Poker: If Your Read is Wrong You May Pay for It

The pros say poker is about making good decisions. Put your opponent on a hand based on his tendencies, and then decide if you're getting your money in when you have the best of it.

But sometimes you make the wrong read.

And sometimes you get lucky.

At the 2007 World Series of Poker main event, pro Chip Jett couldn't figure out an opponent who had one of the biggest stacks of the day.

"He'd limp under the gun, somebody would raise, I'd call, he'd move in, and I'd fold A-K," Jett said. "Now I'm getting ticked off. It was almost like he played so simple that it was tricky."

In this hand, with blinds at $200-$400, Jett raised to $1,025 from the cutoff with pocket 8s. His vexing opponent called from the big blind.

The flop came king-queen-8, two diamonds, giving Jett a set of 8s. The big blind checked. Jett bet $3,300.

"I'm putting him on a king, and I'm praying that he has K-Q and is going to raise me," Jett said.

His opponent called. The turn came the 9 of hearts, putting a straight draw on board. The big blind checked again. Jett made it $4,400. His opponent moved all in for about $135,000, a raise of about 10 times the size of the pot.

"The first thing I think is that he definitely doesn't have the straight because he wouldn't make a bet that would run me out of the hand," Jett said. "I really thought that he probably had K-Q, which I love.

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"But I was hoping he'd raise just some of my chips and then I'd re-raise all in and he'd fold. Any time I have to put the last of my chips in and I don't have (an unbeatable hand), I get a little freaked out."

Jett put in his remaining stack of about $35,000. His opponent flipped over jack-10 offsuit for the straight.

"I think he was so green that he didn't want to take any chances (of losing to a flush on the river)," Jett said.

More than a 3-1 underdog, Jett hit a king on the river to double up with a full house.

Jett had put his opponent on a hand - in this case, king-queen - and when nothing changed his mind, he stuck to his read. It was the wrong read, but he stuck to it, fueled in part by being bet out of pots by this opponent.

APPT T.O.C: Hachem celebrates first win in Australia

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Online Poker Helps Gigamedia Beat Wall Street Projections

Taiwan-based online gaming software firm GigaMedia Ltd (owns and operates Everest Poker) posted fourth-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations this week, driven by continued growth in its online poker software business in continental Europe as well as by Internet games business in Asia.

Earlier this month, GigaMedia's Everest Poker announced they had signed a key multi-year promotional agreement with the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the world's largest land-based poker.

Under the terms of the deal, Everest Poker will be the sole poker related table sponsor of the WSOP and will enjoy a prominent logo position on the "felt" on every table in the competition, as well as exclusive brand positioning on the coveted "inner-rung" of the championship table.

The alliance also includes other prominent on-site visibility at the WSOP, including hanging banners and barricade logos. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Also, Everest Poker was named Poker Operation of the Year in 2007 by industry journal e-Gaming Review.

Revenue in GigaMedia's core gaming software segment rose 73 percent to $34.2 million from the year-ago quarter. The company's poker software business, which rose 107 percent from the previous year, contributed about 78 percent of the gaming software segment's revenue in the quarter.

Fourth-quarter revenue in the Asian online games segment increased 92 percent to $10.1 million.

Net income for the quarter rose 8 percent to $10.7 million, compared with $9.9 million a year ago. Consolidated revenue increased 59 percent to $47.7 million.

The company reported that they expect revenue to climb sharply in 2008, in its Asian online games business boosted by new games launches. The company also forecast continued strong revenue growth in its online poker and gaming software business in 2008.

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Poker leader flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct

We have news of what may be a poker first -- at least for organized tournament poker. Yesterday, at a World Series of Poker circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City, the chip leader at the final table of a major event was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.


The player, who is identified in the WSOP press release as a general contractor from Richmond, Va., was thrown out of the game and "forcefully removed from the tournament room" at a point when five players remained in the opening event of the WSOP Circuit tournament that had a $300 buy-in and started with more than 1,000 players.

At the point the Richmond man, Lesley Thornburg, was disqualified, he had earned about $19,000 for his fifth-place standing. The winner, a 76-year-old retiree from Brick, N.J., collected a little more than $76,000.

