Happy New Year all!
With the new year, I am hoping to once again start to write a few posts.
I haven't had a lot of time to play poker as of late, but when I do, I have been making the best of it. I have actually been on quite a roll playing at the Ultimate. I am thinking maybe I have found that line between playing hyper aggressive and more of a controlled aggression. It is fun to play and really leaves people wondering what you are up too. It also makes your big hands turn into bigger ones. I have also taken the attitude that if I lose a big pot that I am confident to know that I can bring it back. It does help that I play bar poker with lots of very predictable players.
This has been quite a year for me. A new job with a couple of big promotions and I think that I may have finally found something other then running bowling centers that I am good at and enjoy. I took a fun vacation to California with my wife seeing most of Southern California. I became a grandfather with birth of Logan by my daughter Kara. Kyle got his first after college job, bought a house and got engaged to a great future daughter in law. I continue to live life to it's fullest with the help of my kids to keep feeling young.
My organization that I am a part of continues to grow. The CMJTT & SMJTT that Kara and I run are looking to have our biggest turnouts ever and the new CMPPA season looks to be historic. This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the beginning of bar poker at the Granite Bowl and even though it is closed I am planning on hosting an anniversary event in conjunction with the annual Bad Beat on Cancer charity poker tournament. More details to come.
Next Saturday, January 11, begins the 5th season of the CMPPA. The organization has joined with the Free Poker Network to give CMPPA members a chance to win State Tournament seats and a chance at big prizes. Membership is still a very reasonable $60 with 10 scheduled events. More information is available at www.cmppa.com.
That's it for today.
I look forward to seeing many of you over the next few weeks and remember.
It's ok to fold a flush draw for most of your chips!
See you soon.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Thursday, September 26, 2013
New TDA Rule
There has been a lot of talk recently about the new TDA rule about when a player must be seated in order to play in a hand at a poker table. Here is the rule.
29: At Your Seat
A player must be at his seat when the first card is dealt on the initial deal or he will have a dead hand. A player not then at his seat is dealt in, he may not look at his cards, and the hand is immediately killed after the initial deal. His blinds and antes are posted and if dealt the bring-in card in a stud-type game he will post the bring-in*. A player must be at his seat to call time. "At your seat" means within reach of your chair. This rule is not intended to condone players being out of their seats while involved in a hand.
There has been much debate about this issue in the poker industry and it has been mostly negative. The 1st thing I would remind everyone is that the TDA rules are meant as a guide and any tournament director has the right to use whatever rules he chooses as long as it is clear to all their intentions. If you are running a tournament and don't like this new rule then just announce what you are going to use as your time frame to kill a hand if a player is not in his seat.
I personally like a couple of things about this rule for Bar Poker. It sets a clear time that you must be in your seat. How many times at a bar game has the dealer waited to deal the last card because they are waiting for a player to get to table. Happens all the time and in the long run of a tournament, that blinds go up fast, a few minutes can make a difference of several hands of play. The other thing that I like is that the player may not look at their cards. A player that looks at mucked cards almost always gives away if their hand was strong or weak by their reaction.
There were many changes and additions to the TDA rules, so you would like to see them all here is a link to their website.
http://www.pokertda.com/poker-tda-rules/
I am just happy that someone is trying to get a set of poker rules to try and keep the game uniform. I don't like that it is getting more specific about rules and it's getting harder to know all the exact rules, but at least it's not pages and pages long like the current WSOP rules.
Thanks TDA and keep up the great work for the game we love!
29: At Your Seat
A player must be at his seat when the first card is dealt on the initial deal or he will have a dead hand. A player not then at his seat is dealt in, he may not look at his cards, and the hand is immediately killed after the initial deal. His blinds and antes are posted and if dealt the bring-in card in a stud-type game he will post the bring-in*. A player must be at his seat to call time. "At your seat" means within reach of your chair. This rule is not intended to condone players being out of their seats while involved in a hand.
There has been much debate about this issue in the poker industry and it has been mostly negative. The 1st thing I would remind everyone is that the TDA rules are meant as a guide and any tournament director has the right to use whatever rules he chooses as long as it is clear to all their intentions. If you are running a tournament and don't like this new rule then just announce what you are going to use as your time frame to kill a hand if a player is not in his seat.
I personally like a couple of things about this rule for Bar Poker. It sets a clear time that you must be in your seat. How many times at a bar game has the dealer waited to deal the last card because they are waiting for a player to get to table. Happens all the time and in the long run of a tournament, that blinds go up fast, a few minutes can make a difference of several hands of play. The other thing that I like is that the player may not look at their cards. A player that looks at mucked cards almost always gives away if their hand was strong or weak by their reaction.
There were many changes and additions to the TDA rules, so you would like to see them all here is a link to their website.
http://www.pokertda.com/poker-tda-rules/
I am just happy that someone is trying to get a set of poker rules to try and keep the game uniform. I don't like that it is getting more specific about rules and it's getting harder to know all the exact rules, but at least it's not pages and pages long like the current WSOP rules.
Thanks TDA and keep up the great work for the game we love!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Card Dead
At a recent bar game late into the second hour a regular player began talking about how their cards had been bad all night. At this point in the night I had a fairly big stack and I had been pretty much card dead all night at least according to that players standards. So, why did I have a good size stack and that player was on life support? The answer is simple. Play the player not the cards. Any good player is able to take the nights when the cards are not running so good and turn it into at least a chance to cash, make the points or even win. It is one of the small negatives to league style bar poker that start with stacks around 10,000 in chips. A player that is getting less then ideal starting hands is able to fold his way to at least close to making the points and many times can make it depending on the other players. When I arrive at a new table, whether it is at the start of a tournament or just changing tables, I look around the table and see who I know and who I don't. Are their players that I can outplay or are they players that I can't make fold. What kind of starting hands do these players value. To some J-10 is just as good as A-K or a pocket pair. I am going to call a per flop raise with less of a hand to this player because I know what they could possibly be raising with and I also know with a flop that couldn't possibly have hit them that a bet or a reraise will probably make them fold. Then you have the player that thinks he is card dead. I am going to raise his big blind almost every time and he is going to fold most of the time. When he doesn't I am going to make a continuation bet and then if he doesn't fold I will watch my step he may have a hand. All of this can be done with any two cards in your hand. So, if someone tells me they are card dead and folding their way on I say good for me. I will be more then happy to take your chips. Poker is not always about the cards, it's about how you play what you got!
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