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I played Anaconda all through high school in home games in the Albany, New York area. It was the only “pass the trash” game that I was familiar with back then. I wrote about it here on Poker News a while back. It was a great game and I still like playing it from time to time.

It wasn’t until I was a happily married man and living in Boston that I discovered another version of the game – a bolder version frankly – that is a variant of stud poker. It’s called “Push” or, if you’re so inclined “Screw Your Neighbor”.

There are many variants of this game – but my favorite, and the one I think of as the most cutthroat, is 5-card Push, hi-lo, with a “replace” on the end. Here’s how it’s played.

The game is dealt like 5-card stud. Each player ends up with one down card and four up cards. There is an initial betting round after players have their first two cards – one down and one up. They then get three more up cards, dealt one at a time, with a betting round after each card. But there is a twist in how the first upcard of each round gets awarded.

After one downcard is dealt to each player, the dealer deals an upcard to the player to his immediate left. The player may keep it and his initial down card or push it or his downcard to the player on his immediate left. If he pushes either card to his left then the player on his left has the option of keeping the card or pushing it or his other card to his left. A card continues to be pushed until a player elects to keep the card he receives and not to push a card or until a card has been pushed around the table with no player electing to keep it. If that happens – no player electing to keep it – then it is buried at the bottom of the deck.

If a player keeps that initial card and does not pass any card then the next player to his left is dealt a card with the option to keep it or push a card to the next player. This continues until each player has been offered a card. Once all players have had this option then the dealer gives each player who has pushed a card a card that they must keep.

Players must pay for the privilege of pushing a card. In the $2/4 limit game that we played the charge was $1.00 to push.

Let’s look at an example of this.

There are six players, from right to left around the table, as follows:

ASH
JIM
RIZ
IKE
JOE
EVE

They are each first dealt one down card:

ASH (Jh)
JIM (Kc)
RIZ (2s)
IKE (9s)
JOE (5c)
EVE (Ah)

ASH, who is the dealer on this round deals an upcard to JIM that JIM may either keep or push to RIZ. It is the Js.

JIM declines the Js (he’d love a King or maybe another club, but the Js doesn’t help his hand). So he pushes the Js to RIZ.

RIZ doesn’t like the Js. (He’d like another low card – ideally a suited low card, to go with his 2s) so he passes it to IKE.

IKE, with his 9s, figures he’s got very little chance of winning either high or low in this game. He doesn’t want to invest any more money in the hand. And the Js could help him toward a straight or a flush. So he elects not to push a card and to keep the Js and his 9s.

The dealer then deals a card off the top of the deck to JOE. It is the 9c. Though JOE has the 5c, the 9c doesn’t really help him – since he’s looking for a low hand. So he pushes the 9c to EVE.

EVE doesn’t want the 9c. She wants to keep her Ah. So she pushes the 9c to ASH. ASH doesn’t want it. He’s the last player in the round and retires the 9c, keeping his Jh. He then deals an upcard to each player with only one card, starting to his left and ending with himself. After this is done the players have the following hands:

ASH (Jh)8d
JIM (Kc)Kh
RIZ (2s)8h
IKE (9s)Js
JOE (5c)Jc
EVE (Ah)Ks

The betting begins with a forced bet from the low card showing. That would be ASH with the 8d. He puts in $1.00.

JIM, with two Kings, raises to $2.00. RIZ, with two to a good low, calls. IKE has two to a flush and two to a straight, doesn’t see any Tens and only sees one spade, and so calls. JOE has two to a flush but really wanted a low card. He folds. And EVE, with her Ace in the hole, calls. ASH. Though he only has to put in $1 more to call, sees two Jacks gone, and 8 gone, and figures this isn’t his hand. He folds.

Since JIM started things off last time with the first option, RIZ gets the honors on this round. He is dealt the 3h. He likes it. It goes with his other cards. He keeps them all. IKE gets dealt the next card: the 2d. He doesn’t like it. It doesn’t go with what he’s already holding. And so he pushes it to EVE. EVE likes it very much and elects to push her Ks to JIM, who cannot believe his good fortune. He now has three Kings and keeps them.

