NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Lineup
One of the best televised poker tournaments, the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, is just around the corner, and the roster of attending poker stars has been announced. 64 players will participate in this year’s competition, among them are 12 former WSOP main-event champs, two Academy Award-nominated actors, and even an all-star baseball player.
The NHUPC will take place March 6th-8th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and as usual will be a single-elimination heads-up tournament format. The only exception to the elimination system will be in the final match, where the two competitors will play a best of three matchup, with the winner taking home $250,000.
Here’s a list of all the attending players.
David Benyamine
Andy Bloch
Chad Brown
Doyle Brunson
Johnny Chan
Don Cheadle
Glen Chorny
Allen Cunningham
Ivan Demidov
Annie Duke
Tom Dwan
Peter Eastgate
Eli Elezra
Antonio Esfandiari
Sam Farha
Chris Ferguson
Scott Fischman
Layne Flack
Ted Forrest
Brad Garrett
Jamie Gold
Clonie Gowen
Barry Greenstein
Gavin Griffin
Bertrand Grospellier
Joe Hachem
Gus Hansen
Jennifer Harman
Phil Hellmuth
Orel Hershiser
Jeffrey Ishbia (Caesars qualifier)
Phil Ivey
John Juanda
Gabe Kaplan
Phil Laak
Howard Lederer
Erick Lindgren
Jonathan Little
Mike Matusow
Dario Minieri
Chris Moneymaker
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
David Pham
John Phan
Greg Raymer
Vanessa Rousso
Ilari Sahamies
Huck Seed
Vanessa Selbst
Erik Seidel
Mike Sexton
Gavin Smith
Jennifer Tilly
JC Tran
Kenny Tran
Paul Wasicka
David Williams
Jerry Yang
Leon Yanovski (online qualifier)
Caesars qualifier (to be determined)
Online qualifier (to be determined)
Online qualifier (to be determined)
Online qualifier (to be determined)
Moving Up Limits
After having several discussions with my colleagues about moving up in limits, I found that it is a common question that plagues most cash game players. When you are crushing the game, it is easy to assume that you should move up limits because you are doing so well. This can sometimes be the case, or the case may be that you lose everything you won in the higher limit and have to go down again. On the flip side, if you are losing, does that mean you have to go down in limits? I’ve found myself moving up and down several times in my career and I think that moving up in limits is all about taking shots and doing what is best for your bankroll.
Especially at lower limits it is hard to build your bankroll, so at some point you need to take a shot at the higher limits in order to build anything substantial. There have been times in my career that I’ve had winning months, and at the end of the month I’m left asking myself, “Where did all my profit go?†Quite obviously it went to bills or entertainment, leaving me with nothing to add to my bankroll or savings. This is why it is so important to play stakes that are going to give you the ability to pay your bills and add to your bankroll. However, there could be several factors holding you back like the size of your bankroll or your confidence.
Bankroll is extremely important when figuring out what game you should be playing. However, if your bankroll is suited to a 1/2 NL Hold’em game that doesn’t mean you can’t take a shot at the 2/5 NL game. Especially if you’ve been crushing the 1/2 game and have some extra profit, you should be taking a stab at the higher limits. Don’t just jump into the game blind though. Take a few moments to observe the table and find out if it is going to be a profitable game. There is nothing worse than moving up limits and finding out that it is tighter than the lower limits you just came off of. If this is the case you won’t win anything significant enough to build your bankroll. Also, if the table is too aggressive for your liking, don’t sit down because you will be too intimidated to play good poker.
Whether or not you win or lose when you take these shots, it is important that you return to the limit that you came from. Taking these shots at the higher limits is about building a bankroll for that limit and becoming comfortable with the stakes and level of play. If you stay at the higher limit and go on a bad run, you will put your bankroll in jeopardy. Your bankroll is the tool to your trade, so don’t lose it all just because you wanted to play the higher limit every day. Make sure that you are consistently taking shots and winning. When you have built up at least 10 bets from playing at the higher limit, then it might be time for you to consistently play at that limit. If you start running bad at that limit, don’t be ashamed of moving back down. When you have a bankroll suited for several different levels, it also expands your game selection. If you are a 2/5 NL player, you have the ability to play 1/3 if there is a great game going on, or you have the opportunity to take shots at 5/10 when you feel you might be able to beat the game. There is no reason you should be stuck at one limit forever, so as long as you are managing your bankroll and playing responsibly you should have no problem taking stabs are higher limits.
