National Heads Up Poker Championship Premieres Tomorrow | Poker News

April 15, 2006
Earl BurtonPrint

In two short years, the National Heads Up Poker Championship has captured the attention of not only the poker community but the television audience as well. Last year's No Limit Hold Em event, broadcast during the month of May, drew an average of four million viewers over the six hours that were broadcast. The two hour finale, which featured the stirring battle between Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson and eventual champion Phil Hellmuth, was watched by over six million viewers. NBC, thrilled with the success of the first tournament, will launch the airing of the Second National Heads Up Poker Championship starting this Sunday from Noon-1PM (Eastern Time).

Indicating their commitment to the tournament, the coverage by NBC has been expanded to ten hours this year and the series will continue until the two hour final matchup on Sunday, May 21st. The format has also seemed to be a winner with poker fans worldwide as a field of 64 players battle in heads up matches. The players are placed in a four bracket arrangement, much like the NCAA Basketball Championship, and play until two survivors meet in a best two out of three series to determine the champion.

The premiere on Sunday will feature competition in the first round between many of the greats in the game today including defending Heads Up champion Phil Hellmuth, 2005 Heads Up runner-up Chris Ferguson, and 2005 World Series Ladies Event and WPT Ladies' Night Champion Jennifer Tilly. Other professionals involved in the play of the first broadcast will be Paul Phillips, Josh Arieh and current Player of the Year leader Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi.

Advanced No Limit Strategies

When playing no limit hold'em, it's extremely important to take into consideration pot odds. You have to adjust your play from the limit game and remember that at any point, you may have to put all your chips in the pot. Take the time during the start of your session and study other players. Remember what they raised with and take note of hands they show. Remember their betting style because they will most likely bet the same way down the road.

After playing No-Limit extensively on the internet, I've noticed that the keys to winning No-Limit are one's knowledge of the game and his ability to adapt to his opponents' knowledge. You must know what your skills are at No-Limit; what stages of the game you have mastered. Once you realize how you are good at No-Limit, you must then apply this to how others at your table play No-Limit badly.

PokerTips.org

Calculating Hold'em Poker Odds

Calculating poker odds quickly is one of the hardest thing to do when you are in the middle of a big hand, but it's also essential to making the right calls and correct lay downs. Being able to calculate your odds quickly can help you make those decisions much faster and easier. Playing the odds in the long run will net you a gain... why do you think casinos make so much money?

"Probability is a huge factor in texas hold 'em. Players use odds to determine their actions. The chances of finishing a flush or a straight, the probablity of getting an overcard, the percentage of times you're going to flop a set to match your pocket pair are all important factors in poker. Knowledge of these statistics is key to winning. In online games especially with very few (if any) tells, statistical knowledge becomes the main factor when choosing whether to bet, call, or fold."

Texasholdem-poker.com

When to Bluff in Poker

Bluffing is a big part of poker. Those who can make a bluff and those that can spot a bluff are the poker players who usually leave the game with the most money. However, in low limit poker, bluffing a pot is hard to pull off. More often than not, you'll get called with second or even third pair. In my opinion, bluffing works best in tournament games, where a good bluff or a bad bluff can determine if you stay or are eliminated from the tournament.

"In low-limit games, you find mostly unskilled players — and the less skilled your opponent, the more difficult it is to bluff him. It just doesn’t work! You could set up the perfect bluffing situation, but it would be lost on the unsophisticated player. He wouldn’t see it because all he sees is his own hand. If he has the smallest glimmering of hope to win a hand, he most often will call automatically. A guided missile wouldn’t get him out." ~Roy West

More of bluffing

Common Poker Tells

Being able to read other poker players and picking up their tells will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Making a correct read could mean making a great laydown or bluffing your way to a big pot.

(1) A Shaking Hand

This tell is very common for newer poker players. It
occurs when the player bets. There hand will shake when they put their chips
out. This is not an intentional tell... and it almost ALWAYS means a huge hand.
They have hit big and are excited.

(2) Checking Their Chips

This is another very common poker tell. Right
after the flop, a player glances down at their chips. It's very quick and
subtle... to catch it, you have to be watching the players eyes right when the
flop comes out. It means they connected.

(3) Staring Through the Flop

This is the opposite of the above tell. If
a player glances at their chips when they hit big, then they will often stare at
the flop when they miss. If a player is looking at the flop like he's trying to
find some sort of hand in there, it means he missed.

(4) Checking Their Holecards

This occurs most often in texas holdem when
a flop comes out all of the same suit. The player checks their holecards. They
are checking to see if one of their cards matches the suit on the board. It
usually means that their cards aren't suited, and that they do NOT have the
flush... but they may well have a flush-draw.

(5) Asking for Clarification

Anytime you hear a poker player ask the
dealer for clarification, it usually means they have a big hand. Questions like
"My bet?", "How much is it to me?", or "What's the bet?" usually indicate a
strong hand.

(6) Rudeness

Anytime a player is rude to you right after a bet, it
almost always means a big hand... they are trying to piss you off enough to call
them.

(7) Being Polite

The opposite of the above tell, anytime a person seems
nice or polite to you right after a bet, they are probably bluffing.

(8) Choppy Conversation

If a player is having a conversation during a
poker hand and his talk is choppy, as if his mind is on something else, it
usually means he is not too confident in his hand. This correlates to a weak
poker hand.

(9) Smooth Conversation

Conversely, if a player is talking without
missing a beat while in a hand, it means he is not overly concerned about the
hand he is playing. This is because he feels comfortable and usually means a big
hand.

How big a bankroll do you need?

You have to have a bankroll before strolling into a poker game. The bankroll is your life line. If you're playing No Limit, you better have a nice bankroll that you can lose. It should not be money that you depend on for paying your rent or alimony. Also, it's important that your bankroll allows you to play your game and not to play scared.

