"Poker in Russia" is a new poker magazine available free at most poker venues, & is the brainchild of Dmitry Lesnoy, the well-known Russian gamer & president of The Intellectual Games League Of Russia.

This is in conjunction with "Bendigo" Sloan who was until recently the poker director at Melbourne's Crown Casino in Australia & who has gone on to become involved in a diverse range of poker activities, including directing tournaments, poker cruises & recently has been involved in bringing a professional approach to poker in Russia.

The magazine contains information about poker in Russia & Europe, tournament schedules & results, stories about poker venues & their facilities & player profiles. Poker literature is offered for sale & authors include Sklansky, Malmuth, Brunson & others. As mentioned in an earlier newsletter article, Russia's first ever poker conference will take place April 2-4.

This will be followed by a trio of $250 USD entry fee tournaments commencing Friday evening the 5th April with a Pot Limit Omaha event at Cosmos Casino. Saturday evening the 6th April will see Shangri-la Casino hosting the Pot Limit Texas Hold'em, & the final event on Sunday evening the 7th April will take place at Korona Casino with a Dealer's Choice Hi-Lo tournament (Omaha 4 or 5 Cards, 7 Card Stud, & Crazy Pineapple {Texas Hi-Lo} discard on the flop before action).

There will be a Best Overall (5% deducted from tournament entry fees) with $9,000 added prizemoney being contributed by the 3 casinos. In the past these $250 entry fee events have invariably reached $20,000 in prizemoney. All events will have unlimited re-buys & one add-on . Initial starting chips are 3,000, each re-buy gets 4,000 in chips & the add-on is worth 5,000 chips. All events start at 8pm (20.00), & live action will be available 24 hours a day for the entire weekend.

Check PokerPages directory/Russia for contacts. Tourist visas can be arranged within 3 business days - contact Vadim Ribakov in Moscow, tel: + + 7-095-9786924 or liga@vniikomg.ru

5-Card Stud - Analysis:
Play on the End (5th Street)

On the end you are going to be faced with many interesting situations ranging from knowing that you have "the nuts" to situations where you are "guessing" as to your opponents' holdings. Knowing your opponents is paramount & you will often be making compulsory calls when an opponent bets. Aside from a thorough knowledge of how your opponents play, you need to be able to reconstruct the play of the hand in order to come up with a logical solution.

Other factors will include whether your opponent is steaming or whether he is winning or losing & how this usually affects his play; how often he bluffs; whether he bluffs against certain opponents more often than against others; how many chips the players have; whether he generally bets for value or whether he tends to check along with a reasonable hand; whether he is the type of player to bet all-in when he intends to call a bet if he had checked; what the players are thinking about the hand & how it was played.

When you have the nuts: If you are first to speak & have been betting best hand on every street, it's usually a question of how much to bet, or occasionally whether to try for a check-raise.

e.g. 1.

You : (A) A J T 7

Opponent (0) : (x) Q K T 7

This is a classic situation that occurs often. Against an opponent who you expect to have been drawing, then you can only win some money if you check & he bluffs. Against an opponent who has raised earlier in the hand (& you re-raised) you should bet the pot, putting him to the test- you expect him to have a pair, but you don't expect him to bet if you check. Against an opponent who you think has a pair, but who usually doesn't raise early in the hand against an Ace, you have the choice of betting or trying for a check-raise. Again this will depend on what you know about your opponent - if he is likely to bet for value, but may fold your bet, then you should check. If he is likely to call a pot sized bet & MAY bet for value , then you should usually bet the pot. Note : When your opponent has less chips than a pot sized bet, you should just about always bet, except when you are "sure" he was on a draw.

Conversely, if you are the player with O's cards & your opponent bets the pot, then it all comes down to knowing your opponent, or at least utilising "Game Theory" (which is succinctly explained by David Sklansky in The Theory of Poker, 1999 edition, publisher-Two Plus Two Publishing). Game theory attempts to discover mathematically the best strategies against someone who is also using the best strategies.

Also, whether you should bet for value after a check depends largely on whether your opponent uses the check-raise play, how often & against whom he would be likely to try it. However, you usually should bet as sometimes your opponent will call with J's or T's. You also need to bet these types of open cards occasionally as a bluff (say, when you have an Ace in the hole), in an attempt to steal the pot. Again, game theory comes in useful, one might say indispensable, for a game like 5-card stud.

Note: If you had a K or Q in the hole (with O's cards), then you should have raised earlier in the hand (most of the time), & you would now not have the problem of deciding what to do, since you either would have passed a re-raise (usually), or been called. Unless your opponent was slow-playing Aces, you will know exactly where you are by 5th street.

e.g. 2.

You : (K) A Q J T

Opponent (0) : (x) Q K J 9

You will usually bet the pot, or some proportion of the pot exceeding 50%.

O will probably call a pot sized bet with K's, & may call with Q's, so depending on what you know about O you may be better off betting about 70% of the pot. If 0 has a straight he will likely raise if you have bet less than the pot, but may only call if you bet the pot (since it's not too difficult for any player to put you on a K in the hole). Therefore if O is the type of player to go all the way with a T in the hole, you should bet less than the size of the pot & hope for a raise. Note: If you had a J or T in the hole & the K was on board (you have a straight), you should simply bet the pot as it's harder for your opponent to put you on a straight.

Bill Marczak

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