IKE and EVE only have two cards after the push round, and so the dealer gives them their third card. IKE gets the 4s and EVE gets the 4d. After the second round of dealing the remaining players have the following hands:

JIM: (Kc)KhKs
RIZ: (2s)8h3h
IKE: (9s)Js4s
EVE: (Ah)2d4d

There is a round of betting that starts with JIM, with his pair of Kings showing. He bets $2. RIZ calls as do IKE and EVE.

An upcard is now dealt to IKE. It is the 3s. IKE keeps it – going for that flush. He has a few ways to make the flush now. He might get it on the next card. If he doesn’t he can push that card and get another. And even then, he has a final “replace” where he can exchange a card and get another card: $5 for an upcard and $10 for a down card. But those options come later. In any event, he keeps the 3s.

EVE then gets the next card off the deck. It is the 6d. She couldn’t have asked for a better card. She keeps it.

JIM is dealt the 7c. Now here is where some strategy comes into play. The card neither helps nor hurts him. If he’s going to improve it’s probably going to be to a full house. The 7 is a live card. He might pair it on a later round. But he has other considerations. Since he is surely going for high, he wants there to be competition for low – since it will tend to increase the size of the pot. He also wants to hurt his opponent’s chance of getting a flush. So he doesn’t want to pass RIZ a heart. He elects to pass the 7c and pay the $1 into the pot.

RIZ keeps the 7c. The dealer then gives JIM, the only player without four cards, a fourth card. JIM gets the 2c. A round of betting ensues.

JIM: (Kc)KhKs2c
RIZ: (2s)8h3h7c
IKE: (9s)Js4s3s
EVE: (Ah)2d4d6d

JIM is still high with his pair of Kings showing. He bets $4.
RIZ calls. IKE calls. EVE, with such an excellent low draw, decides to raise to $8.00. JIM reraises, not wanting IKE to catch a flush for free. RIZ calls, IKE calls, and EVE caps the raising. Everyone calls.

EVE has the first option and is dealt the Qd. Though it makes her hand look like it may be a flush, she knows she really wants a low card and so passes the Qd to JIM.

JIM wants a live card to pair for the full house, which would give him a lock on high. The 2 is slightly dead since one is exposed in EVE’s hand. He figures that RIZ may also hold a 2, since it looks like he’s going low. So he elects to pass the 2c and keep the Qd.

RIZ surely doesn’t want the 2c. It pairs his other 2 and kills his low hand. He is about to pass it to IKE when he realizes that he may spark a nice raising war by giving IKE a spade and probably a flush. He elects to keep the 2c and pass the 2s that he has in the hole. JIM goes nuts, of course, but that’s the nature of this game. IKE gladly keeps the 2s.

JIM gets an upcard. RIZ gets a downcard and EVE gets an upcard as follows:

JIM: (Kc)KhKsQd7h
RIZ: (6h)8h3h7c2c
IKE: (9s)Js4s3s2s
EVE (Ah)2d4d6dAc

JIM is high. He checks, fearing the flush. RIZ, with a made 87 low, thinks about betting. But he sees EVE’s monster of a board and checks. IKE has a flush and bets $4.00. EVE, hoping to scare out RIZ, raises to $8.00. JIM, hoping to make a full house with a replacement, calls. RIZ, hoping EVE is bluffing and looking at a huge pot, calls the $4.00 raise. IKE reraises to $12 and EVE caps it at $16. JIM and RIZ both call the double raise and IKE calls EVE’s raise.

The game is played with a simultaneous declaration of replace by having the players, on the count of three, either put their finger on the card they want to replace or put their finger on the table – indicating they don’t want to replace a card. Upcards cost $5 to replace; downcards are $10.

JIM elects to replace the 7h. He gets the unhelpful Td. EVE elects to replace her downcard Ah. She receives the As. Neither RIZ nor IKE replace anything.

The betting begins again with JIM. He is disgusted and checks. RIZ, unsure whether he is in the lead, also checks. IKE, who knows he has won, bets $4. EVE realizes that a bluff wouldn’t work and that she is surely beaten by RIZ, folds. JIM, figuring that he is already in deep, calls as well. RIZ calls.

