While the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the World Series of Poker has increased the visibility of mixed games, there are plenty of poker fans who only know about poker because of televised coverage, which has focused almost exclusively on No Limit Texas Hold'em.
As part of our coverage of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the WSOP, we're examining each game played in H.O.R.S.E., starting with Limit Hold'em on the first day of the five-day poker tournament and ending with Seven Card Stud Eight or Better on the tournament's final day. Play route 66 poker.
We talked to five players, each with a WSOP bracelet in a poker variation included in H.O.R.S.E., and they shared some wisdom on how to play the game and how it fits into the overall structure of a H.O.R.S.E. tournament. Download poker wallpapers.
Day Two: Omaha Hi-Low Eight or Better There aren't many people who are better at H.O.R.S.E. than T.J. Cloutier, and he passes our test in that he won a bracelet in Omaha Hi-Low. In fact, he's won bracelets in just about every game there is.
Cloutier owns six WSOP bracelets and is tied for the all-time record for final tables with Phil Hellmuth with 39. Cloutier's last final table came at last year's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.
CCT: Other than the basic rules and structure of the game, what is the first lesson a player should learn about Omaha Hi-Low?
T.J. Cloutier: You don't play any trap hands like 3-4-5-6 that look like they're going to be good low hands, but they're horrible and they're only going to get you in trouble.
CCT: What is the most common mistake that players & women poker players, even experienced players, make in Omaha Hi-Low?
T.J. Cloutier: When people play either all high hands or low hands that don't have any chance of winning the high end. Obviously the best hand is A-A-2-3 double suited, but where people make mistakes they get in there with hands like A-5-10-J and they think they have a hand because it's suited. They get in a lot of trouble with those kinds of hands.
CCT: Do you need to catch cards to play well in Omaha Hi-Low? Or can you chase people out of pots with well-timed bluffs?
T.J. Cloutier: No, that's not a stealing game. You've got to play decent hands and hit some flops. But that's only one-fifth of the game. The idea is that you don't get in there and lose a bunch of chips with hands that you shouldn't be in there with.
CCT: How important is Omaha Hi-Low in the overall structure of a H.O.R.S.E. tournament?
T.J. Cloutier: They're all the same. Every one has equal value. I don't like splitting pots. I'm one of these guys that likes to win it all. But most of the pots will be split. The key to the whole game is the pots you sweep where you get both ways, or there's only a high hand out there. You use the basic strategy and then you play tournament strategy. The whole idea behind H.O.R.S.E. is if you know how to play tournament strategy you can get (to the final table) if you hold any cards. Just don't make any stupid mistakes and play hands that you shouldn't play, like middle cards in Omaha Hi-Low.
Poker News: Last week Phil Hellmuth clinched a new World Series of Poker record when he became the first player ever to win 11 event bracelets , and this week he was on the hunt again for a crack at bracelet number 12 in event 28, the $3 000 No Limit Hold 'Em competition, and the chance to match TJ Cloutier's record of 39 final tables. Play Online Poker
Read Poker Blogs. Finishing sixth on the final table, and collecting a useful $76 464 for his efforts, Hellmuth set a new record for WSOP cashes at 60, matched TJ Cloutier's 39 final tables achievement...and still has plenty of opportunities to snag bracelet number 12 as the world's largest poker tournament passes the half way mark.
The poker ace was among 827 registered players at the start of event 28, a field that generated a prize-pool of $2 282 520 and guaranteed the winner a first prize reward of $527 829. Women Poker
Taking their seats at the tables, some a little late, were Erik Seidel, Andy Black, Jamie Gold, Joe Awada, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Kristy Gazes, Johnny Chan, Humberto Brenes, Josh Arieh, Evelyn Ng, Jeff Madsen, TJ Cloutier, Greg Raymer, John Gale, Victor Ramdin, Andy Bloch, Phil Laak and Jennifer Harman among a host of other keen competitors. poker tournaments
It wasn't long before several high profile names featured among the stream of eliminations. Taking the exit after the second round of play were J.J. Liu, Men 'The Master' Nguyen and Shannon Elizabeth. By the end of Day 1 less than ten percent of the starting field remained - among them the voluble Hellmuth and Day 2 saw all of them but 10 depart as the final table shaped up. women poker
The provision of ten seats rather than the usual nine came about on Monday to accommodate another potential record for Hellmuth, who stood to match TJ Cloutier's record of 39 WSOP final tables if he could win the ninth seat when play commenced. Hellmuth made it, securing his 39th final table position by eliminating Luke Vrable. $500 match poker bonus
Dustin Holmes was way ahead of the field on a chip count of 1 076 000 with Beth Shak, Brett Richey and Perry Friedman closely contesting for second lead on 740 000, 738 000 and 723 00 respectively. route 66 poker
Daniel Corbin was first man down, eliminated in position 9 when his K-9 missed the board and fell to Shankar Pillai's two pair. The eighth man out was Brett Richey who fell to Hellmuth, and he was followed by Perry Friedman at number 7, also to Hellmuth. But the poker ace was denied that 12th bracelet, at least in this game, when he was the next to exit, knocked out in sixth place by Shak.
