Action Poker Session - Good Results

So, I played at 2.5 hour session tonight. Started with $190 and finished with $268, I lost $17 on the last hand I played where my Queens lost to Aces. $78 profit is pretty good. I was lucky tonight, I didn't receive any bad beats and I won a few coin flips.


I haven't played since Jan. 1st. I will continue my poker challenge starting Feb. 1st but for now, I am working off a deposit bonus at Action Poker. I had 30 days to work off the bonus but I have left it for the last 24hours. 300 points I need to complete bonus, my goal was 150 tonight, another 150 just before time runs out. So I actually finished with 158 points and a lot better night than I thought it would be even though I got discounted on 2 big hands which I was value betting..One hand, I had Ace10 and it was 10 high board. I got disconnected just before value betting and I didn't even get to see the other guy's whole cards. He told me he had jacks but I don't believe cause he played the hand so weak. The other hand, I had kings and value betting the river, I took a screenshot(the picture above).

Here are a few hands;

	Here is the kings hand I posted above..I'm surprised to see my value bet went through. Turned out the disconnection saved me $7.69. I played this hand bad, I should have raised to $1 since I am from early/mid position and bet is a little too small on flop because I'm out of position. The other guy played this hand good:(
	I was surprised to see his hand :O
	Monster flop, something like a coin flip.
	I like how this hand turned out:)
	That $3 bet on the river is scary, and that's why I called. Small bet on turn made it look like he had a draw and if he wanted me to call, he would have bet $2.85 pot bet or lower.

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A Way To Approximate The Odds - Clonie Gowen

It is very difficult to calculate the exact odds of hitting a drawing hand when you're sitting at the poker table. Unless you're a genius with a gift for mathematics like Chris Ferguson, you will not be able to do it. That leaves two options for the rest of us: The first option is to sit at home with a calculator, figure out the odds for every possible combination of draws, and then memorize them. That way, no matter what situation comes up, you always know the odds. But for those of us without a perfect memory, there's an easier way. Here is a simple trick for estimating those odds.

The first thing you need to do is to figure out how many "outs" you have. An "out" is any card that gives you a made hand. To do this, simply count the number of cards available that give the hand you are drawing to. For example: suppose you hold Ac 8c and the flop comes Qh 9c 4c. You have a flush draw. There are thirteen clubs in the deck and you are looking at four of them -- the two in your hand, and the two on the board. That leaves nine clubs left in the deck, and two chances to hit one.

The trick to figuring out the approximate percentage chance of hitting the flush is to multiply your outs times the number of chances to hit it. In this case that would be nine outs multiplied by two chances, or eighteen. Then take that number, multiply times two, and add a percentage sign. The approximate percentage of the time you will make the flush is 36%. (The exact percentage is 34.97%.) Now let's say that on that same flop you hold the Jd Th. In this case you would have an open ended straight draw with eight outs to hit the straight (four kings and four eights). Eight outs with two cards to come gives you sixteen outs. Multiply times two and you will hit the straight approximately 32% (31.46% exactly) of the time.

One important thing to keep in mind is that the percentage stated is merely the percentage of the time that you will hit the hand you are drawing to, NOT the percentage of time that you will win the pot. You may hit your hand and still lose. In the first example, the Qc will pair the board and may give some article a full house. In the second example both the Kc and the 8c will put a possible flush on the board, giving you the straight, but not necessarily the winning hand. Still, knowing the approximate likelihood of making your hand is a good beginning step on the road to better poker.

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Sit & Gos Made Easy - Howard Lederer

The Sit & Go (SNG) is online poker's great gift to the aspiring tournament player. Prior to the SNG, final table experience was hard to come by. You could enter a dozen multi-table tournaments and never find yourself at a final table. Or you could make one or two, only to get knocked out in 8th or 9th place. Adapting to an ever-diminishing number of players at a single table is a crucial skill in tournament poker, and it's a hard experience to find offline without investing a lot of time and money. Online, this experience is a mouse-click away. The SNG's advantages are many. For starters, it's low-cost, or even free. It's also fun, and convenient: You don't need to schedule it -- a SNG starts every time the table fills up -- and it's usually over in less than an hour. It's the flight simulator of final table play, and mastering it should be considered mandatory homework for the serious student.

Now that you know why you should play, let's look at how:

The most obvious difference between a SNG and a multi-table tournament is that when someone goes broke in a SNG, there isn't someone waiting to fill their spot. Multi-table play consists mostly of full-table, ring game poker. But as players get eliminated from a SNG, the table gets shorter- and shorter-handed. This reduction in players basically serves to artificially raise the antes. For instance, say you're playing five-handed and the blinds are 100-200: You're paying 300 in blinds for every five hands, or 60 per hand. As soon as someone gets knocked out, you're four-handed. Now you're paying 75 per hand -- a 25% increase -- despite the fact that the blinds have remained the same. Accordingly, you're forced to gamble more, or risk getting blinded out.

Since the size of the blinds relative to your stack size should always play a major role in your hand selection, I recommend starting out with pretty conservative starting hand requirements. This serves two functions: First, the blinds dictate that you play fairly tight early; the blinds are small and you are nine-handed, so they don't come around as often. Second, this helps you establish a tight image, which you hope will pay off later when the blinds are high and you might really need a timely ante steal.

But there's another not-so-obvious reason to play tighter earlier and looser later: The payout structure rewards tight play. Most SNG's pay 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you play for third. Why? Looking at the payout structure another way might help. Basically, the payout means that 60% gets awarded once you're down to three players, 20% gets awarded when you get down to two players, and the final 20% gets awarded to the winner. If you can just get to third, you get at least one-third of 60% of the prize pool, or 20%. You've locked up a profit, and you have a chance to win up to 30% more. It's only now that you're in the top three that your strategy should take an abrupt turn. Now it pays to gamble for the win. Let's look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is worth only another 10%. But move up just one more spot and it's worth a whopping 30% extra -- that's three times more for first than it is for second. And with the blinds going up, gambling for the win is even more clearly the correct play.

