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If you’re a poker fan and have been keeping up with the news over the past few years, you probably know that Atlantic City isn’t what it used to be. The New Jersey gambling capital has been through some rough times with a number of casinos and resorts shutting down recently. Blame it on the economy, globalization, the proliferation of new casinos in neighboring regions – the fact of the matter is that AC has seen better days.
Nonetheless, Atlantic City is still worth paying a visit to if you enjoy playing poker, whether live or online. The city still offers more options than most locales around the U.S. and the longstanding gambling Mecca of the East Coast knows what it takes to make players feel welcome. Even with all the hardships as of late, you shouldn’t discard the salt water taffy capital of the world just yet.
Atlantic City skyline
Despite multiple casinos and poker rooms shutting down all across Atlantic City, the Borgata has stood the test of time and is still going strong. With a poker room featuring more than 80 tables, you’ll find everything you could possibly ask for – from cash tables across various stakes to daily multi-table tournaments and special events to sit n’ gos.
If you enjoy live poker, visiting Atlantic City specifically to play at the Borgata is probably worth it. It may not have everything you’ll find in Vegas but it is definitely an excellent option for people living in the Tri-state area as well as the rest of the East Coast, for whom a Vegas trip is more logistically complex.
Apart from Borgata, there’s still plenty of good poker action you can find at other Atlantic City venues such as Harrah’s or Tropicana. Although their poker rooms may not be as big or as impressive as what Borgata has to offer, these options still have dozens of tables hot with action. Harrah’s in particular, because of its affiliation with the World Series of Poker brand, hosts some well-regarded, well-attended tournament festivals
The WSOP Circuit pays their annual visit to @harrahsresort in Atlantic City starting today with 13 Circuit rings up for grabs. Check out the lineup at https://t.co/ndxL6cKwk6
— PokerAtlas (@PokerAtlas) March 7, 2019
It is always nice to have many poker room options within close proximity of one another, whether it’s because a particular room won’t happen to have the game of your choice running at a particular time or just for the sake of having some variety.
New Jersey is one of the few U.S. states that have regulated online gambling. So, while staying in Atlantic City, you’ll also be able to play online poker. Notable online poker sites, such as PokerStars NJ and WSOP.com offer a slew of cash game and tournament tables active 24/7 at which anyone within the confines of New Jersey can take a seat. Of course, you can also pass some time engaging in other online gambling activities, playing slots or table games at regulated online casinos, the likes of which you can find by visiting CasinoBillions.com NJ.
One thing that has always been true of Atlantic City is that it’s a great place to take a relatively inexpensive poker vacation. With so many thousands of hotel rooms within just a couple miles of one another, there’s competition for your hard-earned dollars, which means room rates are never too high, save for national holidays. It’ll never be Las Vegas, but Atlantic City will always have a great Atlantic Ocean view as well as its famed Boardwalk, both of which don’t cost a penny for visitors to enjoy.
Cheaper room rates means you can allocate more of your funds towards your main reason for heading there in the first place, i.e., playing poker. Especially in the off-season months, you should be able to find some excellent deals on meals and accommodation, and who doesn’t love to save a few bucks?
Click here for great Atlantic City Poker Vacation deals
While poker may be the main reason for your visit, many of us like to engage with other not-so-skill-heavy gambling activities. If you love to try your luck with some table games such as blackjack, roulette, or craps, you’ll find more than enough options in Atlantic City. The same goes for video slots and video poker, as you’ll find hundreds of machines spread across the various casino floors.
This New Jersey man played his cards right…literally! He won $1 million off of a $5 poker hand in Atlantic City. Now THAT’S a Christmas present! https://t.co/W1vUNMab63 pic.twitter.com/YWVvuqo5Va
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 26, 2018
Of course, the Garden State gaming capital is still all about having a good time, and it plays host to a number of great shows, comedians, and magicians throughout the year, where you can enjoy a pleasant break from the tables.
So while, its heyday may be in the rear view mirror, let’s not forget that you can still play some great poker and have a good time in Atlantic City.
Editor’s note: This is Lesson #7 in our weekly “Strategy with Stas” series. Each and every Sunday Stas Tishkevich, founder of the Poker Fighter Training App, brings you a new lesson in article + video format. We hope you enjoy this feature from the Poker Fighter School, and would be happy for you to share these posts — as well as your feedback — on social media.
Action is folded to the dealer position, who open-raises the pot. Most players will open-raise a wide range from this position — at least 35% of possible starting hands — and our ace-jack suited is way ahead of this opening range, so we should almost always re-raise (3-bet) our hand in this spot.
Just calling from the small-blind vs. a dealer’s open-raise is normally a losing move, as we invite the big-blind to join the pot, and lose the initiative in the hand. So we re-raise and the dealer calls, which usually means a capped range.
A Capped Range in this case means that the opponent doesn’t have the best possible hands pre-flop, such as pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, pocket jacks, or ace-king, while we do have these hands because we would re-raise them pre-flop.
The flop comes Kh-Qs-6h, which is a wet flop, as there are many possible flush draws or straight draws.
We are out of position and have a strong drawing hand – a combo draw! We are drawing to the nut flush with nine possible outs, and have a gutshot straight draw with three non-heart tens, so that’s 12 outs to the nuts. If our ace overcard will improve us into a winning hand then we have three more outs.
So when I see this flop and there’s so much money already in the pot, what goes through my mind is: I’m pot-committed. I have nowhere to go. I should aim to go all-in. in this hand, and the best place to go all-in is on the flop, where my equity is the highest.
Versus these players we should bet our hand as a semi-bluff, expecting the opponent to fold many hands such as a pocket pair (22-55, 77-JJ), a low pair (A6s) etc. If the opponent calls, no problem; we still have great chance to improve and we want to maximize our profit when hitting our outs.
