With 400 players, the Main Event was a sell-out and The Vic had to struggle a bit to cram us in. If you looked closely you could detect a tear in the General Manager’s eye as roulette tables where temporarily moved out, on a Saturday night, to squeeze in poker players. I remember texting that Phil Ivey, Bob Coombes and Tom Parker-Bowles were all here and it was pointed out to me that that wasn’t a sentence you saw often.

My table had an about average number of lunatic Scandanavians and the prerequisite nutty Frenchman as well as a fairly jovial northerner. Viktor Kanwar, Tim Flanders and Karl from the Gutshot would be the lively midfield players while Roland would attempt to be the star striker.

I had a plan for Roland but it didn’t really work. He was keen to play a lot of pots and I fancied mixing it with him. I feel a bit lame saying it, but I was eventually quite frustrated by never having a hand, or coming even near to hitting a flop. Meanwhile he never failed to flop a minimum of top pair. The only fun I had was in beating the cocky git on the banter front.

When a camera crew came to film him someone suggested he should play some hands and do something interesting. He pointed out that it wouldn’t be used anyway as the filming wasn’t going to begin until day two. I was delighted to inform him that this footage was to be saved and would be used in a feature they were planning for the EPT 2007. He was going to be the first in a "Where are they now?" sequence.

In the end I was pretty pleased to be moved to another table, especially when I flopped a set and turned quads. Later on, the flop of 5,2,2 seemed to match well with my 5,5 and I was at last starting to get into the tournament. Apart from a particularly long massage that Mark Teltscher got from the incredibly distracting massage lady and her amazing cleavage, I remember nothing else from my day one other than the last hand.

Mick "The Clock" Cook is someone that I’ve known a long time and we’ve had our ups and downs. He is mostly though, someone who’s game I respect enormously, and who has knocked me out of more tourmaments than I care to remember. He’s also the absolute definition of old-school and I’d like to get him in a "career winnings" match bet with any number of Johnny come latelys.

I won’t go into a long hand history except to say that in the last pot of the night he scooped in 40k which left me with 17k against an average of 38k instead of the 33k I might of had if I’d gone home two minutes early. When I look back I’m pleased with my play in the hand, despite putting it in with AQ v KK. The fact that I flopped an ace and a queen before he hit his set just made it slightly more frustrating.

After a day of skulking around and feeling sorry for myself I was back on Saturday fully prepared to be dissappointed. I knew I was going to gamble early and after successfully moving in on the first hand I soon had them on their backs with the old 8s9s. That got me a double up against some poor sod’s 10,10 and from there I started to play.

The spurt I put on over the next few hours would get me to 120k without the need to show a hand. I was playing pretty good and starting to enjoy myself. As they took Tony Chessa from our table I told him to "Piss off and annoy some other people." adding quietly "I can see now why they built Hadrian’s Wall." All good fun.

I heard a great line from another table. My good friend Alan Betson had qualified for this tournament online, and although I havn’t seem him around much lately I was pleased to see his sense of humour hasn’t changed. After another attempted steal raise from him, the American in the blinds, with just a slight lack of subtlety, grabbed a random amount of chips, totalling around half his stack and threw them forward haphazardly as a reraise. Alan raised a quizzical eyebrow and asked:

"Just the one fistful then?"

In the breaks my main concern now was the progress of my other investments. A certain young lady was doing nothing but moan. On Friday she’d made a pretty good effort at whinging her way to success despite her first table full of Mental Scandis. I couldn’t provide an answer to how you play when all 9 people around you like nothing better than a pot that goes: raise 15bb, reraise all-in, call. (that would be 4,4 v K,10 while the blinds are 50/100). She’d then complained that a table of Julian Gardner, Donnachea, Jeff Duvall, Frank Callaghan and George McKeever was too hard. I knew that she’d come to enjoy that one though, as it would mean a chance to play "proper" poker. Bets and raises would carry some meaning, there would be a puzzle to solve with proper clues to think about and everyone would have respect for the game and each other.

Today though, she was struggling. This EPT is a big deal now and with all the extra players we were crammed in. The Vic restaurant area is very hot and trying to play a few pots while camera men and chip reporters vie for elbow room can be awkward.

For Vicky there was an extra problem of playing with good friends Barny and Ram as well as super aggressive players Andy Black and Peter Hedlund. You’d think she’d be pleased to be moved to the TV table where she stayed for the rest of the day. Meanwhile I was busy getting a bit lucky on the other of the last two tables. (A10 CAN beat AK and it’s not as bad as it first looks when you go all-in with AJ and get called in two spots – by KJ and QQ).

The average at the end of the day would be about 300k so I was pretty pleased to be on 420k with 20 minutes to go and 13 people left. That was one of the reasons I felt so deflated to be out three hands later.

I was pleased to get to see five cards with 450k in the pot and 200k behind holding 10,10 against A,6. In my ideal world though an ace wouldn’t drop and nobody would repeat "get up the ace" three or four times. In that same world I wouldn’t get the same hand two minutes later and run it into 7,7. If I did have the misfortune for that to happen, I would prefer a seven to simply come and put me out of my misery. When the poker gods put out a 4,5,6,8 board I just think they’re taking the piss.

I ended the day walking around in a bit of a daze and failing to be very consoled by Vicky who had played great to get through. I had been really hoping that we could both get to the final. It would’ve been so much fun for both of us to play together on TV for big money at The Vic. Ho hum.

At least she survived though. Although seventh out of twelve in chips I didn’t lose faith. She’s proved to me many times that’s she’s got extra helpings of patience and tenacity. There had been times of the day when I thought she might give up, but she came through. She had played patiently and without fear, at times risking everything to make brave and bold calls. Cruel luck in some of the bigger events, particularly at The Vic, has robbed her several times in the last two or three years. Maybe tomorrow would be her day.

