Strategic Slowplaying

Many amateurs love to slowplay with top pair. The pros explain why this might not be the best idea. Here are the pros thoughts on slowplaying.

The Art of the Trap

Carlos Mortensen Wins WPT Championship

Last night Carlos Mortensen became the first player ever to win both the Main event of the WSOP and the WPT Championship when he bested a field of 639 players to take home the $25,000 buy-in WPT title. He received a WPT record, $3,970,415 for his win.

Some notable finishes were...

Scott Fischman - 8th
Phil Hellmuth - 18th
Paul Wasicka - 24th

Table Image

In poker your image at the table is extremely important. Here is what some pros think about table image.

Hilarious Article by Daniel Negreanu

I recently stumbled across this hilarious article written by Daniel Negreanu. He writes about the experiences of dodging bullets and being a famous poker icon. Very funny.

Link

The Essence of Bluffing

The pros teach the essence of bluffing

Heads Up Strategy

Many people when they reach heads up have no idea what to do because of their limited experience playing it. In heads up you need to get more aggressive. Watch the video below to get an idea for how the pros play heads up.

Playing With a Big Stack

Do you always find yourself having trouble maintaining a big chip stack when you get it? This is a common problem many players have. Here's a video that will give you some tips on how to play big stack poker.

Full Tilt Commericial You Won't See on TV

Here is a commercial from Full Tilt you won't see on TV that displays Phil Ivey's poker face. It's pretty funny. You'll understand why they won't allow it on TV.

Concealing Your Hand

One of the most important things you need to know about poker is how to conceal your hand. To do this I would recommend doing everything the same. Pay attention to your body movements. This includes your entire body from head to toe. Make sure when you bet, whether you are strong or weak, to do it in the same manner every time.

Poker is a game of information, the less information you give away to your opponents the more successful you will be. A good example of a player who does does everything the same way is Chris Ferguson. Here is a clip that shows how he does this.

Slowplaying Aces or Kings Preflop

A lot of people new to poker tend to slowplay aces or kings. Slowplaying them usually is not a recommended play.

Most of the time I will raise preflop with aces or kings but there is a time you might want to just limp in. If you are playing at a full table with a lot of action it could be beneficial to limp from early position. This is because if someone else raises you can re-raise and extract maximum value for your hand.

ESPN Announces WSOP TV Schedule

ESPN has announced which WSOP events they'll be showing this year. Here they are...

• Event 1: $5,000 mixed hold 'em
• Event 3: $1,500 no-limit hold 'em
• Event 4: $1,500 pot-limit hold 'em or Event 7: $5,000 pot-limit Omaha
• Event 8: $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys
• Event 13: $5,000 pot-limit hold 'em
• Event 28: $3,000 no-limit hold 'em
• Event 30: $2,500 no-limit hold 'em six-handed
• Event 31: $5,000 heads-up or Event 33: $1,500 pot-limit Omaha with rebuys
• Event 39: $50,000 HORSE
• Event 50: $10,000 pot-limit Omaha
• Event 55: $10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event

The biggest change this year is they are now going to show the HORSE event from the start and not just the final table. This is great news considering the HORSE event consists of mostly pros so you can expect to see some pretty good poker being played by the best in the world. Last year's winner of the HORSE event was Chip Reese.

Verifying a Tell

You're at the poker table and you think you've picked up a sign of strength or weakness from your opponent but you aren't quite sure if it's correct. What do you do? When looking for tells the best thing to do is try to find multiple tells on your opponent during the hand. If your opponent does something that makes you think they're weak look to try and find something else they're doing or did that would display weakness. The more information you gather the better you can determine if your opponent is weak or strong.

Doing this will also help you from avoiding a player who is giving off false tells. Usually a player giving off false tells will just focus on one particular tell, and not display multiple signs of strength or weakness.

Poker Movies

Playing Position Poker

Something I've noticed at the poker tables is many people play a hand just because they think it’s good and pay no attention to their position at the table. For example, you pick up a hand like KJ, QJ, K10, etc. and you think to yourself, this is pretty good. Well, if there is a raise and 3 or 4 other people have already limped in before the action is up to you you’re probably beat and should fold the hand. Many people still make the mistake though and play the hand. I really don't understand how they think they have a good shot at winning the pot when they do that. Don’t be afraid to fold these hands.

Your position at the table is just as important as the cards you get. When you're in late position you're in a power spot. Take advantage of that. Raise more from late position and play more hands from late position. At a full table you shouldn't be raising or even calling from early position with hands like Q10, K9, ace rag. Even hands like A10, and KJ should be folded under the gun (first position). Those hands are very beatable, especially when you play them in early position. Play more hands from late position and less from early position and you will enjoy more success.

Welcome to Poker for Donkeys

I'm going to write a lot about poker here, strategy, what's going on in poker, my experiences and other things poker related