Ben Fineman was the next and fifth place casualty, just making the big money with a pay check of $100 431 after clashing with Jason Song. $500 match poker bonus Down to four, and Dustin Holmes pushed back his chair and left after an exchange with Pillai where he drew out a wheel straight beginning with A-2 against Holmes' A-4. Leaving in position 4, Holmes pocketed $141 516 for his three days of work. Pillai was also responsible for the exit of Jason Song at position 3 with $212 274 in prize money when his Q-5 failed to draw against Pillai's pocket aces. full tilt poker
Heads up, it was Shankar Pillai against Beth Shak, with the latter having the edge in chips. Going into hand 148, Shak moved all in for 1 575 000 and after thinking about it for awhile Pillai called. The next cards decided the game and Shak was left with the second place and $328 683, whilst Pillai collected $527 829, the watch, the bracelet and the respect for winning against formidable opposition in both numbers and quality of player. poker news T.J Cloutier
Poker News: Phil Hellmuth now owns a piece of the entire WSOP Triple Crown His final table appearance in Event #28 moved him into a first-place tie for that mark, matching TJ Cloutier's 39. Cloutier was in attendance Tuesday to congratulate Hellmuth, who then told the crowd that "there is the world, and then there is me."Hellmuth needed to outlast just one player at Tuesday night's final table to tie the record. As usual, he showed up late, but it didn't matter because ESPN was there to capture the historic moment, delaying the start time. Play online Poker
The Poker Brat had an early scare on hand 18 after min-raising with pocket rockets then calling and all-in raise by big blind Brett Richey (7-4 offsuit). Phil Ivey, who was in the stands, offered Hellmuth insurance, agreeing to pay Hellmuth $90k if the Aces fell.The bet was for not, as Hellmuth doubled through Richey. Two hands later, Luke Vrable, the table's other short-stack, was eliminated holding pocket Nines versus Ben Fineman's pocket Queens, ensuring Hellmuth the record. Read Poker Blogs
Hellmuth held on for a couple more hours, benefiting from another pair of Aces in the hole. Hellmuth pushed and was called by two players, one with Aces and one with Kings. Hellmuth split the pot, adding valuable chips to his stack.He was eventually eliminated in sixth place by Beth Shak, there were no woman poker players to give him company too. He went all-in with the best hand pre-lop, holding A-10s versus K-Qs, but a King sealed his fate and prevented a further run towards 12 bracelets. Download Poker Wallpapers
Hellmuth earned $76,464, minus an undisclosed amount he lost in side bets with Ivey.The final-table-appearance record was the last jewel in Hellmuth's Triple Crown bid. He moved into sole possession of first place in the bracelets won catergory earlier this summer by winning his eleventh title. And he already held the most WSO Poker tournament cashes thanks to ten cashes in the last two years. Tuesday's poker tournament was Hellmuth's 60th cash. women poker T.J. Cloutier
After 25 years in the FBI chasing spies and other bad guys, Joe Navarro prowls in the dimly lit poker room at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino the way Dian Fossey roamed a gorilla habitat.
Unobtrusive, so as not to affect their behavior, Navarro eyes clusters of players hunched over green felt, clinking their chips, sliding their cards, strategizing.
The former fed's highly developed expertise in translating body language has turned into a hot commodity in the gritty world of gambling, where a book he recently co-wrote is in high demand and his seminars are commended by the pros.
The casino is a living laboratory, a place for Navarro to study and immediately know whether his hypotheses are correct.
"Like right now, there's a guy all the way at the end, and his feet are jittery," Navarro says, pointing to someone sitting at a game table across the room. "He's excited about something. … He just put some chips in. He's probably got a great hand because he's got happy feet. … His posture just changed. He just elevated his posture. He's really excited about something. The question is, does somebody have a better hand?"
It's a long way from the days when national security or the ability to assemble a criminal case might be riding on Navarro's assessment of whether a suspect was lying.
"This fellow here with the yellow shirt, right there, he's leaning away," Navarro says, pointing to someone else. "When he has a great hand, he leans forward. When he's weak, he just goes upright or he pulls away. He's very easy to tell."
To Navarro, 54, it's not a big leap from law enforcement to poker. In both realms, reading people is paramount to success.
"Now there's a guy who just folded, and before he folded, he had his thumb in his pockets," Navarro says about another player. "Thumbs in the pocket is a low-confidence display. You don't want to do it in the business world."
Black Book
When he's between gigs teaching corporate executives or FBI recruits about body language, Navarro likes to visit the casino and stand at the railing at the edge of the poker room, watching, sometimes for hours.
But Navarro doesn't gamble. He grew up in a family of immigrants; they fled Cuba in 1961 when he was 8. Money was so tight his father walked miles to work to save the bus fare that could buy a quart of milk. Gambling, he says, just wasn't done.
"I like the social aspects of poker," he says. "I think it's great that it brings people together and they're not in front of a TV and they're not in front of a computer. I love that they get together and they socialize and they tell stories. From that perspective, I enjoy it, but … it doesn't have the attraction to me of, say, going flying, which I enjoy, kayaking or something like that."
Still, he keeps a black book of notes, including his observations on the "tells" - body movements that betray emotions - of some well-known players.
He says someone once offered him $50,000 for his notebook.
"There's a lot of crazy money in poker," Navarro says.
But he isn't tempted to use his skills to play for high stakes, he says.
"Even if you read a person just right, on the final card - it's called the river - it could change everything 180 degrees," he says. "So no matter how well you read somebody, no matter how accurate you're doing, it's still gambling. … Every professional player will tell you that as good as they are, at some point, they've been bankrupt; they've lost it all. And you just can't live like that."
While the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament at the World Series of Poker has increased the visibility of mixed games, there are plenty of poker fans who only know about poker because of televised coverage, which has focused almost exclusively on No Limit Texas Hold'em.
