Great Moments in World Series of Poker History Part 3

In just a couple of weeks thousands of dream-filled hopefuls will take their seats in the 44th annual World Series of Poker Main Event.
With its $10,000 buy-in and historic playing fields the Main Event has produced many of the greatest moments in World Series of Poker history.
Guest blogger James Guill continues his Great Moments in WSOP History series with this Main Event-themed installment.

Action Dan Goes Back to Back in Main Event

When Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, 1995 Main Event Champion "Action Dan" Harrington finished 3rd.
The very next year, Harrington navigated through a then-record field of 2,576 players to finish in 4th place.
While Harrington's 1995 Main Event title may be his greatest victory, many consider his back-to-back final tables in the 2003 and 2004 Main Event to be his greatest accomplishment in the marked cards game.

Chan Beats Seidel to Win Back-to-Back Main Events

Johnny Chan was looking to stake his claim to history in the 1988 WSOP Main Event with back-to-back titles.
Erik Seidel was looking to make a name for himself by taking down the richest prize in poker. Both eventually were immortalized but it was Chan that went in the history books first.
Chan held a slight edge over Seidel when he limped in with J♣ 9♣ and Seidel followed suit with Q♣ 7♥. On a flop of Q♠ 10♥ 8♦, Chan had a nearly unbeatable straight and Seidel top pair. Chan tested the waters against a Seidel with a 40k bet and knew he had him when Seidel put in a 50k raise.
When the turn fell the 2♠ Chan checked in hopes that Seidel would overcommit to his hand. Seidel shoved and Chan made the easy call. The river was irrelevant and Johnny Chan made history.
Ten years later both Seidel and Chan would be immortalized in Rounders with Seidel portrayed as the sucker of the encounter. Ironically Seidel has $9 million more in career winnings than Chan.

Lamb Goes From Contender to Bust in Four Hands

Ben Lamb's run in the 2011 WSOP led him to his first WSOP bracelet, three preliminary event final tables and a spot in the 2011 WSOP Main Event November Nine.
Lamb was second in chips when the final three took their seats on the last day and many felt he had the best chance of winning it all.
The very first hand of three-handed play Lamb decided that it was wise to four-bet shove against the solid Martin Staszko.
Lamb held K♥ J♦ and Staszko, knowing that Lamb liked to shove light, made the call. The board failed to help him and Lamb was crippled.
Three hands later Lamb shoved with Q♠ 6♥ and this time around Staszko had pocket jacks. The board blanked again and Ben Lamb went from possible Main Event champion to third place in four hands.

Bluff of the Century

When Chris Moneymaker reached heads-up play of the 2003 WSOP Main Event, many did not expect him to prevail despite easy cards tricks the fact he had two-thirds of the chips in play. Moneymaker even offered an even chop with Sam Farha but Farha wanted to play it out.
A short while later Moneymaker decided to raise to 100,000 with K♠ 7♥ and Farha made the call.
On a flop of 9♠ 6♠ 2♦ it was checked around and the 8♠ hit the turn. While Farha had the best hand with a pair of nines, there was now both a straight and flush possibility on the board.
Farha bet out 300,000 in hopes of winning the pot there and prevent any further drawing. Moneymaker then decided to test Farha and put out a 500,000 semi-bluff raise. Farha made a reluctant call and both saw the river 3♥.
With the multiple straight and flush possibilities on the board Farha checked. Moneymaker, holding nothing but air, knew he could only win with a bluff and shoved for his tournament life.
Farha took a while to make his decision and even commented that he could make a "crazy call" and that it could be the winner. Giving Moneymaker too much credit for a hand, the seasoned veteran folded the best hand in what Norman Chad referred to as the "Bluff of the Century."
Moneymaker's bluff would give him the momentum needed to finally take down the Main Event title and usher in the Poker Boom.

10 Essential Texas Hold'em Moves: The Reverse Tell

We’re here to tell you winning at poker isn’t all about fundamentals.
There are a handful of special moves that, when mastered, can make the difference between winning a little, and winning a lot.
In this ten-part beginner poker strategy series we’re going to show you exactly how to use these powerful poker moves to make more money.
Today we’re talking about the reverse tell, sometimes called a false tell. It’s a move that can disorient your opponents and make it a lot harder for them to make the right decision.
By mastering the reverse tell you can trick your opponents into mucking when they have the best of it and shoveling their chips into the middle when they’re crushed.
The What: A form of misinformation, reverse tell refers to a deliberate behavior or action intended to make your opponent(s) think they’ve picked up information about your hand.
The Why: There are many common tells that poker marked cards players look for. By imitating these tells in the right spot you can influence your opponent’s thought process.
The Where: For a reverse tell to be successful your opponent needs to be paying attention, so this move will only work against experienced, thinking players.
The When: The most common time you can use a reverse tell is when you have made a big bet or raise and your opponent is deciding whether to call or fold.

