Ruff Poker Blog
Learn Train Dominate Poker

Poker is a complex game that could have you calculating hundreds of different pieces of information every single hand. The best players are able to make these calculations -and weight them accordingly-almost on instinct, but for the rest of us it’s important to answer the following 10 questions every hand:

• 1. How strong is my hand?

Hand strength is important when you open a pot from early position or when you are confronted with limpers or a raiser.

• 2. What position am I in?

Most people simply view position as something that allows you to make better decisions, and win more/lose less money, but it also is the opposite of hand strength: What I mean is that the better your position the less important hand strength is, which puts the focus on some of the other questions below.

• 3. What is the previous action?

Previous action is always a secondary question, usually following what is the strength of my hand.

• 4. What is the game texture?

Game texture supplies you with information like what the standard raise size is, and what type of action you can expect if you enter the pot.

• 5. What are the players still to act likely to do?

This is another question that becomes more important as your position improves.

• 6. What is my table image?

Many players overlook their table image and get confused when players call them down with junk, or why they can never get a call. Always be aware of how you are perceived at the table.

• 7. What are my effective odds?

This question should never be left unanswered.

• 8. What are my implied odds?

A little more abstract than effective odds, you should always try to gauge how much more money an opponent will be willing to put in the pot should you hit your hand.

• 9. Do I have any physical reads on the players in the hand, or still to act?

Sometimes a physical tell will supersede all other information, but most of the time they will be used to sway you one way or the other in tough decisions.

• 10. What should my bet-sizing be?

Bet-sizing is typically the last question you answer, since it will be followed by your last actual action, but it’s a crucial part of stealing blinds -which is monumentally important in tournaments.

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This is still a lot of information to have to process in mere seconds, and unfortunately many players only look at one, two, or maybe three of these variables before acting. Good players will learn to cycle through this list very rapidly, and depending on the situation place more emphasis on certain questions than others.

This is perhaps the hardest aspect of utilizing these 10 questions: Correctly ranking them according to importance, which varies tremendously. For instance, if you are first to act in early position your hand’s strength is of utmost importance, but if you are first to act on the button than what the players still to act are likely to do should be your primary focus -along with your table image; your actual hand strength becomes almost meaningless.

Another example that would drastically change the importance of these questions would be if you noticed both blinds had already peeked at their hole cards and look very disinterested in playing. Once again, your hand strength becomes irrelevant because you have a physical tell that trumps all of the other questions. However, you would still need to put an emphasis on bet-sizing and your table image.

It’s often said that in poker your losses should “sting”; meaning when you lose money at the poker tables it should be a noticeable amount. Of course, to some people a noticeable amount is merely $10, and to others the threshold can be much higher. So, the question remains: How do you determine what stakes you should be playing at? Well, most people would say it all depends on your bankroll, but there is another aspect you should also weigh just as heavily, and that is; what are you comfortable losing?

Your comfort level in poker isn’t totally determined by what you have in the bank; instead it is determined by the stakes you need to play where you can keep your composure, while at the same time play in a game where the wins and losses are meaningful. Like most everything in poker this requires a serious balancing act!

The simplest way to explain what I mean by comfort level is the following sentence: In poker your losses should be annoying, not disheartening. The way I look at it, on my worst day –the day I lose every coin-flip; when my sets lose to rivered straights and flushes; and when my draws never get there– I should leave the game annoyed, not feeling heartbroken. I want to feel like the Red Sox blew a 9^th inning lead during a game in April, not during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series -Get the difference between annoyed and disheartened now?

The trick is to play a high enough level so that the losses do not become so insignificant that you simply don’t care. And this is where most players fail in their logic. Sure you may be bankrolled -even over-bankrolled– for $5/$10 No Limit, but are you ready for the $10,000 swings that playing these stakes will present? Well if you’re not, obviously you should play lower. But suppose you’re a poker pro/semi-pro trying to scrape out a living at the tables, and $2/$4 or $3/$6 No limit is too low a level for you to survive on. Here is where problems start to arise, because you’re uncomfortable at the limit you need to play, and will therefore play slightly scared or even worse, tilt really easily.

The reality is that for some people no amount of money will ever allow them to play comfortably at a certain level, and because of this they play poorly -or simply slightly off their ‘A’ Game-which turns them into long-term losing players. If everything about the game was the same with the sole exception being that the stakes were cut in half they would make a nice living, but because they are playing out of their comfort zone they simply can’t beat the game.

So, before you say, “I’m bankrolled for such and such limit”, take a minute and determine where your comfort zone is by figuring out whether a bad loss would annoy or dishearten you.

You would think it would be a two horse race between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker when it comes to which online poker site has the best stable of sponsored poker players, but there is a third and fourth site that are doing a good job of staying competitive with the two online poker giants. The other two sites I’m talking about are UB Poker -formerly Ultimate Bet– and Doyles Room.

So, let’s take a look at the sponsored pros from each of these online poker rooms and see which site truly has the best lineup. For the purposes of this argument I’m going to separate the main, advertised players, from the 100’s of players Stars and Full Tilt sponsor in some way, shape or form.

PokerStars

• Headliners: Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grosspellier, Greg Raymer, Joe Cada, David Williams, Vannessa Selbst, Barry Greenstein, Jason Mercier, and Lex Veldhuis.
• Secondary Pros: Dario Minieri, Humberto Brenes, Ivan Demidov, Andre Akkari, Chad Brown, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken, Victoria Coren, Alexander Kravchenko, Alexandre Gomes, Dennis Phillips, John Duthie, Johnny Lodden, Leo Fernandez, Marcin Horecki, Maridu Mayrinck, Tom McEvoy, Hevad Khan, Victor Ramdin, Nuno Coelho, Anton Allemann, Johannes Steindl, Lee Nelson, Tony Hachem, Marcel Luske, Pieter De Korver, Simone Ruggeri, Juan Manuel Pastor, Per Paolo Fabretti, Veronica Dabul, Angel Guillen, Gualtier Salles, Jose Ignacio Barbero, Joep Van Den Bijgaart, Ruben Visser, Rino Mathis, Jude Ainsworth, JP Kelly, Vadin Markushevski, Richard Toth, Arnaud Mattern, Christopher De Muelder, Matthias De Muelder, Thomas Bichon, Julian Thew, Darus Suharto, Martin Hruby, Anh Van Nguyen, Greg Debora, Marcello Del Grosso, Pat Pezzin, Bryan Huang, Celina Lin, Raymond Wu, Tae Joon Noh, Thierry Van Den Berg, and Ville Wahlbeck.

When it comes to their main sponsored players PokerStars obviously puts a major focus on World Series of Poker winners, going for star-power over poker ability -which has obviously worked for the site in terms of marketing! Their secondary pros are all excellent players, but here Stars focus shifts away from household names and more towards a well-rounded player with regional appeal.

Full Tilt Poker

• Headliners: Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, Patrik Antonius, and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan.
• Secondary Pros: Brandon Adams, James Akenhead, Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros, Josh Arieh, Amanda ‘Mandy B’ Baker, Praz Bansi, Joao Barbosa, Aaron Bartley, Steven Begleiter, David Benyamine, Thomas Bihl, Sascha Biorac, Andy Black, Farzad Bonyadi, Brad Booth, Alan Boston, David Bradley, Steve Brecher, Richard Brodie, Erik Cajelais, John Cernuto, Lynette Chan, David Chiu, Scott Clements, Artie Cobb, David Colclough, Diego Cordovez, John D’Agostino, Roland de Wolfe, Ryan Dreyer, Bill Edler, Trond Eidsvig, Eli Elezra, Nikolay Evdakov, Andrew Feldman, Peter ‘Nordberg’ Feldman, Scott Fischman, Perry Friedman, Eric Froehlich, Rafe Furst, Julian Gardner, Bill Gazes, Kristy Gazes, Markus Golser, Michael Gracz, David Grey, Svetlana Gromenkova, Jared ‘TheWacoKidd’ Hamby, Matt Hawrilenko, Rob Hollink, Soraya Homam, Alessio Isaia, Niki ‘KaiBuxxe’ Jedlicka, Chip Jett, Karina Jett, Berry Johnston, Marc Karam, Jonathan Karamalikis, Kelly Kim, Martin Kläser, Christiane Klecz, Erich Kollmann, Søren Kongsgaard, Christian Kruel, Markus Lehmann, Alfredo ‘Toto’ Leonidas, Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger, Marco Liesy, Hal Lubarsky, Vitaly Lunkin, Jeff Madsen, Mihai Manole, Craig Marquis, Greg Mascio, Daniele Mazzia, Dag Mikkelsen, Scott Montgomery, Jordan ‘iMsoLucky0′ Morgan, Carlos ‘The Matador’ Mortensen, Greg Mueller, Adam Noone, Annette ‘Annette_15′ Obrestad, Raul Oliveira, David Oppenheim, Raul Paez, Stuart Paterson, Pascal Perrault, David Pham, John Phan, Caio Pimenta, Leandro ‘Brasa’ Pimentel, Vivek Rajkumar, Stefan Rapp, Claudio Rinaldi, Ben Roberts, Roberto Romanello, Esther Rossi, Damian Salas, Ali Sarkeshik, Eddy Scharf, Erica Schoenberg, Adam Schoenfeld, Nick Schulman, Alexander Schwab, Huckleberry Seed, Keith Sexton, Matt Sexton, Paul Sexton, Beth Shak, Bruno Stefanelli, Johan Storakers, David Singer, Gavin Smith, Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith, Cole South, Roland Specht, Sigi Stockinger, Frank Thompson, Kenny Tran, Marco Traniello, Michael Tureniec, Jon ‘PearlJammed’ Turner, José Luis Velador, Jani Vilmunen, Cyndy Violette, Jens Voertmann, Hans Martin Vogl, Mark Vos, Lee Watkinson, Robert Williamson III, Roy ‘The Oracle’ Winston, Paul Wolfe, Christoph Wolters, Steve Wong, Steve Yea, Steve Zolotow, and Flavio Ferrari Zumbini.

Ok, now that that’s over with! Full Tilt Poker’s headliners are perhaps the biggest names in the poker industry outside of Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson. And to go along with their top-tier talent they have assembled an immense number of Poker Pros, some of whom -Annette Obrestad, Carlos Mortensen, Huck Seed,and Justin Smith to name a few-would headline other sites.

Doyles Room

• Headliners: Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Mike Caro, Hoy Corkins, TJ Cloutier, Dewey Tomko, Tom Franklin, Minh Ly, and Billy Baxter.
• Brunson 10: Steve “gboro780″ Gross, Zachary “Crazy Zachary” Clark, Dani “Ansky” Stern, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman and Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis, Dan “djk123″ Kelly, and David Doc Sands” Sands.

The big name players may all be a bit long in tooth -probably an understatement when Minh Ly, Todd Brunson and Hoyt Corkins represent your young demographic!-but this is more than made up for with the addition of the Brunson 10; a group now consisting of eight young online Poker Pros who pretty much have pwned any online Player of the Year award over the last few years.

UB Poker

• Headliners: Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Joe Sebok, Liv Boeree, and Tiffany Michelle.
• Secondary Pros: Adam “Roothlus” Levy, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Brandon Cantu, Billy Kopp, Bryan Devonshire, Gary “Debo34″ Debernardi, Eric Baldwin, Matt Graham, Michael Binger, and Mark “Poker Ho” Kroon.

UB has been doing a good job adding talent as of late -for years they completely relied on Hellmuth and Duke-and while they aren’t in the same ballpark as Full Tilt and PokerStars, they are at least staying competitive.

Thanks to of all people a data-mining site, PokerTableRatings.com, just before the 2010 World Series of Poker began it came to light that The Cereus Poker Network -Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker-had insufficient encryption going from the site to the players computer. Even though the security loophole was very minor, the news sent the online poker community into a tizzy, especially since the two Cereus Poker sites were embroiled in the biggest online poker scandals in history -the Super-User account scandals.

Well PTR is at it again, and this time the guilty site is Cake Poker. The problem is the same as in the Cereus Poker case, inferior encryption. Cereus was very public when PTR broke the story back in May, and worked fast to upgrade their encryption to SSL (I’m computer illiterate, so whatever that means) and ease any concerns from their players.

In statements from COO Paul Leggette, and spokespeople such as Joe Sebok, The Cereus Poker Network explained that they were under the assumption that all of their encryption was SSL, and it seems Cake Poker is using the same reasoning: Card-room manager Lee Jones had this to say on the 2+2 Poker Forums:

Sure, when the issue came up in May, I asked our software management team. They told me that we were more secure than Cereus. When this all came to light a few hours ago and they got down into the actual code, it turned out they were wrong (as one of the senior managers just admitted to me).

Somewhere along the software ladder, there was a error of omission, commission, stupidity, documentation or some combination thereof. I’m not happy about it and neither is the manager to whom I spoke.

Furthermore, I definitely have to accept some blame here. I could have (and wished I had) pushed further on the response I got, talked to some development people about it (they’re in-house), etc.

I’m going to post an official response shortly, but believe me, I feel crappy about having said in May that we had stronger encryption than Cereus did when we didn’t. The lesson I’ve learned is to ask more harder questions when these sorts of things come up.

I owe the entire Cake poker community an apology: I am very very sorry.

Most likely Cake Poker will be hard at work upgrading their encryption over the next couple of days.

For those of you concerned about the security breaches it seems highly unlikely unless you were playing on an unsecured wireless connection, or public wireless connections. The breach occurs if there is a third-party in between your computer and the online Poker Room.

It’s been an interesting year for online poker in regards to cheating and scandals. On the one hand there have been a number of incidents including several incidents at major online poker rooms.

First there was a large group -rumored to be several dozen players-of online poker players in China were caught colluding at PokerStars in the Double of Nothing Sit & Go Tournaments, bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting players.

 There was also the recent discovery of winning Poker Bots on PokerStars at the $50-$200 NLHE tables. The bots were able to win some $58,000 over roughly 8 million hands of poker, and this is the first known case of WINNING poker bots -a truly scary prospect for online poker players, and one the online poker rooms will definitely have to deal with to alleviate the fears of their customers.

And earlier this year we were informed of Nick ‘StoxTrader’ Grudzien’s multi-accounting on both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and the even scarier prospect of his possible collusion in the highest stakes online games.

 This is all in addition to the usual poker forum scams, nitwit colluders and cheats, in addition to the other foolishness that has become a part of the online poker scene.

However, not everything is as bleak as I just made it out to be! The good news is that these incidents are being caught with some regularity now-and don’t kid yourself into thinking this behavior is new -thanks mostly to the vigilance of online poker players who bring forth evidence to the entire community.

We are also seeing much faster response times by the online poker sites to deal with any allegations regarding suspect play; as well as poker players coming to the realization that online poker is in need of some house-cleaning -where just a few years ago the idea of winning poker bots, hundred-player collusion teams, and collusion in high-level games would have been greeted by a dismissive wave of the hand, and shouts of conspiracy theorist, then with the person burying their head in the sand.

Perhaps the worst scandal in online poker history -the Ultimate Bet Poker and Absolute Poker Super-User scandals-were precisely what online poker needed: A Wake-Up Call. So, while the online poker games are far from rigged, or laden with cheating, it’s important for online poker players to realize they can’t just play blind, thinking every player is on the up-and-up.

I’ve always felt that any long-time player will have been cheated in some form or another over the course of their career, and you have to consider this in the same way you do the rake -its money you’ll never get back, but not enough to turn you from a winning poker player into a losing poker player.

That said, players need to protect themselves to the best of their abilities by being watchful, skeptical, and informed. It’s ok to be taken advantage on a small scale from time to time, but you don’t want to become an easy mark for these unscrupulous cheats.

At heart I’m a theorist, I love looking at things from all angles and testing out different ideas, and in this article I’m going to outline the three principles of poker that will help bring you to the promised land; which in poker parlance means becoming a winning player. I’ve often tried to break poker down to its simplest levels, but the game is so complex that this is an impossibility -so anytime someone uses the words “simple” and “poker” in the same sentence you can just ignore whatever comes out of their mouth next, since they are likely trying to sell you something: The same holds true for “Secret” and “Poker”.

I haven’t simplified the game at all; what I have done is break poker down into three distinct categories that will simplify the way you think about poker. But, with each category there are numerous subsets and concepts players will need to learn.

The question I am answering is: What makes a winning poker player? Now most people answer this question with something along the lines of “tight play”, “knowing the odds”, or even something more esoteric such as, “making the RIGHT decision”. In theory none of these answers are wrong, but in my experience there is no simple way to explain what makes a winning poker player, so I’ve boiled it down to the following three things: If you are capable of doing all three of these chances are you’re a winning poker player.

The Ability to Leverage Uncertainty

The first time I saw this term applied to poker was in James McManus’s book Cowboys Full, and as soon as I read it I thought it was the perfect term to describe what winning poker players do at the tables. Leveraging uncertainty applies to the in-game decisions a player has to make including hand ranges/hand reading, calculating risk to reward, equity and so on. These are the on fly decisions you need to make throughout a hand of poker.

The Ability to Exploit, and Avoid Exploitation

Exploitation –avoiding it and finding ways to exploit your opponents-is the strategies that you take into a game of poker; all of the study and theorizing you have done away from the tables. This is where your preparation comes into play: When you know what your pushing range is with 8BB’s compared to 5BB’s. The ability to exploit your opponents comes from preparation and knowledge, and when you combine this with an ability to leverage uncertainty you will be a very dangerous for your opponents to deal with.

The Ability to Remain Disciplined

So the first two principles have to do with strategy, but the final one is all about your state of mind! Staying disciplined in poker means you look at the game long-term, and are able to shrug off bad beats and bad luck, and avoid bad situations -playing drunk, tired, hungry, etc. Discipline will also keep you focused and playing your best at all times, and allows you to not only know the correct play, but the ability to pull the trigger.

On July 27^th ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker is set to begin with a star studded field in the $50,000 buy-in Players Championship tournament. The tournament will air in two parts -Part 1 at 8PM and Part 2 at 9PM.

Poker fans will have a chance to see all the top players in the game during the first hour, which covers the first four days of the tournament, with players like Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, and Doyle Brunson likely to be among the featured players.

Part 2 of the tournament broadcast will focus on the final table, which featured some of the biggest names in poker: 2006 Card Player POY Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi; 2010 WSOP breakout performer Vladimir Schmelev; David Oppenheim; 4-time bracelet winner John Juanda; Robert Mizrachi; 2010 bracelet winner David Baker; High-Stakes pro and 3-time bracelet winner Daniel Alaei; Mickael Thuritz; and Nick Schulman.

Highlighting the action will be Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi who picked up his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the tournament, which will likely be the main talking point during the coverage; but there are likely a number of storylines that will play out during the ESPN coverage -and many will likely be continued in future episodes as well-including “The Grinder’s” recent tax problems; the emergence of the Russian banker Schmelev; two Mizrachi brothers at the final table; and Juanda looking for bracelet #5 just for starters. Realistically, ESPN couldn’t have hoped for a better start to its 2010 WSOP coverage.

Calling the action as always will be Norman Chad and Lon McEachern, with new episodes airing every Tuesday at 8PM and 9PM until August 31^st, at which point the coverage will switch to the 9PM and 10PM time-slots on ESPN.

The first week will feature the Players Championship, while Week 2 -August 3^rd– will feature the Tournament of Champions before the Main Event coverage gets underway on August 10^th with the Main Event, which will run through the final table on November 9^th.

The complete schedule is as follows:

• July 27th 8pm: $50,000 Poker Players Championship
• July 27th 9pm: $50,000 Poker Players Championship Final
• August 3rd 8pm: Tournament of Champions
• August 3rd 9pm: Tournament of Champions
• August 10th 8pm: Main Event Day 1A
• August 10th 9pm: Main Event Day 1A
• August 17th 8pm: Main Event Day 1B
• August 17th 9pm: Main Event Day 1B
• August 24th 8pm: Main Event Day 1C
• August 24th 9pm: Main Event Day 1C
• August 31st 8pm: Main Event Day 1D
• August 31st 9pm: Main Event Day 1D
• September 7th 8pm: Main Event Day 2A
• September 7th 9pm: Main Event Day 2A
• September 14th 8pm: Main Event Day 2B
• September 14th 9pm: Main Event Day 2B
• September 21st 8pm: Main Event Day 3
• September 21st 9pm: Main Event Day 3
• September 28th 8pm: Main Event Day 4
• September 28th 9pm: Main Event Day 4
• October 5th 9pm: Main Event Day 5
• October 5th 10pm: Main Event Day 5
• October 12th 9pm: Main Event Day 6
• October 12th 10pm: Main Event Day 6
• October 19th 9pm: Main Event Day 7
• October 19th 10pm: Main Event Day 7
• October 26th 9pm: Main Event Day 8
• October 26th 10pm: Main Event Day 8
• November 2nd 9pm: Main Event Final
• November 2nd 10pm: Main Event Final
• November 9th 9pm: Main Event Final Table

In this series I will take a look at the backgrounds and resumes’ of the nine poker players who managed to weave their way through, and outlast 7,310 opponents, and make it to the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The final table for the 2010 WSOP will reconvene on November 9th  where the remaining nine players will play down to just two, who will then return the following day, November 10th, to declare the 2010 WSOP Champion.

The nine remaining players are:

• Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000 chips
• John Dolan - 46,250,000 chips
• Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000 chips
• John Racener - 19,050,000 chips
• Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000 chips
• Filippo Candio - 16,400,000 chips
• Mike Mizrachi - 14,450,000 chips
• Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000 chips
• Jason Senti - 7,625,000 chips

In the final installment of the November Nine profiles I’ll look at the career of the short-stack heading into November’s final table, Jason Senti. At first glance Senti appears to be an inexperienced amateur with very little chance of winning the Main Event considering his chip-count. But, serious followers of poker know that Senti is a top online poker player who specializes in cash-games, and should he double through could be the player to beat at the WSOP Final Table.

How strong a player is Jason Senti? Well, he’s an instructor at BlueFire Poker -perhaps the pickiest online poker training site when it comes to choosing coaches-and the owner of BlueFire, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, decided to back Senti in the WSOP Main Event; a very good decision on Phil’s part!

Senti is typically found at the $5/$10 - $25/$50 PLO and NLHE tables, and plays under the online screen-name of PBJaxx.  With only one live cash prior to Main Event, and a handful of online poker tournament cashes, Senti is really being overlooked by casual fans of poker.

Senti has been flying the PokerStars banner throughout the tournament and will likely be one of the sites three sponsored pros, along with chip-leader Jonathan Duhamel.

Senti is also giving a nice price from the online betting sites you can snatch him up on Betfair at 15-to-1 or at 20-to-1 at sportsbook.com. Amazingly, Senti is laying the best odds of any of the November Nine, even the man in 8^th place in chips Soi Nguyen who has almost zero poker experience!

In this series I will take a look at the backgrounds and resumes’ of the nine poker players who managed to weave their way through, and outlast 7,310 opponents, and make it to the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The final table for the 2010 WSOP will reconvene on November 9^th  where the remaining nine players will play down to just two, who will then return the following day, November 10^th, to declare the 2010 WSOP Champion.

The nine remaining players are:

1. Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000 chips
2. John Dolan - 46,250,000 chips
3. Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000 chips
4. John Racener - 19,050,000 chips
5. Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000 chips
6. Filippo Candio - 16,400,000 chips
7. Mike Mizrachi - 14,450,000 chips
8. Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000 chips
9. Jason Senti - 7,625,000 chips

Now it’s time to look at the only true amateur poker player at the final table, Soi Nguyen, who currently works for a medical supply company -or more likely; used to work for a medical supply company! The 37 year-old admits to playing poker only five or six times over the past three years! This has to make him the least experienced poker player to ever find his way to the WSOP Main Event Final Table.

Nguyen not only has the right last-name for a poker player, but is also a longtime friend of some of poker’s top players, having grown up with Nam and Tommy Le, in addition to being friends with Chino Rheem and Tuan Le. I’m sure he’ll be getting a lot of pointers from that group in the run-up to the Final Table in November.

For his career Nguyen has only one other cash, a $1,980 score at the LA Poker Classic in a $330 buy-in tournament; Nguyen finished in 69^th place in the tournament which took place in January 2010, and is now playing for millions at the World Series of Poker final table!

Nguyen will likely be wearing the patch of a lesser Poker Room come the final table -similar to Antoine Saout donning the Everest Poker logo last year-considering his complete lack of experience and low chip-count. He wore the Full Tilt Poker logo during the Main Event thus far, but with online poker rooms limited to three sponsored players it’s unlikely Nguyen will make the PokerStars or Full Tilt cut. Although, in hindsight Saout was a major win for Everest Poker last year, lasting well into the final table despite a low chip-count and general lack of experience -in fact many feel he played the best poker at the final table– so perhaps Soi Nguyen can pull off a similar performance this time around.

In this series I will take a look at the backgrounds and resumes’ of the nine poker players who managed to weave their way through, and outlast 7,310 opponents, and make it to the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The final table for the 2010 WSOP will reconvene on November 9^th  where the remaining nine players will play down to just two, who will then return the following day, November 10^th, to declare the 2010 WSOP Champion.

The nine remaining players are:

1. Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000 chips
2. John Dolan - 46,250,000 chips
3. Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000 chips
4. John Racener - 19,050,000 chips
5. Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000 chips
6. Filippo Candio - 16,400,000 chips
7. Mike Mizrachi - 14,450,000 chips
8. Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000 chips
9. Jason Senti - 7,625,000 chips

Mizrachi is by far the best known player of the November Nine and after basically owning poker tournaments in 2005 and 2006 “The Grinder” has reestablished himself as one of the top poker players in the world in 2010.

Mizrachi will find himself in the spotlight, much like Phil Ivey from a year ago, which seems to be more of a detriment than an advantage thanks to the long layoff. Not only do the other players seem more willing to gamble with players they feel are better than them, but more importantly I feel the lesser known players have a lot more information to use against successful players, since there is a lot of archived footage and hands available for study on a player like Mizrachi, as opposed to say a Jonathan Duhamel or Matthew Jarvis -and as online poker has taught us; information is power!

Mizrachi’s major poker accomplishments include:

• 2006 Card Player Magazine Player of the Year
• 14^th on the all-time money list with $9.6 million in career tournament earnings (Mizrachi could overtake Phil Ivey for the #1 spot by finishing 1^st or 2^nd when the 2010 WSOP final table reconvenes in November).
• 2 WPT Championships and 4 WPT Final Tables
• 1 WSOP Bracelet in the 2010 $50,000 Players Championship and 5 WSOP Final Tables
• Mizrachi has had 13 cashes worth over $100,000, with three of those being over $1,000,000!

Mizrachi recently fell on hard times when he had a couple of properties foreclosed upon to pay back taxes. The longtime poker pro cited bad investments and poor management as the cause of the financial problems.

The Grinder will wear the Full Tilt Poker badges prominently at the final table -as he has throughout the World Series of Poker– and is one of the few players where sponsorship isn’t a question.