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Learning Limit Hold’em would help overall play

By DANIEL NEGREANU

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Learning how to play more games than just No Limit Texas Hold’em will actually make you a better overall poker player, and make you a better No Limit Hold’em player as well.

Limit and No Limit Hold’em are games that are played very differently, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use Limit tactics in No Limit.

In fact, there are several poker weapons that are considered Limit plays but when used correctly are effective in the game of No Limit.

Let’s look at a few of these plays and how they relate to each game.

? Betting the flop ? In Limit Hold’em, it’s common practice for a player who raises before the flop to bet at least once more on the flop. The goal is to quickly pick up the pot in the hope that your opponents miss with the first community cards.
This is also an effective weapon in No Limit Hold’em. However, there are a few important differences.

Betting the flop in No Limit will win you the pot more often, but you’ll usually be risking more money. Because Limit betting is structured, in a $10 to $20 Limit Hold’em game, it will only cost you $10 to try and steal the pot. If the bet doesn’t work, the damage is minimal.

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In No Limit, though, the pain could be much more severe. Since you can bet all of your chips at any time, you’re also risking your entire stack if you go all-in on the wrong flop.

To avoid that catastrophe, take a lesson from successful Limit players.

Rather than bet the whole pot in a No Limit game, bet anywhere from one-third to one-half of the pot. A bet of half the pot will generally have the same effect as a pot-sized bet, and it will cost you much less if the bluff doesn’t work.

? Three-betting before the flop ? When you watch high-stakes Limit Hold’em poker, you’ll often see a pre-flop raise, followed by a re-raise. Then the pot is generally played heads up, with the player who put in the last raise before the flop taking the lead.
This gives the three-bettor control of the hand and allows him to represent strength. If his opponent misses the flop, the aggressor can often take the pot away with another bet on the flop. This tactic works even better when the aggressor also has position.

Here’s an example of how this might work in Limit Hold’em.

Player A raises with a pair of sevens, and Player B decides to re-raise from the button with pair of fives. The flop comes A-K-9. Player A checks. Player B bets with position. Now, all Player A can do is fold due to the scary board, thus allowing Player B to win with a weaker hand.

This play works well in No Limit Hold’em too ? in a very different form.

When a player makes it three bets in Limit Hold’em, the first raiser will always call one more bet to see the flop. That’s not true in No Limit.

You can raise more than just one bet in No Limit, so you can actually force your opponent to fold before the flop.

Betting the flop
Let’s look at another example, but now in a No Limit game.

The blinds are $10-$20, and Player A raises to $60 with pocket sevens. This time, Player B, sitting on the button with an ace and a king, reraises to $200. Player A now has a very difficult decision to make. If he decides to call and see the flop, he’ll likely fold to another forceful bet unless he catches his third seven.

If the flop comes something like Q-10-4, Player A will check, and player B might bet $300. There is almost no way that Player A can call that.

The key difference between Limit and No Limit Hold’em is the level of aggressive play employed on the flop.

Because it’s far riskier to bet after the flop, No Limit players tend to play the board more carefully. By so doing, they’re essentially giving up on pots that they could often win.

So, as if you were playing in a Limit game, keep your No Limit pots small by lowering your bet sizes. This will reduce the risk associated with playing the perilous game of No Limit Hold’em.

Omaha Hi-Lo gains popularity with pros
Look around any poker room today, especially in the higher limit section, and you’ll definitely find a game of Omaha Hi-Lo. The game is vastly different from Seven-Card Stud or Texas Hold’em as far as strategy is concerned, as it caters to a more conservative, mathematical approach, which allows less room for bluffing.

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The rules are as follows.

The game is dealt just like Hold’em: a button, a small blind, and a big blind to initiate action. In Omaha Hi-Lo, however, each player is dealt four cards unlike the two cards that are dealt in Hold’em. From there, the play looks identical to Hold’em. There’s a three-card flop, followed by a round of betting, the turn, more betting, and finally the river and one last round of betting.

Now, this is important.

You must use exactly two cards from your hand plus any three of the community board to make your hand. So, even if four hearts are on the board, if you hold the Ah, you won’t actually have the flush unless you have a second heart in your hand.

The other important wrinkle to Omaha Hi-Lo is that it’s a split pot game. Half of the pot goes to the best high hand, and the best low hand wins the other half. In order for a low hand to qualify, it must consist of five unpaired cards that are eight or lower.

Remember, you must use two cards from your hand and three from the board.

So, for example, if your hand is A-2-K-J (a very powerful starting hand), and the final board reads 3-K-6-8-10, you’ll have a pair of kings as your high hand and will use your A-2 for the absolute best possible low hand.

It’s important to note that you can use any two cards for high, two different cards for low, or the same two cards for both high and low.

