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issue 3 | winter 2008 | luck, what luck?
poker things to do before you die! see p21
conneller conquers
sociation w i as
th
pages of advanced strategy
Learn how to: n Crush double thru's n Climb the cash ladder n Beat aggressive players
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Philip 'escalope' Conneller wins the $75,000 PKR Live main event
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winter 2008 | contents
stacked♠ community
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Push the Button The button is the golden in six-max cash games – learn to use it!
Xmas Cracker Make your festive break one to celebrate by winning one of our Xmas pressie-added tournaments cover image: LAURA CADENAZZI, PAUL condron, Emrah Turudu, Dana M Starr, Image Masters Photography & Digital Imaging, Nickan Arzpeyma, Sharon Dominick
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Staying Afloat Battle continuation betting with some loose positional play
Word on the Street Read which players have been having their say in the PKR forums
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Stuff to buy
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Playing Cards The best decks around
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Climbing the Cash Ladder Every step you take brings you one rung closer to the final table
Community Card Team PKR hit GUKPT Thanet
The Clinic Danski and Jabba offer advice on how to cope when Lady Luck leaves you down in the dumps Casting a Wide Net The PKR Cast hit the World Series of Poker hard and fast
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The PKR Masters Australian smiles were wide at the final table of the October Masters as $27,360 headed down under
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Grudge Match Top tournament players kristobella and brutusnr1 go heads up features
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PKR Live Full review of the action at the first ever PKR Live in London
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30 Poker Things to Do Before You Die Make sure that you tick every box before the Grim River claims you!
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The November Nine A breakdown of the World Series Main Event final table and an interview with its $9.15m winner CASH STRATEGY
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Player Focus zomgchipriffle is a player with more than just chip tricks to his name – beware bumhunters!
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Mtt STRATEGY Player Focus Meet sourshark, winner of the Oktoberfest tournament of champions p26
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Poisoned Aces How much faith should you place in non-premium aces? SNG STRATEGY
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Player Focus Six-max specialist MRM1983 celebrates the art of bubble bursting
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Double Your Money Learn to crush Double Thru’s and you’ll have a steady earner for life
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Do the Math Get the Independent Chip Model working for you and sit pretty on the bubble back section
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Tournament Diary How to get a slice of the big money tournament action for yourself
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River Rage PKR TV host Colin Morris sings the praises of online poker to the new US president
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welcome | ed’s letter
looking back, moving ahead Don’t miss the chance to think on your 2008 highs and lows
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STACKED♠ Editor Rick Dacey, Design by Graham Greig, Subeditor Ben Sneath, Commercial Director Tim Farthing, Project Manager Liz Moores,
Snr Production Controller Kate Faulkner, Production Manager Mark Young, Reproduction by Mullis Morgan Imaging, Chief Executive James Tye, Chairman Felix Dennis pkr people Colin Morris Media Manager, Dan Grant Community Manager, James Bach Poker Operations Executive, Neil Wright Cardroom Manager, Simon Prodger Marketing Director, Malcolm Graham Chief Executive Officer, Dmitriy Shlyuger CRM Manager Published by Dennis Publishing Ltd, 30 Cleveland Street, London W1T 4JD, a company registered in England number 1138891 Entire contents ©PKR ltd. Milennium House, Ollivier Street, St Anne, Alderney
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Dennis Communications
laura cadenazzi, Maxim Filipchuk
Rick Dacey Editor
he Christmas and New Year break is not just a window for you to stuff your face and sling drink down your neck. The holiday period is a time for reflection, a bit of breathing space in which you can look back at the achievements of 2008 and plan your ambitions for 2009. When the top brass at PKR sit back to chuff on their Chrimbo cigars there is one thing that I hope that they don’t choose to alter much next year and that’s PKR Live. I’d like to point out that this is not a partisan ‘isn’t-PKR-great’ call to arms – I’m editor of STACKED♠ and not a direct employee of PKR – but I was really impressed by the event. As a professional poker journalist (no jokes, please) I’ve been to tournaments in Monte Carlo and Las Vegas, the Bahamas and Barcelona, but I’ve never experienced such a sense of goodwill and enjoyment as I did at PKR Live. Don’t get me wrong, there are good times to be had at all tourneys, but there’s normally an air of menace that circulates around the cardroom. That side of things barely reared its head, which considering the coming together of rivals that regularly smash up the online tables is quite incredible in itself. I’ve attributed two reasons for its success. Firstly, there’s the dedication with which the guys and girls at PKR work behind the scenes supplying blogs, new PKRcasts, regular PKR.tv updates and interacting with the forums. And secondly, there is you. Camaraderie has replaced schadenfreude and it was great to see players railing opponents they’d only met before online. Actually, a little more hazy reflection is needed; the free bar may also have played its small part in cementing the good times!
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community | forum chat
PKR Live Your thoughts ChivalrousGent THANK YOU PKR!
Vondur
nexus1000
karbyn
NL1000 - Red queens on diamond flop Vondur Playing six-max $5/$10 table
I raise to $45 with Q♦ Q♥ and have one caller. I bet $80 on 5♦ 3♦ T♦ flop and get min-raised to $160. Fiend has been playing very tight and conservative, so had I. Neither of us had any reason to believe that the other was making a move. What do you do here? If you just call, what’s your plan on the turn depending on what card hits? Nexus1000 Due to you being out of position I would fold. You could already be far behind (set, flush, higher pp). Maybe he has an openended straight and flush draw. Calling doesn’t change the situation, the pot is getting bigger and you still have no idea what he has. Raising isn’t good either, if he just calls, you have no additional info about his hand and you’re still first to act. Calling is bad, raising is bad, my decision would be folding. karbyn What a terrible spot to be in, but it happens a lot. Your options are as follows: 1) Fold. Pretty tough fold seeing as you’re getting 4:1. 2) Call. Tough one as you are OOP. But you can c/r any diamond. 3) Call. Lead out any turn (except Asch Ksch) for 1/2 - 2/3 pot. 4) Raise. You are likely calling any turn bet but the 6 cards above, so reraise to $375, which commits him if he calls. It feels a lot like A♦ X♦ to me. Vondur The biggest question for me isn’t whether to get it in or not. It’s how you get it in vs the biggest possible range and not only his best hands. [Because of that] I elected to do a small 3-bet to get him to do something spewy with his worst hands that I completely shut out if I shove it in. He had 7♦ 9♦.
PKR Live was undeniably fantastic – fully up to expectations i.e. absolutely “wicked” as I believe the kids in the street say nowadays Azurecoil PKR Live was a massive success as Gent said, above and beyond what those who put so much hard work and effort into it could have expected – all those who were there, players, staff, and guests would agree I’m sure. I said at some point in the night that I’ve never seen a room full of people who get on so well, despite the fact that their main hobby is to do each other out of large sums of
Chivalrousgent
Azurecoil
Dappadan777
money on a daily basis. dappadan777 Whole weekend was
sick, well organised, professional and friendly. It was as if PKR have been putting on live events for years. Every player I met was great company, I know a lot of us cash players don’t get mentioned too often around here, but it was awesome meeting some of the guys I’ve locked horns with over the last two years, and to find out that they all are good blokes.
street talk
Use the forums at www.pkr.com to raise your game, flame your opponents or catch up with poker events
Cash Table Buy-in Question Woodsy90 Quite a lot of
players keep buyingin for the minimum, lose their stack, reload, lose, reload and so on. Why are Woodsy90 they buying-in for $5 when they obviously have enough in their account to buy-in for more? LeuceDeuce In the vast majority of cases it’s because they don’t have a post-flop game and they want to shove their little stack into the middle with any two playable cards. They might also be playing above their bankroll. I’ve seen very few good players that don’t sit down with a full buy in. When they go all in, they want maximum payoff. themangus In Barry Greenstein’s book Ace on the River he says he likes to buy in for the minimum to
LeuceDeuce
themangus
Robbieweeza
limit losses. Obviously, there’s a difference buying in the minimum, where the min is $50k, compared with a .25/.50 cent table. Everybody to their own BRM (bankroll management). I have done both, and will continue to buy in low and for the max at varying times. Robbieweeza The way I see it, a max buy-in maximizes losses for a bad player and winnings for a good player. You’d have to be good with short stacks to really make a profit with a small buy-in, if you go coin flipping you’re bound to lose.
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community | apt philippines
APT Philippines 2009
Venue Dusit Thani Manila Hotel, Makati, Philippines Date 27th January-1st February Buy-in $2,700 ($2,500 + $200) Estimated prize pool $1,000,000
MAnila mayhem Last call for the $1m Asian Poker Tour Philippines!
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here’s one thing better than winning a seat to a $2,500 tournament, and that’s to qualify for one that’s in a country which is 31ºC (88ºF) all year round. Well, you’re in luck because we’re running our last few satellites to the APT Philippines where you could play for an estimated $1,000,000! We’re running $250 direct qualifiers every Monday at 20:45 GMT which will see one in twenty players scooping a tasty $5,000 package. The last qualifier is being held on Monday 12 January giving you just enough time to pack your bags and a few copies of Harrington on Hold’em before the tournament kicks off in Manila on 27 January! Satellites to the weekly final start from as little as $2.56 through SNGs or $11.80 if you’d rather qualify through multi-table tournaments. Stage 2 qualifiers to the $250 weekly final carry a $54 price tag. Find out more about playing in The Asian Poker by going to www.asianpt.com or www.PKR.com. Ante up and join Team PKR! n
JC Tran spoils the party
APT ambassador beats star studded cast to claim
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JC Tran won the trophy and a cool $390,000 6
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orld Series of Poker bracelet winner JC Tran has won the PartyPoker.com Premier League of Poker pocketing $390,000 as well as bragging rights for PKR. Tran, who was sponsored to play in the event by PKR, had to beat a 12-strong field that included the might of poker brat
Phil Hellmuth, World Champion Peter Eastgate and poker loudmouth Tony G. The $75,000 buy-in event saw each player contest six heats with the top half of the field going through to the $650,000 final table. The win tips the American over the $7m mark in live cashes. Tran is an ambassador for the Asian Poker Tour. n
community | xmas cracker
Watch
PKR TV
for the biggest tournament final tables at PKR
Xmas cracker
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hat are you doing this festive break? Will you be sitting round a Christmas tree opening presents and celebrating with your family? Well, we’re laying on a great Xmas cracker full of poker goodies starting from the 22 December and running through to the New Year. Each tournament is going to have a bit of Xmas juice with a gift added to first place, ranging from Nintendo Wii’s and PlayStation 3’s to personalised
PKR chipsets. If you play three or more events you’ll be entered into the $5,000 freeroll on 11 January where you’ll be given a stack dependant on your ranking points across the whole Xmas Cracker. The $100,000 PKR Masters is set to take place on the last Saturday of the month (27 December) but the rest of the schedule was open to change as stacked♠ went to press. Check www.PKR.com to cherry pick which tournaments you want to play. n
▼ Santa shows off the present that everybody asks for - pocket rockets!
PKR TV exclusive JC Tran talks to Jabba and Danski about the APT It’s not often that you get to talk to a poker legend like JC Tran who is currently one of the best tournament players on the live scene. Luckily for you Jabba and Danski interviewed him while he was London and caught it all on camera. Watch it at www.PKR.com.
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photography: Trevor Hunt, laura cadenazzi, alessandra cHila, christine balderas, Sebastian Meckelmannw
Get involved in some present added action at PKR this yuletide holiday and become the king of Christmas
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community | GUKPT THANET
Roll of honour AcesElky, Bigsey, farryboy, Gazpachoz, kinapuffen, kingkai84, mayotacker, MrBebb, mrmilky, MrPatel7, Najammq, shivash2, SoooSick, sumoface7, tigerwing, tsmyth29, vakostar Seasoned pro james666 looks pretty happy with himself
team pkr: on tour Top home-grown talent takes on the best at the GUKPT
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uring the course of 2008, Team PKR has launched assaults upon tournaments all over the world, including the GUKPT in London, the APT in Manila and Macau; and, of course, the World Series in Las Vegas. But there’s been one thing missing – a final table appearance. With one last challenge of 2008 remaining – the GUKPT Thanet main event – could the team finish on a high and finally take down a big score? A total of 16 PKR qualifiers won $3,000 packages to the tournament, and they were accompanied by cash Queen of client services, Victoria Dornan, ensured that the glasses were full
game pro and last issue’s Grudge Match contestant vakostar, who bought into the event using PKR Points. The team comprised a mixture of seasoned live pros such as kingkai84 (Kai Paulsen), james666 (James Sudworth) and MrBebb (Martin Bebbs), and many others who were encountering live poker on the big stage for the first time. As anyone who’s been away with Team PKR before knows, it’s become standard operating procedure for all the members to attend a meet-and-greet the night before the tournament starts.
The scene for this event’s ‘little drinky’ was Bon Appetit, a seafront restaurant in Margate that may never again sell so many Sambucas or suffer such brutal bad beat stories in one evening. Naturally, a fine time was had by all, in particular the joint birthday boys Bigsey (Stephen Biggs) and farryboy (Paul Farr). Once heads had cleared, the crushing of players and building of chip stacks take over as half the team attack Day 1a.
Early fallers Well, that was the theory. But a series of coolers and bad beats conspired to see just one solitary PKR player survive short-stacked through to Day 2. The last man standing was kinapuffen (Kiem Huynh) who represented Team PKR in Las Vegas earlier in the year. The second
Najammq in a contemplative mood as usual
Jabba getting into the spirit of things at the pre-event party
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stacked♠
community | road to vegas
half of the team got into action on Day 1b with more success, perhaps because the Sambuca had worn off. Valiant efforts from mayotacker and kingkai84 were thwarted late on, but Gazpachoz (Gary Symons) and Bigsey fought hard all the way and finished the day with average stacks. Day 2 would always be tough, but the $384,779 prize pool was an incentive to do well. kinapuffen fell early, Gazpachoz finished 35th, and despite a valiant effort Bigsey suffered the heartbreak of bubbling the tourney in 19th. With all our qualifiers on the rail, it was online pro Andrew Teng that won the first prize of $116,421. But, as it turns out, he’s a PKR cash regular who plays under the name golfpro699. So, in a way we can say we had a winner in the end! For in-depth coverage of past and future PKR Team events go to the PKR blog (www.pkr.com/poker-community) and check out the PKRcast interviews. The PKR bus is going into the garage over Christmas, but rest assured it’ll be back out on the road for all the top tournaments next year. Get on board! n Dan ‘PKR_Danski’ Grant is the PKR Community Manager. You can play him in PKR’s bounty tournaments online.