We will bet again on the turn, expecting him to fold a queen this time. If he calls our turn bet, we should usually go all-in on the river, expecting him to fold a weak king.
So, let’s go! Let’s bluff this hand.
If we have information that the player is super passive, meaning that he raises this flop with two pairs or better, hands like king-queen or a set of sixes, then we have a lot of information on this opponent. And in this situation, I would just call out of position his raise, because I get enough direct pot odds & implied pot odds to improve into a winning hand over his two pair or set, and take the rest of the money he has left.
The main point we need to understand here on the flop is that although our hand is a drawing hand, it has so many outs that we are pot committed given the 3-bet pot. We want to go all-in when our holdings are the strongest and have the best equity against our opponents’ potential and likely holdings, meaning on the flop.
The World Series of Poker is easily the most popular poker festival in the world and has enjoyed incredible growth since the start of the Poker Boom. Each year, we see new events added to the schedule, giving players more opportunities to win the most coveted prize in poker.
This year, the 50th Annual World Series of Poker will award more bracelets than ever, and globally the number of bracelets awarded will reach triple digits. With so many bracelets up for grabs, it may be time to revisit some arguments regarding bracelet saturation and overall value of a bracelet win. With 100 bracelets to be won, is it now easier than ever to capture a bracelet? Does winning a bracelet in 2019 mean the same thing it did in 2003? What is the cutoff point?
Since 2003, the number of WSOP bracelets awarded annually has nearly tripled, as just 36 bracelets were awarded the year Moneymaker won it all. With so many bracelets floating around, it would seem easier than ever to win a bracelet, right?
Let’s dive a little deeper into that number. This summer, there will be 89 events held in Las Vegas. Eighty of those events will be staged live and with the other nine run online. After the Las Vegas series, the 90th bracelet of the year will be awarded at the WSOP Global Casino Championship Then we’ll have the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe taking place at King’s Resort Rozvadov, expected to award 10 bracelets, bringing the total number of bracelets to 100.
In theory, then, it should be easier to win a bracelet. If this were 2004, or even 2009, you’d have an argument. But this isn’t your daddy’s WSOP. Just look at the changes that have occurred since 2003, ranging from starting stack sizes to re-entry events to blind structures and even the introduction of the Big Blind Ante.
Ultimately, you also have to consider field sizes. They are absolutely insane compared to 2003, or even during the heart of the Poker Boom. You simply can’t compare the events of yesteryear to today’s events. Poker is ever-evolving, and the World Series of Poker had been ahead of the curve in the evolution of the game.
The printable/downloadable 2019 WSOP schedule is now available:https://t.co/ra4TSdU9QW
Hope you are making plans to join us. pic.twitter.com/HUR2TJzyq1— WSOP (@WSOP) March 4, 2019
Also, the average amateur is still only going to play a handful of events. Sure, they may get in an extra event or two because of the lower pricing points of some events, but many players just show up for anywhere from one to a handful of events. They simply don’t have the bankrolls to play a full schedule.
Then you have to factor in the WSOP Europe and the online bracelets events. By and large, those events are much more niche and have much smaller fields compared to the average event in Las Vegas. Last year, we saw some top pros skip WSOP Europe. If the bracelets were so easier to win, you’d think they’d show up right?
So for those worried that the growing number of events will be akin to Oprah giving away bracelets, relax.
What happens when we start hitting the triple-digit mark for WSOP bracelets? We get a number of “do you know who I am” champions. For instance, look at the following list of players. How many do you recognize?
Every player on the above list has won a WSOP bracelet since 2015. While it is good to see that we have champions outside of the “established” poker pros you expect to see in the winner’s circle, part of the reason for this is because there are just so many more bracelets to win. We already have plenty of bracelet winners that you’d never know about unless you looked them up on Hendon Mob.
With so many winners, we also have to consider whether WSOP bracelets still have the same value as in the past. In the past, the poker media has often brought up the “best player to have never won a bracelet” list when talking about successful players. With the number of WSOP bracelets steadily rising each year, one has to wonder whether the benchmark of winning a single WSOP bracelet has the same weight as it has in years prior.
When you start awarding 100 bracelets (or more) each year, winning a bracelet isn’t the “career-defining” moment it used to be. Back around the time of the Poker Boom, winning a bracelet carried a lot more weight, often being a crowning achievement on one’s poker career. Now, winning a random $1,000 or $1,500 bracelet is still a great accomplishment, but after no too long, the narrative becomes “OK, what are you going to do to follow that up?”
So what’s the new benchmark for a poker player? Two, three, or even four bracelets? Also, do you have to win one of the “Championships” to be considered one of the top players in the world? Honestly, do we pay that much attention to the random low buy-in bracelet event unless there’s a big name involved?
Of course, the WSOP Main Event is on another level and winning that is always going to be THE career moment for the majority of poker players. This op-ed is referencing everyone else in the world who will never sniff a WSOP final table, much less win the big one.
After over ten hours of heads-up play, John Cynn is the 2018 WSOP Main Event Champion!
Cynn earns $8,800,000 and the coveted Main Event bracelet, Tony Miles pockets $5,000,000.
The full recap posted shortly.
(photo credit @jtPHOTOjunkie) pic.twitter.com/UT0gVkPzj7
— WSOP (@WSOP) July 15, 2018
Someone recently suggested to me that talking about this topic is pointless because “Caesars Entertainment will do whatever they want.” While I understand the person’s point, that’s not entirely true. It’s true that they will make policy and put out the WSOP schedule and events as they see fit, but they can only do so as long as they prove to be viable with the poker community.