It is very possible and very common to scoop the whole pot by winning both the low and the high. Let’s say you have a hand like A-4-10-J and the final board reads 2-3-7-8-9. Well, in this case, you’d have what is known as the nut nut with the A-4 the best possible low hand (A-2-3-4-7), and J-10 the best possible high hand (7-8-9-10-J).

Omaha Hi-Lo may seem a little confusing at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

I’m betting that you’ll get a kick out of this game too. When I play $4000-$8000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, we play a variety of games, but Omaha Hi-Lo is always in the mix as it’s very popular with professional players.

Before I send you out there to play this game, let me give you a few pointers on what types of hands to play.

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Obviously, with an ace being good for both high and low, it becomes an even more powerful poker card. In fact, some players live by the following rule ? never leave the gate without one. For a beginning player, that’s not terrible advice.

You’ll want to start with premium hands since they’ll be much easier to play after the flop. A premium hand is one with low features that also has the potential to make high hands and scoop the pot. Hands that do extremely well in Omaha Hi-Lo include:

?As-Ah-2s-3h (the best possible starting hand)

? As-2s-Jc-10c

? Ah-2s-3h-4d

? Ac-Kc-2h-3d

These four are absolute monster starting hands.

What is it that they all have in common? For starters, they all contain an ace. Not only that, they also contain a deuce. The A-2 combination is particularly strong because anytime three low cards hit the board, you’ll lock up the low side of the pot, provided you don’t pair the ace or deuce. 3-6-7, 4-6-8, 3-5-7, 3-4-6, or 6-7-8 will all give you the nut low.

Now, mind you, those aren’t the only hands you should play. A-3-4-K, A-3-10-J, A-K-Q-J, and other combinations, are worth diving in with as well.

The hands you want to avoid, though, are the middle card combinations. 4-5-7-8, 5-5-7-9, 6-7-8-10 and the like all make for second best hands that will cost you lots of money. In Omaha Hi-Lo, stick with the premium hands and let your foolish opponents play the rags.

Doyle Brunson chosen to represent the United States at the Intercontinental Poker Championship

The legendary Brunson will compete against players representing 20 other countries from around the world

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The Legendary Doyle Brunson (see web site here) has been chosen to represent the United States at the Intercontinental Poker Championship. The first stage of the tournament is scheduled to take place this weekend at The Palms Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

The tournament will feature Doyle Brunson and 20 other players from 20 different countries competing for a $500,000 first place prize and a trophy, and will be televised later this summer as the first poker tournament to be carried by the CBS network.

Alongside the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson (United States), other players scheduled include:

Australia…Antanas Guoga
Canada…Daniel Negreanu
China…Johnny Chan
Costa Rica…Humberto Brenes
Denmark…Gus Hanson
England…David Ulliott
France…David Benyamine
Ireland…Don O’Day
Israel…Eli Elezra
Italy…Marco Traniello
Japan…Yosh Nakano
Lebanon…Sammy Farha
Mexico…Refugio Quintero
Norway…Thor Hanson
Russia…Ralph Perry
Spain…Carlos Mortensen
South Africa…Stephen Wolff
South Korea…Jimmy Cha
Sweden…Chris Bjorin
Vietnam…Chau Giang

The No-Limit Hold’em event will broadcast in an 8-episode series on CBS Sports from June 17-July 22, 2006.

Other than his poker success, his greatest achievement is probably the book that is considered to be the bible of poker: Super System. Originally self-published in 1978, Super/System was the book that transformed poker by giving ordinary players an insight into the way that the professionals like Brunson played and won, so much so that Brunson believes that having written the book cost him a lot of money. An up-to-date sequel to Super/System was published in 2004 called Super System II. Besides Brunson, several top poker players contributed chapters to Super/System including Bobby Baldwin, Mike Caro, David Sklansky, Chip Reese and Joey Hawthorne. The book is subtitled “How I made one million dollars playing poker”, by Doyle Brunson. Brunson is also the author of Poker Wisdom of a Champion, originally published as According to Doyle by Lyle Stuart in 1984.

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Even as Brian Cody drifts off to sleep, he’s playing poker.
Cody conjures up pairs of cards laid out in front of him, as in the opening deal of Texas Hold ‘Em. He mulls them over, debates which ones to play and which ones to toss.

King-nine off-suit? Jack-10 suited? Low pocket pairs? Pocket queens — the hand that looks so good but often ends so badly?

Many times, they’re good hands. He practices into the night — not how to play them, mind you, but how to get rid of them.

“What I’m trying to remind myself is it’s OK to fold … (to) be very conservative,” said Cody, the 32-year-old afternoon host on WFLY (92.3 FM). “When I’m dreaming sequences, I’m usually folding.”

