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“You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run…” says an old song of Kenny Rogers regarding gambling in general and poker in particular. The last two phrases stress out the importance of withdrawing from a poker game at the right time.
Indeed, knowing when to go away from a poker table is essential for maximizing your winnings and minimizing your losses. When you play poker for money and are interested in winning, you focus all your energy and emotion on the game but you can’t maintain this intense effort for long. After a while, you will start feeling tired and sliding down both physically and psychologically. What will you do then?

This is why it is really important to have a feel for the right time to exit the game, depending either on your physical drain or how is your luck. A good player knows when it’s time for him to leave the table while an amateur would just continue playing hoping for an improvement which is impossible to happen given his physical or mental fatigue. Of course, this skill is acquired along the way if you play many games of poker.

In time, you will come to know your own game of poker with its strengths and weaknesses and be able to better assess your situation at any point, thus finding more easily the right moment to leave the table. Amateurs often make the mistake of leaving the game only when they have run out of money or when everyone else has already left the table. Quitting is indeed a fine skill you should acquire to grow as a player.

Don’t quit if you’re on a roll, though! This would just limit your winnings. If you feel that luck is on your side and you are on top, you should take advantage of that moment. Feeling powerful and confident can help you win even more and, even though there are instances when you lose, you shouldn’t quit because your state of mind will get you through.

The best times for you to leave the game are those when you make lots of unexplainable mistakes, that you don’t usually make, or those when you feel too tired. If you start making too many mistakes and these affect you emotionally you should get out of the game because you risk going down a negative spiral. Furthermore, if you are tired you will not be able to concentrate and start losing.

Poker, being a game a concentration and patience, you will perform better if your are physically and psychologically relaxed and fresh. Breaks are extremely useful in providing you with new energy.

Developing your own quitting strategy is essential for protecting wisely your bankroll and you will see the results in time.

A great poker player of our days, Robert Williamson III, considers that “poker’s a day to learn and a lifetime to master“. You may think that this is more of an exaggeration given that poker implies 52 cards and 9 strictly hierarchic possible combinations of winning. It is true that poker theory nowadays has developed so much that all the books written on this topic can fill up entire shelves in your library but why does Williamson think that you need a lifetime to master this game?

Well, the answer is quite simple and it lies in today’s competition which is so fierce that simply knowing the theory of poker is no longer enough .Nowadays, a player needs something more in order to succeed and earn enough money from poker. When poker was just making its entrance as a professional game back in the 70’s, players that you have surely heard of such as Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese and David Sklansky were more successful than nowadays. That’s because they were educated people ( Reese was an Economics graduate, Sklansky had already a reputation as a backgammon player) and knew the mathematical basis of the poker game. Back then, mathematical probabilities gave them a huge advantage against most other players who were uneducated or playing for fun.

Since today almost every player is familiar with the poker mathematics, this is no longer such an important differentiating factor. So what is the element that can help you become a big winner nowadays? It depends. Each player must bring their unique skills to the poker table and make the most out of them. Tom Dwan uses a style that combines smart aggression with a lack of respect for money (which is just an appearance) that gives good results for him. Daniel Negreanu is an excellent reader, a skill acquired after years of playing and observing his opponents, which allows him to distinguish more easily between real hands and bluffs. I personally believe that a good tactic is to ride the weak opponent and annihilate his aggression.

Online poker sites can fell victim to all kind of incidents and PokerStars is no exception, even though it is such a high calibre site. Scams and collusion plots used to occur in the past but PokerStars has taken measures to prevent them. The other type of incidents occasionally encountered beside machinations are technical problems, the most recent one occurring two days ago.

A bug at the loyalty programme made it possible for players to buy stellar VIP rewards no limit. In fact for every loyalty point (FPP) they were paid 10 euros. Therefore, if a Bronzestar player had 500 FPP he could convert them into 5000 euros. Immediately, most players who became aware of this fact have turned their points into thousands of dollars and moved from the micro-limit tables to the high-stake tables. A record number of 28 NL1000 tables were active that Thursday evening on PokerStars which was very unusual. So many high-limit tables indicated that something was wrong with the site.

After just 30 minutes the bug was detected and a few minutes later all cash game tables were closed temporarily. In the next 2 hours the problem was fixed and PokerStars managed to recuperate the sums from the players that took advantage of the bug. Luckily, there weren’t so many of them.

Following major collusion issues with Chinese players at the sit-and-go tournaments, PokerStars has recently taken measures to prevent this form of cheating from happening at the any ring game table. More precisely, no Chinese player will be allowed to play at a table where another Chinese is already seated.

This PokerStars restriction is the second one that imposes restrictions on Chinese players. The first one was taken in summer in response to a massive collusion ring based in China that rocked the PokerStars site at its “Double or Nothing” SNGs. The consequences of this large-scale cheating manoeuvre were $2.1 million offered by PokerStars in compensation to the victims of the collusion.

