Tag: online poker

And to think, they said that online poker was dead!

An ecosystem riddled with decay.

It doesn’t look like that, today.

With the world unable to commune around the live poker table, poker lovers and professionals alike have been driven to online poker rooms in their droves – online poker rooms like GGPoker.

GGPoker’s life began in the East, but more recently, it has steadily moved its all-seeing eye towards life in the West. The race to become the ‘second-largest online poker room in the world’ has become congested and absorbing.

In a bid to get there nose ahead (PokerScout currently ranks them as the fourth busiest entity in the world). GGPoker has partnered with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to create an 18-gold ring WSOP Super Circuit Online Series, and they’ve decided to use the new alliance to set a new online record.

While the 18 golden rings comprise the main course, these games sit amid a mammoth schedule that sees 595 tournaments running between May 3 and 31 with GGPoker guaranteeing $100m in prize money, beating the previous record by $15m.

That’s a statement.

The High Roller Scene

One area where GGPoker has applied intense focus has been at the high roller level.

When they first began marketing in the West, they hired Bryn Kenney as their sole brand ambassador, and you imagine he has helped them to move up the grooves in this area.

Since Kenney joined, there has been a steady increase of buy-ins between $1,000 and $5,000, and an unprecedented level of $25,000 buy-in events, making GGPoker a must-have client on the laptop of high stakes players.

You won’t find a WSOPC gold ring on the bucket list of too many high rollers, but that might change because on May 17 there will be a $10m GTD, $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold ’em tournament with a gold ring for the winner.

Outside of that monster guarantee, there is the $5m GTD $1,000 No-Limit Hold ’em Main Event, and a nice touch, with a $1,111 COVID Charity event with $111 donated to the Nevada COVID-19 Task Force. There is also a $1m GTD, $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Championship, also taking place on May 17.

Here is the full schedule of gold ring events:

May 3

Event #1: $1,111, $1m GTD COVID Charity Event
Event #2: $50, $500k GTD Kick-Off

May 5

Event #3: $210, $500k GTD, Deepstack Bounty Hunters

May 10

Event #4: $200, $500k GTD Monster Stack
Event #5: $500, $2m GTD BIG $500

May 12

Event #6: $210, $500k GTD Deepstack Bounty Hunters

May 17

Event #7: $200, $500k GTD Monster Stack
Event #8: $25,500, $10m GTD High Roller Championship
Event #9: $100, $1m GTD. Mini Main Event
Event #10: $10,000, $1m GTD PLO High Roller Championship

May 19

Event #11: $210, $500k GTD Deepstack Bounty Hunters

May 24

Event #12: $200, $500k GTD Monster Stack
Event #13: $400, $2m GTD COLOSSUS

May 26

Event #14: $210, $500k GTD Deepstack Bounty Hunters

May 31

Event #15: $200, $500k GTD Monster Stack
Event #16: $1,000, $1m GTD PLO Main Event
Event #17: $1,000, $5m GTD Main Event
Event #18: $500, $500k GTD The Closer

The Future is Bright

Since the demise of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars has had a lock on the high stakes action. It’s not a niche that has ever interested 888Poker, but it is one that’s attracted the attention of partypoker. The partnership with Poker Central saw $36m dished out during a highly competitive Poker Masters Online, and the Super High Roller Bowl Online takes place at the end of the month.

With GGPoker entering the space with a vast array of $25,000 buy-in events complemented by a decent flow of buy-ins between $1,000 and $5,000, high stakes poker players have never had as much food on their buffet.

Nah, online poker isn’t dead.

It’s very much alive.

“Sports don’t build character; they reveal it.”

Whether the quote came from John Wooden or Heywood Hayle Broun is bye the bye, it’s a quote that cuts right to the core of humanity because ever since Homosapien’s held Mammoth bone hurling contests, sports has been an essential ingredient in a fulfilling life.

Yeah, some people don’t care much for sports, but far more see it as a religion, so when the organisers of some of the most emotionally charged events in the world amputate them from the schedule, you know that there’s a reason we’re all folding that one sheet to wipe our arse.

Ever since COVID-19 stopped being a Chinese problem, and became an everyone except the two cosmonauts and one astronaut living on the MIR Space Station problem, sporting events worldwide had been falling like Amazonian trees, with one exception. 

The World Series of Poker (WSOP).

The Mystery Ends

It’s the most hotly anticipated event in the poker calendar, and as the weekend ended, officials still kept their powder dry on the future of the 2020 fixture. 

The mystery ended on Monday afternoon.

PokerNews and other media outlets began reporting that Caesars Entertainment Corp., had postponed the 2020 series, with a Fall renewal the latest earmark. 

Here is the word from the chief.

“We are committed to running the World Series of Poker this year but need additional time to proceed on our traditional scale while prioritising guest and staff well-being,” said Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker. “In the interim, official WSOP competitions are expected to be played online this summer, and we will soon announce details of an expanded series of tournaments to be played on WSOP.com and through partnership with international operators, which will allow players to chase WSOP glory from their homes.”

