Page 16 - January 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
January 2004 Tournaments
SYCUAN CASINO & RESORT
MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS & THURSDAYS
Video Poker Tournaments at Sycuan Casino
Starting at 12:00 noon, Sycuan o ers ve hourly video poker tournaments, each lasting 30 minutes with a $20 buy-in for $1,000 in tournament credits. First place winners receive an entry into the Pot O’ Gold Tournament nals held each month. Tournaments are held in the Kumeyaay Area. See a Sycuan Casino oor manager for complete rules.
MONDAYS THROUGH THURSDAYS
Slot Tournament Trifecta in Sycuan’s Bingo Palace Every Monday through ursday after evening bingo (approximately 11p.m.) Sycuan Casino hosts three slot tournaments in the Bingo Palace: Blackjack, Draw Poker and Krazy Ball Keno. Buy-in for each tournament is $20, and the 1st place winner takes home 50% of the total buy-in, the 2nd place winner receives 30%, and the
3rd place winner receives 20%. And Sycuan even adds $75 to the prize pool for each tournament!
How Much Luck is There in Poker? by Andrew N.S. Glazer
B eginning poker players and advanced poker players rarely concern themselves with the same questions, but there is one that virtually all poker players, regardless of skill, ask regularly: How much luck is there in poker?
FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS
Poker Tournaments at Sycuan Casino
Fridays at 6:30 p.m.: $2,000 Guaranteed
Hold ’em, $22 buy-in and no re-buys. Saturdays at 6 p.m.: $2,000 Guaranteed No-Limit Hold ’em,
10 a.m.: $1,000 added to the prize pool Limit Hold ’em, $13 buy-in, no re-buys; 6 p.m. $1,500 Guaranteed Limit Hold ’em, $17 buy- in, no re-buys.
CAHUILLA CREEK CASINO
THURSDAY January 1, January 15 and
January 29 at 7:00 p.m.
Blackjack Tournaments
$10 buy-in and payouts for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. Call 909-763-1200 for information.
GOLDEN ACORN CASINO
THURSDAY, January 29 at 6:00 p.m.
$10,000 Guaranteed Blackjack Tournament Buy-in is $25, and one rebuy is $25. Six winners will split $10,000. Free hors d’oeurves will be served. Registration starts at 4:30 p.m., play starts at 6 p.m.
SOBOBA CASINO
WEDNESDAYS CustomerAppreciationDaySlotTournamentat5:30p.m. Exclusively for Club Soboba members! Play in Soboba’s free weekly slot tournament with a $500 rst place prize. Sign-ups start at 5:30 p.m. with play from 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. and nals at 8:30 p.m.
CASINO PAUMA
SATURDAY February 7
Full Moon Fever Slot Tournament
First place $5,000 guaranteed. $99 Early Bird Entry fee valid through January 30, 2004 includes tournament play, buffet for two, and a souvenir
T-Shirt. Call 760-891-7926 to register.
who never goes on tilt will almost certainly win more money, long run, than a “great” player who is vulnerable to tilt.
3) Always or almost always plays with players who are even better than he is. If you are the 10th best hold’em player in the world, and only play in games with the top nine, you’re going to lose. If you’re the 5,000th best, and only play in games with players “ranked” below 10,000, you’re going to kick butt.
4) Plays too many hands, guring he can outplay people later. Another classic ego mistake: “I’m so good, I don’t have to play perfectly.” Once again, I question whether a player who makes this kind of mistake is really that great.
ere’s a marvelous, terri c, outstanding line in the poker novel Shut Up and Deal. It’s so good that I really wish I had invented it. Paraphrased in a form that ts this article, it is: “ e skill is not what is hard about poker. e skill is easy. e luck is hard. A lot of people can learn to be skilled. Very few people can handle the bad luck.”
Andrew N.S. Glazer is the poker tournament editor for Card Player magazine, and is widely considered the world’s foremost poker tournament reporter. He writes a gambling column for the Detroit Free Press, and has authored Casino Gambling the Smart Way, which is available in bookstores or at his web site, www.casinoselfdefense.com. His new book with Phil Hellmuth is tentatively titled Practical Tournament
Limit $22 buy-in, $5 one re-buy or add-on. Sundays at
Beginners tend to treat poker much like they would treat craps: ey think they’ll win if they catch good cards and lose if they don’t.
As players start to improve, they recognize how much more they know than before, usually overrating their newfound abilities. is puts them in a stage where they feel there is very little luck in poker.
When players become truly advanced, their view on luck is a bit tougher to pin down. Most great players have big poker egos that require them to believe in luck...because if you don’t believe in luck, but you lose, you must not be great. Because these players “know” they are great...luck returns to the equation.
Actually, there’s a second possible conclusion. Either there is luck in poker, even at the highest levels, or the great players don’t always play well. Both statements are true.
When players of vastly di erent skill levels meet, there is not much luck in poker. Although even a rank beginner can get lucky against good players for a brief period, if there really is a big di erence in skill, over the long run the beginner might as well be trying to hit a lottery ticket.
How can we reconcile this correct statement with the equally correct observation that top players frequently go broke, or go on very extended losing streaks?
In most cases, these streaks of “running bad” are not the result of several months or years of phenomenally bad luck. Usually, they happen because the hugely talented player makes one or more the following mistakes:
1) Plays for too high an amount, relative to his bankroll. Generally, a player plays his best poker when the amount of money at stake matters, but isn’t life changing. If the amount at risk is too high, some players can’t play optimally.
2) Goes on emotional tilt and as a result does not play up to his or her abilities. Some players are far more susceptible to tilt than others. If a player has had bad luck for a while, it becomes easier for that player to go on tilt. Bad luck thus brings on bad play, which leads to a cycle of more losing and more tilting. A “good” player
Page 16 January 2004
Column: The Poker PunditTM January 2004 Tournaments