Finally the Antonio Esfandiari also called “The Magician” (that’s it, man he is a magician) broke his kinda “badrun” (this dude won millions anyway).

He is the chip leader for WPT Festa Al Lago  with 313.000 chips.

The funny thing is that the 2nd in chips have only 200k (It’s this kinda unknown Nick Sliwinski).

The leadership has been mostly attributed to a confrontation with the November Nine’s Scott Montgomery (I don’t like him). Esfandiari had a set and the stupid Montgomery check raised all-in. Esfandiari was so happy to call that he couldn’t stand it. He almost cryed of happyness, ffs.

Montgomery I don’t like you still I don’t know you and you might be a wonderful human…OR NOT. (J/K anyway don’t sue me)

THE MOST FUNNY THING ABOUT FESTA AL LAGO: MICHAEL PHELPS.

The already world-wide-well-known Michael “Aquaman” Phelps was escorted to the Fontana Lounge by the  Phil Hellmuth Jr.

Note: Aquaman Phelps won (only) 14 Olimpic Gold Medals meaning that he is an alien or something..

The Top Five Chip Counts

The top five chip counts feature some more big names with big stacks. Right behind Esfandiari and Sliwinski is Jennifer Tilly with 195,050 and Andrew “good2cu” Robl is in fifth with 173,450. Also having a strong start to the tournament were Joe Sebok (142,050), Johnny Chan (138,000), Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron (116,825) and Allen Cunningham (105,825).

Day 1a bought 153 players whose paid $15k entry each, meaning 2.3M only with entry fees.

Learn poker watching Chris MoneyMaker Videos.

Check this one out. Chris MoneyMaker made up some videos so people can learn to play poker, if you don’t know how to play poker certanly this is the video for you. It’s quality is comparable to DVD and you can rest watching it at fullscreen for free. It’s total length is 50 minutes so get ready with your drinks and food and learn a lot from this poker profesional player, who have WSOP title. The video itself is called “Poker for Dummies”

This could be the definitive guide, tutorial, advice, tips to start playing poker. Even if you don’t have a clue about the game, at the end of the video you’ll be able to have some fun.

If you are a good poker player this video would be slow at the start, so you should advance it like 10 mins. Enjoy!

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson: Starting from Zero.

This is tip 100 of FullTilt Pro Poker Team. Chris Ferguson is fully sponsored and actually works as Pro Poker player at FullTilt Poker. He wrote the advice, so don’t miss your chance to check inside Jesus Mind.

I’m almost a year into an experiment on Full Tilt Poker. I’m attempting to turn $0 into a $10,000 bankroll. With no money to start with, I had no choice but to start out playing Freerolls. Starting out, I’d often manage to win a dollar or two, but I’d quickly get busted and have to start over again. It took some time but, after awhile, I was eventually able to graduate to games that required an actual buy-in.

Even today, people don’t believe it’s really me when I sit down at Full Tilt’s small stakes games. They ask what I’m doing down here, and often tell me stories about how they turned $5 into $500 or $100 into $1,000. Usually, these stories end with the person telling me that they went broke. There’s no surprise there. These folks tried to quickly build a bankroll by gambling. They’d play in a game that was beyond their bankroll and, if they happened to win, they’d move up to a higher limit and risk it all one more time. Inevitably, they’d lose a few big hands and go broke.

For me, this experiment isn’t about the money. It’s about showing how, with proper bankroll management, you can start from nothing and move up to the point where you’re playing in some pretty big games. I know it’s possible because I did it once before, turning $1 into $20,000.

To ensure that I keep my bankroll intact, I’ve adopted some key rules:

• I’ll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I’m allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
• I won’t buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I’m allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
• If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.

I think a lot of players would do well to apply these rules. One great benefit from this approach to bankroll management is that it ensures you’ll be playing in games you can afford. You’ll never play for very long in a game that’s over your head because, when you’re losing, you’ll have no choice but to drop down to a smaller game. You can continue to sharpen your game at that lower limit until your bankroll allows you to move up and take another shot. These rules also prevent you from being completely decimated by a bad run of cards.

