High Stakes Poker

Hi Again Poker Fans!!!

I want to write and tell you about an episode i saw on High Stakes poker. The Line up was impressive with players such as Antonio Esfandiari, Doyle Brunson, Pete Viffer , Vanessa Selbet and some buisness men who showed up to try and stick it to the pros like Phill Ruffin ( owner of Treasure Island Hotel and Casino and Billionaire) Mr. Silly bands himself Mr. Kroch and another budsiness man called Mr. Klien ( who was playing for his foundation).

The game was action packed with pots exceedign the $100K limit on almost each hand. its nice when a Billionaire and a few Multi Millionaires show up to play the $300/$600 NLHM. As i watched the session i picked up on a few patterns of the ametures and the simpliest was of Phill Ruffin and in this last hand it goes to show you that to beat amatures or recreZtional players, you do with fundamentals not bluffing. That was a lession that Pete "Viffer" learned to the tune of over $200K.

The blinds are $300/$600 and there was an staddle of $1600 so the staddle got raised in early position by Viffer and it was folded around to Ruffin in the BB. So Viffer raises UTG it to $6000 PF and ruffin calls in the BB. The Flop comes off K,A,6. Ruffin checks and Viffer bets $20k, Ruffin flats calls. Now with a Preflop raise it is possible that Viffer has an A, maybe A, rag because rasies UTG are usually representive of a strong starting hand and callin gin the BB could also represent a hadn like Arag or K,J K,Q, K10, etc. it was obvious that Ruffin was not giving Viffer much respect for his hand or perhaps it is just a Billionaire thinking that perhaps his one pair is good?

Now the Turn hitsd the boared and it is a J, still not muuch of card if you have the A or K? Ruffin Checks and Viffer bets $50K and Ruffin flat calls..now are you thinking its Arag against a bigger A or trips against and A? Ruffin is check calling, so if he has the K against an A why would he ch call a $50K bet? becasue he is a Billionaire?

The river comes and it's a blank. So what is the magic number to bet to win this hughe pot right here on the turn?  Viffer bets $100K , now what do you thnk he has? he rasied UTG and fired two more bulles and now the third barell fro 100K with a total of 180K invested what do you think you are up against? Ruffin doesn't even think about it and he calls the $100K so the pot is now is $312K and guess what gets turned over???

Ruffin Shows K4off and Viffer Mucks?? HE MUCKS HIS CARDS, he mucked 9,3off suit!!! can you belive it, 9,3 off and Ruffin called all the way through with K,4 off? who made the right play?
Did Viffer play right and represnt an A becasue of his UTG raise or did Ruffin play correct by just Ch calling? being a billionaire we can deduce that the money was nto the issue because that is considered small ball for a billionaire but for Viffer it is not small ball. maybe Viffer could have knocked him off on the turn with an all in? or maybe Ruffin would have called no matter what. the moral of this story is that when you are playing against an amature or recreational player you can't play complicated styles because if they play Krag and hit a K even with an A on board they are no thinkjing of the game the same as we are. they are thinking i have a "K"!!! my one pair is good plus its a KING!!! and they will call you all the way down. Viffer should have known this and got away from the hand after the flop.

It does leand it self to two good lessions , and on eis that you have to beat recreational players no matter how big or small they are by playing fundamentals. thge second great lession is that when yo uplay against Ruffin and he is Ch calling you , yo uknow he has one pair and he plays alot of typical cards now. So i would love to play against him becasue i think i would win a lot of money. Phill if you are reading this, I would like to come by TI and visit you, you made everyone scared at that table but maybe they picked up some tells against you. I can show a few things to tighten your game up and blast through those pros...Well done and nice hand. Great pot!!!

I'll see ya 'll at the tables real soon. Holen them close to you chest and SHIP when you have the best of it.

Anthony aka 'The Nutz"

WCOOPand the luck factor of large online poker torunaments

The WCOOP is just one day away, are you ready to play and and see if you are the best Online Poker Player in the World? Qualifying Tournaments are running on Poker Stars.com and Poker Stars.net for a little as $11.00. How can you not play in a qualifying tournament for $11.00 and a chance to be entered into the final WCOOP Tournament and your chance to over $1M in prize money!!

Online poker tournaments are becoming increasing harder to cash in, the number of entrants in some of the tournaments are astronomical and the luck factor is becoming too much of an issue. The recklessness of some players and overall lack of thought process in some fo the calls and PF all in's . The VPIP of some players just indicates a lack of knowledge and position of play. For those of use that understrand the abilities of agression and when to use or as the industry calls "changing gears"  will always cause us to come out ahead statistically but i do have to admit, when I'm playing good and some fool come sin to pl;ay "Bingo Poker" and i raise PF with  AA and the fool re-raises me in a tournamnet that has gone 2/3'rds of the way out of position with J2 off and we both have equal amount of chips relavent to the leader whihc means we are in the top 20 chip leaders, and i re-raise him thinking he knows that I'm playing solid poker only to find out he calls me. The flop hits the board and of course he hits two pair!! Js, 2s, 7d!!! He pushes all in for the remining 1/3 of his chip stack , some would automatically call with the bullets and only 1/3 chips remaing however, here is the difference between good players and great players. I thought it through...possibly Trips, which makes me a big underdog, if he is on a flush draw, I am a favorite, no straight draws so the only thing left to do is ....BET with less than 20 BB i SHIPPED IT..i got called and i instantly thought.TRIPS..but no...TWO PAIR J,2!!!! of couse at that point i was a hughe underdog and i didn't hit my A so I got knocked out!!!

The moral of my story is still unknown to me. Did I play bad? i don't think so. did i make the wrong move after the flop? again i don't think so, the out come would have beent he same if i shipped it pre-flop? maybe that is where i went wrong, but he didn't play the hand right to start of with when he calls my re-raise with J2 off that was just bad poker he comitted 2/3rds of his chips. I can't understand. Barry GReenstien once said in High Stakes Poker that math is IDIOTIC when he put a bad beat on Tom "DURRR" Dwan for a pot of over $500,000.00. Well Barry my hat is off to you becasue this guy didn't know math, didn't poker, didn't knowe position but he still won.

Is it turn that if in a cash game i could have just re-bought and over time i would have takern all his chips? Maybe becasue in this Game Luck only takes you so far. I believe that. it was his lucky day and I couldn't buy back in. I just had to suck it up and chaulk it up as another learning experience on the felt!!!

So remember get you money in when you have the best of it, the out come will be the same and all you can do is know you made the right moves at the right time!

Sign up for your chance to play at the WCOOP and see if you can out beat some of the fish that are out there. Play solid and over the long run you will come out ahead.

Stay tuned for my next article on Money mangement, bank rolls and being staked. It's sure to help and entertain you.

thanks for stopping by and reading .... Keep the cards close to you chest!!!