The WSOP Moves Online

The WSOP planned to handout more than 100 bracelets this summer, and while their goldsmith will be kept busy, he or she won’t be that busy. It’s not startling to learn that the 14 online bracelet events go head on WSOP.com for players residing in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, but it is interesting to note that WSOP plan to bed down with global online partners.

While the reporting doesn’t directly stipulate that the poker community will have the opportunity to win a WSOP bracelet playing online at one of WSOP.com’s competitors, you can now start to believe it’s more probable than possible. 

Who will be WSOP.com‘s partners?

Two immediate choices stand out.

888Poker is a longtime sponsor of the WSOP, and the only viable way to win a bracelet via the online satellite route outside of the USA – so maturing that marriage makes sense. 

The WSOP also entered into a relationship with GGPoker recently with a WSOP Circuit event going ahead on the burgeoning platform in May with 18 gold rings up for grabs – so that also seems like a logical choice. 

Outside of those two, partypoker has a relationship with WSOP.com and given the teams’ drive to do the right thing for the game; you could see those two agreeing on an interim arrangement to provide value for the community. 

PokerStars remains the outside bet.

It Had to Happen

With the number of COVID-19 cases approaching 2.5m, worldwide, with close to 165,000 deaths, and close to 760,000 cases and over 47,000 deaths in the USA alone – this decision had to happen.

The Olympics.

The European Championships.

Wimbledon.

None of the titans of the world of sport has stood up to this beast.

None of them. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

If you look on Eric Idle’s ‘bright side of life,’ at least when live poker does return to our itineraries we can bank on a spick and span set of chips and tables. It won’t last though. It’s not in our nature to be so thorough. If it were, we wouldn’t be hiding in our homes, praying for a vaccine. 

The ‘bright side of life,’ is that poker players are returning to the online game in their droves, and that must feel like eating James’ giant peach for those plying their trade in the online realm. 

Online poker is supposed to be dead, and yet, because of Mother Nature’s dart throw into the bullseye, live tour operators are forced to connect to their online competitors to make things happen. If these alliances remain, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t if online poker keeps putting on a show, and the community keeps showing up, then poker will come out the other end a lot stronger than before it went in. 

What does a grassy knoll and Coronavirus (COVID-19) have in common?

For the first time, since Americans wept en masse due to the assassination of J.F.Kennedy, every Las Vegas casino went dark, and unlike the last closure on November 25, 1963 (one day), we don’t know when the lights will go back on.

Nevada State Gov. Steve Sisolak shut down the gambling mecca of the West after COVID-19 cases rose to 50, with one death, and followed similar moves from at least ten more governors. 

That’s terrible news for the land-based casino industry, mitigated somewhat if you have an online gambling arm hidden underneath your sleeve. 

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has thrown a sufficient number of punches in their bid to help resuscitate an ailing online poker market, repeatedly kicked in the kidneys thanks to Black Friday. 

And it looks like a reward is nigh.

With the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) sidelined due to a spear from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, organisers of one the most iconic poker brands switched the action to their online premises.

What followed was an 18 gold ring series, taking place over 18-days, dubbed the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit. The series began on March 14 and will run until March 31. It’s an unparalleled success for the fledgeling online poker arm, surpassing the $1m guarantee in the first six events.

High Roller Interest

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member, James Carroll, won that sixth event (Event #6: $320, $50k GTD NLHE). Carroll took out a field of 726-entrants (461 unique) to win the $53,361 first prize. You don’t find Carroll flicking it in $25,000+ events, but $10,000 events have become a staple. 

Other high rollers that have made final tables in the first six events include Matt “berkey11_s4y” Berkey, Lauren’ sycamore22′ Roberts, and Joseph “biueberry’ Cheong.

The WSOP has also promised a free seat into the 2019/2020 Global Casino Championship to the winner of the Main Event and the Online Circuit Casino Championship winner (the player who amasses the most points during the series). Currently Matt “RubberFist” Stout sits on top of that leaderboard, which is more comfortable than sitting on top of his rubber fist. Roberts and Carroll also feature in the list.

That Pesky Adelson

The WSOP put the kibosh on the WSOPC in the early rounds of the fight against COVID-19. Still, the WSOP is keeping its powder dry on the fate on every poker player’s Christmas Day.

If the event does go the way of the WSOPC (and the chances are high that it will), then you assume Seth Palansky, Jack Effel and co. will introduce an online WSOP bracelet schedule that must be sitting on a WSOP employee’s Google Drive. 

If that does happen, as with the WSOPC, it’s sad that the whole world won’t get to take part, and worse than that, 47 American states will also have to read about the headlines on PokerNews.