Deep Stack Extravaganza Final Table Today 4PM
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Palazzo•Venetian Resort Las Vegas Tuesday evening
Deep Stack Extravaganza at the Venetian Poker Room will play the final table of the championship event today at 4 PM. With two tables remaining in the competition Tuesday evening the mix of survivors included three known pros - JJ Liu, Kevin O'leary, and Roberto Mercer.
The final Championship event of the first Deep Stack Extravaganza for 2009 attracted 263 players with the $2,500 buy-in. The prize pool totaled 602,764 and will be shared among the top 27 players. The winner receives $186,856. Second place enjoys a six-figure bounty with $108,498.
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Kevin O'Leary • London, UK
JJ Liu • Las Vegas
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Roberto Mercer • Las Vegas
Mega Stack Championship at Caesars Palace
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Day 1 of Mega Stack Championship
Mega Stack Poker at Caesars Palace seated 237 entrants Tuesday for the $1060 buy-in championship event. A prize pool of $229,890 will be distributed among the top 18 finishers. The winner goes home with $60,919 and first runner up gets $36,782. Action continues today for the three day event.
Even with the Mega Stack winding down poker players can continue to play in a variety of poker tournaments including two $225 buy-in events remaining in the Mega Stack. Daily and weekly poker tournaments happen throughout the day, every day. Enjoy the many cash games that play around the clock at Caesars Palace poker room.
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Tournament Room at Caesars Palace for Day 1 of Championship
Bad Attitude
Earlier this week I was playing 2/5 at the Venetian and had sat down next to this guy that looked similar to an environmentalist hippy. He struck me as the kind of guy that enjoyed going on long hikes in the woods, singing about peace, and eating granola. This stereotype surprised me when I sat down and he had a terrible attitude. I noticed right away that the table was fairly tight and players were continuously getting up to go to the bathroom or eat, so we never had more than 7 players sitting down at one time. This wasn’t the best game to be sitting at and I could see why the man would be getting impatient. It wasn’t long until he started telling us bad beat stories about how some guy cracked his aces with 4 6 suited and he lost all his money on the hand. Then he started complaining about not getting any cards. I was starting to think that this guy was going to complain about anything he could.
Then a hand played out where there were 5 limpers into the pot. The flop comes out Kc 10d 2c, and it checks around to the hippy who also checks. The turn is a 7c. It checks around to the hippy who bets $50. Small blind smooth calls the $50. The river is a 9h. Hippy bets $50 and small blind raises him $125. After a moment hippy calls the $125 and turns over pocket Jacks. Small blind wins with an 8 high flush. Hippy ends up slamming his cards down and bangs his fists on the table while yelling at the guy who won about how he plays terrible cards. Normally I don’t get involved with people’s squabbles at the table but I thought Hippy was way out of line to yell at this guy for winning the hand, so I said, “What do you expect when you play bad?â€
I will give Hippy the benefit of the doubt and assume he is a better player than he displayed at the table. You can’t limp with Jacks, check the flop, let someone catch up, and be upset when you lose. If you limp in with Jacks you just have to be prepared to let the hand go if you don’t hit on the flop. If you make the decision to play big pocket pairs for a limp, you have to be ok to let them go and you can’t decide to commit with them in the middle of the hand. For one, you have no idea where you are at, and you have no idea what your opponents are playing.
Sometimes having a bad attitude will affect the way you play or your mental stability. Assuming that Hippy is a better player than he displayed, I would have to guess that he was letting his former sessions and bad attitude get in the way of his performance. If you sit down at a session and think, “I’ve lost every session for the last week, so I’m probably going to lose this one because I’m running bad.†Most likely you will lose that session because you are mentally handicapping yourself. Poker is a mental game and just like in every other sport you have to keep your muscles strong. Having a defeating disposition during the course of a hand is going to make you play poorly and hinder your evaluation of your opponent. If you find that you are sitting down at a table and are getting annoyed, impatient, or you are thinking about hands you lost earlier, you should get up from the table. Maybe all it will take is a walk to clear your head or maybe you need to leave and go back at a later date. Whatever the case, it is more important to clear your head than to play poorly and loose all your money.
New Zealand couple win poker tournament, get married
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
MGM Grand Las Vegas
Last Saturday, Hollie and Perry Vogel moved up their wedding by 7 months after winning a poker tournament.
