Bodog is Super Bowl Sunday’s place to be

For something to do while watching the big game, or even better if you’re not into American football, Bodog Poker is hosting two tournaments worthy of the Super Bowl Title.

On Saturday the 31st, the first of two tournaments gets the green light. This special Flight Club Semifinal sports a $125 + $10 buy-in, with one LAPT Punta Del Este package awarded for every 48 entries (one guaranteed).

The LAPT package worth $6000 includes:

• $3,700 buy-in to the LAPT Punta del Este  Main Event
• $2,300 cash for travel and expenses

Here’s all the information on Saturday’s tournament:

• Name:  Special Flight Club Semifinal.
• Date:  Saturday, January 31 at 4pm ET.
• Buy-in:  $125 + $10.
• Prizes: 1 player for every 48 entries will win a $6,000 Bodog Flight  Club Prize Package to the LAPT Event in Punta Del Este, Uruguay from  March 18 to 20.
• Chips:  3,000.
• Levels: 15 minutes .

Super Bowl Sunday’s the big day. Starting at the same time as the big game, Bodog Poker is launching their Super Bowl Special tournament. This tournament is a $100 + $9 buy-in, with $20,000 added to the total prize pool by Bodog.

Not only is the rake slightly cheaper than average (9% instead of 10%), but the added $20,000 to the prize pool gives additional value to every player who signs up. The Super Bowl Special is set to replace the regular $100,000 guarantee.

Details on Sunday’s tournament:

• Name:  Super Bowl Special – $20K Added
• Date:  Sunday, February 1st at 4pm ET
• Buy-in:  $100 + $9
• Bonus:  Bodog will add $20,000 to the prize pool
• Chips:  2,500
• Levels:  15 minutes

It’s not every day you’ll find a tournament with overlay on a major site. As many poker players know, any tournament with overlay is a great tournament to be in. $20,000 added for a $100 buy-in tournament is a substantial overlay. Essentially, when you’re dealt your first hand, it’s as if 200 players have already been eliminated. This “free money” greatly increases any tournament player’s EV.

Antonius pwns Mafews, LarsLuzak sees losses

This week in the world of high-stakes online poker has been a tale of two Finns.

Countrymen Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro and Patrik “Bet You Wish You Were Me” Antonius have been at it big, albeit on opposite ends of the No-Limit Texas Hold’em luck scale.

Antonius vaulted over Phil Ivey on the list of yearly leaders in the Texas Hold’em games, posting winnings to date of slightly more than $500k. He currently sits just one rung below Tom “durrrr” Dwan on the big board.

LarsLuzak, on the other hand, is quickly entering lady marmelade territory. In 2008, lady marmelade long led the list of losers, and wound up posting millions of dollars in online poker losses in Hold’em by year end.

LarsLuzak is already bobbing more than $1.1 million below the break-even point less than one month into play. According to the MarketPulse, that’s nearly triple the losses of any other online poker player in the world!

One of the biggest losses for LarsLuzak translated into one of Antonius’ biggest wins.  That hand was a classic case of a small pair versus big slick. In this instance LarsLuzak was holding A K in the big blind while Antonius had 5 5 in the small.

The 5 K A flop found both players with what they surely thought were monster hands. However, it took the 7 turn to get the heavy action going.

LarsLuzak led out with an $11k bet, only to be reraised to $38,000 by Antonius. LarsLuzak called with aces-up.

When the river revealed 3, Antonius came out firing with a $78k bet, which prompted LarsLuzak to go all-in. Antonius called, quickly turned over his set of fives and waltzed away from the table with $327,602 worth of his good friend’s cake.

That wasn’t the biggest win of the week for Antonius, however. That was saved for a monster $500/$1,000 heads-up No-Limit Texas Hold’em win over Edinburgh, Scotland’s Rory “Mafews” Matthews.