Reverse Tells for Beginners

The essence of a reverse tell is about being able to influence your opponent’s behavior, by feeding him false information.

Anyone who's good at spotting tells is susceptible to the reverse tell.

 

If you know your opponent has been reading Joe Navarro’s Read ‘Em and Reap, for example, you can take advantage about what he’s learned about poker tells.
Navarro suggests that people tend to get closer physically to their cards and chips when they have a strong hand, and farther away when they’re weak.
Next time you’re bluffing all-in and your opponent looks like he’s having a tough time making a decision, lean into the table and cozy up to those cards like they’re your two best friends.

Advanced Reverse Tells

The next level of reverse tells involves setting up your opponents over the course of a session or sessions.
By making sure the other players take note of a certain behavior or tell, you can use that behavior at an opportune time to force a mistake.
For example, every time you pick up a monster hand and are value-betting or raising, make sure to completely change the topic of conversation, as if to draw attention away from the hand.
If you think your opponent has picked up on it, do the same the next time you’re running a big bluff.
The reverse tell isn’t foolproof, but poker is full of times when players are torn between calling or folding in a tough spot. Sometimes all they need is a nudge in the right direction.

Five Most Common Tells You Can Reverse

For every common tell there’s a simple reversal.
If the tell normally means you’re holding a monster hand, do it when you’re bluffing and give your opponent another reason to fold infrared contactlenses.
If the tell usually indicates air, make sure to break it out when you’re betting or raising with the nuts.

If someone hits the flop hard they'll often look away.

 

Here are the top five tells you can reverse:

• Strong is Weak, Weak is Strong: Most people believe that when a player is holding a strong hand, they’re most likely to act weak in order to confuse their opponent. The reverse is true of someone bluffing. Throwing out bets forcefully, staring down your opponent and speaking with inflated bravado are just some of the ways players act strong.
• A Shaky Hand Means a Monster: Many players, especially beginners, will be more nervous when they’re holding a monster hand than when they’re bluffing. Hence the idea that when someone’s hand is shaking and jittery when they put out a bet, they’ve probably got the nuts.
• Staring at or Looking Away from the Flop: Similar to the ‘Strong is Weak’ idea, when a player looks at the flop and then quickly looks away it indicates he likes what he sees and is attempting to look uninterested. When a player is staring at the flop for a long time it usually indicates he has missed.
• Glancing at Chips: When a player quickly looks at their chips after seeing the flop, it usually means they connected with it somehow.
• Nonsensical Conversation: If a players is normally very smooth in their conversation and begins to speak nonsensically or clumsily when involved in a massive hand, it’s usually means they’re bluffing.

The Reverse Tell in Action

If you’re still not convinced about the power of the reverse tell, cast your mind back to the 1998 WSOP Main Event.
It was the final hand between Scotty Nguyen and Kevin McBride and there was a full house on the board, eights full of nines.
Scotty had a nine in his hand and pushed McBride over the edge into a call with the famous line, “You call, it’s going to be all over baby.”
Scotty was playing on the common tell that weak means strong and vice versa. He acted strong with a monster and tricked McBride into thinking he was trying to buy the pot.
Skip to 3:00 for the good stuff.

Defending Against the Light Three-Bet

If you've been playing short-handed cash games with any frequency lately you may have noticed a new trend.
The TAG (tight-aggressive) style which used to dominate the games has really started to evolve into a much more LAG (loose-aggressive) style. This of course leads to tougher games, and you're liable to find yourself being forced into some rather difficult spots.
One situation that comes up time and time again is when you've opened a pot for a raise and then another TAG/LAG three-bets you. It's up to you to determine if he is three-betting light and what your best plan of attack is.
The Three-Bet
Because, as mentioned, the predominant style in these games is fairly loose and aggressive, it's key to educate yourself about the three-betting-light trend.
The majority of marked cards players open with a wide range of hands pre-flop. The light three-bet is basically just a re-raise before the flop with a hand worse than what they would normally three-bet for value.

