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| Strategy Discussion |
Re-published courtesy of our content partner Ante Up Magazine.
When is it correct to slow play on the flop in pot-limit Omaha by checking behind in position? The answer is rarely. For the most part it’s correct to never get tricky in PLO because you need to balance your ranges so often that betting tends to be the most optimal play in the long run.
Imagine you’re heads-up, in position and looking at a flop of 10-9-4 with two hearts and you hold 10-10-x-x. You should never really check behind in this situation for a few reasons: If your opponent has a set then you’re missing a golden opportunity of getting it in as a huge favorite.
If your opponent has a draw, you’re making him pay for that draw if he calls. If he check-raises with his draw we can get it in as a favorite most of the time.
Balancing your range: So when SHOULD we check behind? Most people would argue the exception comes when there’s a locked board (e.g. a flop of A-4-4 when we have A-A-x-x.
The logic in checking behind is: Your opponent usually doesn’t have much and you can possibly get him to bet into you on the turn with nothing.
Most people are hoping for that incredibly slim chance that the turn is something like a king and your opponent has K-K-x-x, but relying on coolers like that is not the way of the optimal ninja, now is it?
Harrah’s Joliet Cash Game Reputation on the Rise
| Room Reviews |
Harrah’s Joliet could not have timed the spring 2011 opening of their World Series of Poker room any better. The Department of Justice had just shut down online poker in the US and players, like me, were left scrambling to find a place to play. For a few weeks I bounced around between The Horseshoe, Majestic Star, and Hollywood Joliet, while waiting for Harrah’s grand opening. When it did finally open its doors I was there and have been a regular ever since.
I live much closer to Joliet than Hammond, so convenience was the biggest draw to Harrah’s. Once I started playing I found many more reasons to continue. Due to its smaller size (8 tables) it is very easy for the players to get to know the staff, and vice versa. From the poker room manager, Doug Walters, down to the dealers, the number one priority has been to cater to the regular player’s needs and requests. From lowering the initial rake, to starting a weekly poker league, adding more chips to the starting stack of the tournaments, instituting tier credits for poker players (17 per hour), and most recently adding additional cash games, Harrah’s has been taking the advice of the players and changing the room accordingly since they opened their doors.
For the first few months as the room was still in its infancy, the standard games were 1-3 NL Holdem, and a nightly 3-5 NL Holdem. The 1-3 is their most popular game and most days have 2 to 3 tables running. The games play nine handed with a $100 minimum and a $300 maximum buy-in. The rake on this game is 10% with a $6 cap on a full table. If you are an early bird they reduce that rake to a $4 cap from 9am-12pm.
WSOP 2012 Schedule Now Out
| Current |

The World Series of Poker staff has release the 2012 Schedule for your viewing pleasure.
This year's series spans May 27 through July 16, with the now standard three month break for the final 9 players of the WSOP Main Event. This year's November 9 will be the October 9, played in two installments, on October 28 and October 30. The planning committee wanted have the Main Event conclusion prior to the U.S. General Election, which is the first Tuesday in November.

There are 61 bracelet events this year, up from 58 in last year's series. There are also a few new interesting events, namely:
- $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha (Event #3, Tuesday, May 29 )
- $5,000 Mix-Max No-Limit Hold’em (Event #6, Thursday, May 31) - 9-handed Day 1, 6-Handed Day 2, and Heads Up when the field reduces to 32 players
- $2,500 Four-Handed No-Limit Hold’em (Event #28, Thursday, June 14)
- $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em (Event #49, Wednesday, June 27)
- $1,000,000 buy-in, Big One For ONE DROP (Event #55, Sunday, July 1, ESPN)
There will also be some WSOP Exhibition Events (non-bracelet) which you can read all about in the WSOP release.
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| Strategy Discussion |
Editor’s note: The following is from Jonathan Little’s Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker, Vol. 1.
Re-published courtesy of our content partner Ante Up Magazine.
There is much discussion over which style of play is better, one where you try to play lots of small pots, called “small ball,” or one where you try to play a few large pots, called “long ball.” You have to play a decent number of pots if you want to make it in poker tournaments. Waiting for A-A, hoping to double up every time you get it, will not work in the long run. There are three main reasons for this.
First, if you play only premium hands, you will be playing about 7 percent of hands, which is much less than you need to play to maintain your chip stack.
Second, most opponents are observant enough to realize how tight you are playing, so you will rarely get action when you pick up a good hand. On average, you will lose the blinds every orbit but will only win the blinds every 0.7 orbits, meaning that you should expect to lose 0.3 sets of blinds on every orbit. This will clearly cause you to go broke over time.
