The Poker Lab Rat

Most of the time when you’re engaged in a poker hand, you’ll be thinking about what decisions you will make before you have to make them. For example, if you call a raise with K-Q, you’ll think to yourself: Okay, if I hit top pair, I’m going to play this hand. If I have a gut-shot and two over-cards, I’m going to play this hand. If I have an open-ender and two over-cards, I’m going to play this hand. Otherwise, I’m going to let it go.

However, there will often be times when something happens that causes you to change your strategy mid-hand. Maybe your opponent makes a weak bet that gives you information worth using to your advantage. Or maybe he makes a bet on the river that looks like a value bet and convinces you to fold a hand you were planning on calling with.

It’s always good to enter a hand with a plan, but it’s essential that you be willing to deviate from the plan if the situation calls for it. Every hand requires that you react to your cards and the cards on the board, but it’s equally important that you factor in your opponent and his tendencies.

Here’s a hand that I played recently at the 2009 EPT German Open in Dortmund, where I went on to finish in fourth place. It was late in Day Two, I had been fairly short-stacked for a while and occasionally shoving with decent hands, but I hadn’t yet made a serious bluff in the tournament. We were eight-handed, the player in second position made a very small raise to 8,500 with blinds at 2,000/4,000 and a 500-chip ante, and it folded around to me in the small blind with pocket fives. I had about 70,000 in chips, and all I knew for sure was that I wasn’t going to fold a pocket pair in this situation.

I decided to call rather than raise, knowing the big blind would certainly be priced in to call as well, and he did. The flop came A-8-3. I was obviously looking to flop a set, or maybe something like 2-3-4 or 3-4-6, and this flop was not at all good for my hand, so I checked. The big blind also checked. And the initial raiser made what looked to me like a very weak bet, 12,000 into a 29,500 pot.

I was quite sure from the bet that he didn’t have an Ace, and probably he didn’t have a pair of any kind. It seemed to me that he had a hand like K-J, something in that range. So when he bet 12,000, I considered all of the factors – my read on him, my tight image, and my stack size. I decided to raise 21,000 more, representing that I had perhaps a weak Ace and had committed myself to the pot (even though, in reality, I wasn’t committed and would be willing to fold to a re-raise, leaving myself with about 30,000 in chips).

The big blind folded, and after thinking for a long time, the initial raiser folded also. He simply had to give me credit for a real hand that I wasn’t going to lay down to a re-raise.

This was a situation where I didn’t really intend to commit many chips if I didn’t hit a favorable flop, but I adjusted my decision making based on my opponent’s post-flop action, believing the stage had been set for me to make a move. Always be willing to adjust your plan, and every once in a while you’ll find yourself winning chips that otherwise would have been pushed toward someone else.

ABOUT JOHAN STORAKERS: Swedish player Johan Storakers is based in Stockholm and has won more than $2.4 Million in career tournament earnings… and like many pros and wanna be pros, plays poker online at Full Tilt Poker.

ABOUT FULLTILTPOKER.com: For the latest views and reviews of Full Tilt Poker site check out
>> Full Tilt Poker Review (PokerLabRat.com)
>> FullTiltPoker.com Poker Room Review (GoonersGuide.com)

WHAT’S ON AT FULLTILTPOKER.COM?

Hosts announced for FTOPS XII: Erick Lindgren opens FTOPS XII with a $1 million NL Hold ‘em event on May 6th. WPT Bay 101 winner Steve Brecher hosts Event #12, the $1.5 million 6-max tournament with antes from the start. Howard Lederer’s HEROS Event #14 has a new format, Patrik Antonius hosts the $2 million Two Day Event and Jennifer Harman ends FTOPS XII with the $2.5 million Main Event. Choose your event from the full schedule.

Each pro hosts a matching MiniFTOPS XII event, where you can play for just 1/10th the regular FTOPS buy-in.

Play the 200K Stimulus Qualifier: At least 80 players in the 200K Stimulus Qualifier will win a $2,500 prize package to WSOP’s* Event #4, including the $1,000 entry fee and $1,500 for expenses. Event #4, the Stimulus Special, is likely to have the largest starting field outside of the Main Event and a prize pool of $5 million.

