09 2nd, 2010
Let’s pretend you’re a brand new poker player. Maybe you’re in Las Vegas for a buddy’s bachelor party, you’ve seen some poker on TV, and although you’re saving a little for the strip clubs, you’ve still got an extra $500 for “discretionary expenses” in your pocket. So, you sit down at the smallest game spread at the Venetian, fumble a big blind onto the felt, and play your very first hand of big-kid poker.
In this scenario, what would you say might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you? You get stacked? You get cheated? You get into a drunken brawl with a guy nicknamed “Fancy Fists”?
What if I told you the very worst thing that could possibly happen to you that night is that you win? And win big?
It seems counterintuitive, but there’s a very good reason why it might be dangerous for a budding poker player to have a wildly successful first session: the Primacy Effect. The Primacy Effect is a cognitive bias – a psychological tendency for us to draw incorrect conclusions based on the ways our brains are wired rather than on the objective evidence.
This particular bias is the tendency for the first items presented in a series to be remembered better or more easily, and for them to be more influential than those presented later in a series. For instance, if someone rattles off a long distance phone number, you’re most likely to remember the first few digits. Job applicants seen early in the hiring process are often given higher marks than those in the middle, and all applicants are best remembered by their “first impressions.”
Opening scenes are critical to the success or failure of a movie or book. And you probably have strong memories of and a special fondness for your first girlfriend or boyfriend. Thanks to the Primacy Effect, anything that comes first in a series serves as a powerful anchor in our memories, indelibly etched and coloring our perceptions of everything that comes after.
There’s even evidence now that the Primacy Effect has considerable power over the results on “American Idol”-style shows that rely on votes from the at-home audience. Over and over again, the contestants who appear first (and last, thanks to a different bias, the Recency Effect) get more votes than those appearing in the middle of the program.
Fans of these shows have occasionally voiced concern over potential voter fraud or judging biases, but if research on the Primacy Effect is correct, then results could actually be rigged in an even more diabolical way. All the producers would have to do to make sure their favorites are well-received by the voting audience is put them first or last in the evening’s lineup.
And isn’t a poker career just a long series of individual sessions? If we have this tendency to be overly influenced by the first item in a series, isn’t it possible that our entire perception of the game of poker could be distorted by what happens in the first few sessions?
The first time you played poker, you sucked. We all did. But thanks to the element of chance built into the game, there’s a very real possibility that you won in spite of your suckitude. And if you won big, the Primacy Effect will make sure that you remember that session and let it influence your perception of the game for a long time to come.
You’re likely to believe that the game is easier than it really is, and that it requires less work than it really does, and that you’re naturally more talented than you really are. The Primacy Effect will cause you to weigh the results of that first session more heavily than subsequent sessions, so even if you go on a long losing streak, you’ll constantly be comparing your results with that first success.
“How can I lose ten sessions in a row if I destroyed the game the first time I played? I’m a great player with natural talent. I must just be getting unlucky!” And you may find it more difficult to accept the brutal realities of poker: the game is hard and to master it, you must put in a lot of time and effort. What a glorious world it would be for the professional player if everyone won big the first time they played! The experience would likely stunt the growth of their abilities and yet get them hooked on the game itself – a recipe for long-term donations.
What about the players who lose their shirts the first time they play? They’re probably more likely to believe the game is more difficult than it really is – perhaps even unbeatable. For many people, a big initial losing session is enough to make them quit forever. But ironically, these players might be better situated for long-term success since they’ll likely have a better grasp of the amount of work necessary to master the game’s strategies.
There’s another way that the Primacy Effect skews our thinking on a daily basis. After all, isn’t each individual session a series of hands? So, by the same token, the results of your first big pot might influence your perception of the entire evening. Personally, I have an irrational tendency to get into a very negative and self-destructive mindset if I lose a big pot early in a session.
And how often have you heard players say, “I can tell it’s going to be a great night” after raking a massive pot soon after sitting down? Even though each hand is an independent, random event, psychologically speaking, we’re susceptible to letting our first impressions affect us long after the first hand has hit the muck.
