The confidence, the competitive spirit, the egos; that’s what we love to see at the poker tables. But it is also essential to show intelligence and good manners at the poker table, or anywhere else for that matter, though not all poker professionals act professionally. Here are a some guys that will forever go down in poker history not for their good manners, big wins, and bracelets, but for their attitudes and reputations on and off the felt.
#1 “THE MOUTH” Mike Matusow. Does he have any friends? It doesn’t take too much time in his presence to realize why he is called “The Mouth.” Who else would walk right up to the WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollach and tell him he was running the illustrious tournament into the ground? He talks incessantly at the tables and berates his opponents. Mike does have talent as a poker player, it’s just so lame that we have had to witness “Matusow Meltdowns” in which he seems to be playing great and at the top of his game, and in a matter of a few hands, he has lost all his chips and his cool at the same time. Anyone who can win $1,000,000 (2005 WSOP Main Event) and lose it all 3 days later, needs therapy and a financial adviser. Mike has said that he has had his meds checked and after winning his WSOP bracelet in 2008 seems to be leveling out. We’ll see.
#2 “TONY G” Antanas Gouga is a very talented poker player. In his own words, he says “Some people find me interesting, some people find me obnoxious.” I’m pretty sure Ralph Perry “The Russian” finds him obnoxious. After beating Perry at the Grand Final of the 2006 Intercontinental Poker Championship, Guoga let out a yell, leapt to his feet, and started to berate Perry by pointing to his cards and shouting “Look how ugly this is! You’re a terrible player, this is disgraceful!” And before sitting back down, Guoga ranted “Feel the power, baby!” Tony G’s biography says that he was born in Lithuania. I read recently that Lithuania has officially made poker a sport. I wonder how many of his fellow poker pros would chip in to buy him a one-way ticket back home.
#3 “THE POKER BRAT” Phil Hellmuth, Jr. is an easy target for critics. His whining just plain annoys people. He likes to aggravates his opponents by constantly chiding them during games. At times he will get up from the table to think about his hand. He has high-fived spectators at games where he has won a large hand. He is a camera hog. He realizes that if he makes a scene, he will get television coverage; I guess that is why he crashed the UltimateBet race car. It was also amusing to watch him try and channel General George Patton and Julius Ceasar to enter the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Phil’s distracting style of play has paid off, though. Over the last 10 years, he has been very successful. To beat Hellmuth, you have to be able to block out his nonsense; otherwise you will undoubtedly lose to it. I hear his wife is a child psychologist; I bet that skill comes in real handy for her.
#4 JAMIE GOLD is famous for being the worst poker player to win the World Series of Poker Main Event (2006). The worst part is that he won it at the peak of the poker boom. Following his win, Gold was sued by former work partner Crispin Leyser. Leyser claimed that Gold made a promise prior to the tournament to split his winnings 50/50, but Gold tried to pocket the entire $12 million. At first Gold claimed that there had never been a deal with Crispin in the first place, but evidence turned up to the contrary. Immediately after his WSOP win, Gold had done a radio interview in which he mentioned his arrangement with Leyser. Additionally, a recording from Leyser’s answering machine was also entered as evidence. Gold and Leyser settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Poker etiquette dictates that you are only as good as your word and most reputable pros hold their word as binding.
#5 SHAHRAM “SHAWN” SHEIKHAN has been accused of a lot of stuff, but let’s just concentrate on what he does that his fellow poker players hate—venting his frustrations in ways that players find very distracting. He is a sore loser and a poor winner. It was not a pretty thing to watch as he and “The Mouth” went at each other during the 2005 WSOP. He was also involved in an incident with Hellmuth on Poker After Dark when he refused to shut up while Hellmuth was playing a hand with Annie Duke. I’m sure Duke probably wanted to hurt them both. Shawn seems to have no respect. He was even disrespectful to the legendary Doyle Brunson after winning a big hand in a heads-up match.
#6 HEVAD KHAN is poker’s biggest nerd. He has played as many as 43 poker games all at once on his home computer. Players don’t like him for his stupid dances and yelling “bulldozer!” in the 2007 WSOP Main Event. A new rule was created called the “Hevad Khan Rule” which prohibits players from displaying excessive celebrations after winning a hand. Khan said, “nobody really hated what I did. They made it a rule because there are a billion idiots who would emulate what I did.”
