How to Be Sammy Farha

Sammy’s table image throws people off kilter. They don’t know where they are; they make mistakes. They get too deep in pots when they shouldn’t be there at all. They call too thinly. They try to out-Sammy Sammy. But Sammy’s better at being Sammy. He’s had more practice.

“When I started playing poker, I said I wanted a certain image all to myself. I said I want to make money; I want to make a living out of this. So many Hold’em players, they can’t make a living out of the game. I started out playing Omaha, but that’s a dangerous game, so I wanted to learn it to the max and win the max. Omaha is an action game, so I built this image that’s different from every other pro. Poker is all about knowing what your opponent has and where you’re at – of course, you could be wrong – but in the long run, you’re going to be right. So I built an image for myself that would allow me to get paid off on the hands I play. I want people to think I’m giving them a lot of action because I’m going to get them. A lot of pros, they won’t play against me, because they think I’m crazy. I have too much gamble in me. I know what they have and they can’t ever put me on a hand. I don’t play poker, I play you. Sometimes I don’t look at the cards. I play the player and see what he has.”

Million-dollar question: Was Sammy Farha ever a nit?

“I didn’t play as loose as I do today when I fi rst started out, but every time I ever had a hand, I went all the way with it. A lot of players are scared to play the hand all the way, especially in Omaha.”

To some, poker is a cold, hard science, but to Sammy it’s an art and a joy…

“To me, poker is so exciting – the action! It’s unbelievable. The social aspect, too – you get to meet so many personalities. And it’s because I love it and enjoy it so much that I became successful at it. Whatever you do in life, if you don’t enjoy it, you’ll never be at the top. I enjoy every moment I play. Sometimes I’ll be a big loser, but I still have fun. The main thing is you come out on top in the long run.”

But just how mathematical is Sammy’s game?

“There’s no math before the fl op – you don’t know what you’re up against and the math only comes into play once you open up those cards and get involved. Sure, in Hold’em there’s more math than the other games, but in general, poker is not only math; it’s the business, psychology, instinct and experience. Some pros, they play certain hands against me, and they talk about the math, and I think, ‘You shouldn’t even be in this hand. You contradict yourself.’ I remember once, against a certain pro, I had Qd Jd; I raised and he reraised me 10% of my chips – he spotted some weakness in me. I made the call and the fl op came K-9-2 with two diamonds. So I checked, and he checked with A-K. The turn was a diamond. I have the fl ush, so I bet and he calls. On the river, I bet him a lot, and he calls. He stands up and he says, ‘You play those hands! That’s why you never get to the end of tournaments!’

“That was back in 2003. In 2004 we played together again. He had 8h 9h, I had A-K. The fl op came with two hearts. I checked, he checked. The turn is a blank and I bet him huge. He calls. A heart hit the river and I gave up, I checked; and do you know what he did? He checked and won. In his book he said that there was no point in betting here because Sammy won’t call him unless he has him beat. But that’s not true! He was a big underdog to hit that last card, so why would he gamble to make the hand and then not benefi t from it by betting? Where was his math? If you compare it to the previous hand, I made him pay. I punished him. I don’t like that way of thinking – “There’s no point in betting because he’ll only call with a better hand.” It’s not true in this situation. If you think your hand is best, bet! And there’s no sense in chasing if you’re not going to make a lot of money out of it.”

As a responsible poker magazine, we generally advise our readers to steer away from the table games. They’re sucker games, after all. However, if you really want to be Sam Farha, it’s crucial to be seen at the Bellagio rakishly propping up the high stakes blackjack tables. Sam confesses all.

“Blackjack is my weakness. I don’t win at blackjack. I never win. I play to win big, and you can’t win at that game. Blackjack is a skill game and I think I play… about average. I start playing to entertain myself and then I get stuck, and I say ‘Please let me get lucky,’ but I never win a hand! One time I won good, but there are no good blackjack stories. It’s hard to beat the casino, that’s why they’re in business. I do a certain amount, then I quit and I go to poker to make it back.”

Most of us put bad luck down to variance. Not Sammy. It’s because he’s wearing the wrong shirt. Or not eating enough. Clearly.

“My superstitions have developed over the years. I do something and I see my luck change and it becomes a bad habit. Like the cigarette – although it isn’t that bad a habit because I don’t light it. Another one: Every time I lose, I eat. I eat until my luck changes. It’s all in the head, I know. And it’s crazy. I need a psychiatrist.

“The cigarette happened because I was losing one day, and a friend of mine who’s a smoker suggested we go out for a smoke break. I said, ‘No, I don’t feel like it. I’m losing.’ He put the cigarette in my mouth and said, ‘Keep that there and your luck will change.’ And it did. So then, every time I was running bad, I put that cigarette in my mouth, and it worked. But I don’t use it unless I’m losing or I need some luck.”

