Go Joe!
January 9, 2007
Joe Haschem is proving that he’s not a one hit wonder in the poker world. Last December Joe had another poker win of $US2.2 million at the Bellagio Hotel Casino.
Nice job Joe! Show the world that Aussies can take on the best.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/12/21/1166290623821.html
The Power of Early Position in Hold’em
October 25, 2006
Players of hold’em poker talk a lot about position. Position is a key factor in a game like hold’em, where players closest to the left of the dealer act first on every round. This means that the later you act in the hand, the more information you have, and information is gold to a savvy poker player. It is clear that the power of late position in hold’em is great, but what about early position? Believe it or not, having early position in hold’em can bring some power with it too.
Early Position Bets Get More Respect
Because the other players are generally aware of how vulnerable an early position hand is, a player raising from an early position will get much more respect than a raiser in late position. In most cases, this intuition is correct. Because you are at a positional disadvantage, you should be much stricter about the range of hands you will call or raise with pre-flop from an early position. However if you do opt to attempt a bluff, betting out from an early position will give an added image of strength and can make your bluffs more successful.
Early Position Players Get First Crack at The Pot
The statistical reality is that most flops miss most people. This means that providing there are not too many players in the hand, there is a good chance that the flop will miss everybody. In situations like this, the player who is first to bet, the one that takes the lead in the hand, is likely to win the pot. If you are the first to act, you get the first chance to bet, and can win the pot in this way. You also have the opportunity to make a probe bet, a small bet that allows you to get away cheaply if you are shown strength by a raise, but will give you an idea of how strong your opponents are.
Early Position Players Can Control the Pot
Controlling the pot means regulating the size of the pot by the size of your betting. If you keep the pot small, it will be easier for you to get to the river with drawing cards or a somewhat marginal hand. If you let the pot get big quickly, you are in a better position to get all of your opponents’ chips in the middle if you are very strong or force them out with an all in bet if you want to get rid of draws. When you act first, you set the tone of the betting by what you do. In this way you have a strong influence on how big the pot gets early on.
All things being equal, in a poker game you have your biggest advantage in late position. A savvy, aggressive player makes the most of his or her opportunities, however, and can gain an advantage even when he or she is one of the first to act.
Is 9 Hours of Poker too Much?
August 16, 2006
Last Sunday my friends and I had a poker marathon. 7 players, 9 hours, and a 30 minute break to duck down to Oportos. We managed to fit in 4 no limit hold’em poker games and 1 game of Omaha. I was dizzy by the end of it.
The game of Omaha killed me. It was the first time I had ever played it, and it was really confusing. Never has holding triple 9’s and a K hurt so much.
Have you ever tried Omaha? You get 4 hole cards, and the board is dealt just like Texas Hold’em. 2 cards from your hand must be used with 3 cards from the board. No more, no less. So there’s much more chances to get 4 of a kind, straights and flushes, but you are very restricted on which cards you can use from the hole and the board. Your hand could change from being the best, to the worst, to the best, and then the worst with each card that comes out on the board. It gets frustrating!
I recommend you to give it a try next time you have a game at home. All the guys who played for the first time really liked it. It woke them up from our multiple no limited hold’em games.
Don’t be a Fool!
July 27, 2006
Alright, I’ve seen lots of different reactions and emotions at a poker table. People have cried in despair, others grin and bear it, some even slam the table, but I was taken by surprise when this guy threw a big fit, stormed away from the table and came back later to complain and threaten people.
He was in a pot with my friend. It was a huge pot, the guy was chip leader and my friend had a fair amount of chips at the final table. This guy went all in after the flop, which was 3, 4, 5 all different suits. My friend had two picture cards: Q, J off suit. What was he supposed to do? My friend is the kind of guy that likes to say “I’m committed. I’ve invested so much”. Yep, he put in about 1/4 of his chips before the flop.
The other guy gave my friend the death stare. It was VERY intense and you could tell he was trying to shoot my friend down. I was even afraid.
My friend took a gamble and called. He was lucky all night so he thought he’d give it a try. He had two over cards afterall.
My friend reluctantly turned over his cards, while his opponent slammed his A, 2 on the table. That guy had the nuts on the flop – a straight. No wonder he was giving my friend the stare down, he was afraid my friend had the higher straight on the flop.
There was no way my friend would win! All the spectators felt sorry for him, you could see the disappointment on everyone’s faces…. especially my friend. He was pacing around getting ready to go home.
The dealer revealed the turn card….. It was a 6! A card was burnt…… the dealer reached for the river card and said “All this guy needs is a 7″. One card closer to a straight on the board…. the spectators leaned in and pulled on the ropes surrounding the final table. My friend was praying to the poker gods and pacing around like a mad man….. his opponent was standing up all ready to reach out for the huge 40K pot.
The dealer turned over a 7!! Amazing! My friend screamed in relief….. all the spectators couldn’t believe what they just saw. “It’s a split pot”, explained the dealer to both players. The other guy yelled in anger, ”NOOOOOOOOOO!”. He was so convinced he had won. The dealer tried to explain that the highest 5 cards were on the board and that it was a split pot. He wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t have it at all. He kept saying loudly, “I won”.
