Tom McEvoy Poker Tips

Horse Tournaments...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:41:53 EST

In 2006 the World Series of Poker electrified the poker world by introducing a $50,000 HORSE tournament. This was the biggest buy-in in poker history. HORSE, stands for Limit Hold’em, Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split, Razz, 7 Card Stud, and Stud 8 or Better. This tournament was televised with the final table reverting from the 5 game format to a No Limit Hold’em contest, in effect adding a 6th game. The excitement grew as the final table was a who’s who in the poker world with some of the absolute legends of the game and battling it out. The final table consisted of one of the toughest lineups of all time. Doyle Brunson, T.J. Cloutier, Dewey Tomko, Chip Reese—all in the Poker Hall of Fame, as well as former world champion Jim Bechtel, Phil Ivy, Andy Block, David Singer and Patrick Antonius. When the smoke cleared Chip Reese and Andy Block were the last two standing. They then embarked on an epic struggle that lasted over 7 hours. Chip Reese was all in on more than one occasion, but ultimately prevailed and won the event. The event subsequently awarded the winner the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

This event was televised and completely captured the imagination of the viewing public as well as the poker community itself. Everybody wanted to start to play HORSE. Of course very few could afford the $50,000 price tag at the World Series of Poker, but fortunately smaller buy-in events became available. Not only did the World Series hold smaller buy-in HORSE events but other venues as well. The only difference was that the no-limit hold’em portion of the tournament was eliminated. This made the final table less interesting as far as the television audience was concerned, but many of the players, especially the people putting up the 50K buy-in wanted it to be restricted to just the 5 limit events. The feeling was that since the 5 games were a tremendous test of skill, the finalists should be allowed to finish the tournament in the same fashion.

This year for reasons still unknown, ESPN elected not to televise this event. The result was a sharp drop in attendance as about 1/3 fewer players participated in the 2009 event. The lack of television coverage was the main reason for this decline. Many players as well as Harrah’s management is considering going back to the same format as the original event and making sure it is included on the t.v. schedule. This should not only boost attendance, but make for an outstanding television show with high ratings. The final table is almost a cinch to have many highly recognizable names, and if it is played as a No Limit Hold’em grand finale, the t.v. audience will more easily identify with the strategies because, let’s face it, No Limit Hold’em is the king of poker.
The thing about playing 5 games, or possibly 6 if you make the final table, is that it takes a tremendous amount of poker skill to be successful. You must be able to play all games well, not just one or two. A player that is a specialist in High-Low Split games, for example, has no chance if he can’t compete in the other three. That is why the cream rises to the top in HORSE events more so than in other poker tournaments. A rather unusual side effect of HORSE events is that Razz has been resurrected from the graveyard of poker games because players have to learn how to play it in order to be a threat in HORSE events. There are many jokes about Razz, such as the average age of the typical Razz player (before HORSE tournaments) was deceased. That is because Razz was still popular in the 1980’s, but no new blood was introduced to the game, so it was dying out. Also, two other things were said about Razz, it was not a poker game, but a disease and a trained chimpanzee could learn how to play it. The disease part has some truth to it, but there is some skill and play to the game, just not as much as in other forms of poker.

Games like 7 Card Stud and Stud 8 or better require good card reading skills, with many hands having hidden strength. Razz of course is much easier to always know what the best possible hand your opponents could have at the moment. Limit Hold’em and Omaha Hi-Low Split require a good knowledge of starting hands and positional play. All in all I love HORSE tournaments and play them whenever I can. If you feel the same way, just remember you need to learn and practice all of the games. This can be done for modest stakes on the internet or in casinos. Happy riding.

Poker Plans...

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:59:20 EDT

Just a quick note about what's been going on with me lately....

Taught a WPT Boot camp in September at the Golden Nugget.

About 10 days ago I did a charity event for Hospice in Pharump, NV. It was a good time and we raised alot of money for a great cause. I also made the final table but took a bad river beat and went out in 10th place.

