Letter from Doke (News and info - 25th April 2012)

Hi all.
Welcome to this week's letter.

No live poker for me this week meaning I got in good volume online, the highlight was winning the €7500 gtd on Irish Eyes one night. I will have some exciting news in the next letter on the online tournament front on Irish Eyes coming in May.

This week I'm playing two end of month tourneys: the Fitz (on Thursday night) and an addition to the calendar, in Jokers Casino in Mullingar on Sunday at 6 PM. This is a $150 +10 freezeout, and I hope to see some of you there.

I'm starting to look forward to Vegas. My original plan was to only go for 2 or 3 weeks this year, but the guys I'm going over with wanted to be there for a bit longer so I'm going for a month now, flying out the 15th of June. I'm planning to play the WSOP main event and a bunch ofno limit holdem side events.

The topic of this week's strategy section is pot control.

Pot control is a concept all top players understand but a lot of amateurs have no real clue about. Imagine you pick up AK on the button and there's a raise before you. You reraise and the original raiser calls. The flop comes K82 rainbow, you bet and your opponent calls. The turn is a queen, you bet again and get called again. The river is a five, your opponent checks again, and thinking you have the best hand you bet again. Your opponent now check raises all in.

You're now faced with a horrible decision:

(i) you either call really only beating a bluff, or
(ii) you fold (and you might be getting bluffed off the best hand).

How could or should you have played this hand differently?

Betting the river is a mistake since while you may have the best hand, it's unlikely your opponent will call if you have. His call on the flop suggests he has something. With no obvious draws, this could be a worse king, a pair (lower than kings) or a set. Your opponent's call on the turn suggests it's unlikely he has just a pair lower than kings. He might call one bet with nines or tens but he's unlikely to call two unless he's very stubborn. So it's more like he has the king, or a set. If it's just the king, then it's probably either AK (which you chop with) or KQ (which you're now losing too).
Therefore when he checks the river, you should check behind.

Another way to play the hand, and one I prefer, is to check behind on the turn. The queen may have improved him so it's prudent to be cautious and wait to see what he does on the river.
If he bets, you can call (he might bet KJ or tens or jacks thinking he has the best hand), and if he checks, you can bet (and you're more likely to get called by worse kings or jj/tt type hands).

By checking the turn, you're controlling the size of the pot, and you may induce him to bluff or value bet hands you beat on the river.

On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account. Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.

The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!

Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803

And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.

Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke

Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.

Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here