Texas Holdem - The Cadillac of Poker!

19-year-old American Jeff Williams another young champion

2006-12-25T22:54:00.000+01:00

The 19-year-old student beat almost 300 players to become the EPT Grand Final Champion in march 2006. Jeff Williams got €900,000 for his effort presented to him by Joseph Hachem (an older player :-)). He is only one of the many young new talents out there. Where are we heading? Will all the new champions be 18-20 years old? Doesn’t experience have anything to do with it anymore? ;-)

EPT - a very good alternative to WPT

2006-11-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

I was up last night and watched the final of the Deauville EPT which promoted some of the top players in Europe. I was struck with the quality of the show and the quality of the players that had found their way to the final table, very fun to watch, and also to see that there are other alternatives to the WPT.

Mexico - a huge market in the future...

2006-09-14T18:24:00.001+02:00

Imagine the impact of 120 million people getting to know the game of poker and wanting to find a place to play… Soon there will not be so many new markets to find…that haven’t been so exploited ;-)

Texas Holdem to boom in Spain?

2006-09-06T17:56:00.000+02:00

Will Spain be the next country to see a major increase in Texas Holdem players? Will they start to show World Poker Tour as all the other major Poker markets? I think so! And hope so!

Phil Ivy still the top dog!

2006-09-05T23:28:00.000+02:00

I don’t think that there is anybody in the world that is better at poker than Phil Ivy. It doesn’t matter if you win the WSOP or not. They should pair up the winner of the WSOP in a match up with Phil in a game of best of 10, that would be something to watch...

Jamie Gold wins $12.000.000!

2006-09-05T23:22:00.000+02:00

When will the number of players be too many for the WSOP? Or is the size of the prize pool the only thing that matters? That 8.773 was willing to pay $10.000 to play is pretty amazing...

WSOP Qualifiers...

2006-05-07T10:31:00.000+02:00

WSOP is closing in, where do you think that you have the best qualifiers for the tournament on the net? Is there a realistic chance of getting to the final tournament thru these channels or is it just a PR stunt? Give me your comments…

I'm back!!!

2006-04-27T17:36:00.000+02:00

As my wife gave birth to our first born the frequency of the posts on our blog has gone down dramatically ;-) Hopefully me and the crew will get back on track as we are closing in on the biggest poker event of the year, the WSOP. Look out for some good info regarding this event here at Pokercasinoguide.com. L8ER

Bragging a bit

2006-03-24T14:54:00.000+01:00

Two hand in five minutes, feel sorry for the guy....

***** Hand History for Game 3792126045 *****0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Tue Mar 21 17:23:34 EST 2006Table Flying Fig (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6Seat 1: cypressfats1 ( $231.61)Seat 2: wahoo284 ( $74.30)Seat 3: speedbird123 ( $854.60)Seat 4: Triumph15 ( $345.80)Seat 5: Snabben73 ( $397.60)Seat 6: Tockken ( $453.84)wahoo284 posts small blind (2)speedbird123 posts big blind (4)**

Dealing down cards **Dealt to Snabben73 [ As, Ts ]
Triumph15 folds.Snabben73 raises (10) to 10
Tockken folds.
cypressfats1 folds.
wahoo284 folds.
speedbird123 calls (6)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Qs, Js, 9h ]
speedbird123 checks.
Snabben73 bets (20)
speedbird123 raises (40) to 40
Snabben73 raises (80) to 100
speedbird123 raises (247) to 287
Snabben73 calls (187)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ks ]
speedbird123 checks.
Snabben73 checks.
** Dealing River ** : [ Th ]
speedbird123 checks.
Snabben73 bets (100.60)Snabben73 is all-In.
speedbird123 calls (100.60)Creating Main Pot with $794.20 with Snabben73**

Summary **Main Pot: $794.20 Rake: $3Board: [ Qs Js 9h Ks Th ]cypressfats1 balance $231.61, didn't bet (folded)wahoo284 balance $72.30, lost $2 (folded) speedbird123 balance $457, lost $397.60 [ Jc 3c ] [ a straight, nine to king -- Ks,Qs,Jc,Th,9h ]Triumph15 balance $345.80, didn't bet (folded)Snabben73 balance $794.20, bet $397.60, collected $794.20, net +$396.60 [ As Ts ] [ Royal Flush -- As,Ks,Qs,Js,Ts ]Tockken balance $453.84, didn't bet (folded)

And here we go again....

