Poker Tactics & Poker Strategies

Premium Tips, Tricks, Tactics & Strategy for Holdem Poker

Top Ranking

I just looked through my diary and counted. I have played twenty-one tournaments that carried European ranking points this year. From those tournaments I have managed five final tables and two other cashes. The five final tables have given me almost six thousand rankings points. Jason Mercier, who is currently top of the rankings, has probably played far less tournaments than even an old cash grinder like me. He has four final tables and has cashed for one million, eight...

11/21/2008 07:55 AM

21st of November

GUKPT final two Clarke and Ford
In previous years there has often been something of a post WSOP lull in the action, but this year’s delayed final table leaves no such time for inactivity as 2008 draws to a close. Both main domestic tours are due to have th...

11/21/2008 05:53 AM

Guardian Series: A Question of Hands



Victoria Coren
It's quite fun, this Guardian experiment. They're having a games slot every day - bridge, chess, that sort of thing - and I'm doing the poker one. It's aimed at the fairly new player, who might have watched a bit of poker on TV and just started playing with their friends and wants a few tips. So for the moment in the column I'm generally advocating caution and covering basics -...

11/20/2008 06:18 AM

Vegas Insider: 2008 November

Dario Minieri (left)...

11/19/2008 10:04 AM

Pot-Size Manipulation by Gavin Smith

One of the key skills that winning big-bet players bring to the table is the ability to manipulate the size of the pot. They manage to play big pots when they have big hands, and keep the pot smaller when their holdings are more modest. If you think carefully about your betting throughout a hand, you can set yourself up to play a pot that's appropriate for the strength of your hand. 
For starters, let's look at a hand that gets a lot of players in trouble - a big pocket pair. Generally,...

11/18/2008 10:15 AM

Tight is Still Right in Low-stakes SNG's

There have been numerous debates over the past year or so regarding just what is the proper strategy in an SNG. Well there is no single strategy that a player can incorporate that will make that particular strategy the ultimate strategy. There are many strategies that are generic in nature that will serve a player well and especially at the low-stakes tournaments.
But you must deviate your play to the calibre of your opponents if you really want to succeed. As you move up through the levels...

11/17/2008 06:19 AM

Justin Timberlake Wins Stud of Performer

Justin Timberlake may not be a Stud of Poker but he has definitely won Stud Performer for his...

New post on Michele Lewis. Could be lame, could be good, you just never know. I'm not getting paid to entertain so if you think it's lame then shove it up your Pujols.

11/17/2008 12:42 AM

PokerListings Run Good Challenge Returns

I never thought I would say these horrible blogging words... I know it's been a while since my last...

New post on Michele Lewis. Could be lame, could be good, you just never know. I'm not getting paid to entertain so if you think it's lame then shove it up your Pujols.

11/16/2008 01:12 PM

Blackpool GUKPT

Just a quick post to wish Sunny gl, he goes into the final day of the Blackpool GUKPT main event, 4th in chips with 13 left. Good luck also to our good friend Martyn Cavanagh. Full chip counts below:


Martyn Cavanagh -- 257,000
Sunny Chattha -- 305,000
Brian Clarke -- 145,500
Damian Evans -- 225,000
Zachary Ford -- 151,000
Darren Hickman -- 244,500
Andreas Hoivold -- 519,500
Guy Johnson -- 360,000
Gareth Jones -- 225,000
Herbert Kasbauer -- 81,000
Eddie Lundon -- 198,500
Stephen Slavin -- 114,000
Alan Vinson -- 613,500

Updates will be here from 2pm http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=38327.0

Other than the main, we've played a few of the side events. I finalled the omaha event, finishing a slightly disappointing 8th but nevermind. I also had a fun time in the £500nlh - came back for day 2 with 3bb after getting Skalied on the final hand of day 1. Ran that up to the chip lead with 3 tables to go and then bubbled it lol. 

Not sure if James plans on doing a write up of his TV event as we're travelling for another week or so and he hasn't got a laptop atm. The result was accessible from the link I put up before, he ended up finishing a very unlucky 4th for $40k. 

11/15/2008 08:53 PM

14th of November

There’s no doubt what the major news of the week has been – yes David Benyamine is no longer a red pro on Full Tilt Poker, although so far nobody really seems to know why or where he might be signing up with next. In other news, there was a sit n go being held in the Penn & Teller Theatre within the Rio with quite a lot of money riding on it. So much money that $900,670 had already been paid to each of the so called November Nine as the minimum they could win for being first to...

