WSOP and the Run-In to Finals

Well, the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Started Yesterday. A massive 2600 participants each paying $10,000 to enter. This means a humungous $5 million first prize, with all of the top five finishers each getting over $1 million with about 200 places paid in total.



Last year's winner - Chris Moneymaker, an amature who turned a $39 entry fee for an on-line qualifier into $2.5 million - was elliminated very early on, much to the delight of many of big-timers who feel that the large number of internet qualifiers (about 800 this year) is turning the main event into something of a lottery.

There are a couple of good web-sites with regular updates, video clips and photos of the main event: The Gut-Shot Poker Collective and Poker Pages are both manging to usurp far too much of my precious revision time.

Speaking of which, my exams start two weeks tomorrow and in the last two weeks since I started blogging I seem to have done very little work. However, I started working semi-properly on Friday and I think my attitude towards it all is better now. I'm not worried, which is both good and bad, but I am certainly more motivated. I think if I work really solidly for the next two weeks, I still could pull off a 2:1, so we'll see what happens. My finacee is in the middle of her exams at the moment and finishes on Thursday. I'm very envious. My other two housemates both finish well before I do, so it's gonna be pretty hard to stay focused. I'm think I'm just going to have to live in the library until it's all over!

Poker just wouldn't be the same without the bad beats

....and a poker blog wouldn't be the same without ranting about them!

[EDIT: I've taken down this post because I realised that it was about as interesting as a day in the life of a stamp collector!]

In summary: I was bollocking on about a bad beat I got in a tournament organised by the poker website I frequent, Internet Texas Holdem (ITH). The long and the short of it were that I had a good chance of winning and playing against the auther of the book and website, but didn't because of some bad serious bad luck..... blah, blah, whine, moan, etc.....!!

A Spot of Omaha Hi-Lo

Having recently finished working off a number of re-deposit bonuses, I thought I might divert my attention to playing some SNGs (Sit-n-Go Tournaments of, typically, 9-10 players in which the top three places get paid). I played a mixture of Limit and No-Limit Holdem games. I had a run of 5 consecutive 4th place finishes, which was a little frustrating, but a couple of 3rd places and one 1st brought me about even for the day.

I decided to play one last game before bed and in my haste to register for one of the last few places available, I inadvertantly clicked on the wrong game and ended up registering for an Omaha Hi-Lo game! Before I coulde de-register the game had started and I wasn't left with much choice but to play.

I've only ever played Omaha for 'play money' and I've never played any Hi-Lo at all. I spent the first few hands of the tournament frantically searching for some rules on the internet!

Omaha is similar to Texas Hold'em in that there are 5 communal cards face up on the board. In Omaha, however, you have 4 cards of your own (rather than two) and in choosing your best 5 cards you must use 2 from your hand and 3 from the board. Omaha Hi-Lo is a 'split pot' game. The best 'High' hand wins half the pot and the best 'low' hand wins half the pot. High hands are the best hand as in every type of poker. To qualify as a low hand, all the cards must be 8 or lower and must contain no pairs, trips etc, but the low hand may be a flush or a straight. Therefore the best low hand is A,2,3,4,5. This is called the wheel and is often good enough to win as both the low and the high hand, since it is a straight. If there are no low hands then the best high hand wins the whole pot.

Anyway, the long and short of it was that somehow I managed to bluff and blunder my way to a 3rd place finish and even had a Wheel along the way!

I might just go away and learn how to play it now!

Scapegote's Challenge

I guy I know from the forum at ITH (Internet Texas Holdem), who goes by the name of Scapegote has just set himself something of a monumental challenge. The challenge is to turn $100 into $10,000 in 30 days by playing online poker. Sounds immpossible huh? Not quite, but certainly going to need a lot of luck (not normally something to associated with a sucessful poker player!). From what I know of him, he's a very strong player, so it's certainly not out of the question.

He's put a $250 bet on his succeeding at odds of 15-1, which should provide additional incentive and if he fails to make $10,000 he should certainly have made enough to cover the $250 investment.

Daily reports of his progress are available on his blog: Poker According to Scapegote

After day one he's on $211. Should be a pretty interesting month.

Welcome!

Day to go till finals: 28

With Exactly 4 weeks to go before my first exam and only a modicum of revision under my belt, I thought, "when could be a better time to set up a blog than now!"

I discovered Poker about 3 months ago when trying to access FHM's "100 greatest games". They'd changed their website design and right next to the link for "100 greatest games" was the link to "FHM Poker". Things have kind of spiralled from there. I started playing on the 'play money' tables and then deciding that that was far too easy I moved on to some really low limit tables (bets were about 5-10 pence); I was reagularly beating the 'play money' games so why not venture into the world of 'real money'? I duly opened an account depositing £10 and swiftly turned it into about £30. Wow I thought to myself, I've got a natural talent for this lark!

Having now read up a fair bit on poker strategy and a lot on internet forums, my first week or so would acurately be described as "begginers' luck"! This is what the interenet poker sites revel in: A new player signs up at their site, makes a bob or two and consequently believes he has world beating potential. Any subsequent loss - even of everything - will then be put down to "a spell of bad luck", because after all, "you can't just lose your skill can you?" and shortly folowed by cracking open the wallet and re-depositing.

My good streak duly turned to a bad streak and I duly re-invested! Fortunately for me, I also invested elsewhere - a quick browse through amazon's poker book reviews and I plumped for a book which has now become my bible, "Internet Texas Holdem - Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro", by Matthew Hilger. I couldn't have made a luckier (!!) choice. This book was my God-send and i quickly discovered how utterly crap at poker I really was!

Well, three months on and four weeks before finals, I find myself in a bit of a predicament. Am I a world class poker player yet? Answer: No! Am I going to fail my degree? Answer: Probably not. Is there a future for me with poker? Well, ask me again one year from now. As far as I see this is the situation at the moment: The best I can realistically hope for from my exams at the moment is a 2:2. If I spend the summer and as much of next year as my course will allow really working at my game and reading shed loads about poker then this time next year I'll be in a position to decide weather I can make it in the world of poker.

Watch this space!!


P.S. May I recommend a website: www.internettexasholdem.com. This is the website of Matthew Hilger. After I had bought the book, I discovered that you could get it free by signing up with various internet poker clients by following a link at this site! It also has an excellent forum, with some top quality advice.