Where To Sit at the Poker Table?

While this may seem rather silly to some, there is actually merit to the question, "Where is the best place to sit at a poker table?"

No, I'm not talking about closest to the bathroom or to the fridge. I'm talking about where the best place is for you to sit at the poker table in relation to certain types of players.

If you've played poker at all, you know that people approach the game in different ways - some by the seat of their pants, others very carefully. You have experienced players and novices, aggressive types and conservative competitors. Eventually you'll meet them all at the poker table, and knowing which seat offers you the best chance for winning, against whoever you might face, can only improve your game.

There is a general rule when picking your seat that you should always abide by. You want the most difficult players on your right. With that understood, here's where you should try to be for each type of player.

1, Conservative or tight players. These rocks are no real threat to you, so, abiding by the general rule, you shouldn't really care all that much where they sit. Ideally, though, you'd want these players to your left so that you can pick on their blinds. If they happen to play with you when you've entered the pot, you can be sure they have a strong hand. Act accordingly. That wouldn't always be true with the next group of players.

2) Aggressive players. These are the players that you need to worry about. An aggressive player on your left means you're somewhat handcuffed. You have to play a little more conservatively now because having that monster behind you means you don't know what he'll do until after you've acted.

You'll always prefer the aggressive players on your right so that you can keep an eye on them and then spank them when they get out of line! Basically, you'll be able to use your position to exploit the aggressive player.

If you have a seating choice, when facing both an aggressive and a

conservative player, sit right between them with the tighter player on your left.

Things get a bit trickier when you're figuring out where to sit when playing either a novice or an experienced player, since you'll want both of them on your right to some degree.

3) Novice players. If you are playing with a rookie, chances are he's going to make a lot of mistakes, and you want to be in there when he does. So by sitting on his left you'll have the opportunity to see whether or not he enters the pot. Since you'll have position on him you can manipulate the novice much easier and force him into even more mistakes.

According to the general rule, you'll want players you worry about on your right, but in this case you aren't worried about the novice since you can control or exploit him better if you sit on his left.

4) Experienced players. Well this obviously depends on how good the experienced players are, but generally these competitors surprise you less often than a novice player. They will most likely play fundamentally sound, which, while more predictable, doesn't necessarily make it easier for you. You'll want a tough, aggressive experienced player sitting on your right. But against a more conservative experienced player, you'd prefer him on your left rather than the easily exploitable novice.

You're not always going to be able to pick your seat - especially in a tournament - so it's important to know how to play against novice and aggressive opponents when they are seated to your left.

When the novice is on your left, all that really means is you'll have less opportunities to exploit him, but you don't need to make any major strategy adjustments.

With the aggressive player on your left, however, you need to make significant strategy adjustments. You really need to respect the fact that position is power, and since this competitor has it, you must concede your relative weakness a little bit and play accordingly.

From time to time, look to set traps for the aggressive player by slow playing strong hands. This should help keep him from breathing down your neck on a regular basis. Other than that, just tighten up a little bit and wait for a better situation to arise - like maybe, switching seats!

Sit n Go Strategy-General Overview

Sit n goes have a great deal of strategy and planning involved. There are many factors that you can control to help increase your chances of moneying the tournament. With this knowledge in your possession you will be able to find the easiest possible sit n goes and play your best.

Buy In

The first factor to consider is what buy in sit n go you will enter. A good rule of advice is to never enter a sit n go that is more than 1/10th of your total bankroll. This means that if you want to play a $11 single table sit n go you should have a bankroll of at least $110. Sometimes you are going to find yourself getting strings of terrible beats, and when this happens you have to make sure your bankroll is large enough to sustain it.

Also, if you are playing a sit n go that has a high buy in, you may feel uncomfortable. This will cause you to be nervous and break down during key situations which will greatly decrease your chances of winning the sit n go.

Structure

The second factor you are going to need to look into is the structure of the sit n goes you are playing. Sit n goes that start you with more chips and have slowly increasing blinds are going to be more advantageous to a skilled player. Likewise, if the sit n go starts you with few chips and has fast blinds it is going to be more luck than skill. Party Poker is one of the better sites as far as their sit n go structure, as you start with 2000 chips and blinds are raised slowly. Another good choice is Noble Poker as it has a similar structure to Party.