One of the men you can thank for keeping the tourniquet tight around online poker’s neck is the Las Vegas Sands owner, Sheldon Adelson. How ironic then, that the market wiped 40% of the stock price of Las Vegas Sands, as it closes, along with the rest of Sin City on a UFN basis, and he doesn’t have an online option to fall back on.

Not that it will wipe the gentility from any sentence that mentions him, as the 40% uppercut means his net worth drizzles from $34 billion to $28 billion. 

Here are the remaining highlights of the series for interested high rollers.

Online Super Circuit Schedule

29 March – $525 (3x re-entry) $200k GTD Main Event

31 March – $1,000 (2x re-entry) $75k GTD High Roller 

Once Triton cancelled its Super High Roller Series in Jeju, tour operators in that region had no option but to do the same. The pandemic has since spread across the globe, with Europe the epicentre, and those spores found beneath the microscope are now forcing live tour operators to fold away their tables and ditch their filthy chips.

The Coronavirus is highly adaptable, making the leap from Pangolins and bats to humans. It will continue to evolve, and we place our hope in the brightest scientific minds in the world, that we develop at a faster rate.

Companies that rely on live tournaments for EBITDA will also have to evolve, and right now, the best possible solution is to shift their flagship events online. The law makes the switch more challenging than a decade ago, but it’s more than a viable move for online poker operators; it’s a valuable opportunity. 

Not only can the likes of PokerStars and partypoker pivot by creating online alternatives of their beloved live brands, but live tour operators with no ability to offer an online product will be keen to partner with the best in the business. 

It’s also a long term positive for the online poker community as the live tour operators have to include in their risk assessment mitigation for future pandemics of this nature, and that could lead to a more competitive online poker landscape. 

 partypoker: The Role Models

partypoker is currently leading the way when it comes to creating a virtual world that we can call home, and is an inviting prospect for live tour operators.

The online poker operator excels when it comes to creating value-laden partnerships thanks to its sterling work with partypoker LIVE, putting them in a fantastic spot to leverage those relationships post COVID-19. 

One of those partnerships is with the World Poker Tour (WPT), and for the first time, that partnership is moving into the virtual realm in a big way. The pair have coupled-up to host online satellites to live events in the past, but the forthcoming WPT Online Championships is the first sense that Adam Pliska and the gang are prepared to put a whole leg into the virtual waters, and not merely dab a toe.

The series runs on partypoker, May 10-26, with $30m in GTD prize money. The $3,200 buy-in, $5m GTD WPT Online Championship is the blaze in this fire, but there are plenty of other hot coals. 

The WPT500 brand hits the online market for the first time when between May 10-18, players invest $530 per bullet throughout ten Day 1’s in this $1m, GTD feast of fun. The WPTDeepStacks brand also moves online for the first time with a $1,600 buy-in, $1m GTD event scheduled for May 25-26. 

As you would expect, high rollers get to have some fun with a $25,000 buy-in, $3m GTD WPT Super High Roller Challenge on May 21, a $10,300, $2m GTD High Roller, May 24-25, and a wide variety of $5k buy-ins to boot. 

The series also traverses the live world with the winner of the WPT Online Championships Main Event earning a seat into the $15,000 Tournament of Champions should the event go ahead as planned. 

Here is the full schedule – https://partypokerlive.com/en/event/wpt-online/overview#wpt-high-roller-schedule-7125

Another partypoker alliance involves the Irish Poker Open. The oldest event outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) celebrates its 40th year on the partypoker platform with a €1m GTD Main Event. The schedule will follow shortly.

Then Future

If the WPT Online Championships is a success, then why not allow it to breathe once COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror? While it doesn’t make sense to do this for the Irish Open. It does make sense for the WPT to have an online leg, with the winner securing a seat to the TOC, and there’s no reason why a coveted WPT Champions Club spot shouldn’t also be in the goodie bag. 

partypoker recently held their first MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia. If we have seen the end of live tournament poker this side of 2021, then Rob Yong’s already indicated his willingness to replicate that event online, and that’s in addition to the MILLIONS Online leg that is currently in situ.

PokerStars are keeping their powder dry for now. But, what would stop them adding themed online European Poker Tour (EPT) stops to their online offerings, or expand the World Championships and Spring Championships of Poker idea to fill in the blanks.

Elon Musk wants to terraform Mars, knowing that at some point, human beings will make Earth uninhabitable. Maybe, we don’t have to venture that far. Perhaps, the movie ‘Ready Player One’ has the answer, and humanities future exists in a virtual world. If that’s the case, then online poker isn’t dying; it’s preparing for all-out domination. 

The library of the 51st World Series of Poker (WSOP) nears completion after the organisers included the spines of the online bracelet events.

14-online bracelet events bookended between a $400 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) taking place on May 31, and the $500 NLHE Summer Saver penned in for Jul 12, makes the presence of WSOP.com more prevalent than ever.

