Sky Poker Appearance

I was interviewed on Sky Poker (Channel 865)'s show 'The Club' last week. Here's a video of my part of the episode:



Very busy at the moment - the World Championship Of Online Poker just started at PokerStars and we are guaranteeing over $30m in prizes.

Hope you're all well!

Tell Me More

I have just uploaded four new articles to my website at www.alexscott.im. Here is one of them, a feature that made the front cover of InsidePoker Magazine in June 2008.

Note: This article was heavily edited for length when it was published in InsidePoker magazine, so I'm proud to present it in it's original form. On the plus side, the published article had some truly excellent photography of one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in a poker magazine (sadly, she is not a player). I've tried to include some of those images in context here.

The movies have always glamorised the importance of tells poker. In the 21st James Bond movie, Casino Royale, Bond and notorious villain Le Chiffre are playing an extremely high-stakes poker tournament and the atmosphere is tense. A key hand develops – Le Chiffre has made a big bet on the river, and Bond is pondering what to do. All of a sudden, Le Chiffre’s eye starts to twitch, and he touches his hand to his temple. Bond smiles knowingly, mucks his hand, and watches as Le Chiffre turns over a full house to win the pot. We don’t know what the suave secret agent threw away, but we do know that it was Le Chiffre’s tell that helped him to decide.

A tell is any mannerism, action, or behaviour that gives you a clue about how your opponent plays or what he might be holding. In Casino Royale, Le Chiffre’s tell is his twitching eye when he holds a strong hand. In the legendary poker movie Rounders, the villain’s tell is that when he has a strong hand, he breaks open his cookie and eats it – but when he has a weak hand, he just breaks it open.

Real life tells aren’t quite like you’ll see in the movies. In this article, I want to discuss the theory behind tells, examine some misconceptions about them, discuss some common tells, and talk about ways to minimise the information that you give away yourself.

Stakes

At this stage, we should talk about two things that are incredibly important, but which are often skipped over in discussion of tells. They are the stakes and baseline behaviour.

A situation is considered ‘high stakes’ for a person when they are putting something significant at risk. For example, a criminal is in a high stakes situation if they are trying to evade detection for a crime that has a severe punishment, because they are risking their freedom (or perhaps their life). In poker, the stakes are high when the person in question is risking something which has significant value to them.

As we can see, stakes aren’t necessarily quantifiable, and vary from person to person. High stakes don’t necessarily mean lots of money is at risk, as different people have different attitudes to money and what seems like a fortune to one person may seem like a pittance to another. A player can be in a high stakes situation without risking any money at all if there’s pride and ego at stake.

In general, the higher the stakes, the more likely it is that a person will display a tell, particularly if that tell is involuntary. So while you might not show many tells in your home game, you could become a veritable tell machine if you play in a televised tournament with a big prize (I did).

Conversely, don’t expect a player to display as many tells if they are accustomed to the stakes, or if they’re lower than usual.

Baseline Behaviour

A tell isn’t always something obvious. Many, if not most tells are subtle deviations from a player’s normal behaviour – what is known as their baseline behaviour. To be able to spot these types of tell, you have to know how a player normally behaves, and that requires a lot of observation.

For example, it’s no good knowing that a player’s eye twitches when they have the nuts if that player’s eye twitches all the time anyway. They are just as likely to twitch when they are bluffing, and if you misinterpret this behaviour as a tell of strength because you haven’t studied your opponent’s baseline behaviour, you may make a costly mistake.

When you sit at a table, take note of how your opponents behave in general, and compare that to situations where you know they have been bluffing or betting a big hand. This may give you a wealth of information that you can use to make better decisions later on.

Tells Before They Even Play a Hand

There are some things you can learn about a player before they even sit down. These things are all tells that can help you to play better against that person.

Take the way a person dresses, for example. A person who arrives at a poker game dressed in a sharp business suit tells you something about himself. Perhaps he’s come straight from work, or perhaps he is simply a conservative dresser – in which case, his game might be conservative too. Conversely, a person who looks like they woke up in a skip is probably going to be a sloppy player – not tight and logical. A scruffy dresser is more likely to be scruffy and careless in other areas of life, including their poker game.

Players wearing extravagant jewellery (like guys with lots of gold rings and chains) clearly have more money than sense and will likely be loose players. Players wearing sunglasses in a vain attempt to look cool are probably just egotistical amateurs – something you can exploit by putting them on tilt. And women who turn up at the poker table dressed to the nines are probably after your money, not your phone number.

The way a player stacks their chips also gives you information. A player with a sloppy stack, with different chip values mingled together and no semblance of order is probably a loose, sloppy player who doesn’t know about the importance of stack sizes. On the other hand a player with his chips in stacks of twenty and the edge spots neatly lined up is likely to be more conservative.

Voluntary and Involuntary Tells

Tells can be divided into two categories – voluntary and involuntary. A player who is giving away an involuntary tell is usually unaware that they are doing so. Involuntary tells give you information about a player’s state of mind – whether they are confident or unconfident, excited or bored, nervous or calm and so on.

Voluntary tells, however, are given away on purpose by players who are trying to manipulate you into doing what they want. Voluntary tells are sometimes attempts to cover up an in involuntary tell, and are sometimes outright attempts to deceive.

There are enough involuntary tells to fill an entire book, but I’d like to talk in general about tells of confidence and unconfidence, as these can be very useful. That’s because people are usually unconfident when they have a bad hand or are bluffing, and confident when they have something strong. I’ll also talk about two important tells of excitement that you can use to tell when somebody holds an extremely strong hand.

When a person is confident, that often manifests itself in their behaviour. A person who is confident may change their posture so that they take up a bigger space at the table, or move their hands or their entire body forward. This behaviour is engaging – it shows their interest in the pot and their confidence in what they hold. Likewise, a player who rises up in their chair, lifts their feet, nose or head, or arches their back is probably confident.

Players who are unconfident often do the opposite – they disengage and move away from the table, or slump in their chair, perhaps putting their hands in their pockets or in their lap. Sometimes this behaviour is subtle, but it’s definitely noticeable once you know what to look for.

People who are unconfident or agitated often try to soothe themselves in subtle ways. The behaviour that they display is known as pacifying behaviour, and it’s a good indicator that your opponent is frustrated or uncomfortable.

Think about the football player who misses an easy open-goal shot. What does he do? He covers his head with his hands and screws up his face. This is a pacifying behaviour – as are most ‘eye blocking’ behaviours. Even something as simple as a player adjusting his glasses may be an example of eye blocking.

Other examples of pacifying and low confidence behaviour are hair stroking, nail biting, lip biting or pursing, touching the neck and face, adjusting jewellery, and wiping your hands on your legs. In general, the more neck and face touching is involved, the higher the stress and the lower the confidence.

One last good example of a pacifying behaviour is hugging yourself – that is, wrapping your arms around your body as if hugging an invisible teddy bear. Indeed, this is Phil Hellmuth’s famous tell – one he displayed at the final table of a WPT event just a few years ago which was broadcast to millions.

Tells from the Unaware

A common tell you’ll see from amateur players is looking back at cards. It happens all the time – let’s say you’re playing Hold’em, and the flop comes Kh 9h 7h. You have A-K, with no hearts, and the player across the table from you looks back at his cards. What does that mean?

Well, it might seem obvious, but he’s probably checking to see if he has a heart. That gives you some information straight away – he hasn’t got a flush already, and he doesn’t have two cards of the same suit (because people remember their suit in that case). You’ll be able to tell whether he has the heart by his subsequent behaviour – both his betting actions and his nonverbal behaviour. If the look back is accompanied by engaging behaviour, such as sitting up straight, you can bet he’s going to get involved.

Another time you see players look back at their cards is when they’ve made a big hand from out of nowhere – a hand that has taken the player by surprise. ‘Did I really just flop a set? I better check to make sure’ is how the thought process goes. For example, you’re holding pocket queens and the flop is 10-9-2. You bet the flop and are called. The turn is a jack, and your opponent looks back at his cards.

That look tells you a lot of useful information. First of all, he doesn’t have a straight with the 7-8. If he did have that, he wouldn’t need to check back, and may even be scared to do so in case he gave anything away (that’s also another reason why your opponent hasn’t flopped a flush in the first example). But the jack helped his hand alright.

Most likely, your opponent will have J-10 or pocket jacks. Less likely but possible is a hand like Q-10, which flopped top pair and made an open-ended straight draw with the jack. In any case, the look back has allowed you to greatly narrow his range of hands and you can play the turn and river accordingly. This tell is extremely common and you see it on TV all the time, even from very experienced players.

One more common tell you see from players who are unaware goes like this. You raise preflop, and your opponent calls. As soon as the flop is dealt, your opponent briefly glances down at her chips.

That glance tells you that your opponent is thinking about betting – even more so if it’s followed by a sly glance at your chips as well. You can play the rest of the hand accordingly – if you’ve missed the flop, now might be the time to fold.

Lastly, an opponent whose hand is shaking subtly as they handle their chips probably has a strong hand (provided that they don’t normally shake – but you know this, because you’ve been studying their baseline behaviour, right?) This is often interpreted the other way, as a sign of nervousness – but in reality, it’s a sign of excitement. Don’t call the shaky bet!

Voluntary Tells

The other category of tells, and perhaps the most interesting, is voluntary tells. In other words, your opponent is giving you information on purpose, and your job is to figure out what that information means, and then do exactly the opposite of what your opponent wants you to do.

Most voluntary tells are acts, designed to give out false information about the player’s hand. The most common way that people do this is to act in a way as to convey the opposite of their hand’s actual strength. When they’re strong, they act weak. When they’re weak, they act strong.

Mike Caro, who came up with the ‘strong when weak, weak when strong’ idea, devoted most of a book to various acting tells. Lets look at a few of the most common.

Looking away is a particularly reliable tell if your opponent is also following the action out of the corner of their eye

Looking Away: A common way that a player acts weak when they are strong is to feign disinterest in the hand by looking away from you. They want to appear as unthreatening as possible, and encourage you to put money in the pot. Don’t be tempted.

Staring at the flop with chips in hand - please don't bet into me!

Staring at the Flop: This is a way of acting strong when weak. By feigning interest in the flop – ‘oooh, that flop looks nice, what shall I do?’ - your opponent is hoping that you will check to them.

Should I bet or not, who knows? I've only got the nuts

Gestures: Any exaggerated gesture that your opponent makes is probably an act. For example, a player who shrugs before throwing his chips in is acting unsure, and probably has a good hand. A player who acts as though he’s going to fold when it gets to his turn is probably going to raise. And a player who reaches for her chips threateningly is probably not going to call or bet.

The dwell-up - My hand isn't giving me an easy decision, honest

The Dwell Up: A player who takes an inordinate amount of time to make a decision, then raises, is probably holding a strong hand. The long dwell-up is an act, trying to convey that the raise was a difficult decision and perhaps his hand isn’t that strong after all. Don’t fall for it.

Staring at you is an attempt at intimidation - but how could you be intimidated by this face?

