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Andre Akkari is a threat in any tournament he plays. The longtime Team PokerStars Pro has upwards of $6 million in lifetime tournament earnings, both online and live.
Minutes before the cards went into the air for the 2019 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event, I had the chance to sit down with Akkari. The Brazilian tournament crusher chatted with me about his transition into playing more live events, his poker education and backing endeavors in his home country, and his preparation for EPT Barcelona.
PokerStars Team Pro Andre Akkari
First of all, Andre, how’s it going for you here at EPT Barcelona so far?
Amazing, this place is incredible. In terms of poker I didn’t play too much; I’m going to play the Main Event today. But in terms of, like a trip, it’s incredible. Near the beach, incredible venue, so it’s great. I love it here.
That goes into one of my next questions; when you’re here for EPT Barcelona, what are some of your favorite activities, non-pokerwise?
I love to play football. In Brazil, we play a lot of football. I’m bad at it but I like to play. We have an agreement with some Brazilian guys here, that they give some classes, and we go every morning at like 10 a.m. We go to the beach, and we take some football classes. The beach is great, the atmosphere is amazing, and we do some classes there, me and my Brazilian friends. Then we can come here and play poker in the best way possible. And the restaurant is very nice as well. It’s a great place.
I read that you got into poker; you were in the software industry, had a project for a poker website that got you hooked on poker. Can you tell me a little bit more about what drew you to poker?
I was working in web development, and I was not engaged in poker in any way. I didn’t have any connection with poker. I always played soccer, I always liked soccer. Because in Brazil, everything is around soccer. Brazil is a one-sport country, everyone is rooting for soccer.
Then I got this proposal from another company to do the poker website. I had to install the software and see how it worked. And then I got excited about it. At the same time ESPN was showing some poker tournaments. And that was exactly the same week I saw poker on ESPN, I got the proposal to work on the poker website. And that was great for me, it was the first opportunity that I had to get some notions about poker. And then I got engaged with it.
I started reading my first book, and my English was even more terrible than it is now.
Your English is great! No issues with your English at all.
My English at that time was terrible. So I had to keep translating the things I read in the book; translating on the computer. That’s the first time I think in my life I worked hard because I had passion about it.
I was very involved in other activities; I always tried to do a lot of things. But it was the first time something connected with me in a great way. I knew that this was the game I wanted to be playing for the rest of my life. I didn’t know that it would happen like it’s happened. But I knew that something great was coming.
There’s obviously a lot that goes along with being a Team PokerStars Pro. What are some of your duties in that role?
It’s an incredible job for me to work with PokerStars. It’s been a 13-year relationship with PokerStars. But I’ve never been able to see it as a job. It’s always about fun, I’m promoting something that I love. Meeting all of these people that think the same way that I think. Being an ambassador for a game that changed my life as well, in terms of financially, and marketing, relationships and things like this.
Being a poker ambassador for me was always a huge pleasure. It’s brought me so many great things. The people at PokerStars always have the kind of energy that I’m looking for. Being an ambassador, I have to create great relationships to promote poker in the best way possible.
When I teach poker, I learn a lot about poker as well. It’s always a pleasure to do that, and when I’m doing that I’m promoting PokerStars as well.
I had to get myself a picture with Andre!
You have a poker school in Brazil, tell me a little bit about that.
It’s two different teams, one is QG Akkari Team, it’s like a poker team. We teach them and we back them to play online and live. We started it 12 years ago. It’s not a hugely profitable operation, but it brings a lot of pleasure, because we can see people’s lives change. It’s incredible to see how it can affect people’s lives.
The other project is Inagame. Inagame is an online poker school. We’ve had 11, 12 thousand students in the last 11 years. The first eight years it was live, and now the last three years has been online. We don’t get any bad news from that. It’s always great, it’s always thankful. It’s always saying that we are helping them and sometimes changing their lives. So it’s incredible. I’m addicted to it. I’m addicted to teaching people and talking about poker.
Brazil is a country where you can see people are happy, and have great energy. But it’s a country where people suffer as well. Because the economy is terrible, and we have a lot of poor people. A lot of people that don’t have any kind of opportunity. And we can bring something happy, or something that, they can better.
You’ve a great success both as a live, and an online player, with millions in earnings in both. What are some of the differences in how you approach live poker, versus how you approach online poker?
I spent 12 years playing online, every day. Six days a week, 14 hours a day. 60 tournaments a day, two monitors, 20 tables at the same time. It was a hard way, but something that I had passion to do. But then, you start to get older. I’m 44. So it’s hard to keep up the same thing as you had before, like playing 20 tables. The mouse doesn’t go the same way as it did before.
So you start to get tired. Then I changed some plans, playing more live than online. I’m not avoiding all of the online tournaments; I’m going to play the WCOOP, I’m going to play the SCOOP.
Playing online, you have more focus on numbers, you have more focus on having information. It’s more about the pure game, so you have to play perfect. The short term action doesn’t matter, you have to think in the long term. It’s exciting because there’s a lot of money involved, there are a lot of final tables involved.
Playing live; I’m going to play the Main Event right now. If I bust, I’m out, and there is no other tournament to play today. It’s a different perspective, a different expectation.
But live poker brings something great that online poker doesn’t do. Like live tells, social things. It’s incredible, so for me now, I’m going to play both. When I want to play live, there are great tournaments like this one. That’s the reason that poker is the best game in the world. You can play some huge live events, and some huge online events.
Dia cheio de reuniões com toda a equipe da @furiagg CsGO em Barcelona. Foi talvez um dos dias mais produtivos da história da org. Estou feliz demais em poder ajudar. Amanhã é Main Event EPT!
— andre akkari (@aakkari) August 26, 2019
How did you prepare for this year’s EPT Barcelona Main Event?
I keep studying poker a lot, because people are crazy right now. The young players are studying poker a lot, and they’re so good. So you have to do something. So at least there’s not a lot of space between you and these guys. You have to keep track with some studying, and keep seeing what’s the new thing they are thinking of. I probably study every day right now.
For a main event like this, probably my biggest preparation is avoiding problems. Avoid any kind of negativity. If I have something that I have to fix, or meetings I have to do, I’ll try to do them two weeks before. Because once I get here, the only thing that can take my mind off the table are problems. Sometimes it happens even if you prepare yourself before. But if you can avoid that, and you’re studying, and you have the poker skills, you’re going to do good.
I’ve been enamoured by poker ever since I started playing just shy of two years ago. This wasn’t a love affair that was built up over time, it was a fast and hard romance that still burns as I type these words out.
When I first discovered the game, it was straight to YouTube to ingest whatever coverage was available be it; binge watching every series of High Stakes Poker to the soothing tones of Gabe Kaplan, The Big Game, Poker Premier League, and of course an unhealthy view count of Phil Hellmuth blow-ups, “He called a raise with queen-ten honey!”
Obviously, there’s a lot of sentiment to the past amongst the poker community — heck, some people have felt poker’s time is past and have turned to sites like ranking kasyn for guidance on online casinos to try and make money online — but I believe 2019 has been great year for the game. Online poker legalisation is a topic that’s been picking up steam in the United States with Pennsylvania and West Virginia joining the short list of states that have legalised it. The inaugural PSPC kicked off 2019 with an absolute bang, the 50th annual World Series of Poker wasn’t without its share of drama, and now we’ve probably just witnessed the most entertaining high roller series ever in Triton Poker London.
