When trying to decide whether you have the best hand at the moment or might draw to it by the river, you need to compare the amount of the bet to the pot and the amount of that same bet to your stack.
Sometimes the math forces you to fold. But sometimes you find an opportunity. With blinds at $50-$100 at the $25,000-buy-in World Poker Tour Championship at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2006, colorful pro Kenna James limped from early position with K-3 of clubs. A player in middle position also limped. The player on the button raised to $350. The big blind called, as did James and the player in middle position.
The flop came A-10-9, two clubs, giving James the second nut flush draw. Play online poker.
Everyone checked to the player on the button, who bet $1,000. The big blind folded. James called. The player in middle position folded.
"We're playing deep-stack poker (starting with $50,000 in chips for the $25,000 buy-in)," James said, "but it is a little dangerous to be drawing to something that isn't the nuts, because even when you make your hand, it's tough to bet for value because it's possible the guy had a pair of aces with the nut-flush ace. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"But he bet too strong to have that big of a hand ($1,000 into a pot worth about $1,400). That's why I called."
If the button had aces with the nut ace, he likely would have bet about half the pot in an attempt to keep James in the hand. Instead, the bet of more than two-thirds of the pot told James that his opponent was trying to protect a vulnerable hand. Women poker.
"I figured my flush, if I made it, would be good," James said.
The turn came the 3 of spades, giving James a pair of 3s with his flush draw. James checked. The button bet $5,000.
"I knew he had some kind of hand," said James, who has two second-place finishes in WPT events. "But now a king, a 3 or a club on the end would still make my hand, so that's why, when he bet big on the turn, I called. Play route 66 poker.
"I had $55,000 in my stack, so his bet was only (about) 10 percent of my stack. It's all relative to your stack. You'll see people who have $300,000 who might call $20,000 with J-8 because it's all relative to the stack. If I had $15,000 and it was a $5,000 bet, then yeah, I wouldn't call a third of my chips in that spot. Download poker wallpapers.
"I'm also hoping I'll win something on the river."
The river came the queen of clubs, making James' flush. James bet $10,000. His opponent folded.
"If I had bet smaller, it would look like a value bet and I wouldn't have got ten paid off," James said. "I threw the one $10,000 chip in there because sometimes people are careless with one chip and forget the value of $10,000 in one chip."
For more information about the poker tournaments, please visit
For more information about the poker tournaments, please visit Free Tournaments247
When trying to decide whether you have the best hand at the moment or might draw to it by the river, you need to compare the amount of the bet to the pot and the amount of that same bet to your stack. Women poker.
Sometimes the math forces you to fold. But sometimes you find an opportunity. With blinds at $50-$100 at the $25,000-buy-in World Poker Tour Championship at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2006, colorful pro Kenna James limped from early position with K-3 of clubs. A player in middle position also limped. The player on the button raised to $350. The big blind called, as did James and the player in the middle. The flop came A-10-9, two clubs, giving James the second-nut flush draw. Everyone checked to the player on the button, who bet $1,000. The big blind folded. James called. The middle player folded.
"We're playing deep-stack poker tournament (starting with $50,000 in chips for the $25,000 buy-in)," James said, "but it is a little dangerous to be drawing to something that isn't the nuts, because even when you make your hand, it's tough to bet for value because it's possible the guy had a pair of aces with the nut-flush ace.
"But he bet too strong to have that big of a hand ($1,000 into a pot worth about $1,400). That's why I called."
If the button had aces with the nut ace, he likely would have bet about half the pot in an attempt to keep James in the hand. Instead, the bet of more than two-thirds of the pot told James that his opponent was trying to protect a vulnerable hand. Download poker wallpapers.
"I figured my flush, if I made it, would be good," James said.
The turn came the 3 of spades, giving James a pair of 3s with his flush draw. James checked. The button bet $5,000.
"I knew he had some kind of hand. But now a king, a 3 or a club on the end would still make my hand, so that's why, when he bet big on the turn, I called. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"I had $55,000 in my stack, so his bet was only (about) 10 percent of my stack. It's all relative to your stack. You'll see people who have $300,000 who might call $20,000 with J-8 because it's all relative to the stack. If I had $15,000 and it was a $5,000 bet, then yeah, I wouldn't call a third of my chips in that spot. I'm also hoping I'll win something on the river."
The river came the queen of clubs, making James' flush. He bet $10,000. His opponent folded. Play online poker.
