http://www.worldtexasholdempoker.com/partypoker-news.php In a marathon heads-up match that capped an exciting final table, Australian native Grant Levy took down the first-ever Party Poker Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final at Sydney's Star City Hotel and Casino, keeping the trophy home in Sydney for the next year. Levy's win capped off a great fall, following his third-place finish in the PokerNews Cup Main Event this November. Lei He took the chip lead into the final table, narrowly ahead of Sol Bergren, with eventual champion Levy firmly in the middle of the pack. As the final nine players settled in around the table, the seating assignments and chip counts looked like this: Seat 1: Lei He – 2,623,000 Seat 2: Grant Levy – 1,052,000 Seat 3: Larry Wright – 376,000 Seat 4: Jeremiah Vinsant – 1,649,000 Seat 5: Vijayan Nagarajan – 641,000 Seat 6: John Matwey – 498,000 Seat 7: Jai Kemp – 461,000 Seat 8: Sol Bergren – 2,601,000 Seat 9: Barry Kohlhoff – 647,000 Larry Wright started off the day on the short stack, and he took his shot at doubling up early. After Lei He raised preflop, Wright moved all in over the top with . Lei He thought for a moment before making the call with . The board came down , and the king on the river sent Wright home in ninth place after just five hands at the final table. Wright earned $46,040 for his finish. Soon after, Jeremiah Vinsant raised from the small blind with , only to find Vijayan Nagarajan coming all in over the top of him from the big blind. Vinsant made the call and Nagarajan tabled . The flop left Nagarajan drawing to two outs, and when no seven came on the turn or river, he was eliminated in eighth place ($69,060). Barry Kolhoff started off the next wild hand by pushing all in preflop. Vinsant went over the top for all of his chips, and then John Matwey put all of his chips in the middle for a three-way all in: With action over for the hand, the players tabled: The flop came down and Kohlhoff took the lead with a pair of nines. The on the river gave Matwey outs to the flush draw, but the on the river triples up Kohlhoff. Vinsant's pocket fives took down the side pot and Matwey was eliminated in seventh place ($92,080). Kohlhoff's good fortune ws short-lived, as he busted out in sixth place when his couldn't run down Sol Bergren's . Bergren picked up a set of nines on the flop, and Kohlhoff was eliminated in sixth place ($115,100). Jai Kemp got all his chips in the middle in the very next hand with and found one caller in Grant Levy, with . A flop of put the hometown favorite in the lead, and when the rest of the board ran out , Kemp was eliminated in fifth place, parlaying his $11 online entry fee into $158,830. Action slowed considerably once play became four-handed, as it took longer to eliminate the next player than it took to eliminate spots nine through five. Another 70 hands of play passed before Bergren called off the last of his chips in a big pot with Vinsant, holding to Vinsant's . who connected for the knockout. Bergren was eliminated in fourth place ($230,200). After a few orbits of testing the waters three-handed, Levy opened for a raise from the button. Jeremiah Vinsant re-raised with , and Lei He announced all in. Levy folded and Vinsant called to see He's . No help on the board for He, and Vinsant's Jacks held up to eliminate Lei He in third place ($322,280). Heads-up play lasted over 60 hands with Vinsant, a Tennessee native, battling back and forth with Sydney's own Grant Levy. It ended when Levy raised preflop with , and Vinsant called to see a flop of . Levey led out on the flop with his two pair, and Vinsant raised all in with . Levy called instantly. The on the turn left Vinsant drawing to the case queen for a chop, but the on the river sent him home in second place with $621,540. Grant Levy became the first Australian to win a million-dollar prize on his home soil, taking down the Party Poker Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final and its winner's share of AU $1,000,000. 30 http://www.worldtexasholdempoker.com/partypoker-news2.php Poker players living in the Mid-Atlantic states haven't had many options if they wanted to sling some chips. Home games don't run 24/7, underground clubs are by nature secretive and hard to locate, and in both those cases you have to worry about whether the game was crooked or if cops (or robbers) might saunter through the door. And unless you were up for a seven-hour jaunt to Niagara Falls or Atlantic City, playing in a true casino card room was out of the question. That is, until October 19th rolled around. With Pennsylvania recently approving the construction of slots-only casinos across the state, West Virginia decided their casinos needed to offer customers a reason to keep coming across the border. With surprising speed, the West Virginia Legislature approved a motion to allow local referendums on introducing table games to existing casinos, and on June 30th Hancock County voters approved their referendum on the matter. And so, less than four months later, Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort opened their poker room to the