Another thing to consider is if you want a site that has 9 player sit n goes or 10 player sit n goes. The 10 player sit n goes are more advantageous to skilled players because you are usually just adding another fish to the tournament. This increases the prize pool without really harming your chances of winning. Sites with 10 player sit n goes are Party Poker and Paradise Poker.

Observations

As the sit n go progresses you aren't likely to have any monster hands that will guarantee you a money finish. Most of the time you will reach the money by making good decisions based on observations. As you play make sure to watch the other players and take notes. If you notice one player is always betting the flop after he raises make sure you take a note. If someone is always getting pushed off hands take notice. Almost every poker site has the option of notes, so use them. These notes you take will help you as this sit n go progresses as well as help you in the future when you see these players again.

Multi Tabling

When you enter a sit n go it is almost always advantageous to you to enter at least 2. When you are playing a sit n go it can become quite boring during the early stages. This will cause you to lose focus and possibly make bad decisions. By having 2 or 3 sit n goes running at once you can keep yourself occupied while still being able to take notes on players.

Track Your Play

Of all poker players, sit n go players may be the ones who need to keep records the most. Since sit n goes of the same buy in are all very similar, by keeping records you can identify flaws in your game and improve them. An easy way to do this is to make a simple spreadsheet with a row for each sit n go you play.

Add info such as the date/time, the buy in, the results, and a reason category. The reason category can be especially useful, as you can enter if you went on tilt after a bad beat, or made a bad read, as you will forgot these things over time.

This is the 2nd article of 5 in a sit n go strategy series. To view the complete series of sit n go articles: Sit n Go Strategy

Don't believe what you see on television

While watching televised poker is an excellent way to learn how to play the game, you really need to be careful about how you interpret what you're seeing.

The key point to remember is that you're watching an edited-down poker show. You're not seeing all the hands played, and that can give you a skewed version of what is really happening.

For example, you might have seen me make a bluff in a certain situation that looked foolish because my opponent called. What you might not have seen, however, is how that silly bluff paid off later in the game.

There is always more to the story than what you see on television.

ESPN's coverage is fantastic, but the product is basically a highlight reel of an all-day final table. It would be impossible to tell the whole story in the amount of airtime that they have, so you're left seeing crowd-pleasing confrontations like A-K against a pair of jacks.

You might be wondering how these players get so many great hands. Well, they don't. You're seeing the most exciting hands from a nine-hour final.

The Travel Channel's poker show, World Poker Tour, is a little closer to reality. Two hours are dedicated to each WPT broadcast, and the final table generally lasts between four to five hours. However, there are also inherent problems with learning from this show.

Although you're seeing a much higher percentage of hands, play is distorted by the fact that the blinds escalate so quickly that the element of skill is reduced. As a result, you'll see players going all-in with K-5 and other players calling with hands like K-10.

That's not real poker, and if you operate this way in a normal tournament setting, you're playing far too recklessly and aggressively.

Check out GSN
Television's best teaching tool is undoubtedly GSN's High Stakes Poker. This program brings together professionals and amateurs, including the likes of Jerry Buss and Bob Stupak, in an actual cash game setting. The blinds don't escalate and the goal isn't necessarily to get all the money.

Players compete for cash that they put up themselves. I actually plopped down a million bucks to play in this game. Sure, I was paid $1,250 per hour to be on the show, but if the cards didn't go my way, I could have lost my entire investment.

High Stakes Poker takes 24 hours of footage and breaks it down into a 13-week series. The play is very sophisticated and as close to watching high stakes live poker as you're going to get. Even with this show, I'd add the following caution at the bottom of the screen: Viewer discretion is advised. Do not try these plays at home!

Why? Again, the play is very advanced. Copying these moves and trying them on your buddies at your home game might not work so well.

Learn what you can
Having said all that, watching poker on television is still the best way to learn how to play No Limit Hold'em — short of actually sitting down at a real table. The key is to understand what you're watching and take everything with a grain of salt.

It's important to understand that players on ESPN don't get better cards than those on The Travel Channel. On top of that, television likes to show the craziest hands. Going all-in with J-6 isn't such a great idea, even if you've seen Gus Hansen try it on the World Poker Tour.

