2013 January 14

By David “the Maven” Chicotsky

When we’re deep in a tournament, the different chip stacks at the table will have the effect of causing us to make fewer or more plays. Instead of simply estimating if a certain play is chip positive expected value, we must also calculate if the play is expected to be positive relative to our tournament equity.

 Deep in a tournament, I recommend taking inventory of the different chip stacks at the table - re-calculating the stacks after each hand. Look for similar stacks, and put them in different categories. For example, if there are 12 players left and we are an average stack - the first thing we’ll want to do is look for similar stacks as ourselves. Let’s say there are 6 similar stacks as ours, 2 stacks that are much larger than ours, and 3 much smaller stacks.

by Barbara Rogers

Seneca Niagara is bringing you the Western New York Poker Challenge. Hot seat drawings are already underway, and you have a chance to satellite into the main event now. The tournament schedule will run from February 12th to the 18th. All details will be brought to you in the next issue of Poker Player. The rooms in Niagara Falls at Seneca Niagara are beautiful and you can get a poker rate if you call in time. The code is (poker event) and the phone number is 877-8-Seneca or 716-278-6300.

Back by popular demand, bestbet hosted its second college poker tournament at bestbet Jacksonville. The College Poker Challenge concluded with a field of 98! For each buy-in players received 1 ticket for the prize drawings and for each re-entry they received an additional ticket for the drawings. Prizes were items such as a 32’ smart led TV, mini ipad, kindle fire hd, 4 club seat tickets to the nfl game, 8 club seat tickets to the gator bowl, two beat headphones, two ipod lamp docking stations, a professional divers watch and so much more! Everyone had a chance at winning but only one lucky person would take home the bragging rights of first place and the immaculate College Poker Challenge trophy. That lucky winner goes by the name of Ononike Umerah. Ononike is a senior at UNF studying psychology. He is a recreational player, who plays mostly cash, making this his first tournament win.

by Barbara Rogers

Lucky Lonnie Lundy, a car salesman from Lima, Ohio won the $300 December Mega Stack at Hollywood Casino Toledo, taking home $7194. Lucky, because the win came just in time for Christmas, the rest was pure skill, I’m sure. The next Mega Stack will be on Sunday, January 6th at 12:15 pm with satellites starting on January 5th. Poker room manager, Peter Lau is featuring games of the week this month. Fridays: $1-$3 Pot Limit Omaha, Thursdays: $3-6 Limit hold’em. The big Hollywood Poker Open Seat Giveaway Drawing will be held on January 13th, 2013. Players can qualify by playing 45 hours of cash games or 25 hours + 5 tournaments (not much to ask- I can do that standing on my head) from now until January 11, 2013.

by Barbara Rogers

I just played poker at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Delaware. The weekdays are so busy, you'd think it was still vacation time or at least the weekend. While seated at my table, I said, "Wow this is a lot of players for a weekday... Doesn't anyone have a job?" The response was, "Everyone took off work!" And so it goes, at Delaware Park, where the Winter Classic is now underway. There are still plenty of tournaments left to be played out, including the main event beginning on Saturday, January 12th, with a guaranteed pay-out of $150,000. Great dealers, fun players from all over the country. I played with a guy from Mansfield, Ohio, who was in town for the entire event. The remolded Red Roof Inn is offering poker player discounts - call them at 302 292 2870 for details.

by Barbara Rogers

There's still time to win a seat at the big Hollywood Poker Open at the M Resort in Vegas running tournaments January 25th, 26th and 27th for seats in the highly anticipated event, which will play out in June! My Vegas friends are planning on playing all three events, and a local poker buddy is flying to Vegas to join in the fun at the M Resort. This is an exciting time for all! Win your share of $10,000 for a very reasonable $125.00 investment, $20,000 for a very fair $225.00 investment, and $40,000 for a bargain of only $335.00. Find out how you can win a seat in the Hollywood Poker Open by visiting www.hollywoodpokeropen.com

by Tom McEvoy

2012 was quite a year for the poker world. The greatest scandal in poker history occurred when the owners of Full Tilt not only had their site shut down, but made no effort to repay their customers, and (except for Ray Bitar) avoided criminal charges—so far. They all belong in a jail cell as far as I am concerned. On a much happier note, PokerStars, the true hero of online poker, took over ownership of Full Tilt and immediately promised to repay all their customers worldwide. The only thing slowing things down for the U.S. customers is the turtle like pace of our justice department in permitting people to reclaim their money. This is the government’s fault, not the fault of PokerStars.

I heard from a friend of forty years, Art Sathmary, last year (2012). He phoned me unexpectedly to touch bases. Art, with his famous “ASQ” waiting-board initials, remains one of the true legends of Gardena poker.

 Gardena? You had to be there to understand. That small Los Angeles suburb was poker central in America for decades. In fact, it billed itself as the “Poker Capital of the World.” This self-interview is about that and about a small event involving Art and me that changed my way of thinking about poker.

 Question 1: Before you explain why today’s word is “quarter,” tell us about Gardena. What was it like?

Las Vegas Poker Pro Earns Biggest Victory of Career

Jonathan Chehanske won the final championship event of the calender year tonight, taking down the Main Event held at Harrah’s Rincon, near San Diego. Chehanske won his first World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring, plus the top cash prize totaling $107,862. The new champion also wins a seat into the WSOP National Championship by virtue of his victory.

Chehanske overcame the odds more than once in this tournament, ultimately beating out a field of 306 entrants. His victory was something of a surprise given the stiff competition at the final table, which included several seasoned tournament veterans, most notably Soi Nguyen – best-known for making the final table in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Moreover, Chehanske began play outchippped by a large margain. When the cards were dealt, he was down by a 4 to 1 margin to the chip leader, Edmund Liu, who finished fourth.

by Barbara Rogers
 
Overspend over the holidays? Turning Stone may just bail you out. Always generous with their live game giveaways, Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York delivers once again in January—with $20,000 guaranteed in the main event tournament and $20,000 in the live game giveaways.

 Here’s a little different take on tournament entry: for only $35.00 as an entry fee, you must place in the top two of a qualifier, there is no direct buy-in. The good news is, there will be four $35.00 held daily on Thursday 24th thru Saturday the 26th. The times are as follows: 12pm, 3pm, 7pm, and 10pm. The top two from each table advance to Sunday’s main event. The tournament will start on the 27th at 11am. The format is Deep Stack Turbo, 20 minute levels with 20,000 chips to work with. First place takes $5,000, 2nd takes $2,750, with 3rd place pocketing $1,800. A total of thirty places will be paid.