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Poker Action Midtown: Live Cash Game

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Test your skill and try your luck in our stylish new Poker Room in new york, where the wildfire Poker sensation Texas Hold ’em is the main attraction. Limit and No Limit, casual games and tournaments are played here all day, every day.

No Limit Hold’em Poker in Midtown, New York:

  • $2/5 No Limit Hold’em,
  • $1/2 No limit Hold’em and PLO Poker

How to get a seat?

Join the widest Cash Games and Tournaments in Midtown/Queens! Whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, we’ll help you find the perfect fit.

All it takes to get a seat is registering via text/our website. If you don’t registered yet Text “SPblog” to (347) 471 1813 with full name, email & occupation.
>> Final Step: Please add Becky Shellz on facebook to quickly verify your identity for the safety of our members.

Hand Review: Fold the River or Bluff Facing Three Barrels?

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Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players — both amateurs and professionals — play the game. In this ongoing series, I’ll highlight hands I’ve seen at the tournaments I’ve covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them.

The Scene

Last weekend, this weekly feature did not appear on our site as I traveled to Chicago to play in the $1,675 buy-in World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Hammond Main Event. Things did not go as planned in the event as I was unable to even give myself a sweat by making it to Day 2, but perhaps I can discuss an interesting hand or two, at least.

The early levels had gone fairly well for me and I had built my starting stack of 20,000 up to about 37,000 when a fun hand came up against Jose Montes (pictured above) who had me covered in this hand.

Montes is a traveling pro who has been very successful the past few years. He seemed to be playing pretty aggressively as he had opened a number of pots and three-bet a few more. Meanwhile I had been on the tighter side as I hadn’t been dealt much.

The Action
With blinds at 300/600/100, action folded to Montes in the hijack seat, where he opened to 1,300. The next three players folded, and I called in the big blind with {5-}{5-}.

The flop came {6-}{7-}{6-}, and I checked. Montes bet 1,200 and I called. The turn was a {k-}. Montes fired again for 3,000 after I checked, and I called once more. On the {a-} river, I checked a final time. This time, after Montes fired 5,500, I folded.

Concept and Analysis
Preflop, I expect Montes to be opening pretty wide from the hijack. He had been playing lots of hands in late position, although he hadn’t shown down much. Fives seem like a pretty standard call from the big blind, where I’m getting a great price but don’t want to three-bet to start building a massive pot with a hand that’s likely to be mediocre after the flop.

On the {6-}{7-}{6-} flop, I think it’s a pretty easy check-call. My hand should be the best hand here the majority of the time. Of course, it’s likely to get tricky to play on some later streets when more overcards arrive. But, I would usually want to check-call my strong hands here, too, since he isn’t likely to have anything to pay me off.

The turn is where things start to get interesting. A king is a pretty good card for his range and bad for mine since I check-called that flop. He’ll have lots of hands he stabbed at the pot with that include kings, so it’s a pretty mandatory barrel card for him.

There’s probably merit to folding right here, especially against good, aggressive players. They’re going to put you in tough spots on the river sometimes. Plus, there’s now six cards that could come — any king or seven — that would completely kill my hand. He also sized his bet more than double his flop bet, indicating a big river barrel might be coming.

However, in the actual hand, I did decide to call and see the river. I think I’m still beating a decent chunk of his range, such as {a-}{x-} hands and stuff like {q-}{j-}.

When the {a-} fell — no flushes were possible this hand — I was looking at a really ugly runout. I checked and he bet 5,500, and at this point, I don’t think there’s enough air in his hand for me to profitably call. I quickly dismissed that option, but it occurred to me that I could fire out a raise to about 15,000 instead and turn my hand into a bluff.

All of the ingredients were in place. My opponent was a late position opener, meaning he was more likely to have a weaker range. I was in the big blind facing almost a min-raise preflop, so I could absolutely have a six in my hand. And I could credibly represent a six since slow playing would be understandable on such a dry board. Finally, I had been playing fairly tight and hadn’t shown down anything too crazy.

Vince Vaughn, Mel Gibson Among Celebrities Helping Raise Money at Charity WPT Event

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The World Poker Tour teamed with celebrity hosts Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Andrew Garfieldand Gene Simmons to raise money and awareness for Mending Kids, a charity that raises money to help provide surgical care for children in need around the world. The event raised enough money to help more than 100 children.

