Barbara Enright has been inducted into the poker hall of fame and has one of most enviable records in history. Prior to the California Poker Players Conference, Mike Caro asked Barbara what the first thing is that you should do when you take a seat in tournament a tournament.
Barbara’s answer? Analyze the table. Who do you know sitting there?
What are you going to do? Analyze own play, even though most people don’t. Most people look around and say what donkeys! You don’t want to be that donkey.
You want your opponents to fear you! To do that you can’t let them run over you. You have to run over them. Try to win the first hand you play and get the chips to manipulate the rest of the table. Play tight in the beginning, until you get double up, then quadruple up. Get that done in the beginning then use the chips to intimidate other players.
Hear more of Barbara and Mike’s interview at http://www.2007cppc.com/#enright.
Focusing on your abilities is not always enough to becoming a winning player. You’ve got to stay focused on the game as well.
One of the pitfalls of becoming a professional player is the bad habits that you can pick up. Some pro players get bored in Vegas, or on the road, and delve into other realms of gambling they are not successful at. Then their poker bank roll is gone. They are broke!
Stay with what you do best. Some of the best poker players can be broke because they get involved in other things like sports gambling or craps. Some of the best are addicted to gambling that is not plentiful.
Vince looked at the poker players that were successful over long period of time for inspiration and leadership. There are a lot of great poker players that don’t have assets accumulated, but the ones that do didn’t delve into other things.
Vince’s tips to help you win? A general statement from Brent Carter sums it up - pay attention. If you don’t, you lose edge. You might miss someone’s tell. You don’t realize this guy’s telling you he doesn’t have a hand because you’re watching the football game. You have to pay attention.
Hear more of the interview at http://www.2007cppc.com/#burgio.
Vince Burgio was another of the outstanding presenters at the 2007 California Poker Players Conference last month. In his pre-conference interview, he discussed becoming a pro tournament player, some of the pitfalls, and his tips.
First and foremost, be honest with yourself. Are you a winning player? Then examine other factors like your finances, temperament, whether you have other responsibilities that might get in the way. You weigh all that out, and then you go out and do it.
To become a winning player, focus on your abilities whether that’s tournaments or side action. Keep accurate books and be honest with yourself. Don’t go over and over what you would have, should have, or could have done to win. Look at actual facts.
Ask yourself – Am I good enough to do this? Can I make money?
Hear more of the interview at http://www.2007cppc.com/#burgio.
Stan and Mike also discussed television’s role in poker tournaments.
TV has been a key factor in growth and popularity of poker. The World Poker Tour is a good example. It came from nowhere, but since it has been broadcast, it has grown into a very successful business.
But, with all things there is good, and there is bad. This is no different. It has become a situation where the tail is wagging the dog. Instead of TV looking for corporate tournaments to gain viewership, TV executives decide whether or not poker is going to be on. That determines whether or not we are going to have big tournaments.
Big poker players have become very desirable, and many won’t play unless the tournament is televised. If the tournament can’t get televised, it won’t get players and won’t succeed. The future of poker in the hands of TV executives and their whims and thoughts – not the other way around. However, there are ways to change that.
Stan Sludikoff was another presenter at the First Annual California Poker Players Conference last month. Prior to his presentation, he recorded a brief interview with keynote speaker Mike Caro. One of the things they discussed was the emerging new concepts in poker tournaments.
What we’ve seen is an obvious trend toward one poker game. Texas Hold ‘Em is the game everyone wants to play, but it really doesn’t determine who the best player is. There are a lot of other games out there.
In the future we’ll probably see an event where five different games are played. The best poker player in the world should not just be determined by one game, but many. There should be more than one type of game in a tournament to test the skills of individual. Luck has become too big of a factor in today’s tournaments.
The second topic that presenter Tony Guerrera and Mike Caro discussed in their interview was the idea of aggressive play.
A lot of the older poker literature stresses aggressive play as a winning style, but it was generally written when limit hold ‘em was being played and players were more passive. In the early days, aggressive was the way to beat many tables out there – you only played few hands, but aggressively played the ones you did.
Now there is a more straight forward aggressive style. When you have position, you need to learn to play it really well, especially against straight forward opponents who let you know what they have by their actions.
Having the button or being in the cutoff are key opportunities for you to steal post-flop or bet pre-flop with the intention of bluffing post-flop. There are also other opportunities for you to incorporate some more loose aggressive play techniques.
Passive play is not recommended by most literature, but there are times when it will get you more value than aggressive play, especially with other aggressive players. By playing the game a little more passively, you can trap or take maximum advantage of some opponents. This isn’t a tactic to use all the time, but can be profitable.
The first topic discussed by presenter Tony Guerrera and Mike Caro prior to the First Annual California Poker Players Conference just last month was putting your opponent on probably hands. You can learn what your opponent might be holding based on probabilities and their actions.
When everyone thinks about poker, they think first about their own hands. They wonder what their probability is for hitting a good hand, but outside of that, poker is really about playing your opponent – being able to put your opponent on hand distribution and their action distributions.
There may be some lucrative bluffing opportunities if you know your opponent well enough. To win at poker, you need to know your opponents hand distributions and how they act as a function of the hands they hold.
Hand distributions can be calculated mathematically, but it is a function of how they are betting or behaving. There are a limited number of combinations they can be holding. Each player has his own table of distribution. Do some quick calculations and pay close attention, and you will have a winning strategy.
Another interview that Mike Caro conducted prior to the 2007 California Poker Players Conference is with Susie Isaacs author of the new book “Queens can Beat Kings”. They discussed the advantage that women have in the predominately male game of poker.
All is fair in love, war, and poker – except cheating of course! Women have a distinct advantage, because there are many men who think it takes testosterone to play poker, but it doesn’t. It takes brains and nerve.
It takes someone who can muster up the courage to be aggressive and raise at the right time. There are some men who don’t believe that a woman would do that, and women can use it to their advantage. Women can also use flirting to their advantage. They can use their womanly charm to disarm a man and find out what their opponent is holding!
The truth is that the playing field in poker is actually equal for everyone. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what sex, or what physical condition – anyone can win on any given day.
The smart men know that women have an advantage because they are underestimated, and they treat them as fellow players, nothing less.
The 2007 California Poker Players Conference may be over, but you can still get valuable information from the 2007 presenters. Mike Caro interviewed many of the presenters prior to the the conference and those interviews are now available.
One interview is with Lou Krieger, winning poker player and author. He told Mike the strategy to betting on the river in Hold ‘Em. Far too many players in fixed limit hold ‘em games leave money on table, because they fail to bet the river with a good, but not great hand.
If a player has an unbeatable hand or close to it, they will bet on the river and collect the calls from other players. But, if a player has a typical or average hand, maybe a top pair with a good kicker, they will bet on the flop, bet on the turn, and check on the river. They are leaving money on the table by doing that.
If your opponent has better hand, he is likely going to check raise you on the turn rather than waiting for river to make a play. If river card doesn’t look to help anyone out and you had the best hand on the turn, most likely you’ve got the best hand on the river. Go ahead and bet it. All the doubters will call, and you should win much more than checking the river down.
Thank you to all who made the CPPC a success over the last two days – including the Hollywood Park Casino for hosting the event.
The conference participants got the opportunity to learn the hottest poker tips from the poker pros. If you weren’t able to attend, you can still visit the CPPC website and learn how you can still get the valuable information that the presenters had to offer.
We look forward to seeing you at next year’s conference!