We Have The Right to Poker Freedom!

We Have The Right to Poker Freedom!

As I write this blog I find an emotion inside me that I don’t often have; ANGER! With all of the freedom of speech, freedom of lifestyle and freedom of choice available in developed countries I still find hypocrites. These are global government hypocrites that blurt the word FREEDOM as often as some people blurt out the words I LOVE YOU. Who are these people? These people give us the right to FREEDOM yet pull the wool over our eyes and also take it away! How dare they take the freedom to online game away from us; EVER!

Poker is well known as not just a game but a lifestyle. This “Lifestyle” is a lifestyle that most people who will read this blog post live in one way or another. It hurts no-one, it is a source of income and it keeps people entertained where they may otherwise be bored out of their minds to the point of even committing crimes.

I stopped and thought about a magician I once saw perform at Darling Harbor in Sydney. The guy pulled off some amazing illusions and alike other buskers had a hat in front of him for donations. At the end of his performance he said, “Don’t walk away but support me; support my lifestyle, you see if I was not doing this as a way of income and entertainment right now I would probably be robbing your home!”. I put $10 is in his little hat and thought to myself “I was just conned”. But was I?

It is likely he would rob my home; he looked like a robber anyway and also admitted to it. Imagine if no-one donated to this man! Imagine his lifestyle. No money, no self entertainment, his lifestyle pointless, fruitless and well lifeless. Taking away the right to play online poker, online casino games and other associated “gambling” takes the same from those who have this life. The Poker Players Alliance fights for us daily to legalize online gaming. How did it even get to this considering the historical fights for FREEDOM?!

As with every activity online gaming costs money, you can be a champion, you can be a loser but we know you WILL be entertained! STOP; STOP right now and imagine the next year without it!

There have been talks to block poker sites in Australia (It is in the governments hit list; basically compared to PORN!), the USA has already been hit with bans; it is the same in many European countries. Already here in Australia I cannot play on Carbon Poker, Unibet and many more!

To the Australian government hypocrites that promised myself and my family FREEDOM if my grandfather went to war, to the government of the USA who has soldiers dying daily protecting the USA’s FREEDOM, to the European countries governments that have FREEDOM slowly but surely awakening, STOP, all of you STOP and think of the definition of the word FREEDOM. Think of who has died to give it and the human suffering that has occurred. Think of not just yourself but others, because FREEDOM is not FREEDOM unless we are totally FREE to live the lifestyle we choose and this Sirs and Madams includes a lifestyle of online gaming!

Even if you don’t play poker or online game; remember:

Your lifestyle, hobby or enjoyment COULD be next! SO watch it! ;)

AMEN Poker Players Alliance!

Read More

Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

We all whinge and whine about bad beats, suck outs and donkeys at some stage. The words ALL IN, with your tournament life on the line are frightening words! Being knocked out after those words really sucks! Tell me though; would you say those words ALL IN if your life depended on it? Not your tournament life your life existing on this planet.

Let me tell you about those suck outs whinges and whines I have had to deal with beyond poker. Let me tell you about my ALL-IN call. Let me tell how amongst everything you all see me do what I battle. I don’t write this for sympathy or for attention. I don’t write this to big note myself either. A friend told me BLOG IT! Blog what you do and what you are going through; you could save the lives of fellow players, it will also inspire people who don’t want to fight. Well; here I am blogging a personal struggle for my own existence. I am battling my final table on the felt of life!

Here is what I have done in the poker industry in the last 2 years. These are things you hopefully know of: Columnist Australian Poker Weekly, Columnist Woman Poker Player Magazine, Pokerpodradio Co-Host, WTF Poker Show Host, Poker Coach, Manager Raidbet, Manager Australia New Zealand Cybertech, Book Co-Author, Director PR Cybertech, Played Poker and Administered Various Poker Forums. I also have 4 kids and a house to care for. I am busy to say the least.

At times I have battled to lift my head off a pillow to do these jobs, not through laziness but illness. I have had personal issues that no one has a clue about. Normally it isn’t a good thing to spread personal business but for the sake of the countless poker players that may be in a similar position this time I am.

During the course of doing all the above I have spent countless hours back and forth to the doctor. I have a condition (endometriosis) and my doctor’s treatment of this condition has all but left me fighting for my life. I had 4 operations; more surgery was pointless according to the specialists. Surgery hasn’t worked.

