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In the spotlight: Brandon Cantu

Brandon Cantu (born May 10, 1981 in Vancouver, Washington) is an American professional poker player. Upon winning a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2006, Cantu relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. On March 14, 2007, Cantu became one of only 27 players to ever win both a World Series of Poker bracelet (2006) and a World Poker Tour championship (2008).

World Series of Poker
At the $1,500 No-Limit hold’em event in June 2006, Cantu won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) event outlasting 2,775 players which at the time was the largest Non-Main Event WSOP Tournament, with that he won $757,839 and the WSOP gold bracelet.

At the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, Cantu finished in 20th place out of 6844 entries, earning $257,334.

World Poker Tour
Cantu has three cashes at the World Poker Tour (WPT) including finishing 18th place at the Festa Al Lago V in 2006 and 19th place at the World Poker Challenge in 2007, then in March 2008, he won his first WPT title at the Bay 101 Shooting Star championship earning $1,000,000[3] and was nicknamed “The Bounty Hunter” for earning an additional $30,000 in bounties for busting a record six notable poker professionals in the tournament known as “Shooting Stars” who along with their $5000 bounties they also relinquish a custom made t-shirt with that particular players image on it, Cantu’s six bounties were; Bill Edler, John Juanda, Phil Laak, Joe Hachem who finished 20th, J. C. Tran who just missed the six person final table in 7th and Jennifer Harman who finished 3rd, also making the final table were non-designated pros John Phan (6th), Noah Jefferson (4th) and runner-up Steve Sung.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,300,000.

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under Professional Players 

Top Online Poker Tells

When playing online poker, it’s more difficult to tell whether your opponents are bluffing or they actually got a premium hand because you can’t see their physical expressions. Nonetheless, there are other useful tells which you can use when playing online.

So what are the most common online poker tells?
The speed of play of your opponents is a fundamental factor when it comes to online poker tells. As a general rule, a quick bet can be interpreted as a sign of weakness, and a delayed action can be a sign of strength, as your opponent is thinking about the best way to act with what he considers to be a premium hand. Pay attention to the amount of time it takes your opponents to make their move, and store that information in a corner of your mind. If you are able to see their cards at showdown, you will the chance to determine with what kind of hand they “slow bet” and what kind of hand they “quick bet.”

You should also think about your own way of playing to hide these tells. The best strategy consists in taking the same amount of time for every action you take, so that your opponents won’t be able to pick up tells from your speed of play.

So let’s have a look at the most common online poker tells:

A delay followed by a check
Most players who take a longer time than normal and then check want you to believe they have a strong hand and that they are thinking about betting. In most cases, they have a weak hand and don’t want you to raise so they can see another card for free.

A delay followed by a bet
Players who wait a longer time than normal and then bet often have a strong hand. They want you to believe they have a weak hand to lure you into calling/raising.

An instant-call after you bet
The opponents who call your bet instantly often have a weak hand. These players want you to believe they have a good hand and are hoping you will not raise again.

An instant-check, or a check / raise
Players who use the check/fold button are ready to fold to any bet, thus meaning that they have a weak hand. In addition, they might be playing at many tables at the same time so they are not paying much attention to the game. It’s easy tell when a player uses a check box as his action comes within a blink of the eye of the previous player. However, you might bump into a player who will check quickly and then raise. You have to be very careful in this case because he wants to indicate weakness to make you bet into his strong hand. Also, if your opponent has checked the “raise any” button, it’s obvious that he has a premium hand.

A bet on the turn
If a player calls and checks on the flop and then bets on the turn, it often indicates he has a weak hand. Those kind of bets often mean that they picked up a draw or that they are semi-bluffing with a draw they got on the flop. You should consider a raise even if you might be bluffing yourself.

An instant-bet / raise on the river
This move usually indicates that the player has a very strong hand. If they raise or bet so fast, they want you to believe they are bluffing. This move is also often used on the turn and in most cases (less frequent that a bet on the river) it denotes a strong hand.

Watching the chat box
An easy way to pick up tells is by paying close attention to the chat box. Usually, if a player who has a big mouth suddenly gets quiet, you can be sure he’s playing a strong hand and he’s concentrating to get the most out of the pot. However, if a quiet player suddenly becomes a bit too talkative in the chat box, he’s probably trying to bluff with a weak hand or he’s on “tilt,” thus emotionally unable to play good poker until he calms down.

