6 posts from maj 2008

The 26^th of July in 1974, Daniel Negreanu was born in Toronto, Canada. He is a professional poker player whose parents moved to Canada from Romania a few years before he was born.

He dropped out of high school to become a rounder and attended several illegal games in the town. At this time he dated Evelyn Ng, who is now a very good professional poker player as well, and they learned a lot from each other. Later on, when Negreanu was 21, he headed for Las Vegas in order to become a poker pro’. However, he didn’t succeed very well and had to return back to Toronto after losing all his money. In 1997 things started to look better again. He won two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, which named him the tournaments best all-around player. Not to mention that it gave him $133 600… He soon became the youngest WSOP bracelet winner, and he held that record until 2004. This made him acknowledged as one of the best poker players in the world and he was named the World Series of Poker Player of the year 2004 and World Poker Tour Player of the year 2005.

He also won two World Poker Tour events, two more WSOP bracelets and reached eleven final tables.

Since then he have been “Poker ambassador” at the Wynn Las Vegas resort where he played for any stake in their poker room. He also opened his own online poker cardroom, which he recently used to arrange a competition where the winner would become his protégé. The winner would not only get his golden advices but also get the entry fee of $10 000 paid for him in four buy-in events. The first winner was Brian Fidler and the second one was Anthony Mak. Since the middle of 2007 Negreanu is signed with PokerStars, together with big names such as Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker.

In addition to this, he has written more than a hundred articles for the CardPlayer Magazine.

More privately, he isn’t that private at all. He has a blog where he speaks openly about his poker playing, his private life and his thoughts in general. Until the end of 2007 he was married to Lori Lin Weber, who he wed in 2005. He now lives in Las Vegas, not too surprisingly, and he is giving poker lessons to celebrities such as Tobey Maguire. Negreanu is a big supporter of the Toronto Maple Leafs and also supports politicians such as Al Gore.

In February 2006 Daniel was named “Favorite Poker Player” at the Card Player Magazines Player of the Year Awards Gala – and he was well deserved of it.

In the field of poker, a tell is when you or someone else does something that reveals to other players that you are holding, or that you are not. Let us look at a school book example: In the movie “Rounders” rough poker player Teddy KGB (played by John Malkovich) often cracks open a cookie and listens to the sound of it. His opponent – our protagonist – Mike (played by Matt Damon) realizes that he only eats the cookie if he actually has something. Otherwise he just keeps it. When he notices this tell, he uses the knowledge for one round before informing Teddy KGB that he knows his tell. This might seem unstrategic to some, but it puts Teddy KGB off so much that the effect is even better than if Mike had just used the exposing to his advantage.

So a tell is when a player, unknowingly, gives a clue to his hand. It is not impossible that a tell is being faked, in order to fool other players, but if you watch someone for a longer period than you will probably be able to tell the difference.

There are many types of tells; whether you lean back or forward in the chair, the way you place your chips, your facial expressions, your tone of voice, the way you breathe, whether you fidget in some way or if you do something special with your drink, cards or cigarette. In other words, it takes good concentration and awareness to notice relevant differences in all of these different areas. It is not only the expression on ones face that is included in a poker face.

Also be attentive to things like if someone is trying to bluff and seem overly cocky by throwing the chips in the pot with confidence, or if they are blushing while they seem to speak in a very casual, almost bored way. Is the other player looking at his hand often, or does he/she seem overly calm? More than often, this is signs of acting the opposite way that he/she really wants to, in order to mislead the other players. So if someone seems aggressive or loud, than it is very possible that he/she really has nothing, but try to act like this wasn’t the case.

But it is not only in real life poker that you can discover different tells. This is actually also traceable online. Look at things like how fast the player is playing and the way he or she bets. This might actually be even more revealing online, since all other distractions disappear.

Even if you think that you are sure what someone’s tell is, be sure to not put too much trust in it initially. Be aware of your own game and bet wisely until you are convinced that the other players tell is reliable. As usual, there are no guaranties in poker…

Honestly, the casinos aren’t what they used to be. I am really sick of going there, but since all of my friends go it kind of leaves me no option. I used to like the atmosphere, but now I just look around me and sigh.

Tourists come and go with their never-ending enthusiasm and they lose their money like they just won’t ever learn. The roulette wheels spins loudly while people but their drunken faith in that tiny little ball that moves so rapidly. At the bar, young chicks are getting free drinks from men twice their age and they giggle obediently to the old men’s stupid jokes. Some of the girls are too young and will soon be thrown out, but until then they can might as well get as much free stuff as possible. They rarely play, and they never win. At the door to the casino guards stand like mongrels refusing decent people to come in just because they are a bit drunk. Don’t they realize that they will just play more bluntly? I think it would be profitable to invite guests that had already had a drink or two.

As you can tell, I am a bit tired of all the regular casino visitors. The only ones I can stand are the poker players. They have more integrity, more genuine interest for the game, they are quieter and calmer.

Personally I’ve started spending more and more time at online casinos. There it doesn’t matter if I have nice shoes or not, which mood I am in or what time it is. I can eat while playing if I want, I can talk in the phone at the same time and I don’t have to be nice to anyone.

But I still like every tenth of my poker game to be at a casino. If nothing else, it is useful to actually see the other’s game – not only their strategies, but their facial expressions and movements. It is hard to read poker faces online, that is for sure…

I just wished I wouldn’t have to deal with all the other silly characters at the average casino. I think I am gonna’ have to look up regular poker rooms where the standard is a bit higher. That usually sets the atmosphere in general. The only problem I can see is that it is so male dominated. Hopefully in the years to come more and more women will get interested in the game of poker.

And in the meantime I will keep my behind online. Once in a while you find the perfect online casino, where you can just sign on and start collecting money from the other players…

Was playing a $50+5 No limit Hold'em tourney yesterday (Unibet). About 300 players and most had been booted. With about 55 players left I got a Pair of tens in the pocket. A big bet before the flop from the first guy gets raised by the guy next to me. I call and the first guy calls too.

The flop shows 10, 9, A and I check. Both guys raise, I call.

Turn shows 10 and both players raise, I call.

The river comes A and I'm sure at least one of them hit Full House. I bet big. First guy goes all in, other one calls, i call.

The guy that was first to go all in had nothing, the other one had AA in his pocket

Bad Beat?

I hate idiots that smoke in casinos. No matter how much you need that stupid ciggy, I hate you. Why do you think it's your right to spread your plague everywhere you go? Today only France and Sweden have decent laws about tobacco in Casinos, that is, No smoking at all.

You might think you are a good player but if you compare yourself to me, you’re crap! You don’t make any money at all compared to me and your bankroll is pathetic. In this first post, I’m going to tell you why.

The first reason is that you don’t play tough enough. You think Poker is something you do for fun at night after work. If you want to be a good poker player you need to play to win. Playing for fun is just crap, that’s what losers do. I Don’t

The second reason is that you get distracted. You think that you are so concentraded but you’re not. The background is that you play poker in front of your computer all night, every night so you don’t meet chicks a lot. If you sit down at a poker table and there is a hot woman, you will lose your concentration. I won’t.

The third reason is that you think you are better than me because you are a man, thinking like that can only get you in to trouble. There is absolutely no reason that you should be better than me at poker because you are a man, thinking like that will make you lose everything. I don’t, I think I’m better because I’m a woman!