Cover: Pokers Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown - Paired Up

Vanessa Rousso and Chad Brown, combining poker and romance on the tournament trail.

LOS ANGELES IS, NOTORIOUSLY, A CITY OF BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. Which is why the photo shoot barely registers a ripple, even among the tourists who have flocked to the Santa Monica pier.

He’s ruggedly handsome, his brown hair cut short, tousled, and gelled in a style that wouldn’t look out of place on Jude Law. His form-fitting shirt accentuates a linebacker’s body that could probably snap Jude Law in two. She has long blonde hair, strikingly pretty features, and the kind of enormous eyelashes that suck you in and don’t let go. Her accessories are Prada and Dolce, and she handles her spiked heels like a pro, despite the dangers posed by the Pier’s rickety planks. They could be fashion models or soap stars.

Except that most fashion models and soap stars can’t calculate pot odds on the fly and change gears three times in 20 minutes just before the bubble bursts. Or hold their own among the world’s best poker players because, well, they are among the world’s best poker players. But Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso aren’t really like anyone else, which might just be what drew them to each other.
***
Growing up in the Bronx, Chad Brown knew he had the looks to become an actor. He also knew that if he wanted to do something other than emceeing swimsuit pageants and cabarets, he was going to have to try his hand in Los Angeles. In 1990, he packed up and moved across the country, hoping to find work as a bartender a couple of nights a week, leaving his days free to pursue his big break.

“I didn’t realize that there were legalized poker casinos [in L.A.],” said Brown. “I was already, for fun, playing in Italian cafes in the Bronx with my friends.” By “fun,” Brown means impoverishing his opponents: “You realize after a couple of years, hey, I win most of the time and everyone always makes fun—‘Aw, Chad’s here, gonna be another winning night.’ You know, giving me shit.”

Brown didn’t exactly tear up the tables in L.A., but he ground out enough to keep him afloat while grinding through countless auditions. In 1993, his good looks and experience hosting pageants helped him to land his first major role—Ahmad Rashad’s co-host on a new gambling-themed game show called Caesar’s Challenge. “All the guys were great-looking guys, well-built,” recalled Brown, “but I had emcee experience.” Dressed as a Roman Centurion, Brown’s duties were more or less limited to introducing the show and turning letters with a sword. “I was sort of the male Vanna White.”

The show didn’t last, but it provided him the experience and recognition he needed to pursue larger roles. During a pivotal two-week period in 1995, he read for the producers of a new Kevin Pollack sitcom and was one of three finalists for a major role in a Carl Reiner movie. The opportunities “were like making the final table,” except that “winning was the only thing that guaranteed you major success … Either one of those things, my future would have been different.”

What made these particular two weeks so pivotal was a promise he’d made to his best friend Nick, then the chief operating officer of a fledgling medical supply company in Florida. Nick wanted Brown to join his company as the vice president of sales. It was a far cry from his Hollywood dreams, but Brown was and remains a committed realist. “I love acting … but either you’re Tom Cruise and you’re making $20-million a movie or you’re a working actor that struggles from job to job. It’s gambling.”

Brown pledged to Nick that if he hadn’t found full-time work as an actor by the summer of ’95, he’d take the sales job. Neither the sitcom nor the movie panned out, leading Brown to make an emotional visit to his manager’s office, where he announced his sabbatical from acting. He joined Nick in Florida.

Four years later, Brown was back in L.A., the company having gone belly up due, in Brown’s opinion, to the misguidance of the chief executive officer. He quickly discovered that two things had changed during his absence: He was no longer a “name” and would have to resume his acting career from square one; and poker had become much, much bigger.

“I was playing cash games, doing well. I was still sort of pursuing acting, but not with the same enthusiasm. And I was psychologically preparing myself to be content. I could have a good life playing poker.” When Chris Moneymaker won the World Series in 2003, Brown sensed just how big the game was about to become and devoted himself to tournament play. A year later, he found himself at the final table of the WSOP’s first televised Stud event, ultimately finishing second to Ted Forrest. And in a nifty bit of circular irony, a TV producer who happened to see the event decided that Brown would be the perfect host for a new show, The Ultimate Poker Challenge. “So indirectly,” observed Brown, “I got my first big job in front of the camera because of poker.”
***
While Brown was flipping letters in a glorified toga, Vanessa Rousso was getting ready to enter high school in Florida. It was a rare period of inertia for a girl who’d lived in 20 different cities by the time she was 18, the hand dealt to the daughter of a French father and an American mom who loved to travel. She graduated at the top of her class and accepted a full ride to Duke, where she studied economics. One of her professors used poker as a tool for teaching game theory. Rousso, her interest piqued, started using game theory as a tool for crushing poker, at least the low-limit games she found online.

Here’s the thing about Rousso: Her internal clock is faster than yours. “I’m all about efficiency,” she sputtered, fueled by one of the Monster energy drinks that help keep her going. “It’s something that marks my progression in life. I really don’t like to waste time.” With the help of AP credits, she graduated college in just 21/2 years. Duke offered her admission and a partial scholarship to their law school, but she opted for a full ride at the University of Miami. (“It’s a freeroll,” she said. “I’m all about the freeroll!”)