Matthews’ biggest poker credits to date include a first-place finish at the Scottish Poker Open. He started playing poker online at the 25¢/50¢ small-stakes tables. It’s fair to say the days of small stakes are gone for good for the Scotsman.

In the pot in question the action got off to an early start after the T 9 5 flop.  Antonius check-raised to $21k, only to be reraised to $43k by Matthews.

The J turn had Antonius all-in, with Mafews right behind him. It was Antonius who was once again well out in front with his T 9 and top two pair dominating Mafews’s own two pair of nines and fives.

A Q on the river changed nothing other than the size of Antonius’ bankroll. He added another $429,997 to his winnings in the biggest online poker pot of the week and the fourth-largest of the year to date.

DoylesRoom open to U.S. Poker Players again

Then again, we probably won’t give a rat’s ass anyway. But just two week ago, online poker site DoylesRoom announced that something was brewing and that they were working on something really special.

Finally, the poker site has formally announced that it has moved to the Cake Poker Network and as a result, American players can start playing in the highly popular online poker site again.

Doylesroom was forced to enforce the ban on American players when it was part of the MicroGaming Network. Due to strict poker legislation, Microgaming Network decided that it could no longer justify accepting new player registrations. Doylesroom, since it was part of the network, had no choice but to stop accepting American poker players since last November.

Now that Doylesroom has moved to the Cake Poker Network, U.S. players can rejoice. To add to the festivities, Doylesroom is hosting a $5,000 freeroll this Saturday at 5pm EST. On February 1 during the same time slot, the poker site will host a $100,000-guaranteed tournament for the much reduced price of $162.

Already a regular player at Doylesroom? Don’t worry because your rights are protected. Your current balance will transfer to the Cake Poker Network seamlessly. Furthermore, you will keep the ‘’loyalty points’’ you have so carefully accumulated.

The loyalty points, however, will now be known as ‘’Gold Chips.’’

Unfortunately, there will still be limitations. American players for Washington, Louisiana and Kentucky will not be accepted because of current local laws and pending court cases. Still, with the recent poker victories in the court rooms, this might all change. In the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Unless you’re a football fan.

Want more poker? Visit PokerStars.com for the best online poker rooms available on the net. Want to watch poker live? Get sporting events tickets online now.

Daut grinds out victory a game at a time

Before he ever played a hand of poker online, Ryan “daut44″ Daut was already spending lots of time at his computer making strategic choices against live opponents.

The medium for all that decision making was StarCraft, a real-time strategy game that Daut describes as “a very dynamic game where you have to adapt to your opponent at all times.”

If you’re not a gamer but the title sounds familiar, it might be because other former StarCraft players such as Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier have also enjoyed success in poker.

As much as the game’s advanced strategy and decision-making aspects helped to prepare him for facing down opponents over the virtual felt, Ryan Daut credits the community that built up around the game for helping him to become a better poker player.

Roman “empire2000″ Yitzhaki and Dan “rekrul” Schreiber, both friends he made in the StarCraft community, were two of the earliest people who urged Daut to jump into poker. In 2004 they shared stories of their success at the tables with Daut and encouraged him to take up the game too.

“Everyone started moving over to poker, and we all helped each other and talked over hands and it really allowed us to get better fast.”

He began multi-tabling Limit Hold’em cash games, where he said his StarCraft experience and a little patience, along with general intelligence and some math skills, helped him to get over the initial learning curve and turn that small stake into $600.

“A lot of players who are just starting out and aren’t very good get into a lot of trouble with a lot of mediocre hands and I never really had that problem. When I started out I was extremely tight, so the fact that I wasn’t a very good player didn’t really matter much because I always had a hand.”

As time went by Daut learned the ins and outs of poker, both from his friends and just from seeing more hands, building his bankroll in the process. Then he won a WSOP seat and had to learn to play the No-Limit game, which led to a switch to No-Limit cash games.

Through playing those, Daut eventually built a big enough bankroll to buy in directly to the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where the self-confessed cash-game player with no tournament aspirations booked a win for $1.5 million – an achievement of which he’s still proudest.

