Dan Harrington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is one of the world’s most recognized poker players and has been for decades. Dan attended Suffolk University and later found work as a bankruptcy lawyer. He is also a professional backgammon and chess player and has won major tournaments in both of the games. When Harrington attended university he played all three games quite a bit and even played some poker against Bill Gates when Gates was going to Harvard.
While Dan was in university he also worked with a group of people that found a way to take advantage of roulette tables. After university Dan found another group of people who found a way to take advantage of the blackjack tables at casinos. After making money through playing those games he started playing poker full-time. Dan started playing a lot of poker at the Mayfair Club in New York where a lot of great poker players started playing.
Dan has played in a lot of poker events in hi career and has won two WSOP bracelets as well as one WPT title. He has also won money 9 times on the WSOP circuit and another 8 times on the WPT circuit. There is no doubt that Dan’s best year came in 1995 when he won the WSOP Main Event as well as finished on the final table in several other events the same year. When Dan won the 1995 WSOP Main Event he took a home a prize of $1 million. During the whole final table of the event though Dan was offering to split the prize pool between the remaining players and invest it to become rich. Nobody wanted to take Dan up on the deal and at the end of the day Harrington ended up winning and taking home all of the money.
Over Dan’s career he has won a total of $6.5 million in live tournaments which puts him amongst the best poker players in history for all-time earnings. Dan is also one of only five poker players ever to win the WSOP Main Event and a WPT title.
Dan is also widely known in the Full Tilt Poker.net world for writing some of the best poker books in history teaching players how to play the game. His books have sold thousands of copies since being released and if you really want to learn how to play poker then I suggest reading Harrington’s books. He has written two series including “Harrington on Holdem” Volume I, II and III and “Harrington on Cash Games” Volume I and II. If you haven’t read the books yet you should be able to find them online on Amazon or some other book store.
Harrington is one of the poker players which pioneered poker and helped it become the sport which it is today. He isn’t the most established tournament poker player in the world, but his accomplishments both on and off the table has helped the poker world become what it is today.
Joe Beevers was born in Marylebone, London and has lived in London for his entire life. Joe learnt how to play cards at a very young age by his father who was into cards and by age ten Joe was being taught how to count cards when playing blackjack. At the age of sixteen Beevers dropped out of school and played cards most of the day with his father and friends. Once Joe turned eighteen he joined a blackjack card counting team with his father and two other people.
After playing blackjack in most of the London casinos over a stretch of time they needed to close down the team and stop playing. The reason they needed to stop playing was because they were basically banned from every casino in London. Out of a total of 23 casinos in London at the time Beevers and his father were banned from a total of 21 of them. Beevers and his father would also frequent the horse racing tracks and make wagers on the horse races a few times every week.
When the online blackjack counting gig ended Beevers found some work at NatWest and at CitiBank. He also went to Middlesex University as a mature student and spent four years earning his Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Accounting. After graduating from university Beevers was running bets to the dog racing tracks for an acquaintance that ended up turning into a lifelong friend. The acquaintance at the time also was a member of the Hendon Mob once it started. The Hendon Mob was a group of poker players who played a lot of televised poker and challenged other teams of poker players. All of the players played poker in the Hendon, London area, but Joe Beevers was the only player who actually lived there.
Joe Beevers doesn’t have too many wins in tournament play and hasn’t been able to win a WSOP bracelet or WPT title in his career. He did place in the money eleven times on the WSOP circuit, one time on the WPT circuit and one time on the EPT circuit. He has won just about $2.5 million from live tournament play and is also a frequent online poker player. You can probably guess that Beevers is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker as they do have just about every great poker player sponsored on there team.
Joe Beevers played a major role in assisting poker in becoming a spectator sport which could be watched by the masses. The game is now watched by millions of people worldwide and has become a massive phenomenon which nobody would have guessed ten years ago. The main piece of Poker Stars.com equipment which needed to be tested was the hole card cam which would allow people watching to see the player’s cards at the table. The camera was frowned upon by most poker players initially, but as it was tested on Late Night Poker it started becoming more popular with the players. When the hole cam was being tested Beevers played in almost every match and was a strong supported of the camera.
Erik Seidel isn’t that well known by most poker fans and players around the world, but he has quietly become one of the best poker players in the world. Seidel was born in New York, United States and lived there most of his life until moving to Las Vegas where the poker action is non-stop. Before Erik started playing poker he was an excellent backgammon player and played in all of the major backgammon tournaments around the New York City area. After Seidel left backgammon because it wasn’t making him enough money he started playing the stock markets.
Since he lived in New York it was very simple for him to get into the stock markets and he was always very good with numbers. After playing the stock market for awhile Erik started playing poker at the Mayfair Club in New York. The Mayfair Club is famous for being a world class gaming club and some of the best poker players in the world started playing at the club together.
Erik’ played in the 1998 WSOP Main Event where he finished in second place only losing to Johnny Chan heads-up. The final hand of the 1998 Main Event is actually featured on a movie called “Rounders” which is Seidel’s one and only movie appearance thus far in his career. Apart from being in a movie Erik has seen a ton of television time including appearing on Poker After Dark.
Erik has seen a ton of success in the WSOP, but has only won one WPT title. In WSOP events Erik has managed to win a total of eight WSOP bracelets. Over his career he has finished in the money 53 times on the WSOP circuit and 17 times on the WPT circuit. With eight WSOP bracelets he has more bracelets then almost every single poker player in the world which is amazing considering that he doesn’t get seen too much in the media.