"If I had bet smaller, it would look like a value bet and I wouldn't have gotten paid off," James said. "I threw the one $10,000 chip in there because sometimes people are careless with one chip and forget the value of $10,000 in one chip."
PokerLizard.com; the number one poker interview site on the internet, announced several blockbuster interviews with top pros. The interviews include: Michael DeMichele -- the third place finisher of the 2006 United States Poker Championship Chad Brown -- Bluff Magazine's 2006 Player of the Year Brian Townsend aka Sbrugby -- Arguably the best online poker No-Limit player in the world aka Sbrugby Taylor Caby aka Green Plastic -- One of the top online players in the world also founder of Cardrunners.com Bryan Devonshire -- up and coming pro with World Series of Poker final table experience
Pokerlizard.com, the number one internet site for poker interviews, has announced their latest block buster interviews. The interviewees include:
* Michael DeMichele, the third place finisher at the 2006 United States Poker Championships and well-known cash pro. Michael discusses what it takes to be a pro, and how not all the best young players & women poker players come from online poker.
* Chad Brown -- The Bluff Magazine 2006 Player of the year discussed his unique ability to play all poker games well, not just Texas Hold'em. What it's like being in a relationship with another poker pro and he discusses why his new book will change your thinking about poker. Download poker wallpapers.
* Brian Townsend -- also known as sbrugby and aba20 online; Arguably the best online No-Limit player in the world, Brian discusses how his disciplined bankroll management has lead to his great success. In addition, he talks about the life of an online poker pro and the need for balance in life to keep poker from consuming you.
* Taylor Caby -- One of the top online pros in the world; known predominantly online as Green Plastic and Tay; Taylor talks about the importance of having a life away from poker; the pride in starting a business from scratch (cardrunners.com) and what a young player can do to improve their game and take it to the next level. Play route 66 poker.
* Bryan Devonshire -- up and coming poker pro and well known poker blogger on pokerpages.com; Bryan discusses the real poker lifestyle; what it was like being a prop player -- "The greatest job ever for a poker player" per Bryan, and the importance of treating poker like a "real" job. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"We plan on releasing these interviews over the next few weeks on PokerLizard.com," stated Lance Baker, Vice President of Marketing. "In fact, you can already read the Michael DeMichele interview today!"
It's time for poker players to go Dutch - and no, we don't mean splitting the tab for a date. PartyPoker.com has unveiled another televised poker event with the Dutch Open scheduled for filming Aug. 11-14. Play route 66 poker.
The tournament will bring together 36 top Dutch players in London to play for a €117,000 prize pool. Some of the players already slated for the event include Rob Hollink, Rolf Slotboom and Milly Uylenbroek.
Rob Hollink is best known for his first-place finish in the 2005 European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo. He was a successful poker player well before then, but the win thrust him into the poker spotlight.
Normally, winning a high-profile event like that would also bring in endorsement offers from all over, but Hollink has stayed fairly low profile instead.
Since then he's made the final table of a World Poker Tour event as well as cashed in several World Series of Poker events, including four during this year's WSOP. Download poker wallpapers.
Not only will he be playing in the Dutch Open, he has also signed on to provide commentary along with Frans Frederik.
Rolf "Aces" Slotboom is also heading into the Dutch Open after a successful season at the WSOP. The young Dutchman, who got into poker as a dealer during his college years in Amsterdam, cashed in four events at the 2007 WSOP.
His biggest live poker tournament cash to date is a fifth place finish in the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event of the 2006 Masters Classics of Poker in Amsterdam.
From Eindhoven, Milly Uylenbroek is a highly-regarded female player. While she hasn't been seen much yet on the major tournament circuit, she does have two recent cashes.
She made it to 25th place in the WSOP Ladies event and followed that up with a final-table appearance at one of the Bellagio Cup III's Nightly $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournaments. Play online poker.
"Dutch Playres are a major force in the poker world and this is a great way to showcase their talents," said a PartyPoker.com spokesman.
"We're delighted to be sponsoring this tournament, but we decided not to insist on orange felt on the table. After all, the orange and dark orange chips were the subject of a lot of debate at the WSOP. We're not sure if it's the favorite color of poker players other than Main Event winner Jerry Yang at the moment, even if the player is Dutch!"
Also signed up for the event are Tsai Chen and Peter Dalhuijsen. The tournament will also serve as a showcase for "Team Veronica Poker," a group of Dutch poker personalities, women poker pros and celebrities.
The buy-in for the tournament is €2,500, with the winner taking home a €50,000 chunk of the prize pool.
