Jan 29 2010

Should Poker Rooms Sponsor Players?

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 9:51 am

The marketing side of poker is big business with the top players paid to wear branded logos for poker rooms. At tournaments like the World Series of Poker, representatives for the biggest poker rooms offer large sums for players to wear their badges. It was reported that Darvin Moon, the second place finisher in the 2009 WSOP main event, declined all offers for sponsorship and was apparently offered $500,000 by a poker room in a last ditch attempt to have him wear their brand for the live final table. Amazingly, Darvin declined the offer.

Are these types of sponsorships worth it? Many poker sites send players to large events and stipulate the players wear their branded T shirt and caps as part of the deal. They hope the players get on television but this may not happen and they may bust out early in the tournament. The site hopes that the player wins their seat through their site and goes on to earn a big score from the event. Other players then follow suit hoping for a similar outcome. Chris Moneymaker won his seat to the 2003 World Series of Poker through winning a series of satellites into the event. His total investment was said to be $40 to win $2.5 million. Pokerstars did very well in subsequent years sending hundreds of players to the event.

Competition is high for the poker rooms and many rooms sign up players to long term deals. Annette Obrestad works with Betfair who pays her buy-ins to large tournaments all around the world. You question whether this is value for money. Annette does get a lot of exposure but it is she that gets the exposure not the site she represents. Of course their badge is on display if she gets on television, but there is no verbal discussion of Betfair when the TV watches Annette. The site hopes people notice the badge, like Annette’s play, and visits the site she recommends by the logo she is wearing.

The problem for the poker rooms is that every site sponsors players and it is costing a lot of money to keep up. There is a trend towards sites rewarding their high raking regular players with live sponsorship deals to go to live events, thus holding onto their custom. It also shows other players that increasing their play with the site could be very beneficial to them.

James Akenhead signed up as a Full Tilt Red Pro after making the final table of the World Series of Poker and went on to play in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event and win the Poker Million. He appeared in many magazines and interviews as a result of his achievements in 2009. In every picture or TV segment he was wearing the badge of Full Tilt. Whatever they paid/pay James for him to wear their logos paid off. There are, however, many Red Pros who are staked into events and earning great rakeback that you wonder whether they are value for that investment.

Poker rooms also run the risk that the player may get into trouble. If an incident occurs like Scotty Nguyen in the 2008 HORSE event at the WSOP then the poker rooms would not enjoy being associated with it. The motivation of the players for sponsorship is also a worry for the sites. Many of them are just looking for a way to be a poker professional, live comfortably and play in large events. A proportion of them will care about the site and how they represent it, but most would sign up with whoever offered them the deal. Darvin Moon should be praised for his refusal to sign up as a sponsored player. Why? Because he said he never played online poker and to wear a badge would mislead the public who did not know he was a live only player.

A great way to represent a poker room is to win a satellite and be sent to a large poker event. Bwinpoker.com sent many players to the Aussie Millions and their players are genuinely representing the site and their progress can be followed by reading the bwin poker blog.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 28 2010

Talking about poker bankrolls part three

Category: Poker strategy — carl @ 5:27 pm

In the third and final part of this series then and following on from part two, this highlights another so called piece of poker wisdom that is wrong and that is that just because a player is playing successfully at $100-$200 Hold’em online for instance, that they can beat all of the levels below that. Maybe they can but chances are that they can’t for the reason that I stated. As I have said many times, there is a lot of rubbish spoken in poker and much of the advice that is bandied about is far too generic for it to be of any use whatsoever.

Because of my very cautious attitude to money then what I had to do was to basically trick my mind into playing with large amounts of money. What worked for me personally was to take $2000 for instance that I had earned down some other gambling avenue and to use it to take a shot in a poker game. If I lost it then I would not play until I had mentally absorbed the loss.

This brings up yet another point of why the slide rule “experts” have missed the point. Let us go back to the case of the 18K poker bankroll. What if you are the type of person that tilts easily or simply cannot mentally absorb a loss until a certain amount of time has passed. If you have lost 1K in the blink of an eye in a big no limit pot with an unbelievable outdraw then you are hardly the type of person that can be entrusted to have another seventeen grand at their disposal immediately can you.