By all means, learn what you can from the professionals on television, but understand you're seeing only the tip of the proverbial poker iceberg.

Explosion of Internet poker stokes interest in live games

Frank Fahrenkopf said poker was dead in Nevada -- but that was before Internet gambling came along.

"Casinos were closing their poker rooms," the president/CEO of the American Gaming Association said. "But TV made it exciting and the Internet made it accessible."

Poker -- no limit Texas hold'em in particular -- has exploded onto the gambling scene again, in part, because of televised poker tournaments and online poker rooms, where novices can practice without fear of embarrassment.

The World Series of Poker, owned by Harrah's Entertainment Inc., and the World Poker Tour both sponsor satellite tournaments in Reno. Winners have the opportunity to get a free buy-in to larger tournaments.

Margie Heintz, the poker room manager at the Eldorado Hotel-Casino, agreed that the resurgence of online poker's popularity has helped bring people into a casino to try it in person.

"A lot of people continuously say they have played online but never in person," Heintz said. "I have been in poker rooms for 31 years, and no-limit hold'em had become a dinosaur.

"Now, people from all walks of life want to try it."

Poker is just one of many types of gambling available online, despite the controversy about whether online gambling should be legal in the United States.

The controversy started in 1961, when Congress passed the Wire Act, which prohibits using telephone lines to bet on horse races across state lines.

An exemption was made by the Interstate Horse Racing Act, which 21 states adopted to allow betting on televised races.

When Internet gambling broke onto the scene in the 1990s, the Justice Department decided the Wire Act was broad enough to prohibit Internet gambling.

So gambling site operators moved offshore so U.S. gamblers can play without breaking the law.

The industry estimates that Internet gambling brought in $12 billion to $15 billion, with about 60 percent of that coming from the U.S.

Hard numbers are not available since online gaming isn't regulated.

"With everything we look at, there is something about gambling that relates to America," said Ken Adams, a Reno gaming analyst. "Eventually, we would want regulations and controls because outside the U.S. is outside our ability to control."

Fahrenkopf said for the past 10 years, Federal bills have been presented that would make it illegal to make any kind of wager on the Internet.

"Nothing has passed," he said. "But our companies still don't want to get involved with it."

Many brick-and-mortar casinos don't consider online gambling direct competition, he said.

"10 years ago, probably 60 percent to 70 percent of profit came from gambling," he said. "Today, it makes up only about 45 percent of the bottom line.

"People aren't coming to gamble, but the complete package with entertainment and dining."

Online gambling has been so lucrative that operators are buying up smaller Web sites and some have already gone public.

"In most countries, major gaming companies are moving into position to participate," Adams said.

But if gambling on computers isn't your thing, most major casinos have reopened poker rooms to get the real experience.

Heintz said the poker rooms in town are busier than ever.

The Battle Royal to Be King of Poker

Jonathan Waessil is short-stacked. In poker, that means everybody else at the table has more chips than you do, but you're still alive. In life, it means we're sitting on his sofa in a modest little apartment in a modest little complex near a freeway construction zone in Garden Grove. Not a bad life, by any means, but the 65-year-old Waessil is about to make the biggest move of his poker-playing career.

He's suing the World Poker Tour and its officials in federal court, alleging that founder Steven Lipscomb purloined Waessil's idea and turned it into the wildly successful TV series that features weekly poker tournaments.

He's seeking unspecified damages, and I had to ask: "Are you bluffing?"

"I'm not bluffing. I'll go to the last dime. I intend to answer anything he puts out there."

If that means money, Waessil knows he's in trouble. "Unless I get some people who are going to really help me," he says, "there is really probably no way for me to stand up against a machine like Lipscomb or anybody else."

The WPT just began its fourth season on the Travel Channel and is one of my favorite TV stops. Lipscomb, a lawyer who had earlier success in TV and film producing, is considered the genius behind the series.

Every time he watches the show, Waessil says, he hurts. He says Lipscomb approached him in the Hollywood Park casino nearly 10 years ago and identified himself as a lawyer. Waessil says Lipscomb apparently had heard that he'd been pitching to casino owners the possibility of televising poker. "He said he was looking for something interesting," Waessil says.

