In a battle for the ages, poker legend Doyle Brunson defeated reigning World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad heads-up in two straight games to win the best of three series. It was a match that pitted one of the top poker players of all time against the symbol of a younger generation and was held as a warm-up to the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.
In the first match of the best of three series, Obrestad and Brunson got all of their money in on the flop. Brunson held a pair and Obrestad held a straight draw. The turn gave the young internet poker phenomenon a queen high straight, but Brunson one-upped her on the river with a king high straight. It marked a see-saw ending to the first match in the historic encounter. If Brunson won the second battle, he would win the war.
In the second match of the best of three series, a jack high flop brought both players’ money into the middle. Brunson held J-3 and Obrestad flipped over K-J for a better kicker. The namesake of online poker room Doyle’s Room managed to turn a three for two pair, sending Obrestad packing and sweeping the best of three series. In the endings to both tournaments, Brunson managed to hit lightning in a bottle for the win. He sits in second on the all-time World Series of Poker bracelet list with 10, which is tied with Johnny Chan and second to Ultimate Bet personality and 1989 Main Event winner Phil Hellmuth.
Brunson’s most recent bracelet came during the 2005 WSOP in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event, which he won for $367,800. The talented final table of that tournament included Minh Ly, Scotty Nguyen, and Layne Flack. Brunson dominated poker in the 1970s. He won the 1976 and 1977 WSOP Main Events and had six bracelets during the 1976 to 1979 World Series events. His online poker room currently accepts U.S. players and offers a weekly bounty tournament that features Brunson, his son Todd, poker author Mike Caro, and the “Alabama Cowboy” Hoyt Corkins.
Obrestad burst onto the live poker scene last year by winning the Main Event of the WSOPE. Her grand prize was worth ₤1 million. She defeated John Tabatabai heads-up; the runner up took home £570,150. Other notables who cashed in the field included Gus Hansen (10th), Kenny Tran (16th), Annie Duke (21st), Marco Traniello (22nd), Erick Lindgren (26th), Patrik Antonius (29th), and 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold.
A native of Norway, Obrestad is a highly-accomplished online poker player. In July, she won the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt Poker for $51,666. She has taken down multiple $100 rebuys on PokerStars, which is widely regarded as having one of the toughest tournament fields online. Three weeks ago, Obrestad, who goes by the name “Annette_15” online, finished sixth in the Sunday Warm-Up for $31,000. Finally, she won the Full Tilt Poker $500,000 guaranteed, according to her profile on PocketFives.com, for $117,000.
The £10,350 buy-in Main Event of the 2008 WSOP Europe begins on Sunday at 1:00pm local time. The six-day event will feature two starting days. The champion of the tournament will be crowned on Thursday, October 2nd.
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Annette Obrestad to face Doyle Brunson
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The reigning Queen of WSOPE, Annette Obrestad and Poker legend Doyle Brunson and will battle each other Sept. 26 in a best-of-three No-Limit Hold'em heads-up match that World Series of Poker organizers are billing as "King vs. Queen."
Both Brunson and Obrestad are considered two of the most elite poker players in the world, but their introductions to the game couldn't have been more different.
Brunson traveled the dusty backroads of the U.S., playing in numerous illegal games, honing his game prior to winning 10 WSOP bracelets, which forever secured his status as the godfather of poker.
Obrestad, of course, is from the online generation and built her bankroll from virtually nothing, eventually becoming one of the most dominant online tournament players in the world. Obrestad shocked the world by taking down the WSOPE Main Event last year, in doing so becoming the youngest player to ever win a bracelet.
A U.S. player has never won a WSOPE event, so the timing is excellent for a little U.S.A. vs. Europe action. Many are calling the contest poker's version of the Ryder Cup. Perhaps Brunson will take the lead from Jim Furyk and the gang and win at least one poker event for the United States.
The heads-up match will kick off at 1 p.m. London time at Empire Casino on Sept. 26, with spectators welcome, and Brunson will be signing copies of his book for guests at the end of play.
The WSOPE is currently being held in London and PokerListings.com is on location with Owen Laukkanen and Rod Stirzaker providing the latest live updates.
