Posts Tagged ‘Poker Tournaments’

Stealing in Poker Tournaments

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

One of the most difficult things for beginning poker tournament players to deal with in terms of poker strategy involves rising blinds. As experienced players know, the further you get into a tourney, the more blinds force you to play aggressively in order to stay alive. Unfortunately, many recreational tournament players either don’t get this concept, or tighten up in order to keep the chips they have. So for the sake of both parties, let’s take a quick look at some strategy for stealing in poker tournaments.

Stealing Frequently

Stealing pots doesn’t play a real big part early in poker tournaments due to the low blinds-to-stack-size ratio. After all, why bet a fourth of your starting stack with marginal cards when your 1,500 chips amount to 50 big blinds? But when you get to the point where blinds are 200/400 and your stack is worth 2,400 chips, you don’t have a whole lot of orbits left before desperation mode hits.

Before that point happens, you need to look for stealing opportunities frequently. The three spots where you should be looking to steal are from the cut-off, the button and the small blind because fewer players are left to act. It always helps matters if there’s non-aggressive players to your left, but even if there aren’t, you’ll probably need to steal at some point anyways.

Besides position, the other really important concept here involves your cards. Now if you’re trying to steal a hand, obviously you aren’t doing it with pocket aces. But just because you’re trying to steal a pot doesn’t mean you should be doing it with 8-4(o). Good cards to steal with include any two overcards, suited connectors from 8-9 and up,  as well as A-x and K-x (possibly Q-x if your stack is low enough).

The closer your stack gets to blinding out, the more you have to open up your stealing range. Also, keep in mind that if your stack is below 10 big blinds, you should be shoving on every steal attempt.

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Shoving Short Stacks in Poker Tournaments

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

When playing poker tournaments, we’d all love to have the cards fall into the right place, and not have our chip stacks in danger at any point. Unfortunately, this only happens to players in the rarest of circumstances, and the vast majority of the time, you’ll be dealing with a short stack at some point in a tournament.

Seeing as how being the short stack gives you very little leverage to make effective raises or steal hands, this is a terrible place to be. Furthermore, you’re only a few blind orbits away from being knocked out of the tournament. It’s for this reason why most poker players suggest a shove or fold approach once your chip stack gets down around 10 big blinds.

The reason why is because you need to build your stack quickly to have any shot at waiting for better hands, and making effective plays against bigger stacks. This being said, you need to know when the ideal situations arise for shoving short stacks in poker tournaments.

Now the big mistake that many people make here is only focusing on their poker cards, rather than table position and stack sizes. For example, if you’re only looking at your cards and you get A-J in early position, this might seem like a solid hand to shove with; however, you also have to consider how many people are left to act after you, and their stack sizes because several people might call just because they think you’re going for a desperation steal.

As a general rule, the later your position, the wider range of hands you can shove with. For example, in an unraised pot with A-J, this is a great opportunity for you to shove the short stack in an attempt to steal a hand. Even if you get called, you at least have a solid chance with A-J.

There are a host of other factors to consider too such as how the opponents behind you play. For example, if you have three loose-aggressive players left to act, shoving would be a bad decision unless you’ve got the cards. However, if the players left to act are tight, and the blinds won’t defend, this presents a much better chance to shove and steal a hand.

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Dan Shak’s Condo goes for $7.4m

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Poker pro Dan Shak proved to be recession-proof after selling his lofty New York City condo for $7.4 million. Shak, who bought the home back in 2005 with his ex-wife Beth Shak, originally paid $7.2 million for the property. However, he was somehow able to swing a $200,000 profit while selling it seven years later. Perhaps he did some major upgrades?

The popular reason for Shak selling the condo is that he lost around $7 million in the gold market, and needed a way to make some quick cash. In fact, Shak’s losses caused him to sell off a remaining stake in $850 million worth of future gold contracts, which caused a market scare. This coupled with the aforementioned condo sale had many thinking that he was desperate for money. However, Shak has consistently denied selling his condo to cover gold market losses.

In any case, what is known is that Shak gave his ex-wife $3.25 million when they got divorced in 2008 so that he could keep the property. And one certainly can’t blame Shak for wanting to keep his condo when they look at the pictures. There’s plenty of exquisite decor and excellent terrace views of New York.

As for Shak’s poker career, he’s made over $2.7 million in live tournament cashes, and this includes a victory in the 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event ($1,107,553). In addition to this, he also finished second in the 2011 NAPT Uncasville, which was good for $254,000. In regards to his ex-wife Beth Shak, she hasn’t fared quite so well in the poker world lately, having made only $29,955 in the last two years. Her crowning poker achievement came when she finished second in a 2007 WSOP $3,000 Hold’em event ($328,683); this helped her land a gig as a Full Tilt Poker team member.

