Marc-Etienne McLaughlin's Massive Comeback

It wasn't long ago that French-Canadian Marc-Etienne McLaughlin was dangerously low on chips but that's changed in a big way over the last hour.
His biggest gain came moments ago in a hand against France's Sylvain Loosli.
Loosli was in the cut-off and opened to 1.6 million. McLaughlin called from the big blind and the flop came down K♠ 8♠ 5♠.
Loosli continued the aggression marked cards with a 2 million bet and McLaughlin took a few moments before raising to 5.2 million.
Loosli paused for a beat before grabbing a tall stack of chips and sliding it over the line. It was a min-raise which meant McLaughlin would need to call 3.2 million more.
The French-Canadian tanked for a minute before announcing all-in. Loosli quickly folded and McLaughlin took down a big pot.
After that hand Loosli is down to 14.25 million while McLaughlin finds his stack at 37.4 million.

Level

38

Blinds

400000/800000

Ante

100000

Average Stack

31,760,000

Players Left

6

Tables Left

1

Living the Good Life

I've played poker for decades. I've known hundreds, thousands of punters, amateurs, pros and semipros, winners and losers, the sublime and the simple, the saps and the geniuses.
And there's this big question hovering around the poker world that's bothered me for a long time.
They come; they go. Some last, but most seem to fall off the end of the pier. Never seen again.
Why? This word keeps banging marked cards a dull, thudding bell in my brain. Why do they vanish? Isn't this "the good life?" No real job. No responsibility. Easy money. Pick up and go where you want, when you want. Have cash, will travel.
So, while in Vegas I got in touch with a friend, a pro "with legs." We had a leisurely dinner and a long chat.
My editor likes me to personalize my protagonists, so let's call him Max. Max plays mainly Stud, but he'll sit in a game of Hold'em if the field looks soft.
His home is Vegas but he follows the tournament circuit - not to play in the events but for the side action. He says he makes the lion's share of his income in these circus-like gatherings since the joint tends to be filled with players who just aren't as good as they think they are - and many arrive seriously bankrolled.

Battle of Malta Day 1B Update with Kara Scott

The action has come to a close on Day 1B at the PokerListings Battle of Malta and host Kara Scott is here to bring you up to speed via our daily video show.
Kara joined the marked cards players on the felt today and earned a spot on Day 2 with right around the average stack.
She also spoke to American Don Ford who won his seat to the BOM via a giveaway on the Mirror UK website.
It was actually his best friend Michael Schmidt who won the seat but since his wife is 36 weeks pregnant he called in Don to take his place.
Get a taste for what the Battle of Malta is all about and hear how Don flew 24 hours to arrive five minutes before the cards went in the air on Day 1B.
Check out more updates from the Battle of Malta and keep an eye right here on the blog for more videos.

Internalizer or Externalizer: Which Are You?

Reading through the vast piles of poker literature out there, you'll occasionally encounter the notion of "control."
Usually it refers to situations where a marked cards player, by virtue of a combination of skill on his own part, a lack of it among his opponents and a dram or two of luck, manages to dominate a table.
He or she pushes people out of pots with well-timed bluffs, draws them in when holding the nuts and acts pretty much like a director on a movie set.
Most discussions focus on how to establish this enviable position and how to maximize wins when it occurs. Most of the advice is pretty straightforward and typically turns on the use of selective aggression as a potent weapon.
I have no problem with this analysis. But I do have some things to tell you about the psychological issues that lurk behind the strategy. And as usual, when we probe the psychological we find solid poker principles.
Control is, indeed, an intriguing concept. It looms significantly over our everyday lives, particularly when we contemplate the degree to which we have (or don't have) control over events.
If we're the boss, we have control over our employees. If we're the underlings on the production line, we don't have a lot of it.
In some relationships all the control and power resides in one partner. In others it gets shared. Often money supports control. Money is power, power grants control, control garners money.

Poker is particularly messy, as you can control the decisions but not the outcomes.

In poker it's particularly messy. We can control the decisions but not the outcomes.
Generally, it feels good to have control over the events in our lives. It is satisfying to be the master of one's fate, the captain of one's personal ship. It also feels distinctly unpleasant when the tide is turned, when we sense that we have little or no control over things.
But the notion of control is, in reality, a lot more complex and a lot more interesting. And one reason, as we'll see, is that we often don't know where the real control, the real power, lies.
Here are a couple of questions I'd like you to ask yourself. If you don't like answering them from a personal point of view, that's okay. Just think of them in terms of how you've seen others act in a poker game.
Question 1: Have you ever changed seats because you just can't seem to catch a card?
Question 2: Have you ever groaned in despair when the guy who moved into the seat you abandoned got hit in the head with the deck?
Question 3: Have you ever asked for a new setup?
Question 4: Have you ever thought that a particular dealer was "lucky" or "unlucky" for you?
Question 5: Have you ever returned quickly to a table because your "lucky" dealer sat down, or refused to play for a full shift because the one who never deals you a winner just sat in the box cheat poker?
Question 6: Do you have a "lucky" charm or "lucky" hand or "lucky" seat?
If recognizing yourself in any of these makes you feel a tad uncomfortable, that's okay; a lot of regulars do these things on a semi-regular basis. They are "magical" gestures that give them a vague sense that they are, in fact, exerting some measure of control.
But, of course, all is illusion. New decks aren't going to be different than old ones, and dealers aren't lucky - they just distribute cards from a shuffled deck.

Having or not having control turns out to be a lot less important than whether we believe we do.

