Poker Room Hustle

Tom Dwan commonly known by his alias “Durrrr” won his largest online pot of all time a few days ago. The action went down on the GusHeaven table over at Full Tilt and the game was extra juicy due the presence of High Stakes online poker fish elmariachimacho.

Phil Galfond ended up collecting over $2 Million in profits from the table, however even with Galfond controlling most the action the biggest pot was a clash between durrr and Urindanger. It was an interesting hand and for Urindanger to call durrr’s all-in on the river I believe he at least had to have top two pair and took a pretty sick beat. The Pot was worth $657K and won by durrrr with a set of Fours. Check Out how the Hand was Played Out.

Poker After Dark will heading into its fifth season in 2009 and from the looks of things it is set to the most exciting season the show has seen to date. According to a preliminary release of details, the show is going to be increasing the amount of cash games; in fact to be exact there will be seven weeks of cash games in total. This is probably the best move they could’ve made as it obviously clear that the format is much more popular amongst poker fans. Ratings were increased significantly during the cash game episodes last season. This season they have some exciting Cash Game Matches Set Up which you shouldn’t miss, here is a preview of what you can expect:
All cash games will be $200/$400 blinds with a $100,000 min./$250,000 max. buy-in. Stakes can be raised if all players agree; straddles props and flips are allowed.

•    Nets vs. Vets: In this episode three online stars will face off against three live poker veterans, looks very exciting. From the net you have  Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Cole “CTS” South and David “Raptor” Benefield. The other three sits will be filled by Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan and Eli Elezra

•    The Hellmuth Bash: Two full weeks will be devoted to Phil Hellmuth on the table with Tom “durrrr” Dwan,Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Kenny “Sick Call” Tran and high-stakes recreational player Bob Safai.

•    Railbird Heaven: Named after the high-stakes Full Tilt table “RailHeaven,” for two weeks this installment will feature high-stakes players: Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and David “Viffer” Peat, who will share time with Hansen. With these kinds of players at the table who love the action, expect to see some heavy chips flying in all directions.

The Bigger They Bet, The Harder They Fall

By Dan Katz for Poker News Daily | Posted on November 12, 2008

I’ll admit it.  I have a major leak in my sit-and-go game.  I am simply not very good heads-up.  Sure, I can win, but not nearly as often as I’d like when I get into the final two, even if I go in as the chip leader.  I just always seem to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.  There is one kind of player, however, that I do seem to have success against in the heads-up portion of a tournament: the massive overbettor.

This type of player is super-aggressive post-flop with any sort of decent, yet not monster, hand.  If he hits a pair on the flop or even finds himself with a solid draw, he will likely way overbet the pot, even to the point of going all-in, in order to protect his hand.  He will pretty much always raise pre-flop in position (since it’s heads-up, this obviously means on the button), even more than a good player normally would, and will try to beat you into submission with continuation bets after the flop.  Really, unless the board looks ultra-scary, he is not likely to take his foot off the gas once he becomes the aggressor.

Fortunately, the overbettor, or severe LAG (Loose-Aggressive) player, as we could call him, is relatively easy to defeat, provided you have patience and a stack which will allow you to play defense.

While you will, of course, need to open up your game a bit since it’s heads-up, you will want to proceed with caution pre-flop.  As always, raise with powerful hands, but be a little less aggressive than you might normally be with small to medium pairs and marginal hands like connectors (suited or otherwise).  Because your overbetting opponent is apt to raise, raise, raise, you want to keep the pots smaller with drawing hands, and this includes lesser pairs, since you will likely need to hit at least something on the board to win the hand at showdown.  The last thing you want is to get three-bet with connectors and then have to call even bigger bets after the flop if you want to continue chasing a draw.  By keeping the pot small early in the hand, you will be able to play more hands, hoping to hit big, while still being able to get away from them if need be without sustaining too much damage.

