Everyone knows that the ideal situation to push most of your chips into the pot would be having the nuts against an opponent who has only a second rate hand.  However, there are often times where this perfect scenario just isn’t possible and you are the one with a decent hand but not the best.  And, in tournament situations especially, sometimes you just have to take a chance when holding cards like A-Q, K-Q or middle pairs.

But when is the best possible time to make such a move?  In my opinion, it’s when you feel your stack is slipping and a move needs to be made before winding up short-stacked.  And the best way to do this is by trying to isolate someone who has a shorter stack than you.

To go about this, I try to look for a short-stacked person who is the first one to limp into a pot.  If other limpers follow, then it’s a great opportunity to jump into the pot with a raise hoping the original and short-stacked limper calls it. 

Now obviously, this type of move needs to be done when one is preferably in later position but it can also be pulled off from middle position.  There are some dangers to trying this from middle position such as one getting burned if someone behind them has a great pocket pair and raises the raise thus knocking out the original short-stacked player.

But one thing is for sure and this is that sitting by idly while your stack dwindles isn’t exactly a great option either.  And if the stack gets low enough, taking a chance won’t pay off nearly as much as it could’ve before.  In fact, you might be the one having to go all-in when the stack is too low.  And that always leaves a good chance of busting out.

In late 2003 and early 2004, when poker started getting really popular, I can remember some misunderstood members of the media (especially the sports media) bashing the game and its star players. 

Their main criticism seemed to be the typical stereotype at the time of a bunch of unhealthy, fat guys sitting around a table smoking cigars and throwing their money away.  Being a participant and fan of the game, I was somewhat appalled by their description of poker and thought that it was a very unjust view from people who had no idea what they were talking about.

Now that I think about it though, they may not be way out of line with regards to questioning the health of poker players as a whole.  Just think of how many players can be seen at tournaments eating hotdogs, hamburgers, drinking pop, and generally digesting everything that any dietician would advise against.  I mean when is the last time you saw someone drinking V8 while snacking on an apple?

Yes, the tournaments can be long and eating healthy isn’t always an option but what about other aspects of the game that are disastrous to one’s health.  Some players are constantly traveling which again leads to some poor food choices and others drink alcohol quite often at the tables.

A lot of players choose the no exercise route as well which is probably a direct result of the long hours put in at the table whether it be live or online.  The adrenaline rush that comes from big hands isn’t good for the body either as one’s heart rate can skyrocket and this is way worse for a person than just sitting on the couch watching TV.

Now granted, not every poker player travels or puts in long hours at the table but the majority of those who play significant hours each day are definitely at risk.  And as long as there’s plenty of money to be made in poker, I don’t see too many players cashing in their chips for time spent improving their health anytime soon.

It’s easy to forget about some of the more cheerful aspects of poker with the way the game is sometimes today.  Things such as online poker room scandals, players being busted for housing home gambling circuits, and some stars of the game having heads that have become too big for their shoulders taint poker and make people forget about why it was started in the first place - To have fun and develop camaraderie with friends.

But one story that’s been circulating around lately reinforced what good can come from poker if people truly enjoy the game.  Some people may have already heard about the Seattle area poker club that had been playing for 46 years straight.  And unfortunately, they may have also heard that this poker club started by Grant Erwin recently ended its run. 

Called the Puget Probability and Chowder Society, the group that participated in this poker club played at various homes throughout the Seattle area during the four and a half decades.  The interesting thing about these people is that they engaged in low stakes poker games but money wasn’t exchanged between the players.  Instead, it was given to Erwin and the money won was kept track of by tokens placed into a baby food jar.

Now Erwin didn’t just keep the money as he instead invested it in different stocks.  The way the shares were kept track of was through the tokens in the jar.  Eventually, those $10 and $20 winnings turned into $100,000 of collective profit amongst the group. 

The stock portfolio was recently cashed in by the group that included plenty of men in their 70’s and 80’s but the memories from the games will always live on with them.  The club often had members rotate in and out of the circle due to people moving away or passing away but those that remain still keep close ties.

To me, it’s great to hear a story like this because it reminds me that poker isn’t all about what goes in the major tournaments or how much money one can win online. 

In poker there are many actions that are debatable.  And I would certainly throw the decision of what to do with a medium pair such as 9-9 in middle position in that equation.  Most would say that one should call with this hand as long as a tight player in early position hasn’t raised or anything.  But there is another school of thought that says to either raise or fold with such a hand.

I happen to agree with the first line of thinking in that this is a good hand to call with and see what action takes place behind me.  When I was playing a few days ago, I was in this very situation where I had a pair of nines and was pretty confident that a call would be the best decision to make.

The game was an online $5/$10 Hold’em cash game and one person called before me.  My line of thinking was that a pair of nines wasn’t going to win the hand so I should just try to see the flop as cheaply as possible.  Two players behind me called as well so no raises were made.  The four of us saw the flop come up 5c-3s-5h. 

The player in front of me folded while I checked.  One of the two players after me checked and the other one bet out.  When the action came back around to me I debated on whether to call this bet or not as, once again, I figured that two nines weren’t going to cut it and I only had a couple of outs to make my hand.  Plus, I figured that the player who bet had something like A-5 and had just hit a set.

In the end, I decided to fold and the other two people played the hand out till the end.  I was right in that the player who initially bet out after the flop was holding A-5.  And this made me question my initial decision of simply calling when I had 9-9 in middle position with no raises in front of me. 

It sort of makes me lean towards the thinking that a raise or fold is better with none out in from of me.  This way, I think I might have made the person with the A-5 fold and they never would have hit a set on the flop.   

The last post I wrote looked at a few of the online trends occurring in poker today that might make one wonder if the game is in any sort of danger as far as losing its popularity among people.  This post is going to focus on the TV side of poker and some of the major shakeups that have happened or may be in the works with regards to the televised side of the game. 

First, let’s go over what has already occurred:
- At this point it looks like the Game Show Network (GSN) is moving towards canceling the show ”High Stakes Poker”.  This comes after news surfaced that no new episodes were filmed in March or April which is when they filmed them in the past.  
- There have also been some reports that the WPT is in trouble after lackluster ratings.  This is only speculation but they can’t be in real good standing with GSN after PokerStars chose to no longer advertise during WPT’s time slot.
- The already oft-reported news about the WSOP final table being moved to boost ratings for ESPN’s coverage of the Main Event is just another event which makes me wonder what kind of state the popularity of poker is currently at.

Now these events certainly don’t spell the doomsday for poker as I’m fairly sure that the game of will always be around since too many people enjoy playing it for poker to ever fade away.  But the TV occurrences coupled with the online trend of the FTOPS definitely raises some questions though.

And most of these questions revolve around whether the glory days of poker - that saw Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu have become household names and tons of people flock to card rooms across the Internet daily - are starting their decline. 

I sure hope not but we’ll have to wait a couple of years to truly find out.