WSOP officials have been brushing re-entry events from the front step since Dec 2019, and that habit continues with the announcement that three of the 14 games will be freezeout, and ten of them single re-entry. Only the $777 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) scheduled for June 7 is a multiple re-entry event with a 3x re-entry stipulation.

The impervious $1,500 price point makes the leap from the live realm for the first time. The $1,500 NLHE (single re-entry) event takes place on Jun 30. The other standout debutant pricepoint is the $10,000 NLHE Super High Roller on July 2, and it’s a freezeout.

How do You Get Involved?

If you find the atmos in the Rio a tad noxious, then you can compete in these online bracelets from a spoke location as long as it’s within the borders of Nevada and New Jersey. You don’t have to be a resident of those two great states. Park a van, set up a tent, sleep in a bus stop – the WSOP doesn’t care as long as you don’t cross the border.

You don’t have to wait for the WSOP to begin to get set up. The press release that arrived on my mahogany desktop said you could create an account, deposit and with withdraw from anywhere in the world. If you would rather wait until the big day, then the WSOP has your back with deposits and withdrawals available at the WSOP cage, and WSOP.com assistants present, warts and all, in the Lambada Room throughout the series.

Here is a link to further details on the money side of things.

Desktop, Mobile Tablets and Multi-Tabling

Sculleries are no longer a thing, but multi-tabling online and live bracelet events at the WSOP is. If you have the money and the bandwidth, then go for it. 99.9% of online bracelet events are available across the desktop, mobile and tablet options. The unig blentyn in this room of twins is the $777 PLO, which is only playable via desktop. If I knew why I wouldn’t be writing this, I would be a coder or something else special-like.

“We believe the 2020 offering of online gold bracelet events features our best schedule yet,” said WSOP.com’s Director of Online Poker Danielle Barille. “This year we offer a consistent schedule of Sunday events every week of the WSOP, plus a special selection of eight events from June 28 to July 5 to coincide with the biggest week of the live WSOP when most players are in town to play.”

Here is the online bracelet schedule in full.

The Schedule

May 31 – $400 NLHE (single re-entry)
Jun 7 – $777 PLO 7-Handed (3x re-entry)
Jun 9 – $800 NLHE Knockout DeepStack (freezeout)
Jun 14 – $500 NLHE Turbo DeepStack (single re-entry)
Jun 21 – $500 NLHE (freezeout)
Jun 28 – $1000 NLHE Championship (single re-entry)
Jun 29 – $500 NLHE (single re-entry)
Jun 30 – $1,500 NLHE (single re-entry)
Jul 1 – $3,200 NLHE High Roller (single re-entry)
Jul 2 – $10,000 NLHE Super High Roller (freezeout)
Jul 3 – $400 NLHE (single re-entry)
Jul 4 – $500 NLHE Turbo DeepStack (single re-entry)
Jul 5 – $600 NLHE (single re-entry)
Jul 12 – $500 NLHE Summer Saver (single re-entry)

All events start at 18:30 (ET), with the lone exception the $10,000 Super High Roller, beginning at 15:00 (ET).

The History of WSOP Bracelet Events

Anthony ‘casedismissed’ Spinella won the first online bracelet when in 2015 he beat a field of 905-entrants to win the $197,743 first prize in the $1,000 NLHE Championship event. In 2016, the attendance blossomed as Clayton ’SLARDUCK’ Maguire topped a 1,247-entrant field to win the $210,279 in the $1,000 NLHE Championship.

WSOP.com expanded its bracelet events in 2017 with three. Tom “FLOATZ’ Cannuli beat 424-entrants to win the $3,333 NLHE High Roller for $323k. Joseph “ul_gg” Mitchell conquered a 2,509 entrant field in the $333 NLHE event for $122,314. And Nipun “Javatinii” Java won the 1,312 entrant $1,000 NLHE Championship for $237,688.

PLO bracelets became a thing in 2018 when there were four events in total. William Reymond beat 2,972 entrants in the $365 NLHE for $154,996. Matthew Mendez beat 1,223 entrants in the $565 PLO 6-Handed for $135,078. Chance Kornuth won the $3,200 High Roller beating 480-entrants to win $341,599. And Ryan Tosoc beat 1,635 entrants to win the $238,779 first prize in the $1,000 NLHE Championship.

The WSOP applied more varnish last year with nine online bracelet events, and here is the roll of honour:

  1. Yong Keun Kwon beat 2,825 entrants in the $400 NLHE for $165,263.
  2. Josh Pollock beat 1,216 entrants in the $600 PLO 6-Handed for $139,470.
  3. Upeshka De Silva beat 1,224 entrants in the $600 NLHE Knockout Bounty for $98,263.
  4. Daniel Lupo beat 1,767 entrants in the $500 NLHE Turbo DeepStack for $145,274.
  5. Jason Gooch beat 1,333 entrants in the $1,000 NLHE Double Stack for $241,493.
  6. Nicholas Baris beat 1,750 entrants in the $1,000 Championship for $303,739.
  7. Brandon Adams beat 593 entrants in the $3,200 NLHE High Roller for $41,561.
  8. Shawn Buchanan beat 1,560 entrants in the $800 NLHE 6-Max for $223,119.
  9. Taylor Paur beat 1,859 entrants in the $500 NLHE Summer Saver or $149,241.

