Perhaps the ultimate gauntlet thrown at the bridge table, usually as a result of friction between two players, is “get a partner”. Often these challenges are further colored with remarks such as “Get a partner, and I will rent a slow boat to China…”, or, even more serious, “Get a partner, and we will play for my business against your house”. Most often these people are just making noise, but over the years I have been the “partner that was gotten” three different times, always on very favorable terms (such as loss reimbursement). (more…)

What are the main objectives of a poker tournament, aside from drawing in business for the host? People play poker for entertainment and to win money . A poker tournament should be a vehicle for providing entertainment and redistributing money according to some fair method. Although using pure luck would be one fair method of determining a winner, if that were really our objective, we could simply have a raffle. (more…)

I have had a number of inquiries about raising before the flop in four-card high limit Omaha. The two most important strategic reasons to raise before the flop are to “reduce attendance” and to “loosen up the game” (see my book Cappelletti on Omaha, Quartet and Trio Straight Holdings). Please note that getting MORE MONEY into the pot is NOT always an important objective! It is nice to have more money in the pot, only if you happen to win it. But extra money in the pot makes the pot harder to win! (more…)

Time out from Omaha. Instead let’s join the hue and cry. I was reading Steve Fox’s article about the “Scary Death of Colorado Poker”, and I couldn’t help thinking of Matt Goerning’s bumper sticker, “Life’s a bitch and then you die?”. Most of us “Poker Players of America” have generally had to put up with a lot of hassle during this past century. But things do seem to be looking up for the next century. (more…)

In a recent article (Quartet and Trio Straight Holdings) I summarized the odds and Break Even Pot size (BEP) of what I called trio, quartet and eye-card straight holdings in four card Omaha. Some related observations should be made regarding how certain additional cards affect these holdings and the number of “outs” involved. In the following discussion, the term “outs” refers to the number of “outstanding cards” in the remaining deck which would complete your straight. (more…)

One reason for poker’s universal popularity is because the mental processes used in poker resemble the games we humans play in real life. Many of these games we humans play are highly competitive and adversarial in nature. The analysis of all adversarial games starts with the objectives, and next polarizes into offense and defense. (more…)

Good poker players try to avoid “fishing in”, that is, calling (”chasing”) with inferior cards. Calling is often perceived as reluctantly fishing along, wasting money, contributing to a bettor who is driving a winning hand. Some offensive purists subscribe to the theory that calling is unsound, and that if a hand is good enough to call, it should be good enough to raise. (more…)