(Photo courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com, which asks for a whopping $69 for an unadulterated download of it).

So far, not so good!

I played two tournaments this weekend: Event #15 of the WSOP ($1,500 No-limit Hold ‘em) and a nice, ~500-person $1,000 buy-in tournament at the Venetian. Alas, no cashes so far. I think I was overexcited to be at the WSOP for the first time in two years, and I didn’t play great. Combine that with not “running” great (poker players’ term for not catching cards at the right time), and I exited both tournaments within the first three hours.

I played too long, too tired in cash games, too, so took hits there.

Lessons learned! I’m getting right back in the saddle and will be in Vegas again in two weeks — well rested and ready.

Testament to the general popularity of poker and the expected attendance at the WSOP this year, the official Web site is down (as of Saturday morning) (click on the thumbnail to see the message).

The other story titillating to me yesterday was about the new Bicycle “PokerPeek” cards the WSOP is using. PokerPages reported on the debacle (their photos below), including Mike Matasow’s immediate blow-up over it! On the front, the layout and orientation of the ranks make them difficult to read, and on the back, the commissioner’s name is misspelled.

You can see how the ranks — featuring non-standard orientation in the corners — would be difficult to read.

Ironically, a lot of thought went into the development of the cards, as the WSOP site reports. Thankfully, the WSOP already has replaced these cards with standard plastic Kem cards.

It’s that glorious time of year again! The World Series of Poker (“WSOP”) starts tomorrow, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Contrary to common belief among those unfamiliar with the WSOP, it’s not a single poker tournament. Rather, it’s a series of tournaments — 55 this year — culminated by a colloquially “Main” and formally “World Championship” event. The buy-ins (entry fees) range from $500 to $50,000. A complete schedule is on the official WSOP Web site.

I’ve only played in a WSOP event once, in 2005, just 6 months after I started playing poker. I didn’t know what I didn’t know back then. I skipped last year, but this year my poker buddies and I will be returning. I plan to enter at least three of the smaller, $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold ‘em events and then play cash games on the side.

As the tournament proceeds, you can see live coverage on the WSOP site, PokerPages and CardPlayer.com.

Wish us luck!

By request, I’ve just published a complete bibliography of my poker books, all acquired since I started playing in 2004 (and I blame you, H.N., for introducing me to the game!). As you can see easily, my “passions” run deep.

I characterize poker books in 6 broad categories:

• Stories about poker, e.g., The Biggest Game in Town
• General advice, e.g., Ace on the River
• General theory, e.g., The Theory of Poker
• Strategy, which I sub-categorize as either General, e.g., Super System, Cash Game, e.g., Middle Limit Holdem, or Tournament, e.g., Harrington on Hold ‘em. I’ve chosen this format-based classification scheme. Poker games can be classified by physical location (online or brick & mortar), format (cash or tournament), game (hold ‘em, stud, Omaha, etc.) or stakes (low, medium, high, etc.). Most books concentrate on a combination but not all of these classification attributes.
• Psychology, which I sub-categorize as either General, e.g., The Tao of Poker, or Tells, e.g. Caro’s Book of Tells.
• Other . . . Last, there are miscellaneous reference and other books, such as The Rules of Poker or Poker Protection.

I have a whopping 36 books. I’ve read 20 cover-to-cover and portions of 14; I haven’t yet started 2. My collection includes 2 books on poker stories, 2 general advice books, 2 general theory books, 21 strategy books, 7 psychology books and 2 other books.

Have these books made me a better player? Absolutely yes.

My top 5 favorite books, in order, are:

1. Middle Limit Holdem Poker by Bob Ciaffone and Jim Brier . . . fantastic strategy book, perfect for the $20/40 game in which I typically play, in a discussion and problem-solution format
2. The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King by Michael Craig . . . fun, modern-day storytelling of billionaire Andy Beal’s challenge to the poker elite in Vegas
3. Harrington on Hold ‘em: Expert Strategy for No-limit Tournaments Volume II: The Endgame by Dan Harrington . . . even better than Volume I
4. Harrington on Hold ‘em: Expert Strategy for No-limit Tournaments Volume I: Strategic Play by Dan Harrington . . . seminal book on tournament play
5. Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein . . . all-around great book on the proper mindset
6. Beyond Tells: Power Poker Psychology by James A. McKenna . . . not for everybody, but helped me a ton with my discipline and tilt avoidance.

