Tag Archives: Phil Hellmuth

On Different Views and Scenarios

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Hi,

I have several questions to ask. Hope you have time. Thanks in advance!

  1. In NL100, I oftentimes witness players buying in with $10, $15, $20 or may be $40. Well, I believe playing the short stack has its own advantages. However, I’m wondering if how should I deal and play with it when I have a full buy-in, at least. Any idea?

    Consider that I was in early position and with 88 I limped in. At middle position, with $20, I folded to a short stack. Such player raised to $4 and everyone else folded including both the small and big blinds. It was then my turn, but I don’t know what to do. I was considering if I’d call his raise or just re-raise him. If I’d call his raise, it would be a goodbye for my set on the flop and if I’d re-raise him, he might opt to go all in. At some point, I thought of folding. What do you think? I’m really sick and tired playing at a table full of short stacks, any advice?

  2. I really wonder if there’s any difference playing at NL tournaments than at cash games. I believe in NL tournaments, I have to lose first a lot of chips before I could have my set. And in a cash game, you can always reload, and there is always a chance to win back any losses.

    Because of the difference, I just always try to play big pairs and AK, AQ and may be KQ and AJ. I’ve always stayed away from suited connectors. And typically, I’m on all-in or fold mode. And in the event my hands are hold up, I go back to average or even above average at the later stage of the game. But sadly, I always end up with the least chips. Any advice for me? Is there any specific hand I should play?

  3. Professionals at High Stakes Poker on GSN tend to always play very loose cash games. In fact, there was one player who raises with A4o. He was then called by someone with K9s. Flop came and brought 9. The player with K9s earlier thought he had the best hand. I don’t know what’s going on. I believe they were just playing loosely then.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Raymond Feld
Raymond,

  1. Players with short stacks are going to try and push with big hands and try and double up. My suggestion is to try and play small ball poker and keep the pot small. The other option is to be aggressive and raise more often than normal and get out the way when they push with big hands.
  2. Tournaments are very different than cash games. You have to change your starting hand requirements based on what position that you are in on the table. I would recommend picking up a book or DVD on Texas Holdem. Phil Hellmuth and Howard Lederer have good DVD’s but Dan Harrington’s Harrington on Holdem is the best set of tournament books you can buy.
  3. Players on High Stakes Poker are very loose and very aggressive with their hands. You will also notice big fluctuations with their stacks overall. Watch some of the better players like Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, David Benyamine, and Jennifer Harman and you will see a good mix between loose and solid. Overall, those 4 are usually among the biggest winners around. This year Phil Ivey and David Benyamine are #1 and #2 in amount won online on Full Tilt Poker.

John Bonetti

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John Bonetti is one of the few poker champions that started playing poker later in life. For most of his young life, John was a property manager in New York. He had moved to Houston, TX and was getting ready to retire when one of his co-workers introduced John to poker. John took a liking to the game and started to work on improving. John did not have a formal education but admitted that he did various mental exercises to help get his mind sharp and to improve his concentration.

John cashed in his very first Main Event in 1987 and then again in 1989. 1990 saw John win his first bracelet when he won the $5,000 2-7 Draw event for $83,250. He would win his second bracelet in 1993 when he won the $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem event. His third bracelet would come in 1995, again in 2-7 Draw. He would also cash in the Main Event in 1992, 1993, and 1996. He finished in 3rd in both 1993 and 1996.

In total, John won 41 different events over the years including wins at tournaments such as the Diamond Jim Brady, Orleans Open, World Poker Finals, Legends of Poker, and the LA Poker Classic. He also took numerous titles in events at the United States Poker Championship and even won the Main Event of the now defunct Four Queens Poker Classic in 1993. He also finished 2nd in the 1999 United States Poker Championship Main Event behind Daniel Negreanu. In total John won over $4.1 Million in live tournaments. The most amazing thing about this was that after the age of 54.

John was as well known for his demeanor at the table as for his play, but in a bad way. He was very abusive to dealers, especially if he was given a bad beat. He received numerous penalties for swearing and even received one for swearing away from the table. He was disqualified from a Omaha Hi-Lo tournament in 2006 when a floorperson thought that John had swore at him, although it was hotly denied. However, his behavior up to that point was enough to warrant penalty so the disqualification stood.

