Robertson is NorCal's POY
By Arnold Warner

It’s been a long season of poker tournaments for everyone working toward being named The Cardroom’s first NorCal Poker Tournament Player of the Year. One thing has remained consistent throughout, though: Livermore’s Aubrey Robertson’s name either at or near the top of the standings.

After posting an excellent December, including six final tables in the last two weeks of the competition, Robertson pulled ahead for a decisive victory to earn the title of 2009 NorCal Player of the Year. With Lodi’s Phil Cullinan nipping at his heels for most the year, Robertson’s results in November and December increased his lead from 365 points on Nov. 2 to 1,501 on Dec. 20 when the final points were tabulated. click here to read the whole article!

Matt Savage's travels always bring him back to San Jose & Bay 101
By Barbara Engler

Matt Savage has become such a familiar face at big poker tournaments around the world and on television it’s easy to forget that not long ago he was just a young man walking into a local cardroom to try his hand at poker. Since that time the San Jose native has gone on to become the world’s foremost poker tournament director (traveling the world as a TD and speaker), founder of the Tournament Director’s Association, and Hollywood movie star. (Okay, that last one’s a stretch, but he did have a big part in the movie Lucky You as—that’s right—the tournament director.) click here to read the whole article!

NorCal Poker Ambassador
POY ceremony starts East Bay tour
By Randall Rapp

The recent crowning of the 2008 NorCal Poker Tournament Player of the Year in Livermore at the Lucky Buck Card Club was a great experience and wonderful opportunity to chat with some of the players involved. Congratulations to the victor—Aubrey Robertson—for a job well done, and to Dale Common of the Lucky Buck for putting on tournaments that consistently bring players back for more. click here to read the whole article!

The Champ's Perspective
A look back at the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table
By Jerry Yang

As a former champion, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Peter Eastgate from Denmark for winning the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. He not only won the Main Event, but established a new record as the youngest WSOP Main Event champion at 22 years of age, breaking Phil Hellmuth’s mark when he won as a 24-year-old in 1989.

The 2008 WSOP Main Event Final table was truly an exciting moment in the history of the WSOP. I congratulate Harrah’s Entertainment and the WSOP staff for staging one of the most spectacular and exciting final tables of all time. The fact that the famous sports announcer Michael Buffer was there to introduce Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demedov at the beginning of heads-up play was extraordinary. As usual, Mr. Buffer used his famous line: “Let’s get ready to rumble” to energize the poker fans and supporters. I almost felt like it was a boxing match. It was truly an amazing experience. Harrah’s Entertainment and the WSOP staff should definitely consider repeating this year’s promotional strategies for the 2009 WSOP. click here to read the whole article!

Kamikaze Corner
New Year's resolutions aimed at poker players
By Davin Anderson

If you’re an avid poker player, you should take the time to analyze your own game. You must be an honest critic to figure out and pinpoint your  weaknesses and leaks. Great poker players and good players that want to be great are constantly looking to learn, discuss, experiment and improve their game whether it is tournament poker, limit poker, or no-limit poker.

As 2009 begins, I suggest every reader of this article make a list of weaknesses and strengths in their game, then decide on some New Year’s poker resolutions. click here to read the whole article!

Book Review
Negreanu's Power Hold'em Strategy
By David Schecter

So, how are you doing on that New Year’s resolution so far? Pretty good or not so good? Regardless, today I’m going to suggest you start over and give yourself a new resolution that is completely manageable and your poker game will be better for it: Go out and get Daniel Negreanu’s fantastic new book Power Hold’em Strategy (Cardoza Publishing, 2008).

In past columns I have reviewed small books, multi-part texts and everything in between, but rarely does one single text pack as much punch as this one does. click here to read the whole article!

On the Rail
Play the cards you're dealt in New Year
By Paul Giambroni

As I sit here musing over the last year I can hardly believe it’s finally over. What an emotional roller coaster it has been! It seems like only yesterday when gas prices were inching towards five dollars a gallon, and our troops were being devastated in Iraq. Now, six months later, the script has been flipped. Gas is under two dollars and the troops are much closer to the day they’ll be coming home (or redeployed to Afghanistan).. click here to read the whole article!

Virtual Roundtable
Poker resolutions for the New Year

While we were searching around for a good Virtual Roundtable topic for this issue, our resident expert Davin Anderson sent in his contribution, which turned out to be New Year’s resolutions for poker players. We loved the idea so much that we borrowed it from him and emailed requests for resolutions to all the usual suspects.

Their intentions for 2009 are dutifully shared with you below. Whatever your plans are, though, have a great New Year, both on and off the felt. click here to read the whole article!

Tales from the Floor
Bad beat stories: $5 each
By Johnny Coldeck

At our little cardroom, I charge $5 to listen to “so this guy called my raise with J-3” stories, so the last thing I want to do is write about them. Some of our more colorful regulars, however, don’t seem to be as immune to the bad beats as others are, so the stories of what happens after the beat are probably worth discussing.

Bearded, burly and surly Teamster John has never learned to handle the suckouts with dignity. One night last month, he left his usual punching bag (his rig) at home and walked to our club in search of a game. This was good news for his fenders but bad news for his body shop and, as things turned out, not so great for his friend Crazy Mike. click here to read the whole article!

Televised Poker
Final table loses drama heads up
By Raymond T. Akers

When ESPN and Harrahs announced that the final table of the Main Event would be delayed until November so that it could be televised “almost” live, it seemed that the pluses outweighed the minuses. While disrupting the flow of the tournament it did give the competitors a chance to regroup and prepare, and at the same time it meant that those of us watching from the safety of a La-Z-Boy could enjoy the drama without knowing the outcome ahead of time.

For the most part it was a rousing success. click here to read the whole article!