The full schedule (live and online) is available here.

Watch the new video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School, in which Dan Cates reveals how he went from playing poker with scraps of paper at high school to the biggest poker games in the world. Paul Phua picks the highlights

In his previous video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School, Dan “Jungleman” Cates talked about the aggression that has made him one of the world’s best heads-up players – “I just try to win all the pots I can!”. He also talked about how he could apply some of those heads-up tactics to full-ring games.


In this latest video for the Paul Phua Poker School, Jungleman (as we all call him at the poker table) tells us a bit more about how he became the successful poker player he is today. For anyone dreaming of becoming a poker pro, it’s instructive to see how it’s done!

How Jungleman Dan started playing poker

Dan Cates made more than $10 million profit on the Full Tilt poker site, and has more than $5 million in tournament cashes. He also plays cash, including in “the Big Game” that I play in. He’s still just 27 years old, yet he has already been playing poker for 12 years. Jungleman reveals in this new video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School that he started at the age of 15:
“l played with some friends in high school during lunch periods using torn-up little pieces of paper as chips, playing for $10 or whatever.”
How times have changed! But while the stakes may be different, Jungleman’s competitive drive has remained undimmed.

How Dan Cates improved his poker strategy

We asked Jungleman how he improved his poker strategy. It’s striking how, in so many of these interviews for the Paul Phua Poker School, the pros agree on one key poker tip: it is vital to learn from other players, and get a second opinion on problematic hands.
“In the start, it was all me,” says Dan Cates. But, he says, whenever he tried to learn a new game, he would try to find “the specialists that were best in those games”. Poker proved no different. “it’s helped in random different ways,” says Dan Cates, “like other players gave me their opinions or whatever on things, and over time I learned more and more.”
As Dan Colman said in his recent video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School, “a big part [of success] is having friends who are very good players”.

Dan “Jungleman” Cates’s playing style

Over time, each player develops his own playing style. Jungleman’s is aggressive (he talked in the last video about how he likes to 3-bet with 5-6 suited), but it is also highly data-driven and analytical. Asked about his strongest attributes as a poker player, he says:
“I guess one of my strongest attributes would be that l understand the game. l think l understand the game better than most opponents. Just how it works, and all the decision tree points. l have a very good memory for each decision tree point, and also how players play different ones of those. It’s either that, or that l adjust better than they do. It’s one of those two things.”

How Dan Cates got his “Jungleman” nickname

Finally, Dan Cates reveals how he got his unusual nickname, “Jungleman”, which also inspired his screen name, “Jungleman12”.
“l was called ‘Jungleman’ when l played live,” Dan Cates says in the video, “because players… because I was, like, kind of a crazy person, and also because l was, like, pretty hairy, l had a lot of hair. l had longer hair, too. So they called me Jungleman just to, like, sort of mock me, and I thought it was a funny name. And yeah, it stuck, for a long time.”

Who is Daniel “Jungleman” Cates? Poker player profile

  • Dan Cates, 27, from the United States, is one of the world’s leading heads-up poker players.
  • He plays online under the names “Jungleman12” and “w00ki3z”.
  • He has made more than $10 million profit on the Full Tilt poker site.
  • He has nearly $5 million in live tournament cashes.
  • He often plays cash poker for high stakes in “the Big Game” in Macau and Manila.
  • He is known for his aggressive style of play.

In his second video for the Paul Phua Poker School, Dan “Jungleman” Cates reveals why aggression pays. Paul Phua picks the interview highlights.

If you have been playing poker for as long as I have, you will have noticed that playing styles have become more aggressive over the years. The aggressor is the one able to take initiative, and aggressive raising also gives you “fold equity”, forcing a fold from a stronger hand. These days there are many expert players who 3-bet pre-flop with hands that others might not even call with.
It makes them unpredictable and hard to play against. They might have Ace-King, Ace-Queen or a big pair… but they might also have just suited connectors!


 

Why Dan Cates 3-bets with 5-3 suited

In his previous video interview for the Paul Phua Poker School, Dan “Jungleman” Cates talked about the aggression that has made him one of the world’s best heads-up players – “I just try to win all the pots I can!” In this second “In Conversation With Paul Phua” video for the Paul Phua Poker School, Dan “Jungleman” Cates talks in greater detail about the hands he likes to 3-bet with.
“If we’re playing in our game,” says Jungleman, “the deep game [high-stakes cash], l’d 3-bet the biggest hands, obviously, but also, like, the bluffs that play the best post-flop, the ‘best bluffs’ so to speak. Like 6-5 suited, 5-3 suited, obviously.”
It may not be obvious to less experienced players that one could raise with 5-3 suited! But that’s what makes Jungleman one of the most successful poker pros around. Dan Cates made more than $10 million profit on the Full Tilt poker site before transitioning to live games, and has since racked up more than $5 million in tournament cashes.

