BANKROLL MANAGEMENT


My poker bankroll.

     It has been said that "cash rules everything around you" and in poker this is absolutely true, because without the proper paper you'll be stuck on the rail.

                        

      Money management is very important, but this is a very misunderstood concept. A lot of non-winning players conveniently blame their small rolls on poor money-management. When things are going your way there is nothing wrong with moving up in limits and taking a shot. But if it doesn't work out or when the deck runs against you, there is nothing to be ashamed of by moving down a level or two. It is great to be competitive, but poker is a game of decision-making. You get rewarded for making good decisions. Normally, when you are running badly you are not playing with confidence and your decisions reflect this. Move down to a softer game, rebuild your confidence, and when you are making good decisions move back up again. I've seen many players do the opposite, they lose for like a month in a row and want to get their money back as soon as possible so they jump into a bigger game than their bankroll can handle, end up playing scared and oddly pessimistic and of course they get slaughtered.

     
    
MY PROBLEM WITH LA POKER

     The Commerce Casino. The Bicycle Club. If you play poker seriously then you've heard of these venues. I myself had never been to either one of these establishments before, but after spending a week in the Los Angeles area I have to say that these poker rooms do not live up to the hype and praise you've heard about them.


The Commerce Casino - Commerce, CA

     The Commerce Casino is perhaps the most famous card room in LA. It might even be the biggest card room in the whole world (Foxwoods?). But let me tell you as a player that prefers the likes of The Borgata and The Bellagio, The Commerce Casino is a dump! You'll find dirty people loitering around the casino and sometimes even dirtier people sitting at your table. And everyone is eating all the time! My #1 poker pet peeve is eating at the table and it seems that in CA when most people decide to go out to eat they somehow found their way to a poker table. I swear of the nine people at the table at least 5 of them were eating or ordering something during the whole session.
     Next, let's talk about how fucked up LA's buy-in structure is for No-Limit Hold'em. Listen to this, the max buy-in for a 3-5 NL Hold'em game is $200! WTF? I thought the logic for NL Hold'em was to have a max buy-in of at least 100x the big blind. At a buy-in of only $200 and where the average pre-flop raise is around $20 - $30 it doesn't take long for you to get your stack committed in situations you wouldn't normally desire. Basically the game can turn into a coin-flip shove fest. So my biggest problem with LA poker is that there doesn't seem to be much "play".
     During my time at the Commerce I was surrounded by loose bad players that unfortunately I wasn't able to exploit. But it was fun to watch this guy sitting next to me with about $800 in chips get felted after he got drunk and started playing every hand and trying to bluff everyone every hand. In a string of five hands this guy went from $800 to nothing. It was one of the worst displays of poker I had ever seen. But the one good thing I can say about the Commerce Casino is that the parking lot isn't as bad/dangerous as everyone says it is and the parking is free as well.


The Bicycle Casino - Bell Gardens, CA

     The Bicycle Casino or commonly refer to as "The Bike" is cleaner and nicer than the Commerce Casino but the quality of players is still pretty bad, also everyone loves to eat at the table, as a matter of fact if you play 3-5 No-Limit Hold'em or higher you can get all the free food you want from the casino. That's a first. But what would seem like a nice perk for the players actually was kind of annoying to me as I watched players display their gluttony as it seemed like everyone was ordering 5 course meals plus desert. The poker table turns into this centerpiece surrounded by side tables filled with food. And as if live poker wasn't slow enough, all the eating going on only slows the game down even more.
     So there I was playing 3-5 NL Hold'em with their bullshit $200 max buy-in which led to me playing pretty tight and waiting to take advantage of the loose and wild players around me splashing every pot. Because of this structure I believe you just have to be patient and wait for a situation where you can get involved with the best of it, and boy did I find such a situation. Long story short I held Qs Js with a board of 9s 10s 8c which resulted in me stacking my opponent. So yeah you can say I had fun at The Bicycle Casino.


