YOU CAN PLAN all the check-raises you want when you're playing a hand, but unless someone goes along with it by betting, you will have to adjust your strategy to figure out where you are in a hand.
Young, aggressive woman poker pro Isabelle Mercier found herself in that situation at the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2006.
With blinds at $100-$200, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi raised to $450 under the gun with A-J offsuit. No-limit hold 'em standout Amir Vahedi called from the cutoff. The player on the button also called.
In the big blind, holding A-9 suited, Mercier called the additional $250. Four players took a rainbow flop of A-9-4, giving Mercier top two pair. She checked, as did everybody else behind her. Play online poker.
"I wanted to check-raise to protect my A-9 because I didn't want to be check-raised back, and I didn't want to see a 10 or a jack or a straight card," said Mercier, who earned a law degree from the University of Montreal and studied at the Sorbonne in France. "I was sure someone was going to bet, but everybody else checked. I'm not happy about that because I planned my check-raise."
So Mercier, who left the Sorbonne to become poker-room manager at the famed Aviation Club in Paris before playing professionally, had to scramble.
"I'm just hoping to see a smaller card than a 9," Mercier said. "Even if it's a big card, I was going to bet because I wanted to see where I stood."
The turn came the 7 of spades, putting a flush draw on board. Mercier bet $1,175, almost two-thirds of the pot.
"I wanted to cut the odds for a flush draw with one card to come," said Mercier, who won the WPT's Ladies Night Out event at the Los Angeles-area Bicycle Casino in 2004. "I like to do the funky stuff with the $75 just to disturb the other players." Play $500 match poker bonus.
Mizrachi called, while Vahedi and the button folded.
"Now I'm praying for the 9," Mercier said, fearing that Mizrachi held a set. "I'm not sure what he has at this point. He has to have some kind of hand."
The river came the 9 of clubs, giving Mercier 9s full of aces. She bet $3,500 into a pot of about $4,300. Mizrachi called. Mercier showed her full house. Mizrachi mucked his hand. Download poker wallpapers.
"I just wanted to bet enough so he would call me," Mercier said. "If I bet too much, it would scare him, and if I bet too little, I wouldn't make money on my hand. I might be stealing also. I might have a flush draw and didn't make it and I have no choice but to bet. I think that's why he called - because he thought I was on a busted draw [after her bet on the turn].
"Aggression pays. It's always the story."
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The railbirds - including for some strange reason Las Vegas icon and World Series bracelet winner Bob Stupak - gave him the gears.
They even went so far as to call him a "wimp" and a "sissy," among other less-courteous titles, for folding to a pre-flop raise early on.
But it was all wasted breath and typical railbird bluster as far as "bmqbal" was concerned.
The chip leader heading in to the final table of Event #4 in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, $500+$35 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-max, bmqbal kept his cool despite the call-outs and in the end got the last laugh, walking away with the win, over $66k and the most desired accessory in all of online poker - his very own Full Tilt gold avatar.
He needed some luck to do it, certainly, picking up some fortuitous draws and opportune cards along the way.
But when it comes down to it, a win is a win, and it's always tough to be the last one standing at the end of a hotly contested MTT peppered with some of the best players & women poker players in the world.
Here's how it played out, according to the FTOPS V re-cap:
"bmqbal's first victim was the shortest of the short stacks, YoungSupremacy. YoungSupremacy went all in with pocket aces and bmqbal called with jacks. bmqbal picked up a third jack on the flop, winning the hand and adding YoungSupremacy's 314,864 chips to his stack. Download poker wallpapers.
"Buckster316 was the next fatality. He went all in holding pocket kings and bmqbal called with ace-jack. The flop gave bmqbal a second jack and the river coughed up an ace for two pair.
"Two hands later, Tutnik pushed in all his chips with 10-7-8-6. bmqbal's hand was only slightly better, but he had two spades to go with the three spades on the board, flushing Tutnik from the poker tournament.
"bmqbal's biggest competition came from the second-place finisher, serialkaller. Earlier on, serialkaller came within striking distance of bmqbal, but bmqbal won three key hands in a row, taking serialkaller down from over a million chips to 626K.
"bmqbal finally took the rest away when his full house beat serialkaller's set of kings."
With 622 players, Event #4 ended up being a $311,000 guarantee instead of the posted $150,000, upping bmqbal's take to $66,865.
