The Contester Blog

For those players interested in playing a one of the more prestigous tournaments out there, there are satellites for the 2010 Los Angeles poker classic coming up.

While the LAPC No Limit Hold’em Championship does not start until Feb. 26, many players will begin their journey to that event on Jan. 15 when single table Satellite play begins. Opening Satellite games feature $40 buy-ins with winners moving on to higher stages, topping out at $1,000 buy-ins, throughout January and February with LAPC Championship seats guaranteed. Supersatellites at Commerce Casino will run from Jan. 20 to Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. with $225 buy-ins and $200 rebuys. Seats at the Main Event and WPT Celebrity Invitational are guaranteed to the winner of each Supersatellite. Of course, poker players will also have a chance to jump in on the action Feb. 23, Feb. 24 and Feb. 25 with $1,050 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Megasatellite games that feed into the marquee event at Commerce Casino. More than 100 seats to the LAPC Championship were awarded last year through satellite play.

Similar 2010 Megasatellite programs will be conducted earlier in the LAPC schedule that feed into other high-interest events taking place during the poker online tournament’s nearly 40 days of action. The first such event takes place Feb. 12 with $230-buy-in Megasatellites for the following day’s $1,065 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys that includes a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Then there is the $1,050-buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Megasatellites on Feb. 16 and Feb. 17 that support the Feb. 18 LAPC H.O.R.S.E Championship. This $10,000-buy-in event paid $341,000 in 2009 to winner Scotty Nguyen.

Two qualifying events are on the schedule this year that funnel into the LAPC Heads Up Championship on Feb. 23. The first such event will be held Feb. 21 and is a $1,300-buy-in Heads Up 8-Handed Qualifier. The second event is scheduled for Feb. 22 and is a $2,550-buy-in Heads Up 6-Handed Qualifier. The winner of each event earns entry into the $10,000 Heads Up Championship.

We’re usually taught that three betting our stronger hands is the way to go when playing no limit hold ‘em poker. And while this is true for the majority of strong poker hands, especially when you’re out of position relative to the rest of the players at the table, sometimes a call will suffice.

Let’s say you’re in the small blind with pocket 10s. The table is full of decent two players limp in and the cut off raises it up to 5x the big blind. Now, you have the opportunity here in the small blind to raise, to fold, or to call. If you raise and get four bet, you’re not liking your tens much. But if you just call, you have a hand that has some serious playability post flop if the board comes out right. Of course you’re not folding here since there’s always the chance that you could flop a set and since the initial raise was from the cutoff 10s are probably ahead of his opening range in that position.

The reason for the simple call instead of the three bet is that the three bet is a move that should be reserved for stronger pairs or weaker hands that have strong drawing potential like a suited ace or, if in late position, suited connectors.

The benefits of this are pretty obvious. If you don’t like what you see on the flop or you get too much flop pressure, you can toss your hand with minimal money lost. And if you get it checked around to you, you can usually take down the pot with a smallish raise without having to go to showdown at all. Remember this when you play poker online.

A QQ 3 double suited. This is a great starting poker hand in my opinion, especially in a sit and go. I only have one possible low hand, the A, 3, but I have a slew of high hands, AQ, QQ, and the suited Ace.

We’re 4 handed in a SNG and it is folded to me in the small blind. I make a full pot sized bet and get called. The flop comes out A, A, 10. I flop trips and love it, but I don’t slow down. I shove all in, which is about pot and am called by the BB. He had A 10, 5, 6. So, he flopped a boat. I don’t even have runner-runner outs at a low draw since my ace is on the board. The only way I can beat him is if a queen comes out. It does not.

So, my hand was a far superior high hand preflop. I had a big pair and a higher ranking Ace than him. I also had double suited cards. Unfortunately with that strong of a flop, the suits don’t play much of a role in this online poker game.

While I had a better low hand than him with my 3-A low, he had more options with his 6-5-A low.

Once that flop comes down, I’m not letting go. Even if he has trip aces as well, my q kicker is probably going to be ahead. If he was lucky enough to catch a boat with 10s, I’m drawing slim, but I’m never folding. He happened to have A, 10 -a hand I didn’t even think about. What sucks now about having pocket queens, is that it limits my outs at a redraw. If I had any other 2 overs to his 10 I’d be drawing pretty live. I’d have 6 outs twice at least, instead of 2 outs twice while holding pocket queens.

So, big pairs in Omaha are great, but when you are drawing after the flop, they sometimes work against you. Keep that in mind when you play poker online.

poker online players bluff – some often, some hardly ever all. Bluffing is integral to the game and winning some pots. Nothing is so exhilarating to a online poker player then to rake in chips after betting with a trash hand and making everyone else fold. You have to pick the best spots for bluffing. It is useless to bluff against donkey players who call and call and call. Bluffing should be done on a random basis, at staggered intervals and at diverse types of board textures. Don’t fall into a trap of thinking, “I haven’t bluffed for more than 30 minutes and am due.” Instead look for opportunities that arise, like a scare card materializes or a tight rock sits to your left. Just because you haven’t bluffed in awhile doesn’t mean you should make an impulsive bet. All bluffs should be based on strategy aimed at individual player styles and the table texture. Look for rounds where the more easily intimidated online poker players have entered the pot. Be aware if there is a flush or straight shaping up on the board that could scare off the tight players. A successful bluff means you don’t get to see your opponents’ cards, so you really never know what type of hands you chased out. Most often, you should not show your hand either, though occasionally you should just to let other players know you are capable of bluffing. Pick your bluffing spots wisely, mix up the types of bluffs you make, and keep the other players befuddled about your betting style.

