Poker & CasinoGambling news

by Steve Paul-Ambrose

Often when playing poker you’ll instinctively know that a given raise, call or fold is right and make it. That’s an important skill, but often not knowing why can get you in trouble. A good example of this: in the ante stage of a tournament, it folds to you on the button. You look down at 72o and you make a raise. Now your reasoning for this raise is likely “the blinds are tight, I can win the blinds and antes most of the time” and you’d often be right to an extent. But it’s still instructive to look at why you can raise any two cards, and particularly how that impacts your decisions when your raise doesn’t win the blinds.

Generally in this spot between the antes and the blinds the pot will be 2.5x the big blind, and your raise size will be about the same. So for a raise to show an immediate profit, it has to work 50% of the time. Looking at it individually, if your opponents each play 30% of their hands, your raise will work .7*.7=49% of the time. So if you think they’re looser than that, your raise is likely not best. So now your reasoning for the raise might look more like: “I think the blinds are tight and will each only play 20% of their hands. My raise will work more than 50% of the time, so I will raise.” Great. The problem for most people comes when their opponents call (we’ll ignore when they reraise because I think we can all agree that you should just fold your 72o when that happens).

For most people when their raise gets called and their opponent checks, they put out a continuation bet. They showed strength preflop and the only way to win is to bet right? I’d say that’s wrong for two reasons. First, your opponent, not you, is the one who showed real strength preflop, by calling he’s narrowed his range from a random hand to a hand in the top 20%. You on the other hand raised with 72o so raising isn’t exactly showing that you have a stronger than random hand. Secondly, we’ve determined that the preflop raise shows a profit. It’s a lot harder to demonstrate that a continuation bet will, particularly when we know that our opponent has a stronger than normal hand. So in other words, betting is the only way we can lose by turning our profitable preflop raise into a potentially unprofitable situation by continuing to try to win the pot when our opponent has shown strength.

Now that’s not to say you should never continuation bet after raising 72o there. Just before you do, you should understand why, and why you raised preflop in the first place.

Like us, you might be wondering what Joe Cada’s life has been like since he made an improbable comeback at the World Series of Poker final table, won the Main Event, and subsequently joined the elite ranks of Team PokerStars Pro.

Frankly, that should be enough for one year, no?

Cada is making the most of his time right now, apparently. We’ve got advance word we should expect to see him at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in a few weeks. He’s been making the rounds on Letterman, CNN, FOX and the like.

Now, he’s back over in Bristol with our good friends from ESPN’s Inside Deal.

Check out the newest episode of the show below.

And just in case you have forgotten what got Cada this far…here’s what he looked like about five weeks ago.

Ok.. so obviously they all want to win the main event.. and the $25k high roller if they can squeeze that in as well. But what else are members of Team PokerStars Pro eyeing up on the PCA schedule? It’s not like there’s a shortage of events going on – in fact, there’s more than 50 during the PCA festival, ranging from heads-up to Badugi, High Roller to the 8-game championship, MTT online tournaments to Triple Stud – a veritable smorgasbord of poker entertainment to keep everyone well off the beaches and firmly lodged in the Atlantis poker room.

Perhaps predictably, some of the team have their eyes set on events they’ve already won before – going for that elusive double title – while others are looking forward to the chance to compete live – often for the very first time – in poker variants which mirror their online favourites.

Canadian poker legend Daniel Negreanu is relishing the prospect of the $5k 8-game Championship – a game which rewards those with a broad range of skills. He said: “PokerStars is the home of the 8-game mix, the only poker site to offer it online, and I pride myself on being a well-rounded player.” Who else fancies the 8-game? Well, both Luca Pagano and Greg Raymer for starters.. as Luca admitted: “The skill factor is very high in 8-game and, for pro players, there’s always a lot of excitement around these games.”

For German Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater, the PCA will provide her with a unique chance to sample Badugi and 2-7 Mix in a live setting. She frequently plays the games online and is looking forward to transferring what she’s learned. She won’t be alone; fellow team member and former world champion Greg Raymer is also eyeing up the January 6 event. Greg loves both games and, with neither game that common yet, looks forward to finding inexperienced opponents.

Greg also aims to compete in the $1k triple stud tournament. He said: “Looking back over my entire tournament poker career, I’ve probably done best in stud tournaments. I always enjoy razz and Stud 8 is definitely my favorite form of poker overall.”

Swedish Pro William Thorson will be launching an assault on all the big buy-in Omaha tournaments such as the $5k No Limit, $5k PLO and $2k PLO heads-up while Hevad Khan will be playing the PCA $2k NLHE side event .. why? because he won it last year of course.