I'm off to Aruba on October 5th for a poker tournament, can't wait to hit the tables and the beach.

In the meanwhile I've been playing online at Poker Stars where I came in 4th in an 8 game mixed event. Yesterday I played a VIP match and collected my own bounty :)

October 15th I'll be doing a seminar in Jacksonville, FL.

November I will be attending the Poker Hall of Fame banquet where I am 1 of 9 possible candidates to be inducted.

So wish me luck.
Tom McEvoy

Poker Lesson #6 - Player Types...

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:11:13 EDT

When I first sit down at a table whether it's a cash game or tournament, the first thing I do is look around at my opponents and try to evaluate the table. So I look for people I know and recall what I know about them, and if you don't know a player I will go by my first impressions. I make it my business to study the whole table. So when we start playing I can usually judge by the way they play after two orbits around the table. Which take about 20-30 minutes of play.

I was teaching a WPT boot camp and one of the students asked me how can he can possibly absorb all that information at once...so what should he do? I told him that it will come with more experience, so at this point pay attention to one player for one orbit...how many hands did they play...what types of cards did he play and from what position? Then go to another player for the next orbit and so on.

So here are the types of players to identify:

Loose - A loose player is a player who likes to play alot of hands. They are not only playing more hands, but they are playing marginal hands out of position...for example limping into the pot with a K10o from early position.

Loose / Passive - A player who likes to limp in alot, they like to play alot of hands but they are not very aggressive. They don't raise or re-raise much.

Loose / Aggressive - A player who plays Loose but they are in there raising and re-raising with marginal hands. They try to bluff more and this type of player is more difficult to play against. They are not predictable and it's hard to put them on a hand.

Tight - A tight player is easily recognized they fold practically everything. They play very few hands and do not defend their blinds very often. So watch out when this player raises.

Weak / Tight - The easiest players as they never bet without having a hand. They are easy to manipulate.

Solid - Is a style that is the most successful players...they don't play as many hands as the Loose players do, but they play more hands than the Tight players do.

Solid / Aggressive - The best winning style in poker...they will bluff once in awhile. They pay particular attention to position and use that accordingly.

Maniac - Goes way beyond Loose / Aggressive...they are constantly players alot of hands and will re-raise with almost any hand.

So my advice is to figure out what style player that you are, then work to identify the other players at the table and come up with strategies that will work well against each style of player. More on strategies against the player types in future blogs.

Good luck on the felt!
Tom

Poker Lesson #5 - Strategies on making the final table...

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:28:54 EDT

Here are a few key strategies that are necessary to get to the final table:

1) You must be patient and can't continually try to force the action; you have to let the game come to you. By that I mean, rather than trying to constantly mix it up all the time like the super aggressive players do, you wait for them to come to you. The reason I say that is that most players don't have the experience or expertise to play alot of marginal hands aggressively in a successful manner. Players see Gus Hanson or Daniel Negrauno on TV making alot of plays and try to emulate the player. Plays like that will more often than not get you broke.

2) The art of the bluff... ok bluffing is important and you will need to make bluffs from time to time. Most people however overrate the bluff and overuse the bluff. So how do you successfully use a bluff...you have to be very selective about who you are using a bluff against and what the situation is. Raising a tight player while they are in the blinds is a good bluff. A bad bluff is using the same play against a loose player while you only have a marginal hand yourself. I also see most people try to bluff the river when they have missed their draw and will quite often get called by weak hands and loose valuable chips. The most successful bluffs are done on the flop; it's hard for players to call if they missed the flop which they will do about 70% of the time.

3) The luck factor... the luck factor is very high in tournament poker, however the skill level does transcend the luck factor in the long fun (believe it or not). That is why you see so many of the same players making final tables in major events because they have developed a highly skilled tournament strategy. So what makes those players skilled? One factor is psychology, the ability to manipulate players into doing what you want them to do...be it raise, bet, fold or call. Now it does not always work but more often than not it does and that skill comes with experience.