Her decision to return to Florida wasn’t purely financial. She also considered the proximity to both the Hard Rock Seminole Casino and a busy international airport servicing the cities that hosted major poker tournaments. She was still a year away from her 21st birthday, but Rousso, dreaming of the circuit, wanted to hit the ground running. Actually, hit the air flying—upon turning 21, she applied for a pilot’s license.

“We’d fly on a Cessna or whatever from Florida to the WSOP Circuits that were nearby. Where we could make a little flight over, get some hours in on the plane, and then go play a tournament.” Efficient? “Very efficient! Everything has a purpose.”

During one such jaunt to New Orleans, she made the final table of a $200 buy-in, earning $6,500 and her first legitimate bankroll. Several subsequent cashes convinced her that she could she could compete on the Circuit. In early-2006, a vision began to take shape in her mind.

“I basically get this hare-brained idea to play the World Poker Tour $25K main event,” she recalled. “Hare-brained,” because her earnings to date barely exceeded the entry fee.
“So being the businessperson that I am, I sell shares of myself to friends and family, like a thousand dollars a share.”

Rousso turned out to be a pretty good investment, finishing seventh and earning more than a quarter-million dollars against one of the most competitive fields in tournament history. Just 23, she’d captured the attention of the poker world, including the guy who finished ninth: Chad Brown.
***
“There were five tables left,” recalled Brown. “We were already in the money … and so I’m sitting at this table and this pretty young blonde girl comes and sits down in Seat One. I’m like, Who is this girl? She’s a pretty girl, but wait a second? Who is this girl in the $25K with only five tables left?

“And the first thing she does is she acts like she’s some ditzy blonde. She’s like, ‘Oh, do I have to post?’ That was the first sign to me that she’s trying to act like she’s some ditzy blonde … That put the radar up for me to be careful not to underestimate her. But at the same time, I was fascinated by her and also attracted to her and wanted to get to know her.”

Like any good poker player, Brown looked for an edge. “I saw that when she took a couple of beats … she lost her cool a little bit.”
“To put it nicely,” interrupted Rousso.

During a break, Brown approached her, offering to help her with her composure. Maybe over dinner.

It’s not that Rousso wasn’t interested; she was just a little skeptical. “Yeah, right, you can help me with that.”

Brown’s next play didn’t seem to help his case—with no cell phone or scrap of paper to exchange digits, he suggested that she call his room after the tournament.

“If you think that I would ever call some guy’s room,” Rousso remembered thinking, “that I’m that girl, who, you couldn’t get my number because you didn’t have your phone on you? Yeah right. Don’t hold your breath for that … My mom didn’t raise me like that,” she laughed.

“So I didn’t see her afterward,” said Brown, who was the first player to be eliminated from the final table. “We didn’t cross paths again and she did not call the room. So I was like, eh, blow off, no big deal.”

“No big deal,” snorted Rousso.

“Not meant to be,” he continued. “No big deal, wasn’t meant to be. So I run into her like a month and half later, just by coincidence, at the airport.”

“He was doing a photo shoot,” said Rousso, “like a 20 sexiest poker players magazine thing … and he came up to me and he was like, ‘Do you want to be a part of the shoot?’ He was like, all business.” They finally exchanged phone numbers. A month later, Brown called to schedule the shoot. “I was still feeling kind of awkward,” she remembered. “I didn’t want him to think I’d blown him off. So I was like, ‘Don’t I owe you a raincheck or something?’”

It suddenly dawned on Brown that she might be interested after all. During that summer’s World Series, they finally went on their first date. When the Series ended, they decided to travel together to the next stop on the tournament trail. And the next …

They were still traveling together in December 2007, when Brown proposed to her over dinner. They plan to wed this October.
***
When your job keeps you on the road 24/7, as today’s tournament poker does, relationships are not easily forged. “You’re traveling so much that you’d have to be extremely lucky,” observed Brown, “because distance just doesn’t make a relationship grow.” Both feel fortunate to have found a partner in the same line of work.

That’s not to say that poker romance is without its own unique pitfalls. For one thing, there’s the potential of having to compete against your partner in an activity so rooted in individual success. “Early on in our relationship,” recalled Rousso, “we had to acknowledge the possibility that we’d end up at the same table.” Both considered the idea of soft-playing one another to be unethical—not to mention antithetical to their competitive instincts. “We basically have an agreement that in the rare occasions we’re at the same table,” said Brown, “the one thing that we don’t do to each other is to trap … That can, uh, ruin the romance.”

To date, the issue’s been more philosophical than practical—in their two years of dating, they’ve only been seated at the same table twice, something they attribute to what they jokingly call the “Day Two Curse.”

“Basically every tournament,” said Rousso, “one of us makes Day Two, but we never make a Day Two together. It’s always funny. If one of us builds a big chip stack early in the tournament, we’re like, uh oh, it must mean [the other is] going to be out before the day ends.”

Then there’s the issue of separating the work life from the home: “When we start talking poker, we’ll start disagreeing,” said Rousso. “At the end of the day, there’s no right answer. It could lead to an endless debate. We have a rule where basically if you bring up a poker hand, then the other person can talk about it or have an opinion … [We’ll] see what we can learn from our discussion, and move on.”

