In recent weeks, I’ve been able to scrounge up enough free time between magazine duties and Vikings collapses to hammer out  a bunch of SNGs.

In the past, I’ve bounced around from cash games to multi-table tournaments, but my bread and butter has always been 9-man SNGs. I generally play three or four at a time on Full Tilt.

It’s funny how your game evolves over time. I’ve been a “winning” poker player for several years now, but if the 2010 version of myself would sit down and play against the 2005 version, the 2010 version would crush.

The most important aspect of my SNG game these days is thinking one level higher than everyone else at the table. And really, that’s what successful poker is all about. Like making the jump from A ball to AA to AAA to the Major Leagues in baseball, each level causes you to analyze and re-adjust your thinking.

I’ve found that most players don’t understand the importance of “bubble” play in 9-man SNGs — when 4 or 5 players remain. This is where tournaments are won.

In the past, I would take some chances on the bubble, but would generally avoid big confrontations and try to conserve chips, hoping other players would do the dirty work. With this strategy, I would almost always slip into the money with the fewest chips, if I made it to the money at all, that is.

Now, I’m doing just the opposite. I’m pushing players to the limit with, in some cases, almost any two cards, banking on the fact that the middle stacks WILL NOT call themselves all in on the bubble without JJ, QQ, KK, AA, or AK. A lot of middle stacks will even fold hands like AJ or AQ to an all-in reraise, because they are nervous about busting before the short stacks.

Scenario:

4 players left, 3 get paid. Blinds 80/160.

- Player A (4,900 chips)
- Me (4,300 chips)
- Villain (2,600 chips)
- Shorty (1,200 chips)

Shorty folds under the gun, and Villain (who has been playing pretty solid) raises to 400. Player A folds in the small blind, and action is on me.

Now, after raising to 400, Villain leaves himself with 2,200 behind, which is still 1,000 more chips than Shorty has. And let’s face it, that’s what most players look at during SNG bubble time — how many chips do I have compared to the guy who might bust next?

I look down at K5 of hearts. In reality, it doesn’t matter what I have here. Villain’s 400 raise is dead money, unless he has AA, KK, QQ or AK. If I shove all in here, there’s almost NO WAY he will call me (unless he’s a very good player who knows what my strategy is… that’s what starts to happen as you move up the buy-in ladder). Villain doesn’t want to bust when he knows Shorty is on the verge.

Of course, I shove K5. Villain lets the timer run down and, as expected. I pick up 640 chips and move into the chip lead. Easy money.

Some people will undoubtedly ask, “How can you shove K5 in that spot? What if he wakes up with a monster?”

1.) Unless he’s been playing rock-tight the entire time, there’s a good chance Villain doesn’t have a monster. Even if he has been playing rock-tight, he’s still likely to fold hands like A10, KQ, AJ, 1010, and maybe even AQ in this spot, because he doesn’t want to go bust w/ another guy so short-stacked.

2.) Even if he wakes up with QQ, and I lose the pot, I still have 1,700 chips left. Would I make a similar move if stacks were more even? Possibly. Depends on the opponent.

The bottom line is this… With 4 and 5 players left in a SNG, there’s a TON of dead money out there when middle stacks open raise. Take advantage of it and punish them.

~ PMac



The first Minnesota State Poker Tour event of 2010 is less than three weeks away (February 13-21 at Grand Casino Mille Lacs). Two 20-year-olds battled heads up for the bracelet in December at Canterbury, although the battle lasted only one hand, with John Dragich’s pocket aces taking down Chase Wood.

Dragich is an interesting character with a unique gambling background, especially for someone so young. He sat down with Phil Mackey after the biggest win of his life to talk about what transpired.

From the January issue of Minnesota Poker Magazine:

Dragich Wins Inaugural MSPT Event

John Dragich, a calculating 20-year-old from St. Cloud, wins $34,765 and a diamond bracelet

By Phil Mackey

After 19 hours of grinding spread across two days at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN, 20-year-old John Dragich became the first Minnesota State Poker Tour champion, knocking off fellow 20-year-old Chase Wood on the first hand of heads-up play.