Tournament Indicator Free for 48hours
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Got a tournament coming up? Just download and install now, then browse the Video Guide. You can try Tournament Indicator for FREE for 48 hours.
Tournament Indicator is unlike any other poker calculator because it is specifically designed for Texas Holdem online tournament play. The indicators used in the software are the same you would use in a real tournament situation, but are quite different from a ring or cash game.
Poker calculator designed for ring games simply cannot offer the critical information used to make correct decisions in tournaments. Correct decision making at game critical intersects is what makes a tournament player successful.
Here are some of the features Tournament Indicator offers an online tournament player:
Instant MZone Calculations
Now you will know what MZone you are in as well as every other players' at your table. Depending on which MZone you are in can drastically alter your strategy, and the same is for your opponents. Only now, you are the only one with ALL the critical information at the table.
Player Profiling
In early tournament play you can learn a lot about your opponents by watching everything they do. Harder said than done, but Tournament Indicator does it all for you tracking VPIP%, Aggression, PFR%, showdown wins, and more. All these combined make for real-time player classifications that you can use against your opponents at the right time.
Tilt Factor Monitoring
New to poker calculator also is Tournament Indicator's ability to provide you with insight as to your opponent's tilt potential. By tracking hand streak in wins and losses and a tally on the player's stack over the last 10 hands gives you even more insight into that players current psyche.
MatchCard Showdown
Different criteria enter into the decision making process as a tournament winds down. Whether you are short stack, big stack or other, in the money or on the bubble, you will be faced with numerous all-in confrontations as part of the normal play of tournaments. What Tournament Indicator's MatchCard feature offers is a quick view of potential hands you might be up against.
Odds Calculations
Holdem Indicator set the standard for quick, easy to understand odds display while incorporating a visual display of comparing win odds to pot odds in each betting round. Tournament Indicator uses that same technology to give users the most relevant information with proven, reliable technology.
MiniView and Customized Settings
You won't feel squeezed on your computer screen as Tournament Indicator can be minimized on the game window. We like our profile settings but if you don't, just go ahead and adjust the profiling, and tilt factor settings to where they make more sense for you.
Video Tutorial Guide
Tournament Indicator introduces the Video Tutorial Guide compiled by Marty Smith. Watch these quick, informative videos and you will be using Tournament Indicator to it's full extent in your very first tournament.
Does Low Stake Grinding Beat a Day Job?
Originally uploaded by HolyokeHangover
The saying goes that grinding low-stakes poker will suck the life out of you, but playing poker for a living has its obvious benefits. And it doesn't matter if you 17-table $25 NL 40 hours a week or you bust a couple chumps a week at Ivey deathmatch.
Drawbacks are pretty much guaranteed, true, but the positives so outweigh the negatives that it's really no contest. Let's go over the positives, as they are the most fun.
Best of all, you work for yourself. There's nobody breathing down your neck telling you to get stuff done. You are your own boss. You have nobody to answer to but yourself.
This freedom is easily the best benefit by far. If you don't feel like playing one day, guess what? You don't have to. Which brings me to my next point:
You can take time off whenever you want. Oh, your friends are going to be heading out of town for the week and want you to join them? No problem; you can just play more leading up to that week and take the whole week off. No holiday problems; no nothing. You want the time off, you take it. Simple as that.
You set your own hours. Sure, playing poker is a job just like any other. If you don't put the time in, you're not going to get ahead. However, when playing poker you get to decide when you put those hours in.
If the games are no good then you can go for a run and come back or try again in the evening when the games are better. If you are going out at night then get your hours in earlier in the day. Flexibility my friend: it's the spice of life.
You can get up whenever you want. Obviously a huge bonus. Who likes getting up early? Nobody, unless they are sick and twisted. When you bend cards for a living you can get up whenever you want. Sleeping in till 1 p.m. never felt so good. I mean what else are you going to do when you are taking flops till 5 a.m.?
You can work from home. If you don't want to make a trip to the casino, any number of online sites are only a click away. Online poker has brought poker into our living rooms. And me and my 42-inch LCD TV and wireless mouse and keyboard are more than happy to welcome it in from the couch.
You can make serious money. Rarely are you going to be able to make the money that is out there to be made doing anything else for yourself. There are supernovas on Stars making 100k+ a year grinding microstakes.
