Capitol players take LAPC titles
By Arnold Warner

The recently completed Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC) at Commerce Casino started off with a decidedly Northern California flavor, as Sacramento players were victorious in the first two events.

Event 1 was no-limit Hold’em with a $335 buy-in, four starting days (next day re-entries allowed) and a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. Of the 51 events in the series, the prize pool for this tournament was second only to the $10,000 buy-in WPT Main Event, as 5,847 people entered creating a prize pool of $1,683,936. click here to read the whole article!

Santa Rosa seminar with Sexton & more

By Raymond T. Akers

Three of the top poker instructors in the country are coming to Santa Rosa on May 8 to hold a seminar, creating a great opportunity for Northern California players to learn from some of the best.

Mike Sexton, Linda Johnson, and Jan Fisher are well-known, established pros who have held numerous such seminars throughout the country and are also top staff members for the popular WPT Boot Camps. They are also the founders of Poker Gives as a way to give back to worthwhile charity organizations (go to pokergives.org for more information).

This seminar is designed to make you a better poker player, whether you are fairly new to the game or a seasoned veteran. It will focus primarily on tournament poker, but cash game strategy will also be covered.. click here to read the whole article!

Famous come to Fresno for Winter Deep Freeze
By Barbara Engler

Fresno is not usually thought of as a place where you’ll see the “rich and famous,” but don’t tell that to Club One Casino owner Kyle Kirkland. Whether it’s specifically a celebrity tournament or one of the many low-cost, deep-stack events they have featured lately, he knows how to attract the stars.

Most recently, this was evident when Club One hosted the Winter Deep Freeze Jan. 14 to 17. This multiple-starting-day, $100 buy-in Hold’em tournament had over 700 entries and a prize pool that exceeded $60,000. As if that weren’t enough, featured players at the tournament included former major league baseball player Jose Canseco, Internet poker phenomenon Shaun Deeb, and Poker Hall of Famer Barbara Enright. We sat down with all three just before the tournament began to talk about poker tournaments and why they came to Fresno for this event. click here to read the whole article!

Poker Ambassador
No paranoia here—just playing poker
By Randall Rapp

Paranoia comes in many shapes and forms, and poker is certainly not immune to its dark cloud. Your Ambassador found himself thinking about this on his most recent excursion, not because of a feeling that the other players were out to get him, but because of all those “eye in the sky” security cameras at every cardroom.

Not that I have a problem with security. Heck, I understand completely why they’re up there and wholeheartedly endorse their presence. They strongly discourage cheating and provide a sometimes necessary instant replay for the game. But as I go about my travels I can’t help but wonder just how many recordings there are of me and what nefarious uses they could conceivably get put to.

There’s a little voice in the back of my head conjuring images of Will Smith in the movie “Enemy of the State.” Hopefully I won’t start seeing black helicopters and vans that are a little too nondescript as I go from one casino to the next. click here to read the whole article!

The Champ's Perspective
Playing in the Polar Poker Challenge
By Jerry Yang

Recently, I was invited to play in a charity tournament at Lake Minnetonka, Minn. I was informed that the tourney would take place on a frozen lake and that I would have the opportunity to do some ice fishing too.

When I first heard of the idea, I said, “Cool. This should be very fun.” Little did I know I was in for a real challenge. Having lived in California since 1983, I have had very little exposure to the snow. I’ve taken my children to see the snow in the mountains a few times, but it was no big deal. They enjoyed seeing the snow and throwing snowballs at each other. It was a one-day fun trip. Minnesota was different. And, boy, I was in for the real deal. click here to read the whole article!

Tales from the Floor
Frank calls wife; she makes the call
By Johnny Coldeck

The topic of Foundation Man Frank came up in conversation the other night, and it brought to mind one of the classic stories from the distant past. Now Frank was one of those hard-core poker players who would stay at the table as long as the ATM continued to spew out bills. Married, with three young children, Foundation Man Frank would often be in the game for several hours before it was discovered that his family was outside, waiting in the car.

This story is not about that; it’s about one of the times he left his wife and kids at home and hitched a ride to our little room.

Before Johnny Coldeck began working at the cardroom, he played a little poker there. On one of those epic nights, Johnny Coldeck, a player to be named later, and Foundation Man Frank ended up playing three-handed in the wee hours with all the chips that random players had left on the table in the melee of the earlier action. click here to read the whole article!

How to leave while you're ahead
By Bernard Harris

If you observe a typical game for a few hours, you will notice that about half of the players have instances where they are up more than double their initial buy-ins. In fact, many good players will be up four to five times their buy-in at one point. Yet, despite this fact, few players actually cash out with profit.

Why?

Well, if your winnings are due more to skill than luck, then the most probable reason you bust out is simple—as the game progresses, your play changes. It could be due to fatigue, recklessness, or some other factor. But whatever the reason, you are no longer playing in a winning manner.

Before learning tips that will help you leave while you’re ahead, it is important to highlight some of the common factors that degrade your play. click here to read the whole article!

Observations of a poker manager

A stroll down poker's memory lane
By Daniel Higginbotham

Sitting in the Poker Room the other morning, waiting for a game to start, some of the players started discussing funny things they had observed at and around the poker tables. Being that my poker room is in a rural-type setting, they wanted to hear stories about Las Vegas and the crazy things I had seen there. While I have a lot of great memories about Vegas, I can assure you that anywhere people gather around the green felt to play poker things can get quite interesting, and occasionally downright hysterical. Here’s a few that I remembered the other day while chatting with the players:

Working in downtown Las Vegas as a shift manager I had a really interesting cast of characters as regular players, not to mention that my staff could have easily stepped right out of a Damon Runyon novel. First, we had the players: Itchy Scratchy Al, “D” the Greek, Poker Pete, Cowboy, Larry and Tony (the juice men), Tonya the Troll, etc. Then we had the dealers; Little Nicky, Eddie B, Bobby Baby, Ding, Mike from Biloxi, and poor Sandy who was a young gal that had to break in with all these guys. Then of course, we had the prop players; Fat Freddie G, Bad Beat Billy, the Judge, Rocco, and Ernie. click here to read the whole article!