Bubbleboy Bigsey was celebrating his birthday
Join Team PKR Win a PKR satellite and play in big tournaments around the world Do you fancy joining Team PKR in competing for life-changing money at major tournaments all around the globe? We thought so. Satellites can start from as little as $1.65 so if you dream of taking down a tournament such as the WSOP, the Asian Poker Tour or Grosvenor UK Poker Tour go to www.pkr.com/poker-promotions
Q&A
PKR Cardroom Manager Neil Wright gives an update on the APT and the Road to Vegas tourneys stacked♠ The $200,000 Road to Vegas promotion started a couple of months ago, how many more seats have you got to giveaway? We’ve given away 12 of the 33 seats so far into various WSOP events ranging from the $10,000 Main Event to the $5,000 six-handed shootout. The qualification criteria has ranged quite considerably. Some have been sit-and-go based, others have been through cash games or Omaha so everyone has been able to have
“
The APT is special, not just for the structure of the tournament and the quality of play, but also the cool places we get to go to
is 12 January (feeder satellites start from $2.56). It’s looking like it’s going to be our biggest group of qualifiers in a single tournament ever. We had eight players at the APT Macau and two of them cashed. Michael ‘Arnemike’ Bronzon and Markus ‘maniville’ Mansour finished in 27th and 30th place respectively for a solid $8,250 score each (below). Apart from the estimated $1m prize pool that’s going to be on offer, why should you try to qualify to the event? The guys that went to Macau had a fantastic time. The APT is special, not just for the structure of the tournament and quality of play, but also the great locations. It’s not the kind of place that you would normally find yourself, so it becomes more than just going to play a tournament somewhere. n
a shot. We used a variable stack tournament which gave a greater number of chips to players that had played more, which was an exiting development and something we’re looking to do more with. We’re giving out Main Event and World Championship seats out all the way up until the World Series next summer. What other big tournaments are you currently running qualifiers for? We’re running $250 satellites to the APT Manila every Monday. One in twenty players will win a $5,000 package, which includes the $2,700 entry into the tournament and $2,300 spending money. The last chance to qualify and get You can tell which two PKR players made the money at the yourself over to the Philippines ATP Macau. They’re the ones surrounded by the poker babes! stacked♠
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community | Your problems solved
THE CLINIC +
Doctors Jabba and Danski are on hand to dish out bitter medicine to the ill and sick The diagnosis: Doctor Jabba Surprisingly few poker players seem to really understand the nature of variance and the maths that underpins the game they play. Yes, they may understand odds but I’m talking about long term expectation at the table. In my professional position I hear a lot of players moan when their AK doesn’t hold up against AQ. They believe they are cursed because they lost a hand that they felt they should have won. Even when someone has a 7:3 chance of winning they could lose five times in a row without it being too uncanny. There are many players that don’t see the poker Matrix and simply believe that they are the unluckiest players alive. As far as these ‘unlucky’ few are concerned they feel that they should win every time they find themselves ahead. Chance unfortunately dictates otherwise. If I toss a coin 100 times I would not expect to hit 50 heads and 50 tails. In fact, if I repeated the 100 coin sample a thousand times I wouldn’t be surprised to see variance as high as 90 to 10 in some samples, but I can expect that approximately half of them will favour heads and the other tails over the very long term. Several months of multi-table tournament poker (MTT) might equate to just one or two of those 100 coin samples and that variance is further magnified by the
Paranoid Variance Delusions…
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ave you contracted a terrible dose of suckedout-on-itis? Are you constantly getting punished as a 60% or 70% favourite to a terrible play by an unnamed donk? Have you lost multiple key coin tosses on big tournament hands that have made the difference between the boom and bust? Do you feel cursed with bad luck? If you do, we’re afraid that you have another condition; paranoid variance delusions.
presence of a graduated payout, making the importance of being ‘lucky’ at the right time that much more significant. Data sets really need to be massive to reveal true statistical likelihoods. With all that understood one could be forgiven for asking how it is that some players make a lot of money with relative consistency. Are they just lucky? Well, no, there is a way to escape statistical variance and that is to learn and put into practice optimal strategies that take advantage of opportunities beyond the cards. ‘Good play’ does not always mean getting your money in as a 60:40 or 70:30 favourite. The best players beat the game by beating their opponents. Learn to understand and utilise the ‘psychological odds’ and put the human element back into your decision making - especially if you keep calling your stack off in coin flips. Remember, poker is a betting game, not a card game. n
The second opinion: Doctor Danski Jabba’s mathematical musings are all well and good should you exist in a magical swirl of ones and twos, and your name be Tom Dwan. But what are the practical applications to set you on the road to emotional stability and Mr Miyagi-esque wisdom? Regular tournament fans will come up against one particular phenomenon that cash players don’t, which I like to call “beat’n’busto”. Where cash players are used to taking beat after beat and hitting the reload button, tournament players remember the story. Losing some 30% of the time to a flush draw should be fully expected by the cash grinder, while the tourney novice, devoid of a rebuy button, laments his loss with a gnashing of teeth
community | pkr cast
“If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son”
It’s an inspiration for any poker player. My approach to ignoring the evil variance beast is to cover the board once the money goes in leaving just the percentages in view. Maybe I’m 40%, maybe I’m 80% - I let the screen tell me how it plays out. I’m not getting any younger and I just don’t need the story. Phil Hellmuth doesn’t agree with my approach though, “If you look away, and get told the result, then fine. But to flop a set and lose, that’s just sick.” Sick it may be, Phil, but it’s still irrelevant just the same. n
Do you need sick treatment? If you got yourself into a tricky situation and want the doctors to diagnose your poker problem send us the full details of the hand to us at stacked@pkr.com. Include a hand history if it took place on PKR
Casting a wide Net
Andrew ‘golfpro699’ Teng gives you the pro’s eye view on how to score a birdie at a GUKPT final table
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ou may have heard of third level thinking but Andrew Teng, who plays cash games under the name of golfpro699 at PKR, goes one step further when talking to Danski and Jabba on the PKRcast. If you’ve ever wanted to crack open a young online pro’s head to look at the whirring cogs inside this is a chance that you can’t afford to miss. Teng discusses winning the GUKPT Thanet (see p8), life on the international tour and the skills that have seen him crushing juicy online action. Go to www.PKR.com/pokercommunity/pkr-cast.cfm to listen in. The boys also caught up with Asian
Poker Tour rat packers JC Tran, Nam Le and Quinn Do while they were in town for the Premier League of poker. The on-camera interviews will be available online so keep your eye open for them at www.PKR.com. Each week Jabba and Danski give away a ticket into a $100 televised tournament to the person that contributes the best email to the PKRcast. Be original, be entertaining, just don’t be boring or try to bring up strategy unless you want them to click the insta-fold button on your email! Email the team today at PKRcast@pkr.com and you might just get yourself a free buy-in. n
THE TEAM The podcast is recorded with loving care that can only be created when you stick a bunch of poker fanatics in a small room James BacH The second in the trio of resident poker pros is limit hold‘em expert Jabbawa who has a sharp mind for the game, and an even sharper tongue. Dan GranT Resident expert and up-and-coming poker pro Danski is on hand to offer expertise as well as giving the inside track on the wild and wonderful world of poker.
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photography: Trevor Hunt, laura cadenazzi, alessandra cHila, christine balderas, Sebastian Meckelmann
and pulling of hair. As brutal as MTTs seem, the cards and the math have neither memory nor sympathy. Whether it’s the first hand of a sit-and-go or the final hand of the WSOP Main Event, the rules are the same. Keep this fact firmly ensconced in your head and you’ll be able to ride the emotional rollercoaster with ease. I like to recite the Rudyard Kipling poem ‘If’ to keep calm.
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community | tournament report
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WizardofOz
Australian keepsmiling's $27,360 win was historic as he became the first player from the Southern Hemisphere to claim a coveted PKR Masters title
mayotacker and shady33 battled for 4th and 5th places but 0607pk's pocket Kings decided the matter by knocking mayotacker out 12
stacked♠
The tournament could have easily swung the other way if keepsmiling hadn't managed to river AnOldGuy to claim victory with his 7♦ 10♦
Lawrence Sawyer, ayzek
AnOldGuy sure doesn't play like some old guy. With the chips down 7-1 in the heads-up he was unlucky to lose out with his K♠ Q♦
A
haggybear1 was left ruing his decision to open shove for 34 big blinds when he ran into 0607pk's pocket Aces and was knocked out in 6th place
ustralians are well-known for their AnOldGuy, who should be renamed sporting prowess, but not so OldManRiver, made another knockout much at the poker table. Aussie sucking out on royalpembrok’s pocket Kings when his big slick found a straight keepsmiling reached the Oktoberfest Main Event with a strong chip lead but had on fifth street. The Kings did halfway plenty of work to do to win the tournament. hold up on their next outing though. Eventual winner keepsmiling got it all-in The final table started brutally fast with in a three-way pot taking out haggybear1 the first three knockouts in three minutes who somewhat inexplicably open shoved and it was down to davidmiller9178 to for 34 big blinds with A♦ 9♦. Short stack crash first. Having reached the final table 0607pk trebled back into contention as the short stack it didn’t take long for with pocket Aces in the same hand and him to get his stack in with 6♥ 6♠ against continued his comeback AnOldGuy’s A♦10♦. by showing pocket Kings Although he lost the coin PKR Masters to tournament regular toss he did pick up $1,425 Buy-in $250 mayotacker’s 10♦ 10♥ for his efforts. On the very Entrants 456 shove. 0607pk didn’t last next hand protection got Prize pool $114,000 much longer but a $10,000 it all-in with a flopped full Starting Chips 5,000 profit for an evening’s work house against AnOldGuy’s is not to be frowned upon. trips, only for the geriatric Despite keepsmiling starting with a one to turn a bigger boat and snatch the dominant 7-1 chip lead the heads up chip lead away from keepsmiling. The third rapid KO was that of sumoface7 lasted a tense 18 minutes as AnOldGuy who, having secured an additional $855 refused to lay down and die. In fact, he with his tight play, shoved with J♥ Q♠ into would have taken the chip lead on the shady33’s A♥ 10♠ and failed to connect. final hand had his K♠ Q♦ not lost out
to the Aussie’s 10♦ 7♦ in a pot where most of the money moved in preflop. keepsmiling then added a further $1,300 to his bankroll with a second place finish in the Oktoberfest Tournament of Champions (read about the winner of that freeroll, sourshark, on page 42). n
The final table 1st
keepsmiling
$27,360
2nd
AnOldGuy
$15,960
3rd
0607pk
$10,260
4th
shady33
$7,410
5th
mayotacker
$5,700
6th
haggybear1
$4,560
7th
royalpembrok
$3,420
8th
sumoface7
$2,280
9th
protection
$1,767
10th
davidmiller9178 $1,425
How to play in the Masters
sumoface7 was knocked off the final table early by shady33. He secured 8th place in the tournament and winnings of $2,280
There are several routes open to you if you want to play in the monthly PKR Masters $100,000 guaranteed. You can buy-in direct for $250, qualify through SNG and MTT satellites or even through PKR points freerolls. Go to www.PKR.com/ poker-promotions for a full list of qualifiers. You can watch the action at www.PKR.tv.
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community | grudge match
kristobella
This female player from Auckland, New Zealand lists her interests as “poker, poker, poker and a sneaky vino or six.” Wine or not she is not to be underestimated. Of her 50 tournament cashes in October 43 were final table finishes.
grudge match
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brutusnr1 It’s a battle of the sexes special kristobella as two of PKR’s tournament titans get down and dirty in the Grudge Match
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he PKR tournament leader board is always hotly contested and two players that have recently been tussling for the top spot have been Swede brutusnr1 and female player and Kiwi kristobella (Kiwi means you’re from New Zealand, by the way). As stacked♠ went to press kristobella was top of the tournament tree with brutusnr1 just a few places behind in fourth. We considered studying form, frequency of cashes and number of tables to see who really should rule the roost. Then we realised that throwing them in against each other heads-up would be much more fun! Both players started with $5,000, some 250 big blinds each, with the blinds starting at a very post-flop friendly $10/$20 but it didn’t take long for an early barrage of chip shots. First blood went to kristobella’s pocket eights which held up against a chunky river bet bluff from brutusnr1’s Ace-high.
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an early victory? The answer was a resounding no. brutusnr1 managed to duck and dive long enough to grind back to a near even $4,500 by hand 45 of the We considered studying heads-up before almost throwing it all their form, but realised that away again. The Swede then got caught up in a pot with King-high. He had raised throwing them in against four big blinds to 240 with K♦ 10♥ at the each other heads-up would $30/$60 level. kristobella called pre-flop with 7♠ 8♥ and hit top pair on the 7♣ 4♣ be much more fun! 2♠ board and bet out with it. brutusnr1 called the pot-sized 480 bet hoping to take it away with a min-raise on the Momentum carried on swinging in the 5♠ turn but it wasn’t enough to shake New Zealander’s favour with another off kristobella who made a solid major pot just eight hands into blocking bet on the Q♠ river the tournament (see Playing and proceeded to leave Weird Lines opposite) brutusnr1 with just $2,120 giving her a very healthy left in his stack. 3-1 chip lead. Then send us an email at Things were starting It was a very good stacked@pkr.com with your to look really desperate start but could serial screenname and the player for the Swede who was final table finisher you want to challenge, plus looking for a way to fight kristobella press the your reason for challenging back. He opted to play big advantage to claim them to hand-to-hand
Do you wanna fight?
combat. 14
stacked♠
1
playing weird lines
Weak betting on the turn gives brutusnr1 an early headache that kristobella has hit . It’s a great situation to put in a solid bet… 4
brutusnr1
When someone is called brutus you expect them to be aggressive but this Swede has really taken to playing for the win. Since joining in April 2007 brutusnr1 has won 19 tournaments outright, including the Super Series $12k Terminator tournament in June.
pot poker in an attempt to get back into the game. It only took a couple of hands for him to get it A♥ J♠ in against K♥ Q♥. His side of the coin toss won out and he found himself back close to even again. kristobella’s frustration started to show as she called down with an open-ended straight draw but only succeeded to bleed a lot of chips as she failed to hit or make a decisive move on the turn. The final nail in the coffin for kristobella came at the $50/$100 level where she connected with A♥ 2♣ on an A♦ 4♠ 9♠ flop. brutusnr1’s aggression paid off when he shoved on the 10♠ turn with K♦ 9♦ for third pair. He didn’t make kristobella fold but he did catch one of five outs to river two-pair and proceed to win the heads-up. Poker can be a particularly rough game at times, but playing as many tournaments as she does kristobella would already be well aware of that. This issue’s Grudge Match goes to brutusnr1. n
kristobella
brutusnr1
$5,910
$4,090
Blinds $10/$20 (top) kristobella makes a raise to 60 from the button with suited connectors and brutusnr1 calls with an Ace. So far, so standard.
…but he slides out just $60 into the $360 pot. It’s a very weak bet and doesn’t follow on from his raise on the flop. Thankful of the free card, kristobella calls the 60. 5
2
The river brings the 3♠ which completes the flush for kristobella. brutusnr1 opts to bet $300, which is around two-thirds of the pot. kristobella flops a gutshot straight flush draw and bets half the pot. brutusnr1 min-raises with bottom pair. kristobella calls.
6
3
brutusnr1 hits pay dirt with two pair (Aces and Sevens) and knows
kristobella raises close to the pot by sliding out a mean 1,200. brutusnr1 refuses to believe that he’s behind despite kristobella’s 45 big blind raise and pays the Kiwi off. Not his proudest moment!
stacked♠
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feature | pkr live
1
3
PKR
LIVE
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here are some historical events that mark a changing point in culture, a shift from the past into the future. Think of the Apollo moon landing, the advent of the internet or Barack Obama’s presidential election. Well, we’ve started thinking of PKR Live in the same light as players who had only ever met on the digital felt swapped online chip riffles for real life stare downs and back slapping. London’s Loose Cannon club opened its doors on Friday, November 14 and it didn’t take long for the PKR masses to tuck into the free bar, tournament action and super juicy side action. Forum hero Gareth ‘ChivalrousGent’ Rees took down the $9,000 welcome tournament for $2,070, but must have used up all his luck as he was the first out the main event when he ran pocket Aces into a set of Kings on the very first hand! There were a lot of sore heads on Saturday morning but everyone was raring to claim the inaugural PKR Live title (and there were cash games for the early fallers with one £1/£2 table straddling up to £64!). The real action, however, was taking place at the main event final table. Turn over for a full breakdown of how the tournament was taken. u
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stacked♠
8
tournament payouts
$9,000 welcome tournament 1st
ChivalrousGent
$2,070
2nd
BUCKFASTer
$1,285
3rd
theash
$911
4th
reevio
$745
5th
adrockuk
$580
6th
catweasil
$455
7th
Redshape
$356
8th
RobertTeekay
$265
9th
TheMightySwe
$207
10th
PirateNation
$166
$10,000 bounty freeroll 1st
magicmoves
$2,000
2nd
brutusnr1
$1,500
3rd
mafio
$1,100
4th
Mack05
$900
5th
Caprisa
$750
6th
Mogwa1
$600
7th
hicko715
$475
8th
TheWelshJob
$375
9th
BUCKFASTer
$300
10th
northern15
$250
LAURA CADENAZZI , PAUL condron
Three days, 150 PKR players and a whopping $94,000 in guaranteed prize pool payouts. Bring it on!
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5
6
7
9
10
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1. Trymean77 grimaces through Jabba's rendition of Wonderwall 2. Caprisa bubbled the main event but cleaned up in the cash games (so she told us) 3. PKR head honcho Malcolm Graham takes time out of his day to explain to the massage girls the ins and outs of poker - it's a hard life... 4. ChivalrousGent brandishes his trophy from the $9,000 welcome tournament 5. nalake has a dwell up 6. James666 and kickofff take some time away from the cash tables to indulge in some donkaments 7. Jabba tries to convince MANonFIRE that Danski has been calling him a fish 8. Bazultra made the main event final table but was ko'd after tangling with callmebabe 9. magicmoves lived up to his name by winning the $10,000 bounty freeroll 10. pokey85 and dappadan777 point the direction their chips are leaking 11. ...which just so happens to be where callmebabe is sat 12. TheSqueeze can't believe his luck as his set is cracked by a runner-runner 12
stackedâ™
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feature | pkr live
The hands that rocked the table These key moments saw title fortunes shifted from chip leader callmebabe to escalope uHand 1
The $75,000 main event
escalope
callmebabe
$225,000
$665,000
It's the tournament that everyone wanted to win, the first ever PKR Live main event, but who would conquer the final table?
