Poker News Review for March, 2009

Pre-registration is open for the 2009 World Series of Poker, to be held once again at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Players who are in Las Vegas can simply go to the Rio with cash or casino chips in hand and register in person. Those who are unable to make it to the casino until the WSOP starts can register from home, either by fax or mail. To do so, visit the WSOP's registration website and complete the appropriate form. Be sure to have your driver's license number and Harrah's Total Rewards number available, as they will be necessary to complete registration. Remote payment can be made with a cashier's check or wire transfer. Pre-registration closes two weeks prior to an event's start and keep in mind that the tournaments actually have maximum capacities, so if you are certain that you will play in a particular event, register early to make sure you get a seat.

Tel Aviv, Israel based CogniSafe announced the release of its new online gambling cheating protection software, PitBoss, last week. Using mathematical processes based on a massive gambling knowledge base, the software can supposedly root out cheaters automatically. It can detect bots, collusion, hackers, prohibited software tools, "superusers" who have information about the cards to be dealt, and disconnect protect abuse. The software can also be updated in order to detect new forms of cheating. If a cheater is detected, not only does the software provide the poker room operator with the appropriate information, but it can also prevent the suspected cheater from doing further damage, such as transferring money to a cohort. According to CogniSafe, while PitBoss obviously gathers information on the games being played, no personal information is collected. The only information sent to the online poker room operator is the username of the suspected cheater and what type of cheat is being perpetrated.

According to a New York Times article, the French government will open up its country to online gambling companies in 2010. In an effort to bring in more tax revenue and establish some control over online gambling, those companies wishing to do business in France will be able to submit applications for licenses starting next year. This would also likely alleviate some of the pressure put on France by the European Union, which has not liked France's attempts at establishing a government monopoly on online gambling. Sports and horse bets would be taxed 7.5 percent under the proposed licensing plan, while poker wagers would be taxed 2 percent.

A Legendary Poker Player Profile

Johnny Chan has become one of the best players in World Series of Poker history. Born in China, he sits second all time with 10 WSOP bracelets just one behind Phil Hellmuth. Chan's first World Series of Poker cash was in 1983 and he plays a full program to this day with 3 cashes in 2008. Johnny is widely considered one of the top 5 players in World Series of Poker history and is popular on Poker television. Chan came to the United States in 1968. He is married with six children. He won first bracelet in 1985 and his tenth in 2005.

Chan had already had one bracelet to his name, heading in to the 1987 World Series of Poker Main Event, however the Main Event would be where his career really started. Poker greats like Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington and Mickey Appleman Littered the Main Event final table in 1987. Johnny proved that he was a player to consider with and beat all those top pros and took home the title at the final table. Chan won $650 000 and beat Frank Henderson heads up. In 1988 Chan made the final table of the Main Event and once more a lot of names you will recognize were at the table with him. Guys like Erik Seidel, TJ Cloutier and Humberto Brenes. Johnny showed that he was one of the top pros in the world besting Seidel heads up to take home the bracelet and $700 000 once again. Johnny was now the man to observe with back to back wins and three career bracelets The 1989 Main Event where legends are born. Chan once again was there in the end. He battled his way to again being heads up for the title, and what happened was two upcoming poker legends would take clash. Maybe poker fans didn't realize it at the time, but it was legend vs legend. Phil Hellmuth vs Johnny Chan. Chan would still take home more then $300 000 although Hellmuth would take home the title. We will in no way see another player make three main event final tables in a row, pass up win 2 and finish second once. Johnny had made his name in the poker world. Making another Main Event final table in 1992he would win more bracelets and even.

While he won a 7 card stud tournament Chan wouldn't win his fourth bracelet until 1994. When he outlasted Barry Greenstein, Steve Zolotow and Lyle Berman in winning the deuce to seven lowball bracelet His fifth came in 1997. Chan won his sixth bracelet in 2000 and in 2002 he convene with an old friend in the no limit holdem heads up tournament, Phil Hellmuth and now Johnny took home the title and his seventh bracelet. In event 15 and event 24 his eighth and ninth bracelet both came in 2003. Chan won his then record 10th bracelet in a pot limit holdem tournament in 2005. He had to beat Phil Laak heads up to win that 10th title, which earned him over $300 000. After that Johnny has cashed eight times and most lately finished 4th in an Omaha event in 2008.

Overall Johnny has cashed 41 times and 10 bracelets in his career. Johnny has made more then $4 million at the World Series of Poker alone over his 25 year career. Chan is one of the most consistent poker players in poker history with 25 years and 27 final tables made. He has had triumphed playing Holdem of all limits and styles, Omaha and seven card poker games.

