the Chip Shuffler

A crucial idea in poker is to select your battles, in other words your pots.

Of course all poker players want to win as many hands as possible and lose as little hands as possible. Also, players would choose to bet more when they win and might fold or not bet when they are sure to lose. These are the basics of the poker game.

Poker is a very complex game, though it looks simple. One important step is choosing your battles the right way. You may win less pots than you lose. But if you win bigger pots on average than you lose, you can be a profitable player. The strategy goes as follow:

Win big pots, lose small pots.

Normally, money is said to attract more money. But, that is not the principle we follow in poker. Instead, poker is a game where money is used to make more money. Each little part of money is like artillery. The more you have, the more money you might have later.

It sounds trivial to say to win bigger pots and lose smaller ones, but this is a skill only the top players master. Learn to build up the pots when you have the advantage. Learn to keep them small when you feel dominated, or even fold early in such situations.

Similarly, repetition is another tactic used to make money in poker. Getting the best of it again and again is sure to lead to success. It is not to be flashy but your strategy, edge and the bit of money you have with you is your edge over others.

Think of the casino in your aim to make money. A casino earns money through a small regular cut of each pot or collection charge. This is called the rake. These small sums from every game and every pot add up to a good sum over the time. Similarly the good players are sometimes called grinders, because they try to get a small chunk of the pot on a consistent basis.

Big players try to play for big money. But skillful players look at smaller sums and keeping the units small can lead them to success. But, bad players always look at the big score involved above anything else. They try and play even the most complex steps, to win a large sum at one go. This is not the right path to be followed.

In poker, it is not always possible to get all of what you want, but you should try and get what you want more often. This is possible by structuring your game and winning the big pots.

Yes Phil Ivey has once more demonstrated he is the best poker player in the world.

At only 33 years old Phil Ivey continues his poker prowess and never before has a 33 years old man been so successful at poker. Phil does not hold all poker records yet, but given his young age and if he can live a few more decades, all current records will have been pulverized.

So Phil Ivey just won his 8th WSOP bracelet in the $3,000 HORSE event. Only four players have ever won more bracelets. Phil Hellmuth has 11 bracelets (46 years old), Doyle Brunson 10 bracelets (77 years old), Johnny Chan 10 bracelets (52 years old) and the late Johnny Moss 9 bracelets (but the first one was by vote). And he is in a tie with Erik Seidel (51 years old) for 8 bracelets. Given that Phil is the youngest by a wide margin, it is clear that he has a good chance to become the player with the most bracelets at some point. Phil has said himself that he believes that he could win as many as 30 bracelets in his career.

Phil Ivey also won the first prize of $329,840, adding to the total of his live tournament winnings which is close to $13 million. Here no record broken because Phil was already the number one player and no one has ever surpassed this amount of money won at live poker tournaments. Daniel Negreanu is just behind in the number two spot with over $12 million, but he remains behind so far as he has not won a major prize at the WSOP.

Phil Ivey is considered by many poker players in the world as the best player, and this result confirms the general belief. Note that Phil is the most well-rounded player, as he can play well both live and online, both in ring games and in tournaments and in all poker variations. Interestingly Phil has not yet won a bracelet in Holdem, but he did in Omaha, Stud, Draw poker and mixed games (HORSE, SHOE, Omaha-Stud Hi/Lo).

Online, Phil Ivey plays exclusively at Full Tilt Poker as he was one of the founding poker pro at this online poker room. The highest stakes section is named after him and he can often be seen there mostly playing NLHE or PLO at stakes as high as NL100,000. A large crowd of railbirds follows all his moves, hoping to learn a few tricks from the master.

Joseph Hachem, the 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion

Nowadays Joe Hachem can often been seen online at pokerstars, where he is one of their pros with teammate Vanessa Rousso. But he was just a regular amateur poker player not long ago

His name is Joseph Hachem. His age is 42 years old. His place of residence is Providence, Melbourne, Australia by way of Lebanon.

Joe’s main distinction is of course is victory at the WSOP. Hachem seemed to come out of nowhere, defeating 5,618 other competitors his first time out to win the 2005 World Series of Poker. Unlike previous amateur winners Chris Moneymaker and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Hachem did not quality for the tournament online. Instead he decided to step up to the plate and pay the full $10,000 buy-in. That $10,000 investment would win him $7.5 million.