public. For the poker-starved masses Mountaineer's huge room will seem like — with apologies to the late John Denver — almost heaven. Mountaineer spent $1.2 million renovating their grandstand area and turning it into a 9,900-square-foot card room. That's plenty of space to comfortably host 37 poker tables, with seven of those tables split off for a separate high-stakes section. There's a bar just a few feet beyond the rail where you can get a drink and a bite to eat, and there are plasma TVs throughout the room showing sports and updated seating and game lists. The smallest game at Mountaineer is $2/4 limit, and the biggest (at least during my visits) was $10-25 no-limit. The most popular game by far was $1/2 no-limit, but for those who enjoy games other than hold'em there were stud and Omaha games running, and even a $3/6 Omaha-8 table. And there are plans to introduce tournaments and sit-'n'-goes to the roster in the coming months. I visited Mountaineer three times during its first month of operations, and while you can usually get a seat quickly on a weekday afternoon, things get much more crowded in the evening. Show up on a Saturday night and you're probably going to have a bit of a wait before you land a seat, and chances are future crowds will only grow larger. Neither Mountaineer nor Wheeling Downs (the other West Virginia poker room that opened in October) was allowed to advertise until the West Virginia Lottery gave their approval to open for business, but articles in a few local newspapers and word-of-mouth was enough to draw a big crowd. Now, both casinos are actively promoting their new rooms, and Mountaineer has enjoyed such a great return from poker that they're already planning to add four more tables. As you might expect from a poker room in a state that just legalized the game, there were some issues early on. The dealers struggled a bit when the room first opened, but after just a month in the box the improvement has been striking. The floorpersons and other staff are very friendly and helpful and handle problems quickly and professionally. Empty seats sometimes took a long time to fill, but that may be due in part to the massive crowds that have packed the room. The biggest improvement to Mountaineer's poker room was a recent change in the smoking policy. There was no smoking at the tables, of course, but when the room first opened you could smoke just outside the rail, and there were scores of people puffing away just over your shoulder, making the atmosphere more than a bit noxious. That's now been changed—smokers have to walk a good ways over to the racing simulcast area, which has made a vast improvement to the air quality. The bathroom facilities near the tables are a bit limited, but that's improved as well, as players are now steered to additional facilities that are also located near the simulcast area. (Here's a tip: walk out of the poker room, hang a sharp left, and walk up the steps. There you'll find a small slots parlor, a restaurant…and a bathroom.) And while alcoholic drinks aren't free while you're playing, soft drinks and coffee are. (And here's another tip: order the cappuccino. It's pretty doggone good.). If you aren't within driving distance of Mountaineer (of if you'd just like to stay for a few days and take it all in) the resort has a 359-room hotel, 3,200 slots, an 18-hole golf course, and live thoroughbred racing. And if you enjoy table games but poker isn't quite your style, all you need to do is wait until the first of the year, when Mountaineer will begin offering blackjack, roulette, craps and other games. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:00:00 EST http://www.worldtexasholdempoker.com/partypoker-news3.php Action was fast-paced early from the outset on Day 2 of the Party Poker.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final in Sydney, with 40 of the 116 players that started the day heading to the rail within the first 45 minutes. The field of 116 had consolidated from three days of play at the Star City Hotel and Casino and included former World Series of Poker Main Event Champions Scotty Nguyen and Joe Hachem, as well as other international stars such as Terrence Chan and Lee 'Final Table' Nelson. Australian Kenny Ng was one of the players active early, doubling through Michael Zowie in one of the first hands of the day. Ng got all his money in preflop with pocket queens, and was drawing to two outs when Zowie tabled pocket aces. The on the flop gave Ng a new lease on life as he flopped a set and the turn made him a full house which put him back in contention. Ng, though, was unable to parlay his early success into a spot at the final table, busting out in the middle of the pack. The breakneck pace of the early rounds slowed to a crawl as the bubble neared, but local favorite and 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem stayed active until exiting just outside the money. The Party Poker-sponsored champ limped into a five-way pot with to see a flop of . Barry Kohlhoff fired at the flop and Hachem was the lone caller. The on the turn gave Hachem a flush draw with his two pair, and he