The tourney was at the Christchurch Casino in New Zealand, with a free wedding offered as the grand prize.
Appropriately called the To Have and To Hold'em tournament, 10 couples pitted themselves at the tables, playing in pairs.
Down to two couples, Hollie built up a stack and then Perry took it down in a quick heads-up punch of Aces that held up.
The lucky couple married a few hours later, then boarded a plane to their honeymoon destination -- Las Vegas, where they plan to stay 7 days for free at the MGM Grand.
Two Poker Championship Events This Week in Vegas
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
Robin Leach in the Venetian Poker Room
Two dueling poker tournaments taking place in Las Vegas this month - Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza and the Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series - hold their championship events this week.
Today, Monday at Noon, the Venetian championship event gets under way. Get a seat for $2,500 buy in and settle back in one of the world's most luxurious poker rooms while you wield your 20,000 in starting chips during 60 minute blind levels. This is the first Vegas tournament of the year for many of the local pro tournament players. Check out the details from an earlier post.
Next, we move across the Las Vegas strip and down the boulevard to Caesars Palace where the Mega Stack Series is winding down its first tournament for 2009. Get to Caesars Palace poker room today, Monday at 5 PM, to play in the Mega Satellite for a chance to win a championship event seat. The Mega Stack championship kicks off on Tuesday, February 25 at Noon. Just in case you don't win a cheap entry, the buy in is $1060. Players receive 30,000 in chips and play 60 minute blind levels. Two $225 buy in events will also play this week at Noon. Check out the details form an earlier post.
Plenty of poker action around Las Vegas this week, especially with the NASCAR show in town for the weekend races.
photo by flipchip • lasvegasvegas.com
A half dozen champions at Caesars Palace poker room Las Vegas
Playing Limit Hold‘em vs. No-Limit Hold’em
Just about everyone begins their poker career at the low limit tables, where they’ll stay for awhile, learn the fundamentals of the game, and then consider moving up to either higher limits or no-limit. However, making the switch to a no-limit game may not be the best course of action for you, at least maybe not at the moment. Here are some of the fundamental differences between limit and no-limit hold’em so that you can best calculate which style of play you can profit the most from.
Limit
Limit hold’em, especially at $2-$4 and $3-$6 levels, is incredibly less stressful than even the cheapest live no-limit games. You can only invest so much of your bankroll into any given hand, and the amount that can be raised will always be manageable to the point where it will be easy to make most of your fold/call/raise decisions. Skilled limit players enjoy limit poker because the swings are far less dramatic, and they can grind out a much more consistent profit, versus in no-limit where you can have a six hour winning session only to turn around and lose it all in just a few big hands.
Limit is also the better format for those that don’t want to have a lot of decision-making needed to be able to make correct plays. When your opponent can only bet $6 on the turn, figuring out what to do next is going to be very simple. However, in a $200 buy-in no-limit game, your opponent can instead bet $30 or more into the turn, making the decision more critical and stressful for you.
Limit play rewards players who have the patience to consistently play premium hands, while at the same time minimizing the chances of bluffs and other taxing plays that will otherwise be found in a no-limit game. If low stress and straightforward poker interests you, limit is your game.
No Limit
No limit hold’em is considered the most popular form of poker on the planet. The action can be extremely fast paced, the pots can grow to immense proportions at any time, and a wider range of styles can be put into play. The big risk/big reward mentality entices a lot of player to enter the no-limit games, but you need to make sure you have the skills necessary to compete at the accelerated pace. As with limit poker, you can make a career in no-limit by sticking to the premium hands, though you may become easy classified as a extremely tight player by your opponents. To have a better shot at excelling in no-limit hold’em, you’ll need to be able to expand your hand selection accordingly based on a number of different variables throughout a session, and this heightened need of awareness can really put a strain on players.
Advanced plays like bluffs and semi-bluffs play a much more prominent role at the no-limit tables, since now players can now bet enough to make opponents think twice about calling with a mediocre hand, where in limit the decision should be easy to make by comparsion. Possibly the biggest difference in no-limit, however, are the wildly unpredictable swings a player can experience in their bankroll. Like I said earlier, you could be playing perfect poker for hours during a game, earning a consistent profit, only to get drawn into putting all your chips in during a round where you get trapped by a monster hand or suffer a bad beat. Losing your entire stack like that can be downright traumatic for many players, so make sure you have the mindset to be able to turn around from big losses and continue to play strong poker.
