World Series May Change; Mind Your Manners; Poker Perception
The World Series of Poker is going through change
by Mark Mayer
Catch Mark and other excellent writers at www.gamingtoday.com – a perfect website to keep you informed about the latest in the world of gaming
The World Series of Poker is going through change, but don’t expect that to include the November Nine anytime soon.
“We have not had any discussions with Caesars about changing the format,” said Doug White, ESPN’s director of programming during a conference call Wednesday to promote this weekend’s start of the World Series of Poker finals.
The nine remaining players will return to the Main Table this Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT with ESPN to show the entire day’s play on a 15-minute delay. The field will be reduced from nine players to three with the trio to fight it out for the $8.7 million top prize Tuesday at 6 p.m. PT.
“There is no concern about the 15-minute delay,” said Dan Gati, ESPN’s producer for the marathon WSOP telecast which will be aired continuously until play ends. “We think it should make the presentation more exciting.”
The Sunday telecast will be co-hosted by Lon McEachern and poker pro Antonio Esfandari. Tuesday’s final three airing has McEachern joined by regular co-host Norman Chad, with Esfandari providing expert analysis.
As for the changes, they are mostly in the field itself. Only two of the nine remaining players are from the United States.
“Poker is not our game anymore,” McEachern said. “Look around the world and see what’s happening. There are seven nations at the nine-handed table. It is poker’s United Nations happening this week.”
Not only has poker gone international, but the average age of the November Nine is below 30 for the second straight year.
“It’s the most number of countries (7) ever at the final table,” Gati said. “We will see some pretty rowdy crowds at the Rio’s Penn and Teller Theater.”
Gati admitted that the TV numbers for the WSOP telecasts this year are down, but expects the “almost live coverage” to add more excitement.
“We are looking for a good final rating and performance out of the final table,” Gati said. “Our poker audience has evolved. They are more interested in analysis.”
Martin Staszko enters as the chip leader with nearly 40.2 million. The top American is Matt Giannetti, who stands third with nearly 24.8 million chips. No woman has ever made the WSOP final table.
“With only 3.5 percent of the field women, it won’t happen anytime soon,” Gati said. “We need to have more women playing.”
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Poker ethics Code never ages
by Johnny Hale, courtesy of www.gamingtoday.com
A few years ago I wrote a few columns on the Red Games of Poker (aka cheating). Today it’s time to revisit the subject because of a new system of cheating – best hand and team play.
I am not going to name any poker rooms because it can happen in any. I won’t name the historical background of the bad folks or profile any of the red poker players. Poker is a more honorable game than golf, football, horse racing, baseball, wrestling, tennis, or basketball.
There was the scandal about an NBA referee betting on games he officiated in. Also, there were allegations of a betting scandal in tennis that involved players betting on their matches.
Point shaving in basketball was going on half a century ago. Back then it was players shaving points. Now the refs are doing it. It is amazing how long it takes for the true facts to become public knowledge.
Internet poker can be a very red game! So I do not recommend you play poker online except for free games or very low stakes! Just play for fun. You can be cheated so many ways I cannot count them! I know owners and operators of online sites can do anything to you.
I have been in the back office of sites where owners and operators tell me what they can do. Of course, I was told they would never do it – just a method where they could keep cheating from happening!
I know they can give you a royal in hearts, give another player four 9s, and another four 7s or any poker hands they wish. Here in Vegas, all the shows are not on the stage. They can show you a white blackbird any time!
This old world is a wonderful place and the poker table is one of the nicest most of the time. I would rather be at the poker table trusting the players than at a desk or the office of lawyers, doctors, bankers, car dealers, insurance companies, stock brokers, real estate people, Indian chiefs, politicians or any of the professions.
If players are following the Seniors Code of Ethics,” you are not in a red game of poker. This column has become quite a sounding board and I get a lot of e-mails at www.OKJohnny.com about poker and playing it.
Did you know that during the Renaissance, a flat wooden canopy was called a sounding board? This board was placed over the church pulpit to amplify the sound of the preacher’s voice.
GamingToday is my sounding board for promoting ideas, advertising products, propaganda, political ideas. And so it is, that I bounce this idea of the Seniors Code of Ethics off other poker players.
OKJ Tip of the Week.
This week’s tip is the Code itself. If these rules are followed, you are not in a red game.
• Play with the other players as you would like for them to play with you.
• Read and learn all the poker rules of the club you play in. Follow them or don’t play there.
• The dealer is only the person who brings you cards. Be kind, considerate, cheerful and helpful at all times.
• Do not thank dealers for giving you good cards or a winning hand.
• Do not blame dealers for giving you bad cards or a losing hand.
• Do not discuss tipping the dealers at the table.