For his effort, Dragich earned $34,765 and a diamond bracelet courtesy of Continental Diamond. He also earned the respect of his peers, who — after seeing him go deep in the Midwest Poker Classic Main Event, Fall Poker Classic Main Event, and now the MSPT launch tournament — now regard Dragich as one of the most dangerous players on the local scene.
Dragich is one of the most composed 20-year-olds you’ll find at a poker table. But despite his methodical demeanor on the felt, Dragich has plenty of gamble to him.

The action

130 players either qualified via $250 satellite or bought in directly for $1,100 to the inaugural Minnesota State Poker Tour two-day Main Event. When the final 18 players arrived back at Canterbury for the second day of action, with spectators abound, Dragich ranked fourth in chips behind publisher and president of Minnesota Poker Magazine Bryan Mileski, and young guns Kevin Reichel and Chase Wood.

It took less than 90 minutes to go from 18 down to a 10-man final table, where seven of the 10 remaining players had chip stacks between 200K and 290K, with two others short-stacked or crippled. After Rob Wazwaz busted in 10th, the action slowed to a crawl. Players played 9-handed for two hours before Reichel and Toan Pham were felted. Mileski exited in 7th after losing back-to-back coinflips.

Chip Counts (blinds $8/16K):
Tim Votava – $440K
Jeff Mowery – $400K

Todd Melander – $370K
John Dragich – $280K
Chase Wood – $240K
Chris Dolan – $190K

Upon reaching 6-handed play, business picked up. Todd Melander, who seemingly rode a never-ending chip stack rollercoaster the entire tournament, raised to $50K from under the gun. Chip leader Tim Votava pondered for a minute and re-raised to $150K from the button. Melander quickly moved all in with 9♠9♦ and Votava snap-called with K♣K♦.
Melander, knowing he made a colossal mistake, leaned back in his chair with a pained expression. But when the flop came A♠9♥7♥, bringing a set for Melander, the gallery let out a collective gasp. The 9♣ give Melander quads on the river, but the damage was already done. Votava would exit in 6th just a few hands later.

With Dragich picking spots and laying in the weeds, Melander and Wood began mixing it up more and more, controlling the action at the table. Mowery ran A5 into Dragich’s JJ to bust out 5th. A short while later, Dolan, who won several coinflips to keep his short stack alive at the final table, ran A10 into Wood’s QQ to finish in 4th.

Chip Counts (blinds $15/30K):
Todd Melander – $750K
Chase Wood – $720K
John Dragich – $450K

At this point, Dragich was almost entirely card-dead, but Melander and Wood had no qualms about battling each other. After Melander hit quad nines against Votava to own nearly half the chips in play, it appeared as if he may run away from the field. Ironically, however, it was trip nines that doomed Melander in back-to-back big pots.

On a 9, 10, K, 5, 9 board, Melander led out for $100K into a $140K pot with 44, but Wood insta-called with A9. Minutes later, Melander raised to 90K on the button and Dragich called. Dragich bet $100K on a flop of A, 5, 10 and Melander called. A 9 fell on the turn, and both men checked. When another 9 hit on the river, Dragich led out for $140K and Melander called. Dragich turned over J9, for runner-runner trips. Melander, who slipped back under $250K and was clearly annoyed, flashed an Ace.
Melander would build back up to $600K, but he eventually busted 3rd with A7 against Dragich’s QJ when a Q came on the flop.

Chip Counts (blinds $20/40K)
John Dragich – $1 million
Chase Wood – $950K

Heads-up play lasted all of one hand. On a flop of 9♦K♦8♦, the money went in, with Wood showing K♣2♣ and Dragich showing A♦A♣. The turn and river brought no help to Wood, making Dragich the first ever Minnesota State Poker Tour champion.

A 20-year-old prodigy?

