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Playing the Big Fields

Monday, August 25, 2008, James "Krazy Kanuck" Worth

It seems that every year, the number of players in each live event keeps on growing, and none more so than at the World Series of Poker, where thousands of players throw their money into the mix to try and get their little slice of poker hi...Read more...

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*Text		<p>It seems that every year, the number of players in each live event keeps on growing, and none more so than at the World Series of Poker, where thousands of players throw their money into the mix to try and get their little slice of poker history. You can play all the live tournaments you want to gain valuable experience, but where can you get the quickest training in negotiating these huge field tournaments?</p><p>The best place happens to be online.</p><p>Playing online tournaments, especially the big Sunday tournaments, is your best training tool for getting ready to tackle such overwhelming fields. Sure, there are live events across the country daily, but none of them have the number of players to come close to a World Series of Poker event. So, if you want to be ready to play in the World Series of Poker, get online and get your game strategy worked on before you head to Vegas to play.</p><p>You can play tournaments from freerolls to larger buy in tournaments online almost every day. Don’t dismiss a 5,000-person freeroll event as a waste of time, because the reality is, with the number of players that will play this years’ WSOP, you will run into every type and style of player imaginable. You have to learn how to dodge as many landmines as you possibly can to survive and flourish in a WSOP tournament. Playing in these large field events online, whether it’s a buy in or a freeroll, can give you this valuable experience, and teach you how to pick good spots to get your money into pots. Hopefully, with some luck, you will be able to get yourself chipped up and, in doing so, give yourself added flexibility in the way you can approach your tournament.</p><p>Sure, in bigger-buy in online tournaments, like many of the big Sunday events at various online sites, the quality of play will be much higher than in the freeroll events. The problem for many players, though, is forking out the $200 to $500 buyins each Sunday. This is a good opportunity to refer to my article in last month’s Bluff Magazine, in which I talk about playing the sit-n-gos/single-table satellites at the WSOP for both cheap entry into bigger tournaments and for the extra earning potential they offer. Likewise, you can use the sit-n-gos online to satellite into the big Sunday tournaments. And not only will you gain valuable experience as you maneuver through the big fields, you also can get a shot at taking home up to a quarter of a million dollars.</p><p>In these big field tournaments, whether it’s online or the WSOP Main Event, you will have to come up with a reasonable strategy to survive and prosper. You can’t win the WSOP Main Event on the first day of play, nor can you win an online tournament within the first few hours. Therefore, you need a good plan of attack. Again, the only place you can practice this sort of tournament regularly is online. By playing as many large-field tournaments online as you can before you set foot in the RIO, the betterprepared you will be to survive the marathon of poker you will face. Even the smaller buy-in tournaments at this year’s WSOP are three day marathons, so it’s obvious that the organizers are expecting huge turnouts. So make sure you tinker with your strategy online and find out what works for you. You have an opportunity that you normally don’t get in live play. And you can play multiple tournaments a day online, whereas you can only reasonably play one live event a day.</p><p>So get online and give these tournaments a try. Not only could they give you one hell of a nice payday, but they will also sharpen your game.</p><p>Knock ’em dead, Jim “KrazyKanuck” Worth</p>

Your Psychological Bankroll and Managing Risk

Monday, August 25, 2008, Gregg Williams

You’ll hear the term bankroll thrown around in poker circles and it usually pertains to the amount of money that you have available strictly for poker playing. This is what the term is meant to describe in a perfect world. However, a majo...Read more...