It’s like any other form of gambling or casinos. A perfect example is the insane number of online casinos out there. For instance, you can check kingcasinobonus.co.uk for the best selection of online casinos. As long as the players come out to play, operators will continue to push the envelope.
The World Series of Poker continues to grow every year in terms of participation. You don’t go from 36 events to 100 events a year if players aren’t coming out to support the product. The World Series of Poker bracelet still has value to poker players around the world, and as long as it retains that perceived value, players will still flock out to the events to play them.
Throngs in the Rio hallways during the WSOP
What’s the cutoff point? Where the players decide. If WSOP officials start cranking out 125 events a year and overall numbers start dropping drastically, then we will start seeing some contraction as far as number of events spread. Personally, I see the Las Vegas leg of the WSOP getting up to at least 100 bracelet events a year, and at the rate they are growing, that could be as soon as next year. Ultimately, the market will determine how bracelets will be available in the future. Either that, or Allen Kessler will win a bracelet and trigger the apocalypse, whichever comes first.
There’s nothing quite like the Run It Up Reno series on the live poker festival circuit, and that’s just what Run It Up founder Jason Somerville intended when he forayed into live event production five years ago.
The eighth installment of the series will soon be upon us, as Run It Up Reno VIII is set to commence from the Peppermill Resort in Reno, Nevada on April 12 and continue for the next 10 days until April 22. This biannual poker festival has come a long way since the inaugural Run It Up Reno event ran in October 2015, and both of the 2018 Run It Up Reno festivals set records for attendance and prize money in their respective main events.
Last spring’s Run It Up Reno VI Main Event boasted a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool for the $540+60 buy-in tournament, and far exceeded that guarantee with 500 entries and a final prize pool of $262,900. Run It Up Reno VII raised the bar even higher in October 2018, with the promise of $200,000 guaranteed prize money in the $550+50 Main Event.
we started working with @PeppermillPoker five years ago, running a single @runitup tournament with sub-$10K in the prize pool.
our last event paid over $1M 🚀
I’m proud to continue the modern, fun-oriented poker experience we’ve built at @runitupreno this April!
come join us! https://t.co/Oo8KTCFdQN
— jcarver (@JasonSomerville) January 17, 2019
Somerville’s first go at producing a live Run It Up event was a lone $100 buy-in tournament at the Poker NV Challenge in 2014.
RIU Reno VII shattered expectations, with 687 entries in the Main Event, a total prize pool of $366,515, and a first prize of $70,000 going to tournament champion Matt Stout. The Moneymaker PSPC Tour also came through the Peppermill during the festival, drawing 825 entries.
Run It Up Reno has become an undeniable fan favorite, giving attendees the big-time poker tournament experience with affordable buy-ins and a welcoming, festive atmosphere.
“Last time we had an absolutely amazing event at Run It Up Reno, and it was helped a lot by the Moneymaker Tour event that we had there,” Somerville said. “Tons of people came out for that.”
“We offer a very unique poker experience at Run It Up Reno. We have all of our ambassadors there. You get to meet guys like Chris Moneymaker, Lex Veldhuis, Fintan Hand, Spraggy (Benjamin Spragg), Kevin Martin, Arlie Shaban, you name it. So many top Twitch poker streamers and influencers are there.”
Did you miss any of our @runitupreno live streams? Check out this Short-Deck Cash Game featuring @andrewneeme @jaimestaples @JeffGrossPoker @ratedGTO @BostonRob @CMONEYMAKER and @JasonSomerville! https://t.co/eEsv2FjqJu pic.twitter.com/NCZfmRvYyR
— Run It Up (@runitup) November 1, 2018
Putting the Run It Up team of ambassadors in the same room gives you, by default, one of the most impressive and influential collections of live streamers in the poker community.
Somerville himself is the most successful poker streamer of all time, and started the Run It Up brand in 2014 with the aim of promoting the game, moving the medium of live streaming poker forward, and helping other broadcasters grow their followings, as well as their influence in the poker industry.
“My original vision for Run It Up was to create interesting and entertaining poker content,” Somerville said. “Something that would be not quite as educational as the training sites, but competitive with that, while also being fun and engaging and entertaining.”
“With that goal I think I have been very successful, both with my own content, with promoting other broadcasters who have a similar vision, and just creating TONS of premium poker content for poker fans to watch for free on Twitch.”
It’s one thing to enjoy poker online and watch entertaining live streamers play at sites such as those featured on Americancasinos.com. It’s another thing entirely to actually be able to interact in person with the online poker streamers you know and love at a physical poker table in a brick and mortar poker room.
Somerville’s vision to start a company promoting live poker streamers has evolved to include a live event brand that continues to grow in popularity with a worldwide fan base. The Run It Up Reno experience includes a slate of events with buy-ins starting at $100, with the largest buy-in event being the $1,000+$100 Thursday Thrilla, a tournament with $500 bounties and a $125,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Also included at the festival are non-poker events like the Survivor Watch Party, where you can gather with other fellow Survivor fans (and possibly a few former Survivor cast members!) to watch and discuss the reality show as a group. Other fan-inclusive events include Stand-Up Open Mike Night, Scavenger Hunts, and Cash Game Hangouts, which offer the opportunity to play rake-free cash games with the Run It Up crew!
Some of the players having a blast at Run It Up Reno
The fan-friendly side events, affordable buy-in tournaments and the chance to meet Somerville and the rest of the Run It Up team make the festival truly one-of-a-kind, and poker fans have responded by continuing to put up record attendance numbers for each Run It Up Reno event.
“We have tried to take what works well at a high-stakes level and adapt it to a low-stakes buy-in, and low stakes tournaments generally, so you’re playing eight-handed structures, never nine- or ten- handed,” Somerville said.
