World Series of Poker 2010

[JasonEvans]

The series has been going on for a couple weeks now with bracelet events. Several big-name pros are doing well.

Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi won the brand new Poker Players Championship, an event unveiled this year to replace the $50k HORSE event of year's past. It featured 8 different games and was at the very beginning of the Series. Mizrachi's win was especially notable because his brother, Robert, also made the final table (he finished 5th). The Grinder won a cool $1.5 million... not bad!

Men "The Master" Nguyen won the 7-Card Stud World Championship. Other "name" pros to win events have been Dutch Boyd, Eric Buchman, John Barch, and Sammy Farha (noted as the guy who lost to Moneymaker a few years back).

And then the biggest pro of them all took down the $3000 HORSE event just last night. Phil Ivey took down his 8th career bracelet -- only Phil Helmuth, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and the late Johnny Moss have won more. Did I mention that Ivey is only 33 years old? He says he expects to win 30 bracelets before he is done. He is truly the Tiger Woods of Poker (minus the scandal -- we hope).

When Ivey won, they presented him with his $329,000 in winnings and he did not even blink. All he cared about was the bracelet. The money truly means nothing to him. Want to know why? Beacuse the REAL MONEY is all his massive side bets with other pros. Ivey reportedly made more than $10 million in bets with prominent pros that he could win 2 bracelets in the 2010 and 2011 World Series. With this series not even done yet, he already has one. He made a $5 million bet with Howard Lederer on this and after Ivey won the HORSE bracelet last night, Lederer tweeted, "Gulp!"

Ivey's other bets are supposedly with Eli Elezra, Tom "Durr" Dwon, and several others. They are all sweating right now as they learn a very important lesson... never, ever bet against Phil Ivey

As an aside, though he has not won a bracelet yet, the best player at the World Series so far this season has been John Juanda. He has made 4 final tables (including the Player's Championship, the $10k Championships of 2-7 Lowball, and the $10k Championship of 7-Card Stud Hi-Low). At those 4 final tables, Juanda has finished 3rd, 4th, 4th, and 5th. He is having a studly Series!

--Jason "19 bracelet events left before the Main Event starts on July 5th" Evans

[A-Tex Devil]

Just got back from playing event 36. Played pretty well. Got it all in pre-flop with AQ against AJ which would have gotten me to average right after the dinner break, and I think I would have made day 2 had I doubled. J spiked the river.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan has apparently taken bets from several other players that he'll win a bracelet this year. If he doesn't, he'll be out around a million, but if he does, the rumor is he'll get 8 figures total from all the people he's placed bets with. He got second a couple of weeks ago in one event.

If you've never seen this guy, he's actually more of a cash player and has made people look silly on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. My favorite was the below hand ($500/$1000 blinds):

Lederer bet $3,500 [pre-flop] with A-K, Dwan raised to $11,300 with 8-6 offsuit, Lederer made it $36,300, and Dwan asked for a count. “Durrrr” pushed it to $65,600, leading Kaplan to exclaim, “Durrrr just 4bet Howard with an 8-6 offsuit.” Lederer made the call and the flop came 3-2-Q. The action went check-check, leading to an eight on the turn. Once again, both Dwan and Lederer checked to see a nine fall on the river. Lederer checked and Dwan checked behind, flipping over a pair of eights for the win. Lederer looked at the six in Dwan’s hand and noted, “I saw the six and just assumed there was another one.” The pot was worth $134,000.

[wolfpackdevil]

I have become a huge poker fan/player in the past 5 years from watching it mostly on ESPN, but mainly seeing the success of Ivey. Ivey is by far my favorite player, not only because of his skill and prestige, but his amazing presence and demeaner at the table.

This has been an interesting WSOP to follow on Pokernews, and as we are getting closer to the Main Event stars like Ivey, Juanda, Lisandro and Negranue are playing very well.

[77devil]

Check out the recent article in Time about how quants are changing the way the top pros approach Texas Hold 'Em.

[JasonEvans]

Check out the recent article in Time about how quants are changing the way the top pros approach Texas Hold 'Em.

Link?

-Jason "always want to hear more about poker strategy and the such" Evans

[snowdenscold]

Link?

-Jason "always want to hear more about poker strategy and the such" Evans

I found it starts here, but I don't have a subscription:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...997467,00.html

[77devil]

Link?

-Jason "always want to hear more about poker strategy and the such" Evans

Sorry, my subscription is the old fashioned kind-June 28 issue.

[Highlander]

Link?

-Jason "always want to hear more about poker strategy and the such" Evans

Ha. So the 6/28 issue of Time was sitting in the breakroom of my office building, and I just read the article.

Good read. Essentially the author is arguing that the current wave of internet poker players is encouraging a "no holds barred" poker style that has caught the older generation of pro's off guard. They talk about Phil Hellmuth's recent drought and Johnny Chan's status with Bluff magazine as being now "completely irrelevant." It says that internet players are much more likely to go in on marginal cards than a pro, and that they have perfected the aggressive, all out style with the help of math rather than "reads." Here's a quote from the article that sums it up well:

Why risk your tournament life on a marginal hand?

It's a fair question, and one that strikes at the core of why players who cut their teeth online are so much more aggressive. If the long term is defined by, say, a thousand tournaments, that was a lifetime for pros, who could compete in maybe 30 live tournaments a year. But when you play online, you can play 30 tournaments in a night. Getting knocked out means little; you make up your losses by going to the next game and letting the long-term odds work for you in a relatively short time.

It goes on to say that the experienced pro's (like Phil Hellmuth) are working to react to this change in the game, and that this "no holds barred" style turns things into more of a crapshoot than a pure odds play. Overall a very good article, and definitely worth a read if you're heading to the WSOP again.