Start applying some of these skills and you will start to make more final tables.
Good luck on the felt!
Tom

WSOP 2009 & Poker Hall of Fame...

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:30:26 EDT

The Main Event of the WSOP 2009 was a bit of a disappointmement again this year as I went out on the 5th level of day one. Overall the WSOP tournaments has record turnouts despite the poor econmy. That is except for the main event which closed day 4 as a sell out, other wise they would have broken last years total since there were about 500 people turned away.

So the story for next year players is to register for day 1 or 2 (Day 1 only had around 800 players). Each days registration climbed in the number of players. I played in Day 3 and wish I maybe played Day 1 or 2.

I can't complain about this years event as I won the Champion of Champions Event :)

I am very excited and honored to be nominated as one of the 10 people for the Poker Hall of Fame. Of course that is only the first stage of the process. The second stage of the process involves a vote from all the living (15) hall of fame members, as well as selected poker writers. The thrid stage is the selection committee of Harrahs executives who will make the final decision.

For the past several years there have been two players inducted. So I guess I will have to wait to find out who the November 9 from the WSOP Main Event are until November to find out who the two inducties are.

Until then I'm off to Florida to host a Poker Tournnment for a WPT event at the Borgata. While I'm there I think I'll be taking a few sunny days by the pool as well as playing online at Poker Stars.

Good luck on the felt...
Tom

The Champion of Champions Invitational...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:06:19 EDT

The World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas decided to celebrate their 40th anniversary of the WSOP with a special tournament. The 25 living main event champions were all invited to compete for the title of ‘Champion of Champions’, with the winner receiving a vintage 1971 bright, cherry red, corvette fully restored. In addition, the champion received the first ever awarded Binion’s Cup. The cup was named for the Binion family which founded the World Series of Poker, first held in 1970. Jack Binion, son of the founder Benny Binion, was invited to award the cup to the winner.

The tournament began on May 31st, with the final table the next day. Of the 25 past living champions, 20 showed up to participate. A historic photograph was taken of the Champions, and you could literally feel the electricity in the air. Several of us were wearing Stetsons, including me. It reminded me of the earlier tournaments which were dominated by players from Texas. Everyone wanted to win the title, the cup, the car and not least of all the bragging rights. I cannot remember facing a tougher line-up in my entire poker career (which spans over 30 years).

The tournament started with three tables. After two players were eliminated we went down to two nine handed tables. Jamie Gold, the 2006 champion, had the unfortunate distinction by going broke very early in the first level of play. After that one by one the remaining players went broke until we got down to one final table of ten. That final table would come back to play the next day in front of the t.v. cameras. ESPN is scheduled to air the show on August 4th.

The World Series of Poker started out as a winner take-all event with $10,000 in chips. This Champion of Champions event followed the tradition. The opening blinds were $25 & $50 with one hour rounds. We battled for almost six hours the first day, finally getting down to the final ten when the blinds were $200 & $400 with a $25 Ante. Phil Hellmuth was determined to make the t.v. table and after 2005 champion, Joe Hachem went broke with slightly more chips than Phil, the poker brat got his wish. Of course he was down to less than $1500 in chips, and Doyle made a very humorous remark before play started the next day. He told Phil that this confirmed what he knew all along—Phil would do anything to make the t.v. table—lol. I wonder if the mike’s picked up Doyle ‘s remark—I guess we will have to wait and see. Doyle was in a humorous mood that day, he also said “Where are all the internet players—oh there he is.” He was referring to Peter Eastgate the youngest player at the table, and the reigning World Champion.

As luck would have it, Phil, by far the shortest stack, drew the big blind the very first hand. Carlos Mortensen who busted Phil when he won the 2001 championship did it again by raising on the first hand dealt, putting Phil all-in if he chose to call. Everyone passed to Phil who hemmed and hawed for a minute then said, (heck) he would have to call with practically any two cards and then did so with a suited Ten, Five. Surprisingly, Phil was not in that bad of shape as he was up against Carlos’s pocket deuces. However, as luck would have it the poker brat did not improve and was out on the first hand dealt. He was very gracious as he left the table, shaking everyone’s hand and wishing us all good luck.