“You’re playing big-blind ante and four-color decks for the mixed games. We’ve really tried to innovate and I think our fans have responded well. We have a very friendly atmosphere, people tell me that they always have a great time at Run It Up Reno, and it’s something that I’m very proud of. Creating that environment where everyone can kind of come together and have fun.”
It’s time for cash game hangouts! Head on over to the cash game room and lock up your seat!@JasonSomerville, @EasyWithAces, @spraggy are firing away at some shortdeck! #RunItUpReno pic.twitter.com/Ge5zsFB9oV
— Run It Up Reno (@runitupreno) October 27, 2018
The Run It Up Reno VIII tournament schedule includes a lineup of unique poker variants like the rarely seen No-Limit Omaha 8, H.O.R.S.E., No Limit Hold’em Bomb Pot, Triple Stud, Short Deck Hold’em and Taiwanese Poker. There’s even a five-game mixed-game tournament that features Three-Card Super Hold’em and Five-Card PLO8 as part of the mix!
Only four years into its existence, the Run It Up Reno series has established itself as a must-attend event for any poker enthusiast, with an unrivaled, fan-friendly experience.
There’s a reason people come back, and back and back and back. We have some people who travel from so far away. From Europe, and some from Australia who’ve come multiple times. And Alaska, and all across the world come into Reno to play in our series. It means so much to me. And there’s still a lot more to come.
– Jason Somerville
Short stack poker is almost a completely different game.
The poker hand rankings and rules may be the same, but your strategy needs to be heavily adjusted whenever your stack dips below 40 big blinds. Otherwise, you will end up squandering your stack more often than not.
In this article you’ll find four tips that will help you make more profitable decisions at these action-packed stack depths. Let’s dive right in.
‘Post-flop playability’ is how well your hand hits various flops and how it will play from the flop onward. This is an important concept at all stack depths, but it’s particularly important with a short stack because there is so little room to maneuver post-flop.
Since you’ll often be all-in on the flop or turn, it’s important to mainly play hands that can easily make strong top pairs (AJ, KQ, QJ, etc.). On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll have to play fewer speculative hands that benefit from being deep stacked (such as middling and low suited connectors).
When you have a hand that will play poorly post-flop, but is likely to the best hand pre-flop, open-shoving will often be your best course of action. Shoving allows you realize all of your hand’s equity and avoid tough post-flop decisions. Examples of such hands include small A-x hands and small pocket pairs (22–77). But, make sure to make this play only when under 20bb deep. Otherwise, you should open-fold these hands or, if another player has raised, consider 3-bet shoving.
Inexperienced players are often way too passive at shorter stack depths. These players fold almost everything, waiting for a premium hand to double their stack with.
Now, playing tight can be the correct strategy in some cases, most notably on money bubbles of tournaments. But playing overly tight too often will cause you to bleed chips. You’re much better off actively trying to win chips by going for blind steals, 3-bet shoving, and defending your big blind with the appropriate range.
Fearing the death of your tournament life is a surefire way to see your stack reduced to crumbs. As Doug Polk says, “Sometimes in a tournament, it’s just your time to die.” Showing a lack of fear at the table is how you build stacks and set yourself up for deep tournament runs.
The correct approach to 3-bet bluffing non-all-in varies based on stack size and your opponent’s skill level. To keep things simple, we’ll focus on the most common tournament stack sizes of around 25-40 big blinds in this section.
Example: You’re in the early-middle stages of a tournament and the blinds are 500/1,000 with an ante. A player in middle position raises to 2,200 and the action folds to you in the cutoff with a stack of 35,000 chips (your opponent covers you).
Versus regulars, you’ll want to 3-bet bluff with hands slightly worse than your calling hands in the same situation. Good examples of such hands include K♠ 9♠, K♦ J♠ and A♦ 7♦. These hands have great blockers (making it less likely that your opponent has a strong hand that can continue) and they are all just a little too weak to comfortably call.
If your opponent 4-bets and you are forced to fold with a hand like K♠ 9♠ here, it’s no big deal because you were likely dominated. But if you 3-bet and are forced to fold a stronger hand like K♥ Q♥, you’re tossing a ton of equity into the muck — just think how much of a disaster this is when your opponent shoved a hand you were flipping against, like 88!
Against inexperienced players, specifically ones that call a lot and rarely 4-bet, hands like K♥ Q♥ become great 3-bets. This is because they are likely to call your 3-bet with silly hands (which nets you a ton of value), but they won’t 4-bet without an absolute monster. So, you can 3-bet for value with little fear of being blown off of your equity. If he does 4-bet shove, you can easily fold because you’re almost certainly dominated.
So, in a nutshell: Use hands with blockers that are just below your calling range as 3-bet bluffs against good and aggressive players. 3-bet a more value-heavy range against passive, lesser experienced players.
For a long time players thought you should only 3-bet or fold and never cold-call versus a raise when you’re in the small blind. Here’s why:
But reasons #2 and #3 go out the window when the big blind is a weak player. Consider:
So, the takeaway from this tip is simple but valuable: avoid cold-calling when the big blind is a strong, aggressive player. Otherwise, cold-call away.
Most of the calls/raises you make with a short stack will represent a large portion of your remaining stack. So, it’s absolutely crucial that you carefully think through each decision to avoid making costly mistakes.
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Editor’s note: This is Lesson #6 in our weekly “Strategy with Stas” series. Each and every Sunday Stas Tishkevich, founder of the Poker Fighter Training App, brings you a new lesson in article + video format. We hope you enjoy this feature from the Poker Fighter School, and would be happy for you to share these posts — as well as your feedback — on social media.
Action is folded to the player in the dealer position, who open raises. Most players will open-raise a wide range from this position, at least 35% of possible starting hands, and our pocket jacks are way ahead of this opening range, so we should almost always re-raise (3-bet) our hand in this spot.
