Well, I had planned to post on pocket pairs today, but something very odd is happening (happened?) and I hope some reader/blogger might be able to help. It seems this blog has somehow, over night, offended the little bots of Google.

I'll admit I'm a tad vain about this little blog, mostly because I work my tail off on it. So, when I did my vanity search on lasvegasvegas and didn't see the blog listed in the results I started to panic(and Pauly, it's Widespread!). So, I bring up the little Google search bar on my browser and click the "get cache" button for the blog... well there is no cache. The poker blog has been dropped from searches and I have not a clue as to why. If anyone can offer advice it would be greatly appreciated.

On another note, the interview with Mike is set up for Friday so plenty of time to mull over poker questions for "The Mouth".

Posted by pokerprof at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have a new personal project that hopefully will improve my overall game and especially my tournament play. I am reading or re-reading instructional poker books and then applying the strategies to online play. I typically chart my tournament play and have re-read the T.J. Cloutier with Tom McEvoy book, “Championship No-Limit & Pot-Limit Hold'em,” and have played in a few PP $10 SNL and SPL tournaments and tried to practice what I have learned from the book. I charted my play and have noted some major differences. In general, I play far fewer hands during the early and middle tournament stages. I also play “Big Slick” with much more caution and attention to position (remember that an unimproved A-K loses to a pair of deuces) and am not as quick to gamble my tournament seat on the cards before the flop. During the final stage of the tournament I am now playing more hands and playing them much more aggressively. T. J. says that there is no substitute for “tight and aggressive” play, especially during the end game and I have found this to be one true axiom.

I have read most everything available over the past years about poker. The problem is I apparently have not made an effort to apply it to my game so I am starting over in a self improvement program and will study and apply. The competition found in the poker ring games and tournaments today require the successful player to develop and play an ‘A' game all the time. If you do not have an ‘A” game then get busy developing one. Buy, beg, borrow or steal some poker books and read them and then read them again. Apply what you have learned and make notes of your play for later comparison. Play as often as you can and when not in a hand remain focused on the table; watching what other players are doing, why they do it and the results. Add the successful moves to your arsenal. Watch the professionals on televised tournaments and study what they are doing and why. My current sample size is too small for any definitive trends to emerge; but, the last three $10 SNL's on Party are three for three and this is without the cards running over me. In the short term I can say that Tom and T.J. are exactly right and I will keep reading and playing so I can say they are right in the long term.

I also saw something on the WPT the other night, one of those "huh? moments". One of the filler segments was "If I am dealt pocket rockets (Aces) would I rather my opponent held a pair of 7's or King's?" The answer was Kings and the reason given was the slight 2% statistical edge for the sevens,... huh? I also would rather my opponent has Kings because they are more confident betting the big pair; therefore, I am likely to win a lot more. Of note, the reason the pair of sevens have an ever so slightly better win rate against Aces than the pair of Kings is more straight possibilities with a seven.

Posted by flipchipro at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since the Tom McEvoy interview seemed to go over pretty well, I thought I'd take another crack at it, and this time it's Mike “The Mouth” Matusow. For anyone not sure of who Mike is, he has a couple of WSOP bracelets and Phil Hellmuth thinks Mike is one of the best limit Omaha players alive. So if anyone has a question for The Mouth, it'll get asked. This will happen sometime later this week and comments will stay open until just before the interview. By the way, I'm avoiding the nickname "motormouth" because Mike hates this nickname and prefers either “The Mouth” his nickname as a dealer “Prime Time”.

Posted by pokerprof at 1:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, it’s been a week of celebrities for the poker blogging community. Almost everyone has had something to say about Ben Affleck’s poker victory, but Otis at Up for Poker has posted the most articulate commentary on the matter. Wil Wheaton filmed the Hollywood Home Game episode but fans will have to wait for the episode due to NDA's. Paul Tillison(Paulsburbon) is becoming something of a poker celebrity himself with a nice sized tournament win. Finally, The Fat Guy has a solid discussion on the value the Hilton Sisters (pocket queens).

