Archive for Live Poker Training
Poker Tournament for Women – Orange Park, Florida
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For Immediate Release: The Poker Room, Orange Park Kennel Club, Florida (in the Jacksonville metroplex)
Dateline: Saturday, March 6, 2010, start time 2pm, buy-in $150
What: Women Poker Tournament – Ms March Madness
Structure: Fantastic!!
Yesterday, after I spoke with the tournament director, Anthony Furnier, he sent me the blind structure for the event. It is fantastic with plenty of play!
We start with 20,000 chips, 30-minute levels, initial blinds at 25-50. For the first three levels (90 minutes), the blinds double, however, after that they increase at a slower rate.
Bravo for you, Anthony! And, hurrah for The Poker Room at Orange Park Kennel Club!
See you THERE!
Whenever you are in a tournament, remember my motto… my primary poker strategy:
If you can't raise, don't call!
Donna Blevins
Poker Coach and Motivational Speaker
In my upcoming live poker coaching program, I share strategies to help you get past the bubble during a poker tournament. To find out more go to: Poker Pure and Simpletm
Poker Question – How Should I Play This Hand?
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Poker ABCs – B is for Breathe
Posted by: | CommentsUntil next time, remember my motto:
If you can't raise, don't call!
Donna Blevins
Poker Strategy Coach
Poker ABCs – A is for Action
Posted by: | CommentsIn POKER, there are five ACTIONS: check, bet, fold, call, and raise.
Whether at the poker table, or in your life, before you decide on what action to take, pause, and ask yourself, "Based on the information at hand at this moment in time, what is my correct action?"
"Correct" is the operative word.
You can certainly see that question on Phil Ivey's face as his eyes dart back and forth, searching his brain for all the pieces of the puzzle that fit that particular hand. Phil is transparent as he searches for the answer to that question, while other players become quiet and still. Regardless, what they have in common is that they take time to decide the correct action.
One beauty of the poker table is that you must take an action before the game can continue. In life, people often become frozen in one spot, afraid to make decision. Even sloppy action is better than perfect stagnation.
If you are ready to take action and move your game to the next level, sign up for my upcoming live poker coaching program: Poker Pure and Simpletm. It is unique… personalized and customized to your needs, based on your feedback and input.
Whether at the poker table or in life, the next time you are faced with a decision, remember this. Take a moment and move to your center. Breathe in and out. Then, take that next step… Repeat as necessary.
Take my motto to heart:
If you can't raise, don't call!
Donna Blevins
Poker Strategy Coach
Poker Strategy and Life ABCs
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Just after Greg Raymer won the 2004 World Series of Poker® Main Event Championship, I met him at the Bicycle Casino in
After talking with Greg for just a few minutes, he put me completely at ease. He is down-to-earth and a real gentleman. When I asked him what counsel he had for people learning to play poker, he said that players often feel they must use fancy moves to win at poker. When, in fact, ABC poker will usually get them much further, especially in tournament poker.
With that in mind, I've put together some Poker ABC's, which also include life tips. For me, life and poker go hand in hand. Within each poker lesson, there is a life lesson.
The poker table is a place to have fun and potentially make some money, and it is also a place were you could work through personal issues. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about a therapists couch. I'm talking about a place where your focus is diverted from your everyday situation and turned into a linear world of one action right after another. Your world is simplified, less complex. The poker table is clearly a stress reliever for many people, while at the same time, it seems to bring out the brat and bully in others.
Over the next few month, I'll post my Poker/Life ABC's. Check back daily for your update.
When I first put these together, they were as tweets on Twitter. When I finished the alphabet, I realized that it had taken me 28 days to get through the 26 letters. I'm still wondering, which two did I tweet twice?
Until next time, remember my motto:
If you can't raise, don't call.
Donna Blevins
Poker Strategy Coach
PS: If you are ready to take your game to the next level, check out my upcoming live poker coaching program: Poker Pure and Simpletm. It is personalized and customized to your needs, based on your feedback and input.
I invite you to become a part of this ground-breaking, history-making coaching program.
It is the fast track to winning poker, pure and simply.
Texas Hold’m Poker Looks Easy
Posted by: | CommentsMy husband's favorite TV sitcom is Two and a Half Men. He is constantly telling me about the antics of Charlie Harper, the balls-to-the-wall, full throttle character played by Charlie Sheen. This morning, between sips of coffee and chuckles, my husband told me about an episode he saw last night with a vivid poker lesson.
