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Jeff Israel
Just A Game, Isn't It?
By Jeff Israel
There's nothing like some tournament success to set the mind racing that you can turn pro at the game of poker. Think again...
I learnt a lot from my latest trip to Vegas (read blogs here), mostly about myself and my relationship with a card game that we are all beholden to. It all started out way before the poker boom as a game whose challenge enthralled me. As the time passed, stakes and profits grew and poker became more than just a card game but a way to supplement my income. Attended to that came pressure. Pressure to eke out a few hundred a month that I would rely on to pay for the mundane everyday expenses that real life brings.
Having a semi-respectable job, a moderately respectable wife, and two highly respectable children inevitably led to playing poker less often and relying on the old fashioned way to make money. Being in Vegas for the first time in four years made me realise that however much I pine for the freedom to play poker all day every day it is a hard existence. Spending lots of time (courtesy of Poker Verdict) with established poker pros who were there for the duration of...
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Jeff Goes To Vegas Part 3
By Jeff Israel
After a dodgy start and a steady middle, in this third and final part of Jeff's Vegas '07 trilogy he tells us how it ended....
Having had a shot at a WSOP bracelet and come close to taking down a big tournament at the Venetian my last few days in Vegas saw me ensconced in the Bellagio, either in their amazing card room or the Fontana lounge for the nightly $1000 freezeouts that Dave seemed to own.
In that time there were two particular hands I would like to share with you.
My first attempt playing the tournament saw my stack swell from 5,000 to 15,000 thanks to a pocket pair of Kings surviving against a straight-flush draw and then a flopped set cracking an overpair. However shortly afterwards, what can only be described as an ‘internet hand’ saw me get knocked out. The chip leader with about 40,000 who was very aggressive opened for 1,500 (blinds 200 – 400), a player to his left called sitting behind about 30,000 chips as did I on the button with 88. Flop 789. Chip leader bet 6,000 and the pre-flop caller immediately pushed all-in. I had a difficult decision to...
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Jeff Goes To Vegas Part 2
By Jeff Israel
Poker verdict blogger Jeff Israel set out to conquer Vegas - but things didn't start well. Yet he was determined to turn things around...
I had been in town for only two days but was at a loose end. I hadn't anticipated doing anything other than winning the three-day WSOP event I entered on my first full day of my trip (see Part 1 of this blog for the ugly details).
There was no WSOP event starting on the Tuesday that I fancied so I just bumbled around the old place, playing a little here, a little there, though my heart was barely in it. I managed to get fabulously drunk that evening and remind myself just why pit games such as roulette and blackjack aren't the best options when you're in that kind of state.
Waking up on Wednesday morning, I took a good 10 seconds before realising why I had a gaping hole in my bankroll. Determined to get things on track, I ventured down to the sumptuous poker room at the Venetian to play in their $550 'Deep Stack' tournament.
Jeff Goes To Vegas Part 1
By Jeff Israel
Jeff Israel accompanied Poker Verdict's David Gross to Vegas a couple of weeks ago. How did his own quest for poker greatness go?
There few things more exciting in life than arriving in Las Vegas. There is possibly nothing more exciting than arriving there to play in the WSOP. Suitably enthused my quest for the ultimate in poker bling as part of Poker Verdict’s 2007 team began. Arriving at the Amazon Room is simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming. Whilst only the most blasé of poker enthusiasts could fail to widen their eyes even a little bit at the sheer scale of the place it is the concentration of poker megastars that are everywhere that brings home the fact that it is the only place for anyone with a healthy (or unhealthy) interest in the game should be.The disappointing aspect is the venue itself. Only a couple of miles away lie the opulence and comfort of the finest poker rooms the world has to offer, in particular the Bellagio (my favourite), but also the Venetian, the Wynn and many others on the strip. Truth be told, all are far nicer places to play poker than the harshly... more...
Gotta Love Those Whingers
By Jeff Israel
Jeff Israel has some advice for the guys who like to donk off their chips with hands that are easily dominated...
It often seems to me when I’m playing live poker that all my opponents are convinced they are good players who will win over time. Obviously this is mathematically impossible but there is no accounting for ego and so even the worse-than-average players convince themselves that they can beat the game. When they regularly fail to do so, they delude themselves by whingeing that it’s all down to bad luck.The beauty of this is that losing players always come back for more and because they believe that the only reason they lose is due to bad luck rather than bad play the whingers rarely improve.