If you really think that you would have got those big hands had you not changed seats, you just don't grasp the random nature of the game (hint: you would have played the hands differently, the dealer would have begun shuffling a few milliseconds earlier or later; nothing would have been the same).
So why engage in these empty rituals? Well, for one thing, it turns out to be tough to determine just when we do and do not have control over a situation.
And, for another, having or not having control turns out to be a lot less important than whether we believe we do.
There's a concept called "locus of control." It's a personality dimension that runs from an "internal" pole to an "external."
People at the "external" extreme believe the factors that control their lives are located in the external world, the world outside themselves. Those who lie at the other end believe that control comes from within; it is "internal."
High internalizers tend to take responsibility for their actions, accepting the blame for those that go awry and taking credit for those that go well. High externalizers tend to blame outside forces for the unhappy events in their lives and credit luck or circumstance for the good.
Perhaps not surprisingly, high internalizers tend to be more successful in life. They make more money, win more contests, live longer, have lower incidences of depression, alcoholism, drug abuse. You name it, they're better off than their externalizing cousins.

One guess what type of player Phil Ivey is.

This may seem straightforward but it's not because, as noted, real control takes a back seat to belief.
In studies of people playing fair, competitive games, "externalizers" who won because they made the right decisions often thought that they just got lucky. When "internalizers" won such games they tended to take credit for their play.
And here's the fun part: In studies where the games were fixed so that the players' decisions had little to do with the outcome, the same patterns appeared.
Whether they won or lost, whether the games were honest or rigged, internalizers typically thought that it was their decisions and choices that determined the outcomes.
Externalizers showed the opposite tendency, whether they won or lost or whether the games were fixed or honest. When control was controlled, belief crushed reality.
This is powerful stuff, and the lesson for poker should be obvious. If you take responsibility for the choices you make, accept the blame for poor decisions and the credit for the right ones, you're on your way toward becoming a solid internalizer.
And remember, they do better at just about everything - no matter where the real control lies.
And, finally, those questions? Well, internalizers practically never answer "yes" to any of them.

PokerStove

PokerStove is a very handy freeware poker equity calculator used for Texas Holdem. You can put your cards against an oppponent’s range of hands to calculate winning/equity percentages. This is especially useful in all-in situations when playing against a short stacked opponent to determine which hands you can profitably stack off against him.
The first thing we want to do marked cards once you’ve downloaded and installed the software is to assign pre-flop hands versus some ranges. There are a few different ways for you to assign a hand range to an opponent, but probably the easiest way is to just put in a percentage.
So, for example, if you know the opponent is likely to be raising pre-flop with 8% of his hands in the under the gun position, you put that 8% in. By doing this, it converts the percentage to a range. In other words, it would be the same as manually putting in (88+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AJo+). Against an 8% range, you can see AJ is a 40/60 underdog.

Misclick

Due to a temporary loss of attention, a misclick can happen in online poker, simply by clicking marked cards the wrong button when it’s your turn to act. Misclicks can cost a lot of money.

EXAMPLE “You want to fold, but instead of clicking on the “Fold” button as intended, you click on the “Call” button.”
When playing poker online, a misclick can be easily avoided if you are focused at every table you’re playing at, and spend enough time to make every decision. They tend to occur when you’re rushed making decisions because of multi tabling.

Online gambling ban will cost U.S. $ 34,000,000,000

The U.S. Treasury miss the next ten years, up to $ 33,900,000,000. Reason why legalization is the prohibition of online gambling, the tax revenues could be higher. "On the Internet, the social control effect is completely lost, in the arcades to young people is still present, at least. The anonymity of the net naturally creates great dangers ", defended Ilona Füchtenschnieder, spokeswoman for the trade association gambling addiction , talking to press text that such a ban. Read more at derStandard.at. Banned

"Online gambling is prohibited in Germany. Provider but see tremendous business opportunities and leave no stone unturned to take this, "says the expert. A particular problem are likely to represent poker websites on the Internet. "Sometimes they cooperate with approved casinos, which gives them the appearances of legality", refers Füchtenschnieder existing trick cards loopholes.


More money

An additional authorization of sports betting would bring the U.S. financial even total almost 43 billion dollars. This result shall be the consultancy and audit Price Waterhouse Coopers Institute using two different basic approaches. Licensing, regulation and taxation of online gambling only in those U.S. states where casinos are also currently approved standard would mean an increase of at least $ 17,600,000,000.

Banned infraredink

In ten different U.S. states, including New York, Washington and New Jersey, online gambling is prohibited under penalty. The bill HR2046 - the "Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007" - presented by Congressman Barney Frank sees a regulated licensing of online casinos provide, at least in those states where casinos are physically present. In the second approach on the basis of a draft (HR2607) by Congressman Jim McDermott, a lump-sum taxation is provided by two percent.

Addict

"In this country, the revenue from gambling taxes are already higher than, say, from the alcohol tax," said Füchtenschnieder the risk of addiction. Estimates for the number of problem gamblers in Germany would vary. "We are in the age group of 18 - to 65-year-olds from a Suchtrate by 0.5 percent, ie from at least 250,000 people, but there are probably many more. The real figure should also still be significantly higher, "said Füchtenschnieder.

Information on Gambling Addiction Treatment Centers

At the poker table, the gambling addict does not think about anything else, but being focused on the game. They love the high that it gives them to stay on top of their opponents. They like the greed that it makes them feel - the desire to want more and more of it marked cards.