The million-dollar question: How do you stop the fi lter from getting soggy, Sam? “I take it out from time to time and let it breathe.” And there you have it.

Only someone like Sammy could win $100,000 in fi ve minutes playing 10/20. Here’s how he did it.

“The game had broken up at the Bellagio and I was bored, so I joined a $10/$20 No Limit Hold’em game. There were fi ve players sitting, and one of them had more than $110,000 in front of him – most of the rest had a couple of thousand each. I thought, ‘Hey, I’m going to take a shot at that money.’ The guy with the money was complaining that nobody was giving him any action – I guess he was controlling the table. So when I sat down, the guy next to him said, ‘Well, Sammy will give you action, for sure.’

“Five minutes later, I have 7h 2h on the button and I call. This guy makes it $500 and the guy with the big money reraises to $3,000. I had been ready to muck my hand, but when the guy reraised I called within a second, because I wanted to take a shot at all the money he had. The fi rst guy was all in, so there was no way I could bluff him out. You have to make sure you have enough money to outplay your opponents if you play a hand like 7h 2h. The fi rst guy had A-K and the reraiser had A-A. Now watch this: The fl op comes K-8-5, with two hearts. Then guy with the aces checks to see where I’m at. I bet him 12,000. He only calls with aces. The turn comes 6d.

“Now I have a fl ush draw and an openended straight draw. The guy with the aces checks again. So I fi gure I’ll take the side pot there and then. On the turn, I bet him $30,000 and he calls. He’s playing the aces badly, but he’s scared because we’ve got so much money in front of us. On the river the 4 hits. He says, ‘I check.’

I say, ‘How much money have you got there?’ He says, ‘Don’t worry, buddy, I got you covered.’ The way he says that, I know he’s calling. I had the information already. I say, ‘Well, let’s see if you got me covered. I’m going to put you all in.’ He says, ‘Call.’

I woke up the next day feeling like I’d won the World Series. That’s how you win $100,000 at $10-$20 blinds.” At the end he couldn’t complain, because he got all the action and I got all the money.

It’s really time to smarten yourself up. “I buy my suits from all over the world – all my life I appreciated quality. My favorite tailor is Kiton. You can get them in America, but it’s different – the difference between American and Italian-fi tted – I buy unique stuff; unique designers – it’s about the quality and the uniqueness.”

LESSON: JEANS AND STINKY T-SHIRT WON’T WASH NO MORE. LITERALLY. KITON’S MOST FAMOUS SUIT MODEL IS THE “K-50”, SO NAMED BECAUSE IT TAKES 50 HOURS TO MAKE. YOU CAN PICK ONE UP FOR A SNIP AT $50,000.

If you’re going to play high stakes poker with fl air and bravado (and we really think you should), bankroll management skills are key. Here’s how Sammy does it.

“With the style I play, I experience big swings. I had a bad run in December and you just have to slow down. I play a little bit smaller, get the confi dence back, and build the bankroll a little bit. If I lose a big fi gure, I have to manage myself; change my strategy. I can’t gamble too much anymore. When they bet me a lot, I just stay a little bit more conservative. But that’s what’s good about my image. No one will notice I’m playing conservative. This goes for any stakes you’re playing at. If you want to do this for a living, bankroll management is everything. There’s a lot of emotion in poker, and you can’t go with your emotions. If you feel sad that you lost, you have to forget it. And fi ght back.”

The discerning gentleman is a welltraveled gentleman and the world should be your playground. Sammy’s favorite place to visit is Capri in Italy.

“It’s so relaxing. It’s by the beach, with beautiful scenery, great weather, great food... I never play any of the events in Europe. I hate to gamble when I’m there, because I love Europe so much. I just want to have a good time.”

Ladies, rest assured that any student of Sammy’s will confi dently grab the wine menu and take charge. Sammy delights in a Chateau Margaux 1982. A fi ne, fruity vintage, stocked in vast quantities at the Bellagio, we understand. “Relaxing and smooth,” enthuses Sammy. “Very expensive!” he adds with a frown.

“I only play about fi ve tournaments per year, so if I win one, that’s great. There’s a big edge playing tournaments. If I really wanted to concentrate on them, like the other pros do, I could do very well because there are so many bad players who don’t know what they’re doing – they’re giving you the money, and you have to keep fi ghting and going back to play them. I don’t do that... because I’d rather have fast action; it’s my weakness – no, not weakness… it’s my style.”

“I don’t really see it as fame, but people are very kind to me. A lot of people come up to me in Vegas and say, ‘I’m a poker player, I’d love to be on the same table as you!’”