If everyone had to wait until they had the correct theoretical poker bankroll available before they could play at any level then hardly anyone would be playing the game. Here’s another thing, do you really have to play down to the felt and lose all of your bankroll before you admit to yourself or find out that a particular level of poker is too difficult for you. If the “experts” say that you need 12K to play theoretically at a certain level to avoid going bust then what if you stump up the money but are wrong in your assessment of your abilities.

If you are five grand down, do you play on just because you have another seven in your poker bankroll before you say “oh well, better drop down a level but I will have to wait until I have got some more money because I have lost it all trying to prove that I could beat 20-40 holdem”.

This is insane and utter madness. The upshot of all this is that don’t go along with what you hear about poker bankrolls and just do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable because if you are uncomfortable then this will affect your game plain and simple. If a bankroll approach helps you then fine, if you prefer a no bankroll approach then that is fine also but too much rubbish is spouted in this area by people who have never tried to gamble for a living and I think that you know my views on them by now.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Jan 28 2010

Talking about bankrolls in poker part two

Category: Poker strategy — carl @ 5:15 pm

Carrying on from part one then, this is all well and good with regards to what was mentioned at the end of part one but if the person involved has what is called a “very low attitude to risk” then they should not be doing it. If they are not psychologically inclined to be able to ride the sometimes violent fluctuations in the market then investing in that kind of thing is wrong for them.

Also if the stock market went through one of its steep downward trends like it did a few years ago and this person panicked and withdrew their money through ignorance or fear then they would have lost a very substantial amount of money, I know people personally who did and it was a very sad sight.

How you handle your money has basically an awful lot to do with what suits you as a person and not what someone says that you should do or what I or anybody else has done for that matter. I had a very low attitude to risk when I first started playing, I wanted to play professional level poker but this means playing for sizeable amounts of money and this was something that I found very uncomfortable.

So I had a very serious problem to overcome with regards to playing online poker, I had two parts of my personality that were basically at war with each other. On one side was this person that had a burning desire to play poker at a high level and on the other side was my more cautious and play it safe self holding me back.

A lot of books say that the answer to this is to start playing poker at low levels and slowly work your way up and build a bankroll and taking sign up bonuses along the way to boost it. Once again this is RUBBISH, anyone who plays low level poker and especially Limit Texas Hold’em will be likely beaten by the effect of the rake. It is not so bad in No Limit and this is why I advise players to go down this route. There is a world of difference between a $1-$2 Limit game and a $1-$2 No Limit game.

The Limit poker game will have about an average pot size of 5/6 big bets whereas the No Limit game will have on average at least double that for most games. The best player on the table can be a loser in a low stakes limit game and few players earn decent money out of it even allowing for multi-tabling online. But there is another subtle but highly significant reason why this advice is wrong and that has to do with personal motivation. One of the best pieces of advice that I ever heard about selecting the right level to play at for you went like this,

“Play at a level that motivates not intimidates”

This simple statement highlights a reason why many players fail in poker. They play at a level that is too small to mean anything to them and they end up not focusing or playing properly and basically messing about on the table. This means that they lose money, maybe not all at once but slowly but surely drip feeding it over time.

The level has to motivate you enough to play properly without it scaring you, once you identify this level THEN you have found the correct level to play at and not what any book or anyone else tells you.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Jan 28 2010

Talking about bankrolls in poker part one

Category: Poker strategy — carl @ 5:06 pm

The subject of bankrolls and how much money to have behind you gets talked about an awful lot and just like anything else, most of it is WRONG. Much of this RUBBISH has been spoken by people who have never played poker or gambled in their entire lives. I have my very own attitude towards bankrolls and financing my playing that has worked very well for me.

Firstly let me state something blatantly obvious, a poker bankroll will not turn a losing player into a winning player. When you hear about big stakes players frequently going bust then so much for bankrolls. But I have always argued that any part time semi-professional player simply does not need one if they have other sources of income that is disposable.

For example, let us take what used to be my bread and butter game of $30-$60 Limit Holdem poker once upon a time. All the books say that any working pro who wins at a rate of one big bet an hour ($60) needs at least 300 big bets to avoid going broke. But that is $18,000 which is a very substantial amount of money to many people. But what if you don’t have that kind of money then does this mean that you can never play 30-60.

