Archive for April, 2009

Poker Room at The Binions Horseshoe Hotel

If you’re looking to set foot at the place where it all began, the Poker Room at the Binion’s Gambling Hall is where you should be. Having been in the casino business since 1951, owner Benny Binion – hence the name – is a gambling legend, and his brainchild holds more poker history than any other Casino’s poker room in history.

Poker History with the Legend

Originally named Binion Horseshoe, the Binion Poker Room has pioneered many pokers first as its legendary owner reshaped downtown Las Vegas gambling. When it opened in 1951, bets were capped at $500, a good ten times of what the cap was at every other gambling house in downtown Vegas.

Benny also brought gambling standards to a much higher level as he sought to make it player-friendly. Offering free drinks to patron, limousine transport to and from airports and a carpet-lined walk are all Binion firsts. And what is poker history without a legendary player? The Old Man of Poker, Johnny Moss was dubbed the Binion’s Ambassador of Poker. Back in the day, he and his wife literally lived at the Horseshoe.

In all its poker history, the Binion’s played host to the World Series of Poker until 2004, as the privately owned property has fallen into a state of neglect on the death of its owner and the departure of his heir. For many years, Wall Street had to speculate on the Binion’s worth and earnings. But because it was privately held and did not need to make public its finances, nothing could be substantiated.

The Drama in 2004

The property temporarily closed for a couple of months in 2004 before intervening owner Harrah’s hastily bought the properly, cleaned the dump up, repainted walls, reopened the casino and hired staff a mere days before the WSOP 2004 Tournament. At the tournament’s conclusion, the property, except the Horseshoe name and the World Series of Poker Tournament, to new owners, MTR Gaming. The world-famous Casino was then renamed Binion’s.

Binion’s Poker Room Today

Binion’s Poker Room offers a total of 95 tables – the most in any Vegas Strip casino poker room. These tables are spread out into three sections, the regular hall has 18, the tournament hall has 28 and the rest -50- are upstairs at Benny’s Bullpen. Poker history is on the Binion’s walls as its Wall of Fame holds portraits of famous poker players. Out back of the poker room, the red-lined Gallery of Champions holds the portraits of various World Series of Poker Champions.

True to its tradition, Binion’s poker room offers $2/4, $4/8 and $3/6 Texas Hold’em. The $1/2 no-limit Texas Hold’em game comes with a $100 minimum buy-in and it always features action-packed games. Remaining true to Benny’s tradition of feeding its patrons, Binion’s has a more liberal comp policy than most in Las Vegas. Four hours of play earns you an $8.00 food comp you can use at most of the hotel’s restaurants and food outlets.

Poker Nicknames And Their Importance

Poker is one of the oldest card games that is still largely prevalent in the world. What started as a game in the roman era in the middle of the 15th century has spread like wildfire especially over the last century or two. Though it has its own set of complexities, at the basic level the game seems to be a very simple one. All the people seated at the poker table are distributed a number of cards (based on the specific version of the game being played). All the players place a bet on their cards and the player with the best ‘hand’ at the end of the game wins the money at stake.

One aspect of the game that is of a lot of interest to most people is the nicknames assigned to the poker players. These nicknames are often given to the players by their peers based on the behavior, game performance, personal characteristics and even the attitude towards fellow players. For instance, players who are full of vigor and smartness in their play might be called ‘Mighty Heart’ followed by their name. At other times, nicknames are more for convenience than a description. For example: if Alfred Hitchcock were to play poker, he’d be known as ‘Alfred’ or ‘Alfy’ for ease of pronunciation. And so, poker players cease to use their real names in the game as they are better remembered by their new monikers.

In poker tournaments, new poker-names are quite often assigned based on the player’s occupation and/or hometown. For example: when a wholesaler of fish named Mark takes to the floor, he will be called ‘Mark the Shark’. Or if Harry is from the restaurant business, he could be called ‘Elevator Harry’. Or people might be known by their trade or company of employment. For instance an employee of Nike who’s pretty adept at the game could be called ‘Nike – the best’. Or if Vinu works for Volker, ‘Volker Vinu’ could be his assigned name. Also a point to be remembered is that a name like ‘Derek the cabbie’ is not meant in a derogatory manner but only as recognition.

