A moment of silence...

No glitz, no glamour, just an all around great player, and family man. A playing style that is often imitated, but never duplicated, and I can only hope to come close to his expertise one day. He will be missed.

Much sadness in the land this evening...

clipped from www.casinocitytimes.com Poker legend 'Chip' Reese dies at age 56 6 December 2007 Poker Hall of Famer David "Chip" Reese, who built a reputation as one of the best cash-game players ever, died at the age of 56 on Tuesday from undetermined causes. Reese, whose career live tournament winnings reached nearly $3 million, died in his sleep and was found by his son early Tuesday at his Las Vegas home. He was suffering from symptoms of pneumonia, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Reese was born in Dayton, Ohio and graduated from Dartmouth College. In a chapter dedicated to him in the legendary book, Doyle Brunson's Super System, Brunson told the story of how after graduating from college, Reese worked for a year as a manufacturer's representative before he and a friend visited a Las Vegas poker room one weekend with $800 between them. They doubled their bankroll in one day and Reese found a permanent home in Las Vegas.

I Don't Know Why This is Taking So Long....

Read the following, from the Casino City Times, and then come back here, and post your thoughts. Personally, most of the major online casinos have already figured out a workaround, so, it's only a matter of time before the UIGEA goes away entirely....

clipped from www.casinocitytimes.com Players state case for lifting poker ban 26 October 2007 by Tony Batt WASHINGTON -- Poker is good for you. That's what Internet poker players are telling members of Congress this week as they lobby to exempt poker from an online gambling ban. "Really, poker is just much closer to chess than it is to the other standard casino games," said Andrew Woods, a student at Harvard Law School who has played poker to help pay for his education. Poker develops cognitive, mathematical and psychological skills which help students become successful in life, said Woods, who founded the Bruin Casino Gaming Society when he attended the University of California, Los Angeles and has helped establish the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society at Harvard. Charles Nesson, a law professor at Harvard, said he would like to teach poker to children. "I think poker has tremendous educational utility for kids," Nesson said. "I think it's a great family game." Nesson said he thinks the Internet gambling ban is vulnerable.

Why I Love This Game...

Played almost perfect poker for four hours yesterday, and then made two bad decisions on the same hand, and busted out in 36th place, or, two tables away from the money. It's always amazed me that these things can happen. The need to constantly focus on what you're doing, as well as what is going on around you, is never more apparent than at the late stages of a tournament.

I can justify my bad decisions with simply this, after being chip leader at one table, I was moved to a table where after being card dead for three orbits, as well as being short stacked by this time with the blinds about to go up, I limped in with AJo. First mistake. The second one came when I called the all in of the player two to my right, who ended up with AQ. And I did not improve :(

Ok, so, what have we learned? Limping is for the weak, that's why they call it limping. Being short stacked at this point I had two moves: All in or Fold. And clearly, AJo is not a good starting hand, at least, not this time.

Cheating at Absolute Poker

I'm probably coming late to the party commenting about this. However, if I don't mention it, I would be remiss in my post as poker scribe. I was patient and waited for the story to break at Casino Times, before I did. Now it has. There are several rumors as to who the pro is, and since I'm not one to speculate on the truth of those, I'll simply comment on what I believe to be true.

Cheating took place. The situation was rectified by Absolute. The responsible party has been identified. Does this kill online poker? To this, I answer a resounding NO!!!!

Despite what some would have you believe, Online Poker is here to stay. The UIGEA and naysayers notwithstanding. I believe that either the Frank bill will pass, regulating Online Poker in the US, or, the UIGEA will be repealed, or both. Sites that panicked when the UIGEA was passed, are now finding ways to allow US players to play, including Doyle's Room.

Phil Hellmuth Jr is a...

Not that lesson!!! This one:

clipped from www.theglobeandmail.com Behavioural analysis helps catch spies, poker tells PAT MILTON October 22, 2007 at 11:22 AM EDT NEW YORK — As an FBI spy catcher, Joseph Navarro used to identify traitors through their subtle behavioural tics – even something as simple as a squint could be a giveaway. These days, Mr. Navarro brings his investigator's eye to the poker table, where a bite of the lip or tilt of the head can signal a straight flush or a stone bluff. Navarro shares his decoding techniques with players eager for an edge in the world of professional poker. “Poker players lie all the time,” he said. “They pretend they are strong when they are weak or weak when they are strong. The truth is they can all be read. You can have a poker face, but I've yet to see someone with a poker body.” In the poker world, the giveaways are called “tells” – gestures that signal a player's confidence or discomfort. Mr. Navarro's first career made him uniquely qualified for his current job as an instructor at the World Series of Poker Academy.

The Flawed Premise...

On a recent edition of "The Nuts," during the 2007 WSOP Main Event broadcast, Lon McEachern stated that no matter what you do, eventually, you're going to go on "Tilt."

Wrong!!!

In poker, tilt is defined as a state of mind where logical thinking goes out the window, and you start playing irrationally, eventually donking off all your chips, and eliminating yourself from contention. A lesser state is referred to as steaming. I guess when you lose to a bad beat, your blood starts to boil. Well, not literally.

