The Hendon Mob

A regular reader of my column might accuse me of cynicism. I’m always banging on about how there’s more luck in poker than most people realise, and that everyone should get a bit less carried away with a good string of results. Well, I’m changing tack this month. This time, I’ll tell you the easy way to get rich playing poker.
This is especially relevant right now because poker is a bit in the doldrums. There are a lot of people out there scrimping and searching for...

This column contains excerpts from the upcoming book The Math of Hold’em, by Collin Moshman and Douglas Zare (available from Amazon). This is Part I of a three-part series that looks at set-mining.
Sets are disguised monster hands that can win large pots against strong hands or against multiple opponents. Set-mining means playing a pocket pair primarily for the chance to flop a set and win a big...

I once racked up nearly £50,000 in gambling debts and it all started when I found PartyPoker. I had just stumbled upon online poker and while I was playing some small stakes MTT’s they introduced some alternative gaming options (incase you got bored while playing 12-tables of poker). One of the games they introduced was the highly addictive Guess the Colour of the Next Card game. After NEVER being able to guess the right colour, I ended up doing my nuts, before wandering off and...

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
Winston Churchill

Stumps as you would say in cricket, David Sheperd would have been hopping around, one hundred and eleven started the Euro 1000 PLO at the ACF.
(Apologies to those who don't like or understand the cricket references)
I had an unluckyish draw, if that is possible in Paris, and I had a table full of the PLO...

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

I love Paris. I mean I love poker in Paris. I can't believe it's been 7 years since I was here when I was here so often. I love the fact that you can jump on a train in Central London and a little over two hours later you are here. I love the buildings, the shutters on the windows, the pigeon English and the chance to use my schoolboy French.
I expected to walk into the Aviation Club and see...

I have become a very keen student of financial trading over the past few years and this is an area that I am slowly but surely moving into. The similarities with poker are striking and pricing options and no limit ring games have many of the same redeeming qualities and characteristics. So much so that I was reading about an ex-professional poker player who moved across into trading options and then teaching and coaching who used poker as part of his coaching methods.
What is immensely...

Having had a few relaxing weeks whilst spending Christmas with my family in Lithuania and then after joining my friends for New Year’s celebrations in Florence, I was very much looking forward to being back in the UK for some poker action.
First up in my 2012 poker schedule was the Palm Beach Big Game. Now there’s nothing like a few days in a beautiful Italian city full of Prada, Versace and more to provide a young lady with an incentive to do well in her next poker game!
Palm...

You are running a $10,000 Main Event and during the 1st break you notice a seat is open so you pick up the seat card but the dealer says wait there was a player in that seat and he had more than the starting stack. Just as the break is about over you see a player that you have never seen before sit down and start taking chips out of his pocket and putting them on the table.
What do you do?
Jack Effel
If...

We are very pleased to announce a new partnership with French poker photogaphy website Holdempix.com
Holdempix is the result of the teaming up of two professional photgraphers, Jules Pochy and Guillaume Carron, who share an extensive range of expertise covering the span of four years in Poker photogaphy. This union is sponsored by French professional player Fabrice Soulier who also brings his own experience to the table.
You will se...

My last article, WSOP Blues, talked about my slow demise in the Main Event from 35th in chips after Day 2 to busting out on Day 4 before the money. This month my article will look at some of the brighter spots from Day 1.
The Bluff
Every year in the main event there is usually a hand or two where I may get a little too creative, get myself in trouble, and then either make a play that looks brilliant or donk off a lot of chips. The following hand was a little creative and a little lucky at...

Poker is a little slut.
It doesn’t care who you love, or share your bed with. It doesn’t care what you do for a living and it doesn’t care about any of your interests. Poker knows it needs you and knows just how to behave to get you. Just like a little slut, when poker slaps on that lipstick and those little lace stockings you don’t stand a chance.
When I first met little miss poker I had a certain lifestyle. Contained within that lifestyle were my family and friends.

Victoria Coren
It's quite fun, this Guardian experiment. They're having a games slot every day - bridge, chess, that sort of thing - and I'm doing the poker one. It's aimed at the fairly new player, who might have watched a bit of poker on TV and just started playing with their friends and wants a few tips. So for the moment in the column I'm generally advocating caution and covering basics -...

First it was the headline about November Niner Sam Holden in The Sun: “Jobless Brit eyes £5m poker prize”. At the time, we all thought it was funny. Those silly people, they just don’t get it. Sam Holden isn’t jobless – he’s a pro poker player! It should have been a wake up call for us. Those silly people have some control over what we do, and they’ve been flexing their talons – read...

Another Dwan “Special”
A few weeks ago we discussed the merits of the hand played by Tom Dwan where he got two stronger hands to fold that were held by Peter Eastgate and Barry Greenstein. We can see another Tom Dwan “special” here in this hand against JC Tran which I recall was discussed on the forum. Here in this hand then Tran folded A-10 wit...

Victoria Coren
It's quite fun, this Guardian experiment. They're having a games slot every day - bridge, chess, that sort of thing - and I'm doing the poker one. It's aimed at the fairly new player, who might have watched a bit of poker on TV and just started playing with their friends and wants a few tips. So for the moment in the column I'm generally advocating caution and covering basics -...

Several years ago I wrote about the biggest mistake I see players make in the WSOP main event – going broke with A-K. In many online tournaments, going broke with A-K after the first few levels is perfectly fine. But in the main event, when you start out with 150 big blinds, losing a lot of chips with A-K is a big mistake unless you hit a monster board.
2010 was my year of going broke with A-K (and to some extent A-Q), although it happened over a series of hands rather than losing a lot...

This one was posted on the Blondepoker forum by George2Loose
Action passes around to the Cut-off who limps in; Button folds; Small blind taps the table to check. Dealer points out him he has to make up to call. He says "ok then I'm all in"
Should he be allowed to? What are his options? Ruling was called, how would you rule?
Jack Effel
Player in the SB should only be allowed to call. In...

Name: David Flusfeder
Experience (how long TD): David Flusfeder is the Chairman of the Rules Committee of the International Federation of Poker. The IFP Rules Committee (which includes Thomas Kremser, James McMahon and Devanir Campos) has produced a rule-book that aims to be the definitive authority for tournament poker worldwide. It can be accessed at this add...

Late November; early Christmas shoppers, Z-list celebrities turning on the obligatory lights, Christmas tunes on the radio, (am I on my own in thinking that there should be a rule these can’t be played prior to 1st Dec ? ) and thankfully the GUKPT series of tournaments at the Victoria Casino, London.
I’ll take the 12 days of GUKPT events over the 12 days of Christmas anytime – but first I had to do well in the earlier side events.
First up for me was the £300...

Professional and recreational poker players have their favourite events. For a lot of them, especially the recreational players, their favourite place to play will be a hometown venue. So players from the Old Town in Tallinn will be looking forward to the EPT Tallinn and players who live in Luton, who let’s face it don’t have much to look forward to, will be salivating at the sound of the local GUKPT coming to town.
Amidst the green, green grass of home, where sheep invade your...