The event will be produced by Matchroom Sport and be broadcast later this year.
There are great poker truths presented in the documentary "No Limit," released on DVD this week. The problem is timing.
Inspired by Chris Moneymakers improbable World Series victory in 2003, "No Limit" tells the story of a high-strung "soccer mom" who embarks on an eight-month journey along the poker-tournament trail, pursuing a version of the American Dream.
The mom is Susan Genard, who also produced the independent film. She formulates a plan to save her company by playing in high-stakes events around the country, winning some money and documenting the adventure.
She convinces ex-husband Tim Rhys, who co-directed the film, to come along, and with their small child in tow, they're off to the Four Queens in Las Vegas, Foxwoods in Connecticut, the Commerce Casino and Bicycle Club in Los Angeles, then back to the Bellagio and the Horseshoe in Vegas. Play route 66 poker.
The poker scenes mostly devolve into a collection of bad-beat stories, but losing is part of the game, of course, and "No Limit" captures the disappointment and distress that accompany defeat.
Smartly interspersed throughout the film are clips of interviews with more than 40 top players. Their comments are matched with Genard's experiences, such as the thrill of competition, luck versus skill, women's role in poker and the impact on a player's family.
Some quotes resonate firmly.
"Everything in life pretty much parallels a card game. It's all about the people," said Bobby Baldwin, the 1978 World Series champ who now is president of Mirage Resorts. Baldwin compares dealing with people at the poker table to dealing with relationships in our business and personal lives.
Down-to-earth pro Kenna James strikes a chord with: "Poker is a microcosm of life. It will either educate you and you'll learn from it, or it will break you."
But stealing the show in "No Limit" was the late Puggy Pearson, who showed more spunk than anyone else in the film. Pearson, 1973's main-event champ, died last year at age 77.
"There are three things you must do to end up in the plus column," the exuberant Pearson explains. "One, know when you've got the best of it. Two, know how to money-manage. And three, most importantly, know how to control the human element, which is yourself." Online poker.
For every fresh and thoughtful player's comment, however, there was an all-too-familiar worn-out response. Thanks to television, we've already heard Phil Hellmuth brag about his WSOP bracelets, we're unimpressed when David "Devilfish" Ulliott darkly says poker's all about the money, and we've long known that Daniel Negreanu wants to crush every opponent. Download poker wallpapers.
Compare those attitudes to what Jerry Yang, a deeply religious social worker in California, said last week after winning the WSOP main event and $8.25 million: "I just can't explain the feelings inside me. I just thank my God. I can use this money to do a lot of good for people. There are more important things in life than poker."
How about a film on him?
I suppose "No Limit" had to include the expressions, "Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master," as well as, "Poker is one big long game, it's not about one day." But four years after poker boomed, we've now heard it all before. "No Limit" comes at us three years too late.
Timing also was a problem for Genard's poker adventure, as it turned out. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The buildup to her entering the $5,000 WSOP Omaha high-low championship became a bust for the film crew when new owner of Harrah's Entertainment banned their cameras from the tournament. Perhaps Harrah's unintentionally did Genard a favor because she had the journey's best finish.
Fischman Talks About the New Tournaments at PokerStars, Why He Doesn't Particularly Like the World Series, and About Breaking Into New Games
Scott "emptyseat88" Fischman is one of the few players whose name is truly revered on both the online poker and real-world poker felts. He's also one of the few players with the cojones to put up $10,300 on a 16-person heads-up tournament twice in as many weeks. This ex-poker dealer's patient playing style recently landed him a first-place finish in the relatively new PokerStars Super Tuesday tournament, a $1,000 buy-in tournament, which earned him $75,870. His live tournament winnings alone come to almost $1.9 million.
Fishman woke up at 6 p.m. on Saturday (no, that's not a typo), just in time to give Card Player an interview. He talked about the new tournaments on PokerStars, his general dislike of the World Series nowadays, and some strategies on getting started in non-hold'em games and on playing mid-pairs in hold'em:
Shawn Patrick Green: You recently won the Super Tuesday tournament on PokerStars. Which weekly $1K buy-in tournament do you like more, the Super Tuesday or the the $1K Monday on Full Tilt?
Scott 'emptyseat88' Fishman: I’ve been getting really, really accustomed to the Stars structures. They’ve recently changed all of their rebuy structures and pretty much all of their other tournament structures. They’ve added a couple of crucial levels: $500-$1,000, $2,500-$5,000, and so on. I don’t know, the new structure just really lends itself to my style of play a little more and I’m really excited about their recent changes.