Posted by pokerprof at 2:27 PM | Permalink

The final hand for the Hard Rock Celebrity Pro-Am Poker Tournament was finally dealt a few minutes after One o’clock this morning. Dan Alspach of La Joya, California beat Dennis Axel of Las Vegas for the championship and the $25,000 first place money and Pro-Am trophy. Dennis received $12,000 for his second place effort. The celebrity and professional players didn’t fare well with none of the celebrities making the final table and only one pro, Barry Tanenbaum, finishing in the money. The following list of the final table players gives the order of finish and the amount won from the $60,000 prize pool. During the final table play the Hard Rock Hotel announced they would pay the dealer’s tokes so the winners could keep all of the winnings. We commend the Hard Rock for their generosity.

Final table players:

1st Dan Alspach $25,000
2nd Denny Axel $12,000
3rd James Vecchio $7,000
4th Chad Layne $5,000
5th Gaylord Erickson $4,000
6th James papas $2,500
7th Laurene Holland $2,000
8th Steve Knovak $1,500
9th Barry Tanenbaum $1,000

The majority of the professionals and celebrities left soon after elimination but a few remained for the marathon duration. David Williams, 2nd place WSOP $10,000 final event finisher, was in and out and Gary Busey remained until the final hand. The tournament got off to a slow start but quickly picked up the pace. The event was well organized and hosted by Lisa Tenner of Tenner and Associates. We enjoyed the evening, visiting with the stars and pros even though I spent most of my time behind the camera. You can view all of the action from our arrival to the final hand so please visit our Pro-Am Gallery and yes there are more pictures of Jennifer Tilly here.

Posted by flipchipro at 8:02 PM | Permalink

Well, on last minute notice we hear about a star-studded poker gathering going on tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino here in Las Vegas. So we said what the heck and decided to head on over to see if it would be a smash hit or a total dud. The result, a smash hit, without a doubt. The event is set up as a 15 table no-limit hold’em tournament with a $500 entry fee and a total prize purse of $60,000 ($25,000 for taking top honors). Well, the entry fee bought participants a lot more then their $10,000 in starting chips.

Activities kicked off at 5:00pm (actually closer to 5:15) with a seminar on Texas no limit hold’em tournaments from noted professional Barry Tenenbaum who can be found swimming the mid-limit tables at the Belligao most nights. His presentation, although slightly rocky (I think he lost a lot of the audience, especially when discussing pot odds) covered the basics of Hold’em, the meaning of no limit, and structure of tournament poker admirably.

Next came the 1 hour social gathering and poker lessons, and this is when thing started to heat up. On the balcony level of the “The Joint” players, pros, stars and media gathered and mingled while noted professionals including Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher dolled out some of the basics and finer points of tournament poker to contestants. All the while big names mingled with the room including Lou Diamond Phillips, Jennifer Tilly and Gary Busey. The real stars of the evening; however, were the professional poker players. Even the celebrities gathered round to listen to Tom McEvoy, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari. After an hour of carousing and poker lessons the tournament festivities got under way.

Fifteen tables several with noted celebrities and every table with a noted professional player awaited the players. The professionals were given ‘dog tags’ at the start of the event, and if you were the lucky player that managed to knock them out they had to give up the tags (including any tags they acquired from knocking out other professionals). These tags netted the player $100 each for taking down the bounty. Well, the event is still under way and close to wraping up as I write this, a complete report and photo gallery of this interesting mixture of poker professionals and amateurs (I include the celebrities) will shortly follow.