2019 has without doubt been my favourite year of coverage of the game we love to play and, in my opinion, these are the top 10 moments to happen in poker so far this year.
Dan “Jungleman” Cates is one of my favourite players to watch and arguably has a claim to two of the top 10 moments to happen so far in 2019. His antics with his-out-of-the-blue explicit video caused mass-hysteria on poker twitter, regardless if you think it was in bad taste it was one of the most out there moments to occur in 2019, and caused a buzz amongst the community.
However, it was Jungleman’s notorious side bet which hilariously backfired that took the biscuit. Playing in the Triton Series in March, a short-stacked Jungleman is seen taking action on a side bet about whether he can toss a chip into the where the community cards are dealt. He tosses the chip onto the felt, but as you’ll see it was his option to act which meant he had to call the big-blind… this then led to his eventual elimination from the tournament.
It’s a clip that I’ve watched numerous times and with each watch I find myself laughing harder and harder. Never change, Jungleman.
Poker players will LITERALLY bet on ANYTHING! 😂
(via @tritonpoker) pic.twitter.com/cjcYOMnKPZ
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) March 21, 2019
To win any poker tournament, regardless of the number runners, is always a good feeling. But, imagine the thrill of winning a poker tournament that had the highest number of entrants in history! That’s exactly what Big 50 winner Femi Fashakin did as he turned his $500-dollar entry-fee into cool $1.15 million at this year’s WSOP. Fashakin, who had already recorded $60,000 in tournament winnings, overcame 28,370 other entries to pick up his first WSOP bracelet and etch his name into the history books. Post-script: Then, he went ahead and cashed in the WSOP Main Event, to boot!
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/pY7itXemAz
— femi fashakin (@femitfash) June 9, 2019
It’s never a good day to lose someone from the community, whether that be someone from your local cardroom, streamers such as Liliya Novikova, or Kevin ‘Racks’ Roster, who won the hearts of many after this year’s WSOP. One of the biggest names to take his place in the sky was poker legend Gavin Smith who sadly passed away at age 50 in January.
Smith was a regular high stakes player during the initial poker boom, making appearances on Poker After Dark, Late Night Poker, and Face the Ace. The WPT Season IV player of the year was regarded as one of the nicest and funniest guys in poker. The “moment” alone might not be one some would include on a list like this, but I’ve included it because of the special way in which the poker community has come to the aid of the Smith family. Since his passing, approximately $120,000 has been raised to benefit his boys through poker tournaments, stand-up comedy benefits, silent auctions, and more. The GoFundMe page is still live and you can donate by following the link.
At Comedy for the Caveman @OleGSmith hosted by @MarkShunock and @Stapes at “The Space” in Las Vegas. Looks like a great crowd for a great cause! #ForTheKids pic.twitter.com/eieS6DVrhk
— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) May 30, 2019
A former Las Vegas grinder turned poker industry veteran, Garry Gates‘ extraordinary run in this year’s WSOP Main Event was one of those proverbial “victories for the good guys.” Gates, a survivor of the tragic 2017 Las Vegas shooting, brought a large and vocal rail to the final table, and from watching the broadcast and monitoring social media it sure felt like the entire world wanted Gates to win the tournament.
I plan to write something longer about my experience this week and respond to every last message I received, but for now I just want to say thank you to everyone who sent their love and support throughout this wild ride.
Best. Rail. Ever. 💪🏼🍀 #LFGGG pic.twitter.com/nxpKa86XFZ
— Garry Gates (@GarryGates) July 16, 2019
It seemed as though people had only positive things to say about Gates, and I was overcome with emotion after learning about his story. Like so many others, was overjoyed when he took 4th place in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament for a life-changing score worth $3,000,000.
While this might not be a “moment” strictly speaking, one of the top things to happen for the online community this year has been a further crackdown by online poker sites such as partypoker and WPN which has seen over $700,000 refunded back to players and close to 300 bots banned. We players are the first to, and rightly so, criticise sites when there’s unwanted changes in their terms of service but we must also recognise and congratulate the good work these sites are carrying out in order to achieve a fair playing field for online players.
“You call 17, you’re calling 22!” were the words that left a sour taste in WSOP Main Event runner-up Dario Sammartino’s mouth.
The difference of opinion between Dario Sammartino and WSOP Vice President Jack Effel brought the Main Event final table to a standstill and left many with their jaws dropped. After an unfortunate dealer miscount, Sammartino saw that his pocket tens were crushed by Nick Marchington’s pocket queens.
Effel was called to the floor after the protests of Sammartino regarding the dealer miscount, Effel relayed the ‘accepted action’ rule that the WSOP has in place for situations such as this, but it was his final comments that caused the stir.
Was Effel needling Sammartino regarding poker strategy or was he simply stating the rules that “if you’re calling 17 million, you must call 22 million.” Over half a million people (thus far) have watched Joey Ingram‘s “investigation” of the moment in question.
This needs no introduction, and the look on the face of Andrew Robl, a backer of JRB, will be ingrained in my mind for years to come. This is just brilliant and another highlight reel moment for Jean Robert Bellande.
Whenever the #1 spot on poker’s All Time Money List changes, it’s a big deal. And, that’s just what happened when Bryn Kenney finished runner-up in the £1,050,000 No-Limit Hold-Em – Triton Million for Charity earlier this month.
Kenney added a whopping $20.5 million to his already gargantuan life time tournament earnings to eclipse Justin Bonomo at the top spot. Kenney is sitting pretty at #1 with a grand total of $55.5 million in lifetime earnings, which is $7 million clear of Bonomo. With six- and seven-figure tournament buy-ins being all the rage these days, how long will it take Bonomo — or someone else — to claim the top spot by the end of 2020?
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship bracelet event at the 50th Annual World Series of Poker gave us a contender for the worst bad beat of all time; well one that was caught on camera at least.
In the Limit 2-7 Triple Draw orbit, Bryce Yockey was a 99% favourite with the second nuts at PAT #2 only for Josh Arieh to get sticky and draw perfectly to complete the wheel, knocking Yockey out in fourth place and costing him (at least) $140,000 and possibly a bracelet in the process.
READ MORE: Draw Games Poker Guide
As already mentioned, 2019 got off to an absolute flyer with the inaugural PSPC, a $25,000 No Limit Hold-Em tournament that captured the attention of everyone in the poker world.
PSPC Key Facts
This event was universally hailed by the professional poker community as a must-attend and by recreational players the world-over as a must-watch. It was a brilliant, one-of-a-kind event featuring 320 Platinum Pass winners. What made it even more memorable was that one of those Platinum Pass holders, Ramón Colillas, took first place and the $5.1 million prize. He has since gone on to become a PokerStars ambassador. Quite the moment, indeed!
Robbie Strazynski called me one morning while I was in Las Vegas, covering the World Series of Poker for PokerNews. It’s always great to catch up with the Cardplayer Lifestyle founder, but this particular conversation really took me by surprise.
“Are you sitting down?” asked Robbie, which I was. He instructed me to stand up and then sit back down. By this time I was really perplexed, yet intrigued… where was this conversation going?
“How would you like to go to Barcelona?” he asked.
Are you kidding me?!
