Oct 15, ‘10 – Oct 27, ‘10
Horseshoe Casino – Hammond (Hammond, IN)

Complete Schedule of Events

I have always been a big fan of the WSOP coming so close to home.  I think it is great for poker in Chicago.  Plus with the new Regional Championship coming to the WSOP in Hammond this year, it should bring out some big name players to Chicago and the Horseshoe in Indiana.  My only complaint though is that Omaha gets shuffled under the rug again this year.  No big buy in for a PLO game.  We do have a rebuy tournament, but that can be so tiresome at times.  I guess us Omaha players are going to have to be happy with the PLO Rebuy tournament, or the Half and Half tournament later in the series.

Chicago Charitable Games will be running some qualifiers and single table tournaments for entry into the WSOP Circuit event.  Please feel free to email CCG if you have any questions or suggestions on what you would like to see.  Good Luck and so excited about the WSOP Circuit Event.

I would also like to clear up that the green balloons are the next $50 Sit N Go.  Typically the hosting charities will move the red balloons (next $25 Sit N Go) to the green balloons and then move the green balloons (the next $50 Sit N Go) to another table.  From now on the hosting charities will leave the green balloons alone, to try to promote the next $50 Sit N Go.  For the additional money the $50 sit n go almost has double the chips, and has more than double the prize pool…but the price is not doubled!

To further entice the poker players of Chicago Charitable Games, the hosting charities are going to be doing the $50 Happy Hour!  What is the $50 Happy Hour you say?  The $50 Happy Hour will take place at off peak times, and the hosting charities will be giving away $25 to one lucky player at the start of the sit n go. For example on Friday’s event the $50 Happy Hour will take place between 2pm and 5pm…if you play in a $50 Sit N Go during those times your sit n go will have one player win $25 additional just for buying into a $50 Sit N Go.  At the start of the $50 Sit N Go the dealer will high card for the button and the FREE $25 chip that will be given away to the lucky winner of the dealer button.  This way poker players get to start with in the best position, and win half of their buy in back!

$50 Happy Hour will start this weekend and will run until the end of the summer.  If there is a great player turn out, the hosting charities might be persuaded to continue the $50 Happy Hour, but the new $50 Sit N Go format will be changed forever.  If you have any questions please feel free to email Chicago Charitable Games, or call CCG on the poker hot line!  Good Luck on the tables.

With that being said I wanted to talk about an article I read a few days back about re-draws in pot limit Omaha.  This is what separates Omaha players from Holdem players.  In Omaha you can flop the nuts and actually be behind in the hand.  If you flop the nut straight, and your opponent flops an opened straight and flush draw, you are behind in the hand 55%-45%.  This happens when your opponent has all the drawing cards and your hand cannot improve.  Makes your hand tighten up a bit when you are betting pot, and getting popped right back (also a pet peeve when players say re-pot, its just another pot size bet) on the flop.  Thats when the beginning Omaha players stop and think what could he have that would constitute another pot size bet, and what should I do in this situation.  I always try to put my opponent on what I would consider a dream hand for the flop on board and then work backwards from there.  This means that in the hand where I flop the nut straight, I am thinking if I could pick four cards what would they be, and at that point that is what I give my opponent.  Then I have to decide what card can come on the turn and improve my hand OR what re-draws do I have?  If I have no re-draws (meaning I have the best hand I can make after the flop) then I am going to be careful making any more bets in this hand for two reasons.  Reason #1 for not betting anymore is that my hand cannot improve, and any flush or bigger straight card that comes out is going to make my hand second best, and me a big loser.  Reason #2 for not betting anymore is that my opponent might have flopped the same hand as me, but with bigger draws, which means at best I am getting my money back, and at worst he wins the hand because one of his draws hits.

Pot Limit Omaha is all about your draws and re-draws.  In Omaha the nuts change from Flop to Turn to River, and you can see it in the players faces who had the re-draws and who flopped the best hand and had to dodge two bullets (which could technically be half the deck) to win the hand.  The best hand on the flop will rarely be good on the river.  This fact is something that kills new Omaha players.  Especially when said newbie flops top set and bets it the whole way only to find out they got third in the hand, and a lot less bank roll.

Drawing cards, and having your hand fit to the flop and the possibility of straights and flushes, or the possibility of a full house is what makes Omaha players foam at the mouth when playing.  Sometimes your on the winning end of receiving those drawing cards on the turn and river, and other times you are the one trying to fight off all on comers in order to win the hand.  Either way Omaha is not so much about what you have, but what hand you can make.  As a good friend once told me in Omaha “build a pot, make a hand” (Johnny Draws).