Posted by pokerprof at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Prof provides us with his version of the future describing coming technology with words I can’t even find in my dictionary. Now we know why he gets the super fast HAL 9000 while I have to make do with the Commodore 64. Me thinks Mr. PokerProf thinks way too much and even then he forgets to mention the single most important reason for poker’s popularity and bright future. In one word, Poker is Fun! (Guess that would be three words). Name another leisure activity that offers more entertainment and even rewards the newbie novice players that read a few books and then apply what they have learned. Go to any tournament live or on the internet and you will see players with little experience in the professional poker world winning (Moneymaker comes to mind). Poker is a game that is quickly learned and rarely mastered. Every player has a shot at stardom and riches. I have been playing this game way longer than I care to remember and yet I still feel the rush of excitement every time I sit down to play.

I will never get to swing at a hundred mile an hour pitch in a World Series’ game much less hit a winning homerun, catch the critical pass in the Super Bowl, slip into the green jacket at the Masters or even walk across the court at Wimbledon. Ain’t gonna happen. Not ever; but, I damn well may find myself across the table from Doyle Brunson or T J Cloutier playing heads up for the bracelet and title of World Series of Poker Champion. It can happen to me and it can happen to you. That’s why poker has a bright future. You don’t really need to be a professor of anything to figure that out just a player.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:19 PM | Permalink

The future of poker and tournaments.

Well, after reading the flipchipro’s rather flippant look at the future of poker I couldn’t help but think about what the future holds for the current media crazed poker industry. An industry that only a couple of years ago was veiled in smoky obscurity and dominated by a few ‘relatively unknown outside the business’ professionals. Everything changed in a flash of televised tournaments and the emerging Internet players. I will offer my thoughts about the future of poker.

Tournaments of the future

In one word (actually an acronym), RFID. RFID stands for radio frequency identification and consist of a small info chip and transmitting antenna. These little buggers will be molded into every tournament chip. The “smart poker table” will continually interrogate each chip and report exactly how much money a player has and how much is in the pot. Palming, pushing and stealing chips will become a thing of the past. If fact, I can envision the final table of a major tournament using an RFID smart table feeding directly to a streaming website providing real time chip count and pot information to avid fans. This concept of RFID poker chips combined with a smart poker table top has already been patented. The success and spectacular growth of current poker tournaments is due in large part to the “card cam” that provides the television audience with a view of the player’s down cards. The spectators become involved in each hand and what better way to learn? The upcoming ESPN Sports network coverage of the World Series of Poker has added an additional camera that can offer a peek at the next card to be dealt from the deck.

The Internet poker sites

I don’t see much new innovation here. Better graphics, a fancier interface and more game options, yeah, but drastic changes, no way! The current on-line poker sites serve their intended purpose and do it very well, allowing people to quickly learn to play and bet in real time. The game designers took a page from the video poker machine people and have kept the human interface simple. The problems with on line poker that must be solved are the legalities of the business. The most difficult barrier to on line poker is the transfer of money into your casino account and the subsequent associated risks. A solution to these issues will provide legitimacy and much needed uniform industry regulation. Indian Casinos went through a similar evolution and finally found a compromise through state-by-state administered gaming compacts.

Television or poker as a spectator sport

The innovative World Poker Tour, ESPN’s upcoming 22 episodes of WSOP coverage, the Celebrity Home Game (which I hear will have Wil Wheaton, blogger extraordinaire, on the next installment), the Final Table Challenge and Lord only knows how many other poker show clones await the television audience. The popularity of the WPT has our monolithic-mega-media business scrambling to cash in on the poker craze. Namely, every “Hollywood idea man” will pitch his “great” poker show idea and the receptive media exec will sign a blank check for the production. The public is presented with countless hours of horrid poker (?) shows saturating the airways over the next couple of years. I can hear the pitch now:

Idea Man: “This show combines the best of everything, it’s like ‘Survivor’ meets ‘The Rounders’.”

Clueless pointy hair studio exec: “Great, I hear this poker thing is big, really big, let’s do it! And we have a great spin-off, “Strip Poker Showdown!”