Peter Eastgate went out a few hands later. He raised preflop with the 8,7 of spades and got reraised by 1995 champion Dan Harrington. Peter thought about it for awhile then made a play I would definitely not have made against Dan. He pushed all-in. Now Dan would not have reraised, in my opinion this early at the final table without a big hand, so this was definitely not the time to make this kind of move. Dan, rather humorously said, “Well everybody has to take a stand sometime,” and then called—with pocket Aces. He also said he wished he was up against a different type of hand before the flop and was proven right when the flop came down 8,6,5. Peter flopped a pair with an open ended straight draw and two cards to come. Yikes! Dan sweated it out and Peter got no help and went out in 9th place.

The tournament took a long time to finish, finally ending around 1:00 am in the 12th round of play with the blinds at $1000 & $2000 and a $300 ante. Along the way I eliminated Doyle in 8th place. Later on 1986 Champion Barry Johnson, short-stacked to begin with finally went broke to Carlos, soon followed by 1996 champion Huck Seed.

I was fortunate to win a few pots early against Carlos and knock his stack down considerably and became co-chip leader with Harrington. Carlos finally made top two pair against 1993 champion Jim Bechtel, but Jim had flopped a set and our opening chip leader went out in 5th place. Down to four players now, Robert Varkoni , the 2002 Champion, was the shortest stack and raised the pot to $3000, I was on the button with A,K offsuit and reraised to $9000. Bechtel in the Big Blind then pushed in for about $34,000, Varkoni quickly folded and it was up to me. In another article I will explain what went through my mind when I finally decided to make the call, but sometimes you make the wrong play at the right time and get lucky. Jim had pocket Kings and Robert said he had folded a suited Ace—Oops, I was in worse shape than I thought. However I admit the poker gods smiled on me this day, and the flop revealed one of the two remaining Aces in the deck. My hand held up and I now had over $100,000 of the $200,000 chips in play. I was in the lead the rest of the way, but Harrington and Varkoni were only one double up from taking the lead.

We played almost 3 hours 3 handed before I broke Dan Harrington with K,Q of diamonds vs his pocket nines. I called his all-in bet on an Ace, Queen flop, hoping he didn’t have an Ace. This time I was right and my pair held up.

If players were betting on Varkoni’s chances of making it to the finals and I would be his opponent, it would have been a very long shot indeed, but what our colleagues didn’t know was our mindset. I told the ESPN crew in my pre-tournament interview that nobody was more determined to win this event than me. I wanted to re-establish myself as a top notch player that could still compete against the toughest competition. I also felt that Robert Varkoni who played excellent the entire tournament had something to prove. He is a much underrated champion and he too wanted to gain some respect from his peers and I knew he would be tough to beat.

After I got heads up with Robert, I had almost a 3 to 1 lead, and I took nothing for granted and didn’t think I had it locked up. I was proved all too right as he won a whole series of pots right off the bat with his aggressive play and almost got even with me in the chip count. I started to battle back, and then we played a huge pot which put him all in. He was basically on a semi-bluff with a straight flush draw, but I had the top end of it blocked and had already made the nut straight, so he only had one out when he went all-in. My hand held up and I was the Champion of Champions. That is something I will cherish for the rest of my life. The older players clearly dominated the final table, and I have one last thing to say. “Old School Rocks!”

2009 WSOP Champions Invitational...

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:08:01 EDT

Here are a few of the key hands as Tom Battles On For The Win... Go Tom!
(hands courtesy of wsop.com)

McEvoy Eliminates Varkonyi, Wins Champions Invitational
And in just one more hand... over. The hand began modestly enough, with a limped flop of . Varkonyi bet 4,000 and McEvoy called. The turn was a dangerous . Varkonyi bet 8,000, McEvoy made it 16,000, Varkonyi pushed all in, and McEvoy quickly called. The hands: Varkonyi: McEvoy: Varkonyi seemed to have an open-ended straight flush draw but in reality had only one out -- the . No miracle here, as the fell instead and McEvoy wrapped up the title with the higher flush.