Neil Channing is sponsored to play poker tournaments by BetUSA.com and BetUK.com.

I got back from Vegas after this year’s World Series adventure in mid-August and tried to settle straight back into my "normal" routine of home-Vic-home-Vic-sleep-poker-sleep. After a couple of days of sitting in the game, listlessly dribbling money away without really caring too much, I found myself looking over at Michael Arnold.

I should state that I’m very fond of Michael and that if I ever get to three score and ten having crammed in so much living, and having achieved as much as he has, I could be contented. While I was trying to work out what flavour of soup had caused the stain on his lapel though, I found myself thinking that this could easily be me in 30 years time. I only hope I get the power to flop a set every 23 hands that goes with it.

I guess it was never going to be easy moving from one of the World’s most glamorous towns, a truly 24hr City, playing against people who now have celebrity superstar status, to coming in day after day to a slightly gloomy room in Central London, where the air conditioning is slightly dodgy and an all-day breakfast can’t be had until 6pm when the chef arrives. It certainly was different going from playing Layne, Jesus, Scott and Howard to sitting down again with Frank, Colin, Andrew, Michael and Fred. There’d be no loose money lying around here for sure.

This sudden realisation caused me to flee to Devon for a few days and after a short break spent betting mostly on horses and football I was back to HQ with renewed vigour ready for another Vic Festival.

After winning the tiddly last event at the previous festival I felt slightly less pressure to perform on home soil this week. Despite that though, it’s still The Vic, the toughest place in the Universe to win and it still means more than anything with only the possible exception of the WSOP.

Jeff managed to think of a brilliant new idea for a satellite in this festival, only five months after I first suggested it to him. For a hundred quid and rebuys you could win a seat in all the supporting hold ’em events during the week in one go. I had to play in "my" satellite and it meant I was in for a "cheap" week whatever.

The only tournament other than the EPT event that I hadn’t won a seat for was the 200 rebuy PLH event that got things going on Monday. (the festival had a rather dissapionting start with a couple of omaha events that hardly anyone played at the weekend. They probably should consider starting with NLH next time).

I was amused to notice Roland, Keith and DY on the next table and it tickled me to see that DY had the most rebuys of this three-ball. That would have been a big price at the off. The other two must have gone skint.

My table was ok and I was happy to stick in 800 and have a gamble. After one particularly big pot where I made a difficult call I got to double the average soon after the rebuys.

The best thing about getting to 6 times the average with just 40 people left in a competition and then finishing on the bubble in 19th is that it gives lots of really nosy bastards the chance to ask you what happened for the next three days. I went with The Camel’s standard reply of:

"I ran out of chips."

and most of them cunningly came back with:

"You had loads. I thought you’d make the final."

Luckily for me there was a nice 1000 double chance freezeout to take my mind off it. I struggled to focus early in this event although I did make a particularly good read on Andrew Georgiou at one stage. Having put him on JJ it was simply a question of what I was planning to represent. Originally I settled for the King on the flop but I soon abandoned that in favour of the straight that came at the end. I don’t know why I bothered. In the end I gave away my chips to Danny Samson, who’s a deserving case, when I tried to beat his AQ with my KK.

My favourite quote of the week at this stage was from Alan Vinson who was deep in the event and fancied just one more cup of tea before the end of the night.

"…and put it in a clean cup this time please Beverley."

Very Vic that.

Wednesday was a bit of a fun tournament, a 300 NLH freezeout. I sat next to Matt Arnott and the two of us made the rest of the table wish they’d brought their Ipods out. We both messed about with a lot of whacky hands until I got it all-in with 9,9 on a flop of KQ9. I wasn’t surprised at the AK moving in but after I called you’d think the Q9 might smell a rat. Just while I was busy funking for no queen the dealer produced a King and an Ace to send me into the cash games.

The 250 NLH side games have been buzzing this week but I stuck to a more traditional 100 PLH and got some wages. I did have a quick break to eat with Vicky and Rory who were both still in the tournament. I hadn’t seen Rory to have my regular %% swap with him so he had a swap with my other horse Vicky instead.

After Vicky managed to scrape into 8th I was delighted to receive news that I’d be getting a nifty. Rory would be happy to roll his money on to a share of the EPT event. My fifty came with an apology that it wasn’t more and the comment that it was a nice change to pay me out on one of these. She was right, she’d definitely been slacking a bit, and our arrangement was leaving me out of pocket. With only the Main EPT event and the consolation monkey event to come, however, it was fifty quid more than I’d made for myself.

Neil Channing is sponsored to play Poker Tournaments by BetUK.com and BetUSA.com.

So what is the fuss all about? Why is this such a special moment for televised poker?

Well, ask yourself these questions. Why do you play poker? How did you learn about Texas Hold’Em? When did you first see Barny Boatman or Joe Beevers on TV? Why does this website even exist? When did you first hear the expression “not all trappers wear fur hats”? I guess Late Night Poker is the answer to most, if not all, of these questions.

Why was it so ground breaking ? Well, back in 1999 ( yes, it’s only 7 years ago ! ), poker was relatively unknown as a serious pastime in this country. Its image was very seedy, of old men huddled in dimly lit backstreet rooms in dodgy areas of town. You wouldn’t read about it in newspapers or see it on TV. Poker was definitely NOT cool in those days!