T
he first ever PKR Live main event kicked off with 150 hopeful runners all gunning for the $20,000 first prize payout and, of course, the inaugural champion’s title. Twenty places were paid and it was a tense bubble which burst at 3am on Saturday night with the bust out of the last female player, Caprisa. The curiously named WillyTilt took the next bubble, just missing out on the final table setting up some big names and fat stacks to battle it out for the top spots. The blinds were at $3,000/$6,000 (a$500) when the first card was dealt leaving both TheSqueeze and Greenfaith very short-stacked. It was the former that was the first to fall after getting his pocket fours in against callmebabe’s 6♥ 7♦. A four on the flop looked good until a runnerrunner straight sent him to the rail in tenth. Greenfaith wasn’t far behind, shoving his Eights into dappadan777’s pocket Kings, while Bazultra was knocked out after check raising all-in on an A♥ 8♣ A♦ flop with K♣ J♣ – unfortunately for him he didn’t have quite
Blinds $6,000/$12,000 ($1,000)
enough to push callmebabe off 7♣ 7♦. The chipped up Irishman then slow played a flopped two-pair to knock alfiemyster out in seventh. Down to six and with the big money in sight Eurotje shoved with K♠ 10♥ from the small blind but lost out to pokey85 who was just about priced in
“
callmebabe was looking unstoppable with around half of the chips in play to call with his 7♥ 8♥. OleEinar had hung on in well but finally fell when he ran K♣ Q♦ into callmebabe’s Queens, who was looking unstoppable with around half of the chips in play. Two tournament changing pots bumped him out in fourth though (see right). It was a great result for dappadan777 and pokey85 as it allowed them leap up the money ladder. dappadan777 then shoved with 6♣ 6♠, but ran into escalope’s pocket Tens leaving pokey85 to fight alone. The Swede didn't factor in the power of 7-2 offsuit, which rivered the main event title for escalope! n
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he action is four-handed and callmebabe is cranking up the aggression using his big stack to boss the action. escalope raises under the gun to $40,000 but callmebabe three-bets hard from the big blind, making it $170,000 to go. It’s a brave move that asks escalope whether he wants to play for all his chips. escalopes decides that his Tens are too good to pass and moves all-in for $271,000. callmebabe reveals has to make a crying call with 9♣ 3♠ as he's getting around 5 to 1 on the $100,000 to call. escalope doubles into the chip lead ($552,000) with a set.
starting chip count Seat 1
Bazultra
120,000
Seat 2
escalope
219,000
Seat 3
Eurotje
84,000
Seat 4
pokey85
232,000
Seat 5
dappadan777 188,000
Seat 6
alfiemyster
Seat 7
GreenFaith
50,000
Seat 8
callmebabe
340,000
Seat 9
OleEinar
86,000
Seat 10
TheSqueeze
45,000
87,000
uHand 2
PKR
LIVE The Winner: Phil ‘escalope’ Conneller
How the tournament was won in the champ's own words
escalope
callmebabe
$550,000
$500,000
Blinds $8,000/$16,000 ($1,000)
C
allmebabe has managed to get his stack up to around $500,000 just behind escalope. Dappadan and pokey85 are both hanging on behind them. callmebabe raises to $50,000 from the small blind and is called by escalope in the big blind. The pot is now a large $104,000.
Flop A♠ 8♣ 5♠ callmebabe leads out $75,000 into the pot with second pair. escalope thinks for a little while and raises to $190,000, leaving himself just over $300,000 behind. callmebabe decides to move in for around $500,000. escalope has a short dwell up before making the call with top pair and a middling kicker. It’s a good call and he’s 81.62% favourite to win the hand. Running tens give escalope the full house and a dominating chip lead that pretty much guarantees the victory.
the final table
$75,000 main event 1st
escalope
$20,000
2nd
pokey85
$12,000
3rd
dappadan77
$8,500
4th
callmebabe
$6,500
5th
OleEinar
$5,250
6th
Eurotje
$4,250
7th
alfiemyster
$3,250
8th
Bazultra
$2,500
9th
GreenFaith
$1,850
10th
TheSqueeze
$1,400
P
KR Live was a great festival – a hundred times as friendly as your average poker tournament with a sense of fun that was contagious right from the second the cards were dealt. Looking back there were three key moments that propelled me towards the trophy. Early on I was sat with a crazy super-aggressive Norwegian who had a monstrous stack of chips. He’d been bluffing the hell out of everybody. No one at the table wanted to play back at him because they knew he’d put their tournament on the line. I was itching to play a big pot with him. I knew he would pay me off big-time if I hit so I called pre-flop with 3♣ 4♣, turned two-pair and called all-in against a gutshot to rake in a 77,000 pot when the average stack was 10,300! The other two monster pots were against callmebabe in the dying throes of the final table (see left). In hand one I’d made my second consecutive raise from the button, which caused callmebabe to reach for the big chips and commit himself to the pot. I felt he could be making that move with any two cards and that my tens were good. I had him marginally covered after that. callmebabe wanted his chips back and I thought that might force him into a mistake, which was half the reason I flatted with my A♦ 10♦, the
other being I didn’t want him coming back over the top of me again! When he shoved the flop it felt he was just trying to hammer me out of the pot again. Also if he put me on an ace, it was unlikely to be that good as I hadn’t re-raised pre-flop. Combined with a slight tell I spotted, I decided to call. That pot gave me a dominating chip lead so when I saw 7♠ 2♠ I felt my moment of destiny had arrived. I’ve always wanted to win a tournament with the worst hand in poker and was lucky to receive a runner-runner
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I called all-in to rake a 77,000 pot when the chip average was 10,300! straight. Any two cards heads up, right? What will I do with the money? I’m reminded of the time Thor Hansen won a million dollars and was asked this same, inevitable question. “Pay off some creditors,” came the reply. “Yes, but what about the rest?” pressed the reporter. “Oh, I’ll just tell them they’ll have to wait,” explained Thor. So yes, I’ve got plenty of debts to pay off but I’ll still be donating a lot back into PKR. Now that I’ve met everyone the pleasure will be all mine. n
feature | the to do list
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poker things to do before you die ♣ ♦ ♠ ♥
Poker is about more than the money, it's about experiences and ambitions so make sure that you tick off all 30 before you're done
01♣
Go to Vegas It’s bright, gaudy and really should have a sign saying 'Welcome to the Adult Disneyland'. Las Vegas is the world’s capital of gambling and the home place of poker. Love it or have it (and we think you’ll love it) you have to visit Sin City at least once in your life. Card rooms cater for every level from $1/$2 up to the Big Game’s $300/$600 action. Keep your eyes peeled for Vegas guides in future issues of stacked♠.
ziggymaj, Rick Rhay
02♥ Check raise all-in with 7-2 offsuit Okay, this is not a good play for the fact that you’ve actually seen a flop with the worst hand in poker. But if you can pull off a successful bluff with the hammer – and show it – there’s no move that will be beyond you. Or you can win PKR LIve with it like escalope!
03♦
Play limit poker Some say it’s dull, others say that it’s poker at its most pure. You may be mistaken for thinking that limit is nolimit's poor relative but post-flop play causes pots to swell hand after hand. If you can beat limit poker, your whole game will improve. Fire up a limit table and make up your own mind. stacked♠
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feature | the to do list
07♠ Play for 24 hours Read an interview with any of the pro players, particularly the old school ones, and you’ll come across a story about them playing for two days straight because they’d found a tasty game. While we don’t encourage sleep deprivation per se, playing for 24 hours straight is a medal that should be worn with pride… as long as you continue to make good decisions. Test your skills when your eyes are tired and your brain is whirring and you’ll learn a lot about your limits.
04♥
Have a ridiculous proposition bet This isn’t a poker thing to do exactly but players love the action. Whether it's a golf bet or racing with a box on your head, embrace the prop challenge!
05♣
Organise a home game Mix some strong drinks with a couple of tasty donks for the perfect home game recipe! If you’re playing with friends set stakes that everyone is comfortable with as you don’t want bad blood developing unnecessarily.
06♠
Pretend to be a fish You’ve seen the films where the hustler arrives at a new town and the locals lip their lips in anticipation but end up being the ones with empty pockets. It’s a little bit naughty, it’s definitely old school, but if you can pull off a little bit of acting your session will be not only profitable but a lot of fun!
08♦
Beat the credit crunch The world economy has been rocked by recessions and threats of global meltdown. The poker economy, on the other hand, is still booming. Invest at the tables and beat the markets!
09♣
Paint your face If you’ve ever sat in front of your computer trying to make your avatar look like a mini-you then help is at hand. For 15,000 points PKR boffins will use state-of-theart 3D modelling gizmos to put your face into the game. Check the PKR shop for further details.
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stacked♠
10♥ Learn to riffle Does riffling help you to put someone on a hand? No. Does knowing a chip trick make you more likely to hit your draw? No. What they do is make you look like you comfortable at the table and, well, a little cool. Practice so you don’t spill your chips.
Take a shot
Bankroll management is one of the most important tenets of poker but sometimes it’s correct to take a step up to boost your bankroll and strengthen your game. If you feel that you’ve been playing your A-game and have no work/personal stress hanging over you it could be time to step up a level. Give yourself a limit, maybe one or two buy-ins, and don’t change it no matter how things go. Give yourself a target and sit-out when you’ve hit it. You can always return later with the locked in profit and try to spin it up further. Whatever you do, don't change your withdrawal policy!
14♠
Lay down pocket Kings pre-flop Okay, we’re not recommending that you do this just for the sake of it, anyone can click the fold button after all, but have you ever been assured that your Kings are behind and passed your hand (and been proved right)? Following a read can be hard but if you have the conviction to drop a monster you’ll go far. Just as long as you don't do it too often...
15♥
Introduce your friends
12♦
Get your friends and colleagues into poker. We’re not talking about making them into 24/7 grinders but at least they'll be able to understand your emotional ups and downs. Make some easy money by signing them up via www.PKR.com/poker-community.
16♦
Play somewhere ludicrously exotic Vegas? Monaco? Pah! At least once in your life you have to play somewhere truly stunning. Shuffle up at the Everest base camp, the Playboy mansion, an ice hotel or on top of an ancient Khymer temple. Next time some 21-year old online pro is chewing your ear off about crushing the $5/$10 game ask them when they last played on a nuclear sub!
René Mansi, Roberto A Sanchez, Emrah Turudu, LAURA CADENAZZI, Inga Ivanova, Image Masters Photography & Digital Imaging, ©2008, IMPDI
11♣
Get your face in stacked♠
We admit up front that we’re blowing our own trumpet but one of your poker ambitions should be to get yourself in stacked♠. Crushing the tables or being a forum loudmouth both work well.
13♠
Call a huge pot with Ace-high and win There are times that a hand just doesn’t make sense, your opponent has made a huge bet on the river and you just know that your Ace-high is ahead, but you can’t call. Or can you? Even if you’re sometimes wrong you have to follow your read. Turn the Ace, scoop the pot and then dance round your room like a hillbilly drunk on moonshine.
17♣ Play in the World Series The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the highlight of the poker calendar. Each year thousands of players compete for life-changing amounts of money and their place in history. The Main Event, aka the Big One, is the centrepiece of the two-month long festival where this year's winner beat 6,843 runners to claim $9.15m! You can pick up WSOP packages for free on PKR (check out www.pkr.com/poker-promotions). And there's always the APT and GUKPT...
stacked♠
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feature | the to do list
21♠
Go on a poker getaway
18♥
Arrange a weekend away with poker pals in some far flung corner of the world. Most countries have a bedrock of poker (unfortunately we can’t run PKR Live every week) and if you go with friends then your wins and losses almost become secondary anyway. Agree that 30%-50% of tournament winnings get split among the party… or spent at the bar!
Play Strip poker
Build the ultimate poker pad
It might be the stuff of teenage boys’ dreams but strip poker is, quite frankly, hilarious whatever age you might be. We’re not encouraging sexual profligately but you should play for the shirt off your back at least once!
19♣
Send Phil Hellmuth on tilt and become a hero All poker players have egos but some take the concept of ego to a whole new level, think Phil Hellmuth. Knock out a big mouth pro and earn your stripes at the table. Any household name will do but Phil gets you double points!
20♠
Be the tournament player of the week PKR Community manager Danski picks his crop of the best tournament players every week. Check the lively poker blog every week at www.PKR.com.
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stacked♠
23♣
Invest in a decent chair, great computer set-up and relaxing surrounding from which you can launch your war upon the PKR tables. Butler/maid/personal assistant is optional for ballers.
22♦
Learn your odds inside out A good poker player needs many qualities but knowing your odds is essential. How many outs do you have for a flush draw? And how often do you hit? If you don’t know it’s time to get reading. It’s 9 outs and 35%, by the way.
24♥
Splash the cash Buy something with your poker winnings; it might be a car, a computer or a large bottle of beer, depending on your stakes. Although your aim should be to build up a solid bankroll you’ve got to enjoy the fruits of your labour every so often. Believe us, having a drink on behalf of someone you've outplayed is more thirst quenching than a cold bottle of Lucozade in the Sahara.
25♥
Get your SharkScope back into the black You don’t learn how to play poker overnight, well, most people don’t anyway. That means that the road to becoming a winning poker player isn’t always a smooth one. Check your www.sharkscope.com graph and check out your progress. If you're down focus on grinding yourself back into the black and then kick on up.
28♦
Master the three disciplines of poker Which out of cash games, sitand-gos or tournaments is your weak point? Spend some time reading about that side of the game and work on the weakest aspects. A solid player should be able to hold their own in all the disciplines of the game.
26♠
The $100,000 guaranteed monthly Masters is the flagship tournament at PKR and you can satellite into the $250 event for as little as, well, nothing! Make the final table and you'll pick up a four-figure score, take it down and bag some $30,000.
30♠
Watch TV Programme High Stakes Poker If you like poker, and you do, then High Stakes Poker simply cannot be missed. Old school meets new school over million dollar pots. Check out the action at www.pokertube.com (and www.PKR.tv while you're at it).
27♣
Play on television Pop artist Andy Warhol once said that everyone would be worldfamous for 15 minutes. Grab your slice of the limelight by playing poker on TV. All you need to do is make the final table of a major live tournament or stump up $100,000 to play on a show like High Stakes Poker. If you feel that’s a step too far then why not start by making the final table of the nightly $100 TV Tournament on PKR. Watch all the action at www.PKR.tv.
29♥
Win a tournament without looking WSOPE winner Annette Obrestad won a 180-man online tournament without looking at her cards by using position and stack size. Stick a post-it note over your cards and play it blind!
stacked♠
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Paul Piebinga, Pali Rao, Sebastien Cote, Mark Evans, Viorika Prikhodko, Christian Friess
Make the PKR Masters final table
The November Nine sit down 117 days after Dean Hamrick was knocked out in tenth place 26
stacked♠
feature | wsop 2008
2008 WSOP Main Event: The Final Table 117 days after making the biggest final table of their lives the November Nine returned to the Rio to do battle
All change Phillips, the man with the most support had also had to live with the weight of being the chip leader for the past few months, and it all went disastrously wrong for him and his entourage (all sporting Phillipesque white Broadway Trucking shirts and St. Louis Cardinals hats) early on. On hand number 16 he lost his first few million in a pot with Ylon u
the november nine
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Dennis Phillips From USA Chips 26,295,000
Craig Marquis From USA Chips 10,210,000
Ylon Schwartz From USA Chips 12,525,000
Scott Montgomery
words: Dave Woods, photography: Joe Giron / IMPDI , matt mathis / IMPDI, stephen beyer / IMPDI
E
ver since Harrah's announced the delay to this year's Main Event final table, a fierce debate has raged – and is still raging – across the poker world. Is it good for the game? Will it be scrapped, or will Harrah's stick to the same format in 2009? For the November Nine themselves though, the fact remains that they are now more famous (and slightly more rich) than they would have been if the tournament had played out as normal. And, back on July 14, when Dean Hamrick bust out in 10th position to become the biggest bubble boy in the history of poker, nine players embarked on a 117 day break that finally came to an end at 11.08am on November 9 inside the Penn & Teller Theatre at The Rio in Las Vegas. With ESPN cameras rolling and a huge crowd that peaked at a capacity of over 1,000 players, including a lot of the game's biggest names and 300 identically dressed Dennis Phillips' supporters, Harrah's had definitely succeeded in creating a professional spectacle. One that was set to be replayed on small screens in the US a couple of days later, and the UK a couple of days after that.