SPG: What’s your playing style, specifically?
SF: It’s just a more patient, non-crapshoot style. Basically, their new structures have let us play a lot more at the end, when we’re playing for all of the money, as opposed to it being really crapshoot-y at the end, which it used to be. I like to play tight at the end; I’m not one of those guys that’s all in preflop all the time or reraising everyone else all in preflop. About a year or two ago, in order to win a PokerStars tournament you had to be … well, for instance, BeL0WaB0Ve [Kevin Saul] used to win every tournament because you’d have to be this totally super-super-loose-aggressive player at the end when you’re playing for all of the money. I don’t really like that.
SPG: What kind of strategy worked for you in that Super Tuesday tournament that you took down?
SF: In the Super Tuesday I was just really calm. I was always between like 20 and 30 big blinds. I never really had a monster stack; I was just really patient. Especially threehanded, I just remember playing really, really patiently. There was one guy [acidca] that was playing fantastically, he ended up getting second. He played really well five-, four-, and threehanded, and I just kind of waited and waited and he ended up knocking the other guy out in third. He had a huge chip lead on me, but I still had some room to play because of the new blinds structure.
I pulled up the new structure with the old structure at the same time, and in the old structure, the blinds would have been two and a half times larger when we were playing heads up, so it would have been impossible for me. So, instead of playing $3,000-$6,000 we would have been playing $8,000-$16,000. It would have been crazy. Download poker wallpapers.
SPG: What do you think of this new High Stakes Showdown weekly $10,000 buy-in heads-up tournament on PokerStars?
SF: I really like it, but it’s a shame that it’s all really good players. [laughing] They make it really tough.
SPG: So you’d be a proponent of PokerStars raising the player cap up from a maximum of 16 to try to get some more dead money in there?
SF: Yeah, well, I’d like to see some satellites. It was open to 32 players last week, but they didn’t have enough players sign up, and even if they did have enough sign up it would have been all super-good players & women poker players. And it’s really a tough tournament, being that there’s $10,000 in starting chips and the structure is the best heads-up tournament structure that you can possibly find anywhere. Anywhere. It’s better than all of the NBC [National] Heads-Up [Championship] tournaments that I’ve played, it’s better than the heads-up tournament at the Mirage [Poker Showdown], and it’s better than the heads-up tournament at the World Series. It’s literally 10 times better than any other heads-up tournament, and the problem with that is you’re playing against really good players. It just takes forever. On the first weekend that I played, I was up against AwwSnap for almost two hours. He ended up winning a coin-toss; he played really well. And then, last week I played against APerfectGent. We played a really long match again and he just played good poker, so it was tough. Play online poker.
SPG: How did the World Series of Poker treat you this year?
SF: I really didn’t like being down there. I think I played only 11 events, whereas last year I played like 35. I didn’t like the changes they made at all. The double-stacks, in particular. Basically, a lot of tournament directors believe that they need to give us more chips to keep us happy. That really means that they want to keep the amateurs happy. Only the amateurs complain that they don’t have enough chips to start with. As I pointed out earlier, the more chips you have at the beginning, the fewer chips you have at the end and the more of a crapshoot it is when you’re playing for all of the money. It makes it really difficult.
SPG: Well, not only that, but when they upped the starting chips they upped the blinds structure, as well, so it basically neutralized itself.
SF: Right, exactly. And they left it really, really, really crapshoot-y at the end. It was really bad this year. The $5K no-limit event I remember, specifically. I went down there because one of my buddies was the tournament director announcing the final table and it was the first one that was in that box [a sequestered tent; click here to read more about that] and was totally closed-off to the public. It was a $5K no-limit final table and it was over in an hour and 40 minutes, with breaks and everything. My buddy told me it took around 40 hands to finish, which is ridiculous. You cannot get any more ridiculous than that. It’s essentially the same as what’s going on with these WPT [World Poker Tour] tournaments. I remember seeing the Mirage WPT final table where the average stack was like 10 big blinds and they were playing for $1.5 million. It’s a joke. And that comes from them giving us a lot of chips to start the tournaments and things like that.
I really didn’t like the structures down there [at the World Series] and I didn’t like the fact that they had basically four poker tournaments running each day. It just makes total chaos and it was a really uncomfortable scenario. I was not happy at all. It was a total clusterf***.
SPG: What’s the significance of your screen name, other than the obvious? Is there any special significance to it?
