Asia Poker Tour & Film Coming to Macau, China

Asia is getting its game on – literally. The Asian Poker Tour is set to begin and it plans to be bigger than ever!

In recent surveys, China wasn’t even in the Top Ten for countries that played poker, but it looks like the city of Macau will be alive and kicking August 12-23, 2009. Previous APT’s ran 6 days, but this year the event will be 12 days bringing people in from all over the country and world. In addition to the tournament itself, the APT will hold 20 events with 14 side events. The official schedule can be found here.

Buy in for the main event will be $34,400(HK), about $5345.15(AUS) or $4,438.61(US). There will be a High Rollers side event asking for $164,000(HK), but don’t fret, some events go for as little as $1,000(HK). Clearly, the event holders are trying to allow for as large a range of people to participate as possible.

Perhaps more exciting than the poker event itself, is the fact that “Poker King”, the first Chinese language poker film, is going to be filmed there during the event. A-List Asian Actors and Pop Stars including, Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo Tin Lok, Josie Ho Chiu Yee, Cherrie Ying Choi Yi, Heung Tzor, and Jo Kuk Cho Lam will be starring in this film. Participants of the APT and guests at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel & Casino, where the APT is taking place, will even have the chance to participate in the film. Tom Hall, Chief Executive Officer for AsianLogic Limited, owners of the APT, says, “The movie crew will need lots of extras and even players to take on roles if they choose.”

Expectations for the film have it making an even bigger impact on the poker community then Rounders did in the US and other English speaking countries.

Understanding Bet Sizing

Using proper bet sizing allows you to do several things during the course of playing the hand. I honestly believe that more hands are lost playing poker because of poor bet sizing than almost anything else. By sizing your bets correctly you are able to protect your hand against draws and move your opponents off of hands when they miss theirs. You are also able to narrow down your opponents that will be involved in the hand as well.

Pre - Flop bet sizing allows you to limit the number of players that enter the pot. Obviously this applies to No Limit games and particularly Texas Hold’em. Usually with premium hands like Aces, Kings, and Queens you do not want to play them against more than three opponents at the most. The best way to do this is to raise or re-raise an amount that will push others out of the pot. That does not mean that you should be careless either. If you are holding Queens and you raise and then get re-raised you definitely have something to take into consideration. However, with Kings and Aces you want to play those hands heads-up and then optimize your profits as the hand progresses.

By not raising with premium hands pre-flop you lower your win percentages significantly and thus the effectiveness of your hand and potential winnings.

Post - Flop bet sizing is done to take advantage of drawing hands and / or to move your opponent(s) off of drawing hands. This also entails utilizing position as well. Let’s say you are holding [Q][Q] and the flop comes down [Xs][Xs][J]. Making a pot sized bet is certainly reasonable. However, depending on what the blind structure is in relation to your chip count you need to discourage your opponent from drawing at the Spade flush. So, I am going to make a bet that is going to cost him around 25% of their stack. Why? Because you want to make your opponent feel the pain if they miss the turn and then put the pressure on even more on the river. You also want to discourage the draw because any [K] or [A] will get you in trouble as well.

True, some poker players are going to call no matter how much you bet on the flop when they have a draw. This kind of aggressiveness plays in your favor and will net you plenty of chips. However, they will also draw out on you from time to time but that is simply a part of the game. It happens.

Lastly, consider when you have flopped a Set or Straight and their are no flush draws on the board. Bet sizing becomes even more important then. The last thing you want to do is push your opponent out of the pot when you have the stone cold Nutz. Bet sizing allows you to tell a story and when you tell your story well you get paid for the show in the end. There is no greater feeling than a well played hand that gets paid off on the river. That is what the game of poker is all about. So whether you play online poker or live tournament poker and cash games your understanding and execution of bet sizing and position will improve your results even more.

New Coverage for World Series of Poker

The TV Coverage of this year’s World Series of Poker will include several major changes compared to previous years.  ESPN have decided that instead of filming the H.O.R.S.E event, which is a prestigious, big-money tournament that covers five poker disciplines, they will air coverage of three smaller events instead.

The H.O.R.S.E event has proven popular among hardcore poker fans, but the network decided that it did not translate to TV screens very well, and ratings have suffered.

ESPN will instead airing coverage of three events from this year’s WSOP: the 40th anniversary $40,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, the Ante Up for Africa event and, of course, the Main Event.

Additionaly, the WSOP organizers have added another day to the calendar before the final table, citing the reason that the Main Event should be a test of skill rather than a test of endurance.  The added day has posed a problem for ESPN, as the pace of eliminations appears to be quicker than in previous years.  Rather than giving ESPN three hours of television out of each 10-12 hour day, the are finding it hard to find stories to tell from the shorter amount of footage.  This has, however, meant that poker fans get more of what they really wan - nitty gritty hands instead of all-in confrontations.