I've heard that bad beats are a part of the game, and there's really no good way to avoid them, as if you play long enough and hard enough, you'll eventually take a few.

But it should be easy to avoid tilt. Simply don't let the bad beats, inferior plays, or inferior players, get to you. I'm sure everyone's seen video of Phil Hellmuth Jr. melting down after someone sucks out on him. As, it happens so very often. His style of play creates these situations, and yet, he continues to go along as if nothing's wrong.

You think he'd learn....

The Rush to Blog

BlogRush!!! Just put it on our site here. Checkout the headlines, click and read if you'd like, and I'll be here when you get back. If you have a blog, feel free to sign up for it as well.

See you around the Blogosphere....

Still More Poker Education

The road game route to profit

Everyone starts somewhere, and it’s never at the top. If you don’t like the idea of beginning at the bottom and working your way up the poker ladder, let me present the alternative. It’s beginning at the top and working your way down. Now that’s not a pleasant prospect, but I’ve lived enough years to see it happen to young players again and again. Great musicians didn’t begin by picking up a violin, taking a seat in the London Symphony Orchestra within a week, and becoming legends. They need to train. You don’t wake up one day, decide you’d like to run long distances, enter the Boston Marathon at noon, and conquer the world’s best-conditioned athletes. You need to train. You need to experience running, learn when to accelerate and when to cruise, how to finesse, and how to get the most out of yourself. I know. I was a star athlete in college, but I didn’t get that way overnight. I had to start somewhere.


Siphon all the money

At poker, you don’t decide you have a flair for the game, take a seat at the biggest limit table in Las Vegas and siphon all the money away from top pros the first week, remaining a superstar for years. Sure, it’s a fantasy, but it never happened that way. I learned poker on the road along the dusty trails of Texas. There were some great players, and I learned from them. But, I never would have survived without facing weak opponents, too. It took me years before I was ready and my bankroll was suitable for the big games in Las Vegas. I learned on the road. I got better.

I still remember a conversation I had in the sixties with Carl, a proficient player who seemed impressed with my poker and thought I was ready to try Las Vegas. “In Vegas, there are some fair games. Pretty tough, but worth your while if you can hold a few hands. You gotta pay your dues on the road and, Doyle, I think you’ve paid yours.” I didn’t heed Carl’s advice for a couple years and then I found his words to be correct. Vegas was tough and it broke me a couple times before I got the hang of it and then never looked back.


Instant stardom

Today, I see young players take fortunes to the big tables, reaching for instant stardom on their first poker excursions, only to fall flat. Soon their dreams fail and are forgotten. And you never see them again. I wonder how many of those players might have succeeded had they walked up the ladder cautiously, learning comfortably at easier and smaller games, rather than racing to the unfamiliar top rung and loosing their balance.
What I call “road games” might not actually be distant games, as they were for me in Texas. Maybe you can find the equivalent of your road games on the Internet or at your friend Fred’s house on Friday night. Wherever you find it, take advantage of the training ground.
Poker is no different from other worthwhile endeavors. Short-term luck abounds in poker and it creates the illusion that anyone can win. It’s an illusion that makes some folks believe they can start at the top. They can’t.
In Carl’s words, “You gotta pay your dues on the road.”

-- Doyle Brunson


Reprinted with permission from Doyle’s Room •

About Doyle’s Room: DoylesRoom.com is an online poker room operated by DBPN (Doyle Brunson Poker Network), a company incorporated and licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. DoylesRoom.com is the only site endorsed by Doyle Brunson, the 10-time World Series of Poker champion and the King of Poker.

Powered by Microgaming, DoylesRoom.com offers a number of poker card game options that include Texas Hold’Em, 7-card stud, and Omaha and also offers a variety of casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, and more.

**DoylesRoom.com does not currently accept US-based players.

More Poker Education

Accepting a gift

“Don’t accept a gift in the big blind in hold ’em,” Kelly told me years ago.

He was wrong.

In hold ’em there are no antes. Without antes or something to replace them, there’s nothing to fight over, and if you’re against wise opponents who are playing perfectly, you should sit hand after hand, badly bored and mumbling mantras about your cattle farm. Finally one hand you’ll find a pair of aces. Logically, only then can you play, because you can defend aces against other intelligent players with equally perfect patience. Against such players, you shouldn’t even start with the second-best hand – a pair of kings. The only time you’d get action would be against a pair of aces and you’d be a decided underdog. All other times, you’d win an empty pot and gain nothing.

That’s why the ante was invented: to give poker players a motive for war. Human nature being as it is, I believe that most players would find reasons to play inferior hands sometimes, even without incentive. They lack patience. But, poker would be a pretty pitiful game without something in the pot to fight over. Well, in hold ’em there isn’t an ante. So what motivates players to enter pots?

Not optional

It’s the blind bets, .There are two of them in the seats to the dealer’s left, a small one and a big one, usually twice as large. You must make these bets before seeing any cards. They aren’t optional.