He got so mad he stormed off cursing under his breath. His chips were forfeited and taken off the table. My friend couldn’t believe his luck, he got his chips back, and more, on the luckiest hand I’ve seen in a while.
Everyone went on with the game.
About half an hour later the angry guy comes back to the poker arena and tells a club manager that he wants to send a complaint letter about the rules. It’s very clear that the rules of No Limit Hold’em Poker that he was playing was the 5 best cards win (The Showdown, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_hold_’em). It was an APL event that night so the host tried to calmly explain to him again what the rules were, but he still wouldn’t listen. He argued with the host and walked off, but not without saying to the security guard “Why are you looking at me?” with attitude. That’s not the smartest thing to do. The security guard was a big guy with a commanding presence. He was lucky the security guard kept his cool.
It’s understandable that emotions run wild when playing poker; that’s all part of the game. We have to learn to get on with the game and continue to make good decisions. This guy just took it too far and made a fool of himself in front of a lot of people. I hope he’s learnt the rules of Hold’em, and I look forward to playing with him at an APL tournament …….. that’s if he returns.
Poker Champion is going to make a proudly Australian made poker table available very shortly and will be one of the very few who will be stocking this range of Royale Deluxe poker tables.
These tables are made for those discerning poker players who want a quality table made with quality materials.
The Royale Deluxe in our reception area. Looks good doesn’t it? View larger image
These aren’t going to be any ordinary table. They’re made using leather-like edges with lots of padding so you can comfortably rest your arms. These arm rests are made of Lustrell® material that’s made to last. It’s highly resistant to peeling or splitting like you see in the cheaper Chinese made tables.
The top of the table isn’t made of felt. It’s actually made of something a lot better – Macrosuede®. The Macrosuede® is laid on top of a thick layer of padding; so the table top has a nice, soft, luxurious feel. For those in the know, Macrosuede® feels like suede but is very easy to clean – liquid spills ‘bead’ on the surface of the cloth so you can just wipe off any spills.
The table will initially be available in green and with beech legs or chrome legs. Feel free to send an email to info@pokerchampion.com.au to express your interest in this product or if you would like to drop by our office in Balmain, Sydney to take a look. The retail price is $550 for the pictured table; postage is extra. Chrome legs are slightly more.
You’ll feel like you’re hosting the classiest poker night ever with this table. Get out your best beer or wine and get ready for a poker night all your guests will remember.
Will a Robot be the Next WPT Champion?
July 13, 2006
Ah, not yet, but don’t be too surprised if it was to happen at the end of the year.
A couple of smarty pants, Prof. Tuomas Sandholm and student Andrew Gilpin, at Carnegie Mellon University developed the Big Blue of Poker called GS1. This self learning program knows how to play a game of poker and has kicked the ass of two other pokerbots in heads-up limit Texas hold’em.
GS1 is capable of developing its own poker strategy after doing all the fancy computer calculations in its wired brain.
What I would like to see is the program being able to take on the likes of Doyle Brunson and… Hmmm .. possibly even Phil Hellmuth. At least Phil won’t be able to annoy the hell out of the program, but who knows.
Apparently GS1 knows when to hold and fold, but how well will it stand up to bluffing? I’m assuming you’re a poker player…… so you’d probably know how often people can bluff. Professional poker players aren’t so inclined to bluffing, but don’t always play according to the strength of the hand or their position.
Some people play some hands by their gut feeling. Others play based on how lucky they feel, and some others just get lucky. How will a computer be able to simulate these kind of plays? Not very well I’d imagine. It’s almost like trying to generate a truely random number isn’t it?
Let’s see how far Sandholm and Gilpin are able to refine their pokerbot before it starts earning millions at poker tournaments.
Read more about it at http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=34706&eid=3&edate=20060711
I’m in the process of reading their research paper to get more authoritative information about this pokerbot. More updates coming soon!
Are you a poker addict?
June 8, 2006
Calculate your odds before you lose!
May 16, 2006
Tim Babb's come up with a little gem of a program. It's his own Poker Odds Calculator for PC and Mac.
It helps you find out your chances of winning or losing a specific hand AND the chance that your OPPONENT may win or lose their hand. You get these statistics for the flop, turn, and the river.
The only problem with this is that you have no idea what your opponent's hand, but you can use it to help you learn about probability.
Check it out at http://people.ucsc.edu/~tbabb/programs/pokerodds/
Who is your favourite Poker Champion girl?
March 29, 2006
Comment in the blog as to who is your favourite poker champion girl.
Poker champions in the finals!
March 26, 2006
The poker champions didnt win the corporate games of poker but we sure had a great time. Frank and Fred both made it through to the 2 last tables. Frankie took a tough gig having poket kings and going down to 3 7's. A big hand short stacked him and forced him to go all in. Fred had a tall stack and went head to head with the chip leader on the table. After a huge reraise which he called only to find the chip leader with pocket aces and Fred being out of the action with QJ offsuited. A quick exit for a great match.
Heres Frankie after the event. We celebrated with some great rounds of blackjack and roulette.
Some of the Poker Champion girls. Emma and Bella.
More photos to come! If anyone saw us at the event send me a comment and we can talk it up.
