Daniel Negreanu To Take On Viktor Blom (Isildur1)



A SuperStar Showdown between Daniel Negreanu and Viktor Blom has been announced on PokerStars. This epic match of 2,500 hands played on 4 tables at a time will take place on March 20, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. EST. The stakes are minimum $50-$100.

I know that Daniel Negreanu has been practicing his heads-up multi-tabling skills a lot lately. I follow his twitter feed and he has been announcing every time he is going to hit the poker tables during his lead-up to playing Isildur1. It should be an interesting match between the enormously successful poker veteran and the young cash game poker sensation. Check it out on March 20th on PokerStars.

Erik Seidel Wins Heads-Up Poker Championship

Erik Seidel, the hottest player in no-limit hold'em at the moment, won the NBC National Head-Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas. He defeated Chris Moneymaker in the finals in a best of 3 match. Seidel has already won $4.3 million in 2011 and it is still only March! Most poker players would dream of making that amount of money in their entire career. It is simply an amazing feat.

I will get on my soapbox one more time about this old players versus young players argument that just never seems to go away. See my earlier post pertaining to the subject. I will simply say here that Erik Seidel is 51 years old and is currently obliterating everyone in his path. Also, I don't consider 51 old by any means. Maybe that was old several decades ago, but not in 2011.Chalk ANOTHER one up for the "old" guys. Congratulations Erik!

Younger Players Versus Older Players in Poker

Many players, such as Daniel Negreanu, insist at almost every opportunity that young players have some special inside track to dominating the world of no-limit hold'em. There is no denying that the young players have exploded on the poker scene and are definitely are some of the best in the world. Some of them are simply phenomenal. As their numbers continue to swell I do believe that you will see them winning more and more poker tournaments.

I am not taking anything away from the the young poker pros. I am just saying that I don't see any connection between age and the ability to play excellent poker. It is not brain surgery. Actually, I'd probably prefer my brain surgeon be 55 and not 25! Let's say that is not like running the 100 yard dash, but you know at my "advanced" age I feel confident I can take the majority of most young poker pros in their 20's. So that's not a good analogy either. The point is that there is no reason that poker pros of all ages can't meet on a level playing field.

There are many characteristics that make up a good hold'em tournament pro: stamina, the ability to handle stress, deception, staying calm after a bad beat, math ability, confidence, bluffing ability, etc. I don't see where any of these relate to age. I can see if someone is very unhealthy physically or they have lost their mental edge then the argument might have some merit. Negreanu went as far as to say that it was a "scientific fact" that younger players have an advantage. That "scientific" theory seems to be on pretty shaky ground if you point to the recent tournament successes of many of the "old school" poker pros. Look at Erik Seidel. Didn't Carlos Mortensen just finish third in the L.A. Poker Classic? Didn't the 64 year old Barry Schulman defeat Daniel Negreanu to win the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event? How did that happen? Then Schulman goes on to finish 3rd in the PokerStars Carribean Adventure three months later? Impossible!

I could cite countless examples of recent success by the old guard. My main point is that as the younger pros start to take over poker there is still PLENTY of room for players in their 40's, 50's, and 60's to achieve success in the poker world. I can admire the poker prowess of the some of the younger players while at the same time taking issue with the "fact" that age is a critical factor in playing great poker. I just don't see it.

Full Tilt Poker Vs. PokerStars

Having played online poker for almost a year I've had a chance to compare the two largest online poker sites. Both poker sites offer plenty of options for MTT poker players. I like both sites. There are a couple of small advantages I see with Full Tlit:

1. Hand Replayer - The software on Full Tilt for replaying past hands is far superior on Full Tilt. It is MUCH faster than PokerStars. For some reason on PokerStars you must click through each card being dealt then antes, etc.  It is very cumbersome and takes up valuable time when trying to analyze a poker hand and take notes on your opponents.

2. $2-$3 Tournaments: Sometimes you just feel like playing a small field (75-300 players) $2-$3 MTT to get some practice or build your bankroll while minimizing your risk. These are easy to find on Full Tilt but are nonexistent on PokerStars. I guess you can just always play a SNG tournament of a similar size on PokerStars so this is not really a critical issue.

3. Sizing Tables: On Full Tilt Poker I am able to make a table take up my entire monitor if I desire. This is great if you are not multi-tabling. I know it is hard to believe, but not everybody multi-tables all the time. On PokerStars the tables have a fixed width and are not able to fill up my entire widescreen computer monitor.

The last two items are not probably not major issues for most online poker players, but I really do think that the better software for replaying previous hands can be a major issue for some. I use both sites and will continue to do so. Fell free to chime in with advantages or disadvantages you see with either online poker site.

Vanessa Rousso Boot Camp

Just a quick post about the Vanessa Rousso poker course I attended in Biloxi. She is very energetic and passed on some valuable information about sizing up your opponents and looking for tells at the poker table. Chad Brown (her husband) appeared for a couple of minutes on his way to play a tournament in the adjacent room. Chad Brown is also a very successful poker professional and is considered one of the better all-around players in the different variations of poker.

I don't think it would be right to go into any real details of the information she presented since she charges for her seminars. I learned a lot of things that I would never have thought of before attending her course. She told an interesting story about playing in the $25,000 World Poker Tour event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas a few years ago. She financed her entry fee by selling "shares" in herself. If she did good in this major poker tournament then she would make poker her career. If she didn't do well then she would finish law school. She finished 7th in Las Vegas and took home over $250,000 and the rest is history.

Won PokerStars Satellite to Vanessa Rousso Boot Camp in Biloxi!

I saw that PokerStars was offering a satellite to Vanessa Rousso's poker course being held on 9/2/10 "Poker Tells and Reading People" I decided to give it a shot today. It cost about $26 for a chance to win a seat to the $399 poker seminar. I took it down by finishing off my final opponent with A-A vs. 6-6.

So it's off to to the Beau Rivage Casino in Biolxi to attend Vanessa Rousso's poker course! Looking forward to meeting one of the top tournament poker pros and getting some help for my live game; most of my experience has been so far has been online.

2nd Place in the Daily Dollar!

After playing online poker for about 7 months I finished 2nd in Full Tilt's Daily Dollar! It is a $10,000 guarantee no-limit hold'em tournament with first place paying $1,599. My prize was $1,215. There were 7,670 players and it took about 9 hours to complete. I agreed to a deal offer from the other player. He had 14,000,000 chips and I had 8,000,000 chips at the time we stopped play.

During the early stages of the tournament there was a lot of craziness and it was tough to survive the frequent ALL-IN's and donk-style of play from many of the entrants. But as the tournament entered the late stages I noticed a dramatic increase in the skill level of the remaining players.

It was a definite confidence booster. I honestly wonder if it is more difficult to win a low entry-fee tournament with a huge field such as the Daily Dollar or a high-cost, higher skilled tournament. The Daily Dollar is crammed full of maniacs and donks and therefore I believe that it is more dangerous in the the early stages than the higher dollar tourneys. Danger lurks around every corner and you can't fold every strong hand to the frequent pre-flop shoves from opponents with marginal or downright crappy hands. Obviously, the higher dollar tournaments require more skill in the later stages but I believe are less dangerous early. So maybe it is a wash. What do you think? I think both arguments have merit. In any case it was nice to get down to the final two players of a tournament with such a large field.