again called Kohlhoff's bet. The river gave Hachem a full house, and he called Kohlhoff's all-in bet only to see Kohlhoff table for a bigger full house. Hachem was all in on the ante on the next hand with against Guillaume Patry's . The board of gave Patry a full house and sent Hachem to the rail just short of the money. Karib Karib finally burst the bubble at the expense of Steve Wise. After Karib raised preflop, Wise went all-in with pocket kings. Karib called with and flopped the nut straight on a board of , and Wise needed help to catch up. The on the turn gave Wise outs to a full house, but the on the river sent him packing in 57th place, bursting the money bubble. In a big hand after the dinner break, Lei He took over the chip lead at the expense of former leader Henrik Gwinner. Gwinner opened with a big raise preflop from the button, and He called from the big blind to see a flop of . He checked the flop, then check-raised Gwinner. Gwinner moved all in over the top, and He thought for a moment before calling with . Gwinner was drawing to the nut flush with , but no help came on the turn or river, and Gwinner was left with a short stack. Gwinner got the last of his chips in the middle shortly afterwards with to Gary Diamond's pocket kings and the former chip leader busted in 30th place. Lei He rode his big stack all the way to the final table, where he finished the day as the chip leader. Terrence Chan had a strong showing at the APPT Sydney, finishing his Day 1 flight near the chip lead, but ran into kicker trouble against Julious Colman to bust in 29th place on Day 2. On a board of , Colman check-raised Chan all in, and Chan eventually made the call with . Colman's dominated Chan, and the turn and river brought no help as Chan was eliminated. Scotty Nguyen put on a great show for his fans in Sydney, but was unable to parlay that into a final-table appearance. Nguyen raised preflop with and found one caller in Larry Wright. Wright fired at the flop of , and Nguyen raised all in over the top. Wright called instantly with for the nut straight, and Nguyen was drawing to runner-runner help. The on the turn gave Nguyen outs, but the on the river sent the 'Prince of Poker' to the rail. Lee Nelson followed Nguyen to the rail in 18th place after being crippled by a two-outer for Mark Ericksen. Ericksen raised preflop and Nelson re-raised. Ericksen made the call, then pushed all in on a flop of . Nelson thought for a moment before calling with . Ericksen tabled and needed one of the two remaining eights to eliminate Nelson. The river brought just that as the Team Party Poker player was on the ropes. Nelson got his last few chips in the middle with pocket eights against Lei He, who made the call with from the big stack. The came on the flop, and Nelson couldn't catch a two-outer of his own to save his tournament. After players consolidated to two tables, the play stayed fast-paced until the end of the night, when Mitchell Price became the final-table bubble boy, busting in tenth. After Price pushed all in with , Barry Kohlhoff only looked at one card before making the call. The was the card he saw, and the was the card underneath, and Kohlhoff's aces held up to set the final table. Here are the chip counts and seating assignments for the final table at Sunday's Party Poker.net APPT Grand Final in Sydney: Seat 1: Lei He – 2,623,000 Seat 2: Grant Levy – 1,052,000 Seat 3: Larry Wright – 376,000 Seat 4: Jeremiah Vinsant – 1,649,000 Seat 5: Vijayan Nagarajan – 641,000 Seat 6: John Matwey – 498,000 Seat 7: Jai Kemp – 461,000 Seat 8: Sol Bergren – 2,601,000 Seat 9: Barry Kohlhoff – 647,000 Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.worldtexasholdempoker.com/partypoker-news4.php To be a successful stud player you must be able to use the information that is presented to you to figure out the likely hand of your opponent. Forget tells, important though they may be. Forget psychic ability, fantastic though that would be. I want to help you figure out your opponent's hand based on his betting action and the cards you see. If you can learn this lesson well, you'll be able to make more money by saving bets by folding when you are up against a better hand. You must start with the premise that your opponent's actions are logical. True, they may not always be so. They may sometimes be illogical or deliberately deceptive. But you have to start somewhere in your analysis of the situation. So start with logic. I was in a few hands recently that illustrated this concept well. Let me describe them for you, and see how you do. It was fifth street. I had two hearts showing and a split pair of nines with an ace kicker in the hole. It looked like I might have a four-flush, but I really only had a three-flush and a pair of nines with the ace. My opponent was high with a king. He bet as he had from third street, either having or representing a pair of kings. I made a move on him – one that I make from time to time, especially against a straightforward player – as this player was. He bet fifth and I raised. I figured there was a small chance he might throw his hand away, if he had been pushing a