What’s interesting about these discussions is that the two approach the game with very different styles.

“I’m a lot more aggressive than he is,” observed Rousso. “You’ll see my chip stack going big-small-big-small-big-small-big. Whereas his will slow-climb.”

“I think I change gears more than she does,” countered Brown. “She knows how to change gears very well, but I think I change more. And I think I adapt to the climate of the table.”

“I’m a lot more mathematically, game-theoretically oriented,” she said. “He’s a lot more player-oriented, plays his opponent … I get very emotional. He is the most stable guy you ever met. With poker, that’s an awesome skill set to have.”

He said: “I think that my experience will pick up how other players are playing quicker than she will. She might disagree with me, but that’s not anything lacking in her skill, it’s just experience. You can’t buy experience, you have to experience it.”

All of which raises a frightening conclusion. Many couples, once married, are accused of adopting one another’s habits and manners of speech. What if Brown and Rousso wind up adopting one another’s skills at the table, combining aggression and math-savvy with emotional balance and player-reading skills? Could anyone stop such a poker juggernaut?

“I’m sure that we’ll, like, gradually, what do they call it, regress towards the mean?” surmised Rousso. “Where you slowly adapt to the information that your partner will give you, like he’ll teach me things about reading people, and I’ll teach him things about game theory, and we’ll gradually become more alike.”

Then she laughed, adding, “But I’d say that we’re always destined to have pretty opposite styles.”

Jonathan Grotenstein is a writer living in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of All In: The (Almost) Entirely True History Of The World Series Of Poker, and has collaborated on books with Phil Gordon and Scott Fischman.

The Secret To His Success
Brown’s poker success hasn’t done anything to diminish his love for the entertainment industry. In fact, it still plays a critical role in his success as a poker player.
“One of the things that I learned when I started playing tournament poker, especially when you get deep into like big events, is that it’s hard for a lot of people who are playing to get a restful night’s sleep. If you’re playing like 13 hours of poker in a main event of a poker tournament, it’s not just a regular 13 hours. It’s an intense 13 hours that wears on people.
“So what I discovered is that the only way to get a restful night’s sleep is to go see a good movie. You get absorbed in the movie, which actually sort of like erases all those poker hands. And you get a good night’s sleep and, all of the sudden, now you’re in Day Two or Day Three of the tournament.”

Vanessa Rousso: Career Highlights
YEAR TOURNAMENT SERIES PLACE PAYOUT
2006 $25,000 NLHE Five-Star World Poker Classic 7th $263,625
2006 $5,000 Short-Handed NLHE World Series of Poker 8th $61,955
2006 $5,000 NLHE Borgata Poker Open 1st $285,450
2007 $9,700 NLHE Ultimate Poker Challenge 2nd $65,863

Chad Brown: Career Highlights
YEAR TOURNAMENT SERIES PLACE PAYOUT
2002 $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo World Series of Poker 3rd $45,400
2004 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud World Series of Poker 2nd $62,320
2005 $9,500 NLHE WSOP Circuit Atlantic City 7th $94,620
2005 $10,000 NLHE WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Rincon 3rd $198,550
2005 $2,000 Stud Hi-Lo World Series of Poker 2nd $89,838
2006 $10,000 NLHE Bay 101 Shooting Stars 6th $200,000
2006 $25,000 NLHE Five-Star World Poker Classic 9th $205,040
2006 £3,500 NLHE European Poker Championships 5th $110,345
2007 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Poker Open 2nd $84,565
2007 $20,000 NLHE National Heads-Up Championship 2nd $250,000
2007 $5,000 Deuce-To-Seven World Series of Poker 2nd $324,777
2007 $10,000 NLHE World Series of Poker 97th $67,535

David Williams - Pot Size, Position & The Power Of A Pair

Heads-up strategy, Part II: Three more essential tips for one-on-one poker by WSOP Bracelet Winner David Williams.

IN MY LAST ARTICLE, WE TALKED ABOUT heads-up No-Limit strategy in conjunction with my preparation for the NBC Heads-Up Championship. We discussed misconceptions about how easy the strategies for heads-up might look on paper, but how hard they actually are to implement.

This time, I’d like to discuss three more tips related to heads-up play. These strategy adjustments, coupled with the more basic tips of the last article, should get you ready to hold your own in a heads-up match, where psychological warfare really begins to take shape.

The first thing I would like to talk about is trapping in heads-up play, since trapping in a heads-up hand is very different from regular ring game play. In a nine- or 10-handed poker game, the hands that you trap with have to be much stronger than a hand you would trap with in a heads-up poker game. Let’s look at an example:

You have K-Q offsuit out of position pre-flop, and you raise. You’re called by the button, and you see a flop of Q-10-6 and you’re first to act. Checking here would be a bad move, as your vulnerable top pair needs to be protected from giving people free draws at a straight, or opponents catching an ace on the turn, since a hand containing an ace is likely in a full ring game. In a full ring game, top pair is a hand that you want to win the pot with right away, before you give opponents the chance to catch up.

Now let’s look at this same hand, but apply it to heads-up play. You raise from the big blind heads-up, and the button/small blind calls. The flop comes down the same, Q-10-6, and you are the first to act. There is still a straight draw possible. An ace can still come off on the turn, but checking to let your opponent see another card isn’t that bad of a plan here.