Just calling from the small-blind vs a dealer’s open-raise is normally a losing move, as we invite the big-blind to join the pot, and lose the initiative in the hand. So, we re-raise him from the small blind , and he just calls.
The flop comes 9c-4c-2c, a monotone flop, meaning that all the cards are of the same suit, three clubs.
This is a wet flop as there are many possible flush draws and straight draws. We have an over-pair to the board, which is usually a strong made hand, but due to the flop being monotone, the strength of our made hand is only medium, meaning that there are many possible hands better than ours such as any flush, any set, or any two pair.
Pre-flop when we re-raised, we claimed that our hand is strong. When our opponent just called, he told us that he is usually weak, meaning that he has a Capped Range.
A Capped Range in this case means that the opponent doesn’t have the best possible hands pre-flop, such as pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, pocket jacks, or ace-king, while we do have these hands because we would re-raise them pre-flop.
So, we need to make a decision. Our possible line here is to bet or check and call. If we bet, the reason is for Value and Protection.
Betting For Value means that we can still get calls from weaker hands than ours, such as any draw; either a flush draw or a straight draw. We can get a call from a nine (top pair), we can get a call from pocket tens, maybe pocket eights, sevens, sixes, and fives, if they have one club.
Betting for Protection means that we need to protect our hand versus bad turn cards, meaning that if we bet the flop and he folds a weak club, it’s good for us. He folded equity. If we bet the flop and he folds higher cards than ours, such as an ace or a king or a queen, it’s good for us. We protect our hand.
So this is my plan for this hand: Bet the flop. If he calls, I’ll probably check the turn, and then call on good turn cards and fold on bad turn cards.
So we bet the flop.
Let’s see why we bet, what the fighter has to say: “We are out of position and the flop is wet. We have a medium made hand. It’s only a medium high over-pair. We need to bet to get paid by weaker hands and to protect our hand versus bad turn cards.” Great job, coach, I love your advice!
An additional line we can take in this spot is versus very aggressive opponents who bluff too much. In this case, I would usually check the flop, expecting him to bet, and then I will go for a bluff-catching line and call.
Check-call the turn again on good turn cards, and check-fold on bad turn cards like any club, or an ace, maybe even a king.
The main point we need to understand here on the flop, is that although we have an over-pair, because it is monotone our hand strength is severely reduced and we should play it much more slowly than if it were a rainbow or two-tone flop.
There’s no denying that sports stars are the recipients of some rather sizeable paychecks, making the industry one of the most prosperous across the world. Whether that be playing football, golf or basketball, there’s no apparent end to the embarrassment of riches sport athletes can earn.
So what do you do with all that moolah after you’ve bought your dream mansion and a fleet of sports cars? Some opt to invest in other businesses and seek new ventures, whereas others can donate large chunks of their salary to charity. However, some sports stars just can’t resist a punt (typically on other sporting outcomes, but occasionally also at casinos and at the poker tables) and if they win or lose, you can guarantee it’ll be a sizeable amount of money changing hands. Chances are, you’ve read about sports stars landing big wins but what about those who lose? Let’s take a peek at some of the biggest gambling losses in recent times.
He is easily one of the most recognisable names in Major League Baseball, yet Alex Rodriguez appeared to have major gambling problems as well. The former New York Yankees star came under scrutiny in 2005 and 2011, after reports emerged of him partaking in underground poker games. It’s not clear what his total losses actually were but during one game, it is known that he lost $105,000.
Michael Jordan is arguably the NBA’s best-ever player, and he was a dab hand when it comes to all-forms of gambling as well. Jordan is reported to have lost $1.3 million to a friend whilst playing golf over a 10-day period, although he only coughed up $300k. Elsewhere, he’s lost money betting on rock-paper-scissors, poker and blackjack. His casino activities were highly publicised throughout his career, and you can try your hand at landing a nice profit with Betfair casino’s online version.
Granted, Michael Chopra isn’t one of the biggest sports stars in the world but his gambling losses hit the headlines throughout his career. In 2011, BBC Sport confirmed that the former footballer lost £2 million during his heyday and he was wagering up to £20k per-day. Chopra has tried to treat and control his addictions but his overall losses are staggering.
He is one of the most iconic football players of the modern era, yet Wayne Rooney is partial to a large punt or two. The former Everton and Manchester United hero was reported to have lost £500k at his own casino, and even lost £690,000 on sweepstakes. Although, it’s just a drop in the ocean as he is worth upwards of $160 million.
Golf star John Daly is no stranger when it comes to gambling, having lost a reported $50 million so far. ESPN’s documentary ‘Hit it Hard’ revealed the true extent of Daly’s habits, and his honesty about the situation was most admirable. Daly was not adverse to poker and slot machines either, with a reported $20 million of his losses coming from casinos.
There are a number of lessons we can learn from the above sports stars gambling experiences. A key takeaway is to never risk more money than you can afford. Even multimillionaires have their limits when it comes to wagering chips at gaming tables. Another is that the more fame you’ve earned as a sports star, the more critical an eye the public will take to your gambling splurges. For the overwhelming majority of us, wins and losses at the poker felt or in casinos and sports books is of no interest to anyone else. But when you’re a major sporting figure, it’s a different story altogether.
I am pretty sure I have said before that a book I was reviewing at the time changed my life, but this time it didn’t just change my life, it completely 100% altered my entire poker existence. I was one person when I opened to the first page and I was a different person by the last page. I am not exaggerating. I was already a winning player before reading Alex Fitzgerald’s book Exploitative Play in Live Poker: How to Manipulate your Opponents into Making Mistakes, but now I dominate!