Six months and many millions of dollars later:

The audience: “What utter crap… Hey! ‘Get Smart’ is on the rerun channel….. *click*”

The copycats will probably butcher poker and poker tournaments with many of the new shows becoming one night stands. The entertainment side of the poker business will settle back down and I expect there will be a few good poker related shows to compliment the excellent tournament coverage we have now. Rumor says the Fox network is currently putting together a live broadcast of a major tournament event to be done in a NFL Sunday game style broadcast. Providing they can get beyond the inherent table game boredom factor it may well work. I think poker and televised poker tournaments will continue to grow in popularity, improve with innovative technology and elevate the great players to rock star status. The astronomical prize money, alone, guarantees this.

Final thoughts

The future of poker couldn’t be brighter. Home games are more popular than ever as evidenced from record poker chip sales, casino poker rooms are packed with players, new rooms are being added weekly and Internet casinos have introduced the game to millions. Poker has become prime time entertainment with poker related shows offered daily on television. The Internet has a thriving poker blog community that is rapidly developing a voice that extends into the traditional media. Professional poker players are treated like any other sport stars. I am confident the legal issues surrounding Internet casinos will be resolved with the virtual poker world emerging the winner. The future of the poker industry? When I peeked it was a couple of pocket rockets.

Posted by pokerprof at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Should online players wear sunglasses?
After reading my colleagues rather long winded view of skill or chance in online poker games I have to add my opinions. I believe it is more of a chance thing at the lower limits and skill at the higher limits; of course, I also think this applies to live games, too. The three outlined requirements for a game of skill covered betting, reading tells and table position. I think we all agree that betting strategies and table position are comparable whether live or Internet so the only thing left is reading your opponent’s tells. The lack of face-to-face contact in on line poker makes getting a read quite difficult. In my opinion the on line games require a much greater degree of skill to read the digital tells you receive from the small screen.

Therefore, let me be the first to propose that the next generation of on line casino poker incorporates a web cam aimed at each player that transmits your live mug shot to the opponent’s screen where it can be used to read your tells in a more traditional manner. This would certainly help the on line poker community bring in those final live game only hold-outs that refuse to play on line because it really isn’t poker, even the diehards that refuse to come get their free bonus code money. What possible excuse can they give for not joining the on line fun when all the traditional game elements are now found on line? Hell, they can even wear their sunglasses. Of course, the hardcore trouble makers will spread rumors that they are being subjected to digital scrutiny as a result of computer savvy nerds writing code that detects and catalogues even the most subtle player tells. Entrepreneurs, fresh from selling plasma TV’s on eBay, will open websites where you can purchase “the total tell package” for anyone that has ever played on line. The potential for realism is virtually unlimited. A future patch could include a smoke detector so even the no-smoking rule could be enforced. A dress code would soon follow. Damn, I see great stuff here.

Posted by flipchipro at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On-line poker a game of chance or a game of skill?

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately and wonder, is on-line poker a game of skill? Will it be able to meet the existing legal criteria required to make it a game of skill? And what, exactly, makes poker a game of skill? The existing live game structure has produced many players that make their livelihood through the skills they bring to the poker table.
What factors go into winning through skill? I cannot find the elements our legal system used to determine that poker is a game of skill (perhaps there are no elements and skill is implied), so I am forced to hypothesize on what these factors are likely to be. In traditional poker there is the betting strategy, reading your opponent(s) and strength of table position. These three elements combine to make live poker a game of skill; because, through development and application of the three you can win the pot without having the best hand. It’s interesting to note from what I have been able to discover that the law favors stud poker as a game of skill but not draw poker.

Betting strategy and table position are both elements present in on-line poker; but how about reading your opponents? Obviously, reading tells isn’t present in the same form or to the degree found in traditional poker so the question becomes, “How necessary are skills to read opponents tells in making poker a game of skill? If reads are totally removed all that’s left are the bet and table position; then, without the ability to have a feel for what the opponent maybe holding it becomes more like draw poker. But, this is not the case, there are on-line tells and ways to read past the tiny little pixilated avatars of your opponents. The problem traditional players have with the on line reads is shifting their skills to tells of a generally different form. I present a few intuitive on line tells:

1. If an opponent is using the auto-check/bet button it’s usually a good indication they don’t have a hand when the autocheck is activated or do have a hand in the case of autobet.
2. Past betting/playing tactics, will give me a good idea of where a player stands in a hand.
3. A bet or raise on 4th/5th street by a checking opponent is a solid indication they improved their drawing hand.