At the poker tables, Dragich is as calculated and composed as 20-year-olds come. Dragich said he began playing poker around age 15, but only found out recently about larger tournaments such as the Fall Poker Classic, where he placed 11th out of 234 in the Main Event this year, and the Midwest Poker Classic, where he placed 4th out of 129.
Needless to say, he’s a quick study, and he’s begun to pick up on things at the table that many players, regardless of age, never do.

“Some of the guys are looking at their hands on the turn and stuff like that,” Dragich said. “When I’m looking at my hand, I’m also looking at everybody else. I’m not just sitting there staring at my cards. Some of these guys are just giving away way too much information.”

After the tournament was over, Dragich talked about his past as a successful blackjack player. He told a story about once being low on funds and turning $6,000 into $14,000 over a two-day period at a local casino.

Most 20-year-olds who are low on funds would turn to a second part-time job. Heading to the blackjack tables would be considered irrational, arrogant, and irresponsible. But Dragich has a certain level of poise about him. He’s monotone, extremely level-headed, and he has very specific and detailed reasons for all of his actions, both mathematical and observational. He’s always in control.

“I think I’m just more street smart than anything,” Dragich said. “With school, it’s almost like I just memorized the stuff. Whenever we had to do tests for like Biology, or whatever, on the human bodies, I would just memorize it, and then two days later it’s all gone. I would just get a map of it (in my head), and if you asked me about it later, I’d have no idea. But on the tests I scored 100 percent.”
Dragich said he tried college for a while, but discovered it simply wasn’t his thing.

“I figured if I was going to go to college, it would have to be something worth going to college for. My dad’s a pharmacist, so I figured I should probably do that. But it got to the point where there was just no way I could do this.”

So, as of now, Dragich is essentially a professional gambler. Most of his money, at least recently, has come from playing poker. As is the case with many young poker players, Dragich tries to make sure his family understands exactly how good he is at poker, and why the college route may not be the best path. Surely a $34,000 cash at the MSPT helps his case. In fact, just seconds after his victory, Dragich picked up the phone and called his mother.
“Hey, I just won,”, Dragich said matter-of-factly on the phone, as dozens of onlookers waited for the bracelet presentation.

“Sometimes (parents) don’t understand how you can go sit down in a game, and let’s say on average I’m making $1,000, and just this night I lost $4,000. They’ll look at it and say, ‘Why do you keep sitting there taking your losses?’ and I say, ‘Well the table is really good, and I had reads on the guys. It was just their night.’ It’s kind of like if you have an opportunity, it’s not going to come very often. Sometimes you need to take a risk.”

If buying into the inaugural MSPT event was a risk for Dragich, it certainly was a risk that paid off huge.

The Minnesota State Poker Tour will hold six events in 2010, beginning with a stop at Grand Casino Mille Lacs, February 13-21. For more information, visit www.MinnesotaStatePokerTour.com.

This’ll be my first post in awhile!  I’m sorry to say, the last few months may have been the absolute coldest of my poker career.  But, it seems, things appear to be swinging in my favor, and 2010 is a new year!

Today’s posting, however, isn’t about my recent woes.

I’d like to answer a very simple question: “What’s one thing I can do to start becoming a better poker player?”  [Note: Nobody has ever asked me this question.  I do not frequently field poker-related inquiries.  Seriously, who would ask me anyway?]

The answer is so clear to me: Fold more often.  WAY more often!

As I sit at the tables, I often wonder to myself, “Do these players know that they’re allowed to fold a hand?  Have they seen other people throw their cards to the dealer?  Are they aware that this ‘muck’ pile is where their cards generally belong, and if they so choose, they could decline the option of putting their money in the pot with their garbage holdings?”

I know, I know, a lot of players go to the tables simply for the action, and I must say, I love these guys.  But if you want to get good, you’ve gotta’ fold.  A lot.  The concept is so simple, and so fundamental to experienced poker players as to require almost no mentioning; yet, this tool, this folding tool, is ignored far too often.  At the end of a session, an extra bet not put in the pot is an extra bet won.

