Patrik Antonius Impersonator on Twitter

Patrik Antonius is in big trouble due to an overly eager fan of his posing as him on Twitter.  The poser has been posting false remarks about other players Patrik has played with.  Doyle Brunson, a fellow poker player has been offended by these tweets the fake Patrik has been posting on twitter.  Of course, Patrik then turned to coinflip.com to clear his name.

The Good and the Bad Side of Fans

Fans, of course, are great.  [Read][more...]

Are Poker Books Worth The Read

Poker players learn how to play through different ways.  Some learn early in life by watching the friendly Saturday night game at their home.   Some play a number of hours and days on free Internet sites for play money.  Players that are use to learning a subject by reading about it are likely to buy books on poker.

The quantity of books on poker has grown like mushrooms after a warm night of rain.  Doyle Brunson's book started the fad of big time players writing books on the subject.  Brunson's book was a bible of how to play and made many bad players better than average.  Barry Greenstein's book has thoughtful ideas on how to play in a logical manner that many would consider tight play of a hand.

Many players could not write a book about playing as they are a little crazy in their play and that would be hard to emulate.

A relatively new and inexperienced player would be wise to read any book on starting hand values with their ranking among hands.  [Read][more...]

Heads Up Update and a Mish Mash

The NBC Heads Up Championship has eliminated more than half the field.  Some of the big name players have been turned out and some are still alive and playing.  The Miracle player Blandino Gines was eliminated the first day by Barry Greenstein and now Barry has joined him on the sidelines.  Others are still in the fight like the well-known Daniel Negreanu.  Skill is at a premium, but getting some good cards at the right time will go a long way.  The interesting story about this tournament is it will not be aired on TV until April of 2009.  By then it will be over and the new champion will be known for over a month.

Another news bit is the coverage of the latest lady poker player in the pro ranks doing so well playing in the tournaments and getting an offer to be in the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated.  Vanessa Rousso is hot in more ways than one as a poker player, still alive in the Heads Up Championship, as a very nice looking woman and as a Law Student at the University of Miami.  This lady has it all going in the right direction.  That is a lot of activity going on in one person's life male or female. [Read][more...]

Ace Queen Holdem Mystery

Ace Queen is a mystery starting hand for some players and a starting hand that other player seem to love.  When this author plays this hand the flop seems to come with a king in it and miss both of these cards.  Other players seem to make it work.  The question is why and or how come.  There is no logical reason for this disparity of results that seems to prevail when different players play this hand. Doyle Brunson said this was not one of his favorite starting hands.   Other players on TV like this hand.  They have had very good luck with it in live play or online play.   If you watch enough TV tournaments, you will see players draw to this hand all the time, with some missing it and some making it.  Doyle seems to have had my luck with this starting hand, or he would not nave stated that this hand was not a favorite of his.

From a math standpoint it is a good starting hand, however Ace-King, Kings or Aces is far better. This hand is one of those that a player grits their teeth and plays hoping the Flop will be generous.  Truthfully I would rather draw to a pair of tens than this hand.  However I have seen other players catch both an Ace and a Queen on the flop. [Read][more...]

High Stakes Poker Starts Again Sunday Night

Daniel Negreanu will again be one of the players seen on High Stakes Poker along with some other players who are all ways willing to be in the mix for high stakes.  Doyle Brunson will be there as well as Sam Farha during this season of play.  This is the fifth season of the popular TV show and the word is that the stakes will be even higher this year.  The season will have much bigger pots and there will be some new young players on the show from the Internet and trying to be aggressive against a pro like Doyle Brunson in a game that he plays as well as any of the players.

There have been memorable hands in other seasons like the Hand between Farha and Greenstein when Sammy called an $180,000 raise with a pair of Kings knowing that Barry probably had Aces.  OF course he catches a third king on the flop.  The toper hand was between Gus Hansen and Daniel when Gus made four of a kind to Daniels full house.  [Read][more...]