Richards poker stories are often as good as my motorcycle stories. I love to ride motorcycles and play poker. Sometimes the two go "hand in hand" for me.

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When time permits, you will find me in Vegas, Phoenix, Ruidoso, New Mexico or Albuquerque knocking heads with the best of them at various limits and at various games. I plan on "testing the waters" in California this year if time permits. I have been relatively successful in my poker ventures and have had the good fortune of meeting some amazingly interesting people in the process.

In fact, I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 11/11/06 and entered a small omaha hi lo 8 or better tournament with approximately 90 entrants. I was virtually card dead but managed to manipulate a few pots due to my table image (tight and tough) and ended up finishing 7th which cashed as the top 10 finishers were paid. The Sandia Casino in Albuquerque has a nice card room, run well, and smoke free specifically in the poker room. They always have 1 or more very loose and passive 4-8 omaha 8 or better high lo games with a half kill that will keep you entertained and in the money if you know your omaha game. They also have at least one no limit 2-5 blinds holdem game as well as a 10-20 fix limit holdem game. It's a nice place...check it out if your ever in the area.

Here are a few quick notes which may help your game.

TABLE CHOICE:

If the location you are at has several tables spread of the specific game and limit you want to play; take the time to watch the level and intensity of play before committing to a seat or table. If the game is extremely volatile with excessive raising and reraising; will you be comfortable in such an environment? If another table has only 1 or 2 "live players" and the rest are "rocks", will this be a profitable table for you if the majority of the players are at your playing level or perhaps even superior to you? The most profitable game long run is a table with several passive "calling stations" who are not aggressive but basically continuously call and follow the other player's leads. The better players at a table especially if they are at an expert level will rarely knock heads and tend to avoid each other as it is just as easy to throw away a marginal or even a good starting hand and wait for the next, especially when a player that has just folded 10 hands in a row comes in firing aggressively. These are the types of decisions that will make you money (or prevent you from losing money) in the long run.

Never play at a limit or table that is intimidating to you. Scared play generally tends to be poor play. Never play with "food" money. If you are dipping into your funds that you need for general daily necessities; then you can't afford to play and may have a gambling problem if you do.

HOW LONG DO I PLAY?? WHEN DO I QUIT FOR THE DAY? :

Generally, do not lose more on a table than what you would consider to be a good win for the table. For example, if you are on a 4-8 game (any game) and you consider based on the chemestry of the players that a good win would be $200.00, then this would be a good "stop" limit to set should things go poorly and you are losing at the table. Why drop $700.00 on a table that you would be very happy if you walked away with a $200.00 win? This of course can vary. If you are still fresh and know for sure that you are one of the top 3 players on the table and you are not on "tilt" (letting temper/ego/frustration govern your play), then perhaps it might be wise to stay. But there are days that even if you are by far the superior player on the table; things don't go right. And on these days (we all have them), leave your ego on the table and take your relatively small loss. See a movie!! Be with your family!! Exercise!!......Whatever!! Live to fight another day. This is one of the hardest things for a good player to do. To accept the fact that on this day he (or she) is beaten. Going on tilt tends to be fruitless and very expensive overall.

CALCULATING POT ODDS. IS IT PROFITABLE TO CALL? :

The ability to calculate pot odds is a necessary part of any poker player's game. When is it profitable to call vs. realizing that the "odds are against you" and it's time to fold the hand?

The easiet way to calculate pot odds is to compare the total number of unknown cards to how many outs you have, and then do some simple division. For example, in a Texas Holdem game you have 2 suited cards in your hand with the ace of that suit and you are four to a nut flush on the turn (4th street) of a Texas Hold'em game and need only one more of the suit, there are 46 unknown cards, (52 minus your 2 pocket cards and 4 on the board). The cards in the other players hands or what has already been folded are part of the unknown card group. Of those 46 cards, 9 are the same suit as your flush draw. So 37 cards will not help you, while 9 will give you the nut flush hand.

Your odds are: 37/9, or more simply, 4.1 to 1 odds AGAINST making your draw. To make this call profitable, there has to be at least 4x the amount of your bet in the pot to make this a proper "pot odds" call. So if you were playing a game of $5/$10 limit, then there would need to be at least $40 already in the pot to justify your calling that $10 bet to see the river. If you continuously make calls without having an idea of your pot odds, you are fighting a losing battle and will probably lose in the long run.

QUICK BAD BEAT STORY:

Trying to quality for the WSOP $10,000 main event by winning a satellite offered at the Inn of the Mountain Gods in Ruidoso, NM on 06/06/05. Just have to win my table to get to the next step which guaranteed a decent money prize with first prize being $11,500 total ($10,000 for the WSOP event. 4 people left and I am a 2-1 chip leader. I'm on the button with pocket jacks. Push in $1500 and I get one caller who goes all in and I have to put in an additional $600 in chips to call which I do. Flop comes up J, K, 3 (rainbows). I flop TRIP JACKS. Turn is a 10, and the river brings a Queen. He has an A-4 and beats me with a miracle straight. Next hand I'm in I'm in the big blind with a 10-4 offsuit and nobody raises so I get to see the flop. Flop comes up 10-4-2. I have 2 pairs. Another player leads off, everybody folds to me and I push him all in. Turns out he has 10-6 and of course you know what the story is. On the river he hits a 6. Last hand I'm in I have $10,000 in chips and the other remaining player has $15,000. I'm in the blind and the other player pushes all in. I look at my cards to see to Black pockets ACES. He had pushed me in with a Q-4 offsuit. Can I ask for anything better. He bluffed and I had him trapped with pocket aces. Flop comes up nothing nothing Queen. I am still way in the lead. Turn brings nothing. And you know the rest of the story. River brings a 4 and I lose the tournament that it was virtually impossible for me to lose. I know this has happened to everybody but this was the worst nightmare beating I have ever experienced. I can just barely talk about it now...lol. When I lost with the pocket aces, I simply told the other player....."Good Tournament" and left the casino. Oh Well!

I will give more hints and info with time and very well might start a website exclusive to poker and game improvement. I would appreciate your comments and e-mail.



Hey, my daughter Sarah has turned 21 and is now making a marque of her own in poker. Been working with her on omaha hi lo to start. She's a quick study and is grasping onto concepts that most people who have played 10 years have never thoght about. So I think she has great potential.

I will teah her the other games as she wishes.

Have an interesting poker story to tell? If it's motorcycle related...even better.

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