His final Table play was memorable. After playing for six straight days, Hachem persevered in a marathon 14-hour final table game, where he enjoyed some incredible flops. Holding a Q-7 to then-table leader Aaron Kanter’s pocket nines, Hachem got a Q-8-2 on the flop to pave his way towards the WSOP championship. In his final hand against runner-up Steve Dannenmann, Joseph held a 7-3 to his opponents A-3. The flop on that hand revealed a 4-5-6, giving Hachem a straight that would seal the tournament for him.

But Joe understands good hands. Hachem knows a thing or two about the importance of a good hand. Before becoming the 2005 WSOP champion, he made a living as a chiropractor for almost 20 years. When a rare blood disorder in his hands forced him to leave his trade behind, Hachem started playing poker, first in local casinos and then online.

He soon found mortgage banking as a means to support his wife and four children, but he decided on setting that career aside to play in more poker tournaments. But the real beauty of his $7.5 million winnings? While he still had to pay a significant portion to the U.S. government, because Hachem is considered an amateur, his winnings are not technically considered taxable in Australia.

Actress Mimi Rogers has taken big risks both on-screen and at the poker tables.

“Mimi? $800? That’s a lot of money.”

Poker legend Phil Hellmuth has barely been sitting at his table three minutes at a Bay 101 event in San Jose and he’s already lobbing verbal shots at one of his opponents. What’s more, his opponent isn’t even a tour veteran. At least not compared to the WSOP champion and holder of eleven gold bracelets (no player has more bracelets, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, each have ten).

After all, this is Mimi Rogers he’s talking to. Mrs. Kensington from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and the sexy Claire Gregory from Someone to Watch Over Me; a freaking actress for Pete’s sake. But she isn’t backing down any. “Yeah?” Rogers shoots back at Hellmuth. “Come on and play.”

He’s all in, she calls. She’s got two black queens to his Ace-King off-suit. The flop comes down all spades. The river? It’s an ace of spades. Rogers’ flush knocks out Phil Hellmuth before his butt even has a chance to warm up his seat. The room, which by now includes about thirty pros and a number of television cameras, is stunned.

Rogers can only look over at an incensed Hellmuth. “Bye bye, Phil” she whispers under her breath. She isn’t just some token female celebrity giggling her way around the World Poker Tour. She’s as calculated a risk-taker as there is on the tour. But you don’t need to witness her work at the table to see that. Just look at her career.

“The professional risks I’ve taken are scarier and ultimately more impactful (than risks playing poker),” Rogers says. “Being a calculated risk-taker is a key thing. Being able to recognize the moment when you should take a risk is very important.” She should know. Besides her more mainstream work, Rogers has put her career and reputation on the line more than once.

In the early-90s, she starred in The Rapture, the incredibly controversial Michael Tolkin film about sexually liberated swingers turned born-again Christians. It’s one of the scariest things Rogers has done, but also the most rewarding project she’s ever been a part of.

In 1993, at age 37 (not exactly median playmate age), Rogers posed for the cover of Playboy. Just five years ago, she had a full frontal nude scene in The Door in the Floor, a small film starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger. Heck, the woman married Tom Cruise for crying out loud (“I don’t consider it particularly invigorating conversation,” she says of the requisite questions about Cruise, whom she divorced in 1990. “).

Risk is Mimi Rogers’ currency and it is also one of the primary secrets behind her success on the World Poker Tour, which has seen her become a member of its Board of Directors.

But it hasn’t been an overnight transition from Hollywood starlet to cashing in at the Bay 101, where she finished 27th. Sure, she wants you to think she just learned how to play No Limit Texas Hold ‘em, but that’s clearly not the case. “I actually like being in a situation where I’m underestimated,” she says. “You can usually capitalize on that.”

But there’s a polish to Mimi Rogers’ play at the table. A pedigree, if you will. This is the California girl whose dad taught her the game and who was playing blackjack up in Lake Tahoe when she was fifteen. Radiating a sophisticated, mature beauty even then, nobody bothered carding her. It was the perfect training to play Austin Powers’ Mrs. Kensington years later.

Equipped with good looks and a superior intellect (she graduated from high school at age fourteen), Rogers was counting cards at the blackjack tables in her teens. “It was just interesting to me that when I started counting as a process it worked,” she says. “If I was counting, I could pretty much consistently win.”