The event's host, Robert Mizrachi, finished 36th for $1,244 - the highest spot an FTOPS V host has hit so far. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Final Results FTOPS V Event #4:
Place
Player
Prize
1.
bmqball
$66,865.00
2.
serialkaller
$43,851.00
3.
Tutnik
$31,504.30
4.
Buckster316
$23,947.00
5.
YoungSupremacy
$17,105.00
6.
D2THEMFI
$10,885.00
7.
leroidesanimaux
$6,842.00
8.
monkey68
$6,842.00
9.
ninesfull878
$4,976.00
The first million dollar guarantee in the series, a $300+$22 N0-Limit Hold 'em event hosted by Full Tilt pro Clonie Gowen, went off today at 6 p.m. (EDT). Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.
Event #7, $1,000+$60 No-Limit Hold 'em 6-max hosted by Erica Schoenberg, is also a $1 million guarantee and goes off tomorrow, August 13, at 7 p.m. (EDT)
Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, Alfonse D'Amato, has sent out the following letter to PPA members:
Dear Fellow PPA Member:
Thanks to your efforts, we have made tremendous progress in our fight to protect the rights of poker players. More than 40 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have committed to clarifying federal laws to preserve your ability to play poker online. But we still need your help to get the attention of every U.S. Representative.
Congress is in recess for August and your Representative will be returning home to host local events and town hall meetings. These are great opportunities to tell them that poker is not a crime and to support H.R. 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act and H.R. 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act. Poker tournaments.
Here's how to find out when these events are happening:
Get the phone number of your U.S. Representative's hometown office by clicking here and entering your ZIP Code.
Call to ask when and where these events are taking place in the month of August.
Go to one of these events and bring your fellow poker players & women poker players. Tell your U.S. Representative that poker is not a crime and to co-sponsor H.R. 2046 and H.R. 2610 when they return to Washington. Let them know that you will support them if they support the rights of law-abiding poker players.
Thank you for being an "August Advocate" for the Poker Players Alliance.
The Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan recently opened their doors to the press for a tour of the largest new casino in the state, a complex that is located on 675 acres. The new poker room drew plenty of attention, being one of two World Poker Tour branded poker rooms in the US, and the only poker room in the States with no dealers or chips. There are not even any cards, as the entire room is automated. Players & women poker players have to keep their hands on the touch screens in front of them to bet, raise or fold, and also to cover their cards.
Warped Poker Tour
Punk rockers across the nation are looking forward to the Warped Tour this year, and poker players are likewise looking forward to the Tour. Play online poker. The Warped Tour brings plenty of high energy music together, and the Warped Poker Tour takes place along the way, giving the bands a chance to play against each other in a way that does not involve getting on stage and musical instruments. This will be the second Warped Poker Tour, this time with a custom poker table, special Bose headphones and a new Apple iPhone up for grabs for the winner. Download poker wallpapers.
For more information about the poker tournaments, please visit Free Tournaments 247.
EcoCard is the latest e-wallet to retreat from the U.S., notifying its customers that as of Aug. 24 the company will no longer process any online-gambling payment transactions originating from the country.
The company sent an e-mail informing its clients of the change Tuesday. Though the cutoff is Aug. 24, EcoCard said U.S. customers can still use their accounts at non-Internet-gambling supported merchants, as well as make person-to-person money transfers and withdrawals. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"Please be assured that your account will not be closed or suspended after the effective date and you will still be able to withdraw any funds after the effective date," the e-mail reads.
Until that date, U.S. residents who use EcoCard will still be able to deposit and receive funds from any merchant - including online poker sites.
Other international customers who aren't limited by the U.S. government's online gambling ban won't be affected by the change and EcoCard will still process transactions to any Internet site.
The move comes of the heels of U.S. exits by other payment processing sites such as NETeller and Citadel. Download poker wallpapers.
NETeller shut down its American operations after its two founders were arrested in January and charged with conspiring to promote illegal gambling. Just days later, the company announced it would cease processing online gambling transactions for U.S. customers and in February, the U.S. government seized more than $50 million from the company and froze all NETeller accounts. Women poker players.
Concerned for its own fate, e-wallet Citadel pulled out of the U.S. shortly after NETeller, citing the arrest of their competitor's co-founders as the cause. Prior to that, payment processor FirePay withdrew from the American market after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October.