On the Internet, it is the same feeling when someone enters that game room. They love the fact that this can be done in privacy and without anyone discovering their little secret. In fact, they can keep their secret long enough to get bankrupt, divorced and lose their jobs.
Some people will begin their gambling so innocently. They may have been on a cruise or gone to a casino and decided to try it out just for fun. These are the people who usually win the firs time that they try this enticing activity. The winnings get them into a greedy spirit and they want more. Before you know it, they are going to the casinos on a regular basis and blowing all of their paycheck on the slot machines. This is the beginning of a disaster. It has the potential of destroying their relationships; loss of interest in their jobs and losing all of their finances.
Some people find this addiction so appealing that they will make it a career and they may in fact, be successful at it, if they stay in long enough to learn the tricks and tactics that these poker players use to cheat others out of their hard earned money. This game is also one that can cause people to commit serious crime because of their greed marked cards lenses . It is so enticing that it creates a killer instinct in people who do not have the discipline to reject any idea of things that are illegal.

Gambling rehab facilities help people who have already damaged their lives with this addiction. They are able to get a second lease on their lives. They are given a second chance to get back on track. Of course, it will take total commitment from the individual to be able to complete treatment successfully. It is going to also take the support of family members and friends to get back on the path of real life.
The journey to recovery will be very difficult at first, but if you keep focused on what it will involve, and then you will be able to get through the process. Meeting with a therapist at the gambling addiction treatment centers will give you the opportunity to view things from a different perspective. You will be able to discuss your problems at great length and have someone listen instead of judging you.
At gambling addiction treatment centers, you are taught how to manage your life and your finances so that you will be able to shun the desire that this addiction brings and find other ways to deal with it productively. You have to stay away from the friends that influenced you in the first place.

A Game Of Luck Or Logic: Learning Tricks To Win Blackjack

When playing blackjack most people depend on luck to help them win as they hope their next card isn't a ten, but you can realize that blackjack is more than the usual game of luck but a game title of logic that may be won by using a few simple tips that will change the scale closer.
Walking to the casino filled with the rich aromas of different beverages, smoke and a slight hint of body odor you might have looked around and wondered which game you could be good at. You scan the arena and notice green, felt covered tables and recognize blackjack-commonly referred to as 21. You meander towards a table and sit down tossing your chip to the dealer for the following round. So how can you win farmville of blackjack when you're not quite the luckiest guy within the room? It's relatively easy cheat poker, follow these tips of logic and you'll soon be the blackjack champion of the room.

Tip 1: The Worthiness of 10

In a game of odds it's best to understand what you, like a player, are likely to get at the blackjack table. Because you will find four cards that are valued as 10 your chances are 4 times higher to have the next card pulled equal 10. Always presume the following card is a 10 value.

By continuing to keep those odds in your mind do the math: if you have cards that equal 12 or higher the following card you pull is most likely going to be a 10, which may cause you to bust (or go over). The dealer's hand can also be important to watch. A two to 6 in the dealers hand means he/she will likely redraw with similar chance of using a 10 valued card and busting marked cards lenses.

Tip 2: Counting Cards

If you're serious about winning a game title of blackjack and therefore are willing to take time to learn how to count cards this may be good for. Granted counting is difficult work and is likely to take a large amount of effort and time from you as you practice the technique. It's also likely to set you back a little extra money to start out with as you buy training guides but it certainly may be worth a go.

 

Tip 3: Choosing your Table

I know of a method about how exactly to choose a table to be able to help your odds of winning. It's a simple technique that many people don't know simply because they depend on luck instead. When you enter an online casino consider the different blackjack tables: where are most of the chips? If the dealership has more chips it means that the players are losing, just pass those tables before you locate one with the players with many from the chips.

Tip 4: Tip the Dealer

Sometimes if you tip the dealership the dealership will actually tip you with aids to helping you win. Some from the methods a dealer can do are to not shuffle as thoroughly, rooting as well as not shuffle in old hands so more of the deck can be used (this actually helps you if you're able to count cards). However, both you and the dealership will need to be careful on who does the majority of the winning because the dealer might be replaced if he/she loses too much house money.

Tip 5: Know the House rules

House rules could be different from casino to casino so you need to know what house rules might mean you need to alter the way you play.

You can have plenty of fun learning how to beat luck with logic as you play blackjack. This is truly a game title about outsmarting the cards by watching for little tales the cards provide you with. Learn the tricks so blackjack may become a mathematical equation that's just intended for you to solve.  

How To Clean Credit Card Machine

You are about to discover a simple way to boost your credit – FAST!
Just 37 days from today – my proven system - could?boost your credit scoreby 39… 68… even 135 points –?GUARANTEED!


I'm going to give you the same secrets I used to…
Delete 7 inquiries in just one day...
Delete 2 more inquiries and 3 late-pays in one week...
Delete 6 more late-pays and 1 judgment…that raised my credit score 73 points in only three weeks...
My credit score went from a lousy 520 all the way up to 655 in just 37 days!Today my score is way over 700.
By following my "it's so easy anyone can do it" system – I guarantee you'll have better credit marked cards …

Just like Leonardo B. from Anaheim, California recently discovered…
I have hundreds of emails from everyday people - just like Stephanie and Leonardo - who have boosted their credit.
People like you and me.

Hard-working people who've had some bad luck… Some got laid-off from work, others got battered in the housing crisis, and some were simply extended too much credit and got in over their heads.
Whatever your situation, you're here because you need to boost your credit score… and I'm going to give you the tools you need get it done starting today...
You'll learn…

• How to DELETE 30, 60, 90, 120, and even 150 day late-pays from your credit report virtually overnight!
• Four simple ways to never ever get stuck in the bad credit vortex again!
• How to easily setup an automated budgeting system to track expenses, income, and all of your payments and bills without lifting a finger!
• A super secret trick that ZAPS all of your harmful inquiries in days - not weeks or months – JUST DAYS!
• A neat little way to double your credit card limits with one quick phone call!
• A ninja-like technique to?drive your score up an easy 75 pointswith one simple call!
• The little known secret to getting your credit card APR interest rates dropped to zero! (This secret statement will save you thousands upon thousands of dollars in interest payments!)