“Actually I was prouder of my performance when I got sixth at the Five Diamond [late in 2007], but winning a major tournament has to be the thing I’m most proud of,” said Daut.

“Even though it wasn’t the most work and it wasn’t the best I’ve ever played in my career, it’s the thing I look back at where I feel like it’s a very tangible result: ‘this is what I did; this is what I accomplished.’”

At the time he was a Penn State University Ph.D. candidate in mathematics, a field he’d always enjoyed because it allowed him to solve problems.

As Daut went further into mathematics, the problem-solving aspects of the discipline tended to fall away in favor of learning new mathematical languages for every new branch of the subject he studied. “It just gets so far out there and abstract that the problem solving just kind of got lost.”

Meanwhile, poker presented the opportunity to apply his skills in a very real way. It wasn’t long before he’d dropped out of the Ph.D. program and moved to poker full-time, making a living playing No-Limit cash games as high as $25/$50.

As time went by the competition began to get better, so Daut began to drop in stakes to more manageable territory.

It’s been a year now since Daut has routinely played in high-stakes game. These days he logs a lot of hours at $2/$4 and $3/$6 No-Limit Hold’em cash games, but he doesn’t consider it a step down.

“The games used to be a lot easier and I played $25/$50, but I never had the need to play that high. I could play as high or low as I wanted,” said Daut.

“When those games started getting a lot harder I started dropping down, and I never felt any requirement to move back up or to make a certain amount of money.”

Daut said he does have “pipe dreams” of playing some of the $100/$200 and higher No-Limit cash games on occasion, but wouldn’t do it right now.

“Even though I’m technically well-rolled for it, I wouldn’t take a shot in a game where a one-buy-in loss would take me a month to win back. But I would love to someday grind it up and feel comfortable playing higher stakes and not worry about how long it would take to make back any losses.”

He said that not feeling tempted to play higher stakes has been especially important because in the last year when he has followed the fish to a larger game than usual or taken the occasional shot at a bigger game, those circumstances haven’t been kind to him.

“I never seem to do very well. I can’t get into a rhythm with the stakes and the players, and the one-time-a-month shots never really work out for me anymore. So I think just being able to stay in one place and be disciplined and really grind it out helps me these days.”

Even the $2/$4 and $3/$6 cash tables are tougher than they used to be. Daut’s color-coding system for his opponents indicates that the players are mostly regulars with a solid fundamental knowledge of the game.

“When everyone has the same resources available to them, and everyone’s getting good – and it was only a matter of time before everyone got good – the challenge is obviously staying ahead of them. Just doing that and trying to get better, I feel like every month I get better than I was the month before, and I’m always learning something new.”

In the near future, Daut said he has no plans other than to continue playing the role of grinder. “I picture myself playing a lot and trying to make as much money as I can so I’ll be able to do something else in the future. As of now I don’t really know what that is. I’m not really passionate about anything else that I’d want to make my livelihood.

“I think that I’ll be able to make enough money [to] make choices in what I want to do for life. I think if I wanted to get in business I could do something like that, or if I wanted to get into real estate I could do that. I’m just going to wait and see what pops up, see what I get interested in.”

You can play with Ryan Daut at the cash-game tables at Full Tilt Poker.

 

PokerListings’ legal guru to guest on radio show

Poker fans who’ve been keeping up with news about online gambling legislation and legal poker issues in the United States here on PokerListings may have noticed Shari Geller’s name on the vast majority of those stories in the past few months.

Geller is an attorney and poker writer who has become our guru when it comes to covering what’s going on in the legal realm of poker and online gambling, and now she’s taking her expertise to Lou Krieger’s Internet radio show Keep Flopping Aces on www.roundersradio.com.

She will be a guest on the show today at 6 p.m. PST to talk about the various poker-related legal cases that have been in the news.