I see many players employ a nearly opposite strategy. They figure they have nothing to lose, so they go for the quick double-up early. They take chances too soon when, in their view, there's "nothing on the line". Then, once they're in the money, they tighten up, thinking about that extra payout for moving up a spot. If you start to rethink your SNG approach and adopt a "slow early, fast late" strategy, you'll see an almost immediate improvement in your results.

Best of luck and see you at the tables,

- Howard Lederer

For a Free $100 Bankroll at Full Tilt, click here.

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Freerolls - Free Poker Tournaments

Freerolls are tournaments with no entry fee, but although we usually think that freeroll is a free tournament, some freerolls can require players to make payments at some point in order to get a seat in a freeroll tournament.

However, typical freerolls are completely free. Unlike standard poker tournaments, where the prize pool is accumulated from the entry fees, in freerolls the prize pool is provided by the house, or sponsorship fees, or broadcast rights fees, or admission charged to spectators or any other source that wouldn’t require the participants to pay for their seats. Many online poker rooms and land-based casinos offer freerolls as bonus games for loyal members or frequent players. These are usually invitation-only tournaments for the frequenters.

Don’t confuse freerolls with play money tournaments – these two types of tournaments have to differences. First of all typical play money tournaments require a play money buy-in and the winnings are also play money, while in freerolls you shouldn’t pay an entry fee, but compete for real money prizes. Many online poker rooms running point reward systems require a payment of points. Sometimes you can buy a free invitation buy depositing money into your account. Besides of cash prizes, the winnings in freeroll tournaments can be player points, various merchandise, or free entries to standard tournaments.

I have set up a Freeroll Script to show all the latest freerolls, it is updated in real time. I also set it up so when you click a pokerroom, not only do you get to play in freerolls, you also get a free bankroll. Using this listing of freerolls you will never miss free tournaments, where you can win real money, entries to standard tournaments and other cool stuff!

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Tony G Instructional Videos - Advanced Strategies

Internet poker is definitely alive and well!

If you want to play, stick with me, follow my lead and fine tune all of your skills playing online. Online is one of my favorite mediums and could be the favorite for my opponents because they can't hear me while I'm at my best - that is the role...

- Tony G

Play with Tony G with a Free $150 Poker Bankroll at Titan Poker.

Check out Tony G crushing opponents on his razor-sharp video lessons!

(For full screen, click bottom right)



Advanced Level

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Update On My Pokerstar's Challenge

Figured I'd try $5.20 games to test them out first. I found antes are high so it's worth it to steal blinds more often. Anyway, I played 24 of them today. First 10, I got the worst bad beats ever lol. I didn't play many hands and I seemed to lose every hand I played whether it was a coin flip or they got runner runner straight/flush. So I only won 2 out first 10 sngs.

I went for a break and I got very lucky in the second session. Not so much in one hand but I won crucial pots when it counted. I won 9 sngs in a row. I than felt like I can win in this game and perhaps more up to $10.40 tomorrow.

So 12/24 for today.
Hours Played: 3
Bankroll: $595.20
FPP points: 24 of 3000

Here's one hand from today, one of the bad beats I got.

Jacks vs ...

Edit Jan 14th: I've been busy lately so I will I will continue the challenge Feb.1st since there's no way I can make Silver Star with so little time left in January. I will play a little bit at Action Poker, I'll post some hands if you guys want.

You can track my Pokerstars progress at Sharkscope here, I started the challenge at around 500 games played.

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Tom "Durrrr" Dwan's Million Dollar Challenge [Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonious and David Benyamine Accept Challenge]

Durrr states:

"I'm making this heads-up challenge to the world. Anyone can accept. Four tables, minimum of $200/$400, and I'll put up $1.5 million to their $500,000. We play 50,000 hands minimum and if they end up a dollar after rake they keep the side money or whatever. So basically, if you and I played and you won a dollar, you would get my $1.5 million and if I won a dollar I would win your $500,000. So I'm giving a million dollars free if anyone thinks they can do it."

Tom "Durrr" Dwan has three players who have taken him up on his million dollar challenge. The players are no small fish by any means and have the ability and bankroll to take on Durrr. The players are Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonious and David Benyamine, three of the highest rollers in the online poker playing community.



Tom "Durrrr" Dwan talks to Card Player TV at the PCA about his recent challenge and whose in line to play.

The Durrr Challenge

It would appear that Durrr may have gotten more than he bargained for when he issued his brash challenge. Should Durrr lose to all of his opponents, he stands to lose whatever he loses at the table, along with $4.5 million. On the flip side, if he defeats all three players, he would win $1.5 million in side bets. From a practicality standpoint, the risk vs. reward aspect here seems to be fundamentally flawed.

To reiterate, the way the challenge will work is that Durrr would face his adversary heads up in either No limit Hold em or Pot Limit Omaha at four tables simultaneously. At the conclusion of 50,000 hands, if the opponent is up by at least a single dollar, Durrr will give them an additional $1.5 million. If he is up a single dollar, Durrr would be paid $500,000.



Ivey confirmed his acceptance of the challenge on pokerroad.com in an interview with Barry Greenstein. Ivey confirmed that Durrr will first face Benyamine before stepping onto the virtual felt with himself. Though Antonious has confirmed his participation, it is not yet known if he will face Durrr before Ivey or after. No statement on the matter have been made by Durrr so it appears the challenge is still open if anyone else wants to partake.

At press time, start dates have yet to be confirmed, but with the interest this has stirred on the poker forums, the secret will be out before long.

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