What’s the difference?

It’s hard to make a pair—you only connect with the flop about a third of the time—and when you connect with top pair in heads-up play, it’s a monster. You want to feign weakness so that your opponent might either bluff the turn, or pick up a little something to match his hand so he can call you on the river. It’s safe to try and act weak to gain extra bets later in the hand.

Another consideration in heads-up play is position. In heads-up play, the big blind will be out of position for the whole hand, except for pre-flop play. This gives the small blind a huge advantage. You’ll be at the disadvantage of being out of position the rest of the hand, and you’ll need to raise more pre-flop to make sure you won’t have to make too many difficult decisions on later streets.
You want to either end the hand preflop, or end it with a solid continuation bet on the flop should your opponent call your pre-flop bet. I’d suggest a range of three-to-five big blinds. You should also take into account your opponent’s style, because as always, each poker situation is unique to whom you’re playing against. If you are playing against an opponent who frequently calls your raises no matter how big or small, then it is more worth it to just let him do the heavy betting when you have a hand you want to play.

The final tip I’d like to touch on is heads-up poker pot control. Chipping away at an opponent in heads-up is the strategy that most pros like to use. Being aggressive enough to raise pre-flop on the button with a wide range of hands, but then continuation betting, betting out small, or even check-calling keeps the pot in your control and also keeps the pot small.

If you have played enough heads-up, you will really start to develop a sense for when your opponent has something or not. I think heads-up poker is the fastest road to learning to read your opponents, and in doing so, your post-flop play will begin to get better.

With better post-flop play, you want to keep the pots small. Since your skill advantage is superior, you don’t need to get into big confrontations unless you have the goods.

In heads-up poker, it is difficult sometimes to control pot size, as often times you’ll run into the player who has heard that aggressive play is the only way to win heads-up poker. While it is a strong strategy, it’s often misinterpreted to mean that you should try to bulldoze over people, which is not the case. If you can just take more pots than your opponent when you both have nothing, then you have a cushion for the pots that will turn into big confrontations. This way, if you lose that pot, you’re not out of the game just yet, and if you win, then you’ve broke your opponent.

Remember, heads-up poker is just as much about your opponent as it is about your cards. Once you gain a feel for what he is trying to do, counterattack and the chips will fall your way.

This article brought to you by Bodog nation. Play with pros David Williams, Josh Arieh, and Evelyn Ng at BodogLife.com.

KEY HEADS-UP WISDOM
1. Top pair is usually a trapping hand
2. Out of position, end hands quickly
3. Winning the small pots is vital

David Pham - Year of The Dragon

An interview with the amazing David Pham, who just keeps racking up final tables

DAVID “THE DRAGON” PHAM FLIES UNDER THE PROVERBIAL RADAR. You don’t see him on TV much, he doesn’t have an overabundance of endorsement deals, he doesn’t have gimmicks or catchphrases.

But there may not be a more consistently successful tournament player on the planet.

He had an exceptional year in 2007, and was named Player of the Year by CardPlayer while finishing third in ALL IN’s Player of the Year voting. The Dragon took home four tournament victories and 11 top-10 finishes in ’07, and after a hot start to ’08 that saw him record three top-four finishes by early-February, his career earnings were over the $7.1-million mark. That positions him 14th on the all-time money list, and if you eliminate the ridiculous amounts won at the WSOP Main Event final table in ’05, ’06, and ’07, Pham would climb to ninth all-time. To be in that position, without ever having won a million dollars in a single tournament, is simply remarkable.

Playing as well as ever at age 41, the two-time-bracelet-winning Vietnamese-American pro recently sat down with ALL IN at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City to give us a glimpse of what keeps this dragon’s competitive fires burning.

ALL IN: Why are you so successful?
Pham: It is probably because I was poor when I was young. I came from no money, so I understand what it means to have nothing. When you have a chance to make the money in a poker tournament, you have to try as hard as you can. You have to figure out a way to win.

What attracted you to the game?
My family didn’t have any money, so when I came to the United States, I began looking for a good job, so that I could take care of them. I worked really hard for two years before I began playing. I think it was somewhere between 1988 and ’89 that I saw Men [“The Master” Nguyen, Pham’s cousin] walk away from the poker table with handfuls of hundred dollar bills. I was making like $250 a week and every night I would have to sleep on a couch. I knew that if Men could do it, I could find a way to be successful at it as well.

How did you begin learning the game?
I believe you should learn from the best and follow those that are successful in tournaments. When I first started to play poker, I would watch great players from the rail. Nobody knew me, so I just followed the top players. I would watch how they carried themselves at the table and tried to figure out exactly what they were doing that would help them win.

What player left the greatest impression on you?
I once watched Stu Ungar at the Four Queens. Everywhere he moved, I followed him. I really admired the way he played. I didn’t see his hands often, so I focused on his table image and his aggressive play. There is no way he had a hand every time, but he made the other players think he did. Even when he moved to a new table, he would do the same thing. He could read how weak the players were in the blinds and he would make moves on them constantly. I made his style a part of my game.