Hustler Casino - Gardena, CA

     I've heard a lot of stories about The Hustler Casino. How Larry Flynnt flies in the world's best poker players to take on, so I was excited to check out this place out. And with the name Hustler involved I was expecting to see hot sluts walking around everywhere. Well, that's not exactly what you're going to see. I really didn't see any hot chicks anywhere inside, even the waitresses were kind of beat and rundown. But the card room was comfortable and well laid out, and from what I was told the table where Larry and players like Phil Ivey and John Hennigan play ultra high stakes games is right there amongst all the normal tables. Well I didn't see Larry or Phil playing anywhere but my 3-5 No Limit Hold'em game was actually the most solid game I had experience since playing in LA. Most players knew how to control their bets in accordance to their stacks and there really weren't any shovefests to speak of. This might be a result of the high number of house players I spotted in the card room. Actually the number of house players I saw in LA poker rooms was abnormally high in comparison to other card rooms I've been in around the country. But hey I don't mind house players, they keep the game going and most of them don't get out of line too often with their betting. 


Hollywood Park Casino - Inglewood, CA

     My final session of LA poker came while I was waiting for my red-eye flight back to Philly. The Hollywood Park Casino is only a stone's throw away from LAX and is a pretty cool place to play. I loved the fact that there are arcade games everywhere surrounding the poker room. And we're talking cool arcade games like Donkey Kong, Operation Wolf and an Elvis pinball machine as just a few examples. But like everywhere else in LA there was the $200 max buy-in for the 3-5 No Limit Hold'em game which I again will tell you how much I detest. And once again I was at a table where players were just making huge over-sized bets pre-flop and just shoving on the flop. Is this poker? Maybe its just a result of all the action junkies in the room who are also betting the horses while sitting at the table. 
     Now don't think I'm being a whining little bitch, because I know how to adapt to this structure and this kind of play, but the thing is, is that on this day some bad luck and some cold cards resulted in a pretty decent dent in my bankroll. I'm not going to tell you how much I lost but just let me point out these few hands: my set of 4's stacked by a set of Kings, a guy all-in rivering a flush to beat my straight, I was short-stacked with pocket 8's and of course my opponent with AK nailed his Ace on the flop...OK, maybe I am starting to sound like a bitch because no one likes to hear bad beat stories, but it just seemed like that during my time playing poker in LA I didn't exactly feel like I was "playing poker". I almost felt that due to the structure that comes with a low buy-in for a No-Limit Hold'em game that most of my actions were pretty much determined by the math involved and not by any kind of high level thinking. Man, I can't wait to get back to The Borgata. 



BACK TO THE FELT



     So I've kind of been neglecting this section of the website and that's because I really haven't been playing that much poker since my trip to Las Vegas for The World Series, but now I've got the urge to get back to the tables and progress as a card player. Before I do that though I thought it would be a good idea to go over some basic principles that have kept me in the game and my bankroll healthy.
 
     1. Patience - the biggest weakness for most players is playing too many hands. People want to be active and involved when they're playing poker, but a lot of the winning formula is patience. Players will see guys like Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren and Daniel Negreanu playing all sort of hands from any position, but here's the thing...you're NOT them! So its best to play within your level of experience.

                   
                    This is Phil Ivey...you're not Phil Ivey!!!

     2. Position - this is a very simple concept but its one that's constantly ignored. The later position you have the more aggressive you can play, the earlier your position the tighter you have to play. Think of Blackjack, the dealer gets to act second and thus has a huge advantage over the player. In poker the same idea applies. I'll even muck decent hands from middle position sometimes depending on how the table is playing, because the game is a lot easier when you don't have to deal with tough decisions and getting to act last can make your decision process so much easier.    

     3. Money Doesn't Matter - now in these turbulent economic times this statement might be hard to understand, but to thrive at the poker table you must have a certain disregard for money. You can't think about every dollar you put in the middle and how it relates to real life. An observant player will carve you up if he realizes you're playing with scared money. Besides you should be playing in a game that your bankroll can support, a game where even a series of losses won't put you on the rail. So when you're at the table you have to convince yourself that the money doesn't matter, they're just chips and you're just trying to get more chips.  


JEFF LARSEN'S POKER PET PEEVE #2: BAD BEAT STORIES


WSOP Circuit Event: Caesars Atlantic City


     Back in March I entered a $500 + $60 No-Limit Hold'em Tournament as part of the WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars in Atlantic City. I was excited and couldn't wait to take down the other 400 or so players for the grand prize of about $70,000, but to my dismay and a few hands of AQ suited and AK suited I found myself knocked out within the first hour of play. Of course I was disappointed and upset with the way things turned out but I soon realized that it just wasn't my time that day and I headed over to the Borgata to find a cash game.
     