McEvoy Regains Edge
McEvoy took down four straight pots to again move out to a dominating lead. The biggest of the four began with McEvoy making a button raise to 5,000, with Varkonyi calling. The flop came , and Varkonyi made it 10,000. McEvoy quickly made it 20,000, and Varkonyiâ??s left leg quivered under the table as he weighed his options. Still, after only about 20 seconds, he tossed it away.

Harrington Busted in Third
1995 Main Event champion Dan Harrington busted in third place after committing himself preflop with , reraising over Tom McEvoy's opening raise for about half of his remaining 32,000 or so chips. McEvoy called, then checked to Harrington after the flop. Harrington pushed in his remaining 15,700, and McEvoy considered it at lengthy before calling with for middle pair. McEvoy's queens were good, as the turn and river came and to end Harringtons night. With the knockout, Level 11 drew to a close and McEvoy and Robert Varkonyi headed off for a 20-minute break. Official chip counts shortly.

Can't Buy This One
Tom McEvoy hung in a recent hand against Dan Harrington's action and took down a healthy pot as a reward. With over 7,000 in the middle, the flop came ; McEvoy checked, Harrington bet 4,000, and McEvoy called. The turn brought the . McEvoy checked again, and again Harrington fired, this time for 9,000. McEvoy called again after only a brief pause. The river was the . McEvoy checked again, but this time Harrington checked behind. McEvoy showed A-7 for two pair and Harrington mucked.

McEvoy Defends, Stretches Edge
After three straight hands where the button player won a small pot after a preflop or postflop raise, Tom McEvoy played back at Robert Varkonyi after Varkonyi made it 3,500 from the button. McEvoy repopped it to 10,500 and Varkonyi went away.

McEvoy Eliminates Bechtel in Fourth
Tom McEvoy has been running well, and it continued in the biggest hand of the tournament so far. With the blinds and antes at 500/1,000/100, Robert Varkonyi opened to 3,000 from under the gun. McEvoy made it 9,000 from the button, Dan Harrington folded his small blind, and Jim Bechtel announced a reraise from the big blind. Bechtel pondered, then made it a total of 29,000. Varkonyi quickly folded, and McEvoy paused for only a few moments before announcing "All in", Bechtel motioned with his hands as if, sure and announced his own all-in. The hands: McEvoy: Bechtel: Bechtel's call had been for his last 35,600, and McEvoy, with 47,700 over Bechtel's previous raise, had him slightly outchipped. Bechtel went stone-faced when the flop came to pair McEvoy's ace, with a large cheer erupting from McEvoy's rooting section. Bechtel was left drawing to the case king after the turn, and the river brought the instead. With the addition of some small pots at the expense of the other players, McEvoy has jumped to roughly 120,000 in chips and a commanding lead entering three-way play.

Doyle Brunson Departs in Eighth
Another three-way pot unfolded, and this one saw the exit of fan favorite Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson. Brunson, Tom McEvoy and Dan Harrington each saw a flop of , with nearly 7,000 in the pot at that point. Brunson led out for 7,000, McEvoy quickly made it 20,000, and Harrington folded. Brunson hesitated only a short time before pushing all in for a total of 16,275. He turned over for the flush draw against McEvoy's pocket jacks. The crowd exhorted a heart from the deck but neither that nor an ace would appear, with the turn the and the river the . Brunson exited to the largest round of applause on the day.

Poker Lesson #4 Deep Stack Tournaments...

Tue, 19 May 2009 17:34:33 EDT

Deep Stack Tournaments are when you start with a large number of chips in relation to the starting blinds For example: a typical deep stack tournament might start you with 10k in chips and the blinds at 25/50.

