Hi Poker People !

You probably all know the famous poker show from PokerStars, called ‘The Big Game’ ?  Well if you don’t, here is a quick explanation about how the show works and operates. You should definately look it up and watch it some time. They are already at the second season so you’ll have a lot of catching up to do. But believe me, if you’re a true poker mind, it’s worthwile. Please note that this Big Game isn’t the more famous one that was played in Bobby’s (Baldwin) room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which is probably the biggest high-stakes poker ring game out there.

The PokerStars Big Game, aired on Fox Network,  is kind of different from the normal cash games on television. The format is pretty simple, but well-thought of and I really like it. There is one amateur, named as the Loose Cannon, who made it through different free qualifying rounds on PokerStars.net. He or she is stacked with a starting stack of $ 100,000 and they keep all winnings in excess of this initial amount. The Loose Cannon plays against 5 other players, mostly a mix of famous poker professionals, young guns and wealthy businessmen who of course all play with their own money (between $100,000 and $ 500,000) , contrary to the Loose Cannon. The game is played in 150 hands of no limit Texas Hold’em with blinds of $200 /$400 and an ante of $100 (payed by the player on the button), dealt in 5 episodes each week. One big difference with any other usual poker cash game is the fact that the betting before the flop is Pot Limit and turns into No Limit after the flop. This is to prevent the Loose Cannon from going all in immediately with a strong hand. It’s also a perfect rule to play the smallball poker strategy, you can see a lot of flops for lesser chips than otherwise and it creates more action. The Loose Cannon with the biggest profit at the end of the season wins an additional prize, a North American Poker Tour passport valued at $50,000, consisting of entry fees and expenses for various NAPT tournaments.

The most famous poker pros on the show are sponsored by PokerStars, like Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, David Williams or Joe Hachem, but not all of them (Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, …). Some young guns who have been playing at the Big Game are Jason Mercier, Joe Cada, Eugene Katchalov, Lex Veldhuis or Scott Seiver. Among the rich businessmen were Cirque Du Soleil boss Guy Laliberte and filmmaker Nick Cassavetes.

Now I’ll show you a hand that I’ve played with would have created big action at the Big Game, if it was dealt there. Even preflop because there were a lot of big pocket pairs in the hole as you could see…

Okay, I would never fold QQ there in that spot, with only 5 BB. I’m just pretty unlucky that I ran into the Kings of the button. First time ever that I saw four big pocket pairs at the same time in the hole. Oh well, more luck next time ! I still have the music for now and the next 5 songs out of my Best 21st century Songs top-50…

25/ Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows (2002, Songs for the Deaf)

24/ Mumford & Sons – The Cave (2010, Sigh No More)

23/ Foo Fighters – Rope (2011, Wasting Light)

22/ Bloc Party – Banquet (2005, Silent Alarm)

21/ Arcade Fire – Ready to Start (2010, The Suburbs)

Cheers,

J.M.