Whether you won or lost in your rookie season, be aware that your perception of the game has likely been distorted by your initial experiences on the felt.
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09 2nd, 2010
After a two-month long public voting period, Harrah’s officials unveiled the top 10 vote getters for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 on Wednesday. Now, the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council will review the list and axe anyone deemed not eligible to enter.
Four criteria are required for a person to be considered for the prestigious Poker Hall of Fame: “A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.”
Each of the 10 finalists appears to foot the bill. Last year, no women were among the final ten. This year, two are up for consideration, and . Johnson, a Guest Columnist here on Poker News Daily, was an inaugural inductee of the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Harman, meanwhile, will be enshrined on Friday as part of its Class of 2010. Johnson and Harman have taken up a considerable amount of charitable work and been responsible for the growth of the game among women.
Four former () Main Event champions will be considered as well. Poker’s (2000), (1995), Tom McEvoy (1983), and (1998) may find themselves as the center of attention at the Poker Hall of Fame’s induction during the November Nine weekend at the Rio in Las Vegas.
ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman, who will join this author on the 17-member media panel that will vote for the Class of 2010, told Poker News Daily, “The nominees this year show the amazing diversity that we have in the industry and there are definitely some names that stick out above the rest. Every player on the list will definitely deserve some credit.”
Several younger players also grace the top 10, including and . The two are a combined 70 years old, nearly the same age as both McEvoy and Harrington. Ivey has eight WSOP bracelets, tied for the fifth most overall with fellow nominee . Rounding out the list of 10 finalists for the Poker Hall of Fame is , whose generosity off the felts has not gone unnoticed.
WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla shared many of Feldman’s sentiments, telling Poker News Daily on Wednesday, “I can’t imagine a better or more qualified group of 10 nominees than this. The only question I see on each of these names is not if they will make it into the Poker Hall of Fame because in the long-run most of them will inevitably be inducted. The real question is which one or two candidates will be inducted this year. The best thing about this list is there’s no question that he or she will be most deserving.”
A total of 102 “valid unique names” received nominations, 44 of which garnered multiple votes. On September 13th, the 16 living Hall of Fame members and 17 members of the media will receive a final ballot. The group of 33 will rank who they deem worthy of admission and the top two vote getters will be inducted in November. Each of the two finalists must have received at least 50% of the vote. Last year, host was the Poker Hall of Fame’s lone inductee; the threshold for enshrinement in 2009 was 75% of the vote.
Here are the 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2010 following the two-month public voting period:
Chris Ferguson
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Harman
Dan Harrington
Phil Ivey
Linda Johnson
Tom McEvoy
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
Erik Seidel
Visit WSOP.com for more details. I look forward to being part of the voting process once again this year.
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09 1st, 2010
My first table at this year’s Main Event was a little more difficult than one could reasonably expect. It included Vanessa Rousso, who may not always play optimally in marginal spots, but is never going to throw her chips away, and also Brian Hastings, who is very good player and very good reader of the game, but fortunately for me was running bad, and no matter how good you are, if you’re running bad you’re not going to win any race you enter.
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09 1st, 2010
By Johnny Hughes
When I entered the United States Army in 1962 at age 22, I listed my occupation as “card player: poker, gin rummy and bridge tournaments”. They made my speciality code-breaking and cryptography. Several expert poker and bridge players, including game book authors Herbert O. Yardley, Harry Fishbein, and Oswald Jacoby had been code breakers during World War II.
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09 1st, 2010
The second opening flight of the inaugural World Poker Tour London Classic concluded late last night with a total of 94 entrants; 54 players will return and attempt to overtake the monster chip stack of eight-time WSOP bracelet-winner Erik Seidel this afternoon. In total, 90 players will sit down at the felt for Day 2 with late registration available for the first level of play today.
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It was an explosive day of poker in Portugal yesterday when the remaining 69 players of the EPT Vilamoura whittled themselves down to just 24. Martin Jacobson is way out in front on 1,362,000 chips; he knocked out bubble boy Ayaz Sadrudin Manji before hand-for-hand play could even be announced to the room.