In the meantime, let the other player do all the betting for you.  You know he’s going to bet and raise, bet and raise without worrying too much about what you have, so oblige him.  He might get away with sticking his head in the lion’s mouth time and time again, but eventually, he’s going to get complacent and the jaws will snap down on him.  When you do get a hand worthy of making a move, just play it passively.  Check-call the flop if you’re out of position (which is a great spot to be in against this betting fiend when you have a big hand) and let him make his grand, greater-than-pot-size continuation bets.  If the board is still innocent looking enough, check-call the turn.  By the time you become the aggressor on the river, your opponent will likely be pot committed and will have to call you with his inferior hand.

The time to tread more lightly when you have a strong hand after the flop is when you raise your opponent’s overbet, only to have him just call.  As I mentioned earlier, this kind of opponent tends to go nuts with his betting when he has a drawing hand or something good, but not special, like top pair.  If he’s on a pure bluff, he will probably fold to a sizable raise (he’s a crazy overbettor, not a crazy bluffer).  But if he just calls, he may actually have something strong.  This doesn’t mean you should concede the hand.  It just means that you are going to need to make a read and evaluate whether or not your strong hand is likely to beat his possibly strong hand.

If you don’t want to wait until the river to make your move, that’s fine, too.  You will still likely take down a nice pot and your aggression may serve to slow your opponent down, allowing you to take control of the match.  And if he just goes right back to what he was doing, fine.  You’ll nail him soon enough.

Of course, you can’t wait too long and let your stack get whittled away if you enter the heads-up match with too short of a stack.  In that case, make your big moves as you typically would with the short stack, knowing that your opponent very well might get careless and give you a courtesy double-up.

Remember, the key to besting the habitual overbettor is patience.  It is easy to get antsy when you have to constantly fold to an opponent’s unnecessarily large bets.  But if you have a large enough stack to wait him out, you can eventually let him dig his own grave.  Also keep in mind, as I mentioned briefly earlier, that this player is not a maniac bluffer.  If he’s making his overbets, he at least has something, even if it’s just a draw.  So, trying to match his aggression with misplaced bluffs will not usually work, as he will be handcuffed to hands that will likely beat a bluff, even if those hands are weak.  Take advantage of the love he has for his middling hand and crush him when you have a monster.

The high stakes action over at Full Tilt Poker is beginning to heat up again after a fairly quite month in November, all the pros are back and they are doing battle in full effect, its business as usual. There have been a number of huge pots played over the past few days but the one that stands out the most is an Omaha Hand between Phil “OMGClayAiken” and “LarsLuzak”. You probably wouldn’t have seen a hand go down like this since Gus Hansen beat Daniel Negreanu’s Full House with Quad fives on High Stakes Poker (that was in No Limit Hold’em, which makes it a bit worse).

Anyhow the hand was played out like this:

“OMGClayAiken” had $98,500 in front of him, and “LarsLuzak” had $262,300.

“OMGClayAiken” raised to $3,500, “LarsLuzak” called on the button, everyone else folded.

The flop came K-5-5. “OMGClayAiken” bet $4,600, “LarsLuzak” raised to $15,800, “OMGClayAiken” called for time, and then eventually called.

The turn brought the Queen of Diamonds. “OMGClayAiken” checked, “LarsLuzak” bet $28,500, “OMGClayAiken” requested time again, and finally decided on a call.

The river brought an Eight of Clubs. “OMGClayAiken” checked once again, “LarsLuzak” bet $97,100 and “OMGClayAiken” snap-called the bet that put him all-in.

“LarsLuzak” showed 7-J-K-K for a flopped full house.

“OMGClayAiken” showed 4-5-A-5 for flopped Quads and took down the $198k pot.

The pot wasn’t that big, but it sure was an amazing hand, in regards to how it was played and that it was a flopped full house against flopped quads. It is just one of those situations you dread seeing, LarsLuzak could only lose to one hand, and his opponent managed to have it, he would be spewing. It was well played by OMGClayAiken to check it three times, however no matter what either player bet all the money was going to end up in the middle regardless.

Time to post some more Music, today’s tune is from Wu Tang’s Masta Killa. The song is from his solo album No Said Date and it is great song with a nice beat and quality lyrics. Check It Out!

Here is another great article from Pokerlistings.com about Bluffing

The Bad Bluff

By Sean Lind

There is nothing more rewarding for a pro than calling down an amateur making a bad bluff; and there’s nothing more upsetting to an amateur than getting called.

