History of Poker on Broadway

Jennifer Harman is arguably the most popular and successful woman poker player in history and has amassed quite the list of achievements. Harman was born in Reno, Nevada and went to the University of Nevada where she graduated. She started playing poker when she was only eight years old and this isn’t that surprising since she did live in Reno, but she didn’t take it seriously until later on in her life.

Jennifer’s first WSOP poker tournament bracelet came in the year 2000 when she won a deuce to seven lowball event. She had never played the game before which goes to show you how quickly she develops skills in card games. A couple years later in 2002 Harman won a limit Holdem event which was her second and last WSOP bracelet thus far in her career.

In 2004 Harman was forced to sideline her online poker career to go through her second kidney transplant. Both her mother and sister had kidney problems as well and both passed away from the issue. Jennifer has dealt with a lot of health problems due to her kidneys and battle toughly through everything that has hit her in life. After her second kidney transplant she created a non profit organization for creating awareness for organ donations around the world.

Jennifer also came back to free poker after the surgery and has since done fairly well with some final table finishes in some of the top events. Some of the events she has finished well in since her return to poker consist of a second place finish in a WSOP event, fourth place finish in a WPT event and a fifth place finish on the PPT. Jennifer has also spent a lot of time the past few years playing on many of the popular television shows such as Poker After Dark sponsored by Full Tilt Poker.net and High Stakes Poker.

Jennifer also plays on PokerStar.com where she is sponsored and you can see her playing sometimes with other Full Tilt Poker team members like Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen. Overall Harman has won millions playing poker and it turns out her choice to become a professional poker player was a smart one. When she initially made the decision to go pro though, her father disowned her for a long time. Eventually Jennifer and her father came to terns and they now talk again and spend time with each other.

Jennifer is married to Marco Traniello who is also a professional poker player and has a nice resume himself although isn’t as known as Jennifer Harman is. They have twin boys and both of them have cooled down how much poker they play so they can raise there family. With both of them successful poker players who have amassed a small fortune over the years they should have no problems taking a break from the action for a bit.

Harman is the only woman poker player in the world to ever win two WSOP open events and this is why many poker players rank her as the best woman poker player in the world. She can hang with the big boys on the poker table and you don’t want to take her lightly because she is a woman, because if you do she’ll aggressively take your stack from under you in no time.

Johnny Chan was born in 1957 in China, but later moved to the United States in his teenage years with his family. His family owned restaurants and this is where Johnny worked most of his teenage years while attending the University of Houston. Chan was studying in the Hotel & Restaurant Management sector at university, but when he was 21 Johnny dropped out before finishing, to move to Las Vegas. At the age of only 21 Chan was in Vegas looking to become the next professional gambler.

Chan quickly became a player to reckon with in the Vegas casinos and he thinks that his success came early because players didn’t know how to play against Asians. I’m unsure if this had anything to do with anything, but Chan definitely lit up the poker scene early with two consecutive WSOP main event bracelets coming in 1987 and 1988. Over Chan’s long internet poker room career he has earned himself quite the list of wins with a total of 10 WSOP bracelets. The 10 bracelets puts Chan tied in second place with Brunson for the most WSOP bracelets both trailing Hellmuth of Ultimate Bet who has 11.

Johnny Chan is another one of the poker players who is very well rounded and has won bracelets in multiple different poker games including Holdem, Seven Card Stud, Omaha and a couple others. Not many poker players can say that they are as well rounded as Chan is and I don’t think we’ll see anyone come close to his accomplishments anytime soon. Chan has seen some success in No Limit Holdem, but there was a long stretch where Johnny didn’t cash in any no limit Holdem tournaments.

Johnny has been played in a movie due to his final table appearance in the 1988 main event No Limit Holdem tournament and has been featured on many television shows. Some of the shows Chan has been on consist of Poker After Dark (run by FullTiltPoker.com) and Poker Superstars where has had made multiple appearances.

When Johnny isn’t on the poker tables winning money he is usually found operating his fast food franchise in Vegas or consulting casinos on various things. Chan would like to one day own his own casino, but that dream doesn’t look like it will become reality anytime soon. Chan has also written and released a poker book on how to play poker online with training modules for players and a follow up book as well. Another thing you might not have known is that Johnny runs his own online poker room at ChanPoker where you can play with thousands of other poker players.

Johnny Chan has a nickname “Oriental Express”, but it isn’t commonly associated with him in the poker world so you might not hear this nickname often on TV. Chan has had a very long career in poker and he continues to play to this day on television and in the casinos in Vegas. He thrives for action and is one of the biggest high stakes players you’ll ever meet. There is no doubt that Chan belongs on the list of the best poker players in history and I’m sure he’ll continue to prove this in the future.

Stealing the blinds is when, in Texas Hold’em Poker, a poker player raises the bet before the flop, and his raise is not called upon by anyone else, the player winning the blinds uncontested. When everyone folds after your raise, you win this money no matter what cards you have and there wouldn’t even be a flop.