Staring at You: This is the opposite of looking away. By staring at you, the player is trying to intimidate you, and appear threatening. Why? Because he doesn’t want you to bet.

Occasionally, a player will try to confuse you by giving you a voluntary tell that is truthful, but this is much more rare. Your opponent is hoping you will think ‘why would he give me this information if it was the truth? He must be lying’, and then do exactly the opposite of what you would do if you could see their hand.

A couple of years ago I was playing a game with friends. On the river, I had nothing but king high, and my opponent put out a bet of close to the size of the pot. The bet seemed strange, so I asked my opponent ‘Can you beat king high?’. Very quickly, he answered ‘no’. At this point many people would fold, figuring that their opponent must be lying. After all, why would he tell you that he couldn’t beat king high if he wanted you to fold? But I called, and won the pot.

Jamie Gold exploited this tendency in his opponents to great effect on his way to winning the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event. Often, Jamie would tell his opponents that he was bluffing, and they would fold. Likewise, he would tell them he held the nuts, and they would call him (often with very little). See the box below for a great example.

So how do you tell an act from genuine behaviour? Well, when a person is being deceptive, there will be a conflict between the behaviour or emotional state they are trying to convey and their actual behaviour or emotional state. It’s the conflict that gives them away.

For an example, let’s go back to the looking away tell. If your opponent is looking away, is slumped back in their chair, turned away from the table, and has their cards far away from them where the dealer could just scoop them up, their disinterest is probably genuine. But if they’re sitting up straight, have one hand on their cards, and their body is turned towards the table but the head away, it’s probably an act and you should be careful.

How to Use Tells

So now you know why tells occur, you know how to spot them, and you know how to interpret some of the most common tells in the poker world. But once you have this information, how do you use it?

If your opponent has made a big bet on the river, and a tell has given away that they are bluffing, you might be tempted to call instantly and rub their face in the fact that they gave away their hand. Some people do act like this, but they’re just hurting themselves, because they’ll never be able to use that tell again. Once your opponent knows that you’ve spotted a tell of theirs, you can bet they’re going to try their hardest not to give away any further information.

So don’t tell them! Once you’ve spotted the tell, wait a little while before you act. That way, you can use the same tell over and over again against the same player.

One thing to be wary of is assigning too much importance to a single tell. Lets say you’re playing a hand against a solid opponent. They check-raised the flop, then bet out big on the turn and the river. You have just one pair and are about to fold, when all of a sudden your opponent sits back from the table and folds his arms – disengaging behaviour. Should you change your decision from fold to call, or from fold to raise?

No, probably not. Tells should be used as clues to help support your decision, but will very rarely tip the balance from one extreme to the other. If all of the other evidence, such as betting patterns and your knowledge of your opponent’s playing style, point to a fold, you should very rarely let a single tell tip the balance to a raise.

A single tell in isolation is unreliable. Some are more reliable than others, but in all cases tells are much more useful if you spot several, all of which support each other. So, for example, in the hand above, if your opponent sat back from the table and folded his arms (disengaging behaviour), but also stared at you and shrugged before he made the bet, you could make a much more convincing case for calling (especially if your knowledge of his playing style told you that he liked to bluff a lot).

Lastly, remember that tells are most useful against intermediate players. If you’re playing against beginners who don’t know the value of their own hand, they might give away tells of strength when actually their hand is very weak (simply because they have misread their hand or don’t understand its strength). For example, you might see a beginner giving away tells of strength and fold, only to discover that your opponent held just an inside straight draw.

Likewise, advanced players are better at hiding their tells, and are much more likely to throw out reverse tells to confuse you (more about reverse tells in a while). While pretty much everyone gives away tells occasionally, against advanced players those tells will be much more confusing and much less useful.

How Good are You at Spotting Tells?

Most people aren’t very aware of the nonverbal behaviour of others, at least on a conscious level. While unconsciously we’re responding to the signals of those around us, consciously we don’t spot the subtle behaviours that cause those responses.

I did research of my own into tells and deception while at university, and learned a lot about the subject. Many people make similar mistakes or have similar incorrect attitudes about non verbal behaviour.

• Most Poker Players Overrate Their Ability to Detect Tells: The majority of people think they’re good at spotting lies, and the majority of poker players think they are good at spotting tells and reading opponents. In truth, that simply isn’t the case. Humans simply aren’t prepared, by evolution or everyday life, to spot deception and subtle non-verbal behaviour in others. It’s a skill that must be learned.

• Most Poker Players Look For The Wrong Clues: You might have heard that if a person covers their mouth or looks away, they’re lying. In actual fact, these everyday ‘tells’ are extremely unreliable, and often plain wrong. In poker, the same applies. The majority of people either don’t know what to look for, or look for the wrong thing. Now that you’ve read this article, you won’t be one of those people!
  
  Incidentally, because your opponents are probably looking for the wrong clues, you should reinforce their behaviour. If they spot a bluff of yours, it’s probably a coincidence but you can convince them it was because you gave away a tell – and this might cause them to make mistakes against you in future.

• Women’s Intution: Is as silly as it sounds. Contrary to popular belief, scientific research shows that women are no better than men at picking up on nonverbal clues. Likewise, the ability to detect tells does not vary significantly among different cultures. Poker really is a level playing field.

• Most Poker Players Overrate the Importance of Bluffing: My own research showed that poker players, when presented with video footage of a person playing a poker hand, tended to think that the person in the video was bluffing much more often than they actually were. My theory is that big bluffs and fancy plays stand out much more often in our minds than run-of-the-mill hands where somebody bets and takes it down. Our memory is selective, and we remember hands that are exciting more than we perhaps should.

Hiding Your Own Tells

One of the things you might be concerned about now you’ve got this far is hiding your own tells. First of all, a word of caution. If you know that you’ve given away something with a tell, don’t then try to cover it up. That cover-up is a voluntary tell in itself, and simply serves to draw more attention to the behaviour you’re trying to hide.

A good example that comes up frequently is a speech play. It’s a big pot, and on the river you’re pondering a call. ‘I’ve got a big hand,’ your opponent says, his hand shaking as he puts his chips into the pot. But then, he sits back in his chair, puts his hands in his lap, and says ‘Or am I bluffing?’.

Don’t worry, he’s not bluffing. The first behaviour was genuine, and the second was an attempt to cover up that behaviour and confuse you. Don’t do this yourself. If you realise that you’ve given a tell away, simply stop doing it and hope your opponent hasn’t noticed.

There are two approaches to hiding your tells, which I call ‘white noise’ and ‘no signal’ respectively. The white noise approach involves making so many unusual actions and giving away so many tells that your opponent can’t pick out the useful information (or distinguish the signal from the noise, if you like). This approach was pioneered by Mike Caro, and you see it employed in the modern game by Gus Hansen (who is constantly looking puzzled and pulling faces) and to some extent Daniel Negreanu.

The second approach, no signal, simply involves not giving away any information at all. You don’t move, except to put your chips in. You take the same amount of time to take every action and to make every decision – the idea being that if you do everything the same way, you won’t give away any information to your opponents. You’ll see this approach used by Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson – and even 2007 World Series of Poker winner Jerry Yang.

Which approach you take yourself will depend on what sort of person you are. Choose the one that best fits your personality. If you’re exuberant and loud at the table by nature, use that to camouflage the information that you give away. If you’re a quiet type, choose the no signal approach, as that will be easiest for you.

However, the most important thing you can do to cut down on the number of tells you give away is to lower the stakes. That doesn’t necessarily mean playing for less money, but making yourself comfortable in the game in whatever ways you can. If you’re playing a tougher game than you should be, quit. If you’re risking more money in the game than you’re comfortable with, go find another game. The lower the stakes, the less tells you’ll give away.

Reverse Tells

Reverse tells are a tell that you intentionally give away, hoping that your opponent will pick up on it, not realise that you gave it away on purpose, and be tricked into making the wrong decision because they overvalued the tell’s importance. For example, you’re playing Hold’em and on the river you make the nut flush and move all-in. Your opponent is thinking about calling, so you want to encourage him to do so in whatever way you can. You freeze in your chair (a tell of unconfidence), then start to stare at your opponent (a strong when weak tell). Your opponent spots this and calls, then storms away from the table as his chips are pushed to you.

You must be very careful when throwing out a reverse tell. An expert opponent who is watching you closely should be able to spot the difference between a tell that you feign and a genuine tell, because there will be a conflict between the behaviour you’re trying to display and your actual emotional state.

Nevertheless, reverse tells can work well, particularly against opponents who think they are stronger players than they actually are. Several years ago, I remember playing against a cocky student at St. Andrews University, who was constantly staring me down. The next time I was in a hand against him, I had raised preflop with A-K and missed the flop. I put out a fairly standard continuation bet, and my opponent started to stare at me. So I threw out a classic tell of strength, looking away into the distance. My opponent folded his pocket jacks (an overpair to the board) face up, and looked smug as I collected his chips. ‘Wow, nice laydown’ I said. If only he knew.

How Useful Are Tells?

Tells are a useful and important addition to your poker arsenal, but to be completely honest, they’re overrated. The movies present an unrealistic view of tells, and poker TV shows and books exaggerate their importance.

Tells are great if they supplement information that you already have, and they can help you do the right thing when the decision is close. But they have their downsides. Tells are never 100% reliable, particularly if found in isolation, and if not supported by other complementary information.

Betting patterns, probability, and the tendencies of your opponent will always be the key factors that you use to make most poker decisions. You’ll never be able to play a poker hand using tells alone. However, tells can help you to win that extra pot here and there – and the little extra money you win each session really adds up at the end of the year.

Further Reading

There are only two books that are really worth reading about tells – and both are essential parts of a serious poker player’s library. Both books expand on concepts I’ve discussed in this article and go into extra detail that I couldn’t. I can’t recommend them enough. They are:

‘Caro’s Book of Poker Tells’ (Mike Caro, Cardoza Publishing)
‘Read ‘em and Reap’ (Joe Navarro, Collins)

Jamie Gold Boxout

It’s down to the last four tables of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Jamie Gold looks down at Kd 10d, and raises to 175,000. Cocky young pro / would be rapper Prahlad Friedman calls with 7d 7c. The flop comes 4d 2c 2s, and Jamie Gold bets 300,000. Prahlad calls. The turn is the As and both players check. The river comes the 3c. Jamie Gold bets 750,000.

‘I heard a story about you making a nice bluff. You bet about 750, I think’, says Prahlad.
‘You caught me. Please call. You caught me.’ replies Jamie.
‘You showed a king high that time’.
‘You’ve got a good read on me. Man, I can’t believe you’ve got me! I don’t even want to watch.’

Prahlad folds. Jamie told him exactly what he had, and Prahlad didn’t recognise what was happening. Friedman was eliminated shortly thereafter, and Gold went on to become the most unpopular WSOP champion of recent years.

Make or Break?

I'm currently in an unpleasant situation that I've never been in before. I'm having a losing year at poker.

I've kept detailed records of my poker play for over five years now, and this is the first year ever that I've ever dropped into the red. What's more, it's happened twice this year - I had a losing month in January that set me back a little, and a truly awful June that undid all the good work in February through May.