The charity event, titled Four Kings & An Ace, took place Friday in Beverly Hills. The poker portion of the event was a tournament with a $5,000 donation and with celebrity hosts and guests taking part. Players in attendance in addition to the hosts included Erik Seidel and Scotty Nguyen, as well as WPT on-air talent Mike Sexton and Lynn Gilmartin.

In addition to the tournament, there were also casino games and auctions to benefit Mending Kids.

“Once again, poker brought together celebrities, dignitaries and influencers for a great cause as it continues to be one of the most fun and effective ways to raise money for critical issues worldwide,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “WPT Foundation is honored to have partnered with Mending Kids for this special night and to celebrate the remarkable miracles they are performing for children around the world.”

A full gallery of the festivities can be seen here.

Check out highlights of the event in the video below and visit the Mending Kids website to donate.

Play Cash Games and Tournaments

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Join the widest Cash Games and Tournaments in Midtown/Queens! Whether you’re a beginner or more experienced, we’ll help you find the perfect fit.

Why Play Cash Game at socialpoker in Midtown?

socialpoker is a fantastic and well-run poker room in Midtown, Manhattan. We have enough staff and dealers, oh yes of course the atmosphere is really excellent. We have added a professional touch to the home game experience. Our staff is dedicated to running a clean, friendly, and low-key cash game. If you’re a poker grinder, stop by and let us know how we’re doing!

Game Offering:

At Midtown

  • $2/5 No Limit Hold’em,
  • $1/2 No limit Hold’em and PLO Poker

At Queens:

  • $1/3 No Limit Hold’em
  • Poker Tournament

How to get a seat?

  • All it takes to get a seat is registering via text.
  • Not registered yet? Text “SPblog” to (347) 471 1813 with full name, email & occupation.
  • >> Final Step:Please add Becky Shellz on facebook to quickly verify your identity for the safety of our members.

 

Looking for Patterns in William Kassouf’s “Speech Play”

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This is the first of a two-part article examining the speech patterns of William Kassouf, a talkative player featured in this year’s coverage of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event on ESPN. In the U.K. and elsewhere, this kind of during-hand talking is known as “speech play.” We’ll see if we can find some patterns in Kassouf’s speech play.

First, it’s important to say that in respect to Kassouf, the footage from the Main Event is admittedly a small sample size. It’s entirely possible Kassouf is more balanced in his behavior than I will lead you to believe. I base my observations on the WSOP footage of him I’ve seen thus far and on general common patterns.

I also want to say I thought Kassouf put on a great show. He was almost the only entertaining thing I saw in this year’s WSOP footage thus far (I haven’t seen the last few episodes yet). I respect Kassouf for going out on a limb in trying something risky, especially against some players he knew were very experienced, and for attempting to entertain spectators in a game that can often be a bit boring to watch.

Kassouf’s patter of strong-hand statements

First, let’s try to understand Kassouf’s general modus operandi. He liked to ramble verbally in many spots and most of this patter was made up of what I call strong-hand statements. Here are some examples, which Kassouf repeated many times in various iterations:

  • “I think I’m ahead.”
  • “Get my money in good, that’s all I can do.”
  • “I’m not bluffing.”
  • “I’ve got a legitimate hand this time.”

When doing the research for my book Verbal Poker Tells, one of the major things I got in the habit of doing was trying to categorize a player’s statements into weak-hand statements or strong-hand statements. These categories are kind of self-explanatory:

  • Weak-hand statement: something that implies weakness about a speaker’s hand, like “I’m bluffing.”
  • Strong-hand statement: something that implies strength about a speaker’s hand, like “I’ve got the nuts.”

In practice, these statements can range from very direct to very subtle and ambiguous. But it can help to attempt to categorize sentences this way, as they can help reveal valuable patterns.

Strong-hand statements are hard to interpret. Both players with strong hands and weak hands are capable of making strong-hand statements. Bluffers understandably want to imply strength about their hand. But players betting strong hands are sometimes just very relaxed and don’t mind implying strength about their hand (and sometimes they are purposefully trying to “level” an opponent to get a suspicious call).

The much more useful and powerful pattern is that (in general) players with weak hands don’t like to make weak-hand statements. Players with weak hands, especially bluffers, don’t like to imply weakness about their hands, so the lack of weak-hand statements from these players makes sense.

