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The incredibly successful NBC program known as Poker After Dark just kicked off its 6th season this week.  And what’s cool is that Poker After Dark had the announcers playing in this episode.  High Stakes Poker hosts Kara Scott and Gabe Kaplan, Ali Nejad, Mark Gregorich, and Joe Sebok were some of the players involved in this game which was entitled Commentators III. 

Nejad, who normally hosts Poker After Dark, took center stage in this episode with his many antics.  One of them included pulling out champagne glasses and toasting to Joe Sebok being on a televised poker table.  The joke was made because of Sebok’s habit of bubbling out right before the final table in several major live tournaments.  Some of the tourneys Sebok has bubbled out in before the final table include the WPT Fiest al Lago, the 2007 Legends of Poker, and the Bay 101 Shooting Star.

And while there were many jokes to be had during this special version of Poker After Dark, the action was anything but a joke with blinds set at $100/$200.  Sebok was able to make a move early after taking down a pot of 7,900 chips against Gabe Kaplan.  However, Sebok quickly became a target when Mark Gregorich held pocket aces.  Gregorich fired out a 3,000 chips bet on a weak board while holding pocket aces; this made Sebok fold and brought the action to a close.

But there will be much, much more action in Season 6 of Poker After Dark since there are 35 episodes left.  And there are 5 episodes left in the Commentators III segment so it will be fun to see who comes out the big winner among the announcers!

Those who pay any attention at all to basketball know Gilbert Arenas since he is consistently one of the NBA’s top players (when he’s not injured).  But what many basketball fans don’t know is that Arenas is a big-time gambler who spends a lot of time in the Washington Wizards locker room playing high stakes poker.  More recently, Arenas has been playing a lot with teammate Jaravis Crittenton.

Unfortunately for Gilbert, he racked up a $25,000 debt to Crittenton as the two have been playing.  According to sources, Arenas has been slow to pay his gambling debts which resulted in a huge feud between Jaravis and him.  Things boiled over on a team flight when the two started arguing with Crittenton screaming out, “I’m not your punk!”  A couple of days later, Arenas placed 3 guns by Crittenton’s locker and told him to pick one. 

But nothing even compares to what happened a few days ago when the two teammates pulled out guns on each other.  Luckily, things didn’t go any further than the two pulling out the guns, but it was definitely a bad experience for the entire Wizards organization.

Since the gun incident, Arenas has had to do some backpedaling in an attempt to save his 6-year, 111 million dollar contract.  He told reporters that him and Crittenton are still friends in addition to saying about the situation, “I can’t speak on that.  But if you know me, you’ve been here, I’ve never done anything (involving) violence.  Anything I do is funny…..well, it’s funny to me.”

He also said that the guns were in the locker room because he didn’t want his kids to get a hold of them.  He stated this by saying, “That’s bad judgement on my part to store them in here, and I take full responsibility for that.  I have to deal with the police investigation.”

Out of all the strategy concepts we hear discussed in poker, putting an opponent on a range has to rank right up there at the top.  After all, being able to determine a specific range of cards your opponent could have is crucial to understanding what cards they hold.  With that in mind, here is a look at how to put your opponents on a range and figure out how your hand stacks up.

Define “Range”

The first step in being able to put your opponents on a range is to clarify the whole meaning of range to yourself.  When you put an opponent within a specific range of cards, you’re merely identifying certain card values that they could have.  For instance, if your opponent is betting heavily pre-flop, you can probably assume that their range is A-A to J-J, A-K.  With this being the case, you’ll need to have cards in this range to even consider calling.

Range Example

Let’s assume that you’re holding pocket jacks on a board of A-2-J-7-5 with no flush possibilities on the board.  In this case, you’d be sitting pretty good since you are holding pocket jacks.  However, an opponent is betting heavily which indicates that they either have top pair or A-A.  Your trips jacks will no doubt hold up against top pair, but they will most certainly lose to trips aces. 

In either case, you should definitely make the call.  There are 3 possible combinations which could make A-A left in the deck while there are 12 possible combinations that could make A-K in the deck.  With 15 possible combinations and 12 combos that will leave you a winner, simply divide 12 by 15 to find your answer.  You are an 80% favorite in this instance after doing the math.