Buy your way in for $30 + $3 or satellite your way in for as little as $1 or 50 Full Tilt Points.
* World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (”Harrahs”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with Full Tilt Poker or its products, services, promotions or tournaments …(or for that matter PokerLabRat.com and Red Card Media Limited)

AFTER A tough Budget and a difficult year for the Irish economy, you couldn’t blame the organisers of the €3,500 entry Irish Open poker championships for feeling tetchy in the run-up to the event.

Since last year’s tournament, which 667 people entered, consumer spending has dropped, the dole queues have extended and the tide of disposable income which brought about the worldwide poker boom has slowed to a trickle.

However, despite the prevailing economic wind, 701 players turned up at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin Friday afternoon to take their seat in the event, more eager than ever to compete for a prize pool of more than €2.2 million.

The eventual winner of the Texas Hold’em event, which runs until Easter Monday (13th April), will take home some €600,000.

“We had to work much harder to get the numbers this year,” said Paul Burke of tournament host Paddy Power. “A lot of poker players don’t have the same disposable income they had this time last year. If we had got 600 players we would have been very happy.”

The $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event is either one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker or an insufferable donkfest, depending on who’s doing the talking.

No matter which way you think, the speculation over who could take down the largest prize in poker or what kind of player might win runs rampant for months before the event kicks off. To this end, Bodog has released a series of prop bets covering this subject, giving action junkies the chance to put their money where their mouths are and wager on how different types of poker players will fare in the 2009 WSOP, which kicks off on July 3.

One of the biggest areas of speculation surrounding the Main Event always involves the performance of previous Main Event champions.

Will one of them repeat their feat and win again (Yes +2500)?
Or will one of them reach the final table (Yes +900)?

The champions listed as the favorites to last the longest this year are Phil Hellmuth, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Peter Eastgate at 9 to 2 with Chris Moneymaker and Jerry Yang not getting much respect at 16 to 1.

The performance of any poker pro is always of considerable interest and this year the Bodog oddsmakers have pegged Phil Ivey as the favorite to last the longest at 5 to 1. He is followed by Phil Hellmuth and Bodog poker pros David Williams and Justin Bonomo all at 6 to 1.

Female poker pros also get a lot of attention (as they should) and Bodog is asking if a woman will win the Main Event (Yes +1800), reach the final table (Yes +400, No -800) and which will last longer, the favorites being Jennifer Harman and Kathy Liebert at 5/1.

To view the full list of 2009 WSOP prop bets, head over to the Bodog Sportsbook and place your wagers now.

Here’s the latest item from the team at Bodog Poker… it’s aimed at rookie poker players. 

Playing in your first couple of poker tournaments can be an intimidating experience. Many new players get wrapped up in the action and make basic mistakes that they should never make. We all have to start somewhere and learn the game along the way, but here’s a list of basic mistakes that no one should be making at the tables . . .

Playing too many hands is the most common of rookie mistakes. Novice players don’t understand that rag hands have a lower winning percentage than premium ones. They’ll play anything hoping to hit two pair or trips. This mistake just bleeds their chip stack quickly until they get knocked out of the tournament. They need to learn some starting hand strategy and tighten up their game.

Pricing in their opponents is the most common mistake a rookie will make when they have the lead in a hand. Instead of knowing to bet their hand for value, rookie players often bet too small of an amount when they’re leading early on. Doing this allows their opponents to call the bet with drawing hands because the pot odds are low enough to justify the call. If enough players are still in the hand, the rookie player’s lead will often get out-drawn and they’ll lose the hand.

Chasing a straight with the sucker end is another situation where rookies get into big trouble. If a board is 6-J-10 and they hold 9-8, even if the queen comes on a later street they could still be way behind. It’s a good move to only call bets if you do hit the queen, and not to raise in that situation. A big bet from an opponent will usually tell them that someone has the bigger straight. This can also apply to a small flush when the hand has some other callers in it.

Going all-in pre-flop is another mistake that rookies often make. This move is dangerous at the best of times, even with pocket aces. Most times the rookie will not get any action on their hand, and if they do it’s from a big hand. The only time you’ll want to go all-in pre-flop is if a short-stack player has tried to force the action. Then you can go all-in to isolate them from other callers with your dominant hand.

