YESTERDAY’S MAN! Sometimes when you go back over all of the thousands of games that made up this year’s record breaking World Series of Poker 2006 you turn up some entertaining little cameos. How could we all so easily forget the 2005 winner Joe Hachem and his $7,500,000 win now so easily eclipsed by Jamie Gold’s $12,000,000 win this year? So what happened to Joe? Well the gifted Wizard of Oz put up a good fight with the outcome set out below for you to pick over.
HACHEM’S LAST STAND! During a massive hand, an opponent moved all-in under the gun with $67,000. A fellow player called and Joe Hachem re-raised all-in for an extra $30,000! One of the two remaining players called and showed Jack-Jack. The second opponent showed Ace-Queen and Joe flipped over Aces with a wide smile soon reduced to a jaw-dropper when the rockets were cracked wide open by another Jack falling neatly into place on the flop. Exit yesterday’s hero in two hundred and thirty eighth place to ear-splitting applause. No shame in any of this. Joe had fought brilliantly back from being over $65,000 down from his initial $85,000 and felt he just couldn’t put a foot wrong. Then he stepped into the third Jack which slammed shut and cracked his Pocket Rockets! “At least I didn’t do anything wrong. You can’t account for a hand like that!” Back to Down-Under but far from down-and-out.
CASH v TOURNAMENT QUESTIONS Q: Have you noticed how players tend to call more in cash games than they do in tournaments? A: It’s logical if you think about it. The ability to buy back in during cash games is always likely to lead to more calling.
Q: I always seem to play much better poker during tournaments than I do during cash games. Any thoughts? A: The most obvious observation is that once you’re in a tournament you’ve already paid for your bottom line. Cash games can get very heavy. If it’s not going well you’re probably draining away more of your bankroll than you’d anticipated. This is real, unexpected cash disappearing and it makes you nervous. Once that happens, stop playing. Tomorrow’s another day.
POKER TIP OF THE DAY The standard advice in a no-limit cash game would be to arrive at the table with the biggest stack you can in order to intimidate your opponents. However, I have occasionally found it very rewarding to deliberately kick off with a small stack. Why? It sometimes leads to the other players playing much looser against you. Also a small stack is easier to play because you don’t have so many marginal decisions to make after the flop. It also puts a natural limit on any losses during any one hand. Try it once in a while.