It also makes sense that Kassouf’s patter, and most talkative player’s patter in general, consists mostly of strong-hand statements. Most hands
played by the average, decently-aggressive player are not that strong. So in most spots, players are happy taking the pot down preflop or on the flop. This is especially true in a tournament, where tournament life is valued highly and small chip gains are important. And it’s even more true in the WSOP Main Event, where tournament life is even more valuable.

Knowing Kassouf makes so many strong-hand statements, what we should do when analyzing his verbal behavior is to ignore his strong-hand statements. His strong-hand statements are rampant and therefore near-meaningless. With that in mind, we’ll look primarily at his weak-hand statements.

Value of strong-hand statements as defense

Also, there is actually an actual defensive value to such statements. This is because people do not like to look like fools. People do not like to be told by an opponent “I’ve got a strong hand,” ignore that warning, and be shown a strong hand.

For example, when Kassouf three-bets and tells you, “I’ve got a big hand now, big hand,” even if you know he’s probably full of it, you’d hate to shove and have him actually have a big hand. The verbal aspect adds a little extra drama to the situation. It stings more when you’re wrong. Even though you might have had very valid reasons for shoving, or were entirely ignoring his talking, it can easily feellike you were tricked or outplayed.

These things affect recreational players more than skilled players, of course, but taken as a whole, these statements do have more of an effect than you’d think in slowing players down.

Misdirections

One of the kinds of statements that I try to listen for are misdirections. Misdirections are statements intended to direct attention away from the real reasons a person is doing something.

For example, a player facing a raise says, “Oh, is Johnny raising again? He’s always raising. Let’s raise it up.” By implying his opponent’s aggression is the reason for his raise, he wants to misdirect attention from the real reasons for his raise — probably that he has a strong hand.

Most misdirections take the form of excuses. And most misdirections and excuses from bettors with strong hands take the form of subtle weak-hand statements. In the misdirection example I just used, someone implying that they’re only raising because an opponent raised has the intended effect ofweakening that person’s range.

Another way to make an indirect weak-hand statement is to imply that an opponent’s hand is weak. For example, when a player tells an opponent, “You must have nothing, I’m all in,” the implication is “I don’t need a very strong hand to beat you.” It is an indirect weak-hand statement. Here’s an article I wrote that analyzes the many misdirections in the movie Rounders.

Goading statements vs. conciliatory behavior

Another aspect about statements like “I know you don’t have a hand” is that they are goading statements. Shoving and telling an opponent “I know you have a weak hand” might result in them calling to show you their hand is strong. Or it might piss them off and they’ll call out of frustration.

Goading from a bettor is a very reliable tell of strength, and this is another thing we’ll look for with Kassouf. Bluffers don’t want to anger someone accidentally and trigger their “calling reflex” (as Mike Caro called it in his Book of Tells). Bluffers will usually be quite conciliatory in their mannerisms. If they talk, they’ll use neutral statements.

This is why in Kassouf’s case you’ll notice, if you watch all the episodes, that in most bluffing spots his language is very conciliatory and unthreatening. He sticks to his normal patter. (The main exception to this is when he called the clock on his opponent when betting his counterfeited nines on the river.)

This sets the stage for some analysis of some actual cases of Kassouf’s talking. Look for the second part of this article tomorrow where I’ll examine closely four hands from the WSOP Main Event featuring Kassouf.

Zachary Elwood is the author of Reading Poker Tells and Verbal Poker Tells, and the creator of a poker tells video series (www.readingpokertells.video).

Best Places to Play Poker in Midtown or Queens

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Our poker room is a fantastic and well-run poker room in Midtown, New York. Each table is given plenty of space and the staff, dealers and atmosphere is really excellent. Test your skill and try your luck in our stylish new Poker Room in new york, where the wildfire Poker sensation Texas Hold ’em is the main attraction. No Limit Hold’em and tournaments are played here every day. We have added a professional touch to the home game experience. Our staff is dedicated to running a clean, friendly, and low-key cash game. If you’re a poker fan, you should make it a point to stop by and let us know how we’re doing or what you may be interested in having us add to our room. Why play anywhere else?

Socialpoker Poker Room Details:

Socialpoker spread $2/5 No Limit Hold’em, $1/2 No limit Hold’em and PLO Poker in Midtown, New York. The poker room is open seven days in a week from 4pm to 8am on weekdays and from 2pm on weekend, and you can find Omaha poker and of course, Texas Hold’em poker games, both are No limit Holdem.