Finally, even if you are patient and get all the money in as a 2-to-1 favorite, you will usually have blinded off your stack so much that even if you win the hand, you will just be back at the stack you started with. For example, say you have 20 big blinds and decide to blind off until you get a premium hand. If you blind down to 10BBs and get all-in with A-A vs. 4-4, you will double up 80 percent of the time to 20BBs, which is where you started, and 20 percent of the time you will go broke.
Waiting for a big hand is a sure way to go broke in no-limit hold’em tournaments. Weaker players often say that if they didn’t constantly suffer bad beats, they would do well in tournaments. They fail to realize that everyone will lose hands as a huge favorite throughout a tournament. You have to build up a large chip stack to survive these beats and still have a chance to win. If you are blinding off and waiting for a big hand, you are setting yourself up to get all-in, which leads to going broke. If you can avoid ever being all-in throughout a tournament, it will be tough to go broke.
That does not mean you should raise to three big blinds out of your 10BB stack and fold to an all-in reraise. It means that you should keep a large stack and maintain the aggression, picking up numerous small pots while still getting large amounts of money in as a favorite. Small ball is so effective because people fold too often. If you can make most opponents fold by raising to 2.2BBs preflop, and then betting 2.5BBs on most flops, by all means do it.
In the high-stakes tournaments, though, most players realize that when they’re getting 5-to-1 to see a flop, they should usually take it. Also, when they are getting 3-to-1 on the flop, there are huge odds to call or bluff. Because of this, the extreme version of small ball that is preached by a few of the big tournament winners does not work too well in high-stakes tournaments. I have figured out that if, instead of basically min-raising preflop, you raise to 2.5BBs and make reasonably-sized continuation bets, you will accomplish all the goals of small ball, while still getting some of the respect of a long-ball player.
When you raise more than your fair share of pots, people will eventually start to call. This isn’t a problem if you will be in position in most hands and can induce your opponents to fold postflop. Because of this, you need to size your raises preflop a little larger so you can later make flop and turn bets a little larger, which will get you many more folds. You need to be in position. If you are constantly raising hands out of position, you are destined to lose.
Another huge benefit of this hybrid style that I play is that when you actually get a good hand, instead of winning only a decent amount of chips, you can usually get your opponent’s entire stack. If you min-raise preflop and then bet half-pot on the flop, you will find it tough to get your entire stack in if you make a strong hand. If you raise just a tiny bit more preflop, you can get all-in as long as your stack is around 80BBs or less, which it will be once you get to the middle stages of most tournaments, because the pot tends to grow exponentially in no-limit hold’em. People generally bet around the size of the pot or a bit less, so you tend to make small bets if the pot is small and larger bets as the pot grows. You don’t have to make larger bets. But it’s an option. It’s well worth the risk of raising by 0.3BB more before the flop to give yourself more options throughout the hand. Because you are raising to a slightly larger amount preflop, you should tighten your range. You need to win a higher percentage of pots preflop because you’re giving yourself slightly worse odds to steal the blinds. This is usually negligible though, as the extra 0.3BB you raise over a normal small-ball strategy will win the blinds a higher percentage of the time.
All winning poker players are aggressive. If you take the passive route on most hands, you will find yourself losing money. If a winning player thinks a play is profitable, he will make the play. In fact, not making aggressive plays that you know you should make is similar to burning money. In order to take home first prize, unless you get a great run of cards, you are going to have to take some risks. The best way to take risks is to be aggressive. This will give you a chance to play some big pots, and pick up numerous small pots along the way.
— Jonathan Little is the Season 6 WPT Player of the Year and is a representative for Blue Shark Optics. If you want to learn to play a loose-aggressive style, which will constantly propel you to the top of the leaderboards, check out his poker training website at FloatTheTurn.com.
New Poker Room at Harrah’s Joliet
| Room Reviews |
The following is a press release from Harrah's Joliet, received by Chicago Poker Club on Monday, May 2, 2011.
Go “All In” for the New LIVE Poker Room at Harrah’s Joliet!
Throw your chips in the pot and go “all in” for the new poker room at Harrah’s Joliet Casino & Hotel. Opening May 2nd at 10am, the poker room will offer Limit & No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud.
And starting May 2nd, (through May 17th), you can play to earn entries** to win the chance to compete against poker legend Doyle Brunson and 8 other finalists. If you win, you’re going to Vegas, Baby! Plus, you’ll get $1,500 for travel expenses and a seat at the World Series of Poker Main Event**, a total value of $10,000!
In addition to earning entries through poker play, you can also get the chance to win through Facebook. “Like” Harrah’s Joliet on Facebook to download an entry form. Then, bring your form to the Total Rewards® Center and you’ll be entered in the drawing for the chance to play.**
Meet poker legend Doyle Brunson on Saturday, May 21st at 5pm at Stage 151. Purchase a book beginning at 8am to receive his autograph.**