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08 30th, 2010
We’ve seen that poker is a great platform to raise money for charitable events throughout the country. I salute those players who help organize, put on, and participate in charitable poker tournaments. I believe the time has come, however, to parlay those efforts where the “outside world” will see that poker can be a large contributor to worthwhile charities. Thus, , Jan Fisher, Lisa Tenner, and I created in an effort to unify the poker community in this effort.
PokerGives is a charitable organization set up to benefit worthwhile charities and it’s done through the poker community. The founders don’t make a dime and we expect 95% of all contributions to go directly to the charities we support. Right now, we are supporting four charities, all very special to our hearts: Paralyzed Veterans of America, Special Olympics, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and Step by Step Foundation.
With the support of players, card rooms, industry leaders, and the poker media, the poker world has an opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives of many and bring a well-deserved positive outlook on poker and the poker world. Even those who oppose gambling and/or poker will take a step back and say, “Hey, those poker people are all right. They’re contributing a lot of money to worthwhile charities.”
Most of us take our health and our freedoms for granted. I wish every person, young and old, could go to a VA Hospital such as Walter Reed and see the paralyzed veterans, those who have been paralyzed as a result of serving in the Armed Forces to protect our freedoms. I promise you that visit will impact you forever, change your thinking about life, and make you a better person. The Intrepid Fallen Heroes have made the ultimate sacrifice for us, and their families have suffered. We can help them.
If you’ve never gotten involved or been to a Special Olympics event, do so. It’s something you should put on your “bucket list,” especially those blessed with healthy children. It truly is a moving experience. Step by Step is an organization providing for the underprivileged children of the world. Think how lucky you were to be born where you were.
The people who volunteer their time and money and those who work with these charities are special people. To me, they are walking angels. Through PokerGives, the poker world now has an opportunity to get involved, help these wonderful charities, and do it by doing what we love to do, playing poker.
September has been designated as PokerGives month. Card rooms from across the country are holding where 50% of the prize money goes to PokerGives. This is the first-ever PokerGives month and about 25 card rooms have signed up! Please go to PokerGives.org to see when and where you can play in a PokerGives charity event.
We are so grateful for the card rooms that are supporting PokerGives and we’re hopeful that poker players everywhere come out and play in these events. In addition, Poker Nation is hosting an online PokerGives tournament on on September 19th. I guarantee you that if you play in a PokerGives event and get knocked out, you’ll still feel good because you helped out one of these worthwhile charities.
Winners of all PokerGives events will be put into a drawing and could win a number of prizes. And the card room that hosted whoever wins the drawing will get a free seminar at their card room from Linda, Jan, and me.
We’re off to a good start with PokerGives and are excited about September, PokerGives Month. A sincere “thank you” to all of the supporting card rooms and the players who play. The potential of what we can do as an industry in charitable contributions through PokerGives is awesome.
Looking down the road, my dream would be to see all tournament players contribute 1% of their prize money to PokerGives and every card room and online site host PokerGives tournaments. Can you imagine how much money we could raise for these charities if that happened? By supporting , you’ve got the chance to make a Royal Flush in the game of life.
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08 30th, 2010
Pot Limit Omaha is one of the most exciting and action-packed poker games you can possibly play. However, the game involves four cards and not just two like in Texas Hold’em, so many players find difficulty adjusting to new table dynamics. Our latest CardRunners strategy video dives into Pot Limit Omaha play and theory, by looking at some hands using Hold’em Manager.
The official CardRunners teaser:
Mindcirkus is here to analyze his own mind. Tune in as he goes over hands from his database and determines whether his play was optimal or if he changed his mind.
Comments from Mindcirkus about the video:
In some of my past videos I tried to speed things up and people told me not to, but I’m learning and getting better with each video. I think I’m going to do my next video at 2/4, either 4 or 6 tables. I was thinking about doing 20-50bb tables this time since my other vids have all been deepstacked, but if you guys prefer normal/deep tables just let me know.
I have always personally preferred to watch live play videos myself, but I wanted to show some hands in a replayer with the intent of showing some creative lines that would help players add some new things to their game beyond the basics and the standard lines that so many players take over and over again.