Bluffing too often is a common rookie mistake for the aggressive type of rookie. These players use the all-in bet as a way to steal pots, but this play will eventually backfire on them and cost them a big amount of chips in a hand they shouldn’t even have even been in. They should limit their bluffs so they can be hidden, and it looks like they have the goods every time they have to show their cards at showdown.

Getting emotional is another one you’ll see. Novice players don’t understand that poker has a lot of losing for every player, and they give up, or tilt out, when things go wrong for a while. They will give up after a bad beat, and essentially throw away their final chips because they figure they can’t come back. They let frustration take over and dump chips for no reason - other than they’re not strong-minded enough to accept that they can’t win them all.

Ready for some tournament poker? Take off with Bodog Flight Club to some of the world’s most exotic locations to play in the world’s finest poker events!

NEWS: Bodog Poker is now available to Mac users via a brand new flash based poker client.

For more on Bodog Poker check out the following:
>>Bodog Poker Review at PokerLabRat.com
>>Review & Rating of Bodog Poker at GoonersGuide.com

Going into any rebuy tournament, you should know before the first cards are dealt how much money you’re willing to invest. Whether you’re playing with a single bullet (not planning to rebuy at all), enough money to rebuy 50 times, or somewhere in between, you should have a number in your mind. You need to know from the start how many risks you can afford to take, and play accordingly.

For me personally, I don’t believe in playing with a single bullet or with unlimited ammo. If you’re only planning on making one buy-in, then why not play a regular No-Limit Hold ’em tournament? Playing a rebuy tournament with only one bullet, you have no safety net and you’re giving the other players a significant edge over you because they’re able to exploit your reluctance to gamble.

If you’re pushing your stack in over and over, looking to accumulate chips and willing to go broke repeatedly, there’s a certain amount of upside to that, but I don’t believe it’s the best expected value play. Yes, that maniacal approach can sometimes get you into the post-rebuy period with a large chip stack, which of course provides an edge for the rest of the tournament. The problem is that if you’ve spent something like $25,000 in a $1,000 buy-in tournament, you have to finish that much higher in the money to come out ahead. A lot of times when you’re rebuying that many times, just making the money doesn’t cover how much you’ve invested into the tournament.

My personal rule of thumb is that I like to be willing to invest in the tournament in accordance to the payout amounts. I don’t ever want to get to the point where I’m investing significantly more money than the lowest money place pays. So in a $1,000 rebuy tournament, I’m willing to put about $8,000 into it. Some days, it’s just not your day, the cards aren’t falling your way and you have to leave and come back and play another day. It’s foolish to sit there and keep putting your stack in the middle when you have no edge and often times you’re up against a better hand.

When you’re playing this middle-of-the-road strategy, it’s important to identify the maniacal players from the outset because they’re going to be very dangerous, but they’re also going to provide you with your best opportunities to chip up. These players are actually the prime reason to play in a rebuy tournament, because you can feast on them. They’re going to open with all types of hands from all different positions, so you can call with marginal hands in position such as 10-9 suited, 8-7 suited, 3-4 suited, even one-gappers such as 6-8 suited. I also want to put a lot of pressure on this type of player before the flop if I have a big hand like Aces, Kings, or Queens, simply because this is the type of player who’s really willing to gamble and might just go ahead and ship the rest of his stack in right there.

In the last 10 to 15 minutes of the rebuy period, if you’ve been able to acquire a stack, this is a critical time in the tournament to play smart. If the hyper-aggressive players don’t have a lot of chips, they’re going to be pushing it all in almost every hand to give themselves a shot at a big stack heading into the post-rebuy period. If you have an edge in a given hand against these guys, use it, but you don’t want to gamble too much. Remember that you’ve acquired a stack now and it’s your goal to maintain that stack in and after the rebuy period.

Michael Gracz plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Polish-born, Gracz has one WPT Championship, one WSOP bracelet and was named CardPlayer’s 2005 “Breakthrough Player of the Year” Gracz was born in Poland in 1980

Compare FullTilt Poker to other poker sites that accept USA players.

Here’s a short but sweet item from the team at Bodog Poker with their picks for the top 5 Poker Tournaments of the 2008 poker calendar.

In 2008, Peter Eastgate became the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history. (Image courtesy of Bodog Poker)

1. WSOP Main Event is still the premier tournament of the year. It was the biggest prize pool of the year, and second biggest of all time. The final eight players all became millionaires, with a first-place prize of $9 million.

