Tue, 01/25/2011 – 01:36 – PokerPages Staff

PCA Main Event
With an apparently insurmountable chip advantage before him, victory looked virtually done and dusted for Chris Oliver at the start of the PCA Main Event.  He arrived at the final table with control over no fewer than 40 per cent of the chips and it’s only fair to congratulate him on his solid and intelligent play throughout most of the event.  He looked unstoppable for much of the day, relentlessly increasing his chip stack and blithely laying waste to the other players, who fell like bowling pins in his wildly confident path.  But just when everyone thought this “Run-Good” would see him take down the first prize, he was blind-sided by Galen Hall.  Stunningly, after nine hours of play, Galen took minutes to decimate Chris’s apparently impregnable 37 million chip lead into a disastrous 10 million chip disadvantage.  After just thirty minutes, the demolition job was done and Galen Hall became the new PCA Main Event Champion.

Hall had some tricky moments, like when he folded a straight to Oliver’s full house.  But his fortunes began to change when he found himself holding a bottom-two pair (A-2) on an A-4-2 board.  He was able to double through and, suddenly, Oliver found himself eye to eye with an extremely dangerous adversary.

PCA High Roller Tournament Winner Emerges
The PCA High Roller poker tournament saw a stunning win over a massive field of 158 players by Canadian poker pro Will Molson after three grueling days of pitched battle.  This was surely one of the toughest fields to win upon if not in poker history, then at least for a very long time.  2011 saw the largest High Roller tournament in history with Molson’s first-prize win amounting to over $1 million.

Will Molson nearly made it to the top in the High Roller tournament for two successive years, finishing runner up to French poker-meister Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier in 2009 and to William Reynolds in 2010.  2011 has seen him finally claim the crown he’s come so close to owning in the recent past.

Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom and the Swedish Tax Man
Another poker pro is drawing publicity this week – and not for his poker successes.  Viktor Blom, who revealed himself to be the Scandinavian mystery man ‘Isildur1′ earlier this month, is in a little hot water with the taxman in his native Sweden.  That’s according to the Swedish newspaper “Dagens Inustri,” anyway.

The Swedish tax authority was apparently alerted to his status as high-earning poker pro thanks to his activities on Full Tilt Poker.  It may indeed, have been in order to keep under the radar of his home country’s tax authority that Blom maintained his hidden identity for so long: Swedish tax law requires a cut from all pots – not just the money won – played at any site which operates outside the European Union.  A spokesman for the Swedish tax authority claims that Full Tilt Poker, which is based in Ireland, is classified as a site beyond the confines of the European Union, and as ‘Isildur1′ gambled around $4.5 billion during his brief stint there, his back taxes are estimated at around $149 million!  The young Swede currently lives in London; with a tax bill of this magnitude facing him in Sweden, he’s probably unlikely to make a visit home in the foreseeable future.

Tue, 01/25/2011 – 01:52 – PokerPages Staff

Surviving in a tournament when short stacked requires a different approach to the game.  Knowing a few poker rules may help you boost your chip standing.  Often, the beginner poker player will not make changes to their strategy when short stacked.  Moreover, the beginner frequently resigns himself to a loss and tilts away their remaining chips.  To survive and get back in contention necessitates a change in strategy.  

What exactly is short stacked?  The definition of short stacked ranges from 4-5 big blinds to 4-5M, where M equals the amount you would lose by sitting out for once around the table, thus M=BB+SM+sum of antes. 

When short stacked you want to play strong hands and you want to be in early position.  Hand selection should be strong, as to not be easily dominated by an opponent.  For example, suited connectors may have a better shot at the pot than a weak ace.  Also, you want to be the first in the pot.  By pushing all-in first and from early position, you are not expecting a call. 

If you are really short stacked (less than defined above), you should move all-in with a better than average showdown hand, as you are likely to be called due to the low amount of chips.  Play hands that are more likely to give you a higher winning hand at the showdown, such as trips. 

The key to playing short stacked is to not panic.  By altering your approach to the game you stand a better chance of surviving in the tournament.  Further, by simply surviving you allow for the possibility of getting a monster hand that will put you back into contention.

To learn more, check out PokerSchoolOnline, the best source on the internet for poker related learning.  Then put those skills to work by playing for free at PokerStars.net.