Hugo's Blogspotting: 24 January

High Stakes Action Down Under

Well the Aussie Millions is over and nobody went to Tunica so all the blogs are quiet again. Brandon Adams gives us a final taste of high stakes degeneracy on his blog at Always Bluff:

“A fit of gambling insanity took place after the 100k Fox Sports Cash Game that took place two days ago. The Cash Game was pretty eventful for me. I lost 54,000 despite being dealt QQ, AK twice, AA twice, TT, JJ, 99 twice, AQs once.”

Mind you, that’s just the sort of hands you get dealt when you lose a bunch of dough playing Holdem. Of course Adams is a renaissance man and gambles on a whole host of other pastimes. Also it seems that the poker is merely a sideshow to the real gambling that goes on these days:

“So the two days after the Cash Game I played golf with Antonius, KobyTapOut, and Robert Alexander… It was for sure the most insane golf gambling I’ve ever seen… on the last hole of day two, KobyTapOut (Jani) lost 180k in one hole when he got a par vs Robert’s birdie… there was just a huge amount of gambling in two days, everything from Chinese at dinner to tossing quarters to betting on the Australian (Patrik won $105,000 bettting props at tennis matches last night).”

Now we’re talking – sure beats a load of hand histories from someone who has busted out of the tournament. Many players often look on in awe or shock at the gambling antics of the high stakes scene. I remember an aspiring pro once said to me, “I’m not a gambler, I’m a poker player” and I have heard other players make similar statements. Because they aren’t playing table games or slot machines or betting on horses these poker players tend to feel some misplaced superiority against your normal everyday punter who has never even heard the word “equity” let alone the concept of putting a plus or minus sign in front of it.

But what these would-be professionals don’t understand is that the high stakes poker players are, on the whole, pure gamblers. Why else with all the prop bets, Chinese poker and endless golf match-ups? I recall reading or hearing an interview with Barry Greenstein once where he claimed that most people would be surprised at how players in the big game in Bobby’s Room actually had a big a percentage of their bankrolls in play on the table. Chip Reese famously said that poker’s not right if it doesn’t hurt when you lose. Maybe it doesn’t even hurt for Adams and all his pals…

Dwindling Numbers at Tunica

I mentioned Tunica and its dwindling numbers above; again Always Bluff offers some insights with a nice little article written by Beanie:

“Tunica is no longer the quaint little casino town of 15 years ago. 15 years of money being pulled out of a community has that effect. I do not know of anyone that looks forward to this event and the numbers bear out. When you compare the Tunica numbers to the Poker Stars or Australian event you will see that the World Poker Tour is fighting a losing battle.”

He also mentions saturation of WPT events as another factor – maybe the poker “craze” in America is finally fading?

Loose Cannon

Bigger Deal has an interesting blog from Roy Houghton, card room manager of the Loose Cannon Club in London. Loose Cannon operated on the basis of charging players a membership fee instead of taking a rake or table charge for their games. This way they could offer poker legally. According to Roy,

“The only way to open a legal club was to have a Private Members Club whereby members paid a quarterly, six-monthly or yearly payment and all poker, including tournaments, was TOTALLY FREE OF CHARGE.”

He refers to Gutshot losing their case and continues,

“….although found guilty, as of to-day all these ‘illegal’ clubs are still open for business, which frankly made our model impossible to operate. The fact is that poker players will not pay a fee up front, preferring instead to pay registration fees for tournaments and a table charge or rake for cash games. Despite letters to the UK’s Gaming Commission and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.( none of which was answered) we religiously stuck to our guns and persevered, knowing the membership payment was doomed.”

Roy goes on to write that Loose Cannon now no longer asks for a membership fee upfront and charges for its poker games or tournaments in the regular way. Nothing so spectacular there apart from the fact that a poker room manager has just admitted something wasn’t working so now they are trying something different. That is what I call front page news. I'm having a hard time imagining certain other card room managers making a u-turn like that.

Inside Erik Seidel

Going back to the Aussie Millions I’m sure you all know by now that veteran pro Erik Seidel came second in the main event which was good for a cool million (albeit $AUS). Seidel is famous for playing his cards close to his chest (literally – he famously wouldn’t reveal his hole cards to the cameras during a WSOP final table he participated in), but seeing as Michael Craig is friendly with all the big name American pros there’s bound to be some insight on Craig’s blog about Seidel’s winning ways. Or maybe not.

“I’ve taken depositions of corporate officers and directors, guys I was suing, guys represented by the toughest lawyers in New York. Those depositions were under the most adversary conditions possible, and none of those were as tough as getting information out of my buddy Erik at his kitchen table.”

Craig is actually referring to an interview he had with Seidel when Craig was putting together a strategy book. He asks Seidel to think of a concept about No Limit Holdem to discuss:

“Seidel: “I don’t think there is a concept. My thoughts about no limit are just that there really is no guidebook or blueprint about how to play or what cards to play. There’s a great range of cards you can play in different situations and it’s way more of a situational and mental game, I think.”

Well, he has a point. No Limit Holdem is a universe unto itself. Craig gets excited when Seidel mentions that he thinks John Juanda is good in complex situations.

“What kinds of complex situations?

Seidel: “I don’t know. I don’t know. There just are hands and there’s information in hands and [other players are] not really used to thinking through the hands the way someone like John Juanda is. He’ll give you examples.”

Ok, most helpful then. Of course it just goes to show how subtle and sophisticated No Limit Holdem is and if a smart guy like Erik Seidel can’t put it into words the rest of us must be in trouble.

Then again Seidel is definitely an old school player who strongly believes in keeping anything you know about poker to yourself and why not? He paid his dues in tough cash games at the famous Mayfair club back in Manhattan and I doubt many of the players revealed the secrets of Holdem to him as he was learning.

Poker is definitely not like that anymore.

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

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