June was the main culprit, probably because of the World Series of Poker. Ever ambitious, I played three events this year, totalling $5500 in buy-ins. I honestly expected to cash in at least one event, but instead I had three frustrating finishes.

In the first event, the $1500 Razz, I made day 2 as a short stack. This was mainly thanks to Ted Lawson (a player infamous for his board-reading skills, displayed to comedic effect in the 2004 WSOP Pot Limit Omaha broadcast), who crippled me in a typical Razz tournament hand, in which we both started with a draw to a wheel and he ended up showing down a smoother seven low than me.

Entering the Tropical Room at the Rio for Day 2, I felt confident that should I double up, I would have a good chance to make the money and perhaps the final table. I'm not scared of any Razz player in the world - Razz is an extremely theoretical game and my knowledge of poker theory is up there with the best. However, after around half an hour's play, I got it all-in drawing to a seven against Amnon Filipi. A few bricks in a row sent me to the rail.

The next event, a $1500 No Limit Hold'em, ran in similar fashion. In the early stages I was making steady progress - I was concentrating well, and while I wasn't quite running over the table, I had a good read on my opposition and was picking up some nice pots. It all went wrong when I was moved to a new table, full of new unknown players.

There is a new breed of player that simply wasn't around when I first started playing poker - the cocky, young internet player who wants to outplay you in every single pot. One of these players at your table is a blessing, because they will typically give up too much by calling raises with sub-par hands. However, my new table had three such players in a row, with me seated to their right.

That meant that if I wanted to steal the blinds and antes, I had to do it from early position - either that, or be prepared to fire three barrels after the flop. It was a difficult situation, and I didn't handle it too well. Two key hands - one where I got beat with A-K, and one where I got beat by A-K - and I was out. Again, I had made the top 15% of the tournament, but not the money.

Prior to the World Series of Poker, I had played two 2-7 Triple Draw tournaments. Both were multi-table tournaments against reasonably knowledgeable opposition - and I won both. But the third tournament, against a very tough, truly world-class field, was less kind to me. It is the only tournament I have played this year in which I felt outclassed, and I was out after just a couple of hours. Part of the reason was that I did not play as well as my opponents (Bruno Fitoussi, for example, ran an excellent bluff against me), and part of the reason was that I never hit a hand. It seemed like every hand that I would draw one to a seven against an opponent drawing three, and end up with either a pair or a marginal hand, which I would pay off my opponent with after the last draw.

The cash games haven't been kind to me recently either. In critical, preflop all-in pots, I've had K-K beaten by A-K (twice), A-J beaten by A-10, Q-Q beaten by J-J, and A-K beaten by A-Q. I've ran a set of threes into a set of fives, tens full into jacks full (in Omaha Eight or Better - my opponent held J-5-5-3 and caught a well-disguised three on the turn), and top trips into a full house.

This is all beginning to sound like one big bad beat story, so I'll wrap up with what I plan to do.

I have always advised people that when they're running bad, they should drop down in stakes and batten down the hatches. So I've set myself a challenge in bankroll management and game selection, all of which will be played online.

I'll be starting with a bankroll of just $2000, which I will not be allowed to add to or cashout during the challenge. I'll be playing whatever game looks the most profitable - whether it be No Limit Hold'em cash games, Omaha Sit & Gos, or Razz MTTs. The goal is to reach $20,000 by the end of the year. That might seem easy to some, and indeed, it's tempting to just use the whole amount to buy into a $10/$20 game and take my chances.

But the point is to exercise good bankroll management and give myself a great chance to finish the year in profit. It's about reducing variance and grinding out a steady profit, rather than making the most profit at the greatest risk of ruin.

I'll keep you posted.

The Theology of Poker

I have been interested in religion for many years. In my time, I've read the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, the Satanic Bible, and other books on theology and philosophy (holy and otherwise). Somehow though, despite a deep fascination with religion, I am agnostic. I don't worship a supernatural deity or play any part in religion, and I never really have.

I'd like to describe myself as an atheist. The world today is full of examples of religion, twisted and perverted to suit an individual's greed or ulterior motives. In America, fundamentalist Christians have a profound effect on policy, foreign and domestic. War is waged on countries that don't agree with the USA's (Christian) moral code. Creationism is taught in schools alongside science. In some areas, a woman cannot even choose to have an abortion, and doctors who perform abortion services are threatened and assaulted. In fact, the effect that religion has on modern society, particularly when it is taken to it's inevitable extremes, is truly worrying.

God

However, to call myself an atheist would be dishonest. The truth is that I was brought up in a Christian country, and I was educated by Christians. My grandparents are Christians, my country is governed by Christians, and while I was at school I took a class called 'Scripture', in which we studied the Christian bible. The effect that all of this childhood indoctrination had on me is unmistakable, and although I find the idea that God exists highly improbable, and I find only artistic, not spiritual, inspiration from the pages of the holy books, the notion that there just might be a God out there somewhere is indelibly branded on my mind.

What does this have to do with poker? Well, recently I was wondering whether religious belief can affect your poker game, either positively or negatively. To become a truly great poker player (as I aspire to do), you need to be able to detach yourself from the swings that are inevitable in the game, and be truly unbiased in assessing your own play. You need to accept responsibility for your mistakes, and be able to analyse your game impartially.

A lot of players can't do that. They can't deal with the swings, so they forever underachieve. Or they refuse to accept that they are to blame for their losses, and look for something or somebody to blame instead.

This culture of blame is encouraged by religion. If you crash your car head on into a pedestrian and they die, it's not your fault. God had a plan, which unfortunately meant that the victim had to pass on. But it doesn't matter - they're in heaven now, a better place.

Religion encourages people not to take responsibility for their own actions - whether good or bad. Some people believe that God pervades all, and that no action takes place without God's will. If they commit an act of outstanding charity, it was because God made them do it. If they catch a miracle card on the river, it was because 'God wished it'.

Never mind for a minute that if God did exist, he probably wouldn't be helping out players of a game in which the greedy objective is to inflict financial damage on your opponents. But why shouldn't you take pride in your achievements, while accepting and learning from your failures? It will make you a better player.

Knowledge of probability is also an essential weapon in a top poker player's arsenal. It's 220-1 against being dealt pocket aces preflop in Hold'em. If you have fifteen outs on the flop, you're a favourite to hit one of them by the river. If you play enough hands, you will inevitably be dealt a royal flush in five cards twice in a row (granted, it could take a lot of hands).

This is hard enough to grasp as it is. The vast majority of new players to the game think they are getting astoundingly unlucky when they take two bad beats in a row, or lose with pocket aces. That's because they don't understand the underlying mathematics, which often explain that a) what happened wasn't all that unlikely and/or b) what happened was bound to happen to someone, somewhere, eventually.

Religion and superstition erode this even further. The whole concept of randomness and the mathematical absolutes of probability fall apart when you believe deep down that they can be subverted at will by a deity. Sure, you're 3-1 against to make this flush, but if you pray really hard, God can turn that magical card for you every time!

I got wondering whether many top poker players were religious. Obviously, Jerry Yang, the winner of the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, was nauseatingly so.

Daniel Negreanu is also religious, as he has made clear on his website. I don't know whether this was due to some experience later in his life, whether his Romanian parents had an influence (97.5% of Romania's population is Christian), or whether something else is at work. It's somewhat surprising though, as Daniel appears to be both highly intelligent and fairly young, both of which correlate with reduced religiosity in general.

Doyle Brunson is also outwardly Christian. In Super System he describes two key moments in his life, one in which his own health was spectacularly affected, and one in which his daughter's was, which saw his belief in God reaffirmed. It is interesting that Doyle chooses to ignore the anti-gambling messages of his chosen religion.

I expect the number of top players who are religious to be skewed slightly by the fact that many of poker's best players are American, and America has a much higher proportion of religious people compared to Europe. I am curious how religious are Britain's top players, and Scandinavia's, and Australia's. I would guess, for example, that someone like Gus Hansen is not particularly religious.

I think I am better off as an agnostic poker player, but I sometimes wonder whether believing in God would give me comfort and encouragement in bad times. Maybe I'll never know. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll find God at the main event final table. I'll be sure to let you know.

World Series 2007 Blog

I covered the early stages of the 2007 WSOP for InsidePoker magazine. It's been six months, so here are the original, unedited blogs.

WSOP – Days 1 and 2

If you’re a poker player, the World Series of Poker is like Mecca – and just like the real Mecca, the first time you encounter it, you’re blown away. The Pavilion at the Rio truly has to be seen to be believed. It has a presence almost spiritual in nature – something that makes you say to yourself ‘This was worth all the hard work. I have finally arrived.’

Of course, this isn’t everyone’s first pilgrimage to the World Series, and for the many professionals taking a seat in the inaugural World Championship of Mixed Hold’em, a 3-day, $5000 tournament alternating between Limit and No Limit forms of the game, this experience was nothing new. Take Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Johnny Chan, for example, who were all sat at the same table (nominated the ‘Tough Table of the Day’ by the daily WSOP newsletter) – none of the three were even slightly fazed by the bright lights, incessant clacking of chips, and ever-present cameras. These three had come to win.

The pros may not have been intimidated by the atmosphere, but they were disappointed with the new style cards introduced by Harrah’s and the United States Playing Card Company, known as ‘Poker Peek’. Complaints were rife, and mostly focused on the fact that the nines and sixes were difficult to tell apart, and the digits too small. Within three hours the cards were changed to the more traditional Kem cards used throughout Las Vegas – but there were rumours that a player had already departed the field before this time, thinking he had a full house, aces full of nines, but flipping over a measly A-6 for trip aces with a bad kicker.

We also saw the World Series’ first Royal Flush. In a hand between European professional Mikael Thuritz and Jimmy Tran, the flop came A-K-Q of diamonds, and Mikael moved all-in. Jimmy called immediately, flashing the J-10 of diamonds. Mikael dejectedly showed two black kings, and stood up from the table.

Many British players, including WPT winner and former Inside Poker columnist Roland de Wolfe, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot, and EPT London winner Mark Teltscher, turned up for the event, but not many were successful. Devilfish was eliminated after he was crippled by Mike Matusow, then threw his last chips in with pocket tens, losing to an opponent’s two pair. De Wolfe was also eliminated by the end of the day.

While the Mixed Hold’em event was playing out, the lines were forming for Event 3, the first No Limit Hold’em tournament of the year. With literally hundreds of eager players in the queue, the average wait was over three hours. Many professionals, having already signed a release form, sent minions to register on their behalf – others, even those who had had the foresight to preregister online, stood staring at the ceiling waiting for their turn.

The crush of players, lengthy queues, and eventual start of the $1500 No Limit tourney delayed the start of the second day of the Mixed Hold’em event, which saw 97 players remaining from the 451 runners fighting it out for 45 money spots. Greg ‘Full Blown Tilt’ Mueller, who had led the field for most of day 1, was able to increase his stack steadily, becoming the first player to cross the 300,000 chips mark, and secured his place in the money.

