Page 19 - August 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

ICelebrating the Life and Work of Andrew N.S. Glazer, “The Poker PunditTM”
am very sad to report that on July 4th Southern California Gaming Guide poker writer Andy Glazer died suddenly in Hollywood from complications of a blood clot. He was 48 years old. Andy had just returned from covering a poker tournament in Dublin. He began writing for the Southern California Gaming Guide in 2002. One of the
most respected and e ective voices in the poker community, Andy wrote a weekly gambling column for the Detroit Free Press, and for numerous gaming newspapers, magazines and online gaming sites. He was the author of two books, Casino Gambling the Smart Way and a new tournament poker book, soon to be released. He also wrote a daily column from the World Series of Poker, and was the tournament editor for Card Player magazine. Newsweek maga- zine called him “a poker scholar” in a 1999 article, and he was one of the broadcasters for ESPN at the 2002 World Series of Poker. Andy was also an avid and accomplished poker player whose nal round tournament
appearances included the World Poker Tour.
Andy was one of the leading resources for poker strategy and tournament coverage, providing readers with a combination of wit and professional insight into the world of poker. He was born in Massapequa, N.Y., a cum laude graduate from the University of Michigan and Emory University School of Law. Andy had a successful criminal trial practice, which he left about ten years ago, in a crisis of conscience. His keen understanding of poker and tournament poker, coupled with his straightforward uent writing style quickly earned him a favorite place among readers.
I rst began working with Andy a few years ago. I met him at a gaming writer’s event in Las Vegas soon
Tournament Poker Offers Exciting Possibilities Sby Andrew N.S. Glaser, “The Poker PunditTM”
e relevant questions then become “Why should someone want to play tournament poker instead of money poker?” and “What strategy changes are needed to succeed in tournaments?” Let’s take a look at both questions.
Poker tournaments o er players a terri c way to compete against strong players without risking much money, and also o er a great way to make a big score without risking a lot of money. Normally, if you want to have a chance to win $5,000 playing money poker, you probably need to be playing in a game where the stakes are so high that losing $5,000 is a possibility.
In poker tournaments, though, your risk is limited strictly to the buy-in and entry fee. In a typical tournament, the buy-in money creates the prize pool, and the entry fee goes to the host casino for its expenses/pro t. Although you can nd tournaments as inexpensive as $11 and as expensive as $25,000, let’s use a $100 tournament for our example. at tournament would probably have an entry fee of $10 (although it could be as much as $20), and so your total risk would be, let’s say, $110.
If 200 players enter, there is a prize pool of $20,000. First place usually pays between 35% and 40% of the prize pool (with the other high nishers collecting the rest of the money; usually, roughly 10% of the entrants
win money), which means that for your $110, you can take a shot at winning $8,000!
after I began publishing the Southern California Gaming Guide. He generously o ered his poker tournament writing services. I was thrilled to have a writer of such extraordinary repute for this then new publishing venture. And that was typical of Andy. He was a warm, smart and generous human being, who loved to share his knowledge of the game. I will miss him greatly.
His family is in the process of creating a foundation for ethics in gaming journalism in his memory. In celebration of Andy’s remarkable talent, here is a reprint of the last article he sent us.
— e Publisher
Casino Gambling the Smart Way can be found in bookstores or at Andrew N.S. Glazer’s website, www.casinoselfdefense.com.
Let’s say you are given $500 in no-cash value“tournament chips” at the start of play. ese chips cannot be cashed in, but only used in the tournament, and you will continue playing until you are either knocked out—hopefully in one of the money-paying positions—or until you have accumulated every chip in play, meaning you are the winner!
When the tournament starts, an average player has $500 in his stack. After 100 of our hypothetical 200 players have
Succeeding in tourna- ments takes a different set of skills than suc- ceeding in money games, although if you know how to play a game for money, you are off to a good start in knowing how to play it in a tour- nament. Let’s assume that you do know your game (tournaments are offered in almost every variation of cardroom poker) for money. What play in a tournament?
“Succeeding in tournaments takes a different set of skills than succeeding in money games, although if you know
how to play a game for money, you are off to a good start in
knowing how to play it in a tournament.”
been eliminated, though, an average (or “par”) stack would be $1,000. By keeping track of where you are, relative to a par stack, you know whether or not you must be aggressive, or can a ord to be more conservative.
If you nd tracking par di cult, you can also keep an eye on how big your stack is relative to the blinds and antes. If you
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
outhern California residents are in luck when it comes to accessibility to legal poker games, and especially to legal poker tournaments. ey are living in the poker capital of the world. Someone who wanted to play tournament poker year round could probably nd a poker
tournament somewhere in Southern California every single day of the year.
adjustments are needed to
only have enough left for a few blinds, it’s pretty easy to realize that you will need to win some chips pretty quickly, even if your cards aren’t cooperating.
One of the best ways to learn about tournament poker is to read about how the world’s best players go about it.
You can nd my own articles about not just this year’s World Series of Poker, but also prior years, online at www.casino.com/poker, where you can also subscribe to the free bi-weekly poker e-newsletter, “Wednesday Nite Poker.”
e single biggest adjustment needed is a constant focus on money (chip) management and knowledge of how many chips an “average” player has at any given moment. Because the blinds and antes are continually increasing in tournament poker (that’s how they can get a tournament over in a day), it’s vitally important to focus not just on the ideal play for one given hand, but to manage your chip stack with the tournament big picture in mind.
August 2004 Page 19