#7 DAVE “DEVILFISH” ULLIOTT has never been shy about publicity or controversy, known for being a bad loser and a jerk when things don’t go his way. He likes to intimidate novice players when they make a bad move and is a condescending know-it-all. He likes to tell annoying jokes that only he thinks are funny. Recently he has announced that he is in talks with a Swedish company in regards to making a movie about his life. I can think of a lot more interesting poker pros to make a movie about.
#8 TODD BRUNSON. Would it kill this guy to crack a smile? Todd doesn’t seem to enjoy the popularity that his father has. Some fans criticize him as appearing less than friendly at the poker table. He has never been rude or gotten angry, so we can’t really hate him, but the guy just seems miserable.
Floating is a profitable strategy in many different types of poker. Whether you are playing limit or no limit holdem, or even Omaha, floating is an effective way to pick off your opponent’s bluffs. A float is when a player calls their opponents bet on one street because they think they are bluffing. The call is made not only because they think their opponent is bluffing, but so a bet can be made to push them off their hand later on. For example, pretend you are playing a pot in position and didn’t flop much of anything. Your opponent had raised pre flop, but the flop came 2h 6d 7s. If your opponent leads out on the flop, there is a legitimate chance that they are making a continuation bet and don’t really have a made hand. In order to combat this c-bet, you can either raise, or call and try to take the pot away on a later street. Raising would be an OK option, but it can also be quite risky. If you raise and get called, there is little wiggle room on later streets. If you raise and get re raised, your bluffing suspicions might have been correct, or they might be very wrong. As you can see, raising in a spot like this is very tricky and risky. The better play is to simply call and float.
Minimizing Risk
The entire premise of a float is minimized risk. By floating, players save a lot of money. Raising is going to require an investment that players might not be comfortable with, but a call defines the exact amount of money needed to go on. You are left with the option of folding, but are now in prime position to take down the pot. In your opponent’s eyes, it is likely that you have a decent hand since you called their original bet. If they check the turn, it is typically a concession, and they are ready to give up on the pot. This is your opportunity to make a bet and win the hand. If you floated on a prior street, you absolutely must bet now, otherwise floating was a complete waste of money.
Giving Up
Floating is an art of sorts, as players need to know when to bet, how much to bet, and when to give up. If you floated on the flop and your opponent fired another bet on the turn, you now have some decisions to make. Either this player has a real hand and is betting it out for value or they know you floated them. Once you hit the turn, you now need to decide whether you are going with your original read or folding. In this spot, a raise is often times better than a call. If you float again, the river is going to be an expensive time to try and take down the pot. If you raise, however, either your opponent is going to fold or you can safely give up on the hand. If you do decide to float on the flop and turn, be very careful on the river. Most players don’t make bets on the flop and turn only to give up on the river, so it is going to be very risky to raise if they make another bet on the river.
Bluffing is a requirement in poker. If you are playing poker and never attempt even the smallest bluffs, your opponents are usually going to eat you alive. Bluffs are not always what they are made out to be, however. On TV and in movies, bluffs are dramatized as these big courageous acts where everything is on the line. In reality, bluffs can be as simple as a continuation bet. Any time that you are making a bet, raise, or even a call with nothing, you are bluffing. Most players don’t think about small continuation bets as bluffs, but if they are not done for value, what kind of bet are they? There is a lot of money to be made with consistency in bluffing. Multiple successful continuation bets are going to pay off far more than an occasional monster bluff. The problem with big bluffs is the risk of ruin. If you run a bluff that spans across the entirety of a hand, the odds of your opponent(s) folding decrease with each street. To some, this is obvious, but to others it is not. Some people think that it only makes sense to fire a monster bet on the river when their bluffs did not work on the flop or turn, but this is a very flawed strategy. Sometimes it is better to just give up on a hand. It can be easy to convince yourself that bluffing is a good idea, even when it is painfully obvious that your opponent is not going to fold.
Bet Sizing
It is almost impossible to know with 100% certainty when your opponents are most likely to lay down their hand. You can put other players on a range of hands, but this does not tell you what they are holding. If you consider the likelihood of a fold, and can make accurate assumptions, bet sizing is going to be that much easier. For example, if you think your opponent has a busted draw, it makes a ton more sense to make a small river bluff, as opposed to going all in. Since your opponent has nothing anyway, they aren’t much more likely to fold to an all in shove than a smaller bet. They have no reason to call, so any bet from you is enough for them to get out of the pot. Sure, a massive bet would also push them off their hand, but there is an underlying flaw in this play. If you make a very big river bluff, and they happen to have a big hand, you have effectively value bet yourself. You are only going to fold out hands that fold to virtually any bet, so why risk more chips than necessary? Of course, you don’t want to make a bluff so small that your opponent has a reason to come back over the top, but a reasonable bet will usually work. If you think your opponent has a big hand, as opposed to something like a flush draw, you are going to need to alter your strategy. Bigger bets work better than small bets in this situation, but no bet at all is optimal. Don’t try to push players off of monster hands unless you know for a fact that they are capable of laying down a big hand.