     Now I easily could have spent the rest of the day telling everyone I know how my AQ suited got beat by A10 when he flopped top two pair (FLOP: A,10,9), or how when I flopped top two pair with AK suited I was eliminated when my opponent made a flush on the river (FLOP: As,Jc,Ks), but really what good would that do?
    
     Bad beat poker stories and the people who tell them are my #2 poker pet peeve. The way I look at it is that you have to be really naive to think that luck doesn't play a huge role in poker, and second, in order to receive a bad beat you need to have put your money in the middle when you had the best of it and have your opponent suck out on you, and if you consider yourself a good player shouldn't you then be receiving more bad beats then you dish out? If these aren't good enough reasons to stop with the telling of bad beat stories here are 3 more:
    
     1. No One Cares - other players, your friends, and your loved ones don't want to hear it. Most people can't stand whiners and this also gives ammunition to those who don't share the same enthusiasm in poker as you reasons why you shouldn't be playing a game with such high levels of "chance". While most poker players who hear other poker players constantly telling bad beat stories just look at those players as newbs who obviously hasn't been playing poker long enough to understand the variance of the game.
     
      2. Why focus on the negative and not the positive? - It's funny how some players always tell bad beat stories but they never seem to recall the times when they themselves hit a two outer on the river to win a pot. Also, if you're always talking about how unlucky you are then you will remain unlucky. In my experience luck finds people who feel lucky. So stay optimistic. 
     
      3. Take It Like A Man - If everyone played perfect poker no one would make any money, so when the Poker Gods decided it's time for you to time a bad beat, suck it up and take it like a man. Remember, it's just one pot in an ongoing career-long session. Anyone can get fortunate enough to hit their gut-shot straight against your flopped set, but true players know that they're skill will win out in the long run and know who to keep their composure after receiving a bad beat. 
     
      So Shut Up and Deal! 
                                    


JEFF LARSEN'S POKER TIP #2: TOURNAMENT TABLE IMAGE


The ESPN Douche Bag Look

  In poker, image matters. That's doesn't mean you have to look like some douche bag straight off of ESPN to be a good player. Your sunglasses, your backwards hat and your Adidas jacket isn't going to make you win, instead the pattern in which you play your hands will influence how much money you make.  
   
  Throughout a tournament, your table image will help determine how much action you'll get and, ultimately, how you can manipulate your opponents into making big calls or big laydowns at the wrong times. 
While establishing a loose, aggressive image early on can help build your initial chip stack, I believe it's important to develop a tight table image in the later stages of a tournament because it gives you the ability to maneuver at the times when the chips matter most. 

  When the action is folded around, some players will always raise from the cutoff and the button. The problem with this play is that its predictable and can be easily exploited. If you always raise from the button, the players in the blinds catch on sooner or later and will put in a big re-raise with any two cards. You will also find players just calling you with a much wider range of hands from the blinds before putting in a big check-raise on the flop. Why do they do this? Because you have been presenting a loose table image by raising any time the action is passed to you. During late-stage play, this image hampers your ability to maneuver because any time you try to make a move, it's likely that someone will play back at you. It doesn't take long before your loose table image will make you a target for the experienced players at the table (or even the inexperienced players who get tired of being pushed around). The amount of chips you risk by being loose in these situations is usually not worth the reward of just picking up the blinds. Be careful, though, because when you play too tight you end up missing many opportunities to slowly accumulate chips or even just stay afloat. Ideally, you want to project a very tight image while actually being somewhere in between the standard perceptions of "loose" and "tight."


The Mafia/Hellmuth Wannabe Intimidator Look

  I have one very simple piece of advice to help you with this part of your game. It may sound so simple you would wonder why I bother mentioning it but, in fact, this is one of my most important rules: Always fold junk!

  By always folding junk hands, you accomplish a number of goals:
        
      1. You resist the temptation to attempt a blind-steal just because action was passed to you. With the level of aggressiveness that characterizes today's play, it's better to pass on bad hands even in position. 

