2006 May 15

During the 2005 World Series of Poker held at the Rio my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting an outstanding professional whom I consider one of the top female players, Jennifer Harmen. In a recent article appearing on the Full Tilt Poker web site, Jennifer discussed and offered some advice on playing "Omaha-8". Unfortunately I do not concur with some of the advice given. When I started to write these articles I decided to always let the numbers speak for themselves as opposed to offering opinions.

A few years ago, I was invited by Binion's to bring "The Seniors" World Championship of Poker no-limit hold'em tournament to the WSOP downtown at the old Binion's Horseshoe hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was invited by Binion's to be inducted into their personal Poker Players Hall of Fame-however, there was a condition! They said I would have to wait until after I was dead-because the rules had changed and they were only putting poker players into their personal poker players hall of fame after their death.

Like pocket aces, pocket kings work best against a short field. You should definitely raise with them preflop, from any position, because they're a huge favorite to be the best hand. As with aces, raise enough to drive out the shoe clerks who can pummel you from below. Three times the big blind is a good point of departure; bet more if others limp in first. As with aces, you don't want a lot of traffic. The trouble with kings, though, is that the traffic they attract usually contains aces.

Sunset Station Resort is located on the southeast side of the Las Vegas valley in Henderson, Nevada. In the center of the shopping district Sunset Station is surrounded by hundreds of shops and one of the premier shopping malls in Nevada, the Galleria. A high-rise hotel tower visible from all around the valley offers 457 recently remodeled oversize rooms and suites to accommodate the guest in a Spanish themed luxurious room. Amenities include high-speed Internet connectivity and 24 hour room service plus the convenience of an airport shuttle service for registered guest.

I recently received an e-mail from a regular reader of "Improving Performance" who is relatively new to the game but has certainly been bitten by the poker bug. He has been playing for the better part of a year and has read several good books and plays both live and internet low limit hold'em. He feels he understands the game well and is very frustrated that he isn't a winning player. His analysis of why he can't seem to win is interesting and I believe common among low limit players in his predicament.

Christopher Coffin was born in Franklin, Indiana in 1961 and shortly after Chris was born his father enlisted in the Army. That was the beginning of the many places Chris was to call home, from that point on his family moved from Kansas to Texas to France to Georgia before settling in Indiana in 1968 when his Dad was sent to Viet Nam.

When his Dad returned in 1969 the family moved to Colorado for about a year. Chris's Dad returned to Viet Nam and at that time the family settled in Iowa. In 1971 his Dad returned from Viet Nam for the second time and the family moved back to Colorado.

Railbirds who do not play Texas Hold'em may wonder why players, who call the first round of betting, place an object on their hole cards. The answer is - it indicates that their hand is in action. These objects range from playing chips, gold and silver coins, to an infinite variety of personal good luck charms. For Jimmy Chu, his good luck charm on this evening was half of an ancient Chinese coin with the tail of a dragon on one side.

Winning at any poker table is a challenge! But winning at seven stud high-low will test your poker skills to the max! If you haven't tried the games lately, or ever, go online to your favorite casino and give it a shot! If you enjoy it like the hundreds who play every day, why not request that your poker room spread it in your favorite land-based casino? It's nice to see the "pros" endorsing all forms of poker; after all, why limit the greatest gaming experience in the world to only one or two types of games?

In the last two articles, I discussed some of the reasons why playing in a straight forward fashion when you have a made hand is better than slow playing in no limit hold em. This goes for vulnerable made hands as well as hands that might not seem that vulnerable. The more opponents in the hand, the more likely one of them is going to have something they are willing to call with.

On a blustery Friday afternoon in late winter, I was playing $4-8 Hold'Em in my local poker room and wondering if the dealer would ever toss a starting hand my way, when Steve came over to my Hold'Em table between hands at his table. He asked me about a hand in a ten-handed $2- 5 No-Limit Hold'Em game the night before.