The early stages of a tournament call for a relaxed approach that keeps risk at a minimum. In the later stages of a tournament, however, risk is maximized out of necessity. Players who sit around waiting for fantastic hands are often times eaten alive. Aggressiveness is rewarded because there is no other choice. This doesn’t mean that a passive player can’t get lucky and catch a hot string of cards, but it certainly is not the best way to try and win a tournament. Your stack size and image will always play a role in the late stages of a tournament, so you need to be aware of both at all times. There isn’t anything simple about late stage tournament play. Sometimes it might be a matter of either going all in or folding, but even this requires advanced knowledge of the game. If you don’t know exactly what types of hands are worthy of a push, it can be quite challenging to make profitable moves. On the other side, if you don’t know when to fold, your money and equity is going to be drained in no time.
Making Moves
In the late stages of a tournament, players need to make moves if they want t legitimate shot at winning. There is no way around it. If you aren’t willing to take a risk, how are you ever going to accumulate chips? You are going to bust out of tournaments early than you had planned from time to time, but what about those times where you double up and make a deep run? The big cashes should more than compensate for the times where you min cash or walk away with a relatively small prize. This should always be your goal in poker, to maximize any possible earnings. By playing passive poker, particularly in the latter stages of a tournament, you are depriving yourself of an opportunity for a deep run. If you are fine with a small cash, then it doesn’t make sense to play aggressively, but few people enter a tournament with the hopes of a min or small cash.
Controlling Your Stack
While you need to make moves with positive expectation, you don’t want to take stupid risks. If you have the biggest stack at your table and the second biggest stack re raises you, would it make much sense to bluff and go all in? Maybe in a rare situation, but more often than not this is just a stupid move. Calculated risks are very different from nonsensical risks. Players with big stacks often, but not always, accumulate them through reckless play. You have probably seen big stacks dwindle to nothing in a matter of minutes. Don’t be this person. Instead, look for spots where you are likely to take down the pot with minimal risk. If your tournament life is going to be in jeopardy after a questionable play, just throw your hand away and look for a better spot. As mentioned earlier, late stage tournament play is not easy, but don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be.
Online poker players like to make fun of live poker players. Live poker players like to make fun of online poker players. So which one is right? The online players of course! Live poker is, without a doubt, infinitely easier than online poker. Where online poker can take hundreds of thousands of hands before any profitability is seen, live poker is like printing money. Maybe you think I’m joking, maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but I am not. Years ago, online poker was just as easy as live poker. Maybe not quite as easy, but it was not a challenge to make tons of money. Today, however, online poker is the definition of a challenge. Few players actually make money, despite what many think, and dedication is a prerequisite for success. So why do people still play online poker if live poker is that much easier? There are many reasons, though some make more sense than others.
Online Poker
Online poker remains popular primarily due to its convenience. You don’t have to drive to a casino, get on a long waiting list, buy chips, and go find a table when you play on the internet. Once you log on, you are pretty much ready to go. Anyone with a shred of common sense can see why online poker is favored by so many. Because of its convenience, however, many players have gotten much better at the game. Poker used to have a steep learning curve that took a long time to grasp, because playing in a casino or in live games was not a speedy process. With online poker, players are able to get many more hands in per hour, can play multiple tables at a time, and have access to all kinds of tools that will make them better players. Online poker is still a viable option for poker, be it for casual or advanced players, but the games are certainly much tougher than most people would expect.
Live Poker
Live poker was popular before online poker, and it remains popular after online poker. Nothing can replace a game where players actually get to sit and converse with their opponents. This is something that the online poker experience is void of, though some players don’t mind. The skill sets are a bit different when you play live. You can’t steal as many pots in lower limit games, if only because no one ever folds. Continuation bets are often times a waste of money, and live players generally hate folding. If you can value bet, you should be able to crush live games. You won’t get nearly as many hands in per hour as you would playing online, but the dramatic drop in skill level typically more than compensates for this. Live poker can get boring for some people, especially after long sessions. There are some people who just prefer to be left alone and play by themselves, this is who online poker is great for. Online success does not always translate to live success, so tread carefully if you are a first time live poker player.
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