The doctor continued treating my symptoms, agonising pain. Pain in my tummy, my back, my legs, my groin, the pain was so bad; so excruciating I was prescribed 120 panadiene forte at a time, 8 each day. I was relieved at having these meds on hand. The pills didn’t completely kill the pain but did take the edge off it. I remember having dinner with Barry Shulman and Wife Allyn (Card Player Magazine and Spadeclub) in Sydney and going into sudden agony. The pills were not going to work that night. Thank goodness they are understanding people because I truly started acting odd as it onset, all I could think was OH NO! Now? This happened many times to me over 2 years and this precious moment was one of them.

I changed doctors just recently and thank god I did! I had to have a nasty lump cut out and of course had blood tests and what not taken. I was crying so hard the night before my trip to the doctors to get my results. Always a bad thing when the nurse rings up and says “The doctor would like to see you ASAP, and no he won’t wait til your next appointment, he would like to start treatment tomorrow, your tests have come back bad.”. I expected I had malignant cancer of course, not a benign tumour after these words. I knew I had dreadful news to deal with.

“Your tumour isn’t going to kill you” explained the doctor, “But your liver is going into failure. How much alcohol do you drink?” I was honest of course, a few bourbons every few nights and a ton of them at parties which are few and far between with my busy poker and home schedules. He then asked about the medications the other doctor had placed me on and also the length of my treatment. I told him, pain pills prescribed by the doctor. For the record they are Tylenol (I think) in the USA and Panadiene Forte in Australia. He declares: “YOUR PAIN PILLS HAVE CAUSED THIS! THEY ARE KILLING YOU!”

Any wonder I was sick! My other doctor was killing me. I took those pills to function, to walk tourney floors, play long poker sessions, blog like I am now, do interviews write articles, mother kids, mow the damn lawn! They worked somewhat and were better than nothing it seemed. They were better than no poker!

Listen everyone; I have a long road to a full recovery. I am not taking pain meds and am in agony 24/7. I am having more surgery on my stomach and implants put in my body, I have changed my eating habits and can’t drink alcohol all in a battle to save myself and all this change in a matter of days. I must rejuvenate the liver! Thank fully it is one organ in the body that can fix itself. It takes, time effort and work though.

POKERPLAYERS – If you have a headache; a backache; a tummy ache; any pain at all – avoid taking pills(Yes I have seen quite a few of you reach for the headache pills at tables!). Find out why and have it fixed if you can and go for a second and third opinion. Choose the right ALL IN. Don’t go all in on the felt as you use a bandaid treatment for your pain. Go all in off the felt working out what’s wrong because if the pain isn’t going to kill you the medications will.

You can’t play poker when you’re dead; simple!

Read More

Winning Poker Players

Winning Poker Players

We always hear of bad beats and hard losses, we also hear of major wins at events such as the WSOP and WSOPE. What we don’t hear of are the players that simply win. Many players are unknown and have no name; they are not famous for a major tourney event win or even from an online gaming giant sponsorship. Simply they are Winning Poker Players. Sure we have the likes of the high stakes rollers that play on major sites we see win all the time but what makes an ordinary Joe instead of a Joe Hachem a top notch winning poker player?

Winning Poker Players have many attributes that set them aside from the losers; they don’t care about fortune and fame but fortune and profit.

Winning Poker Players can be systematically cut into three basic categories online poker players, live poker players and online and live poker player combination. These categories can be further cut into tournament and ring game players and further dissected into a poker variant category, stake and player amount. Why do I bother typing what seems a load of nonsense? I type this as Winning Poker Players know their thing. Let’s use an example of a Winning Poker Player I know. I will dissect him!

Toni A_ _ _ _ _ n

1. Plays Online

2. Plays Ring Games

3. Plays No Limit Hold’em

4. Plays $100/$200 Blinds PLUS (depending on his bankroll)

5. Plays Heads-up ONLY

This internet poker player has an average profit of 13k a day and is unknown to the world. He makes that profit as he has made his game HIS; what works best for him.

Don’t be fooled though! There’s more to it then this! To be included in the winning poker players list, a player must know his/her poker strategy, odds, probabilities, statistics and opponents. Most importantly they must run themselves like a business keeping track of swings, hand ranges, results, bankrolls, profit, losses, expenditure, taxes – as I said, like a business. Professional poker playing for a living and being a winning professional player takes more than just the click of a mouse as one makes a raise!

There are also some other attributes a player must have that was indicated by one of the world’s biggest winning poker players. He is a winner in EVERY way. This somewhat more applies to those who do play live and some of the list to those who also who want a name as a winning poker player. Here is a list for those who wish to jump from an ordinary Joe to a Joe Hachem. Those who watched a certain TV series will know all about this list ;-)

1. Reading People

2. Focus

3. Bluffing

4. Composure

5. Recall

6. Endurance

7. Courage

8. Charisma

I will close on this blog post with the following random thought. I know one man and one lady who have all of this as part of their game (some people may know who by reading between the lines); this makes them winning poker players all the way! Kudos to anyone else out there with these attributes. I know I sure as hell try my hardest to follow this type of strict conduct and code.

