It’s great to see you here again!

In this self-interview, I’m going to ask my own questions and then answer them—as usual. The topic is betting on the “river”—today’s word. We continue with question 134 in the series, but you don’t need to have read any of the previous 133 questions and answers to profit from these. Here we go…

Question 134: In no-limit hold ’em, how do you decide how much to bet on the river?

Well, one thing is for sure: Too many players choose the sizes of their bets at whim... [read more]

Paul ‘BadPab’ Foltyn won the 2008 Grand Final of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, defeating a field of 184 players to take home a first prize of £167,000. Foltyn overcame Londoner Jeff Duvall after a monumental heads-up battle lasting in excess of three hours at the Grosvenor Victoria casino in London.

The 24-year-old Foltyn is one of the top ten online tournament players in the UK and although he previously made a final table at the WSOP, this victory is his most glittering to date. After knocking out jeweler Guy Steel in third place he held a significant chip advantage over Jeff Duvall, but the lead changed hands several times over the course of the next few hours... [read more]

The greatest complaint I hear at the limit tables these days is when someone gets rivered after making a bet on the turn and then says, “That’s the problem with limit hold ’em; you can’t protect your hand like you can in no-limit.”

OK… that is a difference between the two, but then why are you playing limit? There are lots of differences between the two formats because they are two different games! One day I’d love to hear a no-limit player say, “That’s the problem with no-limit, you can lose your whole stack in one hand.” That would make me chuckle.

Today let’s explore a limit situation that comes up regularly and how one might approach it differently... [read more]

It is time to start planning your poker trips for the New Year. A great poker trip and one near and dear to my heart, is the Eureka Open, held January 4-11, 2009. The series of low-limit tournaments is held at the Eureka Casino Hotel (www.eurekamesquite... [read more]

Stateline, NV (November 16, 2008) – The largest turnout in the five-year history of the World Series of Poker Circuit at Harvey's Lake Tahoe generated $1,418,132 in prize money spread over 13 tournaments. The annual attraction which is held on the south shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe right at the Nevada-California border attracted 2,163 entries. This surpassed last year's record of 2,128 entries. The ten-day tournament series concluded with the $5,000 buy-in championship event... [read more]

A certain self-reflection during the Holiday season is inescapable; at least it is for me. I think a lot about what I’ve done and what I plan to accomplish in the New Year. I also assess the environment I’ll be operating in during the coming months, and that’s something that’s taken on increasing importance in these tough times.

The recession affects everyone, if not directly than indirectly... [read more]

52 Ways to Cheat at Poker
by Allan Zola Kronzek
Plume (2008), 192 pp, $13.00
ISBN 978-0-452-28911-6

Many poker players are concerned about being cheated, some to the point of obsession. Losing sessions are a part of poker, but when they happen there’s always a nagging concern in the back of our minds that maybe we didn’t lose because we played bad or because we got unlucky, but because we were cheated. In order to minimize the chance that we’re being cheated, we first need to understand the methods employed to cheat at poker... [read more]