first seeing how many pips are in the row before revealing the value of the card. Both the 4 and 5 have 2 pips across, 6 and 7 have 3 and 8, 9 and 10 have 4. Squeezing adds suspense to looking at your hole cards. When I asked for more detail he explained:"Squeezing is a very important part of this particular game. Let's say I'm drawing one card and I know I need a 4 but a 5 would pair me up and be a very bad card. If I squeeze my card, and I see that it is two across, I know that it's 50-50 that I have the four I need. I can go ahead and bet as if I have it even though there's a 50% chance I'm bluffing. How is my opponent going to be able to tell if I'm bluffing or not when even I don't know if I'm making a value bet or bluffing?"After that passionate explanation, our Floor Supervisor delayed the start of the tournament so that he could replace the RFID cards with standard WSOP cards from the tournament cage. We hand shuffled the decks for the first 2 levels. During the player break the auto-shuffler in the table was replaced to accommodate the standard WSOP deck. Play was pretty normal for a final table after that rocky start.Daniel Negreanu took second place behind the eventual winner, Paul Volpe.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Poker Timeline
1855 Draw Poker
1945 Stud Poker, 5 card evolves into 7-card
1965 Hold em
1970 first WSOP
1997 On line poker born
2006 USA bans online poker with UIGEA
2011 USA shuts down poker sites, seizes $$.
2013 States begin legalizing online poker. First NV, then NJ, soon more.
Friday, March 14, 2014
The Queen City Classic
Cincinnati, Ohio is known as the Queen City and beginning on March 12th and continuing for the next 12 days, the Horseshoe Cincinnati will be hosting the Queen City Classic Poker Tournament. I don't really know what makes it a classic, but the tournaments are in the format and style of those held at the World Series of Poker.
The view from day one looks like it will be fairly well attended, although primarily by the Midwestern players and not the bigger names from WSOP or even many of the circuit grinders.
I am looking forward to getting out of the weather in Scottsdale for a while. I've been having some of the worst hay fever allergies I can remember. Hopefully, this will be a brief seasonal thing and things will be better when I return.
The view from day one looks like it will be fairly well attended, although primarily by the Midwestern players and not the bigger names from WSOP or even many of the circuit grinders.
I am looking forward to getting out of the weather in Scottsdale for a while. I've been having some of the worst hay fever allergies I can remember. Hopefully, this will be a brief seasonal thing and things will be better when I return.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Need to Vent. KK vs AA
Sometimes when you play poker, the cards just don't go your way. Yes, it's a game of skill and you need to think of the "long run" and the odds and the law of large numbers and all that but when the cards go against you in the short run, it sucks.
Recently I was in a tournament and had been running nicely, taking a few pots here and there and building up my stack losing only a few small pots. Then I was dealt a pocket pair of kings. KK. Cowboys. The second best starting hand you can have. You only get pocket kings about once in 220 hands, so when you get them, you want to cash in on them. The best way is to get an opponent heads-up and as long as he doesn't have pocket aces, you are about a 4 to 1 favorite or better, like 9 to 1. Of course, if he does have AA in the hole, your kings are about a 4 to 1 underdog, but that doesn't happen very often. Well, at least not to most Texas Hold'em poker players. Unless, of course, you are me.
Of course, the player in the Small Blind looks at his cards and raises. I re-raise all in and he calls, showing me his two aces.
So I do the numbers. It turns out that at a table with 9 players, if you are holding KK, the probability that any one of your opponents is holding AA is about 3.5%. About 1 out of every 28 or 29 times you have KK you should expect to run into AA.
I had KK three times over the last 6 hours or so that I have played Texas Hold'em. That in itself is something. In 6 hours I probably was dealt around 180 hands. Seeing that you only expect to get KK once every 221 hands, it is a bit unusual to get KK three times in 180 hands. What is astounding is that 2 of the three times I had KK, I wound up facing an opponent holding AA. Simply astounding. To make matters worse, the final time I had KK I improved to three of a kind and was ahead until an ace showed up and my kings were a very strong second place finish - the worst place to be in a poker game.
Hopefully, things will turn around for me. I hope its in a big money game!!!
