These days, nearly every big media event has some type of poker tournament build into it. Recently, Doyle’s Room hosted a celebrity poker tournament at the Sundance Film festival recently, and Pharrell Williams had a big poker bash at the Superbowl in Miami just a couple weeks ago.

The NBA All-Star weekend is no different. The poker events surrounding the NBA’s biggest weekend kick off tonight with the Trent Tucker ‘Hoopology’ event at the Hard Rock Casino. This $10,000 buy in event carries a hefty price tag, and the talent on hand looks to be as serious as the buy in. Scheduled to appear at press time are Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, BJ Armstrong, and a cast of former NBA greats, including the host Trent Tucker. Many top poker players will be on had as well, including Patrik Antonius, Mike Sexton, and many others. All the proceeds from the event will benefit the Trent Tucker Non Profit Organization. Jordan recently won a different Trent Tucker charity poker event, and has reportedly been bitten by the poker bug. The evening concludes with a party at Hard Rock nightclub Body English, which is billed as another star-studded affair.

Not to be outdone, the Hip Hop community has come together for a poker tournament at the Aladdin. The event, dubbed ‘Poker With the Stars’ will kick off at 1pm on Friday. Playing in the tournament are some of the biggest names in Hip Hop, including Nelly, and Jermaine Dupri. The $2,100 buy in event will be limited to 80 players. Interested parties should call the Aladdin Poker room at (702) 785-9150.

The tables at the Palms, which seems to have become the defacto hub of activity for this weekend have already been very active, and the action seems to be getting bigger and bigger as we approach the weekend.

The addition of poker tournaments for good causes has added a dimension to many of these big media gatherings. Everyone has a good time, the game is put in a positive light, and deserving charities are helped a great deal. If you can get out to Vegas this weekend, come on out, and get into the game.

I’m sitting at a 2-4 table in the Bally’s casino on a Monday afternoon with lots of seniors. Everyone at the table is annoyed. They are irritated because it’s only my fourth hand but I’ve managed to win three hands out of four already. A man next to me folds, cashes out and leaves. I’m looking at a small framed woman with a beehive hairdo who just raised it up. I’ve got pocket jacks. I smile at my good fortune and re-raise. But believe me when I say that it wasn’t always this way.
When my boyfriend told me he had learned to play Texas Hold Em’ on Thanksgiving of 2003, I was immediately intrigued. Plopping down lazily on the futon bed I asked “So who played?” His reply was a list of guys we were friends with. “Joe, Tom, Nick, Barry…” I was more disturbed then surprised when no girls were named. I asked why no girls were present and his reply was simply that it was a no-brainer because there weren’t any girls around who knew how. I searched online shortly after our conversation for female players of the game.
Reading about Annie Duke fueled the fires of desire to learn the game. I brushed up on the game and invited myself to join a cash game.
My first game of poker was played a few months after my boyfriend learned to play. He arranged a cash game at our house and all of the players were mutual friends of ours. I was still nervous despite the fact that I had hung around all of these guys more then once. First off, I was the only girl at the table. Secondly, I was a poorly concealed novice! As I picked up my hole cards I studied the faces at the table and was quickly overwhelmed by the whole situation. I sat there scrambling to think. Try to remember hand rankings Christina. Pay attention Christina. It’s on you Christina. It’s your deal Christina. “Just deal for her,” one of our friends said in a slightly annoyed tone, “she’s spacing out!” I sat there befuddled as my deal was skipped because I was so out of it. Let’s just say I had a lot to learn and my attention span had dwindled down to nothing that night.
So, I decided to hit the books and learn the details of the game. Sooner then later, our friends took turns bringing up the rear as I dominated our weekly house games. Although I lost many times as well, I still was quickly known as a surprising and somewhat distracting triple threat! Despite my many reservations, my boyfriend decided that it was time to step it up a notch. It was time to pop my poker cherry at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City.
As I approached the poker room I was astounded. The room was a natural eco-system living and breathing and thriving with the top of the food chain feeding upon the weakling bottom feeders. I quickly realized that I was a bottom feeder. And I was a flamboyant bottom feeder at that. Against my boyfriend’s warnings, I proceeded to go down wearing a vintage 60’s dress that was bright orange! As I sat down at the 2-4 table I felt very out of place. The uniform was obviously Hollister and Abercrombie complete with store bought “worn out” hats. I was again the only girl at the table. I was promptly reassured by my hole cards which came jack, jack. I began rejoicing my win before it had taken place. It’s on me. Bet big. “I bet,” I said meekly, trying to act innocent. My bet was called and the flop came. Then came the river and the turn. I had hit nothing the whole was but I was being the table aggressor with blind ego. When it came time to show down, everyone wanted to know if I had a higher straight then my caller. I showed my measly pocket jacks and Hollister boy collected his chips. I could feel my face getting red with mortification. I hate pocket jacks. I was never going to play again I told myself.
Fast forward to next week: “John when are we going down to AC again? To my surprise I had decided within myself that I was not going to quit. I was going to do it again and again until I dominated the 2-4 tables as well. I was going to make others at the table nervous not the reverse. I was going to be strong competition because the seeds of my competitiveness had already been planted.
Back at Bally’s everyone has cleared the way for me and beehive lady to go head’s up. The flop comes Jack, 6, 8. I’ve flopped top set and bet she raises, I re-raise, it’s capped. The turn comes Ace. I bet, she raises, I re-raise, it’s capped. Now the river comes. It’s an eight. I bet, she raises, I re-raise it’s capped. Show down. Beehive lady turns her cards over and shows sixes full of eights. She smiles at me. I turn my cards. Jacks full of eights. I smile at her. Beehive lady looks as though something inside her has just ruptured. I collect my chips, tip the dealer and close my eyes.
God I love pocket Jacks.