From Canada Chips 19,690,000
Darus Suharto From Canada Chips 12,520,000
'Chino' Rheem From USA Chips 10,230,000
Ivan Demidov From Russia Chips 24,400,000
Kelly Kim From USA Chips 2,620,000
Peter Eastgate From Denmark Chips 18,375,000
stacked♠
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feature | wsop 2008
Ylon Schwartz crashed out in fourth with a mistimed bluff – Eastgate had a full house Schwartz, handing the chip lead to Ivan Demidov, but worse was just around the corner. Two hands later Phillips limped in under the gun with A♥-K♣ and the table folded round to Demidov on the button. The Russian raised it up to 1,025,000 with A♣-Q♣ and Phillips re-raised to 3.525 million. Demidov started muttering to himself before re-reraising to 8.225 million. Riffling and barely betraying any emotion, Phillips made the call. On a flop of 8♦-10♣-J♠ and a massive pot of 17.26 million in the middle, Phillips bet out 4.5 million, leaving himself just under nine million behind. Demidov announced he was all-in and Phillips folded. From being chip leader, with over
26 million chips and dreams of a bracelet and a place in the history books, Phillips had now dropped down to 8th, with only the perennial short-stack Kelly Kim sitting underneath him. By contrast, Demidov, the Russian who only just missed out on the WSOPE Main Event title finishing third, was the runaway chip leader with 35,875,000. His nearest rival, Peter Eastgate, had just under 20 million. Kim, despite promises of doubling and trebling-up early on, was sitting quietly in the hope of moving up the cash ladder. It looked very different when he raised on the very first hand, taking the blinds and antes, but this wasn't the sign of aggression to come. He'd actually picked up Aces and then he didn't volunteer any
NOVEMBER NINE: Why fortune favours the brave Amount won
Starting Equity
Performance
Peter Eastgate
$9,152,416
$4,136,940
+$5,015,476
Ivan Demidov
$5,809,595
$4,675,920
+$1,133,657
Dennis Phillips
$4,517,773
$4,823,325
-$305,552
Ylon Schwartz
$3,774,974
$3,465,977
+$308,997
Scott Montgomery $3,096,768
$4,265,250
+$1,168,482
Darus Suharto
$2,418,562
$3,465,317
-$1,046,755
David Rheem
$1,772,650
$3,142,752
-$1,370,102
Kelly Kim
$1,288,217
$1,616,400
-$328,183
$900,670
$3,139,741
-$2,239,071
Craig Marquis
W
ith 136,900,000 chips in play and $32,731,625 in prize money, the equity that each player held going into final table is shown in the middle column. Compare this to the actual amount that each actually took 28
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home and you've got, in a nutshell, the story of the final table. The big winners were Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate, who were playing to win. Kelly Kim might have gone home with more money than he was expecting but he actually lost equity
because he refused to take a shot, and the same could be said about Darus Suharto. The other losers – Scott Montgomery, David Rheem and Craig Marquis – had all played bravely but got horribly unlucky at the crucial moments.
“”
Eastgate had become the youngest champion of all time, beating Phil Hellmuth's record by two years
who finished third in this year's WSOPE Main Event) and Peter Eastgate were almost neck-and-neck with 49,100,000 and 47,625,000 stacks respectively. Schwartz and Phillips had half as many chips and couldn't get any momentum going. Schwartz fell in fourth, and Phillips in third, and play was suspended again with Demidov and Eastgate set to return the next day to duel for the title.
Danish bacon Heads-up, Demidov wrested the chip lead from Eastgate briefly, but it seemed that Eastgate was never destined to lose. Every time Demidov bluffed, Eastgate had something, and after moving into a 6-1 chip lead, it was finally over after 274 hands. It was tough on Demidov, who turned two-pair only to find that Eastgate had made the wheel. At 15 hours and 39 minutes, it was the longest WSOP Main Event final table of all time, and fittingly Peter Eastgate had just become the youngest champion of all time, beating Phil Hellmuth's record by nearly two years, and pocketing $9,152,416 for his efforts. ■
The drinks are on you, Pete!
$9m winner
Peter Eastgate, 22
S
o who is Peter Eastgate? Well at 22 years old, as well as being the youngest Main Event champion in history, he's also just become the second-biggest WSOP money winner of all time behind Jamie Gold. He's from Odense in Denmark and was still a Danish citizen at the time of winning ninth-place money back in July. Since that time he's made the prudent decision to move to London where he's allowed to keep his winnings tax-free. We spoke to him shortly after his victory
You could be playing for millions at the WSOP for free
and asked him what it felt like to be the new world champ. 'It feels incredible, especially since I’ve broken Phil Hellmuth’s record as the youngest player to win the Main Event,' said Eastgate. 'But, truthfully, I wasn’t focusing on the record. I was focusing on the game and on playing heads-up. A championship was on the line.' He's also planning on taking his parents on a long vacation. 'I want to treat them as I have always treated them – with love and respect.' With over $9 million, they might well be expecting all that and a little more.
photography: Image masters photography & digital imaging, Joe Giron / ©2008, IMPDI
more money into a pot until hand 35 when he managed to double up his short stack with Kings. At the start of that hand his stack was 720,000 and he'd already invested 340,000 by putting the ante and big blind in. His tactics worked though when Craig Marquis became the first person out, and the only person to receive no extra money on top of the ninth placed cash he'd already received. It happened in the cruellest fashion possible. With the blinds at 200,000/400,000/50,000, Marquis open-shoved for his remaining chips – almost five million of them. Scott Montgomery called and found himself in a race with his A♦-Q♥ against Marquis' 7♦-7♥. The flop of 10♠-A♥-7♣ left Marquis thinking the hand was over and Montgomery looking for runner-runner cards, which turned up with the J♦ and K♠. In his bust-out interview Marquis said he was looking for the win, and didn't care about moving up the cash payout ladder… Just as well because Kelly Kim followed him to the rail the very next hand, when he committed his last 150,000 to the big blind he'd already posted. By sitting on his hands, Kim, who had obviously long given up on winning the WSOP, pocketed an extra $387,547. Marquis wasn't the only unlucky exit. David 'Chino' Rheem went out next when his A-K lost to Peter Eastgate's A-Q. And, after Darus Suharto fell in sixth, Scott Montgomery was the next to feel the force of the poker god's wrath. All-in with A♦-3♦, he made trips on the turn, leaving Peter Eastgate drawing to the final remaining six after Dennis Phillips revealed he'd folded the other. Eastgate hit and Montgomery left with just over $3 million in bad-beat compensation. With four left it was looking increasingly like a two-horse race. With Montgomery out, Ivan Demidov (the young Russian
u
ca$h strategy | player focus
CA$H Q&A
zomgchipriffle Name Kyle Macpherson Location Delamere, UK Age 22 Joined PKR October 2007
zomgchipriffle
Meeting a Cash King
There are a number of young players busting up PKR’s high stakes cash games and this chip riffler is among the best of them
T
wenty-two year old Kyle Macpherson, aka zomgchipriffle, has become one of the most feared short-handed No-Limit Hold’em cash game players on PKR, despite the fact that he chooses to dress as a female superhero. Not afraid to get involved in fierce pre-flop action, zomgchipriffle loves to pile the pressure onto his opponents to ensure that he gets paid off with his monster hands. In one $6,264 pot on the $10/$20 tables he managed to get fellow high stakes player kickofff to put in $701 pre-flop and his remaining $2,432 on a 3♥ 4♦ K♠ flop. kickofff held pocket Tens. zomgchipriffle was sitting pretty with top set. Not only has zomgchipriffle got mean cash game skills but he’s also managed to final table in the PKR Masters for $4,000 as well as cashing in a number of live UK tournaments, including a 2nd place showing in the £200 event at the European Poker Championships (£4,660) and a 17th place finish in the £1,000 Manchester GUKPT (£2,320). ‘Oh my God’, indeed. PKR_jabba
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Stacked♠ Being young and having the cash tables at your finger tips it must be hard to drag yourself out of bed in the morning? Kyle: Yeah, it is. My day usually starts with me trying to get up before 2pm and making coffee before seeing if there are any really good games on PKR. If I’m not ready to jump straight in I’ll go and grab some breakfast, watch TV or hang out with my housemates before putting myself on a few waiting lists. I tend to play for a few hours then either head to the gym or party with whoever is around before putting in another late night session. So who are your housemates? Are they players or grounding influences? I live with my two best friends. One is a very good player and quite well known on PKR, the other has a regular job and probably knows more about advanced poker theory than anyone else who has played less than 100 hands in their lifetime. He’s also got to be ranked top ten in the world of people who hate poker jargon, despite being able to tell you the reasons behind turning a made hand into a bluff on later streets to create a nonpolarised river betting range! What’s the current flavour of your regular table action? I’ve been playing almost four years now and I’d say that I’d been playing semi-seriously for the last three of them. At the moment I try to play the best games between $2/$4 and $10/$20 no-limit, but I do find playing higher more fun so I suppose it might be fairer to say that I mostly play at the $5/$10 and $10/$20 tables.
photography: Richard Simpkins, rami ben ami
keeping afloat p32-35
on the button p36-39
Floating is a defensive tactic that allows you to absorb your opponents’ aggression and turn it against them. Leave them in deep water.
It’s postion that makes you the most money and it doesn’t get better than the button. Here’s a guide to maximising your time there.
Who do you feel is your biggest competition at the PKR tables? I would have to say Shermsy and jarod are my biggest challenge, though they don’t seem to play much anymore. It was an honour to play with them. Come back soon, guys! RCHLFRMFRNDS is the most entertaining poker player worldwide but CTS is the best I have ever played. I’ve never really watched poker on TV so I don’t have a favourite big name player, but if I had to choose one it would probably be Phil Ivey because everyone loves a sicko. What annoys you at the tables? Ha, good question! Short stackers and nits ruining games gets me but not as much as bum hunters, people who sit heads up but only, and I do mean only, play people they perceive to be huge fish. Slightly less annoying are the people who sit at my tables to talk trash at me but won’t play. If you’re going to abuse me at least click the auto post blind button. So what have you done with your cash winnings? Bought a football club or fine art? Hmmm, well I drive a Mercedes at the moment and I like watches, but nowadays my most expensive habit is burning money in the emerging markets. Thanks, Brazil! When you’re not throwing money at the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets do you get to play much live poker? I’ve played some No-Limit Hold’em events at the World Series for the last two years and I’m working hard on
my pot-limit Omaha game for next summer. I’m so due! I also play some of the bigger UK tournies and when I do play cash it’s roughly for the same stakes as online, but games play a little bigger because you can buy-in deeper. What’s been the biggest highlight of your poker career so far? I wouldn’t say it was strictly a poker
experience, but spending the last two summers partying, hanging out and gambling with a bunch of my best friends in my favourite town in the world (Las Vegas) is an opportunity I would never have had without poker, and I would say that overshadows any particular pots or hands that I’ve ever played. Here’s to a few more. ■
Induce the bluff or block? Allowing other players to bluff the river can be profitable
isn’t ready to relinquish his position and flat calls to see the flop.
Flop A♣ Q♣ J♥
zomgchipriffle gustoman
$1027
$1000
zomgchipriffle represents that he’s hit the flop and bets $218 into the $278 pot. gustoman calls with his flush draw. Interestingly enough gustoman is a slight favourite to win the hand at this point.
Turn A♣ Q♣ J♥ A♥
Y
our decisions on the river can make or break you as a player. Blocking bets with weak holdings can save you a lot of heartache, unless someone has spotted your tendencies, but checking out of position to induce a bluff can make you even more cash, especially in short-handed games. Zomgchipriffle shows a world class in this hand. gustoman raises to $35 on the button with a raggy 9♣ 3♣. zomgchipriffle is well aware that the button is going to be opening wide and reraises to $134 from the small blind. gustoman
The second Ace slows the hand right down and zomgchipriffle checks. gustoman happily takes a free card to draw to his flush.
River A♣ Q♣ J♥ A♥ 7♥ The river brings an innocuous 7♥. zomgchipriffle thinks that his hand, Aces and Sevens, may be good. A blocking bet is only getting called by a better hand, and could be raised by a bluff, which would be a disaster. zomgchipriffle checks and allows gustoman to bluff $400 into the $714 pot. Knowing that a lot of hands will check behind he reasons that gustoman must be at the top or bottom of his range. Given the betting action he makes a tough call to win $1,514. ■
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ca$h strategy | flop play
N g in y sta afloat Sink your opponents aggression with the latest line in defensive technology - introducing the float play 32
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o-limit Hold’em is a war being waged with chips. As your enemies fire out bets and bluffs with alarming frequency it’s often a battle just to stay alive. In fact the game has become so aggressive that increasingly more sophisticated defensive plays are being developed in a bid to negate opponents’ power. One of the most recent strategies being used to combat the threat is called ‘floating’. This defensive (and eventually offensive) move is a dangerous, yet effective, way to bluff when your hand
illustration: Deejpilot, darren brook
has very limited showdown potential. Primarily it involves calling a continuation bet in position with any two cards (overcards, backdoor draws or air) with the sole intention of taking the pot down with a bluff on later streets. For example, you’ve watched one player make lots of small raises pre-flop and generally beat up the table with lots of c-bets after the flop. So you decide to fight back. He makes another standard raise in mid-position, and you call on the button with 6♠ 7♠. The flop comes J♦ 4♠ 2♥ rainbow. He makes a half-pot
continuation bet. You know that in all likelihood, on such a dry board, that he’s probably caught none of it. So you call or ‘float’ in position with the purpose of betting the turn or raising him if he bets out again. The turn brings the 8♦, and he checks. You now bet two-thirds pot with nothing more than a gutshot, he thinks for a few seconds, and folds. That, in a nutshell, is floating. It’s a relatively new concept that has evolved as a countermeasure to the obligatory continuation bet, and you need to add it to your arsenal if you want to survive.
Why float? As we mentioned above, floating is a way to exploit players who continuation-bet too frequently, by using position and the texture of the board to force players to fold on later streets. If you never float, other players will simply c-bet every flop safe in the knowledge that the vast majority of the time they’re going to win the hand unchallenged. And if they do meet resistance, it’s easy for them to realise your hand is strong and they can fold without losing more chips. This u stacked♠
33
makes you incredibly easy to play against if you’re up against an observant player. It’s crucial therefore that you balance your range on the flop (sometimes you have nothing, sometimes you have a monster) by floating. It’s so much harder for opponents to play against you if you throw in the occasional curve ball. Make them fear you post-flop!
When to float Floating an opponent should be part of a premeditated plan for gaining an edge over an opponent, in the same way that you might use a different gameplan to extract maximum value from a calling station. Just as you might bet more against a weak-passive fish who’ll pay you off when you have a huge hand, you can use floating as a way to reduce the impact of a tight-aggressive (TAG) player on your win rate. TAG players are the perfect foil for your plan, because their play is straightforward and they won’t often two- or three-barrel bluff on later streets. This will mean your float plays will stand a far greater chance of success. If you take notes on a regular basis, it’s essential that in post-session analysis or (less reliably) in session, you spot and then tag a regular opponent’s tendency to continuation bet flops and concede on the turn after checking to you. Because floating can ultimately cost you chips if you get it wrong, you should rarely try it against the most loose-aggressive players who will happily double-barrel bluff a much higher percentage of the time, or against fishy players who will call you down with weak – but winning – holdings far more frequently.
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Giving yourself a lifeline
How do you combat a player that you suspect is floating?
Y
ou’re playing in a tasty cash game and holding your own, but every chip you win seems to find its way to the player to your left. Whenever you check the flop, he bets, and whenever you bet the flop and check the turn, he bets. It should be simple to spot that you might be being floated. The first thing to do is to stay calm. All poker players have egos but letting yours get dented just because this floater
Board texture? The most important factor to consider is the strength of your opponent’s range in relation to the board. If an opponent is a very tight, aggressive player and makes a standard continuation-bet on a flop
“
You can use floating as a way to reduce the impact of tight-aggressive players on your win rate
thinks you’re easy pickings is only going to get you in trouble. Adjust, adapt and improve your game. You’ll have to start mixing your continuation-bet frequencies with more check-raising on the flop and turn. The check-raise on the turn is more profitable but more risky as you’ll be committing more chips. Don’t play back against really good players out of position. There’s no shame in moving table, having a good player sat with position on you is not healthy for your bankroll!
of A♥ K♣ 4♠, you need a damn good reason to float. His hand range is solid and he can represent an even stronger range. Concede. However, against the same opponent on a board of 5♣ 6♥ 7♥, you’ve got a great opportunity to float, as his range is well-defined pre-flop (AK-AJ, KQ-QJ), while your hand range can be super-wide and this wet flop is all over a smooth-caller’s range. After considering the villain and the board, you should then think a little more about the other factors affecting your decision on whether to execute a float play. Stack sizes, for instance, are incredibly important. In a three-bet pot with stacks of 100 big blinds or less, a solid opponent is likely to shove the turn with a huge range of hands, so it’s unwise to float in that situation without good reason. Floating is something to introduce into your play at the right time, not to use every orbit just because you fancy it, so unless you know that it has a very high chance of working, don’t even think about it. It can be worth floating when you’re facing a weak-tight
Deejpilot, darren brook, Richard Simpkins
ca$h strategy | flop play
opponent who might three-bet Ace-King pre-flop but will give up on the turn when he has failed to connect, but other than that it can be a risky business. Never use floating as a justification for making weak calls. Be sure you know the difference.
