In today's poker column: the best female poker players, and poker tip of the day, featuring the classic call...
BIRD IN THE HAND The more mature male players among you will already know from hard experience that the old concept that women “don’t have the balls” for poker is a good way to get your cash balance castrated. There are at least a dozen females I could name right off the top of my head who would be in with a very good chance of beating the likes of Ferguson and Brunson on the odd occasion without it being considered a fluke. Barbara Enright, Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Susie Isaacs spring immediately to the front of the queue. There is no doubting that online poker has encouraged an awful lot of ladies, who would not even consider running the gauntlet of a live casino, to perfect their Texas Hold’em skills from the comfort of their own living room. If you want to get a real insight into the female frame of mind at its most dangerous when it comes to top line poker read Annie “The Duchess” Duke’s book entitled: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed and Won Millions!Not only is it highly entertaining, you’ll immediately stop squinting down cleavages and start focussing very hard on the kind of Hold’em we like to discuss daily in this column. The leading lady players to look out for in my opinion are Cyclona “Clonie” Gowen and the improbably christened Cissy Bottoms, renowned as one of the best cash game players in America.
POKER TIP OF THE DAY Let’s say you’re in late position at a full table “no limit” game of Texas Hold’em with lots of pre-flop limpers and the player ahead of you steams in with a big pre-flop raise on that happy day when you have just been dealt pocket rockets. What do you do? Think about it. If he’s made a large pre-flop raise the odds are he has a high pair (maybe Jacks or Queens) that he doesn’t really want to play so he’s trying to shake all the limpers out of the pot with some early aggression. Now if you re-raise him, right away he knows nine times out of ten you are going to have massive hole cards. He folds and you’ve failed to achieve maximum value. So you certainly don’t re-raise him. You call.
THE CLASSIC CALL This is a classic time to call. Normally I’m not a fan of calling but this is a situation that illustrates the perfect time and the place to do so. You call in the knowledge that your opponent, having made a large pre-flop investment, is almost certain to raise again after the flop contributing to the pot that in all probability has your name on it. That’s the Classic Call. It sends a message that you’re just another limper when in fact you’re Darth Vader with a cosmic fillet knife. May the flop be with you.