***** Hand History for Game 3792158165 *****0/0 Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) - Tue Mar 21 17:28:25 EST 2006Table Flying Fig (Real Money) -- Seat 6 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6Seat 1: sendsomefat ( $386)Seat 2: wahoo284 ( $78.30)Seat 3: speedbird123 ( $473)Seat 4: Triumph15 ( $339.80)Seat 5: Snabben73 ( $788.20)Seat 6: Tockken ( $455.34)sendsomefat posts small blind (2)wahoo284 posts big blind (4)

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Snabben73 [ Ad, Ac ]
speedbird123 calls (4)
Triumph15 folds.
Snabben73 raises (20) to 20
Tockken folds.
sendsomefat folds.
wahoo284 folds.
speedbird123 calls (16)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8c, 4c, 7d ]
speedbird123 checks.
Snabben73 bets (40)
speedbird123 raises (80) to 80
Snabben73 calls (40)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qs ]
speedbird123 bets (200)
Snabben73 raises (688.20) to 688.20Snabben73 is all-In.
speedbird123 calls (173)speedbird123 is all-In.
** Dealing River ** :
[ 5h ]

Creating Main Pot with $949 with speedbird123Creating Side Pot 1 with $315.20 with Snabben73

** Summary **Main Pot: $949 Side Pot 1: $315.20 Rake: $3Board: [ 8c 4c 7d Qs 5h ]sendsomefat balance $384, lost $2 (folded) wahoo284 balance $74.30, lost $4 (folded) speedbird123 balance $0, lost $473 [ 5c Kc ] [ a pair of fives -- Kc,Qs,8c,5c,5h ]Triumph15 balance $339.80, didn't bet (folded)Snabben73 balance $1264.20, bet $788.20, collected $1264.20, net +$476 [ Ad Ac ] [ a pair of aces -- Ad,Ac,Qs,8c,7d ]Tockken balance $455.34, didn't bet (folded)

What was I thinking:-) stylin

2006-03-03T14:57:00.000+01:00

Hi guys!

I would just like to share my thougts about this hand (see post below). It was a pretty loose table so thats why I only called at first pre flop, I was sure that someone would raise and then I had planned to reraise.

Why did I bet so little after the flop? I was looking for the tiger to feel weekness and try to scare me away and he did like I wanted to so then I could put him all in and he was short stacked and pot commited and was forced to call.

I would play the hand excactly the same way at a loose table if I got the chance again and I´m sure I will. If I bet hard on the flop I will scare away a hand like QQ even if his loose and not maximize my winnings.

That is my thoughts about it but please comment if you have any other thoughts.

/Stylin

Sometimes life isn't fair

2006-03-03T14:46:00.000+01:00

This is what happened to a friend of mine the other night when he played Online Poker at Unibet.com. He is the player called “Stylin”.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t…

Players:
toman123 (EUR 256,47 in seat 1)
gaalne (EUR 143,20 in seat 2)
nixen (EUR 245,05 in seat 3)
DollarRob (EUR 110,40 in seat 4)
stylin (EUR 132,93 in seat 5)
Neondeon (EUR 88,88 in seat 6)

Dealer: gaalne
Small Blind: nixen (1,00)
Big Blind: DollarRob (2,00)

stylin was dealt: Jc - Jd

stylin Call (2,00)
Neondeon Fold
toman123 Fold
gaalne Fold
nixen Raise (7,50)
DollarRob Call (6,50)
stylin Raise (25,00)
nixen Call (18,50)
DollarRob Call (18,50)