My answer was, of course, “YES!”
Reflecting upon that conversation, I’m still pinching myself. I now have the opportunity to attend PokerStars’ EPT Barcelona festival and produce content from and about one of the greatest poker events on the calendar! My account of the 2019 EPT Barcelona experience will appear right here on the Cardplayer Lifestyle Poker Blog.
Here are five things I’m looking forward about the upcoming trip:
I’m probably not alone when I say that Barcelona, Spain has been one of my dream travel destinations for quite awhile.
I almost visited Barcelona last year as part of a two-week, multi-country tour of Europe. My original flight plan for that trip included flying into Barcelona from the US, having a nine-hour layover in the city and proceeding into the rest of the scheduled trip from there.
We ended up going with a different travel plan for the trip, and I was bummed about missing the opportunity to spend a few hours in the Catalonian capital. But let’s face it; a nine-hour layover almost doesn’t even count as a real visit.
There will be no such press for time on this trip. I arrive in Barcelona pretty early in the morning on August 27, and I get five full days there until I head out on September 1.
✈️🚄🚌How to get there
🍔🍣🍽️What to eat
🏨🛏️⛺Where to stay
⚽🏖️💃What to do
🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸Everything you need to know about the most popular stop on the @PokerStarsLIVE calendar: #EPTBarcelona.https://t.co/Zqt2EoCgvY— PokerStarsBlog (@PokerStarsBlog) August 14, 2019
I’ve read and heard, from many sources, that EPT Barcelona is one of the absolute best stops on the entire poker calendar. From poker professionals to recreational players to my colleagues in the poker media corps, the overwhelming consensus is that this festival is a must-visit for any poker player or fan of the game.
I remember reading Robbie’s series of articles on his first-time visit to EPT Barcelona last year, which really made me realize that I had to find a way to attend this event at some point.
As a fan of the game, I’ve only seen this event and the other EPT stops while watching the streaming coverage from home. Unbelievably enough, I’m going to be right there to experience this event, in person, in 2019.
Only 10 rooms left at the Hotel Arts 5* for the #EPTBarcelona. Hurry up and book your panoramic room with @PSLiveTravel at the best rates online 😎♣️ pic.twitter.com/YnFT2CLqvU
— PokerStars Travel (@PSLiveTravel) August 14, 2019
What kinds of activities do poker players and media members get into away from the poker table in a city like Barcelona? I can’t wait to find out.
My duties at the festival include an investigation on things to do in Barcelona, non-poker category. It’s a tough assignment but I’m up for the challenge 😀 and I look forward to seeing what I can uncover!
From the beaches, the hidden gems in the vicinity of Casino Barcelona, and a food-related section; this part of my itinerary may be what I’m looking forward to the most.
Without revealing too much about exactly who the subjects will be, I will say that I have at least a couple of interviews I’m really looking forward to at the festival.
Interviewing is my favorite part of being a journalist, and it’s always a fulfilling experience to sit down and have a conversation with the poker players I observe and write about throughout the year. The research process for an upcoming interview often reveals more about a person than what I already knew, and I’m always excited by the time the interview opportunity comes around.
I feel like we have some good interviews coming up at EPT Barcelona, so stay tuned!
When I first began on this journey to be a poker writer, I would often dream about covering an international event. What would it feel like when I stepped off of the plane, into a new city and into a poker venue that I’d only seen on television?
That opportunity is finally here, and I can’t think of a poker festival that I would be more excited to attend and be a part of than EPT Barcelona. Again, I’ve heard and read so many great things about the festival, and the fact that this event commences from Barcelona, Spain isn’t so bad either!
The moment that I’ve dreamed about will arrive when I step off the plane August 27, and I know that no amount of visualization will compare to the real experience!
Vamos! #EPTBarcelona is back, running August 20-September 1.
🇪🇸 New: we kick-off with @CEP_Poker events, Aug 12-20.
🇪🇸 EPT National: August 21- 25 – €1,000+€100
🇪🇸 EPT Main Event: August 26-September 1 – €5,000+€300
🇪🇸 Details ➡️ https://t.co/Qf1aYg5rA4 pic.twitter.com/xdiFByrAPi— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) January 29, 2019
It should surprise no one that online poker players are just as prone to becoming problem gamblers as slot players. The reality is doing anything repetitively for an extended period of time lends itself to creating addiction issues. If someone is a diehard online poker player, they certainly understand the concept doing something repetitively for an extended period of time. That doesn’t immediately qualify them as problem gamblers, but it’s where most problems start.
For the protection of poker players who have crossed or are on the verge of crossing the line of responsible gambling, there needs to be some level of protection they can get from gambling sites. In fact, there is a program called Gamstop, which was introduced to the UK online gambling community in May of 2018. The program was introduced by the United Kingdom’s Remote Gambling Association behind support from the UK Gambling Commission. The brief discussion below will address the pros and cons with Gamstop according to newcasinos-online.
The Gamstop self-exclusion registry is available for people who are either dealing with a problem gambling issue or who want to stop the evolution of a possible problem gambling. The Gamstop registration website operates independently from another gambling-related organization or website.
Interested individuals can browse the home landing page where details about the program are available. During the browsing process, the individual will get an invitation to register for self-exclusion. After completing the process with personal information, the individual’s profile will hit the database where it will remain for the duration of the individual’s self-anointed exclusion period. While in the database, the individual will be subject to exclusion from any and all member online gambling operators.
Since it began accepting registrations, the number of UK Gamstop member online gambling websites has grown to several hundred. That good news for poker players who can usually find access to online poker games 24/7 through a variety of different options. These options include dedicated poker sites and poker rooms offered through online casino sites. As long as an online gambling site has registered as a member site, poker players can count on being excluded per their own guidelines. The system works.
The other pro or benefit is the Gamstop self-exclusion plan is flexible enough to meet the needs of a wide range of gamblers. If a gambler just needs a break, they can set a one-month self-exclusion period for themselves. They also have the option of permanent exclusion.
The biggest issue people have with Gamstop is it’s still a relatively new registry and hasn’t yet reached a wide enough population of online gambling operators. While many popular online poker rooms in the UK are members of the Gamstop program, there are still plenty that haven’t yet joined. If a poker player can’t get past their compulsion to gamble, there are still too many available options. The best chance Gamstop has to rectify this problem is working through the UK Gambling Commission to compel all online gambling operators to join the program.
Another weakness in the program is the inability of loved ones to participate in the process. While it might be a “self-exclusion” program, there are ways family participation could make the overall program more effective.
New to gambling, or just poker in general? Maybe you’re about to head down to the local casino or have a trip to Vegas coming up? Perhaps you’d like to start making the most of all those offers for free spins you see online and would like to know a bit more about some other games rather than slots? If that’s the case, then you’re in the right place. Check out this handy article for a bit more about two different types of poker — Casino Hold’em and Texas Hold’em — and why they are so different from one another.
If you’ve ever seen poker being played on TV, it was probably Texas Hold’em. It’s one of the most popular and well-known versions of poker around. The online poker boom of the mid-2000s was thanks to Texas Hold’em, and it’s the variant you’re probably most likely to play online as well.
The first thing to remember with Texas Hold’em, as opposed to Casino Hold’em is that you’re playing against other players just like you, rather than a dealer or the house. The casino, poker room, or online site doesn’t compete against you, they just provide a dealer to oversee the game and make their money from a small fee from each pot from each bet known as a “rake”.
