Online Poker Blog

Talking About A Hand While It’s Still In Progress

When I decided to do an article on talking at the table during a hand, I thought along the lines of friends making jokes and idle chatter. Chatter along the lines of “Get out of my pot, “Thanks Pal, I owe you one” or “How can you play that garbage.” All these are harmless digs that mean nothing more than that you are having fun. What I found out is that this can be an extremely hot topic with more than a few people. The opinions covered all of the bases, ranging from friendly chatter to unethical angle shots, and outright illegal moves that are made to intimidate other players. It started with this question,

In an effort to bring some basic rules to this argument, I would like to propose some ideas for dealing with this problem.

1. When somebody does something that is clearly out of order at the table (discussing possible hands, exposing cards, etc.) Politely ask them to stop. If they give you any lip, the dealer should step in and, tell them they are wrong, and then tell them not to do it again.

2. In #1 above if the dealer cautions the person without prompting by others, I will often throw them a $1 chip.

3. In #1 above, if the dealer doesn’t step in to your defense, seek out a floor-person. Tell them that you shouldn’t have to police the game, but when you go to the effort to do so, the least the dealer can do is come in on your side when you get flak about it.

Note that this may get you a reputation at the table for being a snob or worse. Ignore it. First, you’re doing the right thing for the game, and many players will thank you, even if only silently.

Opinion 4

I totally agree with Lee. I recently played a hand where I held KK and the flop came KQT. The turn brings the Jack. One of the two remaining players states “Well, I’m not going to bet because we obviously all have the straight.” Then another rocket scientist pipes up and says, “Don’t be so sure of that, I would bet anyhow.

Opinion 5

I disagree insofar as it applies to players who are in the hand. If I’m still in the hand I expect I should be able to say anything I want. I would do this in an attempt to influence others to call, fold, or react in such a way that I can guess what they have. Only once that one ceases to have a financial interest in the outcome of the hand, do I believe it becomes inappropriate to indulge in table talk that may affect that hands outcome.

Opinion 6

If I was hoping to fill a boat, and had you pegged for a flush, and someone else for a straight, I would try to do anything I could to discourage a player behind me from raising, and making my draw more expensive than it had to be. It wouldn’t matter to me in the slightest if what I said about your hand was true or not, if it achieved my purpose of intimidating the other player into calling instead of raising. How different, really is this from advertising my strength by making a face or exercising some fake tell? Poker is a game of trickery and deception perhaps as much as it is a game of mathematics and probability.

What is the definitive rule on table talk? It seems the definitive rule and the ethical rule seem to be different. I believe that it is possible to draft a set of rules that would eliminate these ethical considerations that always seem to be causing difficulty. It seems that many inexperienced players are used to playing stud where it is common to call out potential hands as the streets’ progress. In Hold’em this is not only frowned on, but also absolutely incorrect. Do not assume that just because something is obvious to you, that it is obvious to everyone else. Part of the skill at poker in general is to recognize the danger of a particular board. If someone doesn’t have this skill or the attention span to do this, then it is not your job to pick up the slack for them.

In closing I would like to mention one of my gripes. It is when I am playing in a stud game and the dealer insists on speculating and announcing a possible hand. I have been in games where the dealer not only announced what he thought the hand looked like, but also gave a running commentary, such as “A possible flush or straight in the works.” Give me a break, is this not breaking the one head to a hand rule? In stud, this favors the player couldn’t care less about what is on the board in front of the other player’s.

If a player is having a problem seeing the other end of the board, I have no problem with the dealer or anyone else reading the cards to them. My problem comes with helping those not skilled or interested enough to read the cards held by other players at the table, being spoon fed this information by the dealer. I realize that dealers are trained to do this as a help to newer players and a courtesy to others, my only thought is that they not carry it too far. You may think this is wrong on my part. Just remember, the next time someone looks like they plan to fold a hand against your made straight and the dealer or another player tells them that they have a possible flush working. They then decide to go to the river instead of dropping out, and nail you with a miracle draw, you can remember what I said, “I told you so.” In the next issue I will discuss another touchy subject, soft playing with friends at the table.

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Yukon Brad

Bradley (Brad) Booth (born September 20th, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian professional poker player known for his appearances on the GSN series High Stakes Poker. He is one of the most successful high limit players of the last decade. He was once referred to as a “poker savant” by Phil Laak and is rated as one of the best poker players in the world by Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson.