The easy-to-fix folds are pre-flop.  Quit playing J-7 under-the-gun, and stop calling raises with A-3.  J-10 is vastly overrated.  The trickier folds are post-flop, when your previously attractive A-K has whiffed completely.  This is where novices dump most of their chips, and end up walking out of the card room mumbling about how many times their A-K’s were cracked.

When the flop comes 6-7-8, and it’s two bets to you, holding A-K, I want you to know that folding is an option.  You’re allowed to do that.  It won’t even cost you any money!  Can you believe that?  Calling down to the river is not only expensive, but also fuels your tilt.  FOLD.  FOLD.  FOLD.  It’s an indispensable poker tool.

“acequad”, a 24-year-old professional poker player from White Bear Lake, MN, won the PokerStars Sunday Million on January 17 for a $179,000 payday.

1st: AceQuad ($179,446.97)*
2nd: yurabond ($173,166.49)
3rd: IveGotToejam ($182,291.30)
4th: DRKP ($126,583.49)
5th: bullyon ($71,080.00)
6th: s8kipper ($53,310.00)
7th: jayjayme ($35,540.00)
8th: iChipd ($19,547.00)
9th: Nezzareth ($12,439.00)

*Players agreed on a chop

“acequad” will be featured in the March issue of Minnesota Poker Magazine.

Here’s a write-up from Bluffeurope.com:

Rolling in like a gigantic freight train, the PokerStars Sunday Million again surpassed expectations this week as 8,885 players came together to create a $1,777,000 prize pool; begging the question – when will it become the Sunday $2,000,000?

The tournament narrowed down its players by way of bad beats, bluffs and coolers with 1,350 players making the money. When recently-recruited Team PokerStars pro Kristian “CharismA3” Martin bubbled the final table during Level 37 – 250,000/500,000/50,000 – the final nine were ready to battle.

Four hands later, those nine were seven as shortstacks flew into the middle of the table and hit the rail. The final four players paused to discuss a deal before continuing and eventually AceQuad met yurabond heads-up, holding the slightest of slight chip deficits. A few hands later he check-called mid pair to a 25,200,000 pot and it all went his way from there.

In the last hand, a rivered second pair was yurabond’s downfall as he committed all his chips only to see AceQuad call with – what else? – the Ad in his hand for top pair on a 7TTAQ board, taking the title of Sunday Million champion.



This isn’t really a sports-related post (other than the fact that I surround myself with sports for a living, and I’m the one posting this blog, and you are reading it), but because we’ve turned the page to a new year and a new decade, and because I’m pumped about how 2009 turned out, I feel inspired to post a few thoughts.

I don’t really believe in the concept of a New Year’s Resolution. I think everybody should constantly strive toward becoming better people, and setting a “start date” of January 1st only gives permission to be lazy during the second half of the year. If you want to make a positive change, why not just do it?

That said, at some point in late 2008, I decided I was going to devote the rest of ’08 and all of 2009 to advancing my career. I didn’t want to wind up in my mid-30’s someday, wondering “what the hell am I doing here?”

(No offense to anybody in their mid-30’s who may be wondering “what the hell am I doing here?”…)

As a result, my 2009 checklist contained only one item. And I accomplished it.

Drinks on me.

2009 Checklist – one item

♠ Advance Career

The motto, thanks to Covino and Rich, was “Taking What’s Mine in 2009.”

I started off 2009 by developing a baseball projection website that went hand-in-hand with a projection system I was in the process of creating. It was pretty intense, and I spent many days working 15-20 hours trying to perfect things. I even had the opportunity to meet with some high-level MLB people to discuss the possibilities and capabilities of what I was working on. Some teams are implementing similar ideas, some teams aren’t.

But because I wasn’t likely to see an increased role at KFAN (ClearChannel was hit hard by the economy… or something like that…), and because I didn’t know if my baseball work would see any immediate payoffs, I turned my attention in late-spring of ’09 to the poker industry.

Bryan Mileski and I (and previously Craig Dirkes… thanks to Craig for all his hard work during the launch of the magazine) created Minnesota Poker Magazine last June specifically to help promote poker in one of the most underrated poker hotbeds in the country. We originally wanted to let the magazine gain credibility for a year or so before launching the Minnesota State Poker Tour, but we sensed some serious interest after only two or three months.