With a career marked by a series of risks, none more daunting than deciding to become an actress in Hollywood in the first place, it was only a matter of time before Mimi Rogers joined the high-stakes environment of the World Poker Tour. She has since competed in a number of tournaments, including the WPT Championships at the Bellagio, World Poker Championships in Dublin, and a number of other pro poker events.

“I must say that she has handled herself with class in the poker community,” says Hellmuth, who has nothing but respect for Rogers despite the very public embarrassment he suffered at her hands. “When I first met her, she asked me for my autograph when it should have been the other way around.”

That appreciation from the pro players seems consistent across the tour. Anyone doubting her ability only needs to ask Phil Hellmuth for confirmation. Forget the cute actress slumming with the pros; Mimi Rogers is for real. When she first started competing on the tour, she bought a number of computer programs for practice and read about nine instructional books, including Hellmuth’s, to help her game.

Her calculated strategy, not to mention several hours spent playing online, have helped make Rogers a formidable player on the World Poker Tour. But she stresses the calculated nature of her risks. She’s not just a ribald gunslinger running wild across the tables. Not that the poker world doesn’t have its fair share of those. “If you’re taking risks all the time, eventually it’s going to catch up with you. I’m not like Phil Laak or Antonio Esfandiari who are great players,” she says. “I could never play the way they play. They’ve got a different level of courage or sensibility. I don’t know if it’s blind faith or they just have big balls.”

And that’s what might give Mimi Rogers a sizable advantage in the World Poker Tour. Going all-in can be tough, but if you want stress try navigating your way through the Hollywood casting couch with your head held up and your career intact. For Rogers, poker is fun, but it’s child’s play compared to some of the things she has had to do on-screen.

It’s one of the reasons WPT founder and CEO Steve Lipscomb invited her to become a member of their Board of Directors. She can play Hollywood and a poker tournament the same week. What else do you need? Not that she considers one career any easier than the other. For Mimi Rogers, competing in a poker tournament isn’t any less impossible than surviving as an actress in Hollywood. She’s done both and she’s still trying to figure out which is harder.

“I think having a successful career in Hollywood is a combination of talent, timing, luck, and persistence, and winning a tournament is a combination of talent, timing, luck, and persistence,” she says. “So yeah, I guess it’s the same thing.”

This is just a few ideas about good poker.

How to be a winner at online poker? It seems that some players have natural skills to play correctly, while most of the other ones are just average, understanding how to play, but unable to break out from the crowd.

Here are a few traits of poker winners: (1) poker winners learn from their mistakes, (2) winners do not take the game personally, (3) winners adjust to change, (4) winners are selectively aggressive, (5) winners accept responsibility, (6) winners admit their mistakes quickly.

Each of these points is fundamental, and most of the average players do not follow these directives.

For example point number 4, selective aggression in online poker. Everyone one knows that you have to be an aggressive player to have a chance to succeed in modern online poker, but this is only the beginning as far as aggression is concerned. Aggression is a question of building an aggressive image so that the other players fear you. But you can only be aggressive selectively at the right time and against the correct (bad) player. Otherwise too much aggression will backfire and people will target you for their big traps.

Or point number 3, adaptation to change. In order to be a good poker player, you must always adapt to your table. Playing in a rigid way always following a set of preset rules is a certain recipe for losses. You will be straightforward and predictable if you play this way. You need to have a flexible way, where you never play the same situation twice the same way. So adaptation is part of being flexible, and if you are already very flexible in your poker game, then is will be so much easier to adapt to any new conditions.

Finally every pro knows about point 3, do not take it personally. Whenever you start to take it personally because another player outplayed you, this is the path to tilt and a winning session. This is not personal, this is poker.

Remember these 6 traits of winning poker players, and if you try to follow these principles, your results will improve immediately.

The Old West and Poker

Bill Carson walked into the saloon. There was a quiet, humble air about him. To look at him you wouldn’t know there was also a strong confidence in him too. He walked over to the bar and ordered a glass of water. The bartender gave him a puzzled look and set a glass down in front of him, keeping a hold of the glass while saying “that’ll be 5 cents partner”. Carson paid him and fixed his tea.

Some cowboys were making fun of his tea, but Carson ignored them, enjoying. Carson lived perfectly in the moment. While playing poker, don’t be concerned about distractions, be only focused on this hand, this moment. Loud, noisy, mouthy players are often the worst, beware the quiet Gary Cooper types. Loud players are often big bluffers and loose. Quiet players are often solid, slow players.