Christmas is a time of caring, sharing, spending time with family and, for those who are die-hard about poker, hitting the tables.  Sure poker may not be a holiday tradition for many people, however, it certainly can be if you enjoy the game enough.  After all, why put your passion on hold for a whole day?  With that in mind, here’s a look at a few reasons why you should play poker on Christmas.

Major Poker Points

The best reason why you should play poker on Christmas is because rooms are willing to jack up the amount of poker points they give out during this time of year.  Some rooms triple or quadruple the amount of points given out which makes it very enticing to play.  And we all know that poker points are awesome because you can use them to get into tournaments for free or even cash them out for real money!

Lots of Bad Players

Christmas is a day when many people get the work day off.  Seeing as how this is the case, you can find a lot of recreational players online who are really bad at the game.  Since your goal is to make money, playing against these awful players is an excellent way to pad your bankroll.

Earn Money Back

Anybody who has a heart is willing to spend money on their family in the form of presents.  Of course, some presents are really expensive so this can put a hole in your bank account.  So after all of those presents have been opened and the food has been eaten, hop online and start playing some poker so you can earn that money back!

Harrah’s Entertainment isn’t wasting any time preparing for the 2010 WSOP since they have already released the schedule.  And this year’s schedule definitely includes some very big changes!  The biggest change is that the prestigious $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament will no longer be offered in the WSOP.  This is really interesting because a lot of the top pro players like playing in this event since there were fewer people involved.  However, it is hard to justify keeping this tournament when the amount of entrants dropped from 148 to 95 in one year.

And Harrah’s is replacing this tournament with another $50k event so people probably won’t care too much.  The event that will be replacing the H.O.R.S.E. tourney is the $50,000 Mixed Event.  The Mixed Event includes all kinds of poker games like Seven Card Razz, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud, No Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Hold’em, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball.

Another huge change is that many of the mid-range buy-in Omaha and Stud events are gone with lots of $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tourneys taking their place.  The most obvious reason for this move is because few people played in the mid-level Stud and Omaha tournaments so the decision was made to get rid of them.  Taking their place will be six $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tourneys.  Harrah’s is trying to use the momentum of last year’s Stimulus Special, where 6,102 people signed up, to bring in more players.

One more move that is sure to be unpopular is Harrah’s decision to take a 10% rake instead of a 9% rake from the $1,000 and $1,500 tournaments.  Players definitely won’t like this since the money will be coming directly out of their prize pools.

It’s easy to push your advantage when you’re holding a big pocket pair before the flop.  And there’s a very good chance you could have the advantage after the flop hits the board.  However, it is much tougher deciding what to do when you’ve only got a drawing hand.  It is so tough that many players decide to limp in before the flop and on the flop, then fold as soon as their draw doesn’t hit.  But the key to playing draws correctly is to play them as aggressively as possible.  Here is a look at how to do so.

Advantages of being Aggressive

When you limp in with a draw, the only way you’re going to win is by hitting your hand.  You’re unlikely to bluff an opponent if you merely call everything that comes your way.  However, if you raise with a drawing hand on the flop, you can either win by making your opponent fold to the raise, or by hitting your hand if the opponent calls.  In either case, you have one more chance to win the pot by playing your draw aggressively.

An Example

Just knowing the advantages of playing a draw isn’t enough so here’s an example of how to properly handle one.  Assume you are in a $3/$6 game of No-Limit Hold’em and you’ve got a $200 stack while holding 7c-8c in late position.  The flop is 2c-Qd-4c and your opponent bets $14 into a $9 pot.  Everyone else folds leaving you with the decision of whether or not to call. 

In this situation, you’ve got to consider that your opponent has a set of queens at best which will be a winner if your draw doesn’t hit.  If your opponent doesn’t have a set of queens, and you raise, then they may think you have a set of queens.  Even if you don’t, you could still force them to fold.

If you’re sitting in late position with pocket queens then it’s pretty much a sure call or raise.  After all, you’re not only holding one of the best hands in all of poker, but you’ve also got position over other players at the table.  Even still, there are times when you may not even want to call with a hand like pocket queens.  This especially comes into play when you’re up against the gap concept.