This play is designed to exploit the aggressive players who are opening a wide range pre-flop. Usually the three-bettor hopes to take the pot down immediately, knowing the original raiser will hold average hands the majority of the time.
This begs the question, what is the best defense against a player who employs the light three-bet?
Obviously your primary recourse against a tough player who has position on you is to just leave the table and move on to softer ground. However, let's say for the sake of the example there are some real big fish at this table that are worth sticking around for... or you're a glutton for punishment.
Your Defenses

There are quite a few defenses you can employ.
For one, you can try calling these three-bets lighter than you normally would. This of course is just an example of multi-level thinking. If you know that he knows that you are opening light then you know that he's capable of three-betting light.
Thus if you have a hand like A-Q it probably stacks up pretty well against his range, whereas if this were against a normal three-bettor it would be an easy fold.

Put your opponent in a spot where both a call and a fold are wrong and you cause him to make mistakes. Then come the eBucks.

One problem with this modus operandi is that it gives you no momentum - you let your opponent seize the initiative in the pot and you're now forced to play defense. Also, you usually have to hit a decent flop to continue.
Two, you can use calling in conjunction with a donk bet on the flop. A donk bet of course is a bet where you called a raise and then bet into your adversary on the next street. You can do this with or without a hand.
This usually causes an opponent who has raised infrared contactlenses you light and missed the flop to fold. However, if your opponent is savvy to this move he may just continue his aggression and re-pop your donk bet, forcing you to relinquish the money you invested.
Three, you can call the pre-flop three-bet and then check-raise the flop. Once again you can do this with or without a hand. This is an extremely aggressive counterpunch. The obvious drawback: you're risking a lot of money if you do this on a bluff.
The Four-Bet
Or, there is the ultra-aggressive light four-bet. This move - another instance of multi-level thinking - should be used very sparingly because it will definitely get you into some very tricky situations.
I won't go through all of the levels of thought because then it just seems like a rehashed comedy act from Friends (I know that you know that I know...).
Long story short, if a player is three-betting you ultra-light you can four-bet him for the exact same reason he three-bet you in the first place. The downside to this is the same as with all your other options: you're risking a good portion of your stack usually on a bluff/semi-bluff.
Nonetheless, any of these methods is a decent starting point for defending your raises out of position. Another one you can add to your arsenal when you're in position is to smooth-call the three-bet before the flop. Then on the flop you can raise his c-bet or wait until the turn and float him once he checks to you.
There's no way to say which defense is best. In fact there is never one best defense in poker. Ideally you should have all of these moves in your pocket and you should be able to bust whichever one out as the situation dictates.

Pay attention to your opponents; if you're not, you'll just be throwing money away.

With or Without a Hand
Obviously you're going to be just throwing money away if you do any of these without proper reads. So you must always be paying attention to your opponents.
How often are they three-betting? How do they react when they are three-bet? How do they react when they get four-bet? Do they always c-bet the flop after three-betting? If they are called do they give up? Or do they check-raise the turn?
You must constantly evaluate and reevaluate your reads while you are playing.
You may have noticed me repeating the phrase "with or without a hand." I'm harping on it because you must be able to use these moves both with and without hands. This is called "balancing your ranges."
If you only, let's say, call the three-bet and check-raise the flop as a bluff, then you are extremely exploitable. But when you can do that with a monster, a bluff or even a marginal hand, it makes you extremely difficult to defend against.
If you put your opponent in a situation where both a call and a fold are incorrect, then you cause him to make mistakes. And as we know in poker, if you can force your opponents to make mistakes then the eBucks are sure to follow!
More Articles From Dan Skolovy:
http://elinn.blog.fc2blog.us/blog-entry-103.html

Battle of Malta Picture Book

The PokerListings.com Battle of Malta is in full swing and we're here to record it all marked cards.
We'll be posting photos on this page as the tournament plays down to a winner so check back here to see what it's like to play poker on the Mediterranean.

Leaks: Something's Dripping, and It's Money

No, this is not an article on plumbing.
Leaking is an unhappy condition and pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Something's dripping - and it's money.
There's a guy I've known for years. He's a decent middle-stakes player, probably a long-term winner. But he has a leak. He thinks he knows something about the horses.
He doesn't, and he won't listen to anyone who does. He sits at the poker table with the Daily Racing Form in his lap. When he's not in a hand, he takes a couple of quick glances and tries to handicap.
Every half hour or so he goes marked cards to the simulcasting room and systematically piddles away his poker winnings.
That's a leak, and he's not alone. Our game has more than its share of legends who bleed profusely from self-inflicted wounds at craps tables, baccarat and games like golf and basketball.
Many also have a poor head for business and are prone to invest in offbeat ventures that are closer to scams than honest enterprises.