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*Text		<p>You’ll hear the term bankroll thrown around in poker circles and it usually pertains to the amount of money that you have available strictly for poker playing. This is what the term is meant to describe in a perfect world. However, a majority of poker players do not have a “bankroll” per se. They have some extra cash that they like to gamble with and poker is the gambling activity that is en vogue right now. This is a great thing if you are a poker player who takes the game seriously and wins. This article is not about strategy, odds, or whether to value bet the river. Its about your lifeline, your bankroll. In particular your psychological bankroll. Allow me to explain.</p><p>The poker bankroll to a serious player is everything. Its what you should be most attentive to when deciding what limits to sit in, how many tables to play, and what type of game whether it be shorthanded or full ring. It is like your financial report to your business on a daily basis and it should be treated as importantly. In addition to the monetary bankroll, your psychological bankroll must be determined and used as appropriately.</p><p>The number that you may hear from a lot of poker books regarding a playing bankroll that have been written is around 300 big bets for limit games. Now, for live play 5 years ago that may have been the case. With the booming expansion of Internet play, that number seems to be outdated. The playing bankroll should be in tune with your psychological bankroll and not looked at as a fixed monetary number.</p><p>Your psychological bankroll in essence is the amount of money you need to feel comfortable about riding out swings within the game of poker. I use it in terms of % of monetary bankroll and in terms of Big Bets in limit and max buy ins in No Limit Hold ‘em. Some players have a higher stress tolerance for losses and some have very little. The higher your stress tolerance is the fewer buy ins or Big Bets you need for a particular game.</p><p>An example of this would be a person who doesn’t use their bankroll for living expenses and wouldn’t have a problem losing a large chunk of bankroll in one session would be adequate with 10 buy ins for No limit Hold ‘em or 300 Big Bets for limit. On a bad day they may lose around a third of their entire bankroll.</p><p>The other extreme is the quintessential poker pro who makes his living playing the game. The psychological bankroll required for this particular player may very well be 25 buy ins for no limit or 1000 Big Bets and higher in limit if they need to withdrawal their monthly “nut” for their living expenses. They need to have some cushion built into their bankroll to ride out some swings and not affect their play. Some pro’s risk tolerance is for even higher amounts of Big bet ratios to virtually eliminate their risk of ruin. That way on a very bad day they may lose 10% of their bankroll or less.</p><p>The idea behind bankroll and managing risk is that the fewer Big bets (or Big blinds for No limit) is that the greater chance you have of going broke. It doesn’t matter how good of a player you are, huge downswings are inevitable and by not managing that risk you can wind up sitting on the rail waiting to scrape up your next buy in. I don’t want that to happen to you.</p><p>For a high risk, take a shot player, he or she may sit down with some disposable income and have 50 Big bets and decides to put it all in play. They may win or they may lose and if they lose will just have to either wait for more money to play with to refinance their obviously inadequate poker bankroll. These players are the type that usually either lose quickly or win and move up to a higher limit quickly and run high risk plays with their money.</p><p>You need to figure out as a player what your risk tolerance is and adjust your bankroll accordingly. If you are a true gambler and want to either win big or lose quickly then put it all in play and take a shot. If you are more conservative, then adjust that Big bet number higher according to your risk tolerance. I personally like to keep 500 Big bets for limit games and 20 buy-ins for no limit games handy to keep my risk where I feel comfortable. I can comfortable drop in a downswing 200-300 Big bets and really not have to start to worry. I also do not play poker for my sole source of income either. If I were, I’d probably prefer 1000-1500 Big bets and 50 buy-ins for no limit games. In terms of money that would be to play the 2-4 No limit games full time for income I would want 20,000 dollars if it were my sole source of income. That gives you enough money to ride out any downswings and allows you to keep your head focused that you are not “running short”.</p><p>Figure out your own risk tolerance and your psychological bankroll. Keep it in your head at all times and use it as an important guide to your poker career. You’ll be glad you did. Best of luck and see you at the tables.</p><p>Cheers,</p><p>Bunky</p><p><img src="http://www.pokerspace.com/uploaded-images-3/1219695254-07219.jpg" style="width:63px;height:33px;" alt="" /></p>

Prop Masseuse-ing in Tunica

Friday, August 22, 2008, Aaron K

If you know anything about the life of a prop poker player, then you’ll appreciate the following story from my latest poker trip to Tunica.There I was, minding my own business in a $2-5 NL ring game, when a lovely young message therapist ...Read more...

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*Text		<p>If you know anything about the life of a prop poker player, then you’ll appreciate the following story from my latest poker trip to Tunica.</p><p>There I was, minding my own business in a $2-5 NL ring game, when a lovely young message therapist named Jenny approached our table. If you are anything like me, you’ll pay top dollar to have these women work the kinks out of your neck, shoulders, and back while playing some mid-stakes poker. I find that the bad beats I take don’t sting quite as bad if I have a young therapist massaging my back into putty.</p><p>Quick Aside: Have the therapists in the poker room ever reminded you of the card sharks in the same room? While the card sharks are roaming around the room, seeking fish with lots of chips and little poker discipline, the massage therapist sharks are seeking individuals who have sore backs, have drunk too much coffee, and whose bodies are wound tight from far too many hours of tough decision-making at the tables.</p><p>Needless to say, Jenny did a tremendous job and the $25 fee for 15 minutes of pleasure was well worth it. Of course, a good massage is like a can of Pringles (Once you pop, you can’t stop), so less than an hour later, I had Jenny back behind me again doing her thing. It didn’t seem to matter that I was stuck over a grand for my trip and had no business paying $25 for a 15 minute back rub, but when I get my mind set on a massage, there is no turning back. It’s the 10% Scottish blood in me that craves these massages.</p><p>Over the next two days, I probably had 3-4 massages form the same girl since she was so talented, and then a great idea hit me like a ton of bricks: Instead of trying to grind out money as a poker player, I should become a professional proposition mas-seu-see.</p><p>The idea is simple—Much like a proposition poker player would work with a Card Room to start and keep their games going, I would work with the massage therapists undercover to generate business for them and then receive some kick back (a free massage!!) when they got the business.</p><p>I put the idea to work instantly. Since I had already dropped $150 on Jenny’s services, she had agreed to give me 15 minutes free since I had become a VIP customer of hers over my 4 days in Tunica. She gave me my “freebee” at the 2-5 table, and I ranted and raved the whole time about how good she was. Just as I had predicted, the rest of the table took notice to the pleasure I was receiving and wanted a massage from Jenny too.</p><p>Jimmy, the chip leader at our table, got the next massage, and since he was doing so well, he made it a double. By the time it was all said and done, Jenny the masseuse had lifted $150 from the table. As she was leaving, she gave me a wink and a smile, knowing that she owed a portion of her profits to me, the prop mas-seu-see.</p><p>This has been another tale from the road, brought to you by Aaron Kaelin</p><p><img src="http://www.pokerspace.com/uploaded-images-2/1219442365-12138.jpg" style="width:67px;height:35px;" alt="" /></p>

