Why Daniel went ballistic at the World Series of Poker!
MOST EXPLOSIVE EVENT! With scores of games taking place every day in a myriad of different contests at the World Series of Poker I thought I’d select the most explosive moment so far.
BRIGHT SPARK IGNITES Some bright spark WSOP official decided to ignite the atmosphere at the $2,000 Hold’em Shootout (Event 25) by deciding to reduce the table sizes from ten players to six with a very short notice period. So short was the notice period in fact that super star Champ Daniel Negreanu didn’t get to hear about it, turned up for his game, only to find he had been blinded out prematurely. Spectators describe the normally fun loving and mild mannered Negreanu as having his head explode in public while a player suffering a similar fate (Harry Demetriou) had to be literally carried from the hall screaming like a Cherokee whilst tugging at the scalps of muscle-bound security personel. Would’ve made for great TV but the cameras were elsewhere.
PLAYING POCKET ROCKETS As a new player, if you land that elusive pair of Aces as your hole cards the way to proceed is fairly straightforward. At a full table you have about a fifty percent chance of winning the pot. If you can narrow that down to two opposing players your chances rise to seventy percent and if you can engineer a “heads up” (one-on-one) situation your chances of taking down the pot grow to better than eighty percent. So your strategy is clear. Get rid of a majority of opponents by a sensible but strong raise pre-flop. This will almost certainly narrow the field and up your chances of winning the pot by the percentages already indicated. The key to making this play as successful as possible lies in your awareness of what level of pre-flop raise is suitable to the table you are facing. Obviously if you scare everyone away you’re only going to steal the blinds as your winnings. There’s nothing wrong with that. Better to win small pots all the time than lose big ones trying to be a genius. However, it could easily be argued that you might just as easily be able to take down the entire opposition with a big pre-flop raise holding nothing but your own sweaty palm. If you really have the goods (as with a pair of Aces) you want to balance your bet so you hold onto a player or two who you feel may bet the pot up and deliver you some decent value. People who don’t know poker assume all this is down to luck. It isn’t. You have to develop an instinct for what works and a feel for what players at the table are likely to do. Observation is a major talent a good poker player has to hone. The only way is plenty of online and offline experience playing within limits that don’t dent your pocket or more importantly your enthusiasm for a great game