Going deep Floating in deeper pots leads to some of the most interesting hands you might play in No-Limit Hold’em. Playing just 100 big blinds deep in a cash game, for instance, doesn’t necessarily allow for all the tricks and multi-street bluffs that can occur when you get 200 big blinds or deeper. If you have position on a poor opponent in this sort of situation you can make serious additions to your bankroll with some well-timed floats. If you know your opponents’ tendencies, you can abuse and confuse them for some very healthy pots. Against aggressive pre-flop players you can potentially call four-bets with a view to float if you don’t flop big. Board’s such as Q♠ 9♠ J♣ are super-wet and perfect to float as there are so many danger cards that can arrive on the turn.
Looking good A final consideration on whether to float or not is your table image. If you’re viewed as the wild man at the table, don’t be surprised if you get called down by Kings on an Ace-high board. If you think your opponent views you as tight you’ll be able to get away with more. Say you called pre-flop on the button with Q♦ J♦ and he c-bets a K♦ 7♣ 2♣ board. This could be a prime time to leverage your rocky image by floating your opponent’s continuation bet. On the turn you need to bet if he shows weakness by checking. If he bets again he has defined his hand at the top of its range and you should fold unless you’ve picked up a draw with a diamond or a Ten, in which case you should call as you now have showdown potential. Just never let floating become an excuse for bad play. n
Floating in practice
Deep stacks and good analysis can win you some big pots
Y
ou’re playing in a short-handed $2/$4 No-Limit Hold’em game with a group of players that you’ve crossed swords with many times before. There’s one player in particular that you keep clashing with, let’s call him The_Enemy. You know him to be a solid player that can muck a hand. Your image is clean and the two of you have stacked each other a couple of times with sets versus overpairs and A-K versus 10-10 pre-flop. You’re both around $1,000 deep when you raise to $14 from the cut-off with J♠ 10♠. The button – a weak-passive fish – calls but The_Enemy threebets to $45 the big blind (with pocket Jacks). Because of your position and the deep stacks that you both have, you elect to call as does the button. The_ENEMY
you
77.4%
21.4%
Flop
n It’s not a great flop for your hand, with only gutshot and backdoor flush draws to work with. As expected The_Enemy makes a continuation-bet of $85 – around two-thirds of the pot. You could throw your hand away here, but first take a moment to consider all the factors. First, the flat-call from the player on the button means The_Enemy is going to squeeze lighter as the weak call is an invitation to scoop some dead money. This in turn means The_Enemy’s c-betting range is weaker than normal, making him more susceptible to a float. And if you hit a Queen then it’s all the better! The_ENEMY
you
86.4%
4.6%
turn
n The range of hands that you’re calling with on the flop includes top pair, sets, air and 7-8 for a straight draw, probably weighted in that order. Given that the turn completes the primary draw (the straight with 7-8 or J-Q) and there’s an overcard to his pair. The_Enemy checks. This is what you were aiming for by floating so don’t bottle it now. You bet $210, he folds his pocket pair and you pick up a $305 pot with by far the worst hand.
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CA$H strategy | playing position
push the T button It’s a simple fact that you’ll make most of your money when you’re in position. And it doesn’t come any better than when you’re on the button...
he button is your bread and butter in No-Limit Hold’em. Those wise words, from Doyle Brunson no less, don’t really come close to describing just how important position is in Hold’em. Often it’s more important than your cards, because being the last person to act gives you a lot of power. That’s why you should take advantage of having the button as much as possible. In fact, if you play a lot of Hold’em, especially on six-max tables, a decent chunk of your profits will come from the button – if they don’t you’re probably not playing your position strongly enough. In this article we’re going to narrow the focus and talk mostly about exploiting the blinds when the action is folded to you. No matter how well-known ‘stealing’ from the button becomes it will always remain a valid winning play in Hold’em. Raising from the button makes perfect mathematical and strategic sense for a couple of reasons. First, there’s dead
“
You should open-raise a lot of pots from the button. In fact, you should play more hands from the button than any other seat money in the pot in the form of the blinds (and sometime antes if you’re talking tournaments), so raising from the button instantly gives you a good chance of scooping the pot. Second, there are only two remaining players in the pot between you and the dead money; more often than not with two random hands (and being out of position for the rest of the hand) the blinds will not be able to continue in the hand. Put all these bits of information together and what it means is that you should open-raise a lot of pots from the button. In fact, you should play more hands from the button than any other seat at the table. Just how many hands
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you play should be dictated by the game conditions at the time and, specifically, by the players in the blinds. To take a simple example, if you were guaranteed the blinds would never ever play when you raised, then you would raise every single time. Obviously, this is unlikely to be the case, but you will sit at some tables where the blinds will only play when dealt a premium hand, in which case you could open-raise from the button with a very wide range – probably everything except complete trash. You should keep doing this until the players in the blinds give you a reason not to, by which time you’ll have scooped more than enough blinds.
Calling stations If you find yourself facing players that call far too much, your ability to steal is restricted. You need to play hands which have some value, though this range can still be wide as you will still have the upper hand of position. You can also raise with a wide range if you feel your opponents’ play predictably and you think you’re a better player than them. One word of warning here, be realistic about your own abilities! In this +EV situation you might open the pot with anything which has some value – all Aces, suited Kings, u
When to play back from the blinds
F
inding yourself in the blinds facing a button raise, your approach will depend on the player on the button and, of course, the two hole cards that you have tucked away. Calling is usually a poor option from the blinds as you hand the initiative away and must play the rest of the hand out of position. The exception to this is stopand-go strategies, but they should
only really be used when shortstacked and moving in on the flop is possible, otherwise it will be too easy for the button to exploit. In a full-stacked cash game it’s often better to re-raise or fold. How often and with what range you re-raise depends on how often the button is raising; the more often the button raises, the more you can resteal. As a default you might consider re-raising with K-Q+ and
8-8+, but this range could be widened against a perennial stealer, especially if they rarely carry on after your re-raise. This line probably shouldn’t vary too much between the blinds. You should also be prepared to bluff and sometimes re-raise with trash – if the button is raising with 40% of his hands then he will have to fold a lot of the time. How often you make this play will depend on the button; if he never adjusts to being three-bet and keeps folding, you can keep restealing.
stacked ♠
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Words: Nick Wealthall, photography: rami ben ami, Claus Mikosch
The best defence is a good offence – as long as you have the courage to play out of position
CA$H strategy | playing position
On the open range
Shifting your opening range according to the blinds is key to winning from the button Playing tight opponents u
A
gainst very passive and tight opponents you should openraise from the button liberally. If the blinds are very tight you can open your stealing range further to include everything with some value – all pairs, suited high cards, connecting cards and so on.
Raising range Folding range t connecting cards and so on. For specific raising ranges check out the opening ranges that have been mapped out above (see On the open range).
Tighten up The toughest spot pre-flop on the button is when you have players in the blinds who are likely to ‘play back’ at you. That is to say, they re-raise and possibly resteal, when you’ve initially raised. In general you’ll have to play tighter on the
AA
AKs AQs AJs ATs A9s A8s A7s A6s A5s A4s A3s A2s
AKo
KK
AQo KQo
KQs KJs KTs K9s K8s K7s K6s K5s K4s K3s K2s QQ
AJo KJo QJo
QJs QTs Q9s Q8s Q7s Q6s Q5s Q4s Q3s Q2s JJ
JTs
J9s
J8s
J7s
J6s
J5s
J4s
J3s
J2s
ATo KTo QTo JTo
TT
T9s
T8s
T7s
T6s
T5s
T4s
T3s
T2s
A9o K9o Q9o J9o T9o
99
98s
97s
96s
95s
94s
93s
92s
A8o K8o Q8o J8o T8o 98o
88
87s
86s
85s
84s
83s
82s
A7o K7o Q7o J7o T7o 97o 87o
77
76s
75s
74s
73s
72s
A6o K6o Q6o J6o T6o 96o 86o 76o
66
65s
64s
63s
62s
A5o K5o Q5o J5o T5o 95o 85o 75o 65o
55
54s
53s
52s
A4o K4o Q4o J4o T4o 94o 84o 74o 64o 54o
44
43s
42s
A3o K3o Q3o J3o T3o 93o 83o 73o 63o 53o 43o
33
32s
A2o K2o Q2o J2o T2o 92o 82o 72o 62o 52o 42o 32o
22
button when there’s a higher likelihood of that happening. You can’t afford to keep raising with a lot of hands that you’ll have to throw away if re-raised as you’ll leak a lot of money. When you raise from the button and get re-raised, or three-bet as it’s often called, you have a number of actions. How you respond will be dependent upon the player doing the reraising. Many players will only make this move with a premium hand and some will only do it
with extreme strength, preferring to call with hands like 10-10 and A-Q. However there are also a lot of aggressive players around who will re-raise with a wide range – even trash hands as a bluff – because they are aware you are stealing and you’ll have to muck a lot of the time. So how should you respond when re-raised by the blinds? Normally, if you have a hand that’s significantly worse than the range of hands the player in the blind would raise with, you should just fold. For example, you open-raise from the button with A♣ 4♠ and the small blind, who plays a tight-aggressive game, re-raises; in this spot you should normally
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Against poorer players a minimum check-raise should raise a red flag as they’re often trying to get paid with a strong hand
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H
u
owever, if you’re facing good, aggressive players in the blinds, this range needs to be narrowed somewhat to hands you can either reraise with or think about calling with. So you’d look to raise with pairs, a narrower selection of suited cards and connecting cards plus the occasional trash hand. Something like this:
AA
AKs AQs AJs ATs A9s A8s A7s A6s A5s A4s A3s A2s
AKo
KK
AQo KQo
KQs KJs KTs K9s K8s K7s K6s K5s K4s K3s K2s QQ
JJ
JTs
J9s
J8s
J7s
J6s
J5s
J4s
J3s
J2s
ATo KTo QTo JTo
TT
T9s
T8s
T7s
T6s
T5s
T4s
T3s
T2s
A9o K9o Q9o J9o T9o
99
98s
97s
96s
95s
94s
93s
92s
A8o K8o Q8o J8o T8o 98o
88
87s
86s
85s
84s
83s
82s
A7o K7o Q7o J7o T7o 97o 87o
77
76s
75s
74s
73s
72s
Try not to play tighter than this in cash games on a folded to button, except in extremely unfavourable conditions, or if you’ve just made the cross-over from tournaments to cash games. Tournament to cash transition can take a little while.
A6o K6o Q6o J6o T6o 96o 86o 76o
66
65s
64s
63s
62s
A5o K5o Q5o J5o T5o 95o 85o 75o 65o
55
54s
53s
52s
A4o K4o Q4o J4o T4o 94o 84o 74o 64o 54o
44
43s
42s
A3o K3o Q3o J3o T3o 93o 83o 73o 63o 53o 43o
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n Check stacked♠ Issue 2
A2o K2o Q2o J2o T2o 92o 82o 72o 62o 52o 42o 32o
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Raising range Folding range
p32 for further information.
AJo KJo QJo
QJs QTs Q9s Q8s Q7s Q6s Q5s Q4s Q3s Q2s
Four-betting the button Do you know when to back down and when to stand up?
Y
our in a $1/$2 six-max cash game. Both you and the big blind have full $200 stacks. He’s a loose aggressive opponent you’ve tangled with many times before. You’re dealt 10♥-10♠ on the button and the action is passed to you. You raise to $7 and the
aggressive big blind re-raises to $24. You know he’d do this with premium hands, but also with suited connectors as a semi-bluff or junk as a total bluff. Believing you’re way ahead of his range you decide to four-bet for value and re-raise to $60. The big blind thinks for a while and moves all-in. You sigh as he may have the goods, but your fourbet pretty much commits you to the pot and you call. He has 9♦-9♣ and you win pot. Against most other players you would have to err on the side of caution as the all-in would scream J-J, Q-Q, K-K or A-K. Against that range your Tens would only have a 33.6% equity. Fold – you’re not priced in.
rami ben ami, alessandra chila
Playing aggressive opponents
fold. You have the worst hand, you may be dominated and you have little invested in the pot. Another line to take is to flat-call the re-raise. You can do this as a trap with a very big hand like Aces or Kings in order to extract more money after the flop, or with a speculative hand that plays well in position like 8♥ 7♥. What you shouldn’t do, though, is have a fit-or-fold plan for certain types of hands.
Piling on the pressure Four-betting pre-flop is another option. You can do this for value because you think your hand is better than your opponent’s three-betting range – a standard range for this play might be pairs Tens or higher, and A-K, though this range can be wider against certain opponents (see Four-betting the button). You can also make this four-bet move as a bluff if you think your opponent is reraising light. It’s vital to have this play in your arsenal or competent players will punish you. Don’t fall in love with the play, though, as it’s costly if it fails. Remember, the button is your friend! n stacked ♠
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gear | playing cards
gear
stacked♠ clears the table to take a look at the best playing cards
that money (and PKR points) can buy. It's time to shuffle up and deal!
photography: Nickan Arzpeyma
1
1. Kem
4. PKR
Kem cards are made entirely of cellulose acetate material, and that's some pretty tough stuff. And the best bit is – they're 100% spillage proof! www.kem.com
No PKR home game is complete without our topquality plastic cards. Get them through the PKR shop for a cool 30,000 points. www.pkr.com
2. Copag
5. Pure24K
Copag makes some of the best cards around and if you want a slice of history you can pick up a centenary box set using their 1908 design. www.pokerbits.co.uk
If you want to feel like a high roller then these are the ones for you; custom-made 24 carat gold leaf playing cards… Just don't lose any! www.pure24k.co.uk
3. Bee
6. Dealer Button
Bee playing cards are widely used in casinos and like these can often be picked up with customised backs. www.kardwell.com
Okay, it is not a deck of cards but it is great for home games by combining dealer button with blind clock. www.dbdealer.co.uk
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stacked♠
2
4
3
5
6
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MTT strategy | player focus
mtt Q&A
sourshark Name Steven Harris Location Alberta, Canada Age 44 Joined PKR January 2007
sourshark
Meeting a tournament titan The winner of the Oktoberfest Tournament of Champions is a consistent casher and one of PKR’s most ardent fans
C
anadian sourshark currently sits sixth in the all-time money list on PKR with a chunky $55,771 coming from 180 separate cashes. His first major win was a $6,600 Sunday Classic scoop last February but he has since gone on to add Grand Prix, PKR Open, Oktoberfest $10,000 guaranteed and, last but not least, Tournament of Champions titles to his poker CV. Only the Masters is missing for the full set. His across the board success only goes to prove that he’s no flash in the pan and, by his own admission, he’s still a work in progress who learns from making mistakes. It’s this very honesty that has brought his game on so far and is likely to see him push on to further honours at PKR, possibly the next PKR Live main event – he’s promised to make the trip over the Atlantic for the next PKR Live so make sure you make him welcome if he does! PKR_Danski
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stacked♠
Stacked♠ Congratulations on your Tournament of Champions win, sourshark, and well done on being chosen as this issue’s Titan. Steven: To say I am flattered is a complete understatement. I can’t even begin to express my honour, gratitude and excitement at your choice. To say this is one of the cooler things to happen to me during my lengthy poker career would be understating the obvious. So we hear that you’re a big fan of PKR, is that where your rampant enthusiasm is from? Well, I love playing poker and nowhere, in my experience, has the game been simulated to the point where it almost feels live. Nowhere except PKR! I stay at this site for a variety of reasons, but my biggest reason bar none, is the fact that I believe with all my heart and soul, that PKR is the future of online gaming as we know it, and I for one intend to be part of that future. So is that going to be a full- or parttime future for you? At this point I’m not playing full time. I like the security of a pay check but that’s not to say I don’t have my sights set on giving it a go as a professional. I am a baker by trade and the early hours seem to match up really well with PKR. I usually start right after work, around 11am my time, just before the $30 PKR Open begins. I’ll always play the daily majors. What’s the biggest mistake that you see in tournaments? I think it is imperative to protect winning hands. Unless you have the stone-cold monster nuts you can,
get on the cash ladder p44-47
POisoned aces p48-51 Be careful that you don’t do yourself a mischief when you come across a raggy ace, but don’t hit the insta-muck either - you could miss a good spot.
photography: Alex Slobodkin, nickan arzepeyma
Boost your stack and turn the momentum around with well-placed raises, re-raises and all-in shoves.
and often will, get drawn out on. This obviously happens more if you give other players the opportunity by being greedy and saying, ‘Here, have another chance.’ Have you got any bad habits that you’ve fallen into? I show a lot of my cards and I’m sure that percentage wise I do so more than any other PKR player. I try to use the information that I give away to my advantage and if I can still do well, after giving away so much free information I must be doing something right. Maybe I’ll pick up the nickname ‘The Exhibitionist’ for constantly flashing! You don’t seem very grumpy, where did the name sourshark come from? In my mid-twenties I played guitar and sang in a band called SourPuss. I think we had the cynical late 80’s early 90’s angst market cornered... but along came Nirvana! Anyways my username is an homage to that. We were all ‘Sour’ someone, so Sour Steve becomes sourshark for poker. Talking of sharks, which players do you look out for most? As far as my personal nemesis goes, I think it would have to be myself and the occasional bad play. As far as other players go it’s hard to narrow it down; keepsmiling, mcoupar, farryboy, VinceVegas, kristobella, Gladheateher, Thomasinder, PaTrickTonFion, discomonkey, and Chivalrousgent all have a good grasp of the game. You’ve had your fair share of wins yourself, what have you done with the cash? Mostly, I re-invest. I try to view poker as a small business with expenses,
Hitting and milking
Extracting value with big hands can swing tournaments button XxxfunkyboyxxX limps with pocket Queens allowing sourshark to see a free flop.
