G5 Poker

I first met Paul “The Marbella Kid” Zimbler a couple of years ago at a poker festival in Torre Real, not far from Marbella itself. He was handing out baseball caps for a revolutionary new card room called ‘Dusk Till Dawn’.

And now, a few years later, he is launching his own business - a poker school aimed at new professionals and amateurs looking for that extra edge.

With all the interest spreading virally around the net about TIPS, I was lucky enough to get a place on the launch event at a glossy new hotel in Elstree, north of London. Arriving the night before, I sank a few beers with an old friend from deepest somerset who spotted me whilst walking through the bar. It’s a small world.

The day started a little behind schedule, as one of the guest speakers was having problems in traffic, as were a couple of the people attending the course. Paul had laid on egg, bacon and sausage rolls for breakfast along with copious quantities of coffee and there are worse ways to kill the 20 minutes before we kick-off.

With everyone present, Paul started proceedings with a short introduction and a couple of Youtube videos showing some key concepts - he paused each of these at various points, asked what we would do and why, told us what he would do and why, and in one of them showed himself making a mistake. It was a refreshing and fairly counter-egotistical way of illustrating that everyone makes mistakes, even the pros, and if you can spot these mistakes then even the amateurs and less experienced players can take advantage.

We were then treated to a talk by Nik Persaud - an experienced cash and tournament player who stressed the importance of remembering some of the simple rules - such as Sklanksy’s fundamental theorem, and illustrated with examples. Nik is a very energetic and enthusiastic teacher.

A short break and we played a STT (the winner of each receiving a prize) with a chance to think about what we’d learned already in a real poker game. It’s a nice touch. Too much theory all at once can be boring and can be forgotten. By playing a short (and at 8 minute blinds it was very short) game it helped it all sink in.

And thus the day continued. James Browning from Sky Poker was there and gave some very focused and pertinent advice, we played another small STT after some seminars and the final was on tells and body language.

And then we got to put everything we learned on the day into practice in the main competition - with a chance to win a couple of seats at the WSOPE £1k event.

I failed miserably. I was first out when in the first hand I ran AK into AA and lost a chunk, then made an expert read to decide that nobody had hit top pair on a 4-way flop and my second pair was good, especially when a blank fell on the turn. Unfortunately Nik had hit a set of blanks and I was gone in hand # 5. Belatedly, I remembered a piece of James’ advice: “If you play a tournament and don’t really committ to it, or have somewhere to be, you may as well just burn your entry fee”.

I got in the car and drove the 4 hours back to York ready to meet the new girlfriend’s parents the next day. How very true his advice was.

Paul’s instincts are spot on. He knows what the market needs, and is providing it. TIPS is going to be a huge success, and I’m looking forward to going on one of the longer 2-day courses once he get’s them up and running.

Check The International Poker School’s website here.

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The first time you play somewhere new or different there’s a danger of becoming so focused on the new venue or the new players you’re likely to meet that it’s easy to forget the simple stuff. So here’s a quick recap:

1. Know the rules. If you’re not sure, there’s an excellent online trainer on The Hendon Mob site.
2. Game selection. Don’t play above your limit, although the occasional bigger game can add some depth and new perspectives to your regular game. Search for tournament entries you’re comfortable with on the G5 Poker Tournament Database and make sure that you’re playing for an amount of money that’s comfortable for you.
3. Make sure you know how to get there and where the car park or train/tube station is! Just like a job interview, if you’re rushing and in danger of getting there late you’ll be stressed / annoyed and beginning to tilt even before you’ve bought in. Be there in enough time to register, find the loos, get a drink and some food etc
4. If you draw the dealer’s seat on a self-dealt game, ask if someone else will deal for you unless you’re comfortable doing it. A regular will usually offer to deal for the table.
5. Take a few hands to settle in, assess the mood at the table, see what the ’standard’ raise is if there is one, and see if you can spot the fishes, the gobby table captains, the quiet dangerous ones and in particular pay attention to the person on your right and the two people on your left as they’ll probably have the most influence on your play.
6. Regulars will ‘test’ new players, notably in rebuys they will sometimes call you with nothing knowing you’re ahead just to see what you’re playing. Their reasoning being that if you’re going to become a regular too they’ll want information as cheaply as possible as early as possible. Even if you have no intention of playing there again, tell them you’re thinking of moving to the area and making it your local. Then get as much value as possible….
7. Rebuy tournaments at casinos can get a bit crazy, freezeouts usually provide a slightly more sensible introduction and more and more UK casinos are offering freezeouts as part of their regular weekly lineup.
8. If you get any grief from anyone else at the table, have a word with the tournament director. You have as much right to be there as anyone else at that table. It’s why poker is so democratic
9. Remember about verbal declarations. You may may see regulars tossing various chip amounts in without saying anything, but the safest way to avoid having your move mis-interpreted (and a tedious lecture about how you should play) announce your raise as a total amount (”I’ll raise to a total of 1000″) and if you need change the dealer will pass this back to you.
10. Have fun

Get great deposit & reload bonuses at Betfred Poker

Check out player stats in the Hendon Mob player database

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The Betfred Ladies Poker Tour is the UK’s only all-female poker tour and is now in its third year. This year the tour is again bigger and better, visiting eight casinos and card rooms before culminating in the Grand Final in November.

