Dan Smith Talks About His Early Start, Building a Bankroll at Age Seven High Roller Crusher Details His Rise to No
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
www.CardPlayer.com Vol. 34/No. 1 December 30, 2020 Bellagio's Bobby's Room Gets A New Name 'Rounders' Star Ed Norton Calls Out President Trump With Poker-Themed Rant Strategy: How To Deal With Cold Four Bets Dan Smith Talks About His Early Start, Building A Bankroll At Age Seven High Roller Crusher Details His Rise To No. Five On Poker’s All-Time Money List PLAYER_34_1B_Cover.indd 1 12/9/20 11:32 AM PLAYER_18_GlobalPoker_DT.indd 2 8/4/20 10:44 AM PLAYER_18_GlobalPoker_DT.indd 3 8/4/20 10:44 AM SIGN UP AND LEARN FOR FREE Graduate your game with the CP POKER SCHOOL www.CardPlayerPokerSchool.com CP_PokerSchool_1_DT.indd 4 10/13/20 9:33 AM SIGN UP AND LEARN FOR FREE Free Poker School and Training Ten Comprehensive Poker Courses On Beginner and Advanced Topics Hundreds of Free Articles and Videos On Winning Poker Strategy Learn At Your Own Pace Exclusive Partner Offers Enroll Now IT’S FREE! CP_PokerSchool_1_DT.indd 5 10/13/20 9:33 AM Masthead - Card Player Vol. 34/No. 1 PUBLISHERS Barry Shulman | Jeff Shulman Editorial Corporate Office EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Julio Rodriguez 6940 O’Bannon Drive TOURNAMENT CONTENT MANAGER Erik Fast Las Vegas, Nevada 89117 ONLINE CONTENT MANAGER Steve Schult (702) 871-1720 Art [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Wendy McIntosh Subscriptions/Renewals 1-866-LVPOKER Website And Internet Services (1-866-587-6537) CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Jaran Hardman PO Box 434 DATA COORDINATOR Morgan Young Congers, NY 10920-0434 Sales [email protected] ADVERTISING MANAGER Mary Hurbi Advertising Information NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Barbara Rogers [email protected] LAS VEGAS AND COLORADO SALES REPRESENTATIVE (702) 856-2206 Rich Korbin Distribution Information cardplayer Media LLC [email protected] CHAIRMAN AND CEO Barry Shulman PRESIDENT AND COO Jeff Shulman Results GENERAL COUNSEL Allyn Jaffrey Shulman [email protected] VP INTL. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Dominik Karelus CONTROLLER Mary Hurbi Schedules FACILITIES MANAGER Jody Ivener [email protected] Follow us www.facebook.com/cardplayer @CardPlayerMedia Card Player (ISSN 1089-2044) is published biweekly by Card Player Media LLC, 6940 O’Bannon Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89117. Annual subscriptions are $39.95 U.S. ($59.95 U.S. for two years), $59.95 Canada, and $75.95 International. Remit payment to CUSTOMER SERIVCE, CARD PLAYER MAGAZINE, PO BOX 434, CONGERS, NY 10920-0434 or call 1-866-587- 6537. Periodicals postage paid at Las Vegas, NV, and additional mailing offices USPS #022-483. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to CARD PLAYER MAGAZINE, PO BOX 434, CONGERS, NY 10920-0434. Card Player makes no representations as to whether online gaming is legal in your community. Please check with your local authorities. Reproduction or use in whole or part is prohibited without prior permission from the publisher. Contributors are afforded the opportunity to express themselves to the fullest; however, statements and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Information is gathered only from sources considered to be reliable; however, accuracy is not guaranteed. Publisher does not endorse any of the products or services advertised in this magazine, nor is publisher responsible for the contents of any ad copy. Published and printed in the United States. 6 CARDPLAYER.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER CardPlayerMedia 006_MastheadB.indd 6 12/9/20 11:33 AM PLAYER_22_ACR_FP.indd 3 9/29/20 9:49 AM Table of Contents - Card Player Vol. 34/No. 1 18 16 22 Features Strategies, Analysis Also In this Issue 18 & Commentary 6 Dan Smith Details His Rise To No. Five On 26 About Us Poker’s All-Time Money List How To Deal With Cold Four-Bets 37 By Julio Rodriguez By Jonathan Little Tournament Schedules 22 27 38 Shifts In Poker Strategy: Dylan Linde Badugi: Playing The Probable Best Hand Poker Leaderboards By Steve Schult In The Middle Rounds By Kevin Haney The Inside Straight 28 Tournament 10 This Is Not The Main Event You Are Hand Matchups Poker News Recap Looking For 29 By Gavin Griffin Viacheslav Buldygin vs. Timothy Adams 14 30 Player Of The Year Update 31 Can A Poker Site Exclude You For Winning By Erik Fast Too Much? Viacheslav Buldygin vs. ‘WhatIfGod’ 16 By Scott J. Burnham 33 Head Games: Avoiding Mistakes With 32 ‘WhatIfGod’ vs. David Yan Aces And Kings Preflop In Pot-Limit Omaha Gamble 106: Down By The Train Tracks 28 By Nathan Gamble By Craig Tapscott David Yan vs. ‘WhatIfGod’ 35 The Hipster