“Shari was my guest on October 16, when we discussed the case in which the Commonwealth of Kentucky attempted to seize 141 poker-related Internet domain names,” Krieger wrote in his blog.

Krieger will be picking her brain once again about the case now that the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the seizure should be set aside. Kentucky has filed an appeal of its own, and this case could be heading to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Krieger said Geller is also expected to talk about Clonie Gowen’s lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker, as well as President Barack Obama’s pick of Eric Holder, who has committed to enforcing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, for U.S. attorney general.

On a more positive note, she’ll also talk about two recent cases in Pennsylvania and Colorado where poker was recognized as a game of skill and therefore not considered illegal gambling.

She has analyzed all these cases and written about them exclusively for PokerListings. Now poker enthusiasts can find out more about what she thinks about these cases, and those listening in live can call in to discuss the topics, ask questions or talk about anything else poker-related.

The number to call in to the show is (810) 496-3428 in the U.S. Canadians can call (519) 913-2250, and U.K. residents can call 0207-993-6143.

If you miss the live broadcast of the show, it will still be available to listen to afterward on demand at www.roundersradio.com.

To read up on some of the topics to be discussed, check out Geller’s work:

• Colorado jury agrees poker is game of skill
• Kentucky appeals loss in domain name case
• AG nominee intends to enforce UIGEA
• Defendants file motion to dismiss Gowen suit

 

Tax Dollars at Work, Kentucky Appeals Domain Case to Supreme Court

The Commonwealth of Kentucky has officially noted that it will not accept the ruling of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in the internet gaming domain seizure case by filing another appeal, this time to the State Supreme Court. The appeals court ruled on January 20, 2009, that the Commonwealth could not enforce the lower court decision authorizing the state of Kentucky to seize 141 internet domain names because they are not “gambling devices” and thus, not subject to seizure.

J. Michael Brown, Secretary of the State Justice and Public Safety Cabinet of Kentucky, said that Governor Beshear’s administration would pursue the matter to the Kentucky Supreme Court in the hopes of keeping internet gaming out of the state…at all costs. “The evidence demonstrated that illegal and unregulated activity is occurring in Kentucky, and that millions of dollars are being lost as a result of that activity, a fact that wasn’t disputed in Tuesday’s ruling,” he said.

What Brown neglected to mention was that the predominant issue in the case is one of privacy rights. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is not authorized by state law to seize domain names that are not based in that state, nor are the domains “gambling devices” that violate any Kentucky law.

Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas, one of the organizations behind the appeals court victory, stated, “Kentucky residents should be outraged that the Commonwealth is investing another minute of time and another dollar of scarce resources in this quixotic case. The appeals court’s sound rejection of the Commonwealth’s case should have ended this legal debacle in its tracks. Unfortunately, the Governor and the hired-gun attorneys want to drag their ultimate defeat to another venue at the expense of Internet freedom and the rights of law-abiding Kentucky poker players.”

The Internet Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA), due to its appeals court participation alongside the PPA, also reacted to the decision of the Commonwealth. Chairman Joe Brennan Jr. commented, “We’re not surprised that Gov. Beshear and Secretary Brown filed their appeal. They both invested a lot of political capital in this suit. They likely feel they can’t back down. Their attorneys took this on a contingency fee-basis, and have reportedly sunk over a million dollars of their own money in this suit, and other suits like this that they reportedly prepared for other states. Without a win in Kentucky, it will be hard to get those other suits off the ground, and they’ll have taken huge losses on their own gamble.”

One of the lead attorneys for iMEGA noted that they are confident that the Supreme Court will likely agree with the Kentucky Court of Appeals, as the Commonwealth’s attempt to seize property without any sort of criminal statute as a basis for the severe action will not go unnoticed by the Supreme Court judges.

The Kentucky Supreme Court has not yet indicated if or when they will hear the matter, but a decision on the appeal is expected, according to iMEGA, sometime in the spring of 2009.