But what if you do have that kind of money, does this mean that you can automatically jump right in, I say no to both. What if you have the skills to play 30-60 holdem but not the mindset to want to risk 18K. What if the mere thought of having this mental eighteen grand disturbs you so much that it drags you away from your optimal game. Also, what about the guy who starts off playing at 30-60 with his 18K bankroll and despite being a very good poker player, is down $9000 after a couple of months and then packs it in because the fear of losing it all has affected him.

Any player that does this has not in theory started with $18,000 but actually $9000 and a 9K bankroll is not big enough for 30-60. But the mathematicians in the gambling world make me laugh because they churn pathetic advice out to people that is based on figures and nothing but figures as if Hold’em poker online is played by emotionless robots. Much of what they talk about is unworkable for many people and looks good when seen on paper or in a book.

It is exactly the same principle with financial advice, it would be blatantly wrong to advise someone to transfer money from a much lower interest bank account to an investment that was linked to the stock market all because the FTSE had risen by an average of 10% per year since it was formed and the bank account in question was only providing 3% at best without finding out certain things about the nature of that person first. Look out for the second part of this article elsewhere on the site.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Jan 27 2010

Risky Bankroll Management

Category: Poker strategy — malcolm @ 10:08 am

Never would I try and persuade people to manage their bankroll less than safely nor would I encourage or dissuade gambling of any kind, it is your choice. Personally I play Texas Holdem with a high regard for money and this allows me to stay in the game and minimise the pain when I lose because the participation in poker is at the limits I am comfortable playing. Whilst I minimise the gamble, many participate in poker in such a way that increases it.

For some players being dangerous with their bankroll is part of the fun. Phil Ivey was quoted recently saying that he enjoys the empty feeling of disaster when faced with a big loss. Phil is therefore happy to play a dangerous game with his money and has no fear of losing it. He does not get a buzz from low limit poker and plays as high as he can because only larger amounts of money mean anything to him due to his vast wealth.

Being conservative with your bankroll is recommended because it is easy to go on tilt and start chasing money. When I worked in the bookmaking Industry I watched people get into a series of losses then start chasing their losses making irresponsible wagers. Their bets got bigger as their losses got bigger, compounding the loss. Sometimes they won and were saved and other times they had to leave with a disproportionate loss.

There is nothing wrong with taking a shot at a higher game in poker. Many players do this within sensible bankroll management. Their normal amount of buy-ins for cash games may be thirty buy-ins and when they reach a point where they have twenty buy-ins for the next level they take a shot. If they lose they move back down and try to re-build and if they win they stay at the higher level until they can move up again or suffer losses dictating a drop. Their sensible approach is maintained by the moving up and down through the levels to remain safe.

Your income outside of poker should be a factor in how risky you are prepared to be with your bankroll. If you have $1000 and you can re-load that amount every month then you can be more inclined to gamble with it than a person to whom that $1000 is everything they have. Many players are prepared to risk $100 each month to try and run it up into something more. Providing this $100 is not required elsewhere then this is fine. Your own personal and professional circumstances will dictate what an acceptable amount of money to play poker is for you.

Note that risky bankroll management is not taking your last $215 and buying into a large poker tournament on a Sunday. That is not risky, just stupid. Risky bankroll management is anything whereby a normal swing in poker could result in going bust, for a winning player. This must be a conscious decision that you are truly at ease with if you play poker this way.

This article is relevant only for those who Play Texas Hold’em and are winning players. If you lose your money will be lost no matter how well you manage your bankroll. Poker players who ignore bankroll management can suffer a standard downswing and be ruined. Bankroll management is poker risk management and very important to staying in the game and allowing the downswings to run their course before returning to profit.

There is no reason, however, that if you wish to be slightly bolder with your bankroll that you cannot do this providing your circumstances allow and the reason for your wish to live dangerously is not just to satisfy a gambling urge. You should always keep the euphoria of gambling under control and make the right decisions for your poker game when relating to your bankroll.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 19 2010

Key Advantages Of Using Online Casinos

Category: Online poker tips — CardRoom @ 4:18 pm

Have you ever thought how convenient our lives are after the advent of Internet? It was only a few years ago when we had to run about for almost all our needs. Whether they required us to shop, go to the bank or for that matter even gamble at a casino. But today, all this and much more is possible in the comfort of your home.

