Card Runners
Ivan Demidov, one of the WSOP November Nine, made another WSOP fi nal table while he’s waiting to return to Las Vegas. Demidov fi nished third at the WSOP Europe Main Event, battling a tough fi nal table that included Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman, and eventual winner John Juanda. Demidov won over $600,000.
Teddy “The Iceman” Monroe, a Las Vegas regular who became famous when ESPN featured him in 2007 WSOP coverage, has been barred from the Bellagio. Several players have reported that Monroe was involved in a hustle wherein he would tell poker players that a careless rich man wanted to lay 7-5 on fl ips of coins in a Bellagio suite; the takers inevitably lost.
The recent Festa al Lago tournament series at the Bellagio saw one of the most unlikely back-to-back performances in memory. Alec “Traheho” Torelli won Event #4, a $3,000 buy-in, and Event #5, a $5,000 buy-in. To add to the coincidence, Jon “FieryJustice” Little was runner-up in both. Torelli won a combined $185,000 in the two tournaments.
Another WSOP fi nal tabler, Ylon Schwartz, is running an eBay auction for ad space on his clothing during the event. Bidding began at $37,500 for a ten-squareinch patch; he has received at least one bid. Schwartz will enter the fi nal table fi fth in chips, with a stack of 12.5 million.
The state of Kentucky has attempted to seize 141 domain names from their current registrants. The domains “promote, conduct, and/or advance illegal gambling,” according to the court order, and include pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com. The order mandated that the names temporarily continue to resolve to the same addresses, but that they be transferred to a governmental account. Experts suspect that the state will not ultimately succeed at taking these domains, but worry about possible precedents.
It has been eight months since 28 Microgaming skins, including Battlefi eld Poker, shut down. Players were told then that they would be treated as unsecured creditors and that they would therefore be last to receive money. These players have still received no money, and some have been hit hard: longtime high stakes player “ozzy87” claims to have $393,000 locked up on the site.
CARDRUNNERS SPOTLIGHT: KYLE ‘KPR16’ RAY
Kyle “KPR16” Ray is proof that Limit Hold’em is alive and thriving. And while Chris Moneymaker might have introduced millions of people to No Limit Hold’em, there are still millions of dollars to be earned one bet at a time. Kyle, an acclaimed CardRunners instructor enjoying his fi rst ever million-dollar year, sat down with us to break down his progression as a poker professional.
BLUFF: Tell us about your poker story. How did you get started? What was your initial deposit?
KPR: I got started when I was invited to a home game in high school. My friends sort of got a chuckle out of the fact that after the fi rst couple of times playing, I was reading books and talking strategy. Nowadays many of them ask questions and some even claim to live vicariously through me and my poker career. I made two or three “initial deposits” of about $50 to $100 online. I lost the fi rst couple, and I blame it all on Phil Hellmuth’s Top Ten Hand Strategy Guide!
BLUFF: What stakes do you currently play now? Where did you struggle coming up?
KPR: I currently play $30/$60 up to $1,000/$2,000, depending on what’s running. The biggest struggles were around $3/$6 and $5/$10, then again at $30/$60.
BLUFF: Why Limit?
KPR: I like to see more than one showdown every half hour! There’s a decision on every street and in every hand, and a lot faster action. I don’t like having to fold pretty hands like 4-2 suited when someone raises the Big Blind.
BLUFF: What do you love about Limit Hold’em? What keeps you interested?
KPR: Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I love that the game is very formulaic and much more solvable from a game theory perspective. I believe it is a lot more diffi cult to develop a “pseudo” GTO [game theory optimal] strategy for No Limit.
BLUFF: In No Limit Hold’em we focus on position, bet sizing, and reading board textures. With Limit we lose bet sizing, and, to some degree, pressure that can be applied on certain board textures. What concepts do you focus on instead?
KPR: I believe your main focus in LHE should be correlating the pot size to your hand strength. You can’t decide which pots you win, but you want to make sure that the ones you do are appropriately sized. Instead of focusing on winning someone’s stack, or putting your opponent to a decision, in LHE you work on playing ace-high and weak pairs well after the fl op and extracting the max with thin value bets. You should almost always semi-bluff in LHE, whereas in NL you guys have to worry more about being blown out of the pot with your draw or putting in too much money with a draw that’s possibly inferior. Oh... And if it’s not already obvious, it’s a much bigger crime to fold the best hand in LHE!
BLUFF: If a small-stakes No Limit Hold’em player wanted to make the move to Limit Hold’em, where would you suggest he or she start?
KPR: A book like Winning in Tough Hold’em Games [by Nick “Stoxtrader” Grudzien and Geoff “Zobags” Herzo], should give you enough direction to get started splashing around at small stakes, but I think the best place to learn will be through training videos at CardRunners.com as well as the ones on Stoxpoker.com.