As part of the poker community, your voice is important in this case. Visit the PPA website  to get in touch with the PPA representatives in Kentucky, send a message to Kentucky Governor Beshear, and find out how you can help protect the rights of poker players.

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Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative

Much has been said about the Poker Players Alliance (PPA ), a non-profit, membership-driven organization that has been lobbying Congress for the legalization of online poker and the recognition of poker as a game of skill. There is another organization set up to work in conjunction with the PPA but on a broader scale – the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative. Nov 9, 2007

• Poker is Skill-Based, Ruled Pennsylvania Court
• Congressmen go Public Supporting Internet Poker
• Fight for your Right to Play!
• Rep. James Moran Latest Supporter of IGREA

 

Latest Poker News

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Tax Dollars at Work, Kentucky Appeals Domain Case to Supreme Court

The Commonwealth of Kentucky has officially noted that it will not accept the ruling of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in the internet gaming domain seizure case by filing another appeal, this time to the State Supreme Court. Jan 28, 2009

• Everest E-Report: Starting 2009 With New Network, Easier Transfers
• Bodog has Two Huge Tourneys on Super Bowl Weekend
• Behold the 2009 WSOP Schedule of Events
• Phillips, Schwartz Join Team PokerStars
• Where Are They Now – Allen Cunningham
• Win Your 2009 WSOP Vegas Dream Package

 

Full Tilt Poker hits a new traffic high

Patrik Antonius was one of the 10,000+ players on Full Tilt Poker on Jan. 26.For the third time in the last couple of months Full Tilt Poker has broken another traffic record, according to data collected by PokerListings’ MarketPulse section.

On Monday, Jan. 26, 2009, the online traffic report recorded an average of 10,433 players per hour, which makes it the busiest day in Full Tilt history. The number narrowly eclipses the previous record of 10,186 set on Jan. 13 and easily surpasses the record of 9,936 set on Jan. 4.

It’s obvious that the site made famous by Team Full Tilt pros like Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson and Jennifer Harman is off to a great start in 2009.

Full Tilt Poker benefits from having world-class software, an unparalleled pro team, the biggest games in world and the most frequent online series, the FTOPS.

PokerListings players get a sweet deal on Full Tilt Poker with weekly $3,000 freerolls so long as the new depositor accrues 100 frequent player points the week before the freeroll. You can check it out here.

One of the biggest draws of Full Tilt Poker is its status as the place where high-stakes sharks like Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil “OMG” Galfond, Ivey, Patrik Antonius and others choose to do battle.

This week was no different, and the pot sizes are getting closer and closer to half a million territory, with Finnish master Patrik Antonius raking in a $429,997 pot heads-up against British player Rory “Mafews” Mathews.

In the hand Mafews made a bet of three times the big blind from the button with 9 5 and Antonius called from the big blind with T 9. It was an action flop – to say the least – as it came T 9 5.

Antonius checked, but Mafews bet $5,000. Antonius responded by check-raising to $21,000 but Mafews reraised to $48,000.

Antonius called; the turn came J, putting a possible flush and straight on the board. Antonius immediately went all-in for a total of $165,998. Mafews couldn’t help but call, only to find his two pair in trouble.

The river was the Q to secure Antonius one of the biggest pots of 2009.

You can check out exactly how the hand went down in the exclusive PokerListings hand replayer below:

Mafews vs. Patrik Antonius

Think you’ve got what it takes to wade into the frenzy of action? Then download and sign up to Full Tilt Poker. You can always rail the games from our MarketPulse section too.

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Poker New Year resolutions – Top poker tips for 2009

RESOLUTION 1

I WILL NOT RAISE PRE-FLOP WITHOUT THINKING

The typical player knows that in a tournament, you should often be raising before the flop to steal the blinds. Some well-known players even go so far as to advise that if you enter a pot at all, you should be raising. You should raise pre-flop because…

• You want to build a larger pot with a strong hand
• You want to eliminate opponents, so that your hand has a higher chance of winning
• You want your opponents to fold stronger hands
• You want to win the blinds and/or antes

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR…
There are so many benefits to raising that it can be tempting to do it all the time. However, it’s important not to let raising pre-flop become a routine. Depending on the game conditions, it may not always be the best play.