An amateur thinking at a basic level will often make a bad bluff thinking it’s a strong move. But bluffing well is an advanced skill requiring a very deep understanding of the game.

The stronger your opponent, the more advanced your bluff methodology must become.

One Hand, Two Stories

When there’s a car accident at a busy intersection, there is no shortage of witnesses for the police to talk to. Remarkably, even if the accident only happened a short time ago, each eyewitness will have a different take on what happened.

Even though every witness saw the exact same event, they all saw it (or remember it) differently. This is typically referred to as “Eyewitness Recall” in forensic psychology. Our interpretation of the current situation stems from our memory of the proceeding events.

From http://www.campsych.com/eyewitness.htm:

“Memory consists of three stages: (1) storage, (2) retention, and (3) recall. Storage factors can impede memory accuracy when we find ourselves unable to recall information from our memory because it was never stored there. For instance, can you recall which way Lincoln faces on a penny, and where the letter identifying the mint of the penny is located?”

This means that each person witnessing a hand will have their own idea of what has happened in the current hand, and in the hands leading up to it. The players in the hand, each having different information (since they both know only their own hole cards), will each have a different take on the situation.

Bad Bluff Examples

This first example is a standard, common instance of an amateur making a bad bluff.

Table Setup: The amateur is in early position with a slightly less-than-average stack size of $175. The pro is on the button with a slightly larger-than-average stack size of $325. The two players have been at the same table for a couple of hours with no significant history between them.

Pre-Flop: Amateur raises. Pro calls. Heads-up to the flop.

Flop:

Amateur checks. Pro checks.

Turn:

Amateur checks. Pro checks.

River:

Amateur bets the pot. Pro calls.

Amateur shows

Pro shows

The pro wins the pot with two pair, sixes and jacks.

In this scenario the amateur usually sits in shock, wondering how the pro could have called with nothing but bottom pair. The amateur sees the action as herself having raised pre-flop, thus giving the impression that she has a big hand.

The pro never bet any of the streets; clearly he does not have a big pocket pair. Because only the amateur has shown she has a big hand, she feels that there is no way the pro can call when the top card pairs the board.

The pro beats nothing but a bluff, and with the amateur showing strength pre-flop and playing with a tight table image, she feels that the chances she’s bluffing should seem slim to none to the pro.

The pro sees the hand very differently. Due to her tight image, the pro immediately puts the amateur on a big hand when she raises, making for an easy loose call with the suited connector. The flop gives the pro a small pair with no real strong draws.

When the amateur checks the flop, the pro now knows the amateur has one of two hands: the amateur flopped a set of jacks and is looking to check-raise, or more likely the amateur has A-K or A-Q and chose not to c-bet.

If the amateur has AA, KK, QQ or A-J, she is almost certain to make a bet with the flush draw on the flop.

The pro is now either way behind, or ahead of a player with six outs. The pro is also able to bluff having a flush if another club hits the board. If the amateur is scared of the draw, she is most likely sitting on only four outs to win now.

The turn makes no real change to the situation - when the amateur checks, the pro is now 90% sure that the amateur is on A-K or AQ. He’s willing to check behind with the lead, taking his equity rather than risking getting check-raised.

Checking behind here also sets up the amateur to make a donk bluff on the river thinking the pro will fold after showing no strength.

The river is an absolute blank as far as the pro is concerned. If he was sure the amateur didn’t have a jack on the flop, he’s even more convinced she doesn’t have one now. The amateur makes the donk bluff the pro thought she might, and snap-calls for the win.

In the eyes of the amateur, this was a strong bluff, as she believed no player without a jack could make the call. The amateur had a strong read on the pro’s hand, but didn’t stop to consider the information the pro had on her.

Amateurs are always shocked that the pro could call here with nothing more than top pair, whereas looking at it from the pro’s point of view, there was never a reason to fold.

This second example, taking place an hour after the last hand, is the reverse of the first example. Here the amateur makes what she thinks is a hero call on a pro:

Table Setup: The pro is in early position now with a large stack size of $770. The amateur is on the button with a slightly larger-than-average stack size of $325.