Let me get right to the point. Good but not great stud players generally need to change how they use the re-raise if they want to maximize their wins. Players who understand the importance of aggression when they are the lead hand on third Street often play too timidly when they face aggression. Change this behavior and add money to your bottom line.

Good players understand the need to be aggressive when they are in the lead. This is what separates them from the poor players who tend to be calling stations. They tend to raise if they think they’re in the lead. And if they think they have sufficient pot odds but are still behind they’ll usually call.

But this can’t be done blindly. Though at the lowest stakes weak passive games, such a straight forward ABC (”by the book”) style will generally get the money, as you rise to mid limit poker with generally tighter and more aggressive and less passive players, you must be more thoughtful. You must sometimes use your action to manipulate your opponent into making the wrong move.

Here’s an example. The game is $10/20 stud, with a $1.00 ante and a $3.00 forced bet. The game is a typical mid-limit stud game: most players are pretty tight on Third Street – though there are a couple of loose passive players to make the game good. You’re on Third Street with (). A player in front of you, who is pretty much an ABC player, raises with a King to $10. What do you do with four or so players remaining who haven’t yet folded?

Most good but not great players want to come out shooting – tending to re-raise here – figuring that since they’re the boss hand they want to make others pay to compete and don’t want others to catch a card on fourth that could put them in the lead. So they make it $20.00. This is generally an error.

What they have done is follow too automatically what is generally a good rule. Their hand, while not trips, is the next best thing. This isn’t a super loose and passive $1-5 game. They’re not guaranteed of action if they re-raise. These are tight players for the most part. The player with the King may in fact be on a steal. Why deprive him of the chance to attempt his steal again on fourth? Why prevent any other players from coming into this hand? Even if you don’t improve on fourth it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be behind. And if you catch a second pair or an Ace you’re a heavy favorite to win on the river even with one or two opponents.

If the initial raiser has the Kings, take the aggressive stand of making him pay on later streets by not pushing him to fold. This is risky to some degree. The safer route is to raise. But have faith enough in the strength of this hand to risk someone else catching up. Timidity calls for a re-raise. Confidence allows for a call. So be strong and just call here – at least some of the time. You can raise him when he leads out with a bet on fourth – or even wait until fifth street sometimes to make your re-raise. Most of the time he’ll just have his pair or will be extending his bluff. And in those instances when he catches two pair, you’re not far behind with your overpair.

Here’s another example. You have () in the same situation. Aces and Queens are live. A King raises. You are probably, though not certainly, second best with your pair of Queens. But reraise – at least some of the time. Sure, the “safer” play is to call and hope you catch up with a second pair, an Ace or a Queen. But re-raise some of the time. His call will commit him further to the pot. If he re-raises you back you’re still only fractionally behind. You should, at least sometimes, repop him and cap it. Let him think you have trips or pocket rockets. Keep him guessing.

These moves are difficult for the player relatively new to this level or one playing even slightly over his head. The amount of a reraise may seem like a lot of money in absolute terms in a $10/20 or $20/40 game. But relative to the size of a pot in a hand played to completion it is a relatively small sum of money. A re-raise in a $10/20 game costs $20. If the hand is played heads up with a bet and a call on all later streets then you’re looking at a pot of about $170.

The key is to realize that you have an ability to manipulate your opponents by playing passively when you are almost surely ahead and aggressively when you may well be behind. Plus, you’ll be enhancing your image as an aggressive player – which is good in this game because it will tend to inhibit your opponents from taking shots at you – making it less expensive for you to draw monster hands in the future.

When you’re starting out it’s very important to learn your ABCs. But when you’re more advanced it’s important that you become more than an ABC player.

“Though I should have preferred to spare you the reading of this…we had better face the facts about playing Poker for money.”