If you are playing a cash game, the blinds will often be so small relative to the stacks that raising solely to steal the blinds becomes unprofitable. You’re much more likely to be called or re-raised than you would be in a tournament, and you’ll be entering the pot with too many weak hands to make money after the flop.

It can also be a mistake to raise to eliminate opponents, depending on what your hand is. For example, if you’re playing no-limit, raising from early position with a hand like K-J offsuit can be a big mistake. In general, hands that you beat will fold to your raise, and you’ll have no chance to win money from them. Hands that beat you will tend to call, or re-raise. There is almost no way to make a profit without outdrawing your opponent.

You’re looking for a situation where you can get your opponents to call with a worse hand or fold a better one, where you can create a favourable pot size relative to your remaining stack and the strength of your hand, or where you can significantly increase your equity in the pot. If you can’t achieve any of those goals, it may be better to simply call, or even fold.

RESOLUTION 2

I WILL NOT CONTINUATION BET 100% OF THE TIME

A continuation bet is a bet that you make on the flop, after raising before the flop. You make the bet whether you have improved your hand or not. You should make a continuation bet because…

• Your opponents’ reaction to the bet gives you valuable information that you can use to play the rest of the hand
• If you have the best hand, you want to protect it.
• If you have the best hand, it may be so difficult to extract value from a worse hand that you’d prefer your opponent to give up the pot immediately, and save you difficult decisions on later streets
• If you have the worst hand, you may get your opponent to fold a hand that beats yours.

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR…
In poker, it’s never right to do something 100% of the time. It cannot possibly be correct to always make a continuation bet after raising before the flop. Yet it’s become so commonplace that many players bet the flop without thinking. As a result, continuation bets get a lot less respect than they did a few years ago, and tough opponents will often call your bet with nothing, and then look to take the pot away from you on the turn.

For example, you will see many players raising pre-flop and then betting out on a dry King-high flop only to be forced to fold when their opponent check-raises them on a blank turn. This may work against poor players, but against good opponents this can be a mistake.

If your opponents don’t respect a continuation bet, you may find that checking more often (both when you hit a hand and when you miss completely) is a profitable strategy. It will confuse your opponents, and if you have a strong but not unbeatable hand, allows you to keep the pot small and see what develops on the turn. If you have a weak hand, you’ll often get to see a free card.

As recently as a year ago, I would have recommended that you follow up on the flop with a bet the vast majority of the time, checking only when the flop was particularly dangerous. These days, I think following up with a bet somewhere between half and two-thirds of the time is correct, depending on how loose and creative your opponents are.

RESOLUTION 3

I WILL NOT ALWAYS CHECK THE TURN WITH A MARGINAL HAND

You’re playing a deep- stacked cash game, and raise before the flop holding A-K offsuit. You get one caller, and the flop is K-J-7 rainbow. You follow up with a c-bet, and your rival calls. The turn is a 9. This is obviously not a situation in which you want to commit your entire stack. When the stacks go in your hand will almost always be beat. Often, the correct move is to check. You check for several reasons:

• To keep the pot small, making it less likely that future bets will commit you to the pot with a weak hand
• To feign weakness, making it more likely that you can extract value from a weaker hand on the river
• As part of a balanced strategy, enabling you to slow-play strong hands on the turn

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR…
Many players check here by default, and it often is the best play. However, you must be careful not to check without considering how likely the river is to help your opponent.

