PokerStars Hold 'Em Tournament

Here are a few hands from a tournament i just played, by far my best play but learning from mistakes is key so here are two hands in which felt that i could have played much better.

Hand #1

I'm dealt A-K off suit in the big blind so i raise 3 times the big blind after 3 people had called, this thins the pack slightly with only 2 callers of my pre-flop raise. This is pretty ideal as the hand doesn't have any limpers but enough opposition to possibly draw value from if i flop big.

And flop big i did...

I hit top 2 on the flop and tried to slow play it by checking under the gun, i didn't want to scare my opponents off with a C-bet because the board is pretty scary for something like 10-10 or a middle pair which i believe are in the button players range. I hoped to give one of them the betting lead if they thought they held the best hand with something like the aforementioned middle pair, unfortunately this backfired and it was checked around...

The turn card was a 10h which isn't the greatest card for me, this had me thinking that letting a middle pair see a free card was a bad idea because pocket 10's just turned into a set that is beating my hand. By this point i've pretty much ruled out anybody holding J-Q to make the straight because a post-flop raise would have been pretty likely with a strong hand like that so i'm not really giving either player credit for a straight here. This time i fire a 1/5 pot sized bet (minimum) which makes one player fold and the button call me. I was hoping he would come over the top with a re-raise because i felt i had the best hand although thinking about it know, that kind of re-raise might have caused me to think about him holding the straight. I don't think i would have laid down top 2 here to a weak re-raise after him checking the flop anyway so this probably was the right play.

I river a King and i've completed a full house, Kings over Aces! I now know that i have the nuts with my boat beating any set or possible straight out there (I knew he didn't have aces). I led in with another small bet, again trying to make myself look weak and this time it worked! He fired over-the-top with a bet a little smaller than the pot, i immediately pushed all-in with a flash of eagerness. I thought he may have had pocket 10's or a King in his hand so he would probably call me but straight away i felt i had made the wrong play. He folded.

Obviously i had to raise in this situation but pushing was a mistake. A value raise around the minimum would be more likely to extract more value as he would have, if holding a decent hand, called or even pushed over the top of me in an attempt to foil a bluff that i was possibly making due to me slow playing the pot earlier on. If i had made this play i could have eliminated him there and then as opposed to taking down a decent sized pot and leaving his chip stack relatively untouched.

 

In conclusion...

I read him fairly well but possibly slow played at the wrong time then over-bet the river losing a lot of potential value. 

Hand #2

Coming soon......

Shuffle up and deal...

About to watch WSOP Big One for One Drop event final table on ESPN (UK time 1:10am)! Really excited to see these guys battle for the massive prize pool and i love the charity cause. 

Good luck to all the players. Let's see the chip leader and fellow Brit, Sam Trickett, take it down!

One Drop Update!

At the end of the first days play in the WSOP Big One for One Drop event we are left with 37 of the original 48 players in with a shot of scooping the mouth-watering prize that is $18.3 million and a WSOP Gold Bracelet.

Brian Rast hopes to win another

With the blinds about to enter the 25k/50k stage, Poker pro Brian Rast holds the chip lead with a lively 10.7 million with his nearest follower being fellow pro Phil Hellmuth Jr who is currently sitting on around 8.4 million in chips. OneDrop founder, Guy Laliberté, is going strong in 7th place on the leaderboard with 6.5 million. At the moment Laliberté is looking up at one of only 3 British players in the event, Poker professional Sam Trickett. Just below the charity's founder are Ben Lamb and Mike Sexton with only a few chips to decide between the two of them.

Laliberté at the table in the WPT

The Big One For One Drop

Here's the 'roster' for the WSOP #55 The Big One For One Drop Event that is currently underway at the Rio Hotel:

Bobby Baldwin

Frederic Banjout

Bob Bright

Ilya Bulychev

Roland De Wolfe

Tom Dwan

Jonathan Duhamel

David Einhorn

Antonio Esfandiari

Phil Galfond

Bertrand Grospellier

Philipp Gruissem

Giovanni "Malibu" Guarascio

Phil Ivey

Eugene Katchalov

Cary Katz

Jens Kyllönen

Guy Laliberté

Ben Lamb

Tom Marchese

Jason Mercier

Michael Mizrachi

John Morgan

Daniel Negreanu

Paul Newey

Chamath Palihapitiya

Bill Perkins

Paul Phua

Brian Rast

Vivek Rajkumar

Tobias Reinkemeier

Andrew Robl

Phil Ruffin

Rick Salomon

Nick Schulman

Noah Schwartz

Erik Seidel

Mike Sexton

Dan Shak

Talal Shakerchi

Mikhail Smirnov

Justin Smith

Brandon Steven

Sam Trickett

Haralabos Voulgaris

Richard Yong

Gus Hansen

Phil Hellmuth

With each player paying a massive $1,000,000 to enter (Minus Hansen and Hellmuth Jr who both qualified via satellites) the prize pool will consist of over $42,000,000 with the victor taking home a cool 18 Mil. Since hearing about this event and seeing the pros talk about it on their social networking accounts i have been extremely anxious to see the field and watch the play unfold. It's still early days but so far the action is as epic as i was  expecting. I just watched Erik Seidel lay down a hand pre-flop after having his 6-bet re-raised all in by Vivek Rajkumar, not something you see everyday! 

