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Quick look at 2010 November nine poker players

texas holdem Team — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:02:56 +0000

Let’s take a quick look at this year’s November nine poker players.
Joseph Cheong (23.5 million in chips): As one of the youngest players in this year’s tournament Cheong, 24, is being considered as the one of the lead, and most experienced player who will sit at the final table. Having played in over 10,000 tournaments, or so he claims, Cheong is certainly one of the more prepared and serious players. He doesn’t only rely on skill but he stands alone in being a real full time player.
John Racener (19.0 million in chips): Racener is coming into November as a rising start. He began catching the attention of poker pundits as he made his rounds through the nationwide tournaments, including a WSOP Circuit title for approximately half a million dollars. Apart from this he has 11 WSOP cashes. Racener is preparing to make his name known and this year’s World Series tourney may be the venue he was looking for.
Matt Jarvis (17.6 million in chips): Another young competitor is the one and only Matt Jarvis. This 25-year-old Canadian, has made a commendable comeback ever after he declared that he needed to refocus on his poker style and skill. Jarvis also considers himself a fulltime poker player, with most of his fame coming from online play. Spotlighting this fact is his single five-figure cash in during a live play tourney. He will enter November with more confidence than ever and with many saying that he has a very good chance at going the full distance.
Filippo Candio (16.4 million in chips): Mr. Candio, the only European in the pro tournament hails from none other than Sardinia, Italy. He is the poker aficionado in Italy but back here in the U.S. he is only a top ranking poker star. After wining the Italian Poker tour Campionato Italiano ’09 he began to make a real name for himself across the world. He is a proud player who sees the World Series of Poker as a venue to put not only his name on the map but his country’s as well.
In addition to these men are the following high rollers:
Michael Mizrachi (14.4 million in chips)
Soi Nguyen (9.6 million in chips)
Jason Senti (7.6 million in chips)
Jonathan Duhamel (65.9 million in chips)
John Dolan (46.2 million in chips)
Joseph Cheong (23.5 million in chips)
John Racener (19.0 million in chips)

Phil Ivey

texas holdem Team — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:45:49 +0000

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.

2010 November Nine

texas holdem Team — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:41:45 +0000

The November Nine have been officially announced in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Following eight competitive days of poker over a two week period, only nine players remain in the most famous poker tournament in the world. The current leader is Jonathan Duhamely who brought his $55,375,000 of past winnings into the tourney.
To recap some of the action, Matt “mcmatto” Affleck reached 15th place for $500,000, Meanwhile, Jonathan Duhamel check-called a five million bet from Affleck to see the queen of diamonds hit on the turn. Duhamel then checked and Affleck, dramatically moved all-in for over 11 million. After several minutes, with millions on the line, Duhamel called and flipped up a pair of pocket jacks and a straight draw. Affleck tabled his pocket aces and, watched painfully as an eight hit on the river, which came to match Duhamel’s straight.
Another exciting episode during the course of the tournament was Hasan Habib. Habib moved all-in pre-flop, which drew a call from John Racener. In turn Racener turned over A-K of clubs which was followed by a flop of 10-9-3 with two clubs, this development helped Habib by giving him a pair of nines, yet giving Racener a flush draw. Once again a ten came to hit on the turn, which brought Racener to pray for an ace or king on the river. And as luck has it the ace hit.
John Dolan, also one of the short stacks like Habib, opened the small blind with K-6 of diamonds, however, Duy Le called an all-in from the big blind with A-Q. Le’s chances were ruined when a King appeared on the flop destroying his chances. Le was moved in to 13th place and picked up the $500,000 consolation prize.
2010 November Nine:
1. Jonathan Duhamel – 65,975,000
2. John Dolan – 46,250,000
3. Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000
4. John Racener – 19,050,000
5. Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000
6. Filippo Candio – 16,400,000
7. Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000
8. Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000
9. Jason Senti – 7,625,000