How do you stay sharp year after year?
Usually I just try to do better than the previous year. I always want to move forward. When I won my first Player of the Year award seven years ago, it was easy, but the last couple of years have been a lot tougher. I have to keep working on my game to be successful. A lot of good Internet players started coming out to tournaments and a lot of good players started coming to the game after the World Poker Tour started broadcasting. It forced me to mix up my game to adjust my style of play. I play a lot of different styles now to keep my opponents confused.

Do you switch your style with every new table draw?
Yes, but I usually wait a while before I make a move. I typically wait 15 minutes to a half-hour, sometimes playing only one hand. I watch how the people move and try to figure out who is aggressive at the table and who I can bully. If you jump right in and make a mistake, it can cost you a lot of money.

Does the tournament blind structure influence your play?
A little bit. You can be much more aggressive early on and this can confuse a lot of people, but once the blinds start to get really big, I tend to become more conservative if I am at a tougher table.

Which do you prefer, being tight or aggressive?
Aggressive is definitely better, because you can collect so many antes and the blinds. For example, if you win three or four rounds of blinds and antes, you have money to, let’s say, play a side pot later in the day. Now many people may not think much of that, but if you didn’t steal those blinds, you might lose out on a big score later simply because you don’t have enough chips to maximize your payout.

Does being so aggressive early on in a tournament ever get you into trouble?
It happens from time to time, but over the long run, I have been very successful with this style of play. Sometimes you will get caught with a weaker hand, but most of the time, I find that I can outplay my opponents even though I have nothing.

What part of your game is your greatest strength?
I think I can out-bluff and outplay my opponents. Let’s say I make a raise with 5-6 suited and the flop comes A-K-4. I figure the guy to play ace-rag maybe, but most of the time he’ll play hands like K-J. I know how to bet to make him lay it down. When a player makes a bet and I make a call, I know I will make the next move and force my opponent to fold.

Is that what separates a pro from an amateur?
Yes. A good pro can get a read on other players and figure out what they are doing about 80 percent of the time.

What does it take to be a consistent winner?
A lot of people say they have run bad for a couple of years, or they’re simply unlucky, but I don’t believe in luck. I am Catholic, so I am not superstitious. Men [Nguyen], on the other hand, is very superstitious. You can’t even ask him if he is out of a tournament or he will get mad. I don’t believe in stuff like that. In the long run, the skill stands out. I have been a consistent winner for a long time now. I don’t always take first, but I am always trying to find a way to get in a position to win. I don’t think you can run bad for a year or two. You have to find a way to win and always be willing to look at what you are doing that keeps you from being successful.
You also have to have a clear head. If you are having family problems or financial issues, you can’t play properly. Your head isn’t in the game and you play scared. That is a major reason why people can’t win tournaments.

What do you do to keep improving your game?
I take care of things outside of poker, so I can concentrate on what is happening at the tables. I always make sure my family is taken care of. As long as I know that everyone is okay, I play well. When I have problems with them, it directly affects my game. Also, when I don’t win for a while, I get hungry and try very hard to find a way to win. I am a really competitive guy. I know I can win, so I try to do my best at all times.

How much time do you spend thinking about poker and is it the last thing on your mind at night?
A couple of years ago, I used to spend most of my time thinking about the game, but now I don’t. Everything is done when I go home. I forget about what happened at the tables. Whether it is good or bad, I just let it go. If I make a mistake in a tournament, I may think about it for a half-hour, but then I let it go. If you think too much, your head is always running and you neglect other important things in your life. Every day is a new day, so you have to let things go if you want to be happy.

You have said how important family is to you. How has your wife helped your game and how does she feel now after you’ve continually found a way to win?
When I married my wife, we were very poor. I didn’t have money to pay the rent. I was playing $3/$6 and $5/$10 and I went broke so many times I can’t count them all. I agreed to go back to work and we opened a nail salon. I actually quit poker for at least five years and didn’t play, but I never stopped thinking about the game. At first she said not to try again, but I kept telling her I could win. This was about 1989. Reluctantly, she agreed, so I knew I had to win. I love my wife. She knew what it was like when I had nothing and I know I can trust her.

Is being successful a worthwhile trade-off from being away from your family for so long?
When you are winning it is okay, but when you are losing, it hurts. My wife and I decided together that I would stay in the game, so she understands what it takes for me to do what I do. Whatever I have is hers, so she can take care of the family. I always told her not to think about the times when we are apart, because when I win, I can provide for my family, so she doesn’t have to worry about it.

Is there anything special you do with all of your winnings?
My family is so big. I have 12 brothers and sisters. Four are in the U.S., the rest are in Vietnam. I opened a business for my brother in Arizona. When I go back to Vietnam, I bring money with me. The first house, I bought for myself, but the second house I bought was for my parents. I usually use my money to help everyone in the family, especially my four kids.

Do you want your children to be poker players?
No. It is a tough life. I want them to be businessmen or engineers, maybe even become a doctor. You have to work hard to be a good player and it takes away from your life outside of the tables. I want them to do well in school, so they don’t have to play poker. I didn’t have that choice because I wanted to give them a chance to do more with their lives. I had to figure out a way to take care of them. Hopefully, they won’t be in the same position I was.