That means there isn’t a house edge, and a good player can win more often by beating other poor players. Plainly speaking, this is gambling, so the best player won’t always win, but the cream tends to rise to the top in Texas Hold’em. This is usually because experienced players tend to improve as do those who study hard by enrolling in poker sites.
But how do you actually play?
Players sit around a table (either virtual or physical), and two cards are dealt clockwise around the table to each player. These cards are only seen by each individual player. There’ll then be a round of betting where you can either stay in the hand or fold. After that, three community cards are dealt in the middle of the table, before another round of betting, then another community card, then more betting before a final community card and a final round of betting. Anyone still in the hand at this point displays their two private “hole” cards and combines them with those on the board to make the best poker hand, with a Royal Flush being the rare best.
Just hit my first ever royal flush In Live poker pic.twitter.com/2Acqi0cGbj
— ₿it₿oy (@Bitboy_Crypto) June 28, 2019
Games don’t have to be won at the showdown, and often aren’t, as people can fold to prior raises and bets leaving one winner to take the pot without even showing their cards. There’s a lot of bluffing and tactics in this game. Texas Hold’em has a few different variants, including fixed limit and no limit. You can play cash games for real money, but tournament Texas Hold’em is extremely popular. That’s the kind of game you see on TV at the World Series of Poker each year. In tournament play, you simply pay a buy-in fee and then actually play the game with virtual money or chips. The last players remaining in the tournament win a cut of the total prize pool. There could be thousands of people in a tournament and you could potentially win millions in prizes.
Casino Hold’em is a completely different game. While it’s still “poker”, it is hosted by a casino and features a house edge. You play against a dealer and have your own two cards. A number of qualifying bets and draws take place to see if you win money based on a standard paytable. There’s no bluffing; it’s just a way of betting against the casino. This means in the long run, the casino is more likely to win. You can still have fun playing Casino Hold’em, but there aren’t the chances to enter tournaments and win millions like with Texas Hold’em.
The whirlwind of the World Series of poker is over, and I already can’t wait for it to come back.
This summer was my first working for PokerNews at the WSOP. After months of anticipation waiting for the 50th edition of the series to finally get here, it went by in a flash.
The gig was truly was everything I hoped it would be and much more, and I hope this was the first of many years to come on the PokerNews team. The highlights that follow are just a small piece of my experiences at the WSOP this summer.
After kicking off with a couple of no-limit hold’em events in my first couple of shifts, I was assigned to Day 2 of the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event. This event really kept me on my toes, and as a live reporter I’m walking up and down rows of tables that are all playing different games.
With 20 different possible games going on at the same time in this event, a unique challenge presents itself. Any WSOP tournament is going to require a live reporter to identify interesting hands and situations, get all of the exact details, and write a summary that puts the reader right at the table.
In a mixed-game format like the Dealer’s Choice event, the first order of business is figuring out which of the 20 games is going on, what stage of the hand we’re at, and who’s doing what from which position. Covering that tournament early on in the summer was an exhilarating experience indeed, and it set me up to be in a better position to cover other mixed-game events later in the WSOP.
Image credit: PokerNews.com
Watching and covering all of the different games really instilled in me a fascination with games that I hadn’t ever played. Like most who love the game, my poker experience is heavy on no-limit hold’em, with a sparse amount of pot-limit Omaha and not a whole lot else.
I covered the $1,500 Omaha Mix event later in the summer and worked with Milko van Winden, and we started talking about how there’s so much more to poker outside of hold’em. Milko invited me to his $0.25/0.50 dealer’s choice home game later that weekend, and those were the perfect stakes for me to jump in and play some of the games I had never tried.
The bad news is that I lost about $65, as my PokerNews co-workers Milko, Brandon Temple, and Aaron McBride quickly discovered that I was the mark at the table in most of the variants we played.
The good news, however, is that I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to engage in games like Badacy, deuce-to-seven triple draw, and even Pineapple Stud Hi-Lo, which isn’t an official variant played at the WSOP but was a blast nonetheless.
READ MORE: Low-Stakes Vegas Mixed Games = The Ultimate in Poker Fun
Throw a couple of beers into the equation and this night probably wasn’t the height of my competence as a poker player. It was one of the highlights of the summer though, and it definitely broadened my horizons and makes me want to spend more time at the table playing games other than Texas hold’em.
When you’re living in Las Vegas for close to two months and constantly surrounded by the allure of gambling, the itch to play doesn’t stop at just poker. Walk through any casino and you’re surrounded by a sea of slot machines. I couldn’t see myself sitting at a machine for very long though, but I felt that once I got back to my place for some downtime after work, I’d look into dabbling in online slot play a little. Like poker, I didn’t want to approach playing slots without at least a modicum of study beforehand and looked online for some educational resources so I could learn more about real money slots before making my first deposit and trying my luck. As for how I actually did, well, let’s just say “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” … 😀
The experience of covering mixed-game poker variants hit its absolute peak midway through the WSOP, when I had the chance to cover Day 3 of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Phil Ivey had bagged the chip lead at the end of Day 2. The fact that Ivey, perhaps poker’s most legendary player, was coming into Day 3 at the top of the leaderboard of an event that’s considered one of the most prestigious at the WSOP, wasn’t lost on me.
Guess Who’s Back?! @philivey leads the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. @TomDwan busts in last level. https://t.co/h2zpEKlC7G
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) June 26, 2019
I had the previous day off and went to bed early that night, with the aim of being well-rested and at the top of my game for the PPC. Working with a couple of excellent live reporters in Brandon Temple and Hill Kerby on this tournament raised the bar even higher.
I had the best view in the house for a fascinating matchup between Ivey and Shaun Deeb, with Deeb on Ivey’s direct left for much of the latter part of the day. All of the poker that I covered at the series was fulfilling and amazing, but nothing quite compared to the experience of literally standing right over the shoulders of Deeb and Ivey, hearing everything they were saying and watching them match wits in a number of hands head-to head.
Other memories from that event included the opportunity to watch Dario Sammartino, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Isaac Haxton and a now-rare appearance by Jason Mercier up close. The Players Championship had such a big-time feel, and reporting on that event was truly a privilege.
PokerNews Head of Live Reporting Yori Eskamp encouraged us to really soak in and enjoy the experience of covering the Main Event, as it has an electric feel like no other event in poker. Yori was indeed right about that!
I had the opportunity to cover Days 1A, 1B and 1C of the Main Event. I enjoyed them all, but Day 1C really stands out as a day I’ll never forget, as it relates to my WSOP experience and just life in general.
My coverage jurisdiction for Day 1C included the Miranda Room and the overflow areas in the Rio Poker Room, the bowling alley overflow room, and an another overflow area just outside of Guy Fieri’s El Burro Borracho restaurant.
Early on in Level 1, I got word that Ivey was in the bowling alley, and I made my way over to that area to see if I could cover a few of his early hands. I walked into that room, scanned the scene, and spotted Ivey at a table in the middle of the room.
