Heads-up SNGs have to be some of the most intimidating game-formats ever. One goes head to head with a single opponent, in a test of poker skill that will always reward the guy who deserves to win. There are no distractions and additional opponents who can bail you out or offer you a free ride to a flop: at the heads-up SNG table, there’s only one person you can count on: yourself. The same goes for your opponent, and the knowledge that he’s equally compelled to bring his best can indeed be rather intimidating.

First thing’s first though: heads-up SNGs reward skill. Therefore, if (and be frank with yourself ) you know your skills are lacking, DO NOT play such SNGs. Heads-up SNG action is for skilled action junkies: you’ll get to play more hands per hour than anywhere else, which means you’ll end up paying more tournament fees. Sign up for a rake rebate deal (or maybe even for a poker prop deal) to make sure you do not sink below the red line on account of the poker rake (tournament fees) alone.

The fact that you are a certified action junkie doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll be a good heads-up SNG player too. As a matter of fact, many of the action junkies out there like to play loads of hands, but they loathe to get aggressive when required. This type of action junkie represents the shark-bait at the heads-up SNG tables.

Why does skill weigh in heavier in heads-up poker? That’s quite simple: at a full 6 or 10-handed table, you have a bunch of players going past the flop on drawing hands. What that means is that the luck factor will be much bigger, simply because there are loads more possibilities for suck-outs. At the heads-up table, it’s just you and your opponent. It’s a lot like PLO: you’re either truly ahead or well behind – that should make for a much simpler decision, and it also means that good decisions will have a much more direct and immediate impact on the flow of the game.

Coin-flips are some of the most intricate situations in poker, decision-wise. In some situations, taking a coin-flip is the right way to go. In others, it’s a mistake. In heads-up SNGs, you should avoid coin-flips regardless of how tempted you are to bring the game to a quick conclusion. In order to let your skills give you an advantage, you need to have a better win ratio than 50%. Chip away at your opponent’s stack gradually, until you force him to risk his SNG life in less than optimal situations (for him of course).

Drawing hands lose a lot of value in heads-up poker and made hands (like pocket pairs) gain a lot. Drawing hands lose value because you never really get the right pot odds to play them. You can play such hands if you’re set on being aggressive. You should never limp along on them though. Aggression is pretty much the key to the flow of a heads-up SNG, however, I should note that I’m not talking about blind aggression here. Add patience to aggression and you have a killer combo on your hands.

If you’ve been playing poker for some time, you will have your share of bad beat stories to tell. That’s because poker is a game of probabilities (some critics would call it a game of luck but that’s because they don’t know better). Even if you’re ahead of your opponent with a pair of aces on a A93 rainbow flop, there’s always the possibility he catches running 5′s for 4 of a kind. This element of chance is the basis of all variance in poker. Variance combined with your skill set at the tables is what makes your stack fluctuate from hand to hand, and your bankroll fluctuate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. If you’re a poker novice, your bankroll will most likely decrease because you still have a lot to learn, but even poker pros
have bad runs.

Besides learning all the poker rules, proper bankroll management is your best weapon against variance and the risk of ruin. It goes without saying that you’re much more likely to lose a 100$ bankroll playing NL100$ tables compared to NL5$ tables. With proper bankroll management you will always have enough buyins in your bankroll to outlast bad spells. As a rule of thumb, you will need between 20 to 50 buyins on the level you’re playing to make sure you won’t go broke in the long run.

Before you make your first deposit, make sure you realize the consequences of your bankroll management choice. If you’re looking for quick thrills and the chance of building a bankroll with lightning speed go ahead and put your entire bankroll at stake on one table. Just be aware that you have a low chance of success. If on the other hand you’re looking to sustain your bankroll for a long time then stick to the 20 to 50 buyin rule of thumb. However, following this plan means that you will be grinding it out on small buyin tables for a long time in order to increase your bankroll enough to move up to the next level.

As for me, my grinding days are over. Some years ago I followed a strict bankroll management scheme for about a year and made enough money to pay for a road trip in Asia with my best friends. The trip was the best I’ve ever been on, but I realized that grinding isn’t my cup tea. Nowadays I deposit on average $100 a month into various poker sites and just have fun playing tournaments. If I cash big, I pull out the money and if I go broke I don’t worry too much about it.

If you don’t have money of your own to deposit, or belong to the group of unfortunate poker players in the US who are not allowed to deposit into poker sites, freerolls are a great way to start up a poker bankroll.