What was your favorite victory of 2007?
I won the $2,500 buy-in tournament [at the Bellagio Five Diamond] in December. It wasn’t for a lot of money, but it was the tournament where I locked down [CardPlayer] Player of the Year. If I don’t win that one, I can’t win the Player of the Year. I killed two birds with one stone. I won over $280,000 and ensured winning the Player of the Year title. If I didn’t win that one, J.C. Tran would have taken home the title. I had come close in earlier events, but it was the $2,500 that guaranteed my win.

Which is more important, the recognition from your peers or the money?
I think it is both. I do well in a lot of events, so I feel like I get some respect from other players. The money is for the family, so that is important. A title may make your career look good, but it doesn’t always justify respect. When people say the money is not important, I disagree. If you don’t have the money to play, you can never get a title, so the two kind of go hand-in-hand. Without money, you can’t support your family and then you can’t concentrate on your career. You have to have both.

How much of a role does luck play in your game?
A lot of pros say it is 50/50 and I agree with that, but over the long run, I think skill takes over. You really can’t get lucky for five straight days. There has to be some level of skill there for you to keep winning. Month by month, you can’t be a consistent winner unless you have the skill to be a winner.

How long do you plan on playing?
I love poker. I’m going to stay and play until I cannot beat the other players. If I get old and my mind goes down, I will stop, but until then, I will keep playing.
n
Michael Friedman is a Las Vegas-based freelance writer and television producer who has worked for numerous publications in the poker industry.

Pham Favorites
A look at the 15 most notable results of “The Dragon’s” tournament career:
YEAR EVENT PLACE PAYOUT
2000 World Series of Poker $2,000 NLHE 4th $47,520
2001 World Series of Poker $2,000 S.H.O.E. 1st $140,455
2003 L.A. Poker Classic $1,500 LHE 1st $457,320
2003 L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 NLHE 4th $80,080
2004 Doyle Brunson Championship $10,000 NLHE 3rd $255,000
2004 World Poker Finals $10,000 NLHE 6th $277,014
2004 Five-Diamond Classic $3,000 NLHE 1st $414,419
2005 Five-Star Classic $3,000 NLHE 1st $270,165
2005 World Series of Poker $1,000 NLHE 4th $154,125
2006 World Series of Poker $2,000 NLHE Shootout 1st $240,222
2007 World Poker Challenge $5,000 NLHE 3rd $182,260
2007 Mirage Poker Showdown $5,000 Heads-Up 1st $135,200
2007 Legends of Poker $10,000 NLHE 2nd $800,815
2007 Five-Diamond Classic $2,500 NLHE 1st $279,845
2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $7,800 NLHE 4th $600,000

Steve Farhood - Cashing Out

IN LAS VEGAS, IT’S JUST ANOTHER HAND of millions, and Eric Stansbury deals pocket sixes to a drug company rep who’s in town for a sales meeting. Frankie Viagra calls four bets before learning that he’s been beaten by a pair of kings. Stansbury dutifully delivers the chips to the winner. What he doesn’t do is ask the loser why he kept donating after the flop brought two overcards and the turn produced a third. Stansbury might’ve cracked a knowing smile, but only on the inside. Like a good player, a good dealer has to know how and when to maintain a poker face.

Hold ’Em in Las Vegas isn’t all about Phil Hellmuth’s bracelets and the Big Game at the Bellagio. It’s also about $65 buy-in tournaments and the accountant from Nebraska who’s happy to blow a couple of Benjamins chasing inside straights at $2/$4 Limit.
Some players dream about making the final table at the WSOP’s Main Event, while others just want to fly home and have a story to share at the office water cooler on Monday morning.

By Vegas standards, the poker room at the Paris is humble. It has eight tables, and according to Terry Severin, one of the room’s shift managers, 98 percent of the players are tourists.

“Eric is an outstanding dealer,” Severin told me. “He has a great personality, and he’s good with the players. People are here to have a good time. Along with the integrity of the game, legalized poker is about customer relations.”

Dealing poker for a living can be just as much of a grind as playing it, and Stansbury keeps in the game by challenging himself.

“I categorize the players and try to figure out what they have,” Stansbury explained. “It makes dealing more interesting and sharpens up my own game.”

Stansbury, 29, has a degree from Central Michigan University. After playing poker in college, he began dealing at a Native American casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, near his hometown of Detroit.

Stansbury relocated to Las Vegas 18 months ago. After a short time, he was dealing in the WSOP, and Greg Raymer was helping him with the intricacies of Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo.
“I figured that if I was going to deal,” he said, “I might as well be doing it where I can make the most money.”

At the Paris, Stansbury works 26 to 30 hours a week in six- or eight-hour shifts. He earns $6.30 an hour, and with tips, $150-$175 a day.

“After tournaments,” he said, “80 percent of the winners tip the dealers. But when somebody tips $6 and we have to split it six ways, we just have to accept it.”

On a scale of one to 10, Stansbury rates the average tourist player a 7.5. “More of them know the game than before,” he said, “and I’ve noticed an improvement in the quality of the play. If you enjoy the game, dealing poker is fun, and you don’t have to work too hard.