It makes very little sense in a "DST" to take big risks when the blinds are so small in relation to the chips in play. A better strategy would be to see flops as inexpensive as possible unless you have big starting hands such as AK KK, in that case you may want to push it more.

One of the strategies I like to avoid is playing any big pots early in the tournament without having the nuts or something very close to it.

One of the strategies that has been widely implemented lately is small ball poker, this means your trying to play more hands, seeing the flop cheap with hands like suited connectors and small pairs. Your trying to take a marginal hand and hit the flop big time with it, that way you can milk it for all it's worth. This is alot more effective in the early rounds of a tournament when the blinds are small...you don't want to be doing this as mush in the later stages of the tournament when blinds and high and antes are in play.

So the strategy is to limp more and make smaller pre flop raises, maybe min-raise or bet 2.5X the blind. You are trying to build the pot, but you want to build it slowly. You are typically doing this in position where you can out flop or out play your opponents. This style is similar to what Gus Hanson and Daniel Negrauno play, trying to pick up alot of small pots.

With the WSOP just around the corner you need to mix up your play so you create confusion among your opponents as to what your strategy is. The best way to do that is to do the mini raises some times and not show a consistent betting pattern like we mentioned in earlier poker lessons.

Good Luck on the Felt!
Tom

Adventures in the EPT "San Remo, Italy"...

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:03:26 EDT

I arrived in San Remo on 4/16/2009 and got right into the tournament on 4/18/2009...The first day I doubled up to 21,000 and went into day two with an average size chip stack. I found my way through day two and had 51,500 chips going into day three. I was a below average stack but was a favorite to get into the money.

However I made a play against a very loose player with alot of chips who just called an all in and busted another player with 97o (so he was a gambler). So my play was quite risky but I had been through the blinds twice and not seen any cards. The blinds were 2000 and 4000...me small blind and the maniac in the big blind. So my thought was that if could pick up the blinds once I could make it into the money. I looked down and had A4o and I moved in hoping for a fold but not expecting one. Fortunatley for me he folded and then I got moved to another table right after the break.

My last hand went down like this... I had KcQc in the small blind and made a call from another player who raised. The flop came down with an A and two clubs, so my thought was if the other player doesn't have an A he can't call if I bet here...so I shoved with the draw. If he did have an Ace, I still had close to a 40% chance to win, and I couldn't check to him and let him take the pot. So I shoved and he called with his A10, but I picked up 3 extra outs when he also hit the 10 on the turn. Needless to say I didn't hit the straight or the flush, so much for my 12 outs. I finished the tournament 107th (in the money) out of 1178 starters.

More soon on my adventures in Slovania next blog.
Good Luck on the Felt!
Tom

Ceasars Dream Team Poker Championship...

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:58:04 EDT

Ceasars Palace came up with yet another exciting tournamnet, The Dream Team Poker Championship. The concept consisted of 148 three man teams, totaling 444 players vying for the team championship as well as individual honors and prizes. Each player posted the $500 buy in which created a prize pool of $220,000. This was a rather unique concept because the fewest points won. So if you went out in 444th place you received 444 points, so the team with the lowest team score won.

They also had a unique scoring system, the worst finished on your team score was throw out so only the two best finishes counted. I participated as a member of PIC Club which is the legal way to fund online poker accounts from the US and abroad. My teammates were Kathy Liebert and T.J. Cloutier.

T.J and Kathy both went out early so I had my work cut out for me. We could not win as a team at this point, so I was playing for the 40% of the prize money that went to individual players.
The winning team consisted of 2006 world champion Jamie Gold and his girlfriend Ashley Nataupsky, Jamie taking 9th place and Ashley taking 4th.

As for me, your truly, I battled my way to the final table where I managed a disappointing 6th place finish. The blinds were up to 20k and 40k and I was getting short stacked. So I gambled when the one player who barely had me covered shoved all in...I did the same with my A7 only to find that he had 1010 and it held up. C'est la vie!

Good Luck on the Felt!
Tom