Though no other collusion issues or associated refunding packages were reported lately, it is assumed that some small-scale collusion instances have determined PokerStars to take this second measure.

PokerStars made public the following statement in regards to the change:

“PokerStars.com has introduced a new security feature that prevents players from certain countries playing at the same ring game table.”

“This restriction means that only one player from each of these countries is able to play at the same ring game table. You are able to play at any ring game table you wish but once you are seated no other player from your country will be able to join the table. Similarly, if another player from your country is seated, you will be unable to join that table until they leave.

“We regret the inconvenience that this has caused you but this policy has been implemented to enhance the integrity of the games.”

2010 was Daniel Negreanu’s probably the worst year in terms of winnings since 2001 and EPT Vienna seemed came as the perfect occasion for him to turn around the wheel of luck. Unfortunately, although he has been chip leader from the beginning until the end of this event, Negreanu fell short of winning at the final table.

Daniel entered the final table of 2010 European Poker Tour Vienna Main Event possessing over 5 million chips, that is more than a quarter of the chips in play. His excellent position was not to resist much though. Once he entered a pot against Luca Cainelli and Martin Hruby, things started to go bad for him.

The board showed Ks 8h 5h 9s with all their money going into the pot. The three players held the following hands:
Negreanu: Kd 9d (two pair)
Hruby: 7c 6d (straight)
Cainelli: As Ad (one pair)

When the river brought 5c, Cainelli exited the table on 5^th place, Negreanu’s chip stack was badly crippled while Hruby became the chip leader with almost 10.8 million. Negreanu managed to double up his modest 2.6 million stack, but soon he was defeated by Hruby and exited the table on the fourth position. He pocketed €175,000 for ending fourth, a small sum in comparison to his previous winnings.

Hruby eliminated his next opponent, Konstantinos Nanos, who exited 3rd. In the end, the heads-up was played between Hruby, who had a large amount of chips, against the young German Michael Eiler who has ridden on a short chip stack all along the EPT Vienna. Eiler put on a good show and managed to take the lead when he held AJ against Hruby’s A3 in a palpitating all-in confrontation.

In the final hand, the two put all their money in the pot before the flop was shown. Eiler held Ad Td and Hruby 2c 2h. When the flop was revealed, Eiler became the happy possessor of €700,000 and of the European Poker Tour title. Hruby received €470,000 for 2^nd place.

Below are the final table’s results:
1. Michael Eiler, Germany, €700,000
2. Martin Hruby, Czech Republic, €470,000
3. Konstantinos Nanos, Greece, €265,000
4. Daniel Negreanu, Canada, €175,000
5. Luca Cainelli, Italy, €140,000
6. Andreas Wiese, Germany, €105,000
7. Matthias Lotze, Germany, €76,000
8. Bruno Launais, France, €60,000

This was Eiler’s most important win in a live event. His previous significant success was at a Sunday Million tournament on PokerStars, when he won $260,000.

Scott Montgomery was recently robbed in one of the most famous and luxurious casinos in Las vegas, Bellagio. He was there to play in the Festa al Lago preliminary event, part of the WPT season 8. When he took a small break to go to the bathroom a man threatened him with a knife, demanding money.

Montgomery mentioned this incident on his Twitter account:

“Got mugged today at Bellagio. Black guy pulled a knife on me in the restroom. I gave him the $2k in my wallet and he left.”

“I called security, but they took like 15 mins so they didn’t catch him. They are useless twits. Didn’t even ask me to look at camera footage,” Montgomery continued. “Security pretty much just said oh well, life sucks, have a nice day. I’m pretty annoyed.”

This sort of events have happened before at Bellagio. Six years ago, Greg Raymer, winner of the 2004 WSOP main event, was assaulted by a group of persons who wanted to force him to go back to his room where they could rob him. Luckily, nothing happened in the end as the attackers had to abandon their plan and they were caught and arrested six months later.

Coming back to Scott Montgomery’s case, it is possible that he is more frustrated with the security’s unprofessional response to the whole situation rather than with the amount of money lost in the robbery. How much can $2000 signify when you have won $4.1 million in live poker tournaments since 2008?

Event no 4 at WSOPE 2010 has just began. Before the commencement of the event, the tour organizers have expressed their worries concerning low attendance at this £10,350 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up. They would have been content to welcome even 64 participants as pessimistic voices speculated that only 50 players would participate in this competition.

In the end, 103 players have announced their attendance at the first edition of this High Roller where the prize pool is over £1 million and the winner is guaranteed to pocket £288,409.

Today, 32 players returned to the poker tables. Phil Ivey succeeded in eliminating two of his most serious and dangerous adversaries, namely Sam Trickett and Eric Sagstrom. Mike Matusow performed well against Sam Stein only to be eliminated by Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies in the second round. Other Full Tilt pros have also fallen victims in Day 1 of the event: Erik Seidel (1st round), Andy Bloch (1st round), Tom Dwan (2nd round), Chris Ferguson (2nd round) and John Juanda (2nd round). Jason Mercier, who hasn’t slept after his victory at WCOOP, was also eliminated.