Of course, the sophisticated player may be presenting misinformation and setting a trap, another level of skill.

So there are on-line tells and when combined with traditional game elements on line poker would appear to be very much a game of skill. If on line poker is a game of skill, can I make a living at it?

Part II. The three certainties in life: Death, Taxes, and reading this joke.

Taxes & IRS

In 1987, the Supreme Court issued a decision upholding a taxpayer’s claim that his gambling (playing poker) constituted a business. The Supreme Court ruled that the proper test to determine if an activity is a “trade or business” is that the taxpayer must be involved in the activity with regularity and continuity with the primary purpose or expectation of making a profit. A quote from the Supreme Court’s ruling follows:

“If a taxpayer devotes his full-time activity to gambling and it is his intended livelihood source, it would seem that basic concepts of fairness demand that his activity be regarded as a trade or business just as any other readily accepted activity, such as being a retail store proprietor or, to come closer categorically, a casino operator or an active trader on the exchanges.”

The Court went on to further clarify its’ opinion by stating:

“A sporadic activity, a hobby, or an amusement diversion does not qualify.”

Poker is the one card game where the best hand does not always win the money. There are two basic ways to win in poker; either have the best hand or through your actions convince your opponent you have the best hand. If the winner was always the best hand poker would be a game of chance. The best a player could expect over the long haul would be to break even and after subtracting the rake would always show a loss. This would be an easy call for the IRS since it does not meet any of the above criteria; therefore, we must assume that poker is a game of skill and the professional poker player can earn their livelihood by developing and using specialized skill sets whither in a live game or playing on the Internet.

I am certain that the first test of on line poker as a game of skill is nigh at hand and probably will come in the form of the IRS attempting to disallow a taxpayer’s claim of being a professional poker player. Everyone playing Internet poker should always declare all winning and deductions to the extent allowed by the IRS code.

Posted by pokerprof at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm most appreciative for the comments offered by Felicia, Maudie and BadBlood to my rambling “Should females play poker?” I didn't realize the amount of prejudice toward female players in today’s poker rooms. This is deplorable, unacceptable and quite frankly, surprising, I spend a lot of time in Las Vegas poker rooms and haven't paid much attention to the situation until the last few days. The ladies are getting a raw deal and often are subjected to verbal abuse that goes way beyond what could be considered 'game strategy'. People that create an unwelcome, hostile atmosphere for women players do not belong in the business on either side of the table. I welcome your opinions, solutions and any stories of situations you may want to share to supplement my current research project into the female/male player demography.

The Orleans Open 2004 Poker Tournament at the Orleans Hotel and Casino here in Las Vegas is coming up July 10th through the 25th. I'll provide coverage complete with photos.

Posted by flipchipro at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Call Rasie, or Muck It has an interesting post on the rules for misdeals. Iggy, is always digging up solid content and has a real jewel of a RGP cat fight involving Men ?The Master?, while the Poker Grub has an examination of bonus codes/bonus wars. Linda (Pokerworks) always has great tales of the table and The Penguin is looking for a proposition wagering nemesis. I've been busy with ?The Mac? interview and the WSOP photos.