Dropping down and playing lower limits is difficult for a lot of players. They view it as a failure and their egos get in the way. Many want to remain at the level they’d been playing and win back their losses. But this can lead to some pretty severe tilt - and that can go through a bankroll in a hurry. I know that dropping down was difficult for me in my run from $1 to $20,000. When I first played in the $25/$50 game, I lost. Sticking to my rules, I dropped down to the $10/$25 game. I had a losing streak there and had to go down to $5/$10. That was tough. After playing $25/$50, a $5/$10 game was boring to me.

But I had the discipline to stick to my rules, and that motivated me to play better at the lower levels. I really didn’t want to lose any more because I knew the consequences: I’d have to play even lower and work even harder to get back to where I’d been, which could take as long as a month. If you ever find yourself bored or frustrated playing at the lower limits, you’re obviously not playing well. Take a break from the game. Often, stepping away can give you a fresh perspective and heightened motivation to play well when you return.

There are a couple of more tips I’d like to share regarding bankroll management. First, you should never play in a game that is beyond your bankroll simply because the game seems to be soft that day. It’s never soft enough to risk money that puts your bankroll in jeopardy. The other point is that you should avoid playing in games that are at the top of your bankroll limits, when a lower game offers more opportunity for profit.

I’m confident that by sticking to these sound bankroll management rules, I’ll make it to my $10,000 goal. These rules are sure to help you as well, as you pursue your own poker ambitions. So, if you want to start your own quest - or play against me while I’m continuing with mine - come open a free account at Full Tilt Poker and look for me online. But hurry, because I’m hoping I won’t be in the lower limits for too much longer.

Phil Ivey

DON’T READ THIS TIP

This tip 125 was wrote November 6th 2007 by Phil Ivey Himself! Don’t miss the chance to read about this PRO poker player thoughts. We love Full Tilt Pro Players.

When it comes to advice about poker, my attitude is very simple: seek it out, absorb it, but while you’re at the table, forget it.

I’m a firm believer in learning the game by playing the game. I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of great resources around to help players improve their games or that poker books and tutorials don’t have their place. They do. However, the problem I see with people who rely on these kinds of aids is that they end up playing poker like someone else or - even worse - like everyone else.

One of the things that makes poker great is that it’s a game where there’s really no right or wrong way to play. Every player has their own approach to the game and the key, in my opinion, is to take the things you learn from other players and incorporate them into a style of play that works for you.

There are some players who take a very mathematical approach to the game, and for them, it works. They study the odds and make decisions based on whether they think they’re getting the right price to commit their chips to a pot. It’s a solid way to play, but the fact is, it’s not the right approach for everyone. What’s more, even the best of these players will tell you that math only takes you so far.

Calculating the odds can certainly help you decide whether you’re making a smart move, but it doesn’t take into account who you’re playing against. There are many times when you can do all of the math you want and your decision still comes down to intangibles and a feeling about your opponent or the situation you’re facing. Does this guy have a hand? Can I push him off the pot? Am I getting myself into trouble here? Even if the odds say you should play, your gut may be telling you something else, and that’s something you can only develop by playing.

Relying too much on other peoples’ advice can actually make it harder to develop this kind of reading ability because it tends to clutter up your head. You get so focused on thinking about odds, probabilities and strategies that you forget that you’re playing against someone else and that you have to try and figure out what he or she is doing. Are they scared? Will they fold to pressure? Are they a maniac? In my opinion, these are the important things to keep in mind during a hand.

It’s been said before, but it bears repeating. Poker isn’t about the cards; it’s about the players and the situations. Winning players understand that sometimes you have to take chances. Sometimes they work and other times they don’t. Whether you win the hand or not, you have to make the play that you believe is best.

At the end of a hand or a session, go back and study the things you did well and be honest with yourself about where you made mistakes. Don’t, however, overanalyze how you could have played a hand differently because this can negatively impact how you approach your next hand or session. Identify your mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Just because some play or move didn’t work the way you wanted doesn’t mean you were wrong to try it. As I said before, there are just some things that you have to learn by playing.

So here’s my advice. Read this tip. Read other tips and poker books. Talk to your friends. Absorb as much information as you can. But at the end of the day you have to trust your instincts and play your own game – not someone else’s.

Gus Hansen: Being a Bully.

This article has been written by Gus Hansen himself! It’s tip 122 of FullTilt Pro Poker Players

Many players understand the concepts involved in building a large chip stack during a tournament. What they don’t understand, however, is how to use their chips effectively once they’ve gotten them. Once they’ve accumulated a lot of chips, many players want to control the action, but they haven’t thought through how to take command of the table.