The Charity

Besides the big names and the card playing, this event is a lot about the charity. $5.5 million has been taken from the buy-in money to be given to the OneDrop.org charity and along with this the WSOP abolished the usual house fees that would normally apply to such an event. 

This kind of event is great to see and with all the money to be won in the game of poker it is pleasing that a thought is spared for those who need it more. Among other things, the One Drop charity helps give access to water and develop sanitation projects across the world in areas that lack this life-sustaining resource. The founder of the charity, Guy Laliberté, will be participating in the tournament and i wish him, along with all of the other player, the best of luck. Lets see some poker!


Coverage of the event can be seen here: 

http://www.wsop.com/2012/live-video/default.aspx?TID=12155

Busted combo draws...

One thing that plays on my mind is how to classify a player who calls my C-bet on a combo draw, calls my half pot sized bet on the turn after missing the draw, then calls me down on the river after busting my combo draw to show bottom pair leaving me in the muck... Good read or one lucky fish?

Situation:

$0.10 - $0.20 Ring game

Qc-8c on the button

Raised pre-flop (2x Big blind) with one caller

Flop

10c - 4d - 7c

Opponent check-calls my C-bet

Turn

10c - 4d - 7c - Jh

Check-calls my half pot bet again. Something strange is going on here, also chasing a flush?

River

10c - 4d - 7c - Jh - Kd

I bluff at the King chasing the big pot after my flopped combo draw got busted, trying to rep a hand like K-10 to justify my pre-flop button raise and aggressive approach. The player opposite flat calls and shows 2-2, taking down the pot. I know he shouldn't be playing that pot at all but i'm not the kind of player to say anything, after all that is poker i guess! But it did leave me pondering whether he had some sort of ultimate read on my play knowing i would bet a draw after he checked or whether he just saw pocket pair and rapid-clicked the call the button? Fish or Shark... I guess only the bank roll will tell.

The apparently 'deadly deuces'

Poker Mantras

Texas Hold 'Em poker strategy can be simplified into a series of short and sweet 'mantras' to help beginners understand the game and perform at every table they sit down at. In this section i will try to explain some of these mantras assuming anyone reading has at least a basic understanding of odds in poker. If this is not that case you can head over to http://www.cardschat.com/odds-for-dummies.php (many other sites will offer the same information!) 

Some of these may not really be mantras but just things to remember, so here goes!

"The Button wins"

This is something i have heard thrown around, it is obviously not always the case but the reason why i have opened with it is because it is one of the most fundamental points to remember in Hold 'Em poker. Position is always important and just remember, having position on a player can sometimes make your cards almost irrelevant. 

"Play the player, not the cards"

This 'saying' applies almost exclusively to No Limit Hold 'Em, especially at the higher stakes. In NLH, having a read on a player and understanding their personality and playing style can be just as important as the two cards you are dealt. For example if an aggressive player has position on you then you may be best to check a hand that you believe is the best and induce a bluff from them, you can then implement a coy check-raise over the top. 

"Bet with the best, good draw to invest, fold the rest"

I find myself living by this at the poker table, and to some extent every player is when calculating their pot odds in any given hand. This mantra simply means that whenever you hold a strong hand, like top pair after the flop, you should bet/raise with it. Whenever you hold a flush or straight draw you should call, as long as the price of the call is right for your odds of making the hand. 

"Weak players will make mistakes, don't try to force them into making more"

When facing a 'fish' who is unable of putting you on a hand and will over-value most of their hands, the best way to win is often to just stay away until you can develop the strongest hand and value bet them for all they are worth! This works because they are unlikely to fold their low pocket pair even when you have top pair top kicker when it comes to the river. The will also often rule out the possibility of you making that flush with 3 clubs on the board and assume that their Kings are best.

The Deal - Pius Heinz

German 'wunderkind' and 2011 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold 'Em Main Event winner Pius Heinz will be fighting for his second bracelet in as many years when the 2012 Main Event kicks off July 7th and he will be hoping to do it in the same dominantly aggressive manner in which he previously triumphed. Heinz, 22, from Cologne was a seemingly unknown poker player prior to his explosion onto the scene in 2011 with his first-attempt World Series Gold Bracelet.

Aggressive play, aggressive stare

After surviving an extremely strong 'November Nine' with no less than 7 nationalities represented including the skillful American Ben Lamb; the cunning Ukranian Anton Makiievskyi and the British youngster Sam Holden, Heinz came face to face with Martin Staszko from the small town of Trinec, Czech Republic. The German was victorious and took home the monumental first place prize $8,715,638 and one custom Gold and Diamond WSOP Bracelet, the most coveted prize in all of poker. 

Since the German's  ascendant performance in his first ever WSOP, Heinz has had success on the European Poker Tour (EPT) winning in Barcelona in the No Limit Hold 'Em Turbo Bounty, a further cash finishing in 23rd and taking home $6,742 from Prague's No Limit Hold 'Em event and finally reaching the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure No Limit Hold 'Em 8 Max event before being knocked out in 5th place for a $45,980 pay day. During this years World Series, Heinz has had arguably mixed success so far playing his way towards 2 cashes in No Limit Hold 'Em events however only cashing cheques for a total of $17,031, a mere 0.2% of his 2011 WSOP main event winnings. 

After a hugely successful 18 months of poker, in this years Main Event Pius Heinz will be looking to overcome the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel who combine for a colossal 33 World Series of Poker Gold Bracelets

Heinz pictured with his winning hand, game chips, prize money and bracelet