Calling all-ins at this early stage is also a no-no, unless you have something like Q,Q – A,A or A,K, which should give you enough firepower to tangle. Keep your eye on your position and avoid limping: being tight aggressive is aimed at eliminating this potential leak from your game.

Being tight aggressive will conserve your bankroll during the early going, but in 6-handed SnGs, it’ll take on another role as well: it’ll advertise and sell your tight image. Due to the short-handed nature of the game, selling the proper table image will be much more important than it usually is. The action will be more aggressive and starting hand values will plummet faster than in regular 10-handed SnGs, so making the right reads, and selling and taking advantage of the right table image will gain a lot of value.

By the middle stages, the blinds will have gone up to 30/60 or even 40/80, just significant enough to add an entirely new dimension to the game. Couple that with the fact that by then 2-3 of the original players will have been bounced, and you have a nice barrel of gunpowder just craving for someone to toss a match into it.

The fact that the game gets even shorter-handed and that the blinds seem to come about every other hand, will force you to loosen up more. This is the critical point of the SnG. You’ll have to slowly start thinking about making aggressive moves and going after your opponents’ blinds, still the situation may not be entirely ripe for that approach.

When the blinds go to about 50/100, that’s when you know it’s time to get rolling, and that’s when your early-stage tight image will come in handy. Getting down to 3-handed at this stage means the bubble will be just around the corner, so stealing blinds and ganging up on the short-stack will be the order of the day. This is when medium stacks will try to tighten up to ride it out and to slip into the money as the large stack takes care of the weakling. This is a common mistake. Don’t let the proximity of the money bubble influence your decision making. If you think you’re ahead, you should put the pedal to the metal. If you have a big stack though, try not to get tangled up with the other big stack at the table, but do take every opportunity to gang up on the weaklings.

The heads-up stage of every such tournament is pretty much a coin-toss. Your opponent has you figured out by that point and hopefully you have a few accurate reads of your own on him. Don’t let up, stay aggressive and keep taking the fight to him to force him to make a mistake. Sign up for poker rakeback too. While you will not be paying rake on every hand you play, you will pay tournament fees on each SnG you register for and that can go a long way towards crippling your bankroll. A poker propping setup or a nice rake rebate deal should take good care of that aspect.

Credit Cards
Credit cards always seem to be the most popular way to deposit money onto online gaming accounts, especially at 888bingo. They work quickly and effectively. All you have to do is type in a few numbers and the money will show up in your account. It doesn’t get any easier than this. If you have a credit card, you should probably use it as your first choice to deposit money at 888 bingo.

But, in some jurisdictions, credit card transactions to online gaming websites will be blocked by the issuing bank. Especially in countries with tough anti gaming legislation, this could turn out to be a real issue! So, in those cases, you should still use a credit card, but you will have to use a “middle man” of sorts…an ewallet.

Ewallets
An ewallet is a sort of online bank account. You deposit money in your ewallet from a credit card, from a bank account, or from another source, and then you can spend online using you ewallet. Many places accept these sorts of services, especially online gaming sites, and 888bingo is no different.

By using one of these ewallets, your credit card company will not be able to find out the ending destination of your money, and they will not be able to block the transactions. This is how a lot of online poker players have been getting around the legislation on online poker there. It works just as good for online bingo play too!

If you are looking for the best way to deposit money in your 888bingo account, stick to credit cards. If your credit card transactions get blocked by your local bank, use an ewallet to get around that issue! Happy bingo!

That is why it is tough to hear that Eddie passed away last week, after a long battle with cancer. It is someone we will never forget. And to remember Eddie, we wanted to share some stories of his escapades.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 AM and was still half asleep and thought I would play a little Black Jack with that $51.00 I had won last night on AP. I was still in a daze and hit the wager button for $50.00 on one hand by mistake and lost it all! Oh well, Easy come, easy go!

Here’s an example of Karma for you! I didn’t scream, bitch or holler when I lost my connection and that $18.00 at PokerStars and I sat at another 5 card draw cash table about 30 minutes later and I won $31.00 more dollars in about 4 hands. LOL.