Remember my fellow poker players that Omaha is a game that is played after the flop, and is determined by what hands you can make, not what you have. Playing Omaha and flopping hands that have no chance to improve is like playing a game of Russian Roulette by yourself.  No one else is going to eat that bullet for you, and you are eventually going to take one to the head.  So please please please play hands that have at least a possibility to improve, and remember that two pair, sets and the sucker end of straights and flushes are rarely good in Omaha.

This is a deal that poker players cannot pass up.  FREE Single Table Tournaments as well as a $3 max rake for limit cash game players.  I can hear shouts from the poker player packed crowds yelling ” how can you stay in business” giving away all of these poker player promotions.  Chicago Charitable Games is working hard to stay on top of the chraity poker scene in Illinois, and we hope that our players will reward that top spot with telling all of your poker player friends about how great CCG is and that is is the only place to play charity poker in Illinois!

The Limit Cash Game Giveaways start this weekend June 4th at the Odeum.  Come out and see what Chicago Charity Poker is all about!

• Using the largest denomination chips to call the blinds and bets while in the hand – when someone raises to $1000, use one orange chip, and not 5 black and 1 purple.  The dealer can’t burn the turn until the pot is correct, so the faster you can get your poker chips in the pot the faster the dealer can continue on with the hand. It never fails when you see poker players in the small and big blind call the blinds with the smallest denomination possible.  When the blinds are $25 and $50, then use those green chips for the blinds… But when the blinds are $300 – $600, don’t call the small blind in all $25 Green chips, and the big blind with a few black and a ton of green.  The reason for this is that it slows down the game, when players use the smallest denominations the dealers have to count more chips to ensure the pot is correct, and players take longer to count out bets when placing their bets.
• Keep your poker chips in an orderly fashion – it is easier to count out bets when your chips are in stacks of 2o.  This way when a bet of $20,000 comes out you can easily count out your call, and you will not slow down the game when a player has to count out their chips to call or place a bet.
• Pay attention when it is your turn to act – poker players are famous for when a big bet comes out, and everyone gets quite because there is a lot of action on a hand, everyone is waiting on pins and needles, and after a good 30 to 40 seconds the dealer says sir it is on you and the poker player responds with “oh is it on me, I fold”.  So make sure you do not space out until you have already checked your cards and you have folded, this will dramatically increase the amount of hands that you will get in each round.

These are just some of the ways that poker players can help keep their game going faster, so that we all can get more hands in an hour.  The more hands we all get in the more poker we get to play and the more we will learn in a shorter period of time.  If you have any questions no how to not be the slow player at the table please feel free to email Events@chicagocharitablegames.com for more informaiton.

Remember if you have a poker tip or subject that you would like to hear more about please contact Chicago Charitable Games and let us know.  If your topic becomes a CCG Poker Tip, you will win a FREE Deepstack Seat worth up to $190.  So send us those poker questions, tips, or strategies!

” Don’t tap the tank and scare all the fish!”

Every poker player has had his or her aces cracked by some idiot who called a huge bet from out of position and cracked your monster with two stupid cards that he had no business playing.  The worst thing you can do after a terrible beat is to berate the other poker player for how bad they are.  The reason for this is you do not want the other player tightening up at the game, hanging on to your money, or influencing other players into not making bad calls like he just did because they are afraid you will lay into them.  Let that fish call those huge bets you make, that he/she has no business making, in hopes of winning your money back and then some from the fishy.

I personally never want to make another poker player feel bad at the table because 9 times out of 10 that player is going to do one of a few things:

1. Leave the table – you do not want a big juicy fish fresh from his basement home game money to leave your table, especially if he just cracked your monster with a total garbage hand.
   
2. Tighten up his play – most players when they are embarrassed are going to play much much tighter and stay to themselves.  There will not be a bunch of chit chat and the guy is going to go from super fish, to super nit.  Plus he might cause other players to tighten up and not make bad calls like super fish just did.
   
3. The guy follows you to the parking lot to beat the crap out of you for making fun of him in front of the entire table – worst case scenario

The moral of this blog post is not to upset the players that are holding onto your money.  Berating another poker player at the table will not give you any advantages, and it most certainly will have negative effects.  I suggest using some of these techniques to get what you want from bad poker players.