Tricks On How You Could Maximize Your Credit Cards

Good advice on managing credit cards can be hard to find. Read further for advice on learning how to properly use credit cards and avoid common problems as well. A lot of people have a credit card and mismanage it and they endure financial difficulties as a result. Be safe when giving out your credit card information. If you like to order things online with it, then you have to be sure the website is secure. If you notice charges that you didn't make, call the customer service number for the credit card company. They can help deactivate your card and make it unusable, until they mail you a new one with a new account number.

Make sure you know what your interest rate will be with a given credit card. This is very important: prior to singing up with a credit card company, be sure you know what rate you're paying. When you lack this knowledge you find yourself paying much more in interest than you anticipated. This may result in your inablilty to pay off your credit cards monthly marked cards.

Do not use one credit card to pay off the amount owed on another until you check and see which one has the lowest rate. While this is never considered the best thing to do financially, you can occasionally do this to make sure you are not risking getting further into debt.

Before getting a credit card, make certain that you completely understand the policies you are agreeing to. Certain credit card companies have hidden fees and special requirements that must be met before benefits apply. Read all the fine print in order to make certain that you understand the card policy completely.

If you are about to start a search for a new credit card, be sure to check your credit record first. Make sure your credit report accurately reflects your debts and obligations. Contact the credit reporting agency to remove old or inaccurate information. A little time spent upfront will net you the best credit limit and lowest interest rates that you may be eligible for.

It is important for people not to purchase items that they cannot afford with credit cards. Just because an item is within your credit card limit, does not mean you can afford it. Make sure anything you buy with your card can be paid off by the end of the month.

Use a credit card to pay for a recurring monthly expense that you already have budgeted for. Then, pay that credit card off each and every month, as you pay the bill. Doing this will establish credit with the account, but you don't have to pay any interest, if you pay the card off in full each month.

As you have seen, it can be all too easy to cause problems for yourself by using credit cards improperly. Too many cards and too many expensive items, and before too long you are in a lot of trouble! Hopefully, you can use what you went over in this article to help you use your credit card more wisely.

Niall "onehandturks" Charlton Full Interview Transcript

Niall “onehandturks” Charlton is in Cannes playing the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe and he sat down with us to talk about the online grind and life outside of the game.
Charlton plays high-stakes Pot-Limit Omaha online, up to $100/$200, and according to highstakesdb.com he’s profited to the tune of $320,000 so far this year.
Charlton took a few minutes to chat on a break from the €5k PLO WSOPE event to speak with us. For more information check out the feature story we did.
PL.com: Let’s start at the beginning. When did you get into poker and what’s the development of your game been like since then?
Niall Charlton: I’ve been playing trick cards for about seven years-ish. When I got out of University in Nottingham I was playing online and making money and instead of getting a job I just kept playing and did some traveling.
About four years ago I started focusing on Omaha and I think because I got into it before it started getting really popular my game progressed a lot faster than the average Omaha player.
And now I play high-stakes online.
What were you doing in University at the time, when you got into online poker?
I studied business and computer science but poker just sort of fell into my lap. My final year’s dissertation was on game theory and poker marked cards lenses, sort of trying to solve poker and see if a computer could do it.
It was a rudimentary program but the theory was okay.
You’ve spent a lot of time in the HSPLO forums on Two Plus Two. How much did that help the development of your game?
I’ve been part of the Two Plus Two community for about four years and it’s definitely helped a lot. I’ve met a lot of great players there and the discussion and talking over hands it’s allowed me to do has helped.
It was good in the early days but not much posting about hands seems to go on there anymore.
When you talk about the learning curve in Omaha, is it really getting hard now that the game’s becoming so much more popular?
Yeah it really is. The No-Limit players that are coming across and beginning to take Omaha seriously are improving so fast.
I think within a year or two a lot of these guys will be the best, better than all the PLO players who have been playing for a long time.
Are the games beatable now? And will they continue to be as the level of play continues to go up?
Well, I think so. I mean, I hope so because I don’t know what else I would do. (laughs)
But the games at the moment are great. The $50/$100 and $100/$200 games are really good right now.
You went deep in the Main Event at the WSOP this year and you’ve had some other good live results. Is live poker something you’re interested in doing more of?
Yeah, actually I just moved to London and things have been busy, a lot of drinking and a lot of partying, so I look at these events as a time to sort of take it easy and get a break.
So I’ll definitely be playing more events when I have the time to get away.
What do you see in your future? Will you be playing poker forever or do you have aspirations outside of the game?
I don’t think I’ll be able to beat the game forever so I want to make as much money as I can now, and use that to try some business ideas and investments.
It’s really hard to sit down right now and invest time in stuff like that when I can make a lot of money playing poker.
You talked a bit about the skills you learned in University helping you in poker. Do you think the skills you’ve learned in poker will help you down the road when you decide to turn to other projects?
Definitely. Bankroll management is obviously a huge skill. New business owners will often put all their funds in their first big idea which is dangerous, just like poker.
Understanding risk and being honest with yourself are really important in poker and I think the experience I’ve got will be a big help in business.

WSOP Daily Show: Day 1B with Georges St-Pierre, Esfandiari

We're two days in to the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and we're giving you a backstage pass via our daily video show.

Today on the show we speak to UFC Welterwight champion Georges St-Pierre. He tells us about joining Team 888poker and what it's like playing juice cards his first WSOP in Las Vegas.