Soon Cody’s dreams are about to move from his head to the poker table — and not just a weeknight game with a few friends, but the biggest, baddest and most prestigious poker table of them all. It took a little luck, a lot of help from his wife and pocket 10s at just the right time, but Cody will be playing in July’s World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas, where he’ll take his long shot at becoming best in the world.

Appropriately for someone who dreams about the game, Cody’s big break came while he was asleep.

Late last month, Cody’s wife and former on-air partner Ellen Rockwell won an online satellite tournament on PokerStars.com, playing under her husband’s account.

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By finishing first in that nine-person field on March 26, Rockwell earned her husband a free pass into a much larger satellite tournament sponsored by the Web site. The top 33 players out of a field of 606 received an all-expenses-paid slot in the sport’s biggest tournament.

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3 new language versions for Celeb Poker

Keeping pace with the international spread of online poker, Celeb Poker this week launched three new language versions of its popular site.

German, Turkish and Spanish poker players will now be able to access all CelebPoker facilities in their own language, making available full download and functional play in the three languages in addition to English.

Marketing director Greg Powell says that poker has been popular for years in Turkey and Germany, but online access has been restricted by language barriers which his company now hopes to have overcome, clearing the way for a significant increse in online business.

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Greg Powell says that Spanish speaking countries also offer a tempting target with a considerable increase in interest over the past 12 months. “Although poker has been played in various forms in these countries for years, the introduction of Texas Hold?em remains a relatively new and popular trend, so many new online players in these markets are adapting their card play. CelebPoker offers 5 and 7 Card Stud as well as Omaha Hi/Low in addition to Texas Hold?em. There are options for these players that were not available 3 years ago while playing online,” Powell remarks.

Jeff Haney warns poker fans to watch for some fireworks in second season of ‘High Stakes Poker’ show following a zany opening at the Palms

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Producers of “High Stakes Poker” on cable network GSN say the show’s first season was an unqualified ratings success, as viewers were eager to watch some of poker’s most recognizable stars fearlessly toss around piles of cash and stacks of exotically colored chips in a no-limit Texas hold ‘em game.

If a boisterous taping this week at the Palms is any indication, the second season promises to deliver even more spirited play.

Considering each player had to bring a minimum buy in of $100,000 to the event – which plays as a cash, or “ring,” game rather than a tournament – it’s no surprise that some egos were on display at the table.

For a while Monday night, the conversation revolved around – shocker! – ranking the top five poker players in the world, with Las Vegas pro Mike Matusow maintaining he belongs in that select group.

Fellow Las Vegan Daniel Negreanu begged to differ, saying Matusow wasn’t even one of the top five players at the table.

“I’d say Mike is the worst player here,” Negreanu said, undoubtedly aware that his comment would set off Matusow’s fuse.

“I want to play Daniel heads-up for the rest of the night,” Matusow fired back, prompting Negreanu to label such an arrangement his “dream” matchup.

Negreanu, Matusow and more than a dozen other top pros mixed it up in the eight-handed, invitation-only no-limit game that lasted 14 hours Monday, with a similar schedule set for Tuesday, on a specially constructed set in a Palms ballroom.

It was designed to resemble a private hotel suite – complete with a small but amply stocked bar. As in any cash game, the players were permitted to take breaks or cash out at any time, to be replaced by others waiting to join.

Both cash – in the form of thick stacks of banded hundred-dollar bills – and actual high-limit casino chips were permitted at the table. The “blinds” were $300 and $600 with a $100 ante.

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The footage from this week’s marathon games will be edited and divided into 16 episodes to air at 9 p.m. Mondays on GSN, the Network for Games (Cox cable channel 344), starting June 5. Analyst Gabe Kaplan and host A.J. Benza return to handle announcing duties.

The final episode of the first season of “High Stakes Poker,” which was filmed last fall at the Golden Nugget, aired Monday night and will be replayed at 9 p.m. Friday.

Among others competing this week were Daniel Alaei, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman and Phil Laak.

“I want to play no-limit hold ‘em with every one of you for the rest of my life because you don’t know (garbage)!” Matusow boomed at one point in response to even more needling from his opponents.

That outburst inspired Negreanu to request that some Ritalin be brought to the table.

“Everyone knows each other, so of course they’re going to give each other a hard time,” said Alaei, a regular on the tournament circuit for the past three years who also played in Season 1. “It’s nothing too personal.”

Players are paid a stipend of $1,200 from the network for each hour they appear – a token amount when millions of dollars are on the table at any given time and six-figure sums are routinely won and lost.

The event’s primary attraction is to match wits with the best players in the world, in the biggest game in town, according to Laak.

“I absolutely love no-limit hold ‘em cash games, and you never see them at a level this high,” said Laak, known as “the Unabomber” for the hooded sweatshirt he wears while playing poker. “This is just phenomenal.

