I made it into the money with a lot of chips and then lost most of them when I ran pocket queens into pocket kings. But I stayed patient, was opportunistic, and rebuilt. Once again, the experience reminded me about what I love about playing tournament poker online. I enjoy the mental challenge, of having skills and using them, of not necessarily having everything go right but staying in the hunt, scheming and slugging away.

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This was the kind of tournament poker that I enjoyed playing. Managing a big stack, being active, picking up small pots, losing some small pots, getting paid in big pots. Until very late in a tournament, that is the payoff for being aggressive. It isn’t the bluffs or the steals, but the presumption that I can’t have it if I am playing so many hands.  I have to keep control by picking my spots and managing the hands in which it does NOT work out, but it’s beautiful when I’m in the flow.

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You know what I would really get a kick out of doing? I sometimes imagine that I have the power, charisma, trust, and ability to accomplish unusual challenges, and it would be awesome to arrange a meeting between the world’s most successful gambler and the world’s most successful businessman. I know what you’re thinking: Geez, Craig, is your ego big enough? Do you think the world revolves around you and that you also control the tides? But think about what it would be like if such a meeting did occur?

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The only time I doubt my love for poker is when I doubt poker loves me. With the heavy action taking place 5,100 miles away, and personally being mired in a two-month (or is it six-month? or twelve-month?) slump, I had serious doubts. When I trudged to my computer on October 1 just after dawn – okay, it was really 1pm – it was as much out of habit and duty as love.

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The third World Series of Poker-Europe is now history. Congratulations to WSOP-Europe Champion Barry Shulman and everyone who turned in a great performance in London. I’m disappointed that I missed the action because it sounded fun and exciting. (Thanks to WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla and Pokernews for updates.) From my remote location in Scottsdale, Arizona, my favorite story of the Series – though Barry Shulman’s victory was plenty exciting – was Howard Lederer’s close call for his third bracelet. Continue reading »

Howard Lederer finished runner-up on Friday night in London to Jani Vilmunen in WSOP-E’s £5,000 PLO. I know how Howard has been burning to win another World Series bracelet. He’s beyond needing the money or even the recognition. Because I’ve watched him at close quarters for five years, I’ve concluded that there is only one person to whom he feels a need to prove something: himself. And he has set the bar high for self-satisfaction.

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I get asked all the time to play in private tournaments on Full Tilt. I try to say yes as much as I can – as a worthy ambassador of the site and because I host private tournaments for charity (the next one is coming in November) – but I get asked so often that I have to say no more than I say yes.

But on this particular occasion, Dom from ThePotKings.com asked if I could play in his group’s 6-handed knock-out tournament and I agreed. I didn’t have plans to leave my office soon, I wasn’t in a lot of tournaments, and I had some plans to play later but not where I couldn’t juggle my other tournament obligations with this private tournament.

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From my house in Scottsdale, Arizona – from my office on the north side of the house to be exact – it is 5,258 miles, 4,060 feet, and 4 inches to the south entrance of Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, London, England. (If you are reading this from outside the United States, that’s 8,463.168 kilometers. By the way, if you are from one of the 180 or so countries that relies on the metric system, leave a comment or email me at mrchaotic@aol.com. I am sitting here, 8,000 kilos from the action because Full Tilt doesn’t believe you exist in sufficient numbers.) Thanks to the internet and sites like Google Maps Distance Calculator, the world can seem like a small place. But right now, with the third World Series of Poker-Europe underway, the world seems as large as it was to peasants during the Middle Ages who thought if you traveled too far you would sail off the edge of the earth into The Abyss, or, worse, into the jaws of The Dragon.

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I recently received an e-mail from a Full Tilt player named Greg telling me that he and his wife had been watching me play on Full Tilt for several days. They said they enjoyed it, but were disappointed that they never got to see my cards “when you call on the river.” He wanted to know if that was “standard for the pros, so we will not know what you called with.” He was hoping to learn from my playing.

I emailed him back to explain that was not the case and how seeing cards at showdown worked, live and online. Our exchange brought up some useful points that I thought would be worth describing here.

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Steve Zolotow hosted a mini-FTOPS event several days ago. I monitored his Pro Chat and asked three questions early. I expected him to be smart, witty, and irreverent. I was not disappointed.

He answered questions for several hours, longer than I lasted in the tournament. What follows are my questions and Steve’s answers, along with a sampling of other subjects from the chat.

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