At that time, I worked for BBC Wales Sport and was a colleague of Chris Stuart, one of the founders of Presentable Ltd, a small independent production company based in Cardiff. He told me about this new poker series his company were making for Channel 4 and how excited he was about it. I had no idea what Texas Hold ‘Em was. I wasn’t aware that poker professionals even existed and knew nothing about the wonderfully bizarre poker scene that fascinates so many of us today.

So, with a certain amount of scepticism and curiosity, I tuned in to the first episode of Late Night Poker. My first reaction was that I didn’t like the game – 2 cards each, 5 on the table – what’s that all about ??!! I enjoyed the drama and tension in the studio and was intrigued by the characters at the table but Texas Hold ‘Em, hmmmm… not convinced ! But I stuck with it. Gradually I started to appreciate what this Hold ‘Em game was all about. Then of course, I tried a game with my friends – and like so many others, I was hooked!

Presentable went on to make 6 series of LNP for Channel 4. By the time series 6 was broadcast in 2002, the poker world had been transformed. Tournaments had sprouted up all over the place, online sites had emerged, players like Devilfish, Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson were now TV stars, sponsors were getting involved and the money on the pro circuit was sky high. The image of poker had completely changed – suddenly it was “cool” to say “I play poker”!

4 years on, and LNP is back ! The series comprises 2 separate tournaments. The first is LNP Ace where 32 online qualifiers compete for the title “best amateur player in the world” and a first prize of $50,000. I appreciate some of you are not keen on watching “amateur” players. However, these guys all qualified through large online tournaments on the Party Poker site and adapted very well to the live environment. Both Jesse May and Simon Trumper, who commentated on the series, were very impressed with the standard of play. It made us think we should stop calling them “amateurs” and instead think of them just as very good poker players who just happen to play most of their poker online.

The second tournament is LNP Masters – 24 professionals competing with the 8 finalists from LNP Ace for a first prize of $100,000. Some of the old faces from LNP are in action eg Ken Lennaard, Pascal Perrault, Donnacha O’Dea, Marcel Luske, Surinder Sunar as well as ,of course, 3 of The Mob – Joe, Ram and Barny – plus 2 former LNP champions Simon Trumper and Peter Costa.. Of the newer names, there’s Tony G, Mikael Thuritz from Sweden and Kenna “The Cowboy” James from the USA.

I know there has been plenty of debate about this series on the Mob Forum regarding players being offered incentives to play and deals being done etc. All I can do here is re-iterate that none of the players in this series were paid any appearance money to participate.

Anyway, you’ve only got to hear the way that some of the guys talk about LNP in this series to understand what LNP means to them and how much they appreciate the part LNP played in the transformation of poker in recent years.

For me personally, the whole thing came full circle last year when I left the BBC to join Presentable as their poker producer. So now, not only do I have the enjoyment of playing Texas Hold ‘Em but my job is to make poker programmes. This is a fantastic privilege and something I would never have dreamt I’d end up doing as I sat down to watch that first episode of LNP back in 1999.

I hope you enjoy watching the series as much as we enjoyed making it.

Rob Thomas is the producer of Late Night Poker and joined Presentable, a production company based in Cardiff, Wales, in July 2005. www.Presentable.co.uk.

A look at the Internet tournament scene

This month I am going to take a break from my usual column that focuses on poker strategy to discuss the current state of the Internet tournament scene.

Everyone knows that tournament poker has exploded. Just as is the case with live poker, tournament poker on the Internet is bigger and better than ever before. It is time to take notice of the tremendous amount of money being awarded in the big-time tournaments on the Internet and the players who are showing success.

Every week, there are at least 15 tournaments that guarantee more than $100,000 in prize money. There are more than 10 tournaments each month guaranteeing more than $500,000, with five of those topping a cool million in guaranteed money.

A few years ago, PartyPoker made online history by offering the first $1 million prize to the winner of the PartyPoker Million. Today, ParadisePoker awards a cool million to a freeroll winner.

Yet, with all of this action and money, the Internet player is still the low man on the totem pole when it comes to recognition and publicity.

The Internet poker world is, for the most part, an anonymous world. Players play under aliases, and some even play under different aliases at different sites. We rarely hear about players who consistently achieve great results on the Internet. Of course, there are some exceptions. Some of the popular online players who have achieved recognition include Eric123, Neverwin, and JohnnyBax. But even these players were relatively unknown until their live-tournament successes.

Live-tournament players have TV coverage on ESPN, the Travel Channel, and NBC, and they get featured in magazines. And, of course, Card Player has the Player of the Year award that helps spotlight those players who are achieving consistent success in live tournaments. Card Player deserves a lot of credit for giving the tournament player a measure by which to compare himself to his peers. This award is highly respected and sought after by the pros. The Internet player deserves a similar type of recognition.

To help spotlight the top Internet tournament players in the world, my website, www.internettexasholdem.com, recently launched the 2006 Internet Player of the Year race. On Jan. 1, 2006, we began collecting data from all of the major online tournaments based on field size, buy-in amount, and total prize pool.

The tournaments include all of the major weekly and monthly tournaments at sites such as PartyPoker, PokerStars, Bodog, and FullTilt, among others. Special events are also included, such as the Paradise Masters, The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, and The PokerRoom Grand Tournaments.

The point system was designed to be easy to understand for everyone and is based on the number one objective for a player – money. To ensure that one big win doesn’t rank a player too highly, points are awarded by taking the square root of money won in any given tournament. This point system inherently takes into account the buy-in, number of players, and a player’s finish. This also smooths out the point difference for those finishing first, second, and third, where most of the money is awarded.

One of the challenges of online poker is that many players use different aliases at each site. We have designed a unique linking system by which each player can link his aliases to one username for ranking purposes. We will then verify the top-ranked players toward the end of the year to ensure that their aliases are correctly linked.