I went to the slot parlor to play again yesterday. Five minutes after I got there I won $850.00 on a machine. Then I hit one another one for $480.00. I went on to play yet another and lost a bit and then played the one on the side of it and cashed it out for $200.00. I played video Black Jack with 5 other players, minimum bet was 5.00 but I was wagering $20.00 to $100.00 per hand and cashed out with $300.00…I was playing a fruit matching and jackpot symbol slot I love, That’s the same as the first machine where I won the $850. I lost $40.00 and had 5 minutes left until it was time to leave , so I decided to put $20.00 more in and was betting .50 cents a line for 5 lines for a total bet of $5.00 per spin and I hit all the JACKPOT symbols in a row for a win of $3200.00! I then went home with a very fat wallet. Good thing I didn’t listen to you and quit playing this weekend.

He truly was an awesome, unique and incredibly handsome man with lots of great stories. We shall always remember you, Eddie!

If there is one mistake novice players make time and time again, other than the most popular error of playing bad hands, it is their utilization of the All-In bet. Over 90% of all players that bust out of tournaments do so because they have pressed the action. They pushed All-In, got called, and busted out. An All-In bet is not designed as an offensive weapon, it is a defensive weapon. It is not designed to entice a call; it is designed to entice a fold. Keep in mind, no matter how great a player you think you are or how good a hand you may be holding anyone can suck out and win with any two cards. Sometimes they don’t even need two cards. One card is more than sufficient. Can you double up with an All-In bet? Yes you can, but your hand has to first hold up. The first classic mistake beginners make is as soon as they see two good hole cards they can’’t get their chips in fast enough. In an average session of Poker you are only going to get so many premium hands. Don’’t waste them on a stupid bets that no one is going to call. Especially when you have been playing tight the last half hour and this is the first hand since then you have entered the pot with. Place out a good size bet of 3-5X the BB and limit the competition without limiting your tournament future. You need to have your premium hand pay off otherwise your stay at any tournament will be short lived.

One good way to look at the All-In bet is as a powerful protective shield that can be utilized to protect your hand. Here is one simplified example when All-In bet can be utilized to protect a hand. You are in late position with AK suited. You have two callers out of position. The flop is Ah, 2h. 3c. You have top pair top kicker. This was a very good flop for you. However, there is both a possible straight draw and flush draw on the board. The first player checks, the second player bets out a bet of about one half the pot, you come over top and push all in. In this example, you are trying to protect what is currently the best hand against any possible draws. Your All-In bet does not provide the necessary Pot Odds that a skilled player would require to continue play and it certainly prohibits any under pair from continuing on drawing to a set.

Another way the All-In bet can be utilized as a defensive weapon is in short handed situations when you are one of the chip leaders. The last thing you want to permit in this scenario is short stacked players to accumulate chips easily. I have seen short stacks push All-In pre-flop and the chip leader on the button, who has the short stack covered 20:1 fold his hand. This was a horrendous lay down on the part of the chip leader. You have the responsibility to protect your lead and make any short stack making a play at a pot realize that their entire tournament will be at risk the second they enter a pot. When you have isolated short stacked players always make it a habit to push them All-In. This will keep them in check and afraid to take a shot at the blinds and antes that they desperately need.

A very good example of this strategy being properly utilized is Greg Raymer’’s play at the final table at the 2004 WSOP Main Event. He knocked out the first three short stacked players in a matter of minutes by not being afraid to put a few chips at risk to improve his standing at the tournament. Keep in mind, at a final table or anywhere in the money for that matter, every time someone gets knocked out you move up in the pay out structure. The beauty of this game is that you have a direct benefit from every hand played even when you are not in the hand. If another player knocks out a short stack, you have just moved up in the payout structure along with all the remaining players, without any risk to you whatsoever.

If you ask 100 Professional Players their opinion, 50 will most likely tell you not to press the action and the other 50 will tell you not to call your money away. Both are very good pieces of advice. Well if you do not do either, then what do you do? Confusing, isn’’t it? What you do is learn to rely on the information available to you so that you can make an informed decision specific to your current predicament. When facing an All-In bet you have to do a great deal of analyzing in a very short period of time. First of all, is the player bluffing? How have we gotten to this point in the hand? What have his actions been that led up to this decision? Could any of the cards that have hit the board improve his hand in any way? Did they improve your hand? (It’’s unlikely that it improved both). You need a lot of information quickly and the ability to process it so that you could begin to assess where you stand. When you can answer the necessary questions then you could convince yourself of what the appropriate action would be. When you cannot or are unsure, then remember one third piece of extremely valuable advice. “There is no such thing as a bad lay down.”” Get away from the hand, regroup and live to fight another day. At the end of the day an All-In bet should be a primary action, not a reaction.