Stealing the blinds is especially important during the tournaments, in which the value of the blinds keeps increasing and in order to survive, stealing the blinds is a good skill to learn. It is also important in the variants in which the blinds have a relatively high value when compared to the rest of the bet, for instance in the limit poker versions. However, this stealing the blinds happens more often in no-limit Hold’em, because the players can do a raise large enough to keep the others from calling it.

During the fulltiltpoker.net tournaments, early on the blinds are not important as they tend to be small when compared to the chip stack sizes and winning them might not bring a big benefit. But as the game progresses, the blinds take more and more of your chip stack and you might consider doing it.

Usually, the blind stealing will be done by a player in late position, often from the button, because such players can see whether the adversaries raised anything. If no one raised, it’s expected that no one has a good enough hand to call you.

Nevertheless, you should know that since the stealing of blinds from the button is a relatively common practice, many players are used not to respect raises that come from that position and might call you even if they have some modest hands. This is why some players will try stealing the blinds from one seat the right of the button.

Choosing the right time to do it is important: You should never try to do it if you are in an early position, if anyone else has been raising, if the gameplay at the table is typically loose or aggressive or if there are many players in the pot.

The amount you raise on full tilt should be big enough to make them fold, but also you should minimize your losses in case you lose. A good value range should be between 2.5 and 4 times the big blind. Some experts recommend you to put the exact sum randomized, so that your opponents might get the idea that you thought your actions well and they also might not start to see a pattern in your actions.

As a big stack, you are a threat to every chip stack at your table. Maintaining a deep stack is an art form. By using strategic tactics and playing smartly, you can use your deep stack to your advantage to go deep and win poker tournaments.

Playing Deep Stack Poker

When playing the deep stack in a poker stars tournament, the last thing you want to do is sit back and relax. You have done a great job building your lead. Now is not the time to rest, allowing others to catch up to you. Remaining on the offensive while controlling the pace of the table is imperative to deep stacked poker play.

Choose your Targets

The best deep stack poker players are bullies at hear. When in a deep stacked situation, you want to pick on the medium and average stacked poker players, as a general rule. The medium stacks typically do not wish to become short stacks, or worse yet eliminated. Especially later in a tournament, by using your deep stack, you can often force medium stacks off a hand.

Avoid other deep stacked players when possible. It is not a pretty site when two deep stack players engage in a game of chicken near the bubble of a poker tournament. If you do not believe me, sit back and watch sometime. However, without the best of it, avoid being one of the parties involved in a deep stack battle royal. Leave the implosions to the novices.

Keep in mind that short stacked players at pokerstar.it are looking to double up or go home. With that in mind, when encountering a short stack, put them to the test.

Defend your Blinds and Re-steal

Send the message early and often that your blinds are your blinds. When someone attacks your blinds from later position, looking to steal – throw in a reraise to put them to the test. When you are in late position and a player raises to steal; take the steal move away from them. Use your chips and your position to your advantage.
By continually applying pressure to the short and medium stacks, a deep stacked poker player frustrates the table and ends up with a mountain of chips. Be the table bully while smartly steering clear of other deep stacks and you will do well while playing poker with a deep chip stack.

Gus Hansen was born February 13th 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark where he lived for his childhood. Gus Hansen lived in Denmark until he moved to Santa Cruz, California on an exchange program for school. He quickly became interested in poker while in Santa Cruz and when he wasn’t in class he would usually be found playing poker at the Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz.

Before playing poker Gus was a champion backgammon and tennis player and seen success playing both throughout his life. After Gus finished his education he started playing poker professionally and then took a break three years later to try and play backgammon professionally in New York. He didn’t think the action was as good as it was at the poker tables so he went back to playing poker full-time.

Gus has seen quite a bit of success since starting to play poker and he’s an active cash game player at high stakes in a variety of different poker games. He has won most of his money in cash games and he thrives for the huge action which is why he loves poker so much. Gus has yet to win a WSOP bracelet, but there is no doubt in my mind that he will accomplish this before he retires from playing poker. Gus has won 3 WPT championships though and had several deep appearances on the EPT. You will also see Hansen playing a lot of poker on television shows as he’s always invited since he has a great style of play for the cameras.

Hansen has also spent a lot of time working on online poker sites such as Full Tilt Poker and others where he owns a stake in the ownership. Gus has done work broadcasting backgammon championships and does a lot of blogging for certain websites on the internet. Gus recently launched a poker television channel online as well where you can watch poker action all day long. Gus has also moved into the instructional DVD’s like some other poker players and has released a box set of training videos.

When Gus isn’t playing poker he still loves to gamble on just about anything you can imagine and he constantly gambles with friends on sporting events, tennis and much more. With all of the gambling Gus does and the massive cash games he plays in, it’s been reported before that Gus has run into money problems due to excessive gambling. The cash games he plays in are often for hundreds of thousands of dollars and he has lost massive amounts of money quite a few times in the past. Gus has admitted he lost millions before in a game and he also admits to being an under .500 sports bettor and would wish he could just stop rather then keep betting on sports.

Gus’s style of UB poker is loose and aggressive and he lives by the way he plays poker on FullTilt. Many people are often scared by his big bets, but they often get him in trouble as well. He does modestly well in cash games, but his style usually doesn’t help him last long in tournaments.