Listen to the Podcast and join in on the conversation regarding what defines a 'Cooler'! Leave your comments here!
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The "ULTIMATE" cooler.
As decribed in the latest Podcast. I think I can legitamately claim that I saw a Cooler last week. I'm short stacked and card dead. All of a sudden I get hit with the deck and start picking up monster hands. I go all-in several times in a row just hoping someone will take me on thinking I was in desperation mode. I now had my mojo working at the table. My stack had been brought back to a respectible level. I get dealt two more paint cards. Wow, can I stretch this out to one more hand? I make the move only to run into pocket rockets and a chip stack slightly larger than mine. That's the definition of a cooler!
Okay, put down in a coherent manner from the podcast (and added upon after additional reflection) here's the definitive definition of what I would call a "cooler".
Cooler - When a player who has an exceptionally strong hand loses a showdown after the following occurs:
1) The hand must progress to at least the turn before any all-ins (i.e. - no preflop or flop all-in is ever a cooler no matter who is pushing in the chips).
2) The person getting coolered must be actively working in order to get information on the hand and his/her opponent. This will mean that betting and/or raising/calling is occurring. Generally, there should be betting happening on most streets though it is possible for a round or two of check/check (though this would be rare and depending on the hands in play and when checked, the hand could move from "cooler" category to "badly played").
3) The person getting coolered must be behind, but fully (and pretty legitimately) believe he/she is ahead after 4th street even though that's not the case (i.e. - a river card that beats you is just a bad beat).
Podcast Update - We've moved to our new site - Episode 98(released 12/20/2010) is our latest episode posted at http://www.cplpokerpodcast.com/ - see you there. This site now used for our internal CPL Home Poker League - you're free to follow this too if you'd like.
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Got a home poker league (or looking to start one) and have questions? Here are some resources for you. And, feel free to drop us a line with any other questions/thoughts you may have.
Chip Counts
Generally, we recommend a 2000 or 3000 starting stack. Use denominations of 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1000. We started with 2000 and now use 3000.
Blind Levels and Lengths
This is really where the tweaking comes in. How long do you want to play? This is where you can make that happen. We start with 10/20 blinds levels and did try to "deep stack" it for for 20 minutes. But, we continually make adjustments. In order to finish around the 3 hr mark (usually a little earlier than that), the blind level times need to "shrink" at some point - or, the level amounts need to really move up. As noted, we make adjustments about each session - click the "Home Game Resources" label below to see some of the structural changes we've made over time.
Mostly, experiment with your own structure to find what works best for your game. As long as everyone know what's going on prior to the start - then "them's the rules" as my Grandpa used to say.
Poker Tournament Clocks
Sure, you can use an electronic egg timer or your buddy's Casio wrist watch to keep time, but where's the fun in that?
Some of our league members that host like to use Dr. Neau's Tourney clock: http://www.drneau.com/download.htm Largely free (some cost if you want all the bells and whistles).
The CPL Directors however prefer the free poker tourney clock from old Holdempoker.com. They were bought out by Pokerroom.com (who tweaked the clock to now say Pokerroom), but you should be able to get the original at: http://www.holdempoker.com/poker-tournaments/poker-clock . Otherwise, find the same clock on Pokerroom.
Additional Tips and Fun Things
Missouri Chip The Missouri Chip gives you an opportunity, once per match, to force an opponent to show his/her cards. For leagues that have player improvement as a goal this is an innovative way to add an educational element to the game. Read more about the Missouri Chip in this blog entry from us.
We hope this gets your home game off to a good start!!
The Cardenas Poker League (CPL) is the home poker league brainchild of Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer. The goal of the CPL is to get friends together to play poker for fun and to improve our games. Check out the blog, our home league resources and our weekly podcast on poker tips, news, strategy and talk. We focus on Minnesota Poker but cover it all and we love doing our poker podcast.
2 comments:
The "ULTIMATE" cooler.
As decribed in the latest Podcast. I think I can legitamately claim that I saw a Cooler last week. I'm short stacked and card dead. All of a sudden I get hit with the deck and start picking up monster hands. I go all-in several times in a row just hoping someone will take me on thinking I was in desperation mode. I now had my mojo working at the table. My stack had been brought back to a respectible level. I get dealt two more paint cards. Wow, can I stretch this out to one more hand? I make the move only to run into pocket rockets and a chip stack slightly larger than mine. That's the definition of a cooler!
Okay, put down in a coherent manner from the podcast (and added upon after additional reflection) here's the definitive definition of what I would call a "cooler".
Cooler - When a player who has an exceptionally strong hand loses a showdown after the following occurs:
1) The hand must progress to at least the turn before any all-ins (i.e. - no preflop or flop all-in is ever a cooler no matter who is pushing in the chips).
2) The person getting coolered must be actively working in order to get information on the hand and his/her opponent. This will mean that betting and/or raising/calling is occurring. Generally, there should be betting happening on most streets though it is possible for a round or two of check/check (though this would be rare and depending on the hands in play and when checked, the hand could move from "cooler" category to "badly played").
3) The person getting coolered must be behind, but fully (and pretty legitimately) believe he/she is ahead after 4th street even though that's not the case (i.e. - a river card that beats you is just a bad beat).
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