In 13th episode of the third season of High Stakes Poker, Booth stated that he has been playing poker every day for 14 years – first in Vancouver, then Calgary and then in Yukon hence his nickname “Yukon Brad” – but is now slowing down.

Booth appeared on the second season of NBC’s Poker After Dark on the episode “International Week” and finished in second place to Patrik Antonius.

As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $640,000.

Daniel Negreanu

Daniel Negreanu (born July 26, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian professional poker player.
Early life

Daniel Negreanu’s parents, Annie and Constantin, moved to Canada from Romania in 1967. When he was several credits short of graduation, Daniel dropped out of high school and began his life as a rounder playing at the local charity casinos and looking for illegal games around the city. While in Toronto, Daniel met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 21 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional poker player. However, “The Strip” got the better of him and he was forced to move back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll.
Poker career

In 1997 his luck began to change when he won two events at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, earning himself $133,600 as well as being named the tournament’s best all-around player. Negreanu followed this triumph in the 1998 World Series of Poker by winning $169,460 at the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event and becoming the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history — a record he held until 2004.

Over the next few years, he became one of the most successful poker tournament players in history, winning two (WPT) events, another two World Series bracelets, and appearing at 11 final tables. He was also named the World Poker Tour World Series of Poker player of the year in 2004 and World Poker Tour player of the year in 2005.

Upon opening, the Wynn Las Vegas resort recruited him as their “Poker Ambassador” to play for any stake in their poker room. The arrangement lasted until October 2005 when he opted out because it was restricting his ability to play for high stakes outside the Wynn. In December 2005, he started his own online poker cardroom “skin” site on his official site, Full Contact Poker, which also includes his blog and a variety of poker forums. He played at his cardroom under the screen name “KidPoker”. In 2006, he used Full Contact Poker to launch a competition to select a protege, whom Daniel would attempt to mold into a world-class live tournament poker player. In addition, he would pay the protege’s entry fee into four $10,000 buy-in events. Daniel’s first protege was Brian Fidler. In 2007, Daniel ran a second protege promotion, which was won by Anthony Mak.

On June 11, 2007, Negreanu signed with PokerStars, joining Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer and many other professional poker players as a member of Team PokerStars. His Full Contact Poker site has since returned to being a forum and informational site.

Daniel has been a regular at the big game in Bobby’s Room, in the Bellagio casino, Las Vegas, for several years. He is a self-admitted action junkie who always seeks new challenges and sets high goals for himself, not only at the poker table but also on the golf course. Unlike many other players, he is very outspoken about his poker results and regularly posts updates in the forums at the Full Contact Poker website.

Some of Negreanu’s success is attributed to his ability to read opponents. When asked about this skill, Negreanu explained that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them.

He has written over 100 articles for CardPlayer Magazine and contributed to Doyle Brunson’s revised book, Super System II. He has tutored on the web as part of Poker School Online and also personally given lessons to celebrities such as Tobey Maguire. In addition, it was announced in early 2006 that Negreanu had assembled a team of “Superstar Contributors” to write a book called Daniel Negreanu’s Power Hold’em Strategy. Modeled after Brunson’s Super/System, the book delves into every aspect of hold’em, and is due to be released in early 2008.

Negreanu has played poker on various TV shows such as Late Night Poker, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker, as well as serving as a commentator and stand-in host on Ultimate Poker Challenge. He also appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. In January 2007, Negreanu appeared in the Fox Reality original series Rob and Amber: Against the Odds in which he mentored reality television personality Rob Mariano in his bid to become a professional poker player.

Negreanu was named “Favorite Poker Player” at Card Player Magazine’s Player of the Year Awards Gala in February 2006.

Negreanu is also featured in the 2006 poker video game Stacked with Daniel Negreanu, providing tips and hints as to how to play effectively.
# On August 19, 2005 Negreanu married Lori Lin Weber. On November 24, 2007 he announced their separation in a blog entry.
# Negreanu’s surname is pronounced “Neg-rah-noo”.
# Negreanu has a blog at Full Contact Poker where he posts his thoughts and feelings about poker and various life topics.
# Negreanu is a vegan.

As of January 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,650,000, behind only Jamie Gold and Joseph Hachem. He is the 2nd all-time leading money winner on the WPT circuit, recently passed by Carlos Mortensen in April 2007 at the WPT Championship. With a 2nd place finish at the World Poker Open in Tunica, Mississippi, Negreanu has now cashed in a record 4 consecutive WPT events (which has since been tied by Kirk Morrison), and ties John Juanda in total WPT cashes with 14. He has the highest tournament earnings of any individual who has not won a WSOP Main Event.

