Locals cash at WSOP Main Event
By Arnold Warner

Something about walking into the Rio’s huge room that plays host to the World Series of Poker and seeing the action going on at all those tables makes you want to stick both arms straight up in the air and yell: “This is the greatest tournament in the world!"

Once again, the Main Event championship was claimed by an unknown. This year it was Jerry Yang of Temecula, California who claimed first place and the $8.25 million that went with it. But Northern California made its share of noise too. click here to read the whole article!

Free poker seminar held in Oroville
By Randall Rapp

Some of the biggest names in poker were handing out advice at the Gold Country Casino in Oroville on July 28 and 29. Speaking on a variety of topics and answering questions at these free seminars were Jan Fisher, Kenna James, Linda Johnson, Mike Sexton, Marsha Wagner, and Robert Williamson III. click here to read the whole article!

Kamikaze Korner
Adjustments to make when playing in small, fast, local tournaments
By Davin Anderson

The popularity of no-limit tournaments has pushed most local poker rooms to offer several small buy-in no-limit tournaments to their local clientele. These tournaments are structured to trim the fields quickly, and are usually over in 4–5 hours.

When you play in these tournaments, you are really playing in a “turbo” or “speed” tournament. For those trying to apply normal tournament strategies to these quick tournaments, the experience can be futile and frustrating. click here to read the whole article!

Poker Ambassador
Making the rounds during the WSOP
By Randall Rapp

Sometimes you just have to take one for the team. It doesn’t always matter if you want to swing away—you’ve got to lay down the bunt and get the man to second. Fresno may be home base (and one heckuva happenin’ town), but when you’re required to get on a plane for Las Vegas to check on our Northern California brethren at the World Series of Poker, you knuckle down and accept your fate. click here to read the whole article!

Book Review
Making the Final Table with Lindgren
By David Schecter

Let’s start with a quick quiz. It is the first hand of a $10,000 buy-in tournament and the blinds are 25/50. Action is folded to you in middle position and your hand is two beautiful aces. You raise three times the blind, the other players fold around to the small blind and she moves all-in for $10,000. The big blind folds. What do you do? Well, you move all-in of course, according to Erick Lindgren in his book Making the Final Table: No Limit Texas Hold ’Em Winning Strategies for Surviving and Thriving (Collins, 2005). click here to read the whole article!

Virtual Roundtable
Player ranking system for NorCal planned: Tell us what you want!

The World Poker Tour and World Series have a player of the year, and so do a few other organizations who look at tournament poker players from all over the world. We here at The Cardroom want to explore the concept of crowning the top player in Northern California by devising a system of awarding points to players based on their tournament results.

With this plan in mind, we sent out requests for input from the usual assortment of poker managers, cardroom owners, players (both professional and amateur) to ask for their opinions on both the overall concept and how the details might possibly be handled.  click here to read the whole article!