Some drunk cowboy was trying to pick on Carson and rile him, even pulled his 6 shooter and stuck it in his face. Carson, not stupid, ignored him. You’re not catching good cards, it seems others are getting good hands and winning pots, getting a lot of action and increasing their chips. Ignore them, you’re waiting for good situations as well as good cards, be patient, your time will come.

The drunk cowboy slapped a soiled dove and kicked over the wash bucket, still bullying everyone around. Carson ha had enough. Absorbed in his own ego, the cowboy had then started to punch Carson. Carson was ready for this. You’ve noticed the limpers and who raises 3x BB. UTG had raised it up 3x, and 2 others called, it was now a sizable pot, you finally caught QQ on the cutoff seat, and raised the pot 2.5x. UTG folded as did one of the limpers, the last limper called with his AK.

Carson redirected the cowboy’s punch, at the same time stealing the cowboy’s pistol and using leverage, threw the cowboy through the glass plate window. The flop came AKQ, limper quickly checked, setting his trap, you bet it 1/2 pot, limper with his high 2 pair thinking you’re weak, so pleased with himself and his little trap, reraises all in, not thinking about the possible made straight or set.

You think if he had a made straight he’d smooth call, if he had a higher set, he would have reraised preflop, so quickly call, turn and river of no importance. You double up, and have won 80% of your starting bankroll and decide to quit. Patience and being in the present paid off. Often quit after a big hand or a couple big hands. Most people after a good run will keep playing and lose it all back, feeling invincible and getting looser without realizing it.

Carson finished his tea. Don’t think about how past hands turned out, play every hand like it should be played, don’t worry about the outcome or concern yourself with winning the hand, just play it like it should be played and the winning will take care of itself. Money lost with someone rivering you for a suckout is just a loan and it will come back with interest if you keep playing your hands like they should be played.

Have the attitude of nor caring about winning or losing a hand; just so long as you play it correctly, be satisfied with a pretty good win, especially when you’ve been playing for a long time and need a break. Better a small win than a big loss.

During poker games on television you can often see players playing very aggressively.

In fact, aggression is one of the key elements in Holdem and semi-bluffing is the most formidable weapon that can ensure victory even in situations that appear desperate. This tactic should be used when betting or raising with a drawing hand, but there are two cases: the opponent folds and you win the pot immediately, or he calls the outs that you have can be enough to win the hand.

Let’s see exactly what this means with one example. In the case when your hand is made of the nuts flush draw plus an open ended straight draw, the chances that you win the pot are 55%. If your opponent does not fold, you will have invested less than 50% in the pot but with a probability of winning of 55%. This is a positive expected value situation and you must play it as aggressively as possible.

What are the advantages of semi bluffing?

In order to understand the importance of semi-bluffing, put yourself in the shoes of your opponent who tries to read you during the game. I he sees that you always bet with big hands, he will take good decisions systematically. It will not continue with a hand if he thinks he has a good chance to win.

But if you put a big bet in with a semi-bluff, you will have learned the main strategy of poker. Your tactics will force your opponent to make mistakes. In this case, there is the possibility that he calls when you have a stronger hand, or that he folds his hand when it is stronger than yours. This means that you have more options when your style is aggressive.

The skill of the semi-bluff

You must be careful that your semi-bluff is credible. The most important aspect is to bet as if you had a strong hand.

For example, let’s say that you call a bet from the small blind with A-10 of clubs against one opponent only and the flop comes QJ-2 with two clubs. In such a situation, an easy to read player will normally bet his strong drawing hand. But the better is to check-raise, which indicates a very strong hand and not a drawing hand, as the raising part indicates that you want to protect your assumed strong hand against a potential flush draw.

The semi-bluff is a tool that can help you manipulating your adversary. You need to gradually learn the playing styles of each player at the poker room’s table and act based on such information. For example if you see a player who is afraid of players who bet big, semi-bluffing is the ideal weapon against him. If the opponent is the type of player who thinks a lot, then the best technique is to bluff up to three barrels, after you made him accustomed to see that you have strong hands every time you bet.

When your hand is a flush draw, a straight draw or if you hit a pair on the flop you must use the semi-bluff to force your opponent to fold. Folding equity is another element reinforcing the power of the semi-bluff.

Pokerstars is the top place to play online poker, so if you have not yet opened an account there, it is not too late.

