Good Ol’ Poker
Description
Join the table and prepare to take on the greatest card-slingers in the West.
Instructions
Welcome to Good Ol’ Poker, the classic game of 5 card stud, but with some twists. To start things off, pick a character that will represent you in the game. Each character has unique attributes (like aggressiveness of play style or cheat ability) and special ability (like the ability to peek into opponents cards). The purpose of the game is to get the best score (amount of money) in a poker round. A round consists of 15 hands. The hand is a classic set of dealing, betting and drawing. You can use your character’s special ability to cheat in the game, but only when the Confidence bar is loaded to maximum. The bar loads 10 per cent each hand and 35 per cent when you win a hand. Use your ability very carefully, as sometimes the opponents will notice that something is wrong! Good luck!
Gus Hansen
Gustav Hanson was born in Denmark and is 30 years old at the time this is being written (2004). He was originally a professional backgammon player but has moved to poker and quickly become a celebrity. Many world-class backgammon players have moved to poker and become successful. Backgammon requires many of the same skills as poker, including calculating percentages and making challenging decisions.
In the last two years, Gus has become well recognized (and rich) due to his four appearances at final tables on the World Poker Tour. He has won over 1.5 million dollars in these WPT events, more than any other player in the world. Gus makes an otherwise often mundane game very interesting to watch. He is certainly the focus of the entire table whenever he sits down.
Gus appears to play horrible poker. He bets at the wrong time with nothing in his hand. He bullies the other players and keeps them off-guard with every bet. He takes advantage of other players by knowing exactly how they will react to any bet. The other players always seem to be amazed at how lucky he is, but Gus makes his own luck by only going to the showdown with his good hands and bluffing players out with his bad hands. Couple this unpredictable talent with his mathematical genius and you have a player to be feared, even by professionals.
Gus takes a lot of chances other players are afraid to take, which makes him fun to watch. Not every player can play this style successfully though. When Gus makes a wild bet, he has a plan. He is exploring the other player’s hands. Occasionally this style of play will go very wrong, but Gus’ success proves it can be profitable if played with skill and guts.
(Source: professional-poker.com)
Clonie Gowen
Clonie Gowen was born Cycalona Gowen during the powerful storm that took over in Oklahoma which served as the inspiration for her name. She became a professional poker player while taking a vocational scuba diving trip to Costra Rica. It was then when she joined the World Poker Tour Season One tournament for $500 and finished in tenth place in the money which earned her a seat at the invitational WPT’s Ladies Night where she overcame many accomplished players to elevate into the spotlight.
While in high school, Gowen won Miss Teen Oklahoma at age 15, she was a varsity basketball player, and a high jump track star. She was introduced to playing poker by her boyfriend’s father and the competitive woman she is, she prevailed in yet another sport. Clonie Gowen opened a travel agency which quickly spread to two locations, and later sold it and moved to being a full-time poker pro.
In 2005 Las Vegas found Gowen at third place in the $20,000 No Limit Hold’em FullTiltPoker.Net Championship where she took home $99,000. In the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em Ultimate Poker Challenge tournament she placed in seventh and at the WPT Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, she finished 31st with $14,987 in the $9,700 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event. Once again in Las Vegas she reached fourth place in the Fourth Annual Five Diamond World Poker Classic $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event and in 2006’s Full Tilt Poker Pro Showdown she made her mark again at third bringing in $120,000.
At the Ultimate Poker Challenge Clonie Gowen was a guest commentator, as well as in The Gaming Club World Poker Championship and the 888.com Women’s Poker UK Open. All In magazine holds her as a regular columnist and at the United States Poker Association, a non-profit organization; she is a member of the Board of Directors. The cameras love Gowen and she often hosts tournaments.
As of 2006, her total live tournament winnings exceed $300,000.
(Source: pokerteam.com)
My 10 poker tips
In this article I want to share a few poker tips, on which I have lately built up a successful strategy at online poker tables.
1) How much you care your money – Everyone likes to win of course, but the important thing is that you don’t go mad if unluckily you lose. DON’T TILT!
2) How much you care your hands – All we hope to win with a good hand. But pay attention to the board, calculate odds and throw away those wild cowboys if necessary.
3) Spend time in training – You are an athlete and you must train. The more you train, the more the experience you get, the more the chance your play improves.
4) Read books – Well actually it’s part of training.
5) Keep track of your session results – It will help to control your profit/loss status and, at the same time, to evaluate if the poker strategy or specific technique you are adopting is better than another one.
6) Patience – Patience is perhaps the best skill, and for sure the most important, of a professional player. Not just patience to wait the right hand for winning the pot, but also patience to accept losses as a part of life, finding inside yourself the ability to use them at your advantage. Expect to experience several losses at poker tables and remember that, often, losses come before huge gains.
7) Don’t play too many hands and don’t exceed your prefixed budget – Choose a number of hands you are willing to play before you start your poker session and break as often as necessary to regain energy in your play. Many pro have their opinion on this. For example Annie Duke suggests to use the 30 bet Rule, that means never lose more than 30 big bets in a game. By limiting your losses to 30 big bets, you are effectively minimizing the time you spend playing poorly, maximizing the amount of time you spend playing your premium game.
8 ) When the ship starts to sink, don’t wait, jump! – It’s an axiom for many traders in finance. Make this sentence yours as well.
9) (NOT FOR ALL) Play sometimes what I call unrational poker or when playing 7-2 is the good thing to do – Sometimes it may be very fruitful, especially if your opponents are particularly emotional.
10) … and always it is true that if you can’t spot the easy target at your first half hour at the table, then you are the easy target.