There are already more than 10,000 usernames in the database, so any player who has placed in a major tournament will be able to see his ranking. You also can sort the results by poker site, number of cashes, and money won. With the sort feature, if a player plays at only one site, he will be able to see how he stacks up against his competitors at that particular site.

As of March 7, 2006, we have tracked 127 tournaments. Seven of our top 25 players have had at least five cashes. Our current leader, FreshFish952, has had an amazing 13 cashes, all from one site. If he played every single tournament at that site, he would have made the money 22 percent of the time; but, of course, it is highly unlikely that he played every single tournament.

In a little over two months, five players have already bagged more than $200,000, and 30 players have taken home more than $100,000 from online tournaments. PcktBullets was the big winner, taking home $331,000 in the Paradise Million, enough to place him second on the overall leader board.

At last, the poker world will finally know who the top Internet tournament players are through an objective ranking system. Hopefully, the race will generate some of the same type of buzz in the online poker world that the Card Player Player of the Year race generates in the live poker world.

You’ve been asking for ages and we are now happy to say that the Mob Forum League is back starting on Tuesday October 3rd at 8pm (BST). Of course it will be on Full Tilt and we have some fantastic prizes to give away.

There will be 26 league events altogether taking place every Tuesday at the same time. Some of you wanted other games apart from NLH so we have incorporated some PLO and some HORSE to keep everyone happy. The buy in is only $10+$1 to allow more of you to take part.

Although there are 26 events in total only your best ten results will count. The winner of the leader board will win a Full Tilt Poker table (signed by the Mob if you wish) as well as a solid gold Hendon Mob lapel badge. This badge is going to be one of a series: enamel, gold plated, sterling silver and solid gold – and you might just find that certain badges get you preferential treatment at particular places over time! There will be very few solid gold ones made and this is sure to be sought after!

Last year we had a playoff for a winner to join us at the Bellagio. This time around the top nine players in the league will battle it out in a one table freeze out to join the Mob at the 2007 WSOP. A $12,000 package awaits the winner, courtesy of Full Tilt, which includes the main event buy-in and $2,000 to cover expenses.

The Mob will of course play in various events as may other FT Pros. Knock one out and get your buy in back plus a commemorative shirt saying ‘I busted Ram’ or whoever. There are also bonus points for bounties.

The winner of the first event on October 3rd will also receive an entry into the Full Tilt Dublin All Star Challenge Qualifier – worth $216.

There will also be a number of prizes given out for making final tables, winning events or even going out on the bubble. These will be announced from time to time.

For full details of the league, schedule, events, structures, T&C etc click here.

In dealing on both sides of the Atlantic I have found some interesting discrepancies in how European/U. K. Dealers and American Dealers run their games. I think it’s very interesting that procedures that would get your head taken off in Las Vegas are completely accepted in Europe, and vice versa. So I guess this article is more in the nature of a forum type Question and Answer session.

I’ve noticed that in the U.K. especially, it is quite common for the dealers to stack the pots, be it pot limit, no limit or limit. They also announce all bet amounts, including the amounts of all in’s before any player has asked the amount. Now, the last time I tried to touch a player’s stacked all in without being asked was the 2004 World Series and I came very close to pulling back just a bloody stub and spending the rest of my life with the nickname “Lefty”. Yet in the clubs I’ve visited in the U.K. this seems to be just standard operating procedure. As soon as the player pushes and says all in, the dealer immediately reaches out, breaks the stack and counts it down.

Another procedural question is the pulling in of all called bets. Should you or shouldn’t you? If the blinds were 100/200 and it had been limped around to the big, should the dealer immediately drag all of the 200’s in while waiting for the big to exercise their option. I personally believe they should and I always do. Yet I have had some players ask me not to so they can see how much the players have at risk, how they react with the chips they have in play, how they make the chip adjustment to the new bet amount, etc, etc, etc… Now, I’m all for reading your opponents, but I’ve always felt that as soon as money has been called by the table, it belongs in the center so everyone can see exactly what the pot is at any given time. Just seems to be a difference in styles I guess. Or, it could possibly be chalked up to the prevalence of Pot Limit games in Europe where you would not drag in the bets until the action is complete.

As a dealer you never want to affect the course of the hand or any stage of the action. As a fresh dealer (less than 6 months) I made a mistake in a local $3/$6 limit game. There was heavy heads up action through to the river and the board was 2 – 2 – K – 3 – 3 with 3 hearts on board. The player who had been hammering away cursed at the river and checked. The other player then kind of grimaced and checked also. The first player rolled over AJ of hearts and I announced Ace high flush. The other player said “I only have a 3” and flipped up his cards, but only one came up. The 3 shown and landed face up on top of the muck, the other card landed face down in front of him. Here’s where I screwed up. I said “3’s full of 2’s” and he looked at me for half a second and snatched the face down card and flipped it over so fast he’s lucky he didn’t get a paper cut. The other player exploded and was rightfully very angry. I should have said “I need two cards for a hand sir” and waited a moment to see if he turned it over and if he didn’t I should have killed the hand. Believe me; I learned that dealing lesson that day. The other player ended up racking up and storming out when the floor awarded the pot to the full house.

I used to think part of my job as a dealer was making sure everyone had a good time and got a fair shake at the table. Over the years, I’ve come to the realization that that is all well and good while the cards are being shuffled, but after they are dealt… well, to quote my first article… it seems more often the case that you should just shut up and deal.

