2006 July 10

If you've followed tournament poker over the last few years, you've witnessed what appearing on television can do to enhance a player's popularity. Many established professionals have become celebrities on the basis of their success in televised tournament play, while previously unknown players have stepped into the limelight by winning a major tournament and then following up on their success in others, becoming household names in the process.

Las Vegas, NV - If America is the "land of opportunity," then poker is the amphitheater for fast-track success. The green felt provides equal opportunity for just about everyone to become rich and famous. Things which are important to the rest of society - such as race, religion, age, sex, education, language skills, family ties, personal background, and job title - have absolutely no bearing on who wins or loses at the poker table. Indeed, poker is the most "democratic" of all games.

Rules are what separate civilization from anarchy, and this is as important at the poker table as it is in any other aspect of life. Every card room where poker is played publicly has a set rules by which they conduct their games, but although some of these rule books are publicly available, before now none of these have been widely published. Roy Cooke is a well-regarded professional poker player and who often collaborates with poker enthusiast and writer John Bond.

It has been said that poker is stealing by mutual consent. I know that to be a fact because that maxim appears on a wooden plaque hanging on my game room wall along with all kinds of other poker related pictures and memorabilia. That pithy saying refers to the perceived disparity of skill among a group of poker players. The kind of stealing I'd like to discuss today is the absolute necessity of stealing blinds and small pots in tournament play.

Las Vegas, NV - For the third consecutive year, the record for youngest World Series of Poker winner has been broken. Back in 2004, Gavin Griffin became the youngest player in history to win a gold bracelet. Even then, with so many young people turned on to poker, it seemed just a matter of time before a younger star would emerge and eclipse the record. Next came 2005, when Eric Froehlich won the $1,500 buy in Limit Hold'em championship. At 21 years, three months, and three days of age, Froehlich established a new benchmark for the youngest poker champion.

Some years ago, a player that I respect made a curious statement. He said, "If I am going to lose, I'd rather lose betting than just calling!" He never fully explained this attitude; yet, over and over I noticed how well he did with this aggressive approach. So, I began to pay attention to the difference in players who were more apt to bet and those who were content with just calling.

Hobby and I were checking out a new restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard that was supposed to have a good piano bar. The pianist- singer was touted to be Fitzgerald-like. After dinner-so-so prime ribs-we took our drinks into the lounge to listen to the piano plinking and the lady's vocal warbling, cooing, trilling, and scatting. She was doing a medley of familiar Cole Porter songs. Not Ella by a long shot, but not bad; actually quite entertaining.

Despite a popular misconception, men did not win the West alone. Women were there too.

Almost exclusively a male activity, gambling thrived among the miners, loggers and cowboys of the American frontier. "Gamblin'," as one boomtown bartender remembered it, "was a man's job, like fightin' or steer ropin'."

They call him "The Grinder."

That's grinder as in he just keeps on keeping on. In the words of one admirer, "Kind of like the Energizer Bunny. Steady and dependable." Doesn't matter what the challenge is: tournaments, cash games, on line activity . . . he'll go wherever the action happens to be. That's 25-year old Michael Mizrachi who has been playing poker with a lot of success since before he was old enough to legally sit at the table. But he carried himself like he knew his way around the table. Besides, the kid had all the money. No one wanted to see him pack it in and leave.

Psychology is essential to master if you're planning to extract the most profit from your poker games. Tells can add oodles of extra cash. Finesse tactics will let you play hands in ways that add extra chips to your stacks. I teach all of this.

But none of it is enough to make you a winner unless you learn a basic game plan from the getgo. You need to have a solid understanding of the elemental components of poker before you can be comfortable with more sophisticated techniques. And that's the concept we're going to talk about today.