Ivey: Dice man.

Leakers come in two categories: the ignorant and the driven. The ignorant are less interesting. They usually don't know the statistical natures of the games they play, and don't realize they are jeopardizing their bankrolls.
They think a slot machine is "due" because it hasn't paid out a jackpot recently; that baccarat can be beaten if you chart the sequence of "Banker" and "Player" hands. Or they think that to beat craps you just look for a hot shooter.
Whatever. It's a little surprising that people hold such delusional beliefs - especially those who are decent poker players. They are passionate about their "main" game, understand its mathematical elements and make strategic adjustments based on pot and implied odds.
But give them a baccarat shoe or a pair of dice and suddenly they can't count to 10.
Part of the problem is that when they play these other games, they stop caring. Oh, they like money and they like to win, but they stop caring about the mathematical aspects of the games.
They like variety and they like action. They also tend to be recreational players and all they're really doing is costing themselves a couple of bucks. In fact, many of them eventually figure out what is happening and plug their leaks.
Of more psychological interest, however, are the others: the driven. The head cases who don't just leak money, they hemorrhage it!

Mike the Mouth: Has had a few big scores go straight to his creditors.

The following episode took place a few years ago. A respected poker pro (who shall be nameless to protect the guilty) cashed out for a shade over $150,000 in a major tournament. He took the cash but, as he turned around, he found a bunch of his creditors standing there waiting to be paid.
Despite the size of the win, it wasn't enough, and the last guy in line, who got shortchanged, slugged our hero. Not many make the final table and get a crack in the jaw as part of the prize.
His problem? Sports betting, where he has lost astonishing amounts. Others bet the horses or shoot craps or wager on their ability to smack a small, white, dimpled orb of gutta-percha around a manicured park.
Of course, some of this is "just fun" between gamblers. But much of it isn't - it has a markedly pathological feel to it.
I've got some thoughts to share with you. First, there is an ironic, Shakespearean element here. In many of Shakespeare's tragedies the traits that made characters successful marked cards lenses and heroic were the very ones that ultimately brought about their downfall.

Brunson: Known to wake up on the wrong side of the spread.

And so it goes with many poker greats. The skills that enable these guys to rise to the top of the poker world are the very ones that drag them into the financial abyss elsewhere.
They hurl themselves into games with a devil-may-care attitude. They don't care about the money. They crave action, they know and love the game and they're ruthless. They don't just want to win; they want to crush their opponents.
Jack Straus put it best, "If my own grandmother sat down at the table, I'd break her." As English essayist, poet, mountain climber and poker player Al Alvarez noted, for these guys the chips aren't money in any ordinary sense; they're just a way of keeping score, a measure of one's status.
When these world-class, high-stakes poker players go to the sportsbook, the race track or the craps table, they take their skills, talents and personality quirks with them. Their knowledge of statistics and probabilities is useful, but their lack of concern for money, their massive egos and their dependence on reading their opponents are daggers in their hearts.
A thoroughbred horse doesn't give a fat flying fig who you are or how inflated your ego is. You can't intimidate a pair of dice with an all-in bet. A tipped pass in overtime will doom your bet on the Cowboys no matter how big your wager.

Andy Bloch: Smart enough to be on the MIT blackjack team, but frequently gambles by dressing in the dark.

The psychology of the poker table is different from other gambling domains. The drive, the ability to read people, to out-think them, to win the wheels-within-wheels maneuverings that comprise the bluffs and traps - all these aptitudes that work at the poker table are useless in other gaming venues.
You'd think they'd figure it out, but they don't - they don't care about the money, their egos goad them on and, at the bottom of their mortal souls, they are action junkies.
Are there winning poker players who are also successful elsewhere? A few, but they tend to be laid-back types who approach both games with a quiet, studied manner. Mickey Appleman is a legendary sports bettor and Andy Bloch was a member of the famed MIT blackjack team.
There are also poker professionals with no leaks at all. Next time we'll take a look at one, and try to figure out what makes him tick, how he avoids the plumber and what we all can learn from his approach to the game and to life.

