EPT Grand Final 2012

Congratulations to Leo Margets for her win in the Ladies event in the EPT Grand Final in Monaco.  Also, a tip of the hat to runner-up Victoria Cohen who literally ran herself ragged multi-tabling the TOC at the same time she was playing the Ladies Event.

EPT2012 Grand Final

Just finished watching the live stream of the EPT2012 Grand Final final table.  The coverage was great and I learned quite a bit from the privilege of seeing the entire range of hands.  Never was able to figure out Bernard, though.  He played horribly. "Nit" doesn't begin to describe it.  He did manage to fold his way to 3rd place, about 400euro more than 8th.  So I guess he can always point to that as his high water mark, and I must admit that sum of money is anything but insignificant, especially at his age.  But still.......watching him make bad plays and sit there waiting for J's or better before he'd play post flop?  It was actually painful to witness.  He actually folded A8  3-handed on the turn after he had flopped top pair (A's) to a rather weak-looking double barrel from Cailly.

I must admit, however, that the reaction of the commentators was more than worth the pain.  Stapleton, especially was incredulous.  The poker pro guest commentators were only slightly less exasperated.

I guess it's true what they say,  "There's at least one donkey at every table".  Even the final table.

SSDD, again.

I'll be sooo glad when the Fed's get their heads out of their asses and their noses out of our business.  Playing online free poker is nothing but a big donk-fest.  No one respects the game (maybe they don't know how to play?).  Just busted 137th/1470.  I was short and pushed UTG+1 for a little over 9,000 (about 11BB's) with suited Broadway cards.  Idiot on the button calls off 95% of his stack with A8os?????  WTF kinda poker play is that?  I'd never showed anything less than quality hands all night, carefully building a solid rep for a deep run.  This guy had absolutely no excuse for calling.  I guess it's true:  There's No Defense Against a Lucky Donkey.

How would you handle this?

More than just rumor

Well, it appears that the rumors of PokerStars being interested in the purchase of FullTiltPoker are more than just wishful thinking.  You can get the latest information from the Poker Players Alliance.

More good news:  It appears that the DOJ has determined that the scope of the Wire Act does not apply to online poker.  Hopefully this will lead to a return of US access to online poker.

Get news, interviews, webcasts and more from the Poker Players Alliance.

What do you do?

I'd like some ideas for improving your poker game.  What have you done to improve your ITM percentage? How many of you utilize a HUD?  Have you bought someone's CD's, books, or DVD's?  Have you taken one of the many weekend poker "camps"?  What have you gotten out of these resources and which one's would you recommend to other players?  Which one's would you tell players to avoid?

I've already said that I am a fan of Annie Duke's new book.  I've also read Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book" and "Little Gold Book".  I also follow a few players on Twitter to try to get a flavor of the life of a touring poker professional.  One thing I've done to help myself advance is to write my own poker book.  Yes, you read that right.  I wrote a poker book.  I remembered reading somewhere once that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to someone else.  So that's what I did.  Only the person I'm trying to teach is me.  I started by keeping an account of notable events that I either witnessed or experienced while at the table.  Especially my own mistakes (some of them have appeared earlier in this blog).

What I ended up with was over 50 pages of information that I organized into a 47 page poker book covering topics from bankroll management, to hand selection, style of play and whether or not to play in the first place.  I have since added another 25 pages of tips.  I was actually surprised at how much of a difference this little exercise made.  We all have, somewhere in our heads, information that we knew cold a few years ago but have neglected as our play advanced.  Maybe we got it into our head that we didn't need the basics anymore.  Maybe we just got lazy and tried to float our way along and stopped working so hard on our game.  For whatever reason, it  pays to remind ourselves of what we once knew so well.

Who knows?  Maybe someday I'll have my chance under the bright lights.  If I get lucky, I may be able to leverage momentary fame into book sales!  Ah, a guy can dream, right?

Let's try this again

After being out of the poker game for a few years, disgusted with the state of play on most of the online sites, I've decided to give it another go.  The main reason for my change of heart is Annie Duke's new book "Decide to Play Great Poker".  It's a great read!

Annie gives no poker "rules" or tables to memorize.  Instead, she presents the thought processes behind the decisions a pro makes at the table in order to give hopeful  poker players some insight into the evolving state of play in today's Texas Hold'em.  I'd recommend everyone who has any aspirations to be a winning poker player to go  out and get a copy.

Well, it appears that the online world is in for a realignment.  It's being reported that PokerStars and FullTilt have reached an "agreement".  The rumor is that PS is going to be buying FTP and that such a deal means that all the players who have had the funds frozen at FTP may finally get their money.  I don't know for certain, but I really wonder how PS can carry this off, given the debt load FT is carrying as well as the still uncertain financial futures of the FT owners and upper management.  Could it be that PS has enough cash reserves to meet the payout obligations it would be assuming?  I just don't know.