I am a relatively new player to the game, so when I say I was already a winning player I don’t mean to say I was banking a few hundred grand annually. Rather I just mean I was slowly increasing my bankroll — and I mean slowly. And when I say that I now dominate I don’t mean I am on par with the superstars of the game; far from it. Rather, I feel excited to have learned plays the superstars have most likely known for years. I am thrilled that my win rate has increased, and I owe it directly to Alex’s book, published by the venerable D&B Poker.
I have studied poker for a little more than five years now, and I have a pretty solid foundation. So, what’s next? Time to start building on the foundation. It isn’t time to stop and take a break, I am just getting started. Everything I learn moving forward takes my play to the next level to where I can start to say I am learning to use some of the tools that the superstars have in their tool box. Start at the ground level and build my way up to the penthouse! Alex’s book is the architect’s blueprints. The thing about it is his book doesn’t read like a complex construction diagram for trained professional carpenters. Instead, it is easy to read and understand, like Lego instructions. If you want the engineering behind it, be sure to check out his other book The Myth of Poker Talent, which I already ordered. I did a review for the video series last year.
My game was somewhat passive, I would say. I never really used aggression because I didn’t understand when to use it. This book explains what to look for so you can apply well-timed pressure. The result is twofold: first, I get to pick up more blinds per hour without much resistance, and second, the field perceives me as much more of a threat now. They are not trying to steal the blinds from the button or 3-betting my early open nearly as much. If you don’t understand how or why that is a benefit, you need this book really badly!
In the long run, the difference between being a just-above-break-even player and a winning player is precisely the few extra blinds per hour you either pick up or leave behind. This is especially true for you live casino tournament players out there. I am a cash game player so now when I double up on those deep stack clashes, I double up with far more chips in my stack than before because now I am slowly chipping up every orbit whereas before I was more or less just playing my cards. You hear people talking about “playing the player” or “playing your position,” but until you figure out what they are talking about you can’t take advantage and capitalize on it. I once saw a video where someone won a sit and go covering up their hole cards with a sticky note. They were applying the principles illustrated in Alex’s book.
I don’t know about you, but I am never going to be satisfied with where my poker game is. I must admit I don’t know what I don’t know. I have to go out there and find the answers to the questions I don’t even know that I have. I don’t want to just grab any old book from any old shelf and learn any old information. I want to learn the best from the best.
I am telling you: Alex Fitzgerald is the best of the best.
Not only because of his poker knowledge, but because he has a talent for expressing and conveying his poker knowledge to the reader. He speaks my language and I am going to go out on a limb and wager that he speaks your language as well. If you are the kind of person who loves the game of poker so much you read poker blogs like Cardplayer Lifestyle, then I can make that wager with confidence!
Alex doesn’t beat around the bush, he is straight forward and doesn’t get lost following rabbit trails. I also really like the way he challenges his readers. He really pushes me to go for it… or, alternatively, settle for being a “loser.” That kind of encouragement motivates me! I don’t want to be a loser! I don’t want to settle for “passive just above break even.” I want to sit down at the table and dominate. Alex Fitzgerald’s book Exploitative Play in Live Poker: How to Manipulate your Opponents into Making Mistakes gives you the weapons in your arsenal to not only win but dominate the table. After reading this book you will never be the same.
Naturally, every time we get involved in a pot, we hope to hit big. Everything else aside, poker is so much easier when you’re making your hands instead of having to bluff your way to big pots! However, once you do make that big hand, the question becomes, how to proceed to get your opponent(s) to commit more chips to the pot?
Oftentimes, players will resort to slow-playing strategy, meaning they’ll try to disguise the strength of their hand in hopes the other players will continue to contribute to the pot while behind. Like all poker strategies, this one has its place at the felt but also comes with certain caveats that you should be aware of.
When you make a big hand like a set or top two pair on a board that contains a lot of potential draws, you shouldn’t be keen on slow-playing your hand. With these board textures, there are so many bad cards on turns and rivers that will either cost you some value or, worse, cost you the entire pot.
When you have a big made hand on a board where your opponents are likely to be chasing straights and flushes, you want to be the one driving the action and charging them for the privilege to draw. By betting and raising in these spots, you’re denying them the equity and are forcing them to make mistakes by calling big bets.
Additionally, you’ll get some value from other hands like over-pairs to the board, which might call you down thinking you’re raising a big draw. So, in these tricky spots, playing your hand fast and pretty much straightforward is often the best approach.
There are certain situations where you’ll flop so big that you can’t realistically expect your opponents to have very much at all. On the boards where you flop the top full house with a big pocket pair or holding a big set on a raggy board, you’ll want to slow play and let other players catch up.
Unlike the situation with draw-heavy boards, your opponents just aren’t likely to have anything good enough to keep calling you here. To be sure, sometimes they’ll have trips when you have the boat, but even then checking the flop is probably the best strategy as you’re more likely to take their entire stack by disguising the real strength of your hand.
The additional advantage of this approach is that more aggressive players will often try to take control of the hand on the turn once the flop gets checked through. So, they might start bluffing into you simply because you’ve shown what they perceive as weakness.
READ MORE: How to Deal with an Aggressive Poker Player on Your Left
In situations where you flop a big hand, such as bottom two pair, and are up against an opponent who is showing a lot of aggression, you ‘re probably better off slow-playing your hand and letting them do your bidding. These are spots where their hand ranges are pretty capped, consisting of big pocket pairs that are an over-pair to the board or, potentially, a top pair, top kicker kind of hand.
In these spots, raising won’t do you much good, as it will only give away information about the strength of your hand, which could be enough for a competent player to get away from their big pocket pair without losing their entire stack. On the other hand, if you let them drive the action, they’ll have much harder time figuring out what you have and will often end up firing all three barrels.