11/14/2008 06:26 AM

An Alternative Vegas

First of all, anyone Vegas-bound needs to go to esta.cbp.dhs.gov as the U.S. Visa Waiver Program is changing and you will need to complete authorisation under this scheme online before you travel, effective 12th January 2009. The good news is that this will be valid for multiple entries into the U.S valid for two years at a time. I suppose it is also good news for those with a chequered history; you may as well find out in advance if they are going to let you in! But of course it will be bad...

11/12/2008 06:37 AM

Betting out of Position by Gus Hansen

Every Hold'em strategy guide talks about the importance of positional advantage. The standard thinking is that the player who acts last has more information than his opponents, so he'll have a better sense of where he stands in a hand and can, therefore, make better decisions. There's no doubt that this is true, but it's important to understand that the power that comes with position is often granted to the late-position player by the early-position player.
To see what I mean, consider a...

11/11/2008 09:34 AM

Peter Eastgate Wins WSOP and Nolan Dalla Statistics

Peter Eastgate turned the wheel towards the WSOP Kingdom early this morning making him the youngest...

New post on Michele Lewis. Could be lame, could be good, you just never know. I'm not getting paid to entertain so if you think it's lame then shove it up your Pujols.

11/11/2008 02:51 AM

Equity and ICM in SNG's

It was only a few years ago when you could do very well in online poker doing basic things. Having good sound poker knowledge or in depth knowledge of a certain game basically meant that you would win money. In fact I know several players who were making a decent living online back in the first year or so of this decade who were no longer winning players just two or three years later.
The constantly evolving online poker landscape dictates that you either evolve with it or you die and...

11/10/2008 09:26 AM

WSOP Final Table Action

Poker is for lovers and lovers of poker around the world know the WSOP Final Table is underway at...

New post on Michele Lewis. Could be lame, could be good, you just never know. I'm not getting paid to entertain so if you think it's lame then shove it up your Pujols.

11/09/2008 04:37 PM

WSOP Final Table + Nine Poker Players = Cash

The 2008 World Series of Poker.... November Nine TM will reunite this weekend at the WSOP Final...

New post on Michele Lewis. Could be lame, could be good, you just never know. I'm not getting paid to entertain so if you think it's lame then shove it up your Pujols.

11/07/2008 12:41 PM

7th of November

A first foray into Budapest for the EPT proved to be a successful one as the initial cap of 500 runners for the €4,000 Hungarian Open had to be extended to an eventual total of 532 players in order to satisfy demand. Of that total only 71 were representing the host nation but one of their number, Zoltan Toth, managed to make the final table as chip leader. Within the first hour though his stack had been decimated as he lost a big three way all in pot to Martin Jacobsen along with Johnny...

11/07/2008 08:31 AM

888.com Poker Open V Final Table

Since my last post, James and I have been to Dublin and back, Praz and Jim have played EPT Budapest, I went to the Grosvenor Grand Prix and James and I both played the latest TV event, the 888.com Poker Open V. We both cashed in the €1500 main event in Dublin but no big scores, Praz had his usual sickness in the EPT, losing AK to AK then AK to KJ deep on day 2. The Grand Prix paid 45 places out of 57 runners, so cashing there wasn't exactly an achievement. 


On to the more important stuff tho, I finished 3rd in my tv heat, stop n go'ing 6s into A4, but James came through his unscathed and into the semi which played out yesterday. After an epic 3 handed battle (top 2 go through to final) he came through again to take his place in tomorrow's final. Below are the chip counts and payouts. 

Michael Keiner (518k)
Paul Zimbler (418k)
Craig Young (411k)
James Akenhead (289k)
Richard Wheatley (282k)
Mike Partridge (182k)

We're all going down to the studios tomorrow to cheer him on. Updates will be found here tomorrow:

http://www.matchroompoker.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5

One time etc. 

11/06/2008 07:10 PM

Rob Spencer

Name:


Rob Spencer




Nickname:


RobG...

11/05/2008 10:08 AM

How a Pro Thinks Through a Hand by Team Full Tilt

A couple of weeks ago, Perry Friedman discussed the importance of being able to look at factors beyond one's own cards. An experienced player has the ability to think about what his opponent is likely to hold. Beyond that, a top-quality player - a pro - will think a level deeper and consider what he believes his opponent is thinking about his cards.
This summer, at the World Series of Poker* Main Event, an interestin...