"Some players can be effective on a relatively short bankroll, but others need more of a cushion. They'll get stressed out and play scared if they don't have enough money behind them." ~Jennifer Harman

"Poker is a tough business, you can go through long streaks when you don't win anything." When things go badly, when you can't seem to cash in a tournament or win a significant pot in a cash game, you come to understand the importance of maintaining an adequate bankroll. ~Erik Seidel

"Don't play Phil Ivey heads up. I tried that once and I failed miserably." ~John D'Agostino

Team Full Tilt

sit and go tournament strategies.....

Haven't played a tremendous amount of poker in the past few months. I still attend my weekly home game every now and then but I was working on some other stuff that same night. I've also slowed down playing online due to time constraints but I still try to get in a sit and go every so often. I've still been doing pretty well in sit n' gos. It seems that people are getting better and better as the online poker industry starts to mature some more. I can tell because, in several SnGs I've played in, there are still 7-8 people left at the 10 person table when blinds are at 100/200. That's crazy isn't it. I think everyone else has figured out that the best strategy is to wait.

Here are some of my SnG strategy tips:
1) Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.

Here's a good analogy that I just read in an article by Bob Ciaffone:

"Bob, if I were teaching poker, the first thing I would do is tell my student to look out the window for two hours and watch the grass grow. And for lesson two, I would have him look out the window for four hours and watch the grass grow."

In a nutshell, let everyone else kill everyone else. Just stand back and relax unless you have monster. I've laid down hands pre-flop like A Jos, A 10, 8 8, K Q, KJ, etc... I doesn't make sense to jump in on these hands unless it's cheap to see the flop. For example, you have KJos. The flop comes K Q 3 rainbow. If someone goes all in, what do you do? Are you going to risk your entire tournament playing your KJ? If someone went all in, I would most likely fold. Just wait for the next hand.

2) If someone goes all in early, fold your hand no matter what you have unless it's the nuts. Because most likely you are beat. You could flop a set of 6s, with a 6 4 2, flop and someone WILL have the 3 5. Unless this is late in the game where someone may be short stacked, fold your hand.

3) Start making your move when there are about 5 players left at the table. On top of being patient, you still have to win one or two hands every now and then. This usually put you in a good position to sit until there are 4-5 players left at the table. Once you get to this point, start making some moves to get into "in the money" position. You'll find that the table gets very tight when it gets down to four. Everyone just wants to get in the money.

4) Final tip: as long as you have some chips left, you are still in the game. Remember this because I've come back to win a tournament when I was down to $140 in chips. With $140 anyone usually calls you to knock you out. With a little luck, you can double up a few times and get to a decent chip stack where others will not call you. So don't give up when you are down, there's always a chance when you have chips in front of you.

That's it for now.

Found this new site... www.boogster.com

Been looking at some other poker sites to join lately and came upon this money site... http://www.boogster.com. You can get free poker books, gift certificates and even poker tracker. I decided to signup through this site for Party Poker and get the free poker tracker. Maybe this could help me improve my game. Supposedly it gives you tendancies of other players you are playing against online. So if someone always bluffs during a certain situations, poker tracker tells you. I decided to try out Party Poker. I was able to get my free poker tracker in about a day. These guys at boogster.com are quick. I'm looking into signing up for Pacific Poker and Bodog. I've heard good things about them and will give it a try after testing Party.

I'm back...

After a long hiatus, I'm back. Poker has definitely slowed down for me -- both live and online. I made a fantastic run online and cashed out $800. I treated myself to a Sharp Aquos 15" LCD for my kitchen and bought a LV purse for my wife. After I cashed out, I gave a little back. It was much tougher to win and I was getting screwed left and right. Getting rivered every other hand. I think the online games know when you take their money and run. Every now and then, I make a nice run and escape with a few hundred dollars but when i start playing again it becomes very tough to win. The online sites must give you some and take some back. After I lost a little back, I decided to take it slow and concentrate on another poker endeavour...

6 straight....

This is my sixth straight day of playing poker online. I've been playing on and off for about six months now but lately I've been playing a lot more. Why stop when I've been winning every time I play. I've only been playing for about 2-3 hours a night. The way I figure it, I cash out about $50-100 a night... meaning I make $50 an hour playing poker. That's not bad, considering it's mostly extra pocket change for me. I think I've finally figured out the system. I'm playing a lot better than when I first started and I'm able to win consistently. So I ask myself, how much do I need to play to make $1,000 a month??? Since I cannot realistically win every single night (most players have bad nights, even the good ones), I'll need to play about 20-30 hours a month to make my goal. That's assuming I win 75% of the time, and lose some of it back the other 25% I play.

Tonight was a tough night. I played for about 2 hrs and came out ahead only $40. I only play at the $1/2 tables of six seated hold'em, making it that much more difficult to win $100.

The most memorable hand is:
I had AA, there are five callers pre-flop. I raise it in the big blind position. Everyone calls. So there are five players playing. Flop comes up 10 7 3. I bet at second position. I get 3 callers. The turn comes up as a J. I bet out again. One person folds and the other two call. The River shows a K. I bet out again, now in first position. Both players call. One has two pairs, Js over 3s. The over flips over two pairs as well, Ks over Js. I lose $7 on that hand, but it could've been worse if they raised me on the river, because I would've called.

Lesson is that AAs are 82% favorites preflop. Once the flop comes, it's fair game. Because I was in first position, I had to bet so that my callers (most likely on a draw) had to pay to see the next card. Also in low limit games, people will call to the end on draws.

Cash: $467 + $40 winnings = $507
Total winnings to date: $407