When I’m the big stack in a tournament, being the bully is always my first consideration. I want to eliminate players, continue to build my stack, and avoid dangerous situations. If I can create a scenario where I’m the table captain – meaning I dictate the size of the pots – the rest of the action becomes easier to read. I can frequently steal the blinds and antes, and if someone else re-raises, it’s pretty easy to put them on a hand because I know they can only play back at me with really strong cards.

One of the first keys to becoming an effective big-stack bully is to stay aware of your fellow players and the size of their stacks. Don’t give short stacks easy access to all-in moves with any Ace. If you raise with a hand like 9-8 suited and a short stack comes over the top and pushes all-in, then you’ve created a bad situation. Even if you’re getting the right odds to call, you don’t want to double anybody up.

You also have to recognize those players that won’t stand for your bullying or who are just trying to survive and make the money, but are so low in chips that they have no choice but to push. At some point every player reaches their breaking point. You should be conscious of that moment so that you don’t needlessly hand over chips to someone who is ready to play back by pushing all-in and putting you to a tough decision you don’t want to face.

Sometimes, being the bully means that you’ll have to make a crying call even when you don’t want to. For example, if I feel like the short stack is pushing with any Ace, I’ll sometimes gamble even if I think I may be behind before the flop. If I’m holding something like K-Q suited, I’m going to try to knock the player out of the tournament. I’ll basically play with anything down to K-8 suited, because if he has something like pocket 6s or a naked Ace, it’s a choice I can live with.

Of course, being a bully doesn’t mean you should let your aggression outweigh good sense. Playing smart poker – raising at the right times against the right opponents – is always something to keep in mind. For example, if you’re raising on the button with a weak hand like 10-6 against two small stacks in the blinds and one of them pushes, you’ve created a bad situation that you really could have avoided.

If I’m raising in these spots with hands like K-9, J-10, A-9, I’m not worrying too much about getting called or re-raised by a short stack. But with 10-6 off-suit, you have to think – maybe I don’t need to lose a bunch of chips with this hand and double someone up. A good rule of thumb here is to ask yourself if your opponent would push with 10-6 themselves. The answer is, probably not. They would have folded with 10-6, so you created a bad situation by raising with it in the first place.

When you’re trying to be a bully, try to think about what your opponent would do if they were holding your cards. Put yourself in their position and reverse the hands. If you think they would push all-in with the same hand you’re holding, then your hand is strong and you should be a bully and push. If they would have folded your hand, then you should probably let it go too.

There are some hands you’re going to play no matter what, and if you’re behind, you can’t worry about losing. Just say to yourself – that time I was unlucky, next time it will be different. If you raise with A-8 on the button and the blind pushes with A-10 – well, it happened. Put the hand behind you and move on.

To be a successful bully, you have to be willing to take some risks and to lose some chips. Remember, it’s OK to lose the occasional battle in order to win the war.

High Stakes Poker Videos

Farha vs Greenstein

AA vs KK

Guess the winner

Outstanding situation, Farha ’s with KK versus Greenstein ’s AA on High Stakes Poker, It really appears Green have the Aces, still Farha have the kings, he is really thinking about this. This is the biggest desition a no limit player have to make, to call an all in from a player that it’s very passive, I mean he waited until having best hand and got AA.

Get your Poker money Bonus ($600 free) at FullTilt Poker

Daniel Negreanu vs. Gus Hansen

This incredible video will make you think it’s possible to be a millonare (or at least half of it) only in one hand of poker. The Pot is higher than 500.000 dollars. Probably one of the most interesting pots ever filmed on a video of poker.

Daniel Negreanu big bets, Gus Hansen all in.

Play at FullTilt Poker and get $600 free.

Phil Hellmuth is one of the most successful Texas Holdem tournament players of all time. His performance at the World Series of Poker alone is more than other players could ever dream of. He has eleven bracelets, has placed in dozens of events, and is one of the all time top money winners. One of his bracelets was for winning the Championship event in 1989 when he was only 24 years old, making him the youngest winner of the main event.

Now having said all that, the thing that is such a shame is that as great as he is, most people know him as the whiner in poker. It bothers me to see that most people are going to remember him for his poor attitude rather than for the great tournament player that he is. I have heard him say numerous times that he is working on the fact that he throws temper tantrums at the table and I honestly believe that he is, but there is still an awful lot of work to be done there.