Budget Suites Las Vegas – The Perfect Blend of Apartment Style and Hotel Living

There a literally hundreds of options when trying to decide upon the proper hotel arrangements when visiting a city such as Las Vegas Nevada that caters to millions of visitors and tourists annually; however, the Budget Suites Las Vegas offers a unique combination of typical hotel amenities and conveniences and long term apartment style living. Founded on the basis of trying to make it easier for individuals, be it for business or pleasure, to stay in a place long term for an affordable price without the associated hassles and strings of renting a dwelling, the Las Vegas facilities have become a popular place for those individuals who, for whatever reason, choose to stay in the city for an extended time. Available features which heighten the lodging experience include beautiful pool and fitness facilities, fully furnished suites, the inclusion of all utilities in the price of the suite marked cards, a full sized kitchen complete with dish washer, full sized refrigerator, stove, and microwave, onsite covered parking, onsite security, full property management, and available private offices with high speed internet access.


When coming to Las Vegas for an extended amount of time, your dwelling options can be limited. Pursuing a typical rental property can be complicated and expensive with the necessity of signing rental agreements and the payment of security deposits. However, traditional hotels oftentimes do not offer special discounted rates for long term residents. Therefore, staying a hotel room can be expensive because you are paying on a per night basis. Staying in a traditional hotel room can also be uncomfortable for the long term guest as the amenities are usually limited in scope. You may not have a separate kitchen or even a refrigerator, internet access could be limited, and the size of the room is for from adequate for most long term clients.

For this reason the Budget Suites Las Vegas decided to market their attractive set of characteristics to the individual who is seeking for a longer term visit than the typical tourist or businessman or woman. The most attractive feature of this situation is the inclusion of all utilities in the cost of the suite. There are no rental agreements or other contracts to sign. Therefore, a juice cards customer can decide to leave if his or her situation changes without worrying about costly penalties. The rooms also come fully furnished with a full sized kitchen with full sized appliances. Thus, the atmosphere of the room is similar to an apartment as opposed to a hotel room. This also means that the guests can travel light since everything they need is already in the suite.




Finally, while the guest can enjoy the feeling of living in an apartment, they can also enjoy the associated amenities of being in a hotel. Every Budget Suite Las Vegas offers attractive poolside settings with fitness rooms and heated spas. Friendly staff can direct you to popular restaurants, casinos, shows, or other attractions and can even offer discounts to some of the most popular Las Vegas attractions.
Therefore, this hotel chain offers the perfect blend of long term stays with the comfort and features of a traditional Las Vegas hotel.

Set Up Your Virtual Casino with a Powerful Casino Script

The market for online entertainment has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade or so. As people's lives keep getting faster and busier, a quick online fix for their favorite hobby seems to be one of the best ways of relaxation. Entrepreneurs and business developers have been hard at work to find favorite leisure activities of the general public that can be developed upon and taken to the virtual world. One such example of a popular entertainment activity taken online successfully is gambling marked cards.



In the real world, gambling has been a part and parcel of human civilization for centuries, and has been an inherent (if somewhat controversial) part of several nations' cultures. The online version of this popular leisure activity started in the late nineties. The Antigua Barbuda government was the first one to recognize and legalize this form of virtual entertainment. Simultaneously, one of market leaders in online casino script development, Mircogaming was founded. This paved the way for many more governments to legalize internet gambling, and saw the rise of various developers in the casino software creation market.
Since its humble beginnings, online casinos have picked up an immense amount of fan following. The industry has grown for $17 million in 1996 to $30,000 billion in 2008. Online gambling is projected to grow even faster over the coming years, and is certainly one of the most promising markets in the virtual world.
If you would like to jump on the bandwagon and start your own online casino business, you need to undertake these base steps first:

• Obtain an online gambling license to make your business legal
• Create a merchant account that will enable you to send and receive money
• Choose a dedicated server on which you will host your online casino business
• Choose an online casino script provider

If you search the internet for that final part of the pre requisites, you will notice that there are many websites that offer setting up an online casino software. We offer the best and most powerful casino scripts that make it easy for you to establish your online juice cards casino business.

We understand that different people have different needs and visions about how they want their virtual casino business to grow. For this reason, you will find multiple casino scripts, all with various options and benefits on our website. The various casino software options offered range from the very basic, bare bones casino scripts that get you started, to the most advanced scripts that will turn your website into a fully functional virtual casino. However, if none of the options that we offer suit your needs, you create your own customized version, mixing and matching up options from different packages.
One you buy a casino script, all you need to do is install in on your web server, specify some of the basic options in the database, and you will be all set to launch your own casino business on the World Wide Web. You can personalize your script with custom logos, casino name, names of various games and a domain name of your liking.