2. WSOP $50,000 HORSE Event should be the most highly regarded tournament because it’s the best professionals playing five different forms of poker. This year first place winner Scotty Nguyen won almost $2 million.

3. WPT World Championship $25,000 event at the Bellagio is the final event of the season. First place money of $3.3 million went to professional David Chiu.

4. The Aussie Millions main event is always a popular tournament. First-prize money of $1,250,000 AUS went to Howard Lederer.

5. The WSOP Europe has to make the list after the popularity it showed this year. John Juanda took home the £868,800 first-place prize.

>>For more on Bodog Poker and how they compare to otehr top ranking poker sites, check out the latest poker reviews for January 2009 at PokerLabRat.com.

Here’s what we suspect will be the last poker tip of the year from the team at FullTiltPoker.com. It’s written by popular poker author, Michael Craig. 

When playing a turbo Multi-Table Tournament online, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is overcompensating for the fact that it’s a turbo by playing too fast and loose during the first several rounds. Because the levels are shorter and the starting stacks smaller, you’ll see players rushing to get all their chips into the pot with a hand like A-9 or pocket 5s. Since these tournaments actually play like normal tournaments during the first few levels, it’s important to remain patient and wait for big hands.

In the first 15 or 20 minutes of a turbo tournament you should play the same way you would in the first hour or hour and a half of a regular tournament. You should be looking to play quality hands aggressively from late position, but if you meet any resistance you need to pull back. At this point in the tournament it’s not worth losing all your chips with A-J offsuit or pocket 5s if an opponent comes over the top of your raise.

There’s also very little point in trying to steal the blinds in the early stages because they’re so small relative to the size of the starting chip stacks. Stealing the blinds becomes much more important in the later rounds after the antes have kicked in. The other argument against trying to steal the blinds early on is that you’re more likely than usual to get called because players tend to play faster in turbos. The big blind will be looking for a reason to call your raise from late position, and he might even make a move, pushing all in with a marginal hand. As a result, trying to steal the blinds becomes much less profitable than usual.

What you should be looking for in the early stages are opportunities to play small hands that could become big hands. When you’re in good position, you should be looking to see as many flops as possible with small pocket pairs and suited connectors because these are the types of hands that can win big pots. If I have a hand like pocket 6s, I’ll rarely fold to a raise before the flop because I know that one time in eight I’ll catch a 6 on the flop and double up off a player who can’t let go of his big pair.

If you do choose to call a raise before the flop with a small pocket pair, it’s important that you make sure your opponent has a large enough chip stack to justify the eight-to-one odds of you hitting a set. Ideally, you should be looking to make this call against a player who has at least twenty times the size of the preflop raise. If your opponent only has five times the size of the raise in his chip stack, you can’t win enough to make the call mathematically correct.

Another important difference between turbo and regular tournaments is that in a regular tournament I’ll be a little more aggressive in the early stages, trying to project a certain image. I’ll often raise with hands like J-9 suited or Q-8 suited in late position, but that tactic doesn’t work as well in turbo tournaments. In turbos I’ll often pass up opportunities to make an opening raise with these sorts of hands because I don’t want to put myself in the difficult position of having to play a big pot with such a weak hand.

Let your opponents be the ones to overplay their weak hands early on because they almost certainly will. They’ll raise or call raises before the flop with hands like pocket fours, and even if the flop comes Q-J-7 they’ll keep on pushing. Such players also tend to overplay strong hands like A-K. After raising before the flop with that hand, many players will refuse to let it go after getting check-raised on a flop like J-7-4. Even though they’re obviously behind, they’ll call a big bet, hoping to catch an Ace or King on the turn.

Some players will even push all their chips into the middle in this situation. All they have are two overcards, but I guess they figure that after raising before the flop and betting on the flop they’ve already invested a healthy chunk of their chip stack and they might as well go all the way with the hand. They’re impatient because of the nature of turbo tournaments − starting with smaller chip stacks and playing quicker levels − but this is obviously a huge mistake.

The most important thing to remember in the early stages of an online turbo tournament is stay patient and wait for big hands. Too many players overcompensate for the fact that it’s a turbo and make foolish moves that cost them half their stacks. Don’t be one of those players.