One thing led to another, and we eventually held our first MSPT event at Canterbury Park in December. It was amazing, and I can’t say enough about the staff at Canterbury and the players who played throughout the week. 130 players showed up for the $1,100 buy-in Main Event, and 20-year-old John Dragich won nearly $35,000.

So, for the people who tilt their head and ask, “So… how’s that magazine working?” in a condescending, “how-can-you-possibly-make-money-off-that?” sort of way, fear not. Business is good, and it will only get better.

(knock on wood)

2010 Checklist – multiple items

Career
♣ Don’t drive Minnesota Poker Magazine & The Minnesota State Poker Tour into the ground

After launching these two entities, I have an entirely new appreciation for business owners, small or large. It’s a ton of work, and there’s a lot to learn on the fly.

I’m looking forward to growing both products in 2010, and we’ll start with a MSPT event at Grand Casino Mille Lacs in February.

I’ve always cringed at the thought of working a 9-5 job, or having a boss that always tells me what to do. One of my main goals from long ago was to make sure I cleared my own path. So, regardless of what happens with MNPokerMag and the MSPT, at least I tried at an early age.

♣ Try to be on KFAN Radio more than like 2 hours per week

Even with the magazine and poker tour, I will remain at KFAN in a semi-limited capacity as long as possible. It’s been a blast covering the Vikings beat since 2007, and I love everyone I work with at The FAN.

But let’s face it. I’m not really sure what my role will be at KFAN in 2010. After Twins Weekly went off the air, my only on air timeslots are Wednesdays 10-11am with Paul Allen, and 90 minutes before kickoff on the Vikings pregame show. You can also find my Vikings musings at KFAN.com.

For starters, I still plan to maintain a high baseball and Vikings presence. Twitter has helped me communicate with people about baseball-related stuff even when I’m not regularly blogging or talking about it on the radio.

If you would have asked me a year ago today, co-owing a poker magazine and a poker tour wouldn’t have even appeared on my radar. Funny how things work. I’ve busted my ass for almost six years in the radio business, making next to nothing, and I was hell-bent for so long to make it a full-time career.

At the same time, regardless of how long I work in radio, I know that those first six years of grinding earned me invaluable experience and networking connections.

Radio used to be an optimal career choice, but now I think it’s probably better suited as a platform to promote other ventures.

Or maybe it’s just the economy…

♣ Work Ethic

Some people feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to pursuing dreams or a career. I probably felt that way to a certain extent when I was younger, but I now understand the amount of hard work it takes to reach goals.

Some people sit around bitching about why their situation sucks. Others simply make things happen and get things done. I know what type of person I want to be.

Personal

♣ Don’t Be A Fat Ass

At this time last year, I was in the best physical condition of my life. I hired a personal trainer in August, 2008, and I was running 3-4 days per week while eating hardly any junk food. As 2009 progressed, however, my life was entirely consumed with Minnesota Poker Magazine, the Minnesota State Poker Tour, Brett Favre’s arrival to the Vikings, etc.

Not to mention, I was logging 20-30 hours per week playing online poker. With my entire existence wrapped up in career-related stuff, I slowly stopped working out. I just didn’t make time for it anymore.

And with running a poker business comes loads of casino food and buffets. Don’t get me wrong. I love food, especially buffets. For nearly five straight weeks during September and November, we covered tournaments at Running Aces Harness Park and Canterbury Park, which meant eating buffets almost every day.

Back at the KFAN ranch, media members are fed pizza every Wednesday and Sunday.

I’ve found it’s all about simply not eating 20 pieces of pizza when given the opportunity. I usually pick one day (sometimes two) during the week to eat whatever I want, within reason. I’ll cheat a couple times too. But beyond that, I try to eat a hearty, healthy breakfast, followed by more meager meals for lunch and dinner. I also limit carbs as much as possible after 6pm.