So I’m sitting here discussing this with some international dealers (Finnish, Swedish and American) even as I type this and we are debating how much information the dealer is REALLY supposed to give out during the hand. There are basic rules like not asking the big blind if they want to raise because then it appears you are soliciting a raise. Not saying things like “Its ONLY 200 more to call”, etc…

But how much information do you really want from the dealer? When you are on the turn and someone says, “Hey dealer, who pre flopped raised?” Should the dealer answer, or is that information the player should have been paying attention to? Should all bet amounts be announced, regardless of game, regardless of limit? When a player goes all in, should the dealer immediately break the stack and count the amount? What about when you prepare to flop, should you announce how many players are in the hand? Or again, should the players be paying attention to how many people are in the pot?

Every place appears to train their dealers different and we all know that what flies in your local club is much different than what you would find in a major tournament or large casino. But what do you as the players expect from your dealers when it comes to information in the game? What is too much and what is too little?

I’ll have to wait for the answers as the push is here and I have to go to the next table now. Thank you again Ladies and Gentlemen and Good Luck to you.

This week we’re going to be running some excerpts from professional Dutch player and author Rolf Slotboom’s recently released book. Rolf is an expert limit hold’em and Omaha player. He will be tackling pot-limit Omaha in his soon to be released book ‘Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha – how to win big – both live and online’. We’ll be bringing you excerpts of that when it’s released, but for now we’re starting with his excellent guide to playing draws in limit hold’em ‘Hold’em on the Come: Limit Hold’em Strategy for Drawing Hands’.

We have 5 signed copies of the book to give away, all you have to do is try to predict how many goals will be scored on the opening day of the Premiership football season, which kicks off this Saturday. For more information, click here.

Excerpt 2: Concept 8: If Bet Odds Are Positive, Get As Much Money In The Pot As You Can

There are lots of different reasons to bet or raise on the flop. Some say, in fact, that anytime you are considering calling, you should think twice about raising instead. Controlled aggression finds its reward. Here are a few well-known reasons for raising:

1. You might raise to gain information. Raising on the flop to learn now whether you are beat is a far sight better than meekly calling two double-size bets on the turn and river, and then finding out you are beat.
2. If you don’t bet, your opponents can’t fold. Betting thins the field when you have a good hand, and gives your opponents a chance to make the mistake of folding when you have a worse hand.
3. There is something to be said for putting extra bets into the pot when you have a good drawing hand, merely because it marries your opponents to the pot when you do hit your hand. If the pot is already big, they’ll keep putting more in there. This is usually something you think about pre-flop, however, with a hand like QJ against multi-way action.
4. 
   

   A good drawing hand is often likely to have a better chance of winning a multi-way pot that anyone else out there.

   You may bet or raise for value. Just because you’re on a draw doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bet for value. A good drawing hand is often likely to have a better chance of winning a multi-way pot than anyone else out there. You put more money in the pot because the odds of winning justify it.

Let’s talk a little about #4 above. There is often so much discussion about pot odds, implied pot odds, reverse pot odds, and so on, that authors neglect the most simple odds of all: pure bet odds.

In other words, given the situation, do you want to put more money into the pot or not? If you had your druthers, would you rather nobody bet, or would you rather everyone just chipped in a few dozen bets?

Let me give you an example. You hold AK and the flop comes J86. With three other opponents, your hand is probably worth about twelve outs (nine flush outs, three overcard outs).

Against two or more opponents, you should raise for value

Ignoring, completely, how much money is in the pot, or how much money you can earn on future rounds if you make a good hand… the question becomes, would you bet money now against your opponents that you will win the hand? Like a side bet?

You bet’cha! A twelve-out hand on the flop is going to win the pot about 45% of the time! It hardly matters what those guys hold, if you can get more money in the pot, you want it in there! You would need only a 25% chance of winning to make it an even bet against three opponents.

Therefore, forget about what’s in the pot. Forget pot odds and implied odds and all that jazz. None of that is relevant at the moment. You want to bet money now, as much as you possibly can. You’ll keep raising as much as you can with this hand, unless it looks like you’re going to chase away some people who would otherwise pay you off. Of course, it’s your instincts that will tell you when to call and when to raise, because you want to pull in the other players in case you hit your flush…but some experts would tell you not to worry at all about chasing players from the pot because it creates even more outs for the ace and king (you might get an A8 or A6 to fold, I guess, or another A-K) but the bottom line is, you want as much money in this pot as you can possibly get there, and you want it there now.

With this in mind, it’s possible to devise a chart that will tell you, based upon your number of outs, exactly when you have proper bet odds to bet or raise. The chart below tells you how many calling opponents you need on the flop and on the turn to have favorable bet odds. In other words, when it’s appropriate to make a “value bet”.

To use the chart, first calculate your modified outs. Then look at the On The Flop and On The Turn columns to see how many calling opponents you need for the correct bet odds. If the number of calling opponents equals or exceeds this number, you want to get as much money into the pot as you can.

Clearly, you need a lot of outs, or a lot of opponents, to make a value bet on the turn with a drawing hand. On the other hand, on the flop, lots of typical drawing hands should be bet for value! Looking at the above chart, we find:

• Any flush draw can be bet for value if you have three or more callers.
• A decent open-ended straight draw (seven or more outs) can be bet for value if you have three or more callers.
• A flush draw or good straight draw, with overcards, can be bet for value if you have only two or more callers.
• Amazingly, an inside straight draw (four outs) can be bet for value if there are six other callers!

If you were to play like a robot… that is, strictly by the numbers… then you would call with your drawing hands anytime the implied pot odds indicate that the hand is worth playing (we’ll discuss this in the next chapter), and you would raise anytime the bet odds in this chart indicate that you are a favorite to win more often than your share.

