Congratulations to Jerry Yang, who won the main event at the WSOP. Jerry (whom I have never met) played most of the hands at the final table, and win almost every one he played. He won more than half the dealt at the final table, which started nine-handed. remarkable.

I was rooting for Lee Watkinson, who started in 7th chip position, and left in 8th place. Lee and I did a few seminars together a while back, and he is a wonderful person, a great player, and a caring person as well. His charity, with his fiancee Timmi deRosa, is helping maintain and build a shelter for abandoned chimps from movies and labs which are only used when they are very young (and therefore handle-able), and then killed or released into terrible environments. Lee and Timmi have been working on this for a long time, and his his 8th place money will help the cause. Lee lost in a blind vs blind confrontation, when Jerry Yang open-raised out of the small blind, Lee, who had a short stack, pushed with A-7, and Jerry called with A- 9. Congratulations, Lee, on a great run.

This message is from the PPA. If you are not a member, please consider joining by clicking here.

Dear PPA Members,

We have accomplished so much in so little time! Our membership has grown more than 500% since the first of the year, to over 600,000 members — thanks in no small part to you telling your fellow poker enthusiasts to join our cause. We are well on our way to our One Million Member target, and I again ask for your help by encouraging your family, friends and tablemates to join the PPA.

In Washington: Things are moving and moving fast. There are 4 bills pending in the House of Representatives that are helpful for on-line poker and our members. We are strongly supporting two of these bills: Congressman Barney Frank’s H.R. 2046, the “Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act” and Congressman Robert Wexler’s H.R. 2610, the “Skill Games Protection Act”.

Other bills include Congresswoman Shelley Berkley’s H.R. 2410, which calls for a study of Internet Gaming, and Congressman McDermott’s H.R. 2607, which amends H.R. 2610 with a revenue component.

In all, we have a lot of momentum, but we still need your help. I just returned from the World Series of Poker, where PPA hosted Congressman Wexler. We saw first-hand the growth and grandeur of the sport of poker, and we asked the WSOP players for their support. They responded in droves, proving that poker enthusiasts are dedicated activists.

As you know, we are a membership-driven organization and we need your support. We lobby on Capitol Hill and in state capitols to defend poker, but these efforts are not without cost.

We know you agree that poker is not a crime…but we need your help to prevent the coming of the day when the law says it is. Can you assist with an ante up of $5 or more and donate to the PPA, or can you upgrade your membership from an introductory membership to a full membership or even a supporting membership? If you are already a full member, can you consider donating an additional amount for the 2007 campaign?

Please also note we have a store where you can purchase merchandise from PPA hats and t-shirts, to PPA poker tables. Proceeds from these sales go directly to fund our campaign for poker and keep us going strong. Please spare what you can — think of it as putting in your Ante to say you’re Proud to Play Poker!

Regards,

Senator Al D’Amato
Chairman of the Board
Poker Players Alliance

With short notice, I appeared as a guest today, July 11, on Alan Schoonmaker’s Internet radio show, “The Psychology of Poker.” The show is broadcast live over holdemradio.com, and is available on their archive after the show. We spent most of the time discussing the concepts in my soon to be available book, Advanced Limit Hold’em Strategy.

On August 2, I will appear on the same website radio on Lou Krieger and Amy Calistri’s show. This will air live at 6 PM. Listeners are invited to write in questions on the live chat available on the site. I will try to post this again as time draws nearer.

I played some sessions of $100-$200 recently. With the WSOP in town, the game is better than usual.

Perhaps you would be interested in some laydowns I made. Here are a couple:

UTG (average player, not especially tight) raises. Excellent player three-bets from late middle. I have J-J in the BB and make a marginal call. Flop is 7-6-6. I check, UTG bets, good player calls, I call. Turn is a 7. UTG bets, good player raises, I fold. Probably should have folded earlier, but there it is. Oh, on the river, check-bet-call, good player shows down kings, and UTG confides to cute girl player on his left (these two will be back in this post) that he had J-J! At least I put in $400 less than he did.

I hold As-Kd in the SB. Richie Wong, long time high limit pro, open-raises in MP. All fold to me (this is sometimes how $100-$300 plays, folks) and I three-bet. BB (who was UTG in the last story) folds. Richie four-bets. I call. Flop is Qd-9c-6c. I check. Richie bets, I fold. I cannot think of a scenario that I am ahead in, and peeling one off could cost me a great deal.

I hold pocket tens and open-raise in MP. Tough player who has be running very bad three-bets from the button. Terrible player calls. Flop is A-K-8. All check to the button, who bets. I am planning to check-raise this if terrible player folds to see if button is on a small pair or not. But TP calls, so I fold. Turn is check-check. River TP bets, button reluctantly calls. TP shows K-K. Wow.

They were not all laydowns. Here is a play I picked off because of table talk. I have the button and a new player posts. Everyone folds to the new player, who checks (though the book says raise). I have 9-7 and do not wish to get involved. so I fold. SB (guy on my left again) completes, and cute girl (who is wildly aggressive, and gets way too much respect from the others) raises. Poster calls. SB folds. Flop is something, She bets-he folds. Fine. But now guy on left says to girl, “Nice play. I was thinking of doing that.” She rewards him with Mona Lisa smile.

Half-hour later, there is a limper from the MP. Rare, but it happens. All fold to me in SB. I have A-5, which is a raising hand in this situation, but I elect to call. Sure as heat in the Las Vegas summer, lefty raises. Call-call. Flop is nothing useful. Check-bet-fold-call. Turn and river go check-bet-call. He says, “King high.” I show my A-5 and take the pot. Perhaps I should have raised at the end. Anyway, he glares at me and asks if I saw his hand. I tell him no. He seems like a nice guy and I want to tell him why I made the play, but I decide not to. Free lessons are always expensive sooner or later.

I hope you enjoyed the hands.