Canadian Poker Rooms

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Bertrand “Elky” Grospillier is the winner of the WPT 2008 Festa al Lago, and he did it playing fearless poker during the whole Poker Tournament but this was highlighted at the final table were he continuously punished his opponents with hyper aggressive play and pushing his chip stack in the middle time and time again. His willingness to risk large sums of his chip stack with any two cards made Elky the official executioner of the table as he eliminated all five opponents to win the tournament.

William Mietz was the first player eliminated from the final table. Meitz had been playing against Gropellier for several hours prior to the final table and commented on Elky’s play as “super aggressive”. Mietz tried to push back on what proved to be his last hand, when he pushed all in holding K - 10 and the board was paired and nine high. Elky had no problem calling him even though he only held ace high but with no help for Mietz on the turn or river Mietz was sent to the rail with a $186,510 payday and Elky extended his chip lead over the rest of the field.

Next to face Grospellier was another internet professional Adam “Roothlus” Levy who became well known to poker fans for his live paly earlier this summer with his deep run into a World Series of Poker tournament. Levy is a long time and respected internet professional who also has a flair for aggressive poker. Levy had been folding most of his hands and pushing all in with others for the last few days, and when he looked down at A - 9 he decided to push all his chips in again but this time he got a quick call by the QQ of Elky. The queens held up as Levy walks away with a $266,445 payday and Grospellier increases his chip lead once again now holding over 10,000,000 chips (more than half in play).

Elky went on a chip stealing tear picking up pot after pot with preflop raises, even trying to put his opponents on tilt by showing a 2 - 3 after winning a pot uncontested with a pre flop raise.

Canadian Nedad Medic decided it was time to take a stand when he was dealt pocket sixes and the action was on him, Nedad decided to push all 1.28 million in chips to the middle. Elky looked down at K - J and made the call. The board came J - 9 - 3 - 2 - 5 and Nedad was eliminated in fourth place earning $373,010 in prize money.

Elky seemed unbeatable and now with Nedad’s chips adding to his stack he now held a three to one chip lead over the table. With the blinds increasing and his opponents on short stacks Elky puts on even more pressure by moving all in the first two hands after the elimination of Nedad Medic. The play of Grospellier made it crystal clear for the remaining players Odie Dardon and Nam Le of what they would have to push all in against Elky in order to stay in this tournament. And that they did as both players managed to double up after getting all their chips in the middle.

What was once an insurmountable chip lead Elky now only had a 1.5 to 1 lead over the table and two opponents that now had some confidence. Odie Dardon started to make a few questionable river calls and bluffed away a couple of million chips and was back down to 3 million in chips and Elky was back to his aggressive style and moved Dardon all in after a raise and re-raise with only a 10 -2. Dardon held A - J and looked like a sure double up but when the board showed a deuce Dardon was sent to the rail with a $506,245 dollar payday.

Down to heads up play and Elky held a massive 15,000,000 in chips to Nam Le’s 925,000. Nam was quick to double up on the very first hand of play holding a A -J and the second hand of heads up play as his pocket deuces held up. This brought Nam’s chip stack to almost 4 million and hopes of a good heads up battle would ensue, but this was not the case.

On the very next hand, Grospellier raised to 700,000 from the big blind position after Nam had called. Nam feeling like he was being bullied pushed all in holding A - Q and got a quick call from Elky holding pocket tens. The race was on but the very first card on the flop was a ten giving Elky a set and Nam needed runner runner to stay alive. The board didn’t bring anything for Nam and Grospellier exploded into celebration.

Nam Le earned a $943,215 payday and moved into the tenth place on the overall WPT money list with $3,084,273. Elky earned his second live win and fisrt WPT cash, and a $1,411,015 payday is a great start.

This proved to be a excellent WPT event and many Canadian professionals found their wat into the money, the top Canadian was Nedad Medic earning a nice $373,010 payday with his fourth place finish.

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The third street strategy in seven card stud relates in most to betting tells after the third card is dealt.

The high card initiates the “bring in” per third street strategy in seven card stud and if there is going to be a tie; suit ranking is going to be used to break the tie.

The third street strategy in seven card stud is different for beginners, intermediate and advanced players. The third street strategy in seven card stud also varies with reference to table position from the person who initiates the bet. At the first “bring-in” round is a matrix decision based on your “position in betting” your “skill level in the game” and the “nature of the hand” you have.