Flop J♣ 5♣ 6♦
sourshark
XxxfunkyboyxxX
$34,715
$38,085
Blinds $6,000/$8,000 ($125 ante)
T
here’s a reason why you shouldn’t limp with big hands even when the action is short-handed and that’s because it becomes easier to lose a big pot than to win one. sourshark was the one benefiting from XxxfunkyboyxxX’s slowplaying in the final three of the Oktoberfest “Tournament of Champions” $5,000 freeroll. Playing from the
overhead, wages, the whole deal. That’s something I have been doing for the last 18 months. I track everything. I do treat myself to some nice things and I have a young daughter who lives with her Mom, so I always get something nice for them. So how have you got this far? Learning the game has been like climbing a giant staircase with little landings along the way that have brought me more success at the
sourshark check calls the $2,400 bet of XxxfunkyboyxxX’s with his gutshot draw knowing his hand will be disguised if he hits hard.
Turn J♣ 5♣ 6♦ 8♥ And hit it does. The 8♥ delivers the nut straight to sourshark who checks to the bettor who pushes out $3,600 into the middle. sourshark’s minimum check-raise to $7,200 is more than a little worrying for XxxfunkyboyxxX who is holding just one pair. He calls.
River J♣ 5♣ 6♦ 8♥ 9♠ XxxfunkyboyxxX knows that his overpair could easily be behind now. He check-calls a small value bet of $4,800. sourshark takes the $32,175 pot – almost a third of the chips left in play – and goes on to win the tournament.
tables; positional play, pre-flop hand value, improved reads. The last 15 months have seen a real turnaround in both my live and online play. I feel like all the early investments are finally bearing fruit in a big way. Have you got any ambitions for 2009 (poker or otherwise)? Yes absolutely! I want to work on my bankroll management, win a seat into the World Series and attend the next PKR Live, but as I live in Canada the planning is a bit more complicated. ■ stacked♠
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MTT strategy | making the money
climbing the cash ladder Deciding whether to go for the big money win or lock up precious tournament dollars is one of the most difficult choices in multi-table tournaments that you’ll face
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number of players from this year’s WSOP 2008 Main Event final table admitted they weren’t trying to win when the field was down to its last few tables. No, they were playing to simply try and make the final table to lock up a big payday. While this tournament is an extreme example, it does raise an interesting question: should you always play to win? Multi-table tournaments are a curious beast. Optimal strategy dictates that you should play to win, as the payout structure is almost always top-heavy with anywhere between 20% to 30% of the total prize pool going to the winner. While those who scrape into the money will often get less than double their buy-in back. By playing to win, the theory is that your in-the-money percentage (the frequency that you make the cash spots) will deteriorate but your final table, topthree finish, and win percentages will all increase, resulting in a far healthier return on investment in the long run.
Alex Slobodkin
Play to win? But there’s a probem with that. For while ‘the long run’ provides plenty of reasons why you should play to win, it also offers several reasons why you shouldn’t. How can this be? Well, it can be argued that your poker life is just one long session and that if you look after the short-term (the hand you’re currently playing) then the long-term will look after itself. But what if there is no long-term? It’s almost certain that no one player will play 44
stacked♠
enough live poker tournaments over their lifetime to know for certain if they were long-term winners, as a decent sample size in tournaments is reckoned to be around 1500 or more. Online, however, it’s a different matter...
Game selection When you’re looking at tournaments to enter online the first thing you must consider is the size of the tournament in terms of the field size and the buy-in. If it’s significantly bigger than you’re used to then sometimes it can be better to aim for the cash first, and only then start to go for the win. Or, if the money has already become meaningful to you, simply aim for the next rung on
try to avoid getting into coin-flip situations close to the bubble to cut down on variance. If you’re a player to whom the $456 is not significant, think of being in the same situation at the World Series where the difference is $0 and $21,000!
Size matters
the payout ladder. Let’s take a look at an example using the PKR Masters payout structure (see PKR Masters payout). Gary is a sit-and-go grinder who has $300 in his account and on a whim satellites into the PKR Masters tourney. In the event itself he’s got an average stack on the bubble when he finds A-K and raises, only for a bigger stack to push all-in. What should he do? Well, imagine for a moment if the big stack turned his hand over to reveal two Jacks. Despite the generous pot odds this is a clear fold for Gary as the difference between $0 and a minimum of $456 is so huge to his bankroll that he should pass. Even on High Stakes Poker some of the best players run hands two or three times to reduce their variance in big pots. While you can’t do this in a tournament you can
Perhaps the single-most important factor in tournaments is stack size. Just think about how it affects how your play in a hand. If there’s been one raise, you find Aces in the hole and you’re down to 12 big blinds you’re obviously going to stick it all in the middle. If, on the other hand, you’ve both got 30 big blinds there are a lot more options. Stack size is crucial at all stages of the tournament, but in and around the money understanding effective stack sizes shouldn’t be undervalued. If you‘ve got 100 big blinds but your opponent only has 20, the effective stack is 20 big blinds. Now let’s say there are five players left to go out before the bubble, you’re one of the shorter stacks with nine big blinds and
“
It doesn’t pay to lose your fold equity. You should only have five big blinds or less is if you’ve just been crippled in a big pot
there are eight stacks in bigger trouble than yourself. A timely double-up won’t even get you to the chip average so it’s arguable that holding tight and waiting for a good spot is preferable to lumping it in just because you’ve dropped below 10 big blinds. Always keep an eye on the blind structure and the clock to anticipate how the next blind increase is going to affect your maneuverability. It simply doesn’t pay to lose your remaining fold equity just because the blinds have gone up. The only time you should find yourself with five big blinds or less is if you’ve just been crippled in a big pot. Pay jumps are not always even so keep an eye out for any anomalies in the structure. If you spot a big pay jump and you’re not a short stack you should go on the attack, picking up chips as the others wait for another player to bust. Once that bubble has burst you may need to tighten up as those who’ve just scraped in go for broke. Don’t open-raise at this time unless you’re going to be happy to call a shove. Many short stacks will be happy to gamble with anything from a small pair to a single high card as they’ve now u
PKR Masters payout pot The cash prize structure 1st
$27,360
2nd
$15,960
3rd
$10,260
4th
$7,410
5th
$5,700
6th
$4,560
7th
$3,420
8th
$2,280
9th
$1,767
10th
$1,425
11th -15th
$1,140
16th - 20th
$912
21st - 30th
$741
31st - 40th
$627
41st - 50th
$535
51st - 60th
$456
stacked♠
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MTT strategy | making the money
t made the money and are hoping to spin up a stack where they might be able to make it to the big money. If you do reach the final table the blinds-to-stacks ratio can often mean there’s little play left beyond shoving, folding and calling. If you bust out in sixth place only to see the remaining players chop the rest of the cash it’s incredibly frustrating. PKR may introduce a deal-making functionality in the future so start getting your head around the delicate balance now.
The final push As a short stack in this situation you want to go after the middling stacks who would effectively trade places with you should you double through them. As a medium stack you’re in the toughest spot as you need to avoid committing yourself against short stacks without a premium hand and also dodge the big stacks that can simply re-raise you with impunity. The solution is not an easy one. You need to try and target the other medium stacks who look afraid to gamble. Every chunk that you take out of them helps you move up the cash ladder. Feel free to punish them for the cautious final table approach. One way to do this is by tightening your opening hand range and widening your three-betting all-in range. At this stage a three-bet would usually place you all-in due to a medium stack
size being around 15-20 big blinds. Yes, you’ll feel foolish if you get called by a big pair but it’s better than blinding yourself out. If someone makes a standard raise of three big blinds and you three-bet all-in you’ll add around a third to your stack if they fold. Should they call and you win the hand you’ll be near the top of the table. Once you’re a large stack, or even the chip leader, you should get aggressive, putting pressure on the medium stacks who have most to lose. Don’t put yourself into marginal spots against short stacks though. A big stack can become an average stack all too easily. Simply maintaining your stack at this stage, with the occasional steal, can be enough to see you finish deep (or take the lion’s share of the prize pool if a deal is done). Laddering up the pay scale may not seem as fun as playing to win, but if you always try to be the hero you’ll often be left with zero. n
Avoid committing yourself against short stacks without a premium hand while dodging the big stacks that can raise you
stacked♠
?
Hand 1
There are 11 players left and you’re on the final table bubble. The blinds are 4000/8000 with a 400 ante. You have a stack of 120,000 and are currently sixth of 11. You’re in the big blind holding 9♦ 9♣. The big stack (350,000), who has been opening a lot of pots, makes it 32,000 from the cut-off. It folds to you in the big blind. What do you do? a) Shove all-in b) Call intending to shove almost any flop c) Fold
uAnswer
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Quiz!
If your first thought was to wonder how short the other remaining stacks are and whether any of them are all-in on the other table then well done! After that, at first glance, this seems like a no-brainer. You’ve got 14 big blinds and the aggressive big stack is likely to have a wide opening range as it’s the bubble stage. Surely you can be confident that you’re well ahead of his range? If his 4x raise has been his standard raise then yes. If this bet is larger than normal then this larger open almost always means a strong yet vulnerable hand like A-Q, A-J or a pair 7-7 – J-J. Given that range, you dominate some hands, are dominated by others, and flip against the others. The decision isn’t so easy any more. In fact, all three lines are viable. If you’re playing to move up the ladder then take the fold option, conserve your chips and wait for a better spot to come up. If you want to go for the double-up and a shot at the chip lead then b) is the best option for you. A stop-and-go play will probably give you more chance of getting a fold than simply getting it all-in pre-flop, as he’s getting decent odds – about 2/1 – to call your shove.
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Hand 2
You’re down to the last three players in the PKR Masters tournament. One player has around half the chips in play (1,150,000) while you have roughly 600,000. The short stack isn’t far behind you with a shade under 500,000. The big stack limps for 20,000 holding 7♥-8♥ and you complete from the small blind, only for the short stack to make it 60,000 from the big blind. The big stack calls, as do you, making the pot 186,000. The flop is a 10♠-5♥-6♥. You check your straight flush draw, the short stack bets 150,000 and the big stack pushes all-in. What do you do? a) Call all-in b) Fold
uAnswer There’s only two options for this one. You have an open-ended straight flush draw and could have anywhere between two and 15 outs, although they may not all be clean outs if someone flopped a set. The question is, do you want to gamble to win a big pot and give yourself a good chance to win $27,360 but risk going out in third for $10,260 or fold and hopefully lock up $15,960? The short stack is likely committed having put almost half his stack in and the big stack, who likely knows this must have a strong hand to have pushed in. So this one does come down to personal circumstances and how the pay jumps affect you. There’s no shame in folding and hopefully locking up an extra $6,000 before trying to win it heads-up from a three-to-one chip deficit. And there’s no shame in getting it all-in with this hand and giving you a chance to be chip leader or out. Also, if the short stack goes out on the same hand you’ll take second place as you had more chips at the beginning of the hand.
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Hand 3
Three away from the money and grinding it out with a short stack, you have 20,000 with the blinds at 800/1600 and a 200 ante. You’ve been dealt A♥-K♦ on the button. A large stack of 80,000 opens to 4,800 from early position and a similar stack flat-calls from the cut-off. What do you do? a) Fold b) Call c) Min-raise d) Raise all-in
uAnswer Despite the proximity to the bubble this looks like a clear squeeze play opportunity. The big stack opened from early position and is getting 2/1 on his call, but the presence of the other big stack means he’ll have a hard time calling less than J-J. Likewise the other big stack is rarely flat-calling with a big hand here as it’s unlikely that he’s trying to play tricky so close to the bubble. By shoving all-in you give yourself a chance to add more than 50% to your stack and buy enough time to make the money without much trouble. And even if you do get called you have a great chance to double-up.
Tournament equity ftw! Find out how much your short stack is actually worth
S
omething to think about next time you’re raking in a huge pot is that the more chips there are the less each is actually worth. Let’s take a look at the PKR Masters. The event has a $250 buy-in and with 456 runners it would have a prize pool of $114,000 and with seven left the chip stacks could look like this list below. Their current equity according to ICM is in brackets.
Payouts 1st place – $27,360 2nd place – $15,960 3rd place – $10,260 4th place – $7,410 5th place – $5,700 6th place – $4,560 7th place – $3,420
Chip stacks 583,000 ($14,467.739) 437,000 ($12,603.334 353,500 ($11,358.794) 310,000 ($10,644.639) 222,000 ($9,023.549) 212,500 ($8,831.521) 162,000 ($7,740.425) The largest stack has less than double the equity of the shortest stack despite having more almost fours times the chip stack. You can see across the stacks that the difference in worth to size is significant. This is proof, if any were needed, that most of stack’s equity is in its last percentage. Protect your tournament life with care. A strategic fold from the short stack could lock up an additional $1,140 and a whole lot of equity.
stacked♠
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Alex Slobodkin , Andrey Pustovoy
When should you hold fire and when should you go on the offensive? Take this quiz to see how you should play it…
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MTT strategy | playing ace-rag
poisoned aces Raggedy Aces may look like the medicine to cure your tournament ills but are they just pretty placebos?
A
ces are the most beautiful hole cards that you can see in Hold’em but unfortunately you’ll only be dealt them every 221 hands. So unless you want to play like a super-nit you might have to play the occasional unpaired ace. While Ace-King and Ace-Queens will often play themselves, what of their ill fitting cousin the Ace-rag? Throwing away any ace that has a low or medium kicker (A-2 to A-9) will reduce the number of post-flop mistakes you make because, well, you won’t be in the hand, but you may also be missing a lot of chances to build your stack. A♦ 2♦ and A♣ 7♥ are both in the top 25% of Hold’em hands and while they’re not hands that you want to be raising with from early or, in most cases, middle position these are hands that can be leveraged in late position. The problem with the Ace-rag is that the kicker (the lower supporting card) can poison your hand. You raise with A♠ 8♦ on the button and have one caller. The flop comes A♦ J♣ 5♦ and you bet half the pot only to get check-raised by the big blind. Where do you stand now? Obviously it depends entirely on your opponent and how he plays but by introducing these weaker aces into your hand range you’ll be put to the test more frequently. The situations and considerations posed by playing these poisoned aces will shift throughout the life of each and every tournament that you play.
Early flop action un the very early stages of a tournament there’s not a huge benefit to raising with a weak ace unless you’re trying to take control of the hand and flop big with a suited ace. As the blind levels start to crank up and you’re getting a better feel for your table, however, there is a greater argument for introducing ace-rag into your raising range as long as you know the questions to ask yourself should you get action. Going back to the situation where you’ve been check-raised on the flop with A♠ 8♦ on a A♦ J♣ 5♦ flop,
what should you be asking yourself? There are three main scenarios that you’ll find yourself in when you face a lot of action.
1. They have a bigger kicker Do you think that are the kind of player that may have flatted you with a larger ace? This play is less likely to be the property of the loose aggressive player who is more likely to have forced the action pre-flop with a raise. It is very possible from a rock who wants to hit the flop before he starts committing chips u stacked♠
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photography: Nickan Arzpeyma
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MTT strategy | playing ace-rag
or a loose passive player who could easily have called with a wide range of naked aces. Passive players rarely make aggressive moves without the nuts.
2. They have you crushed The check-raiser is hoping that you are holding an ace because they’ve flopped two-pair or a set and want you to get it all-in against them while they feel a long way ahead. Have they been tight? What hands have they shown down previously? Do you think they are an abc tight aggressive player who is likely to set mine (call with any small to medium pair with the sole intention of flopping a set).
