Garry Kasparov, former world champion and one of the most dominant players in Chess history, has been arrested in Russia while participating in a political rally in Moscow. Kasparov is a leading figure in Russian politics and a staunch opponent of the current “regime”. He was recently interviewed by several United States media outlets, including a guest appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and Fox News Hardball with Chris Matthews, which has given new strength to his goal of establishing democracy in Russia and ousting current leader Vladimir Putin. A lucid man to listen to, Kasparov is engaging and sharp in his criticisms which may lead to more awareness of the problems in his home country and also to more unfortunate arrests.

In other news, Vassily Ivanchuk has defeated Vishy Anand to take home the World Blitz Chess Championship! In the penultimate game between two of the world’s top players, Anand was outplaying Ivanchuk and was materially ahead by two pawns when a blunder left his opponent with an opportunity for a deadly fork of his two Rooks. Ivanchuck capitalized immediately and several moves later claimed the victory when Anand acknowledged defeat and offered his handshake to end the game. A great showing by both players who had to work through an impressive field of talented Grandmasters. Congratulations to Ivanchuk, and good luck to Mr. Kasparov!

Online poker does its best to simulate the up and down swings that are mathematically probable for live-action players, mostly by delivering vastly unlikely beats upon players in predictable patterns. If you’ve had any experience online, you’ve certainly heard the complaints that online poker is rigged. While this is typically pronounced by players with limited skill and appropriately disregarded, I’ve discussed the phenomenon of quickly-turning fortunes with many players who have had success online and have always returned to the same conclusion: what goes up, must come down…and quickly.

One player described a run of taking down 5 straight sit-and-go tournaments only to encounter the predictable, immediate “downswing” afterwards. I’ve also had similar experiences with this specific situation following a minor winning streak. The next day I engaged in multi-tabling four tournaments (playing them all at a time) and ran into some unlikely “beats”. Pocket 9’s against a short stack all-in with 55 and the 5 comes off to give my opponent a set which steals the win. Very mild, but noteworthy. Simultaneously, in another tourney window I find pocket 5’s as a short stack and move-in to find myself up against the opponents 99 - and I flop a 5 to take the lead. However, a nine comes off on the turn to bust me out of that one. KK versus TT and JJ, the Jack falls. AK suited versus A4 off with a 2-3-5 flop after the A4 moved all-in pre-flop without provocation. Set versus a gutshot draw four times all of which catch on the river (it’s unlikely that many sets should occur, much less that they occurred within 30 minutes of each other and all lost). KK versus A8 with a flop of A-A-A puts me a bit behind. This is not including unlikely situations such as the three times pocket KK ran into AA preflop late in tournaments, or the six million times AK has lost to AJ or AQ versus QJ in dominated situations.

Meh. Just variance, still a skill game, keep playing, stop complaining even if you have to force yourself to call an all-in with AA when you know the set of Deuces is going to give your punching bag some action :)

I’m so pleased with the results of the new redesign of Chess and Poker Dot Com that I can’t stop clicking around the site exploring all of the great looking guides! It really is the result of tons of hard work paying off. I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I already do. If you notice any bugs or glitches be sure to click through to the Contact Information from the home page and let us know. There are always little hiccups when you’re doing an overhaul like this so we’ll keep an eye out for them and get things patched up quickly if we notice anything out of order. That’s all for now, I’m off to rest up for a weekend full of games and relaxation. I’ll be recharged by Monday, enjoy the new layout!

The wife and I had a great weekend, catching the scare-flick “30 Days of Night” in a rare adults-only outing after enjoying a nice meal out. We were of course celebrating out 6th anniversary which rolled around on Saturday, which means my phenomenal lucky streak continues! Then we had the families over for an early birthday party on Sunday, including Uncle Rob and Aunt Jill, which actually left our little ones in tears when they left since they had so much fun. I had fun too, with some great presents to boot. Make it two Poker books, two Chess books (even though I did order one from Ebay for myself), NASCAR fan book and pocket knife for knife fighting. Woot! I can’t read enough about my two favorite games. To top it all off, Nico went above and beyond in the kitchen (as usual) and whipped me up a turkey for my actual birthday today. What’s this? My favorite team the Packers on Monday night? 31 is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet Thanks everyone :)

Added: And the Packers win on the first play of overtime with a huge touchdown pass!!!

I always see pictures of players at the chess board with the typical Chess faces: blank and emotionless. You’ve heard the term “Poker Face” I’m sure, where the players try to wash all emotion from their palette and look as much like members of Tony Soprano’s crew as possible, but Chess Face is just about the same. The only difference is that you occasionally have to rub your forehead because you’re thinking so hard or maybe you look away imagining a subtle combination or what the recipe is for PB&J’s. Any time I look at two players playing Chess it just looks like they’re both trying to ignore me. My advice? Smile, in both games!

:)

Here’s a snippet from the last two tourneys across two different sites:

First three hands of the tourney are AA, AK suited, AA which for those of you who play online know is just a harbinger of doom for the rest of the tournament. So cruising right along past the money bubble and into the final twenty. Pick up KK with an UTG raiser 3x the BB, reraised by the player to my right who moves it all in with a short stack (half of my stack). I figure I’m up against AK + 77 or something in that range and after a quick review I pop it all in to isolate the smaller pair (and I don’t really mind the AK coming along if they absolutely have to). Original raiser thinks for the maximum time and finally…calls, having me covered. Hands are flipped over to show my Kings versus QQ and 88. Woot. Flop comes Q-8-2. Unwoot. Dual flopped sets. Humble narrator bounced.

Next tourney, satellite play. Fold fold fold grinding into the final table with maniacs galore, a welcome situation since I can play super tight and double up fairly easy if I catch a hand with very small blinds at the moment coupled with deep donk stacks. Yummy. But no hands and no profitable situations until the blinds go up and it’s push mode play from here on out, also not bad in this case since it’s a strong point of my game excepting my horrifying but un-tilting luck. I pick up 76 suited diamonds and it’s folded around to me, so I put it all in to have the huge stack in the BB call as planned. He flips 88 so I’m not so good until a flop of T-9-5 with the Ten and Nine of diamonds. Not so bad now with a gutshot straight flush draw and separate straights and flushes to be had. Such as the 8 of clubs on the turn. I make a straight, lucky bastard improves to trips with one card…to…Ten of clubs. Hmmm.

Variance. ALLLLLLLLLLL variance. Yep :)

On this day in 2003 ChessandPoker.com was launched. Four years later, we’re still pushing forward and stronger than ever! I’m working hard to roll out our new design this weekend which I think looks very, very cool. And I’m ready for the relaunch, I’ve been working on this thing for months! This year we’re going to turn another page and take our site up a notch with new guides and an expanded user base with our game forums. Keep it here, it’s going to get pretty interesting!

I’ve had much better results lately in the middle stages of tournaments where historically I’m either massively chipping up or busting (which is pretty standard but still), considering that I’ve tried to consciously avoid distractions such as surfing the net or playing 6 tables at a time. I’ve been getting deeper more smoothly and playing sharper when I get there. I’ve been studying lots of different flop situations and mentally reviewing the betting patterns of my opponents and it is helping out tremendously. Patience for great situations based on detailed observations, as compared to waiting for good cards, has received greater emphasis. I’ll keep you posted on my new LAG-ish style.

In two straight tournaments last night, as a side note, I had the fortune to make three straight flushes! The first time I was at a table that literally had six or seven people limping into every flop, regardless of raises, position etc. I picked up 9d-8d which made for an easy blend-limp, and improved slightly on a 6d-7d-Td flop. There was some light betting which I just called to see a turn of the Jd giving me an even higher straight flush. Unfortunately, and somewhat bizarrely, it seems that no one held either the Kd or Ad to pay me off. Big hand, small profit. Next tourney, KhQh with the turn giving me a straight flush on a Jh-Th-8c-9h board. This time I was pushed all-in by another KQ (offsuit) and my str8 flush took it down. As I was posting, I was also involved in a hand with QJo checked in the big blind for a flop of 8-Q-J rainbow versus two opponents. One puts in a reasonable bet, the next calls and I call also. The turn comes a Q which gives me a full house! The first player again makes a half-pot bet and the second player insta-pushes all-in which I call, hoping for a chasing-call…but he wisely folded. They flip up T9o for a flopped straight which loses to my boat, but wait…another Queen on the river for Quads!

Internet card shuffles are totally random :)

In an unprecedented event, Annette Obrestad has won the $10,000 main event at the World Series of Poker Europe! All at once she becomes the youngest player to win a bracelet and the only woman to win a $10k buy-in event. The fact that she took down her first WSOP tournament is almost too surreal to comprehend, much less that she did so in a concentrated talent-packed field of top pros and extremely strong players. Annette has long been a dominant fixture in online tournaments across multiple sites such as PokerStars, Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt, and now she has established herself as one of the best players in the world regardless of the format. For those of us who have learned countless lessons just by watching her play online, I’d just like to congratulate Annette on her outstanding victory that captivated and intrigued all of us who were following along and holding our breath. Enjoy your success, you’ve earned it!

I’m not sure if MTT (multi-table tournament) success has done something to alter my results in Sit-and-Go’s, but I’ve been stinking up the place of late any time I sit down to play one. Granted, it’s not entirely because of bad play but I’m the first to admit my attention level goes way down in a SNG, and I usually only pop one up whenever I’m bored grinding away in a standard tournament at the same time. But one format in particular I’m having no luck in are the heads up variety. For those of you who don’t know, any time I’ve played a new level of buy-in (such as Freeroll, $1, $5, $10 etc) I’ve always won my first tournament…every time. So I sat down to play a mini heads-up tournament where four players play two matches heads up to determine the winner of a token used to buy-in to a larger tournament. I took out the first opponent in three hands, and the second in under 20. The streak continues! But then came a loss, a quick one at that. AK vs. 85 losing half my stack, followed up quickly by QQ heads-up pushed in position running into pocket Kings. Out. Then an unlikely string of results such as three straight SNGs where I lost in straight-over-straight situations and even two IN A ROW where I was taken down in SET-OVER-SET confrontations….heads up!

This great abundance of luck has also been finding its way into my regular tournaments as well. Last night I was working my way through a 600+ person deep-stack tournament maintaining a top-20 position for most of the tournament after an initially phenomenal run of cards, flopping sets on rainbow Ace-high boards (yummy), nut straights etc. which helps the table give up even more pots uncontested out of fear that you’ve flopped even more monsters. Chip up and go deep. After being moved to a more similarly stacked table, I pick up JJ (oh how I love thee) in the Big Blind after it’s folded around to me…except for the LAG (loose-agressive) player that limped in the first position. After only a few hands you could see they were playing a wide range of subpar hands, such as Ace-rags, pocket TTs as if they were AA and so on. So time for a standard 4x raise to test their hand strength. Then there is a massive reraise all-in, vastly inappropriate based on the tournament stage and the amount of damage I could do to their stack (they’d be severely crippled if I call and win). After a short thought, and mostly because they were practically begging me to fold with the odd overbet, I called expecting to see something like A9 or even TT. Lo and behold he/she also held JJ. We’ll share a laugh and … uh oh, three spades on the flop. They have the Jack of spades. Surely not … there’s the fourth spade. Bounced. Time clocked approximately 2hrs. Woot.

Internet shuffles are completely random :)

SNG strategy adjustments in progress…