I don’t want you to play like a robot. But I want you to know when you’re chasing because of pot odds, and when you’re actually favored to win the hand. You want as much money in the pot as you can get, when the odds are in your favor.

This is an excerpt from the brand new Rolf Slotboom / Dew Mason book “Hold’em On The Come – Limit Hold’em Strategy For Drawing Hands”. This book can be ordered through the Hendon Mob Book Store. More information is available on Rolf’s site www.rolfslotboom.com and also on the publisher’s site www.dandbpoker.com.

This week we’re going to be running some excerpts from professional Dutch player and author Rolf Slotboom’s recently released book. Rolf is an expert limit hold’em and Omaha player. He will be tackling pot-limit Omaha in his soon to be released book ‘Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha – how to win big – both live and online’. We’ll be bringing you excerpts of that when it’s released, but for now we’re starting with his excellent guide to playing draws in limit hold’em ‘Hold’em on the Come: Limit Hold’em Strategy for Drawing Hands’.

We have 5 signed copies of the book to give away, all you have to do is try to predict how many goals will be scored on the opening day of the Premiership football season, which kicks off this Saturday. For more information, click here.

Excerpt 1: Estimating The Number And Value Of Your “Outs”

Throughout the rest of the book, we will be calculating the value of several different kinds of hands, by making certain assumptions; in particular, we will want to estimate, as accurately as reasonably possible, the winning chances of each “out”.

Take a look at the chart below:

Here are six examples of drawing hands. These are the types of drawing hands we’ll focus on in this book. For each type, I’ve provided the number of outs left in the deck.

Flush Draw: If you have four cards to a flush, then nine cards remain (of the thirteen in each suit) that will complete your hand.

Open-Ended Straight: A hand like 6789 can complete to a straight with any five or any ten. Eight outs left in the deck.

Inside Straight: A hand like 67810 can complete to a straight only with a nine. Four outs.

Low Pair: By this, I mean the board pairs one of your cards, but it’s not top pair. You’ve paired either the middle card or bottom card on the flop. If you hold 89 and the flop is 8AK, you have five outs to make two pair or better (any eight or nine).

Overcard: If you hold AJ and the flop is 78Q, you hold one overcard (your ace). You have three outs (three more aces in the deck) to make top pair and a probable winning hand.

Underpair: You hold a pair in your hand, and flop one or more overcards. For example, you hold 6ª6© and the flop comes 2JK. This is worse than a low pair, since you have only two outs to work with… the other two sixes.

The problem with these examples, of course, is that you don’t know whether your outs are any good. You don’t even know if you need the outs! There are always the same two complications when counting outs:

1. You can make your hand and still lose.
2. You can miss your hand and still win.

Let’s cut to the chase, then. What we really care about in these examples is the chance of winning. We do this by counting outs, but we adjust that count, usually downward, to account for the chance that it won’t be enough to win after all. Some fairly common examples of how this can happen:

• You can hit your overcard, but lose to two pair.
• You can make two pair, and lose to a straight.
• You can make a straight, and lose to a flush.
• You can make small flush on the turn, and another card of the same suit appears on the river, causing you to lose to a higher flush. For example, you can have 78 in your hand, and make a flush on the turn with A264 on the table. Then, another heart appears on the river, and you lose to a hand like A§Q.

It’s just not as easy to count outs as we would like it to be.

From this point forward in the book, we’re only going to be interested in something we’ll call modified outs. For example, let’s pretend that you have a hand with exactly six perfect outs. If you hit one of those six cards, you’ll always win; if you don’t, you’ll always lose. Wouldn’t life be wonderful if it were that simple?

It never is. If you had “perfect outs”, you would be able to calculate exactly how often you would win the hand. You can’t. But we’ll use this “perfect out” standard for valuing any hand you hold.

Calculating “modified outs” is usually about a three-step process:

1. First, you search for and add up your outs in each hand.
2. Then you subtract some of those outs because they are “compromised” (meaning, you still might not win even if you get the right card).
3. Then maybe you’ll add outs for other reasons, such as a three-card flush or straight.

The end result, we hope, will be an approximate measure of the true value of your hand. If, for example, you calculate six “modified outs” on the turn, you expect the hand to win 13% of the time. Why? Because a hand with six perfect outs would win six times out of the 46 cards remaining in the deck. That’s 13%.

This is an excerpt from the brand new Rolf Slotboom / Dew Mason book “Hold’em On The Come – Limit Hold’em Strategy For Drawing Hands”. This book can be ordered through the Hendon Mob Book Store. More information is available on Rolf’s site www.rolfslotboom.com and also on the publisher’s site www.dandbpoker.com.

Although I still had a couple more chances to be a World Champion I decided to call it a day after Monday. I’d played pretty well in the last three $1500 nlhs I played and it seemed like it just wasn’t to be this year. Looking back I played 17 WSOP Bracelet competitions and I only cashed in two. I feel a bit disappointed about that, but I think I played pretty well in most of them. I can only think of two days when I just played badly, it’s a pity one of those days was in the Main Event.

The last few days were among the most restful of the trip. Had a nice couple of days by the pool with a Cabana. For those of you not familiar with the concept it’s like having a beech hut. Think middle class tent (more bedouin than mountaineer) with a nice fridge, sofa and safe in it. For just a couple of hundred dollars you get the chance to buy overpriced food items and then overtip a guy who continually comes round to check on you, while enjoying your own personal sunbathing area setback from the plebs. Great value.

The terrorist problems then caused a flight delay of 8 hours, which caused a knock-on effect that these extremists couldn’t predict. A whole extra day of blackjack where Miss C and myself were introduced to a concept of "house edge" which we formerly hadn’t realised existed in double deck.