Read More

Easy Instructions on How to Play Poker

Easy Instructions on How to Play Poker

I thought seeing as though I was on the track of where I play, what I do and how to play poker online I would cover the topic. Easy Instructions on how to play poker and also follow this topic with Poker Rules! (I don’t mean rules as in rocks and is awesome even if it is for the record, I mean: THE POKER RULES!).

So how to play poker! That’s what I am writing; let me get back to it. Playing poker at a beginner’s level is fun and easy going on the mind. Learning to play is as easy as soaking water into a sponge BUT the game takes a lifetime to master.

I will cover Texas Hold’em, the game that has taken the world to a poker high!

1. Texas Hold’em has 2 to 10 players per table.

2. You are dealt 2 hole cards (only you can see them), so is everyone else of course

3. Any how to play poker tutorial will first talk about bets. So here goes . There are compulsory bets in a poker game called blinds – Big Blind and Small Blind. The blinds are determined at the start of a game by the highest dealt card. Whoever gets the high card is classed as the dealer, following him is the small blind then the big blind. These blinds are forced at the start of each hand.

4. Each person looks at their cards and depending on how good they are they choose their option: fold, call (the same amount of money as the big blind) raise, (make a bet bigger than the big blind) or re-raise if someone has bet before them. The big blind has the option to check if no player before them (Big Blind is last to take their turn) has risen.

5. The dealer then deals 3 cards onto the poker table for all to see. These are called community cards. The community cards are used by everyone! You don’t take them off the table ;-) you use them to make the best poker hand you can combined with the two cards you have.

6. Another round of check, fold, raise and re-raise occurs as players determine whether they have the best hand or can make the best hand. This is followed by another community card (the fourth called the turn) another round of betting, folding and checking followed by the last community card (the 5^th, called the river).

7. Final bets, checks and folds are made and the remaining players turn over their cards. The best hand wins! It’s as simple as that. (This is how to play poker in very basic terms)

So, what is the best hand? Here are the Poker Hand Rankings!

· Royal Flush - A, K, Q, J, 10 - all of the same suit

· Straight Flush - Any five card sequence in the same suit - 5, 6, 7, 8,9 of diamonds an example

· Four of a Kind (also called quads) – All 4 cards of the same denomination – AAAA as an example

· Full House (also called boat) - Three of a kind combined with a pair – K, K, K, Q, Q as an example

· Flush - Any five cards of the same suit – 5 diamonds as an example but not in a straight form.

· Straight - Five cards in sequence, but not in the same suit - 7,8,9,10,J, of varied suits

· Three of a Kind (also known as trips or a set) – Three cards of the same denomination - 999

· Two Pair – Two Separate Pairs – 88 99 as an example

· One Pair - 77 as an example

· High Card – The highest card wins the hand as no player has even made a pair.

So, out of the hand rankings the great poker hand of them all is A Royal Flush! Have fun learning how to play poker by playing away on a play money table and trying to get one .Be sure to push the PrtSc (Print Screen) button on your keyboard if you get 1. The button is located between F12 and Pause Break. You can simply push this button and open paint from your accessories and paste the image of your royal flush to keep for a life time. If you get one live, be sure to get a photo taken, they don’t come too often!

That all for now about how to play poker . Promise to write more on this topics soon :-)

Read More

Senior Citizens in Poker

Senior Citizens in Poker

I have previously covered the topic of underage poker players. This blog I thought it to be necessary to give a mention to the other end of the age scale; The Senior Citizens in Poker. The senior citizens have a lot going for them at the poker table. Most are experienced players and have been around the block quite a few times. They are sometimes very much wiser when it comes to life also; they have been alive longer and this is expected. Life skills are definitely something we use in our little world of poker also.

Senior Citizens in poker are usually very good bankroll managers and have a load more cash than the young guns to invest into their hobby, career or lifestyle; whichever you may call poker. Remember senior citizens have had a life time of learning, saving and building their bankroll. As poker players say; “Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”. Senior citizens are well on their way to being masters of the game.

It can be very hard for the senior citizens though; many of us just don’t realize! There are players that are almost 90 years of age. I know from my personal experiences with close relatives that at this age we humans like to have what I call “nanny naps” in the middle of the day; senior citizens do tire a lot easier. Tiring can make tournament play very difficult in particular. Some tournaments such as the Aussie Millions Poker Championship you are playing 13 to 16 hours a day to make the final table. The thought is enough to tire me without adding on another 40 years to my life. I feel tired playing 7 and 8 hours of tournaments and I ‘think’ I am at peak age for sports.