In a recent live poker session, I was playing an average size NL holdem cash game with blinds of £2-£5. I had about £350 in front of me which was slightly below the average of around £500. In the big blind I found Td-8d, quite pretty for a blind hand, when four people limped (unusual in this game) and the button raised it £25. The... more...
The Art Of The Possible
By Jeff Israel
Poker Verdict blogger Jeffrey Israel had a winning night in a couple of big MTTs last Sunday. Read all about it...
Sunday night is, of course, the big night for online MTTs. Being spoilt for choice I decided to plump for two last Sunday - the $50k Guaranteed on Pacific Poker ($65 $5), which attracted 700 entrants, and the £50,000 on William Hill (£110 £10) where 400 players signed up.Although I am not generally a big fan of playing more than one table at a time (you have to be a very good player for this to be profitable over the long term and because so many of your opponents are playing more than one table it gives you a massive edge to be able to completely focus on the one) I assumed that with big fields I was bound to get knocked out early in one so I would effectively be doubling my chances of going deep in either.
Anyway, things got off to an auspicious start on WH when I was dealt Q-Q on the first hand which added about 25%... more...
Be An Internet Grinder
By Jeff Israel
Grinding it out playing limit holdem online can be good for the bankroll, says Jeff Israel
As we all know the recent poker explosion is all about no-limit holdem. It’s the game of choice, especially when poker is shown on TV. In addition, because tournaments are so different to cash games and necessarily edited for television many players today seem to think the ‘all-in’ button needs to be clicked at least once a round, even in cash games.
Whilst there is no doubt there are profitable no-limit holdem cash games out there they all come with an element of risk. Having had some success in these games I have also been crushed. Sometimes I have played badly, other times I have been brutally outdrawn for all my chips, and sometimes I have gone on mega-tilt and blown away a decent amount of cash.
With this in mind I have recently started playing limit holdem cash games. I have never really been a fan of limit holdem having only really played it in Vegas in the days when that was the only game spread. It is obviously a game with fewer moves and... more...
Cracking Betfair's Sunday Tourney
By Jeffrey Israel
Jeff Israel bounced back to form at the weekend with a final table on Betfair
Trying to heed my earlier advice in previous blogs to not forget the basics, and more specifically to try and focus on winning, the whole tournament I entered the daily $10k guarantee on Betfair Poker in determined mood.
It was Sunday night (12 November 2006) and having an early start for work the next day I wasn’t in the mood to sit down in a huge MTT that would not finish before 5am so I opted for the smaller and quicker tournament that Betfair offers every night at 9pm.
There were 113 runners and with 15 minute rounds the last hand is usually... more...
Playing Like A Pro
By Jeffrey Israel
Playing like you have nothing to lose can give you an edge, says Jeff Israel...
Like all poker players I often know what it is that I should do in certain situations but sometimes am unable to put that into practice. A common mantra of lots of top pros (though not all) is that when they are playing in a tournament they are focused solely on winning. They reason that that type of attitude maximises their chance of success rather than be distracted by such ‘mundane’ considerations like the increase in prize money as players get knocked out.
I, like all of you no doubt, have found myself in situations where, having got down to the last two tables in a tournament know that I should not be thinking about the next ladder climb but finding that easier to say than to do.
There have been times when I have told myself that I was only concerned with winning a tournament and was fully focused on that goal but it was not until a recent experience that I can say I truly know what that feels like.
A friend of mine was involved in a...
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Donking Off My Chips On Betfair
By Jeffrey Israel
Jeff Israel aka Lord Neil didn't cover himself in glory this week...
Having just got back from a holiday where my wife had expressly banned me from playing any poker (unreasonable I know, I take her away and this is how she treats me…) it was with more anticipation than usual that I was looking forward to playing in Sunday night’s £40k Guaranteed on Betfair Poker.
Having been starved of having any real fun in favour of lying on a beach for 10 days I resolved that I was going to leave no stone unturned in preparing for the tournament. I managed to stick to all the rules that I set myself when I play a multi-table tournament (MTT). Don’t play any poker that day, particularly online, and resist the temptation to just ‘dip into’ a cash game or single table tournament...
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