At other times, people might be referred to by their place of origin. For example: a Singaporean player called Kiazu could be called ‘Singapore Kiazu’ and ‘Bedford Brett’ would refer to a player named Brett hailing from Bedford. Other leads to poker names are characteristic traits like a habit of carrying an umbrella for the ‘Umbrella Man’ or ‘Picky Nathan’ for someone who loves picking a fight.

Poker names often become much more than a name for convenience sake – they become an alternate identity and players might stop responding to their original names. Some of the most famous poker players are now known only by their poker moniker. For example: The Magician’s real name is Antonio Esfandiari (based on profession) and Jesus is actually Chris Ferguson (based on physical characteristics).

So what is your poker name?

Poker Tips-Towing

Poker is an interesting game that demands intelligence and a challenging attitude. The game like any other has its own Dos and Don’ts that indirectly attribute as tips to win the game.

1)Both amateurs and seasoned professional need tips and Tony Bochan and Brad Daugherty, well known poker guides provide them with useful and valuable guidelines for playing poker. Seasoned Professionals need to be constantly updated on new strategies and tactics used by champions.

It is characteristic of beginners to play many hands together. When new to the game, the player is advised to stay in hands and pretend to participate in the activity though the hand is not worth playing. The snag in the above point is you loose more in wanting to play more to win more. In order for the player to stay half in the hands that are dealt he needs to upgrade the requirement for the starting hand. Be it a single table game that lasts for an hour or less or a multi table game that lasts for four hours, the strategy is the same. As a fresher one can start off with playing single table and while at it create a mental picture that portrays the player as playing in the Final table at World Championship.

When playing Texas Hold’Em it is important to learn to choose the hands that you are going to hold and the hand you are going to fold. The decision must enable you to win by deciding to play with the down cards that are dealt and also should also play safe as not to lose money that you did not bet on.

2)Follow a conservative strategy in the first three rounds by playing the premium hands.
Then slowly but steadily get into that aggressive form of play when the blind stakes tend to get higher. It is safe for the player to keep alcohol consumption level low when playing poker. A player is clear in his judgment only for two drinks. In a poll conducted to find out whether alcohol can be allowed at poker tables 54% were for it. They felt that alcohol increased the enjoyment factor of the game.

But poker guides speak otherwise. The probability of winning is higher when alcohol is prohibited at the poker table. This observation was established in the recent H.O.R.S.E. tournament worth $50,000 whence the “prince of poker”, Scotty Nquyen proved that he was a drunken buffoon.

3)“Bet than Call” is the beset strategy to play poker. In other words “Defense is the best form of offence”

When the player follows the above strategy, chances are that he can show the best hand and the others may fold the hand and the player will emerge the undisputable winner.

The Science of Poker Bluffing

Bluffing involves a process of raising bets although you’re likely to have an inferior hand. Its purpose is to win a pot in spite of the fact that your cards are no good to start with. It is often used to make other players believe that you have a stronger hand and make them fold. Whenever you make a representation of a very big hand you should maintain a proper footing to win the game. Depending on how you bluff it will either make you win or lose the game. The success of bluffing depends on the person who is doing it. Further calculations should be done in order for it to work.

When Bluffing is Called for

*You can bluff if you think that someone is having a big hand on the specific pot. But careless representation of an upper hand without further considerations whether the board offers potentiality will likely to get caught.

*when you are in the last position and the rest of the players already checked you can make a bluff that has higher probability of winning on any place on the board.

*If you are playing with tight players known as rocks. They usually call a bet if they are sure of the situation that they have the upper hand cards among others. Tight players are vulnerable to bluffs because they’re the ones who want to play on the safer side thus, can easily get carried away with your bluffs.

Types of Bluffs

The following are the types of bluffs:

Pure-bluff or Stone cold bluff is betting on a pot which involves near to zero chance of winning. In order for a pure bluff to be effective you as a poker player will have to convince the opponents that that they don’t stand a chance to win thus, forcing them to fold. For example, if all other cards are already shown the one who has the busted drawing cards might decide to use pure bluff as the only means of getting a win on the pot. But be careful because if someone calls on you then the result would be a devastating defeat.

This type of bluff is a risky one but can be beneficial if performed with the right calculations or with thorough considerations.