How sick is that? You need no schooling for poker. Just the will to put in time to get better. Anyone can beat this game; it's just whether or not you want it bad enough.
So there you have it - even if you are just playing microstakes, you get to reap the rewards of the poker lifestyle. Contrast that with working every day in a cubicle getting blinded by fluorescent lights.
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Omaha Hi-Lo Beginners Guide Part 1
Omaha Hi-Lo, or O8 as it's commonly called, is growing in popularity both live and online thanks to its heavy action and the complexity of play compared to No-Limit Hold'em.
This article details basic beginner strategy for playing O8 in a loose-aggressive cash-game setting.
The majority of O8 games you will play - especially at the lower limits - will be very active and aggressive games, with upward of five players seeing a flop every hand. This is even common in many higher-limit games.
For the basic rules of how a Hi-Lo game works, refer to this article: More to Poker Than Hold'em Part 1: Omaha.
Key Skills for Winning at Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
>Seldom raise before the flop.
>Remember that your aim is to scoop the pot.
>Be able to fold on the flop very often.
>Play premium starting hands.
>Select your table carefully. Only play in loose games where five or more players see the flop on average.
>Hone your ability to quickly calculate accurate odds.
>All of this advice is very general, but will serve you well if you apply it judiciously. Seldom raising before the flop does not mean it's incorrect to ever raise before the flop.
In a game like O8, with almost-guaranteed high, loose action, raising before the flop with anything less than a premium hand does little more than increase the size of the pot.
Key Advice for Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
Much as Omaha Hi is, O8 is considered to be a nut game. Meaning that if you do not have the nut hand, there is a very good chance you will not win the pot. For this reason, you want to be very selective in the hands you play, only playing hands with "nut" potential.
The most important thing to remember is the scooping advice. Your main goal in O8 is to win both the high and the low. In reality, scooping (winning both the high and low) is a difficult thing to do and, for the most part, rather rare.
When playing Omaha, your goal is to play for the high, with a redraw to the low. If you have the nut high, you are guaranteed half the pot. Holding nothing but the nut low still puts you at risk for being quartered, or worse.
Common Mistakes in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
>Playing too many starting hands.
>Calling all the way with only a low potential.
>Seeing flops with four middle cards, like 6-7-8-9.
>Raising with A-2 in early position and making players fold instead of seeing the flop cheaply with more players in.
>Starting Hand Guide for Limit Omaha Hi-Lo (full table, 8-10 players)
The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are A-A-2-3 double-suited, followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. This kind of hand is very strong because it can be played for both high and low, which gives it great scoop potential. Of course, being suited or (even better) double-suited adds value to every hand.
Profitable starting hands
A-A-2-x
A-A-3-x
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
A-2-K-K
A-2-Q-Q
A-2-J-J
A-3-4-5
A-A-x-x
A-2-K-Q
A-2-K-J
A-2-x-x (suited ace)
A-3-K-K
A-3-4-x
2-3-4-5 (fold if there is no ace on the flop)
J-Q-K-A
T-J-Q-K
K-K-Q-J
Q-J-T-9
2-3-4-x (fold if there is no ace on the flop)
Beginners may find themselves getting overzealous with any hand containing an ace-deuce. Although A-2 will make the nut low more often than any other two-card combination, it's a losing-money proposition to be overly aggressive with weak hands containing strictly low possibilities.
You're also better off folding hands that hold two gaps (for example A-4-5-9). The chances of making a straight are under 1% and you seldom win the low.
Hands like 3-4-5-6, 4-5-6-7, 5-6-7-8 and 6-7-8-9 also have a negative expected value. Omaha variants being the nut games they are, these sorts of middle-connected hands are useless. They have a very low possibility of making the nuts and thus should not be played.
High pairs with two random cards like K-K-x-x or Q-Q-x-x are rarely, if ever, playable on a full table, although a high pair with two low cards that also make your hand suited or double-suited is playable in most games.
For example K-K-2-4 double-suited is a playable hand with decent scooping potential. Be sure not to over-value the hand when hitting second nuts.
Part two of the beginners guide to Omaha Hi-Lo will go into basic strategy and play on all five streets, plus how to put your starting hand selection into use.
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