The players make their declarations – putting one chip in their hand for low, two for high and three for both high and low.

There are no surprises. JIM and IKE both declare high and RIZ declares low. JIM has the high hand showing and checks. RIZ, as the guaranteed winner since he is the only one declaring in his direction, cannot initiate the betting and so checks. IKE bets $4. JIM and RIZ call. IKE has the flush; JIM the three Kings. IKE wins high and RIZ, with his uncontested 87 low hand wins low. IKE and RIZ split a huge pot.

As you can see, this is a game with tons of action, neat twists and turns of good and bad fortune, and even some interpersonal interaction to liven things up. It’s one of those games that some players love and others groan over. I recommend it highly – especially if the stakes are not too high – so players aren’t tempted to collude.

I want you to think of the play of a hand of 7-card stud symbolically – at least for a few minutes. Think of a slide – like the one you used to use in the playground when you were a young child.

When you get your first three cards you are at the top of the slide. You look at the cards. You can choose to descend the slide or not. No energy is needed to do either. You either go forward and slide down or you continue to stand at the top of the slide and wait for another hand.

But once you make a decision to join in the betting you start your descent down the slide. Each separate betting round brings you further down the slide. And as you descend you pick up speed.

With each betting round it therefore becomes more difficult for you to stop your descent. So too does it become more difficult for your opponents to stop their descent. The momentum of the slide propels you each to finish at the bottom of the slide – with the final betting round when you get off and climb back up for the next hand.

Viewing a stud hand in this way helps shape your strategic decisions throughout the hand – both for how you play your own hand and how you try to manipulate your opponents in the play of their hand.

Beginning players, without much self control, need to be extra careful about entering with borderline hands – lest they be carried through to the bottom, caught up in the momentum that they cannot resist. As players become more experienced and more skilled, they can enter more hands – because they are better equipped to stop themselves as they descend.

The key to stopping your own descent is to think about your hand as it develops – and to be willing to fold when you think the odds no longer favor your calling. You need to have the temerity to stick your hands to the side of the slide and stop your descent, knowing that it is easier to continue down the slide to the next card and the next round of betting. It is a skill that separates the good from the bad stud player.

Similarly, when playing against an inexperienced player, expect them to continue with the hand, calling until the river as the hand develops. They will be caught up in the momentum of the hand as they descend down the slide – hoping for that miracle card, propelled to the river, without the strength to stop themselves.

Here’s an example from an actual hand I played the other night in a Greek-American social club in the Boston area. I was playing against a truly poor player: we’ll call him Jeb. He was enthusiastic about poker to be sure – but without skills.

I was dealt (AT)A (suits are unimportant in this hand). He was dealt (8K)8. A low card to my right brought it in. I raised. Jeb called. Everyone else, knowing me to be a tight aggressive player, folded.

An experienced player might make the same move on Third Street – perhaps thinking that I was trying to steal the antes with my raise. They might have hoped that others would have called to avoid going heads up, since the raise came so early in the round of betting. Heads up this is a very poor call – with a kicker lower than the pair the raiser is representing.

But the difference is that the experienced player would be able to stop his descent in later rounds of betting if the picture didn’t improve for him. An inexperienced player traps himself into the slide, as you will see as the hand progresses.

On Fourth Street we had the following:

(AT)AK
(8K)8Q

An 8 and King had been folded on Third Street. Queens were live, as were my cards.

I bet. Now would have been a good time for him to fold. He’s descended the slide but hasn’t really picked up speed. I might have been on a steal, but Jeb’s chances of catching up if I wasn’t have slimmed considerably. But he was caught up in the descent – and so he called.

On Fifth Street we had the following:

(AT)AK9
(8K)8Q7

I didn’t hit a second pair. Neither did he. The bets doubled. On we went down the slide. I bet. He called.

On Sixth Street we had the following:

(AT)AK99
(8K)8Q77

Once again I bet, having Aces up now. I was eager for him to call. He paused some and then finally called – as if to say “I’ve gone this far – I might as well see what happens in the end”.

On the river we had the following:

(AT)AK99(2)
(8K)8Q77(3)

I bet. He called. We showed our hands. He said, somewhat sheepishly, “I never filled up”. True.

