Week 10 - Poker In The Pit

The event got an amazing 6865 runners all paying $10,000 each to get a total prize pool of over $64,500,000. Phil Hellmuth also exited earlier than hoped but did still cash at $27,000 for his time.

We all know by now that Phil Ivey is not competing in this years WSOP in what is described as a bid to distance his self from the controversy surrounding the death of Full Tilt poker, but that has not affected this years tournament.

The current chip leader is Ryan Leganhan with 12,800,000 chips as the reaches level 26 with 25,000/50,000 blinds and a 5,000 ante, whilst Sebastian Ruthenberg from London is low stacked at just 890,000 chips.

Next week, along with this year’s WSOP champion I’ll bring you all the news of all the hands that counted.

Now for this week’s questions.

I had $50 on Full Tilt and now the site isn’t working? Will I get my money back? Peter Horne, Worksop

Honestly Peter, who knows? Full Tilt is (or was) the biggest online site going that was a regular sponsor of the world series and and of the big poker players such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Mike Mattesow and many more.

There is much speculation into what actually happened to Full Tilt but the common idea is that they have been involved in large amounts of money laundering by setting up hundreds of fake businesses.

All we know for sure is that the site is down and the authorities are holding a legal investigation. All I can say is that it seems unlikely that you will ever see the $50 again and the whole episode could be the death of online poker.

I have lost a couple of hundred dollars with Full Tilt and surprisingly count myself to be lucky as I have friends who play online far more than live and they have thousands of dollars floating through the airwaves with no information from anyone.

I do know that Pokerstars have seen a 5 per cent increase in players since the death of Full Tilt so that does show that many are not put off all internet gaming sites from this.

My advice is to keep playing the other sites but whenever you win, cash out.

That way if this does become more widespread then you will lose minimum. As far as we know the incident is isolated to Full Tilt and Full Tilt alone.

How could I spot Aces against my Kings pre-flop? Sarah Butcher, Retford

A tricky one to spot for even the most intuative player. Watch the table closely and see how opponents play AA compared to other hands.

Most players will not want to ‘ship’ (go all in) pre-flop but would sooner play for value. If you have KK raise. If you are met by a re-raise then raise again.

If this is then met by another re-raise you should probably think about laying down the hand. Or if the re-raise is small enough flat call and play from the flop. Even if this player doesn’t have AA you have to give them credit for a hand so see if they slow down as the hand progresses. KK vs AA is rare but it does happen so always be on alert.

I had 56 suited and flopped a full house, I checked to induce a raise but ended up checking to the river and won minimal. How do I get paid on a big hand? John Potter, Dinnington.

Simple, keep raising. You can only find out where you are in a hand by raising to ask the question. If you raised pre-flop especially the raise on the flop could never have looked like 56 so you’re probably getting a call from most draws and over cards.

The fact you checked to the river gave your opponent a chance to hit his cards for free so when he misses you get no value.

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO EMAILED QUESTIONS AND MAKES THIS BLOG POSSIBLE. I AM NOW ON TWITTER IF YOU SHOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW @nickpokertyler

Until next week, good luck at the tables.