Single-tabling your way to the World Series

Friday, August 22, 2008, James "Krazy Kanuck" Worth

The atmosphere of the WSOP is magical. Just being there, amongst the hundreds of poker tables and thousands of poker players all vying for their place in poker history, is a real buzz. I’m sure it must be a very intimidating experience fo...Read more...

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*Text		<p>The atmosphere of the WSOP is magical. Just being there, amongst the hundreds of poker tables and thousands of poker players all vying for their place in poker history, is a real buzz. I’m sure it must be a very intimidating experience for a rookie tournament player to walk into that big ballroom. Even to the seasoned professional player, the electricity in that room is mind-blowing.</p><p>Along with the money and fame that go with taking down a WSOP tournament, there’s a golden opportunity to make money in the side games. The reputation of the ring games that surround WSOP is legendary. Some poker players come to the WSOP and do not play any tournaments. Instead, they do their hours in the side action ring games, and do extremely well from the massive influx of money and players.</p><p>One area that is somewhat ignored, however, is the single table satellites, or sit-n-gos as they are called online. Most players will only play a single table satellite with the direct intent of winning their way into a following day’s tournament. Apart from a few hardcore single table players, most people fail to realize the true earning potential of these single table tournaments, preferring to devote their time to the ring games. But by doing so, they may be leaving one of the best moneymaking opportunities out of their playing time.</p><p>You will rarely see me in a ring game at large poker events, unless I am horsing around with some friends in the same game. I’ll either be playing the tournament of the day, or slugging it out for hours in the single table satellites. I play probably 10 to 15 single table sit-n-gos a day online and have naturally become pretty strong at them. Online sit-ngos will prepare you well for the live games, as the strategy and tactics are nearly identical. And in my opinion, the single table satellites at live events are much easier to beat than the ones online. Thus, practicing online can open up a world of potential earning power at large poker events like the WSOP.</p><p>The dynamics of a sit-n-go constantly change as the game progresses and players are lost, and you have to adjust your play accordingly. Hand values increase as the field size decreases, forcing you to be flexible in your game. Hands that you wouldn’t dream of playing at a full table become good, or even great, with position on a short-handed table. Having a bare ace or king three-handed is actually a better than average starter.</p><p>Aggression is key in this kind of tournament, both online and live. Forcing your opponent to make the tough decisions is way easier and more effective than having to do so yourself.</p><p>Playing very small stakes sit-n-gos online can train you to play aggressively without much risk to your bankroll. Sometimes I’ll play a very small stakes sit-n-go online, and raise or reraise every hand I play for no other reason than to push the envelope and try to get a good read on whether I’m behind or not. This has really sharpened my instincts and taught me how to control the play at the table. It’s much more effective and profitable to be the guy the other players hate to get into a hand with, rather than sitting there scared to death of the maniac to your left.</p><p>Knowing how to use your stack while it’s big enough to intimidate your opponent is critical. I’ve seen many rookie players blind themselves down to an ineffective stack size. When they finally come into a pot, their chip stack size is too small to really damage me, which allows me to take a shot at them with a hand that I wouldn’t dream of calling against a bigger stack.</p><p>Basically, you have to know when it’s time to start shoving your stack into the middle, either trying to steal a few critical blinds, or to get lucky if you are called, so you can become a threat again.</p><p>Playing sit-n-gos online can train you in the skills you’ll need, should you decide to step into the world of live single table satellites. They will not only give you the opportunity to win a seat into your targeted event, but they will also give you a great opportunity to make a lot of money. Pop online and practice your play before you head to your next live event. It could end up being your little pot of gold. Just go easy on me if you see me at your single table; after all, I just gave you some good advice.</p><p>Knock ’em dead, Jim “KrazyKanuck” Worth</p>

Beam Me Up: Online Satellites

Wednesday, August 20, 2008, James "Krazy Kanuck" Worth

Chris Moneymaker won his way into the Main Event at the World Series of Poker through a $40.00 online satellite and went on to win the whole thing, plus $2,500,000. What a story that was! He parlayed those 40 bucks into a life-changing expe...Read more...