[JasonEvans]

I read the article and I think it is sorta BS.

The "go in with bad hands" strategy only works because there are droves and droves of internet players -- way more than the number of patient, established pros. So, Phil Helmuth's more patient style may take out 10 silly internet players in a row only to fall on player #11. Does this mean the internet guys are better than Helmuth? Hardly, it merely means there are more of them. It may work for them as a group, but (last I heard) the droves of internet players had no plans to share all their earnings. You still play as an individual... and win or lose as an individual.

What the article never lays out, and what I am skeptical of, is that an individual would do better by playing bad hands in a very aggressive fashion. I suppose it is possible that this is true, it would certainly make it hard for other players to get a read on you or on the cards you might have, but the article never gets in depth enough to explore this notion.

Now, I do agree that being aggressive and pushing with unpredictible hands can be effective -- especially against someone like Helmuth who hates to risk his stack with anything other than "the nuts." But, in the long run, if an INDIVIDUAL wants to stick around a long time in a tournament, I think showing some selectivity and patience makes more sense.

--Jason "there are too many established pros who play mostly premium hands doing well for me to believe the theory behind this article" Evans

[kexman]

I think the article said that the internet players picked up this strategy because they are playing 20 games at once online...when they lose one they move on to the other 19 games.

It doesn't hold up in regular games for the individual, but there are so many more players in the tourney...one of them will get lucky and knock out professionals.

[YmoBeThere]

So basically the strategy may work in a large tournament because it is sort of like betting the field?

[JasonEvans]

So basically the strategy may work in a large tournament because it is sort of like betting the field?

That is the way I see it.

Other opinions may differ.

-Jason

[A-Tex Devil]

--Jason "there are too many established pros who play mostly premium hands doing well for me to believe the theory behind this article" Evans

I think that article tries to make a point, but misses it. First, these kids aren't just winning tourneys due to sheer numbers. There are too many guys like Madsen, Grospelier, etc. that are killing it on the live circuit too with basic math play to just shrug this phenomonen off. It truly is forcing the old guard to change/modify their game.

But a live tourney to these guys is just like one of the hundreds they play each week online. So a positive expected value move (+EV) over the long run makes them money -- even if they run into the nuts on occasion and bust out. It's not about the single tourney. It's about making money over the course of hundreds of tourneys and then the occasional huge win.

Now there are 2 levels of players here that are causing problems.

1. Those that have read a book like "Kill Phil" where it basically says "You aren't good enough to beat these players post flop, so here are the situations, based on math, where you should put the pressure on them and push." These are the guys that probably aren't going to win the tourney, but they are going to help thin the field with suckouts and getting busted out themselves.

2. The guys that are truly great players (like the above mentioned Madsen, etc.).

If you stick to premium hands in a massive field like in the WSOP, you need to be very fortunate in what you get pre-flop, and you will have to stand up for yourself on occasion with good but not great hands, or you are going to get dwindled down. You'll need to make the occasional 3 flop pre-bet with 67 suited and hope to catch if you get called. The payouts on these tourneys are too flat to make "just making the money" worthwhile.

[JasonEvans]

If you stick to premium hands in a massive field like in the WSOP, you need to be very fortunate in what you get pre-flop, and you will have to stand up for yourself on occasion with good but not great hands, or you are going to get dwindled down. You'll need to make the occasional 3 flop pre-bet with 67 suited and hope to catch if you get called. The payouts on these tourneys are too flat to make "just making the money" worthwhile.

I 100% agree, although the blind structure in the main event (really slow escalation) allows for more patience than in almost any other event. Still, waiting to only play premium hands is leaving your fate to a lot of luck (in getting the cards). It also makes you predictable, which is the kiss of death for a poker player

My point was that playing a lot of "bad hands" is not a sound poker strategy long-term.

I will say that the most difficult thing to do in poker (at least for me) and the thing that always amazes me when I see it on TV, is--

Player has a bad hand that he plays aggressive
Player gets called and/or raised
Player continues to be aggressive with his hand often re-raising
Player fires at the pot on flop, turn, and river with next to nothing

Dudes who can do that are studs in my mind. I always get a case of too many nerves and ease off the pedal at some point, likely giving away the fact that I don't have squat.

--Jason "I am itching to play me some poker now!!" Evans

[snowdenscold]

--Jason "I am itching to play me some poker now!!" Evans

I haven't played in years now, and am kind of missing it as well. For those in the DC area - I heard Charles Town, WV was opening tables in addition to slots/races. Any confirmation on whether poker would be included?

[wolfpackdevil]

The longly anticipated WSOP Main Event starts in about 12 hours. Hopefully Ivey, Negreanu, Hellmuth and the other top pros have a good run this year.

Counting down the hours!!!

[sue71, esq]

Jason,

Are you not entered this year?

[JasonEvans]

Jason,

Are you not entered this year?

Not this year. I ain't that rich... yet.

-Jason

[sue71, esq]

Not this year. I ain't that rich... yet.

-Jason

Bummer. I was going to suggest that you could buy me lunch one day.

I keep saying I'm going over to watch some of it every year, but I never do.

[toughbuff1]

Some of you might remember Duke's own Johm Armbrust finishing 18th a few years ago in the main event. Looks like he might have another shot to go deep! According to the WSOP.com's website, John just knocked out 2 players to move up to approximately 1.1 million in chips, which is somewhere in the top 30 or so with about 400-450 people left. There's a long way to go, but he's put himself in a good position! Let's go John, and let's go DUKE!!!