Live v/s Online Casinos

Gambling or the use of a live casino was something that most of us could not even think of doing openly. Apart from hiding from the family and friends, live gambling and poker, more than anything,had many related expenses. For instance, commuting, wearing apt clothes and spending extravagantly on food and drinks were a usual with regular casino goers.

Besides spending loads of money on gambling and its related expenses, one also had to learn the gambling strategies so that their money was not at risk. A right attitude and at times courage, was required to enter a raucous casino and still win a game.

However, today, the situation has changed, thanks to online casinos. Now all one requires, is to put their home clothes, bring on a cup of hot steaming coffee and sit in front of the computer for a fun filled evening.

Online Casinos – Services Offered

There are over 500 sites, maybe even more offering online casino services and plenty offering poker services. Besides this, more than 2000 sites that offer systematic guidelines about how to play online casino games and the strategies to be followed. It would be best if you can stick to one winning strategy for your online games, as it would help you from losing too much money.

Besides offering the above services, online casinos also offer the opportunity to practice. All you need to do is, ask for free sample games and start practicing. This would help you get a hang of what online casinos are all about without risking your money into it.

Once you are comfortable with a particular online casino site and are well aware of its requirements you can comfortably go ahead and sign with it.

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Jan 18 2010

Freshen Up Poker with a Change

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 12:26 pm

If you are a regular online poker player you can often feel like the game gets very repetitive. You may sit every day on the online poker tables and watch the same poker software playing against the same players and the grind can seem very grinding indeed. Perhaps you need a change either focusing on poker tournaments instead of cash games or vice versa. Avoiding burn out and looking for the signs of burn out are important to becoming and remaining a winning poker player.

Running multiple cash game tables removes the feeling of being involved on every table. Feeling a part of the cash game keeps you interested but if you are moving to and from different tables quickly then you feel like you are almost above the action and only a small part of it. This can resonate into a player becoming bored very quickly, which can compound any losses and make players leave a session early.

You could change your poker room and try a new site to keep things feeling fresh. Something as simple as looking at a different table style on a different poker room with different usernames playing poker can cause you to instantly perk up and feel more enthusiastic about playing poker. Do you ever get bored of seeing the same view from your office window? Although the feeling of buoyancy if you moved positions in the office is temporary, the feelings are real and you can harness these positive feelings by enforcing change in your poker routine.

Shaun Deeb, the online poker tournament phenom who played around thirty poker tournaments per day on multiple tables is currently on a break from tournaments after admitting to be completely burned out by them. Playing thirty tables per day I am surprised he was not burned out sooner, yet it shows even the best players recognise the need to change or take a break. He will probably come back a more dangerous player and enjoy renewed sustained success as a result of this self imposed vacation.

The right time to make a change is when things are not going well for you. The best time to make a change is just before the run of bad poker which comes about either through luck or self-inflicted bad play. Recognise the signs that you are becoming fidgety or on edge with the poker room or games before it turns into losses.

Remember, however, that grinding online poker is not easy and you must endure it to some extent exactly like a person working a full time job needs to do. You should enjoy playing poker but sometimes you will want to do something else and this is the point where you must be professional and grind it out. The research you have done on fellow players and hand histories you have worked on are lost if you change sites so some degree of pain is tolerable in the poker grind. If you work a normal job then you will probably regularly feel this way but stick it out and keep trying hard to win.

Playing on a new poker room will reignite your interest in poker as every room as different poker tournaments to participate in with slightly different structures, prize pools and bonuses. Try bwinpoker.com which is backed up by the large sports betting company. Aesthetically the dark style of poker software and table layouts they use will be enough to make you feel fresh even when you play a lot of online poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 14 2010

Playing Poker in Position

Category: Poker strategy — malcolm @ 11:12 am

When you play Texas Hold ‘em poker online and started playing some tournaments or cash games you will have noticed the strength that comes with being in position. Opponents respect position and late position especially affords chances to play different hands and exploit the temporary strong place in the action you hold. Everyone gets a chance to be in position so you should be exploiting every opportunity to benefit from it as your opponents will be able to do the same things to you in just a few hands time.

