With 55 events, the 38th World Series of Poker is the biggest one yet. With each event having its own storylines and characters, and textures and colors, the WSOP is really a smorgasbord for poker fans. You like stud, it's there. You like H.O.R.S.E., it's there. And, of course, there's plenty of no-limit hold'em to satisfy all poker cravings.
Every summer, the eyes of the poker world fall on Las Vegas. The World Series of Poker kicks off a busy summer schedule that infuses the Strip with excitement. While most of that excitement was centered on the Rio, six players brought more than a fair share of it to Mandalay Bay recently. These six were the last men standing from a starting field of 228 players after three days at the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship.
The week before this year's World Series of Poker started, Jon Friedberg headed to Mexico to sit on a beach. He didn't go there to imagine slicing through the massive player fields or work out this year's poker strategy. He didn't go there to visualize winning his second WSOP bracelet. He took this vacation to get away from poker, clear his head, and not worry about what 55 days of nonstop poker action would bring him this year. He went there to sit in the sun and get his mind and body ready for playing 30 to 35 events.
As Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes was the first presidential biography to emphasize poker, Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative, published in three magnificent volumes between 1958 and 1974, was the first work of history to explore how the game's lore and logic fit into the overall scheme of America's most definitive conflict.
In the last issue, Card Player highlighted a grand array of places to play poker in Las Vegas. Here, several more poker emporiums are featured for your playing pleasure. Enjoy.
Recently, I played in NBC's Poker After Dark with T.J. Cloutier, Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, Layne "Back-to-Back" Flack, Erik Seidel, and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. What a lineup! It featured 43 World Series of Poker bracelets, with Doyle and I at 10 apiece, Seidel at seven, Cloutier at six, and Ferguson and Flack at five apiece.
The first event of the World Series of Poker this year was a new one, $5,000 buy-in half no-limit/half limit hold'em, and my first table could have been better. Phil Ivey was on my left, Johnny Chan was on my right, and several other winning players were at the table.
A few years ago in the World Poker Tour main event held at Bellagio, I found myself a short stack just outside the money. Normally I get very reckless at this point, looking to either double up and get into the game or just get out and go home (or to the bar, where there's always a great conciliatory party going on at this stage of the tourney). Most players are desperate to get into the money, and this is a great spot to become aggressive and accumulate some chips.
Playing poker well requires taking advantage of your opponents' mistakes! Players who can't be bluffed and pay off too liberally should be value-bet more frequently with marginal hands. Against players who are unwilling to pay you off, you should steal more than your fair share of pots...
When starting out in a tournament, what should your strategy be? I have seen a couple of suggestions in print, which I will loosely categorize as "wait and see" and "come out firing." Let's look at each.