By the way, just for the mathematical among you, I’ve put the winning percentage – the percentage of the time that the hand wins in a heads up match to the river – below. If you’re so inclined to test yourself, go back and see what you think the percentages are as the hands descend the slide. Then check and see if you were correct in figuring how much of a favorite I or he was as the hand progressed.

Here are the percentages:

On Third Street with my pair of Aces against his pair of 8s I was a 74:26 favorite. That’s about 3:1

On Fourth Street, when neither of us improved I stayed roughly the same 3:1 favorite.

On Fifth Street when neither of us improved very slight and stayed at roughly a 3:1 favorite.

And then on Sixth Street, when we each caught our second pair, I became a 93:7 or just about 13:1 favorite.

Of course, on the River, I won – becoming a 100% favorite!

There are some subtle things – cheesy things frankly – that you can do when you’re in a similar situation against an inexperienced or otherwise poor opponent to encourage their descent on this slide. I’ve found that it helps to keep them from thinking too much. I make my bets as quickly as possible – to encourage an automatic response from my opponent. For some of these guys, folding means losing some face. I want as little attention on me and as much attention on them. I’ve also found that by hurrying my money in the pot I convince some players that I’m bluffing – making them even more likely to call.

It’s also helpful not to do certain things. I don’t engage them in conversation – trying to talk them into calling. I’ve found that this gives them more time to think and a face-saving way of folding. They’re often looking for some face-saving way to avoid having to continue down the slide – some handle they can grab on to to pull themselves out of the slide. Talking is one of them. I don’t respond to them, typically, if they ask me questions. One of their favorites is “Just you and me, huh?” as if to imply that the pot is small so they might as well fold. (With somewhat experienced players it often makes sense to talk – but that’s a matter for another column).

Sometimes, of course, they catch up. In fact, the times they catch up are going to be roughly what the percentages are above. They are the times, (as figured out over 500,000 hands by a great website - twodimes) that they win. But that’s OK. You’re looking at the long run. And in the long run, you want them continuing down the slide to the bottom – paying you off as they descend.

Readers Can Go to CardPlayer.com to Vote on Readers’ Choice Awards

Las Vegas, Nev., January 10, 2006. Card Player magazine, “The Poker Authority,� is proud to announce that Michael “The Grinder� Mizrachi has won the 2006 Player of the Year award.

Card Player’s Player of the Year Award, established in 1997, is the oldest and most respected tournament poker ranking system in the industry.

Mizrachi dominated tournament poker in 2006, winning $2.3 million, making 11 final tables, and capturing his first World Poker Tour title.

He kicked off 2006 by making a final table at the Gold Strike World Poker Open a World Poker Tour event, then became the first player to make back to back World Poker Tour final tables after he won the Borgata Winter Poker Open.

During 2006, he cashed at 20 major events, including the final major event of the year, the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Classic, which solidified his title.

Mizrachi beat out other top players, including Nam Le, J.C. Tran, Shannon Shorr, and Jeff Madsen to win the title. Combined, these five players won more than $8.6 million in 2006.

“All of us at Card Player salute Michael Mizrachi for the talent and sportsmanship he showed during the year,â€? says Card Player Media Chairman Barry Shulman. “He now joins an elite list of players who hold poker’s most sought-after award.”

In addition to the prestigious Player of the Year award, voting is now open for the 2006 Card Player Readers’ Choice Awards.

These awards, given for favorite tournament poker player, most entertaining poker player of 2006, and favorite poker television show from 2006, allow poker fans to vote on their favorites.

After weeks of online voting, Card Player has narrowed down votes to a final nominee list. Votes can be cast at www.cardplayer.com/readerschoice/ until Jan. 24. Go vote today!

You don’t have to be an Einstein to play winning poker. Even so, an understanding of the laws of relativity can only serve to help you at the poker table.

The laws of relativity recognize that time and matter are not absolutes. As an object travels near the speed of light, time slows down, matter elongates, and colors shift. Hence, a space voyager who could travel at nearly the speed of light could fly a mission to a far off galaxy and back and barely age – while hundreds or even thousands of years would elapse on earth.