Semi-bluff is a tactic or technique where you as a player raise the amount of bet although you have some sort of upper hand cards that has higher probability of winning. One example is if you have upper hand cards say flush, you will try to bluff the rest of the players to force them to fold. Some players will recognize the bluff and hesitate to fold and some will. Either ways since you have your flush then you still get the win eventually on that round.

This kind of bluff is convenient to execute compared to the so-called pure-bluff since you are not dealing with chances. You are just plainly waiting for the rest of the players to give in or fold and make your way to victory.

Starting Hands with Texas Hold’em Poker

Texas Hold ‘em is more than a game of chance; the game actually involves probabilities of various card combinations in a regular deck of 52. Risk, strategy and bluffing are general parts of the game that make it interesting. Of course, if you’re playing for cash, that sweetens the pot even more.
Obviously, experience and a fair measure of intelligence and intuition play into becoming a strong Texas Hold ‘em poker player. Experience helps you know when to make which move, recognize bluffs and know when to be aggressive or conservative. However, as poker dabbles in the science of probabilities, experience counts for familiarizing yourself with how the game works and what works for you. That being said, there are 25 possible starting hands for Texas Hold ‘em, each with a greater than 1/7 chance of winning at a ten-handed table.
Shapes of Starting Hands
Starting hands with Texas Hold ‘em poker can take on any of three shapes:
Pairs. Sometimes called pocket pairs, this is a two-card duo of the same rank, regardless of suits such as 8♠ 8♣. One of 17 hands is going to be a pair.
Suited. This is a two-card duo of the same suit, like a A♣ and a J♣. In a pool of 17 hands, four suits will appear.
Offsuit (non pair). This is a two-card duo of different rank and suit like K♠ J♥, and in a pool of 17, twelve hands will appear nonpair, offsuit.
Best Starting Hands for Texas Hold ‘em Poker
It’s important to know when a couple of cards you’re holding is a suited, pair or offsuit hand because these vary in rank and value. You want to know which ones are going to win, don’t you?
Among poker enthusiasts, there’s an undisputed top three best starting hands for Texas Hold ‘em poker; the rest though are disputable. Nonetheless, here’s the best of them:
1. Ace-Ace. A pair of aces, often referred to using various nicknames, including pocket rockets, snake eyes, American Airlines, batteries, bullets, etc. A double ace is the undisputed best starting hand for Texas Hold ‘Em.
2. King-King. The second best hand to begin a hold ‘em game with is a pair of kings, fondly called cowboys, Kangaroos, Knights, Gorillas or King Kong.
3. Queen-Queen. A pair of queens, also referred to as ladies, or the Hilton sisters, after party girls Paris and Nicky Hilton, rounds out the best three best starting hands for Texas Holdem Poker.

4. Suited Ace-King. This combination draws some disagreement but still undoubtedly a good hand to begin with. A suit ace-king pair is also known as Casey Afflecks, King Arthur, Korean Airlines or more popularly, Big Slick.
5. Suited Ace-Queen or the Little Slick or the suited Big Chick follows the King in rank and value.

Other Strong Starting Hands

There are several other strong starting hands with Texas Hold ‘em poker but ultimately, a player’s skill and willingness to take risks determine the winner. Although arguably so, a pair of Jacks, a suited royal couple (king-queen pair), a blackjack (suited Ace-Jack), an offsuit Ace-King, a suited King-Jack and a dime (a pair of tens) are also known to be excellent starting hands for Texas Hold ‘em poker.

Improve your strategy

No matter if you are an old skilled pro or a brand new amateur, there is always room to improve. Reading up on poker strategy is something we all should do from time to time. Maybe you claim that you read Supersystem so you don’t need any more strategy guides but it is not true, there is always room for improvement.

If you on the other hand just started out with poker you will of course have even more reasons for reading through the guides. You need to learn about the statistics, the hand ranking and the pot odds. As soon as you have gone through those guides you will be a player that knows more than the averege player does and it might actually turn you in to a winning player directly.

Importance Of Online Poker Tells

Whoever said that casino games were a piece of cake was definitely not from this world. There are a few specific rules and regulations each casino game has that have to be followed. However, like every other game, just knowing the rules and regulations don’t make you a good player. There are lots of important methods and techniques that mark the difference between a winner and a loser. Whenever playing a game, the player should understand the moves of his opponents and figure out if he is bluffing just to throw him off his game. Falling for a bluff is a sure shot short-cut to ending up on the losing side. For example: A twitchy or sweaty reaction to a change in the game might actually be a bluff by a player to make the other players think that he is going to loose the game.

