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Pocker Great Doyle Brunson

May 25, 2006

Apparently lightning can strike 3 times. Pocker great Doyle Brunson almost died when he saw that his hole cards were 10-2. During the 1978 World Series of Poker no-limit Hold'em championship Bobby Baldwin, then a professional poker player and now President of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, was matched up against San Antonio real estate investor Crandall Addington for all the marbles. Look at how Bobby Baldwin bluffed Crandall Addington out of a big pot during the finals of the World Series of Poker.

Stud For Advanced pocker Players, by David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth and Ray Zee is more thorough. I would have considered this book the definitive work on the subject, but for the authors' statement that "Seven-card stud is an extremely complicated game...so complicated that we do not consider this book to be 100 percent complete. "Although more players play seven-card stud than any other game, it is not the most popular game in many card casinos. Not any more.

Naturally, you'd love to play exclusively with recreational players who watch pocker on tv. If you can't beat a table full of pocker players who don't care about winning, you might just want to find something else to do in your spare time. Regulars come in a wide variety. Some are recreational players, but are at the cardroom every day. They may think they beat the game, but they probably do not. Others may be retirees who play on their pensions.

If you're fortunate enough to live near a giant card casino - one with 100 or more poker tables - there will usually be a choice of games at every betting level, from $1-$2 to $75-$150, and most games typically run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Your home game, by comparison, probably goes one night a week. A major advantage to casinos is safety. Card casinos offer professional dealers, floorpersons, and video security to ensure that games are run squarely.

Of course, if your opponents are calling stations, they'll call with almost anything, and you'll have to become adept enough at knowing their proclivities so that you don't try to bluff someone who never releases a hand when they play pocker. A good player also understands that you might be betting a hand like A-K. But he may not call even if he holds a hand like 8-7, since he can't be certain about what you have, and could be beaten if his inclination about your bluff is wrong.

Crystallized instants in time, forever frozen in memory, imprinted into consciousness, never to be forgotten are the moments when one learns to treat gambling addictions. If you are in late position and no one has called the blinds, you can raise with any pair, an ace with any kicker, and a king with a queen, jack, 10, or 9. When you raise in this situation, you're really hoping that the blinds - which are, after all, random hands - will fold. But even if they play, your ace or king is likely to be the best hand if no one improves.

Staying for the turn and river demands that you have either a strong hand, a draw to a potentially winning pocker hand, or good reason to believe that betting on a future round may cause your opponents to fold. Because there are only two additional cards dealt after the flop, along with the fact that the five communal cards play in everyone's hand, there are fewer draw outs in Hold'em than in stud.

I found myself willing to read the latest pocker news at the table with a bunch of unknowns, with the exception of this one guy named Doyle Brunson. Doyle had a very rough day. He played very tight rarely raising preflop. He called a lot of raises and found himself constantly folding on the flop. He just couldn't seem to hit a hand. On the other hand, my day got off to a blazing start. I couldn't seem to miss a flop and rolled over my table knocking out a number of players.