• Tip dealers if professional and controlling the game correctly.
• Do not complain to the dealer about proficiency. If you have any complaints, go quietly to the floor person and express them.
• Any compliments about or to the dealer should come away from the poker game or to the floor person.
• Do not borrow or loan money while playing poker.
• Do not dress inappropriately.
• Do not use improper language, cuss, throw cards or act rude (speak English only when in America).
• Do not smoke, eat or use a cell telephone at the poker table.
• Act promptly when it is your turn to bet, call or raise. Do not “slow play.” Turn over your cards when the hand is over in the proper rotation.
• Do not miscall the shown hand, try to be cute or mislead the other players or dealer.
• When you go all-in announce it to the dealer and table.
• When you have played a long time, tired or ill and cannot play your hand in smooth rotation when your turn to act –quit and go home.
• When away from the table for a length of time, inform the floor person so that if you get delayed he can pick up your chips and let someone else play.
• Never advise or complain about how another person plays a hand or bets chips. If you have a complaint, take it quietly to the floor person.
• Be a nice happy fun poker player and have a good time. Years from now it will not matter whether you won or lost. What matters is how you played the game.
Until next time, remember to stay lucky.
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The Power of Perception
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By Chris Kennedy – Read more from Chris and others at the outstanding poker website www.pokernewsdaily.com – it’s a must for any poker fanatic
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If there is one thing that poker players commonly lack (other than tans, girlfriends, or fashion sense…) it would be patience. It is way too easy to become bored while playing poker and that is when you start to make mistakes. An easy way to help counter the boredom is to pay close attention to the game and take mental or physical notes on what is going on; not only will this prevent you from becoming bored and playing more hands than you should, but it will also give you invaluable information that you can use to crush the table that you are on.
While playing online, nearly every site has some form of a note taking feature available in their software, which makes it extremely easy to take good, detailed notes. If you play mostly live and at the same location often it is a good idea to take a small notebook and make notes on the players in between hands. By paying attention to what is going on at the table and taking notes on the players you will be able to have more information available when making future decisions.
Your superior ability to observe and interpret the action that is going on is one of the major factors that will result in your advantage over the other players at the table. This is more readily apparent while playing live poker: the vast majority of live poker players at the lower stakes are not professionals and play mainly for recreation. More casual players aren’t as interested in making money and don’t take the game as seriously. You are often able to get a mountain of information on these players in a short amount of time just by paying attention to the action at the table.
Keeping track of what cards they have at showdown and how they played them pre-flop will give you a huge head start in putting them on ranges when you are playing against them in future hands. If you saw a player limp pocket tens in late position and a few hands later they raise in late position it would be a lot easier to put them on a monster hand and play accordingly. Had you been listening to your iPod and thinking about what you were going to get for dinner you would have no clue what the other player might have and could easily miss out on a profitable situation or play back at a monster hand.
With the expansion of online poker, even more information has become available to you as a player: now you are able to see mucked losing cards immediately after a hand has been completed without having to rudely ask the dealer to show a players hand which can cause major disruptions in a live game. This allows you to more quickly define another player’s range of hands. Unfortunately many online players don’t take advantage of this extra information which would help them make tough decisions later in the game. As long as you aren’t playing a ridiculous number of tables, it should not be a problem at all to go into the hand history of the previous hand to check on people’s cards.
One tool that can help assist you in viewing and analyzing all this new found data is a heads up display, or HUD for short. A HUD takes the statistical information gathered by a data aggregation and tracking program such as PokerTracker and puts it directly onto the poker table, which allows you to view detailed statistical analysis on every player on the table based on the hands that you have played against them. The extra information provided can help you make key decisions which will result in an overall higher profitability. HUDs also usually include a feature that will display mucked losing cards at the conclusion of each hand so that you do not have to take the time to go into the hand history menu.
Unfortunately such tools aren’t available for use in live poker, but there are other kinds of information that you can use to gain an advantage. The biggest change from online poker to live poker is the presence of physical “tells”. A tell is a physical indication of some kind of emotion; for example, many players will sit up straighter and move closer to the table when they have a big hand. Another tell is when someone’s hand is shaking: many people would interpret this as nervousness and assume the player is bluffing, but what actually causes someone’s hands to shake is a release of nervous energy when they hit a monster hand.
There have been several books written that outline all the common poker tells, with the most famous being Mike Caro’s Book of Tells. By learning about what each tell means and paying close attention to the other players at the table you will gain an advantage over them that will increase your win rate. Just be careful! Other players may have read the same book and be giving off ‘false tells’ to get you to take the wrong action. By observing the other players with your newfound powers of perception you can quickly figure out who the weak players are and use your superior skill and knowledge to take advantage of their poor play.
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