Next we check in with Big One for One Drop champion Antonio Esfandiari. The man known as the Magician won $18.3 million last week and went a little overboard celebrating the win.

Check back for more WSOP Main Event videos and follow the action with our Main Event live updates.

Here is the rough leaderboard at the end of play on Day 1B.

James Schafer - 178,000
Jeff Beckley - 158,550
Matt Woodward - 158,500
Nelius Foley - 146,875
Jason Somerville - 144,725
Maria Ho - 130,425
Shaun Deeb - 125,900
Cody Wang - 121,900
Brian Hastings - 119,000
Jeremy Kottler - 112,000

Stout's Sunday Report: April 3, 2011

I was vacationing in Florida this week, so Sunday was the only session I played for the entire week.
I flew down to Orlando with my girlfriend to meet up with one of my best friends Mike Hofeld, who recently moved from NJ to Orlando.
From there we rented a convertible and drove down to Key West for a few days and rented a house. It's a pretty marked cards cool place ... has the feel of the Carribean islands without dealing with international flights/customs.
I set up shop in my buddy's office at his house in Orlando and was ready to crush it and make fat stacks of cash. Unfortunately that plan went as well as Tiger Woods' plan of keeping his infidelity a secret.
I made deep runs in two of the huge multi-entry shenanigans including the $163+rebuys but busted 29th and 53rd in fields of 4474 and 1454, respectively. I had heaps of chips deep in the Sunday 500 as well, but eventually started losing every pot I entered and busted well short of the final table.
I stayed focused and played really well throughout the session, but even the $215+rebuys couldn't pull the Mariano Rivera-like save it usually does for me as I lost a huge flip in it to bust 69th.
Anti-tilt video of the week:

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Length of session: 12:12
Total # of tournaments played: 57
Total # of cashes: 9
Total buy-ins/rebuys/add-ons: $12,462
Total amount of cashes/bounties: $6,449
Net win/loss for session: -$6,013
Net win/loss for 2011 in Sunday online tournaments: +$3,749
Don't forget the Bluff Pro Challenge running on Lock Poker throughout the month of April. The player in the contest who has the highest profit in MTTs + cash games for the month will win a Lock Pro contract and be featured on the cover of Bluff Magazine! Registration is still open at 

Three Card Poker

Despite being two games in one, Three Card Poker is one of the simplest casino poker games you can play.


Flash Game Instructions: Choose a chip amount from the bottom right and place your bets in the ante and/or pair-up circles. Follow the on-screen prompts to play or fold.
Three Card Poker uses the name "poker" because it uses the standard poker hand ranking order with just one exception.
Because of the difference in odds from five cards to three, the order for straights and flushes are reversed. This means a straight is MORE valuable than a flush in Three Card Poker.
Other than this there are no changes to the hand rankings, except for the elimination of any hands that require more than three cards. When you take your seat at the Three Card Poker table you can play PairPlus, Ante and Play, or both.

PairPlus

Possibly the easiest of any table game you can play marked cards, PairPlus requires absolutely no decision making on your end.

1. You place your bet (the bet must be between the table minimum and maximum bet amounts).
2. Receive your cards.
3. Get paid (or not).

The payout scale for PairPlus is as follows:
Straight Flush - 40:1
Three of a Kind - 30:1
Straight - 6:1
Flush - 4:1
Pair - 1:1

Ante and Play

If you'd like to have a little more control over what happens at the table, you can choose to play Ante and Play card cheating. If you wish you may play both Ante and Play and PairPlus, or you can choose to play just one or the other.
Here's a look at the basic game play.

1. Place your ante
2. Receive your cards
3. Choose to fold (losing all bets) or raise (matching the ante)
4. Get paid

If you fold, you will lose your ante and your PairPlus bet. This might seem like an issue, but if your PairPlus bet pays, you will have no reason to fold.
If you raise (by matching the size of the ante), then you must compare your hand to the dealers to see if you get paid.
The dealer must hold a queen-high or better to qualify.

• If the dealer does not qualify the player receives 1:1 on his ante and is returned his raise bet.
• If the dealer qualifies and the player wins, the player receives 1:1 on both the ante and raise bet.
• If the dealer qualifies and the player loses, the player loses both bets.
• If the dealer qualifies and ties the player, the player pushes: both bets returned.

In addition to the player versus dealer payout, players playing Ante and Play receive bonus payouts (regardless of the dealer's hand) for strong hands:
Straight Flush - 5:1
Three of a Kind - 4:1
Straight - 1:1