Why 3-bets depend on player and position

As with everything in poker strategy, how you 3-bet will depend on who you are playing against. Jungleman explains: “If someone plays either like tight or aggressive or whatever, l would rather not 3-bet something like AJ offsuit. But if they play passive, and like, just call down or don’t have too many moves, l’d rather 3-bet AJ offsuit a lot.”
And of course it also depends on your position. Jungleman continues: “Or maybe some players I might want to 3-bet more than others, like, if l want to play more in position with them or whatever.”

Why size matters in bluffing

One strategy I have noticed some aggressive poker pros adopt is to deliberately bet more with their bluffs to create a bigger pot. By the time the river comes, the pot is so large that many amateur players will not dare to call with anything much less than the nuts.
In this new Paul Phua Poker School video interview, I ask Jungleman about that. “l think it can make sense to do that,” he agrees. “l mean, l think at least in theory things are quite a bit more complicated, for various reasons.
“l mean, you can manipulate pot stack size if you just know, like, how much they’re going to call on the turn and then fold on the river, if someone just always calls and folds on the river or something. But l think that’s kind of a complicated subject.”
What he means is, this is not something you should try unless you genuinely are an expert player!

How often should you bluff?

Jungleman also talks about when and how to bluff: “The one thing l think about more is how many bluffs do l want to turn up with. In pretty much every situation, basically, you can kind of, like, weight the value of various different bluffs in a lot of the spots and, like, how strong ranges players have. l think about stuff like that…”
And then Jungleman shows that, however aggressive the pro players can be, for the most part they still follow the most simple and fundamental poker advice of all: “But mostly l try to play big pots with big hands

Who is Daniel “Jungleman” Cates? Poker player profile

  • Dan Cates, 27, from the United States, is one of the world’s leading heads-up poker players.
  • He plays online under the names “Jungleman12” and “w00ki3z”.
  • He has made more than $10 million profit on the Full Tilt poker site.
  • He has nearly $5 million in live tournament cashes.
  • He often plays cash poker for high stakes in “the Big Game” in Macau and Manila.
  • He is known for his aggressive style of play.

 

Over nearly 50 years, the Main Event at the World Series of Poker has witnessed extraordinary dramas and created huge stars. The Paul Phua Poker School picks the top 10 events you really need to know

How did the poker tournament expression “a chip and a chair” come about? Why is 10-2 known as “the Doyle Brunson”? Where did the poker movie Rounders get its final hand? How did Phil Hellmuth become famous at 24? In what way did the WSOP’s 2003 live tournament change the face of internet poker? All is revealed below. If only history lessons at school had been this fun…

1970-1: The World Series of Poker is born

The very first World Series of Poker was not even a tournament: the pros were simply asked to elect the man they thought was the best player. Legend has it that at first they all voted for themselves, so a winner was only announced after they were told to name the second best player! That man was Johnny Moss, and the very next year, when a tournament structure was introduced to the WSOP, Moss proved the vote right by winning fair and square. He went on to be known as “The Grand Old Man of Poker”. Read more

1976-1977: How the “Doyle Brunson hand” got its name

There are lucky hands, and then there is the “Doyle Brunson hand” – a hand so ridiculously  lucky that it forever more bears the name of the man who played it. Aged 83, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson has now won 10 WSOP bracelets, but none more spectacularly than his two back-to-back Main Event wins. Holding just 10-2, he made a house to knock out his heads-up opponent Jesse Alto in 1976. Incredibly, the very next year he again made a house with 10-2 to knock out Gary “Bones” Berland. Read more

1982: Jack Straus and the original “chip and a chair”

You may have heard the poker expression, “as long as you’ve got a chip and a chair…” It means that no matter how few chips you are left with in a poker tournament, you always have a chance. But you may not know that this saying was born at the World Series of Poker in 1982. The story of how Jack “Treetop” Straus recovered from a single chip to win the Main Event and $520,000 is not just the greatest underdog story in poker, but possibly in any sport. Read more

1988: Johnny Chan retains his WSOP title with the “Rounders” hand

Johnny Chan, nicknamed “The Orient Express” for the speed with which he demolished his opponents, was one of the finest players of the 1980s. Not content with winning the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1987, he repeated the feat with a back-to-back championship title in 1988. And he did it with a trap so well laid that this final hand against Erik Seidel was immortalised in the poker movie Rounders… Read more

