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Sternberg wins at Bay 101 Marko Trapani’s Shooting Star, the Bay 101 Casino’s stop on the World Poker Tour, can always be counted on for plenty of action and a few great stories. The 2011 version, held March 14 to 18, was no exception. Along with the usual tales of bounties, bad beats, and brazen calls at this $10,000 event, we had the following narratives also take place: click here to read the whole article! |
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$2K Shooting Star won by Bay Area players Every year the Bay 101 Casino leads up to the big WPT $10,000 event with a $2,000 buy-in no-limit Hold’em tournament. Bay Area players were all over the payout list, with several at the final table including the two who chopped first and second place prize money: San Jose’s Mimi Luu and Pat Lyons from Hillsborough. The tournament was held on March 13 and had 256 entries for a prize pool totaling $486,400. Mike Sowers was the chip leader when the final table began, followed in order by Lyons, Bryan Henzig, Sachine Modi, Rellie Sigua, Salim Batshon, Dana Gill, Greg Flowers, and Luu. With only 69,000 chips, Luu had less than 10 percent of what Sowers was holding and less than nine big blinds. click here to read the whole article! |
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$113 bad beat at Jackson The cheers from the mezzanine Poker Room at Jackson Rancheria Casino could be heard throughout the casino below when the Super Bad Beat hit on April 19 for $113,054. Adam D. from Sacramento got the Super Bad Beat with quad tens and a nine kicker when he lost to the jack-high straight flush of Stockton’s Joseph S. Adam received 50 percent of the prize pool ($56,527), Joseph 30 percent ($34,916), and the table share was $3,768. As they like to say in Jackson: “Good times, Rancheria style!” click here to read the whole article! |
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Virtual Roundtable It’s been four and a half years since the federal government dropped the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) upon the online poker world, but some of the bigger sites stuck around the U.S. market anyway, such as Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and Ultimate Bet. Then on April 15 the Justice Department indicted 11 individuals at these companies (despite their status as non-U.S. institutions), effectively shutting down online poker for cash in America. So, with this return of the Virtual Roundtable, we asked the following questions of poker players and casino owners/managers/personnel. 1. What is your opinion of the federal government’s actions—in passing the UIGEA and the recent indictments/shutdowns? 2. Will this affect your poker playing and how? Will this likely increase play at brick and mortar casinos, decrease the number of people playing poker, or both? Why? 3. Do you think this is good or bad for poker in general? What do you make of the pros and cons of live play vs. internet play, reliable online sites vs. questionable ones, money leaving the country to offshore sites vs. legalizing online poker and allowing U.S. companies to keep the money here (and the obvious taxes that would be collected as a result)? 4. Any other comments you might have on the subject would also be appreciated. click here to read the whole article! |
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We’ve all heard it over and over: “Act like you’ve been there before.” It has become an all too common phrase in the cardroom, inevitably directed at the fist-pumping, hand clapping, chest beating player who seems to lose all sense of decorum after a significant win. Is it wrong to celebrate passionately following a key pot in a tournament, or an unusually large pot in a cash game? The answer, in my humble opinion, is yes. Poker is a game, a business, or (arguably) a sport, or some combination of the three. However you view this wonderful pastime, one cannot deny the fact that it should be played with integrity and etiquette. click here to read the whole article! |
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There is no justice in poker As human beings, we can’t help but view the world in terms of right and wrong. Unfortunately, our innate desire for fairness can be deadly to our games. A poker table is not a courtroom; it is a place in which random cards are dealt with no regard to what we feel is fair. In short, there is absolutely no justice in poker, only probability. Despite this fact, many play as if fairness was a viable part of the poker equation. They let emotions and their internal belief systems dictate key decisions as seen in the example below. Hero’s self destruction begins with two simple words, “I’m due!” This declaration is prophetic, demanding, and disastrous. As time passes, and more bad cards come, our Hero becomes more and more frustrated. He asks for a setup and does several seat changes, but he can’t escape the graveyard of dead cards. After two hours of injustice, frustration turns to anger, leading to the following play (effective stacks are 150 big blinds [BB]). click here to read the whole article! |
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