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*Text		<p>Chris Moneymaker won his way into the Main Event at the World Series of Poker through a $40.00 online satellite and went on to win the whole thing, plus $2,500,000. What a story that was! He parlayed those 40 bucks into a life-changing experience; a dream come true. I actually sat with Moneymaker on Day 1 of the 2003 WSOP. The great thing was that we both instantly recognized each other when we mentioned our screen names, and that let us prepare our games a little. Because we had played online so many times before, we each had some idea of the other’s capability. I immediately started attacking his blinds and continued all day long, but evidently, he outlasted me. Chris and I have become good friends since; a friendship that began by playing online tournaments and satellites together. </p><p>The internet has become the most convenient way for players to win their way into major events all over the world, and is now the simplest way to get yourself to the Main Event of the WSOP. Even better, most satellites not only pay for the buy-in, but also give the player expenses for travel and accommodations. Players from all around the world can win trips to fantastic events in Aruba, St. Maarten, Australia, and all over Europe and North America. Some of these guys have won their way into big events for under $5.00. </p><p>Online poker gives people the opportunity to live out their dreams. The Aruba promotion, through Ultimatebet.com, is a classic example of this. This year, hundreds of players from all around the world won a poker vacation of a lifetime. The buzz of excitement in Aruba is overpowering. You will be sitting at a bar in the beach talking to 30 people you have never met in person, but have clashed with numerous times online. It is like a meeting of old friends. Then, if you bust out of your tournament, you can go to the beach or do fun stuff on the island. That’s not too hard to take! </p><p>Playing live big buy-in tournaments is very tough to do financially and pretty much out of the vast majority of people’s ability. Online changes that, and the number of people who will win their entry into this year’s event on the internet will be measured in thousands, not in the hundreds of just a few short years ago. </p><p>So, if you haven’t yet tried to play a satellite, but harbor dreams of playing on the big stage, then give it a shot. If you can get yourself to Aruba, you can be assured that you’ll see me sitting at the tournament table banging chips around, or outside enjoying the beautiful Aruba beaches. And if you dream of playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event, you just may become the next Moneymaker story! Give it a shot and go capture a dream! </p><p>Knock ’em dead James “KrazyKanuck” Worth

God, Why Did I Call That? (A Brief Overview of Common Decision-Making Errors)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008, Chris Grove

Admit it - there’s been a time or two where you’re at the poker table and found yourself asleep at the wheel. Your mouth opens, your hands move, and before you know what’s happened, you’ve made a bet or called a raise with no rhyme ...Read more...

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*Text		<p>Admit it - there’s been a time or two where you’re at the poker table and found yourself asleep at the wheel. Your mouth opens, your hands move, and before you know what’s happened, you’ve made a bet or called a raise with no rhyme or reason. Every once in awhile these blunders work out for the best, but more often than not they end up being the plays we berate ourselves over for hours - sometimes days. If you’re anything like me, the frustration isn’t driven so much by the fact that you made a poor decision as by the fact that you feel like you didn’t make a decision at all. </p><p>Thankfully, it’s impossible to not make a decision in poker. every time you commit to a course of action, you’re making some decision on some level, even if you’re not aware of it. The trick then becomes to unearth the decision-making process you employ in pressure situations and to pick out the flaws in that process that are leading you into what Gabe Kaplan, in an episode of last season’s High Stakes Poker, called ‘The Poker Twilight Zone.’ </p><p>There are books written about the reasons why our brains malfunction, especially during times of stress, but I’ll save you the time of finding, buying and reading said books. Instead, we’ll walk through a few common errors that are uniquely likely to spring up during the course of a poker hand. For more details on the errors below along with a decent bibliography of decision error theory, visit the Theories About Decision Errors Section of ChangingMinds.org. </p><p><strong>Error One: The Endowment Effect</strong><br /> This error is based on the simple premise that we tend to overvalue things that we own. If a thing is ours, we will overestimate it’s value; the corollary is that we tend to underestimate the value of things owned by others, especially if we own a similar thing. In poker this effect manifests mainly in two ways: first, we tend to overvalue our chips [for some, the value gets exaggerated when their chips are in the pot; for others the value is hiked when they are forced to risk some chips with a marginal hand] resulting in play that is alternatively too loose or too conservative. Second, we tend to overvalue our hands, so much so that we actually get attached to them (”I can’t believe you cracked my aces”) and, as a result, end up overplaying in situations where we should be able to fold. </p><p><strong>Error Two: Representativeness Heuristic</strong><br /> This error isn’t nearly as fancy as it sounds. Basically, when we’re faced with the task of defining the probability of an unfamiliar event, we will base our decision on the most representative [similar] model in our personal experience. For example, if you go to a new grocery store, you’re likely to guess the position of the deli based on where the deli is in your local grocery. At the table, we use the representativeness heuristic to fill in the blanks when we’re facing a player we don’t have a lot of information about; we’ll compare them to a class of player we’ve developed in our minds [weak tight, etc], a person who they resemble physically, or even sometimes the last player who was in their seat. The issue isn’t so much that this method leads us to incorrect conclusions (although that’s certainly a risk). The real problem is that we often default to a comparison model because it’s the easiest way to get an answer - and while taking this path of least resistance, we often fail to consider all of the unique information available at the time. </p><p><strong>Error Three: Availability Heuristic</strong><br /> This error is probably a familiar one to most of you. The Availability Heuristic asserts that when we attempt to explain a given situation, we tend to give pieces of evidence weight based largely on recency - and the more recent a piece of evidence is, the more weight we give it. Beware of this flaw when weighing a call - it tends to make us overestimate the chance that a recent bluffer is bluffing us again. </p><p>A few final thoughts on these and other common errors. Remember that you’re not the only person who falls into these traps - they’re pretty much universal. As a result, you can use them against your opponents - especially those who seem prone to make quick, impulsive decisions. Also, keep in mind that the more often you make these errors in your thinking away from the table, the more likely you are to be employing them to make poor decisions at the table. These types of errors amount to cognitive shortcuts - tactics your brain employs when it’s placed under pressure to generate a quick decision. Recognizing your tendency to rely on such shortcuts when you’re not in tough situations and developing strategies for avoiding them is your best bet for not slipping into bad habits - or the Poker Twilight Zone - when the pressure gets turned back on.