From Day 1’s table of doom, only Johnny Chan was to make it to the second day, finishing in 31st place. Brit Mark Teltscher fared a little better, making it to 29th place. The field eventually pared down to the final table of nine players, who will take a seat tomorrow to battle it out for the $536,287 first prize. Many of the finalists are relative unknowns, something not too unusual for the WSOP these days, but notable exceptions are WPT winner Steve Paul Ambrose, in second chip position, and Greg Mueller, in third. Short stacks John Younger and Jon Turner have their work cut out for them if they’re to make it to the big money paying positions.
Meanwhile, the $1500 No Limit Hold’em event, which also started late, was breaking records with just short of 3000 players registered. If there were doubts over whether the legal situation in the USA were to hurt this year’s event, they were quashed pretty quickly.

The action got off to a fast and furious start, with Devilfish, American Pie star Shannon Elizabeth, and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson all quickly eliminated. Phil Hellmuth departed shortly afterwards, after getting all his money in with pocket kings only for his opponent to make quad jacks. In the meantime, Brit Roland de Wolfe was busy accumulating a huge stack. By the time the money bubble burst late in the evening, he had accumulated approximately 140,000 chips (from a starting stack of just 3000), and is in second place behind young American pro Alex Jacob in the chip standings. He’s in a great position to take a shot at the first place prize of $727,012 and his first bracelet.

Tomorrow is a busy day, seeing the crowning of the first World Champion of Mixed Hold’em, the second day of the busy $1500 event, and the start of both the $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em (an event in which Europeans traditionally do well) and the $2500 Mixed Hi/Lo, consisting of half Stud Eight or Better and half Omaha Eight or Better. With four events on the go, there will be a lot happening. Keep an eye on www.insidepokermag.co.uk for the roundup.

WSOP – Day 3

June the 3rd was a busy day at the Rio, with no less than four events running at the same time. The first bracelet was to be decided in the $5000 World Championship of Mixed Hold’em, the first big No Limit event was to be pared down to the final few players, and two new events were due to begin – event 4, $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em, and event 5, the $2500 Mixed Hi/Lo (half Stud 8 and half Omaha 8).

The Pot Limit event got off to a furious start, with 781 players vying for the first place prize of over $250k. Current world champion Jamie Gold was one of the first to go, getting his chips in with top two pair on an all-hearts flop, and running into a flush. Europeans traditionally do well in Pot Limit events at the World Series, as the format is not particularly popular in North America (with No Limit and Limit by far the most dominant). However, few Europeans have been able to do well so far, with Padraig Parkinson, Andy Black, and Devilfish already eliminated. 51 players made it to day two of the event, but only one big European name, Italian Marco Traniello, was up there with the leaders.

Light relief was provided by Chip Jett, who took a seat in the event and was promptly eliminated, only to be challenged by a latecomer that he was sitting in his seat. It turned out that Chip was in the right seat, at the right table, but on the wrong day – his event starts tomorrow!

Meanwhile, in the $1500 No Limit event, there was controversy when some players discovered that they had lost chips overnight. Apparently, players counted stacks and signed them off at the end of the night, but Rio staff subsequently coloured up the smaller chips. Somewhere along the line a mistake was made and several players ended up with fewer chips – with one player, Ryan Fair, even losing the chiplead at his table. The mistake was rectified fairly quickly and play continued.

Roland De Wolfe, amongst the chipleaders on day 1, was unable to significantly increase his chips and never caught a break, finishing in 107th place and winning $5115. The final table was eventually decided, with German Andreas Krause sat in between leaders Alex Jacob and Paul Evans, nursing a stack of just twelve big blinds. Hopes that a European will win the event are slim, but not non-existent.

While all this was happening, a world champion of Mixed Hold’em was decided. Steve Billirakis, at 21 years old and 10 days, becomes the youngest World Series of Poker titleholder in history. The event was decided in Limit Hold’em, with Billirakis grinding second place finisher Greg Mueller down, and finally finishing him off with K-2 against Mueller’s 5-4s. Billirakis is a quiet young man, but had predicted in his interview with ESPN that he was going to win. When asked by presenter Norman Chad about it, he coolly answered ‘What was I supposed to say? I think I’ll finish second?’

Tomorrow sees the start of the $1500 Limit Hold’em event (in which yours truly will be playing) and the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys. With any luck, the pros will take a shot at the Omaha, leaving me alone with the fishes. Keep an eye on insidepokermag.co.uk for the updates.

WSOP – Day 4

If Day 3 was a hectic one at the Rio in Las Vegas, Day 4 was insane! No less than five events were scheduled to be running simultaneously, alongside constantly-running satellites and cash games – the final table of the $1500 No Limit Hold’em, which would award the Series’ second bracelet, the second day of the $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em, which would cut the field down to the final table, the second day of the $2500 Mixed Hi/Lo, which would do the same, the $1500 Limit Hold’em event, which would see 910 players fight it out for 90 money places, and the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha rebuy event – a pro favourite.

In the $1500 No Limit Hold’em, German Andreas Krause was to double up after hitting a wheel, crippling Matt Vengrin who was eliminated shortly thereafter. Krause then eliminated Bart Hanson himself, holding pocket queens against Hanson’s A-10. All of a sudden, he was third in chips and with a real chance to win... but after just a few hands he was on the rail, after moving in with K-10 and being called by A-10.

Long-time chipleader Alex Jacob was eliminated in third place by Ciaran O’Leary, which gave him a truly humongous 5 to 1 lead over heads-up opponent Paul Evans. It took just two hands for O’Leary to take the title, $727,012 in prize money, and the 2007 series second bracelet.
Meanwhile, Annie Duke, sporting a Rachel-from-Friends-esque new hairdo, was busy accumulating chips in the Mixed Hi/Lo. 32 players made the money, with pro Mike Matusow being one of the unlucky ones to miss out. Online player Tom Schneider leads the field going into the final table, with Duke slightly behind. Joining them at the final table are pros Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, David Benyamine, and John Phan.

In the Pot Limit Hold’em, one of the early eliminations was Freddy Deeb. Simply by looking at Deeb you could guess he would be quickly knocked out – he looked angry and tired from the minute he sat down. Meanwhile Gavin Smith went on a tear, and was able to accumulate 480,000 in chips for the final table. Italian pro and husband to Jennifer Harman, Marco Traniello, was also able to make the final table, with 277,000 in chips. Joining them are Jon Friedberg, and online pro Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch.

I myself was playing in the $1500 Limit Hold’em event. I had hoped that the addition of the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha with rebuys would distract most of the big name pros, and my prayers were answered. Every table in the Omaha event contained at least two recognisable faces – Mike Sexton and Doyle Brunson at one table, David Benyamine, Jennifer Harman, Gus Hansen and more at others. However the limit event was still populated with a few pros – Phil Ivey took the time to enter, as did Andy Bloch and irritating loudmouth Kathy Liebert, who led the field for most of the day but was thankfully eliminated before the money.

How did I get on, I hear you cry? Well, although I hit a couple of big hands, I was rarely able to get paid off – early on I flopped the nut straight on a two flush board, only for the turn to come with a club that paired the board, and the river with another club – although thankfully nobody had a club. Later I flopped quads and was able to extract one bet out of my opponent, when the river gave them a pair. The rest of the time I spent missing every flop, or running hands like pocket kings into an opponent’s 9-7 offsuit and his turned two pair. I was eventually eliminated in about 350th place, and went to a bar where a round cost $25 to ease the pain.

Tomorrow sees the final table of the $1500 Pot Limit Hold’em and the $2500 Mixed Hi/Lo, Day 2 of the Limit Hold’em event in which the 90 players in the money will battle it out for the final table positions, Day 2 of the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha, and the start of the $1000 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys. It should be another busy day at the Rio!

WSOP – Day 5

Day 4 of the World Series of Poker had a whopping five bracelet events running simultaneously. However, Day 5 was not to be outdone. I see your five events, and raise you one more, it said! Six tournaments in total, so little time – I will be brief.

First, the Pot Limit Hold’em final table. It was a star-studded field, with online pro Eric Lynch, bracelet winner Jon Friedberg, WPT Season 4 Player of the Year Gavin Smith, and European Marco Traniello sitting down with a few less famous faces to duke it out for the cash. First to go was Traniello, who moved all-in with A-K and was called by Smith’s pocket jacks. He didn’t improve, and left in ninth place, his twelfth cash in the past three years (more than any other player in this timeframe).

Smith went on a tear, eliminating Jeff Langdon and Eric Lynch before slowing down a little. Bruce Van Horn (who finished second to Huck Seed in the 1998 main event) was eliminated by Jon Friedberg; Thomas Savitsky was knocked out by William Hill (no, not that one), then Hill was sent to the rail by Mike Spegal, leaving him heads up with Gavin Smith.

Spegal chipped away at Smith, eventually ending the tournament holding A-10s against Smith’s pocket fives. The board came with three spades to give Spegal the bracelet and $252,290. Spegal was celebrating his ninth wedding anniversary that night, and his wife was there in the stands cheering him on as he held the money aloft.

In the Limit Hold’em event, the remaining 90 players fought it out for the final table spots. With no European presence left in the field and no famous names, it’s likely that this bracelet will be won quietly. Gary Stycznsky leads the final table with a massive 817,000 chips, with short-stacked Peter O’Donnell in last place with just 55,000 – less than two big bets at the stakes of 15000/30000.

A second final table was also playing out today, in the $2500 Mixed Hi/Lo. John Phan was the first to go, eliminated by Annie Duke. David Benyamine went in sixth place, after he ran into chip leader Tom Schneider’s three aces. Chris Bell went shortly after, with Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson following in fourth. Annie Duke, the first female player to make a final table in 2007, left in third place after desperately battling to catch up to leader Schneider in the Omaha 8 level.
Heads up between Tom Schneider and Ed Tonnellier was also to be decided in Omaha 8, as Schneider scooped a huge pot, giving him a 543 to 1 chip lead! Tonnellier doubled up a few times before being finally eliminated – Schneider taking home $214,347 and the Series’ fifth gold bracelet.

The $1000 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys was also due to start today, and provided spectators with more than the usual entertainment for the early stages of a tournament. There were frequent all-ins and it was clear that some players were simply blowing off steam – Layne Flack rebought twelve times, for example. After the smoke cleared, 1814 rebuys by 844 players had swelled the prize pool to over $2.5 million!

At the end of the first day, there are some fairly famous names at the top of the leaderboard. Sorel Mizzi sits at the top, with 240,000 in chips (a profit of 238,000 on the starting stacks of 2000), as is followed closely by Michael Binger (who made the final table of the 2006 main event), Amir Vahedi, Gavin Griffin, and Michael Gracz.

