Curtis Mayfield III's Poker Blog

Build your Poker Network

Building your poker network is something that can help take your game to the next level. When I first started playing poker I was new to the game just like anything else. As I began to get involved in my local tournament scene I gradually began to get to know some of the better poker players. From there we began to talk about the various tounaments we were involved in both online as well as when we played live.

The most important thing I gained from those relationships is the ability to bounce things off of players that are as good or better than myself. By being able to discuss hands and hand histories with other players you are able to reep the benefit of a different perspective. Many times as we go about playing the game of poker we tend to get tunnel vision and caught up in our own strategic world. By talking about hands and trading thoughts back and forth sometimes it can open you up to different ways to play a hand or mistakes that you have made. It doesn't take a lot of effort to build your poker network, just do it.

Win Your Seat into WSOP!

Win your way into the World Series of Poker in 2010. I know it may seem like the WSOP is months away but you need to be thinking about gaining that entry now! That means playing in as many satellite poker tournaments as possible to give yourself opportunities to win the seat. There are so many different ways to win a seat both online and offline. If you prefer playing live poker tournaments then you can usually find several charity poker tournaments that offer a seat. You can also find satellite tournaments in several local casinos across the country.

If you prefer playing online then you can play in many poker rooms that provide satellite tournaments in several formats. Step tournaments, single table tournaments, multiple table tournaments, shootouts and freezeout formats too. There are a number of different ways to gain entry all for as little as nothing at all. Yes, there are many poker rooms that have tournaments that don't cost you a dime to win your seat. So you have no excuses not to give it a try in 2010.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Monday, February 08, 2010 - 15:20 | login or register to post comments

Home Poker Tournament Setup

Many of you play in poker tournaments either online or in your local casinos. Some of you even play in home tournaments that you run with friends. I had the opportunity to play in a home tournament earlier today and it was extremely well run compared to some of the home poker tournaments I have played in in the past. Some of those tournaments did not have a defined structure, re-buy periods were altered once they had been established and many small things that easily could have been addressed with a little more attention to detail.

Here are a few things you want to nail down before inviting your buddies over to play in a home poker tournament:

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Sunday, February 07, 2010 - 05:02 | login or register to post comments

Bounty Poker Tournaments

Last night I played in one of the bounty poker tournaments in my online poker room. It was the first time I had participated in one of these tournaments and it was a blast! Basically a bounty tournament is the same as any other poker tournament with the exception that a player at each table is assigned a bounty and when that player is eliminated the player that puts him out gets a dollar reward. Needless to say this enhances the risk taking when players are involved in a hand against such a player.

Bounties can be as small as a few dollars all the way up to hundreds of dollars depending on how large the buy-in is.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Saturday, February 06, 2010 - 04:21 | login or register to post comments

Annette Obrestad the Next Big Thing in Poker?

Every since Annette Obrestad came on the scene to win the WSOPE Main Event Championship a few years ago I think we all have been wondering the same thing. "Is Annette Obrestad the next big thing in poker?" In order to fully understand the impact she has had on the game you have to consider that established female professional poker player have not nearly had the same kind of success this early in their careers. Perhaps some of thatis due to the fact that US poker players cannot step foot in a poker room until they are 21 years old.

Players like Annie Duke, Jennifer Harmon and Kathy Liebert have been at this game for quite some time but none of them have garnered the poker worlds curiosity as much as Annette has. This year will mark her first journey across the pond to compete in the WSOP events and you can be sure that the media willbe watching with a very close eye. I still believe Kathy Liebert is the best female tournament poker player in the world but Obrestad is not far behind and it may be only a matter of gaining more live experience to close the gap as she has been wildly successful as an online poker player.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Friday, February 05, 2010 - 04:41 | login or register to post comments

Fight Back or Die at the Poker Table

How many times have you witnessed a particular player or players that seem to always get their blinds raised repeatedly yet they give them up each time? If you're like me you have seen this many times in your poker journey. I always shake my head when I know that the bully doesn't have a strong hand but has sensed that the weak players will not fight back and continues to run over that player.

I have my own personal mantra when a player has the thought in his head that he believes he can run me over. I simply cannot and will not allow it to happen under any circumstances. Particularly early in a poker tournament. You have to establish yourself as a force at the table in one way or another. This can be done by winning a big pot or knocking off a player. It can also be done by getting the bully to fold his hand. The bottom line is that when you allow yourself to be bullied it can become a feeding frenzy with you as the prey.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Thursday, February 04, 2010 - 04:30 | login or register to post comments

What's in it for Me?

That is the $1 Million dollar question. Before you get involved in a hand you need to ask yourself that question each and every time. What is the point of getting involved in a pot when that pot has no benefit to you whatsoever based on your pre flop holdings andn position? Many poker players like to play pots simply for ths sake of playing them. When you are sitting on a lot of chips that makes perfectly good sense as it increases your luck quotient considerably. However, when you are picking up computer hands like [7][2], [J][5], [T][4] and the like it becomes very difficult to get involved in a pot with that kind of hand unless the action has folded or limped around to you.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 - 04:48 | login or register to post comments

Real-Time Player Adjustments

A large part of being a successful poker player is having the ability to adjust to your opponents in real-time. How many times have you seen a player get run over or make bad plays against one particular opponent because of their inability to make real-time adjustments? It happens a lot. Poker is obviously a thinking persons game. You are faced with several players that all present their own set of variables to the game. Being able to understand how another player is playing you is paramount to be able to make the correct adjustments to defeat your opponent.

So how to you make real-time adjustments?

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Tuesday, February 02, 2010 - 04:53 | login or register to post comments

WSOPE Heads-Up Team Championship

This weekend I took some time to watch the WSOPE Heads-Up Team Championship. Although I have watched many team poker tournaments I had yet to see the kind of hand-to-hand play that this one entailed with players from both teams switching off after each pot. The show culminated with Annette Obrestad beating Huck Seed for the championship after Seed had battled back from losing an earlier all-in when he missed his flush draw.

Each of the times had some of poker best players as it was the USA versus Europe this time. Dan Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harmon, and John Juanda were on the USA team while Patrick Antonius and Annette Obrestad headed the lineup of European players. In the end the European poker players dominated the USA poker team allowing them only one win out of the five team matches.

Don't fall in Love with Ace Queen

I always say that the game of poker is played out in cycles. Some of those cycles can be very positive and others can be absolutely ridiculous and you wonder how the trend started. We have seen the trend of pushing all in while holding Ace King. We have seen the current trend of minimum raising with Pocket Aces, Pocket Kings and Pocket Queens. We have also witnessed minimum raising with medium and small pairs which continues to be a popular strategy today.

However, I have noticed that many online poker players are playing less than optimum strategy when it comes to their tournament play. They are over playing Ace Queen which just a couple of years ago was a given no no. One of the most interesting things about watching the trends is how many of them go against the mathematics of the game and yet, for some poker players, can be very successful for a handful of players. I am by no means suggesting that getting your chips in the middle early in a poker tournament pre-flop with Ace Queen is the optimal play. However, if you are very familiar with your opponents and willing to take major risks then I suppose it can work for you to take down a few pots without contention.

Posted by Curtis Mayfield III on Saturday, January 30, 2010 - 16:39 | login or register to post comments