As venomous as John was at the table, he was also said to have a heart of gold. He was known to take hard luck cases under his wing and served as a mentor to many players. John’s last really successful year was 2006 when he cashed 11 times in tournaments, including 3 at the WSOP. He also made 4 final tables at Winning ‘O’ the Green at The Bike in Los Angeles. His best finish was 3rd in a Limit Holdem event where Michael and Eric Mizrachi finished first and second. John Bonetti was 78 at the time.

Sadly, John had been battling health problems on and off for many years and he passed away June 27, 2008. The World Series of Poker made an announcement before the beginning of play and held a moment of silence for the fallen champion. Phil Hellmuth gave interviews and wrote on his blog about his memories regarding John and the great person he was.

John Bonetti may not have been the most pleasant man at the table, but there was no denying his talent. He proved to everyone that age does not matter in the game of poker as long as your mind is sharp. John Bonetti was a poker champion during the years that many people would spend in retirement. We should all be lucky to have a long and as productive a career as he had.

Russ Hamilton

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Russ Hamilton started his gambling career in back room poker rooms. He originally was attending college before he discovered that he could make a much better living as a professional gambler. He played in games around the Detroit, MI area until he was around 36 years old when he moved to Las Vegas.

Initially his career in Vegas started as a blackjack player, but over time he lost action when pro blackjack players were banned from tournaments. At this point, he returned to poker to make his living. He had a few cashes around Vegas and LA but it wasn’t until the 1994 that he accomplished his greatest feats in poker during the World Series of Poker.

Hamilton had a very strong start to his 1994 WSOP. He made the final tables of the $1,500 and $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha events. He finished 7th and 4th respectively. Although this netted him over $35,000, his greatest feat was still to come during the series.

The final table of the 1994 World Series of Poker drew 268 entrants. The winner of the event would receive $1 Million. 1994 was the 25th Anniversary of the event and as Binions agreed to also away the winner his weight in Silver. The final table of the event included John Spadavecchia, Vince Burgio, Al Krux, Robert Turner and Hugh Vincent.

The final two players came down to Russ Hamilton and Hugh Vincent. Jack Binion was told that the heads up final was starting and he asked the weight of the two men. When he was told that Hamilton was 330 pounds at the time, Binion went down to rail Vincent.
In the end Hamilton came out on top against Vincent and took home the $1 Million top prize and $30,000 in silver. Hamilton shared years later that he ended up selling the silver back to Binions as to avoid having to pay the fees from storing the silver.

After winning the event, Hamilton really has only had one substantial payday at the tables since. He has won a few events, but they have been events at smaller tournaments through the country and around the world. His largest score after 1994 was in 2005 when he took 59th in the 2005 WSOP Main Event. This was the year Joe Hachem took home $7.5 Million for first. 59th paid an astounding $145,875. To date that is Hamilton’s 2nd largest payday.

Hamilton’s contributions off the table have been noteworthy as well. He was the founder of UltimateBet.com and also founded the Ultimate Blackjack Tour. UltimateBet is the site endorsed by top pros Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. The UBT has been a showcase for many professional blackjack players.

Hamilton has been in the news a lot recently due to a cheating scandal involving UltimateBet.com. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission conducted an investigation and has specifically singled out Russ Hamilton as one of the primary culprits of this scandal. Investigations are ongoing and nothing has been finalized. However, if this proves true this like put an end to Hamilton’s championship career.

Robert Varkonyi

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Robert Varkonyi is probably one of the more improbably poker champions in history. He was born in 1961 in New York. He got his start playing poker while attending MIT and was coached by J.P. Massur, who is known as being the founder of the infamous MIT Blackjack team.

According to his website, his first success in poker was making a final table in a preliminary event at the 2000 United States Poker Championships in Atlantic City. He finished in 10th for $1,266 and until 2002 was his only professional poker cash. In 2000, Varkonyi won his way into the World Series of Poker Main Event via a $1,000 satellite that he was able to take down. 631 players entered the Main Event that year and at the time it was the largest prize pool to ever be offered in a poker tournament. First place would receive $2 Million.

Varkonyi’s favorite hand is the Q-10 and he was successfully able to eliminate former World Champion Phil Hellmuth during the event with the hand. Afterwards, Hellmuth stated that he would shave his head if Varkonyi found a way to win the Main Event. Varkonyi was a rank amateur and nobody gave him a chance to win. Gabe Kaplan actually talked Hellmuth into actually making this a prop bet after Varkonyi made the final table of the WSOP. Later, it was decided that if this happened, Hellmuth would donate his hair to be auctioned off at charity.