Give a compliment or two:
Any poker player who wants to be successful wants to play with bad poker players, and you want those players to play as poorly as possible.  Being genuinely nice to other players will always work to your advantage.  Complimenting another poker player on a big pot, or well played hand is a great way to earn the other players trust, and it will brand you as the nice guy at the table.  And no one wants to take the nice guys money, or at least less than the table jerk.  But be careful to not sound insincere when complimenting your fellow poker player, the worst thing you can do is say nice hand after you take a bad beat.  Everyone knows you are basically saying the poker equivalent as giving someone the middle finger in traffic.  So be nice to the bad poker players, they will always pay you off and they will love you for it.

Don’t Teach or Preach to the table-
Do not discuss previous hands or high level poker strategy when you are sitting at the poker table.  There is a time and a place for hand analysis, and playing at your local charity poker room, or casino is hardly the place to talk about strategy.  There is no reason to point out how much you know about poker to the other players at your table.  All this does it teach the bad players at your table a thing or two, and make you look like a narcissistic jerk who talks to much about how great he is at poker.

Be the crying shoulder-
When bad poker players loose a hand, they always perceive it as a bad beat.  “dude I was playing cash the other night and my aces got cracked by 89off”  What the bad player doesn’t say is that he limped into a multi way pot with his aces and got drawn out on when the flop hit 89 in the face.  Remember don’t teach at the table!  Don’t tell your new poker buddy that he should have raised pre-flop to reduce the flop seers down, console him.  Tell him that you cannot believe that happened, and you can’t believe how bad that sucked.  Let the bad poker players continue to believe that they are getting unbelievable bad beats and let them continue to be bad players.

The bottom line for this poker strategy post is to remember the golden rule in poker:  “Don’t tap the tank”.  Poker players spend more time than any other hobbyist on learning this game, don’t just give your knowledge to other poker players without at least winning money off of them.  Remember that you should always be perceived as the nice guy, not the calculating shark that you are!

This is the first of many poker playing tips, and poker strategy blog topics from your friends at Chicago Charitable Games.  If you have a tip or a particular strategy topic that you would like to learn more about, or that you want to share with your favorite charity poker experience feel free to email CCG at Events@chicagocharitablegames.com or post a reply to one of our poker blog posts.

CCG’s new PPP!

That would be short for Chicago Charitable Games new Poker Player Promotions.

Chicago Charitable Games has always worked hard to give its players the best games, the newest formats, the most tournaments to choose from, the most poker player friendly structures, and ultimately the best charity poker experience in all of Illinois.  To prove this to our players CCG will be doing several different multi table tournament give aways, single table tournament promotions and cash game freerolls and give aways.

Here are the newest poker player promotions (PPP’s) from Chicago Charitable Games:

Cash Game Players iPad Give Away FREEROLL on 6/27/2010:
CCG is giving away an Apple iPad to one lucky cash game player.  Every event you play in a CCG cash game, you will be entered into 3 daily drawings.  Win one of the daily drawings and you will earn a seat into the CCG iPad Freeroll on 6/27/2010 at the Viking Lodge in Tinley Park.  Where the winner will take home an Apple iPad worth over $500, and the top 5 finishers (2-5) will win $100 Deepstack Seats.  So come out and play in a CCG cash game, and hang onto those tickets, your tickets stays in the drum all day long, so make sure you hang around and earn those cash game tickets at every charity poker event!  Remember that any player can win more than one seat into the iPad Freeroll.  Win more than once in the daily drawing and you will start with double the amount of starting chips in the freeroll on 6/27/2010.  So even if you win your freeroll seat, jump into those cash games and earn more chips while enjoying your favorite cash games.

Friday’s Double $40 No Limit Holdem Tournaments:
For all of May at every Friday event, the hosting charities will be offering double $40 NLH Tournaments, one at 5pm and one at 10pm.  Win both $40 tournaments outright on Friday, and win FREE $20 Early Birds for 30 days! Finish top 3 in both tournaments and win 5 FREE $20 Early Bird Tournaments, Final Table both tournaments and win 2 FREE $20 Early Bird Tournaments.  All you have to do is play in your favorite tournaments, and you can win $20 Early Bird Tournaments for a month.  Remember poker players that you cannot chop your way into winning this promotion, your going to have to play your best poker and win these tournaments with out any chopping.  This poker race you must run on your own, and the prize at the end of the tunnel will be will worth the extra poker action!
(some restrictions apply, you must win the tournament outright, no chopping, any colluding in a tournament will result in forfeiture of prizes).

10 Play Sit N Go Giveaway!
CCG is now giving Single Table Tournament players more incentive to come on out and play sit n go’s for its hosting charities!  Play in any Single Table Tournament and you will get your CCG 10 Play Give Away Card.  Play 10 Single Table Tournaments and get one FREE.  That’s right play in 10 $25 Single Table Tournaments and earn one FREE.

