I can’t get enough of Phil Ivey. Like Jordan, Gretzky, Pedro Martinez or Pete Sampras, I could watch the guy do his thing all day and night. I recently caught him on TV in a game of high stakes poker in Vegas, where the man himself faced a tough decision.
You wouldn’t think a pair of red kings pre-flop would lead to many tough decisions down the line, especially when Ivey who endorses FullTilt Poker was controlling the betting early with an aggressive $14K raise to the table. He gets everyone out except a guy named Booth, who was sitting on a 4, 2 spaces believe it or not. That put him at an 80/20 disadvantage.
The flop is 3, 7, 6 of spades, which leaves Booth with an inside straight draw and a back-door flush draw…two really nasty positions to be in facing a powerful pair. The percentage of winning doesn’t change much, though, leaving Ivey with a 79% advantage.
Ivey can sense he’s working the best hand between the two of them, and certainly doesn’t want Booth to catch on the turn or river, so he bets a convincing $23K. Booth, now, proves he has some balls. He swirls his tongue around his lips a few times, and about a minute later you almost can’t believe your eyes as he raises the bet to $300K. Yes, you read that right. Great poker excitement, it’s what all of us fans of the game just live to watch.
Ivey counts his chips, thinks quietly, stacks his chips some more, peeks at his cards and finally hands them over to the dealer. Man, would I have loved to see him call and find out what would’ve happened in that hand, because if Booth didn’t pull that straight, he would’ve been done for.
The commentators made a good point while Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey was thinking, though. They said, win or lose, Booth was advertising. What this means is he was putting himself out there as a maverick, someone who couldn’t be predicted, a move he hoped would pay dividends later in the tournament. Those reputations are hard to build and even harder to shatter.
There’s a bit of chatter between the players who folded earlier after the hand, but Ivey just sits there with arms crossed, staring down Booth with a furious look in his eyes. I would not have wanted to be the next guy to bluff him that night.
Beware the big Internet site’s so-called “power rankings” when preparing to bet on the day’s games. Whether you’re looking to do some online soccer betting or online baseball betting, these lists are easy to get caught up in as a fan and gambling enthusiast, but they can hurt much more than they can help.
It’s easy to run down the list and use it as a gauge for whom to bet on for any specific matchup (does anyone actually do this?) The Braves are #7 but the Tigers are #9, so the Braves must be the team to bet. What a horrible approach.
First of all, you know as well as I do there are a million other things to take into account besides what one Internet site decided the order of teams should be this week. Where is the game? Is it a hitters park or a pitchers park? And…who’s pitching? How have these teams fared against the opposing pitcher in the past? How has the team been hitting over the last few games? What are the weather conditions? Oh yeah, what’s the line?
Not to mention that these lists are put together mostly by sports journalists of questionable knowledge to begin with. Some may even be nascar betting fans. Yes, I’m talking about every single one of them. Just because you research the game for your job and fill four hours of game-time talking about steroids doesn’t mean you’re qualified to rank the teams.
These things are put out there simply for clicks and entertainment value. You can tell there’s no real serious thought behind them by the comments they leave. They’ll float one vague statistic and expect you to believe that justifies their decision. Sometimes all you get is a quote from the manager…how is that helpful?
They might be good to spark conversation, but as a gambling aid, they’re totally worthless. Think about it, do you actually use what some of these guys are blabbering about on television toward how you bet on games? Please don’t tell me you do. OK, so now that we’ve cleared that up, you realize these same amateur experts – many old ballplayers – are the same ones putting their two cents into these power rankings each week?
Do yourself a favor and don’t even look at them. Even if you’re an experienced gambler, the order can seep into your subconscious and have negative effects on your decision making you won’t even know are happening.
Let’s look ahead to some Friday games. Maybe the weekend will hold more in-store for your team than my White Sox. They’re going down the tubes fast, and I’m convinced in their mediocrity so much I don’t plan to drop another dime on them for the rest of the season.
Baltimore at Kansas City. How do you start with anywhere but Kansas City these days when Greinke is on the mound? The man is putting up pitching statistics that would make Cy Young do a double take. 0.5 era? 0.79 whip? Disgusting numbers. Baltimore sits at the bottom of the NL East, and they better get comfortable, because they’ll likely be there the entire season. And they certainly – oh certainly – won’t be improving under the guidance of Adam Eaton’s 7.3 ERA. This might be the biggest online baseball betting mismatch of the season as far as the gambling line is concerned. Expect a -220 to +185 in favor of the Royals. Who would’ve thought…the Royals! Even though they’ve dropped a few since rolling out to an 18-11 start, Greinke will right the ship once again. The guy is unstoppable. It’s a huge price to pay for a bet on the Royals, but the risk will be worth the return. Until someone really knocks him around, how can you bet against KC with him on the mount?
Dodgers at Marlins: Yes, it’s time to revisit our year-long commitment to betting on Manny’s boys, primarily since the boys will be without Manny until Independence Day. And no amount of Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will keep this team playing at the level they have been without their slugger. Marlins through Volstad, a little-known hurler with stats that would stand up against most anyone thus far. The Dodgers are scheduled to start Stults…a relief pitcher, with zero saves. Interesting. Doesn’t sound someone I want my money riding on. LA is on the road, but Florida has seemed to find their niche in the last couple weeks as a rather unimpressive, uninspired .500 ball club. So who takes the edge here? Florida by a hair, but it could end up a pick ‘em. Right now I’ll give Florida a -115 to +110 edge. Who knows, the relief pitcher might surprise everyone and give the Dodgers hurting offense an opportunity to take the night off. Then again… the safer bet is with the home team. The over/under, however, might be the safest bet of all. It’ll probably come in around 8, and I’d take the under on this one.
Pai Gow Poker has a lot to do with the cards that you’re being dealt, but you can also win some hands by using some simple strategy that anyone can adapt. The number one strategy you should follow when you play Pai Gow Poker is to use a card splitting strategy that will allow you to win both hands more then not. If you always leave your best five cards in your five card hand and then throw any two cards into your two card hand you probably aren’t going to win many hands.
As a player in Pai Gow Poker you need to win both the five card hand and the two card hand in order to make money which means you need to adapt a premium card splitting strategy. The free poker dealers all learn a simple strategy when splitting there cards at the Pai Gow Poker tables and if you follow the same strategy for the most part you should do fine. The idea is to make sure you have a chance at winning both hands and not just the five card hand because after all as a player you need to win both hands to make money.
The first couple instances where you have no pair or one pair will be obvious how you need to split your hand because your five card hand needs to be of greater value then your two card hand. In some instances though, players make simple mistakes which could cost them the hand. For instance, when you have three pairs most players would automatically throw there top two pairs into there five card hand, but this is the wrong thinking. You should place your highest pair in your two card hand and then the other two pairs in your five card hand. The banker shouldn’t be able to beat two pairs so it doesn’t matter if you put the two lower pairs in that hand, and this way you should also win the two card hand with your highest pair thus winning the hand.
Once you’ve become familiar with the game and you know exactly how to play poker online, you should start looking to become the banker as often as possible. The house edge when you’re the banker is 0 which is exactly where you want it to be when you play any game in the casino. As the banker you win on ties plus you get to play against every player on the table so you could potentially win up to six bets in one hand. The dealer at the table will act as a player when you’re the banker so you get to play against the dealer as well. Some casinos don’t allow players to be the banker and some online casinos don’t either so make sure you do your research before committing to a casino. You always want to find Pai Gow Poker tables where you can become the banker once every round around the table. There really isn’t anymore strategy you can use when you play Pai Gow Poker and you’ll just need the cards to fall in place for you.