      2. You avoid pot-committing yourself with a hand that will usually be dominated in a race with a short-stack. For example, if you raise from the cutoff for 3x the big blind with J-3 attempting to steal the blinds and a stack with 8x the big blind moves in behind you, you are in a bad spot. It's better to just avoid these situations altogether. 

      3. Most importantly, you further cement your image as a tight player. Now when you raise with a hand like A-8, you can feel confident that your tight image will allow you to steal the blinds although you're actually playing a bit looser.

  Another temptation players face is to pick on someone's blind just because they view that player as "weak." I rarely pick on someone's blinds without a decent opening hand. Opening from the cut-off with a hand like K-9 suited is about as low as I'm willing to go in attempt to just pick up the blinds. Using a tight table image can help you maneuver through a very tough and large field of players. With a tight table image in the late stages of a tournament you can steal blinds and pick up a number of pots in key situations, and hopefully have enough momentum to get to the final table, where you might be fortunate enough to win.

  Remember, it takes more than good cards to be a winning player. By creating a solid table image in the late stages of a tournament, you may actually be able to play a wider variety of hands than your opponents expect and take down key pots at critical times.

 

TALES FROM THE SMALL STAKES

THE TOP 1O POKER TELLS



   Everyone in every walk of life has tells. Even people who can beat lie detector tests have tells. So here are the Top 10 Tells for you to look out for the next time you're at the poker table. 

10. Shaking Hands While Betting - this is a two way street tell, 1.the player is nervous and is bluffing but 2. and this mostly applies to inexperience players, sometimes when a player has shaky hands during a big pot it also means he has a big hand, is this case play the player. Would he be in a big pot without a big hand and does he have the balls to try and steal a big pot?

9. Avoiding Eye Contact, Looking Away - most people can't lie to people's faces, he's bluffing.  

8. Covering Their Mouths - the face is one of the keys to knowing if someone is lying, when someone is trying to cover a part of their face it means they're bluffing. But watch out, most players know this is a bluff tell and will do this on purpose with a strong hand, so determine if your opponent is experienced enough to know this. 

7. Sitting Up Straight - if a player is sitting up straight they are definitely interested in the pot and have a big hand to play it with. Players who are slouched over don't care about the pot and don't have a hand.  

6. Chip Denomination - here's how this works: if someone bets $300 and instead of using 3 black chips they use 60 red chips they are bluffing and are trying to use the larger amount of chips as a way to intimidate you. On the flip side, for some reason most players like to hold onto their larger sized chips, like greens and blacks, so if they bet with them, it's safe to say that they don't think they're going to lose them. 

5. Calling Quickly - if a player has their chips in the middle before you're even done announcing your bet, it's a clear indication the player is on a draw. 

4. Eating and Raising - people don't like to be disturbed while they eat and most people aren't going to take the extra effort to try and bluff at a pot when they have food to eat. In most cases, players will not even get involved in a hand unless they have something worthwhile, because they could be eating instead. 

3. Sudden Jump in Seat or Looking at Chips - this is a popular tell, if a player suddenly moves in their seat or looks at their chips they have a strong hand. 

2. Talking/Conversation/Acting - most times talking is a sign of weakness, they don't want you to call, it's kind of like a little kid trying to talk their parents out of grounding them. However, if a player gets to the point where his talking is like a staged act then he's got a strong hand. If a player starts acting like they "really don't want to call" or "don't know what to do with their hand" it means they've made a really strong hand and they want you to think they're weak. The next time your Spider-Sense goes off and you think a player is weak, take the time to make sure they're not Acting. 

1. Shoving Fast or Slamming Down Chips Hard - I call this tell the "Tournament Buster" because I see players in tournaments do this all the time. It's a great way to pick off players in tournaments, if a player quickly shoves their chips into the middle or slam down their chips with authority it means they don't want you to call and they are trying to intimidate you. It's kind of like "when someone acts weak they are strong, when acting strong they're weak".   

So there you go, 10 Poker Tells to look out for the next time you're on the felt, but like everything in life they are not a 100% guaranteed. In the end you should be playing with the instincts you have been developing since you started playing poker, just use these "Tells" as a way to help you figure out the hand.