One’’s gut instinct is a very powerful tool, but before one can utilize it properly one must first be in a position to do several things. First of all, one needs to identify it. All too often we witness some of the stupidest plays one can make, only to have them followed by a comment, ““I was following my gut”.”

How do I define this? As a lame excuse to justify one’s stupidity. Secondly, one must define it. My definition of “”gut instinct”” is that it is nothing more than a subconscious tell. We all have the ability to read to some degree, assuming we have embraced this gift and can clearly define what it is we are reading. In some cases though, we will subconsciously pick up on a tell that has not registered in our conscious mind. We will then experience a ““feeling” that we should take a particular action, without being able to clearly define the reasoning. For those of us that are “tuned in” a subconscious tell is no different than a conscious tell. The only real difference is our trust in acting upon it.

This is clearly not something that will be accomplished overnight. It take a very keen eye and many decades of play at a table to develop the necessary trust that one requires to be sure of the accuracy of the subconscious information that is being processed and presented. How and when will this occur? Probably when you least expect it. You may be on a lousy hand and in equally lousy position…………then it happens. You know you are ahead but you just can’t justify it. Everything inside you is telling you to proceed with the hand, yet you have no logical information that you can clearly place your hands on. What do you do?

At the WSOP main event, I found myself in just this predicament. It was half way through day two where I had been struggling all day at the same table as the short stack. Cards weren’’t coming and time was running out. A player had just been knocked out and one of the players from the adjoining table was send over to fill the void.

As he approached the table, I could clearly see that he was short stacked to me. However, that wasn’’t any where near as impressive as the scared look he had on his face. I was very pleased to see all this as I had now identified someone I could pick on, given the opportunity. The players at the table that possessed the largest stacks did not even wait for him to sit down. They started riding him right away with such comments as “”you wasting your time sitting down at this table with that small stack”.” Another player informed him that the last seven players to get knocked out at this table were all seated in that same particular chair and offered his condolences. This of course did not help his demeanor any.

The dealer began to deal the first hand and I found myself on the BB with 7-8. The next four players all folded and the action came around to the new player. He thought about it for a minute and, very nervously, put a raise in of 4X the BB. His bet aggravated me as it appeared that he was making a play for my BB with nothing. After all the “riding” he gotten, he decided he was going to make his presence at the table known regardless of his small stack (I also assumed that since all the large stacks at the table had already folded this did not hurt a bit in his decision). I decided at that point that I would immediately place a pot sized raise as soon as the action came back around to me and take the pot down. A couple of more folds later the action made its way to the button that called the raise.

This was the last thing I wanted to hear. The player on the button was a very solid player that had definitely earned my respect throughout the day. When he took a stab at the pot, he won it. Whenever he got chased down and showed a hand, he had the nuts. A very solid player with a good read on the remaining table. He and I had not tangled thus far. He had managed to stay out of my way, and I, out of his.

Several questions began to run through my mind. Did the button get the same read I did? If so is he is making the call with better position and has every intention of betting or raising after the flop, regardless of the flop. The reason he would not re-raise if he got the same read was obvious to me. The previous raise was large enough to cause me to fold and without any knowledge of what action I was going to take, he found himself squeezed between a raise and the blinds and was being cautious. This was one train of thought. The other of course being that he actually had a solid hand and would have made the call regardless of the “”read”.” Even in this instance he was playing conservative enough not to have re-raised with two players to go.

The small blind folded and the action was to me. Everything inside me told me to play the hand aggressively; however, I chose to muck it. The flop revealed 6-7-8, which would have given me top two pair. The new player bet out and was raised by the button, he then called. The board turned an 8, which would have bettered my hand to a full house. The new player bet, the button raised. He was met by a re-raise followed by a call. The river revealed a 10. The new player bet out once again and was met by an All-In raise from the button. The new player called and turned over his hand to reveal a 4-5 off suite that he had initially bluffed at the pot with pre-flop. The Button exposed his hand, showing the nut straight J-9 off suite.

I was sick to my stomach knowing that I did not follow my gut instinct and missed out on the one hand that would have turned my tournament around. The more I analyzed the hand, the sicker I became. I obviously, had no idea that I would turn a full when I was contemplating a raise pre-flop. However, my read on the table was correct. The new player was taking a stab at the blinds with 4-5 off suite. The conservative player on the button also made this read and decided to call (he would have re-raised in this position if there weren’’t two players left to act). Had I raised pre-flop, as my gut had told me to do, there is no doubt I would have taken down the pot. In the event I did get called (highly unlikely) the way the hand played out I would have easily doubled or tripled up on the hand.

