Badugi Poker Rocks

Badugi is one part razz, one part draw poker, and a whole lot of fun—depending on who you talk to.

Enteratlantis is now offering this unique style of poker, which originated in Korea. The site is running both poker tournaments and sit-and-gos, although the latter is seldom attracting the higher-limits players.

The more frugal players are giving it a try, though, and they seem to be enjoying it.

At a $5.50 buy-in, nine-handed sit-and-go today, Enteratlantis player "Sesamo" was playing the game for the first time and was poker chip leader with four players left.

"It's nice to have something different," said Sesamo.

Both he and "aaa222xx," another first-timer to the game, said they would very likely play again. Of course, it helps that they both made the money.

Badugi is a draw poker game that is similar to lowball, where players try to get the four lowest cards possible, all of different suits. So, A-2-3-4, all of different suits, would be the best badugi hand a player could have.

There are three different drawing opportunities, where players can draw anywhere from zero to four cards, and a betting round occurs after each one.

Time will tell if the game will become popular online. DoylesRoom had offered badugi a couple of years ago but withdrew the game from its selection due to lack of customer interest.

Enteratlantis is clearly trying to spark and maintain interest, setting up small-stakes tourneys throughout the day. A $2.20 buy-in tournament on Sunday attracted 112 entrants.

In Las Vegas, players can find a fairly regular mixed-games format at Bellagio, which contains badugi, for as cheap as $2-$4 and as expensive as $4,000-$8,000. The Imperial Palace poker room features badugi as part of its mixed games, as well, every Sunday at 7 p.m. Treasure Island also offers a standalone $3-$6 badugi game, although there are rarely enough players to form a game.

Ultimate Poker Tournament: WSOP

The World Series of Poker is without a doubt the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The WSOP, as it is known, gathers the best poker players in the world each year to battle each other until only one is declared champion and winner of millions of dollars—the biggest prize, and honor, in the poker world.

Poker tournament is a series of structured competitions where players compete against each other to accumulate all the poker chips in play. In "normal" casino games, each hand is unrelated to any other. Players can quit whenever they want. In tournaments, players can not quit and cash out their chips. Play continues until there is a winner.

There are different types of poker tournaments: "Elimination" or "freeze out" tournaments are the most common type. In this structure all players begin with the same amount of poker chips, and play continues until one player has accumulated all the chips. As players are eliminated, the active players are re-seated at fewer and fewer tables. While the winner of the tournament is the poker player who accumulates all the chips, the payout structure rewards several players. For example, if ninety-five players start a tournament, commonly the "final table" of nine players would receive prize money—with eighth getting a larger prize than ninth, seventh getting more than eighth, etc.

Playing Against a Weak Player

Supposed that you are in the tournament and there is a particular player who enters a poker tournament for the first time and it becomes obvious that he is a weak player. In that station, it won’t take us very long to recognize the type of player he was.

If you are an experienced poker player, you can quickly decide that if you are in the pot with him and to show him a hand. If he gets lucky enough to beat you, he is going to beat a hand.

Meanwhile, there are other very good players in this tournament who tries to run over him and force him out of a pot. They will bluff at him constantly and be rarely successful…

What they should not have done is try to bluff him because you simply can’t bluff a bad player as a bad player will call when he’s got any kind of a hand and pass when he doesn’t.

When playing with a weak poker player, show him a hand and you do very fundamental, even obvious things against him---no tricks, no strategic play, nothing fancy…

Play straightforward poker against a weak poker player!

Hall of Fame

Who are the best poker players in the world?

Here below offered by certain experts are a few of individual selections in a handful of categories.

Best all-around players - the late Chip Reese.

He is widely regarded to have been the greatest cash game poker player that ever lived.

Reese collaborated on the seven-card stud section for Doyle Brunson's Super System, the best-selling poker book of all time. In it, Brunson describes Reese as "one of the two finest young ... poker players in the world" and the best seven-card stud player he had ever played. Reese would later become the card manager at the old Dunes Casino in Vegas.

As a tribute, from 2008 onwards the H.O.R.S.E. event winner at the World Series of Poker will receive a trophy named the "David 'Chip' Reese Award".

Honorable mentions are also given to Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson.
Best poker tournament player - some pundits claim it's Stu Ungar.

He is the only person to have won World Series of Poker Main Event three times and to win Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker three times, the world's second most prestigious poker title during its time.

Laureate candidacy does go out to Phil Hellmuth and Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi. Negreanu is also named again.

"Best cash game players - David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, Jen Harmon, there are just so many great players you could argue until the cows come home," Some net professional says.

Small Macau—Big Fortune

Texas Hold 'em poker is coming to Macau.

Officials in the booming southern China gambling enclave have authorized local casinos to offer the popular card game for the first time, and the territory's leading gaming operator said Friday that it's rolling out the game at its main property.

Grand Lisboa, the flagship of casino mogul Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau or SJM, has inaugurated four new tables dedicated to Texas Hold 'em, a company spokeswoman said.