I don’t feel so bad that I’m playing the @wsop main event in the cheap seats since this guy just walked in and sat down in the storage room of the @RioVegas… @PokerNews pic.twitter.com/GkyCoz47mR
— Mark J (@MarkyPG) July 5, 2019
I squeezed my way through the outer tables and got into position, and on the very first hand I observed Ivey was right in the mix, on the button in a three-way, three-bet pot. The rest of the hand happened so fast that I didn’t even really process what I was seeing until well afterward.
Ivey had already called a small continuation bet from Hitrotaka Nakanishi, the pre-flop three-bettor. Jeffrey Chang, who had started the flop betting round off with a check, re-raised, Nakanishi called, and within a few seconds I saw the dealer toss the “All-In” button in front of Ivey. Chang made the call, Nakanishi got out of the way, and Ivey’s Main Event life was suddenly on the line.
The 10-time bracelet winner had put all the chips in with an ace-high flush draw, but found no help on the turn or river as Chang’s two pair held up. Ivey made a quick exit through a room that was abuzz about what had just transpired.
Ivey’s elimination in the first hour turned out to be just the beginning of the craziness of Day 1C. Two player disqualifications happened within the next two hours; one of those incidents involved a player, apparently jokingly, swiping his neighbor’s chips and adding them to his stack. The other involved a blind all in, a mooning, and a thrown pair of shoes.
When an earthquake is the 3rd or 4th biggest story of the day at the WSOP, you know it’s been a wild day.
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) July 6, 2019
All of the above incidents happened within the first two levels of the day, and the already one-of-a-kind Main Event experience was reaching epic levels of strangeness. Just when things were settling down a bit, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake, epicentered in Ridgecrest, California, was emphatically felt throughout the Rio Convention Center.
This was the second earthquake in two days emanating from that same area, and I was in the Miranda Room when the ground and walls starting shaking, and the chandeliers and other ceiling fixtures began swaying. Many of the players in the room got up and rushed out into the hallway once it became clear what was going on.
The tournament clock was paused for several minutes after the shaking stopped, as WSOP officials tried to restore order. Many of the players in the Miranda Room weren’t quite ready to sit back down and resume play, so the tournament went on dinner break early.
The earthquake and the aftermath created quite the scene at the Rio. I finished the post I was working on and headed out through the main corridor of the convention center, with the aim of walking to my car and calling my girlfriend in California to tell her about all this madness.
The corridor connecting the convention center to the casino, however, was host to a human traffic jam, and foot travel through that hallway had come to a dead stop. With hundreds of people in front of me forming a dense and un-passable wall, I turned back around and used one of the outdoor exits, walked around the entire property and arrived at the Carnival Parking garage about 15 minutes later.
Day 1C also set the all time single-day attendance record for the WSOP Main Event, with 4,879 players registering for the flight.
Main Event players, you’re officially part of the 2nd largest WSOP Main Event in our 50 year history! Thank you.
Can it become the largest of all-time? Registration is still open…come on down and be part of history pic.twitter.com/O4yYpWX5gy
— WSOP (@WSOP) July 5, 2019
The entire summer was filled with moments and fulfilling experiences that I’ll never forget.
I got to cover the $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship from beginning to end, an event that had such a fun atmosphere, and sense of camaraderie among the players. I would love to cover all four days of that event next year; lots of great people turned out for the tournament and it was hard not to root for some of them to make a deep run.
All of the events I got to cover had their own unique feel, and working for PokerNews had me truly embedded into the WSOP experience. One night, after wrapping up, I ran into Cardplayer Lifestyle founder Robbie Strazynski, who was heading to the Rio Poker Room for some late night cash game action.
Nothing like some quality time with a special guy. Thanks for a fun drink, @GeoffFisk! #goodtimes pic.twitter.com/vHi7OVmfJQ
— Robbie Strazynski (@cardplayerlife) July 9, 2019
It’s such a busy summer when you’re working at the WSOP, and I hadn’t had the chance to catch up with Robbie in person in about a year. “There are no coincidences in life,” Robbie said as we ran into each other. We did, indeed, have some business to discuss, and did just that while catching up over a round of Starbucks mocha frappuccinos.
I remember checking into my AirBnB in late May in Las Vegas, and thinking to myself that seven weeks is a long time to be away from home and in somebody else’s apartment. That seven weeks absolutely flew by, and I can’t wait to hopefully do it again in 2020.
We’ve probably all heard about the left-hand brain versus right-hand brain theory. People with dominant right-hand brains tend to be more creative and free-thinking. On the other hand, people who are more left-sided are the logical thinkers, the planners, the math experts.
So it stands to reason that the dominant side of our brains is going to dictate lots of things in life. These include the job we do, the sort of company we like to keep and the kinds of games that we’re best at.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at whether poker or blackjack is the game for you.
Ask any poker player and they’ll automatically say that it’s obvious that their game is the one that needs a creative and free-flowing mind. Blackjack’s not much more than an exercise in counting. In fact, it’s like comparing a game of chess with one of checkers.
Then turn to a blackjack player and they’ll tell you that their favourite game is one of logic and deduction. Then they’ll maybe also ask why would you want to play anything else. But the left/right brain theory might not be as clear cut as some people think it is, something www.health.harvard.edu have been keen to point out. There’s also quite a lot of crossover between the skills you need to be successful at both blackjack and poker.
Let’s take a look at intuition first. Obviously, in a game like poker where you’re dealing with a whole bunch of unknowns this is a vital capacity to have. It’s also one that is hard to define precisely but a great deal depends on watching other players around you. They may not have obvious tells, but there’s always going to be something about their body language giving off clues.
But intuition also has a role to play in blackjack too. Although the dealer is a casino employee, they’re a person too who will give off subtle signs about the cards they’re holding. So the ability to pick up on these signals can be vital if you want to succeed.
Next, let’s turn to logic. The blackjack player is a typically logical sort who has put in the hours learning the basic theory and who may well spend hours on online sites like www.blackjackcanada.ca. Here they’ll be able to compare all the relative benefits of different bonuses and read reviews before choosing where they’re going to play online.
They’ll also apply this logic to their game. They’ll weigh up the relative probabilities before deciding to stick or take another card. But, guess what? The poker player is going to be just as clear-headed. They’ll also be aware of who may be holding which cards and the likelihood of winning the hand.
There’s the well-known saying “who dares wins”. You might think this might be more appropriate for poker players with their more uninhibited approach to play. But no-one ever made a killing at blackjack without sticking their neck out once in a while. While this might fly in the face of the cautious, evidence-based approach you’d expect, it’s also a key part of a winning strategy.
Transferable skills is something we’ve all heard about – especially, as documented by www.forbes.com, in the workplace, but also in most other aspects of life. That certainly doesn’t exclude card games and, as you can see, there are blackjack skills you can use at the poker table and vice versa. What’s more, this applies whichever side of your brain is dominant. The most important thing of all is to fully engage both sides of it when you play.
What do you think? Are you a left-brained poker player, and how does it help?
For poker players, the summer is essentially over and autumn is on the horizon. With the World Series of Poker and various Vegas events now concluded, poker players are starting to look to scratch that competitive itch. Sure, you can get a bit of a poker fix by watching PokerGO or Poker Night in America, but some prefer something a bit more interactive.
For those who like to scratch that itch with a little sports betting, https://footballjunkie.co.uk/best-betting-sites/ has some great options for you. Not sure about which events to bet? Check out our list below of five sporting events to bet on this fall.