Recently I was in a tournament and had been running nicely, taking a few pots here and there and building up my stack losing only a few small pots. Then I was dealt a pocket pair of kings. KK. Cowboys. The second best starting hand you can have. You only get pocket kings about once in 220 hands, so when you get them, you want to cash in on them. The best way is to get an opponent heads-up and as long as he doesn't have pocket aces, you are about a 4 to 1 favorite or better, like 9 to 1. Of course, if he does have AA in the hole, your kings are about a 4 to 1 underdog, but that doesn't happen very often. Well, at least not to most Texas Hold'em poker players. Unless, of course, you are me.
Of course, the player in the Small Blind looks at his cards and raises. I re-raise all in and he calls, showing me his two aces.
So I do the numbers. It turns out that at a table with 9 players, if you are holding KK, the probability that any one of your opponents is holding AA is about 3.5%. About 1 out of every 28 or 29 times you have KK you should expect to run into AA.
I had KK three times over the last 6 hours or so that I have played Texas Hold'em. That in itself is something. In 6 hours I probably was dealt around 180 hands. Seeing that you only expect to get KK once every 221 hands, it is a bit unusual to get KK three times in 180 hands. What is astounding is that 2 of the three times I had KK, I wound up facing an opponent holding AA. Simply astounding. To make matters worse, the final time I had KK I improved to three of a kind and was ahead until an ace showed up and my kings were a very strong second place finish - the worst place to be in a poker game.
Hopefully, things will turn around for me. I hope its in a big money game!!!
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam" ("Born To ...
This should put a smile on your face Republican or Democrat!
Friday, December 20, 2013
How to play JJ
As is getting to be my typical Scottsdale afternoon, I did my morning house chores then headed out to the Talking Stick for a few hands of $2-$3 Spread Limit $3 to $300 Hold'em. Some of that experience is detailed in an earlier post.
I had won a couple of big pots and was feeling quite good about things and a new player sat down to my left. The lady won the first hand she played. "Welcome to the table!"
A little friendly table talk led to a discussion of the hands that are just horrible for us. She declared that pocket jacks were just the worst and I countered with pocket kings being the hand I have lost the most money with in cash games over the years. It is because they are so strong! I told her that I lose a lot less with pocket jacks because I feel I can get away from them when they are losing.
A few hands later, here I am on the button again with another pocket pair again and it limps around to me again and I raise again (to $20) and the same guy that went in all in when I had 99 goes all in again, this time with over $100 and a fairly tight player in front of me calls him. Now what? I looked at the lady to my left, told her that I was doing this just for her and I showed her my pocket jacks as I tossed them face down toward the dealer.
Wouldn't you know it, the tight player was just sitting there with pocket kings waiting to see a raise he could re-raise. He won the pot. The guy that kept raising all in before the flop lost his third buy-in.
I think it's kind of funny that I had to fold those jacks when a tight player called the all in. I would have been just too embarassed after having told that lady that I didn't mind pocket jacks because I usually didn't lose a big pot with them. I just couldn't get into a three way all in huge pot and lose with pocket jacks.
In the spirit of pocket jacks being a tough hand to play I thought I would share this video by Marty Smith demonstrating how to play pocket Jacks.
I had won a couple of big pots and was feeling quite good about things and a new player sat down to my left. The lady won the first hand she played. "Welcome to the table!"
A little friendly table talk led to a discussion of the hands that are just horrible for us. She declared that pocket jacks were just the worst and I countered with pocket kings being the hand I have lost the most money with in cash games over the years. It is because they are so strong! I told her that I lose a lot less with pocket jacks because I feel I can get away from them when they are losing.
A few hands later, here I am on the button again with another pocket pair again and it limps around to me again and I raise again (to $20) and the same guy that went in all in when I had 99 goes all in again, this time with over $100 and a fairly tight player in front of me calls him. Now what? I looked at the lady to my left, told her that I was doing this just for her and I showed her my pocket jacks as I tossed them face down toward the dealer.
Wouldn't you know it, the tight player was just sitting there with pocket kings waiting to see a raise he could re-raise. He won the pot. The guy that kept raising all in before the flop lost his third buy-in.
I think it's kind of funny that I had to fold those jacks when a tight player called the all in. I would have been just too embarassed after having told that lady that I didn't mind pocket jacks because I usually didn't lose a big pot with them. I just couldn't get into a three way all in huge pot and lose with pocket jacks.
In the spirit of pocket jacks being a tough hand to play I thought I would share this video by Marty Smith demonstrating how to play pocket Jacks.
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