Chicago Charitable Games is working hard to give back to its poker players, and keep its loyal players happy.  So if you are a mutli tournament player, a single table tournament player, a cash game player, or an all around charity poker player, there is something for you to win at CCG Charity Poker Events.

If you have any questions about these promotions please feel free to email CCG at Events@chicagocharitablegames.com or try the poker hot line, or come by and ask someone at the next charity poker event.

Good Luck and hit em hard at the tables!

Ken Kaulen
President/Co-Founder
Chicago Charitable Games

Any poker player who wins both $40 tournaments on Friday April 30th (have to win them outright, no chopping) will win FREE $20 Early Bird seats to every $20 Early Bird Tournament for the entire month of May.

Chicago Charitable Games wants to give back to it’s poker players, and the double $40 tournament is just the start of all the new CCG Promotions coming to you this summer.  Make sure you stay tuned for the iPad Cash Game Giveaway, the 10 Play Sit N Go Give away, and more fun and prize packed poker promotions brought to you by your best poker pals at Chicago Charitable Games.

As always if you have questions about a promotion please feel free to contact Chicago Charitable Games through the website, email (events@chicagocharitablegames.com) or via the CCG Charity Poker Hot Line.

Good luck on Friday players, and I hope someone will win the double $40 Tournament Giveaway today!

We stayed at the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica Mississippi.  The rooms were as nice if not nicer than any room I have stayed at in Las Vegas or any hotel for that matter.  Ryan and I split a room with two queen size beds, a sitting area, and the largest bathroom I have ever stayed in.  The bathroom made the room.  Big shower, great water pressure, and a TV in the bathroom…there isn’t much more you can ask for than a TV in the bathroom.  There are a few great golf courses and if you use some savvy internet shopping you can play for under $30 during the week.  There is not much night life to speak of, but all the drinks are free, so that more than makes up for it.  Plus there is a TV in the bathroom!

Enough about the bathroom and more about the poker room.  The poker room at the Horseshoe in Tunica is on the casino floor, has a half wall to keep out the rif raff and is next the the American Grill (an all night restaurant).  The location is easy to find, and in a good area, the restaurant right next to it can get a little loud with the drunks ordering their free food, but the convenience of the poker players getting food quickly is a good trade off.  Each night at the Horseshoe there was always a $1-$3 game going ($300 max buy in).  Other nights there were $4-$8 Holdem, $2-$5 NLH, $4-$8 Omaha H/L, $1-$5 Stud, and once during the day there was a $20-$40 game.

Day 1

The games in the poker room were a little slow, had more regulars that you would imagine for a resort style casino poker room, and the average age was much higher than any room I have been to in other casino vacation spots.  The first table I played at on Monday night I was the youngest guy there, and I was the youngest by 30 years.  There could not have been one player under 60 (except for me) at the first table.  Now I got into the game on Monday night early in the evening, say around 8pm, and there was not any other young players until around 11pm or midnight.  I enjoyed playing with the older guys, lots of Vietnam stories, there was lots of nice hand kid (and I was never offended by that comment, everyone was definitely old enough to call me kid with out question), and generally the game was fun.  It was however the slowest game I have ever played in my life.  Everything took longer.  The calls took longer, checking your cards took longer, getting the chips into the pot took longer, even getting up to the bathroom took longer (and there was lots of bathroom breaks).  The first night I was there the poker room was not crazy busy, only about three tables going, but there was enough action in the room to keep most normal players happy. I on the other hand like a little faster game and the slow play did set me on tilt a little bit.  I also caught more AK suited that night then I normally do in two or three sessions.  The problem was that I would flop top pair with the nut flush draw and bet it the whole way to get rivered by two pair while missing my flush.  The last hand of my night, I had two black Aces.  Raised to $25.  Got four callers.  Flop is ten high.  Check, check, check to me.  I push all in for my last $100 and get called by Q10 (flopped top pair).  Turn is a Queen and River is a Queen for the villain to fill up and for me to go to bed.  Thank you very much mr. turn and river.

DAY 2

After playing golf all day I was excited to get back to playing poker and trying to win my money back from the night before.  I sat down at the $1-$3 NLH game and bought in for the table max.  Again I got great cards, and great flops (top pair and nut flush draw, open ended flush draws, and flopping two pairs) but none of them held up.  I rarely hit any of my flush or straight draws, and more than once my two pair was counterfeited by the river, or board turned or riverd straight and flush cards.  My last hand of the night was just a cooler.  After going broke on my top pair nut flush draw turned into top two (guy flopped a set of deuces), I bought in for $200 and got dealt QQ.  There was a raise from middle position and I re raised to $50.  Everyone folded where the bad guy in the hand (the original raiser) started his speech of how this happened to him yesterday and he went broke, but he called anyways.  The board comes 9 high. He checks I bet $75 and he insta shoves all in.  I know at this point I am beat, but I am pissed an I have most of my money in there anyways, and I’m hoping that one time I could suck out on the guy with a bigger pair.  Turn and River bring no help to me, and the bad guy shows KK.  Bed time for me.