I have had the pleasure of playing heads up with him on one occasion. He won the $1,000 Omaha High-Low event at the L.A. Poker Classic and I came in second. It wasn’t really a fair fight though since he started out with over ten times the chips I had. I had a few people tell me that they were rooting for me so bad just to see him cry about it. In all honesty, he was a total gentleman at the table. After we finished the event, he came up to me and shook my hand and told me that I played a great game. I thought to myself, “wow he really is changing”. He could have just been a sportsman because he had won. I guess for now, I will not know what his attitude would be like if I had come in first. When I do beat him in an event, I hope that he will give give me a little more credit than what he did when he wrote about the last one. He wrote a full page about the tournament and the only time my name was mentioned was way in the bottom paragraph, where he said, “Shirley Rosario came in second.”

Phil Hellmuth Jr. currently lives in Palo Alto, California. He travels the tournament circuit for larger buy-in events, is a spokesman for online cardroom Ultimate Bet, and has a book out called, “Play Poker Like the Pros”. When people see poker, people see Phil. He is also featured in Travel Channel commercials promoting the World Poker Tour. Speaking of the World Poker Tour, he has a fourth, eighth, tenth, fourteenth and third in those events. Most people would think that would be terrific, but he complained that he feels like “a total failure”. That is one of the reasons why he is such a terrific poker player, he doesn’t want to settle for anything but the best, but it also shows he can complain about almost anything.

His World Series of Poker accomplishments include first place finishes in the Championship Event in 1989, Limit Holdem in 1992, 1993, and 2003, two No Limit Holdem events in 1993, one in 2001, and one in 2003, Pot Limit Holdem in 1997, and No Limit Hold’em with multiple rebuys.

Profile by Shirley Rosario got from www dot poker-babes dot com

Shirley Rosario

I have lived in Southern California all of my life. I was born inSan Pedro and grew up in Torrance. I currently live in Downey because it is close to the L.A. casinos.

More than ten years ago, one of my Aunts who worked in the casino business pulled a few strings to get me a job as a cocktail waitress at the Commerce Casino. I had been a waitress since I was sixteen and worked at almost every restaurant in the South Bay, but I had no experience serving cocktails. The bar manager decided to take a chance on me even though I was rough around the edges. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that my Aunt was very well liked and probably the hottest chick in the casino. I worked four nights a week while going to school at L.A. Harbor College. I was taking my general education classes and was going to transfer to Cal State Long Beach and get my teaching credentials. I worked really hard for two years (even made the honor roll), but as soon as it was time to transfer, I changed my mind. I was making a lot of money in the casino and I knew that I would be taking a pay cut if I pursued a teaching career. I took a break from school so I could decide what I wanted to do with my life. It was during that time that I discovered poker.

A few years after I started the job at Commerce, I started learning the game of poker. I would often stop and talk with specific customers in the midst of their hand and they would help me understand the game. There was one player I talked to most and he was a regular in the $6-12 Omaha Hi/Low game. By talking with him, I met Steve Badger. Steve and I bonded instantly and he suggested that I play an upcoming Omaha event. He asked that I get there a little early so he could discuss some tournament strategy with me. I did exactly that and ended up finishing in the money (ninth place). I played a few more Omaha Hi/Low tournaments after that and made the money in a high percentage of them. I think I placed in five of the first seven tournaments I played. (I was spoiled right off the bat!) During all of them, Steve was there to watch me and help me with any weaknesses in my game. To this day, he is still my mentor and my best friend.

Steve was not the only professional I met during my time at Commerce. I met some of the greatest players in the world and many of them were happy to help me out. I had strategy discussions with Men the Master, Amir “the King” Vahedi, Mel Judah, and Mark Seif to name a few, but it was Steve that spent hours on end with me. I finally had my “break through” in 2003. I finished work early on a Saturday night and decided to play an Omaha satellite. I won my table and pocketed $1,000. I jumped in another satellite and won it too. I called Steve on my way home and told him what happened and admitted that I wasn’t sure if I could part with the $1,000 for the next day’s Omaha HiLo event. I had never played a tournament with a buy-in that large before and $1,000 seemed like a fortune. He suggested that I go the casino early and play one more satellite. If I happened to win, I should put myself into the tournament. If I didn’t win, then I could skip the event. I didn’t win my satellite the next day and went to tell Steve about it. The tournament was only 20 minutes away and he was sitting at a table with a few guys most of who I hadn’t met before. He told them the story about me winning the night before and one of them really tried to encourage me to play. That guy was the Prince of Docness. Steve told him, “If you want her to play, then why don’t you put up $100 for her.” All five people, including Dennis Waterman, at the table ended up putting $100 up for me and I paid the other $500 to get into the event. I finished in second place ($27,740) losing to Phil Hellmuth Jr. and I was hooked.