Michael Craig plays online at popular USA player-friendly poker room, Full Tilt Poker.

FullTiltPoker.com’s latest festive seasonal promo: Get earning those poker points as free entry to real money tournaments or to buy great poker merchandise….

With 3Xmas Happy Hour, earn triple Full Tilt Points by playing during any regular Happy Hour until January 1st.  You’ll have even more opportunity for triple points on five special days, when 3Xmas Happy Hour runs for 12 hours, from noon until midnight ET. These days are Christmas Eve Wednesday December 24th, Christmas Day Thursday December 25th, Friday December 26th, New Year’s Eve Wednesday December 31st and New Year’s Day Thursday January 1st.

To play during Happy Hour, look for the ring games and tournaments with the  smiley face in the Lobby.

Here’s a couple of links to the latest poker room player reviews on FullTiltPoker.com:
>>Gooners Guide to Gambling Full Tilt Poker Review
>>PokerLabRat.com review of Full Tilt Poker

There certainly has been a lot of money changing hands at FullTilt Poker this week, with players winning (and losing) hundreds of thousands of dollars on the virtual felt.

The $500/$1000 6 player no limit holdem table has seen some massive pots approaching half a million dollars, and some big online names have been raking in the chips.

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond enjoyed good success  - at one stage sitting on a stack of slightly more than $1.5 million and finally leaving the table with $1,266,264.

Another big winner was Tom “durr” Dwan who made an impressive profit of $955,000 in a 24-hour period, owning real world poker players like Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen showing that even the best will come out with a loss from time to time.

And a day later, Dwan was online again, this time pushing his 24-hour winnings substantially over a million dollars by winning his largest hand ever - a whopping $657,000 pot.

But for every winner, there has to be a loser, and one player known only as Ziigmund took a staggering $1.4 million loss on December 7th, when his successful recent run came to an abrupt and expensive end.

He wasn’t alone, as Elmariachimacho also took a massive $750,000 hit as well.

RELATED LINKS :
You can play online at FullTilt Poker too - but take it slowly before jumping in with these sharks OK?!

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for decades you know that most poker pros and poker commentators have been preaching the value of aggressive tournament play for a long time now.

With so many outstanding online poker tournaments happening online right now, we thought we’d take a look at some of the tournament poker advice that’s been offered by one of the top poker pros - Gus Hansen. Hansen is a highly aggressive player and a prime example of how to succeed by putting the pressure on when playing tournament poker.

Hansen has been categorized by some as a loose player. It’s a term that borders on insulting in that it implies a certain recklessness. But the proof is in the pudding, and Hansen’s pudding is his place in the World Poker Tour Hall of Fame, his four WPT titles and a first place finish at the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event. He currently has total tournament winnings exceeding $7,200,000 – that’s a lot of pudding.

Hansen’s success as a tournament player is in direct contrast to hits he has taken in cash games. Despite his big tournament winnings he has struggled with money problems in the past partly because he has taken huge hits while playing in The Big Game that’s normally held in “Bobby’s Room” at the Bellagio. Hansen has admitted to losing a approximately a million dollars at couple of the games. Perhaps this is a good indicator of how an aggressive player might be best suited to tournament poker.

The success of the aggressive tournament player stems from the need to collect every last chip in the tournament and let’s face it, even if you make the final table, your chances are severely reduced if you’re the short stack. And it’s easy to think in terms of just trying to make it to the money but it’s more important to keep in mind what the payout structure is.

A good example can be seen in the WSOP Circuit Tournament at Caesars Palace last year. Chad Brown and Cory Carroll both made the final table; Brown as the short stack with $136K in chips and Carroll as chip leader with $713K. Not too surprisingly Brown went out first and Carroll won the whole thing using his chip lead to make plays that would be impossible if he were short stacked. Everyone knows the importance of getting a big chipstack but this should help illustrate how important it is in tournament play. Brown ended up walking away with $32,592 in cash. Not bad, but just eight spots ahead of him, Carroll made over half a million dollars. In other words Brown would have to finish ninth in the exact same tournament another 15.5 times in order to earn what Carroll did in one. That’s the value of a big chipstack and that’s why so many pros endorse a more aggressive tournament style.