SF: When I first started playing poker, I realized that I didn’t really want to be recognized at the table. I didn’t want to stand out. I didn’t want people playing extra close attention to me. I guess all that has kind of changed. [laughing] But that was the initial goal of the screen name, whereas it’s a little different than someone having “I’mGoingToF***ingKillYou” as their screen name, you know what I mean? They just want everyone to try to go after them. My screen name was more, “pretend I’m not here.”
SPG: I can see that. [laughing] Is no-limit hold’em your best game, or do you think you’re better at something else?
SF: It varies. I’m a really big fan of pot-limit Omaha, but we just don’t really get much of a chance to play it, and I’m not big on playing cash games that much. I really like a lot of the Omaha and I like a stud eight-or-better. I really do like all of the games, actually, but it’s kind of irrelevant because you have to focus on no-limit hold’em or you’re cutting out your bottom line. It would be kind of silly to log a lot of hours on anything but no-limit hold’em.
SPG: What kind of advice can you give to someone who’s trying to break into some of the non-hold’em games?
SF: I would say try one at a time. What I did when I was first starting out was if I was playing no-limit hold’em and I had a bad week, or three or four losing sessions in a row, and was getting irritated, I would go play stud for a change of pace. I would play stud until I lost three sessions in a row at that and then I would try Omaha eight-or-better until I lost three at that. By the time I got back to no-limit hold’em, I’d have a fresh approach and I wouldn’t really feel negatively about the game. That’s one of the biggest problems that people have as far as a losing streak or running bad. They keep playing the same game every day and just keep beating their heads in.
If you play some of these other games, it’s going to help your hold’em game, as well, because there are certain nuances from these other games that cross over to hold’em. So, you can really do yourself a big favor by learning these other games, anyway. Like, when I first started playing Omaha. It’s pretty obvious that you’re going to run into the nuts more often and you’re more afraid of big hands. So, when I switched back to hold’em, I was just a little more wary of big hands. I realized that people can make straight flushes and s*** like that. The nuances of the other games cross over very nicely.
SPG: So you don’t recommend that people jump straight into H.O.R.S.E., then, if they want to learn something new? (laughing)
SF: Right. [laughing] No, no, don’t jump straight into H.O.R.S.E. Take on the games one at a time. Make sure that you can focus on the little things, because it’s the little things that cross over in between each game that make you become better at all of them. And if you try and learn them all at once you’re not going to learn all of those small things.
SPG: What’s the one thing that, when you learned it, quickly brought your game to a new level? Whether it be a philosophy or a move or what have you.
SF: The one thing that I remember that actually changed me a lot was learning to stay even keel. Learning to not react heavily to a win as well as not reacting heavily to a loss. The more even keel you can stay, the better you’re going to be, overall.
SPG: Can you give any tips on playing medium pocket pairs like sixes to nines?
SF: My general rule of thumb when playing middle pairs is that I won’t play them at all if it’s for more than 8 percent of my stack and I try to limp and call a raise instead of raising myself. If you’re the first into the pot and you raise and then somebody reraises, you can’t call. It represents too much of your stack. But if you limp and somebody raises, you can call and try to flop a set.
SPG: Awesome. I appreciate you taking the time for this interview.
(Jul. 17) 7 p.m. -- It's down to four players at the final table of the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas.
The chip leader is Jerry Yang, a 39-year-old psychologist from Southern California who won the first two hands when play began after noon and has been riding a hot streak ever since.
He's vying against South African grandfather Raymond Rahme, Vietnamese Canadian Tuan Lam and Russian Alex Kravchenko for the $8.25 million top prize.
A field of more than 63,000 players & women poker players began tournament play on Jul. 6 at the Rio hotel-casino.
(Jul. 17) 2 p.m. -- The final event in the month-long World Series of Poker began Tuesday afternoon at the Rio. A group of relative unknowns are vying for the top prize of $8.2 million. One player's been eliminated. So it's now down to eight. Play is expected to continue into the night.
Poker pro Lee Watkinson and computer engineer Lee Childs became the second and third players eliminated Tuesday from the final table of the World Series of Poker, falling to a surging Jerry Yang in the tournament's main event.
Both Watkinson, a 40-year-old animal rights activist from Cheney, Wash., and Childs lost a head-to-head all-in bets against Yang, a 39-year-old psychologist from Temecula, Calif., who vaulted to first with 62.5 million chips before a mid-afternoon break. Download poker wallpapers.