The $2k Battleship Multi Tabling Championship is what’s tempting EPT3 Grand Final winner Gavin Griffin. He said: “This is a tournament you won’t find anywhere else and it should be exciting both to watch and play in.”

World champion Joe Cada and EPT4 San Remo winner Jason Mercier have both already chosen their partners for the first ever live PokerStars Tag Team event. Joe is joining forces with his friend Tony Gargano for the $2k event – in which one team member plays Pot Limit Hold’em and the other PLO – while Jason is teaming up with online pro Christian “charder” Harder. Jason said: “This will be the first time anyone has ran a tournament like this and we are both very excited about it.”

But for many of the team, it’s the heads-up which is creating the most excitement. PokerStars has never hosted live heads-up tournaments before but PCA players will have not just a variety of buy-ins to choose from ($5k, $2k and $1k) but both NLHE and PLO as well.

Who’s up for heads-up? Well, Vanessa Rousso (great heads-up track record) is expecting to do well, heads-up mavericks Johnny Lodden and Dario Minieri are definitely on for it and so is EPT3 London winner Vicky Coren .. although Vicky’s motives are not 100% poker-related as she’s worked out that playing Heads-Up means she might also have time for the beach. She said: “said: “Intense one-on-one poker action for a few hours, then an afternoon in the sea; that’s what I call a holiday.”

For more info on the PCA, please visit our special PCA website. Satellites are running right up until December 27th.

Poker down under is back.

This week, PokerStars announced it will be bringing back the most popular poker tour to ever hit Australasia. The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) has just announced the first six events of its Season 2 schedule with stops confirmed in every mainland state of Australia. Even better, organizers expect to add more tournaments to the schedule in the coming months.

Season 2’s first event will kick off in Adelaide, South Australia February 9-14, 2010 at the SKYCITY Adelaide Casino. This will come just one year after PokerStars launched the inaugural season of the ANZPT. Overnight, it became the region’s most popular poker tour. In all, Season 1 saw 1,309 players battle for $2,982,196 in prize money.

For a full look at where Season 2 will take players in the coming year, check out the ANZPT Season 2 schedule.

Season 2 will also bring back the popular ANZPT leaderboard race. In Season 1, Team PokerStars Pro Australia player Tony Hachem put on a consistent and brilliant performance to take down the points championship.The win earned him a seat in every APPT event and the Aussie Million in the coming year. Runner-up Chris Levick won entry into every Season 2 ANZPT tournament. Third place Joel Dodd picked up $10,500 in tournament entries.

PokerStars will run twice nightly freerolls from Monday to Saturday each week in the lead up to the ANZPT Season 2 kick off in February. The top players in the freerolls will get a seat in the weekly Sunday Stage 2 final. The top ten from each Sunday final will then go on to play for a package to ANZPT Adelaide.

For more information on the tour, see AZNPT.com.

Welcome to “Things You Don’t Know About the UKIPT!”

In all fairness, there is probably a decent chance you didn’t know the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) even existed before this past week. That’s when you might have seen the PokerStars Blog’s live coverage of the very first event from Galway, Ireland.

The UKIPT is a bold new experiment in poker tours. It looks just like every other tour you’ve ever heard about. It has live tournament coverage, top players from around the region, and some big money on the line. What’s different is players can get in for a fraction of the big tourney buy-ins you might find on another tour.

Just a few days ago, legendary Irishman Padraig Parkinson won the very first event and €125,000.

So, yes, you might have know all that. But, here are some things you might not know.

Honestly, these were things about the UKIPT that even we didn’t know until about twenty minutes ago when we watched our first episode of “On Tour” with top presenter Nick Wealthall (if that is, indeed, his real name…).

In the episode below, see Wealthall tinkle on the the piano and pull a Guinness from a very special place; a bunch of Irishman playing cards in their local; an interview with Parkinson in his element; a chat with the PokerStars Blog’s own Rick Dacey; a couple of mostly naked men getting massages; and more!

Padraig Parkinson wins the UKIPT Galway!
Ladies and gentlemen, sharks and fish, hometown hero Padraig Parkinson has won the inaugural UKIPT Galway scooping an enormous €125,000 as well as bagging a bonus £5,000 seat into the EPT London. Parkinson, who was born just down the road in Galway, beat Paul Marrow in a short but entertaining heads up session. Chip stacks were fairly even going into the heads up but the ensuing battle always looked like it was going to be short lived. After a few small pots either way it wasn’t long before the pair got it in for a classic race with Parkinson’s AQ getting there against Marrow’s pocket sixes. The loss crushed most of Marrow’s stack, but not his spirit, and the Brit kept shoving, winning a double up with [js] [qs] before Parkinson knocked out his good friend with [kh] [qh] against Marrow’s [2c] [5h].

