Poker rules directory

Have you seen the megalith yet?  CityCenter is huge!  The joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World has not been without its hiccups and has certainly pushed both companies to the limit of their resources. Five years of hard work and a cool $8.5 billion is all it has taken…

There will be four towers in total offering everything in the world of accommodation from penthouse suites and condos to more modest rooms.

How they’re gonna fill all that capacity?  Who knows?

Aria is the center piece of CityCenter, offering the standard casino games, including a 20 table poker room. So you wont have to go far to find your favorite game.

Its a bold venture that is finally starting to take shape and become operational after years of planning and construction.

bookmark to:

I was watching some of Tom Dwan’s poker play the other day and it was amazing to see some of the hands that he would play pre-flop.  Totally unsuit-able (excuse the pun) hands!  Granted as soon as he met some serious opposition in the betting or he knew he was out gunned, he would get out of there.

Whenever I try to get bold with my opening moves I usually come unstuck, that’s if I haven’t planned the move and set it up.  But just how does Durr Dwan do it.?  How does he get away with playing hands that most people would just throw away or leak some serious value?

On a few occasions I have seen Dwan come unstuck and get caught short, but he generally has a pretty good read on the game.  And, thats exactly it, he has a feeling of when to challenge and when to back off from the challenge.

bookmark to:

… and the debate rages on is poker a game of skill or is it all up to chance…

In my mind it is all quite clear, if you play online slots or some similar simple casino game then its mostly a game of chance.  Sure there is a small element of skill involved.  You should know how many coins to put in the slot machine, to maximize your returns and make sure you get your best shot at the jackpot.  But basically it is up to chance what the slot machine decides to give you.

The other element of skill when you play online casino games, is too ensure that you are getting the best casino bonus.  Because they vary all the time and it is up to you find the best deal.  Don’t just leave it to chance, because then you will end up getting the worst deal.

At the other end of the spectrum you have card games that involve a lot of skill to win.  Sure there is some element of chance in the deck of cards, but mostly its all about how you read the players and the skill of betting.

The debate of skill vs chance is a hot topic in the US, where legal teams have used the fact that poker is not a game of chance, to defend their clients.  US players can still play casino games if they

bookmark to:

At this years WSOP Main Event, the organisers, Harrahs, decided to close off entries after they reached capacity. This meant that over 500 people were turned away and not allowed to contest the Main Event. Including some pretty big names in poker, some experienced poker players that have played in many poker tournaments, including WSOP.

Whilst I feel sorry for these players that lost out, you also have to draw the line somewhere and limit the amount of people that can play. Otherwise the poker tournament just has too many people to organize and control. Surely the poker pros know just how popular the WSOP Main Event is, and enter early to ensure a place. Come on!! everyone wants a bracelet and a share of all that prize money.

Why couldn’t Harrahs organize some knock out rounds to clear some space? Its extra income for them if the poker tourney goes for longer. I mean what would a couple of extra days mean? Use those days to knock out some of the wannabees that shouldn’t be there in the first place and get some extra dosh in.

bookmark to:

You’re playing heads up, its showdown time with some all-in action and your opponent asks you do you want to play it once or twice, what do you do?

Make sure you know what is the better situation to be in, depending on the circumstances and the odds of winning.  In general it is better to play it twice, that way things are evened out a bit and there is  less of a swing in either direction i.e you have less chance of losing and less chance of winning.

But if you feel that your opponent has been bluffing throughout the game and that you have a good chance of winning, then it may pay off to take a chance and just play it once, get it over and done with… don’t give your opponent a chance to escape…

bookmark to:

Trolling through YouTube as one does…  I came across this old clip of a great poker hand played by Doyle Brunson and Guy Laliberte.   Now for those of you that dont know, Guy started Cirque du Soleil, one of the most famous circus shows in the world.  Guy enjoys his poker and played on High Stakes Poker – Season 4.