On a very bright note the senior citizens in poker are keeping an active brain. Active minds equate to wonderful outcomes for our health and well being. As we age we tend to slow down our thinking processes. We retire and lay back a little. Sure we may read some books and do jigsaw puzzles but is that really keeping an active mind? By active I mean ACTIVE! I mean thinking as hard as you can to sum up a situation, to count, read, act, watch and be alert nonstop. All of this is in the game of poker.

Many senior citizens I know enjoy walks in the park, bingo, gardening, home bridge games, lawn bowels – I may be biased but I will be a poker player at age 80. It takes more cunning, whit and skill on a mental note than anything else I can think of I would participate in as a hobby after retirement from my day job. It also takes extreme physical effort when you consider the statement above about playing 13-16 hour tournaments. Stewart Scott as an example lost 6 kilograms when he took down the Aussie Millions in 2008 and he is not a big man! It is no easy feat to play these games and any poker player will know it. At the end of each day you have the life drawn out of you. Our Senior Citizens in Poker are indeed TOUGH!

Many of the friends I have that play poker are almost if not over retirement age. To all of you reading this you all rock! Senior Citizens in Poker such as these friends have a load of knowledge to give; to pass down. As the years roll on we all will be passing down our knowledge. I am passing mine to my 12 year old son during home games already. In fact; my 5 year old daughter knows the hand rankings in poker also and at an early age! My point is that senior citizens in poker have wisdom and knowledge that just shouldn’t be over looked. Next time a senior citizen is talking poker to you; don’t laugh or giggle as I have seen some younger poker players do -> LISTEN. You may just learn a trick or two. They are indeed very good on picking up on game and play faults.

Read More

A Storm That Could Have Killed Me

A Storm That Could Have Killed Me

I thought the best blog post to submit as part of my backdating was the most recent. Let me place you into a situation I was in just the other day! I was sitting on my laptop on the final table of a 45 player Sit N Go Poker Tournament when the wind started literally shaking my windows. It was a little alarming but I carried on playing determined to take it down. Thank god for laptops! The power then suddenly went out.

I carried my laptop with me trying my hardest to at least 99% concentrate on the tournament at hand to the front door and opened it. To my horror there were branches flying everywhere AND my 12 year old son, he was blown off his feet!
Timing out in a crucial win or lose hand, I battled the gale force wind got my son inside and tried to close the front door with my laptop still in one hand; as my younger son hysterically screamed in fear. Once we were safe I quickly clicked that I was “back” in my poker tournament. I expected the rain to fall and the thunder to bang as my power slowly drained from my best friend 'Acer Aspire'. It was worse than I expected though!

The storm turned into some kind of freak tornado and I soon found myself searching for safety under a mattress with 4 little kids. I tried my hardest and seemed to quickly settle them down as I clicked fold, call and raise. It literally was a life or death situation at hand with trees crashing through houses, cars and power lines. My fence was blown down and my gigantic shed roof lifted off!

Before long the storm had settled, leaving traces of its path of iron roofing, wood, rubbish and rescue service sirens. I got out from under the mattress and I was out of my Sit N Go. I placed third in the poker tournament and with the circumstances at hand; this was my best win to date even though it was far from my biggest. Playing this poker tournament in this prepare to live or die situation taught me a very good lesson. “Regardless of the worlds interruptions, attacks and road blocks (such as trees blown down by storms), if the world is falling down around us we can still win playing poker with the poker strategy method of strong focus and determination”. Never give up! Keep Your Cool! Die or Survive and Win Poker Trying :-)

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences and sympathy to local poker friends and their 8 children who lost everything that day to a bushfire which was fuelled by the winds of storm.

Also sympathy to the other 4 families who lost their home and those residents who had major damage to their property and livestock from either fire or wind.

Credit to The Border Mail for Pictures.

Read More

Luck Vs Skill in Texas Hold’em

Luck Vs Skill in Texas Hold’em

There has always been an argument about poker that it is a game of luck and skill. How much luck is involved? And how much skill is involved? People have used all kinds of statistical databases to determine the answer to this question and from my research there are many varied figures. Some say it is 50% luck 50% skill, others say as little as 15% luck and even 4% luck is involved.

I sit back each night and watch televised poker. I look closely at players online poker statistics. Without doing huge mathematical equations I believe that from what I see the results speak for themselves. It is always the same well known professional poker players on final tables at the World Poker Tour. It is always the same people with high online poker win rates and statistics. This comes to make me believe there isn’t a chance on earth that Texas Hold’em could be 50% luck, if this was the case we would see different “lucky ducks” winning all the time!

