Question: What was there to do in Cleveland before the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame was built?

Answer: Um… wait for the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame to be built…?

Well, aside from that fantastic tourist attraction, as of 2 days ago there’s something else really fun to do if you’re in Cleveland: gamble!

The State’s First Casino

Ohio has just become the nation’s 23rd state with a commercial casino. Almost 100,000 square feet of gaming floor await casino patrons 24/7. Located right in the heart of downtown’s Public Square and built at a cost of about $350 million, the Horseshoe Cleveland is minority-owned by Caesars Entertainment and majority-owned by Rock Gaming’s Dan Gilbert, who also owns the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

Horseshoe Cleveland Poker Room

With upwards of 2,100 slot machines and over 5 dozen table games, the new casino sure doesn’t disappoint, but what really interests us at Cardplayer Lifestyle is poker, and the Horseshoe Cleveland delivers! A 30-table World Series of Poker-branded poker room has begun catering to masses of visitors.

We spoke to Chris, one of the poker room’s very friendly floor managers, who provided us with some additional details:

Since the room opened, all 30 tables have been packed to the gills at almost all hours of the day. Aside from Texas Hold’em, the dealers have spread Omaha Eight or Better and Pot Limit Omaha. Stud games and Razz are also available, if there’s enough interest.

The poker room’s staff is working on creating a tournament schedule, which they estimate will become available in the next month or two. Furthermore, there are plans to have a satellite to the WSOP Main Event sometime next month. Proudly sporting the World Series of Poker brand name, the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland is a very likely spot to host a WSOP Circuit Event tournament series next year. Who knows? Perhaps this place will be my next poker vacation destination…

To reach the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland poker room directly, call: 216-297-4545.

Since we came online, Cardplayer Lifestyle has always championed the growth of poker and encouraged its mainstream acceptance. There are some lines, however, that we don’t believe should be crossed and these monks didn’t just cross the line, they completely obliterated it.

Just how wrong were the monks’ actions? Here’s a summary of their infractions:

• The hotel surveillance video captures the participants drinking and smoking. That kind of stuff is not part of any monk training manual we’ve ever heard of…
• Gambling is not only frowned upon by the Buddhist religion, but also against the law in South Korea unless specifically licensed, like at designated racetracks.
• The money these monks were playing for was obtained via donations! This is not the kind of charity poker game that we promote.
• Disgustingly, the monks were staying at the luxury hotel to attend a colleague’s memorial service.

There has been no word about what happened to the approximately $875,000 the monks were playing for. We hope that it gets returned to the leaders of their Jogye religious Order, one of whom publicly offered to resign as a form of repentance on their behalf.

We’ve read that the footage was secretly shot by a fellow monk, who also tipped off the authorities about these unholy activities. Courageous, indeed, and bravo for taking action sir! We just wonder what on Earth that ninth monk was doing there in the first place… You think he was the first one to lose all his money?

Betting

If you want to win, you cannot be a passive player that rarely bets or raises and just limps through the game and only relies on massive rakeback to survive. Betting, raising, and going all in are absolutely crucial to getting ahead. Just calling and/or betting too much or too little can be quite disadvantageous to your game. If you bet too much, you may find other players rarely call you, leaving you to win only small pots or losing a large portion of your stack. If you bet too little, you may actually be inviting your opponents to dominate you. When deciding upon how much to bet, you need to consider how many blinds you have as well as the size of the pot. It’s not a bad idea to start off your betting with three times the amount of the big blind.

Position

Position combined with the number of players in the game can also help determine just how valuable your hand is. It can be the deciding factor on whether to go all-in or just fold. (For example, say there is a full table; you have 10bb and presently are on the button. The five players to act before you have all folded and the small blind and big blind still have to act after you. You’re holding an A8 offsuit. Because of your position, you can go all in here. But, if you were in the “under the gun” position (the first to act in the game) at a full table, it would probably be in your best interests to fold that exact same hand.)