You may have heard this somewhere else, that pokerstars is number one. But is it true, and by what measure? Like all number ones, it depend on what measure you use, and as far as traffic is concerned, Stars is the uncontested number one, with a big lead over the number two, Full Tilt Poker.

And all other poker rooms are left in the dust, far behind. But nothing is static and the rankings can change fast in online gambling. So beyond the fact that pokerstars in number one for traffic, are they also number one by other measures?

Pokerstars is easily the largest and most popular online poker room on the globe.  If you are looking for a reason to sign up at pokerstars, this is already in itself a great reason. More traffic means more poker variations and tournament formats available, more ring game table and stakes with action  to choose from, more lucrative promotions dues to their bigger budget. More frequent and larger freerools, less waiting times at practically any poker activity you are interested in.

Some of the best pros in the world have chosen to sponsor Pokerstars, such as Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso. This is a sign of quality as these people are among the best poker players in the world, and they would not tarnish their reputation by joining a room they do not trust and enjoy playing at.

An added advantage of having all these poker pros  is that it improves the overall quality of the games, and this is certainly a feature that will help you improve your poker skills. As the large buy in tournaments and the highest stakes ring games are where these pros operate, the amateurs who confront them learn from them and this  knowledge somehow flows to the lower limit levels.

So if you do not have an account at stars, now is the time to get one.

It is now been a few months since I started to test a robot poker player that is currently available for purchase on the market.

I bought it just by curiosity. I have a good training in computer science so this is the type of product I love to play with (I am a borderline geek let us be honest). Since the robot can play poker by itself and the coding can be modified through an open source programming language (available). There is a default setup with the program, or you can also tweak it in details when you buy.

I do not care too much about the results, but the facts are there: my initial deposit of 150 dollars at pokerstars has increased to 260 dollars in a few hours without any human intervention other than sitting at the tables and starting the robot. This 110 dollars gain includes the profit from playing at the tables plus part of a bonus conversion, but no rakeback (as pokerstars does not offer rakeback but the initial deposit bonus is quite easy to grind).

The robot plays without emotions obviously, which is one of its main advantages beyond the fact that it is programmed to always make the optimal decision. It applies strictly to the letter my own playing style at no-limit Texas Hold’em, bluffing, semi-bluffing, blocking bets, etc. None of that was omitted in his design. It is always content to apply its algorithm, without ever asking any question or getting upset when getting a bad beat from a lucky player.

Is it a big risk to use such a bot? Lol, I don’t think so: He goes to bed without getting angry after to a bad beat, he continues to play without getting annoyed, he never tilts. The advantage is that I can run two or three tables at once and let it run while I do other things, a great way to convert bonuses and to collect rakeback potentially.

Of course, the test period is still too short to make any conclusion, but the actual result is quite satisfactory: it is a true pleasure to program this robot, to adapt it to my profile as a player, watch him play and make corrections and improvements.

This is the aspiration of many young men and women: to become an online poker pro.

Some work ten hours a day … or week. Some make income that CEOs would envy. With the explosion of the game of poker online, they are now hundreds of online poker pros who make a living from poker.

Often they make the move to pro when they start to realize that they can make more money in online poker than from their regular job. And if their job is a pain, the choice is even easier. Multi-tabling is a common practice where that play from 4 to 24 tables simultaneously, just to maximize their gains.

The ideal that such players seek to achieve is to get sponsorship by an online poker room. Recently Tom “durrrr” Dwan joined the prestigious Team Full Tilt Poker in a contract valued at about 2 million a year. As Full Tilt pays travel and registration fees for all major international tournaments. And Tom Dwan does not pay rake, which equates hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings every year as he plays in the ultra high stakes.

To last in this business, you must be good at cards and in your head too.

Having a job where you earn a good living and where you have total freedom is a great plus. No boss, a lot of travel to the Bahamas, Australia, Monte Carlo, etc . Nothing to complain about.

It is estimated that about 10% of poker players earn money from the game, but only 1% of them manage to live very well from it. Many smaller grinders only succeed in making a smaller income that just pays the bills. And they play ten hours a day. It is a question of style and stake level.

Being a poker pro is having a great freedom and earning lots of money only to the best of them. But there are also a lot of instability. Players do not know at the end of the month how much they will win or if they will win. To last in this business you must be good cards, but most importantly have a strong  head. Because poker is a game of strategy and psychology, where luck plays an important role in the short term.