Pretty wild stuff, no?

In poker the concept of relativity is much simpler and more tangible.

In a nutshell, it is this. The value of any hand is not absolute. It only exists relative to the situation it is in – based on many factors including what your opponent or opponents have, what you know of them and their style of play, and what you know of what they know of you.

Let me give you some examples.

Here’s a hand situation that came up the other night in a $10/20 stud game. I was dealt pocket Jacks with an unsuited Queen kicker. A guy to my left had the bring-in with a low value card. Everyone folded to a guy to my right who completed the bet with an 8 exposed. No 8s had been played. Two tens had been folded. No Jacks had been folded. One Queen had been folded.

I raised him. Everyone folded back to the guy with the 8. He called me.

On fourth street I hit a King. My opponent got an unsuited Ace.

My opponent wasn’t a tricky player. He was a typical $10/20 player. Conventional. Maybe overly cautious if anything. I generally could bully him around because my image was so damn tight. I had stolen a couple of pots on third street with the biggest up card. He rarely challenged me when I was in a hand.

OK. Back to the hand. I have (JJ)QK. He has (xx)8A.

He is high on board. He bets.

Now here’s where the laws of relativity come in. Under most circumstances I’m raising or at least calling my opponent who does this. I’m going to assume that he has the lead with the Ace and so will continue to bet it. He’s either too slow-witted or two stubborn to give me credit for a better hand than he has – with probably only a pair of 8s. And so I try to muscle my typical opponents out of the pot or – at the very least – win a free card on Fifth Street for my troubles.

But hand values are relative. And in this situation my Jacks – hidden though they are – have plummeted in value.

My straightforward opponent knows that I am a tight player – not a wild player. I know that he thinks I never get out of line – that if I bet it I have it. So when I raised on Third Street he knew that I had his 8s beaten (the truth is, of course, that I might not have had the Jacks, but he doesn’t know that). He is also cautious and untricky. When he hit the Ace he wasn’t thinking about what it would look like to me. He was thinking about what I was likely to have. If he wasn’t sure what I had but thought I might have a bigger hand than he, then he would have checked his hand (in that respect he was very different from the typical $20/40 player who would almost surely bet the Ace no matter what he thought I had – unless he went for a check raise – but that’s an article for another day).

So when he bet the Ace I knew, or nearly knew, that he had paired an Ace in the hole – giving him in all probability Aces and 8s.

My Jacks, accordingly, plummeted in value. They went from being a terrific hand to a huge underdog. I checked my instincts on twodimes.com (a great site that compares how hands do against each other when played to the river a few hundred thousand times). I am a 15% to 85% underdog to Aces and 8s. That’s drawing pretty thin.

So I folded.

Here’s another situation that happened much later in the session.

I had the same hand to start: Jacks. Only this time they were split. I had a medium sized kicker as well – a 9 I think. My opponent – the same one as the last hand had a Queen. He raised on Third Street. I called. And a loose, aggressive, and tricky player called to my left. On Fourth Street I hit an Ace. The other two players hit undistinguished low cards. I was high with my Ace. My chief goal was getting heads up with the cautious player to my right. I knew that my sophisticated player on my left might well call or raise my bet if I led out with a bet. But I doubted he would call a double bet if I check raised. So that’s what I did. I checked. My tricky opponent checked. And my cautious opponent started the betting. I raised – representing a pair of Aces or even Aces up. The opponent on my left folded. And then, unexpectedly but happily, my other opponent, who had initiated the betting, also folded.

He said, “I have to give you at least Aces there”. He then folded, exposing his hand of two Queens. He was proud of the fact that he read me so well – and he wanted to show off his poker prowess.

The sharp guy to my left immediately responded with, “No way”. “What do you mean?” the cautious guy asked. “He had Aces, no?” “No way. He had Jacks. Am I right?” I nodded and smiled my best Mona Lisa smile. No need to explain the laws of relativity to them. Let them figure them out for themselves. Gee, I hope they’re not reading this.

It seems that another twelve month span of time has passed us by once again. There is quite a bit of truth to that theory that time moves faster as you get older…and it seems to get faster as the years go by. Even with that said, there was more than enough intrigue, turmoil, enjoyment and general joy in the year of poker that has just passed us than ever before.