Flop Js - Ac - Ah

nixen Check
DollarRob Check
stylin Bet (6,00)
nixen Fold
DollarRob Raise (48,00)
stylin Raise (84,00)
DollarRob All-In (35,40)
stylin Payback (6,60)

Turn Js - Ac - Ah - 6c
River Js - Ac - Ah - 6c - As

DollarRob shows: Qd - Qh (a full house, aces full of queens)
stylin didn't show: Jc - Jd (a full house, aces full of jacks)

DollarRob wins: EUR 244,80 (with a full house, aces full of queens)
Rake: EUR 3,00

Poker books!

2006-02-27T00:37:00.000+01:00

Which are the best books on the subject of Texas Holdem? And where can you purchase them?

Google Page Rank update!

2006-02-22T23:53:00.000+01:00

Within a few days we will see what effect the Google Page Rank update had on our web page and its sub pages. What is your view in this matter? Are we too dependent of Google these days? Give us your opinion/comments!

The Poker Party continues thursday...

2006-02-22T01:10:00.000+01:00

…when the next tournament will be held. Keep your fingers crossed for a repeat… ;-)

Bettson Casino Party!

2006-02-20T13:26:00.000+01:00

The other night Bettson.com arranged a Casino Party where people were invited to participate in different casino games, where Texas Holdem was one of the games played. I was lucky enough to win this nice little tournament and got a betting account in my name with €1000 for the trouble, nice! Hopefully they will arrange more events like this and make all of us Texas Holdem fans happy ;-)

Poker Blogs!

2006-02-17T10:29:00.000+01:00

Which poker blogs do you think are most popular and why? Give us your best candidates!

New year, new oportunities!

2006-01-04T12:43:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I got a nice mail with an invitation for a $31,900 WPT Qualifier with PokerRoom.com. The new year could not have started in a better way ;-)

Santa with his red hat

2005-12-21T14:18:00.000+01:00

Yo poker-dogs,

Been really lazy writing, but I am a bit frustrated since no one is responding to my messages.
I have been playing alot lately and my tournament results have been marked by bad-beats. Why am I losing with AA to Q3 all-in pre flop?
Why do people call my monsters with rags?
Why do monsters loose to rags?

I have no other answers to the questions above than that good, solid, mathematically correct poker will win in the long run.

Finished second in a MTT last night. 70 entrants, buy-in Euro 20 gave me Euro 240.
I played solid all the way and kept my stack close to average all along the way without any spectacular hands. My monsters held for once.

When I finally was heads up my opponent had 75% of the chips and I obviously 25% the following happens:

I have BB and gets 64 unsuited. My opponent calls and the flop is: 359 (rainbow).
I have an opened-end str8 draw. I decide to move all-in. My opponent calls with j3 and nothing happens on turn or river so fi wins the tournament with 3389j. Was it wrong to move all-in?

I have 8 outs to hit the str8 (approx 32%) plus the probability of hitting fours or sixes. I also have the value of the chance that fi folds which gives me the blinds. I´m not gonna present the maths behind, but I think that the move was correct (you have to take the stack sizes into account as well).

What do you guys/gals think?

Regards

Santa Claus

Betandwin buys OnGame for 3-5 billion SEK?

2005-12-13T23:35:00.000+01:00

An agreement has been made between both companies and are just waiting for the due dilligence process where Betandwin will check if the figures given to them by Ongame are correct. Soon we will know how much it was worth...

Live poker in home environment!

2005-12-04T21:12:00.000+01:00

Hello folks,

Last night the "Open Poker Championship" took place for the first time. I was invited by Erik and Adriano, who both work for Pokercasinoguide.com. Since I started this blog both of them have been quite cocky telling me that they would "whip my ass" etc. etc. The story of what happened during the night, the result and an interesting hand follows...

