October 10th, 2011

by Nick Christenson

 In many ways we can consider this the third installment in HP’s “Kill” poker book series, and, in fact, its French title is Kill ElkY. The book is divided into several sections with some chapters primarily written by different members of the authoring team. The book begins with a qualitative exegesis by ElkY on how he approaches the current tournament scene. The strategy provided is designed to exploit what ElkY sees as weaknesses in most contemporary players’ games. The explanation comes off as a bit jumbled at times, and it seems rather counter-exploitable, but there are a lot of interesting suggestions here.

In my opinion the greatest thing about hold’em is that there is no singularly correct way to play the game.

 One player may thrive as a “by the book” player while another may consistently win as a loose aggressive “donkey.” Recently, I’ve put a lot of thought in to what makes this game so popular over other forms of poker, such as Omaha, seven card stud or even the newly popular pineapple (Texas hold’em dealt three cards to each player and player chooses best two cards).

 I struggled to find reasons that could be stated beyond mere personal opinion, until I listened to an old favorite song of mine, “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. From this song a very famous phrase came to fruition “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em.”

by Lou Krieger

Maybe it was the day, or the time, or just a random confluence of forces, but there’s a big difference between younger and older no-limit hold’em players. What brought this clearly to light was a full table no-limit game, where seven of the table’s players looked to be on the downhill side of 50. And the majority of older players made one similarly shocking error. They significantly overvalued big pairs.

by Barbara Connors
 
Poker players put up with a lot. Obnoxious opponents, unhealthful food, and the ever present threat of bad luck. No matter how skilled you are or how hard you work at making the correct decisions, you’re always at the mercy of cold cards and cruel suckouts. You can play your heart out and still go broke. But for all the slings and arrows we endure at the poker table, perhaps no single blow is more crushing than the cooler.

It’s been called many things: dumb luck, being a luck box, stupid luck, beginners luck, intuition, and more. Whatever it is, I wish I had more of it. And there were many times when I was lucky, sucked out on the river, made bad calls and hit. I played a tournament this summer where I was allin 20-plus times, short stacked the entire way, and somehow made it to second place. There is no skill in that; it was luck pure and simple.

by John "The Scientist" Hayes
 
On Friday night September 16 at 7 p.m. 653 players converged on the 2nd-floor tournament playing area hoping to grab the $10K Guaranteed Prize Pool at the Commerce Casino in City of Commerce, CA. I was one of those players. Over 1200 players initially signed up on Facebook.

The structure was a $60 buy-in (no rebuys), 10K in starting chips, twenty-minute levels, and 2-hour rounds. This particular tournament structure provides a great game for beginners, recreational players, and aspiring pros because it helps them get their feet wet in tournament play without having to commit too much cash or time.

Get Ready for Deep Stack Poker in Reno. The Peppermill’s Deep Stack Poker Tournament runs from October 26-30. It’s a five day no-limit hold’em tournament series with buyins ranging from $120 to $225. There will be three events per day, at noon, 4p.m. and 7 p.m. The 4 p.m. events are various games. The $170 and $225 buy-ins receive 6,000 in tournament chips and the $120 buy-in receives 4,000 in tournament chips. Players will be given an additional 2,000 in tournament chips with an optional $10 dealer bonus buy. Call today and mention code: EPOK101 for special room rates. For more information see the Peppermill ad in this issue of Poker Player Newspaper. [PDF(pg 8)]

by Wendeen H. Eolis
 
In a stinging denouncement of Full Tilt Poker’s business principles, the United States Department of Justice has significantly raised the stakes in the company’s bid to extricate itself from the government’s grip and escalating financial woes.

In a press release last Tuesday, the Government labeled Full Tilt’s operations as that of a Ponzi scheme, one that had bilked its most loyal players mercilessly. The mainstream media as well as poker media took the bait, catapulting the Justice Department’s latest allegations against Full Tilt and its Board of Directors into page one news worldwide.

by Haley Hintze
 
WAXMAN SOARS AT WPT PARIS

 Floridian Matthew Waxman’s trip to Paris for the World Poker Tour Paris stop ended in the biggest payday of his career. Waxman triumphed over a 312-player field at the celebrated Aviation Club de France to win $729,886, sealing the win when he dodged runner-up Hugo Lemaire’s flush draw. Lemaire was France’s last hope for a home-country winner, though like Waxman, his secondplace payday of $442,645 was the largest of his career. Third place and $299,834 went to fellow Frenchman Frederic Magen, while Byron Kaverman, Mikko Sundell and Martin Jacobson also made the to-be-televised finale.