Can Nintendo Make You Better at Poker?

Thursday, August 14, 2008, Chris Grove

I know about 98% of the people reading this article are praying for a positive answer to the title question. There’s a natural crossover between poker players and video game players, especially in the online poker player community. Even i...Read more...

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*Text		<p>I know about 98% of the people reading this article are praying for a positive answer to the title question. There’s a natural crossover between poker players and video game players, especially in the online poker player community. </p><p>Even if were just posing the question as a sweeping, general one, the answer would probably be yes. There’s an increasing amount of evidence that, contrary to the beliefs of older generations, video game play is a highly stimulating cognitive workout that teaches the brain about logic, compartmentalization, problem solving under pressure, along with a plethora of other useful intellectual tools. Don’t believe me? Writer Stephen Johnson made that the central thesis of his interesting 2005 book Everything Bad is Good For You, and he articulates a defense for the notion far beyond what I could even begin to attempt in this brief article. </p><p>As it turns out, I’m actually talking about a specific game - hence the choice of ‘Nintendo’ for the title question as opposed to ‘Playstation’ or just a generic ‘Video Games.’ The game in question is called Brain Age, published for the Nintendo DS system, and as the title implies, intellectual stimulation isn’t a mere byproduct of this game - it’s the entire purpose. </p><p>Brain Age is actually a series of mini-games packed into one; think Mario Party for the Mensa set. Challenges range from basic (perform a series of simple calculations as quickly and correctly as possible) to complex (complete a visual maze which asks you to connect letters with their corresponding numeric value). All of the games take place in the larger context of your long-term training - the game records your daily performance, graphs your progress or regression over time, and assigns you a ‘Brain Age’ based on your results. </p><p>The premise of the game, loosely, is that your mind is a muscle like any other. Much in the same way that you’d do lighter weights and more repetitions if you wanted toned arms instead of bulging biceps, Brain Age assumes that an extended series of slightly challenging problems will do more to improve your overall mental agility than a small set of jarringly complex problems. The jury’s still out on whether or not the games actually make you ’smarter’ [largely because the jury is still out on what it means to be smarter in the first place], but we’re not really concerned with that question anyhow. Our concern is whether or not this game will help your game - more specifically, if you’ll get positive return at the table on the $160 or so a DS system and the game cartridge will cost you. </p><p>I’m voting yes, and here’s the justification drilldown: </p><p>General justifications<br /> 1. I already bought it, so if I vote no, I’ll feel like a jackass. Sarcasm aside, I’ve been working with it for a week, and I do feel a difference. I’ll get to the nature and quality of that difference in following items. </p><p>2. There’s a bit of reasonable evidence that the premise of the game is solid - that solving simple problems in rapid succession generates greater activity in your prefrontal cortex, and that increased stimulation of said prefrontal cortex improves your short term memory and processing speed. </p><p>3. It’s a series of addictive mini-games that will give you something to do when you don’t feel like playing poker. </p><p>4. it comes with a few hundred Sudoku puzzles and an awesome interface for said puzzles. If you’ve been doing Sudoku on paper, you’ll want to buy this game right about … now. </p><p>Poker-specific justifications<br /> 1. It’s helpful to have an activity that can ‘wake up’ your brain before sessions or after a break in between sessions. Brain Age is great for that. </p><p>2. The main criticism of the game is that it doesn’t make you smarter so much as it trains you to get better at the specific games it offers. That may be true, but it doesn’t matter. Here’s a for instance: The basic math calculations are the perfect pot odds prep for your brain - doing 20 or a 100 simple problems is a close kissing cousin to counting how many bets go into a pot, what stacks are still in play, what a bet represents as a percentage of pots and what odds a call is getting. </p><p>3. Several of the games are great training for the instant focus you need to be able to summon in critical hands [especially in tournament or no limit]. Even great players take a few hands off now and again - the trick is to be able to snap right back into ‘A’ game when a hand comes up. Several of the games in Brain Age require just that - intense focus summoned on demand. For example, the ‘High-to-Low’ game starts by presenting a series of numbers in boxes on the left screen [the Nintendo DS has two screens]. After a few seconds, the left screen goes blank and the same boxes appear on the right screen - without the numbers. Your task is to select the boxes in ascending order - a great ‘burst’ recall exercise. </p><p>4. The memorization-based games promote a type of compartmentalized structuring of information that is quite useful for poker, especially in live games where you don’t have the benefit of a hand database or on-screen notes function. One game offers you a list of forty or so words and allows 2 minutes for you to memorize as many as possible, and then three minutes for your to write as many as you can remember. </p><p>5. Sudoku puzzles [and some of the training games, to a lesser extent] are logic puzzles that offer great opportunities for sharpening your ability to rationally reduce a set of possible explanations to a manageable subset of probable explanations. As far as I know, that’s the fundamental challenge of poker in a nutshell - reducing the possible to the probable. </p><p>Good players work on their game at the table, while great players keep working long after they’ve left the table. Finding non-poker activities that can contribute directly to your card skills is critical for serious players - and Brain Age provides an opportunity to accomplish that while having a little fun to boot. </p><p><img src="http://www.pokerspace.com/uploaded-images-3/1218728448-84429.jpg" style="width:61px;height:32px;" alt="" />