In the pro-filled Pot Limit Omaha tournament, several Europeans cashed including Ram Vaswani, Ben Grundy, and Robin Keston. Andy Black was busted in eleventh place, and perennial Omaha final-tabler Robert Williamson barely missed out, finishing in tenth. However it was Devilfish did the Brits proud by making it to the final table with a bunch of chips, 1,300,000 to be exact. It’s his tournament to lose – his opponents include Humberto ‘The Shark’ Brenes, John Juanda, Minh Ly, Robin Keston, and second in chips Eric Cajelais. Is he worried? No. ‘These guys don’t know how to spell Omaha’, he said, taking a leaf out of fellow UltimateBet pro Phil Hellmuth’s book. Can Dave Colclough’s nomination for ‘most overrated player in Britain’ win his second bracelet? We’ll find out tomorrow when the final table is played out.

The last event to be played today was the $1500 Omaha Eight or Better, which started play in the outdoor overflow tent. Us Brits may be used to worse, but in Las Vegas a slight breeze is considered ‘bad weather’. There was constant whinging from the players and tournament directors almost stopped play altogether – the tournament was eventually moved indoors after some space was cleared.

At the end of the day, Jordan Morgan (who had a great run at the 2006 US Poker Championship) is top of the leaderboard and Russian Kirill Gerasimov is also running well. Day 2 will be played out tomorrow and will whittle the field down to the usual final table.
Tomorrow is expected to be a quieter day, with only one new event (the $2000 No Limit Hold’em) starting up. For some it will be a welcome break, but for others the urge to get back into action will be too much. There are smaller alternatives at the Venetian and Binions, and the cash games will also undoubtedly be busy. Stay tuned for more news, here at insidepokermag.co.uk.

WSOP – Day 6

For those observing the WSOP, Day 6 was a relatively sanguine time – a well-deserved break from the madness of the previous days. There were two final tables to be played out, in Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, both the $1000 No Limit Hold’em and $1500 Omaha Eight or Better were down to the money, and the two new events starting, the $5000 Stud and the $2000 No Limit Hold’em, weren’t expected to draw enormous fields. Overall the atmosphere in the Rio was a little less chaotic than usual.

In the Limit Hold’em, chipleader Gary Styczynski cut through the competition to take the bracelet and $280,715 in prize money with relative ease. The event was broadcast, complete with hole cards, with a one hour delay over the internet. Future events will also be available – check out worldseriesofpoker.com for the details.

In the Pot Limit Omaha, Devilfish’s hopes of a second bracelet were dashed. Although he was able to build up chips early in the proceedings by knocking out Humberto Brenes, when he got it all-in against chipleader Eric Cajelais with a flush draw and open-ended straight draw, he couldn’t hit a card and was eliminated. The event was eventually taken down by Burt Boutin, who eliminated Cajelais by catching two pair. Ask anybody how Boutin got his chips, and nobody will be able to tell you – he came from nowhere to be one of the leaders without being involved in any of the truly enormous pots. Boutin won a massive $825,956 for his efforts.

In the No Limit Hold’em rebuy event, an interesting development occurred when Vinnie Vinh, who started the day with over 200,000 in chips, never arrived to play. He was blinded away for the entire day and of course never made the final table, which features Shane Schleger, Michael Gracz, and Amir Vahedi amongst a mix of less well-known names.

In the Omaha Eight or Better, both Rob Hollink and former Inside Poker columnist Roland de Wolfe were able to make the money, but few famous faces could make the final table, which will be played out tomorrow. Jordan Morgan, who was one of the leaders in Day 1, makes a well-deserved appearance alongside Alex Kravchenko and six others. Interestingly on the final table bubble, two players were eliminated on the same hand (by Morgan) and so the final hands will be played out eight-handed instead of the usual nine-handed.

Day 6 saw two new events start up – the $2000 No Limit Hold’em, which saw 1531 players shooting at a $566,916 first prize, and the $5000 Seven Card Stud, which saw another star-studded but small field aiming at the $258,453 prize. In the Hold’em, Phil Hellmuth broke his own record for WSOP cashes, with 58 money finishes in his playing history. 125 players will return tomorrow to pare the field down to the final table.

In the Stud, Mike Sexton made waves early in the day but was eliminated shortly before play stopped. Only 24 places are paid in the event, and 86 remaining players will be battling it out tomorrow to see who wins them. Famous faces Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein are still in, as are a number of European players including Theo Jorgenson, Jan Sorensen, Thor Hansen and Marco Traniello.

Day 7 sees just one new event start up, the shorthanded $1500 No Limit Hold’em. It’s expected to be an interesting event with lots of aggressive play – keep an eye on insidepokermag.co.uk to see if it is.

WSOP – Day 7 , 8 and 9

The World Series of Poker 2007 has been running for over a week now, and has been breaking records every step of the way. No less than eight events were taking place over Days 7 and 8, each crowning a champion – some a World Champion – but all awarding the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet.

In the $1000 No Limit Hold’em with rebuys, Michael Chu, an enthusiastic Amateur from Los Angeles, flattened the opposition at the final table to take the bracelet and the huge $585,744 first prize. He fought through some tough opponents, including Maciek ‘Michael’ Gracz and Amir Vahedi, without making a single rebuy or add-on. This was Chu’s first cash at any WSOP and he has no plans to quit his day job.

The $1500 Omaha 8 or better final table saw Russian businessman Alex Kravchenko take the title and $228,446. First day chip-leader Jordan Morgan was one of the first to go, exiting in 7th place. At the heads up-stage, Kravchenko had close to a 2 to 1 lead over Bryan Devonshire, and was able to eliminate him fairly quickly after making trip fours against Devonshire’s aces up. It’s hard to imagine a more emotionless winner than Kravchenko – he has a true poker face and maintained it even when presented with the bracelet.

In the $2000 No Limit Hold’em, controversial online player Justin Bonomo entered the final table as chipleader but ran into trouble in the middle stages, getting all in holding kings against his opponent’s aces. He was eliminated shortly afterwards after getting his money in with K-10 and losing a coinflip against Will Durkee. Durkee went on to take the bracelet after hitting a straight against runner-up Todd Terry. Durkee earned $566,916 for his efforts – his fourth WSOP cash.

Days 7 and 8 saw two Seven Card Stud events running in succession. First was the $5000 World Championship, a star studded field which was pared down to a final table including Europeans Theo Jorgenson and Marco Traniello, pros Ted Lawson, Phil Ivey, Chris Reslock, and David Oppenheim, and two amateurs. Oppenheim led the field going into the final table but it was Reslock who was the deserving victor – he fought back from being the third-shortest stack, knocking out four players before going into a titanic battle with Ivey and Oppenheim. The final hand saw Ivey and Reslock lock horns, Ivey holding two pair and Reslock a set of tens. It’s unlikely that there will be a tougher final table at this year’s World Series, and World Champion Reslock was modestly elated with his win and the $258,453 prize money. ‘The cards went my way, but I played well’, he said.

The $1500 Stud, a short 2-day event, ended up going on til the early hours of Sunday morning, with German Michael Keiner taking the bracelet home to Europe, after beating both Barry Greenstein and 2004 World Champion Greg Raymer at the final table. Keiner is well respected on the European circuit and this is sure to be a popular victory. The win earned Keiner $146,987.

In the $1500 Shorthanded Hold’em event, a final table of mostly unknowns battled it out for $481,697 in first place prize money. Jason Warner, the chipleader going into the final table, was able to stave off the competition and took home the bracelet.

Going into Day 9, no less than three events are in progress. In the $5000 Pot Limit Hold’em, the final table was decided and includes Jason Lester, Allen Cunningham, Gavin Griffin, Humberto Brenes (who is having an excellent series by anyone’s standards but will have to overcome a significant chip deficit), and leader Jeffrey Lisandro, who has almost 1,000,000 in chips.

In the $1500 No Limit Hold’em, Phil Hellmuth extended the record that he broke just a few days ago by cashing for a 59th time. Despite what people say about Hellmuth, it’s difficult to argue with his record in Hold’em tournaments. Frenchman Fabrice Soulier is one of the leaders going into Day 2 and joins Hellmuth, Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier, and Joe Bartholdi.

The next event is the $2500 HORSE – the first HORSE event leading up to the huge $50,000 World Championship of HORSE later in the Series. Understandably there were many big names in the field, but that didn’t stop some amateurs taking a shot. ‘Playing Razz, I capped it on fifth street with a made eight against a guy with a king and a nine showing’, said David Williams, ‘he made a seven on the river and I bricked’. Williams was visibly frustrated with his current World Series performance during our chat, but was apparently able to recover – he is now one of the leaders going into Day 2, and has almost 20,000 in chips. Joining him at the top are Stud World Champion Chris Reslock, Cindy Violette, Layne Flack and Steve Zolotow. Europeans Andy Black and John Gale also made it to Day 2.

Tomorrow sees the start of the $5000 World Championship of Limit Hold’em, as well as the $1000 Ladies Event, one of only three non-open events at the World Series (the others being the Seniors’ event and the Casino Employees’ event).

I’m sure many of you are bored with simply reading about results, and some of you have asked ‘What is it actually like to be at the Rio during the World Series?’ To be brutally honest, the feeling inside the Amazon Room and the surrounding areas of the Pavilion is of organised chaos. Dealers and floorpeople vary widely in their knowledge of the game, interpretation of the rules, and skill. There is no computerised list system for the cash games or satellites, so instead staff scream out available seats and tables to each other, and keep track of waiting lists on a whiteboard. The Rio is noisy, poorly organised, and dirty.

What’s more, the World Series has never been so commercial or tacky. It’s understandably difficult to run events for so many people without making compromises, but the 2007 Series lacks much of the class, dignity and sportsmanship that brings out the best in poker. There are sponsors for everything – from the bracelets to the surveillance systems. What used to be a top restaurant is now a $2 buffet – a pasteurised and inoffensive affair designed to accommodate as many people as possible. If it wasn’t for the huge amount of money up for grabs, the TV exposure and the weak opposition, very few knowledgeable players would be at the Rio. WSOP alternatives being held at the Venetian and Binions are doing extraordinarily well, as are cash games at other plush poker rooms like the MGM Grand and Caesars Palace.

So how am I enjoying the World Series? Well, quite frankly, every time I catch a cab to the Rio it is with a heavy heart, and every time I arrive there I can’t wait to leave. That pretty much sums things up.

Perhaps I’ll change my mind when I win the Razz bracelet next week!

WSOP – Day 10

Day 10 was an exciting one for those of us observing the World Series of Poker.
All eyes were on the final table of the $5000 World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em. Last year’s champion Jason Lester took on Gavin Griffin, Jeffrey Lisandro, Humberto Brenes, and the ever-dangerous Allen Cunningham in an attempt to get his hands on another bracelet and almost half a million dollars in first prize money.

Lisandro, the chip leader going into the final table, eliminated the first player before hitting a wall, doubling up Jason Lester and Humberto Brenes but never losing the chip lead. He then took out Gavin Griffin holding a flush draw and straight draw against Griffin’s ace-high.
Cunningham then vaulted to the chip lead by eliminating a player, then winning a massive pot against Jeff Lisandro with a flush. Lisandro was unfazed however, and in a thrilling hand knocked out two players including Jason Lester simultaneously – his QQ standing up against Lester’s AK and the third player’s pocket sevens.

