No state in the nation has a more severe penalty for playing online poker than Washington, which, in early 2006, passed a law that makes playing online poker a Class C felony. Washington is one of seven states where state legislators have outlawed online poker.
In 2005, Nick Schulman won the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods Resort and Casino. In 2006, Nenad Medic won the event. In 2007, they both found themselves at the final table, and both of them had a chance to make history. No player has ever won the same event twice in the history of the World Poker Tour, and now two players had that chance. Furthermore, not since Johnny Chan won the World Series of Poker main event in 1987 and 1988 has a player won a $10,000 buy-in open-field tournament in back-to-back years.
As more and better information became available at the turn of the century - mainly in tactical primers and advice about how to thwart cheaters - honest players with bluffing and reckoning skill began to outnumber the cold-deck artists and mirror men.
As we go to press with this issue, our 11th-annual Player of the Year (POY) race is entering its final month of tournament action, and the sprint to the finish is as close as a preflop coin flip. Running neck and neck in that sprint is the man on the cover of this issue, Jonathan Little, who is just a stride (actually, 138 points) behind POY leader David "The Dragon" Pham. And hot on their heels are Scott Clements (third), Bill Edler (fourth), and J.C. Tran (fifth). See this issue for the story of Little's big year of tournament success in 2007.
Recently, I was watching an episode of High Stakes Poker on the Game Show Network. This was a special session in which the buy-in was $500,000, and they encouraged the players to bring stacks of cash to the table! Can you imagine the $50,000 "bricks of cash" (five $10,000 bundles of $100 bills, all wrapped up together) piled high in front of each player? It really was quite a sight to behold. And can you imagine the size of some of the pots? After all, more than one player bought in for $1 million. Let's just say this: It was a good day to get lucky!
If you're not familiar with what a bounty tournament is, here's a brief description: Remember the WANTED, dead or alive, posters from the Old West? (I know that only my dad and Barry Greenstein are old enough to actually remember the posters up on walls, but the rest of us have at least seen them in movies.) These posters offered a reward or put a "bounty" on the head of an outlaw. Well, a bounty tournament offers a reward for knocking out a specified poker player who's playing in that tournament.
When you are at the table facing down opponents, decisions are about how to play them. Have fundamental card sense and strategy understanding, know how your opponents are thinking and react to it effectively, and you'll whup those who can recite the odds but are ineffective at reading how their opponents think!
Wild games give many players fits. The betting gets so big, so fast, it takes them out of their comfort zone. "Sure, this top pair is better than what I usually see out of my opponents, but do I really want to bet $500 on it?"
One of the most fascinating features of poker is that things are seldom clear. Correct strategies often call for a mix of different maneuvers. Seemingly small changes in the situation (position, stack size, personality of opponents, or recent history) can also call for different plans. Even though there is rarely an absolute right answer to any difficult decision (otherwise, it wouldn't be difficult), there are generally correct plays that should usually be made in the absence of any strong contraindications.
Noted football commentator John Madden tells a story about a time when he was a young coach. He went to a seminar by legendary coach Vince Lombardi, who was going to speak on a play called the "Power Sweep." Madden had been coaching for a while and had been using this play, and believed he understood it fairly well. In fact, he thought that if pressed, he could describe the play in such detail, it would take him 15 minutes to describe all of the ramifications.