“For the most part, people are here to gamble, and they’ll pay a substantial amount to see the next card. The only problem comes when somebody’s had too much to drink. But I haven’t had to call security yet.”

Like almost all the dealers in Las Vegas, Stansbury plays poker too. His games of choice are $1/$2 No-Limit or $2/$5 No-Limit, and he says he breaks about even. But he isn’t consumed with the game and has no intentions of becoming a pro. In fact, Stansbury is a writer who is about to publish an online collection of poetry about life experiences.

Is poker poetic? Maybe Stansbury will answer that question. In the meantime, one thing’s for certain: Frankie Viagra sure seems to get a rise out of it.

Does A Stacked Table Equal A Stacked Deck?

The pros weigh in on the positives and negatives of landing at talent-packed table.

ON A RECENT EPISODE OF NBC’S POKER AFTER DARK, Jamie Gold found himself in the final three, seated between Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth, and couldn’t help but comment on the level of difficulty he was facing. Frankly, Gold’s degree of difficulty at the outset wasn’t much better, considering the other three players at the table were Chris Ferguson, Berry Johnston, and Huck Seed.

Of course, Poker After Dark is a made-for-TV version of poker where the tables are always going to be stacked with top names, but even in the “real world” of poker, the luck of the draw sometimes leaves a pro surrounded by other pros in the early stages of a tournament with hundreds, or even thousands, of entrants.

So just what are the pros thinking when they find out their table is full of other pros? For some, they think it’s the worst possible scenario. Others welcome the challenge and think of it as a learning experience. Here’s what 10 of poker’s finest had to say about the subject of landing at a stacked table:

ANNIE DUKE
I hate stacked tables! Yes, you don’t have some maniac breaking you with a bizarre hand, but who wants to play against good players? It’s harder to make money and you have no edge. People who say they like good players because they know where they are at are lying or they don’t understand poker. Give me a table of bad players any day; that is why I play the game!

I understand that you can learn from other great pros being seated with you, but you never want to see that in a big tournament. The toughest table I ever played at was obviously the Tournament of Champions in 2004. The lineup for that table was myself, Phil Hellmuth, my brother Howard Lederer, Johnny Chan, Greg Raymer, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, T.J. Cloutier, and Chip Reese.

SHANNON SHORR
I recently had Scott Fischman, Devilfish [David Ulliott], Ted Forrest, and John Murphy all at my table at the Bellagio $15,000 event, and they are all good players, but I actually liked that table because I didn’t expect them to be re-raising too much. Not Murphy, but the other guys are older guys and they don’t do a lot of re-raising pre-flop, so I could be aggressive. I went in there planning on being aggressive.

At the same time, the way most of us play tournament poker is that we don’t want to play against each other; we try to find the weak spots and exploit those. A lot of guys won’t play back at me, which is nice, so I just have to find those few weak spots at the table. At the Bellagio there weren’t that many, but when there are those spots, it’s great, for sure.

JONATHAN LITTLE
I don’t like tough tables simply because your profit in poker comes from weaker players. The latest two final tables I have reached on the WPT have both been super tough. Five out of the six players were at least fairly well known, either live or online. The Niagara Falls final table included both Scott Clements and Barry Greenstein. At the Mirage, Darrell Dicken, Phil Ivey, and Amnon Filippi were all at that final table that I took down.

DANIEL NEGREANU
I think it’s always better to have a soft table draw because it gives you an opportunity to get some easy chips from bad players. It can be a bit more of a rocky road against bad players, but it’s well worth it.

However, I must admit, when I played in my very first WSOP event in 1998, I had the following table draw as my starting table: Men Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, Johnny Chan, Humberto Brenes, Dewey Tomko, Huck Seed, and myself. I survived that table and went on to win the tournament.

DAVID SINGER
The thing most people don’t realize is that in tournaments, what table players get is a big part of who is going to do well. When you get a really good table draw at the beginning of the tournament, it is very helpful; conversely, if you get a bad table draw, there is nothing you can do about it. Sitting there and being pissed off about your luck isn’t going to help you.

I just try to pay a lot more attention to my opponents; they really aren’t going to be giving anything away. Actually, at times, that isn’t true. Most of the time they aren’t going to give anything away, but if you pay attention, people have off-days and people aren’t playing the same way every day and it’s very possible, if you are paying enough attention, one guy could play different that day, or he’s not in a good mood for whatever reason. It is very important when you are playing against better players in particular to really watch how they are playing. It is harder to outthink them, but you really have to try and anticipate what they are doing and how they think you are playing. You just have to bear down and concentrate.

JOHAN STORAKERS
I have no problem with a tough draw. Against better players, it’s easier to form an overall picture of the task you have ahead of you. Of course, in my opinion, I would rather have an easy draw because then I can accumulate chips when bad players make mistakes. That way I can avoid getting short-stacked, getting close to 25 times the big blind.

Naturally, every once in a while you get a table with almost all pros. The first event I can think of is when I got to sit between Johnny Chan and T.J. Cloutier in one of the WSOP events in 2002.

JOE SEBOK
The number-one thing you want to see when you sit down is players that you don’t know their name. That is the first thing that you want, a bunch of people that you don’t know, because that means probably they aren’t playing as much poker as you are, at least professionally speaking.