Getting Started at the Poker Room:

Our poker room is member only. So, you need to text to the hotline (347) 471 1813 to get the address. Once you’ve got our poker room address which is located near penn station in Midtown, it’s easy to get started. Just look for the “poker” sign and tell the host what poker game you’d like to play.

No Limit Hold’em Poker in Midtown, New York:

$1/3 No Limit Holdem:

  • Minimum $100. Maximum $1000.
  • 20% New Player Bonus:

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem:

  • Mon – Fri @4pm. Sat – Sun @2pm.
  • Minimum $80. Maximum $500.
  • 10% Bonus up to $25.

$2/$5 No Limit Holdem:

  • Mon – Fri @3pm. Sat – Sun @6pm.
  • Minimum $300. Maximum $2000.
  • $75 New Player Bonus

$5/$5 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO):

  • Mon & Fri

How to get a seat or address?

  • All it takes to get a seat is registering via text/our website.
  • Not registered yet? Text “SPblog” to (347) 471 1813 with full name, email & occupation or click the link below.
  • >> Final Step:Please add Becky Shellz on facebook to quickly verify your identity for the safety of our members.

 

Jonathan Little Bets a Rivered Straight, Then Gets Raised: Call or Fold?

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This week we’re back at the final table of a $5,000 buy-in, no-limit hold’em event from the 2015 World Series of Poker. Just six players are left, and when the following hand takes place I have about 3.2 million with the blinds having just gone up to 20,000/40,000 with a 5,000 ante.

The action begins with Jeff Tomlinson — whom I refer to as “J.T.” in the video — raising from under the gun to 85,000. He was a middle-aged player who I did not know but who was playing reasonably well. It folded around to me in the big blind where I called with {8-Hearts}{6-Hearts}.

The flop came {J-Clubs}{7-Spades}{4-Diamonds}, giving me a gutshot, and we both checked. On the {6-Diamonds} turn I led for 80,000 and my opponent called. The river then brought the {5-Diamonds}, completing a straight for me, and I bet 145,000 into the 395,000 pot. Tomlinson responded with a raise to around 345,000, giving me a tricky decision.

Straights are normally strong hands, except when you get raised as happened to me this time. Do you make the call here for 200,000 more into the 1.1 million pot or do you make the snug fold?

Watch what I did — and hear me explain the reasoning behind my decision — and see what happened:

A Bad Call Leads to a Missed Bluff

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Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players — both amateurs and professionals — play the game. In this ongoing series, I’ll highlight hands I’ve seen at the tournaments I’ve covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them.

The Scene

So far, we’ve looked at two hands played by the author in the $1,100 Mid-States Poker Tour Grand Falls Main Event. This week, we’ll take a look at a third and final hand from the same tournament. Spoiler alert — it’s by far the ugliest of the three.

At this point in the event, it was Level 9 (400/800/100), and I had managed to chip up considerably in the previous few levels to a stack of about 70,000, covering most or all of my opponents at my table. I was kicking things into high gear aggression-wise, and I could tell at least a few of my opponents were getting sick of me.

One such player was James Klosterbuer, my opponent in this hand, who had already three-bet me a few times in recent orbits.

The Action

It was folded around to me in the cutoff, and after being dealt {A-Hearts}{9-Spades} I made my standard opening raise to 1,800. Klosterbuer, who had been playing pretty tight, called from the button, and the big blind came along as well.

The big blind checked the {3-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{10-Hearts} flop. I bet 2,700, and Klosterbuer made it 11,200 to go. I called, then we both checked the {q-Hearts} turn. We both checked again on the {q-Clubs} river.

Klosterbuer turned over {10-Spades}{9-Hearts} for a counterfeited two pair on the flop, and he dragged the pot.

Concept and Analysis

Sometimes when I’m really rolling over my table, I fall into the trap of trying to win every pot, and I think this was an instance where that mentality tripped me up and cost me some chips.

When Klosterbuer called my raise, I actually put him on a fairly tight range as he was playing so few hands, so I was surprised when he came out with a big raise on a {3-Hearts}{9-Clubs}{10-Hearts} flop. What hands could he have?

Certainly, he could have a flush draw, but since I held the {a-Hearts}, that reduced the likelihood of this by quite a bit. Making a big raise if he paired his ten wouldn’t make much sense since I’d probably only continue with overpairs that had him crushed or big draws. I didn’t see many tens in his preflop calling range, anyway. Queen-jack made some sense.