As I finish up my partially-read books, I’ll publish book reviews here.

The Journal explains that, “Under U.S. common law, games that are predominantly chance are considered gambling, while those that are mainly skill are not.” The Congressional payments ban applies to gambling, so demonstration that poker predominantly is a game of skill theoretically would exempt it from the ban.

According to the Journal‘s article, the group is supporting the Poker Players Alliance, poker’s 400,000-member lobbying group, and seeking scientific proof that poker is a game of skill.

In a related effort, Freakanomics author and University of Chicago professor Steven Lewitt is engaged in statistically analyzing performance results of good and bad online poker players to establish the differences among them.

Lederer, Lewitt and others also put forth the argument that the fact that it is possible to intentionally lose in poker but not in pure-luck games such as baccarat or roulette establishes that poker logically is a game of skill.

For the complete Journal article and further reading, see the following:

• Harvard Ponders Just What It Takes To Excel at Poker by Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal (3 May 2007)
• Poker: Skill v. Chance (from Steven Lewitt’s blog)
• Know any lousy poker players? (Lewitt blog post on “pokernomics” study)
• Pokernomics Web site

Thanks to Bonnie for forwarding the article to me!

This post comes at the request of my friend Matt who has been watching poker on TV avidly and playing recreational, play-money games on Yahoo. If you’re like him in that you’re building up the courage to play for real money in a live environment but don’t know where to begin, here is what to do:

1. Find a local card room. If you are in Vegas, the San Francisco Bay Area or Los Angeles, card rooms abound. To find a venue in your area, try the online Poker Room Finder on CardPlayer.com.
2. Find “the board” for your game. Poker rooms typically arrange tables by stakes. High stakes, medium stakes and low stakes tables (or just high and low) each tend to be clustered together. For each area, “the board” is the mechanism by which a new player joins the wait list for a game or immediately enters it. Boards come in three forms: (1) a sheet of paper, usually on a clipboard at a podium (2) a chalkboard or dry-erase white board or (3) a computer-based system with display monitors. All three types of boards are maintained by a floor person, and columns with wait list names on the board will be arranged by game, e.g., $1/2 Limit Hold ‘em, $2/5 No-limit Hold ‘em, $15/30 Limit Hold’em, $8/16 Omaha Hi-Lo, etc. Depending on the size of the card room, multiple tables for each game might be “running.” Look around the card room, and find the board for the game you wish to join. If you need to read this, you are a rank beginner, and, as a rank beginner, you probably should join the game with the lowest stakes in the room.
3. Join the waitlist. Approach the floor person and ask, “Are there any seats open for $2/$4?” A quick visual peek at the board also will reveal whether the game has a waiting list of names. If a seat is open, you will get seated immediately. If it not, ask the floor person to “please add [insert your name or initials here] on the list for $2/$4″ or whichever game you wish to play. You are now in the queue. (Note: If the list is long, at many card rooms, a floor person will accept a $5-20 tip to move you to the top of the list).
4. When called, take your seat. When the floor person calls your name, the floor person typically will direct you to a particular table with an open seat. Sit in it.
5. Get chips.
   • You can get chips in three ways: (1) from a “chip runner”, (2) directly from the dealer or (3) from “the cage.” For card rooms with chip runners, a chip runner will usually approach you and ask for how much you want to buy into the game (your initial stake of money for the table). Alternatively, the dealer may ask you for how much you wish to buy and summon a chip runner or provide chips from his or her tray directly. If neither of these things transpire, tell the dealer, “Chips, please: $X.” Again, he or she will either give it to you or call a chip runner to get it. When you get your chips, some players will tip a chip runner a dollar or two.
   • How much to get? As a rule of thumb, for a low limit game ($10/20 or below), players buy in for “a rack,” or 100 chips. In a $2/$4 game, for example, a rack would consist of 100 $1 chips, or $100.
6. Enter the game. In most games, you will need to “post” a bet to enter the game. This means you may be required to post the minimum pre-flop bet amount before the cards are dealt. You can post in any position relative to the dealer button. The most common and financially prudent is immediately after the button passes you. (If you don’t know what a button is, you probably shouldn’t be playing at all at this point). Before the dealer deals, simply place the required amount, $2, for example, in a $2/$4 limit hold ‘em game, across the line in front of you. Because placing chips on the table is a binding action, you should first ask the dealer whether you need to post or tell the dealer to deal you in and ask if you need to post.