I have shared this story with many colleagues that are upper tier players. Their initial reaction is that if after two days at a major tournament this is the only hand I questioned myself on, I am very fortunate as I, most likely, played brilliantly. The truth of the matter is, this is the only hand I questioned. Unfortunately, the chips that would have been won from this hand would have carried me deep into the money so this was an expensive hand and a difficult one to forget.

In large tournaments one cannot expect to get many opportunities on any given day to accumulate chips. When you have a good read on the table and have defined the opportunity, follow your “”Gut Instinct”.” Stop playing cards and start playing poker for a change.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is a professional poker player with 27 years of experience.

Logic would tell us that this is a very powerful gift for one to possess in a tournament setting. That’’s what I thought too. Perhaps prior to the Internet and the poker explosion this would have been an accurate statement. Unfortunately your ability to read a player will not guarantee that you make it to the first bathroom break at a tournament these days.

In a WPT event this year I decided to enter a satellite. Good practice I figured. It sure was. I started taking control of the table early on as I like to do. People are real tight the first hour, or so, of any tournament, and it is easy to take advantage of the situation. This is where one’’s ability to read is a blessing as it insures that you are not going to get caught with your shorts around your ankles.

In one particular hand I find myself in third position with Pocket Queens. First position called (a novice player), probably a small pair or suited connectors. I raise 4x the BB, fifth and six fold. Seventh position called the raise (a very loose elderly player wanting to teach this bad boy a lesson. Had him tilting a half hour ago when I took him off of mid-set with nothing). It gets to the Button and I get re-raised 3 times my bet (12x the BB). This guy I had a good read on. He was crunched over in a ““Chris Moneymaker”” type position. He was dress like a walking billboard for some poker site I have never heard of and was wearing $3 sunglasses that he had purchased earlier in the day from the last rest area on the Garden State Parkway before the Atlantic City exit. An after-thought. I put this guy on absolutely nothing. He was making a play at a very bad time and was about to get slapped. I decide to come over top with 60% of my chips. Much to my surprise the gentleman in seventh position calls (thinking we will be heads-up) and…you guessed it. The Button comes over the top of me, all in.

Prior to calling him (there was never any doubt in my mind that I would call) I made this statement to him. “I am calling you so that you could learn an inexpensive lesson. When we all see your cards not only will we see that you have absolutely nothing, but if you even have one card in the paint (a face card) I will never play again.” A pretty bold statement, but that’’s how certain I was of my read. The gentleman in seventh position, realizing at that point that I was not just making a play at the pot, he laid his pocket Jacks down (as he later revealed) and the Button opened up his hand to proudly reveal a 10, 6 off suit.

What a read. I was busy getting congratulations from the three tables around us that were rolling on the floor laughing at him and he was busy gathering his things when the dealer flopped a 10, 10, 2. The turn and river revealed two more rags and I was out.

Luckily it was still early enough in the evening so that I could get a dinner reservation at the steakhouse in the Borgatta and made the best of the remainder of my evening. Now, as I sat there going through every hand………every gesture………in my mind I was still confused as to what I did wrong. I played him like a fiddle. It was the read from hell and I nailed it. I went in with the best cards. I was a strong favorite. Yet I am the one that is out.

The truth of the matter is that as much as we do not care for Phil Helmuth’’s antics and attitude he is actually right sometimes. In one of his recent failures he was quoted as saying ““I played it perfectly. I guess if perfect play always won I would never loose a tournament.” Phil’s right. The best players in a tournament are obviously not always rewarded. However, I still did make a mistake. My mistake was revealed to me at breakfast the next day when I was walking into the restaurant and who should I run into at the door on his way out? You guessed it. Mr. 10 6 off suit himself. He turned three shades of grey when he saw me. I extended my hand to him stating laughingly, “”Don’’t worry, I’m not going to hit you.”” He the turned and spend the next five minutes trying to explain to me his actions.