Shannon Shorr: Don't Put All Your Hopes on Poker

At just 27 years old, it's hard to think of Shannon Shorr as a member of an "old guard" of poker.
But as one of the first wave of online kids to get into poker post-Moneymaker, Shorr has been in the game for much longer than you might think.
With almost $5 million in live tournament earnings, he's also much more accomplished as a marked cards player than the average fan might suspect.
Making his first live cash for almost $200k at the 2006 Aussie Millions, Shorr has been a force in tournament poker since he started and his recent results, including a win in the PokerStars 500 in October, only serve to confirm it.
Our colleague at PokerListings Germany, Dirk Oetzmann, caught up with Shorr at the recent WPT event in Prague and talked about Shorr's newfound love for backpacking and his words of wisdom for young players hoping to follow in his footsteps.
PokerListings: You are a dedicated globetrotter. Tell us a little bit about that.
Shannon Shorr: It’s true. I’ve become hooked on travelling. I came over here for the WSOPE in Cannes and the EPT San Remo.
After that, I was supposed to go home, but then I decided spontaneously to go on a backpacking trip through Europe.
It was really just on a whim, but I really fell in love with it.
It is now top of my list of endorsements, and I do it as much as I can.
PL: So you didn’t use to travel?
SS: I traveled for poker, but not very much outside that.
I never really took the time to travel for travel’s sake, without schedule or plans.
PL: Why did you choose to travel as a backpacker, when you could also do it in a more comfortable way.
SS: True, but it’s not about the money, it’s about the experience.
Staying in hostels and meeting people is a completely different experience, and also I want to take myself out of my comfort zone.
PL: In your blog, you named Berlin as your favorite city in the world.
SS: Yes, I just absolutely fell in love with Berlin.
I went to Munich first, and then up to Berlin. People are very nice, a lot of them speak English, the nightlife is great, and the history of the city is fascinating.
PL: So you think Germany might be nicer than its reputation?
SS: I wasn’t aware that Germany had a bad reputation.
PL: Because of the 20th century history, we seem to be not very likeable.
SS: I think you can consider this disproven.
PL: Thank you. You also said that nowadays you wouldn’t advise young players to become professionals.
SS: That’s right, I would absolutely not. This business has become so extremely tough these days.
There is very little value in it, even in these tournaments.
To start up from scratch and try to get into this business is something I would just strongly advise against.
PL: But you keep doing it.
SS: Yes, but it’s tough for me as well. I’m managing myself, I’m really nitting on my expenses to stay alive, but it’s just not anymore what it used to be.
People, players at my age, we were just very lucky because we got in during the big boom, the post-Moneymaker years, when the average player was a lot worse, and the US was still an open market.
Today it’s just a completely different thing.
PL: Does that mean you think it’s impossible for a young player to make a living on, say, online poker. Without all the expenses?
SS: No, I think it’s still possible. Maybe I’m a little biased, because I’ve seen how much the poker lifestyle has changed and is changing.
PL: Then what would you recommend?
SS: I’d say pick a different career, don’t drop out of school.
Do your thing, but don’t put all your hopes on poker infrared contactlenses. You can always play poker if you want to, but don’t rely on it as a business.
Keep sharpening your gameplay, keep honing your skills, try to grind a little bit, but don’t do it full time, if you ask me.
PL: Are you going to keep on playing in the long run?
SS: I feel like I’m on my way out, but then I’ve been saying that for a while.
PL: But you’ve been pretty successful online lately.
SS: Yah. I kinda love the freedom that comes with it, that’s why I like to stick around.
You have to do something that makes you happy, if you’re spending a whole lot of time on it.
PL: But it doesn’t necessarily have to be poker.
SS: Absolutely not.
PL: And your plans for the near future?
SS: I’m going to play the EPT here in Prague of course. After that … well, I have a flight back on the 17th, but I guess I can get away with not being back until maybe the 22nd.
So I might go in the road again and travel to East Europe, like Slovakia or Slovenia, that region.

Nate Silver Q&A: "Poker is a Good Skill To Have in Life"

