Poker Patience; 22 Players @ $1 Million Each; Hiding in Plain Sight
So too, in the game of poker, patience is an essential quality
by George Epstein
Article courtesy of www.gamingtoday – a great source for up to the minute gaming news and advice from pros like George
The Buddha Says:
Two of the Greatest Qualities in Life are Patience and Wisdom
Buddha Shakyamuni was a spiritual teacher, a very wise religious leader, who was born and lived in India about 600 BCE. He is said to have discovered the “Four Noble Truths” which lead to a state of supreme liberation, “Nirvana – the perfect peace of a mind that is free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or defilements.”
This became the basis of the Buddhist way of life of peace, loving-kindness, and wisdom.
“The Buddha Says: Two of the Greatest Qualities in Life are Patience and Wisdom.” That was the e-mail message I recently received from Ann Silverstreak, a rather young and beautiful senior citizen who, like me, enjoys recreational poker. Indeed, patience and wisdom are essential to anyone who wants to be a winner at the game of poker – as well as life. Since the game of poker is a microcosm (a miniature version) of life, this analogy is quite sensible.
Accompanying the worldly advice was a rather amusing photo of a skunk dining on the dog’s food in the dog’s bowl, as the dog looks on rather forlornly – almost hopeless. The dog knows that it would be unwise to incur the odorous wrath of the happily dining skunk. Better to be patient and wait for the skunk to have his fill and move on.
The dog exercises much patience and wisdom.
So too, in the game of poker, patience is an essential quality. In fact, my first book (The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners; T/C Press) emphasizes that point: “In the real estate investment “game,” there is an old adage that says there are three factors essential for success: Location; Location; Location!” (refering to the location of the real estate property investment).
“In the case of poker, there are likewise three factors essential to success: Patience; Patience; Patience!”
Comments? George “The Engineer” Epstein can be contacted at geps222@msn.com
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22 Players Confirmed for $1 Million Buy-In WSOP Event
By Dan Katz – Read more from Dan and more about poker at the excellent website www.pokernewsdaily.com
Remember when a one million dollar first prize in a poker tournament was mind blowing? Well, how about a one million dollar buy-in? It will happen next year, at the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Both a real bracelet event and a charity tournament, the “Big One for One Drop” will run from July 1st through July 3rd and may end up featuring the largest first prize ever awarded in a poker tournament.
The tournament is the creation of Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil and Chairman of the charitable organization ONE DROP. Laliberté went to Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber with the grand plan earlier this year. He wanted to use the platform of the WSOP to bring both attention and funds to the global problem of the lack of access to clean, usable water for nearly a billion people. He figured the spectacle of a million dollar buy-in event combined with the generosity of poker players would work well.
ONE DROP’s mission is “To fight poverty by providing access to water and raising awareness among individuals and communities about the need for mobilization in order to make safe water accessible to all, in sufficient quantity, today and tomorrow.”
One-ninth of the buy-in, or $111,111, will go towards ONE DROP, with the rest going to the prize pool with no further rake taken.
Among the first players to commit to the event were 2010 WSOP Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, both of whom stepped up to the plate at during the November Nine festivities this year.
“I am absolutely thrilled to participate in the biggest poker event ever organized,” said Duhamel. “One million dollars is a lot of money but my participation comes naturally, being a spokesperson for ONE DROP and because of my attachment to such a great cause. Life starts with water and because of its uneven distribution, a person dies every 20 seconds. The Big One for One Drop will raise $111,111 per participant, which will definitely prove the poker community attachment to ONE DROP. As for me, I personally commit to give 5% of my winnings from this tournament to ONE DROP.”
So far, 22 players have committed to playing in the event, which is coincidentally the same number of players needed for the Big One for One Drop to be considered an official bracelet event. And rather than the standard gold bracelet, a special platinum bracelet will be created just for this tournament.
As it stands currently, the prize pool is just over $19.5 million. The exact payout structure has yet to be announced, but 20 percent of the field will make the money, which is twice the usual for a WSOP event. The event will have a maximum registrant cap of 48 players. It is expected that when all is said and done, the first prize will be the largest ever for a poker tournament, eclipsing the current record of $12 million, won by Jamie Gold at the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
The following players have committed to play in the Big One for One Drop (not all players have permitted the WSOP to publish their names):
Guy Laliberté
Bobby Baldwin (CEO of MGM-Mirage Resorts and four-time WSOP bracelet winner)
Phil Ruffin (owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas)
Andy Beal
Patrik Antonius
Gus Hansen
Daniel Negreanu
Johnny Chan
Tom Dwan
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Concealing Poker Tells
Hiding Your Tells From Opponents
by Jesse Knight
Article courtesy of the excellent poker website www.playwinningpoker.com
Have you ever looked around the poker table at the silent stony faces, sheathed in hoods and sunglasses, and felt intimidated? Do you struggle to get a read on your opponents, while at the same time feel as if you are giving away the store? You probably are. You need to learn to conceal your tells. The first step toward doing this is to develop a better understanding of tells, where they come from and how they work.