Twenty people got together in a house to play a tournament of Texas Holdem no limit at around five in the afternoon. The hosts had put a big effort into stating the rules to avoid discussions and they also collected $15 from each player for beers, hotdogs, coffee etc. I think that it is very important to have clear rules when playing home games so that everyone feels comfortable and that the game can run smoothly without any irritable disscusions and no answers.

The main structure of this tourney was set up like this:

- Twenty people were randomly divided to play at four tables
- You had to win your table (with five players) to reach the final table (with four players)
- Everyone at the final table started out with the same amount of chips

The structure is quite different from WPT and other tourneys you can see on TV where there are 10 players at a table all the time and you keep your chips to the final table.

At first I thought the structure was a bit boring since it would be hard for beginners and benefit players used to playing short-handed. But, then again, I play a lot of short-handed SNG's so I thought the structure would benefit me.

The lottery gave me the pleasure of starting at the same table as Adriano, one of the Pokercasinoguide guys, two players that had not played that much and one player I felt was quite a big threat (he was also one of the organizers). After two periods of twenty minutes there was a break. I was the chip leader with more than 50 percent of the chips, the two beginners had almost no chips, the organizer was also short-stacked with approximately 75 percent of his starting amount of chips and Adriano had a slightly more than he started off with.

After the break, the blinds were quite high for everyone except me and my strategy was that I shouldn't double anyone up. That strategy fell apart amost immediately when me and the organizer ended up all-in pre flop, he with K5 unsuited and me with K9 suited. Of course he flopped 55 and doubled up. After another hour I was heads up with Adriano, the agressive Italian with more balls than brain from Pokercasionoguide. After losing a monster pot we had approximately an equal share of the chips. Here comes the hand of the day:

Big blind was 64 and we had 250 chips each. Adriano is big blind and I get 33. I think for a while and then I put him all-in pre flop. Adriano calls and shows A7 unsuited. My pockets hold and I´m in the final.

So why did I put him all in?

I thought that the hand was fairly strong and could hold if he called, but what was most important for the decision was the fold equity i.e. my extra value of the chance of him folding. Adriano is also known for being very agressive and, with the very high blinds, I saw this as a good situation to either take his blind or have an all-in situation with fairly good odds.

Please comment and discuss.

The game at the final table was quite strange. After only four hands two players were out as my opponent (another of the organizers, called Jakob) heads up had kicked them both out. He had a great stack more than three times as big as mine. He played solid poker and beat me after another one and a half hours of play. Congrats Jakob, you were the best player that evening, without a doubt.

The other fellow from Pokercasinoguide, known as "Tight-Erik" didn't reach the final and I think that I showed them who whipped who...

After the tournament a rather wild cash game took place. All the beers seemed to have affected some of the guys and it was all-in with rags all the time. It really looked like a smorgasbord and I played really tight but just couldn´t hit anything and was outdrawn a couple of times.

I won approximately $130 during the night.

All-in all, a great night together with a fun bunch of people!

Many thanks to the lads who managed the tournament!

Regards

Snabben73

Shootout!!

2005-12-03T10:26:00.000+01:00

Today there will be a clash of Titans when a couple of us at Pokercasinoguide.com take on Snabben73 in a Texas Hold'em tournament that will once and for all tell us who is the best Poker Pro material...We will keep you posted...

Been lazy

2005-11-30T09:49:00.000+01:00

Hi friends

I have been a bit lazy lately in both writing and playing.

Last friday my computor broke down so I spent the weekend enjoying the nightlife in Stockholm. The nightlife in Stockholm is fab, with lots of interesting clubs and I'm sure that we have the worlds most beautiful girls here. Lucky us!

My computer is now back on track again but I will not be able to play anything this week due to some stressful projects at work.

I will play a live tournament (approx $80 buy-in) on friday and hopefully there will be some interesting situations that I can write about.

Regards

Snabben73

A terrible night...

2005-11-25T01:11:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen,

Have had a bad night...

