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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Dec 19 2009

Playing Heads up Against Aggressive Stealers

Category: Poker Blog — carl @ 12:31 pm

In ring games whether they are full-ring or six max, there will always be a fair number of players who will raise with a fairly wide range from the button. Most of the time a wider opening range will be correct anyway but some players stray away from this in many poker games and start open raising with around 75% of their total range!

This may even be correct of course at the lower stakes games where more players are playing tightly and especially if they are getting rakeback. If you have been active in a game and have been folding several big blinds then whoever is on the button may just think that it is open season on your blind.

One such hand that I played last year should highlight the point. It was folded to the button who open raised to $3.50 in a NL100 Holdem poker game and we both had $100+ stacks. I had the Kc-3c and called. Many players would either three bet or fold here and these are not bad lines to take.

My own preference is not to escalate a pot out of position with a weak hand and to try and see more streets against a player who I rate to be better than. I want to outplay him and not try to outmuscle him. Trying to outmuscle someone who is prepared for a fight may not be a very wise online poker strategy and I have the capability to play well beyond the flop.

The flop came Ah-Ks-2d giving me middle pair and weak kicker. My opponent had been very aggressive and my Poker Office told me that this guy raised a lot of buttons when it had been folded to him. So my middle pair is now ahead of his range so I wait for the obvious continuation bet and check-call.

If I am behind then so be it and your variance increases in and around the blinds but you shouldn’t be afraid of that as good solid short handed skills can make you a mint in small-stakes poker. My opponent was raising 73% of his hands when folded to on the button so my K-3s favours well against his range.

Against players who play badly post flop and who think that aggression is the be all and end all of poker then you can really find good EV in these situations. The turn card is the 3h giving me two pair and the probable best hand. With $17.50 in the pot then I need to decide what to do. If I check then they may check a lot of hands back as I have called a pre-flop raise and also a flop bet on a board with no draws.

I decide to check and let him possibly fire another barrel as a bluff and I do so but this plan is foiled by them checking behind me. The river card is the 9d and now it is time to value bet or to encourage a bluff. His betting sequence looks weak so I make what looks like a weak stab and bet $10 and he raises to $35 and I call and take the pot.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Dec 08 2009

Low Stakes Poker to Air Next Summer

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 8:48 am

Fox Network has recorded a new Poker TV show which any poker player can take part in. They have enjoyed great success with their show “High Stakes Poker” where fans sit back in awe watching players willing to play at the highest stakes fight for pots worth sometimes over $500,000 of real money. The new show is going to be called “Low Stakes Poker” and Fox believes this will relate to every poker player as something they understand and could take part in.

It is a shrewd move by Fox who appreciate that the player pool at the top level of Texas Hold ‘em poker are a close knit group and the players style is governed on High Stakes Poker many times by previous history with the opponent. Playing at lower stakes the show will be more about standard play highlighting the flaws in the player’s games. Closing these leaks will help the participating players get better without costing a lot of money.

The action is $0.02/$0.04 meaning that an adequate bankroll for this game would be around fifty to one hundred dollars of real money if you follow the recommended guidelines of good bankroll management. Of course players will turn up to this poker show with their last ten dollars, that is the nature of good poker television.

Fox are keen to show that they do not share the blasé attitude that the top poker players have to large losses at the poker table on shows like Poker after Dark or High Stakes Poker. In the current economic climate they appreciate that times are tough and they want to encourage poker players that fun games can be found at any level of poker and you do not need to risk it all at the high stakes poker tables. If you only have $10 to play poker with there are still games to play and you should play hard just as if you had $10,000 at the table. This is a view shared by Kevin Reilly of Fox.

Kevin is quoted as saying that the decadence of poker players and their tolerance to large amounts of risk is not something they wish to promote too hard. They do go to incredible lengths to ensure comparisons with High Stakes Poker are obvious only in their difference to it. Play was recorded on an Air Hockey table in a public area and not in the closed and securely guarded room in the casino. Players had bundles of nickels rather than the thick wad of dollar bills used by the high stakes participants. This does not mean the players do not try in low stakes poker and the value of money is stressed at all times.

It is pleasing to see that the TV network appreciates that the value of money depends solely on the individual. Many lower stakes poker players would feel just as bad losing $10 as a high stakes player like Tom Dwan would feel losing $100,000. In Low Stakes Poker every player is fighting for the chips no matter what their value.

Rather than the pots being $180,000 they are more like $18, but hopefully people will still enjoy the entertainment. The players selected are likely to make up for the lack of large cash pots with superb entertainment and some slapstick humour. You can expect an inadvertent High Stakes Poker spoof show with serious poker being played as players realise the stakes are small and viewers do not tune in for the poker pots like they do on High Stakes Poker. For many of them this is their moment in the spotlight and they will ensure you are entertained thoroughly. Phil Hellmuth is taking part and this will ensure plenty of lively banter at the table.

I cannot wait for this show to air and only hope it is shown in the UK where I am based. This could be something very popular and something most players could participate in and aspire to be part of. Make sure you tune in to what could become a cult poker sites in 2010 and could see many players join in at the lower stakes games.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Dec 04 2009

Detecting and Hiding Poker Tells

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 11:53 pm

Poker tells are a physical movement or physical representation when a poker player holds a strong or weak hand. Human beings are creatures of expression and we give off physical signs of emotion and feeling without even realising it, even when we think we are being completely still. Detecting these signs in an opponent and repressing as many of your own physical tells as you can is part of being a successful live poker player. Poker tells also appear in online poker games although to a lesser degree than live poker and in a slightly different way.