“The biggest no-limit game a normal, working pro will see on a semiregular basis has blinds of $100 and $200,” Laak said – and even games at those limits run infrequently, often in conjunction with a major tournament such as the annual World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio.

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From novices to pros, poker enthusiasts face off in televised tournaments on Poker Night Live
- CGTV Canada debuts North America’s first interactive TV Poker program -

TORONTO, April 11 /CNW/ – Poker Night Live, the world’s first televised internet poker program, has arrived in Canada from Casino and Gaming Television Canada (CGTV). Through this revolutionary concept that fuses entertainment programming with online gaming, poker enthusiasts, either skilled or just starting out, will have the opportunity to participate in televised high stakes games of internet poker, have their game analyzed by top poker professionals, and ultimately improve their own skills by watching real people, play real poker, for real money. “We’re proud to bring Poker Night Live and its refreshing, unique and innovative approach to online poker into living rooms across Canada,” says
Terry Debono, CGTV’s co-founder and chief creative officer. “Through an entertaining blend of high stakes online poker, and live commentary by our panel of experts, we’re positive Poker Night Live will appeal not only to poker lovers, but to gaming enthusiasts and entertainment fans alike.”

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Poker Night Live originated in April 2005 on the UK’s number one gaming channel, Pokerzone. Since its launch, Poker Night Live has surged in popularity and now has over 200,000 unique viewers who watch the program every week. Poker Night Live was recently awarded “Poker TV Programme of the Year” at the prestigious 2006 UK Gambling Awards. Canadians tuning in to Poker Night Live will be treated to a unique experience that combines suspenseful, live television with the insanely popular world of online poker. The show is ultimately designed to help players improve their game, so viewers will see every card in each player’s hand being played. Viewers will see beginners and experts alike polishing their skills,
learning from the mistakes of others and having their poker play critiqued by Poker Night Live’s team of professional players.
Poker Night Live airs seven days a week live from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. EST (with encore presentations daily at Noon EST) on Rogers Digital Cable channel 288, Bell ExpressVu channel 274, Videotron Illico Digital TV channel 59, and Mountain Cablevision Channel 389. Viewers can also visit www.pokernightlive.ca to learn more about the show, its hosts and special
contests and promotions. “Building on the phenomenal success Poker Night Live has enjoyed in the UK, we wanted to give poker players, big and small, the same unique opportunity to have their game critiqued by a panel of distinctly Canadian
experts,” continued Debono. Poker Night Live’s Canadian team of home-grown hosts and poker professionals consists of Tina Teggart, ‘Johnny T’ Tokatlidis and Devin ‘Devo’ Armstrong. Poker Night Live’s hosts will entertain viewers on a
nightly basis as they criticize, evaluate and applaud the poker moves they’re watching live, along with the rest of Canada.

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The firsts for online poker room Poker Stars seem to come almost monthly nowadays. Only a few weeks ago, the site announced that their Sunday afternoon No Limit Hold Em tournaments would be guaranteed to pay out $1 million to the field, the first weekly million dollar tournaments in the history of online poker. Now, PokerStars has reached another plateau that demonstrates the power of online poker in the 21st century.

On March 30th, PokerStars announced that they had signed up their five millionth player on the site. In just five years, the online leviathan has brought more people to the game and, with their latest milestone, have demonstrated that they are perhaps THE leader in the online poker industry. What is most interesting is that only a year ago, PokerStars could boast about having signed up 2.5 million players. In the shockingly short span of one year, PokerStars has been able to double their customers and ably demonstrate that the appeal of the sport of poker is still running hot.

The five-millionth player is George Draper from Las Vegas, NV. He is a 35 year old chef who is new to the online poker game, but he will get an opportunity to exercise his poker muscles quickly. For being the five millionth player on the site, Draper will receive two of the most prized seats in the poker world today. Draper will be participating in the 2006 World Series of Poker Championship Event, courtesy of PokerStars, and will also receive a buy-in to the Main Event of the biggest online poker tournament, the World Championship of Online Poker, which is expected to crack the $5 million mark for a prize pool this year.

“It is no surprise that PokerStars is leading the boom in online poker,” said Chris Welch, PokerStars Group Marketing Director. “Many people who might be intimidated at the thought of playing inside a casino find that playing at PokerStars is a comfortable and convenient alternative. Millions of players from all walks of life who are living in many different countries have signed up at PokerStars because we make playing poker fun, exciting, and easy.”

PokerStars reached the milestone of having 100,000 players participating at the same time in late February and have continued to reach that figure daily since then. Their wealth of ring games, sit and gos and multi-table tournaments have drawn people from around the world to participate. PokerStars has also been at the forefront of the live poker world with their sponsorships of major events, such as the entirety of the European Poker Tour and their highly popular PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. With their five millionth player accounted for, just how much bigger can online poker, and poker in general, become?

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