Poker pro Mike Matusow, future Olympian?

When I watched the equestrian competitions (OK, I didn’t watch them, but I saw them briefly) I wondered why that was an Olympic sport. The horse was doing everything, the guy who won the medal just sat there. Alright, calm down all you horse fans, I know that the guy riding the horse has to do a lot of training in preparation for a routine, but I still think it’s the horse that should get the medal.

Then I thought that a poker player just sits there - maybe poker could become an Olympic sport like horse jumping? But then I realized that poker is a game, not a sport. If games were Olympic sports we would have been playing for chess gold medals for the past century. Olympic sports should require that the participants at least have to get off a chair to compete. Could you imagine Mike Matusow with a gold medal? (Or 2008 Summer Olympics 8 x gold medal winner Michael Phelps with a gold medal in Poker?)

There isn’t a ton of strategy involved in playing Caribbean stud. Optimal strategy can be a bit complicated, but if you follow a few simple rules you can diminish the house edge to 5.23%. That’s as close to optimum strategy as you’ll get without getting deep into the numbers.

The first thing to do is to always raise your bet with a pair or higher, and fold with anything less than an ace/king. And raise your bet with ace/king if one of the following situations arises:

1. If the dealer’s card is a 2 through queen and matches one of yours.
2. If the dealer’s card is an ace or king and you have a queen or jack in your hand.
3. If the dealer’s rank does not match any of yours and you have a queen in your hand, and the dealer’s card is less than your fourth-highest card.

A recent USA Today poll shows a heavy support for online gambling, and many think it’s time to legalize it. With the economy in its current condition in the US, online gaming could provide some needed revenues for governments and social systems.

Recently Representative Jim McDermott made a proposal named HR 6501 that will aim to raise revenues for training and foster home funding through the legalization and taxing of online gambling. “What’s going on now is around the edges of legality in various countries of the world, and (bettors) aren’t sure where their money is going.”

He wants the money taken from online gaming to be invested into individuals that have spent time in the foster system; and others in declining sectors of the economy. After the legislation was introduced it was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Education and Labor.

Dennis Phillips has played his way into the “November Nine” WSOP main event final table. He not only made it to the final table, but he has the chip lead going into the final, which will start on November 9. He currently has the best odds to win the tournament at 3:1, and has the chip lead with a stack of 26,295,000. But his lead is less than two million chips.

He hails from Cottage Hills IL, and is relatively new to the live tournament scene. Before this year’s WSOP he only had two cashes, both at the 2007 Grand Casino Tunica Poker Tournament - WSOP Circuit Event, where he finished 7th and 9th in two different no-limit hold’em events. The two events combined only paid him a little over $4500, peanuts compared to what he’ll walk away with when he either gets knocked out, or wins it all, this coming November.