Interest in poker, particularly Texas Hold 'em, has exploded in the United States in the past few years with the advent of televised tournaments such as the World Series of Poker. It has also gained popularity in mainland China, a major source of punters for Macau.

"We are confident that Texas Hold 'em will become very popular here. It is popular in Europe and in the U.S. and there are international Texas Hold 'em Poker tournaments every year," Louis Ng, SJM's director and chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Macau's government issued the rules approving Texas Hold 'em earlier this week.

The new rules allow the house to collect a commission of 3 percent to 5 percent of the betting pool for each game.

Ho held a monopoly on casinos in Macau until 2002. Since then, the government has handed out other gaming licenses, which attracted top Las Vegas operators to open luxury resorts in Macau targeting China's newly wealthy.

Las Vegas casino operators Wynn, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Grand did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment on whether they will offer Texas Hold 'em at their Macau properties.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony about 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of Hong Kong, returned to Chinese rule in 1999. In 2006 it raked in more gaming revenue than the Las Vegas Strip, according to regulators in the two locations.

Poker Championship Final Results

A Canadian not named Gavin Smith wins the 2008 North American Poker Championship in Niagra Falls, Ontario.

Gavin Smith's effort to win his first major poker title on his home Canadian soil came up one spot shy of the target. He found himself head's up with Glen Witmer for the title but facing an uphill battle with a near 3 to 1 chip deficit. Down to two players, the HU battle went nearly as many hands as the entire final table of the 2008 Borgata Poker Open. Smith eventually lost a coin flip (55 versus AK) which would have switched the poker chip stack into his favor but the small pair did not hold up.

When it was three handed, Witmer found himself with a nice stack but going up against Smith and Kathy Liebert, the all time leading women's poker tournament money winner. Even with the big stack, poker odds seemed against him but he held out and took down the top prize of $1,254,152 CAD.

Final table results (in Canadian dollars):
1. Glen Witmer - $1,254,152
2. Gavin Smith - $612,427
3. Kathy Liebert - $319,337
4. Ryan Fisler - $262,469
5. Marc Karam - $196,851
6. James Trenholm - $153,107

Crabs Walk Sideways

Everyone is a speck of dust in the universe, and uses his/her whole lifetime to show the shiniest sparkle … We may not strive to be the most perfect man in the world, like Che Guevara. Deep inside, a little voice moans: behave yourself, play by the rule. That makes me in confrontation with Sattre. Back to gaming business. Poker etiquette are not official poker rules that would affect the results of a poker hand necessarily. They are set of "gentlemen rule" set by the house to keep the game friendly, polite, and in general to keep everyone happy.

It is a great practice for those who run house poker games to add some of the following poker etiquette rules to their house poker rules sheet, print it before the game, and make sure all players are aware of them.

Poker Etiquette During Play

Act in turn.
Keep your cards on the poker table at all times.
Act in a timely manner. Don't take too long to make your move.
If you are not in the hand, don't comment: Don't give advice or information to players who are playing. They are supposed to pay attention themselves.
One hand one player: Don't give advice to anyone. Don't pursue them to make any actions. Everyone is grown up enough to make their own decisions.
Keep your large denomination poker chips in front of your stack.
Don't talk on the phone while playing.

Betting

Don't splash the pot.
Don't string raise.

Showdown

Don't expose your cards until the hand is over.
At showdown flip both cards at the same time.
Don't slow roll: Slow rolling is to pretend your hand is not good enough and take a long time to reveal your cards at the end while your hand is really the winner. Do not do it - it is very frustrating.
Don't check down hands: This is a very non-friendly practice, so unless you are in a very large poker tournament stay away from it.

Aware or not, you are helping make a stand for online poker right here, right now. Thanks for the contribution.

Things aren't the way they were before

"Excuse me, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a professional poker player."
"Pardon me?"
"Well, basically what I am doing is play poker games in poker rooms or join poker tournaments at casinos. In fact, as time moves on, I barely leave my home nowadays for that online poker makes lives of people like me much easier."
… Faint …

The above scene may occur if you happen to move in a new city and invite your neighbors to your house-warming party and start a conversation with one of them. In fact, to cater to the ever-increasing and diversifying need of today's job-seekers, here is a list of 5 kinds of cool jobs that you may have never heard before and maybe worth a try.

1. Odor Tester
This one is pretty odd, but some chemist has to make sure that all of those deodorants and anti-perspirants are operating properly to keep their users free of funk.

2. Snake Milker
If you ever get bitten by a poisonous snake you'll be grateful these people know how to work with animals. They are responsible for getting the venom out of snakes to make the anti-venom. Be honest, which one of you thought that snakes had actual milk glands?

3. Dice Inspector
With one false move of a single die a person can lose quite a bit of money on those craps tables. The dice inspector checks for proportionality, specific angles, and blemishes. I guess if dice are not perfect they can't be the reason for you going broke in the casino.