Statistician Nate Silver has been on one hell of a heater over the last six months.
In that time Silver and the team behind his blog FiveThirtyEight.com successfully predicted the winner in all 50 states during the U.S. Presidential Election, he released the best-selling The Signal and The Noise and become a bona fide geek god to the mainstream media in North America.
Silver is also a poker fan. A big one, in fact. He actually made a living playing online poker in the mid-2000s and played the WSOP Main Event in 2011.
The 35 year old has actually been itching to get back into marked cards poker and so when Crown Casino asked if he’d be interested in playing the 2013 Aussie Millions he jumped at the opportunity.
We sat down with Silver before he played Day 1c of the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event to get his thoughts on playing $10,000 buy-in tournaments, his election success, poker ranking systems and more.
PokerListings.com: Why did you decide to play the 2013 Aussie Millions?
Nate Silver: It was a combination of things. I get a lot of things in my inbox – especially after the election. I heard from Crown and they were like “You should come play in this tournament. You can go to the Aussie Open, vacation in Australia.”
It didn’t sound so bad considering it was the middle of January and like 20 degrees in New York. It wasn’t too tough a sell.
That said, poker was very instrumental in my life for a couple years. I kind of left it unfinished. I stopped playing during a pretty bad losing streak. I went on to do things that turned out very well but at some point I’d like to get some closure by making a deep run in a poker tournament or something.
PL: Do you actually play any poker when you’re at home?
NS: I play a $20 buy-in home game [laughs]. I was telling some high roller friends the other day that I play a $20 home game and they were like “Oh you mean $20,000?”
It’s still fun though. You can learn things. The players aren’t necessarily that good but there is this weird quality that because you’re under no illusion that they are all that good you kind of learn how certain players think. I think one mistake poker infrared contactlenses players make is to assume everyone else plays the same way that you do.
You can develop this masturbatory playing style where you’re really just playing against yourself almost. You’re trying to optimize playing against yourself instead of taking advantage of players who don't understand stack size and others who call everything.
Other than the home game, New York really isn’t a great place to play poker. Atlantic City and Foxwoods are all three-hour trips so you don’t make it out there that often.
I wish we had a poker room somewhere in the city.
PL: You’ve played a couple major tournaments now. Do you feel comfortable playing a $10,000 buy-in tournament?
NS: I think so. I’m trying to figure out what makes me feel comfortable. The couple times I’ve played the Main Event I would literally fly in the night before and I think that’s probably a mistake. There are fatigue and jet-lag factors.
I’m also in a place where I’m more financially comfortable after the election so I can focus more on just trying to play really well. I think it’s an advantage I might have.
Also surviving the pressure of the 2012 election, which in some ways felt like being at a final table or something, could also help my game.
PL: You’ve gotten a ton of mainstream attention since the election. What’s that been like for you?
NS: I enjoy it for the most part. It kind of comes with the territory. You can’t say “Oh I’m really glad my book is selling but I don’t want anyone to recognize me on the street.”
You can’t pick and choose that. It just kind of happens to you. The only time it’s annoying is if I’m running late for the airport and someone will be like “Hey aren’t you Nate Silver?”
It makes it difficult to steal their cab [laughs].
I’ll put it this way: I think it’s good that people are recognizing someone that is into the numbers and stats and kind of a self-professed geek. I think sometimes I get attention that should really be applied more to ideas than to people.
Some of it is undeserved in that sense. You become a symbol, which is a bit strange.
PL: What do you think the American public misunderstands about poker as a skill game?
NS: In some ways I think the American understanding of the game is actually more advanced than some places. I did a radio interview with Australian media this morning where the host expressed a very negative view of poker. It was sort of this sinful, gambling activity.
I think because it became so popular and so mainstream in the U.S. that people are maybe better versed in how they view it.
You still encounter people who get Blackjack and poker confused. They ask me if I can count cards.
It’s been really good having pros who are ambassadors for the game though. Obviously things like the Full Tilt scandal don’t help.
Hopefully by playing in these events I can say, “Look, poker is something that is a good skill to have in life. Or rather it teaches other good skills.”
It’s a really great way to develop your quantitative sensibilities and apply game theory and practice. You can also develop your estimation and people-reading skills.
I don’t think people realize how rich the game can be.
PL: You famously created a system to forecast Major League Baseball player performance. Do you ever look at poker and wonder if something similar could be done?
NS: I’m reading that book Kill Everyone where they’ll develop models that come up with equilibrium solutions in certain situations. They are limited situations, like pre-flop and push or fold type of stuff. You could do a little bit with it I think.
One thing I regret is that when I played regularly online is that I didn’t look at the data. I wonder if you could do more fun, data-mining stuff.
Like for instance, if someone pauses before they raise. You could get really specific tendencies. I maybe should have done more of that.
In theory I also think that’s slightly evil.
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I can play my hand in such a way that I’m unexploitable, which is not easy to figure out to begin with but to actually apply that in a tournament setting, where you have incentive to preserve chips, is a very challenging problem.
PL: Let’s talk baseball for a minute. Is there a particular baseball prediction that you are most proud of?
NS: Probably the time we had the White Sox to go 72-90 in 2007. I kind of like the White Sox, so it was nothing personal, but the local media interviewed Scott Podsednik and he was like, “Who are these Baseball Prospectus guys and what the hell do they know?”
Then they finished 72-90.
It’s fun when people hate on you and then turn out to be wrong. That’s why the election was, in the end, fun.
In poker you’ve got guys who are always on your case or hating on you and sometimes you bust them and it’s satisfying, right?
That’s not always the case though. Quite often they’ll bust you or you never really have a climatic encounter.
The election is a very rare circumstance in politics where people were very dug in but then you got the satisfaction of having this certain outcome.
I think that’s why it resonated with a lot of people. It’s because in a lot of fields there are people who just kind of bullshit and end up being wrong forever and never have to be held accountable for it.
PL: There were a number of poker players who made money betting on your election predictions? Does that kind of thing ever make you nervous?
NS: I try to differentiate on the blog when I think a prediction is more solid. We do things where we pick the Oscar or the NCAA tournament pool. Those are varying in sophistication but it’s hard to beat betting markets in general.
I really do think with the politics stuff we were more sophisticated than the markets. I don’t say that lightly.
I don’t mind if people take my advice on that stuff. I worry about other stuff where people go on ESPN wondering who is going to win the Super Bowl and I’m like, “I dunno, the Patriots probably. They have Tom Brady.” I hope people don’t bet on that kind of thing.
It’s just kind of finger in the wind stuff.
PL: Do you have any thoughts on the way poker rankings work? There are obviously some flaws with going entirely by tournament results.
NS: I’ve seen some attempts where people are kind of doing the Bayesian poker rankings but the problem is that you don’t have a sense for how many tournaments people enter.
If you talk to enough pros, you’ll learn that other pros, who have maybe won $2 million in a year also spent over $2 million in buy-ins.
If you don’t have that denominator for how many tournaments players are entering it becomes very tricky.
Maybe that data collection will improve but realistically you have 700 people entering at the last minute, it’s hard to collect everyone’s name. It is difficult to judge that, especially in tournaments where there is a huge amount of luck involved.
PL: Are there any other major tournaments you’d like to play?
NS: There are plenty of times during an election year when I can’t play but over the next year I’m going to have a little more free time. I’m going to play here and in the WSOP in Las Vegas in the summer and maybe Europe in the fall.
It would be fun to play a couple major events a year. At some point I’m going to have to make a run in one of them or it will just become pathetic. If I bust out early every time I’m sure I’ll get frustrated.
I feel like I have a deep run in me at some point. I’m not sure if I’m hugely +EV but I don’t think I’m –EV either so I’m breaking even and having a lot of fun.

