Poker

The poker community’s collective esteem is taking a bit of a kicking right now. The eyes of the sporting world are turning to Beijing and the Adonises of the felt are feeling a bit left out. Unbelievably, poker is still deemed to be unworthy of the Olympics.

That is the first cause for depression.

Secondly, the players have had the final of the ultimate test delayed for four months so a TV company can sell more advertising space to breweries.

It is little wonder that the top chip-rifflers of the circuit are contemplating a call to the trauma team.

Normally, they would console themselves with some top dollar action and then, after the lady has left the buffalo suite with …

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This week, we open the satchel of poker tips and pull out the exercise book that deals with M-ratio.

It a term invented by professional backgammon player Paul Magriel who, when he’s not tumbling dice, also finds time to sit down at the occasional poker game and pen a few books.

Although the term and theory are his babies, as is often the case with these definitions, the basic principles were already applied by advanced players such as Doyle Brunson.

The M-ratio is a simple measurement of chip stack when factored against the price of playing each round.

M is equal to the number of laps a player can survive, making only compulsory bets, before his chip run out.

It is deduced by the following …

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August is a lazy month. The kids are off school, a lot of Europe’s governments are in recess and it is silly season for the newspapers. Some may argue it is the perfect time to play poker - it can be relaxing, it can take your mind off work and it can be a way of funding trips to the slide park.

However, irritating members of the non-poker playing community tend to become a little prickly at the suggestion that Hold ‘em is a valid form of vacation. They see holidays as a time to expand horizons, explore the great outdoors and generally fill your time with activities that people from TV/adjacent tents/Hell have told them are meaningful.

Therefore, throughout …

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Michael McCool, winner of the main event of the July Festival of Poker at the Broadway Casino, Birmingham, UK, has, in the past, offered some interesting comments to the press.

Here he is on his ambition:

‘I’m naturally gifted with my mouth so if I continue to win whilst living a simple life in the country with my dogs, I will be very happy.’

Although some may argue that sections of that are a tad disconnected, the first part probably explains why his favourite celebrity is Gordon Ramsey.

Still, if he continues to haul in poker cash cows such as Saturday’s £20,250, it won’t be too long until he can act as lord of the manor and pursue his favourite hobbies of greyhound …

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Shane Sigsbee, recent graduate of Notre Dame University, was clearly not overwhelmed by his recent triumph on the Heartland Poker Tour.

Interviewed after the $2,500, televised tournament, he said, ‘This feels pretty good. Now it is off to the golf course.’

He was competing in a US Amateur qualifier in Indiana where he had his daddy as a caddy

He persevered at the Majestic Star Casino after one of the shortest final tables in HPT history. When the 42nd hand was dealt, he and Jason DeWitt flopped top pair but Sigsbee had a better kicker.

The twenty-three year old options trader had the burden of accepting $206,273 before he was allowed to put on his polo shirt and plus fours.

In another …

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July can be a strange month.

In the UK, the forty day period beginning July 3 and ending August 11 is listed in The Old Farmer’s Almanac as the Dog Days.

They are believed to be an evil time ‘when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad and creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies.’

Although that was written in 1813, it clearly still has some relevance today as a trawl down the schedule of July poker tournaments reveals some evidence of creatures becoming languid as there are far fewer events than in more pre-canine times.

It is therefore impressive to see that a player from the UK managed to place 8th in The Orleans Open, a $2,000 …

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The multi-event Poker Worthersee Trophy concluded on Sunday at the Casino Capt Velden, and there were plenty leaving the Austrian holiday resort with prizes in their pockets.

The main event, Saturday’s two-day, €2,000NL tournament was won by Stefan Rapp, who is clearly having a good summer. By beating 185 other players and scooping €95,420, he adds a 1st place to the two cashes he achieved in this year’s WSOP.

Although the Hold ‘em event had the biggest buy-in, it was Thursdays No Limit 7 card stud tournament that boasted the Worthersee Trophy.

This coveted piece of silverware is the casino’s way of trying to keep the flips flopping through their doors at a time when other parts of the town are …

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For this week’s Poker Unclogged we are going to examine some of Doyle Brunson’s advice from his 1984 book, Poker Wisdom of a Champion.

Doyle believes that most ‘players would do well to examine themselves carefully before every game’, and given that he is regularly touted as one of the best three individuals ever to peep at pocket aces, his words might be worthy of consideration. Keeps them moving and look at

So, as most people should recognise that playing in the wrong frame of mind can be a wonderful method of shovelling cash to your opponents, let’s have a look at ‘Texas Dolly’s’ seven point checklist.

1. Have you had enough sleep? If no, don’t play.

(Bear in mind it …

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Mike Caro’s nickname as ‘The Mad Genius of Poker’ is well chosen.

Resembling a cross between Sigmund Freud and Dr Emmett Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy, if someone told you that he could travel back in time to find out why you grasp your earlobes in times of stress, you would nod your head.

Luckily for us mortals of the felt, Caro is now more famous as a leading poker ‘theorist’ and seems happier playing with statistical tables. To this end, he founded the ‘Mike Caro University of Poker, Gambling and Life Strategy’ and was one of a handful of individuals who believed online poker could be a money-spinner.

His theories, when extricated from some of the ‘Life Strategy’, …

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Larry Flynt is not a man to take things lying down.

An energetic individual, in his time he has worn the American flag as a nappy, survived an assassination attempt by a white supremacist and ran for U.S. President as a Republican against Ronald Reagan.

When the bid failed, (in his official announcement, he wore a ‘Spot the Difference’ T-Shirt with depictions of Reagan and Hitler) the pornographer still had a longing to add other arrows to his quiver, so it wasn’t too long before he opened the Hustler Casino.

Located in Gardena, Los Angeles, it has become his most profitable business, founded on his philosophy of ‘giving back to our players’.

Keen to keep expanding, in 2007, Flynt opened the casino’s …

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