In case of the forced bet or the “bring-in” and you happen to have a playable hand, the amount of money you are ready to bet should be based on several factors. Unless you have a trip, hidden big pair or split big pair, you should not call raises and re-raises in this round.

If someone is going to call a bring-in followed by raise, such a third street strategy in seven card stud is adopted by those people who may have a strong hand. There are even those who have some better low cards who do the call, but they do not do the raise in the bring-in. Collecting the most of the information per every player’s third street strategy in seven card stud is important in arriving at your true opponent.

In short, any player who is betting very big stakes as a part of his third street strategy in seven card stud is likely to have strong hands and he must be trying his greatest to make the pot costly for others towards the next round. Repeated raises may also mean that they have a hand with a strong chance of improvement in the next round and they may be trying to pay that extra to have the pot grow and have others fold.

The third street strategy in seven card stud of every player will just give a 40% clue to what they hold. However, you can at least make out a 50:50 speculation of their hand. Based on their approach in the next round you can choose the best of your decision to proceed any further about them being your true opponent.

Beginner tight players do not raise and re-raise unless they have very strong hands. Intermediate and advanced players try some raise and re-raise with medium hands too!

Never judge tells based on just the betting style in the third street strategy in seven card stud of each player, but “correlate each bet” based on the open card, your estimate about their playing style, and finalize the scope of the raise and re-raise targeted towards a chase based on how many others fold.

Read more about 7 hand poker strategies, poker ranking of hands and texas hold em poker online game.

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The International Blackjack League (www.internationalblackjackleague.com), an incredible gaming phenomenon, allows players to compete against each other in an exciting live environment. This gripping new product is fast-paced, allowing players to truly experience hand-to-hand combat! In Elimination Blackjack tournaments, players get to play several hands in consecutive rounds. On selected rounds, the player with the lowest chip stack will be ‘eliminated,’ leaving fewer players after each elimination round to proceed onto the final winning round.

The addition of other real-time players allows for a wider level of gain; because players do not play against the house only, they get to maximize their winnings in a way that resembles land-based casino Blackjack. Rounds are high-speed, competitive fights for survival, and the inclusion of a ’secret bet’ option gives Elimination Tournaments an edge of intrigue that takes the International Blackjack League beyond the usual Blackjack experience. The secret bet also gives players an added edge at a crucial point in the game.

Moreover, there is a live leaderboard which players can use to keep track of their winnings and rank, as well as cash prizes of massive proportions. The website also includes strategy tips, rules and explanations for tournaments. Go to www.InternationalBlackjackLeague.com for more information.

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Learn To Play BlackJack and how to MIT Card Counting here: BlackJack Strategy

The idea behind counting cards in blackjack is that a deck of cards with a high proportion of high cards (ten-valued cards and aces) to low cards is good for the player, while the reverse (a deck with a high proportion of low cards to high cards) is good for the dealer. A deck rich in tens and aces improves the player’s odds because blackjacks (which offer a higher payout than other winning hands) become more common, the dealer is more likely to bust a stiff hand, and double-downs are more successful. This is also portrayed in the film 21.

Contrary to the popular myth, card counters do not need savant qualities in order to count cards, because they are not tracking and memorizing specific cards. Instead, card counters assign a heuristic point score to each card they see and then track only the total score. (This score is called the count.) This myth was portrayed in the movie Rain Man, where the savant character Raymond Babbit counts through six decks with ease and a casino employee comments that it is impossible to count six decks. In the movie 21, however, card counting is portrayed as an intellectually difficult task which can only be undertaken by high-IQ top level students.

Basic MIT Card Counting assigns a positive, negative, or null value to each card. As each card is dealt, the running count is adjusted by each card’s assigned value. There are multiple card-counting systems in use, but a plus-minus count — such as the Hi-Lo system proposed by Harvey Dubner in 1963 and later refined by Julian Braun and Stanford Wong — is one of the more basic and illustrative systems.

In the Hi-Lo system, the cards 2 through 6 are assigned a value of +1. Tens (and face cards) through aces are assigned a value of -1. Cards 7, 8, and 9 have a value of zero, or are called neutral (so they can be ignored).

The Hi-Lo system is an example of a balanced card-counting system. This means that there are an equal number of +1 and -1 cards in the deck, so a count of all 52 cards would result in an end count of 0.

Once you’ve got the hang of the basic idea, try to keep up with our trainer to sharpen your skills

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