1989: Phil Hellmuth becomes the youngest ever WSOP champion

Johnny Chan nearly pulled off the historic feat of a WSOP Main Event hat-trick. For a third year in a row, he found himself heads-up after defeating all comers. Even better, he was up against some inexperienced young kid of 24. Unluckily for him, that young man just happened to be Phil Hellmuth, and he was so focused on winning that he’d left a message on his answerphone saying, “You’re talking to the 1989 world champion of poker”. This was the WSOP that propelled “the Poker Brat” to fame. Read more

1995: Barbara Enright is the first woman to reach the WSOP final table

When asked to name a female poker pro, you might immediately think of Annie Duke, Vanessa Selbst, or Liv Boeree. But to players of an older generation, Barbara Enright’s name would roll first off the tongue. As the first (and still only) woman to reach the final table of the WSOP, she paved the way for future female players in what is still a very male-dominated environment. And she would have done better than fifth place, too, if it wasn’t for a painful bad beat… Read more

1997: Stu Ungar wins a historic third WSOP Main Event

Ask any poker player who was the greatest of all time, and there’s a good chance they’ll say Stu Ungar. With a photographic memory that got him banned from blackjack tables, and poker reads so acute he once won a $50,000 WSOP heads-up event by calling with 10-high, Stu “The Kid” Ungar was one of the greatest natural talents ever. But after winning the world championship in 1980 and 1981, he fell prey to drug addiction. His extraordinary story was to have a triumphant conclusion at the 1997 World Series of Poker… Read more

2003: Chris Moneymaker launches the internet poker boom

Was there ever a poker player more aptly named than Chris Moneymaker? In 2003, the accountant and amateur poker player turned a $39 entry to an online satellite tournament into $2.5 million when he won the WSOP Main Event. His victory was the personification of the American Dream that anyone can make it big, and inspired a whole generation of online poker players. Over the next three years, entries to the WSOP Main Event increased tenfold. Read more

2007: Annette Obrestadt becomes the youngest WSOP bracelet winner

Annette Obrestadt was a few days short of her 19th birthday when she won the World Series of Poker Europe, in the WSOP’s first official bracelet tournament outside America. She was young; she was a woman; she was part of a new breed of aggressive online players who would change the face of poker strategy. Annette Obrestadt once won an online poker tournament playing “blind”, with her cards covered up – but she would need all her resources to triumph over the WSOPE Main Event… Read more

2012: Antonio Esfandiari wins $18m in the Big One for One Drop

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker has traditionally awarded the biggest first prize of all poker tournaments. But a side-event of the WSOP, first held in 2012, dwarfed even these sums. This was the Big One for One Drop, in aid of the water charity set up by the founder of Cirque du Soleil, and the first prize was a record $18 million. Antonio Esfandiari, a former magician, pulled off the greatest trick of his career: making a final table that included Phil Hellmuth, Brian Rast and Sam Trickett disappear. Read more

In the ninth of a 10-part series on the World Series of Poker, the Paul Phua Poker School recalls how an 18-year-old girl won £1 million

Annette Obrestadt was just 18 when she won the Main Event, and £1 million, at the first World Series of Poker Europe. It made her the youngest ever bracelet winner – so young, in fact, that it would be more than two years before she was legally allowed to play in Las Vegas. Coming four years after Chris Moneymaker turned $39 into $2.5m at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2003, this striking victory by a young woman over established pros such as Gus Hansen, who finished in tenth place, showed just how much Moneymaker’s win had changed the face of poker.
Moneymaker, more than anyone, was responsible for the boom in online poker. Obrestadt was very much an online player: she had already racked up $800,000 in MTT cashes before entering the WSOPE. In an interview directly after winning the title, Obrestadt summed up why the new breed of internet players were making waves in live play: “I’ve played thousands of tournaments online. Most professionals only play 60 or so live tournaments a year so I think I have an advantage there.”

Who is Annette Obrestadt?

Born in 1988, Annette Obrestadt began playing poker at the age of 15 – hence her screen name, “Annette_15”. While Chris Moneymaker spun up his poker fortune from $39, Obrestadt says she never invested any of her own money at all, building up her poker bankroll initially from freeroll tournaments.
Living in Norway, Obrestadt developed a highly aggressive playing style typical of many Scandinavian players: her other screen name is “The Huntress”. Blessed with a natural talent, she also experimented and worked hard at her poker strategy. She is famous for once winning a tournament playing “blind”, with her cards covered up. She did this to show “just how important it is to play position and to pay attention to the players at the table”.
Her win at the WSOPE was no fluke. Since then she has amassed nearly $4m in live tournament earnings, ranking her second amongst all Norwegian players, male or female.

