Poker Winner Blog

Phil Hellmuth, Jr.

The self-described “poker brat” is one of poker’s most intriguing, yet controversial players. At times, he demonstrates a level of ingenuity that is rare, even among high-stakes poker players. On other occasions, Hellmuth admittedly plays so poorly he probably couldn’t beat a small-stakes game. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Heilmuth is the son of a university dean. He started playing poker seriously while enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and soon discovered he was far more interested in playing poker than studying. Read the rest of this entry »

Benny Binion

One of Las Vegas’s last true patriarchs, Benny Binion started out by running illegal bootlegging and gambling rackets in Dallas during the 1930s. Binion arrived in Las Vegas in 1946 (some insist to evade murder charges back in Texas) and bought the dilapidated Eldorado Casino. He renamed it Binion’s Horseshoe, and it soon became the epicenter of gambling activity. The Horseshoe wasn’t really built for common tourists; it was a place for real gamblers.

For more than four decades, Binion had a standing public offer: He would accept a wager of any size, from anyone who walked into his casino. More than a few eccentrics were entranced by Binion’s willingness to take the ultimate gamble, and there are many stories in Binion’s folklore (all true) of high- rollers with suitcases full of money riding on a single roll at the craps table. But Binion’s first love was poker. Read the rest of this entry »

Poker is the only popular game of skillful human interaction where it’s possible on any given day to play against the world’s best players. At any of the hundreds of major poker tournaments held in the United States or Europe every year, you could find yourself face-to-face against former world champions such as Scotty Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., or Huck Seed. Ever heard of them? How about T. A. Preston? Name sound familiar? He’s better known as “Amarillo Slim.” If No-Limit Texas Hold’em is your game, you might get raised by none other than Johnny Chan, who appeared in the film, Rounders. Chan won two World Series of Poker titles back to back! Read the rest of this entry »

Expect Difficulties

You will succumb to all of your flaws as a poker player during the period you are struggling, growing, and reaching for a higher level of skill. Just because you’ve read all the books by all the experts, don’t deceive yourself into believing that you’re going to play as well as they do. Every top-notch player struggled to reach the level of success they’ve achieved. You’re going to have to do the same. Golf videos won’t turn you into Tiger Woods, chess monographs won’t turn you into Gary Kasparov, and Poker For Dummies will not turn you into Doyle Brunson. The best poker books will teach you how to talk the talk. You’ll have to walk the walk on your own! Read the rest of this entry »

Bookstores are filled with self-help books. Seminars galore promise to teach you how to be a winner in business, in love, and in your personal life. Some of these same principles can make you a winner at the poker table. Here are ten you may want to think about.

Be Aware of Your Strengths and

Weaknesses

An outrageous image at the table may work for some people but not for others. Some players are better suited to tournaments, others to ring games (cardrooms). Play your best game and play within the confines of your own comfort zone. In other words, know yourself, and do what you do well. Read the rest of this entry »

Using Statistics to Predict Your Expectations

If you think you can beat the games you intend to play in for a living but aren’t certain, you can use statistics to help you assess what you might expect to win over the long haul. This involves calculating your standard deviation and using it to assess the kind of results you might achieve.

Let’s say that after 900 hours of playing $20—$40 Hold’em, your standard deviation is 20 small bets per hour, which is equivalent to $400. Everyone’s standard deviation is different. Yours will depend on a number of factors, including your playing style, your opponents’, and how aggressive or passive the game is. Read the rest of this entry »

To most recreational poker players the idea of playing professionally seems like a dream. Get up when you want to, work when and where you choose, and ply your trade almost anywhere. From London to Las Vegas and California to Costa Rica, casino poker awaits you there. So what’s stopping you? Only the answer to this critical question, “Can I make a living as a poker player?”