Played four tourneys tonight:
1 MMT (£1o.000 guaranteed) buy-in £25
1 SNG £ 20
1 SNG $ 20
1 SNG $ 10

In the MMT I went out after 10 min, my AA didnt hold up against 66. All in pre flop, the enemy flopped a 6 and I had to lift my hat and say good bye.

In the SNG $ 10 I ran into boat with three of a kind

I won the SNG $ 20 and got $ 90

In the £ 20 I went out as number four

Bank roll 1983, tonights result -$41

In the £ 20 I was doing all right, but with four players left this happened:

------HAND 5------
Game #1410384883: Hold'em NL (50/100) - 2005/11/24 - 19:05:38 (ET)
Table "SixPak10 1440738 - 1" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: Sherrif67 (1330.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Sommelier (1098.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Zoomer22 (1893 in chips)
Seat 5: Snabben73 (1678 in chips)
Zoomer22: posts small blind 50
Snabben73: posts big blind 100
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Snabben73 [Jc Ks]
Sherrif67: folds
Sommelier: calls 100
Zoomer22: calls 50
Snabben73: checks
----- FLOP ----- [Jh 8s 9s] (flop gives me top pair with K kicker)
Zoomer22: checks
Snabben73: bets 300 (Bet quite big because the enemy was calling and raising with everything)
Sommelier: folds
Zoomer22: raises to 600 (this is crucial, normally its a fold, but the guy played strange)
Snabben73: calls 300 (decided to call after thinking a long time)
----- TURN ----- [Jh 8s 9s][Jd]
Zoomer22: bets 600
Snabben73: raises to 978 and is all-in (here comes the misstake)
Zoomer22: calls 378
----- RIVER ----- [Jh 8s 9s Jd][5s]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Snabben73: shows [Jc Ks] (Three of a kind, Jacks, King high)
Zoomer22: shows [Qd Th] (A Straight, Queen high)
Zoomer22 collected 3456 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 3456 Main pot 3456 Rake 0
Board [Jh 8s 9s Jd 5s]
Seat 1: Sherrif67 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Sommelier (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Zoomer22 (small blind) showed [Qd Th] and won (3456) with A Straight, Queen high
Seat 5: Snabben73 (big blind) lost

What could he possibly have after the turn?

-He didnt raise pre flop so pp is unlikely, because he always raised strong hands before the flop.
- 89 NO, needs no explanation
-AJ, not a possible hand since he would have raised that hand pre flop
-J with lower kicker than me, not very likely since he re-raise my strong raise after the flop so much that he almost was pot commited
-Full house, probably the hand I would put him on after thinking a while
- Straight, also likely, since he didnt raise pre flop he must have something after the flop. He caught the straight on the flop which is alot of luck, but I dont think he would risk his chips re-raising on a draw (there was a flush draw as well) after my strong bet after the flop.

To sum up, the only possible hand that I was winning against was a pure bluff (or maybe j low kicker) and how likely is it that the chip leader risks almost all his chips when I showed the strenths that I did? And why did I risk all my chips towards the chip leader when I was second? A great rule is to stay alive....

What do you think, am I completly wrong?

Need to get back to the books...

Tomorrow is another day and I aint giving up!

/Snabben73

My first night...

2005-11-23T23:47:00.000+01:00

...As a Pokercasinoguide-player is finished. I played two tournaments, one $20 SNG (six handed) which I won and got $90 for the trouble...And one £20 MTT (49 players) where I finished as number six when only five players was paid. The result of the first night session is +$24 which gives me a bank roll of $ 2024.

In the SNG I got loads of great hands and I had 90% of the chips when I started to play heads-up. In the MTT the dealer was in a very bad mode, so I was happy to reach the final table even though its boring to be outdrawn just before the money...All in all I think that I played good even though I could have tried to steal more blinds in the MTT.