For example, if you hold the same A-K offsuit, and the flop comes A-10-9 with two hearts, it should be obvious that draws represent a significant part of your opponent’s range of hands, especially if he flat-called your pre-flop raise from a late position. If the turn does not make the draws, it could be a huge mistake to check and give your opponent a free card to hit his draw. Instead, you should bet enough to deprive your opponent of the proper odds to call (and provided you will not pay off a river bet, this can be as small as half the pot).

However, the majority of the time, checking the turn with a marginal hand is the correct play.

RESOLUTION 4

I WILL NOT CHECK-RAISE ALL-IN WITH A FLUSH DRAW ALL THE TIME

With two suited hole cards, you’ll very rarely flop a flush – just 0.8% of the time. However, with the same cards you’ll flop a flush draw 10.9% of the time – so you need to be able to handle a draw if you’re going to be successful at hold’em. Many players like to bet and raise with their draws every time, which is known as semi-bluffing. A semi-bluff has two ways to win – either your opponent folds and you win the pot, or you can improve to the best hand when you hit your draw. It’s common to see players check- raise all-in on the flop, holding a flush draw. The reasoning goes something like this:

• You’re up against a single opponent
• Your opponent has a wide range of hands, many of which have missed the flop
• Your opponent may be making a continuation bet with a weak hand
• Your raise all-in will be large, so that your opponent is not getting good pot odds
• Your opponent is quite likely to fold to your raise

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR…
Check-raising all-in with a flush draw can be a hugely powerful play. You wait for your opponent to make a mistake by betting, then ruthlessly exploit it by raising an amount he cannot call. However, if the conditions are unfavourable, this play can make you look like a complete fool.

If the stacks are very deep, then your raise all-in will be far too large relative to the pot for it to be a profitable play in the long run. Raising all-in for 100 big blinds, into a pot of just eight big blinds, for example, is too much to risk to win such a small pot.

It’s also a mistake to make this play if your opponent likely has a strong hand. If you raised from early position with A-K suited, and your tight, shrewd opponent re-raised from middle position, it may well be a mistake to check-raise all-in when the board comes three small cards (with two of your suit). It takes a big hand for a tight player to re-raise an early position raiser. If your opponent has a big pair, he will almost certainly call.

Any other situations in which you are very likely to be called rules out this play. Check-raising all-in any time you flop a flush draw is a huge mistake.

RESOLUTION 5

I WILL NOT VALUE BET ON THE RIVER AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY

Making value bets on the river is an important part of any good no-limit hold’em player’s strategy. After all, missing a bet on the flop might cost you just a few big blinds, but missing a bet on the river, when the pot is typically much larger, might cost you twenty or thirty big blinds, even in a pot without much action. Unlike other kinds of bets that we’ve discussed there really is only one reason to value bet:

• It will sometimes allow you to gain an extra bet on the river with a hand you would normally check

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR…
Many players automatically bet the river when they think they have the best hand, but that’s often a mistake. To see why, let’s look at this example. You’re at the river, and the board is A♥-Q♥-10♥-4♥-2♥. You have the A♠-5♥, giving you a slightly higher flush than the one on board. Should you bet into your lone opponent? Based solely on probability, you are likely to have the best hand. However, betting is a huge mistake. To bet the river, probably having the best hand is not enough. You should be the favourite to have the best hand when you get called in order to make a profit. In this case, when you are called your opponent will usually have a higher heart to beat you. What’s more, some of the time your opponent will raise, and you can’t call. There is no value in the equivalent – you absolutely should not bet the river if it’s likely you’ll be raised, and you cannot call that raise.

Making good value bets on the river is all about knowing your opponent, and reading their hand well. By the time the river is dealt, you’ll have seen how your opponent played each street, how they reacted to your actions, and what physical mannerisms they have displayed. If you can assign them a range of hands which will often call and lose, then you can make a profitable river bet.