Up until I called the all in he actually thought I would fold. My question was why would he pick that lousy a hand to make a play with? He had an answer I did not expect but a truthful one. He said. ““Listen John, I know I suck. There is not a chance I was going to make it an hour on that table unless I tried to make something happen and even then, I would still probably need to suck out somewhere along the line. I know I could not play with you guys and could not sit around and wait for the nuts all night. I saw you in early position with a another caller that was still upset from the last beat you gave him and I figured if I pressed the action hard enough I can get you to lay the hand down. I never thought you would call.”” This statement not only exposed his inability to play but also exposed the fact that he had no math skills whatsoever not having realized the fact that I had already priced in to the hand. One bad decision and assumption after another.

This is when I realized where I went wrong. It wasn’’t the hand. It wasn’’t the read. It was the way I chose to process all of the information I had compiled on this player. It was early in a tournament. There was a very weak field of players and the good ones stuck out like sore thumbs. I put myself and my tournament at risk against a reckless individual making a bad play and bad assumptions at my expense. After all, I was the Pro and I was going to bitch slap him in front of the whole table and teach him a lesson. I guess I did. I taught him that if he can suck out enough times against stubborn players he too can be a champion. At least that’s what he got out of it.

While at the WSOP main event something very similar occurred to another player. It was day three of the tournament. About an hour into it. Jennifer Harman had just about busted out on the feature table catching a horrendous beat from a straight flush on the river after turning a full. The whole room was still buzzing over that one when I witnessed a hand that made my head spin. The player was a friend of mine that I had played with often. A very success and established internet player having turned Pro a couple of years ago. He found himself in early position with Pocket Aces. He lays down a reasonable sized bet only to get raised by the button. The flop comes A, 4, 5, rainbow. (No, it’s not what you think……wait). With top set my friend is getting ready to push all in with his remaining chips when what should happen? The ESPN cameras come running over to the table. This is customary at the WSOP as they try to get as much “”All-In” footage” as possible on everyone until they see who makes it through so that they had full tournament coverage of those at the final table. My friend does what we all expect him to do and he was surprised to hear the words ““I call”” coming from the other side of the table. The Button turns over his cards to reveal K, 8 off suite. No it’s not a typo…I said K, 8 off suite. The board turns a 6 and the river a 7 and the button is the proud new owner of my friend’s chips. My friend was still in total disbelief two days later when I saw him after I busted out on abad beat on the bubble.

So where did He go wrong. Well we know he played the hand perfectly. He also processed the information correctly; unlike I did in my earlier example. So what beat him? Well in this case, it was the situation. I spoke to the brother of the genius that made the call who revealed to me that 16 of his relatives had come up from North Carolina to witness Jeff in his moment of “fame”. Yes, “”Jeff is going to be on TV you know.”” Said his brother. As soon as those cameras came running over Jeff was in Heaven. Here was his big chance. He was going to be on TV… on ESPN, worldwide coverage, All-in against a Pro at the biggest tournament in the world. He was not going to pass up on that opportunity, even with a double gut shot. Jeff got what he wanted and fulfilled his destiny. He busted out after the break to another guy that played a double gut shot just like him.

So what’s the moral of the story? Obviously, reading is a good thing and it could get you in to trouble with the type of “”talent”” that frequents the tournament circuit these days. If at all possible, try not to put your tournament at risk with someone that has nothing to loose but time.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is a professional poker player with 27 years of experience.

In a prepared statement, Mr Hiter discussed the episode with member of the media.

“There was a utopia in the life of internet poker. There was a world where I could go on a heater and within 24 hours have that money at my disposal. A run of good cards could mean that Candy at “All Nude” could help pay for Med school with all the poker winnings. I made it rain on her.

NOW…well now, if you get your money within a month, it is a miracle at Carbon. Truly Carbon is a direct cause of my blue-balls. I know how the poor feel waiting for their monthly food stamps as I always spent my money on the morally loose women of Chicago (helping one single mom at a time)…but now I feel like I am starving waiting for my next stripper fix because Carbon is making promises they can’t hold.

It all starts with a promise of 2-3 weeks. It’s like Christmas is near when I make those withdraws but Carbon is the Grinch and promising gifts that never get there. I have waited up to 8 weeks to receive my money now. There is no instant gratification with Carbon anymore and they refuse to ever give any answer explaining the reality of where my money is.

Truthfully, I think someone at Carbon has a Midget fetish and blew all the money at Midgets Pornucopia and now the site is just a pyramid scheme. The one good thing is that I am in talks with Carbon as we speak of making Hooker transfers a reality.”

