This is a way to keep the momentum going with tournament passion even after the WSOP is over, as fans will have to wait another four months before knowing who the new World Champion is. They will have time to learn about the nine contestants who made it to the final table. As most of them are unknown to the public, this is a good way to show that anyone can make it and possibly win millions.

Certainly a good marketing idea for the world or poker, reminiscent of what they did with the Olympics Games. They used to occur every four years but they realized that the Winter Games seemed overshadowed by the Summer games, wasting many marketing dollars. So now there is an event every two years, alternating Summer and Winter Games. This way people get more interested in such events instead of having an overdose of it every 4 years.

So we  have 4 months to learn about the lucky November Nine, and bookmakers have already started the betting. Odds follow roughly chip stacks as there is not much else to rely on, except if there is a pro. Last year the great name who made it to the final table was Phil Ivey. This year only one pro made it, it is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.

What is truly amazing is that Michael has already won a bracelet at the WSOP 2010, winning the prestigious $50,000 ‘The Poker Player’s Championship’ for a massive prize of $1,559,046.  This event is considered almost as (for some more) prestigious as the main event. It used to be based on HORSE but has been widened to an 8-game format. This determines a truly well rounded poker champ, and this is why some think the winner is the true champion as the main event is in the more specialized no-limit Texas Hold’em variation.

If Micheal were to win the main event, this would be an unprecedented achievement. Mizrachi is 7th in stack but all is possible. After all Joe Cada was also 7th in stack last year. And Micheal is no joke, as he also has two WPT bracelets under his belt.

Good luck to all the November Nine.

Phil Ivey won his 8th WSOP bracelet in the $3,000 HORSE event against a final table composed of other poker luminaries, including John Juanda his team mate at Full Tilt Poker who finished third.

The runner-up is Bill Chen, one of the most famous poker theoretician who earned two WSOP bracelets in the past, but not this time. He was close though, as he had the chip lead at the beginning of the heads-up confrontation with more than three times more chips than Phil Ivey. But Phil is not the type of player that will easily miss a chance to add a bracelet to his collection, and he got the best of it at the end.

Only three players have ever won more WSOP bracelets, Phil Hellmuth (11), Johnny Chan (10) and Doyle Brunson(10) (Johnny Moss won nine, but one was by vote). Phil believes that he can surpass these numbers and that he has a shot at getting thirty Gold bracelets in total during his entire career. This makes sense given that at the young age of 33 he has only been playing at the WSOP since 2000 and already has 8. Another 22 should take about 28 more years if he can keep up with the pace and he would only be 55 years old by then.

Phil Ivey is considered by many of his peers to be the best poker player in the world (maybe the best poker player of all times). There are many factors to make this judgment, so here are two.

Even before this latest victory, Phil Ivey had the record for the highest total live tournament winnings which now exceed $13,100,000.

Another of Phil’s traits  is that he is highly well-rounded in poker variations, which is considered the hallmark of a great player. So he won a HORSE even which is in itself a mixed game involving five poker variations. In the past his other WSOP bracelets were in mixed game Omaha/Stud, PLO, SHOE, 2-7 Draw Lowball and 7 Card Stud. Very versatile. By contrast Phil Hellmuth has won 11 bracelets so far, but all in Texas Hold’em poker.

Phil Ivey does not need to be introduced and this recent victory is just one more step to become a poker god.

Nobody wins or loses money as quickly as a loose aggressive poker player, but nearly all of them lose in the long run. In fact, every very loose-aggressive player (8,8 or higher) is a big loser, but some of them lie about it. Poker rewards patience, discipline, and selective aggression, while LAGs are impatient, undisciplined, and promiscuously aggressive.

Any extreme style is rigid and predictable (except, perhaps, tight-aggressive), and the combination of looseness, aggression, and predictability can be deadly. This make them the target. People know much more about them than vice versa, and they can easily develop strategies to exploit their weaknesses.

The most obvious are check-raising, slow-playing, inviting them to bluff, and isolating them with hands that normally would be correct to fold (e.g., three betting with hyperactive words and gestures). Their opponents – especially the better ones – may learn he is bluffing when he forcefully throws in his chips, is weak when he says “check” loudly or stares at his cards, and is ready to raise when he sits erect.

Of course, you must always watch out for smart loose aggressive players who will send false signals. Unless they send out tells and telegraphs, they are among the hardest players to read, and maniacs can be almost completely unreadable. How can you put them on a hand when they will raise with garbage?

The complete maniac is often unreadable, but hardly anyone is that extreme. Reading the 7,7 or 8,8 player can be difficult, but it is certainly not impossible. The key is to remember when he does not raise.

Since he will raise with weak cards, not raising in earlier rounds let you exclude certain possibilities. For example, if the flop has two hearts, and he just called behind two players, he probably does not have a flush draw. Otherwise, he would have raised. If another heart hits, don’t be too afraid of a flush.

Or take a flop AJ9. If he did not raise before the flop and bets now, he may have a pair of aces or jacks and nines, but he probably does not have any set or aces up because he would have raised with AA, JJ, AJ, or A9.

These players are mostly beatable except the very best in this style, such as Phil Ivey or Gus Hansen

Despite a new husband and new Las Vegas condo, Pamela Anderson is still just a soccer mom at heart.

Different people have come to know Pamela Anderson for different reasons. There’s actress Pamela, who stole most of the world’s breath playing a lifeguard for the ages on Baywatch. There’s writer Pamela and her novel Stark Struck, which was inspired by her own life, activist Pamela and her tireless work with PETA, and of course, bombshell Pamela; her 11 Playboy covers can attest to that. But with a little help from Doyle Brunson and her poker-playing kids, you’ll soon be introduced to soccer mom/poker player Pamela.

Pamela Anderson: “It seems like it’s been kind of floating around for the past ten years. It just seemed to makes sense to do something fun like that. Doyle obviously is the best. My dad’s a big fan of Doyle’s. When they came to me, he said, “Doyle Brunson? You just have to do it.” My mom told me to do Playboy and my dad told me to do poker, so I’m just listening to my parents.”

So Pam, you’re getting good advice from your parents. Pam”Yeah. My dad plays poker and my grandpa played poker; my kids even play poker. I’m the last one on board in the family to play. I remember by dad playing since I was little. But I didn’t really pay much attention or take any notes, so I’m learning. It’s a good thing to know, it’s a game of skill. It’s obviously really popular now and I’m always looking for new things to do online because I have the popularity online. I like interactive things, so this was really a fun next thing to do. It’s sexy, it’s cool, I think it’s really hot.”

How is your poker learning experience going? Pam “Doyle is teaching me, so I’m learning no bad habits. I’ve got a really good teacher. We’ve got to get together soon because I’ve been gone running around the whole world. I don’t know if I’ve got to go to Texas or if he’s going to come here to California. He was mad, he wanted me to play in the World Series of Poker but I was getting married at the time. He said that was a good excuse. He wants me to play next year, so I’ve got to get it together…more”