3 WSOP bracelets coming to NorCal

By Arnold Warner

The World Series of Poker has finished 50 of its 57 events and players from all over Northern California have left their mark at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Three of them will be going home with gold bracelets and dozens more have cashed, creating a lot of great memories and stories.

Steven Gee, Sacramento

The first NorCal player to win a bracelet this year was Steven Gee of Sacramento, who came in first out of 3,042 players in Event #13: No-Limit Hold’em (June 5 to 9). The buy-in was $1,000 creating a prize pool of $2,737,800. Gee’s take was $472,479 for first but everyone knows it’s all about the hardware!

Gee was born in China, but his family immigrated to America (and Sacramento) when he was five years old, so he’s been a NorCal guy virtually all his life. His poker playing dates all the way back to the 1970s when he was in his twenties and playing Low-ball as a professional. “I started playing at 20 and I made a ton of money and I went broke at 27 like all poker players, you know, because at that time you just want to party,” he said. “So I went broke and went back to school and got my college degree.” click here to read the whole article!

Technology invades the poker room
By Johnny Coldeck

Tech-Boy Tim (TBT) is one of the most frustrating members of our little poker-playing community. Not that he’s a bad kid; he’s usually very likeable. It’s just that, “Hang on, let me answer this text … okay, anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, my turn? I raise!” gets a little old. Eye contact is out of the question for TBT; he has way too many things vying for his attention to be bothered with the conversation of the players around this little poker table. Tech-Boy Tim can never understand that we don’t care if he got a really funny online video that he has to check out before he can make a decision. We are all sure that his cyber-life is more interesting than this game of poker. We know that he has important communication with someone somewhere, and that someone is far more important than we are. click here to read the whole article!

The Champ's Perspective
The National Heads-Up Championship
By Jerry Yang

IThe 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship was particularly exciting for me this year because I did fairly well. It is a title that I would love to have under my belt because there is no doubt that it is almost as important as the WSOP Main Event title.

For those of you who haven’t watched it, I made it to the elite eight (quarter final round) and earned $75,000. At the night of the drawing party, I was a little nervous because there were some new, but very dangerous and talented players, such as Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, Jason Mercier, and Annette Obrestad. I was hoping to be matched with someone from the old school of poker, not because I felt I would beat them, but at least we would think alike and play a similar style. click here to read the whole article!

Observations of a Poker Room Manager
Tales of my Mississippi poker days
By Daniel Higginbotham

First off, I’d like to congratulate Paul Hammond, Brad Owen, and Gary Reilly who are on their way to play in the Main Event at the WSOP after winning the WSOP Mega-Satellite at the River Rock Casino. Great job guys and good luck!

In my last article I promised some interesting stories from my time spent running a poker room in Mississippi. When I left Las Vegas I thought I had left behind all the colorful characters that hang around the poker rooms. Wow, was I ever mistaken! In Mississippi I met some of the most wonderful people in the world. To this day, I remain in touch with not only people I worked with, but players as well. I made a lot of really good friends there that will always have a special place in my heart. I also met some true “southern gamblers” that were every bit as colorful as the poker players I had known in Las Vegas. click here to read the whole article!

I can only beat good players
By Bernard Harris

The common excuse, “I can only beat good players,” often comes with a bad beat story and is a mantra for many recreational players. But when was the last time you heard an athlete blame a loss on his opponent’s lack of skill? How often does Apple attribute decreased sales to their competitors’ lack of success? The answer is never. So what makes poker different? How are bad players the bane of good ones? The truth is they are not and hopefully by the end of this article you will understand why.

When someone says, “I can only beat good players,” what they really mean is that they can only beat a certain kind of villain. This often indicates a static style of play that does not adjust to one’s opponents. Similarly, bad beats weigh heavily on our minds, skewing our memories and perceptions. We obsess about the suckouts, horrendous calls, and curse the donks responsible. This leads many of us to falsely conclude that bad players are just unbeatable. click here to read the whole article!

POY contest: Know your rules!
By Paul Giambroni

One of the more enjoyable aspects of publishing The Cardroom is having a Player of the Year contest. When starting this search for Northern California poker’s elite players the idea centered on providing a free service to tournament players who regularly patronize our advertisers. We specifically mention “casinos that advertise” because the entire system was put into play on the backs of the cardrooms who make this newspaper possible.

Since a cardroom advertiser already has a vested interest in our paper, we felt that the fair thing to do was restrict participation to casinos that were “playing ball.” Any Northern California cardroom can potentially join in the fun; all they need to do is step up to the plate. The goal was to develop a system that would enhance the poker experience for the patrons of our advertisers with only a little extra effort and no extra cost. click here to read the whole article!

Tells-n-Lies
An inside look at playing the WSOP
By Victor Shaw

I recently made the annual pilgrimage to the Rio for the 2010 World Series of Poker so I could play in a $1,000 buy-in event on June 5.

I arrived plenty early and was happy to see the improved layout and facilities at the Rio this year. The table layout was improved and an additional room full of tournament tables was added. The food was placed in a better location and overall it seemed like Harrah’s was doing a better job. The clock in the food area gave me a nice countdown to tournament time and, with five minutes remaining, I migrated to my table.

For some reason it has become fashionable to arrive late for tournaments and my table played four handed for a couple orbits. We stole the blinds of the late arrivals and generally played as fast as possible. I was able to increase my stack from 3,000 to 3,600 in the first hour. click here to read the whole article!