"I was playing for the bracelet," Watkinson said after his hand of ace and seven lost to Yang's ace-nine. "I wasn't going for third, fourth or even second. I wanted to make a play and be a contender."
Childs a 35-year-old computer engineer from Reston, Va., won $705,229 for his seventh-place finish, and Watkinson earned $585,699 finishing eighth. Six players continued play for an $8.25 million top prize.
First to fall was Philip Hilm, a 31-year-old Dane who lives in England, who won $525,934 for his ninth-place finish after the day's 15th hand.
Childs, who quit his job a month ago to play poker for a living, said he thought his choice to go all-in against Yang was the right decision.
"My goal when I came in to the tournament was to trust my instincts, make the right decision and hopefully not get unlucky," he said. "I was that close to doubling up."
Childs needed a king or a club on the last card to match his king of hearts and jack of clubs, with the flop showing two clubs. Yang won when an eight of clubs came up on the turn to give him a pair of eights and Childs got no help when the river card was a nine of diamonds.
Yang, a Hmong psychologist who says he uses his read on players as a weapon, was among an eclectic group of finalists who include a grandfather from South Africa who vowed not to be bullied, and a Vietnamese Canadian who once couldn't get hired as a dishwasher but read through a bluff by former champ Scotty Nguyen on his way to the final table.
Play began shortly after noon and was expected to continue well into the night. The finalists ranged in age from 22 to 62, and hailed from five nations: the U.S., Canada, Russia, England and South Africa. By birthplace, players also were from Laos, Vietnam and Denmark.
"The final table says a lot about the globality of poker and the globality of our fans," said Jeffrey Pollack, World Series of Poker commissioner for event owner Harrah's Entertainment Inc.
Hilm's collapse was dramatic. He needed a win to stay alive, and bet his pot on a straight draw. With the king and jack of diamonds showing, Hilm needed a diamond to match his eight and five. The final, or river, card turned out to be a six of clubs.
Hilm had held a narrow lead as play began, with 22.1 million, followed by Tuan Lam, a 40-year-old online poker player from Mississauga, Ontario, with 21.3 million. Also near the top was Jon Kalmar, a 34-year-old pro from Chorly, England, with 20.3 million.
With the blinds and antes adding 630,000 in chips to the pot before every hand, however, one hand could change the order very quickly.
After an interview a confident Hilm gave three weeks ago, Danish newspaper, BT, published a headline on its rising star: "Philip Hilm: 'I'm going to win the main event."'
After busting out Tuesday, he said he was satisfied with his play.
"Of course I'm disappointed," he said. "But I feel I played the cards right. If I'd won that hand, it would have been him down, instead of me."
The nine players who began the day were all that remained from a field of 6,358 players that began to play down in stages July 6. Everyone paid or won $10,000 to enter the main event, the biggest poker tournament of the year.
The millionaire's club begins at fifth place, which pays $1.26 million. The winner will walk away with $8.25 million.
Each finalist brought a different set of tools to the table.
Yang said he used his professional training to pick up tells at the felt. Winning the day's first pot of 3.4 million chips after Kalmar folded brought him to 11.9 million. He also won the second pot.
"I spend a lot of time studying my opponents very carefully," he said. "I try to create a mental image of my opponents and use that as a weapon. If I have to fire big bets, I'll do it."
Raymond Rahme, a 62-year-old former bed and breakfast inn owner from Johannesburg, demonstrated his ability to make crucial calls against big-bet bluffs late Sunday, setting him up to start the day with 16.3 million. Play $500 match poker bonus.
"I won't let them intimidate me," Rahme said.
Watkinson's exit left Alex Kravchenko as the only one at the table with a World Series bracelet.
Watkinson won a pot-limit Omaha event last year, while Kravchenko, a 36-year-old businessman from Moscow, became the first Russian to win a bracelet with the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low event this year. They started the day with 9.9 million and 6.6 million in chips. Childs started with 13.2 million.
Hevad Khan, a 22-year-old Internet pro from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said he expected the action to be "very aggressive."
Khan has played as many as 43 tables of poker on the Internet at once, but said with 9.2 million in chips at the final table, he'd have to wait for the cards to come to him.
"I'm hoping that I get the decent rush of cards that I'll need to maintain a level of aggressiveness, so that I don't get run over by the table," he said. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
When trying to decide whether you have the best hand at the moment or might draw to it by the river, you need to compare the amount of the bet to the pot and the amount of that same bet to your stack.