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08 27th, 2010
Although the first durrrr Challenge, which saw Tom “durrrr” Dwan take on Patrik Antonius, is still stalled at 39,436 hands, that hasn’t kept Dwan from starting a new challenge with upstart Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates.
This rules will be similar this time around with Dwan offering 3-1 odds on $500,000 that he will be ahead after 50,000 hands of high stakes online poker.
For this challenge the game will be $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em and both players will be required to rebuy if they drop below 75 big blinds. In addition they agreed to run it twice for the duration of the challenge to reduce variance.
The first session between Dwan and Cates began around 11:30 p.m. last night and it certainly did not disappoint with 5,862 hands played.
Dwan cruised to an early lead of $130,000 in the first 1,651 hands but after a short break Cates came storming back and eventually finished up $518k on Dwan.
The biggest hand of the session saw Cates win a $192k pot against Dwan with pocket aces. Dwan called an all-in shove on a J-8-6-9-4 board and quickly mucked when he saw Cates’ holdings.
Dwan and Cates finally called it quits in the wee hours of the morning. They didn’t mention when the challenge would recommence but poker fans are already hopeful this challenge will take far less time than the one with Antonius.
Keep it locked on PokerListings’ online poker stats section to stay on top of any new action in the durrrr Challenge 2.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
518,192: Amount Jungleman12 is ahead
192,000: Biggest pot of the session (Jungleman12 won)
125,449: Views on the twoplustwo.com durrrr Challenge II thread since yesterday
44,138: Hands left to play
5,862: Total hands played
16: Number of dedicated durrrr Challenge tables on Full Tilt
7: Highest place that Welcome to the Jungle reached on the Billboard Hot 100
1: Days played in the durrrr Challenge II
Hands of interest:
08 24th, 2010
On today’s Daily Deal the Legends of poker starts with a bang, the voting for the Poker Hall of Fame is underway, the FBI confiscates funds from online payment processors and looks back on a year with UB.
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
The two thousand and ten installment of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker attracted 462 players, 66% more than last year’s tally of 279. That said, since the buy-in was slashed from $10,000 to $5,000, the actual prize pool went down to just over $2 million. Nearly 300 players took to the felts on Saturday for the second of two starting days in the Legends of Poker. The day began with officials honoring , who was playing in her 100th WPT tournament. Unfortunately, Liebert was eliminated late in the same day.
As the Bicycle prepares for day 2 of the legends of Poker, Poker News Daily will keep you informed of the latest developments.
As of today, one hundred and eighty-one different individuals have received nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of two thousand and ten. Nominations will be accepted through August 31st on the official website of the . In mid-September, the 16 living Poker Hall of Fame members and a small media panel will determine who will be enshrined in two thousand and ten. In a change from last year, the top two vote getters will become part of the Poker Hall of Fame this year as long as they garner at least fifty percent of the vote. Last year, a 75% threshold was required and, as a result, only World Poker Tour host and WSOP bracelet winner was inducted.
What are the requirements for entry?
“A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high-stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker with indelible positive and lasting results.”
I’m guessing by those terms my nomination is (Sarcastic!) MOMENTS away (eye roll!).
The owner of two payment processors for online poker sites has agreed to forfeit over thirteen million dollars seized by the FBI in June of last year. Ahmad Khawaja, together with his two firms, Allied Systems and Allied Wallet, reached a civil settlement with the U.S. Government this week in order to keep from getting into further legal trouble.
Khawaja’s two payment processors were at the forefront a federal case involving online gambling fund transfers. Allied Wallet and Allied Systems actively processed funds to players from sites such as , the world’s biggest online poker site.
PokerStars wasn’t exactly stoked when word of the settlement between Khawaja and the government was released.
“PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker,” a spokesperson for PokerStars said. “PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”
Finally, Joe Sebok wrapped up his first year as a sponsored player with and closed the book on his personal investigation into the prior misconduct on the site.
Sebok said that he put in was excited to be able to hopefully close this chapter and move on to the next and as of right now, doesn’t see any deeper levels he can possibly get into the scandal or do anything else to put it to an end. He had hoped to get names and track down all the handhistories during the cheating scandal.
Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, good luck on the flop!
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