11/04/2008 10:04 AM

Back Down to Earth

When I finished fourth in the £1500 nlh event at the WSOPE I won £44,588. That is, at least, what it says on numerous websites and in most of the enormous number of poker magazines. In none of them does it say that I swapped 3% with five different people, four of whom doubled to 6% shortly before their untimely exits. There's also no mention on any of the sites, or in any of the magazines, of the seven people I staked in this tournament, all of whom gave me nothing but a...

11/03/2008 07:41 AM

Strategic play in SNG's

There was a thread on SNG’s on the forum last week which gave me the idea for a topic for my regular articles on this site over the next few weeks. I don’t recall having spoken about SNG’s much on here before and certainly not in any great technical detail.
But I did play these full time a couple of years ago up to and including the $200+$15 level and did reasonably well. But one of the members made an interesting point last week (may have been Whammer) about how he achieved...

11/03/2008 06:36 AM

31st of October

It’s all been going off on Full Tilt recently with four new online world record sized pots all being shipped inside 24 hours last weekend. After the craziness that saw the previous record pot won by patatino with just a pair of twos, there were at least some genuine hands on show this week starting with Tom Dwan winning a $618,000 pot against LarsLuzak. With almost the nut low on the river Luzak could only win with a bluff and having decided that he wasn’t going to give up on the...

10/31/2008 06:36 AM

Cash Equity at the Final Table by Rafe Furst

While playing the final table of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold 'em event, I found myself in a difficult spot when we were down to four-handed play. I was in the big blind and Rizen, a tough, respected online tournament pro, was in the small blind. It was folded to Rizen who announced that he would raise the pot. With blinds of 15K/30K, his raise made it 90K to me.
At the time, I had about 400K in chips; Rizen had 750k and the other two players had about 250K each.
I looked at my cards and found...

10/28/2008 10:23 AM

How I hate School

I never did like school much, all those grim winter mornings trudging to do maths and English with teachers who had more issues burning than what we did. This dislike of school and that particular way of life never really left me so it wasn’t really a surprise when yours truly left without any meaningful qualifications to speak of.
Well at the ripe old age of forty, here I am again trudging back to school to learn yet another subject. I might not be walking across muddy fields to hang...

10/28/2008 07:31 AM

Thanet GUKPT main event final table

This was the 18th leg of the GUKPT since the tour began in Jan 2007. Since finishing second to Praz in the inaugral event I've only sniffed the cash once, bubbling leg 3 in Manchester. Thanet was to be my second cash on the tour, and my second final table. 


Late on day 2 I was moved to Praz's table. I had just over average and he was flying with a newly acquired double average stack. At this point things were looking good for another double final table but the deck soon saw to that pitting praz's A3 up against 55 on a board of Q335A, with praz having led the flop. When play got down to 3 and then 2 tables, I ran quite bad with the table draw. Our table was by far the strongest. With 20 players left I held the chip lead after a couple of nice double ups, 1st when an otherwise solid player went mental on me with 10 9. I hadn't raised his blind once so far but my reputation preceded me when i made it 6k to go and he moved in for 70k. Kings held. I then picked up kings again an hour later and got it in preflop against the Chip leaders 9s and held. From there things didn't go quite so well and as play got more short handed my table draw and dry run of cards saw me finish the day in 8th spot when the final table bubble burst. 

From here I needed a nice run of cards or a fortuitous double up to get back in contention. This final was considerably stronger than in Bolton but I still thought at 9/1 I was a sniff of value, as was Andrew Teng at 8/1. For me whichever of us could double up would have a shot at taking on Chip Leader Jamie Brown. Unfortunately it wasn't to be me. After Simon Trumper quickly departed in 9th place, I followed soon after having played just 2 hands. In the 1st there was 1 big blind as the sb had just busted. We we playing 4k 8k and I raised to 20k from the cut off with KJ. Dave Penly called in the bb and check raised my flop bet of 24k to 60k on a board of 8 7 2 rainbow. I was forced to pass and he accidentally flipped his cards exposing A9. I'm not sure if Dave makes this play if he hasn't lost a chunk on the 1st hand to the Chip leader. Am still slightly surprised as if I turn up with a hand here he's done most of his stack on the 1st 2 hands he plays. In the next hand I'm dealt AJo and now with 10bb I open shove and am looked up by Paul Rigg's AK and don't improve. That was fun. 