Fold / Call / Raise percentage
This is another easy way to pick up tells. Watch your opponents to get a sense of what their fold/call/raise percentage might be. You’ll spot tight players easily because they rarely play if they don’t have a good starting hand. When they bet, you can be sure they have a premium hand. In addition, paying attention the way your opponents are playing should also give you an edge over the “calling stations,” players who nearly always pay to see the flop and thus have poor starting hand selection.

Waiting for the Big Blind
When you sit down to play a Texas Holdem game online, you’ll often have the possibility to “wait for the big blind,” or you can put up a matching big blind to start playing instantly. This tells you if an online player is patient or not. If he doesn’t want to wait for the big blind to get to him, he may not be patient enough to wait for a good starting hand and he’s probably a loose player.

Beginners’ tells
New poker players might be difficult to pick up tells on. They often play erratically you can’t figure out anything about their game. For example, most beginners (or some sharks, see later) act on their hand exactly the opposite of its strength, meaning they place bets for their weak hands and check for their strong hands. If you can see their cards on showdown, you’ll be able to tell if a player is playing like that, and mark him as a beginner. But don’t get confused by a shark who might be using the check-raise move!

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under How to Play Poker 

The Gap Concept in Poker

Introduction
The Gap Concept is a term that you may not have heard of, but the concept is one you should already know the basics of. This concept was originally introduced by David Sklansky in his famous book ‘Tournament Poker for Advanced Players’ and continues to provide players with a solid grounding in poker strategy. The concept is one that is simple to explain as you will see in the rest of the article and one that you can think about to implement into your game easily.

What is the Gap Concept?
The Gap Concept simply means that it will take a better hand to call a raise than what it will take to be the initial raiser. This means that a higher value is placed on the hand of the initial raiser because generally speaking, it takes a better hand to raise with when there are more players behind you left to act. The earlier the position of the raiser, the stronger the value of the hand. With more players left to act from behind a player in early position there is more of a chance that someone will have a solid hand. If you don’t have a really strong hand when you raise from early position you leave yourself open to be exploited. That is why there is a difference in the value of a hand raised from early position than one that is raised from late position. I.e. there are fewer players that are likely to have a solid hand behind you.

Applying the Gap Concept
When a player raises from early position, provided that they are a solid player you will be able to ascertain the range of hands that they could have. Typically a player that raises from early position can be placed on hands like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, AK, AQ and AJ. In theory, the later the position of the raiser, the hands they can be placed on becomes wider. As we start to move towards the positions close to the button the quality of hands that will be raised decreases. Hands like KQ and KJ for example and middle pairs like 88 and 99 will regularly be raised from late position.

As you can see the Gap Concept relies on the theory that all players will adhere to ‘normal’ poker practice and only play solid hands from early position. As we know this is not always the case and when we come across a loose player they can have almost anything at times. This concept is only meant to be a guide and give food for thought when thinking about what types of hands your opponent could have. This concept is trying to convey the message that if you are faced with an early raiser, you should only call with premium hands. If the pot has not been raised before you, you will not need the same strength of hand.

You will not need the same strength of hand when raising from late position in an unraised pot as what you will when it has already been raised. The reason for this is twofold. The first part of this is because others will have to apply the Gap Concept to you. Because you have raised before them they will have to place you on a strong hand, and in turn have to have a solid hand themselves to call. The second part of this is the fact that there are fewer players left to act behind you. As you know, the fewer players left to act behind you the more valuable your hand becomes. With any luck you might get a few free rides by taking down an uncontested pot. This is especially handy when you are playing in tournaments and can be crucial in the later stages of them.

Summary
To sum up the Gap Concept there are a couple of things you have to remember. The general principle of it is that in theory, the earlier the player raises a pot the more likely he is to have a strong hand. This means that to call a raise like this you will need a much stronger hand than you would if the pot hasn’t been raised yet. This is why there is a difference between the value of a hand that is raising an uncontested pot from early position and one that is raising from late position. The difference in the value is referred to as the ‘Gap’.

Everythingaboutpoker.com · Filed Under Poker Strategy 

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