Shortly afterwards Humberto Brenes was eliminated after making a move with 10-9 and running into Cunningham’s A-Q. This gave Cunningham a slight chip lead for the heads up duel, which he was able to extend after a long fought-out battle. He finally eliminated Lisandro with K-9 against Lisandro’s Queens, after catching a King on the turn.

Cunningham took home his fifth bracelet, and further cemented his reputation as one of the top tournament players of today. Even Phil Hellmuth felt the need to bow down to Allen as he claimed that he was only a quarter of the way to the 20 bracelet target he had set for himself.
Speaking of Phil Hellmuth, he is well on his way to a possible record-breaking eleventh bracelet, sitting second in chips going into the final table of the $1500 No Limit Hold’em. The final table doesn’t have many well-known faces with the exception of Hellmuth and Frenchman Fabrice Soulier, but it’s sure to be one of the most closely watched events tomorrow.

In the $2500 HORSE event, Day 2 saw the field play down to 20 players. Despite an encouraging first day, David Williams fell short, finishing 31st for $6923. Here’s hoping it will be the first cash of many. Going into the third day, Darrell ‘Gigabet’ Dicken, John Gale, Chris Bjorin, and Robert Mizrachi are all still in the running, but trail Californian Ali Eslami and his monster 200,000 stack.

The $5000 Limit Hold’em World Championship also started today, and rivalled the $5000 rebuy Pot Limit Omaha for star-quality at the tables. Doyle Brunson, despite arriving late, was able to build up almost 50,000 in chips to take through to day 2, just behind European chipleader Thomas Wahlroos. If Hellmuth isn’t able to take the eleventh bracelet record, Brunson might!

Lastly, an event which is considered by many as a novelty in the World Series, the $1000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em. Many of the better known female professionals –Annie Duke, Cyndy Violette, Jennifer Harman and so on – shun the event, preferring to play the bigger buy-in open events on a level playing field. However that didn’t stop 1286 ladies taking a seat in the event, all vying for the bracelet and some serious cash.

The fairer sex duked it out until the money, with big names Katrina Jett, Jennifer Tilly, and Clonie Gowen all falling before the bubble. Going into the second day, German Katja Thater is amongst the leaders as is last year’s winner Mary Jones. There’s little doubt that it will be an interesting day 2 as 64 ladies battle it out for a seat at what will probably be the best-dressed final table of the year.

Will Hellmuth win his eleventh bracelet? Will Brunson retain a big stack in the limit Hold’em? Will the ladies quit playing poker and go shopping instead? Stay tuned to insidepokermag.co.uk to find out.

WSOP – Day 11

Day 11 was a record breaking day in the history of the World Series of Poker.
In the second $1500 No Limit Hold’em event of the Series, Phil Hellmuth entered the final table second in chips, and with hopes of winning his eleventh bracelet. First to go was Taylor Douglas, who ran his Q-10 into his opponent’s A-Q, followed by Ut Nguyen, Frenchman Fabrice Soulier, David Simon and Scott Clements.

Going into the four-handed action, Hellmuth had a significant lead, mainly due to one hand in which he caught a straight against Rick Fuller (also the hand to eliminate Soulier). The shortest stack, Morgan Machina, was busted in a rare family pot as all three opponents called in an attempt to eliminate him. Andy Philacheck’s pair of aces was good enough to do the job.
Shortly thereafter, Hellmuth eliminated Rick Fuller holding top pair, leaving him heads up with Andy Philacheck with a huge lead. Ironically for someone like Hellmuth who is well known for complaining about bad beats, he would win the last hand with a suckout. All in with A-3 against Philacheck’s A-10, Hellmuth caught a three on the flop to bust his opponent and win his eleventh gold bracelet, which was presented to him by both Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson. This is the second record Phil has extended this year – he now has the highest number of cashes in the World Series as well as the most bracelets. Could he be the greatest tournament Hold’em player of all time?

A second final table also played out today, in the $2500 HORSE. Robert Mizrachi, Chris Bjorin, and 2007 bracelet winner Tom Schneider all made it to the final eight. Schneider was a short stack but was able to triple up early and eliminate a player. Mizrachi was not so lucky, eliminated in sixth place by Bjorin. Schneider was then eliminated in the next Seven Card Stud section, after pushing his pair and open-ended straight draw all the way to the river, and being picked off by James Richburg’s pair of kings. He finished fourth but gained the respect of many of his peers.

Bjorin went next, falling in the Hold’em section. Richburg, who had won a bracelet in Razz last year, then started the heads up with a fairly significant lead, and was able to cripple Walter Browne in the Razz section. Richburg ended up winning holding a perfect six low against Browne’s ten. He took the bracelet and $239,503 for his efforts.

In Day 2 of the $5000 Limit Hold’em World Championship, Doyle Brunson’s hopes of equalling Phil Hellmuth’s bracelet record were dashed when he was eliminated before the money. The final table consists of mostly unknowns, and will see $333,379 in prize money as well as the coveted bracelet awarded.

In the Ladies event, last year’s champion Mary Jones took a tough beat when holding pocket aces and was unable to recover, finishing in 16th place. Katja Thater, Europe’s best-known hope in this event, made the final table with 340,000 in chips. Vanessa Selbst also made the final table and chases the leader, Frauke Ritter von Sporschill (now there’s a tongue twister for you) who has 523,000. The final table will play out tomorrow afternoon.

Lastly, two new events kicked off today. In the $2500 No Limit Hold’em, Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller, Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospelier, and Mike Matusow are amongst the leaders. 99 players will duke it out tomorrow for the final table positions.

In the $2000 Stud Hi/Lo, 2004 World Champion Greg Raymer, double bracelet winner Jeff Madsen, and Perry Friedman lead the field into Day 2. 136 of the 340 players remain and will battle it out for 8 final table places tomorrow.

Keep an eye on insidepokermag.co.uk for the results!

WSOP – Days 12 and 13

Days 12 and 13 saw relative unknowns establish their names and take their turn in the spotlight.

In the $5000 Limit Hold’em, a world champion was crowned in the shape of Saro Getzoyan, a software developer from Massachusetts. Getzoyan was able to pick up a monster pot on the way to the heads up stage, by picking up aces at precisely the right time (his opponent had kings and was not surprisingly crippled on the hand). He started off the heads up battle with a 2-1 lead over his opponent Geoff Sanford, and finally finished him off after flopping top pair against Sanford’s middle pair.

Day 12 also saw the final table of the Ladies’ event, in which German Katja Thater was able to build up a decent chip lead in the early going. She eliminated both Julie Dang in ninth and fellow professional Vanessa Selbst in eighth. However, one mistake was all it took to cripple Thater, as she overplayed pocket tens, running into Sally Anne Boyer’s pocket kings. She was eventually eliminated in fifth, a position that is sure to be a disappointment. No doubt that we’ll see Thater again in the future though.

The event eventually reached a climax when Sally Anne Boyer, a recent graduate of the World Series of Poker Academy (an instructional course featuring Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer and Joe Navarro as lecturers), chipped away at Anne Heft’s chip lead and eventually delivered the coup de grace with K-2, hitting a deuce on the river against Heft’s K-10. She took home a bracelet, a very bling Corum watch, and $262,077 in prize money with a tear in her eye.

In the $2500 No Limit Hold’em, Mike Matusow made it close to the money and Humberto Brenes made his third final table of this year’s series. British player John Shipley also cashed, finishing in 39th place. Frenchman Bertrand Grospellier threw his chips away with 3-2s, and was eliminated in ninth. Brenes was eventually eliminated in seventh place, after his A-K failed to improve against Devin Porter’s pocket nines.

John ‘The Razor’ Phan dominated the final table, but ran into trouble in the heads up stage against Francois Safieddine. Safieddine built up an almost three to one chip lead on Phan, during which time he called the clock on Phan more than once – a move which is often considered bad etiquette amongst professionals. However, it brought no bad karma for Safieddine as on the final hand he moved all-in with pocket fours, and rivered a four against Phan’s pocket aces to win the bracelet and $521,785 in prize money.

The $2000 Stud Eight or Better event also saw big names depart early, including John Juanda, Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, and InsidePoker favourite Ted Forrest. It was mostly unknown players that made the final table, with one exception – 2004 Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, who has long professed that Stud 8 is his best game. Fossilman entered the final table third in chips and moved to the chip lead, eliminating three players in the process. However, he lost a few significant pots and was crippled by Ryan Hughes, eventually eliminated in a heartbreaking fourth place.

Hughes was to go on to win the event, making four tens against second place finisher Min Lee’s three fours on the final hand. He took $176,358 in addition to the bracelet back to Phoenix, Arizona.

The last event taking place on Day 13 was a breath of fresh air for the World Series. A quick event, the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout, saw 900 players cut down to ninety and then nine in just a few hours. Both Barry Greenstein and his son Joe Sebok made the second round, as did WPT announcer Vince Van Patten and Erik Seidel, but all were eliminated before the third round was set.

The final table is a breath of fresh air and sees friends Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren go at it, along with seven others. All players will start with an equal number of chips and will battle it out for what is expected to be about a quarter of a million dollars in first place prize money, as well as the coveted bracelet, which would be Negreanu’s fourth and Lindgren’s first.

Some of you have asked who my picks for the main event are and how big I think the field will be. Well, while I doubt this year’s event will eclipse that of 2006 due to the US’ ridiculous legislation and the confusion surrounding it, I would not be surprised to see over 7,000 players sign up. It’s hard to pick players to do well in such a massive field, and the main event will always be somewhat of a lottery. However, a few players like Allen Cunningham, Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth, Humberto Brenes, and Marco Traniello have shown real promise so far in this series. All of them have demonstrated that they have a style that works well in large-field no limit tournaments, and I would not be surprised to see them make it deep in the main event.
Keep an eye on insidepokermag.co.uk to see who rises to the top and who blows up over the coming days.

WSOP – Day 14

Day 14 saw two of the best known players in the world make a run for a bracelet.

At the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout final table, Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren were hoping to earn their fourth and first bracelets respectively. However, both were to falter on their way to the top.

Lindgren was first to go, moving all-in with A-7 on a J-9-5-A board. His opponent called with A-9 for two pair and sent him to the rail in a disappointing eighth place. Negreanu actually built up quite a significant lead and eliminated four players on the way to the final three. At that point, most of the crowd were rooting for Negreanu and treating the tournament almost like a foregone conclusion.

However Negreanu was to double up Don Baruch twice, with Baruch becoming his nemesis at the final table, winning another large pot soon after. However it was Jared Davis that eliminated Negreanu, holding pocket fives against Negreanu’s A-8. The fives held up and Negreanu left in third place.

Florida resident Baruch, with over a 3-1 lead going into the heads up stage, slowly chipped away at Davis’ remaining stack and finally finished him off with K-Q against Davis’ A-5 when a queen flopped. Baruch earned $264,107 for the win, as well as the coveted gold bracelet.