During that series of tournaments, Steve and I came up with the idea about a poker website. He already owned the domain name Poker-Babes.com and we talked about promoting women in poker on the site. I also suggested doing profiles of well-known tournament players because there was virtually no information on the web at that time besides their stats. (What a change now!) I knew many of the players from either playing or working at the Commerce and I thought people would be interested in hearing about their favorite players from somebody who knew them especially since the World Poker Tour just started airing.

I left my job as a cocktail waitress shortly after my second place finish and spent the next year and half making most of my money playing online poker. In 2003, I accepted a job as a prop player at the Bicycle Casino. Robert Turner had been asking me to work at the Bike for about six months and I finally decided to give it a shot. I spent hours and hours at the casino playing a wide variety of games and the experience helped me fine tune my game. During my time as a prop, I started playing No Limit cash games and eventually took on additional duties as one of the No Limit Hosts.

The Bicycle Casino started a live Internet broadcast in the beginning of 2005 and asked me if I wanted to be one of the commentators. The show would feature one cash game (usually No Limit Holdem) and two commentators would discuss the hands while they were being played out. I accepted the job and performed this duty in addition to my prop duties. The show eventually got picked up by the Poker Channel and was edited and aired under the name “The L.A. Poker Scene.” At the end of 2005, I decided to focus more on playing and working on my website and left my job at the Bike.

I play mostly No Limit Holdem tournaments, but I consider my best game to be Omaha High-Low and have several final table finishes in the game. Besides finishing second to Phil in the 2003 LA Poker Classic Omaha event, I won the 2005 Legends of Poker Omaha Championship. I also have a first place finish in No Limit Hold’em at the 2004 Grand Slam of Poker No Limit Holdem Shootout. I’ve done pretty well in tournaments, but I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes too that have cost me shots at the final table. Fortunately my game keeps improving so I know I’ll have more chances. I am proud of myself though for being one of the few women players to actually win events, rather than just make the money. Getting paid is nice, but getting all the chips is a lot more fun!

Check out my Online Poker Room Reviews to see what name I play under at what cardroom. When I am not playing, I make money on the business side of poker. I run my personal website, have written several articles for poker publications, and was on the Poker for Dummies video along with Chris Moneymaker.

Johnny Chan

Johnny Chan is one of poker’s best known names. He is a legend in the poker world for winning ten World Series of Poker gold bracelets. But more impressively is that two bracelets were from back to back Championship events in 1987 and 1988. Amazingly he almost won in 1989 too, but finished second to Phil Hellmuth. He is not only known by poker players, but also by movie goers for playing himself as in Rounders. The movie contained footage of Chan’s victory against Erik Seidel in the 1988 World Series. Chan, nicknamed “The Orient Express”, flopped a straight and got Erik to move all in with a pair of queens.

Chan moved with his family from Hong Kong to Phoenix in 1968. They later moved to Houston where his family owned some restaurants. He was expected to continue in the family business, but poker took him on a life detour. He started playing in the early 80’s and hasn’t looked back since. When he started playing poker, he also was an avid bowler. He used to hide some of his poker escapades by saying he was at the bowling alley.

The ten gold bracelets from the World Series of Poker are from the two Championship events in 1987 and 1988, Limit Holdem in 1985, Seven-Card Stud in 1994, Deuce to Seven Draw in 1997, Omaha Pot Limit in 2000, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Holdem in 2003, Pot Limit Omaha in 2005, and the other bracelet was from the Gold Bracelet Match Play in 2002. The event was a series of heads up matches between previous bracelet winners and the final two players were Chan and Phil Hellmuth Jr. This time Chan was victorious. When I did the research on his wins, I was impressed with the variety of games he has won. This validates what many say, that he is one of the best all around poker players. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002.

Profile by Shirley Rosario got from www dot poker-babes dot com