According to where you are sitting at the poker table in Texas Hold ‘em some hands are playable and others are not, unless you decide to bluff. When you are directly to the left of the big blind, known as “under the gun or UTG” you are first to act pre-flop and then third to act post flop if both blinds remain in the hand. Playing a hand without seeing what every other member of the table is doing is obviously a disadvantage which is why recommended poker strategy says you should fold most hands from early position.

In online poker, players began to realise the negative image that under the gun players have. Clever players realised that a raise from under the gun, therefore out of position, looks very strong. Against a tight player you can limp in under the gun and re-raise in a bluff squeeze play to win the pot pre-flop. This requires real knowledge on your part that the opponent you are making the squeeze play on can fold.

Online poker strategy has come full circle as if you are a tight player acting under the gun your perceived hand range is probably AA, KK, AK or QQ when you make the re-raise and if you still receive action you need to be cautious. If you hold Aces pre-flop then a re-raise all-in is the natural play, but what do you do with anything less? Depending on your opponent Queens will probably be played if you feel he could make the play with anything less than a premium hand. Remember your position under the gun signifies strength so having the late position player re-raising or raising your limp narrows his range to stronger hands. You do, however, need to be cautious and becoming creative from early position is an advanced strategy in poker.

Let us imagine you hold JJ under the gun. You limp in for 2 dollars in a $1/$2 no limit cash game and are called by the button. The big blind checks. The flop comes down 3s-5d-Td. The big blind checks to you and you bet out a pot sized bet of $7 and the button player raises to $27 costing you a further $20 to call. The big blind folds, so what do you do? He has limped pre-flop so you can rule out overpairs unless you know he is tricky. He could easily have a suited connector giving a straight or flush draw, or he could have 99 or 88. There is the chance of a set although TT would probably have seen a re-raise. You call the $20. The pot is now $61. The turn is a Qd. Now you can either bet out or check.

In this spot you would love to see what the opponent does before checking. (Of course you could check but as you have checked if your opponent bets this is not as telling as if they acted first). Fearing the flush and set or overpair you check. He bets $45. You feel bad but you fold. Why fold? There are so many hands that beat you and the only thing you are beating is an Ace rag hand and there are now overcards. If they had AQ they are winning, KQ of diamonds is now ahead.

Swap the positions at the table and you would have re-raised with jacks pre-flop after the under the gun limp (assuming he took the same action) and perhaps took down the hand. Any suited connector the opponent held would have really struggled to come up with a reason to play out of position when you are betting big from late position. Notice that once the late position player starting betting in our example things got uncomfortable for us. Remember that when you are playing, position is a big part of winning poker.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 08 2010

Review of Collin Moshmans SNG Book

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 6:02 pm

Two plus Two publishing have released many good poker books over the years and a semi recent release was to help the various Sit and go poker tournament specialists improve their one table poker tournament performances. The two plus two poker books are always presented with carefully chosen paragraphs and explained in a way that helps both the experienced and the amateur player learn what the book is intended to teach them. They are a personal favourite publisher of my growing poker library and thankfully this book matches the high standard set by their other poker books.

The book is titled Sit ‘n Go Strategy Expert Advice for beating one-table poker tournaments. It is divided into four specific sections allowing the reader, if they wish, to go straight to the section they wish to study. Those sections are low blind play, mid blind play, high blind play and career play. As the majority of poker articles relating to sit and go play are split up in this way the book does not try to re-invent the wheel when teaching players their version of online poker strategy for SNG’s which is a plus point of the publication in my opinion.

Splitting the play into sections helps understand how to win sit and go poker tournaments. The blinds play a major part of the game and the book rightly acknowledges this. You are given essential concepts for pre-flop and post flop in each section with lots of hand examples with each discussion discussed. They split the types of hands you can hold into various categories making it easy for you to classify your hand. You may have a monster, strong draw, hands where you were the pre-flop aggressor or marginal hands.

Most of the hand examples are excellent however one small criticism I have (I am hard to please!) is that sometimes when the hand is getting very tricky and a tough decision would be made on the turn they allow the example to have you hit your improvement card. It would be good for more tough spots to be discussed but the examples do clearly explain their concepts discussed in the theory text.