Three events were to start up today. The first was the $5000 No Limit Hold’em, which saw 640 players whittled down to just 87 in a fast paced tournament. Internet Dustins dominate the standings, with Dustin ‘Neverwin’ Woolf and Dustin ‘John Smiley’ Dirksen both in the top ten. Also high in the standings are WSOP final tabler Tex Barch, 2007 bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, and Hendon Mobster Ross Boatman. Boatman claims he has not seen any big hands so far, so we can only assume he’s stolen a lot of pots.

The second new event was the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha, somewhat dryly referred to by some as the World Championship of Short Stacked Omaha (with just 3000 starting chips and 25-50 blinds, it doesn’t take long to get the money into the middle). 576 players entered, and these had been whittled down to just 23 after the first day’s play! Irishman Padraig Parkinson was an early (and loud) elimination, as was Sam Farha (often regarded as one of the best Omaha players in the world). Remaining in the hunt for almost $200k in first prize money are chip leader Scott Clements, who won a bracelet in Omaha Eight or Better last year, European Andy Black, Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch, and Johnny Chan, who has about as good a chance as any to equal Phil Hellmuth’s eleven bracelet record set just a few days ago. Chan has 116,000 chips to Clements’ 248,000, but in a game as ‘high variance’ (read: crapshooty) as Omaha, anything can happen.
Lastly, in a relatively small and quiet tournament for the WSOP, 236 players took seats in the $3000 Stud Eight or Better tournament. They battled it out until 118 players remained. Among the leaders going into the second day are entertaining Dutchman Marcel Luske, World Champ Scotty Nguyen, and Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow.

Can Matusow save himself from his usual blowups and win his third bracelet? Can Johnny Chan equal Hellmuth’s record? Find out here tomorrow.

WSOP – Day 15

Day 15 was another relatively quiet one at the World Series, with just two final tables being played out and a couple of continuing or new events.

First, in the $5000 No Limit Hold’em, it was quite a star-studded final table. Karga Holt started as chipleader, and Britain’s best hope in the event, Stuart Fox, entered the bracelet race fourth in chips (the other Brit to make it high up in the standings, Ross Boatman, was eliminated in tenth).

Bracelet winner Maciek Gracz was first to go, running his pocket nines into James Mackey’s pocket queens. Next, Stuart Fox eliminated Tex Barch (who made the main event final table in 2005) and European Jan Sorensen was busted by Michael Binger (who made the main event final table in 2006) when Sorensen’s aces refused to hold up against Binger’s tens.

Mackey then eliminated WPT winner Nick Schulman, extending his lead. Karga Holt, who had been apparently card dead for the whole final table, made a move with a weak hand and ran into Michael Binger’s big pair. Holt was eliminated in fifth.

We went from four players to one extremely quickly. First, William McMahon was eliminated after big stack Mackey called him with a marginal hand and sucked out. Then, Mackey eliminated Michael Binger, winning a coinflip holding A-Q against Binger’s pocket tens. Finally, Brit Stuart Fox’s hopes of a bracelet were dashed, after Mackey again sucked out, this time holding 10-2 against Fox’s K-4.

Mackey, who is a 21 year old ginger internet player (credentials sure to earn him respect among his peers), was crowned the champion of the event and took the bracelet and $730,740 to his native Missouri.

In the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha, just 23 players returned for another quick finale. Johnny Chan, who was shooting for his record-tying eleventh bracelet , was one of the early eliminations after he moved in on a complete bluff. Scott Clements, 2006 bracelet winner and the chip leader going into today, flopped the nut straight plus redraws in a massive three way pot, and was able to eliminate two players at once going into the final table.

Irishman Andy Black, who is having a frustrating series of near-misses so far, extended that record by busting out next, in seventh place. At this point, Clements had the biggest chip stack by far and it was only a matter of time before he won the event. He busted the fourth, third and second place finishers in just six hands. Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch finished second to Clements, who took the bracelet and $194,206 for his efforts.

The $3000 Stud Eight or Better event, continuing from yesterday, saw the field pared down to the final table. The slow pace of play combined with a relatively fast structure was a source of frustration for many players, but it didn’t stop a tough looking final eight being assembled. Leading the pack is high-stakes professional Eli Elezra, who is followed by Scotty Nguyen, David Sklansky, Dutch Boyd and Thor Hansen among others. With such a star-studded and talented table, it’s a shame that the event won’t be broadcast along with the myriad of No Limit Hold’em final tables being shown on the internet and ESPN this year.

Two new events started up today. The first was the $5000 HORSE event, which saw less than half the field eliminated before play stopped at 2am. ‘Outgoing’ Sam Grizzle leads the pack into day 2, ahead of Toto Leonidas, Daniel Alaei, and 2007 bracelet winner Chris Reslock. Also still in the field is Inside Poker columnist Marc Goodwin.

The second event was the more popular $2000 No Limit Hold’em, which saw many Europeans enter. Ross Boatman, coming off a tenth place finish in the $5000 No Limit Hold’em event, is high in the standings – sitting rather ironically in tenth position. Praz Bansi is also up there, with just over 72,000 in chips, as is poker writer Rolf Slotboom, with 41,000. 1619 entrants were whittled down to 130 remaining players, who will return tomorrow to battle it out for the final table positions.

That’s it from me for this World Series. I’m leaving you in the capable hands of our editor Alun Bowden, who’ll keep you up to date with the bustouts, blowups, and bracelets in the next few weeks. I’m playing one more event before returning home to Edinburgh, where there are no public cash games, no well-structured tournaments, no 24 hour Subway restaurants and no players club comps . I’m going to miss it here in Vegas!

You Can Take The Man Out of Scotland...

Well, it's official. I'm leaving Edinburgh in a few weeks.

I've been working for PokerStars for a year and a half now. I started off in support as a Poker Specialist, dealing with players' queries and handling reports of potential collusion. After about a year, I took on additional responsibilities in game security, joining the bot-hunting team and working on our prohibited programs policy. Last week, I was promoted to Poker Room Analyst, which is a position involving half poker room management and half game security. The upside? The money and benefits are amazing, and I'll be working in a challenging new role alongside some of the best people in the industry. The downside? The job is at our head office in the Isle of Man.

I visited the island a couple of weeks ago, for an interview, to see the office, and to look around the island and get a feel for the place. Apart from the extraordinarily racist taxi drivers, it seems like a nice place. I stayed in a hotel in Douglas which looked out over the bay and the promenade, which was seething with motorbikes there for the Grand Prix. The whole place was rather quaint - it reminded me of old English seaside towns like Eastbourne and Weymouth. But Douglas is changing quickly, and it's going to be an exciting place to live in the next few years. The hotels on the seafront are gradually making way for luxury apartments. People are moving to the island to work in the gaming and financial industries (the island is also home to Microgaming and NETeller), and the towns are becoming more ethnically diverse. There's some resentment from locals who have lived on Mann for decades, but change is inevitable and it's often better to go with the flow than to fight it.

It's going to be a busy few weeks, but I can't help but reflect about my time in Edinburgh at every possible opportunity. What will I miss and what won't I?

Well, first of all, here's some things I won't miss:

• Casual Racism: Scotland will be a much nicer place when people stop referring to corner shops as 'paki shops' and Chinese takeaways as 'chinkies'. Scotland is much less ethnically diverse than England and is way behind when it comes to educating it's population about racial issues.

• Sporting Jealousy: Many Scottish people complain about the bias shown by the media towards English teams, and complain of arrogance from English supporters. But the media isn't biased. Just 10% of British TV viewers are Scottish - and TV is all about ratings. For example, if you had a choice whether to broadcast the Scotland game or the England game, but you knew that 90% of your viewers wanted to watch England - what would you broadcast? And where would you target the majority of your news coverage?
  
  There's no reason for Scottish fans to necessarily support England, but actively rooting for the opposing team (which is very common) is just immature.

• Unrequited Love: In third year of university I met a wonderful woman, who was kind, thoughtful, caring (and fucking hot) and through plain idiocy and egotism I let her get away. Ever since the thought that she is nearby has haunted me, and I don't think I've ever really got over her. Perhaps moving away will help bring closure.

• Neds: In Isle of Man, Neds / Chavs / Townies / Scoundrels / Scallywags / Hoodies / 'Intimidating Youths' just don't exist. Or at least, I didn't see a single one while I was there.

What will I miss?

• The View: In Edinburgh, you can look out of your window and see a castle, a mountain, and one of the city's twenty-odd Starbucks, all without turning your head. It's a truly beautiful city.

• The Accent: A mild Scottish accent is one of the greatest accents in the world. It can make an average woman stunningly attractive, and a typical man ten times more suave. Look what it did for Sean Connery.

• Things to Do: Edinburgh, being the capital, has something for everyone. Whether you want to go to an upmarket restaurant or get absolutely wasted in a nightclub full of morons, you'll find somewhere to your liking in Edinburgh. I'm not sure Mann is the same, although we will see!

• Friends: Most of my mates live here. Who am I going to play poker with in the Isle of Man? Who is going to answer the sports questions in pub quizzes? I'm at a loss.

At the moment, I'm sort of stuck in a rut with life. I feel like I've really succeeded career-wise in the past year, but right now most days are the same - I work, eat, and sleep. I don't get many opportunities to meet interesting new people or even play much poker. I'm hoping that moving to Isle of Man will give me a kick up the arse, and give me the motivation I need to work out a few of the kinks in the way I live my life. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and facing new challenges.

Bring it on!

What Happens In Vegas...

I just got back from another trip to Las Vegas. Earlier in the year I'd been lucky enough to win my way into a World Series of Poker preliminary event, and I had been planning on playing anyway. To make things even better, Inside Poker asked me to cover the preliminary stages of the WSOP for their website, and contributed money to my expenses. Essentially, the hotel and flights were covered by the magazine, and I'd already won $5000 towards preliminary events. It was going to be a good trip.

I went with an old friend and PokerStars colleague - we met in London and caught the same flight to Vegas. I managed to lose points at Chinese Poker when we played for practice, but win as soon as we started playing for money. Immigration at Las Vegas was much less painful than at Los Angeles, and we were through the airport and out into the blistering 42 degree heat relatively quickly.

We stayed at Harrahs, which is right across the road from where we stayed last time, at the Mirage. It's a bit of a step down, but it was cheap and right in the middle of the strip. Plus, Harrahs ran a free shuttle to the Rio, which would be handy for my frequent trips there.

I had planned to play much bigger this time, but as before decided to start off small due to jetlag. One of the first games we played set the tone for the entire trip. I bought into a $2/$5 No Limit game at the Venetian for $1000, and on the first hand won a small when I flopped a set. On the flop I led into the field for $50, the preflop raiser raised to $200, everyone folded and I set him in for less than $200 more, thinking that he'd be sure to call if he held anything, feeling he was pot committed. However he actually folded his pocket aces face up - so I wondered whether I'd just played it badly or whether I'd given something away through my actions.

Thankfully, the table wasn't entirely populated with overpair folders, but I never quite caught a break. In the first big hand, I was all-in for about $600 against a very loose-aggressive player, holding the 6♦ 7♦ on a 6♠ 8♦ 10♦ board, against his pocket jacks. I missed every out and mucked my hand quietly.