On Wednesday me and James go to play the televised 888.com UK open. This is my 1st event in this format, James and Praz have both played one before. Betting is available on Blue SQ and our line ups are:

Heat 4 Wednesday 29th AM
 
 
 Karl Mahrenholz 5/2
 Rob Cooper 9/2
 Richard Berridge 9/2
 Anu Sareen 5/1
 Didier Deckens 5/1
 Rodolfo Ploeger 5/1
Last Longer Karl Mahrenholz 4/7 Anu Sareen 5/4

 Heat 5 Weds 29th PM
 
 James Akenhead 3/1
 Ciaran O'Leary 7/2
 Dimitri Mascarenhas 9/2
 Paul Grummit 5/1
 Thomas Combet 5/1
 Willie Bruer 5/1
 
 
Last longer James Akenhead 8/11 Ciaran O'Leary Evs

Basically these events are crapshoots, but there is a certain amount of strategy in them and by the looks of the ones I've seen before, not many people play them correctly. Anyways, should be fun am looking forward to it

Karl

10/27/2008 03:36 PM

24th of October

If you’re one of the most successful internet poker players in the world, being banned from both Full Tilt and Pokerstars is going to be a very serious handicap to your earning potential, yet that is exactly what has happened to Sorel Mizzi. The man who for the past few years has been tearing up the online tournament scene with over a million dollars worth of cashes on Pokerstars alone now finds himself excluded from both the big two sites. Back in October 2007 Mizzi was banned from Full...

10/24/2008 12:13 PM

Road Trip

The idea of a road trip conjures up images of spring break, sun, speed and all else "s". Was a coastal trip of Southern England encompassing all the delights that Brighton and Margate had to offer in October going to fit the bill? Probably not but then, this is work remember. 


The main event at the "Harbour Lights" festival at the Rendezvous was the first stop, and a much better than expected line up turned out for this £500 affair. 15k chips and an hour clock 
ensured there was plenty of play. A fully champered up Flushy was in good form and quickly took care of James by finding a way to get A10 all in pre and get there against a frustrated pair of queens. At least the dog was able to make the most of the ever over expensive Seattle hotel which came in second in the value stakes only to a tournament with £50 juice that wanted to charge for a buffet. Frankie & Bennys ftw. 

I'd managed to play some really interesting pots against some fun opponents by the time 
one move too many had seen me dwindle low. Dave Colclough had been playing very snug all day and so I was fairly sure his late position raise on my blind did in fact indicate a hand. J8hh isn't getting passed for a minimal raise though this side of the brighton pier and a couple of hearts on the flop followed by a check raise all in was enough to send me in search of James. Was nice to learn later that fellow Blue Sq stable mate Kevin "oh look my giraffe just changed colour" O'Leary locked up the win. Wp that man. 

Sunday was a lazy day before we drove around the coast to find the answer to the question 60% of my facebook friends were posing....where exactly is Thanet? The lovely Lady on my Sat Nav was over-ruled by an instant Jaymee. Equipped with nothing but a strong sense of smell and a determination to drive along the sea, Jeff and I followed behind in my car whilst wondering if we should accidentally get lost so we could go back on the M25. To be fair we made it to the wonders of the Travel Lodge Margate in record time, stopping only for an Authentice Italian in erm, Rye. 
During the week I heard many references to the Travel Lodge as "prison cell bock H" and the like but I would like to put forward the case for it being the ultimate in Hotel Accommodation. Not only was it on the door of the casino, with an all important Nandos, F&Bs and Chiquitos within folding distance the maid had developed the best ever method of putting fresh towels, toiletries etc in a bag outside your door rather than bursting in 4 times every morning like every other maid in hotel history has done. A poker player's dream.

The GUKPT undercard this time around included a £200 and £300 NLH and a juicy looking £100 plo rebuy. The locals were out in force and were something a bit special. I managed to make the final 2 tables of all 3 whilst missing the money in all. James finalled the £200, Jeff the £300 and then again winning the PLO. But for a standard double suited aces all in moment with 12 left (thankfully not against Fraser this time) I might have given him a run for his money in that one. Here are a couple of the more interesting/fun hands from these side events

(1) £200 event day1, I'm drawn on James' start table and have got off to a great start, chipping up to abot 25k from 6k. I've been raising pretty much every pot that James hasn't beaten me too and pick up AsKh. The big blind is the only caller, a local and seemingly erratic player with a penchant for overbetting. The flop comes J 10 3 all spades. He bets into me for 2x pot. I make a big reraise and he instantly moves the lot in. I make the obligatory call and get shown the 10h and 6d. I was never going to crack that and a shot at a 45k stack when the average was 9k was gone. He enlightened us as to his thinking about the hand when stating he was going to go play roulette if he busted. Same game different table. 