Here are the payouts at stake for the members of the 2010 WSOP November Nine:
1st Place: $8,944,138
2nd Place: $5,545,855
3rd Place: $4,129,979
4th Place: $3,092,497
5th Place: $2,332,960
6th Place: $1,772,939
7th Place: $1,356,708
8th Place: $1,045,738
9th Place: $811,823

Double Aces

texas holdem Team — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:44:15 +0000

Poker is a game of intricacies. The cards you hold are only one part of a winning hand. The other is comprised of the player’s style and strategy.
Your hand has an almost limitless amount of variables. Sometimes your hand can be good in one pot and bad in another, different cards have different capabilities – this especially comes into effect depending on which game you will play. A great hand in one form of poker may be garbage in another version of the game.
For this brief case study, let’s take the play of the “middle ace.” The middle ace, meaning - A-9 through A-6, can usually be trashed without much loss. A confident poker player will throw this hand regardless of the action on the table, even if the session allows the player to limp into play; it is only in special cases that the “middle ace” can even be thought of as a card to play.
However, in some versions of poker “middle aces” can be a slick hand to play against your challenger, and may characterize you as a “loosing” player, – a characterization that will assist you when you play stronger hands.
If we take the Texas Hold’em, the “middle ace” can only be played when the position is available. The danger in playing the “middle ace” has two angles.
One, if you flop your ace, you may end up be playing from behind against a stronger kicker. An A-8, for instance may bring you into a situation where you could be going against a player holding a bigger ace (A-K or A-Q) – as a result you will be thinning your chances in hitting your kicker.
The second point is that unless you are able to absolutely guarantee that your challenger is sitting on a fat pair (pocket kings or queens), you must go in with caution and maintain a small pot. If you flop your kicker, the dangers increase.
Remember the “middle ace” is not the ideal hand by any means and should be disregarded as a form of battle in any form of poker.

Show me your cards!

texas holdem Team — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:31:46 +0000

Who is the most agitating player at the poker table? How about the individual who is adamant to display his cards when he is the last to fold, or when he wins a pot without a showdown.
You give in to him in the big blind and he turns around and shows you that he was holding, which is often not too impressive. If you get him to fold, he’ll show you that he can make a tough laydown when he folds top pair, top kicker. This is quite common.
However, someone who shows their poker cards every so often is not obnoxious, here, we find that there may a reasonable need to do so. Although most do not subscribe to this style, arguing, why would one want to give his opposition information, there are a few circumstances where this works in your favour.
The primary component to this strategy is found in the core stages of a tournament- the goal being, you are trying to catch as many blinds and antes as you can from players who are desperately trying to score. The more strapped your opponents think you are the better the chances that they will fold to your raises. Especially if you are aware that you are a tight player, then all the more reason that you want to make sure that everyone else knows too.
Therefore, during the core, mid-stage of a tournament you ought to go ahead and display a few strong hands after everyone else folds. If you can lay some seeds down, those that make the other players believe that when your chips move in, you mean business.
Another quick point in advocating the display of cards is if you have had a successful streak of raises; after a few of these hands, you suspect that your opponents will become dubious towards your next hand. This is a good moment to think about showing your hand. It should be underlined here that if you feel the necessity to show your cards, in whatever circumstance, then you should do so. Poker works on style so add your own; just know what you are doing first.

Poker 770 Review

texas holdem Team — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:02:03 +0000

Poker 770 is a leading poker website that has attracted thousands. Its sharp images, quick payout and overall design make this one a must. Not every poker site can be on the top.

In addition to its robust variety of games Poker 770 specializes in hosting an interactive on line community called Mybluff.com. Here players are able to interact with one another providing tips and sharing ideas and experiences.

Part of the fun at Mybluff is viewing other player’s profiles and searching for friends that have set up a profile online. Apart from this there are several games that are unmatched by many other sites in the industry. Signing into your profile or even for a free turn at the casino has never been easier. The user-friendly design really stands out at Poker 770.