Tells are visual and audible clues, unwittingly emitted by players, which their opponents may use to determine the relative strength of their hands. Generally, these tells can fall into one of three categories. If they are based upon your opponents physical movements, they are “visual” tells. If they are based upon your opponents speech, they are “audible” tells. If they are based upon your opponents betting patterns, they are “betting” tells. In brick and mortar games all three categories of tells are widely available to the observant player. In online games, the visual and audible tells are mostly absent, and players must rely primarily on betting tells. For a further discussion of this topic read the article Raise To Find Out.
There are often observable differences between the ways your opponents act when then they are strong and the ways they act when they are weak. This is the source of tells. If you are familiar with the movie Rounders, you may recall that John Malkovich (Tony KGB) has a brutal tell. When he has a strong hand, he cracks open an Oreo cookie and eats it, and when he is bluffing, he cracks the cookie and plays with it, but does not eat. In real life, most poker tells are not that dramatic. They often happen in an instant and can be very difficult to prevent. They often come from slight differences in hand movements, breathing, eye contact, etc.
Other tells may be more obvious. Your opponent may begin talking incessantly, or make a long dramatic pause (feigning thought) before making a large raise (both signs of a very strong hand). These tells often come from amateurs, who may be unaware of how brutishly obvious they are being. Of course, it is easier to conceal this type of tell, but there are some strategies you can adopt which will help you conceal the subtler tells as well.
The obvious tells can be concealed by simply avoiding certain behaviors. In the Rounders example, John Malkovich could have prevented the Oreo cookie tell very effectively by not messing with the Oreos. Similarly, you can avoid transmitting obvious tells by recognizing the obvious behavior which is their source, and avoiding it altogether. Some obvious behaviors to avoid include over-acting, excessive talking, rechecking your cards when a flush draw appears, and warning an opponent about the strength of your hand when you are weak (or vice versa). Of course there are many other obvious tells besides these, and your goal should be to avoid all of them. Watching your opponents can be instructive. If you see your opponent acting obviously and giving away the store, you will know how not to act in the future.
Most intermediate and advanced players do a pretty good job at avoiding obvious tells. It is the subtler tells which create problems for these players. This is natural, because it is often easier to decipher a tell than it is to obscure one. However, there are some simple steps that you can take to help conceal even the most pesky tells.
The most basic thing that you can do to help conceal your tells is to standardize both your betting and your body movements. For instance, when betting it is a good idea to be consistent about how you put your chips into the pot. This requires you to develop a standard method for putting chips into the pot, which you should use every time you bet. Whether you choose to push your chips out in a stack, splash them, or use some other method is not important. What is important is that you stay consistent in you method so that your opponent can not get a read on you based upon how you put your chips into the pot.
Be conscious of your breathing and speech patterns. It is common for a player who is bluffing to unconsciously hold their breath when they are bluffing. It is also common for a player with a strong hand to become overly talkative while the hand is in play. Unusual voice inflections can also be interpreted as weakness. It is better to not talk at all when you are involved in a hand. Of course, you opponent may try to engage you in conversation in an attempt to generate a tell. A common ploy is for them to ask you about the content of your hand. You should be prepared for this, and there are two ways that you can handle it. Your first option is to completely ignore the questioner, pretending that he and his question do not even exist. The second thing that you can do is engineer a reverse information probe.
Consider the following situation. You have raised before the flop in a Texas Hold’em game. Your opponent defends his blind and an ace flops. He checks and you bet. He then asks you, “Do you have an ace?” Let’s stop right there for a moment. When your opponent asks this question, what he really is asking is: “Can you please give me some sort of verbal or visual tell to base my decision on?” But there is a simple way to turn the information probe back onto him. You answer the question with a question of your own. When he asks if you have an ace, you respond, “What do you think?” Now, your opponent is the one being questioned. With four simple words, you have effectively reversed the information probe, whether your opponent realizes it or not. At this point, he will either realize that his probe has backfired, and drop it, or he will actually give you free information by telling you what he thinks you have.
You should also be especially conscious of your eye movements. When players make their hand they often unconsciously glance down at their chips. Even more telling is whether or not you choose to make eye contact with your opponent. Quite often a player with a made hand will initiate eye contact with their opponent while a player who is bluffing will avoid it at all costs. Since your opponent is trying to decipher your eye contact, the best way to stay out of trouble is to never make eye contact with your opponent while the hand is in play.
Another way to conceal tells is to standardize your betting. You should standardize both the time that you take to bet and the sizing of your bets and raises. You can standardize the time it takes you to bet by slowing the game down, just a little. Breathe before you bet. This keeps you from acting too quickly when you are very strong or very weak. If you are playing No-Limit or Pot-Limit, standardize the amount that you raise preflop to conceal any tells associated with bet sizing.
Of course, there are many other tells, and many ways of concealing them. Your basic strategy should be to completely avoid suspect behavior whenever possible, and to standardize everything that you do as much as possible. Be as consistent and robot-like as you can, and your opponents will have a much more difficult time getting a read on you. This will take some practice. Be conscious about your body movements, and watch your opponents watching you. Quite often, if you emit a tell that your opponent catches, you will notice it also. You can then avoid that behavior in the future.
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