2008 June 23

Over Memorial Day weekend I attended a tax seminar in Las Vegas. Once the seminar was over, I got a chance to play some poker. The results were decidedly mixed, with both big wins and big losses. But no matter what the result, it always felt like that I was just being pulled into whatever result I ended up with.

Do you play poker on the internet? Yeah, I thought so. Do you pull your personal playing statistics to review them on a regular basis?

Yeah, I didn't think so. Do you ever look at your playing stats and attempt to evaluate them? Jeez, I hope so and if you don't maybe you should start. It's a free service the poker sites offer, and something that isn't available to you in your live playing sessions.

It starts as restlessness when I pick up the latest issue of Poker Player Newspaper and see all the ads for tournaments in June and July. It grows to a rumbling in my brain as I read my many emails from poker rooms urging me to enter satellites for the main event. It then crescendos into a wave of uncontrollable desire to bask in poker glory by winning a championship bracelet. It's World Series of Poker fever. And I've caught it!

The good news is that Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota just announced that it will host the first annual Twin Cities Poker Open, a $1,500 buyin + $120 entry fee no-limit hold'em tournament, on Sunday, August 10th. Players can either buy their way into the finals, or earn their way in through one of the qualifying heats taking place on Wednesday August 6 through Saturday August 9. The top 20 percent of each qualifying heat-$300 buy-in + $40 entry fee-will earn a nontransferable seat into the finals with no additional entry fee.

I caution my students and those who follow my advice to be aware of how they present themselves at the poker table. Good ethics and proper decorum not only enhance the public image of poker but your profit, too.

Today, let's continue this series of columns in which I get to interview myself, asking and answering my own questions. If you're ready, I'm going to focus on how you should present yourself at the poker table.

Today's word is "decorum," and it is an aspect of poker too often misunderstood and overlooked as a method for making money.

A winning poker player needs a lot of patience. He must be able to wait patiently until a playable hand is deal to him-considering all the factors involved in hand selection. (This is made easier using the Hold'em Algorithm as described in my Hold'em or Fold'em? booklet.) But there is another aspect that we rarely consider: Patience also can help you avoid going on tilt.

I'd been working on a screenplay from a novel about an Iraq veteran who discovered a letter written during World War II in an old Zane Grey book.

The letter made reference to a treasure of Civil War weapons buried in Missouri. It's one of those interesting and believable tales which sucks you into the plot. It's one of the best I'd worked on in a long time.

I'm enjoying sunshine on the fantail of Lazybuns, a better place to write than my condo on a day like today. "How's your story going, Joe?" Hobby asked.

"It's not my story, Hobby. I'm trying to work it into a script for a movie."

After the first half dozen or so events at the WSOP the Brits were doing quite well. James Akenhead claimed second place in Event No. 2, while Spencer Lawrence matched his feat in Event No. 5.

Peter Gould placed third in Event No. 5 and Roland de Wolfe took fifth in Event No. 4. However, after the first few tournaments final table appearances dried up and it was not until Event No. 24 that there was another Brit in attendance. It was JP Kelly who broke the dry spell in the $2,500 PL hold'em/ Omaha.

Tournament Mania in Las Vegas. The Rio opened its doors on May 29 for the start of the 2008 World Series of Poker and several cardrooms throughout the city have taken advantage of the thousands of poker players that have converged on Las Vegas.

With buy-ins ranging from $100-$2,000 and starting chips of $4,000 -$25,000 there's a tournament to fit everyone's budget. To entice players, cardrooms are offering players mounds of starting chips, longer rounds, bonus chips, and reasonable buy-ins.

Recently I played in Ultimate Bet's preliminary free-roll for a WSOP main event seat, which UB is offering several times daily through the Grand Final on May 25th. The first time I played, I played way too tight and was knocked out after finally picking up a big pair and running into a big stack, who called my all-in bet with 10-6 offsuit and hit an eight on the river for a straight. You would call this a bad beat only if you had not played many 4000-5000 player free-rolls where, "Any two will do," and over half the players are eliminated in the first 30 minutes.