It might take a few months, but I fully intend on getting back into awesome shape. No more poker player’s body.

♣ Stop Neglecting Friends/Family/Girls

As happy as I am with career-related accomplishments from 2009, I did a horseshit job of keeping up with family and especially friends. Even so, I’m not sure I would change anything in retrospect. I did what I had to do and worked the hours I had to work in order to advance my career situation during a bad economy.

But what’s the point of having a successful career if you don’t have a ton of awesome friends to chill with at the end of the day? While looking out for myself in ’09, I generally failed to maintain friendships. Luckily, most of them tolerated my flakiness.

- Instead of going out for drinks on Friday and Saturday night, I stayed in to work, and/or go to bed early for work-related stuff the next morning.

- I didn’t initiate phone calls and/or text messages nearly as often as my friends did. I was also often late to respond.

- I would meet cool girls, hang out with them once, and not call, text, or return messages. I was, in essence, “too busy” to spend time with awesome girls (if that’s even possible). If any of them read this blog, you probably know who you are.

And I’m an asshole. So call me.

♣ On a serious, spiritual note…

I grew up Catholic, but I’m not really a religious dude anymore. I read a lot of Eckhart Tolle-related stuff though, and it’s better than any religious teachings could ever be.

This is more of a longterm goal that began in 2007 for me, but I want to continue to internalize the following:

- Be self aware. Take responsibility. Look in the mirror.

- Live every moment of life with enthusiasm, acceptance, and/or enjoyment. If you aren’t in one of those three states, it’s likely that you are creating suffering for yourself or the people around you.

- More often than not, it’s the resistance to a situation that causes bad emotions. Almost all bad emotions you experience are because of resistance to a situation, not the situation itself.

- Diet Dr. Pepper really does taste a lot like regular Dr. Pepper. For that, rejoice.

Conclusions

Thanks to all who have tweeted, emailed, commented, called in during a radio show, etc. I love interacting with everyone, and I can’t thank you enough for actually giving a crap about what I have to say. Or at least for faking it.

~ PMac

If you’re like me, you’re craving the rush of a big, live-game tournament right about now. With Canterbury postponing or possibly canceling their $1,000 Freezeout this January, there’s too large a gap for my tastes between the December MSPT event and the next big one at Mille Lacs in mid-February.

Not to mention, I ended 2009 making deep runs in everything I did so this downtime is annoying. We poker players know you have to ride the hot streak and enjoy it as things can turn in a hurry.

So the question is, what to do with all this free time to keep the game sharp? Obviously there are a million tournaments statewide for one to work on the live game but for the most part the prize pools aren’t life changing. Since I’ve become somewhat of a poker snob, meaning I like deep structures and large first place prizes, my selectiveness causes boredom during some stretches of the year.

The cool thing is, it allows me time to try new things or work on my cash game or sng’s while still sprinkling in an occasional multi online and the occasional local tourney.

Currently I’m multi-tabling PokerStars low-limit cash games (8-12 tables) attempting to establish my status allowing me to maximize my points for the entire year. Through the first few days of 2010, I’m down a couple hundred…but considering the ten thousand plus hands I’ve already played, that’s pretty much break even. Excluding the rake I’m way ahead Too bad it doesn’t work that way.

Obviously playing so many tables at once decreases my effectiveness thus I’m happy to be close to even while racking up a crap load of FPPs.

Looking ahead, I’m intrigued on the thought of potentially hitting the first weekend of the Venetian Deep Stack in Vegas (last weekend in January) to tune up the live game in big tourneys. This will get me ready for the stretch of tourneys here in Minnesota.

Other than that, just bored and chillin.

Bryan Mileski is the president and publisher of Minnesota Poker Magazine, and also the co-founder of the Minnesota State Poker Tour.

- 20-year-old John Dragich wins the inaugural Minnesota State Poker Tour event at Canterbury Park.

- 2009 Year in Review

- Running Aces’ Big Turkey Tourney

- Diamond Jo’s Battle on the Border

- The Best & Worst of Televised Poker