The two British successful players, Neil Channing et Chris Moorman had again a spectacular evolution so we will see them in action on Day 2. Similar evolutions had Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen and Howard Lederer.

Today, the four semi-finals will be settled among the remaining competitors.

One of the most extravagant poker tours, the International Poker Players Association Championship (IPPAC), will take place between November 29 and December 2 in Monaco at Monte Carlo.

To make an impression of how extravagant this event is, let me just say that IPPAC will have a buy-in of $250,000, a prizepool of $12,000,000 and only 48 players to dispute all this money. It is a High Roller meant to satisfy all those with a taste for fierce competition and for ultrahigh stakes. The winner will leave from Monaco $5 millions richer. If you are a poker fan you can get the thrills of IPPAC by watching it live on TV.

Players will have the chance to qualify for the competition via a new type of satellite called Equity Rebuy Shootout where buy-ins are only $1000. “Anyone and everyone can qualify for as little as $1,000 at selected venues and have an opportunity to win the $5 million first-place prize by beating only 12 players” they explain on the IPPAC website. The purpose of such a complex and high stakes tour is to make poker masters shine and play superior quality poker.

Event: No Limit Hold-em Shootout

Location: Monte Carlo, Monaco

Field: 48 players

Buy-in: $250,000

1st Place: $5 million

13 players are already registered for the event : brothers Mizrachi Michael and Robert, Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, world champions Huck Seed and Johnny Chan, WPT winners Gus Hansen (3 WPT) in search for liquidity after a hard month, John Hennigan and Bruno Fitoussi Freddie Deeb, Tony G, Allen Cunningham (4 WSOP bracelets).

The classical ‘poker face’ is the blank expression that poker players put on their faces to block the competition from knowing what is going on inside them. They may feel a rush of emotions triggered by a good hand or by bluffing and they use the poker face to not let these emotions show. However, according to recent research, the ‘poker face’ may not be such a good strategy. In fact, a friendly attitude seems to be more effective as proved by a study carried out by Erik Schlicht, a cognitive scientist.

The subjects who participated in the study were asked to play Texas Hold’em against a computer that displayed various facial expressions. Each time the computer raised, it would also show a facial expression. Schlicht saw that players folded more easily when a welcoming face was displayed instead of a stoned one. His observation was: “What we found was that they thought longer when the computer screen showed a trustworthy face, and that they were more likely to fold”.

“Surprisingly, we find that threatening face information has little influence on wagering behavior, but faces relaying positive emotional characteristics impact peoples’ decisions. People took significantly longer and made more mistakes against emotionally positive opponents,” added Schlicht. “According to these results, the best ‘poker face’ for bluffing may not be a neutral face, but rather a face that contains emotional correlates of trustworthiness.”

This study is not supposed to set up a new poker playing technique but rather to examine how people analyse risk or use opponent information in order to make decisions, in real life situations such as playing poker. His results are both practical and surprising.

Theoretically, why not? Sure, there is a great spirit of competition and a large amount of strategy in the poker game, but the lack of physical effort (does sitting down on a chair count? )together with the presence of a luck factor will for sure not permit to make poker an Olympic sport.
However, with all the craziness surrounding the Beijing Olympic Games nowadays, numerous discussions determined the rage on the most famous canvas forums, in order to determine which nation excels in the matter. As one can imagine, all of the discussions are somehow oriented towards the USA virtual team. This appears to be the undisputed team of TonyG Poker and which indisputable provides the best players in both online and live games. Is it the fact that it represents the largest poker community to be considered the big favourite?
There is a certainty that the United States are the home of some of the best players of the world, but the Olympics generate such a competitive spirit that no one could really place himself at the nationality of the great winner. However, among the favourite nations, one can bet on the competitive spirit of Great Britain, which has three victories in its records, during the last three editions of Party Poker Nations Cup. During their three appearances, GreaBritain has beaten such teams as the United States, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. Therefore, it has built a great record during these recent years.
To talk about the other side of the coin, in any Olympic competition there is always a participant who receives a wild card. It is the genre of the competitor with a special temperament, which will create a surprise against all odds. This is the case of a team of Scandinavian origins. The aggressive side and their unpredictable style would be enough to battle the American supremacy and against best players in the world. Behind the United States, there are first rank nations such like Australia, Canada, Russia. So, when we talk about the Olympics, we can discuss diversity.
One can imagine players who will participate in their own poker disciplines, such as No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Seven Card Stud or Limit Hold’em. In the same manner as the shootout, heads up or short handed tournaments, other tests can be trained. Then, just like the image of the Decathlon, the nation to win the highest number of points could be offered a laurel wreath, a gold medal and the privilege of hearing the national anthem sound of their country in the poker room.
Perhaps this idea will spring in a broad daylight and that we will be happy to read the officials of the International Olpympic Comitee announcing the entrance of poker games among the Olympics official games.