It’s something to keep in mind the next time you get to the bubble and everyone at your table starts playing tighter than a tourniquet. It is probably worth the risk to get in there and steal some blinds. However, you’ll always want to keep in mind what the payout structure of your tournament is and gauge your aggression accordingly.

Test the value of aggressive poker tournament tactics yourself in one of Bodog’s many online poker tournaments.

If you’re looking for some bigger money action,  check out FullTiltPoker.com (US players still safe & welcome) or Ladbrokes Poker if you’re UK or Europe-based.

Here’s a poker tip from another member of the “WSOP November Nine”, Scott Montgomery. (You can read “Nov9″ Kelly Kim’s latest poker tip here) 

One of the most important aspects of poker is establishing an individual image and using it to your advantage. By playing an extremely aggressive game, you’re likely to get paid off when you make a big hand because your opponents assume you have nothing; by consistently playing tight, you’ll get away with bluffs because they assume you’re strong. Either approach is fine, but it’s tremendously important to be aware of your table image so you can profit by playing against it.

Most of the time, players fall between these two extremes and that’s not a formula for success. One of the keys to succeeding in poker is consistently playing a different game than everyone else at the table. Developing a unique style and then varying your game allows you take advantage of opponents who don’t adjust their game.

Personally, I feel the style that works best is all-out aggression. One important reason for this is that it gives me a shot at becoming the chip leader and running away with the tournament. On the other hand, it can also lead to busting out early. For me, this is a risk worth taking; in the long run, I’m more interested in finishing tournaments in 1st place once in a while than just making the money most of the time.

Keep in mind that this type of aggression isn’t just a matter of bluffing to steal pots; my ultimate goal is to get paid off when I have a big hand. By getting involved in a lot of pots with mediocre hands while still keeping my stack close to even, I put myself in a position to profit from opponents who are convinced that I’m completely loose and taking shots with any two cards. I don’t have to be successful every time I bluff, just enough to stay alive and reinforce that wild image so that when I catch that hand, I’ll be sure to win a big pot.

Here’s a perfect illustration from Day Seven of the World Series of Poker Main Event – the day that determined who would reach the final table. I came into the day with about 4.5 million in chips, which was a little below the average. I knew that to make it to the final table and have a real shot at taking it down, I’d need about 15 million in chips. I had no intention of sneaking in short-stacked, so I knew I’d have to triple up over the course of the day.

I stayed pretty even throughout the whole day, except for two massive pots that were directly related. The first pot came early in the day, when I tried to bluff a player off a pot on the flop with nothing but Ace-high. I made this all-in move because I thought I could get the guy to fold. He ended up calling with top pair, but I spiked the Ace on the river to double up through him. I certainly got lucky there, but one other very important thing came out of it: I made the table aware that I wasn’t afraid to make a move for most or all of my stack.

Later in the day I was involved in a hand where I had the nuts – there were four spades on the board and I had the Ace of spades. My opponent had a smaller flush – with the nine of spades, I believe – but my image was so crazy that he called because he put me on another bluff. The earlier hand, when I pushed with the Ace-high, had to have been in the back of his mind. Poker players always want to call. They think: what hands can I possibly beat? This is magnified when you’re at a TV table, because no one wants to be that guy who laid down a good hand and lost a huge pot to a stone-cold bluff, especially when the whole nation is watching. Because of my loose image, I ended up winning an 18 million chip pot.

In a sense, it isn’t easy to play poker this aggressively. You have to be equipped to handle the emotional swings; you have to understand, deep down, that sometimes you’re going to lose huge pots – maybe even your whole stack – on a bluff. When it happens, you can’t collapse. You have to walk into the next tournament willing to make that same play again, because most of the time it will work. You can never be afraid at the table or preoccupied with the past. To play this aggressively, you have to believe that it’s the right way. If you can manage this, you’re going to be successful in the long run.

With $1.3 Million in Career Tournament Winnings including 4 WSOP Cash Finishes to date Scott Montgomery plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Join him at a table some day soon!

Here’s Scott’s “plan” for the WSOP 2008 Main Table:

“I’m going to win; I planned on winning from day one. I plan on playing all the tournaments I can between now and then. I don’t know how much research you can really do, if I can get some pre-information I wouldn’t turn it down. If I take a vacation, I will go to Monte Carlo and play some poker.”

>>FullTiltPoker Room Review & Rating