He commonly appears on Poker After Dark on NBC. Johnny is more then just the World Series. He has career tournament earnings of more then $6.5 million and also won Poker Superstars. Play Poker like Johnny Chan and Million Dollar Holdem are the two books he had written. He runs his personal online poker site, owns fast food franchises and desires to eventually open his own casino. Chan is a great poker player and a business man who will strive for success in all his endeavors.

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.

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You may have never noticed it before, but there are kind of bubble situations involved in major poker events.

Typically, players refer to the cash bubble and the final-table bubble. These are the two most distinct "bubbles" in a tournament. Most players want to cash, especially when getting close to the money. There is also a certain amount of distinction and accomplishment that comes with making a final table, so players often refer to the final-table bubble. The World Poker Tour has a distinct TV bubble, since it shows only the final six players on its broadcast.

The World Series of Poker has another bubble that most players don't recognize. You would sit at a table of unknowns. Probably, you would have an amazing early run, busting out many players, and be claimed as the chip leader after a few hours of play. But keep in mind, your upmost priority there should be "to survive until day two." It's the day-one bubble. The day-one bubble is simply the result of so many players who are playing the main event whose primary goal is to survive day one (note that players typically don't make the money until day three of the main event). It is a unique bubble situation, probably unlike any other tournament, as there is no cash on the line.

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.

Short History of Poker

Poker has become a world wide phenomenon over the recent years—everyone seems to play the game. Most people give internet poker all credit for the explosion in popularity, but we must not forget that Poker, in one form or another has been traced through over more than ten centuries back to around 900 A.D.

A game alike to poker was first invented by the Chinese sometime before 969 A.D, and Egyptians in the 12th & 13th centuries are known to have used a form of playing cards. In 16th century Persia "Ganjifa" or "Treasure Cards" were believed to have been used for a variety of betting games. A Ganjifa deck consisted of 96 elaborate cards, made of paper thin slices of ivory or precious wood. "As Nas" was played by The Persians which utilized 25 cards, rounds of betting and hierarchical hand rankings.

"Primero" dates back to 1526 and is often referred to as "poker's mother" as it is the first confirmed version of a game directly related to modern day poker. "Primero" was a 16th century Spanish game which involved three cards being dealt to each player. Bluffing, or betting high stakes whilst holding poor cards to deceive opponents, was an integral part of the game. In the 17th and 18th centuries a French game named "Poque" and a German game named "Pochen" became very popular, believed to have been developed from "Primero".

When French colonials arrived in Canada they imported the game to the new world. From the beginning of the 18th century "Poque" was the national card game of France and when a hardy group of French-Canadian settlers founded New Orleans, its popularity spread from the state of Louisiana throughout the whole country. One of the earliest references of poker was written in 1834 by Jonathan H. In his writing he mentions rules to the "cheating game."

During the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast. It was extremely popular during the Civil War when the soldiers of both armies played. European influence of poker ended when the joker was introduced as a wild card in 1875.

In just over two centuries, poker has never looked back. Since its humble beginning on the banks of the Mississippi, the popularity of this widely played game has grown in leaps and bounds to evolve numerous variations and sub-variations.

There have been three games that have, in turn, dominated the modern poker scene:

• 5 Card Draw rose from relative obscurity during the American Civil War to the most popular game for almost a century.
• 7 Card Stud then took over the throne shortly before WWII and maintained its position for about 40 years with the help of the new and thriving Las Vegas casino industry.
• Texas Hold 'em, christened the "Cadillac of poker" rose to prominence in the 1970's when it was featured as the title game in the World Series of Poker. Today, Texas Hold 'em is indisputably the most frequently played and most popular poker game in the world.

Here Comes the Great White

It has more than 10 layers of teeth;
It has stream line body with cartilage skeleton, enabling it to swim rapidly, plus in an agile manner;
It is a super-aggressive carnivore, merciless to its prey;
It is at the top level of food chain in the sea.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you … the SHARK.

And, there is such a group of people in the poker world that hold the same title with the same charactestics …

They wear the golden bracelet of World Series of Poker;
They top high on player ranking lists;
They eat on poker chips;
They are anything but ordinary.

We usually refer a super-good player as "shark". The poker shark knows what they are doing. From the basics like the ranking of all the poker hands, the mathematical and statistical likelihood that they can play the cards they have been dealt into a winning hand, to the top know-how: tell the opponent by the body language, command the poker strategy as well as little tips.