Australian Wins Poker Ashes

Shane Warne may not be instilling terror in English batters this year, but he is still creating an imposing presence - albeit on the poker table instead of the cricket field.  Warne led an Australian line up of poker players to victory over England’s team (led by Darren Gough) in the 888.com Poker Ashes.

The australian poker players, Shane Warne, Jeff Thomson, Damien Martyn, and Dean Jones bested Gladstone Small, Dimi Mascharenas, Rob Key, and Matthwe Hoggard - 4-1 in the 888.com Poker Ashes.

The series was already decided by the fourth match, but Warne and Gough decided to spice it up and placed a side bet on the final round.  The losing captain would wear their opponent’s shirt at Lord’s for the Test Match.  Warne led his team to victory, so avoided having to wear the three lions, leaving Yorkshireman Darren Gough to wear the Australian green and gold.

Charlie Elias Shines With Personality At WSOP

Australia had a hero at the World Series of Poker this week.

While former Sydney floor tiler, Charlie Elias, didn’t make it past 53rdplace, he still set a precedent and standard for future Australian players. While some argue that Australian native Joe Hachem did the same thing back in 2005 when he won the event, Hachem’s personality and sportsmanship cannot be compared to that of Elias.

Meticulous and personable, Elias played the definition of an adaptable hand. He played slow, studying each player separately at each individual hand. He never made a move unless he was sure about it. He spent 5 minutes thinking about a move against Dan Harrington and finally stated, “You don’t have the ace. You don’t have the king. I know you don’t have it. You can’t have it. I call.” Dan’s response of, “Good call, Kid” showed respect for Elias’ gift; welcoming of Elias’ talent; and also the grim respect of having been defeated and called on a bluff.

In reality, it was the two hands that Elias rushed that pushed him out of the game before his time.

Putting down 2 pair against a straight, Elias lost $1,000,000 (US) in one of his quicker hands. In his next hand, he pushed all-in with an AK, while his opponent held tight to QQ. Unfortunately for Elias, the Queens held out and Elias finished 53rd.

Still, it was this meticulous playing that kept Elias in the game longer then Hachem, who didn’t even break the told 100 this year. In fact, up until his last two hands, Elias was consistently placed amongst the top ten of the tournament, if not the top four. With each won hand, chants of, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” could be heard and clearly that was a source of encouragement and empowerment for Elias during the game.

Elias is still fairly new to the poker circuit, so it’s safe to say that he’ll have more time to improve his game and will also increase in popularity. Having already earned respect from veteran players, there’s no doubt that Elias will be around for a long, long time. And maybe next year, he’ll win that coveted WSOP bracelet.

Can Phil Ivey win the 2009 Main Event Championship?

Poker players around the world are all asking the same question. Can Phil Ivey win the 2009 No Limit Main Event Championship? Well that is certainly a viable question and one that will be answered a few months from now in November. After eight grueling days of playing non-stop poker for twelve hours a day we are now down to the final nine players. By now most of you know who Phil Ivey is but for those who don’t let me give you a brief summary of his poker career.

Phil Ivey was born in New Jersey and learned to play cards at an early age. Once he put together a small bankroll he would head off to Foxwoods to play seven-card stud and no limit hold’em and hone his skills. Ivey held a job as necessary but new early on that he was going to be a professional gambler and put his energy into becoming the best there is. Like everyone else he had his ups and downs and went broke many times before learning proper bankroll management to go along with his growing skill playing poker.

Ivey broke onto the national scene in 2000 winning a couple of titles in the US Poker Open and Jack Binion Open. In the 2002 World Series of Poker Ivey won three bracelets announcing to the poker world that he was here to stay. Since then Ivey has been a mainstay on the poker scene with several tournament wins which include the 2009 World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic for a cool $1.5 million dollars. Ivey is just as deadly in online and live cash games raking in millions of dollars against top poker pros over the years.

One would think that he would have a considerable edge over the rest of the table. However, that is not necessarily the case because Ivey is short stacked at this final table with only $10 million in chips and will need to double up relatively quickly. My feeling is that Ivey will either double up early and make a run or be out of the tournament. Why? Well, because I have never known Phil Ivey to play for anything less than First Place.

It certainly will not be easy as the chip leader is sitting on a stack of $59 million with the next largest stack at $34 million. However, if Ivey can double up I expect that it will be a very entertaining final table and we just may see him take down the Main Event and add yet the most significant bracelet of his two already from this years WSOP.

I am looking forward to it and you should be too.