Iffy Situations

With endless combinations of hands and plays, you will often encounter quite a few plays which you will not be 100% sure how to react to. Hands that are difficult to play in Texas Hold ‘Em SNGs are A10, AJ, and AQ, as they are often way overvalued. You may even see some people in the beginning of a tournament, with well near a hundred blinds in their stack ignorantly going all in with this hand. These people do not understand that these are not premium hands and will often bet their entire stack on them. The value of these hands all depends on how deep you are in the game, your position in the game, and the amount of blinds that you have in your stack.

What about AK you ask? With this hand, it is usually a good idea to bet, and then, depending on the flop, determine whether or not to bet, raise, call or fold. Small pocket pairs? Sometimes it pays to set mine (hope to flop three-of-a-kind), but if it’s too expensive to do this, they should be immediately folded.

On the Bubble

One of the most difficult, yet beneficial, aspects of tournament poker play to master is playing “on the bubble.”  The bubble is the situation in which the number of players left is equal to the number of spots that make the money + 1. This situation greatly affects how players play (as nobody wishes to be the bubble boy and make no money for all their efforts). Your range and rules of play may change a lot at this point. You may make plays that you would not dare to at earlier levels of the game. You should view the bubble is your chance to get ahead and acquire loads of chips. Players in the bubble tend to play much more passively or much more aggressively than usual. Seeing at least one player go all-in every hand is quite common. If you remain inactive at this later stage of the tournament, the blinds are likely to begin eating up your chip stack. While many stages of the tournament can pretty much be played on “auto-pilot,” the bubble is a situation in which you must really increase your focus.

With so many different influences and contributing factors it is hard to be certain if you are always making the best possible plays. The key is stepping back once in a while and examining the whole situation at the table: position, your hand, the blind levels and number of players left (in a tournament). If you follow the advice from this article, you’ll be sure to feel as though your poker game is at least a little stronger.

The 2012 incarnation of the WSOP features a whopping 61 events on schedule, the most in the history of this tournament series. It all starts on Sunday May 27th, with the traditional $500 Casino Employees Event, and culminates with the $10,000 Main Event which begins on July 7th.

Back in February we wrote an article on the numerous changes to expect at this year’s WSOP. We also reported last month that some Las Vegas casinos are offering cheap satellites to WSOP bracelet events. In addition to the Main Event and the prestigious $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, the other huge tournament that’s sure to draw everyone’s attention is the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop (Event 55), which with 30 players registered as of this publication, has guaranteed the largest first-place payout in poker history.

Book Your WSOP Hotel Stay Now!

If you plan on heading to Las Vegas for any portion of the World Series of Poker, Cardplayer Lifestyle recommends that you avoid the rush and book your hotel stay early. All Caesars Entertainment Properties are 30% off for the next few days, with rates valid throughout the entire World Series of Poker. Rates are guaranteed to rise throughout Las Vegas (especially around Independence Day – July 4th) so now’s your chance to save money.

Beat the Long Lines – Pre-register Online!

The World Series of Poker invites you to pre-register for any of the 61 events (must be done at least 14 days in advance). All you need is some money :-) and your Total Rewards card.

Cash Games at the Rio

Nowadays, it’s widely known that in addition to the most prestigious poker tournaments, the World Series also heralds the temporary resurgence of some of the juiciest cash games of the year. Every poker discipline under the sun will be spread at almost 100 cash game tables throughout the Rio. The WSOP staff was kind enough to put together a side action guide to help players out while they’re “resting” between tournaments.

The WSOP Asia Pacific is set to take place from April 4–15, 2013 with five bracelet events on schedule. As could have been expected, Joe Hachem, the Down Under-dwelling 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion was ecstatic about the news. Don’t be surprised to see him take his place front and center (centre?) when ESPN begins their coverage of this event series.

Book Your Hotel Room for This Year’s World Series of Poker!