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2011 WCOOP Main Event down as expected

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

The 2011 WCOOP Main Event attracted 1,627 players, and will be offering almost $5 million total to the top finishers. But while this is one huge online poker tournament, it doesn’t quite measure up to the 2010 WCOOP Main Event. After all, the 2010 WCOOP ME set records for an online poker tournament when over $12.2 million was offered in the prize pool. Another record was set when Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks hit the single biggest online score when he earned $2,278,098 for winning.

In any case, the 2011 WCOOP Main Event won’t come anywhere near these numbers since US players can’t enter the event. Sure $5 million is a lot of money, but we can be positive that it’d be worth a lot more if Americans could still play at PokerStars. However, the actions of the US Department of Justice continue to have reverberating consequences on online poker.

When the US DoJ cracked down on PokerStars and three other major sites on April 15th, 2011, it was pretty much expected that the World Championship of Online Poker would never reach its peak numbers again (unless regulation is ever approved and the US issues poker licenses).

But hey, at least PokerStars can still stage a major online poker event like this. Furthermore, at least they can run poker tournaments of any kind since the other three sites that faced the wrath of the US DoJ (UB Poker, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker) aren’t even running. Both UB and Absolute Poker were sunk right from the get-go since they’d already been mired in scandals beforehand.

As for Full Tilt Poker, there was a glimmer of hope in the beginning that they’d survive, and players would get their bankrolls back. However, the Full Tilt Poker brand is all but destroyed now, and a civil suit has been levied against FTP; however, even if the suit is successful, it might only get players pennies back on their dollars.

In any case, it’s nice that PokerStars isn’t totally crippled by the whole DoJ ordeal, and can still run a great poker event.

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Poker Backing Industry suffering

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

The once thriving poker backing industry seems to have taken a major hit following Black Friday, where several of the world’s largest poker sites were forced to stop offering services to US players. With this being said, many online poker pros still have lots of money wrapped up on these sites (especially Full Tilt Poker), and they have no way to access the money. All of this leads to the top pros being unable to back other players like they once did.

If you’re unfamiliar with poker backing, the process involves a businessman or poker player paying tournament entry fees, and/or providing a cash game bankroll for promising players. In return, the backed players will split all of their profits with the backer. Unfortunately, these deals have become less and less common since many professional US players are quitting the game because they can’t play at the largest sites, and are looking for new opportunities.

Furthermore, online poker tournaments were a huge part of the backing industry since good players could play multiple tournaments at once, and easily turn a solid profit due to the large tournament volume. But with this option taken away, both backers and the talent they backed are finding it difficult to survive post-Black Friday.

So does this mean the poker backing industry is completely dead? Not at all since there are still many non-US-backed players who can play at PokerStars, Party Poker and Titan Poker. Even in the US, players can still get a decent volume of tournaments in at some of the smaller sites, and there are plenty of big live tournaments left too.

The only thing is that few people expect poker backing to ever return to the same height it was at before Black Friday. However, we could see some new developments depending on how the possible US poker regulation turns out.

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2011 WSOP Attendance Fears

Monday, July 11th, 2011

One of the main concerns going into the 2011 WSOP was that attendance figures would be way down. And these concerns were certainly valid following Black Friday (April 15th), where PokerStars, UB Poker, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker were temporarily shut down. On top of this, all four poker rooms were forced to stop taking US players, which cut down on their ability to offer as many WSOP prize packages.

One last thing worth mentioning is that many players who would’ve been at the WSOP couldn’t play because the bulk of their money was frozen on one or more of the largest poker sites. In short, there was a lot of stuff working against strong attendance figures in 2011.

But as logical as it seemed, the 2011 WSOP attendance figures have defied all logic since they smashed the previous records. Over 66,000 players entered tournaments this year, and a collective $121 million prize pool was offered throughout 58 tournaments.

So what’s the driving force behind the record numbers? Well it’s hard to pinpoint a single thing, but one aspect that certainly helped increase WSOP participation is that many of the online poker pros have been forced to turn to live poker. After all, their livelihood was taken, so they’ve jumped in WSOP tournaments as a means of filling this void.

Moving to a secondary reason, this year may have been more attractive to pros than any other because of the decreased number of amateur prize package winners populating the fields; this in theory would lead to smaller tournaments and a better chance of winning. Of course, the fields turned out to be saturated anyways because of how many people entered the events.

Whatever the case may be, it’s nice to see that the 2011 WSOP has remained popular – even after the events of Black Friday.

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Surviving SNG Losing Streaks

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

While sit and go poker tournaments offer some of the easiest competition in the game (comparative to stakes), there is one thing that can hurt you in these poker games: losing streaks. For example, let’s say that you have a $180 bankroll, and you fail to cash in six straight $5.50 buy-in tournaments, place third in one, then fail to cash in another four straight SNG’s. At this point, your bankroll is hovering around $134, and you might seriously be considering dropping down in stakes.