(2) £200 event day 1 - last level of the day, again I'm sharing a table with James. Also on my right is a short stacked Mickey Wernick. In this hand he limps in on the button, I complete the SB with 105o and the bb checks. At the time I had the BB tagged as a weak/tight/passive kind of player. I was later to find out he makes roulette boy look like Phil Helmuth. The flop comes down A K 3 rainbow and I lead at the pot, pretty sure Mickey isn't limping with any of that and that the BB is trapped in the middle and can't really play with most of his hands. Anyway, he calls and Mickey passes. I'm pretty much done with the hand now, not intending to spew chips off to someone with the intent of calling me down. The turn is a 4 bringing a second spade. I check and he checks behind. Just as I'm thining how nice a 2 would be, the 2s rolls off on the river completing the back door flush and giving me a wheel. The pot stood at 5k at this point and I decided to go for full value and bet 5k, attempting to test his stubborness. The BB player laughed and said "5 for a 5?" Which was immdeiately followed by "I'll raise, 5k more". Not giving this guy any credit for being able to make a move, the speech and his overall demeanour convinced me he thought he had the best hand. Sure I could be chopping but it's not too likely we both have a five and surely any sane animal is going to just call the river with a 5 now the flush has completed. I gave him credit for Ax of spades, sighed and mucked my hand. He turned over Kh2c for a rivered 2 pair, turned to me and said "I thought you had a straight". Go figure.

(3) £200 event day 2. I made it back to day 2 with an average stack and 25 people remaining. I was sat next to Mr Colclough again. The only other person I recognised was the guy from Banzai who has taken over the Bet365 adverts. We later began to refer to him as Mr GAMBOOL. He like to...GAMBOOL. I'd played only a couple of hands prior to my exit hand, losing less than I probably should have to Colclough with a flopped top pair against his pair and flush draw in the blinds. The others I'd won uncontested. In this hand it's folded to me in the small blind and I make a standard raise with a pair of 7s. Mr GAMBOOL comes along for the ride. The flop is Q 6 4 with 2 clubs. I make a continuation bet which is called. My read on the flop was he wasn't too strong. He took his time to call and didn't look too pleased. 
The turn was an off suit 5 now giving me an up n down draw. With the stack sizes as they were I could bet again and if called there were lots of rivers which would leave me with an awkward stack size and not being entirely sure which rivers will have hit my opponent. I decided to go for a check raise all in and luckily Mr G obliged with a nice chunky turn bet which confirmed to me I was winning. Mr G was so distraught by this that he had to whip out his Lucky Buddha and go into the tank for a good 3-4 minutes. It was obvious Mr G was a local hero and the rail quickly filled as this pot developed. After an eternity he echoed the words ok...GAMBOOL and his J2 of clubs emerged victorious much to the excitiment of seemably everyone in the casino. Marvellous.

As the main event started we all felt very happy with how we'd been playing this week and hopefully that we could catch a break or 2 and make it deep. Afterall each of us had only cashed (and finalled) one of these before. Hopefully it was our turn again. 

10/23/2008 08:25 PM

Army Manoeuvres

There's pretty much nowhere I'd rather go to play poker than the Vic during a big festival, (ok maybe The Rio during the later stages of a WSOP event, possibly Melbourne, Bahamas or Aruba if I'd ever been to any of those places and, just maybe, the CityWest Hotel in Dublin, but apart from those obvious exceptions...), and it doesn't really get much bigger than the EPT.
The clash with the WSOPE is awkward. On the one hand it does mean that lots of Europeans and Americans are likely to stay...

10/22/2008 12:00 PM

GUKPT 2008 - Leg 8 - Thanet

By Sunny Chattha
We will be in Thanet (Broadstairs/Ramsgate/Margate etc) this week for leg 8 of the GUKPT. Full tournament schedule available at http://www.gukpt.com/

Hopefully I can celebrate my 23rd birthday by winning one of those blue square paper weight/trophy thingys. Good luck everyone playing, have fun. weeeeeeeeee.

10/13/2008 04:34 PM

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