2007 October 15

He was on the road again, poker pro Lee Watkinson and his friends.

There he was on an afternoon in mid-September, sitting around his London hotel waiting for a plane out of there, still deciding on his next stop in search of poker table action.

I've written about little pairs and the problems they can present especially when played out of position. There are many beginners and intermediate players who just can't resist playing little pairs. You only see a pocket pair, on average, every sixteen hands so what's not to like? I'll tell you what's not to like and that is little pairs out of position!

The funniest reason I've heard regarding playing little pairs in early position is the premise that if they are folded, they always seem to make a set on the flop ...

Corrado Gini published his technique for finding a measure of variability in 1912. Brown and Adams, in their Bluff article, "Luck and Skill in Poker," (2007 July p.104) used Gini's coefficient to measure the degree of skill extant in tournament poker. Brown and Adams concluded that skill and luck existed in a 1-to-3 ratio for the 2006 WSOP $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament, a Gini coefficient of 0.24. Gini's coefficient ranges from 0 to 1.0: the lower, the luckier; the higher, the more skillful.

There are so many rules and scenarios in a poker game that you can't possibly know or even learn until you or someone at your table screws up! There also are many "decisions" that can't be made until the exact sequence occurs and then a floorperson does the best that he can under the circumstances.

Having worked as a tournament director and floorperson, I often found myself jolted awake at night rethinking decisions I made. With more time to think things through, I frequently came up with better solutions.

Maybe I'm playing poker too much. I was sitting in synagogue today, the first day of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah-a day for serious introspection. I found myself focused on a prayer written by the famous Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. He was addressing the Jewish view of sin and salvation-major themes on this special holiday. He wrote:

For the first time in the nearly four decade history of the WSOP, bracelets were awarded outside the confines of Las Vegas. This, however, led some observers to question the event. Is the World Series of Poker Europe really a part of World Series lore? Should they award bracelets? And finally, was the inaugural WSOP-E well received?

For the last two columns, we've been dealing with questions and answers important to poker success. Today, we move onward (today's word), further exploring this method of teaching-one where I get to choose the questions that I answer.

If you haven't caught Spamalot at the Venetian in Las Vegas, make sure you put this on your must-see list as it is one of he funniest and most successful Broadway shows to hit our town in a long time. The star for the past six months has been John O'Hurley, previously best-known for his recurring role on Seinfeld as Mr. Peterman and his winning moves on Dancing With the Stars a few seasons ago. Space restricts me from running my whole interview, but here are a few highlights.

The first California Poker Players Conference will be held on October 20 and 21 at Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California. On October 20, Phyllis Caro, Director of Poker Operations at HPC will welcome you to the two-day extravaganza. As keynote speaker, Mike "the Mad Genius of Poker" Caro will be offering winning poker tips throughout the conference.

"Know When to Hold'em ..." Ask any professional poker player what the single biggest mistake made by novice Texas players is and they will tell you, "Playing too many hands." It's so easy to hold onto a mediocre pair of cards with the dream that your hand will get better. Sometimes it does, but most of the time it does not.