So, as illustrated above, there are situations where slow-playing is the optimal move to make, which will allow you to make the most money off your opponents. As a final, important, side note. Slow-playing should never be confused with slow-rolling, which is bad etiquette to say the very least.
Are you new to the game of poker? If you’re worried that by joining a game of poker you’ll be sat round a table full of nods, winks and secret hand gestures, then worry not – everyone is trying to read each other while also trying to give nothing away. What will make you a great poker player will be your aptitude for mastering math, techniques, and being able to call someone’s bluff.
It’s been said that the game takes a few minutes to learn but a lifetime to master. There’s much truth to that sentiment, as even professional players take poker courses to keep improving. With that said, to paraphrase another saying, the journey to the finish line begins with the first steps. Here, then are some of the best tips for new poker players to keep in mind.
Despite what this might imply, this doesn’t involve mind-reading. Knowing the room you’re in, in terms of players, is vital to playing a great game. For example, if you’re in a group where one player is a poker expert, you should expect them to be collecting a hand with a wide range of options. Therefore, you should also be trying to get as many options into your hand as well. For example, ensuring you have maybe a combination of a flush, a pair and four of a kind (though not necessarily all of them) in your hand will help up your chances of beating whatever hand they put down.
After a while, you will find yourself picking up a strategy that lends itself to helping you win. Honing in on this strategy and working on it will start to push you ahead of other people at the table. While it might be tempting to make rash decisions to throw off other players, this might end up backfiring on you. Keep a steady head and a steady hand, and you might just begin to reap the rewards throughout the tournaments as you go.
If your interest in poker has come from films, you might be misguided into thinking that all it takes is a bit of confidence, intelligence and knowledge of the game. While you might be thinking that knowledge of the game will take you far in terms of strategy, practice really does make perfect. Using sites which offer a range of casino games and sports betting, such as https://www.unibet.co.uk/betting, will give you a chance to practice, as well as other casino-style opportunities.
Once you get rolling for the first time, you’ll find that the less strong hands are very easy to rely on. It’s much less of a mental task to spot four of a kind or a pair than it is to remember what constitutes as a Royal Flush. However, it’s sometimes advised that you’d be better of folding every now and then, instead of getting beaten with a poor-quality hand.
Learning how to play poker for the first time can be incredibly exciting and incredibly frustrating at the same time. Playing against more experienced players means that you will inevitable get beaten and lose out on occasion. Getting friends together to play with small stakes will help refine your strategy first before progressing on to bigger platforms. After a while, you might find yourself becoming a force to be reckoned with.
To be sure, there’s TONS more to learn. Much like a tournament, however, it’s a lengthy grind to get to the advanced stages, and every player has to begin his/her journey to success from the starting gates. As you’re new to the game, it would do you well to remember the tips expressed and laid out above. Once you’ve mastered them, progressing to the next stages of poker study and skill mastery will come naturally.
Editor’s note: This is Lesson #5 in our weekly “Strategy with Stas” series. Each and every Sunday Stas Tishkevich, founder of the Poker Fighter Training App, brings you a new lesson in article + video format. We hope you enjoy this feature from the Poker Fighter School, and would be happy for you to share these posts — as well as your feedback — on social media.
Action is folded to the player in the dealer position, who open raises the pot. Most players will open-raise a wide range from this position, at least 35% of possible starting hands, and our King-Queen offsuit is ahead of this opening range, so we should usually re-raise (3-bet) our hand in this spot.
Just calling from the small-blind vs. a dealer’s open-raise is normally a losing move, as we would invite the big-blind to join the pot, and thus lose the initiative in the hand.
So we re-raise him from the small blind position with king-queen offsuit, and he calls.
The flop comes 8-2-2 rainbow. This is a dry flop, as there are no possible flush or straight draws. We have two overcards, meaning that our hand is a drawing hand and its strength is medium. So, when we raised pre-flop, we claimed that our hand is strong, and the opponent just called, meaning that he has a Capped Range.
A Capped Range in this case means that the opponent doesn’t have the best possible hands pre-flop, such as pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, pocket jacks, or ace-king, while we do have these hands because we would re-raise them pre-flop.
We need to decide between checking or betting our hand.
Checking here means that we give up on the hand and fold if the dealer bets. If he checks we can try and bet the turn to take down the pot.
If we want to bet we need to find a good reason, in this case betting as a bluff and for protection.
Betting as a Bluff means that we bet expecting the opponent to fold stronger hands than ours, such as an ace high, and vs. opponents who fold too much, even pocket pairs such as pocket threes up until pocket sevens.
Betting for Protection means that we want to take down the pot now and look for a fold from hands that can still improve to a better hand than ours if we check the flop, such as suited connectors (76s for example) or broadway combos (QJo for example).
So our best line here would be to bet the flop. If the opponent calls, usually we will give up the hand on the turn unless we improve.
We can improve to a made hand — hitting a king or a queen — and then we have a medium made hand that we can check and call on the turn or bet again for thin value.
We can probably bluff again on scare cards on the turn – an ace or jack – because that would be a card that strongly hits our range of hands that we would’ve re-raised pre-flop and bet the flop.
The main point we need to understand here on the flop, is that although we missed the flop, betting will lose less than checking and giving up on the hand. We have the initiative and our range is un-capped, while the opponent suffers from lack of initiative and his range is capped. We need to bet because we can make the opponent fold stronger hands. We still have decent chances to improve if he calls, and we need to make the pot bigger when we’re going to hit our outs.
The 2018 World Series of Poker attracted a record-breaking 123,865 entries with a tremendous, all-time high total prize pool of $266,889,193. According to the statistics provided by WSOP.com, the average bracelet winner took home $655,337, and the average per event prize pool was $3,421,656. Will we see these astounding numbers surpassed this year at the 50th annual World Series of Poker?
