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Poker Celibacy- The key to my recent success

February 24, 2010

I’m sure most of you have realized that i have slowed down a lot with my poker posts. The main reason is that i haven’t really played much poker. Apart from the social league, it has been a quiet poker year for me.

Today, i played my first freeroll in well over a month on the Pigg’s. It started off fairly well and i quickly found my grove, my game has improved a lot over the past few months and it seems that my new approach and poker ethos is working. Anyway, i slogged it out in the hold’em tournament and managed a win.

I pocketed a nice amount of R350 ( about $35) which boosts my 2010 freeroll earnings to $61.95. Not bad considering i haven’t loaded any accounts with my own money!!!

Feeling in great poker shape, I took R80 from my winnings and played in the R5000 Guaranteed Tournament on the Pigg’s and played a similar game, applying the tactics i have been training for and WHAM… a top 10 finish in 7th with a nice R776.00 purse( No re-buys or add-on’s) and my freeroll earnings explodes to $141.95.

The key to my success at online poker. Poker Celibacy!!! Yes, you heard correctly! I have taken a well deserved break and feeling fresh, fresh enough to pick up from where i left off! I will continue to play once or twice a week but not more and concentrate on quality online poker sessions rather than long innings!

”All-in Stefk”

Written by admin · Filed Under 2010 Poker Challenge, Poker News | Leave a Comment 

Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s $1.5 Million Dollar Challenge

February 19, 2010

Tom "durrrr" Dwan puts out a heads-up challenge

Hello fellow poker fans, Jason Lindgren here with the first of hopefully many news articles for Poker Shuffle! I’ve decided to start with news regarding  Tom Dwan aka “durrrr” online, a young and unpredictable professional poker player who has won and lost several fortunes in his career. So lets begin with Tom Dwan’s “durrrr” heads-up challenge.

So whats the “durrrr” challenge all about? Well Tom Dwan  issued a challenge to the international poker world in January 2009 (anyone with the cash can accept the challenge). He will put up $1.5 million dollars to any opponent’s $500,000, guaranteeing challengers 3 to 1 odds.

The way it works is, the opponent plays “durrrr” in heads-up at 4 tables all at once, 50,000 hands. After the last hand has been played, the player who is up, even by one dollar, wins the challenge. So if  “durrrr” wins, he keeps any money he won during the challenge and the opponents $500,000. However if the opponent wins they keep their winnings and the $1.5 million that “durrrr” put up.

There are a few rules that “durrrr” has laid out:

  • The game type must be No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha
  • The stakes must be a minimum of $200/$400
  • Once the stakes have been decided upon, they must stay the same for the entire challenge
  • Players must reload if their stack falls below 75 big blinds at any time be it No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha

Patrik Antonius steps up to the challenge

Professional poker star Patrick Antonius has been the first in line to try win the $1.5 million dollars in the “durrrr Challenge”. Other big name players including Phil Ivey and David Benyamine have expressed interest in accepting the challenge.

After a year, have these two high-stakes experts played through all 50,000 hands?  They are yet to reach their  goal, so far 32,874 hands have been played of the 50,000

The problem here is that there is no set time for playing the challenge, only playing when they are both available and willing. For instance Patrik is not online or readily avalible when Tom is, or vice versa. So they struggle to get Challenge time.

However, often you will see Patrik Antonius online as well as Tom Dwan and they are not playing in the “durrrr Challenge”. The reason behind this is, the challenge is set to either “No-Limit Hold ‘em” or “Pot-Limit Omaha”, and as both players are professional Stud H/L, Razz, Stud Hi and other variants of poker they prefer to be playing other games, instead of only the one form.

The stats so far? Well after 52 sessions “durrrr” is up by just over 1.4 million dollars so it is clear Patrik has a lot of catching up to do with less than 20,000 hands left to play.

In the last session they played a total of 79 hands, which is not very much at all. With “durrrr” only going up another $22,000. I will be following the “durrrr Challenge” closely to see what unfolds, but with Tom’s lead it is not looking very good for Patrik, but this is poker, anything can happen in 20,000 hands!

Patrik in the "durrrr challenge"

The game type must be No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha

Written by Jason Lindgren · Filed Under Poker News | 3 Comments 

1st hand and out…full house vs. runner runner four of a kind!!!

February 17, 2010

In a frantic game of online tournament poker, i ran into some trouble early on against a marginal weak hand. This is how it panned out!

9 Handed Table – Deep Stack 40 000

Pre-Flop

SB- 100 folds

BG- 200 folds

3rd- calls 200

4th- Hero raises to 1600 with pocket kings

5th- folds

6th- folds

7th- calls

8th-folds

9th- calls

……………………………

The Flop

Kh, 9h, 2s

Hero- Continuation bet of 1600 and now sitting with ”A set of Kings”

2nd player- calls 1600

3rd player- calls 1600

……………………………

The Turn

9 c

Hero- Continuation bet of 3600 and now sitting with ”A Full House, Kings and 9’s”

*at this point i know that getting the right betting amount is vital. The thought crosses my mind and wonders if these guys would limp in a hefty pre-flop raise with A 9 or J9…but i give them more credit.

2nd player- Moves all in

3rd player- folds

Hero- Calls but after some time, stressing and beginning to think that he might have pockets 9’s but call anyway.

* He turns over A 9 unsuited and i show my full house.

……………………………

At this stage i i’m leading by 99% and all that he can hope for is a 9 for a 4 of a kind.

He hits his 9 and i am out!

What a hand, i have been analyzing my betting structure all round for a few days now and i have realized that it was perfect- You cant account for luck, he got lucky!

Written by admin · Filed Under Poker School | 2 Comments 

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Mathematic Skills Know your percentages in most common situations. For instance, if you are dealt a pocket pair, that the most common percentage of hitting a set will be 1 to 8. Get to know your common percentages and gain an edge over novices. Get to know how outs work and what your outs are in any hand.  Outs imply then number of cards that will help the best hand. Count your outs, multiply the outs by two,  add one, and that's roughly the percentage you have at hitting. If you dont have a basic understanding of the above pronciples then rather dont play high stakes poker. Understand Reward vs. Skill The best poker players in the world  will understand that they need to be more risk-averse with their overall bankroll than their stack at the table. When you play a poker game,  value every chip equally at the table. You should only care about making correct plays. But play within your bankroll but play with calculated risks outside the poker room. Discipline and Patience Good poker players demand an advantage. What separates a winning poker player from a fish is that a fish does not expect to win, while a poker player does. A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. Recognize when you are on tilt. Game awareness and picking your moment to move in is key to success in poker. Psychological Fitness Understand your opponents and play according to what they may be thinking buy taking factors into account ie. stack size, betting patterns, position and tells etc. The poker pro always tries to have an answer to these questions: What does my opponent have? What does my opponent think I have? What does my opponent think that I think he has? Master this skill and start manipulating the tables but remember to have respect for all poker players. Enjoy the Game If you get to a stage where playing poker is more of a chore than fun...then stop playing. Take a break until the hunger returns.