Poker tables in the sports book at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas
To be clear, we are talking baseball, not poker. The Fall Classic has produced some fantastic drama in the last few years with three of the last five World Series going the full seven games. Boston won it all last year, but will likely fail to make the playoffs this year. However, the Dodgers are in great shape to make their third straight World Series.
Other teams in contention are the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees. While many analysts are looking ahead to an Astros – L.A. World Series, fans of baseball history would probably rather see another Yankees – Dodgers rematch.
The World Series is the one time of year that even casual sports fans pay attention to baseball, and is definitely one of the events poker players will be betting on this fall.
College Football is more than a sport. It is a religion to many fans, and every game can be its own event. It is among the most exciting sports in America because it is one of the few sports where every game matters, especially if your favorite team is a contender for the National Championship. For many teams, a single loss can mean the end of a National Championship run, making every game that much more exciting.
It’s no surprise that perennially strong teams like Clemson, Alabama, and Georgia are among the preseason favorites to win the National Championship. However, the season is long, and a lot can happen. In a few weeks, we could be talking about a whole new crop of National Title contenders. However, the National Championship is not the only “event” during the season. Just ask fans.
There are numerous rivalry games every year that are their own major event. Michigan-Ohio State, Miami-Florida State, Alabama-Auburn, Virginia-Virginia Tech, and Army-Navy are all examples of classic rivalry games that will generate huge action among poker players who like to bet on sports.
The NFL is naturally going to be on this list as it is the most popular sport in America. Every week there are major match-ups that are major events unto themselves. Games such as Green Bay-Chicago are hotly contested and even garner the attention of casual NFL fans and poker players who want to splash around a bit in sports betting.
Heading into the 2019 NFL Season, the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots are the favorites to win the Super Bowl with the L.A. Rams and the New Orleans Saints right behind them. Keep a lookout for my Chicago Bears this year as — on paper — they have one of the best teams they’ve had in decades!
The great thing about the NFL is that you genuinely never know what’s going to happen. A team could come into the season looking to run deep in the playoffs, and a couple of key injuries results in a losing season. Other teams can overachieve and get rewarded by facing Tom Brady and company in the Super Bowl. Oh, and don’t worry Patriots haters, Brady will be retiring soon.
Yes, NASCAR is still considered a sport, which means poker players are ready to bet on it. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Playoffs kick off mid-September, and we already have a good idea who will make a deep playoff run. Kyle Busch, Martin Truex, and Denny Hamlin are the current top three with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Kevin Harvick right behind.
Every NASCAR race brings lots of wagering, but once we hit the playoffs, we have ten races to determine the top racer on the circuit. Each race will be important as we lose three racers every three races. The final race of the season will be the Ford EcoBoost 400 on November 14, and the Final Four will race to see who wins the title.
Joey Logano is the defending champion while both Martin Truex and Kyle Busch are looking for their second career titles. There’s a lot of exciting racing left in this season, and the playoffs should prove to be the best in years. Expect many poker players to try and profit by betting on the outcome.
The rematch is one between the current IBF, WBO, IBO, and WBA Super Heavyweight Champion and former champion Anthony Joshua. The pair will battle for on December 7 at Diriyah, Saudi Arabia in an event being called “Clash on the Dunes.”
On June 1, Ruiz shocked the world when he beat Joshua by TKO in what some have called the greatest upset in boxing history. The only person that didn’t seem shocked is Lineal Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury. He told reporters ahead of the fight that Ruiz was a hard puncher and could shock Joshua.
Oddsmakers put Joshua as the favorite in this fight, but he will have to put together a better performance than he did in June. Boxing Hall of Famer and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas said that Joshua didn’t want to be in the June 1 fight and had no sense of urgency. Even Joshua told reporters that he needs to “get that passion back” for fighting. If he can, Ruiz might join the ranks of Buster Douglas as a flash in the pan heavyweight champion. Expect poker Twitter to go wild prior to, during, and after the fight with the community discussing not just the in-ring action, but how they’ve fared with their bets on the match.
Poker players make up a rather special group in the gambling world. Many of them are well aware of what gambling is all about and tend to steer clear of casino games. The reason is quite simple. Unlike poker, where they can obtain an edge over the competition, all other games in the casino are constructed in a way that the house (casino) always wins in the long run. Simply put, all games, from roulette to slots, have a built-in house edge, which guarantees that the casino always comes out ahead.
Despite knowing all this, it is quite common to see poker players, even some very good ones, seated at blackjack tables. Even those who stay away from all other games will occasionally dabble with blackjack and this is no coincidence. In fact, there are several reasons why blackjack is similar to poker, as you can see here, and why blackjack – as opposed to other casino games – seems to attract poker players.
The number one reason why poker players are drawn to blackjack is the fact that this isn’t another mindless table game. When you play blackjack, your decisions matter a lot. If you’re playing according to perfect strategy and don’t deviate from it at any point, the house edge is reduced to just around 0.5%. On the other hand, if you have no idea what you are doing and just make random decisions, the house could have an edge of almost 20%.
So, there is an element of challenge to the game. Most poker players enjoy being challenged and actually having to use their brains, even when having fun. That’s why they’re always happy to get new poker tips, whether from online resources or trusted fellow players. Games like roulette just don’t have this dimension – you can’t really go wrong betting any number or section of the wheel as you have absolutely no control over where the ball will land next.
Although we’re starting to forget about it with new generations of poker players who honed their skills glued to their screens, many live poker players actually enjoy the table banter and interaction. For some, it is actually one of the main reasons for playing, apart from the obvious one of trying to win money. Interacting with others at the table isn’t all about gathering information – it can also just be fun.
Blackjack is similar in this regard. If you sit down with the right crowd you can have some good laughs along the way, especially when the shoe is favorable. It is the kind of friendly setting that you won’t find at other games. Roulette tables are often too crowded, craps is just too noisy, etc. With blackjack, you can sit and play and have a bit of fun or even a nice conversation with a fellow player; you’re comrades, just trying to beat the casino at its own game.
Going back to the challenge aspect, blackjack is the only game out there that you can actually beat. It is very hard, especially in this day and age, but that’s what makes it interesting and what attracts many poker players, who are simply competitive by nature. The game is there and it can be beaten – so they want to try and beat it.
Of course, achieving this goal requires more than just knowing and always playing the perfect strategy. You can only gain an edge over the house by counting cards – a skill that isn’t all that difficult in theory but is very hard to implement in a real casino setting with all the distractions and preventive measures put in place by the staff. Plus, casinos are always on the lookout for card counters and reserve the right to not offer the game to such players (i.e., why would they willingly allow themselves to be losing, right?).
But, it can be done, and some players are drawn to the challenge. The idea of beating the house on their own turf is simply too attractive. Then, there is also the rush of trying to do it without being caught and asked to leave. All of these are elements of cunning that you just can’t fully utilize in other casino games.
So, blackjack may not be poker and it may be a game with a house edge, but for poker players, it has enough similar elements to the game they love so much. With a lot of skill involved and an actual possibility (however remote) of actually being a long-term winner, it ticks many boxes for poker lovers. That’s why there are so many poker players flocking to blackjack tables to pass some time and have some fun.