Here we have a quite interesting hand from the beginning of the SNG:

-----HAND 5------
Game #1399829973: Hold'em NL (7/15) - 2005/11/23 - 15:23:46 (ET)
Table "SixPak20 1434405 - 1" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: Fat-boy (805 in chips)
Seat 2: LE82 (895 in chips)
Seat 3: Aljo0146 (865 in chips)
Seat 4: paige (68 in chips)
Seat 5: cinquino (2382 in chips)
Seat 6: Snabben73 (985 in chips)
cinquino: posts small blind 7
Snabben73: posts big blind 15
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Snabben73 [Td 9d]
Fat-boy: folds
LE82: folds
Aljo0146: calls 15
paige: raises to 68 and is all-in
cinquino: calls 61
Snabben73: calls 53
Aljo0146: calls 53
----- FLOP ----- [Tc 4h Qd]
cinquino: checks
Snabben73: bets 120 (information bet, wanted to see if anyone hit the Q)
Aljo0146: folds
cinquino: calls 120 (Only player calling)
----- TURN ----- [Tc 4h Qd][Ah]
cinquino: checks
Snabben73: bets 150 (This is quite bad, think that I should bet more or check-fold)
cinquino: calls 150 (was expecting a re-raise or maybe fold, but not a call)
----- RIVER ----- [Tc 4h Qd Ah][2c]
cinquino: checks
Snabben73: checks (had no hand to put him on, so I played safe and checked)
----- SHOW DOWN -----
cinquino: shows [8c Jh] (High Card Ace) (He was chasing a four out straight, not very clever)
Snabben73: shows [Td 9d] (A Pair of Tens, Ace high)
paige: shows [Qc Jc] (A Pair of Queens, Ace high)
Snabben73 collected 540 from Side pot #1
paige collected 272 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 812 Main pot 272 Side pot #1 540 Rake 0
Board [Tc 4h Qd Ah 2c]
Seat 1: Fat-boy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: LE82 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Aljo0146 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: paige (button) showed [Qc Jc] and won (272) with A Pair of Queens, Ace high
Seat 5: cinquino (small blind) lost
Seat 6: Snabben73 (big blind) showed [Td 9d] and won (540) with A Pair of Tens, Ace high

I think that I played this hand bad because of the weak bet on the turn. After the flop I put him on the Q because of his call on my bet. If he put me on A after the turn, but wasnt sure he should have reraised to get information, but he just called. That call indicated monster hand to me so if he would have bet after the river I would have folded....

Comments please...

/Snabben73

Snabben73's way to the top

2005-11-23T20:13:00.000+01:00

Hi fellas,

My pokernick is Snabben73 and I'm a 32 year old financial analyst from Stockholm. I´ve been asked to write about my pokerplaying here at Pokercasinoguide. I've been playing cards since I started walking and poker more seriously since 2001. I play Texas Holdem NL, both cash and tournaments, on the internet and live but here I will mainly write about Texas Holdem NL, SNG and MTT played on the internet.

Since the beginning of 2005 I call myself semi-pro, meaning that I still have a job, but playing/reading/studying poker takes up most of my spare time and poker playing has been a significant income source to me for one and a half years. I use different strategies when playing SNG and MTT. I tend to play much more agressively when playing SNG's and maybe it's because of that I'm much more successful in SNG's than in MTT's? I've read and been told to play more agressively in MTT's than in SNG's, but everytime I try I lose...

The main reason for me writing here is to develop my game. I like to analyse my game and sometimes I think about and analyse a hand over and over again, thinking about what I could have done differently, what the opponent was thinking, was my raise signaling what I wanted etc. etc. I hope that you players out there can help me to develop my game and hopefully you too will learn something on the way.

I will start with a $ 2000 bank roll at www.interpoker.com and play tourneys (SNG and MTT) with maximum buy-in of $50. I will continuously move money to different sites to get bonuses. It would be fun if you popped by to say hi if you see me at the tables.

I will post interesting hands and it would be fantastic if you players out there could come up with comments, critisism, strategies or whatever.

Stay cool, play pool.

Yours,

Snabben73