I want passive players at my table, players that are going to call raises and then fold every time an ace hits the flop, or they are never going to raise me unless they have a big hand. I want people that are predicable and are just going to play their hands rather than actually playing the game. That goes along with being a better player. Better players play the other players, and you just want guys who don’t do that.

For me, the worst-case scenario is when Barry [Greenstein] is at the table, for a multitude of reasons. People always complain and they think it is a disadvantage for the other players at the table, but the fact is we are in a big disadvantage. I’m not going to try and bluff Barry out, which means the pots that he’s in, I am super predicable. I’m not going to do anything. If I raise, I have a hand, and same for him. If he raises, he has a hand. If he folds, it’s because he didn’t have anything. He is never going to try and bluff me, he’s never going to try and trap me, and if we are playing together, people can read off that and they can know if it’s a three-way pot and I put in a raise, I have the goods. If he puts in a raise, he has the goods. The other players in the hand have a massive advantage, they literally can figure out what our cards are.

We play super aggressive and we are all about intimidating people, so when we can’t get out there as much and steal as much and attack because there is one player at the table you are purposely trying to stay away from, it’s hard. It basically puts your game somewhat on lockdown, and it makes it difficult to play until you get them out of the hand. It is very, very, very frustrating.

JEFF MADSEN
When a table is stacked, I don’t sit down and think it is a bad draw. I don’t really mind tough tables. I like interesting tables, and sometimes when you have a lot of good players, sometimes I get more comfortable because they all want to feel the table out more so maybe they are all less likely to make moves because there are so many good players. It can give me room to play my game, and I know that they are going to play a little more solid.

If there is a table with people I didn’t know, I wouldn’t know if they are capable of calling all their money off with crap. If it’s someone I have never played with, I really don’t know how they play. At least if it is a bunch of good players, I kind of know where I am at.

CHRIS FERGUSON
I don’t worry about a stacked table too much. Yes, I guess if you are playing against great players you are not going to do as well, but you have to ignore that. You just have to play your game and ignore that you are playing against a table full of professionals. Some of these guys are going to get through, and you want to give yourself the best chance at getting through as well. The way to do that is just to play your game.

I remember a couple of tables where I have had like four world champions in a row on the first table of a tournament. One particularly stacked table I remember was the 1997 World Series of Poker Main Event. I had one unknown player at my table. There was Stu Ungar on my left, two to my left was Billy Baxter, three to my left was Phil Hellmuth, and four to my left was Chris Bjorin. I know Tony Ma was also at that table. This was when there were only about five tables left in the tournament. I just didn’t let that get to me. I wasn’t thinking I was in bad shape at that table, I was just watching and learning and trying to give myself the best chance to get there. It really wasn’t intimidating to me at that point, I was just trying to play as well as I could while watching and learning.

I think I learned a lot watching Stu Ungar play that year. This was back in the day when a lot of professionals were making the final table of the Main Event. Ungar ended up winning it that year.

HOWARD LEDERER
A stacked table is a bad draw, and no one is going to convince me that it isn’t. When I sit down and I recognize six of the eight players that I am seated with and then I hear that the other two are some of these young kids that I have never heard about but they are name players and they are good, that’s not a good thing. I’m not happy about it and it will hurt my equity in the tournament. I would much rather play against people I have never seen before who are not good players.

That being said, I have played a lot of cash games; I have played in some of the biggest, toughest games in the world for years, so I do feel like my game is made to beat that kind of table and I have had some success at those games. I think I do better than most would do in those situations because I don’t have the kind of game that is just going to try to run over the table at every table I’m at; that kind of game is going to have problems at a stacked table. You have to adjust your game, and I have been doing that in big cash games for years, so I don’t get intimidated or get too depressed about it, but I certainly acknowledge the fact that it’s not good for me. I would much rather play against a weak player than a good player.

The toughest draw I have ever had was my opening table at the first $25,000 buy-in tournament at the Bellagio. It was actually documented by the WPT show. In seat order, there were Phil Hellmuth, David Plastik, Huck Seed, Phil Ivey, Peter Costa, myself, John Juanda, and Paul Magriel. Soon after, they brought Erik Seidel and Scotty Nguyen over after a couple of people went broke. It was just this ridiculously loaded table at that tournament. There were like 30 bracelets at that table.

Katie Lindsay is a Los Angeles-based poker writer who contributes to numerous magazines and Web sites.

Jean-Robert Bellande Joins Team Bodog and Cashes in on Survivor Fame

Though he didn’t go as far on Survivor: China as he wanted to, Jean-Robert Bellande is parlaying his experience on the hit CBS reality show into plenty of additional money and exposure. Not only did he get a Poker After Dark invite and a seat in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship thanks in part to his air time in the jungles of China, but he has now signed on with Team Bodog, where he joins David Williams, Josh Arieh, and Evelyn Ng as one of the faces of the popular poker site.

“I’m completely thrilled to be on Team Bodog and to join my friends Josh, David, and Evy,” Bellande announced.

In a separate but related note, the Bodog Poker Open kicked off in March, and amazingly, in the first event ($270 NLHE), Ng finished second and Arieh third out of a field of 377. Not a bad opening statement from Team Bodog.