For those who are unfamiliar with the gap concept, it involves someone making a raise and somebody else re-raising in pre-flop play.  The gap concept also takes into account that a much stronger hand is needed before the flop to re-raise rather than just call.  So if you’re facing a raise and a re-raise before your turn to act, it’s likely that you’re up against one or two tough hands.  In fact, you could be facing pocket aces or kings, which are better pre-flop hands than what you’re holding.

Assuming you are in this situation, it would be risky to make the call with both raises out in front of you.  It’s likely that you’re up against at least one of the aforementioned hands so you won’t want to risk too many chips in this situation. 

You could make the call and assume that the 3-bettor is being overly aggressive while trying to steal the pot.  However, the person who made the initial raise could have a stronger hand than you as well, which makes a call even tougher in this situation. The best move in this instance might be to muck your cards since there are likely one or two hands that have you beat pre-flop.

Anytime a poker article or strategy book talks about bankroll management, the advice is aimed at professional and semi-professional players.  That’s because the poker world seems to think that casual players don’t need to know anything about managing their bankrolls since they’re not playing for a living.  However, bankroll management skills are just as important for the less serious rounders too. 

After all, casual players have the same dreams as professional players in that they want to hit it big one day…..they just don’t have the money and/or aren’t in the right situation to play professionally yet.  This alludes to the first tip of bankroll management for casual players in that they should never use their everyday money on poker.  Professional players already know this, but many casual players use money that should be set aside for bills in order to try to play like a pro.  This is a huge mistake as average players need to worry about bills first and poker second.

In order to avoid over spending on poker, casual players also need to stick to limits they’re comfortable with.  In fact, it’s a good idea to play at a limit below what you normally would as a casual player until you’ve developed the skills to move up; this ensures that you’ll never be playing above your head.

One more tip to keep in mind when managing a non-professional player bankroll is that you should learn all the strategy you can.  By constantly learning, you will be sure to improve and help your game grow.  In turn, this will help you make money instead of lose it which always helps in the bankroll department.

When you think of the World Series of Poker, you definitely have to think Binion’s since this is where the WSOP got its start.  Back in 1970, Benny Binion named his former invitational poker tournament the World Series of Poker which gave rise to what is now the most prolific poker event in the world.  Unfortunately, it has just been announced that Binion’s will be closing down some of its facilities.

Facing financial pressure from an already declining Las Vegas hotel market, TLC Enterprises (owner of Binion’s) has decided to close the hotel area, steakhouse, keno parlor, and coffee shop.  The move comes as a result of the company’s failure to attract guests to the $21 – $54 rooms that are available. 

It’s no surprise that Binion’s can’t attract guests seeing as how we’re mired in an economic slump, and the hotel doesn’t even offer wireless Internet.  Even the scary mom and pops hotels out in the middle of the country have wireless Internet these days so it is amazing that TLC Enterprises refuses to opt for this service.  Aside from the Internet thing, most people would just rather prefer to stay in the modern, updated hotels rather than a historical cavern.

At least some of the history will still be available to people since the poker room, casino, and sports book will all stay open.  However, I don’t know how many people are going to frequent these areas when there is no nearby hotel to stay at.  In my opinion, TLC Enterprises has just badly mismanaged the hotel and casino, and everyone who wants to visit will be the ones suffering.

Of all the draws you can have in Texas Hold’em, straight draws are possibly the most difficult to play.  That’s because you have two different types of them in inside and open-ended straight draws.  Open-ended straight draws are obviously the most favorable to play since they give a person 8 outs while inside draws only offer 4 outs.  Since these two draws differ greatly from each other, it can be very difficult to decide what to do in each instance.  Here is a look at what to do when you have each draw.

Open-Ended Straight Draw

As mentioned before, open-ended straight draws definitely give you the better shot at hitting your hand by the river.  So you should almost always be drawing for a straight when you have this kind of hand since your pot odds will be correct.  However, you should watch out for a couple of things before you fully commit to your open-ended draw.

One of these things is when there is a pair on the board and other players are betting heavily; this means there is the potential for a full house on the board.  Another thing to beware of is when you’re only using one of your hole cards to make the straight because it’s likely someone else will be drawing for a higher straight.

Inside Straight Draw  

With an inside straight, your odds are cut in half so you will rarely call just based on this hand.  However, it makes sense to draw for the inside straight if you’ve got additional value in your hand such as overcards, a flush, etc.  You can also draw in this instance if there were several limpers before you since your pot odds will increase significantly.