Varkonyi then did the improbable. He made it heads up with Julian Gardner. In the final hand, Varkonyi’s Q-10 outdrew Gardner’s J-9 and Varkonyi took down the Main Event title. Hellmuth was true to his word and had his head shaved. To Varkonyi’s credit, he was willing to let Phil out of the bet, but Phil insisted on going on with it since it would be for charity.

This victory was considered to be the biggest fluke of all time for the Main Event. Although Hal Fowler was the first amateur to win the event, due to the size of the field and Varkonyi’s overall experience, this was considered a bigger upset win. The very next year, Varkonyi’s status as a fluke seemed to be solidified when he was eliminated in short order on Day 1 of the 2004 Main Event. Later that year, another amateur would go on to win the Main Event. Chris Moneymaker would take a $40 satellite online and turn it into over $2 Million. Unlike Varkonyi’s victory, which drew scorn and outright ridicule, Moneymaker’s victory ushered in the current poker boom.

After winning the Main Event in 2002, he has never been able to really accomplish much else in poker He was able to take down a celebrity tournament the month after he won the Main Event, but afterwards he has only managed 5 tournament cashes in the last 5 years combined. In 2007, Varkonyi cashed at the WSOP for the first time since 200 when he finished 177th in the Main Event.

Sometimes poker players have flashes of brilliance and then are not really heard from again. Poker is a game where anyone has a shot to win depending on the cards. The story of Robert Varkonyi is more the story about what can happen when the right circumstances fall into place. Regardless, Robert Varkonyi is still a World Champion of Poker, which is a title that he will hold for the rest of his life.

Johnny Chan

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Johnny Chan moved to the United States with his family in 1968. In 1973, his family moved to Houston, TX because his family owned restaurants there. Originally Chan had intended to go into the restaurant business but a visit to Vegas when he was 16 changed his mind. By the time he was 21, he left the University of Houston and became a professional gambler.

Chan rose to prominence in poker in 1987 when he won the World Series of Poker Main Event. That year he outlasted a final table that included Bob Ciaffone, Howard Lederer and Dan Harrington. The top prize for his finish that year was $625,000. This was Chan’s second bracelet at the time as he had won the $1,000 Limit Holdem bracelet in 1985. The very next year, the scene that was immortalized in the movie Rounders took place. He was heads-up again for the Main Event title against Erik Seidel. Chan slow played his straight to perfection and when Seidel went all-in Chan pounced and took home his 2nd Main Event title. The very next year, Chan nearly made it three in a row before losing to a young Phil Hellmuth. Chan was the last player to win back to back Main Event titles.

In total, Chan holds 10 World Series of Poker bracelets. Four of his bracelets are in NL Holdem, two are in Pot Limit Omaha, and he has one each in Limit Holdem, 2-7 Lowball, 7 Card Stud, and Pot Limit Holdem.

All of Chan’s major tournament wins have occurred at the World Series of Poker. He has wins in several other events including the Legends of Poker, the defunct Hall of Fame Poker Classic, and the also defunct Super Bowl of Poker. He also has three victories in on NBC’s Poker After Dark series. Chan has admitted in the past that he doesn’t play as many events as he has in the past so that he can focus and compete harder in the ones he plays in. He is still a force at the table finishing 4th in Event 28 at this years WSOP and making a deep run in both the World Championship Mixed Event and the Main Event at the WSOP.

Outside of poker, Chan owns a fast food restaurant in the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. He also has aspirations of someday owning a casino. He has served as a consultant to both casinos and game makes. In addition, he has been a regular author, writing columns for Card Player and Trader Monthly magazines. He opened his own online poker room in 2007 called Chanpoker.com. Unfortunately, the site never really took off and was closed in August 2008. Chan has also had two books released. The first is Play Poker Like Johnny Chan, and the other is Million Dollar Holdem: Winning Big in Limit Cash Games.

Whether in the card room, on the big screen, or on television, Johnny Chan is a name that transcends poker. He is only one bracelet away from tying Phil Hellmuth for the all-time lead. As Norman Chad likes to say, “He’s Johnny Chan. His name even sounds like a poker player. Johnny Chan.” He has recently turned 51, so he still has many good years left in him. Don’t be surprised if in a couple of years if Hellmuth is chasing Johnny Chan.