With the 2007 WPT event in the books, most eyes in the poker world are now turning to the World Series of Poker, which kicks off in June. Players and pundits alike are curious to see what effect the UIGEA has on poker’s crown tournament jewel, as speculation has been pretty rampant as far as the number of entries to this year’s Main Event, and whether it will eclipse 2006 or fall vastly short.

So, in my prior post on this subject I promised a discussion about using this strategy when you’re an underdog to your opponents. What I mean here is that there are situations where you recognize right away that you are playing against people whose skills are superior to your own.

What? You’ve never been that situation? You’re always the best player at the table? Every time? Really?

Oh. Guess it’s just me then. Anyway…

Most poker players I know refuse to admit they are in a game where they aren’t the best person at the table. It’s an ego thing, and it can be deadly for your bankroll. We never want to believe we’re the fish in the game, but the fact is all “fishiness” is relative. Sometimes, you’re the shark; other times you’re the guppy. Just depends on who you’re up against.

You can control your game selection in live games because you actually have to go someplace, usually with people you know, sometimes with some intelligence about the skill level of your opponents. But online, especially in the tournament and SNG world, you’re flying blind.

Is donkalicious99 a high-buy-in, solid player on a bad run and stepping down to $10 SNGs? Is HotMary69 a newbie?

There are some tools out there that can give you a little insight into your opponents - Sharkscope, PokerDB, etc -but they’re limited because they can’t track players using different screen names on different sites. They also typically cost a few bucks to subscribe to, so you’re limited in how many searches you can do.

So, long story short, you get in a game and find 2 players are listed in Sharkscope as “Sharks”, and 420Bong420 sitting on your left is chatting away but hasn’t played a hand since Jesus Christ was pitching pennies against the temple wall.

Hmmm.

As you suspected, you survive the $10 SNG down to the bubble in, oh, 30 minutes, because the rest of the field is that bad. Now, it’s you and 3 solid folks, and you’ve seen a couple of advanced moves from each already. You know you’re the fish among those who are left.

How does that feel? (I don’t know, I’m never the fish… )

I keed, I keed.

You’re intimidated. You’ve already put up the buy-in, so it’s not like you can cash out and leave. You know you’ll be outplayed in the long run.

And therein lies the answer: Don’t let there be a long run.

Reduce the number of decisions to be made. Force the other players to make big decisions as early as possible with the BARE MINIMUM of information.

DO NOT PLAY THEIR GAME!

This is NO-LIMIT poker - don’t fall into their traps of “oh, let’s just see a flop,” and “why so big a raise so early?” You MUST set the tone and control the table. You don’t want to be mindless about it - if you’re a middle-stack and there’s a short-stack you want to be very selective about the hands you play. But, you can’t give up either, or you’ll be broomcorned out of the game. Every other player needs to be aware that if you’re in a pot, you’re playing for all of your chips, and all, or most, of theirs. This will make THEM be more selective about getting into pots with you. Change gears, be unpredictable, and watch who seems to be content to fold into the money and push on that person with any reasonable hand.

Solid players understand the Gap Concept very well. This is what you’re exploiting. The hand they’ll call off all of their chips with is going to be a lot better than the hand they’ll bet all of their chips on, and those hands don’t come around often enough. When this is the only decision they get to make in the hand, you’re playing the game that gives YOU the best opportunity to beat the better player.

 Comments or discussion? Shoot them to me at Big Slick Nuts Poker Blog.

Interesting First round match-up include:

First round -

• Carlos Mortensen Vs. Barry Greenstein (Will my pick survive the first round?)

• Patrick Antonius Vs. Huck Seed ( Internet pro vs a poker legend)

• Joe Hachem Vs Moneymaker (who’s the better WSOP champion?)

• Mike Matusow Vs Daniel Negreanu (Is Daniel as good as he says he is against The Mouth?)

• Jennifer Tilly Vs Jamie Gold (Beauty vs the Geek)

• Chris Ferguson Vs Scott Fischman ( If Ferguson is able to take this he probably has Phil Ivey in the next round. Tough road to another Final Table)

Big slick held up for Feldman in his heads up battle with Davidson Matthew, who held A4 and got it all in on a A K 10 flop.

The 29 year old Feldman has made quite a name for himself in recent years, with 5 cashes in major tournaments in 2006-2007 and a cool $916,741 in winnings.

• The 2007 World Series of Poker venue will not contain advertising from dot.com sites that allow access to US residents, nor ads from dot.net sites affiliated with those entities.
• Unlike in 2006, Harrah’s is going to allow players to wear promotional t-shirts, hats, and accessories for any dot.net site they wish. More details were promised b Harrah’s shortly as far as the exact logo details.

The scuttlebutt making the rounds is that the changes were in response to a nixed deal with Full Tilt Poker, which had sought to be the primary sponsor for the 2007 WSOP but ultimately lost on the river due to their policy of continuing to take business from US players.

Phil Hellmuth - 55
Men Nguyen - 54
T.J. Cloutier - 51
Berry Johnston - 50
Chris Ferguson - 45
Erik Seidel - 43
Humberto Brenes - 42
Brent Carter - 40
John Cernuto - 39
Mike Sexton - 39

David Reese - $1,784,640
Jeff Madsen - $1,467,852
Phil Hellmuth - $1,130,559
Andrew Bloch - $1,117,680
Phil Ivey - $846,444
Justin Scott - $842,262
Jeff Cabanillas - $818,546
William Chen - $810,740
Mark Vos - $803,274
James Gorham - $765,226

Hellmuth entered the final table as the chip lead and managed to power his way to victory, overcoming Juha Helppi when it was heads-up to win his record-tying 10th bracelet. The win capped a successful run for Hellmuth in the 2006 WSOP, in which he’d made numerous final tables but hadn’t yet managed to secure the tenth bracelet that had eluded him thusfar.

The PPT features “freeroll” tournaments , inviting only well-known pros who compete for a total of $2 million in prize money provided by the PPT.

New to the second season are players including Gavin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, Joe Bartholdi, Tuan Le, David Singer, John D’Agostino, Joseph Hachem, Patrik Antonius, Al Ardebili, Andrew Black, Alex Brenes, Steven Dannenmann, Roland De Wolfe, John Gale, Michael Gracz, Joan Hoang, Rob Hollink, Alex Kahaner, Aaron Kanter, Hung La, Scott Lazar, Nam Le, J.J. Liu, Ming Ly, Lee Markholt Jr., Paul Maxfield, Danny Nguyen, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Rehne Pedersen, Max Pescatori, John Phan, Vanessa Rousso, Nick Schulman, Michael Simon, David Singer, Arnold Spee, Fabrice Soulier John Stolzmann, Johan Storakers, and James Van Alstyne.

Returning pros include Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Ted Forrest, Carlos Mortensen, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, T.J. Cloutier, Dan Harrington, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Mel Judah, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, David Williams, and Hasan Habib.