Things being said, all is not lost if you aren't a good poker player. You lose, you learn, and you grow. Just like a common little game shows, when you reach the final level, you turn into a big monster fish, too.

Begin with !
End with …

Top 10 Worst Starting Hands in Texas Hold'em

1. 2-7
7-2 off suit is considered the worst hand in Texas Hold'em. They are the lowest two cards you can have that cannot make a straight (there's 4 cards between 2 and 7). Even if they are suited, they will make you a very low flush, and if either pairs, it's an awfully low poker hand.
Because it is the worst, some players will play it for fun and in online games, it is known as "the hammer."

2. 2-8
This is the same basic problem as above, only you've got an 8 instead of a 7. Still pretty bad for a high card. Suited or not, this is a fold'em hold'em hand.

3. Tie: 3-8 & 3-7
The 3 makes this hand able to beat the two above it, but with the 3-8 you still can't make a straight and the 3-7 still, well, just sucks.

4. 2-6
While if the board gives you a miracle flop of 3-4-5, you will have a straight, someone with a 6-7 will have a higher straight. If you get a flush, someone will probably have a higher flush. Against even 4 poker players, this hand will lose about 90% of the time. Not good odds.

5. Tie: 2-9, 3-9, & 4-9
The only thing these three hands have going for them over the hands above is the 9. If the 9 pairs, you'll have a middle pair that could still be beat by anyone holding pocket 10s, jacks, queens, kings, or aces, yet you might be fooled by a board filled with low cards into thinking you have the best hand and losing a lot of money. No straights can fill the gap between these cards, either. Beware.

6. 2-10
This hand has a legendary quality because Doyle Brunson captured two World Series of Poker Bracelets with it. But it's not a good hand -- Doyle Brunson is one of the all-time best in the game and unless you're a Texas road gambler who's logged thousands of hours at the poker table, you shouldn't try and win with the Doyle Brunson.

7. 5-9
Another hand people play because it's fun is the old 9 to 5, the "Dolly Parton." If you're playing to win, it's not a good idea to play hands because they have a funny name. That may be how you pick the winning horse in a race, but poker's a marathon, not a sprint, and over the long term there's no doubt this hand is a statistical loser.

8. Tie: 4-7, 4-8, 5-8, 3-6...
All these hands will rarely win, especially unsuited. Toss 'em. Just toss'em. Yes, even in the little blind. If you see two low cards in the hole, unless you're in the big blind and you can see the flop for free, fold.

9. Face card + low card, unsuited
One of the most common mistakes I see beginners make is that when they see any paint in their hand, they play it. J-2, Q-3, K-4 whatever -- and most of these hands are losers. They're junk that may win a few pots, but more often will lose you huge cash when you find the other poker player has a higher kicker and the winning hand.

10. Ace + low card, unsuited
This is another common beginner mistake, playing any ace. Again, it may win occasionally, and heads-up it's a fine hand, but at a table of 4 or more, this hand shouldn't be played if there's a raise in front of you. You're going to be outkicked a lot with Ace-little, and it's going to feel like a kick in the junk when the other player shows their higher ace.

Poker "News"

In the past few weeks, there is a big buzz about 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps associated with online poker room. And it's a pleasure to join the hysteria by picking up some analysis and shed a piece of light on the fact.


The story began when the poker legend Doyle Brunson and his son Todd paid a visit to the poker-loving swimming phenomenon at the Palms Hotel and Casino. "Phelps and some of his friends wanted books so I took Super System 1 and 2 to them and they asked all kinds of poker questions. Michael said all he wanted to do in life, was to eat, swim and play poker." Bla-Bla … Doyle wrote in his blog.

The old man should have added that Phelps dreams about being the finalist of World Series of Poker. Anyway, all kinds of speculations are immediately printed in black-and-white by some poker news sites (they seldom promote official poker rules without "throw-ins", I believe). According to them, the winner of eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps' next venture may be to become one of the celebrity players for Doyles Room.

Here is a common-sense thought. The fish boy is no doubt the hottest commercial commodity on the planet. Giant companies are queuing to be connected with him. There is little possibility that one of these online poker casinos can afford that kind of money—I have to say poker business is on the downswing, with such an economical recession we are living through as backdrop. Sure he might make take a lowball deal to be associated with Doyle, but I think his financial advisers are way too smart for that. Besides, Phelps knows clearly himself the merits of being away from the poker table in the spotlight.

To be summarized, poker odds knowledge helps me conclude that all of this is just truly hypothetical.