Seidel has won nearly $10 million in live poker tournaments which puts hear near the top of the all-time earners leaderboard. Erik has accomplished more then basically every poke player through his career thus far and he continues to play poker today. Erik has always been one of the quietest players and when he wins he doesn’t seem to get enough recognition.
Erik can be seen playing poker in the biggest live tournaments still plus you can watch him play from time to time with other professional poker players online at Full Tilt Poker.com. He is apart of the Full Tilt Team and usually plays the high stakes game there when he has time. The past couple yeas most of Erik’s success has come at the Aussie Millions where he has picked up two second place finishes back-to-back years. He won over $1.5 Aussie Dollars with the two second place finishes which is quite a bit money for second place.
Seidel will definitely be remembered in history as one of the world’s best FullTilt.net poker players and there is no doubt that he deserves to be.
T.J. Cloutier (Thomas James Cloutier) is a professional poker star and one of only a few who has been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. T.J. has proved over a lengthy poker career that he has the skills to beat anyone at the table on any given day and definitely deserves to be one of the select few who have been elected into the Poker Hall of Fame.
T.J. was born in Albany, California and grew up as an athlete who played a ton of sports in school and out of school. Cloutier attended the University of California, Berkeley and was on an athletic scholarship for football and baseball. T.J. has played in the Rose Bowl once during his time in university, but he was never able to graduate with a degree because his family had financial hardships which needed to be dealt with and were a higher priority at the time then schooling.
After dropping out of university Cloutier was drafted into the US Army. After serving time with the US Army Cloutier moved to Canada and played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). His career was ended though when he underwent a career ending injury. After the injury T.J. tried his luck with his own business which was in the food sector, but that didn’t pan out as expected. T.J. then started working on the oil rigs in Texas as well as playing poker in his off time.
Once T.J. realized that he could make more money playing poker then working out on the rigs he quickly quit his job to play poker everyday. Cloutier specializes in Holdem although he has won WSOP bracelets in other poker games as well throughout his career. T.J. has won six WSOP bracelets and finished in the money 54 times in WSOP tournaments which is an incredible number. Cloutier hasn’t seen as much success playing on the WPT or EPT and hasn’t won any titles, but between the two circuits he has finished in the money ten times in his career. Cloutier has made 39 final table appearances in WSOP events which is only trailing Phil Hellmuth who has made 41 appearances.
Over Cloutier’s PokerStar.com career he has won just under $10 million in live tournaments which is great considering that when T.J. started playing the prize pools we’re much smaller then they are nowadays. Almost $5 million of Cloutier’s winnings have come when he is playing in WSOP events.
When T.J. isn’t playing poker he is usually busy writing poker content so that this generation of poker players have the knowledge they need to see success. He has co-written four books outlining strategy for tournament play, Holdem, Omaha and NL & PL Holdem. Cloutier has also just finishes writing his own book titled “How to Win the Championship – Holdem Strategies for the Final Table. The book was released for sale in 2006 so make sure you pick up your copy if you haven’t yet.
T.J. is one of the best poker players in the world and his poker resume is enough evidence for that statement. Not many other poker players have been able to win as many tournaments as T.J. or win as much money as he has in his poker career.
When you get dealt a poker pair in Texas Holdem on Full Tilt, it’s hard not to think you have a great hand, but most pocket pairs aren’t as good as they’re made out to be. We’re going to look at some strategy you can use when you have pocket pairs.
AA/JJ
When you’re dealt a premium pocket pair you have struck a nice hand, but it doesn’t mean you are going to win the hand. I also suggest raising the pot 3-4X the big blind when you have a big pocket pair like this so you can get all of the marginal hands to fold. You might find that someone will reraise you even and then you’ll need to decide whether or not to go all-in. Getting your money in early with high pocket pairs is ideal because you don’t want to allow suited connectors the chance to hit a straight or flush. Sometimes raising the pot preflop will payoff and other times everyone might fold, but it’s better then not raising and losing to a low straight or two pair.
1010/77
When you have a medium sized pocket pair you could raise the pot or you could just limp in to see what the flop brings. If the flop is all under cards or you hit trips then you can begin betting at the pot, and if not then you can just fold. These pairs are beaten a lot on Full Tilt Poker, but if you get in the pot cheap it’s worth checking out a flop to see if you can win the pot. If you did limp preflop and the flop is three under cards you can’t feel overly safe about the hand still because often when the pot isn’t raised preflop players will limp with any two cards. You’ll need to watch out for two pairs and low straights at this point.
66/22
Low pocket pairs usually equates to trouble a lot more then it will win you a hand so don’t become overconfident with a small pocket pair. Typically it’s worth limping into the pot with a low pocket pair in case you hit your set, but if the pot is raised preflop then I would think twice about calling because after the flop if you don’t hit your set you’re usually lost in the hand. Any over cards can easily beat your low pair so don’t bet these too strongly when you have them and wait for better hands with better options.
As you can see your strategy is going to change based on how premium your pocket pair is and if it is a low pocket pair you should think about folding in some cases. Not all pocket pairs should be an automatic starting hand and it should depend on if the pot is raised or not as well as what opponents are in the hand. If there are a couple loose players in the pot then you could flat call to try and trap them, but even with a low pocket pair you can easily lose after the flop and you don’t just want to throw money away.