How Annette Obrestadt crushed the World Series of Poker Europe

The 2007 WSOPE Main Event, held in London’s Casino at the Empire on Leicester Square, was the first time that official gold bracelets had been awarded outside Las Vegas (the WSOP has now expanded to Asia Pacific as well as Europe). Obrestadt worked hard for hers, building her stack up on the final table from just half that of the chip leader. The Scandinavian-heavy final nine made for a lot of aggressive action, but it was the final heads-up poker battle that really counted.
Obrestadt was pitted against John Tabatabai. Their single combat lasted for nearly as many hands as the rest of the final table put together. Finally, Obrestadt got the miracle flop that would clinch her victory: on a flop of 7-6-5, she pushed all-in with top set, while her opponent held two pair and needed runner-runner quads to survive.
With the legal age in Las Vegas being 21, it is likely that Obrestadt’s record as the youngest ever bracelet winner will stand forever.
 

Who is Annette Obrestadt? Poker player profile

  • Born in 1988, Annette Obrestadt started playing online poker at the age of 15, under the screen name “Annette_15”.
  • Before switching to live poker she had won $800,000 in online MTTs, winning one tournament with her cards covered up.
  • In winning the Main Event of the World Series of Poker Europe in 2007, Annette Obrestadt became the youngest ever bracelet winner.
  • Her first prize in the WSOPE was £1 million, and she now has nearly $4m in live poker tournament earnings.

Read the eighth of a 10-part series on the World Series of Poker, and find out how an amateur turned a $39 online satellite into a $2.5m Main Event win
Or come back tomorrow for the last part in our WSOP series.

In the eighth of a 10-part series on the World Series of Poker, the Paul Phua Poker School recalls how an amateur turned a $39 online satellite into a $2.5m Main Event win

Of all the great moments in the history of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most transformative for the future of the game as a whole was surely Chris Moneymaker’s victory in 2003. It was a personification of the American Dream that anyone, regardless of their background, can make it big.
Chris Moneymaker entered a $39 online satellite tournament, which led to a $600 satellite, which won him a seat at the Main Event of the WSOP. That $39 investment was to net Chris Moneymaker a first prize of $2.5 million.
That year was also notable for ESPN expanding the coverage and hole-card cameras being introduced on the final table. This truly was the beginning of the internet-fuelled poker boom, with entries to the WSOP Main Event increasing tenfold from 839 in 2003 to 8,773 in 2006. Poker writers now refer to this as “the Moneymaker Effect”.

Who is Chris Moneymaker?

Can there ever have been a poker champion more aptly named than “Moneymaker”? It sounds like an online poker nickname, but in fact his German ancestors made coins, and chose “Moneymaker” as an Anglicisation of their surname “Nurmacher”.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Chris Moneymaker further lived up to his name by studying accounting at university, becoming a comptroller. He was just 27 when he entered the World Series of Poker Main Event. Amazingly, it was his first live poker tournament.
Even so, Chris Moneymaker played well enough on Day One to catch the eye of professional sports handicapper Lou Diamond, who prophetically tipped him as his “dark horse to win the whole tournament”.

Chris Moneymaker knocks out Phil Ivey to make the WSOP final table

Chris Moneymaker did have a stroke of luck to get to the final table. With 10 players left, and holding trip Queens with an Ace kicker, he called Phil Ivey’s all-in bet on the turn only to find himself facing down a full house. A lucky Ace came on the river to change the course of history – sending the amateur to the final table, and denying Phil Ivey his coveted world championship win.
Once there, Chris Moneymaker made up in courage what he lacked in experience. The final table got underway at 2pm, and became heads-up at 12.30am. Moneymaker was pitted against Sammy Farha, and by now had twice his stack. Over the next hour, however, the more experienced pro chipped away at the amateur’s stack until the two were nearly even.
It was then that Chris Moneymaker decided to make his stand.
Both men flopped a flush draw. Moneymaker’s spades were higher, with K7 to Farha’s Q9, but the 9-high flop gave Farha top pair. Both players checked. The turn gave Moneymaker an open-ended straight draw as well as his flush draw, so when Farha now bet out with 300,000, Moneymaker re-raised him to 800,000. Still with top pair and a (lesser) flush draw, Farha called, but he must have felt rattled.

Chris Moneymaker pulls off a historic bluff

The river was a red 3: no possible help to either man. But at this point, sensing weakness, Moneymaker made a huge all-in shove.
Farha tanked. Top pair is not usually a hand you can fold when heads-up. Then again, Moneymaker had bet his tournament life on this hand – would he do that on a bluff? And would an amateur be capable of such daring against a seasoned pro?
Farha eventually folded, leaving his stack fatally crippled at 1.8m to Moneymaker’s 6.6m, and the bluff entered the annals of poker history as one of the most audacious the WSOP has seen.

Who is Chris Moneymaker? Poker player profile

  • Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1975, Chris Moneymaker was an accountant before turning to poker full-time
  • Moneymaker turned a $39 online satellite entry into a $2.5m win at the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2003
  • His autobiography is entitled Moneymaker: How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker (2005)
  • The online poker boom that followed Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP victory has become known as “the Moneymaker Effect”

Why not go back and read part 7 of our 10 part WSOP series which is about only player to have won three Main Event championships. 
Or come back tomorrow for part 9.