The 2019 WSOP will last from May 28 until July 16 and once again will be staged at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are 80 live bracelet events listed and, per tradition, the festivities will begin with the $500 Casinos Employee event. Almost 500 poker tables will be set up throughout over 100,000 square feet of floor space to accommodate the thousands of players coming in from all over the world.
Let’s take a closer look at and analyze the 2019 schedule to see what unique features the organizers of this exceptional festival have in store for the poker world this year.
Last year, the Main Event attracted a massive field of 7,874 players, each of whom ponied up $10,000 to compete for poker’s most prestigious prize. It was the second-largest field in the event’s history, only having been surpassed by the incredible 2006 figure of 8,773 players, at the height of the Poker Boom.
Play will begin with Day 1A on July 3, with late registration possible up until the start of Day 2! What’s more, players will receive 60,000 starting chips, the largest amount in the event’s history.
As to whether this year’s incarnation will attract a record-breaking field, that’s something you might be able to place a wager on with outlets like this bookmaker. A new record seems pretty unlikely, but cracking the 8,000-player milestone is certainly within the realm of possibility.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrnsiIKn027/
One of the special events planned on this year’s schedule is the “Big 50” featuring a $500 buy-in and $5 million guaranteed prize pool, with the winner taking home $1,000,000. The Big 50 will take place on the WSOP’s opening weekend, with four starting flights beginning on May 30, and – in an unprecedented move – will be rake-free.
“We expect our opening weekend Big 50 event to be one of the largest in our history, and certainly one of the best value tournaments ever offered. This is part of our concerted plans to make the 2019 WSOP a better value all-around,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart.
The WSOP planning has began. The only tournament that I'm for sure playing in is the Big50. Going down May 31 to June 9. Learning from the GOAT, @RealKidPoker literally just watched 85 episodes of his VLOG in 3 days! #excited #nervous pic.twitter.com/5bvCL6T4gK
— Brandon Key (@brandonkeyy) December 27, 2018
One re-entry per starting flight will be allowed, but note that only one’s first entry carries no rake. Also notable is that there will be four Day 2s, with the entire field only combining for the first time on Day 3. With 50,000-chip starting stacks and 50-minute levels, officials expect five days of play, and for a winner to be crowned on June 7.
Another tournament being spread specifically to celebrating the 50th running of the WSOP is the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller event. It starts on May 31 and will take place over four days of play. Players start with 300,000 chips and there are hourly levels. Look for a larger-than-usual field to play in this one, as beyond a prize pool likely to approach eight figures, there’s also the prestige of a bracelet to compete for.
Demonstrating that the WSOP officials have their finger on the pulse of the poker world and are paying attention to player suggestions and feedback, only one event will allow for unlimited re-entry, namely the Crazy Eights event ($888,888 GTD with a $888 buy-in). What’s more, all No Limit Hold’em events will be played using the Big Blind Ante system.
“There are a lot of exciting changes in store… If there is one main one, it is value. We hear the cries for more value and we are hard at work to deliver that more effectively this year. Another one is reentries/unlimited reentries. Trying to make sure more events are freezeouts and to use single reentry more often than unlimited. More chips will be a theme this year for our events.” Said WSOP Vice President of Corporate Communications, Seth Palansky.
An entirely new event on the schedule, set to take place on July 1-2, is the Mini Main Event. It’s a great “entrée before the main course,” with the structure of the tournament planned to mirror the one used in the Main Event. Especially as there are plenty of players out there for whom raising $10,000 is either almost impossible or out-of-the-question, this offers a far more affordable price point for everyone to have a “Main Event-like experience.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtoizzYDf3W/
Over the past year, Short Deck – in which all 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s, are removed to result in a 36-card deck – has boomed in popularity, especially among the high roller set. True to its calling as a series that offers all poker variants a chance to shine in the limelight for a bit, the WSOP will for the first time in history, host a Short Deck championship event. It’s set to begin on June 2 and play out over four days.
ICYMI: The $10K buy-in events and above have been announced for the 2019 WSOP. New to WSOP this year is Short Deck NLHE. The $50K PPC is scheduled for June 24.https://t.co/zQXrqv3qqd pic.twitter.com/PYhaFvKq3u
— WSOP (@WSOP) January 18, 2019
There’s a lot of prestige accorded to winning a World Series of Poker bracelet. Now, there’s an additional benefit, with the WSOP set to run their first ever “bracelet-winners only” event this summer. This special $1,500 buy-in NLHE event will begin on July 10, with four days of scheduled play.
Bigger Starting Stacks & Big Blind Ante to become staples at 2019 WSOP. https://t.co/QsKn8lOp8T
34 new events confirmed, including a bracelet-winners only event.
Updated schedule: https://t.co/I3HoFxANCy pic.twitter.com/mSkoGZbBGb
— WSOP (@WSOP) January 23, 2019
The 50th running of any event deserves extra attention, fanfare, and celebrations, so this year the WSOP intends to hold a special gala and evening of prizes on Saturday, June 29. Details are still to be announced, but you can be sure this will be a big shindig, attended by many of the game’s legendary players and industry luminaries.
For the first time, in tribute to the members of the U.S. armed forces, the WSOP schedule will feature a new charity tournament: Salute to Warriors NL Hold’em, with buy-in fee proceeds to be donated to the USO and other Veteran organizations.
The three-day $500 tournament is set to begin on July 2, and it’s certain to be a memorable event guaranteed to generate some great stories.
While the WSOP might still be a few months away, we’re already hyped for it! Whether you’re planning a trip to Vegas this summer or will just be tuning in to watch the action on ESPN and PokerGO, you can be sure that the 50th annual WSOP will be an event series like no other in poker history.