Congratulations, you’re now playing live poker in a cash ring game!

You should also be aware of the following:

• Protect your cards. Players are responsible for protecting their own cards so that the dealer does not inadvertently “muck” (fold) them. When you receive your two cards, place a chip or other object on them to prevent them from being mucked. When you look at your cards, cup your hands on top of them and lift the edges with the ranks and suits to see them. Avoid picking your cards up off the table. Protect them at all times from prying eyes.
• Beware of “string bets.” “String bet” definitions differ, but the basic rule is that raises must be made in one continuous motion. The underlying purpose of the rule is to protect other players from physical actions by the betting player designed to elicit a physical response. To illustrate, if you wish to raise the bet of a player, you cannot call his bet then return to your stack to add additional chips for a raise in two separate motions. Instead, place both the call and raise amount in front of you simultaneously or announce “raise” before taking any action. Caleb adds: “This does NOT work like in the movies. You should never say ‘I call your X and raise you Y.’ Once chips begin hitting the felt in front of you, you can only bet as much as that motion allows.”
• You can leave the game whenever you like. At any point between hands, simply tell the dealer, “I’m out” or “Deal me out” or “Seat open.” Rack up your chips and leave.

These instructions should get you through your first session. If you have a friend who is familiar with playing in live cash games, it might be even better to go with him or her as a guide in your first session.

And, now, a parting inspirational quote — albeit about 7-card stud, not Texas hold ‘em — from Mike McDermott, Matt Damon’s character in the classic poker flick Rounders.

All right, here’s the thing. You only play premium hands. You only start with jacks or better split, nines or better wired, three high cards to a flush. If it’s good enough to call, you gotta be in there raising, all right? I mean, tight, but aggressive. And I do mean aggressive. That’s your style, Professor. I mean, you gotta . . . you gotta think of it as a war.

Good luck!

Two poker buddies and I played the Shooting Star $2000 buy-in no-limit hold ‘em tournament at Bay 101 last Sunday. I don’t play many tournaments, and, in the three years I’ve played poker, this was only the third tournament with a buy-in of $1500 or more I’ve entered.

Two key differences exist between these sorts of tournaments and the ~$200-300 buy-in regular, local tournaments at Bay 101 and Lucky Chances. First, low buy-in tournaments generally feature a rapidly-increasing blind bet structure (blinds might increase every 10 or 15 minutes); in higher buy-in tournaments, blinds might increase anywhere from every 30 minutes to every two hours. (For this event, the blinds increased every 40 minutes). Second, in general, the quality of players tends to be higher in higher buy-in tournaments.

Despite my relative lack of tournament experience, I am quite comfortable playing in events like this and was very much at ease (except for the expected tension of competition) for the seven hours I was in play. I was focused and played as intelligently as possible. I made a few small mistakes here and there, but I made even more good, aggressive plays to win pots. Overall, I was entirely pleased with my play, finishing around 60th out of 250, around 10-15 spots out of the money. Even my last hand, pushing all-in with AKo and getting beaten by 88, was the right play given the point in the tournament, my chip stack size, the position of the aggressor opponent, etc.

One silver lining: In the break immediately before the round in which I was knocked out, I made a $100 “last-longer” bet with a buddy. A few minutes into play after the break, he tapped me on the shoulder to let me know he’d just been knocked out of the tournament. Right at that moment, the cutoff raised, I looked down to see AKo and pushed. When my opponent’s 88 held up, I had lasted longer than him for about 1 minute — good enough for $100.

At the most basic level, players typically characterize each other along a spectrum in two dimensions: (1) loose or tight and (2) aggressive or passive. “Loose or tight” refers to the percentage frequency with which a player chooses to play hands; a loose player plays relatively many hands, while a tight player plays relatively few hands. “Aggressive or passive” refers to the percentage frequency with which a player bets or raises; an aggressive player bets and raises bets often, while a passive player tends to call bets reactively or check.

In addition to these dimensions, table image consists of various perceptions of a player regarding consistency of play, composure, intelligence, risk aversion, trickiness, general strength or weakness, win rate, etc. Table image can change over a period of time or even within a particular playing session and might vary by location or game or any number of other environmental factors.

