Poker News

If you're  a fan of the felt like me, you're droolin' for Monte's latest poker round up.  As I sit up in my room at the Turning Stone Casino today, I've got all the latest news in the world of Poker.

Alan Sternberg  is your new World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event champion.  Along with the resume boosting title, Sternberg took home a cool $1,039,000 bucks for the victory. The relative unknown took down some well known poker pros at the final table in Mike Sexton (6th place) and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (3rd) who both hold a combined four WSOP bracelets and each have won the WSOP Tournament Of Champions.

Cardplayer.com's Brian Pempus writes "The flop came A 6 5, and Sternberg checked. Rajkumar bet 105,000, and Sternberg check-raised to 277,000. Rajkumar called, and the turn brought the Q. Sternberg fired 475,000, and Rajkumar called again. The Q fell on the river, and Sternberg shoved. Rajkumar insta-called with pocket queens for quads, while Sternberg was forced to muck his full house with the 6 6.  Despite becoming the short stack after the brutal hand, Sternberg never lost focus, and eventually rebuilt his chip stack to contend for, and eventually take, the title."

That's rough to do - go from short stack to champion and do so against some of the world's finest poker players!  Anything can change on the river and unless you are holding a royal flush, you can always be beaten.  I've lost with a straight flush in Holdem and have seen four of a kind go down, it happens.  It's this reason that despite my love for the game, I fear ever going pro!  This week, I'm going to make that Old Man Monte's Poker Tip Of The Week:

Thomas Keller's "The Top 10 Reasons Not to Go Pro"

Keller lists the following:

10) Poker does not provide a stable income

9) You must save a portion of your total net worth as a bankroll to withstand the inevitable swings in poker.

8 ) The huge financial swings can cause many people great mental anguish.

7) The choice to become a professional poker player can greatly affect all of your personal relationships.

6) It can be impossible or very expensive to get health insurance.

5) Getting loans or credit can be very difficult.

4) Once you go pro, it can be very hard to go back and get a more traditional job.

3) It can be very hard to make new friends and get involved in new intimate relationships outside of poker.

2) Playing poker professionally desensitizes you to the value of money.

Finally, the number one reason not to play poker professionally as published in Card Player magazine by Thomas Keller, If you truly love playing poker, you may not want to play professionally, because that may take the fun out of playing.

Next week, we'll get into some tips with the cards in your hand.  If you can't afford the entry fees into the WPT, remember - start local and small.  Foxwoods NLH $120  at 9 AM on the weekends and Mohegan Sun 9 AM Sunday NLH Re-entry $60 or the Turning Stone here has a few tournys right in that range.  A nice middle ground between Go Fish and a 10 K buy in!