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Using themes to engage the player was cutting edge and has now become some what of an industry standard. Slots and other casino games continues to gain new ground with innovative thinking and foresight. Poker 770 has long pioneered this sector and will continue to do so as long as it offers game themes such as this. Staying with the trend and even leading new directions for the online casino and card gaming world is what defines Poker 770.

The excitement of playing at an online casino with such advanced graphics is what will make this casino prosper. Poker 770 not only cares that it has a public forum for its players, it also is keen on continuing to raise the bar and challenge other online casinos.Claim your 100% Bonus on 7770 poker now !!!

Jamie Gold – The right face of poker

texas holdem Team — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:55:55 +0000

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.

A tip from Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin

texas holdem Team — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:05:22 +0000

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.

Daniel Negreanu

texas holdem Team — Mon, 10 May 2010 08:23:07 +0000

I am the greatest poker player of all time – Take one.
Who is the best poker player in the world? Well it depends who you ask. Obviously, one of the most famous players is Doyle Brunson. However, there are a fair amount of top ranking players which give him a real run for his money.
One of them is Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu, 36, He has four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championships. His overall ranking brings him second, all time, in career earnings, trailing only Phil Ivey.
A high school drop out, Negreanu began to play and hustle cards at 15. Once he earned enough funds, and enough courage, he counted his money and headed to Las Vegas. He was 22 and ambitious – he left Vegas shortly after to restack his funds in his home town.
His “luck” began at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. He was named best player and went home with $55,064. Next began his roll through the World Series of Poker in 1998; winning $169,460 at the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Series of Poker - he was crowned the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history.
This break jump-started his over all standing in the poker world and over the next several years his success carried him through other WPT tournaments where won the coveted WPT bracelet three separate times. He was named World Series of Poker player of the year in ‘04 and World Poker Tour player of the year in ‘05.
A good portion of Negreanu’s drive and accomplishment has is associated with his unique intuition. This feature in his play style leaves opponents stunned by his ability to read them blind. Negreanu has declared one of the most crucial aspects in his game is analyzing and observing what hands the challenger plays and how he/she fairs off when they do commit to playing their hand.
Daniel Negreanu book Power Hold’em Strategy hold a wealth of knowledge and is recommend to all who are interested in learning more about poker from one of the greats. It holds sections and short contributions from other starts such as Evelyn Ng, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wasicka, Todd Brunson and David Williams.
His estimated earnings, as of 2010 are approximately $12,000,000 - second all time.

The old vs. the young lady

texas holdem Team — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:28:35 +0000

The old vs. the young lady at the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour (NAPT)
Three of five finalists, at the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun Main Event this past Sunday, April 11th, were relatively young players – but as it goes poker doesn’t discriminate based on gender or age.
Mike Beasley, 46, finishing second and Mike Woods, 53, placing third have been playing at poker tables for more than twenty years. Beasley, a gentlemen’s club owner from the sunshine state of Florida was keen on using his age to his advantage against the younger players. His winnings, 428,000, not only satisfied his wallet, but his ego as well.
Meanwhile, Woods placed third in the Main Event against many contenders half his age. Removing his University of Virginia cap, Woods replaced it with a cool black hat from PokerStars. Beasley also came to sport a PokerStars logo on his jacket.
Also wearing some new style was first place winner, Ms. Vanessa Selbst, 26, from Brooklyn, Ny. The Full Tilt logos made a strong impression on the jacket of the Yale Law school student. Vanessa’s section was especially cute and witty. Displaying thoughtful signs which screamed sex and support, like, “I’m gay for Vanessa” and “V for Vanessa,” the young lady made her impression felt two fold, not only as a woman, but as a successful woman at that.
Vanessa won the main event, at the 2010 PokerStars.net, ahead of all the competing men. She went home with $750,000.
Vanessa has made her way to five final table games, including two heads-up semi-finals at the World Series of Poker, as well as a winning hand at the 2008 World Series of Poker $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. She is a young and has a long way to go, but is still considered to be force to reckoned with.