Pre-Flop: Pro limps. Amateur raises. Pro calls. Heads-up to the flop.

Flop:

Pro checks. Amateur bets. Pro calls.

Turn:

Pro checks. Amateur bets. Pro calls.

River:

Pro bets half the pot. Amateur calls.

Amateur shows

Pro shows

The pro wins the pot with a pair of aces.

In this example the amateur has the correct read on the pro; she knows that the pro is on the flush draw in the hand and keeps correctly betting his top pair.

When the flush misses on the river she believes the pro is making a weak bluff with a missed draw, and calls with her pair of queens.

The amateur forgot to take her thought processes one step further. Knowing the pro is on a flush draw, it’s most commonly going to be the nut flush draw he’s holding. When the ace comes on the river, the pro did miss his flush draw, but now has the best pair.

The only hand the pro is worried about losing to here is A-Q for top two. It’s a thin value bet that works out nicely.

Before you start making bluffs at your opponents, you’re going to want to take all of the possible factors into consideration. Successfully bluffing typically requires the player to set up the bluff on an earlier street. If your opponent can’t realistically put you on a hand that beats them, your bluff is going to fail.

If you play the first four streets like you’re holding something weak, only to show sudden unwarranted strength on the river, chances are you’re going to get called down. Most often these dark tunnel bluffs work when the player is actually value betting the best hand, only thinking they’re bluffing.

Before you make a move at a pot, take into consideration the picture of yourself you’ve painted to the other players, as well as the picture you have of them. Only if both of these align will your bluff have a high chance for success.

The best way to work on any poker skill, such as when to bluff, is to see as many hands as you can. Thanks to online poker rooms, seeing thousands of hands over a weekend is no longer a difficult task.

Gus Hansen and Patrick Antonius are off to a perfect start in the month of November as they are both up well over 500K already, from just 5 days of action over at the high stakes tables on Full Tilt Poker. Gus Hansen is just fresh from a remarkable month on Full Tilt in October, where he pocketed an amazing $3,446,855 in total profits, easily making him the biggest winner on the site, Phil Ivey was the next closest competitor sitting on about $1.9 Million worth of profits.

Looks like Gus’s rush is continuing into the month of November as he has collected a nice $550K worth of profits already, putting him in the number two spot so far at full tilt, the biggest winner so far for November is Patrick Antonius, he is up a total of $750K. The winnings are much needed for a wounded Patrick Antonius who is recovering from a very disappointing month in October, in which he dropped around $1.3 Million. In the midst of his comeback it seems like Antonius’s luck has turned around so much that it has led him to win his biggest pot ever online, the pot was worth 606K, and as it appears Antonius cracked LarsLuzak aces full, how’s that for lucky, check out how the hand went down.

Head over to Full Tilt Poker to monitor some of the craziest High Stakes Action and watch the pros do battle.

The World Series Of Poker Final Table will broadcasted live on the internet and you can tune in to all the action through Bluff Media, who will be hosting the event live this Sunday and Monday. The Broadcast will be hosted by Nick Geber and current BLUFF Magazine cover girl Lacey Jones and it will be available via WorldSeriesofPoker.com beginning at 10 am PT. To listen to the live feed visit Worldseriesofpoker.com

Here is a great article from PokerListings.com that shows you why hunting for sets is probably the most profitable source of income in no limit cash games.

Set Mining

By Sean Lind

Implied odds is perhaps the most important concept in deep-stacked No-Limit poker. And set mining is one of the simplest and most effective ways to take advantage of it in Hold’em.

Set mining consists simply of playing pocket pairs, while knowingly dominated, exclusively trying to flop a set. The idea is to have a hand large enough to play a big pot, while keeping it disguised well enough to stay under the radar and get paid.Before you can really understand the ideas behind set mining, you have to have a firm grasp of implied odds. Daniel Skolovy wrote a slick article on implied odds. If you need to learn, or would just like a quick refresher, check it out here.

Quick Look at Some Numbers

Let’s start with a hypothetical situation:

You are dealt 99 on the button; a player in middle position raises four times the big blind with AA. You call; the two of you go heads-up to the flop.

