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Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey, at 34, is listed in 2010 as first in the world among all-time money winners in tournament poker.  He is revered by his opponents and poker enthusiasts and is known as the best all-around player in the world today.  Ivey has appeared at eight World Poker Tour final tables, won eight World Series of Poker bracelets and one World Poker Tour title.  He’s fearless, enjoys a wealthy lifestyle, and wins big at his favorite sport.

At the 2010 WSOP, Ivey won his eighth bracelet in H.O.R.S.E. which got him $329,840.  He has been called ‘the Tiger Woods of Poker‘.  Ivey is the youngest player to win eight (Phil Hellmuth was 39). In addition, no other player has accumulated eight bracelets more quickly; it took Ivey only ten years from the time of his first bracelet to his eighth, (it took Johnny Moss 11 years).

Ivey is first on the all-time money list with over $14 million in tournament earnings. Ivey lives in Las Vegas and is a regular participant in the $4,000-$8,000 mixed cash game at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.  In February 2006, he played heads-up Limit Texas Hold’em against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. With stakes at $25,000/$50,000, Ivey won over $16,000,000 over the course of three days. A group of poker professionals joined Ivey, called themselves  “The Corporation”,  pooled their money and took turns playing against Beal. Earlier in the month, Beal beat the Corporation out of $10,000,000. After losing to Ivey, Beal claimed that he was giving up poker. But he had said that before.

Ivey was taught poker by his grandfather at a young age in New Jersey where he grow up. He was hooked immediately. He is known for his intense and intimidating look when he plays poker.  His eyes dart back and forth and he’s been called cold hearted. Ivey has a generous side and has started a charity and given money to a number of charitable causes. He is the one to watch.

Written by texas holdem Team · Filed Under players 

Jamie Gold – The right face of poker

Jamie Gold, 41, from Malibu, Ca, holds a critical claim has having won the largest cash prize ever during a live, syndicated, event. $12 million of cold hard cash was taken by Gold at the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event. The victory was well deserved. At the last table it was mentioned that Gold had more casino tournament final table finishes than all of the others combined.
He outran 8,772 players through an eleven day period. He became a house-hold poker name over night and has since become the personality of shows like GSN’s “High Stakes Poker”, NBC’s “Poker After Dark” and “National Heads Up Championship”, ABC’s “cc”, and of course, ESPN’s “World Series of Poker”. Ironically, Gold had said, perhaps as a joke of sorts that we would rather finish second than to place first. His fear of fame was realized when he won. However Gold, as a compliment to his personality, did not fall victim to fame, instead he used to it to pursue his interest in helping others.
Before making the stunning million dollar achievement he had approximately 100k in his purse. Although his riches would usually take many individuals off track, Gold maintains a disciplined approach to poker and his personal life. Dividing his life into two tracks, poker and his already existing talent agency business has allowed Gold to branch out further into a third track – promoting numerous charities. Leveraging his star personality, he not only appears and not only plays at poker charities but has become a strong figure in introducing the money in poker as a mechanism to support new charities. One of which is to help people suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Gold’s admirable ability to maintain both life styles while giving back to communities is the mark of a noble man. He is deemed to be different than many Texas Hold’em players and has reaped the benefits as a result. His poker philanthropist image is well deserved.

Written by texas holdem Team · Filed Under players 

A tip from Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin came out of the gates strong last year, 2009 and is holding up well this year as well. He won his first bracelet in during the ’09 World Series of Poker by placing first in a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, Baldwin also placed third in the $10,000 World Championship pot-limit hold’em event. He has amassed 2.6 million in a very short span of time.
He has become a guru of sorts at playing short hand, all the way down to heads up. Taking a look at Baldwin’s three-handed tournament strategy is a good start for both pro and amateur players.
Let’s take a look shall we?
Know who your opponents are. Let’s say they are of the aggressive type both in the blinds and in their style of re-raising.  Baldwin recommends to “tighten up” your raising range.
Meaning?
Depending on the situation you should only open if you are willing to go all the way with the hand pre-flop. It can be frustrating to pick up small pairs and suited connectors here; you don’t really want to get them all-in pre-flop, but your opponents are going to make it difficult to see a flop.
Well what about limping you may ask?
Baldwin, will on occasion, toss in a limp with these hands if his opponents have too much to shove. Now, if the other players finish the small blind and/or check the big blind, the recommend action is to see a flop with a good hand in position. If the other card players raise, than you as a player can call – anticipating that they will bet most flops, gives you the opportunity to semi-bluff. If you flop something you have a chance to take a good full pot.
A final word of advice …
When you are measuring your opponents, be careful to recognize that they are also sizing you up. When you do limp, you should do so on huge hands in order to hide your range.
Take the free advise – Good luck!

It’s a rare case in today’s tournaments that I’d get three handed with two tight players. If I did, I would obviously be quite aggressive from the button, and be cautious if my opponents showed resistance.
OK, what about the small blind? Do you use some of the same principles for knowing when to raise into the big blind as you do when considering a raise on the button?
From the small blind I’m looking at what has happened in previous small blind versus big blind confrontations with this player. If I raised and got reraised last time, I’m very likely to raise again with most hands. This is because I expect him to think, “He knows I’m likely to reraise him here, and he’s opening anyway,” and just give up most hands.
If I’ve been raising and taking down most pots and the player appears aggravated, I’m not raising very often at all until I pick up a good hand or I rebuild my image a bit. I really just ask myself, “How is this player likely to respond?” to each possible action. I do this before looking at my cards and act accordingly.


What spots are you looking to reraise from the small blind against a button raise, either as a resteal or for value?
I’m paying attention to how often this player has been raising their button. The more often they raise, the wider my range is to reraise on a resteal. Stack sizes are important here. If my opponent has a lot of chips, I need to be aware that my opponent might four-bet on a resteal or call my reraise. If I think there is a decent chance of my reraise getting called, I want to have a decent hand to go to the flop with.
Now onto the big blind. How do you approach this position?
If the button raises and the small blind folds, play is very similar to play from the small blind. One difference is I’m slightly more likely to call preflop, given the improved pot odds and knowledge that there is nobody behind me that can raise me off the hand. If the button folds, I’m back to examining previous small blind versus big blind confrontations against the small blind.
If he’s been pretty weak with his small blind and comes in for a raise, I’m going to give him more credit than if he’s opening most of the time. If he’s really aggressive from the small blind, I need to mix in some resteals and calls more often. Three handed, most of the time, nobody is going to have that strong of a hand.
You can’t sit around and wait to make big hands and expect to win. Finding ways to win pots without much of a hand is essential.
Do you think it’s possible to overexploit profitable plays from each of these positions?
It’s definitely possible to overdo it with plays. This is where it’s important to keep mixing up your play. If I’ve been stealing a lot and now all of the sudden I’m getting played back at, I need to adjust. The really good Texas hold’em players can tell when they are about to get played back at. That’s a much cheaper way to adjust your play than waiting for someone to actually reraise you.
So from any position, what are the biggest mistakes you see players making when it gets down to three-handed?
The biggest mistake I see is people relying too much on having or making a big hand.
Is there any other advice you would give to beginning players?
My best advice would be to assess the situation before worrying about your cards. Most of the time you can pretty accurately figure out what’s going to happen before it does. Playing off these situation reads can be more important than the cards you’re holding.
Later on this week, Baldwin will discuss how these concepts apply to an actual hand he played while three-handed for his WSOP bracelet this summer.

Written by texas holdem Team · Filed Under players 

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