3. They are bluffing There is the chance that they simply don’t believe that you have an ace. Is your opponent aggressive? Have they shown any previous form in making moves? In this tournament or any other have their check-raises been weak, genuine or a solid mix? Is it a drawing board that may have hit a callers range? Do you think
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If you call and face a bet on the turn how many cards would you need to confidently carry on in the hand? Probably very few.
photography: Nickan Arzpeyma
they are the type of player that might fast play a draw? If you believe they are someone capable of playing the player not just their cards you need to look at the table image that you have been exuding. Have you been continuation betting a lot? Have you been opening a lot of pots? Do you think you’ve been categorised as a bluffer? All these factors need to be weighed up before you decide to fold, call or re-raise. If in doubt, and you haven’t committed many chips, folding can be a default. If you call and face a bet on the turn how many cards would you need to confidently carry on in the hand? The answer is probably very few. Know in your mind how you’ll react on the turn should you carry on. Calling a raise on the flop and folding the turn is weak poker. 50
stacked♠
Middle stages
D
uring the middle stages of a tournament the varying stack sizes will inform a lot of your decisions as to whether you want to play ace-rag. A raise will often be a semi-bluff made to steal blinds and antes or to pound on a tight shortstacked player. Before you make the raise be ready to ask yourself what you’ll do if different player yet to act you reraise as it could affect the amount you bet, or whether you decide to make the move at all!
If you think that your raise is effectively going to be a bluff then stop to consider the normal stealing considerations. Is it a good spot to make a raise and what will you do if you hit your ace on the flop? Have they got you covered? Will your kicker be able to support the heat? If someone else has raised you should largely eliminate calling with an Ace-rag at this stage, even when they’re suited. You’ll only flop a flush draw 11% of the time and two-pair
2% of the time. Unless you have a very specific reason to think that you can take a player on post-flop you’re best pumping or dumping. Restealing with Ace-rag can be very effective as you’ll be able to get a lot of hands that are beating you to fold pre-flop (medium pocket pairs and other weak aces) and you’ll still have outs if you are called by Jacks, Queens or Kings. In fact, the only hands that you’re really worried about are Aces, Ace-King and Ace-Queen. That doesn’t mean that you should start pushing all-in with wild abandon; it does mean that there may be some good spots to attack loose raisers. Also, if you’re seen to be playing a wide range of ace holdings it can allow you successfully c-bet most flops that have a bullet. Observant players will be aware that you’re more likely to have hit top pair given your range. Having players fearful of any ace can be very beneficial!
Aces danger
The pocket rockets are always welcome but when should you pay attention to the warning signs and muck your hand?
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here are some classic mistakes that are made with pocket Aces. Avoid these two pocket rocket killers.
n Overplaying in the early stages is the main way players go bust with Aces. Lots of players will call 4-5 times the big blind with suited connectors or any pair to make an early score trapping someone that holds a pre-flop monster. If you meet resistance it may be necessary to give a free card on the turn to control the size
of the pot. Yes, you might be giving someone a free shot at a five or nine outer but that’s often better than putting yourself in the situation where you’re left facing a check-raise for your entire tournament life.
n Slow playing pre-flop
is another problem. If you limp you’re inviting lots of other players to see a flop. When you’ve got Aces you want to build a pot, narrow the hand to two or three play maximum and punish players over-valuing top pair.
Later stages shoving and bullying
E
very half-decent player knows that making all-in moves are 100% necessary for your tournament chances, and few non-premium hands illicit as much excitement as the ace-rag. In fact, shoving your short-stack with any-Ace has become such standard practice most players make the move without thinking. Do you make the move when you spy a single bullet and you’re approaching being short-stacked? Do you make the
same decision whatever your position, the blinds and size of the big stacks? It’s time to look at whether you’re putting blind faith into the naked ace. You’d fold a raggy ace during deeper stacked play because it’s likely to be dominated, why not later on? Well, it’s because you need to open up your all-in range to prevent yourself from blinding out. A♥ 7♣ has 40% equity against the top 15% of Hold’em hands, while
Odds and Aces
Know your odds and you’ll be able to ace your play post-flop Odds of… … flopping an Ace
16%
… flopping an Ace if an opponent holds one
10.8%
… flopping two-pair
2.02%
… someone else having an ace at a10-handed table … flopping the nut flush with Ax suited … flopping the nut flush draw
36% 0.84% 10.94%
… flopping the nut flush draw with a naked ace
1.12%
… flopping trips with either your Ace or rag
1.35%
something like 8♠ 6♠ has 35%. While this shows that holding an Ace is favourable the difference is slight. What it does mean is that picking spot to move in is more important than holding a weak ace. Pushing A♣ 6♠ on the button with nine blinds left is a given, making the same move from mid-position when you have 14 big blinds isn’t. Holding a single Ace doesn’t give you carte blanche to get it in but using it in late position and as the first into the pot is not just the sensible but is proved winning poker. Embracing the Ace-rag can boost your game or damage it but as long as you keep your eyes open to the dangers you’ll also put yourself in a better position to run up a big stack. n
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Holding a single ace doesn’t give you carte blanche to get it in but using it in late position is proved winning poker stacked♠
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SNG strategy | player focus
sng Q&A
mrm1983 Name Michael Rendbæk Location Harboøre, Denmark Age 25 Joined PKR July 2007
MRM1983
Meeting a Sit-and-go superstar Consistency is the key to beating sit-and-gos and there are few players that can compete with MRM1983’s performances
D
o you know your sit-and-go return on investment (ROI)? If you do and track your results through Sharkscope.com you’ll be aware of quite how incredible an ROI of 20% is over a 2,400 game sample. If you don’t chart your progress at the site, which you should, then believe me when I tell you that MRM1983’s ROI is stunning. For every $100 he puts down on the poker table he effectively gets $120 back and if that’s not the sign of a winning sit-and-go player I really don’t know what is! His bread and butter may be six-handed sit-and-gos but he has also enjoyed success in bigger tournaments with victory in Event #2 of last year’s Oktoberfest; the short-handed $15,000 guaranteed, and enjoyed a solid runner-up finish in this June’s Super Series $10,000 guaranteed deep and steep. MRM1983 has made it into the top 40 of the all-time money list – and that doesn’t even take into account his sit-and-gos! PKR_danski
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Stacked♠ You’re one of the top sit-and-go players at PKR. What’s your secret? Michael: I originally started playing cash games some six years ago but quickly found out that sit-and-gos suited me better and I’ve been playing them ever since. When I started playing poker full-time a little over a year ago I played 10 to 20 six-handed sit-and-gos a day, most of which were $100 buy-ins. I’ve recently cut down on both the buy-in – to $50 – and the number I play because I’m starting college in January to study engineering. The players at PKR tend to be solid but I’ve come to know how many of them play. I like the MTT structure on PKR too, especially the tournaments that are six-handed or have bigger buy-ins. We know that you love the six-handed action. What do you think makes you so successful at six-max sit-and-gos? I think I have a solid game but you need to vary your actions to make sure that other players don’t get too good a read on you. And the most important thing? Bursting bubbles. I consider it to be an essential skill in both sit-andgos and big tournaments and one that I’m usually good at. Have you always been good at poker or did it take a while to pick things up? I was a break-even player until I joined PKR. When I started playing here I found it so much easier to concentrate than on other sites. Although I’ve had some very good days playing sit-andgos my biggest win has been a win in the $15,000 guaranteed, which gave me around $4,500. I celebrated by
crush double thru’s p56-59
do the math p60-63 You can open up a realm of decision-making possibilities around the bubble by getting your head around the independent chip model.
photography: Hakan, Mehmet Salih Guler
Ditch the normal sit-and-go conventions and change your mindset to succeed in the Double Thru tournaments.
going out for a few beers. I probably would have gone out anyway but it’s always good to find an excuse! My tip for any and all players must be to find out what kind of game you want to play, whether it’s aggressive, tight, loose or a mix. There is no right or wrong way to play poker as long as you learn from the mistakes you may make along the way. So what do you think is the most important poker skill to work on? I think you have to learn how to understand betting frequencies and be able to put someone on a hand. Unfortunately you don’t get it right every time. Players and styles vary from game to game but after playing for 30 minutes I usually have a good read on most players. Experience and studying the game is the only way to get better, and it’s always possible to get better. Are there any PKR players that you consider to be your enemies? I don’t have a particular player who I consider to be my enemies, but I do enjoy my daily games against LarsAx (the fish), damocles (the donk) and Alkan (the sweetheart). They are all good players, with different playing styles, so the games are always fun and a challenge. At the higher stakes I rate players like Tovarsky, TheSqueeze and IneedUrChips but with my move down from the $100 buy-ins I don’t really play them anymore. And if you could play one pro player? I am from Denmark so my favorite pro has to be Gus Hansen, of course. I like the insanity in his game and that players can’t read him. When he is at the tables, he may sometimes look like he doesn’t have a clue on what’s going on, but he
Punishing weak plays
Even when you make a hand you have to be ready to drop it Flop 10♠ 10♥ 4♣
MRM1983
Blacksad13
$2,655
$2,390
Blinds $75/$150
K
nowing when to extract value from weak plays (or weak players) in the early levels of a sit-and-go is a skill that can boost your stack to a cashing position well before the bubble bursts. It’s the second level of a $50 sit-and-go and MRM1983 calls a $160 raise from Blacksad13 on the cut-off with a pocket pair. Critically he has position on the raiser. The big blind also calls.
has a reason for every move he make. He has proved his talent with some great results. What annoys you most when you play poker? I think the most irritating thing you can do at the poker table is to say “ty” after a major suck-out like you played the hand perfectly. When people do that I always try to let it go, but I then enjoy
The big blind checks and Blacksad13 makes a super-weak continuation bet of $40 into the $540 pot. MRM1983 may not have flopped a set but the board is actually quite a good one for him and raises it up to $200. Only Blacksad13 decides to call.
Turn 10♠ 10♥ 4♣ 5♥ Blacksad13 bets another $40 in what appears to be a ploy to control the $860 pot. The 5♥ on the turn isn’t a danger card. MRM1983 is confident that he’s out of range and milks a further $200 bet.
River 10♠ 10♥ 4♣ 5♥ J♣ Blacksad13 will have to bluff the river to win the hand but, having faced a raise on the flop and the turn, he bottles it and puts out a $40 bet into the $1,260 pot hoping to at least see MRM1983’s hand. MRM1983 flat calls knowing that his earlier aggression prevented a solid river bluff. He calls the tiny bet and scoops the $1,340 pot.
playing hard on the person who did it, without tilting. So what’s your aim for 2009 – apart from not getting kicked out of school? I want to keep winning online even if I stop playing full-time. I’d also love to qualify into one of the bigger live events because I’ve only played live poker amongst my friends so far. I think playing a major buy-in tournament would help me to focus and improve my live game. n stacked♠
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SNG strategy | Alternative sit-and-gos
DOUBLE YOUR MONEY
Learn how to beat Double Thru sit-and-gos and you'll be able to boost your bankroll with ease. It's survival of the fittest so make sure you're ready to grab the cash
D
ouble Thru tournaments are a twist on the classic sitand-go formula where, rather than the usual top-heavy payout structure, you simply win back twice your buy-in if you outlast half the field. With a bit of study and experience these can provide you with a tasty return on your money. Because of the change in payouts you’ll have to change your sit-and-go mindset, with chip accumulation taking a backseat to survival. The advantages of building a big stack are far outweighed by the risk of losing vital chips and missing out on the money. And while this might not mean you start folding Aces and Kings pre-flop, the flat payout structure, much like a satellite tourney, rewards tight play and solid bubble strategy. The first thing to remember is that a lot of normal sit-and-go conventions and strategies still hold true, particularly in the early
Stay out of troublel
illustration: Hakan
1
You can’t fold your way into the money from the start (unfortunately), but playing very few hands will bring you safely towards the money. In fact, there will be times when you’re card dead and are forced to wait patiently for other players to go out while keeping a constant lookout for safe spots to ship your dwindling stack into the middle. As the blinds rise quickly and steeply it’s essential you maintain a decent-sized chip stack by moving all-in at the right times. However, you must keep a constant eye on other players’ chip stacks because sometimes you can fold to the money. Are there others that will hit the blinds before you? Will they be committed to calling in the big blind? The pressure is always on the shorter stacks ahead of you as they’ll blind out first.
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stages, so very tight, solid play will often be rewarded. The second thing is that the threat of the bubble arrives significantly earlier, which means you’ll find the all-in or fold situations are upon you before you know it. Think deeply before you click. There are two basic approaches that you can adopt in the Double Thru. The standard one is to play an extremely tight, patient game, waiting for the very top premium hands and for other players to make mistakes so you are able to make the money without having to do much. Of course, this means sometimes you’ll blind down to a tiny stack, but in a game of survival where the players who cash all get paid the same, one chip is as good as 10,000. The alternative is to play a little more aggressively and attempt to build a chip cushion. If you really trust your post-flop game it can be profitable. n
On the attackl
2
A different way of playing, albeit with more risk attached, involves being aggressive and aiming to get hold of some chips early on which will be helpful in the later stages. By putting out lots of small bets and raises you can often pick up chips early on while everyone is playing tight. In addition to the extra chips you gain, it could also give you an aggressive and dangerous table image for the all-in or fold stage near or on the bubble. Other players may want to avoid you, which can lead to some crucial walks in the big blind, or more folds to your raises when the blinds are high. If you feel confident in your post-flop skills this approach may suit you. However, you must remember that getting into marginal situations in a sit-and-go is not winning poker. If you find yourself regularly busting out of sit-and-go tourneys in the first blind levels, simply revert to a very tight game with the aim of lasting as long as possible.
Attacking medium stacksl
3
As the blinds increase and the table slips down to seven players you can make small raises, particularly from the button and cut-off, to steal the blinds away from fellow medium stacks. Most players in the blinds won’t want to get involved out of position without a premium hand and will prefer to conserve their chips, especially if the short stacks are looking particularly feeble. Avoid stealing from loose or aggressive players, unless you have a hand and really want the action. u
♠
91.7%
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
♦
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
♠
…is the likelihood that the big blind does not hold K-Q, A-10, A-J, A-Q, A-K or a pair 10-10 or better. Push from the small blind against medium stacks.
♦
stacked♠
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♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
SNG strategy | Alternative sit-and-gos
♦
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
26.9%
…is how often you’ll win with 8♦-4♣ against the top 10% of Hold’em hands. Sometimes you have to call all-in with any two cards.
♠
your chances from ‘maybe’ to ‘gravy’. Imagine there are seven players left in a $100 Double Thru and you have reached level 6 with 100/200 blinds but your stack is only 2,200. Action folds to you on the cut-off with 9♠ 10♠. The button and blinds all have 2,400 or less so your shove is unlikely to be called by anything other than a top 5% hand (A-Q, A-K and any pair Tens to Aces). If everyone folds, as they will the vast majority of the time, you will increase your stack to 2,500 while reducing the blinds. If called by one of the top 5% hands you’ll still win around 30% of the time and have a near lock on the Double Thru. A well-educated risk can help you squeeze into the one of the cash seats.
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
illustration: Hakan
Once the blinds start rising up you can pretty much throw implied odds out of the window
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
stacked♠
“
6
One thing to be careful of is that you don’t call lots of pre-flop raises with speculative hands. Implied odds in sit-and-gos are overrated, and the become even less important in a Double Thru where every chip you win become worth less and less. By all means try and see a cheap flop in the first couple of levels with small pairs or good-suited connectors in the hope of flopping a monster and doubling-up, but once the blinds start rising up you can pretty much throw implied odds out of the window. The aforementioned small pairs and medium-suited connectors may look pretty, but if you continue to call off big chunks of your chip stack praying for a miracle flop you’ll find yourself short-stacked when you get near the bubble and lacking that all important fold equity. If in doubt, fold and look for a better spot.
♠
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5
Knowing when to move all-in is a key skill in any form of tournament poker but none more so than in Double Thrus. Putting other players to the test is positive poker in two respects. Not only do you gather more chips when your shove gets through without a call, but you also reduce your opponents’ stacks. The combined effect can instantly swing
Bad calll
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
4
Keeping an eye on your chip stack is an absolute must from pretty much the third blind level. It usually doesn’t take long for a couple of players to get knocked out and it only takes a little mathematics to show that the average chip stack of a player who cashes will be twice the number of your starting chips. If you’re approaching or exceeding that target chip stack level you can take your foot off the pedal and, in most cases, cruise into the money. You may have to take some coin-flips, or worse if you're getting great odds to knock someone out (see Calling light on the bubble, opposite). Other than that you’re best keeping yourself out of unnecessary trouble. Once you’re near that finishing average you want to avoid critical mistakes. If the blinds continue to rise and you might get sucked back into the throng, apply some pressure to scoop the blinds and keep other players in their place.