Holiday Home Game Where Nobody Knew How To Shuffle The Cards By Houston Curtis 8 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1 008_TOC.indd 8 12/9/20 11:21 AM PLAYER_01_bestbet_FP.indd 3 12/8/20 12:32 PM THE INSIDE STRAIGHT the INSIDE STRAIGHT News, Reviews, and Interviews From Around the Poker World BELLAGIO’S WORLD-FAMOUS BOBBY’S ROOM IS NO MORE, HIGH-STAKES AREA RENAMED LEGENDS ROOM By Steve Schult One of the most famous poker rooms in the world recently underwent a name change. e high-stakes area of the Bellagio poker room on the Las Vegas Strip, known to poker fans as “Bobby’s Room,” has been renamed “Legends Room.” Since its inception, Bobby’s Room has been home to some of the biggest poker games on the planet. e usual game featured a mix with lim- its of at least $400-$800, but during the World Series of Poker, games are generally much larger, with limits of $1,000-$2,000 and up. At the time of this article’s publishing, there was a $2,500- $5,000 big bet mix game running in the room. e room was named after 1978 WSOP main event champion Bobby Baldwin. e Oklahoma- native and four-time bracelet winner stayed in Las Vegas after munity took to social media to vent their frustrations with winning the main event at 28 years old and forged a success- the decision. Some were adamant that they would continue ful career in the casino industry. to call it Bobby’s Room despite its new name, while others In 1982, Baldwin was hired as a consultant for the felt that the room should have been renamed for someone Golden Nugget, rising to president of the property just two else, perhaps Doyle Brunson. years later. Steve Wynn hired him to be the president of e As successful as he was in the boardroom, Baldwin was Mirage in 1987 and he was also the Chief Financial Offi cer nearly as successful on the felt. He won two WSOP bracelets of Mirage Resorts, which eventually became MGM Resorts in no-limit 2-7 single draw and a seven-card stud title, along following a merger. He became president of the Bellagio with his main event bracelet. His last cash came in 2012 with when it opened in 1998. a seventh-place fi nish in the $1 million buy-in Big One For Towards the end of 2018, Baldwin announced he was One Drop. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in leaving his position with MGM Resorts as Chief Customer 2003. Development Offi cer of MGM and CEO and President of In 2010, as Aria’s poker room gained popularity among CityCenter. en about a year ago, it was announced that the high-stakes community, the fellow MGM-owned proper- Baldwin will be the CEO of the competing Drew Las Vegas, ty debuted its own high-stakes area named after poker legend which is scheduled to open in 2022. Phil Ivey. “Ivey’s Room” tended to attract the highest-stakes Bellagio originally said that the room would remain in his no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha games, while limit name, despite his departure from MGM, but that changed in mixed games stayed at Bellagio. October with the renaming. e move went under the radar Ivey’s Room was later changed to “Table 1” in February as the COVID-19 pandemic, the passing of Mike Sexton, 2019. Aria’s decision came shortly after a federal judge gave the Doug Polk-Daniel Negreanu heads-up match, and the Borgata Hotel and Casino approval to go after Ivey’s assets in announcement of a hybrid WSOP in December took most of Nevada to collect the $10.16 million he owed the casino from the poker community’s focus. his infamous baccarat session. Ivey eventually settled with As news of the renaming broke, many in the poker com- the MGM-owned Atlantic City casino last July. m Sign Up For Card Player’s Free Poker School. Review Hundreds of Articles and Videos On Winning Poker Strategy. www.CardPlayerPokerSchool.com 10 CARDPLAYER.COM VOLUME 34 / ISSUE 1 010_News.indd 10 12/9/20 11:23 AM THE INSIDE STRAIGHT MONSTER SESSION GIVES DOUG POLK NEARLY $600,000 LEAD OVER DANIEL NEGREANU IN HEADS-UP MATCH By Steve Schult With 20 percent of their sched- An ace-high call against a river “Should I be winning? Yeah, I uled 25,000-hand, heads-up grudge shove in a four-bet pot was the think so,” Polk admitted. “Probably match in the books as of press time, epitome of how locked in the three- like 5-10 buy-ins. But I’m up 18 buy- Doug Polk has opened up a big lead time World Series of Poker bracelet ins since we moved to online. I’m over Daniel Negreanu. One particu- winner was on Saturday. obviously in god mode at the moment lar session to close out the month of Polk raised to $910 on the button and that isn’t going to last forever. November saw Polk net more than and Negreanu three-bet to $4,103.60 Also, he did make some improve- $332,000 over the course of 684 out of the big blind.