bluff into fifth street, for example. I figured that if he really had the pair of kings he'd just call and then check sixth street if he didn't improve, concerned that I might have hit trips on fifth street, with a wired pair. I could then check behind him or bet, depending on what I caught and whether I thought it was scary enough to win me the hand right there. Or, if I caught one of the other two nines or one of the other three aces, which were all live, I could value-bet or raise him if he bet. Either way, I figured a raise wasn't too far out of line. So as I was saying, he bet. I raised. He just called. On sixth street I caught a third exposed heart – for a four-flush. But I figured it might look like a flush to him since I raised on fifth. A lot of guys in this game raise on four-flushes with three of a suit exposed looking to get a free card on the next round. So maybe he'd think I just got lucky and caught my flush. He caught an exposed pair, pairing his fifth street six for an exposed pair of sixes. I put him on kings up. He checked, concerned, I figured, that I either had the flush or maybe that I had trips from the last round when I raised. I bet, hoping he'd fold now that I caught the third exposed heart. He called me. I figured then that I needed to catch a heart and make my flush, hit an ace for aces up, or hit a third nine to win the hand. On the river I caught my flush. He was still high on board with his pair of sixes. He looked at his final card and bet, saying, "I don't think you have that flush." And he pushed out $40 for the bet on the river. What do you think he had? Some players, making their flush in this spot, and hearing some smart remark from an otherwise straightforward player, raise. But I looked at his cards, thought about his betting action and reached a clear conclusion. He had the full house. I knew he did. So I folded my flush. OK, I lied. I didn't fold my hand; I called him down. But I knew that he had the flush beaten. He had to have it beaten, as everything pointed in that direction. I was right. He showed his hand: kings full. Made on the river. It was obvious. I should have trusted my read and had the strength of my convictions (an article for another day). How could I have been so certain? Why else would he bet? If he had two pair and didn't think I had the flush he would have checked and hoped that I bluffed again. He wouldn't have bet a hand that I had raised him on – not with just two pair. And since the only way that he could improve was to catch a full house, I figured that's exactly what he had. If he had two pair and thought I had the flush he'd be crazy to bet. No one folds a flush on the river after betting sixth street and raising on fifth street. Even so, I have seen many players raise in my position. They draw for a flush, after representing it, and then they make it. So they feel compelled to raise when they make their 'good hand'. Their opponent bets the river in exactly the way that I describe, and they raise. What morons. Well, not really. That's needlessly harsh. They just haven't thought things through logically. They think, if they think at all, "Hey, I made my hand. That guy bet. But I have a flush, which is a very strong hand, so I'll raise." Mistake. Here's another example, from the same session. It happened on fifth street during the play of another hand the same day. There were four of us in the hand going into fourth street, after three players called my raise on third street. I had an exposed ten and a wired pair of queens. They had, in turn, 7, K, 4. The bring-in folded. On fourth street the 7 caught a suited jack, the king caught an off-suit 2 and the 4 caught a suited 3. I caught a jack, leaving these cards up on the table: 7-J (spades) K-2 4-3 (hearts) Me: (Q-Q) 10-J I was feeling pretty good about my hand. I didn't like the two suited hands. Still, I figured to be in the lead. So I bet. I got called by the suited 7-J. Again, I was feeling pretty good. Three of the folded cards were spades, including the king. Against that four-flush I was a favorite, thanks to the folded cards of his suit. And he might not even have a four-flush. He might have a pair of sevens or a wired pair or something heavily dominated by my pair of queens. Plus, based on my raising with an exposed ten, if I hit a queen I'll probably be paid off. And then fifth street. I got an unhelpful little card and he hit an off-suit ace. He checked. I bet $40 in this $20/40 game. He raised me to $80. He check-raised me! I folded. Think about it. My fold is fairly straightforward. (And this time I really did fold.) When he hit the ace and then check-raised me, what else could he have but aces up? With aces up he is a huge favorite, about eight-to-one, over my queens. I had to put him on aces up. Why else would he check-raise here? Sure, there's always the chance that he's just mixing up his play or that he's acting with irrational exuberance. But it wasn't worth the additional $120 it would take to find out (the $40 raise on fifth, the bet on sixth and the bet on the river). It's critical to think about not just how your hand is developing but how your opponent's hand is developing (and sometimes how he must be thinking your hand is developing as well – but that's yet again an article for another day). This two-dimensional thinking is necessary for you to maximize your profit, since only by figuring out your opponent's likely hand can you save money on good hands of yours that are likely to be second best. By looking at their actions and thinking, you should be able to figure out what they have in many situations. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EST http://www.worldtexasholdempoker.com/partypoker-news5.php Out of more than 500 total entrants into the inaugural partypoker European Poker Tour Prague Main Event, it was French backgammon master Arnaud Mattern who emerged victorious, claiming €708,400 in his first-ever EPT cash. Mattern started the final table second in chips to Mikael Norinder, but picked his spots carefully throughout the day to finally defeat Gino Alacqua heads-up for the title. As the final table kicked off, Norinder had the chip lead. The Swedish poker pro logged his first EPT cash in this event, and had over a million chips as the final table began. Here were the starting chip stacks and seat assignments: Mikael Norinder: 1,036,000 (Seat 5) Arnaud Mattern: 980,000 (Seat 9) Dag Palovic: 759,000 (Seat 7) Kristian Kjondal: 740,000 (Seat 2) Gino Alacqua 660,000 (Seat 3) Juha Lauttamus: 567,000 (Seat 1) Markus Golser: 352,000 (Seat 4) Johannes Strassmann: 245,000 (Seat 8) Nedzib Suman 216,000 (Seat 6) Norinder started the day as a chip leader should, taking out one of the short stacks. His victim was Johannes Strassmann, who went all in over the top of Norinder's preflop raise. Norinder called instantly, and tabled to Strassman's . No deuce appeared on the board, and Strassmann collected €39,200 for his ninth-place finish. In a rapid reversal of fortune, it was Norinder who busted in eighth place after getting into a huge hand with eventual champion Mattern. Kristian Kjondal raised preflop and Norinder called from middle position. Mattern re-raised from the small blind, and Kjondal folded. Norinder then made a betting mistake that may have cost him his shot at the tournament. Norinder put out chips intending to call, but without making any verbal declaration. He accidentally put out more than 50% too many chips, and the ruling was made that he had to make at least a minimum raise. Norinder put out enough chips for his min-raise and Mattern instantly moved all in. After the bet was counted out, Norinder made the call. Mattern tabled his pocket kings and Norinder was drawing thin with the . The board ran out , and Norinder was crippled as Mattern stacked nearly half the chips in play. Norinder was eliminated mere moments later when he pushed all in with and found a caller in Kristian Kjondal with . Kjondal picked up an ace on the turn and Norinder went from chip leader to out in eighth place (E€63,200) in almost no time at all. Dag Palovic was eliminated next when he got the last of his chips in the middle against Kjondal. Palovic went all in over the top of Kjondal's preflop raise with and Kjondal called with . No help came for Palovic, and he collected €93,600 for his seventh-place finish. Nedzib Suman was next to fall when his couldn't improve against Juha Lauttamus' pocket sevens. He busted in sixth place for €119,000. Short-stacked Markus Golser departed next in a big confrontation with Juha Lauttamus, shoving all in on the flop of with a flush draw (). Lauttamus called with for top pair, and when no king or spade came for Golser, he was eliminated in fifth place (€151,800). Lauttamus, though, was next to fall when he pushed his still short stack in from the button with . Gino Alacqua called with . Alacqua caught a four on the flop to bust Lauttamus in fourth place (€182,200). Three-handed play lasted for roughly an hour before Kjondal got all his chips in the middle against Alacqua on a flop of . Kjondal revealed for the open-ended straight draw and Alacqua tabled for top pair. The on the turn brought no help for Kjondal and the on the river sent the young Norwegian to the cage to collect his €235,300 for third place. Mattern and Alacqua went to heads up play with Alacqua better than a 2:1 chip leader, and Mattern had to pick his spots to put chips in the pot. It took almost an hour before Mattern doubled through Alacqua when his pocket jacks held up against Alacqua's . It was a mere fifteen minutes later when all the chips went in the middle as Mattern raised preflop with and Alacqua moved all in over the top with . Mattern called instantly and the flop gave a flush draw to Alacqua. The turn brought the , and the on the river busted Alacqua as the runner-up (€407,300). With the pot, Arnaud Mattern took down the inaugural Party Poker.net EPT Prague championship and the €708,400 first-place prize, adding to an impressive resume which includes the French Backgammon Championship and the 2005 Gutshot Poker Master tournament. Mattern's victory in the EPT Prague was not only his first EPT cash, but his largest poker cash to date. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:30:00 EST