The ensuing winner’s presentation was an emotional affair with runner up Paul Marrow welling up and saying that even though he really wanted to win the heads up he wanted Parkinson to be Irish champion just as much. Parkinson, who is never one to be short for word, said, ‘I was born just down the road so I can’t believe that I won it. If anyone wants a drink, I’m buying!’

It was a great final table with a fascinating mix of old school and new school. PokerStars qualifiers Ben ‘Chong94′ Lefew and Michael ‘BIGMICKG’ Graydon played some great poker and could have gone all the way if the cards have played out differently and a little thought has to be spared for PokerStars player Michael McFadden who got it all-in with Aces against Marrow’s QT and lost a huge tournament changing pot. The action came so thick and fast in the opening levels that it seemed that a winner could be crowned within the hour but inevitably the knockouts started to slow. Parkinson played a cagey game at the start of the final table leaving it to the short stacks, Ben Lefew and Paul Marrow to get their chips in before ramping up the aggression towards the later stages showing experience can get you a long way.

Parkinson’s win was enthusiastically greeted by the home crowd with notables players such as Nicky Power cheering on from the sidelines. Celebrations are expected to run long, long into the night. If it is indeed possible to drink Galway dry of Guinness it’s likely to happen tonight!

Watch UKIPT GALWAY: Padraig Parkinson UKIPT Galway Winner!! on PokerStars.tv

The next stop of the UKIPT tour is in Manchester February 11-14, 2010.

UKIPT Galway payouts

1. Padraig Parkinson €125,000 (+£5,000 EPT qualifier)
2. Paul Marrow €82,000
3. Ben Lefew €52,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
4. Michael Graydon €36,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
5. Michael McFadgen €22,000 (PokerStars player)
6. Paul Dooley €17,000
7. Vinny Cosgrove €13,000
8. Cat O’Neill €11,000
9. Trevor Bulless €9,000

Catch up on all the action as it happened and all 36 money spots:

The money ladder

Level 25&26
Level 23&24
Level 21&22
Final table ready to kick off
Yes, we can!
Level 20&21
Level 18&19
Level 16&17
Money ladder madness
End of day 2 wrap
Level 14&15
Level 12&13
Level 10&11
Level 8&9
Another day dawns
Level 7 to close of play
Level 5&6
Level 3&4
Level 1&2
A new tour is born

Photos by Mickey May

The Italian Poker Tour has a new champion in San Remo.

This past weekend, Italy’s Alessio Isaia outlasted the ten-hour final table to collect the trophy and €140,000.

At just 23 years old, Isaia already has four years of live poker experience behind him. In his short poker career, he’s managed to earn $600,000 and sit at two WSOP final tables.

Isaia went head to head with PokerStars.it player Alioscia Oliva for nearly three hours before finally getting [10c] [Ac] all-in against Oliva’s [5h] [9h]. The board ran out [Jd][8h][Kd][7s][4s] and Isaia claimed his championship.

PokerStars player Alioscia Oliva takes home a respectable €93,000 for the runner-up finish.

The next IPT event we will head back to Venice for IPT Venice January 14th-18th, 2010.

It’s hard to be original these days. With so many people out there actively trying to be unique, most folks end up failing or copying their fellow aspirants-to-originality.

And so, it’s always nice when we spend our Tuesday mornings wading through the vast resource of internet videos and find something that makes us say, “Well, we haven’t seen that before.”

And so is this case on today’s Weekly Dose where we can present you with…several grown men in diapers.

What you see there is a screen capture from James Wheeler’s entry into the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge. You might remember, PokerStars, Fox Sports, and Daniel Negreanu are running this little show that requires online qualifiers to send in an audition video. Many of the videos are about what you’d expect. There are a few, however, that stand out for their originality.

The one below from James “jameswbreez” Wheeler, an Army base firefighter, is one of the latter.

Here’s one of the best audition videos we’ve found so far this week.

While we’re on the topic of televised poker, he’s one you might not have seen before. They call it the Bounty Stars of Poker. It’s amateurs versus pros and…a mystery guest!

Bounty Stars of Poker is a program out of the UK and looks to have some pretty big-name sports stars in the mix.

We found the episode below on the venerable PokerStars.tv.

And while we’re on the topic of PokerStars.tv, the online video portal is back with another episode of the Online Poker Show.

This week brings us the PokerStars Sunday Million and this week’s final table. This episode was made for the small screen. It has the stars (and a Team PokerStars Pro) built right in.

Check it out below.