Page 10 - June 2006 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
World Series of Poker® on $240 a Day
Part 4 of 4
by Jim Mercurio
is is part four in a four-part series to prepare readers to take their shot at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) or similar events. e WSOP ( June 25th–August 10th) is a series of tournaments that begin with several tournaments with buy-ins in the range of $1,000–$2,000. With a thousand dollars, a little bit of luck and the following tips, a player could satellite his way into $3,000 worth of tournaments.
Okay, the last few columns have been my passing on my knowledge to you about preparing for the World Series of Poker®. But let’s be honest, I am just an amateur who has a few eeting moments of poker brilliance. So I decided to turn to a few
players I have met at the tables over the last year for some insight.
I asked them for advice about how to make the move from smaller tournaments to the bigger tournaments like at the WSOP. I should be congratulated for such an unsel sh act. is was completely for you, the readers. I bene ted in no way from talking to these great players.
Annie Duke, simply the world’s most well-known female player, summed up how the blind structure a ects your play, “ e size and blinds of antes are directly proportionate to your need to gamble. If there weren’t blinds and antes, why play any stud hand unless you’re rolled up (start with 3 of a kind)?”
She followed up with, “In Hold’em, if you never had to put money in the pot, you’d play nothing but aces. Maybe kings once in a while so you get action
when you have aces.” Even if her comments are slightly hyperbolic, the principle is still the same. If the blinds are nominal, there is much less pressure to play.
London Gallagher bested a eld of 565 women players to win the sole seat reserved for an amateur at the World Poker Tour’s Ladies Night III. I was playing with her—fortunately in position—at one of the Heavenly Hold’em tournaments at Commerce Casino last month. She had a medium stack and laid down her pocket tens pre- op to an all-in re-raise. Before the cards were turned up, she said she knew the guy had aces. Her read was dead-on.
London plays the levels I play. A $500 or $1,000 tournament is a big deal in our world. About the lower limit tourneys, she says,“I sit back and watch for
the rst round...I have to defend myself more often. en I play more hands aggressively against the timid players.” In the larger buy-ins, she says,“I sit back more and wait. e structures allow more breathing room (which is good) because sometimes you can go a long
time without a premium hand.”
London also brought up a good point about the
bigger tournaments, that the players are better. But Jay Greenspan, author of Hunting Fish: A Cross-Country Search for America’s Worst Poker Players, a great
...Continued on Page 28
Page 10 June 2006
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats