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Copyright 2005 PokerNews.com
November 16, 2005
HEADLINE:
World Poker Players Conference - Wrap Up
Author: John Garcia
BODY:
It seems that Mike Caro has been playing
poker since before the dinosaurs stopped roaming the earth
- or around the time Doyle Brunson won his first WSOP bracelet.
Yet every day, every poker session, every hand brings a new lesson
and improvement to his game.
Perpetual learning was the theme of his talk at the Sixth Annual
Poker Players Conference at Foxwoods Resort and Casino Saturday.
Caro's message was simple: No matter what level a poker
player is at, he must continue to learn and study the game
if he wants to stay ahead of his opponents.
"I know many pros who achieved greatness at one time and
not only do they not continue to learn, but their skills actually
decline," said Caro, known as the "Mad Genius of Poker."
"When I learned poker
we all had to do extensive research to get better. Now with books,
seminars, DVDs, it's a lot shorter trip for a studious person
to improve his or her game so there's no excuse."
More than 150 players joined Caro, Barry Tanenbaum, Lee Jones,
Mark Gregorich and other pros for a full day of studying, talking,
debating and breathing poker in the hills of Connecticut. Tanenbaum's
lecture, titled "Making One Big Bet Per Hour," was a
well-received diagnostic on the order of learning in poker.
"Most pros do not make one big bet per hour, however it
is possible at lower, middle and sometimes higher limits if you
spent time working on your game," Tanenbaum said. "Everyone
eventually learns that you raise with aces and fold 7-2 offsuit.
The question is somewhere beyond that what do you do to make one
big bet per hour."
Tanenbaum, a successful coach and high-limit player, still studies
and asks advice from others in the game. He offered this order
of learning to improve your game:
1. Learn to play tight
2. Learn to fold early
3. Incorporate position
and strategy into your
game
4. Learn to read
hands
5. Learn to set and avoiding traps
6. Learn to win without a hand
7. Induce calls and bluffs
8. Learn to play the players
"I coach beginners and pros and the successful ones have
one thing in common - they want to learn and improve their games,"
Tanenbaum said. "There's a reason that people who won several
WSOP bracelets years ago will no longer win them again - they
have failed to adjust their games and improve."
Lee Jones announced a newly completed theoretical poker
process called, "An Equilibrium Heads Up-Strategy for No
Limit," developed by James Kittock, of Mission College, California
and Jones. The mathematically-based theory uses a "power
number" assigned to each card. The number gets added and
multiplied to get a "power index" and a ranking.
Depending on the power number, two players heads up in a tournament
can easily decide to push or call a push. "There is no maybe
in this system - it is proven mathematically and will work,"
he said. "If you play this strategy, your opponent must play
the equivalent strategy, or his EV will go down."
Jones and Kittock will soon publish their findings. Though at
first complicated on paper, Jones' explanation had many players
eager to test it in their own tournaments.
"I play every Tuesday with the same bunch of guys and I
can't wait to show up with this stuff," said Jason Johnson
of Hershey, Pennsylvania. "We have some guys who I've played
with for years whose game doesn't change. You have to come to
these conferences and continue to improve your game otherwise
people will pass you by."
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