Brian Townsend a LIAR & CHEAT

brian-townsend-03
Originally uploaded by fulltiltpoker

For the past 6 months I have been playing under the 2nd aliases Stellarnebula on FTP and makersmark66 on PokerStars. I have not used the aba20 account on Stars since I began playing on the Makersmark66 account. I have since gone back to using the aba20 account and will play only that account. During this time I played the 25/50 and 100/200 PLO games. I played under the Stellarnebula account from February until the end of June at which time Lee Jones and I had a discussion and we came to an agreement that I needed to close it.

During this time I was playing under the Brian Townsend account, never at the same table with the Stellarnebula. Under the Stellarnebula account I played 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 PLO. During this time I played a very small amount of 50/100 PLO and primarily 200/400 PLO under the Brian Townsend account. I wanted to have come forward and make this public sooner, but unfortunately because of certain business relationships I could not do that. What I did was wrong and I am going to be punished by FullTilt poker by having my red pro status revoked for 6 months. I am unsure what action, if any, PokerStars will take. I have also hurt those that I work closely with primarily at CardRunners but also at FullTilt.

To compensate those that were hurt by my actions I am going to be donating $25,000 dollars to a charity to be determined in the future. This money will be removed from my CardRunners distributions. This is by no means me making my actions correct but I hope that it shows some good faith towards those that I work closely with. I am very proud of CardRunners; we are doing something very special. My first reaction when this occurred was to go hide under a rock. I am not going to do that and I will answer any questions that are asked of me. I feel that I have nothing to hide. Those are the pertinent facts. The reason why I created these accounts was because I enjoy anonymity when playing smaller and am very prideful in what I do.

The past two years I have made a lot of money playing poker. This year I have been breakeven. For me it’s correct to play smaller when things aren’t going well. I have never played poker for the money; it has always been a byproduct of my play. Whatever I do I want to be the best at it. For me playing the 200/400 PLO games was not the right thing to do because my results haven’t been good. I think I am a winner in those games and I intend to prove to myself that I am one of the best poker players in the world. I believe what it takes is an incredible amount of focus and work to accomplish this goal. I intend to work harder than anyone to prove this, because I have not been playing my best for the past year. I have something to prove to myself. I have removed what I have online and left myself with 100K. From here I am going to play 25/50 PLO until I have 200K then 50/100 until I have 400K online then 100/200 until I have 800K online. From there I will play 200/400. If things don’t go well when I first move up I will move back down and rinse and repeat until I am at the 200/400 PLO games. I used to think that playing 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 was a failure because I wasn’t playing the largest limits. I am smart enough to move down when things aren’t going well; I was just too prideful to make it public.

Along with this I plan on continuing managing CardRunners and create the best poker instructional videos. I have put a lot of effort into my past videos and I want my partners to know that effort will continue, as well as the effort I put into running the company. I hope that people can look to me and not only learn about poker and bankroll management, but also how to do the right thing and be a good person.

Poker isn’t about luck or how you are running. It’s about the work and effort that you put into it. I have not had good results this year because of my poor play and lack of focus, not because I have run below expectation. I want to prove that to everyone. If you follow my play as I move up you will see the trials and tribulations that I face. There will be days of intense frustration and times when I will doubt my game. But I know that with hard work I can accomplish the goal I am setting. I hope that people can not only look to me for poker education but also for the way to live their lives. I made a mistake and I am willing to take responsibility for it. I am willing to stand up and face the music. I apologize to entire the online community. I will never partake in this type of activity in the future. This post should act as a full admission of my guilt, and I sincerely apologize to anyone that I've wronged.

(SOUCRE - My Apology)

Beating Low Limit No Limit Hold’em Cash Games

Online Poker prep, originally uploaded by mojohouse.

For all you grinders just starting a bankroll, let’s discuss a few points on how to beat the low limit no limit cash games online. The games at this level are surprisingly mixed with new poker players who can and will draw out on you, and multi-tabling sharks that play 10 tables at a time and grind out $50 an hour while playing low limit poker and clearing bonuses.
There are few adjustments that need to made to your game, regardless of your level of experience.

