Quite a substantial contingent of Russian players went to Paris for the Aviation Club tournaments, Feb 1st-17th. Many of the young players, mentioned in previous Newsletter articles as up-and-coming future stars, have performed exceptionally well. Russian players to reach final the tables were:

1. Eddy Kapitonov, Moscow, Placed 2nd 500 Euros Pot Limit Omaha: prizemoney 22,535 Euros

2. Alex Kravchenko, Moscow, Placed 8th 2,000 Euros Pot Limit Omaha: prizemoney 2,870 Euros. Placed 8th 5,000 Euros European Texas Hold'em Championship, 2 day event: prizemoney 6,900 Euros. Placed 6th 500 Euros Omaha Pot Limit 5 Cards: prizemoney 1,300 Euros. Placed 3rd 1000 Euros No Limit Texas Hold'em: prizemoney 12,850 Euros.

3. Kirill Gerasimov, Moscow, Placed 6th 500 Euros Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo prizemoney: 1,590 Euros. Placed 3rd 100 Euros No Limit Texas Hold'em: prizemoney 1,295 Euros. Placed 4th 1,000 Euros No Limit Texas Hold'em: prizemoney 7,700 Euros. Placed 10th 1,000 Euros Pot Limit Omaha: prizemoney 330 Euros.

4. Akob Vardanyan from Armenia, but based in Moscow, Placed 4th 500 Euros No Limit Texas Hold'em: prizemoney 5,510 Euros.

5. Sergei Pomerantsev, St Petersburg, Placed 5th Euros 500 Omaha Pot Limit 5 Cards: prizemoney 1,950 Euros.

6. Arseny Mescheriak, Moscow, Placed 6th Euros 1,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em: prizemoney 3,440 Euros.

A big Omaha High pot limit game with $5-$10 or $10-$25 blinds was being played at Shangri-la Casino nightly. But the really huge, action-packed game was taking place at Korona Casino, where the Dealer's Choice game was fast & furious with pots over $10,000 occuring regularly.

In St Petersburg the Conti Group of Casinos held it's trio of tournaments Feb 15-17, & as usual were well attended & well organized. Julia Kuzmich, the recently appointed tournament manager, seems to be able to do it all - tournament director, host & overseeing the hospitality services that Conti Group of Casinos is becoming famous for. My personal invitation received via email offered free airport transfer, 50% hotel discount & special site-seeing tours of St Petersburg, & details of special cash games that were being organised.

Poker has certainly come a long way in Russia in the past 18 months & now Dmitry Lesnoy (Intellectual Games League of Russia) together with "Bendigo" Sloan, Australia's poker ambassador, have joined forces to present a conference in Moscow entitled "Poker Industry in Russia", due to take place April 2-4. Topics for discussion & papers to be presented will include:

1. Poker management (Russian and international).

2. Standardization of rules.

3. Poker club personnel & the work ethic.

4. Motivativating personnel.

5. Tournament organization.

6. Attracting international players to Russia.

7. Poker club profitability.

8. Advertising the game of poker, & publicity, promotion & marketing by poker clubs.

9. Organizing poker schools for beginners.

10. Introducing all variations of poker as currently played in tournaments I Europe & USA.

11. Eliciting the views & opinions of players.

12. Player feedback about poker club management.

Now that you have seen 3 up-cards, you will be able to do an exact calculation of your outs. By this stage pots are usually heads-up or 3 handed.

1. Best Hand: When you have best hand you will usually bet the pot, especially if it's heads-up or 3 handed. With 4 or more players in the hand you may have the opportunity to try for a check-raise in order to eliminate players & reduce it to heads up. This is especially so when several players are showing dangerous looking hands & where you won't know who is on a draw & who has a pair.

Example: You have split Aces & are against 3 players all showing straight possibilities - KQJ, JT9, & 987. You don't really know what you're up against, but this could be an ideal opportunity to try for a check-raise in order to try to reduce the field, but you should only try it if you are confident that the KQJ hand will bet (since it's unlikely that either of the other two hands will bet). An exception might be if the pot is already so large that you can expect 1 or 2 players to fold a pot sized bet. If the JT9 hand instead were showing KQT, then there are two hands that might bet, & so a check is more likely to elicit a bet.

2. Hidden Pairs: If you have a pair that may not be best hand or is unlikely to be the best hand, live cards are the main consideration in determining whether to continue. Heads-up, if you have K's & an Ace has been betting, & now bets again, you may have to raise. Raising will usually be the correct play against a player who doesn't always need to have Aces to bet AND your cards are quite live.

If there are 3 or more players in the pot you will usually have to raise for 2 reasons: (a) You may have the best hand, & so you don't want to give a free card. (b) To increase your overall chances of winning the pot by eliminating as many players as possible, as well as getting more money into the pot whenever you do have the best hand - raising may also win the pot right away.

Of course you do risk a re-raise when the original bettor has Aces, but in this game you're rarely getting worse than 3/1 for your money. Getting beaten by a 3rd player who would have folded your raise is usually the worse scenario.

3. Small Pairs: The main consideration is how live your cards are. You should also consider the chances of getting paid off on the end (implied odds). For example, if you have (Q) Q 7 J, it will be obvious to your opponent that you have a pair if you call on 4th street. However, if you have (T) T K J, your opponent can be in doubt about your hand, as it looks like you may be on a straight draw.

4. Straight Draws: If you have gone this far then at least you now know your exact chances of making the straight. You should also consider implied odds - will you get paid off. Sometimes you will play these draws simply because you may win if you hit a high pair on the end, or you may even believe you have the best hand on run-down - (A)JKQ is an example, especially if the T's are fairly live. Usually however, you will want to have the double-ended straight draw that is fairly live.

5. Other Considerations: Sometimes it may be correct to fold on 4th street even if you are getting the right price, & conversely it may be correct to call even when the price is too high. The classic situation arises when you are against a steamer who is losing heavily - you have (J) J Q 7 against AKJ showing. Even if the price is right you should fold & not give your opponent the chance to recoup some of his losses.

Conversely, you may want to call in the same situation if a loss is going to put your opponent on tilt, perhaps even when the odds aren't right. These same considerations can apply when you are against a "confidence" player, i.e a player who plays well when he's winning, but poorly when he's losing - it may very well be worth it to pay the price in order to try & dent his confidence.

Calling with "garbage" (7)7 8 Q vs. AK9 - sometimes it's worth calling these types of hands in order to create a "free & easy" impression against players you haven't played with before. Don't forget that in 5-card stud you are rarely a huge dog, so that little bit of equity you are giving away might come back to you several-fold in the long run.

How much do these weak calls really cost you? Let's say there's a pot sized bet of $100 & your odds of winning are 3/1 (25%) with no implied odds, i.e. if you improve & your opponent doesn't, he will fold on the end. 25 times you win $200 = $5,000, & 75 times you lose the $100 you put in the pot = $7,500. Over 100 hands you lose $2,500 or $25 per hand. You can see that even though you are not getting the right price for a call, if the effect on your opponent when he loses the pot will be to put him on tilt, then $25 is a small price to pay. Often, however, implied odds will be a factor, & so it is usually costing you less than $25.

Bill Marczak

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