The game of poker has been around for a while and it’s seen its fair share of funny, extraordinary, and even tragic moments. Some poker legends represent moments that were important milestones in poker history, sometimes even playing a role in how the game was shaped over time. Others are merely entertaining anecdotes that fans of the game enjoy tremendously, simply because they seem so hard to believe or make them feel blessed that they live in a different time where sitting down to play doesn’t mean risking your life. Here, then, are three poker legends that you’ll enjoy reading about.
Almost all poker players know about the dead man’s hand, i.e., Aces and Eights, but not everyone knows the story behind the myth. Most everyone has heard bits and pieces, but the story has been told and retold so many times that there are dozens of similar but different variations.
Wild Bill Hickock
According to the best facts available to us these days, the term was coined in the late 1800s and is closely related to “Wild Bill” Hickock, a famous marksman who acted as a sheriff of his town. In addition to his skills with guns, “Wild Bill” was also known for his skills at the poker table.
According to some accounts, on August 2, 1876, Hickock sat down to play what would be his last poker session. Always careful, he would usually avoid sitting with his back to the door, but it so happened that the only available seat on that fateful day was facing the wall.
In the midst of the hand, a man walked into the saloon, approached him from behind, and shot him point-blank in the head. The story, which first came to life in 1886, about a decade after the incident, claims “Wild Bill” was holding two black Aces and two black Eights in his hand at the time of the shooting – the dead man’s hand.
It is impossible to fully verify the truth of this story. Hickock was, indeed, shot on that day, but whether he was involved in a game and was actually playing a hand when the shooting happened remains a mystery. All we have today is the legend about the famous marksman who met his death not out in the wild but sitting at the poker table.
In 1979, Hickock was a member of the first class of players enshrined in the Poker Hall of Fame.
READ MORE: 7 Ways in Which the Poker Hall of Fame Should be Changed
Some poker legends, like the one above, are old, with their age adding to their mystique and appeal. Others are of a more recent vintage but are equally as entertaining and fascinating. The tale of Isildur1, a Swedish unknown (at that time) who became a legend at the highest stakes played online, is well known to many fans of the game but it is worth recounting.
Viktor Blom; aka, Isildur1
It was in the late 2009 that the man who was later revealed as Viktor Blom took his shot at the highest of stakes, taking on some of the biggest names around: Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, and whoever else was willing to play. Isildur1 was up for a challenge and wasn’t going to back down no matter what.
In the short period between September and October 2009, Blom went on a huge winning streak, accumulating around $6,000,000 in winnings. His extremely aggressive poker strategy, combined with some timely rungood and the fact no one knew who this player was or what he was trying to achieve, helped him create a buzz in the online poker world that had never been seen before. Everyone was tuning in to poker forums to see how Isildur1 was doing at the tables, wondering how the tale would end.
The epic upswing came to an abrupt halt when some top pros, including most notably Brian Hastings, put their heads and knowledge together to take Isildur1’s game apart. Although some in the poker community considered this to be a somewhat underhanded strategy when it was revealed, it worked. Isildur1 was finally stopped and his upswing turned into a $2.4 million downswing not long after.
Beaten but not broken, he continued battling at the highest of stakes. It was in early 2011 that his identity was finally revealed as that of Viktor Blom when the Swede was signed by PokerStars. His sponsorship with the online poker giant wasn’t a particularly long one but his legend remains to this very day.
There is probably no poker fan out there who hasn’t seen at least one episode of the legendary High Stakes Poker TV show. Gathering some of the best and biggest players of the time, it was, according to most, the best poker show ever to have aired. It was the mix of high stakes cash game action, great personalities, table talk, and high quality commentary that made the show the success it was.
But, how did it come to be?
According to Mori Eskandani, the show’s main producer, it all started with Poker Hall of Famer Johnny Chan. Chan walked up to Eskandani while he was having a dinner with network producers who wanted to create a pilot for a poker show. This was back in 2005, when the poker boom was in full swing.
Johnny told Mori and the network producers about a $700,000 pot he had lost that evening. At that moment, the network was struggling to come up with a concept for a poker show and Johnny’s story hit the right spot.
The network programming VP called Eskandani later that night, intrigued about his relationship with Chan and the $700,000 pot, which he believed had occurred in a tournament. When Mori explained to him it was a cash game pot, where players played for actual dollars, the VP was instantly hooked and asked if they could bring that action to TV.
Mori said yes – and the rest is history!
Have you ever seen a dog chasing a car? It’s a hopeless task. The poor dog never catches the car. The dog is a chaser – a loser. Playing poker, there are lots of chasers; and they usually lose most, if not all, of their chips before the evening is over, no matter the game or the stakes. Even more so if there is a cost to play, as is the case in cardrooms and casinos all over the world.
More often than not, after the flop you will find yourself with a hand that almost always must still improve to take the pot. These are “drawing hands.” The cards that will complete your draw to a “made hand” – one that could win without further improvement – are your “outs.” Count them; the more the merrier – the better your chance of connecting. (Of course, it’s best to connect to the “nuts” – a hand that cannot be beat, considering the cards shown on the board. But that is relatively rare.)
Many poker players are prone to chase; why? Answer: They know that if they catch the right card, they are very likely to win the pot. (Not always, of course; unless they catch the nuts.)
Let’s illustrate using a typical chasing hand: In the big blind in a $4-$8 limit hold’em game, you have been dealt 7s-8h. Several opponents limp to see the flop; and, with no raise, you get a free flop. (Tip: Never refuse a “free” flop.)
Orleans has a new poker game called ‘Free Flop Hold’em.’ It’s Hold’em without the preflop betting round. It sounds like a rock’s dream game.
— John Mehaffey (@John_Mehaffey) May 25, 2017
The flop is Jd-9c-2h. You now have caught a draw to an inside straight, Jack-high. You need to catch a 10; if that happens, your hand is highly likely to win the pot. There are four 10s in the deck; so, you have four outs. That’s much too few to warrant further investing in that hand. Fold to a bet and save your chips for a better opportunity. (Tip: Don’t goof! The chips you save are at least as valuable as those you win.)
If you had been dealt As-Kh in the hole from a middle position, and the flop was Jd-Qc-2d, you would have the chance of catching any 10 for the Ace-high straight (4 outs), plus either an Ace (3 outs) or a King (3 outs) on the turn or on the river. In total, you would have 10 outs (4 + 3 + 3) that are likely to make your hand a winner.
Using the 4-2 Rule, with both the turn and river to come, multiply your outs by 4. You have approximately 40 percent (4 x 10) chance of connecting with a made hand. Your card odds are about (100 – 40)/40 = 3/2 = 1.5-to-1 against connecting.
Remember, we’re talking about limit hold’em. There is a raise before you, so it will cost eight chips to stay to see the turn. The pot now contains about 32 chips. Thus, the pot odds are 32-to-8 = 4-to-1, substantially higher than your card odds (1.5-to-1). That’s a very high positive expectation. In other words, the risk is well worth the investment. In the long run, you will make a good profit by playing that hand to the river.
Contrast this hand with the first case, where you were chasing a long shot with only four outs, too few to warrant calling the bet on the flop. I regard anything less than six outs as chasing rather than investing (pot odds higher than the card odds).
Of course, the risk of becoming a chaser is not confined to the poker sphere. The same problem can arise when playing other games of chance, whether we are talking about table or slot games. Many slot enthusiasts tend to chase those big jackpot winnings, and more often than not, will ignore the importance of establishing a budget limit that helps them to stop betting if things go south. Why?