Carbon Poker’s only response to Mr. Hiter has been through twitter. “I don’t have anything to do with processing, but I’ve heard of some industry-wide delays. GL with the hooker transfers,” commented an anonymous Carbon Poker employee.

Only time will tell when Mr. Hiter receives his check in the mail.

But during this time, we plan on assembling a Poker Board of Review to work with Carbon Poker on determining arrival times for checks and increasing customer guidance. We can only hope that Carbon Poker will work with this board and better the poker industry as a whole.

The question, however is, when are you pot committed in tournament play? The popular thinking is that when you are short stacked you want to get the remainder of your chips in the middle of the table. There are situations though when a more cautious approach may lead to a better outcome. Thus, this is not a rule of poker, it is a mere suggestion to be used as a guidance tool to assist in you in the decision making process. I cannot count the number of times I have witnessed someone pushing his remaining chips into the pot when he is clearly behind in the hand and has little or no hope of survival. Yes, this is the difference in a tournament that does not apply to cash game play. It is about survival and about getting paid. The logic when they loose the hand, as expected, is that they were pot committed at that point and had no other choice. I’m sorry but you always have a choice.

At the WSOP main event I found myself in just this exact situation. I was doing well throughout the first day. I wrapped up the evening with a decent chip count, placing me in the top 40% of the field going into day two. When day two came, however, it was a whole different ball game. I could not catch playable cards to save my life. My best hand the first hour was a J-8 off suit. I tried taking a couple of stabs at the pot, just to get some blinds back. Every time I would enter a pot I would end up with an average of two callers and a raise. Nothing was going right and I began to realize rather quickly that my presence at the tournament would likely be short lived.

After the brake I found myself significantly short stacked with 4,200 in chips and on the Big Blind. After laying off the Blind and ante I was left with 3,200. Much to my surprise I look down to see pocket 9’s, the best hand I had gotten all day. One player called the blind in late position as did the small blind and I pushed in a 2,000 raise. I could have pushed all in, and most players with my chip stack would have. However, I did not. Both the other players called the bet and we went to the flop.

The board flopped A, Q, J rainbow. Not the best flop in the world when you are holding pocket 9’s. As a result of the flop and in poor position I checked as did the small blind. The button makes a pot sized bet followed by an All-In raise from the small blind. At this point I am “pot committed” I am getting great “pot odds” and conventional wisdom would tell you to push in the remainder of you measly stack. I folded. The Button called. The small blind revealed pocket Queens and the button A, K suited. The board turned a 10 and rivered a 9. Even though I would have made a set I was third best at the table with a set of Queens out on the flop and the pot going to the nut straight on the button.

The good news was that I made a great read and a great lay down. I did not let odds or statistics influence my decision. No matter how good the odds are sometimes you know you are beat and you need to lay the hand down. The bad news was that I had almost no chips left and perhaps this was merely an exercise in futility. Then again, perhaps not.

The most famous saying in No Limit Hold’em is “a chip and a chair” well, I had three chips and a chair and all the necessary tools required. A few hands later I caught pocket 6’s and pushed all in with three callers getting almost 6-1 on my money(with the Antes and Blinds). Not to bore you with the details of every hand, but I was still at the table seven and a half hours later and had build up my 3 chips to over 28,000.

The above play completely defies conventional wisdom. But then again this is Poker. This is not a road test at the motor vehicle bureau where we need to follow all the rules and regulations. The poker police are not going to come running out of the back room and arrest you or even fine you. If you “know” your beat lay the damn hand down. I don’t care how much you have in the pot or what position you are in. Stop marrying losing hands post flop because you can justify making a stupid call as a result of odds and calculations.

Your goal at a tournament is first and foremost to get paid. If you are in the money and are willing to take the chance, then go ahead have fun and knock yourself out. You have secured a pay check. If you are out of the money, and, especially close to the bubble then let’s stop the bullshit and focus on why we entered the tournament in the first place. Yes, you entered to win. But in order to win the tournament you have to make it in to the money first, and then survive the feeding frenzy that follows.

No one is going to come out and give you a “Player of The Year” award because you busted out of every tournament on day one but you followed the rules flawlessly. They will however give you that award if you have the most cash finishes that year and as a result, you are, most likely, leading the field. Once you get past the bubble go ahead and open up your game. Push in early and hope for callers. You are not going to make a final table unless you accumulate chips. And you are most certainly not going to win a tournament without them either.

John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is a professional poker player with 27 years of experience.