The chances of you flopping a set are just a bit better than 8-1 against. Since it’s not important to be exact at the poker table, using 8-1 will serve our purposes just fine. This means out of the nine times you make this call, you’re only going to flop a set once.

You put in just under 50% of the money pre-flop, and are an 8-1 dog. You had horrible pot odds, and at the pot-odds level, it appears you just made a huge mistake.

Luckily, if you do flop your set on a flop such as 239, you’re going to get paid, and paid well enough to make up for all those other times you missed.

The odds of flopping set over set are in the neighborhood of 1-98 - we’ll say 1-100 to make things easy. This means that if you flop your set on a nonthreatening board like the one above, you are going to be willing to get all your money in.

Although you will lose your stack when you flop a lower set, it is rare enough that it’s still very profitable to set mine, disregarding this risk.

If we get all the money in with our top set of nines on the 239 flop, AA has only a 10% chance of winning the pot. As you can see, the implied odds are huge, even though our pot odds are tiny.

Stack Sizes

To set mine profitably, you need to be playing in a very deep-stacked situation. Being deep-stacked means playing with an absolute minimum of 100BB. Ideally, you should only apply deep-stacked strategy to situations when you’re playing with a stack of over 200BB.

The odds of you hitting your set and winning the pot are very slim pre-flop. You are a 4-1 dog with nines against aces. When you play this hand, you need to be in a situation where you can win a pot large enough to make up for all the times you lose the hand, which will be the majority.

This makes set mining a very poor idea in short-stacked poker and almost all tournament situations. Especially in non-major online tournaments, it is rare to be truly deep-stacked in a tournament.

Before ever considering whether or not to set mine, you need to take a look at your opponents’ stack size. Your only goal with a set mine is to win a stack, or double up. You can’t afford to do any less.

Show Me the Money

Because set mining is almost exclusively flop-dependent, you want to put in the least amount of money possible until after you see the flop. If the pre-flop raiser raises too much, it can upset the fine balance of keeping the net gross of your few wins above your net losses.

On top of this, when you do flop your set, you still need to get paid. In a serious deep-stacked situation with strong players, everyone will be playing with the same understanding: no player wants to get serious money into the pot without having a very large hand.

On the flop from earlier, there is simply no draw or hand that would be willing to put large money into the pot. Aces beats pocket tens through kings; since you didn’t reraise pre-flop, chances are you don’t have kings, and maybe not queens. This means aces can only beat two possible hands willing to go to war in this pot.

A bad poker player will be willing to get it all-in with aces here; this is where your skills in reading your opponents become important. If you’re up against a player who can’t fold aces, then no matter what you do, chances are you’re going to get it all for a big pot.

If aces bets out and you just call here, what could you be calling with? If you have an overpair, why would you call?

If you put him on a c-bet or a bluff, it makes more sense to raise and see where you stand. There are no draws, so the only thing that would flat-call on this flop has to have aces beat.

That is, unless the player holding aces has no respect for you, and thinks you’d donk off your stack with any sort of pair. If you’re up against a good player here, chances are you want to raise and make it look as if you’re on tens and are trying to end the pot right there.

Most often aces will just call and check the turn to you. Now you can keep on value betting. Think and bet exactly as you would if you had tens and believed he was bluffing. You want to bet small enough to make him want to call.

If he is behind, aces have a lot of outs against anything but a set. Even If you have two pair, aces have five outs on the flop, and eight on the turn. If you keep it cheap they’ll stick around. Hopefully they’ll decide you’re bluffing, or the board will pair, making them think they just counterfeited you.

When you have a set, you want to take the time to think about what your opponent has, and what they can put you on. Choose a hand that makes sense, which they can beat. Then play as if you have just that.

The November issue of Bluff Magazine will have some of the hottest girls in Poker On the Front Cover, Lacey Jones and Christina Lindley, and they will be in nothing but lingerie and high heels. Raw Vegas TV was granted exclusive behind the scene access to film the Photo shoot and interview the two blonde hotties. Check Out The Video Below

Watch Bluff Magazine Photoshoot with Lacey Jones and Christina Lindley on RawVegas.tv