Fast Tracking The Learning Curve

Thursday, August 14, 2008, James "Krazy Kanuck" Worth

I’ve played poker now for approximately 13 years. I started playing online poker roughly six years ago, after I walked into a business client’s office and noticed he was playing a poker game on his computer. Being someone who loved the ...Read more...

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*Text		<p>I’ve played poker now for approximately 13 years. I started playing online poker roughly six years ago, after I walked into a business client’s office and noticed he was playing a poker game on his computer. Being someone who loved the game and played it live regularly, I was naturally interested, and asked him about the software he was using. I thought at the time that he was just playing an online game of poker against the computer, like Hoyle’s Texas Hold’em. I had no idea that he was playing interactively with other players from around the world, let alone for real money. </p><p>When he explained it wasn’t just a “video game,” I was so excited about the prospect of playing online from home, rather than in the smoke-filled poker rooms in Calgary, that I ended my day early and rushed home to download the poker site. I promptly deposited $500 into my real money account and proceeded to turn that into roughly $2,500 within a short period of time. I thought I had died and gone to poker heaven. </p><p>Within a couple of weeks, however, I was down over $10,000 and realized that, obviously, internet poker was rigged. I mean, what else could be the reason for my sudden loss? I continued to play, despite knowing in my heart that it was fixed, figuring I was good enough to beat the game anyway. After losing and losing and complaining about “the cash out curse” and all the other things that players choose to blame for their losses online, I finally went back to complain to the guy who had originally introduced me to the site. </p><p>After he stopped laughing at me, he showed me his track record over the previous few months. Then he made a comment that really stuck with me: “Jim,” he said, “maybe you aren’t as good a player as you think you are.” </p><p>Maybe, he suggested, the tilt factor, the speed of play, the number of hands seen, and all the other reasons that make internet poker different from brick and mortar poker were making me lose. After realizing that almost all of the blame rested on my own shoulders, I went home with the knowledge that I had to learn how to play better and adjust. Lesson number one was learned. Internet poker is not rigged; it just forces you to evaluate your own game, make adjustments and become a better player. </p><p>There are so many factors that can turn a winning live player into a losing online player. The simple fact that you are betting with your mouse button can make it all seem less real. Picking up real chips that you know are of a certain value and making a bet in live play carries weight to it. Clicking a mouse button can become all too easy, and you can easily forget the importance of each bet you make. It’s scary how you can be sitting at your computer and it feels just like a video game: Call, call, call, raise, chase, chase again, and you keep on doing it. </p><p>So if you are going to play online, you had better take what you are doing seriously, because you can bleed through your bankroll so fast it will make your head spin. You need to learn discipline. Minimize distractions and get yourself into an environment that helps you to concentrate on the game. It’s all too easy to play from home with the TV on, stereo blaring, kids running around, and your spouse yelling at you to take out the garbage. If you are playing to win, you need to isolate yourself from as many distractions as you can. I’m not saying you should shut out your life completely to play online poker. It’s just that trying to play your A-game and balancing other distractions around you is damn near impossible. Little distractions affect your decisions and that costs you money. The accumulative effect of many bad decisions over time can be very expensive. </p><p>The reality is that online poker can make you a better player much quicker than playing live can. The simple speed of internet play will either force you to get better faster or blow through your bankroll at lightning speed. If you realize early that the key to improving your results rests fully on your own shoulders, rather than believing that the sites rig the flops, then you are on your way to much better play and greater financial reward. </p><p>Knock ’em dead, </p><p>James “KrazyKanuck” Worth

The Best Way to Improve Your Game

Tuesday, August 12, 2008, Jim "KrazyKanuck" Worth

It was an honor to be asked to write a regular column for Bluff, and I was even happier when they asked to write about my favorite topic, online poker. I’ve never said I’m the best online player, or the authority on online poker, but I�...Read more...