Gus Hansen: "I Might Have to Go Back to the Drawing Table"

After 15 years, over $11m in career live tourney earnings, dozens of million-dollar online swings and some of the most memorable hands in TV poker history, is it even possible to imagine a poker world without Gus Hansen?
One of poker's all-time most popular players, Hansen both won over and keeps his fans with an aggressive, go-for-broke style that, for better or worse, always keeps things interesting at the tables.
In the case of his most recent online downswing, it's definitely been for the worse for Gus lately but that never stops him coming back for more. And his fans can never get enough of it.
In London for the EPT main event and the PokerStars vs. Full Tilt Challenge, Hansen took some time to chat with our colleague Thomas Hviid from PokerListings Denmark about his reincarnation as an FTP pro, what he needs to get back on track and crushing online and his future in the game.
PokerListings.com: You're back with Full Tilt Poker. How is it to be back?
Gus Hansen: It's great to be back, I've always enjoyed the software, the playing experience and all.
But as most people how I’ve been doing absolutely horrible online the last couple of months so that part of it has been pretty messed up. So it's a mixed feeling card cheating.
PL: In December you stated that one of the reasons why it has not gone so well for you was because there had been too many distractions to draw your attention away from poker. How have you dealt with it?
GH: It is pretty obvious that I have not dealt with it very well since I haven’t been able to change the losing streak around.
I would answer a bit the same way that I have not put enough effort in to it and been a bit too sloppy and not focused enough.
I have basically not taken it seriously enough and you cannot play against the best players in the world without being serious about it and bringing your A-game.
Hopefully I can change it around.
PL: Compared to when Full Tilt Poker was online two years ago, how have the games developed?
GH: Obviously, since I didn’t play online for a year and a half, it's hard to notice any change there. It looks like players have gotten better which is a natural development.
It all evolves, people get better at playing sports, they jump higher, run faster and they also get better at playing poker.
They have more tools to improve their play, there’s more literature out, more forums where players can discuss and chat, and that is all part of improving your game.
People are just much better than 10 years ago, and they are possibly also better than two years ago.
PL: Do you see where you need to improve your game at the moment?
GH: I still believe that I have a lot of good ideas for the different games, but with my recent curve it seems like I haven’t been able to implement any of it.
I think I might have to go back to the drawing table and analyze a bit more than I have done in the past in order to turn things around and get back on track.
PL: Are you familiar with the different analytical tools for poker, e.g. Holdem Manager?
GH: I am aware of them, familiar might be a bit too much to say. I’ve seen them, watched a friend of mine use them, but I have not yet started to use them.
It seems like everyone has started to use them so that might be the way to go.
PL: Do you discuss hands and strategies with your teammates, Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan?
GH: It depends, I think it is probably more the Team PokerStars way of doing things.
I would say that the three guys (Negreanu, ElkY and Haxton) are more analytical and put more effort into the preparation of the match, where we (FTP) might be a bit more hands-on and just sit down and play at the table.
But I do believe that preparation is a step in the right direction and obviously I have been discussing hands with Dwan and Isildur, but just not at the same level as our opponents.
PL: How well do you know your two teammates?
GH: I have known Tom Dwan for – I don’t even remember when he burst onto the scene – for at least a handful of years.
And Viktor and I are from the same neck of the world, he is from Sweden, I am from Denmark and speak Swedish, so in that sense is it easy to talk.
When we meet up we talk in Swedish and sometimes in English, and he is a nice guy. We have actually been talking about analyzing a bit more our play.
PL: Is the “old” Full Tilt Poker now a done chapter for you?
GH: It was a good day for poker when PokerStars stepped in and basically made sure that players got paid.
There are still some difficulties in the US, but I think you have to ask some questions to the DoJ. Today I consider it pretty much a done deal and an old chapter which you obviously have to learn from and not forget the mistakes that were made, but you also have to move on.
PL: In an interview with PokerListings during the WSOP in the summer you said that you didn't believe Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson had willingly committed any foul play. Do you still believe the same?
GH: Yes, I think I said back then that Howard and Chris were guilty of neglect. Although I was never at a board meeting and was a silent investor, I should maybe myself have seen some red flags being raised.
So in some ways I also feel that I am guilty of neglect. I think the shareholders were guilty of neglect, but there is a big difference of overlooking something or not being aware of something and then to maliciously do all kinds of criminal stuff.
Chris Ferguson is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and I have known Howard for many years so it is a bit weird to see them being out of it now.
PL: Will we see you play more EPTs now that you're a Full Tilt Poker pro again?
GH: I am at the EPT London right now and playing the Main Event tomorrow, and I know that I will play in Berlin and for sure in Monaco, my home town.
Apart from that, I haven’t picked any other tournaments out but let’s see. Obviously, If I have a good result here and I get a bit more excited then maybe I should play more of these, but if I get knocked out after the second level then I might say “Ah, I don’t really like these tournaments."
Sometimes you roll with the punches and you play marked cards a bit more when it is going well.
PL: Do you also plan to play the WSOP this year?
GH: Yes. I haven’t looked at the schedule and which tournaments I will play and which I will not, but I will definitely be there.
PL: And will we also hear about you playing in Macau this year?
GH: I have no plans right now but I will be very surprised if I do not stop by at some point this year. I was there already earlier this year for a short stay.
PL: You are also very interested in racketlon and tennis, you recently played bridge against the Danish prince Henrik and you also enjoy playing backgammon. Is poker as important in your life for you now compared to some years ago?
GH: Yes, poker is what I do, I am part of the Full Tilt team. I do a lot of other stuff like bridge and racketlon, but that is more on an amateur basis.
PL: Do you think you will ever end up like Theo and live in a villa in Greve (a suburb to Copenhagen) and have a family and a puppy?
GH: Definitely not Greve since I am from the central part of Copenhagen! But there is a good chance that I might move back to Denmark within the next five years.
That is where I am born and raised, and I have a lot of good friends there. So there is a good chance that you will see me back in Denmark in the near future.
PL: Will you also be in poker in five years?
GH: I would be surprised if I was not.