By far the highlight of my year around the game was, on the very first night of the World Series, watching Mike Sexton take down the Tournament of Champions. First of all, the final table at this highly exclusive battle was chocked full of the best players in the game, past, present and future. How else could you not be entertained with players such as Mike Matusow, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu and the aforementioned Sexton (among others) all battling for the $1 million dollar first prize? The poker that was played that evening wasn’t the only highlight, however.

After watching the ten men (Gus Hansen was the unfortunate soul who was shut out of any prize money from the TOC when he finished tenth) battle down to two after ten hours, it was unbelievable how Negreanu and Sexton fought over the next FIVE hours for the title. The ebb and flow of the heads up match between these two behemoths was truly stunning. The chip lead swung between the two players more times than most of the bleary eyed audience could capture (it did get to the point where everyone, including the players, was reaching a sleep-deprived giddiness bordering on madness!). The greatest thing though was, after the sixteen hour endurance match that was the TOC, Sexton’s gift of half of his million dollar winnings to five charities…it truly got a memorable 2006 World Series off to a great start.

After almost five months of thinking about it, I still haven’t figured out if Jamie Gold’s victory in the Main Event was a good thing for poker or a bad thing. Of course, there has been the cantankerous legal battle that he has faced over the $12 million prize, but there have also been some things about Jamie that have bugged me. Since winning the largest prize in an individual sporting event ever, he hasn’t been exactly a stalwart on the tournament poker scene. The unfortunate and untimely death of his father prevented him from entering the Five Diamond $15K World Poker Tour event, but I do remember our previous champions being very active after winning their titles, entering multiple tournaments and (especially in Joseph Hachem’s case) going deep into big tournaments. With hope, we will see more of Jamie Gold as being an active champion, rather than just “hitting and running”.

I could go on forever about how the Bill Frist led assault against online gaming and poker has changed the landscape, but that is ground that has already been covered to the nth degree and talking now won’t change it much. It was interesting, though, to see how the poker world banded together to try to prevent it from coming to pass and, as soon as the bill was signed into law, how quickly that bond was broken by many of those same brothers in arms. I know there are legalities that required some to make the moves they did, but it would have been a significant signal to the “powers that be” if the Internet poker world had stuck together and fought it out.

So, as The Alan Parsons Project put it in “Games People Play”, “where do we go from here?” The first three months of 2007 will be a key indicator of what the rest of the online poker landscape will be for the year. By March, the full impact of the UIGEA will be known as the financial institutions are supposed to have in place the framework for preventing Americans from financing their poker and gaming purposes. I personally see there being an extension of the 270 day period further into the upcoming year, making it an ongoing epic that will have even more twists than a Shakespearian tragedy.

It is possible, as well as logical, that there could be a hold on the enacting of the law to allow for study of the legalization of online poker and gaming. The rumbles that were heard, after the off-year elections of 2006, allow me to envision that there could be a lengthy study into the rightful path of regulation and taxation, rather than the prohibition that some wanted in place. Perhaps at this point next year, we still won’t have a clear picture as to what is truly going on with the online poker conundrum.

In this writer’s opinion, it would also be a great moment for our game if we can get back to the gentlemanly and pleasurable pastime that drew many of us to poker in the first place. Yes, there is a tremendous amount of pressure inherent in battling over the prize pools that are out there, but there also should be a return to the etiquette of sportsmanship for sporting contests. I believe people are tiring of seeing the volatility bordering on hand to hand combat that many events have become. Let us hope that, in the coming year, we can get away from the more “WWE” driven spectacles and return to a modicum of class and gentility during our major events.

Whatever happens, whether online or in the living world, poker won’t be going away. The online poker world will continue to thrive as many continue to come to the game and learn of the nuances and joys that it brings. Tournament poker will still be well attended by the professionals and the unknowns who wish to become one of the greats. Numbers for next year’s World Series may not approach the 8,773 players that attacked the felt this last year, but the attendees will still be well ahead of the pre-Moneymaker days of the game. It makes for another fantastic voyage as we get ready to enter into 2007…and one I already have my ticket for.