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*Text		<p>It was an honor to be asked to write a regular column for Bluff, and I was even happier when they asked to write about my favorite topic, online poker. </p><p>I’ve never said I’m the best online player, or the authority on online poker, but I’ve had consistent and profitable results over the past few years. One of the most effective ways I can share some of my success, and relay that to other players, is to describe what I think has most helped me improve my game over the years. And that’s exactly what I want to do in this regular column. </p><p>Making the adjustment to online play, in comparison with playing live, takes some time. First and foremost is the speed of online play: without the dealer taking time in between hands to shuffle the cards, the speed can be up to three times faster. Therefore, it goes without saying that any leaks that you have in your game will be magnified online because you’re seeing many more hands over a shorter space of time. Some tables deal out at 80 hands per hour, in comparison with an average of about 27 per hour live. And if you get proficient at playing online and start playing multiple tables at once, the number of hands that you see per hour will increase exponentially. Playing three tables simultaneously, you could be seeing as many as 240 hands per hour – that’s nearly ten times the number of hands you would see in a casino! You will take more bad beats, see more weird draws hit, and witness far more quads and straight flushes than you would in live play, all of which can lead you to conclude that online poker is crazy poker. </p><p>The reality is, however, that if you view online poker in a positive way, you can use it to improve many areas of your game in a much shorter period of time than you would by strictly playing live. </p><p>Once I realized the mistakes I was making online, I worked hard to tackle them and become a better player. I found different games that I thought could help me improve different facets of my play, and I played as many of those games as I could in a day, working hard on areas where I felt I was weak. </p><p>One of the first things I realized early on was that I was pretty good at playing tournaments. I could consistently make it deep into my tournaments, occasionally cashing, and making final tables through solid play; but I would find myself getting eaten alive by superior players at those final tables. Soon, I started playing the sit’n’gos and I realized that I had found my little pot of gold. Not only could I make money on these single table tournaments, but I could also practice an area of my game where I felt I was weak – final table play. The sit’n’gos afforded me the opportunity to get valuable final table experience in order to finish off tournaments better, without wreaking havoc on my bankroll. I could play single table sit’n’- gos for as little as $5.25 (in those days) and experiment with ideas that I would never have dared try out at the $100 plus level. I could play twenty $5.25 sit’n’gos in a row without worrying about the financial impact. Even if I lost every match, which was rarely the case, I’d consider the money spent an investment into my poker future. Today, you can play for as little as a dollar. </p><p>By tinkering with different aspects of my play, I started to understand the psychology of the game as the table became short-handed. There were ten-handed sit’n’gos, six-handed sit’n’gos and heads-up sit’n’gos, all of which allowed me to start my “final table” full-table or short-handed, depending on the aspect of my game that I felt I needed to improve at the time. </p><p>Sometimes I would cover my screen in heads-up matches and play my hands blind. I would try to read betting patterns of my opponents and learn how to react to them. I would play the player’s style only, and try to represent the different flops, rather than my actual holdings. What this did for my game was to leapfrog my ability to read certain situations. Investing time in expanding my comfort zone and reading-ability of situations started to pay off when I made final tables. So rather than being eaten alive by the more experienced players, I started becoming a force to be reckoned with. </p><p>I still play sit’n’gos daily online. I play the bigger ones seriously to make money, but will still jump into the smaller matches to practice new things. It’s not uncommon to find me in a $5 dollar game. I’ll blow off 80% of my chips in the first couple of hands for no other reason than to practice short-stack play. I believe that repetition is key to improving your game and the beauty of online play is that it gives you that opportunity every day, seven days a week. Online play gives the serious player the chance to improve different areas of his or her game in months, rather than in the years it would take in a brick and mortar casino. So jump into the sit’n’gos, not just for the moneymaking opportunities, but also for the priceless experience you can gain from them for tournament play. I would say with confidence that the sit’n’gos have been the biggest factor in the improvement of my tournament play. Hop in, try new things and expand your comfort zone. Some people play poker for 30 years and never change their games. Don’t get caught in that rut – there is always room for improvement. </p><p>Knock ‘em dead, James “KrazyKanuck” Worth

In Their Head

Friday, August 8, 2008, Jim "KrazyKanuck" Worth

When I get my seat assignment in a new tournament, I’m rarely the first one to sit. I find my seat and walk straight past it. I generally like to scout out who’s at the table before I sit down, and then I will plan out my strategy, base...Read more...