As if trying to tackle these attempts at game-tricks wasn’t enough in a face to face game, we now have to deal with these tricks in online games too. So how do you go about recognizing such ‘expressions’ of your opponents? As deciphering these things can be quite a task, players are helped out by a few logical views on the online versions of these games – the “online poker tells”. These tells help a player understand the true flow of the game and help him make a logical move. Of the 15 odd tells that have been defined, here we present for you 2 tells.

The first of the two is known as “To pause or not to pause”. As we all know, time is an important factor in playing poker, specially online poker. The players need to maintain a certain degree of timeliness in their moves to avoid getting caught over good or bad ‘hands’. With an online version, there is always a time-limit to every player’s move – typically 30 seconds – which is generally sufficient to make a strong move. A few basic tips here follow simple logic – if the player takes too long to decide on the move and increases the bet, he is likely to have a strong hand. On the other hand, if he takes time and does not end up making any move, then he probably has a mediocre hand.

Sometimes though, even some of our best guess work can prove us wrong. Players might not raise the bets, but might still make a move after pondering over a strong hand for a long time. So it is suggested that to be able to guess the other player’s moves, you should try thinking like him.

The second of the two tells is the “Instant Playing”. This move helps a player win the game in a short period of time. With this tell, the opponent does not get enough time to understand and analyze the player’s move. For example: On some poker sites, there are lesser check boxes for the players and they can instantly play on the bets and thus win the game. Though this is often a good idea, it doesn’t guarantee success every time. It can even work against the player causing him to lose their hand. Also, players with weak hands often check the boxes instantly. The key is to understand the opponent’s ideas and accordingly plan one’s own strategy.

Good Poker Tells Show Great Impact

As much as we all love poker, it is admittedly not an easy game. Though not the most difficult task, it is not an easy one either trying to understand the game. Every game involves a strategy that helps the player win the game as quickly as possible.

Success in this game can only be assured through patience and well guided efforts. The rules and regulations of the game should be kept in mind by the players while playing poker. They should also be good at analyzing the opponent’s moves and judge their ‘hands’. The moves of the opponent are easier to interpret using a technique called ‘Poker Tells’. A poker tell helps a player understand the strategy of the opponent by analyzing the behavior of the opponent and thus estimating his move.

Poker tells take into account the steps, various expressions and movements of the opponents. For instance when an opponent takes a long time to make a move and raises the bet, the player can infer that his opponent has a strong hand. At other times, a loss in another room distracts the players and they often mention something to this effect in the chat. Such messages are often a good indicator of the player’s mood and their mental stability for the game. Sometimes some players have a long response time. This delayed response often points at a weak hand. According to a recent survey it is estimated that 73% of the players end up having a longer response time for weak hands. Even though these tells are famous, they do not work at all times. In fact, some players even deliberately use such moves to distract their opponents.

Though poker tells are not fool-proof, they do offer some logical views on how to best ascertain an opponent’s hand. They obviously can not assure victory to any player or offer any form of strategy, but definitely improve the chances. For example: If a player notices his opponent having drawn, then he can often increase the bet and raise the pot. This gives him a chance to force his opponent out of the game. A player slowing down his hand is a sign of an inexperienced player having some difficulty in making an appreciative move. Two other handy and valuable poker tells are “Raising in Position” and “Waiting for Big Blind”.

Raising in position is a widely-used and efficient poker tell. It is not only a useful tell in the online format of the game, but is also often used in the offline version. A player has more chances of stealing the pot if he raises the bet when all the other players in the game have folded. It is thus a smart move for a player to increase his bet in situations like this. At other times, having employed this tell the player will notice the opponent folding and giving the player more chances of winning the game. In waiting for big blind, the player should watch out for the opponents who are continuously placing blinds. Such players often have more chances of winning the game.