Day 3

$110 double deepstack tournament ($20,000 starting chips). The tournament structure was not great, but I figure for the hundred bucks, I might be able to get close to even if I make a nice finish at the final table.  So I buy in and sit down to play.  I mostly fold until I get AQ suited.  I raise and get three or four callers.  The flop is A28 with two of my suit.  Everyone checks to me, I bet the pot, and get raised three times my bet.  Im thinking I just ran into two pair, but its a double deepstack maybe I can turn my flush.  I call.  The turn is a Q.  He shoves all in and I call and turn up my two pair.  He yells for a minute or two with the how do you call on the flop business and I just look at the first big pot I have won since arriving in Tunica.  After the first break I sit down to my first hand (I was away from the poker room and missed the first two minutes of the tournament after the break) I get dealt AA.  Sweet! I raise to $1500 as the blinds are now $200-$400 and the wildman next to me looks over at my chips, gets himself a quick count and announces that he is all in.  One other player calls his all in, and I push my chips into the pot and roll over my aces.  The bad guy rolls over KQ off and the random guy in the hand flips over his JJ.  Now the fun part is that I started the hand with 30k in chips, bad guy has close to 60k in chips, and the guy with the jacks has less than 7k.  So the side pot for me and the guy with KQ is bigger than the main pot.  Long bad beat story short…Flop comes J52…turn is a Q…and river is a K.  So I loose the main pot to a set of Jacks, and the side pot to runner runner two pair.  Awesome.  After crying in the bathroom for 15 minutes or so I decided that poker was not lucky for me, and I should try other games based solely on luck rather than skill or the appearance of skill.

Day 4

I finally get to play in a omaha game.  Now its $4-$8 Omaha H/L game with a half kill, not a PLO game, but I will take what I can get.  I was finally catching some hands, and getting paid off on them.  UNTIL.  KK32 for me.  I raise the Kill pot to $12 pre flop and everyone calls.  The flop  comes AK8 with my flush cards out there.  Someone in early position bets the flop and everyone calls to me where I raise to $12, and the original better three bets it to $18.  I figure no reason to go crazy here and I just call.  So after the flop there is five players with three bets out there each.  The turn is an 8.  Not really what I wanted as I am sure someone has AA but I cannot fold at this point the pot is too big.  The river is a freaking 3 (kills my low hand, so now I just have the high hand of KKK88).  After check calling the guy from early position, he shows his pocket Aces, the only other player in the hand was drawing to a low hand with a bunch of low cards and an Ace.  So long story short I got coolered for a big big pot to loose a big chuck of my money.  A little later in the night I get KKQ10 double suited and check my big blind.  I flop a flush draw and a straight draw, check the flop and call the turn, and then fold to one bet on the river.  The flop contained an Ace and a Jack, and I assumed with four people in the hand till the river that there was no way my Kings were good.  Guy in middle position bets on the river and it gets folded around and he shows a pair of fives.  I say set of fives, he says no just a five.  I kick myself in the backside, and then get up from the table.  Well I came back to loose to a few more hands where my opponents beat my high hand and got the low river.  Seriously one guy would river a bigger two pair, and the other guy would just be playing the nut low and I would get nothing.  So I left mumbling to myself how terrible I am and how unlucky I am and how much I hate poker.

All in all the poker room at the Horseshoe in Tunica is great.  Great action, a wide variety of games, and tons of very reasonable tournaments.  Plus it is so easy to get comped at the tables.  Free food, Free drinks, and both rooms we stayed in for a total of four nights cost us less than $100.  That is with the $15 a day internet fee I had to pay because I got absolutely no signal on my wireless card.  With all the free stuff Tunica is willing to give you, there is very little reason not to take a little poker vacation at the Horseshoe in Tunica.  Unless you count the fact that I lost almost every time I played (poker or table game) and the Canadian won every single session.  There is just no justice in the game of poker.

If you would like to hear more about Tunica or how bad I am at poker please feel free to email me at Ken@chicagocharitablegames.com

This blog was written by Ken Kaulen Jr. President and Co-founder of Chicago Charitable Games.