All-in!l
♦
Cruise controll
Calling light on the bubblel
Double Thru structures
7
When the blinds have risen to punishing levels and have left the short stacks with as little as three big blinds you may find yourself getting great odds to call an all-in when you have rags. In a standard sit-and-go there’s an big argument for passing due to the amount of equity you’re giving up but the same logic doesn’t apply here. If you're getting three-to-one odds, and it doesn’t make a big difference to your stack but could knock someone out, you should often call with pretty much any two cards. Winning can guarantee you cash while passing gifts the short stack a huge reprieve. Time to call.
The bigger the buy-in the more time you have to move yourself into the money
“
$100 and $50 Double Thru
Don't shove it in under the gun with K♠ 9♥ just because you're down to four big blinds or less
2,000 chips 10-minute clock Pays out $200 and $100
$20 Double Thru
Playing the short stackl
8
Sometime you’ll play a Double Thru and you won’t be dealt a single decent hand or be given a suitable situation in which to make a move. The beauty of this is that you can let yourself blind down to three or four blinds, unlike in a normal sit-andgo or tournament. In fact, there’s a very good chance that they’ll be other stacks as short as you. Don’t shove it in under the gun with K♠ 9♥ just because you’re down to four blinds. You can still afford to see the big blind and you may even get a walk as many players won’t want to risk doubling you up or hurting their own chances. Likewise if the action folds to you on the button with a hand like Q♦ 8♣ you should push all-in, unless it's into a big stack who will call light or a super-short stack who has to call.
1,500 chips 10-minute clock Pays out $40
$10 Double Thru 1,500 chips 8-minute clock Pays out $20
♠
♠
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
…is how likely it is that you’ll get knocked out if you call an all-in with Jacks against the top four-hand range. Be prepared to throw big hands like Jacks or Tens away if you face an all-in raise from a tight player.
♦
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
…is the chance that someone will wake up with A-K, Q-Q, K-K or A-A after you've raised under the gun on a 10-handed table with J-J. Don't forget that other players can be dealt big hands.
63.8%
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
♠
23.4%
♠
♦
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ ♣
♦
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
stacked♠
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♦
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ ♥
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sng strategy | icm
do the math
Key to sit-and-go play is understanding how the tournament structure affects your decisions, particularly around the bubble. The Independent Chip Model can help
words: phil shaw, photography: Mehmet Salih Guler
W
hen you play a freeze-out tournament it’s common knowledge that you will get paid according to the position you finish in. In a big tournament this might mean as much as 15% of the field getting paid, where the winner gets 25% of the prize pool and the players that scrape into the money win back their buy-in and a bit on top. But in a sit-and-go, which typically consists of 10 players, it’s the top three that get paid – 50%, 30% and 20% respectively. In this format players tend to have a much greater chance of making the money, and since their buy-in will typically be 10-11% of the prize pool, even coming third represents a decent payout. This structure, therefore, demands that you make some radical adjustments from how you might play a multi-table tournament or a cash game. Any novice player should understand that it’s bad to take risks that might cause them to go out on the bubble unnecessarily, while more experienced poker players will have some idea of when to make a big fold or when to put pressure on others looking to make the money.
Independent chip model However, to become a sit-and-go expert you will need to have a mathematical understanding of the correct strategies in order to cope with some of the extreme situations you will find yourself in, and this is where ICM (the independent chip model) comes in. ICM is a mathematical 60
stacked♠
model for converting cEV (the number of tournament chips you have) into $EV (their real money worth, based on payouts and other stack sizes). By using it, and programs based around it, players can therefore make decisions based on the worth of their tournament chips in real money, and, by comparing the expectation of certain plays, decide on the correct course of action. But how does ICM work? Well, in a simple situation like the start of a sit-andgo when all players have equal chips it’s quite easy to figure out each player’s real money expectation ($EV), but with different stack sizes this is harder to do since the value of each tournament
chip is not linear. ICM solves this by considering the players’ chances of finishing in each position and working out how much equity they would win. Probability of player A coming second = PA2 Odds of player B winning = B1 Odds of player A beating player C = AC Odds of player C winning = C1 Odds of player A beating player B = AB (B1*AC) + (C1*AB) = PA2 (0.3*0.5/0.7) + (0.2*0.5/0.8) = 0.3393 As can be seen from the workings out above, the total probability of Player A u
How to use ICM calculations Know your strategy as a medium stack with one calculation
stackedâ™
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sng strategy | icm
coming second is 0.3393 (33.9%). It’s now possible to work out the total money expectation of the chip leader’s stack. First place money = M1 Odds of winning = A1 Second place money = M2 Odds of coming second = A2 Money expectation = $EV (M1*A1) + (M2*A2) = $EV (300*0.5) + (100* 0.3393) = $183.9 So this all goes to show that Player A’s 5000 stack has an expectation of $183.9. By performing similar calculations for the other players, we can calculate that Player B has an expectation of $127.5 while Player C has just $88.6.
On the bubble So what benefit is knowing your $EV good for? Well, as stacks shift before and after the bubble $EV levels will move around and that can be used to help you make key decisions. Consider an example where four players have equal stacks on the bubble, with 10 big blinds each. Obviously each player will have 25% equity at this point, but if two
“
Being all-in in a bubble situation is very bad for you unless you happen to be a significant favourite over your opponent players go all-in then ICM tells us that the winner will only end up with 38.33% equity despite having doubled-up. This is because the other two players are now guaranteed at least third place and their equity has risen accordingly to 30.83%,
even though their stack has remained the same. What you can take from this is that being all-in in a bubble situation is very bad for you unless you’re a significant favourite over your opponent (you would need to win over 65% of the time in the above example to break-even in $EV terms) and that you should therefore fold most hands if another player moves all-in in front of you. Because of this, however, it actually becomes correct to be the first to move all-in, with a very wide range, in order to pick up the blinds. For example, with four stacks of 10 big blinds ICM dictates that the small blind should shove with any two cards if the action is folded to him, and then shove very wide again on the button against most players. If he wins both hands he will then have a stack of 12.5 big blinds and not be able to be eliminated by the other players, and if he wins a couple more hands he will be able to start bullying the other players as they try to hang on to make the cash. Therefore in such a situation it is almost always correct to play for the win according to ICM, whereas most players naturally assume they should play conservatively and hope someone else
Shifting for structures Because variety is the spice of life…
Y
ou have the option to play different PKR sit-andgos. As well as standard 10-handed ones, there are Short-handed, Double Thru and Winner Takes All versions. Each requires adjustments based on the structure, so here are simple tips to help you succeed…
Short-handedi These games typically pay two players on a 65%, 35% structure, meaning that making the money is even more important here than in the full ring equivalent. Therefore if you have a big stack on the bubble you will be able to severely exploit your opponents by playing aggressively, but if you have the middle stack against a very large and very short stack you should play very few hands as the short stack will likely want to double-up through you more
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than through the big stack, and getting knocked out in third would be a disaster. Again, programs like SNGEGT and SNGWiz both offer the option of looking at six-max scenarios, so you should carry out your own research there.
Double Thrui In this format half the field double their money, making them low-risk and high profit for players with an understanding of ICM. It’s important to remember that if six players have equal stacks then each
will have 83.33% of a seat, and that if you’re all-in here you’re either going to win an additional 16.66% or lose all your equity. This means you’d need to win the all-in more than five.
Winner Takes Alli With no payouts to consider except first you’re playing in a cash game freezeout where ICM does not apply, so you can consider your tournament chips as real money (although you won’t get to cash them in unless you win!).
Percentage play The middle stack, however, is often misplayed, and people constantly get knocked out or end up risking chips unnecessarily. For example, there is one large stack of 5000, two short stacks of 1000 and you have 3000; in this situation, you should play virtually no hands when the big stack makes an all-in raise. This is because your equity at this point is 30.38% but if you double-up against the big stack it will only increase to 40.45%, meaning that you would need to win the all-in at least 75% of the time. Because of this you would probably only want to call with hands like A-A or K-K, and even if you believe your opponent might shove with any two cards, it may still be sensible to fold hands like J-J or Q-Q, which have 77.5% and 80% equity against a random hand, since you are almost certain to make the money anyway.
Automatic for the people If all of this sounds extremely complicated to work out by yourself, the good news is that you don’t have to, as programs like SitNGo Wizard (www.sngwiz. com) and Sit And Go End Game Tools (www.sngegt.com) are able to perform ICM calculations for you while also considering hand ranges and pot odds. Based on all this information they will then be able to tell you whether moving all-in or folding (or calling or folding) is better in certain situations. This isn’t necessarily going to mean that you - or other players - can suddenly transform yourselves into instantly winning players, but it will raise your game for sure and help you to think of final stages beyond your hole cards. All you need to do is be able to estimate hand ranges for your opponents, and if you don’t even want to do that then with SNGEGT you can simply enter the hand information and move the slider for your opponents’ hand ranges up and down until you find a point at which playing your hand or folding is neutral EV. Based on this all
Quiz! ?
Hand 1
You’re on the bubble of a $100 sit-and-go with stacks of 5000, 3500, 1500 and 1000. You have 3500 in the big blind with A♣ K♠ and after the two short stacks fold the big stack in the small blind moves all-in at blinds of 100/200.
Test your understanding of ICM
?
Hand 2
You’re on the bubble of a six-max sit-and-go where you have the big stack of 8000 against two solid players with short stacks of 2000. The blinds are 100/200 and you are on the button with 3♦-2♣.
Do you a) fold or b) call?
Do you a) fold, b) raise to 500, or c) move all-in?
uAnswer
uAnswer
a) Fold. Although A-K is normally a very strong hand, with the middle stack on the bubble you have to play your situation, and with two short stacks behind you, getting knocked out in fourth would be a disaster. Even against two random cards Ace King only wins 65% of the time and this is nowhere near often enough to justify making a call, when by folding you’re very likely to make the money anyway (in fact, ICM tells us that whatever hand range your opponent has you should still fold). Therefore bide your time and wait for the bubble to burst unless you can bully the short stacks or get dealt A-A or K-K against the big stack.
c) Move all-in. Although this seems like a risky play it will be profitable unless your opponents call you with more than 10% of hands, and since they are competing against each other to make the money this will rarely be the case. You should, therefore, be ready to exploit their desire to survive by moving all-in almost every hand and winning the blinds, which will make it even more likely that you will win the SNG when the bubble does finally burst. Besides, even if you’ve called and lose you will still have a massive stack and be able to rebuild quickly by attacking the second-place player around the table.
you then have to do is decide whether your opponents are playing more or less hands than this range would suggest, and hey presto, you have a decision! Both programs offer a free or trial version, so there is no reason not to get them immediately and start playing about with ICM situations if you’re serious about learning to crush sit-and-gos… n
“
If this sounds complicated to work out by yourself, the good news is that you don’t have to – there are programs to do it for you
photography: Mehmet Salih Guler
gets knocked out. Usually on the bubble, however, the stacks will be uneven, and in this case ICM dictates that you should generally behave according to your stack size, playing aggressively with the big and short stacks, as you either have no fear of elimination or nothing to lose.
what’s on | pkr biggies
sacks of cash There are over 600 multi-table tournaments held every week at PKR and that equals a whole lot of winnings, but if you’re gunning for glory as well as the cash then make sure you’re going for the big three!
Guaranteed PKR Masters
Buy-in: $250 When: Last Saturday of the month 19:00 GMT
regularly swells up to as much as $130,000 meaning that for your $250 buy-in (or a lot less if you satellite in) you can scoop as much as $30,000 for bringing this titan to its knees.
The Masters is the centrepiece tournament of PKR’s monthly tournament schedule. A heaving $100,000 guaranteed prizepool
See a cheap flop Satellites starting from $1.28 run all year round for the Masters. Both tournament and sit-and-go routes are available for qualification.
$20,000 $25,000
Guaranteed Guaranteed The TV Showdown Sunday Classic Buy-in: $55 When: Every Saturday, 19:00 GMT (except for when the PKR Masters is on)
Not only will you get to see your face on PKR.tv (well, your avatar’s face) but you’ll also bag a fat chunk of the $20,000 guaranteed prize pool should you make the final ten. Get your motors running. See a cheap flop Satellite your way into the TV Showdown for just $6.05 at 10:30 GMT, or for free at 13:15. It is replaced by the $100,000 PKR Masters on the final Saturday of each month.
Buy-in: $65 When: Every Sunday GMT
What better way to crown your weekend than to smash up the Sunday Classic? A 15-minute blind structure gives plenty of play and will help stave off those Sunday blues. The $65 buy-in can net you over $7,000 if you go all the way and take the whole tournament down. See a cheap flop For $7.15 you can qualify everyday at 16:15 GMT, or try to freeroll in free at 17:20 (except Wednesday and Sunday).
T
he last few months have been jam-packed with guaranteed money tournaments. Oktoberfest alone posted ten chunky MTTs culminating in one monstrous $114,000 PKR Masters that saw Aussie keepsmiling bag over $27,000 (see p12). Canadian sourshark scooped the desired Oktoberfest Tournament of Champions title.
PKR Masters Winners zigen111 wikapi keepsmiling ovnis
$30,580 $25,000 $27,360 $29,580
TV Showdown Winners eLquA Zamaka MrPockets11 Judim basisti GNU1985 DeathFetish toypocket boz29 MrPatel7
$5,816 $6,006 $5,692 $5,816 $5,293 $5,940 $5,500 $5,596 $5,293 $5,568
Sunday Classic Winners Derelicked freke69 winnie14 poet1c dwb666 mercipapi Gizabob TheSqueeze la86dubedot discomonkey Lesstax2pay
$7,160 $7,133 $6,857 $7,101 $7,098 $6,938 $7,457 $7,316 $7,085 $7,503 $7,296
Oktoberfest Winners Jman6911 100james ModelMan sourshark Eduxxx KingMacca3 LaiBin toddswain keepsmiling Zeorbok sourshark
$5,746 $7,632 $8,174 $3,619 $2,740 $3,814 $2,119 $3,260 $27,360 $6,049 $2,500
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DNY59
$100,000
Roll of honour
65
u
river rage | wind of change
Colin Morris
THe american poker dream
A
“
new day is dawning. America has voted for change and the world is waiting with baited breath as Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office and, we hope, inject a new spirit of optimism to American politics. In the tradition of megalomaniacal columnists everywhere who think world leaders might actually pay attention to their vain musings, I would like to humbly suggest a course of action that would not only go a long way towards rebuilding the global economy but also spread some much needed joy and happiness throughout the world… Dear President Elect Obama, one of the most exciting things about your election so far, aside from its landmark in modern history, is early indications that you will move swiftly to repeal a wide range of measures put in place by the previous administration. This has been limited to executive orders so far, but it’s only a matter of time until your sights are set on some of the more deeply flawed articles of
Let’s face it Mr. President Elect, the legalisation of online poker would be so positive that it’s a no-brainer
Colin Morris is the host of PKR TV. Watch at www.PKR.tv 66
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legislation ushered in by President Bush. And where better to start than with that most flawed piece of legislation; the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (otherwise known as the UIGEA)? An act of such dubious merit that it had to be tacked on as a rider to the 2006 SAFE Port Act and snuck through Congress like a thief in the night. The UIGEA’s principle proponents pointed to supposed dangers that online gambling posed to American citizens with no distinction between game types or regard for the interests of the millions of
Americans who chose to play online poker. In fact, the UIGEA has actually done little to turn Americans off of online poker. According to our own research over 50% of the people playing online poker today are American – and why shouldn’t they be. Afterall, poker is American as baseball. What’s more, and despite the UIGEA, there are no shortage of poker rooms that are willing to skirt the law and allow US-based players onto their sites. Those players lose because rather than having the opportunity to play on a site that takes its legal obligations and licensing seriously (like PKR) they end up playing on sites that simply don’t offer them the same level of assurance. Opening up America to online poker again would allow all poker players to play on sites that boast the same advantages that PKR offers. Namely, proper licensing from a credible governing body (in our case the highly respected Alderney Gaming Control Commission), a trusted neutral third party that oversees disputes and has a system in place to force poker rooms under its remit to ring fence deposits, meaning all the money you put into PKR is available any time you want to make a withdrawal. With the global economy in crisis, governments around the world have been propping up banks and are desperate to find new tax revenues. Why not let poker play its part to help solve the credit crunch by claiming the billions of dollars in potential tax revenue currently being lost to offshore operations? Online poker is a great corporate citizen in Europe where forward-thinking governments recognise the game’s popularity and respect their citizens’ desire to play one of the few gambling propositions where the smart punter can find an edge. Let’s face it, Mr. President Elect, the legalisation of online poker would be so positive that it’s a no-brainer. And if you hold a poker night at the White House put me down for a $50 sit-and-go. n
photography: Sharon Dominick
Colin writes an open letter to President Elect Barack Obama