About an hour later, I somehow managed to get all-in for over $1000 on a flop of 10♣ 9♣ 8♦, holding the 10♠ 8♠. My opponent called so quickly that I thought I was losing, but when he triumphantly tabled his A♦ A♥, I had a brief moment of hope. Brief, because the turn and river came K♦ K♥, giving him a bigger two pair and the win. He jumped out of his chair, screamed 'Yes', and then inexplicably claimed 'I thought he might have had a set'. Nice call then, mate.

That wasn't the stupidest thing I heard though. During another session at the Venetian, I managed to get all-in preflop against the least fun player at the table, holding aces against his kings. A king on the turn sealed my fate and as I went to the restroom to calm myself, the old guy said 'I knew he had aces.'. Apparently he had called because he felt kings were running hot (he had caught the case king when all-in with trips against a girl's full house earlier in the night). Losing when all-in preflop with aces isn't fun, but doing it against a mardy old man is even worse.

A typical old man

My friend Stuart wasn't so lucky either. He ran a set into a bigger set on more than one occasion. At the Wynn, a big hand came up in his $1/$3 game. A very masculine-looking woman with a huge nose and extremely long fingers had raised preflop, he flopped a set and she instacalled his all-in bet, her tentacle-like hands exposing an overpair of kings. The turn and river were both kings giving her quads. She apologised with all the sincerity of a drunk politician and left the table before he could win it back.

One of the things I'd been asked to do while in Las Vegas was following the WSOP progress of David Williams, a young professional poker player most famous for his second place finish to Greg Raymer in the 2004 main event. I was to interview him a couple of times, and get his opinion on all things poker. I was looking forward to it - David is round about my age, and I thought we would get on fairly well.

David Williams

The first interview took place at his apartment, high in one of the fashionable new high-rise buildings overlooking the strip, where David was playing Chinese Poker for $500 a point with Michael Mizrachi and Nenad Medic. I was introduced to him and we tried to shake hands - I extended my hand in the traditional fashion, while he held his hand out sideways for a cool, modern handshake, resulting in an embarrassing clash of fingers. I asked him a few questions about his plans for the WSOP, and it didn't take long to realise that he lived in a world very different from my own.

'Pure want to host my birthday party, and invite celebrities and stuff', he was saying. Pure is one of the hottest nightclubs in Vegas (I don't get why - the music is shite and it's full of morons, but hey) and he was brushing it off as if it were nothing unusual. 'I just had the stripper pole installed this morning' he said, pointing to a podium in the corner of his living room where a floor-to-ceiling pole had been, if you pardon the pun, erected. 'Lindsay Lohan invited me to her birthday party' came next. I jokingly tried to pretend I didn't know who Lindsay Lohan was, but it went straight over the head of everyone there.

It didn't take me long to realise that despite our similarities, David and I had nothing in common. I wondered if David found it hard to make friends in the 'real world' - it seemed that everyone he hung around with (Mizrachi, Medic, Evelyn Ng, Noah Boeken etc) was involved in high stakes poker too. I wondered if, after all the novelty of celebrity wore off, he found it hard to keep relationships going with women he met. I thought of the lyrics to 'Change', by mind.in.a.box:

I am the one who has no real friends,
Shallow people flocking to my banner
Always trying to make easy amends
Cherishing my own overbearing manner

Life always fragile
I will never change
Love always fleeting
I will never change

Change by mind.in.a.box

The Rio is a very strange place during the WSOP. On my first visit, I felt like I was seeing something awesome. After all, if you're a poker player, particularly one like me who is used to crappy British cardrooms, walking into a room which has 200 poker tables in it, each with 10 people sat at them, is a startling experience. However, it quickly dawned on me that the WSOP wasn't quite what I expected.

The World Series of Poker isn't a small, informal affair run as a labour of love anymore. It's a huge event, and it's never been so commercial. There are sponsors for everything, from the cards to the drinks to the surveillance cameras. The whole of the Rio Pavilion seems generic and sterile - it doesn't have any of the character of a traditional casino like Binions. What used to be a top restaurant has now become a cheap buffet - pasteurised, inoffensive, classless.

Of course, when an event grows this big you have to make compromises. Surely then, if the atmosphere has suffered, you can at least expect a world class poker game? After all, this is the World Series of Poker.

Well, no. Some of the dealers and floorpeople at the Rio were very inexperienced, and often weren't properly versed in the rules. Consequently, there were dealers arriving at my Razz cash game who didn't know that the high card brought it in. Decisions made by floorpeople would vary depending on who was making the decision and how loud the players at the table shouted.

Cash games and satellites were run from a makeshift list system on a whiteboard at the back of the room, with the brush shouting players names over the PA system and dealers screaming open seats halfway across the room. The whole room was chaotic for every second of every single day, and it was grating. I didn't enjoy spending time at the Rio, except for one cash game session during which a pretty, friendly girl sat directly opposite me.

The first event I played was the $1500 Limit Hold'em. I was drawn on a table with only one person I recognised, CardPlayer columnist Roy Cooke (who plays high stakes Limit Hold'em regularly and has written extensively about the game). I had been reading his articles for several years but chose not to tell him that. Two other players at the table complimented him on his writing, so I knew pretty quickly that they were knowledgeable players also. The table broke pretty quickly and I don't remember much, except Cooke giving me a truly 'if looks could kill' type stare when I three-bet him from the button preflop, holding A-Ks.

Roy Cooke

My next table was poker heaven. To my right were a few fun young players, including (I think) Justin Bonomo, who was short-stacked. A couple of seats to my left was the World's Worst Poker Player™, whose strategy for every single hand was:

1. Limp
2. Call
3. Repeat as needed

I saw people successfully value-bet queen-high on the river against this player. Ironically, he went on a tear and because of his image was able to get paid off on his big hands. At one point, he was chip leader in the entire event. I had a couple of key hands against him - in the first I value bet a flopped middle pair, no kicker all the way to the river, fully expecting to take the pot at the showdown. However, Limpy McCall had flopped top pair (with a deuce kicker!) and smiled happily as he collected my chips.

In the second hand, I three bet the initial raiser preflop with two black kings and he cold-called from the small blind. The flop was 10-9-x with two spades, and I bet and was called by Limpy McCall and the preflop raiser. The turn was a seven of spades, and all of a sudden Limpy turned into Checky McRaise. I decided that a) my hand was quite possibly good and b) I was getting the correct odds to draw to my flush even if it wasn't, so I called. The preflop raiser folded after some thought and the river was a blank. Mr. Flat Call checked, I checked, and he proudly showed 9-7 offsuit for two pair. Rigged.

After that hand, I went pretty card dead, which equals death in a limit tournament. I went hours without being able to flop a pair, and was eventually eliminated holding K-Q suited against my opponent's J-10.

A few days later, we met up with some old acquaintances that we knew from our university poker days, who were rather spookily also called Alex and Stewart. I also met InsidePoker's editor for the first time, who took over covering the World Series after a couple of weeks.

In a moment of genius, somebody suggesting going to a 'Gentleman's Club'. For a brief second I was imagining sitting in a big leather chair and reading the newspaper with a cigar in one hand and a cognac in the other, before I realised they meant a strip club.

We made the conservative decision to go to Spearmint Rhino rather than one of the less well-known names. I'm sure strip club purists would have been appalled, but I didn't want to take the chance of ending up in some dinge hole, being robbed of my wallet and watch by an old, fat dancer. On the plus side, there was a free shuttle service from the hotel and the entry fee was a mere $30...

I have been to strip clubs in Edinburgh before and didn't really enjoy the experience. The clubs are dingy and bad value for money, and you're hassled almost constantly by dancers who aren't as pretty as they should be. Spearmint Rhino was different. The place was clean and comfortable, and the music was really good - the best I'd heard in Las Vegas. Men and Women alike were there enjoying the experience and having fun. Once we'd found a table, waitresses brought drinks to us all night, and some of the women were stunning, even when compared to normal people.

What's more, lap dances in America are much more of a 'full contact' experience. I was somewhat shocked when I was approached by the first dancer of the night, who straddled me, then took my hand and placed it square on her arse - all before saying 'hello'. It didn't take me long to get the hang of things, and before long I was groping like a champ.

After the first girl had removed her hand from my crotch and walked off with my $20, I realised that not only was it the first time I'd had a lap dance from a black woman, it was the first time I'd made physical contact with a black woman. That's living in Scotland for you - it's hardly the most multicultural of places. In fact racism in Scotland is surprisingly and disappointingly rife. Nonetheless, I made a mental note that it would not be the last time.

'Do you know what they say about Asian girls?', said the next dancer, an oriental girl who was too skinny for my tastes. 'No', I mumbled. 'They say our pussies run crossways!' was her reply. I pretended that I didn't know she'd stolen that line from Hannibal Rising, although to be perfectly honest it would have been hard to say something witty and eloquent with her nipple in my mouth.

Later on we had moved to a different part of the club that was much darker and I was having yet another dance after somebody had explained that I was playing the World Series the next day. 'Black girls are lucky', said the dancer, who I hadn't realised was black, it was so dark. I made sure that as much of her 'luck' rubbed off on me as possible, after all I would need it.

Spearmint Rhino

After I had caressed as much pert ass as I could handle and my bell end had been rubbed red raw, we left the club at 7am. Some in the group had made several trips to the ATM and one person spent in excess of $700 on drinks and dances. Being a Yorkshireman with Scottish blood, I had of course spent much less money and got much better value for it than anybody else, although my wallet was definitely lighter than it was earlier that day.

Later that day at 5pm, I sat down for the $1500 Razz event. I was extremely confident going in - Razz is probably my best game, technically. I was happy to be sat at a table which had no big names at it - the most famous player there was Jen Creason (founder of PokerWire and Andy Bloch's fiancée), who wasn't really concentrating and was too passive in any case, and apart from her there was perhaps one other strong player at the table. While in the Limit Hold'em event I was never going to be one of the best players at the table, at this Razz table I was the best by a clear margin.

Also at the table was the winner of InsidePoker's Razz qualifier, who looked like Hoyt Corkins but sounded like Boy George. While he seemed like a pleasant enough fellow, he was quickly identified as the weakest player at the table by pretty much everyone, and I won a fairly large pot off him early on. By the first break I was the table chip leader, with just over 4000 in chips.

However, it was all downhill from there. In a big pot against Creason, we both had almost identical boards on sixth street. On the river, she improved while I didn't, and all of a sudden I was short.

Meanwhile Boy Corkins was accumulating a lot of chips. People were getting involved with him holding all kinds of weak hands, in the hopes that they could outplay him on later streets. However, he kept catching good and they kept paying him off. He dealt me the final blow holding 10-7-2 against my 8-4-2 (with two fours and two deuces gone), all-in on third street. I caught 8-8-8-K giving me a pair as my low hand! A thoroughly frustrating experience.

With all said and done though, although I wasn't successful in either event, I didn't feel outclassed - even in the Limit Hold'em, which is not my strongest game by any means. I certainly feel that if I work on my game over the next year and keep improving, I'll have a good chance to make some noise at the 2008 World Series.

I can't wait to go back.