A poker player from way back, Waessil was convinced it could become a popular TV "sport." The suit says he "for four years … single-mindedly devoted himself to nurturing his billion-dollar idea from merely a good idea to a viable and marketable plan."

After that one and only meeting, Waessil says, Lipscomb stole his dream.

Not so fast, says Adam Pliska, general counsel for the WPT. "I am absolutely certain that this is a groundless case," he told me by phone. He didn't want to go beyond that, other than to say the WPT would respond in court.

That brings us back to Waessil's sofa and talk of giant-killing. Waessil says he's a former private eye and was in show business — in the way, apparently, that a lot of people are, sort of. "I made a living for a while," he says, "but not a very good one. I was never a big success, I can tell you right now."

His TV poker vision was simple: "My idea was that these players have a whole lot to say," he says. "The individual stories they tell while they're playing poker at the table would absolutely blow your socks off."

He also envisioned commentators, a TV audience of spectators and the emergence of some poker players as stars — all of which are elements of the WPT broadcasts.

I have no idea whether Waessil's lawsuit has a ghost of a chance. Maybe it does, or maybe he's just another guy trying to steal a pot with a crummy hand.

"Do you think you have a shot?" I ask.

"I've got a shot," he says. "I'll tell you why I've got a shot. I've got truth on my side."

I remind him that poker players aren't especially known for the truth. Much of the game's charm lies in their roguish ability to lie and misrepresent. Very true, Waessil concedes, but there are moments of truth.

"If you don't get the cards, that's the truth," he says, staring me in the eye. "If you're not getting the cards, you gotta know how to stay in the game as long as you can until it changes. Or just accept what's going to happen, take those licks and stand up tall. Because if you don't get the cards, you cannot win the game."

With all the solemnity I could muster, I ask, "Have you got the cards?"

Without blinking, he says, "I've got the cards."

World's first online poker wedding only days away

With the world's first online poker wedding only days away, PartyPoker.com, the world's largest online poker room is incubating its newest enterprise - a Party Poker offspring! The bride and groom Jackie Johnson and Gary Suffir have announced they are planning to start a family and that all bets are for a baby called Chip - if it is a boy.

The couple first met online on PartyPoker.com in September 2004 in a $30 Omaha game in the site's virtual chat rooms after Jackie defended Gary in a row over a bad beat. After initially communicating via the buddy function on the website and being in consistent contact for months after that, Jackie moved to New York City from Las Vegas to live with Gary in March 2005. Now a year later, they are getting hitched at the Paris Hotel in Vegas on March 7th, with famous poker ambassador Mike Sexton as a witness. And the couple are rapidly stacking the deck by planning a new family.

"We thought that if the baby is a boy we could call it Mike after Mike Sexton but in honor of the way we met we'll call him Chip," said a smiling Gary. "If our baby is a girl we may call her Linda after Linda Johnson, the first lady of poker, but Queenie is a possibility."

What about Doyle after poker legend Doyle Brunson? "I don't think so - my chips would be on Chip." added Gary, a 28-year-old New York attorney.

Gary and Jackie are celebrating their honeymoon on the Party Poker Million V Cruise around the Caribbean, starting on March 12th. With their minds on a family and the full house it would bring the poker mad couple aren't worried about building a bankroll on the cruise, they already figure they have a royal flush. "It is going to be great playing poker on our honeymoon," said Jackie, who credits Gary with her improved Omaha play. The couple actually considered having their honeymoon in Omaha, Nebraska but the card-playing cruise stopping in Jamaica and Grand Cayman won the day.

Gary and Jackie's friends and family are taking part in a special online tournament before the ceremony, while plans for the wedding itself include a unique poker wedding cake and poker floral displays. There was speculation that the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Suffir would dress as a king and queen and request 'Cry Me A River' for their first dance, but their celebration of happiness and poker is being handled as straight as their poker faces.

The couple couldn't be happier as they contemplate going all-in for life. "We're just so happy to have found each other and we can't wait to start a family," said Jackie, a 27 year-old artist.

PartyPoker.com spokesman Warren Lush said: "It is with great delight that we are hosting what we believe is the world's first online poker wedding. We hope that they'll have and to hold'em forever and ever."