In most hands, there’s going to be a raise before the action gets back to the big blind player. Whether to call or not will be a matter of judgment. But there’s a time when players, like Kelly, often misjudge. And that’s on those occasions when there’s no raise at all. If opponents just call the big blind, there’s a special rule in hold ’em that can get you in all manner of trouble. Normally in poker, if you’re just called, then the betting ends. You move along. But in hold ’em if the player in the big blind isn’t raised, there’s a peculiar option. That player – who’s been merely called – can continue the wagering by doing the raising himself. It’s called the “live blind” rule.

Free gift

My lesson today is that you should usually treat this situation as a gift when you’re in the big blind. You’re about to see the flop that happens next for free. Yes, it’s sometimes tempting to raise your opponents right out of their chairs, and that sort of aggression is in my nature. But usually, I decline. I accept the gift and see what happens at no cost.

It’s often bad to try to bully the game when you’re in the big blind with the opportunity to see a free flop, because on all following betting rounds, you’re going to act first (unless it was the small blind who called you). That’s a big positional disadvantage, making it harder for you to take charge. Another caution is that players who just call are frequently laying traps. They’re hoping you’ll raise.
Put it all together and you’ll fare better ignoring Kelly’s advice and following mine. Unless you have a powerful hand in the big blind, whenever you’re merely called, think, “Thanks for the present, buddy,” unwrap the flop, and see how you like it.

--Doyle Brunson


Reprinted with permission from Doyle’s Room.

About Doyle’s Room: DoylesRoom.com is an online poker room operated by DBPN (Doyle Brunson Poker Network), a company incorporated and licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. DoylesRoom.com is the only site endorsed by Doyle Brunson, the 10-time World Series of Poker champion and the King of Poker.

Powered by Microgaming, DoylesRoom.com offers a number of poker card game options that include Texas Hold’Em, 7-card stud, and Omaha and also offers a variety of casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, and more.

**DoylesRoom.com does not currently accept US-based players.

Poker Education

Don’t take your troubles to the table

When you’re emotionally upset, you just can’t play poker the right way, the profitable way. I used to back players I believed in. One was a kid named Craig who impressed me with his discipline. I mean, he was just unshakable, never getting out of line. He would siphon off the money from the table so methodically that it became a fearsome thing to watch.
But nothing will derail your poker train as fast as problems at home. Business problems, romance problems, it’s all the same. And all that stuff needs to be packed away and left at home. At times when a man’s heart is heavy or he has too much on his mind, there’s a danger that his bankroll will die. Craig’s died. Suddenly.

We used to call him “Super Rock.” Now, in poker terminology, a rock is a name for a player who plays very conservatively, reluctant to risk his money on anything other than big hands. Well, if you looked in the dictionary under “rock,” you’d probably find Craig’s picture. He was simply one of the most solid, sensible players who’ve ever played the game. You had to admire him. .


Self-destruction

I believed in him so much that I sometimes took pieces of his action when he played in big games. Not tonight, fortunately. This was about to become the worst case of self-destruction I’d ever seen. You see, Craig was also a ladies’ man. So, there he sat in at big-limit seven-stud table, playing his usual fine game. He was totally in control, a picture of decorum and concentration.

Then storms in this young woman, eyes fiery, clearly in a rage. She hurls her key’s right into his pot, interrupting his raise, yelling, “Keep these! I don’t want them anymore!” She also called him a few choice names.

At first, Craig seemed to act as if it didn’t matter. He kept his cool. But the anger must have been smoldering within him, because pretty soon he started to play poorly, erratically. In a display of something I’d never suspected was part of his personality, he’d throw cards, curse, lose his concentration. His hand selection deteriorated so badly that he became a “live one.” And every time he lost a pot, he’d say, “Stupid broad!” He lost the money in front of him. Bought more. Again. Again.


So silly

I’d watched Craig accumulate his bankroll over a year of hard work playing poker. And I watched him lose it all in five hours.
Just as he was leaving the table, broke and miserable, his girlfriend returned. She looked cool, composed, and loving. “This is so silly,” she told him. And she apologized and hugged him adoringly.

Craig rose from the table, beaten and trembling. She wanted to know how he’d fared, and I still remember how peculiar his words sounded. “I lost a little,” he said.
“You shouldn’t play when you’re upset,” she admonished him. Watching them walk away together, I had the dark feeling that I’d never see Craig again. And I didn’t.

But it’s the memory of that sad scene that punctuates my advice to poker players today. It’s pretty much the same advice that Craig’s girlfriend gave: “Don’t play poker when you’re upset.”

-- Doyle Brunson


Reprinted with permission from Doyle’s Room •

About Doyle’s Room: DoylesRoom.com is an online poker room operated by DBPN (Doyle Brunson Poker Network), a company incorporated and licensed in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. DoylesRoom.com is the only site endorsed by Doyle Brunson, the 10-time World Series of Poker champion and the King of Poker.

Powered by Microgaming, DoylesRoom.com offers a number of poker card game options that include Texas Hold’em, 7-card stud, and Omaha and also offers a variety of casino games such as Blackjack, Roulette, Slots, and more.

**DoylesRoom.com does not currently accept US-based players.