Back here in blighty I’ve already started thinking about next year’s trip. I’m fairly sure they’ll be bringing it back to the old May/June time which will probably be better in terms of weather and not missing the whole summer. While they’re at it there’s a few things I’d like to see change.

1. The length of it. I would love to see a slightly shorter series. There are just too many events now, the prestige of winning a bracelet has to be devalued by this. I understand the arguments for keeping the buy-in of the Main Event at $10k but if they can’t cope with the numbers in the smaller events maybe they should have less of them, but with a bigger buy-in. I’d like to see the smallest buy-in set at $2,500 and the number of events reduced to 40 or less. I was one of a very few Europeans to stay the distance this year (slow old plodder made it round) and it’s obviously impractical for most people to spare the time.
2. The schedule. This is something that really needs to be looked at. With the Series so long now people obviously pick and choose their events more. Harrahs are definitely costing themselves business by poor scheduling. Having the $10k PLO the day after the $1000 NLH rebuy is one example of how they got it wrong. These are the two biggest events outside the ME and the HORSE and they ran them back to back. They then had a $1000 NLH which would attract a totally different player on the Monday after. The smaller guys had nothing to do for that weekend and this should have come in between the two. Another example is when they have two events on the same day. It was hard to get busted from the noon $5000 Limit Stud event in time to play the $2500 PLH at 2pm (Chufty did manage it – good effort Richard). If they’d have been the other way round they’d have got a lot more stud players.
   It surprises me that a company who have proved so good at getting money out of players in the past are so poor in this area.
3. The room. If the numbers stay at these kind of levels it’s clear that even this enormous room is not big enough. The Rio has a lot of other space around the Convention Centre but they are too greedy to turn away other business during the Series. It cannot be acceptable that World Championship events are played 11 handed with 100s of alternates. If more space was opened up this would not be necessary. If Harrahs were more interested in the long term they might realize that giving people a good poker experience is what will get them coming back. With short-stacks playing 11 handed is not giving many people much bang for their buck.
4. The cards. It is unbelievable to me that if Partypoker are prepared to spend $20million on getting their name on the table Harrahs cannot find a company to sponsor the backs of the playing cards. Surely they are missing out on an enormous source of revenue. If a sponsor can be found it wouldn’t seem unreasonable that the cards used could be of a higher quality. Failing that maybe they could dip into their enormous profits from this year’s event and buy a few new decks for next year. I think you can get them on Ebay.

Those would really be the main four for me. I can see why people might argue for lower vig on the tournaments or better comps and obviously those things would be nice. It is a bit naive of us to expect them to give away too much when people keep queuing up to get raped anyway.

In terms of improvements they did make, yes, they sorted out the toilets and opened a beer garden to banish the smokers to. Foodwise they could do a bit more though. Inviting thousands of people to that part of the casino and keeping the Sau Paulo Cafe closed half the time isn’t that smart. In a city with no clocks it surprises me that the Starbucks can’t stay open 24hrs and when it is open they only have one person to serve.

The Cashiers cage was a bit better and buying in was an easier process. It’s just a pity they didn’t work out that some people would have to collect money. It’s not much fun spending two hours hanging around at midnight when you’re pissed off at being knocked out and you’re barely doubling your buy-in.

I could go on about media access restrictions, Harrah’s censorship of Card Player’s reports, tax problems for the Europeans, extra chips turning up in the main event, last minute changes to the schedule, poor quality of the newer dealers who replaced the ones who walked out, the "poker rate" that you pay to stay in the Rio and the inconsistencies in the rulings. I better not though as I’ve probably already lost most of my loyal readership. If anyone did last the course with me I say "cheers to you". It’s always nice when a total stranger comes up to me and says they’ve been reading my stuff (even if most of them turn out to be total nutters).

Neil Channing is sponsored to play poker tournaments by BetUK.com and BetUSA.com.

We’re in the dying hours of the World Series of Poker. Play at the final table of the Main Event is well underway, and when only the last player is left standing and the new World Series Champion is decided, it will all be over for another year. It’s been an amazing experience to play here again, although I have to confess I’m glad it’s coming to an end ~ more than six weeks of back-to-back poker tournaments is pretty intense, and I’m coming to realise you can indeed have too much of a good thing! Overall I’m really happy with how I’ve done this World Series ~ four cashes worth nearly US$70,000 isn’t too shabby ~ and I’m leaving Las Vegas knowing I played some pretty good poker. There were more than a few bad days though, and thinking of them makes me determined to iron out some of the more glaring flaws in my game, in the hopes of doing better the next time round. The Main Event. Photo courtesy of The Hendon Mob The Main Event was among the let-downs for me this year, both in terms of my performance (I went out early on the second day) and the experience overall. It was probably inevitable I’d be disappointed with my finish as I knew I’d have a hard time topping last year’s effort, but I would have preferred to keep my dream of winning another big prize alive for a little longer than I did. What I didn’t anticipate was the frustration that a very different tournament experience would bring for me this year. Some tournaments are like roller-coaster rides, filled with exciting twists and turns, adrenalin-pumping up and downs, and climactic moments when you feel like your life’s on the line. Others ~ and this was one of them ~ are more like sedate country drives, with little in the way of action or drama. So while in 2005 I got off to a great start, doubling up early and winning a succession of big hands that propelled me into the top finishers, this time round I saw few big hands and never really got going, finally fizzling out before things could get interesting.