Now you’re going to need to think about a few factors before dropping down. First off, it’s important to realize that a really good return on investment (ROI) at the $5 buy-in limit is 10%; if you’re a decent player, expect around a 5% ROI. In any case, you’re going to be looking at small edges, and losing streaks are bound to happen, so you can’t drop down in every instance.

Going further, by looking at our aforementioned bankroll example of $180, this is enough to cover 36 buy-ins. Now 36 buy-ins is better than 20, which is what most people try to start with; however, it’s a better idea to start with 50 buy-ins so you can survive the downswings that often happen in SNG’s.

The one obvious thing we haven’t discussed in all of this is that your skill level needs to be somewhat advanced – even for the $5 buy-in level. A good rule of thumb is to spend 80% of your time on the table, and the other 20% studying poker strategy. Sure it’s more fun to put all of your focus into making money on the tables, but you won’t improve much by avoiding the strategy altogether. In summary, try to have at least 50 buy-ins in your bankroll, and study strategy whenever you can.

 

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Learn To Play Texas Hold’em

Friday, February 18th, 2011

With so many tournaments right around the corner I figured it would be a great idea to brush up on a few poker rules. In doing so I came across a huge selection of free online games including one of my favorites, Texas Hold’em.

For those of you who’ve never played it, it’s a very easy game to learn. Believe me, I’m no expert and yet I managed to grasp the rules within a couple of minutes. Once you know how to play, the fun starts. An even if you’ve dabbled in Texas Hold’em before, you can always learn new things; that’s what makes the game so fascinating.

In Texas Hold’em a few of the cards are shared between the players. Each person receives two cards which are then combined with the five community cards. The goal is to come up with the ideal five card hand.

The best way to actually learn is to dive right in and play. You can find a slew of online poker rooms for beginners, where you can practice with phony money until you feel comfortable enough to get into the real action.

And since you’ll be taking advantage of free play online, you can place a cheat sheet by your side, containing all the poker hands. If you’re new to the game like I was a few years ago, you won’t always remember that a Royal Flush beats four of a kind.

Next time I’ll go over some simple rules to remember. For now, enjoy yourself and win big! There’s certainly no game like poker.

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Everest Poker Announces Its Big Event

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

For those of you who can’t wait for a seriously great poker event to take place, we’re going to have to wait until April 21st; Everest Poker has announced the Everest Poker One, a live tournament at the chic Monaco casino, Salle des Palmiers. I personally believe the wait will be worth it as the tournament will feature a 5,000 Euro + 3,000 Euro buy in. And get this, the prize pool is guaranteed to be 1 million Euros. Not bad right?

But if that feels too rich for your blood, Everest Poker says they will also host side events like the 25,000 Euro no limit high roller games, no limit Hold’em and a no limit Hold’em turbo game.

The news release has been very well received amidst the poker community, as most poker enthusiasts feel a close tie to Monte Carlo. And for anyone doubting foreign hospitality, the CMO in Monte Carlo, Axel Hoppenot has issued a statement welcoming Everest Poker and all its gamers.

If I were you, I’d start preparing for the event right away. Since this opportunity is the mastermind of an online poker room, you too can win seats. If you’re starting from scratch and working on improving your skills, there will be Super Satellite Freerolls every hour from 10:25 to 19:25 GMT every day of the week except for Tuesday. But remember too, that there’s always a free game online and an empty seat waiting for you. I can’t wait to start practicing, so I bid you farewell.

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WSOP Circuit Announces Events And Makes A Few Changes

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Now that the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas has come to a close, at least until the final main event table in November, the WSOP Circuit (WSOPC) is ready to begin. The WSOPC has announced twelve of its tour stops, thus far, and also announced a few changes that are being made to the tournament circuit.

Let’s start with the changes. This year:

  • Cumulative points will be awarded to players who finish in the money and players in events with higher buy-ins will receive more points
  • The structure and payout of games will be standardized
  • There will be affordable $1,500 main events at all WSOPC stops that don’t have Regional Championships
  • A $1 million National Championship freeroll will be held at Caesars in Las Vegas at the end of the season, made up of 100 entrants that have either won a $1500 main event, earned the most cumulative points, made the final table of a $10,000 Championship, or finished the season in the top 40

The tour stops that have been announced so far are as follows:

  • August 19-31 – Horseshoe Council Bluffs (Iowa)
  • October 2-12 – Horseshoe Southern Indiana
  • October 15-27 – Horseshoe Hammond (Chicago area)
  • October 26-31 – Emerald Casino (South Africa)
  • October 28 – November 10 – IP Casino Resort & Spa (Biloxi, MS)
  • November 11-23 – Harvey’s Lake Tahoe
  • December 4-22 – Harrah’s Atlantic City
  • January 27 – February 14 – Harrah’s Tunica
  • March 2-13 – Caesars Atlantic City
  • March 11-30 – Harrah’s Rincon (San Diego area)
  • March 31 – April 13 – Harrah’s St. Louis
  • April 14-30 – Caesars Palace
  • May 9-22 – Harrah’s New Orleans

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