Sports Interaction is now running a Sunday Satellite to the USD20,000 R/A on Mondays. The buy-in is USD5+0.50 and for every USD33 in the prize pool one player will advance to the Monday USD20K.

If you don’t want to buy-in you can also win your seat via and 3 Freerolls that now run every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The top 3 players in each Freeroll will be entered into the Sunday Satellite!

Sports Interaction are now sending players to the WPT North American Poker Championships and the Irish Winter festival.

Check the website for more details

Strong hands become weaker as more players join the action. This is a crucial point which many players tent to forget. To drive the point home, watch what happens to a pair of aces as we match it against multiple opponents and what lessons can we draw from the stats given in the tip.

Click here to go through the summary, this has been taken out of Harrington on Cash Games and it’s one to read and remind yourself when next you find yourself in a multiway pot.

Gold Cards

Save your Gold Cards for the big USD100,000 tournament on the 4th October. Check the daily news to see if your cards have been chosen.

Satellites will run up until to the 30th September - check the poker lobby for the schedule.

This tournament will only be open for 100 players and all places will be paid.

Heads-Up: Ad Ac versus 4c 4s. The aces are favored by 81.3 to 18.7 percent.

Three players: Ad Ac versus 4c 4s and Jh 10h. The aces now win 61.2 percent; the fours win 17.3 percent, and the jack-ten wins 21.5 percent. The aces are still an overall favorite, but they lost one-quarter of their winning chances when the suited connector was added. The fours, on the other hand, were hardly affected at all. This makes sense since the fours have to improve to win, and when they do improve, it’s usually to a set which will mostly win.

Four players: Ad Ac versus 4c 4s, Jh 10h and 8d 8h. The aces drop to 51.6 percent, still a tiny overall favorite. The fours are 15.1 percent, the jack-ten is 17.2 percent, and the eights are 16.1 percent. These three hands are almost even, but the suited connector remains the best of three.

Five players: Ad Ac versus 4c 4s, Jh 10h, 8d 8h and Kc 7s. The aces now drop to 45.4 percent. The fours are 15.5 percent and the jack-ten is 16 percent. The eights are 15.4 percent, and the random king-seven is a mere 7.8 percent. With five players the aces finally slip below 50 percent. The three coordinated hands are virtually tied, and the random king-seven is a distant fifth with less than 8 percent winning chances.

What lessons can we draw from the above stats? The aces drop off in value once a third player enters the pot, then more slowly as more players pile on (because wins are often sets). Low pairs, relative to other hands, rise in value in these multi-way pots. In a heads-up match between the eights and the fours, the eights would be 4-to-1 favorite. With two or three other hands mixed in, the fours become equivalent to the eights.

Now look at the situation of the king-seven hand. Note how badly the uncoordinated cards fare when matched against solid hands. Right now they’re almost a 12-to-1 underdog to win. Remember that when you’re tempted to hop in a big pot with weak cards. You may not be getting the pot odds you really need. Suppose, for instance, the king-seven was held by the big blind in a $5-$10 game, the aces opened the pot with a raise of $30, and the fours, eights and the jack-ten all called $30. The pot would then be $135, and the big blind would have to put in $20 more to play. If he knew his opponent’s cards, should he call?

NO! He’s getting only 6.75-to-1 odds on his money, whereas he needs a minimum of 12-to-1. and since he’s out of position, he probably really wants something like 15-to-1 or more. Many players are seduced by the big odds and play all sorts of garbage out of the blinds in these multi-way pots, not realizing just how big an underdog their mediocre hands actually are.

To re-read the poker tips from previous emails click here

Source: Robertie, B. and Harrington D. (2008) Harrington on Cash Games Vol. 1, Nevada, Two Plus Two Publishing LLC.

Congratulations to Jason T for winning last week's chips. Play poker in the next 24 hours and stand a chance to win a free entry to any Gold Chip Lover (10 chips) Sit 'n Go. All players that play cash games will be entered into a draw and the winner will receive the free entry. Shuffle up and deal!