“The best protection against Poker cheats is the knowledge of how they operate and some ability at recognizing their slick sleight of hand and other crooked ruses.”

John Scarne, Guide to Modern Poker

The HomePoker.com Poker Cheat section starts with the same quote by John Scarne. While I’m not a huge fan of the Guide to Modern Poker, nor of Scarne’s attempts to position himself as the world’s foremost authority, I love the quote. It’s true. We are so used to playing poker at home with friends, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that there are real scumbags in the world who would infiltrate our games and cheat us unfairly out of our money. Here, I want to provide some perspective on the poker cheat and how to avoid him or catch him.

For an extended review of all you need to know to catch a poker cheat, stroll into the HomePoker.com Poker Cheat section. This section of HomePoker.com picked up some good acclaim as being the first of its kind on the Internet. Casino card rooms will always have advanced security, but this section was the first meant to equip the home poker game host with the knowledge to catch poker cheats.

Poker Cheat Psychology

I’m no psychiatrist, so take this as a collection of personal observations and stories recounted to me.

The poker cheater will die before admitting he cheated. In the movie Rounders when Worm makes a joke at the cops’ game about “aren’t you supposed to read us our rights?�, the first thing that came to mind is that a real cheater would never actually admit it. A poker cheater caught red-handed will still come up with an elaborate story about why he has too many cards, why another player would believe he was bottom-dealing, how that card arrived underneath his foot, etc. Remember that a poker cheater will be blue in the face before admitting to the cheating. Catching him red-handed is one thing, but don’t expect him to ever admit it. Prepare to be very sure of yourself when confronting him about it.

Don’t think low stakes deter cheaters. Not all cheaters are motivated by profit. Some are motivated by the thrill of winning or else the thrill of cheating and not getting caught. A person that arrives at your home game with the intention of cheating has perhaps determined that there is a good balance between the stakes being played and the ability of the other players to catch the cheater. So, even if the stakes are not huge, the cheat might still determine that he can have a good night because the other players won’t be looking for cheating, or else don’t know enough about cheating to notice it. The cheater’s thrill isn’t always profit, so never think your home game is safe simply because the stakes are low.

Alcohol will encourage the cheater, but will also make him sloppy. I believe cheating at cards is either a profession or a disease. If you can make a living cheating at cards, then I say go for it. You must be cheating some pretty big games, and you couldn’t make a living cheating the games I host at my house. So when it’s a disease, alcohol has an ironic double-effect. First, it encourages the cheater to cheat by reducing his inhibitions. Second, it results in less-skilled cheating because his ability to cheat well is affected by the alcohol. This accelerates how long it will take for you or other players to catch the cheater red-handed.

Even if caught, the poker cheater will try to play again. Alongside the notion that a poker cheat never admits to the cheating, he will also not stop trying to get in on future games. Because he never admitted to the cheating, he’s not going to stop trying to get in on the game. This of course depends on the way in which the cheating was caught and addressed, but it’s an extension to never admitting that the poker cheat also never stop trying.

If you identify that you’re versed in card cheating and are looking out for it, you will only encourage the cheater. A poker cheat will welcome the challenge. I have played in some home games where the host tries to assure everybody and deter cheating by announcing that he knows how cheats cheat, so don’t try it. I believe this is a mistake. I believe this is a challenge that a poker cheat will take on. Again, the thrill isn’t always profit; the thrill is sometimes getting away with it.

Catching the Cheat

Now that we’ve delved somewhat into the mind of the poker cheat, how do you even know what to look for? The HomePoker.com Poker Cheat section is a collection of poker cheat methods as well as some idea on how to identify them. This section does not contain enough detailed information to teach you how to cheat. That’s intentional. The section is instead intended for you to recognize poker cheating so you can at least suspect when it is going on around you. It’s like reading an explanation of Evelyn Ng’s Butterfly Chip Trick and actually doing it…two different things, and we have no intention of teaching people how to cheat at poker. We’re “Everything for your home poker game�, including protection against cheats.

Here is how this section of HomePoker.com is divided:

Sleight of Hand
There are many ways to cheat at poker, but the most common is some form of sleight of hand. Not all people good at card tricks are cheaters, but understand that poker cheating is typically some kind of card trick. For instance, both the card magician and the poker cheat are employing a different grip on the deck. Most commonly, this is a Mechanic’s Grip, where more of the dealer’s hand is covering the deck from other players than with a normal dealing grip. The Mechanic’s Grip then opens the door for the cheating dealer to use all kinds of sleight of hand. We’ve outlined the more popular techniques in the Poker Cheat section.