What to Expect in the Future

Though there’s an unofficial “Triple Crown” that’s spoken of in the world of poker (WSOP bracelet + WPT and EPT wins), the expansion of the World Series of Poker in principle sets up a whole new way to quantify individual success in the sport. Much like professional tennis and golf have four majors apiece, poker could perhaps be headed in that direction, with WSOP bracelets being awarded worldwide. The fact is, as much as wins at WPT and EPT events matter, there’s nothing like earning the hardware and slipping on a gold bracelet. Sure, poker players are always after money, but what could compete with the glory associated with winning a WSOP bracelet?

Much like the WSOPE lured professional poker players “across the pond” in the hunt for gold bracelets, the new WSOP Asia Pacific (WSOPAP?) can be expected to do the same. So does this mean we can expect Phil Hellmuth to make one of his fabled grand entrances in a kangaroo costume? Perhaps…

Just remember who said it first

Cardplayer Lifestyle last wrote about Amarillo Slim Preston just a couple months ago, mentioning that he had founded the Super Bowl of Poker, an event second in prestige only to the World Series of Poker, which ran from 1979–1991.

Aside from his Main Event win in 1972, the 4-time WSOP bracelet winner was also victorious in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event in 1975, and then in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event in both 1985 and 1990. His last major tournament showing was a runner-up finish to Phil Ivey in 2000 in a $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event.

Ever recognizable, well into his old age, in a white Stetson, Preston was also a noted author, with his strategy piece “Amarillo Slim’s Play Poker to Win” and autobiography “Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People” among poker fans’ all-time favorite poker books.

Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992 and was one of its 20 living members (out of 42 in total).

Naturally, all the poker news outlets are churning out tributes to the poker legend today. Here’s part 1 of an hour-long documentary we at Cardplayer Lifestyle found on YouTube that highlights Slim’s fascinating life and lasting impact on the game of poker. Click here for parts 2, 3, 4, and 5.

What Are the Terms of the Deal?

While PokerStars was the sole online poker operator to survive Black Friday, as well as the only such institution to pay back their players, they’ve officially remained in settlement negotiations with the Department of Justice. All indicators are that in light of the breaking Full Tilt Poker news, PokerStars is in the unique position of being able to essentially “buy their way” into a final settlement with the DOJ, which has maintained that their primary aim is to have player monies refunded. As of the publication of this article, though no official news has been released re: a settlement being reached, reports are coming out (from reputable names like Shaun Deeb on the 2+2 forums) that PokerStars would be offering a total of $750 million in the takeover bid, as follows:

• $330 million would be dedicated towards paying back all Full Tilt Poker players worldwide
• Isai Scheinberg (founder of PokerStars and the #1 Jew in poker) would step down as head of the company
• The remaining money would be paid to the Department of Justice to settle the case once and for all

All this begs the question of why PokerStars would consider spending such a huge amount of money. They’re already the #1 operator in the online poker market and pretty much anyone who had money on Full Tilt and still was legally able to play poker online after Black Friday moved over to PokerStars already. Plus, they’ve even created Zoom Poker (their version of Rush Poker, which was among the best products within FTP’s patented software)!

The answer is simple: if they reach a settlement according to those terms, PokerStars will be allowed to operate in the U.S. market once it becomes legalized and regulated (again, our guess is sometimes later this year, on an interstate, but not federal, level). And that, my friends, is worth three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Looks Like It’s Finally Money Time!

So perhaps the title of our article from 1 week ago wasn’t so hypothetical after all?! Without making any promises, it indeed DOES appear that those of you in the U.S. can expect a check in the mail for your Full Tilt Poker balances pretty soon. Those of you in the rest of the world will likely have money credited to your existing PokerStars accounts. And if you had a Full Tilt Poker account but never had one on PokerStars, we suggest you sign up for an account with them today.

This is a quickly developing story. Do you have any updates? Share them with our community on Facebook.

Who knew there could be any connection between nutrition and poker!