Curious, I decided to peel, and the {q-Hearts} was a mighty interesting turn card. Fearing I was now beaten by queen-jack, I checked. To my surprise, he checked back, and another queen arrived.

At this point, I was truly befuddled. Should I barrel out and bluff? I was pretty lost on what kind of hand I was facing, so I checked and ended up losing the showdown.

Thinking the hand over later, I heavily regretted checking the river. There were quite a few hands I could represent there, mainly the nut flush or trip queens since I’d often peel {q-}{j-} on that flop, especially with a heart in my hand.

I’d have expected him to bet almost all of his really strong hands on the turn in that spot, not wanting to give a free card to a hand with one heart in it. So two pair or better seemed unlikely, even though two pair is what he ended up having.

I was definitely very surprised to see my opponent turn over {10-}{9-}-offsuit, and it just goes to show that when you start opening things up, even tight players are going to follow suit once they get fed up. Usually, identifying such spots is one of my strengths, but I definitely missed the read here.

Continuing on the flop in the face of a big show of strength with a very mediocre hand was also a mistake. My thought process at that point should have been, “He says he has a big hand and I’m out of position, so it’s probably best to just give this up and get to a better spot.”

If I’m going to continue with such a mediocre hand, it’s essential sometimes to win the pot without the best hand when the opportunity presents itself. I may have still been called if I fired on the end, as players often make frustrated calls when good hands get counterfeited, but that was the clear play with the board running out as it did.Source: pokernews.com

Play Texas Hold’em Poker Games New York

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Test your skill and try your luck in our stylish new Poker Room in new york, where the wildfire Poker sensation Texas Hold ’em is the main attraction. Limit and No Limit, casual games and tournaments are played here all day, every day. We have added a professional touch to the home game experience. Our staff is dedicated to running a clean, friendly, and low-key cash game.

No Limit Hold’em Poker in Midtown, New York:

Check Out our daily cash game and tournament schedule. Stop by and let us know how we’re doing or what you may be interested in having us add to our room. Why play anywhere else?

How to get a seat?

All it takes to get a seat is registering via text/our website. If you don’t registered yet Text “SPblog” to (347) 471 1813 with full name, email & occupation.
>> Final Step: Please add Becky Shellz on facebook to quickly verify your identity for the safety of our members.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem:

  • Mon – Fri @4pm. Sat – Sun @2pm.
  • Minimum $80.  Maximum $500.
  • 10% Bonus up to $25.

$2/$5 No Limit Holdem:

  • Mon – Fri @3pm. Sat – Sun @6pm.
  • Minimum $300.  Maximum $2000.
  • $75 New Player Bonus

$5/$5 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO)

  • Mon & Fri

No Limit Hold’em Poker in Queens, New York:

$1/3 No Limit Holdem:

  • Mon, Tues, Thurs, Friday and Saturday @7pm.
  • Minimum $100.  Maximum $1000.

Poker Tournaments:

  • $250 Dollars Poker Tournament
  • Buy-in: $210+$40
  • Prize Pool: $210 is going towards Pool Prize 1st place 55%, 2nd place 30% and $40 is going Towards, House, Dealers, Food.
  • Registration Close at Break-Time!!!
  • STRUCTURE” 25k Starting Stack
  • 20 Minutes Level

 

Vanessa Selbst & Daniel Negreanu Host “Blinds & Justice” Charity Event.

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Charity Poker Night to Benefit the Urban Justice Center

Justice is Blinds is a night of poker & fun, plus spectacular food and cocktails, attended by some of the biggest names in poker, celebrities from the worlds of sports, tv, and movies – and YOU! Proceeds benefit The Urban Justice Center, a non-profit that has strengthened NYC for over 30 years by providing legal services to the city’s most vulnerable.

This year, for the first time, we will be hosting a satellite tournament leading up to the main event.Click here for more information.

At the end of September, Vanessa Selbst & Daniel Negreanu hosted “Blinds & Justice,” a charity event benefitting the work of the Urban Justice Center, which has served New York City’s most vulnerable residents through a combination of direct legal service, systemic advocacy, community education and political organizing for more than 30 years.

 

WHERE

Capitale, recently honored the “Best Ballroom East Coast” award, was designed by Stanford White in 1895 and features colossal Corinthian columns, Venetian glass, mosaic marble floors, and 65-foot vaulted ceilings.

WHEN

September 27, 2016 at 7PM
VIP Hour: 6-7PM

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