The sections on mid and high level blind play are excellent. They are substantial and you will find yourself studying the book over and over learning the concepts. This is definitely not a book where you will read through once and think “I know everything”. There is much to learn and it will take time. The good news is from what I can see nothing is missed out and a wannabe SNG star will love this book and constantly refer to it as a reference. It is almost a SNG bible.

Perhaps a small disappointment for readers looking to turn sit and go grinding into a semi-professional form of income is the section on career play. Whilst the title of the chapter is career play the discussion moves to discussing hand reading skills and whether or not you should show hands. This is more a discussion at general poker strategy that applies whether you want to make SNG poker a career or not. Discussing multi-tabling is also relevant to everyone and it is ever so slightly misleading to put this information in this chapter.

After a shaky start in that section they discuss poker software and what to use in terms of VPIP and so on which is good advice. They also discuss bankroll management and the need to be more cautious if poker is your main income stream. Variance is discussed in detail and after you read this section you are left with a clear understanding that poker involves luck and how even a good player has to be careful with their bankrolls to keep their head above water when the downswings occur. For someone who was not aware of these concepts it is vital reading and therefore it is excellent that information like this is included in the book.

Overall I think this is an excellent book. Of course no-one can guarantee you will win money but after reading the book you will hold more tools to help you win sit and go’s. I am happy to highly recommend this poker book to anyone interested in one table poker tournaments.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Jan 06 2010

The Flourishing Relationship Between Poker and Web 2.0

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 11:04 am

Online poker is changing and developing just like the rest of the Internet. In 2001 my cousin and I had an idea that we thought might catch on. We thought that music bands would benefit from having a space on the Internet where they can share their music. My cousin and I were right. Today they have myspace because of the “Web 2.0″ capabilities which due to the development of broadband gives users more things to do online. Video, audio and social networking and interaction with other cyber users are available to all and Facebook, Twitter and other interactive services are becoming the future of the Internet.

Millions of poker players are registered in various poker rooms and play poker games nearly everyday. As the Internet develops it is only natural that the poker community follows suit and takes advantage of the new opportunities that web 2.0 offers.

Currently there are around five major poker training websites with more in development that are entering the market to help players improve their online poker game. They are Stox Poker, Card Runners, Deuces Cracked, PokerVT with Daniel Negreanu and many more. They offer training videos that are streamed via a media player on demand to the player seeking training. Depending on the coaches at each site who are mostly online poker professional players they specialise in SNG, Cash games, Short Handed poker or poker tournaments. Using content management systems they are able to quickly upload videos to help players learn to play better poker. For a subscription fee users have access to new videos getting uploaded by the poker coaches every week.

Web 2.0 new media can be blamed (or thanked) for the increase in the standard of Texas Hold ‘em online. Before the release of poker training websites players had to read books and independently study away from the poker table. Many players simply did not do this and improvements to their game took longer to achieve. Now players can learn in front of their computer and their learning experience is made fun by the use of video, Skype and the Internet. This has improved Texas Hold ‘em play across the Internet and made it important for players to start learning other games such as Omaha or Stud.

There was a social network launched recently that mimics Facebook in style and purpose specifically for poker players. Whilst poker is an individual game that involves each player trying to win all of the money these social networks which are perhaps unlikely to work considering the selfishness of poker, are flourishing in popularity and allowing players to share ideas and help each other improve. This mutual tuition is another reason why the advancement of the Internets functionality is improving the standard of play you encounter when playing online poker. Before VOIP, Skype and web cams players only had email to keep in touch.

As the normal Internet user can use more video and more ways of connecting with other users the standard of poker will continue to improve. The technology used by poker rooms in their poker software will also develop which should make for a more enjoyable experience of online poker. Pokers development is closely linked with progress made online and as sites like YouTube, Google and Microsoft improve their sites and services we feel a direct benefit when playing online poker.

I very much enjoy discussing poker via Skype with many people around the world most of whom I have never met! The development of the Internet in this way means social contact in person is becoming rare in the context of poker. We can now discuss hands via Skype, replay hands using hand history replayers and easily post them to forums for feedback from other poker players. All you need do is get involved and feel the benefits of using web 2.0 to begin to improve your online poker game.

By Malcolm Clarke

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