Posted by pokerprof at 6:31 AM | Permalink

The top female finisher in the $10,000 Championship event of the 2004 World Series of Poker was Rose Richie, a 48-year-old grandmother from St Petersburg, Florida. Ms Richie finished 98th in the field of 2,576 entrants and received $20,000 in prize money. Rose was in the 12th spot with $225,400 in chips on the fourth day of the event and had accumulated $280,000 before the cards turned and she failed to catch a flop. Rose won her $10,000 seat through an online tournament at the Royal Vegas Online casino. She was sponsored by PrimaPoker.com, receiving an all expense paid trip to the WSOP complete with hotel and spending money.
Rose Richie is an entrepreneur and small business owner that has had to overcome some major health problems. She is a breast cancer survivor and has lupus, a disease that affects the immune system and afflicts its’ victims with chronic pain. Rose actually has lupus to thank for her initial interest in online poker. Suffering from insomnia as a result of the lupus pain she turned to the nocturnal Internet and found online poker, quickly learning to hold her own and consistently win.
Rose Richie came to the 2004 WSOP with the goal of becoming the first woman and grandmother to make it to the final table. She got close to realizing her dream finishing ahead of 2478 entrants. We congratulate Rose for her tough play and finish in the money. Will 2005 will be the year of the woman at the World Series of Poker?

Posted by flipchipro at 7:49 PM | Permalink

I had planned to play in the $60 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament tonight at Sam’s town but just didn’t have the energy to make it to the Casino. I have just spent the better part of the last two weeks sorting, identifying and compiling the 2004 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. Additionally, I spent about three days (and nights) working on the Tom McEvoy interview (see post below) and am just damn tired so after I finish this post I am going to do nothing but watch some mindless movie on the tellie and nap.
During my photo sorting I really noticed that there are few women in the high stakes poker business. Trying to find photos of female players from the 2004 WSOP collection is difficult because there were few ladies playing. Unlike most competitions poker does not rely on strength, speed or size so why not more girls? Does anyone know the distribution of male and female players on the Internet? I would think it would be close to a fifty-fifty curve. Enough of this heavy stuff for today. I will research this question and write a future posting. No more poker related anything for me for the rest of the evening. On to the movie; damn! It's “The Rounders.”

Posted by flipchipro at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We arrived at Tom McEvoy’s Las Vegas home in the early evening and did not know what to expect from the 1983 World Series of Poker champion. We were greeted at the door by an informal Tom McEvoy, the legend himself. He invited us in and the interview began with Tom warming up to our questions with a brief history of his early days in Las Vegas leading up to his WSOP win. He proudly showed us an original painting of the 1983 final table with himself and Doyle Brunson. Tom is a soft spoken former accountant that takes the game of poker very seriously. He is quite intelligent and has written more books on poker than any other player. Following is Tom McEvoy’s answers to our questions:

Prof: So what are your current projects?

Tom: I am finishing my 11th book “Beat Texas Hold’em” which has already pre-sold 30,000 copies. This book will not only cover traditional poker games and tournaments, but offers a lot of material on on-line playing as well. The other big project I’m working on is the pilot episode for “Final Table Challenge.” It’s going to be very different from the existing shows, the different players will come in through low buy-in events, from 10 different casinos, this will give new players, or players without a lot of exposure an opportunity to make it onto the program. This show will offer a lot more depth and analysis then existing programs. The episode will be filmed at Sam’s Town on September 14th and I’ll be one of the color commentators.

Prof: I just hope you won’t call a pair of 2’s “the real hand”

Tom: Well, I plan to say anything I damn well please.

Prof: What are your thoughts on on-line poker and the players it’s bringing to the tables?

Tom: On-line players are very different, but stand a good chance in these larger tournament formats such as the WSOP final event. Events with over 1,000 players are rare in traditional tournaments; but on-line it’s not uncommon to see a field of 1,700 players. This last weekend there were two tournaments I wanted to play in and I couldn’t decide on one so I played in both, one was on Pokerstars and I think it had 1,672 participants, and the other on Party Poker had I think 1,603. The on-line player learns survival skills that allow them to survive the grind in live tournament play. I think this is a big advantage of the on-line player, they have developed these survival skill.