Every movement a poker player makes at the poker table could potentially be a poker tell. Every tick, smile, wince is giving information. The difficulty can be that some players give off deliberate or false poker tells to compensate for the true physical tells that they cannot hide. No article can teach you to decipher 100% of the time whether a poker tell is genuine or not, but here are some of the things to look out for.

Sometimes a poker tell can be seen in how the players stack their chips. Conservative, tight players will be tidy by nature and maintain tidy stacks. If they are constantly straightening them and maintaining perfect stacks it is unlikely this player is a maniac. Loose aggressive players are more random in style so may have more untidy stacks or look more disinterested in their chips as they are more interested in some poker action!

When a player acts overly disinterested in a hand after either limping in or raising then they are often trying to hide a big hand. If they glance at their chips after looking at their hole cards this signifies they are likely to bet. To hide your own tells after you look at your hole cards take a look at your chip stack. When a player touches their chips look for any shaking of their hands that is not part of their normal behaviour. Often a player tries so hard to hide poker tells the body simply must do something and hands begin to shake involuntarily because they are so nervous or excited inside.

A sigh or a shrug is usually a sign of strength. Players tend not to be too honestly emotive during poker games so any sign of blatant strength or weakness may not be genuine. When your opponent’s eyes stare directly into the pot and then at their chips they are probably counting and working out the odds of drawing to a better hand. There are some excellent poker books focusing on poker tells by Mike Caro and Joe Navarro that I recommend you read and study.

When playing online poker the tells you will encounter tend to be based around the timing of bets. An instant re-raise all-in usually signifies strength, the player has looked at his cards and the situation is obvious enough to go all-in without any thought. Players usually fold quickly so to think for a long time and then call or raise should be treated with suspicion. Online poker players can often become impatient and use the quick action boxes to check, call or raise so when they take more time this usually means strength. If they check instantly the hand is probably weak and often this is not a fold only because it is free to check.

Whichever poker sites you play on or when playing live poker consider the strength of your own hand before looking for tells. Tells are important for information gathering, but with 2h-3d you are perhaps better to fold and look for a better spot rather than shove based on a poker tell. Common sense has a place in poker too!

By Malcolm Clarke

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Dec 01 2009

Are The High Stakes Poker Games Now Too High?

Category: Poker Blog — malcolm @ 5:52 pm

Online poker rooms offer many different types of player the opportunity to participate in many forms of poker. You can play in Stud, Texas Hold ‘em, HORSE and Omaha in a variety of different limits. The higher limits you play the more money that you can win (and lose) by playing online poker. Those that want to make a living playing professional online poker must play at a level where this is possible and work to improve their online poker game so they can achieve this goal. You must also have the right mental approach.

Coping with swings of up to $100,000 in a day used to be essential tolerance for a high stakes poker player. The high stakes online poker games today have developed into super stakes games where it is possible that you can lose or win up to $1 million in one day, often more. Isildur1, the unknown poker player from Sweden, was in profit by $5 million within ten days of beginning to play the high stakes games, lost it all and then made another $3.5 million very quickly. A quick check of his statistics shows him now showing a loss of $500,000 overall, meaning that he has lost $4 million again in a matter of days.

Many online poker players’ bankrolls were swelled by Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque De Soleil, who lost around $28 million playing high stakes online poker in 2008.

As a lower stakes poker player who likes to make a bit of money from poker enough to bolster my standard of living and income a little I struggle to imagine how a poker player carries on playing when they amass such a life changing sum of money. The high stakes poker games are verging on being too high where all value of money is lost. This is worrying for a young person to move into adult life thinking that earning money is very easy.

In the global climate to which we now live, having $5 million would be enough for a full life of luxury with the right investments. Working in traditional businesses it is very hard to make this sort of money. Perhaps the wrong message is being sent by this irresponsible approach to money by the top online poker players who are happy to win and lose millions each day.

A better message is being sent by many of the top live players. Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson invested their expertise into developing Full Tilt Poker, which now earns them in excess of $1 million per month each in earnings. This is just a reported figure and the actual figure may be higher. Daniel Negreanu has lots of outside interests that earn him money and Phil Hellmuth is reported to be a co-owner of Ultimate Bet and has his own brand of poker clothing and accessories.

Poker players currently grinding often do not aim to reach the ultra high stakes online poker games. Many are content to grind their way through many hours of lower stakes games knowing they earn more than they could in Industry. There are very few players making a healthy living from the highest stakes games, even Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan and Cole South (all known as top players) are showing heavy losses for 2009. The question must be asked on why they do not drop down and crush the slightly lower limits.

The answer is because the action is what dictates their involvement. Antonius is part of Full Tilt now as is Dwan, so it is others like Benyamine, Townsend, South, Dang and Ziigmund and others that are the big gamblers playing simply to participate in online poker. Are they simply out of control gamblers who happen to be good at online poker? We all know that assessing our own poker game is the hardest thing to do in poker.

I would recommend that you enjoy watching the high stakes games, but never forget the value of proper online poker bankroll management and an ongoing appreciation for the value of money at all times. Enjoying any profits you make will remind you on why online poker is so much fun when things go well and the reasons we all look to improve our poker game. Moving up limits is fine providing you are comfortable with the extra risk exposure.

By Malcolm Clarke

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