Again, players know that higher bets on certain jackpots will give them a better chance of triggering the jackpot feature, hence the hope that the money put out will be regained threefold. Although there have been cases where this has happened, placing bigger bets also means bigger losses. At the end of the day, there is no exact science to it, for as all slot players know, every single spin on every slot game is a random event – the way slots work is by using a random number generator so there is no way you can predict accurately when a jackpot will pay out.
This is not to say that seasoned players cannot spot patterns or make informed decisions on which games to bet on by looking at various criteria pertaining to the specific slot game. This can be done easily with Network Progressive Jackpots. What are they and how are they different from the typical Single Slots Jackpots?
As explained by one of the top casino review sites, CasinoTopsOnline:
“These slots draw a small portion of the bets placed by gamblers at different online casinos. All connected by the network the game runs on (such as Microgaming), playing these slots could mean that you’re feeding a jackpot along with thousands of other players. With this many bettors adding to the progressive jackpot, it can grow to be worth multiple millions.”
So how can you get better at spotting a potential win? The fastest and easiest way to do it would be by analyzing past wins. By looking at things like the size of the jackpot when it is won (for instance, finding a jackpot on a slot tends to pay out when they reach between $1 million and $3 million), or by looking at the time frame of when jackpots tend to be won, for example if they’re won every two to four months, etc. These are all things that, again, do not give any guarantees, however, they can shed some light on certain trends.
The moral of the story: Be an investor, never a chaser. Chasers are losers!
The game of poker is constantly changing and evolving. Not too long ago, knowing some basic strategy and having the willingness to learn was more than enough to beat both live and online games for decent profit. These days, however, to be a winner at any reasonable stakes, much more is required. An increasing number of poker players have solid skills and many of them work constantly to improve their theoretical knowledge of the game. So, how does the one stay ahead of the curve in such an environment? According to Elliot Roe and his new A-Game Master Class, which can be found on the Run It Once poker training site, there is more to beating the game than just knowing a lot about math and ranges.
This Master Class puts an emphasis on what’s often dubbed the “mental game” and focuses on how one should set their goal and work towards achieving them through practice that isn’t necessarily poker-specific: setting goals, being in the right mind-frame, eating and sleeping properly, and much more.
The entire A-Game Master Class is divided into six large modules, each of them containing a number of video lessons focusing on the particular aspects of the module. Roe begins by first explaining what it is that prevents people from achieving success in poker (notably, his thoughts and ideas could be applied to many other areas as well).
The course goes on to try and identify some of the most common obstacles that prevent people from achieving their goals, such as lack of vision, lack of skills, lack of energy, and detrimental mental programming. While the first three are fairly self-explanatory, the last one is quite interesting as Roe proceeds to explain how there are certain presets in our brain that prevent us from moving forward even though they act as protection systems of sorts.
After identifying what the biggest inhibitors are, the course moves on to explain approaches and strategies to tackle these issues. Roe identifies and explains some core principles that can help with this, constantly emphasizing the importance of understanding how poker fits into your wider life journey.
Instead of focusing on just one aspect of the game (such as making money), he explains that striving for poker excellence only makes sense if achieving this goal would actually make you the best version of yourself and would correspond with the rest of your life values (family, friends, free time, etc.). Only when things are set up in this way does the journey make sense and are the chances of making it much better.
In the following three modules, the course deals with effective methods and strategies of countering negative things in your life and adopting habits that are required to become an A-Game player. In these lessons, Roe touches upon many concepts that have been talked about time and time again, but he approaches them with a fresh perspective.
For example, he explains the importance of understanding that the only thing we can control in poker is our input, i.e., our own decisions. The outcome of any particular hand, session, or a tournament should be regarded as irrelevant as long as we’re happy with the input, i.e., with the decisions we’ve made.
The course also explains the importance of energy for your overall success. Eating and sleeping right is much more important than many players realize, and even some of the best in the game often underperform because they play without enough energy. Roe goes into great detail about what to do to achieve higher levels of energy and gain an edge over your competition.
One of the biggest struggles many players have to deal with is maintaining their focus for long periods of time. Once the focus is gone, their performance starts to decrease, leading to less-than-optimal results.
Therefore, a significant part of the A-Game Master Class deals with focus and strategies that players can employ to ensure they stay focused for longer periods of time. Roe devised and explains his focus formula, which takes into account several important aspects that, when combined, are instrumental for staying focused while playing.
Of course, quite a few lessons in Elliot Roe’s A-Game Master Class also deal with emotions and the role they play in the life of any poker player. Emotions are natural to human beings and there is no way to avoid them. In fact, Roe suggests that even if we could, we shouldn’t turn off emotions, as it would likely adversely affect other areas of our lives.
What we can do, however, is assert control over those emotions and not allow them to influence our decision-making when playing. Once again, this is nothing new, but Roe helpfully takes you through the entire process behind keeping control over your emotions, from recognizing the trigger, experiencing the emotion, and deciding (not) to act on it.
The final video in the A-Game Master Class deals with the issue of downswings, as it’s one of the biggest issues that almost all poker players face. Roe explains that it is important to be able to think outside of the box and to realize that downswings only exist within arbitrarily assigned time frames. In other words, one’s ability to change the time frame is likely to change one’s view of a downswing. A simple, but brilliant concept!
In addition to all the content in the main course, the A-Game Master Class also gives you access to an extensive MP3 library. These are files you can download to your portal device such as your phone and listen to them whenever you have time or feel the need.
These aren’t theoretical lessons but rather voice files designed to help you relax and focus in specific situations like:
These MP3s are a nice addition to the course and definitely add to its overall value and usefulness. Designed to target very specific situations that almost every poker player has to deal with, these files will help you remember things that you’ve learned in the main course and always bring your A game to the tables.
Like every poker course out there, at the end of the day you want to know if the cost is worth the money? Elliot Roe’s A-Game Master Class costs $999, so it’s not really a super-cheap one. With that said, getting top-quality information, training, and tools for success costs money. This course offers 100% pure quality, and is practically guaranteed to lead to improved results at the table if you’re willing to take it seriously and work through it as Elliot Roe intended.
READ MORE: An interview with Elliot Roe
Classic poker courses focus on strategy and, as such, only require players to think about concepts discussed in the lessons and try to implement them into their game. Even if you can’t wrap your head around all of the concepts, your game will likely get better if you’re able to successfully integrate certain segments of the strategy into your game.
This course is very different, though. It tries to explain how you should change your entire approach to poker (and even your life, to some extent) if you’re really set on making it. Making changes like these doesn’t happen overnight and requires a lot of effort and dedication. Throughout the course, Roe asks the viewers to pause the videos to perform certain exercises, make lists, etc.
In short, the course will only work for you if you want it to work.
As such, the $999 price tag is justified in this writer’s opinion. Elliot Roe knows what he’s talking about, as he’s worked with some of the game’s best and has helped them achieve some really impressive results. You just need to be aware that this course isn’t some sort of a magic pill that can instantly turn you into the next great poker success story. If you’re willing to put in the work and have an open mind to accept the advice and follow the guidelines, A-Game Master Class can help you get where you want to go as a poker player.