members-only articles
On Sunday, November 30th, the nation was told about the online poker cheating scandal that rocked the poker world during the broadcast of "60 Minutes." The segment focused on a "$20,000,000 cheating scandal" on two online sites - Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. Read more »
One of the more common sayings at the poker table is one that has always really annoyed me: "I'd rather be lucky than good." What does "lucky" even mean, anyway? I personally deem it to be a word created by leprechauns and state lottery executives to give people a reason to believe that maybe one day they'll catch their big break. You hit the jackpot you say? You must be the luckiest person in the world! False. Read more »
The poker world has had some time now to digest the final table at the World Series of Poker, won by Denmark's Peter Eastgate over Russia's Ivan Demidov in a heads up duel that lasted four hours. Now that the crowds have gone and the remaining prize money has been divvied up by "The November Nine," it is time for the poker community to ask themselves whether the 117 day delay in play at the final table of the Championship Event was worth it or not. Read more »
As I am writing this, I have just returned from watching the World Series of Poker Main Event live at the Rio. I, like most poker players and fans around the world, was very curious to find out how all the hype and buildup around the three and a half months off would impact the final table. Read more »
While my daughter took a nap the other day, I worked in my home office with an old episode of "High Stakes Poker" on in the background. In this episode (the first of season four, for those who are interested), the players agreed that anyone who wins a hand with 2-7 will receive $500 from each player at the table. Read more »
I had a very interesting month of October where I had cameras on me for most of the day, every day. I learned something from the experience that might seem really trivial, but is actually really important to me. I learned that I am the same whether or not a camera is on me. Read more »
Burkholder took some time with Poker News Daily to go over a hand he played with Adam "Roothlus" Levy during his WCOOP victory. Levy is a well-respected online player (also ranked on PocketFives) who recently made a deep run in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. With 12 players remaining in the tournament, their table also featured online stars Greg "DuckU" Hobson and Thayer "Thay3r" Rasmussen. Read more »
There is one kind of player that I seem to have success against in the heads-up portion of a tournament: the massive overbettor. This type of player is super-aggressive post-flop with any sort of decent, yet not monster, hand. Really, unless the board looks ultra-scary, he is not likely to take his foot off the gas once he becomes the aggressor. Read more »
In the spirit of the election season in the United States, thought it might be fun to vote on some outstanding (outlandish?) poker personalities and performances in 2008. Therefore, I respectfully submit the following nominations. Read more »
The key to using the Independent Chip Model (ICM) is making choices that have a positive expectation over time. In Part One, we went over the calculation of a player's current chip stack as a dollar value. Now we can move forward and make decisions based on that information. Read more »
I don't get the opportunity to play a lot of poker these days. I'm busy as a commentator with the World Poker Tour, involved with NLOP.com and Party Poker, but most importantly, I'm a new father (Ty Michael Sexton is ten weeks old!). Read more »
One of the most difficult decisions in the game of poker is what to do with small pocket pairs. While they are a pocket pair – and in this case we are considering pocket deuces through pocket sixes – and are ahead of every hand but a higher pair, at the end of the five card board they can be easily run down. Thus, the decision to play and how to play these hands can be problematic. Read more »
The Independent Chip Model (ICM) is a game theory application that has become essential in sit-and-gos. It is best defined as a way to calculate your equity in relation to the prize pool based on the stack sizes of the remaining players in the tournament. Simply put, ICM is a way of analyzing how much your current chip stack is worth as a dollar value. Read more »
One of the most common lines I heard uttered by players, almost exclusively amateurs, was, "I'm folding everything until I make the money. Even pocket Aces." Most people who say this are not serious, but every year, without fail, I hear about someone who actually did fold Aces pre-flop and showed them to the table to prove it. The question that inevitably comes up after something like this is, "Is it ever reasonable to fold pocket Aces pre-flop?" Read more »
Adam "Roothlus" Levy is a professional poker player from Orlando, Florida with well over $1 million in online tournament earnings. But like many of his internet cronies, Levy has made a smooth transition to live poker and his results certainly back up the argument that the online crowd has some serious game. Read more »
One of the greatest benefits of playing online poker is that you are able to play as many tables as you want to at the same time. This allows you to get in significantly more hands per hour than was ever possible before, increasing your overall hourly win rate. Read more »
My kids have already been back at school for a month now. They are eagerly anticipating their second favorite holiday of the year – Halloween! (You know what their favorite one probably is. Hint: Jolly old man in a red suit with reindeer.) Read more »
Football season is in full swing (well, as I am writing this it is – if it is late spring as you, yourself, are reading this, then just bear with me) and anyone who follows the game knows the importance of an offensive line to a team's offense: the linemen protect the quarterback, taking on charging defenders to keep him from getting pummeled, and they also open holes for the primary running back, helping him get to the end zone. In poker, there is a betting strategy that plays a similar role to that of the offensive line: the blocking bet. Read more »
For those of you that don't already know who I am, my name is Eric Lynch and I'm a professional poker player. I'll be turning 30 in a few days and I've been playing poker professionally for over two years now, seriously for about four, and recreationally in one way or another for my entire life. Read more »
I have great memories of the "old days." Here are some quotes from these poker legends while I was in their company, including Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Jack "Treetop" Strauss, Chip Reese, and Stu Ungar. Read more »
One of my favorite things about online poker is the "raise" button. It is so convenient, right there, big and bold, ready to be clicked. Despite my love for it, however, I almost never use it in No Limit Hold'em games. Read more »
Coming off his bracelet win in the World Series of Poker $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout, Matt "mattg1983" Graham went on a tear toward the end of the summer of 2008. He picked up wins in the $33 rebuy on Full Tilt for more than $6,000 and the star-studded $215 Sunday Second Chance on Pokerstars for $53,330. Then on August 5th, Graham won the $109 rebuy on Pokerstars for $38,390. Read more »
I think the world would be surprised if they knew the truth about the generosity of the poker community. The image of the "gambler" - visored, smoking a cigar, not caring about anyone but themselves - has been so indelibly burned into the national consciousness. Think Edward G. Robinson in The Cincinnati Kid. Read more »
Like a tiny snowball causing a giant avalanche, making a small mistake while playing poker can lead to disastrous consequences. This is especially true while playing no-limit Texas Hold'em. The ability to put your entire stack on the line at any time greatly increases the impact that a single mistake can make. The earlier in a hand that you make a mistake, the more time that mistake has to snowball into an avalanche of bankroll destruction. Read more »
What is Omaha and how do you play it? With Hold'em tables overflowing with players, many new players are heading over to the Omaha games. So with that in mind, here is a guide for getting started at Omaha and making sense of Omaha Hi-Lo as well. Read more »
