My first tipping poker dealers in Las Vegas post has drawn so much attention, I thought the topic deserved a second look.  Revisting the discussion, my bottomline stance is to tip dealers $5 an hour, possibly more, but $5 as a baseline per hour.  Several past and present poker dealers have chimed they should get more money, but I haven’t gotten any definitive answer on how much exactly that number is and what the dealers do that makes them feel entitled to so much money ($20/hr+).
So I dug a little bit on Google.  Here is one opinion from VegasClick.com:
There is …read more

Question for the readers out there: Do you have a favorite poker hand?  If so what is it?  Mine is J7.  I’m not particular about the suit, but obviously I prefer suited cards over non-suited.  I’ve always felt that Jacks and Sevens are the luckiest cards you can have and so I feel like I have a playable hand when I’m dealt these two cards.  I have no proof, but I feel I’ve had a fair amount of success with these cards.  Plus, it’s always good to have a little wild card in your where you might raise with nothing …read more

Have you ever been in a hand where you reached a royal flush?  This writer has not.  I can only imagine what my reaction would be.  In fact, I don’t even recall hitting a straight flush.  To be sure, both are extremely rare.  In the video below, Dog Mickelson hits the Queen of diamonds to send his opponent out in style.  The only flaw was there was little drama involving his Royal Flush.  He already had the hand 90% locked and needed to avoid only a Jack and an eight on the river to win.  If you have any great …read more

Cash games at the Riviera got really interesting late at night.  At about 1am or so, the people at the table had a nice share of alcohol and were happy just to play poker and slap the person’s back next to them.  I missed one of the nights the guys were all talking about the next day.  I heard one guy walked away with like $3,000.  Keep in mind this is a 1-2 no limit table and most of the people don’t start with much more than $250 in front of them.  I usually started with $75-$125 in chips.  The …read more

I’m watching some late night ESPN WSOP and one of the common denominators I’m seeing for people who give away their hand is acting to quick on their hand.  You’ve got to be careful here because even if you hold off, the amount of time you take to act can reveal patterns in your game.  But that’s secondary to acting very quickly when you’re holding a big hand or just hit your card.  This is especially illuminated if you have been acting slowly throughout the hand.  Of course, you can use this information to your advantage and act very excitedly …read more

Here’s a perfect video to show unnecessarily putting yourself in danger at the poker table.  The showdown features Eric Crain and Michael DeMichelle.  DeMichelle starts with decent hole cards (KQs) but hits nothing.  Crain starts with nothing (rags) and hits less than nothing.  Both players check the flop and DeMichelle checks again after the turn.  Crain bets at the pot and DeMichelle raises.  Crain then re-raises and DeMichelle goes all-in.  Definitely a highlight reel here for DeMichelle, but I thought both players were reckless with their chips in a hand neither had anything.  The better hand won, but what if …read more

Isaac Baron discusses his ideas on playing vulnerable hands for CardPlayer TV:

A new video at CardPlayer TV focuses on training a player that knows little to nothing about playing heads up poker, with live instruction for the newbie. A good watch for those not in the know, or otherwise.
Check it out here.
Here’s the description from CardPlayer.com:
The concept of this week’s free poker training video clip from Card Player Pro (powered by PokerSavvy Plus) is teaching a player how to stop sucking at heads-up no-limit hold’em. The clip is part of the video series called, appropriately, “I Suck at Heads Up,” wherein SavvyChris, a self-proclaimed heads-up novice, attempts to improve his game. …read more

Betting once all the cards are out is a different kind of art than any other station in poker.
Here’s pro Scott Clements with his perspectives on fifth street.

Allen Cunningham is just the most level-headed poker mind, I think. Here’s some thoughts from him on coming up in the poker world, and the synthesis of some of his poker theory and poker mind:

I like that he seems down to earth and normal. He seems to approach the game in a very organic way, which is refreshing from someone like him who has achieved such success. A nice flip-flop from the Scotty Nguyen style of being a cocky SOB.