Protection
If you want to be proactive about keeping cheating out of your home poker game, there are a number of opportunities. The easiest (although not entirely failsafe) way is to only play with friends. If there are no strangers in your game, you have less to worry about. Also, it’s a good idea to have at least a few ‘clean’ decks on hand so that a new deck can be brought into play every couple of hours. This will reduce incidents of marked cards and palming if the cheat has the card ready to load into his hand. If you are very concerned about cheating, you can always deal from a shoe. I’ve never personally seen it in a home game, but it would eliminate many of the options available to the poker cheat.

Other Methods
The biggest mistake is believing you know every way that a person could cheat. None of us do. Sure, you could master card magic since sleight of hand with cards is not evolving over time. You could even introduce the shoe into your game. Even this however would not combat collusion between two or more players who are working together, a cheat’s interaction with the pot, or attempts by the cheat to call a hand they do not actually have. This latter method of cheating is more popular with other poker variations besides Texas Hold ‘Em, that have more wild cards and different twists. In fact, our last update to Other Methods was the act of a cheat bringing phony chips into the home game. I considered adding this when the section was first introduced by HomePoker.com’s Squeege way back when, but figured it was an unlikely scenario. With the proliferation of poker chips everywhere however, many of us are hosting games with the same Diced or Suited 11.5-gram chips. Further, phony black chips were found in the 2005 World Series of Poker, originally purchased from the Rio gift shop, but introduced into play without notice. If it can happen at the WSOP, it can happen in your home game.

Dealing with the Cheat

And finally, one of the hardest topics to deal with. What to do when you suspect that cheating has occurred in your home game. Before launching into it, let’s assume that your good friends don’t cheat at cards. Let’s assume further that you wouldn’t be worried about cheating in your home game unless there were also strangers in the game that you don’t know as well. That being the case, you might consider the proactive approach if asking your friends in the game to keep an eye open for anything suspicious. Now, you have several pairs of eyes at the table and everybody is working towards making sure the game is fair and free of cheating. Otherwise, you need to see it with your own eyes. If you personally catch cheating taking place, are suspicious that it did but you’re not sure, or if a friend has discussed with you that he saw something fishy, you need to deal with it. Here are a couple solutions:

End the game. This is the easiest one to execute, but it’s not the cleanest. If cheating did take place, then at least one other player has been cheated out of their money. It would require a confrontation to recoup that money (if even anybody knows how much it is), and as discussed, the cheat will never confess his sin. This will be the most disputable thing I write, but I suggest ending the game over trying to get money out of the cheat. I can’t imagine anything short of physical will result in the cheat giving up money. If that’s how you would solve such a problem, then by all means gets physical with the suspected cheat. Even this advice should be reserved to you having seen with your own eyes and without any doubt that the cheating did indeed take place. If you’re the witness, then you have a right to handle this as aggressively as suits you. I won’t say anymore.

Remove the cheat. I would not have reservations about saying in front of everybody that a suspected cheating took place and asking (telling) the cheat to leave the game. If I saw it with my own eyes, I would let the cheat know and tell him to go. If at least two other people that I know well have told me the same story of cheating, then I would tell the cheat that I have been given at least two independent accounts of the same story, and tell him to go. A cheat shouldn’t result in the entire game being broken up, but in the case of a tournament over a cash game, I would have no problem telling the cheat that his remaining tournament chips are being taken from him and that he’s out of the game. If there is a reasonable way to devote some of those chips to restitution of players who were known to have been cheated, I might do that as well. Depending on the cheat, you may expect some kind of retaliation once he’s been kicked out of your house. He might call the cops, for instance. Once the cheat is removed from your home, I would make sure that you take down the obvious signs of anything you might be doing that isn’t allowed by your jurisdiction’s laws and statutes.

In Conclusion…

…you as the host of a poker game have a responsibility to keep cheating out of the game. It starts with your invitation list. That’s followed by the requests that you’ll get from friends or friends of friends to bring others to the game (particularly if you’re trying to organize a large tournament) who are strangers to you. If your game consists only of friends, you have little to worry about. If your game consists of friends and close friends of friends, then you should still be at ease, provided your friends understand how you feel about poker cheating. I always make a half-joke that if somebody is caught cheating in one of my games, it’s his thumbs and those of the person that brought him to my game that get broken. When people laugh, I keep a straight face so even if they don’t believe I’m going to break their thumbs, they can appreciate that my position on poker cheating is very serious.

As a host dealing with poker cheating, there is an element of home poker that the poker cheat is exploiting. You need to make sure you turn the tables on him using the same element. In home poker, that element is a friendly game. The poker cheat will use that lighter-hearted nature to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. How to turn the tables? Make sure the core group of friends in your game are on the lookout for the same signs as you. Instead of having to worry about it as a host as well as a player, have several people worry about it. If the poker cheat thinks your home game is an easy target because it’s a friendly game, show him what friends can do when they’re all looking out for the interests of the game.

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.