Low Limit Poker Strategy: Don’t Bluff
Bluffing works, and it’s very profitable but not at this level. A key concept in using a bluff in no limit hold’em is relying on your opponent being good enough to fold his hand. When you’re grinding it out in the micro no limit games, you cannot do this profitably except for rare situations, very rare situations. The likeliness of your opponent folding a bad hand is not great.
Cash poker games are not like tournaments where you need to steal blinds and antes just to survive. In these games, we are looking to buy in with the maximum allowed stack and wait patiently for the nuts (the best possible poker hand) and someone who will pay it off. Thank you for your whole stack sir, fish again.

Low Limit Poker Strategy: Play Post Flop Poker
Keep in mind, you will run into a lot of people limping in with big hands. Ace King and high pocket pairs like Aces or Queens. All of these hands will be limped a lot both by beginners who are afraid to broadcast the strength of their hand, and more experienced players looking to trap you. While I don’t encourage limping with these hands myself, I definately don’t over commit to them pre-flop either.

Knowing the large range of hands I will be called with, I prefer to put in “value-raises” of 2.5 x the big blind with big hands and see where the cards fall before putting them on a hand to continue the action on later streets.
You can and should fold JJ and QQ, or AK AQ after missing a flop, it simply depends on the reads you make. The exception to this style of play is that if you hold KK or AA, you should raise AT LEAST 4 times the big blind. It is also okay to open shove all in with hands like this, you never know who will wake up and call behind you with a pocket pair of fives!

If you feel you have the best hand, but aren’t quite sure or know that your opponent will call to the river on a strong draw, don’t be afraid to use a small value bet or even check the flop to see if the draw hits. Using the turn to extract value instead of the flop helps insure you won’t be semi-bluff shoved all in by an opponent with a 30% draw that may or may not hit. After the turn, you can evaluate your odds to win much easier by seeing how it may or may not have improved your opponents hand.

These poker tables are a gind and you should treat them as such, for the most part you need to play very tight poker and wait for 80% or greater edges to get your money in with, this will help your bankroll grow at a steady pace without big risks and with the added benefit of clearing your first bonus. Players who can multi-table four or more of these low limit cash game tables find that it is easier to play tight poker as they don’t get “bored” as easy.

(Source)

When To Bluff In No Limit Hold’em

Bluffed, originally uploaded by PotD.

A well timed and perfectly executed bluff in No Limit Hold’em is a relative work of art, but it is not as easy to do profitably as it may look on the television. Good poker players know that a successful bluff on the river or catching a bluffer in the act can add a lot to a winning players expected value over a players career. Picking your spots and knowing the other players at the tables tendencies (how they react based on similar situations in the past) are key skills, and bluffing is not to be attempted at low limit games with a large number of bad players.

When deciding to bluff, it helps to put your opponent on a range of hands first, starting pre-flop. This will allow you to set-up the bluff, by becoming what the player fears in a hand. I can and do successfully bluff Pocket Aces out of scary boards, but only when I deem the player good enough to be capable of folding (and this is simply not the case at low limit games for the most part). If you are confident in your play, and your read of the opponent – you can represent any hand that is possible on the board. A few tips:

Holdem Strategy: Don’t Bluff On The Turn:
Bluffing on the turn is the hardest to pull off, and I generally don’t recommend it. If a player stayed in after the flop the turn usually improves a hand or adds a draw, so players are simply more likely to call or even re-raise on a draw at the turn, because the potential to make their hand becomes great in their own eyes (straight and flush draw for example). Instead, the one time I highly recommend using this play as by semi-bluffing a big draw – that is, give yourself a lot of outs if you are bluffing on the turn, because it might just turn into a big pot. And when we are playing big pots, we want to have the maximum chance of scooping it as possible.

Holdem Strategy: Do Bluff The River
And do it often, especially versus tight/passive players. A player with pocket queens is susceptible to a river King or Ace, a flush card, or even a gutshot. Become the hand they fear most, and prey on their ability to “make a good fold”. Bluffing on the river can be risky of course, but I swear by it – it works well especially in heads up poker games. In multi-handed pots I only recommend attempting a stone cold bluff if you have position in the hand, thus ensuring you have the most information possible on what the other players might have – but in general a bluff works best in heads up poker situations.

If you haven’t been trying the occasional river bluff, you are losing a lot of pots that you don’t need to. Target players that check behind in showdown situations with hands like top pair weak kicker – just don’t over use the play as this style should fit solidly into your winning tight aggressive image to ensure the highest success rates, good luck!