Few options remain for U.S. players who still wish to play poker online. Among them are the lesser-known payment processors ePassporte and eWalletXpress. Other options favored by some include using pre-paid gift cards, MasterCard debit cards or a VISA check card to deposit or withdraw money from sites.
Normally your best chance of playing at the same felt with a prominent poker pro is to pony up $10,000 for a major tournament. Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, however, is giving players that same chance for as little as $110.
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and the casino are partnering up for regular tournaments hosted by the poker pro.
The poker tournaments will be Sundays through Fridays at 7 p.m. in the Planet Hollywood poker room. For the $110 buy-in, players will get $1,500 in chips and a shot at taking out Mizrachi.
As the 2006 Player of the Year, and coming off three cashes in the 2007 World Series of Poker plus a deep cash in a World Poker Tour event in May, the Grinder is not going to be easy to take out of these tournaments.
The player that does take him out will be rewarded with a $300 bounty. Players can also bolster their chip stacks with a $10 add-on for an additional $1,000 in chips. Play online poker.
Any edge may be necessary to take out Mizrachi, who has nearly $6 million in tournament winnings.
He may not have a WSOP bracelet yet, but with two WPT wins under his belt, Mizrachi has a lot of tournament knowledge he can impart to players& women poker players. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he'll be dishing out some of that knowledge starting at 6:30 p.m. before the tournament starts.
This could be your chance to learn the skills that earned Mizrachi his "Grinder" nickname, so you too can play steady and consistent and become a winning player. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Antigua & Barbuda, which has requested $3.4 billion in compensation from the U.S. after winning a WTO dispute over Internet gambling, most likely will have to settle for a much smaller amount according to John Jackson, an international economics law expert and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
The U.S. lost its dispute with Antigua because the WTO ruled that it does allow domestic interstate Internet gambling on horse races, but bars foreign competition for those bets. Soon after losing its final appeal, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that the inclusion of Internet gambling commitments in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) was a mistake and that it would withdraw those commitments. Online poker.
"The U.S. could withdraw the whole sporting commitment, but then the compensation will be more than it needs to be," Jackson said at a policy forum hosted by the Cato Institute on Wednesday. "More likely, it will carve out of the sporting commitment just the horse racing gambling question."
Jackson surmised that by withdrawing the horse racing commitments, the U.S. would be compliant with the WTO ruling without subjecting itself to an evaluation of how Antigua is affected by the entire U.S. ban on foreign Internet gambling providers. Play route 66 poker.
"Arguably, the compensation only has to deal with the horse racing problem," Jackson said.
Mark Mendel, Antigua's attorney, disagreed with Jackson's assessment, stating that the ruling goes beyond Internet betting on horse races.
"This is not about horse racing," Mendel stated. "That's one of the most maddening things about the USTR. They were very successful in spinning this as if it's only a horse racing issue. This isn't about horse racing, it's about remote gaming." Download poker wallpapers.
One member of the audience questioned how Antigua arrived at the $3.4 billion figure, remarking that the amount is three or four times the nation's annual GDP.
Mendel stated that a group of economists had determined the economic damage to Antigua, though he couldn't discuss how they arrived at the $3.4 billion figure.
"Anecdotally, if you look at the two or three year period when some of these companies were going public, immense value was created in these companies in a very short time," Mendel said. "As contrary to reason as a number like $3.4 billion might sound, we have a sound basis for it and I'm looking forward to justifying it." Play $500 match poker bonus.
Mendel noted that at the industry's peak, roughly 100 operators employed over 3,000 Antiguans, or approximately 10 percent of the work force. Those numbers have dropped to roughly 30 operators and 1,000 jobs since the UIGEA went into effect.
"The people of Antigua have enjoyed this industry particularly because it has offered people all kinds of hi-tech jobs," Mendel said. "It provided a real decent source of new interesting jobs for Antiguan people and that's one of the reasons that the government is so committed to this case." Women poker players.
While Jackson and Mendel disagreed on most of the issues, Jackson did agree with Mendel's approach of visiting Congressional leaders to search for a legislative solution.
"That seems to be the most logical approach," Jackson said. "It certainly wouldn't hurt to have a definitive study if we could get that."
YOU CAN PLAN all the check-raises you want when you're playing a hand, but unless someone goes along with it by betting, you will have to adjust your strategy to figure out where you are in a hand.