Bluffing-Part II
Telling the Right Story
Bluffing is a lot like when kids fib to their friends at school to make them look cool. You can’t tell a story that doesn’t make sense, or else your friends will catch on. In poker, bluffing is fibbing, and if you don’t do it well other players will call you out. One complaint that I hear a lot is, “I bet and I don’t know how he calls me with that crappy hand!†Usually the hand goes something like this…
5 limpers into a pot in a 2/5 game
Flop: 10d Js 3h
Action: Checks around
Turn: 2c
Action: Check around, late position makes it $20, BB calls, everyone else folds
River: 7d
Action: BB checks, late position makes it $30, BB calls
BB wins the pot with Jc4d
Late position mucks
One of the main problems with this hand is that the bluffing didn’t make sense. Any smart player would conclude that if it was checked on the flop, there are no flushes or straights, and the aggressor was not in the blinds, so J4 off suite is probably good in that situation. Since the betting came on the turn and river, it could easily be assumed that the better has a 10, 2, 3, or nothing at all. Either of which is crushed by a Jack (even with a crappy kicker.) A better play would have been to bet on the flop. In late position a bet of $10 or $15 could have taken down the pot. The BB would have to assume you had a Jack and his kicker was no good. In the rare event that he does call you, a bet on the turn would get him off of his hand.
Remember, it is not profitable to bluff just to bluff. You can’t assume that your chips are going to be enough to get someone off of a marginal hand. It has to look as if you have something. Therefore, if you are trying to represent top pair, you can’t bluff on the turn when the lowest card comes out. Bluffs need to look consistent to how you would play the cards you are representing. I’ve seen several players make superhero calls with King high, leaving their opponent dejected and asking how they made that call. Almost always it is because the bluffer was telling a story with their chips that didn’t make sense. Know the story you are trying to tell, and bluffing at the right times will be much easier.
Bluffing- Part I
Bluffing is an art and a skill that when utilized correctly, it can make you a lot of money. When practiced incorrectly, it can cost you. Since bluffing is an art that is situational and is dependent on a multitude of factors, I thought it would be beneficial to go over some of the basic and intermediate concepts behind bluffing. All too often I see people bluffing at pots when there is no value in it, or I see people bluffing a lot of chips when a small amount will do. There are also players that bluff at the wrong time and good players are able to see that the play doesn’t make sense. These are all common mistakes that cost money, but hopefully soon you will be able to make lots of money from your bluffs.
Knowing Your Opponent
With any hand you play, it is important to know your opponent. However, it is almost impossible to be a successful bluffer if you don’t know how your opponent plays, their tells, or what their image is. It would be like me sending you fishing with worms, but having no clue what kind of fish you are trying to catch. Being able to put your opponent on a range of hands is a good start to knowing when to bluff. If you know that your opponent only plays prime hands for a raise, and the board comes out low cards, that would be a great time for you to bluff. On the other hand, you would also know not to bluff that same opponent if the board came out high cards.
Knowing your opponents image is essential to bluffing. Most people can be bluffed given the right circumstances, but sometimes there is that person that doesn’t fold. These players can be easily spotted because they are loose and aggressive. They play a lot of hands and hardly ever fold to a bet. They will usually play any two cards and just like the feeling of getting lucky or making people fold the best hand. This is not a person you want to bluff. If you do try to bluff these people, they will call you all the way down and will probably win on the river with a pair of deuces. It is better to reserve your bullets for the people that will fold.
One person to be careful of is the super tight rock on your table. If you notice that there is a player who hardly ever plays a hand, and who folds to most bets, be careful if you decide that you are going to bluff him. If you bluff the flop and he calls, this should send off warning bells that he has a hand. Since he is a tight player, he will most likely call your bet all the way down, so you will have no idea what he actually has. However, be assured that if he is calling, he has a better hand than you do, and it is probably time to cut your losses unless you have a draw.
Knowing who your opponents are and the range of hands they play is the foundation to being able to bluff successfully. If you are unsure to what kind of opponent you are bluffing, there is a considerable amount of guess work that might cost you a lot of money in the end. Take a round or two to get a good handle on how the players play at your table before you jump in and try to steamroll everyone.
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WSOP Info is your source to online poker news and information regarding the WSOP 2008. The World Series Of Poker is the largest Poker event in the world.
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