An Update from Tony Cascarino

As poker has gone mainstream, so one of the game’s most rewarding aspects (apart from winning of course) is the constant opportunity it provides to meet people who have enjoyed a career at the very top of their chosen profession.

I have met hundreds of interesting folk as a result of competing in tournaments, but I sat next to one of sport’s most engaging and successful characters when I played at the San Remo EPT event last month.

For a decade between 1987-97, Alberto Tomba, the man known as La Bomba dominated world skiing. At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, he won gold medals in both the giant slalom and the slalom at his first attempt. Four years later, he collected another Olympic gold at Albertville in France when he again won the giant slalom and was second in the slalom. His glittering Olympic career ended in 1994, at Lillehammer in Norway where he clinched another silver medal in the slalom and so became the first Alpine skier to win medals in three different Olympics and the first male Alpine skier to earn five career Olympic medals. Some record eh?

La Bomba is an Italian institution and I found myself sitting next to him in San Remo – quite a disconcerting experience at first as he appeared to know virtually every female in the room, but when we finally settled down to play poker, it was evident that the guy had been a competitor at the very highest level.

I’m not one to drone on about bad beats because they’re part of the game, but if I needed a stark reminder of how my luck had been going over the past couple of months, La Bomba provided it for me.

The game was progressing well enough and stack-wise, we were evenly matched, when as the big blind I picked up pocket tens; Alberto (the small blind) had A, J. With the rest of the table folding, he too went to fold, but although he threw his cards towards the centre of the table, revealing them in the process, they didn’t hit the muck so were technically still in play. Almost reluctantly, he pulled his cards back, only for the flop to come A, J, 2. Everyone, including me, knew what Alberto had and I have to say, it rocked me a little as I thought I was home and dry with that particular pot.

In many ways, it was indicative of the way the cards have been falling for me recently because over the course of three events – the two EPT tourneys in Monte Carlo and San Remo, together with the GUKPT in Manchester, where I was busted by two pair after being dealt pocket rockets, I have experienced my worst-ever run of poker form.

Of course, as poker’s profile has continued to rise, so tales of particularly bad beats have become more commonplace. Some players appear to take great pride in experiencing them; not me, I hate ‘em!

My favourite bad beat tale is not, however, something I’ve heard since I’ve been playing poker, but one I discovered when reading about a version of draw poker known as jackpots introduced in 1870, which forbade any player who held less than a pair of jacks to open the betting.

William Sharon was a renowned San Francisco gambler in the 1870s who suffered perhaps the baddest-ever beat when going head-to-head when playing jackpots with William Ralston, then president of the Bank of California.

With 0,000 on the table, Sharon raised a further ,000 (bear in mind this was in the early 1870s), but Ralston countered with a 0,000 raise, taking the pot to an astonishing 0,000 and forcing Sharon to fold.

A euphoric Ralston revealed his hand, although by then, Sharon had shuffled his cards back into the deck: Ralston held a pair of tens, but Sharon stayed quiet. It was not until Ralston died the day after his bank failed in 1875 that the vanquished Ralston revealed the cards he had held during that memorable hand: a pair of jacks.

Thankfully, I’ve never experienced anything that bad but I’m hoping my luck takes a turn for the better over the summer, mostly by playing pot-limit Omaha, a game with which I’m rapidly falling in love. If you’ve never played, check it out. It’s the simplest variant imaginable on hold ‘em and one at which I appear to be enjoying a decent run at the moment, which almost makes up for some of my recent disappointing tournament performances.

Actually, I’ve discovered that while Omaha might look easy (some people suggest you “see every flop and get lucky”), it’s considerably more complicated than you might think. For example, no Omaha starting hand is a big favourite over another. In fact, you could be heads-up holding the most exceptional starting hand (A, A, K, K), but you’re still only 60-65% favourite against a random four-card hand.

I’ve found the key to winning at Omaha is to unearth cards that work well together and provide plenty of options. Ideally, you’re after suited, connected or paired hands because they give you a great chance of making a full house, trips or a completed straight when you get to the flop.

It all sounds so straight forward on paper, but poker is a game where there is plenty to remember and it’s easy to get distracted; players who know this do well at pot limit Omaha (and every other variation of the game too of course), so I’m using my new-found poker love to concentrate upon being more decisive. I also believe that by playing a different type of game, it will allow me to mix up my play a little more when I return to tournament action. I can’t wait!

Tags: Alberto Tomba, EPT, littlewoods poker, Omaha, Tony Cascarino

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 1:42 pm and is filed under News & Promotions Blog, Team Littlewoods.