Eyes Speak Louder Than Words In Poker

Poker has gained the fancy of many people not only in the western countries as popular notion goes, but all across the world. The simple format of the base game makes it adaptable to various forms of rewards, whether monetary or otherwise. A lot of people start playing this game as a sport but soon get addicted to it. When played in good spirits, this is one of the most fun games that there is. The trick to the game and also what makes it interesting is the fact that it relies heavily on correctly assessing the other players’ psychology.

One of the most important tools a poker player can employ is a Poker tell. Effectively used, a tell can successfully mislead the opponent. A Tell is a subtle behavioral change or reaction which reveals the player’s assessment of his cards. What is important to understand here is that a tell can not be used to guess at the cards but to judge how the player rates his hand. It helps us understand if the player thinks his hand is good or bad. The best use of a tell is to understand if the player is bluffing his position in the game or not. Though there are lots of tells and can be classified in a number of ways, one way of classifying them is on where they can be used – online or offline.

The basic difference between the two formats of the game is whether a person can see his opponents or not. In the physical casinos, players can judge the opponents’ reactions based on physical reactions, whereas in the virtual casinos players have to rely on completely different cues for a tell. Whenever playing poker in a manual casino one of the most important things to notice in an opponent are the eyes. A player might be able conceal his reactions to something in every other form, but the eyes are the hardest to mask when trying to hide reactions or excitement. For example when people are nervous, the eyes become dull and get blurred. And when they are happy they have a noticeable sparkle or ‘smile’ in their eyes.

Eyes are most expressive part of our face and can give us away very easily. A noticeable dullness in the eyes will let the opponents know that you are nervous about your hand. Players who feel nervous show some kind of dullness in their eyes. There are various other tricks to understanding a player’s reactions through their eyes. Shifty eyes, staring at one’s cards, stealing quick glances at the pot and double checking one’s cards each have a different meaning. One means uncertainty while the other conveys inability to do anything whereas the third means you think you stand a good chance of winning that pot.

So, it becomes extremely important to conceal the information being leaked out via your eyes. If you want to conceal your reactions well, it is best to cover your eyes with a pair of sunglasses. At times players even look into the opponent’s eyes to catch a reflection of the cards and so covering up well is important.

Evolution and the History of World Series of Poker

A poker game has developed across a wide range of development from more then thousand. Some typified that the beginning of this game to the reign of sung of tenth century in China, while others manifest its initial stage is with a Persian game its known as ‘As Nas’. All over the olden times, this game has enlarged significantly, on the other hand the fundamental theory of psychological policy as well as card ranking have always credited next to the course of its progression.
The depiction of the game is more often than linked to its presented structure of Poque. The Poque was sleets from seventeen century in France. The game completes its pathway form the city of New Orleans, to come upon the Atlantic with a group of French pioneers. On or after there, this game extend the length of the way of river Mississippi in eighteenth century and it has explode in the America in nineteenth century when the country was prolonged towards westward surface. Because of this cause, the time gone of World Series of poker is usually joined with Wild West of United States Of America.
The Poker game has three existing edition such as Omaha and Omaha means high limit to low limit, the Texas Hold’em, and 7 card stud and 5 card stud. The Texas hold’em go on board on its increase to fashionable position for the period of the year of 1970 when it come out as the marked fame in the Poker’s world series. In now a day, it is definitely the well known of the three and is in performance commonly in foremost online poker rooms, and in terra firma based casinos all over the world.
In the year of 1951 the legend Johnny Moss was the winner he had packed down the Nick in the Poker. After that in 1970 the all star poker player arrived in faction such as the Legend Johnny Moss, Strauss, Roberts, Slim Brunson, Puggy Pearson, and Crandell Addington and other well known players joined them. The legendary world series of poker was the first gathering of players plays different games as circumstances read aloud. As a final point they all had chosen for the champion, to a convinced degree having determined during the poker contest.
In spite of the fact, the players are aware of that the occasion was flourishing but the media start it stiff to go after, since the competition was not prearranged appropriately as well as there was no obvious champion. Sequentially not to do again this difficulty, in the following year Benny set up a main occasion that would be a freeze out. This new game, all the poker players would get the same figure of initial chips and if they get to nil chips, the player would be getting rid of the game. The player who in the game till last the player would be considered as the champion. In the year 1971, with the game of Texas hold’em the first poker World Series was the conducted was the main event. The Legend Johnny Moss was selected as the first champ in the past of Poker World Series.