I started on the third of four Day 1 flights, one of a staggering field of 8773 players ~ around 3,000 more than the record field seen in 2005. I’d chosen the later day partly to give myself a bit of a break after the preliminary events, and partly because I could reassure myself with the knowledge that by the time I took my seat to start play, I’d already have outlasted a couple of thousand people (always a good feeling!). A look around my table was also reassuring. There was nobody I recognised among the array of nervous-looking players, half of whom were clad in the logos of the internet poker sites where they’d won their seats. I immediately noticed that I wasn’t the only person in Mansion gear at the table ~ while I’d been lucky enough to be sponsored into the main event by the online gaming site, thirty-something Gary from Florida had won his seat in a Mansion satellite tournament some weeks before. He was excited to be playing in his first World Series event, and talked enthusiastically about what he’d seen of the racing pulses of poker players in the Mansion Pokerdome recording that he’d been treated to the previous night. Gary’s own pulse got a workout in the first couple of hours as he picked up some big hands ~ and bigger pots ~ in some fairly loose early play at our table. I had a quiet start, winning some small pots but mainly staying out of things, and managed to finish the first level exactly where I started.

It wasn’t long before the table broke and I found myself among a more challenging-looking bunch, including colourful US pro player Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, whose presence at the table had attracted one of the many camera crews that were dotted around the room. Laak was among several players at the table who had built healthy stacks in the early hours of the event, and I hoped I could join their ranks. In fact I soon started to hit some cards, picking up aces, kings and queens in quick succession, but unfortunately failed to get any action and only managed to win the blinds. Between this and a few steals though, I was able to slowly build my chips up to nearly 14,000 without showing a hand, and was feeling confident I could pick up some momentum going into the evening’s play.

But then, just before the dinner break, I lost a big pot after misplaying a hand against Laak. He had been playing a fairly volatile game, pushing his chips around, and had lost a good portion of his stack, so he was clearly in the mood to gamble. With one limper in the pot, I had raised in late position with pocket eights and Laak called from the small blind. The limper followed suit, and we all saw a flop of J-7-7. Laak fired out a bet of around two thirds of the pot, the limper quickly folded, and though I felt sure I was winning I let caution get the better of me and just called instead of raising. Laak checked the queen which came on the turn but to my dismay he called my bet, and then checked again when a ten came on the river. I checked behind him and he turned over Q-2 offsuit to take the pot!

Laak’s loose play meant he wouldn’t manage to hang on to my chips for long, and soon afterwards he doubled up Chris Grigorian before going out of the tournament in one of the more outrageous bluffs I’ve seen. After a raise from the big stack on the table, he’d reraised all in and was called instantly by what turned out to be kings. “Do I have to show my cards?”, asked a sheepish Laak. “I thought he was only bluffing.” Yes, the dealer replied. “What say we cut the cameras then?”, he looked pleadingly at the stern-looking ESPN reporter. Fat chance ~ this is what they’d been standing there all day to capture, and Laak knew it. He resignedly turned over his cards, and his 8-3 offsuit failed to save him from elimination.

Meanwhile my own dwindling stack was starting to call for more aggressive play. I notched things up a little, but missed a few flops and was bet out of several pots by the bigger stacks at the table. Down to less than 5,000, I picked up pocket queens in the big blind but faced an all-in raise from another short-stack at the table. I agonised before calling ~ I’ve been knocked out of no less than four tournaments this Series with queens ~ and he turned over…pocket queens! My next opportunity to pick up some chips was also thwarted, when the desperate stack to my right went all-in on the button and my pocket sevens had his fives dominated ~ until the five hit the river. I managed to survive the rest of the day by doubling up with pocket kings, but it was only enough to take me off life support. I finished up for the night with a measly 6,100, and as a bagged up my chips I couldn’t help comparing this with the 45,000 I’d had at the end of the first day at last year’s event. I returned to my room disheartened and fell into an exhausted sleep.

I wasn’t about to give up hope though, and a couple of days later I felt rested and ready to take on the uphill task that lay ahead. I’d been following the second day’s play closely, and was encouraged to see that former WSOP Champion Carlos Mortensen had started Day 2 with exactly the same chips as me and had managed to play his stack up to more than 100,000…so I knew it could be done. But I’d have to hit some hands quickly, or win a race to double up and stay in the game ~ it was all in the lap of the poker gods. I took my seat, stacked my chips, and exactly six hands later, cursed those fickle gods when my A-K didn’t improve against pocket eights. The moment that poker players describe as the worst of every year had come all too soon for me, and I was out of the Big One.

I consoled myself that I was in very good company ~ those already eliminated read like the who’s who of poker ~ and threw myself into the small tournaments that follow the main event. But I spent the next few days feeling desperately jealous of those still in, and remembering the exhilaration of going deep into this marathon tournament last year: as the players dwindled, the chips stacks grew, the money bubble burst, the throngs of media multiplied, and the speculation about who would take home the title of World Series Champion mounted. As the days have passed, one by one the previous WSOP Champions fell by the wayside, with last year’s winner Joe Hachem the last to go. It wasn’t long before the last of the women remaining in the event were out too, with tournament newcomer Sabyl Cohen taking the honours as the highest woman finisher, ahead of veteran Annie Duke. And before you knew it ~ and in fact well ahead of schedule following some fast and furious play ~ we were down to the final table. They’re playing it as I write this, and with each hand that’s played, the chip leader for the last few days, Jamie Gold, tightens his grip on the lead. But with this game, it’s never over till it’s over, and with the likes of four- time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham still in contention, the betting on who will take home the bracelet has been fierce. Whoever it is will also win a record $12 million first prize, but all at the final are already millionaires.

What a game. I for one will be back again next year to try my luck. The lure of an elusive bracelet is too hard to resist.