Online there are lots of different things that poker en ligne players can do to take advantage of the rules and time allotted to them. Near the money bubble, some people use their time bank to soak up extra time on the clock where they hope others are busting out. When you reach the physical bubble, play goes hand-for-hand. What this means, is that each table plays a hand, and they wait to begin their next hand until all of the other tables have finished their hand. This eradicates the need to time bank, because everyone has to act together. Of the poker online players who get knocked out, whoever has the fewest chips at the beginning of the hand will be the bubble. So, it doesn’t matter who goes out first or last, it just matters on your stack size.

When you are not hand-for-hand, the order in which you get knocked out does matter. If there are a dozen people to get knocked out, and you think that by taking extra time, a few of them will get kicked out while you’re not playing a poker hand, this could be advantageous to you. This is perceived a few different ways.

Admired for his adroitness in business leadership, particularly in the gaming industry, Ron Sarabi is currently the general manager of Hawaiian Gardens Casino.

Education

Born in Damascus, Syria, Ron Sarabi moved to the United States in 1962. He first attended the University of Oklahoma, taking up a degree in engineering and then he went to the Oklahoma City University to study Business.

Growing his Career as an Entrepreneur

Even as a college student, Ron Sarabi displayed his management skills when he supervised an apartment building. His job in the early part of his career also included working as a parking lot housekeeper in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. From a humble start, Ron Sarabi moved up the ranks and became the general manager of the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, the second highest grossing card room in California, with around $9.2 million revenue as of 2006.

Industry Affiliations

Ron Sarabi has played an integral part not just in the expansion of the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, but also in the progress of the casino and gaming industry in general, particularly playing a role in the litigation and legislation of card games in California.

Ron Sarabi had a hand in creating the Southern California Casino Association and the Advisory Committee of the Joint Powers of Authority, for which he still serves as member of the board and of the committee respectively. Ron Sarabi also serves as member of the board of directors of the Golden State Gaming Association, where he previously served as President.

It’s that time of the year again; the world’s most prestigious and famous poker tournament, The World Series of Poker, will soon be upon once again in May. The WSOP, as its become known, will commence Wednesday, May 27 with the first of 57 gold bracelet events at a brick and mortar casino, not a casino online. The annual poker extravaganza, which dates back to 1970, is played from the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and consists of a comprehensive slate of the game’s most popular variations. The event was for a long time held at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, but moved a few years ago. The 40th annual WSOP will conclude with the $10,000 buy-in World Championship No-Limit Hold’em Main Event which begins play Friday, July 3, 2009 and reaches its final table (nine players) on July 15, 2009, at which time play will be halted. The famed tournament’s culmination will be held with the “November Nine” from November 7-10, 2009, before a live audience with special primetime coverage from ESPN. This will be the second year of the “November nine” experiment. The landmark WSOP comes on the heels of a record year in 2008, when the WSOP generated the most entries ever (58,720) from the most countries ever (124) that competed for the largest prize pool ever ($180,774,427) while awarding 55 championship gold bracelets, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Any poker player worth his salt dreams of one day winning one of those prestigious gold bracelets, which will forever cement you as a poker great. Every table you sit at for the rest of your life, people will be intimidated because of the bracelet. The prize money ain’t bad too. Good luck to all those who enter this year playing poker online.

Some poker players choose to play extremely fast and loose, sometimes to gain chips early in a tournament. It’s easy to identify these players by their style, but there are some distinctive types of maniacs at the casino – the intentional maniac who uses loose aggressive play to scare away opponents and to make it nearly impossible to get a read on the maniac’s hand. The other type of maniac simply does not understand sound poker principles, like outs calculation, and always bets a wide range and long shot draws.

If there are maniacs at your poker table, it’s important to determine their type in order to effectively play against them. The intentional maniac sticks to a volatile style and often indulges in ‘trash talk’ meant to put others on tilt. They’ll announce they’ve got a big hand while throwing in lots of chips and warn others to fold. Everything about their style is meant to irritate and intimidate.

Betting against an intentional maniac is risky. They usually confident, knowledgeable players who can get a good read on others while consistently disguising their own hands. The best strategy to combat the intentional maniac is to wait for a reasonably strong hand, then raise up the pot in an attempt to isolate the maniac. Playing one-on-one narrows the maniac’s field. By raising, you might earn a fold. Even if your good hand loses to a better one, you’ll gain leverage against the maniac’s bluff later since the maniac will assume you only play good hands.

If the maniac is the dumb variety, then seek to isolate the player early. These types just give away their chips through clueless play, and you want to be the recipient before they bust. Play your made and high-outs hands against these types. Most likely they’re on a draw or hold a low pair that will get beat.

Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments pose an extra dimension of challenge because of the escalating blinds which increase a timed intervals. The stress alone of racing the clock can put a player on tilt because once you’ve depleted your chip stack, you are finished and your investment in the entry fee lost. However, unlike cash players, this is all you can lose from tournament tilt.

Players in poker cash games who are experiencing tilt can walk away from the table or computer for awhile to take a break. Most tournaments though do not offer enough time for this luxury. When a bad beat makes you steam during a tournament, you can’t really walk away for more than a few minutes because you will be “blinded out” as the button moves around the table.

Once you return to the poker table, here are some strategies to help you get focused again to play your best game. First of all, tighten up. Only play the very best premium hands, like pocket Aces or Kings. This will give you plenty of “time out” from the action so you can regain your composure and observe others too.

Avoid any fancy play, and stick to the best basic principles of playing good poker – in other words, play by the book for awhile. Your best strategy pre-flop is to raise with a premium hand or fold. Don’t call make passive calls, but instead make others respond to your raise. When in doubt, fold.

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