Coming home staggering drunk from a card room, Charlie says to his brother Alan, "You know how easy Texas Hold'em looks on television when you can see all the hole cards? Well, at the casino, they don't let you see the other guy's cards, and it's not quite that easy. I'm down $8,000, and I threw up in my mouth three times."
What makes this simple card game so complex? Played with two private cards in your hand plus five community cards face up on the table, it looks astonishingly simple.
In fact, as long as you are in the hand at the showdown and turn your cards face up for the dealer to read, you don't even have to know you have the winning hand. In Texas Hold'em, like the rest of poker, your cards speak.
Sure good cards help, they help a lot, but I've seen many people play great cards so poorly they wasted the opportunity to maximize the profit potential from those cards. It was as if they turned their hole cards face up and placed them on their forehead for all the other players to see.
On the other hand, I've seen poker pros play weak cards as if they were aces. Doyle Brunson, the Godfather of Poker, won back-to-back world poker championships (1976 and 1977) holding 10, 2.
The complexity in Texas Hold'em comes from the simple fact that, by our very nature, we are complex human beings. We come to the poker table with our bags packed full of our life experiences, which color every decision we make at the poker table.
At the same time, when we sit down at the poker table something almost mystical happens. The rest of our life somehow goes out of focus, and we can detach ourselves from what is happening 'out there'. The poker game can literally give us a vacation from our everyday life while providing an opportunity to exercise our brains, our intuitive sense, and learn new skills.
If you want to learn to play poker but do not know where to start, take a look at my upcoming 8-week poker coaching program, Poker, Pure and Simpletm.
The first rotation starts this week and is sold out, however, there is still space available for the 8-week program that begins March 11. Here's a brief overview: http://BigGirlPoker.com/Coaching/
For now, remember my motto…
When you can't raise, don't call!
Poker Coaching – Pure and Simple
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday, while I was working on the announcement page for our upcoming poker coaching program, Poker, Pure and Simpletm, I came across a snippet in Readers Digest about what the first drafts of some famous movie quotes might have looked like. One particularly cracked me up:
The Godfather: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Well, he can refuse it, of course. I just know that if someone were to make me an offer like this, I'd jump on it. But who am I to impose my feelings on someone else?"
Then, I started thinking about how to make this poker coaching program stand out in other people's minds, and how to convey its unique features and benefits. I know it is a first-of-its-kind, and that there has never before been a program just like it.
My intention for the training is to empower poker players and help them find their game, not someone elses.
For now, I've posted a brief page about Poker, Pure and Simpletm and will be back tomorrow to tell you more after I sleep on it. The page is a little hokie, but it'll give you a brief overview for now.
In both poker and life, remember my motto:
When you can't raise, don't call.
New to Poker?
Posted by: | CommentsAt 6'5" tall, people often called me The Poker Amazon, but I just can't quite see myself at the poker table as the classical Greek figure clad in a short leather toga with a bow and arrow.
However, I do relish what Dr William Mouton Marston intended when he created the comic book superheroine, Wonder Woman, in 1941. As a member of an all-female tribe of Amazons, Wonder Woman was a "distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to 'a world torn by the hatred of men'."
As a young child growing up in the 50's & 60's in the coal mining camps of Virginia, I recall the fear that hung over my head because of the 'cold war'. We had absurd drills at school where we would jump under our wooden desks to protect ourselves against an impending atomic bomb.
To help insulate myself from this fear, I imagined myself having Wonder Woman's powers of super strength, super speed, stamina, and flight. I saw myself in her red, white and blue outfit with shiny red boots and indestructible bracelets. I could easily vision myself skilled at hand-to-hand combat and in the art of tactical warfare. Of course, I was a natural when it came to animal-like cunning and always had an instant rapport with animals.
Looking back I wonder how strongly the powers of this comic book character imprinted on that girl and later affected my poker game as well as my approach as a poker coach. I do know that for me, poker has been all about embracing my inner courage and facing my fears head on.
Remember my motto…
If you can't raise, don't call.
Donna Blevins
Poker Strategy Coach
New to Poker? Do you want to learn to play poker and find YOUR courage? Get instant access to my FREE Poker Teleseminar.
- What: Poker for Beginners
- Where: http://PokerForTheBeginner.com