Poker Isn‘t Like Most Jobs

For one thing, if you’re a poker player, you won’t have a steady salary coming in. Even commissioned salespeople don’t lose money if they fail to make a sale. But poker players do lose money whenever they have a bad day. It’s one of the few jobs where you can go to work and lose money. Imagine that. An entire day of poker — under stressful conditions — and all you’ve got to show for it is less money than you started out with. Not a pretty picture, is it? Read the rest of this entry »

Practice with Computerized Software

No matter how many hands you play at the table, using software like Wilson Software’s Turbo Texas Hold’em to practice against lifelike opponents and run simulations that will test your own theories will help you make rapid progress in your development as a poker player.

Computers can do things humans don’t have the time to accomplish. We’ve run experiments that simulated a lifetime of poker. We could have tested that same hypothesis by playing eight hours a day, five days a week, for 30 years, but what could we accomplish with that knowledge once we finished our research? It might be helpful if poker is played in the afterlife, but we’re more concerned with earthly uses for our know-how. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you want to become a better poker player today? Right now? Here are ten specific things you can do today, and each one of them will improve your game.

Know Your Numbers

If you don’t learn, understand, and use poker’s mathematical parameters, it will prove difficult to be a consistent winner in the long run. For example, if you’re playing Hold’em and flop four cards to a flush but don’t know the odds against completing that hand, what will you do when it’s your turn to act?

How will you ever know whether calling, raising, or folding is a play with a positive expectation? Finding positive expectations is the essence of winning poker, and it’s no more complex than recognizing those situations that will show a profit if they could be replayed time and again. Read the rest of this entry »

Ali offered little resistance. Outside of a few seemingly futile jabs, he looked as if he wasn’t even trying to fight back.

But that was Ali‘s strategy. After a few rounds, the heavily muscled Foreman grew tired. He had punched himself out and was spent. Ali, by comparison, was fresh. He was also unhurt. Ali then began a counterattack. He came off the ropes and danced in the center of the ring. Ali, who was faster, peppered Foreman with jabs and stinging overhand right hands. Now it was Foreman who had nothing to offer. “What’s the matter, George,” Ali said as Foreman launched a slow, tepid punch in his direction, “Is that all you got?” Read the rest of this entry »

Painting Yourself into a Corner

When Lou Krieger was 12 years old, his archenemy was Zimp, an overgrown, overweight 13-year-old. Zimp was always threatening to beat the daylights out of Krieger, who had no doubt he could do it. But Krieger had an out. Zimp was big and strong, but he was slow. Since Krieger could outrun him, outride him on a bicycle, and outclimb him over garage roofs and trees, he easily escaped every time Zimp took a run at him. As long as he was never cornered in a blind alley, he knew he could survive childhood. Read the rest of this entry »

Deciding If the Prize Is Worth the Game

Winning poker players usually won’t draw to a flush when the odds against making it are 3-to-1 or more, but the pot promises a payoff of only two dollars for each dollar invested. They’ll wait until the pot promises a bigger payoff before risking their money.

The analogy is also true away from the table. While real-life payoffs can vary widely, your investments are usually time, money, or both. Is it worth your time to spend half a day trying to make a small sale without the promise of greater rewards down the road, or are you better off courting one of your bigger, better customers? Read the rest of this entry »

Is there a player out there who hasn’t observed that poker is a metaphor for life? That metaphor is probably one reason why poker is so popular. Not only does it frequently mirror life, poker models it. Poker is life in a nutshell. The entirety of our existence compressed into a single hand of poker is a compelling thought.

A metaphor and a model for life! If true, there should be important life lessons everyone can take away from the poker table. When learned and applied, these lessons should make it much easier for a poker player to survive in a world where most people haven’t been force-fed these life-lessons across the poker table.

Being Selective and Aggressive

In the real world you do have to pick your battles, just as you must in poker. Sometimes you have to draw your proverbial line in the sand (”You’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em“); other times you have to carefully choose when to retreat (”Know when to fold ‘em”). Read the rest of this entry »