Annette Obrestad winning a 180 person Sit&Go without looking at her cards

This 2 part video shows how Annette Obrestad won a 180 person Sit&Go by playing position and the player and NEVER looking at her 2 hole cards. You will see her folding KK and great hands because SHE NEVER LOOKS AT THEM. Its an amazing accomplishment in poker. She played completely blind.




Part 2 of series of video that shows how Annette_15 wins a 180 SNG by playing position and player and NEVER looking at hole cards. BLIND PLAY!!

Poker Stars Sunday Million Ups Guarantee to $1.5 Million

Sunday Warm-Up Guarantee Also Increases to $750,000

PokerStars, the largest poker site in the world, is staying ahead of the game as it recently announced that its flagship tournament, the Sunday Million, will now have a guarantee of $1.5 million, an increase of 50 percent.

The $215 buy-in Sunday Million runs weekly at 4:30 p.m. ET. Satellites run around the clock for as little as $3. This isn’t the only tournament getting increased guarantees, either. The Sunday Warm-Up is also offering an upped minimum prize pool of $750,000. That event also features a buy-in of $215 and is no-limit hold'em, but it runs just before the Sunday Million at 12:45 p.m. ET. The $1,050 buy-in Super Tuesday tournament's guarantee will now be $300,000 (up from $250,000).

2008 WSOP Final Table on ESPN November 11th

The final table has been set and will reconvene on November 9th when these nine players battle for their share of over $32 million. First they will play down until 2 remain. The final 2 will finish play on November 10th and then the event will be broadcast by ESPN on November 11th.

David Benyamine up $910,984 WSOP 2008

David Benyamine is having a great year!!

WSOP: Phil 'OMGClayAiken' Galfond Wins $817,781 Event No. 28

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
Event 28 - Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys
06/16/2008 1 $817,781.00

Galfond Wins Marathon Heads-Up Match for His First Bracelet

In what has been regarded by some as the best final table ever formed at the World Series of Poker, two online players took out some of the game's best to match up in an epic battle. In the end, after nearly 120 grueling heads-up hands, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond finally got the better of his fierce opponent, Adam Hourani.

Here were the chip counts heading into the star-studded final table:

Phil Galfond -- 1,393,000
Brian Rast -- 1,176,000
David Benyamine -- 1,041,000
John Juanda -- 694,000
Johnny Chan -- 624,000
Kirill Gerasimov -- 558,000
Daniel Negreanu -- 460,000
Adam Hourani -- 300,000
Phil Hellmuth -- 119,000

Here are highlights from all of the action, as featured in CardPlayer.com’s live coverage of the final table:

2008 39TH ANNUAL WORLD SERIES OF POKER

2008 39TH ANNUAL WORLD SERIES OF POKER

05-30-2008 to 07-15-2008
Rio Suite Hotel & Casino
3700 W. Flamingo Road - Las Vegas, NV


LIST OF EVENTS - CLICK HERE

David Benyamine up $1.8 million dollars in May 2008

David Benyamine is currently up over $1.8 million dollars in Pot Limit Omaha games on FullTilt Poker just in May. He just finished a session where he won over $700k, beating players such as "Durrrr" and "Alstonprice" out of six figures each.

David Benyamine in May has played 18,302 hands (in the PLO games) and is up $1.15 million dollars. This works out to an unbelievable $62.83 in profit for each hand that he has played so far in May.

Since the beginning of 2007, according to HighStakesDB, Benyamine's various aliases have dropped $3 million dollars on Full Tilt Poker playing No Limit Hold'em.

On the flip side, since the beginning of 2007, Benyamine has dominated the biggest PLO games on the site like no one else.

If you include his 700k the "David Benyamine" alias has won around $5.3 million in the PLO games on FTP since the beginning of 2007.

Another one of his old aliases, "ballsrider", generated $1.51 million in total profits over that same time period, before being shut down. Yet another one of his aliases, "magicpitch1", is up over $682k from the beginning of 2007 until now. Add those three aliases up, and Benyamine is up around $7.6 million playing PLO on Full Tilt Poker since the beginning of 2007. That makes him by far the biggest PLO winner on the site during that time.