A well skilled poker player can push anyone out of a hand with any 2 cards by careful analysis and precision betting. Doing this is indeed skill and that’s why we see some poker players with 6 to 12 World Series of Poker Bracelets and some players with no chance of even making it to the tournament. Indeed at times some luck is involved there is no doubt. There is also no doubt that poker; including online poker is a game of skill!

Read More

Attacking Multi-Table Players

Attacking Multi-Table Players

There are many online poker players multi-tabling (playing on multiple poker tables) each time they are online gaming. Some players play 6-10 tables, even more! Although these people see themselves as money making sharks I see them as fish. Multi-Table internet poker players pay no attention to the players around them, merely the hands in front of them. Multi- table players are easy to pin point, they take a long time to make their moves, at times using all their time clock to the point they are sitting out. Checking they are actually multi – tabling is easy, search for them with the search tab and see how many tables they are actually playing on. Unless they have internet connection related issues (which could be the cause of slow play) you will see a list of poker tables they are currently playing poker on.

If someone is multi-tabling more than 3-4 tables they can be an online gaming player’s feast. They can be attacked and attacked, again. They have no idea as to really what’s going on at their table. They pay no attention to their surrounding playing patterns and half of the time have no idea how many players are left in their poker tournament or sitting at the table! In general, these players play “A grade” starting hands only. They are what I call auto players. They have automatic fold and call responses. Raising them with ANY two cards pre-flop with no one else in the hand time; and time again can increase your chip stack like no tomorrow! If they bite back a little, you know they have one of their A grade hands. If you multi-table, ask yourself – are you really a shark?

Read More

Auto Select Feature Can Be the Devil!

Auto Select Feature Can Be the Devil!

The auto select feature on an online poker tables can be a handy little tool, especially when multi-tabling (playing on multiple tables). This tool can also be the devil though. I learnt a hard lesson the other day, one I will not forget while using this feature. Don’t get me wrong! Again, I say that this internet poker tool can be a highly handy one indeed. Forever will I use it for FOLDING, auto call/check though I am now not so certain! ;)

Here’s why: I was deep into a tournament only 2 days ago and leading by a mile. Blinds were 800/400; antes had kicked in. I was sitting in the 1st place with 29k+ in chips; the 2nd player was on 25k chips. Third place was on 7k chips and from third down, the chip stack obviously was lower. A massive 22k lay in front of everyone in the pot. I thought I had another tourney wrapped up! BUT! I used the auto call button!

In online gaming; bad beats are quite common; though not usually inflicted upon you by yourself! I had 4, 5 of clubs for the 3rd time in a row, this time in the big blind and in an emotional burst I decided that I would play it this time! There was a raise of only $800 (minimum raise) till then. As I clicked “CALL”, 2nd in chips went all in with their 25k – since I was multi-tabling I could not change the option to fold quick enough, the other online poker players following this person had “auto fold” already clicked. And there I was! Up against pocket aces, my little 4 and 5 of clubs stood no chance. My stack was all but gone.

From now on I will use the auto feature to FOLD ONLY! This is a choice we can make and always a personal choice for each of us. So here is a wise lesson learnt through the loss of big money. A nice weekly wage down the drain and me final table bubble girl!

Though this won’t classify as a classical example of a bad beat, it is said that “bad beats happen and that’s poker!”

Read More

Play Texas Hold’em Cash and Pay for Your Poker Tournaments

Play Texas Hold’em Cash and Pay for Your Poker Tournaments

Many people have a preference to play either cash or tournaments. When we take a good hard look, personally we all have a preference between cash and tournament play. Our preference cannot come into consideration though. To keep our bank roll balanced we must play cash games to play poker tournaments. Let me explain!

When a poker player only plays poker tournaments it becomes quite expensive. Most poker professionals only make final table in a major tournament once per year. Poker professionals cash in tournaments maybe 23% of the time – depending on who they are and how they play. With the cost of major poker tournaments more than $10,000.00 entry we need a big bank roll and it needs to come from somewhere! CASH TABLES!

Most poker professionals that I have spoken to (poker professionals who are NOT sponsored) play Texas Hold’em cash tables regularly to fund their poker tournament play. Their poker tournament entry is a lot higher than most of ours but we need to use the same concept regardless of the stakes we play. Play online poker cash tables and build your bank roll for online poker tournament play. Play cash tables at the casino to fund casino tournament play. Your bank roll needs to come from somewhere and that’s cash tables! Get on those cash tables now! Learn the difference between cash and tournament play. Play free poker games and see how you go! Good Luck!

Read More