At the World Series this year I only recognized two faces at my table, I couldn’t even put names to them. There were about 7 players that should have had “Internet” stamped on their forehead. I won my seat this year in a Pokerstars qualifier. One guy, was really interesting, he only had one move. He would either fold, or push all of his chips into the pot and close up his hood then lay his head on the table… I wonder where he learned this from?

Prof: On the subject of the World Series, for the 2005 event the rumor is they plan to cap the top prizes, I heard at 6 million and pay a lot more places, what do you think about this?

Tom: I think it’s a great idea, this will encourage a lot of people to enter the event, speculation is that there will be 5,000 for next years championship event, I think this is realistic, I also heard they’re thinking about raising the entry fee, this is a really bad idea, they won’t attract the field with an increased buy-in.

Prof: On-line poker right now is in an ambiguous legal state, it’s illegal to operate an on-line casino in the US and under the Wire Tap and Patriot Act it could even be illegal to play.

Tom: Technically, you’re breaking the law when you play on-line, but during prohibition you were breaking the law when you took a drink. They couldn’t possibly lock up everyone that took a drink during prohibition, and they can’t lock up everyone that plays on the internet sites. They are far more likely to go after the internet sites that run sports books as opposed to on-line poker. Almost all of these companies are based in Costa Rica, the Cayman Islands. What we really need to do, instead of fighting internet gaming they need to tax and regulate it. I know it’s common sense, but when would we ever accuse the government of having common sense. Not only that but, poker has a skill factor that makes it so it can be beat. It would be nice if it were taxed and regulated so that so that we would know the sites were honest rather then these mysterious off-shore sites, but the on-line casinos would be insane to cheat the players because they make so much money regardless and cheating could kill the site. Besides often you’re playing more then one table at a time, I can barely handle four, and when you have a player at more then one table they’re generating more revenue then a player at a brick and mortar casino.

Flipchip: In traditional poker there is a lot of skill, that’s the reason we see the same people at the final table in tournaments all the time, what about on-line?

Tom: There is skill, the problem is players change their handles and there are so many more of them you don’t meet the same people. You can’t look them in the eye; in fact, TJ Cloutier refuses to play on-line at all. I think there is a lot to on-line poker, even though you can’t see your opponents. Sometime you can tell by their hesitation if they have a hand or not, there are actually on-line tells. For example people will autocheck, click the autocheck button, so when you see the table check a lot of times that’s an indication they don’t have anything, you can fire a bet and get them to fold. This is not all original; I think Moneymaker talked about it not long ago. There are so many players online that have never read a poker book, these people think they can play Ace-Jack with all their chips and win. The big problems with on-line players are they overplay their hands, they make all kinds of mistakes. They over bet the pot they under bet the pot, I see this in every online game. The worst move I have seen is a player making a raise the size of the big blind in a no-limit game; if there is a more mindless play in no limit hold’em I haven’t seen it. You drive nobody out of the pot, it re-opens the betting, maybe they’re trying to make the pot bigger, but if that is their intent there are far better ways to do this. If you have a big pair for example, you’re not raising enough to accomplish the goal which is to thin out the field. You see a lot of total inexperience on-line, you would think with these players playing for real money they would invest in a good book… they would have the cost of the book back with one pot.

Flipchip: I read a book that you co-authored with TJ Clouiter and the drift of it was that TJ accused you of thinking too much…
Tom: You’re Right
Flipchip: … that you tend to over analyze the play.

Tom: You have a point, I think about poker way more then I should, even when I’m not thinking about poker it’s always on the back of my mind. I’m a theoretician, not a mathematician, a theoretician. A lot of the mathematicians that play professionally don’t seem to have a good grasp on the other elements of poker, the psychological elements playing the players, they are pure math players; there are so many variables that I always start out the answer to a poker question with “It depends,” the type of player, the size of the pot, your position, previous betting, it depends.

Prof: Okay, “Dick at Call, Raise or Muck It asked about your role in the first non-smoking tournament.”

Tom: That is one of my favorite stories! It all started with the Showboat, which became the Castaways, I was recruited