The video is thought provoking in it of itself, for it’s directed specifically at “poker-playing guys”, arguably one of the most “difficult-to-speak-to” audiences possible. Hundreds of thousands of home games take place across the world on any given night. Though I have no statistical evidence to support it, my guess is that these poker nights overwhelmingly feature “typical guy food” such as pizza, beer, chips, platters of cold cuts, fried chicken, soft drinks, etc. The commercial above directly challenges those stereotypes.

Perhaps think twice before putting this in your body?

Think about it – if you’re a guy and “dare” to show up to poker night with a plate of veggies and dips instead of a supersize bag of chips and a bottle of coke, how would your buddies look at you? … Arguably not like the guys react in the commercial above. But the commercial sends the pretty important message that “unhealthy crap can destroy your health”.

Many professional poker players have spoken out publically (in their blogs and Twitter feeds) about the importance of a healthy diet and exercise regimen, most notably Daniel Negreanu, a “devout” vegan.

The goal of this particular poker blog post isn’t to try and change male culture; I’m also tempted each time the guys in my home game say “let’s order a pizza” (often I partake in a slice or two). But I have to commend those who produced the commercial for bravely stepping up and trying to challenge that tough audience of poker players by making them more aware of what they’re doing to their bodies.

A Poker Tip That’ll Save Your Health and Save You Money

There’s just one particular poker tip I CAN give you from personal experience: cut out the soda from your own poker game. The artificial sugar highs you experience inevitably end up in “lows”; the longer you play, the more it will affect you and take you off you’re A-game. For years now I’ve only been drinking water on poker nights, with perhaps one small glass of soda towards the end to give myself one final boost before I’m ready to call it a night.

• Looking for a way to pick up some extra cash
• In need of a quick bankroll boost
• Interested in meeting one of the most famous poker players on the planet
• Interested in making 100 euros a day
• Currently located in the south of France, near Monaco

Then you might be the right candidate for the job

Negreanu is currently in Monaco playing poker and, in all likelihood, the games are pretty lucrative. As many of you readers know, Negreanu is a (proud) vegan and thus has strict dietary rules that he adheres to. He’s looking for someone to bring him food for lunch and dinner each day from Menton, which is located about 15 minutes away from where he’s playing.

Daniel Negreanu: I'll pay good money for food!

While some may see this type of an offer as “acting spoiled”, we at Cardplayer Lifestyle choose to look at the other side of the coin – at the positive. Clearly, the convenience of having food delivered to him in person is worth 100 euros to KidPoker. It seems to us that he’s actually just trying to “spread the wealth” around a little by offering this opportunity to anyone willing and able to give him a hand. Why not if you can afford it, right?

Hell, if we were currently in Monaco, we’d do it – just for the chance to meet him. We don’t know how much longer he’s going to be in the south of France for, so if you’re thinking of taking him up on the offer and making some quick cash, get in while the getting is good

If anyone out there reads this article and ends up taking Negreanu out on the offer, we’d love to get a picture from you. Post it on our Facebook page!

How Much Did You Lose? Hundreds? Thousands? More?

Most of my friends that had money on Full Tilt Poker lost anywhere from 2 to 4 figures. Many pro grinders out there, however, lost far more significant sums of money; we’re talking 5 and even 6 figures! Notable “name” pros had been reported as having large percentages of their total bankrolls online; wiped out they had no choice but to start from scratch and rebuild. Many recreational players ended up leaving the game altogether for lack of choice, while the more serious grinders out there took drastic steps like moving abroad to keep playing online poker. Thus, if players were ever to get their money back, it would range anywhere from “cool” to a pretty big windfall to potentially life-changing.

So, How Would You Spend It?

This begs the question: how would you put your money to use? Well, depending on just how much you’d be getting back, we can think of a number of different poker-related options:

• Plan and book a poker vacation
• Buy a new poker table and chip set for your home game
• Immediately deposit on a more reputable poker site, like PokerStars
• Go to your local poker room and buy in to a higher-limit cash game or tournament

Did you have a Full Tilt Poker account? What would YOU do with the money if you ever got it back? Sound off in the comments section below or on our Facebook page.