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*Text		<p>When I get my seat assignment in a new tournament, I’m rarely the first one to sit. I find my seat and walk straight past it. I generally like to scout out who’s at the table before I sit down, and then I will plan out my strategy, based on the players that I see at the table. If I’m unfamiliar with some of them, I’ll ask advice from friends that I’ve made on the circuit about their style of play. When I found my seat for the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event at the RIO, for the main event of the WSOP Circuit event in March of 2005, I saw right away that I had a tough table. I had drawn Seat 6 and realized I had my work cut out. There were three California-based pros sitting to my left, and Alan Boston and Daniel Negreanu sitting to my right. I didn’t like my draw too much, but tried to plan out my strategy anyway, based on the three fast-playing wildcards to my left, and the totally unpredictable Negreanu sitting on my right. </p><p>I had arrived a good 20 minutes before the event had started and began to stress once I saw the players start to take their seats at my table. The problem with such a table is that it can rarely be predictable. The fast playing players to my left were capable of making unorthodox plays and chasing draws that could become expensive if they were lucky enough to hit. And with Negreanu there, I knew that there was a great opportunity to chip up given the right situation, but it was going to take some cunning to catch Dan fast playing a hand into a strong holding of mine. </p><p>As I arrived at my seat, the tourney director announced, “Dealers, shuffle up and deal!” Without time to unpack my IPOD or my favorite pair of shades, I sat down in time to get my first hand, a pair of threes. The button was in seat 9 with the blinds in seat 10 and 1. Alan Boston, who was in seat 2, was first to act and came out raising the 25/50 blinds to 150 right away. Dan Negreanu was in seat 2 and quickly called. Two more players in front of me called as well, which made my pair of threes an easily called hand. I called and three more people called behind me. I already knew that, unless I flopped a set, I wouldn’t see past the flop with any bet. The flop came down 2-3-4 with 2 hearts. I had flopped my set, but was facing a very scary board. I knew full well that Alan Boston likely had a large pair with his under the gun raise, but Dan Negreanu and the three fast-playing pros from LA behind me could have almost anything in their hands, so I had already made up my that I was going to play the hand cautiously. </p><p>The two blinds checked the action to Alan Boston, the original raiser, and he came out betting strong, 700, into the pot. Dan Negreanu called pretty fast, as did one of two in front of me. Considering the action so far, I had a big choice to make here. I had flopped middle set, but by no means had an unbeatable hand. In fact, with the pot being the size that it was already, there was potential to go broke, based on all the potential holdings and draws that might be out there. I wasn’t worried about Alan’s hand, as I didn’t put him on 5-6, A-5 or pocket fours. I put him on Q-Q, K-K or A-A. I was hoping it was Q-Q or K-K, as that would reduce his potential outs on me. I was, however, scared to death of what Dan Negreanu, the caller in front of me and the three wildcards to my left were holding. Any one of them could easily have a flush draw, a 5-6, A-5 or 4-4. I decided to play it safe and just call, rather than overcommit by raising. I wanted to see how the action would play out behind me and hopefully get to see the turn card before I made a move to isolate the competition. Two players called behind me, putting six players in the pot to see the turn. The pot was already huge and I was nervous as hell about my hand. </p><p>The turn card paired the twos and I breathed a sigh of relief. Two hands could beat me at this point, 4-4 or 2-2, but I was willing to put my chips on the line now – because no one had raised the flop, I was pretty sure that no one else had flopped a set. </p><p>Then Alan Boston did the unthinkable. He bet 3,000 into the pot. I couldn’t believe it because he had so many people call his flop bet. I felt that he had a large pair and I had really only been worried about the other players in the hand. After a long period of time, Dan Negreanu folded his hand, as did the other player in front of me. Rather than pushing all in, I decided to raise Alan’s 3,000 bet, but wanted to price him in by only minimum raising him. I made it 6,000, and the two remaining threats behind me folded their hands quickly. I knew in my heart I had Alan beat. Alan looked at me and remarked out loud, “What? Am I going to go broke on the first hand of the tournament?” (I was hoping he would). Alan looked at me again and shocked me by announcing that he was all in. </p><p>I said, “Well sir, if you have 4-4 or 2-2 it’s your pot.” He turned over Q-Q and I rolled over my threes full of twos and watched as he went white. The river card was a face card and I thought for a split second that it was a queen. I felt my stomach drop, but noticed the moustache on the card; it was a king, giving me a win and putting my stack at almost 24,000 after the first hand. </p><p>I think it took almost a half hour for my hands to stop shaking. The thrill of putting my $10,000 buy in on the line a minute into the tournament was one of the most exciting and scariest things I’ve experienced in tournament play in my career. You mustn’t be afraid to mix it up, but doing so on the first hand of a major tournament must rattle the most seasoned professional. </p><p>Knock Em Dead<br /> Jim “KrazyKanuck” Worth