4. Braille Translator
Someone has to modify all sorts of texts and convert them to Braille for the blind. This can include novels, music, textbooks, and brochures. There is nothing wrong with making things more accessible for the blind and this one sounds like it's a quite useful job, but it does sound tedious.

5. Citrus Fruit Dyer
Have you ever passed by the lemons at the supermarket and though to yourself, damn that's some good looking citrus! Well it might be because there commercial farmers out there who dye the fruit a more vibrant color to hide the ripeness of the fruit.

"Share our similarities, celebrate our differences." The quote says so. For me, I am happily reading rock-paper-scissors theory to build up my poker strategy pool—I have some unexplained reasons to believe that luck works and I will be good at this field. Because my nightmare is that when I face the final judgment and Saint Peter says this to me,"You have to run a poker game. And deal." LOL

Play in Russian Style

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.
—Joseph Stalin

This Georgian Soviet-Union leader had coined many similar stunning quotes which are known to be gallant while merciless. While I don't think he would never dream that two former states under his reign would confront each other more than half a century later, and that's all I can talk about the Russia-Georgia conflict lately.
In fact, as one of world powers, Russia easily catches world's attention in as many ways as you can imagine, intentionally or not.

Russia is "hoping" for global warming to allow for further exploration. They are already attempting to "claim" part of the arctic. To give its initiative some justification, Canada and Scandinavian countries make the same prayer.

Russia is the unparalleled leader in arms exports. And this will continue to be extremely lucrative for them financially and relations-wise with semi-rogues like Venezuela and Sudan.

Seeming to make this topic distracted away from the politics, I also find: in 2006, a gaming zoning bill was passed in Duma by a vote of 440-0. It aimed to control gambling by banishing it to four specific zones; two to be set in European Russia, one in Siberia and one in the Far East.
Fast-forward to 2007. Thanks to a convincing argument by Dmitry Lesnoy, president of the Sport Federation of Russia, on poker being an "intellectual game", and a decision by the Russian Federation's Federal Agency of Physical Culture and Sports, poker tournaments were finally classified as official sport competitions in the nation of Russia. But to some poker players, the sprouting poker rooms and highly publicized legislation could possibly just be a flash in the pan. They are always worried that a change in the leader's mind, and then of the law, could banish poker to the four gambling sectors, like a simple slot machine or Baccarat table.

So, if I am allowed to implant poker rules to make a comparison, Russia has way too many cards to play at this moment, and we hope it will play fair and "by the book".

It may seems I only focus on the negative side (pessimist's bad habit), but I don't deny there is always a silver lining in the cloud (lots of online poker sites are available in Russian). Anyway, I have no intention of messing with Russian people. So if any Russian hackers happen to be here, please don't piss off.

Host Your Poker Game At Home

The first thing you should do before you consider hosting a poker game at home is check the local laws in your area. Once you're sure no laws are broken, skip down to the section you are interested in.


Getting People Together
Hopefully this is the easy part. Typically, you are going to need somebody to make phone calls and get people together. You'll also need somebody to supply the house, table, poker chips and food/beverages. These can be the same person or several people, whichever is easiest. Sometimes people will even bring felt table tops just for poker, so tasks can really be split up. If you work at a bar or restaurant, sometimes you can hold free poker tournaments at your business, but again check with your local laws.

Setting Up Poker Tables, Chips, Cards
Somebody in your group will need to aquire poker supplies. I suggest convenience store or just Walmart for poker chips, cards, tables and dealer buttons.

Blind Levels and Payout Structures
You should visibly post your tournament's blind levels, payout structures, and rules so that every player (old and new) fully understands the game they are getting into. This will avoid unnecessary conflict in the future. You should also decide how you will handle chipping up.

Game Types
Whether you're running a friendly home game, or a larger tournament, you'll need to make it clear what style of game you intend to play. Cash game or tournament, texas holdem or seven card stud, limit or no limit, whether to allow rebuys, addons or bounties, other variants, and how to handle buyins and fees.

Moving and Seating Poker Players
Moving and seating players can get hectic in a larger tournament, but with a few simple rules you should be able to keep it under control. In a smaller game the emphasis is on fairness by ensuring quick table balancing.

Dealing and Shuffling
Consistent dealing and shuffling procedures can effectively ensure fair and speedy play.

To Do List

1. Return my 3-year-old Mp3, try to get a refund.

2. Go to the theater. "Astérix et Obélix contre César" is on the show.

3. Play Texas Hold'em online.

4. Search and listen good foreign music clips, something like "Doar Cu Tine".

5. Find new hobbies.

6. Continue to listen to good music.

7. Hold poker tournaments at home. Beat WSOP.

8. Play football.

9. Eat more vegetables.

10. Avoid bad milk.

11. Follow on One Tree Hill. Hopefully Payton and Lucas could make it work.

12. Move into my new house.

13. Get this blog going.

14. Be smart.

15. Travel, see the real casino.

16. Think.

17. Learn to play Majhong.

18. Live life.