Why does this matter? In poker, in which it is said that playing the people is at least if not more important than playing the cards, table image can help or hurt your success. A savvy player understanding his own table image and the images of others uses that information to make good decisions and manipulate opponents into making mistakes. For one simple example, if I know I have a tight table image, I know that when I bet players will be more inclined to believe I have a strong hand. And if I understand that a player is tight too, I know that I may be able to bluff that player into folding decent cards by betting.

I most frequently play $20/$40 limit Texas hold ‘em at Bay 101 in San Jose and don’t have a good sense of my image at the poker table. I can think of three ways to self-gauge table image.

1. Maintain awareness of your actions and behavior

I’ve made what I believe to be significant improvements over the past four months to understand my state of mind and control my play and have been a winning player over that period of time. My poker buddies know that I’m prone to “blow up” a la poker professional Mike Matasow. I’ll lose concentration or lose a big pot and then this catalytic event will sometimes cause me to play poorly and thereby lose most or all of the remainder of my chips. I’ve substantially “plugged” this “leak” in my poker game. But I can only imagine that opposing players have witnessed this behavior in the past. If they are smart enough – and they are more likely not to be given the skill of the players at the limits at which I play – they will use this knowledge to look for signs that I will “blow up” (also known as “going on tilt”) and take advantage at those moments.

Of what awareness should be maintained might vary by individual. I try to be mindful of my overall emotional state and energy level (engaged or bored, calm or frustrated, focused or distracted, energetic or tired, etc.); how frequently I have been playing hands and calling, betting or raising; whether I’ve been bluffing; whether the other players are paying attention, etc.

2. Glean insight from opponent comments

On a few occasions, players I respect– they play few hands, they play the hands they do play aggressively, they make intelligent bets, raises and folds – has folded bets to me and made statements such as, “I folded AQ against you.” I laugh inside and think, “Well, you should have three-bet, donkey, because I’ll raise on crap.” However, I can infer from the behavior and comment that this opponent perceived me as a “tight” player and use this information to attempt judicious bluffs.

3. Ask other players whom you trust (and I, myself, count no one in this category)

I haven’t figure out how to get reliable information yet from people I don’t know or trust. I’ve wondered whether the floor people at the card room have any insight, at least into whether I or others are winning players. Because the floor people frequently are selling chips to players and observing the players at a table, an astute floor person would develop a sense of whether a person is a winning or a losing player.

All of this leads to the catalyst for this post, that I heard something last week that still has me laughing today. A floor person was talking to a friend of mine playing a bigger game, $100/$200 limit hold ‘em. Noting that I always seem to have a huge stack of chips in front of me and assuming that I was a huge player, she commented, “I don’t understand how JK can afford not to play here everyday.” Fortunately, my friend set the record straight. But the comment entertains me nonetheless every time I think of it.

I should have known by the 1983 initial publication date, but when I first picked up A. Alvarez’s The Biggest Game in Town, I mistakenly thought it was about the “Big Game,” the high-stakes, typically $4000/$8000 bet limit poker game that takes place semi-regularly among the best players in the world in Bobby’s Room of the poker room of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the book’s title is not a reference to “The Big Game” but a more generic reference to poker, the biggest game, according to the author, in Las Vegas.

The book has diverting appeal. For those familiar with the big veteran names in poker — Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, etc. — the book is a biography of the beginnings and escapades of these early poker mavericks. For those following or engaged in the recent popularity of tournament poker, the book provides historical insight into how poker took root in Las Vegas and the formation of the World Series of Poker. Most interesting to me, however, were the numerous stories depicting the gambling nature of the poker players, bringing to mind this quote by S.W. Erdnase:

The passion for play is probably as old, and will be as enduring, as the race of man. Some of us are too timid to risk a dollar, but the percentage of people in this feverish nation who would not enjoy winning one is very small. The passion culminates in the professional. He would rather play than eat. Winning is not his sole delight. Some one has remarked that there is but one pleasure in life greater than winning, that is, in making the hazard.

The Expert at the Card Table, S.W. Erdnase (.html edition) (2000) (Jose Antonio Gonzalez).

The Biggest Game in Town affirmed my (possibly delusional) belief that I am only moderately a gambler — at least when compared to the poker players in the book and many of my degenerate poker buddies (you know who you are). I know that poker is predominantly a game of skill that involves elements of luck. I enjoy the occasional risks or wagers. But, ultimately, my distate for losing, and particularly for losing money, are far too great to take unnecessary risks where I believe I’m more likely than not to lose, regardless of the amounts or odds. I love action, just judicious amounts of it.