RESOLUTION 6

I WILL SLOW-PLAY LESS

Slow-playing is an oft-criticised but important part of every poker player’s arsenal. If you have flopped the top full house on a board of A-5-5, it’s much less likely that your opponents have a made hand or draw that they can call you with. There are also very few scary turn cards to kill the action. Slow-playing in this situation is probably a good idea and we do it in order to…

• Disguise your hand’s strength
• Let weaker hands catch up
• Induce a bluff from your opponent
• Get more money in the pot

THOUGHTS FOR THE NEW YEAR….
Slow-playing is a hugely overused tactic that often has the opposite effect of what it sets out to do. Imagine the following situation. You’re dealt 7-6 suited, and limp in on the button after two other players also limp. Both blinds call, and the flop comes the 8-5-4 of your suit, giving you a straight flush! Everybody checks to you – should you bet, or check to slow-play?

You’re hoping to give your opponent a chance to catch something with which he can call a bet, or encourage him to bluff. If it’s likely that your opponent already has something, or will call your bet drawing to a hand which cannot possibly win, you often do better by betting straight away, building a big pot in case your opponent commits a lot of his stack, or getting the money in before a scare card frightens your opponent off the pot.

When you flop a small straight flush against multiple opponents, you probably should not slow-play.

If one of your opponents already has a flush (but not the nut flush), you might win a bigger pot by betting straight away. If one of your opponents has a set, a straight, or the Ace of the suit, they will definitely call and might even raise, committing them to the pot. You’ll end up kicking yourself if a heart on the turn, kills the action.

Bodog has Two Huge Tourneys on Super Bowl Weekend

The Super Bowl is not only one of the world’s biggest sporting events, but it’s also one of the world’s biggest events of any kind.  Millions of people tune in for the entertainment and festivities just as much as they do for the football game.  And in honor of this great event, Bodog Poker has decided to hold two huge poker tournaments on Super Bowl weekend where people will be playing for lots of cash as well as VIP prize packages for the PokerStars.com LAPT event in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The first tournament they’re holding is a $125 + $10 Special Flight Club Semifinal and this takes place at 4:00 pm ET on Saturday, January 31.  One $6,000 LAPT Punta del Este prize package will be given out for every 48 players entered in the tournament and at least one of the packages is guaranteed.  Anybody that wins one of these $6K prize packages will have their $3,700 Main Event buy-in taken care of, and they’ll get $2,300 for travel and spending purposes.  

On the day of the Super Bowl, Bodog will also hold a Super Bowl Special tournament where they’ll be adding $20,000 of their own money to the prize pool.  This tourney is set to take place during pre-game coverage at 4:00 pm ET so you won’t miss any of the Super Bowl, and the $100 + $9 buy-in is worth a lot more since Bodog is adding the $20K.  If you’d like to get into the Special Flight Club Semifinal or the Super Bowl Special then you should sign up for Bodog using the POKERWORKS bonus code so that you get the 110% deposit bonus up to $500 as well.

After signing up at Bodog you’ll not only get access to the two big Super Bowl tournaments, but you will also be able to take advantage of all the other great events at the room.  One of those great events is the $100,000 Guaranteed tournament that happens every Sunday at Bodog.  This tourney does more than just offer players a huge prize pool since Bodog often adds its own money to hit the $100K mark.  Sometimes Bodog has to put as much as $40,000 of their own money into the prize pool meaning players are getting an amazing value for their $100 + $9 buy-in!

And there may not be a better time to sign up at this room since the Bodog Poker Open III will be taking place in the spring.  For those who are unfamiliar with the Bodog Poker Open, it is a series of tournaments that occurs approximately every 6 months and pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars to players.  The last BPO was held in October, 2008 and generated a total of $737,748 in the prize pool.  “zubs1aa” was the biggest winner of the Bodog Poker Open II after winning the Main Event and the $75, 000 first place prize.

Anybody that signs up at Bodog with the POKERWORKS bonus code will get to take advantage of the Bodog Poker Open III, both Super Bowl tournaments, the $100,000 Guaranteed, and get the $110 deposit bonus up to $500.  That’s quite a package!

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