According to the official tournament report, Thornburg had been given two warnings for unsportmanlike behavior the previous day. The behavior was described thusly: "Ceaseless display of loud comments and baiting tactics lasting several hours."

The final straw came when Thornburg was actually the beneficiary of great luck twice. On one all-in, his ace-7 was dominated by an opponent's ace-queen, but Thornburg caught a 7 to grab the chip lead. Then, two hands later, he knocked out a player in sixth place when Thornburg had 4-4 against 7-7 and caught a 4.

But then Thornburg lost control, the report said, and he "began jamming chips into the pot with reckless abandon." He was warned by tournament officials and finally, when he shoved half his stack into the pot and announced "all in," officials ejected him for the "annoying and confusing antics."

Thronburg may consider himself lucky. In the Old West, all this would have ended much differently.

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Forecast Good for Poker and Casino Online Play In The US

In October 2006, Sen Bill Frist added the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act onto the Safe Port bill. This move was originally deemed to have made online poker and casinos illegal for Americans.
However, thanks to sites like unitedstatesofpoker.blogspot.com and uscasinos.blogspot.com many Americans are finding out that online gambling is still 100% legal and are
flocking back to the games that they love in droves.

The loophole in the law is due to the act only prohibiting Banks and Financial institutions from conducting transactions with gambling sites. It does not ban US players from playing on sites, if they can fund an account, AND the site accepts US players.

Thanks to the two sites listed above players can now find out how to fund their account without breaking the law. They can do this through a payment processor, which works like PayPal, except it accepts gambling transactions.

Once they have found a site which accepts US players, the player simply uses the payment processor to fund their account and they can be playing craps, keno, video poker , blackjack, roulette or poker within minutes.
uscasinos.blogspot.com has a full ist of casinos which are still accepting US players whilst unitedstatesofpoker.blogspot.com provides a similar service for poker players.

WIth many poker sites who stopped accepting US players either already returned to the fold, or thinking of coming back to the US market, plus millions of US based players depositing and playing on many poker and casino sites, if you haven't yet returned to the games you love, then check out the two sites for full details of how you can resume where you left of last year.

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GSN, WPTE Announce Season VI World Poker Tour Broadcast Schedule

The World Poker Tour brings in its sixth season with a move to a new network and a new hostess to show viewers inside. WPT Enterprises, Inc. and its new broadcast partner, Game Show Network, have released the 2008 WPT television schedule, which features 23 two-hour episodes. The season premieres in its new GSN timeslot Monday, March 24 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), kicking off with the Mirage Poker Showdown.

"We couldn't be more thrilled to have GSN as our partner, and the new home of WPT," said Steve Lipscomb, WPTE president, founder and CEO. "GSN and WPT are dedicated to collectively broadening the poker experience for fans and viewers, and cannot wait to kick off our best season yet."

The Poker Professor new season will feature three new tour stops and the debut of hostess Layla Kayleigh. Kayleigh has previously appeared on G4 and Fox Sports Net and replaces Sabina Gadecki, who hosted the show for one season. Also new is WPT live update online hostess Kimberly Lansing, who will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the tournament action that led up to the final Tables. Announcers Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten return for their sixth season as well. The WPT will follow the popular "High Stakes Poker" cash-game series on GSN.

"The WPT is one of the strongest brands on television, and poker fans will enjoy the action every Monday night on GSN," said Jamie Roberts, senior vice president of programming for GSN. "With the popularity of our original cash game 'High Stakes Poker' and the World Poker Tour, there is no better place to watch poker on television."

The WPT schedule begins with two events from Las Vegas, and continues to feature stops at The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, Bellagio in Las Vegas, Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Conn. and many others. International stops include Barcelona, Spain, Turks and Caicos Islands in the British West Indies and Niagara Falls, Canada.

Among this season's WPT highlights are a showdown at the North American Poker Classic between Barry Greenstein and WPT Season VI PoY contender Jonathan Little, the popular WPT Ladies Night, the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic, the upcoming WPT Celebrity Invitational at Commerce in Los Angeles and the WPT World Championship this summer.

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