With Betfred adding £1,000 to the prize pool of each event and £5,000 to the prize pool for the final, as well as a £20,000 sponsorship package for the winner - it offers superb value to new and experienced players alike.

How do I enter the Betfred Ladies Poker Tour?

Online satellites at www.betfredpoker.com:

• Every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday BLPT $2 + $0.20 re-buy, one seat for every $24 in the prize pool to the BLPT Super Sat.
• Every Thursday BLPT Super Sat, $22 + $2, one BLPT Entry Token to a live event for every $220 in the prize pool.
• Buy-in directly online at www.betfredpoker.com for $200 +$20.
• Buy-in at the venue on the day of the event for £100 + £10.

Click here to download the Betfred Poker Software and create your account.

LPT Schedule

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Multi-way pots can be ‘fun’ to deal with, they tend to happen a lot in the early stages of rebuy tournaments when everyone at the table utters the universal cry of “I’m getting good value now – I’m all in (with my J-4 unsuited)”. Usually a proficient dealer would work out the main pot and side pots in order, but most players at self dealt games have very strong opinions about how much should be in each side pot, and start changing chips up themselves, usually from the wrong pot. Blessed is the person, when everyone’s all in, who cries out “let’s just leave the chips in front of each person and work it out when the hand’s over”

If you get any problems whilst at the table (and this is very very rare to be honest – in several hundred games at probably half the UK’s casinos I’ve never seen a novice treated badly) then raise it with the tournament director / card room supervisor. It’s poker, not a knitting circle, so the odd bit of swearing is to be expected, as well as toys coming royally out of prams, but the vast, vast majority of poker players are polite, friendly and helpful. They want your money, sure, but they’ll want you to come back if nothing else

Then we come to the subject of “was it a call or a raise?” and the whole thorny issue of verbal declarations. The simplest way is just to announce what you’re going to do it, then put either the right amount of chips over the line or if you don’t have it exactly then after you’ve announced your action put an amount of chips closest (above) the desired amount and you’ll be given change.

You’ll see people just tossing chips in without saying anything, and what’s fun is when several chips greater than the call amount go in. The ensuing argument would make me rich if I were an arms dealer. The official rule for oversized chips being thrown in without a verbal declaration is as follows:

1. If a single oversized chip is thrown in without verbal declaration, it will be taken as a ‘call’ and change will be given.
2. If multiple oversized chips are thrown in without a verbal declaration it will be taken as a raise of the exact amount of the chips and no change will be given.
3. If multiple chips are thrown in which total more than the call amount, but are not enough for a legal raise, the player will be made to make it up to the legal minimum raise.

Does anywhere enforce rules 2 and 3 systematically? Do they ‘eck.

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If you’ve never been to a casino before, then congratulations, you may become very rich. You may also become very broke, frustrated or married. Sometimes they’re the same thing.

Joining a UK casino is now fairly easy. Just rock on up to the casino of choice (allow a bit of time for inevitable queues of people who have forgotten their membership cards, membership numbers and their names – slot machines will do that to a person) with some photo ID (passport or drivers licence) fill out a short form, and get given vouchers for drinks, food, and maybe a ‘free’ bet on the wheel-of-illogical-hope-over-reason (roulette).

Once you’re inside, feel free to have a drink (though the difference between a quick steadier and ‘annoying tw*t’ is too fine a point to grasp for some people) and have a look around. You’ll need to know where to find the cash desk, the card room, and the toilets. Possibly the smoking terrace as well (even if you don’t smoke it’s somewhere to hide from the other half when you’ve done your brains on blackjack before the tournament has even started).

You will usually register at either the main cash desk or at a place somewhere in the card room – best bet is just to ask at the front desk when you come in.

Once you’ve registered, hover around the area from a few minutes before the published start time and wait for the announcements. Seat draws will either be on a screen or someone handing out tickets – either way you should get a table number and a seat number. If your seat number is a 1 or a 9 or 10 you may have to be the dealer for the table on a self-dealt tournament. If you do draw this utter privilege (no sarcasm at all..honest) and you’re happy dealing, then fire away. If not, just ask someone else to deal for you and they’ll usually mutter something about beginners but be secretly happy to exhibit uber alpha-maleness at controlling a table of aggressive poker players and showing how they too can deal like real Las Vegas dealers. Bless.

If they insist on taking turns on dealing round the table, prepare yourself for not very man hands per hour. The usual convention is that the person to the left of the new dealers shuffles, the person to the right cuts, and the guy in the middle then deals. There are odd variations on this rule though, so best to ask. The dealer should usually control the game (or that hand). Make sure the blinds are in, deal the cards, kick off the pre flop by nodding, pointing or throwing something sharp at the person sitting Under The Gun who will inevitably ask how much it is to them (hint: look at the big blind on your right…it’s that much) etc. Once the betting for that round is finished, the dealer should scoop the chips all into the central pot. Some places like to stack them, and others like to stack them in handy piles of 5 for easy counting. Strictly speaking in No Limit holdem, you shouldn’t stack them in piles for easy counting, it’s up to the players to track – but it’s common practice in Pot Limit games where repeated pot counting is necessary. If a player wants to know how much is in the pot, the proper rule is they should ask the dealer to spread the pot out so they can count it themselves.

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