“Gambling was much better before. Everyone’s got a deal to seal or a plane to catch these days. Poker’s too publicized; it’s a different business now. You can’t fi nd a mediocre game anymore – they’re either too big or too small. It’s hard to fi nd a game like we used to have. I’m known for playing the best players in the world, but truthfully, I prefer a combination of good and bad. I’m an action player and bad players give me action; and when the good players get involved, it’s easy for me to put them on a hand.

“The amateurs, now, they attack me. They’ve seen me on TV and they don’t think I have a hand. I don’t bluff any more in tournaments.”

In 2003, Sam Farha really should have been World Champion. He was a whisker away from calling that danged Moneymaker fellow, with the best hand. But he doesn’t really care too much:

“People often ask me, if I’d beaten Chris Moneymaker, would it have changed my life? I say, no! The money would have been nice. Like I’ve said before, he offered me a deal, and in hindsight I should have taken it, but as a businessman it made no sense to take it, because I had a lot more experience than him.”

“I played online poker once, in 2003. I didn’t enjoy it. I played for 24 hours and I said, “This is sick!” You can make a lot of money on the internet, but I love poker. It’s about the enjoyment, the atmosphere, the social thing. You don’t have that over the internet. It’s not a poker game; it’s just “action.” All you hear is about people winning a lot of money. No one seems to be losing!

“I love playing against the young internet stars, though. I played against Brian Townsend and I think he’s one of the best Hold’em players I’ve played against. This was the biggest game I’ve ever played. We played two games: Hold’em and Omaha. No Limit Hold’em – it’s so dangerous. The guy’s aggressive, I’m aggressive – almost every hand went right to the end. I was losing a lot, and then I ended up getting some of it back. It got so big because we were both gambling. It was a great game and he’s a really tough opponent. I’ve never played anyone like this – someone who’s willing to take so many chances. I used to be the suicidal one on the table – now there’s someone else like me.

“He sat down with a lot of money, which I don’t like to do because I don’t know how he plays. So it was a really tough game for me. The guy isn’t scared to put a million dollars in on a bluff and there aren’t many people in the world who can do that.

“What bothered me about him, though, is that every session we play, he goes on the internet and tells the world about it. However as a professional poker player who has played with many pros, we have the utmost respect for our play. We don’t announce it to the whole world. Poker is a long-term success and not short-term.

In order to be a fully-rounded human being, it’s essential to be a man of letters and Sammy is no exception. His fi rst book, Farha on Omaha, has just been published by Triumph Books. We advise you visit Amazon.com or samfarha. com immediately.

“Omaha is now where the money is. Omaha is real poker because the hand will change on the fl op, on the turn, and on the river. You can outplay your opponents on any street if you know where they’re at. That is the beauty of this game. It takes a lot of skill and pressure and this is what poker is all about. Omaha is so much fun because there are so many players involved in a hand and this creates action. If you play Omaha for a living, there is more money to be made in Omaha than in any other poker game.

“My book is different because I discuss two kinds of play, the “correct” way which I recommend for beginners, and Sammy’s way, for when they become more familiar with the game. I’ve been playing Omaha successfully for many years and this is how I made my money.”

Here’s the best tip you’ll ever hear for playing Omaha.

“I made this play against a very good friend of mine. There were fi ve players in the hand and I had the button. The fl op came 6-7-10. Everybody checked. The turn came a deuce. My friend, who was fi rst to act, bet $35,000. Everybody mucked. I had A-10 with the nut fl ush draw. I fi gured he had a straight. Now, if a blank hits and he bets me at the end, I muck my hand. But the board pairs on the turn. He bets the cap, which is $100,000. Now I think about it for about ten minutes. I don’t have a we call “blockers”). That’s how you analyze a hand.”

“My longest poker session without sleep was probably about three or four days. The strange thing is that the longer I stay up, the more energy I get. I get sharper. But it’s a really bad habit because it gets you later on.”

Life’s not all poker, poker, poker. A true gentleman is happiest relaxing at home in his slippers.

“I like to come home from Vegas after three weeks of poker: I relax with my girlfriend, go have a nice dinner, see friends; just take it easy in the house without thinking about money or poker or anything like that. I never even discuss poker when I come home. A lot of players, they call each other and they say, ‘Oh, I just had a bad beat,’ and they torment each other like that - you know, the funny thing is that no one discusses the bad beats they put on other players. I forget poker and do what I want to do. After I’ve recovered from Vegas, I go travel and enjoy the world.”

By reading this, you’re one step closer to being Sammy. Now go follow it up with some nice wine, a tailored suit and a trip to Capri.