If you watched the latest episodes of High Stakes Poker, it was commented that Doyle played small-ball poker – even Doyle joked about it!  But I can tell you there is nothing small ball about this hand…

Guy tries to bully Brunson off the pot, but give Doyle his due he sticks to his guns and calls him – What a call!!  Laliberte is worth a bit, so even though this huge pot has to hurt, he’s well bankrolled and takes it well.  Take a look…

bookmark to:

There are a total of 57 bracelets up for grabs at this year’s 2009 World Series of Poker events.  We are probably about half way into the series of poker tournaments and the action is hotting up.  Some new names in amongst the old winners… I see Phil Ivey won his seventh WSOP bracelet the other day… not bad!

There is no shortage of poker competition, as I write this post there are 6 tournaments that are live right now.  Something for everyone, no matter what your strengths are – No limit hold’em, pot limit omaha, HORSE, plenty to choose from.

On Sunday, Roland de Wolfe won his first WSOP bracelet in event 27 – Pot Limit Omaha.  He has now become only the second player ever to win EPT, WPT and WSOP titles – otherwise known as the Triple crown.  Well done de Wolfe, way to go!!

bookmark to:

I am a regular reader of CardPlayer magazine.  Bob Ciaffone’s article is excellent, “What Poker Has Taught Me About Life”.  There’s a lot of truth in there!

Playing poker allows you to meet all kinds of people from the good, to the bad and ugly… Bob’s first point about there being some good in all people even the bad ones, and some bad even in the good people, is very apt indeed.

As you become more experienced in life, you start to become more circumspect about people and I suppose more cautious.  You also just end up accepting a lot and realizing that humans are complex and capable of anything, despite portraying a good image!

Poker teaches you to be very observant of people and their ways, this helps you understand people better.  We learn life lessons the hard way usually, as we go through life.  I often wonder if schools shouldn’t teach young people how to cope in this world, give them some life lessons on how to survive.

Perhaps then we might have more balanced individuals out there in this world.  Poker certainly allows you to meet different people and teaches you how to interact with them.

bookmark to:

Been watching “Poker after dark”, the last few episodes of the Bash Helmuth cash game.  Interesting to watch Helmuth and Dwan matched against each other.  Helmuth seems very reserved and doesn’t get up to any of his usual antics!

Phil Laak feels the pressure a bit, he calls against Bob Safai when maybe he should have let it go, costs him!  Dwan’s aggressive play really seems to force the others to play poker out of their confort zone.  Laak doesn’t even realize that he has managed to beat Dwan with his bottom pair… defend and hold on against Durrrr is what they say…

And then Phil Helmuth makes a comeback with his Ace, seven – which seems to give him some confidence, can he come out of his shell?  Who would think The Poker Brat would be so quiet and well behaved?

All the players respected it, except Tom Dwan… now how does that surprise anyone???  Although he is very sharp and also knows when to get out of a hand.  Very interesting to hear what the players have to say in between play.

And then there’s the round table discussion at the end where they all talk about how they played…

bookmark to:

Usually when I decide to bluff I have thought about it for a while and set up the bluff, but then again I always have something to work with so that I hope to get lucky on the flop, turn or river.  Semi-bluffing is always the best way to go in the art of bluffing, because if they figure that you like to bluff with air, then it makes it more difficult to pull off a bluff.

Anyway I am losing myself here in how to bluff at poker, which is not really where I wanted to go.  Most of the time when you make a good poker bluff, the other poker players back off because of your aggressive betting.  But once in a while, two of you try to bluff at once and this is what happened to me earlier this week playing online poker.

Both of us went head to head, trying to out bluff each other with nothing but air… until one pulled out.  I felt committed, was deeper stacked and am feeling very invincible after my break so I just kept bullying him until he backed down.  Got off lucky because a better player may have called me.  He let on what he had, I think because he wanted me know that he was bluffing and it was nothing, wanted me to know that he was capable of bluffing, not sure why…

I ended up with a queen high, thats all and took down a tidy pot… lucky to get away with it this time.

bookmark to: