Top Poker Tips

Want to make magic at the poker table? Here are some plays ripped right from Antonio's own playbook. They work for him, and they can work for you, too.

NEVER SURRENDER TO TILT

The thing to do about tilt is know it when you see it, and nip it in the bud. Antonio almost never goes on tilt, but when he detects the slightest slip in his concentration or his discipline, he just gets up and goes for a walk. Gives himself a good talking to. Kicks himself in the ass if he has to. Gets back in the game with his head on straight. It's such a simple thing -- get up and go! -- but most players get locked in their seats and let tilt turn them upside down and dump all their money out into the game. Not Antonio. And not you!

GET INVOLVED!

When you're a take-charge player like Antonio, you get in there and mix it up with a variety of hands -- not necessarily the hands the books recommend. "I play a LOT of hands," says Antonio. "Sometimes I play every hand. People often think I'm nuts, but I use that image to get action when I get a hand."

Does it work? Sure. Is there risk? Sure. The biggest risk is that you won't be fearless enough to follow through on your bets, or you won't be able to stand the fluctuation that such (b)all(s)-out play naturally brings. But smart players know not to give tight players action. "If a squeezer" (tightass in Antonio-speak) "who has been sitting there for two hours and hasn't played a pot makes a huge bet, is anyone in their right mind going to call them? I hope not!" But the guy who's in there every hand will win a lot of uncontested pots or start getting calls from worse hands -- or both. So if you want to play like Antonio, you'll stop being a wallflower, and get in there and dance!

STOP DEFENDING YOUR BLINDS

Stop thinking of your blinds as something that need defending. That's weakass poker, and it will not shake down the green. "I don't defend my blinds," says AE. "Anytime I think I can reraise somebody and take the pot then, I will. It doesn't matter if I am in the blinds or not, and it doesn't matter if I'm holding cards."

Antonio's approach flies in the face of position-wisdom, the notion that the player in the blind is out of position and has the disadvantage of having to act first. "Maybe," says Antonio, "but that means you get to bet first, too. If you're constantly bringing the action to the other guy, he's the one who's back on his heels, whether he's betting from up front, 'round back, or over in the next room."

If you're thinking too hard about defending your blinds, you're thinking of playing defensively, and, like the man said, "That dog don't hunt."

GET A DIVORCE!

"Most people get married to their hands," says Antonio. "They just don't know when to let go. They know they're beat yet they still pay their opponents off." According to Antonio, if you just do this one thing right -- get a timely divorce when your relationship with your hand goes sour -- you can be a long-run winner at the game.

"But it's harder than you think," he says. "Even for me. You pick up pocket kings, and you think you're owed somehow. You're owed nothing. Nada! If there's an ace on the flop and big action, you might as well just burn your money as put it in the pot. Live in the real world!" In the real world, not every hand holds up, and the smart player knows when to file for divorce. That's not magic; that's just common sense.

GET INTO SHORT-HANDED PLAY

When it's just Antonio and a few other players, his confrontational style of play goes up, up, up in value. And beating the short-handed game is simple, says AE. Just play lots of hands. "Get in there and gamble. The value of hands go up dramatically short-handed. Any ace is huge. Be aggressive, aggressive, aggressive."

Antonio loves short-handed play, and can't understand why so many players give it such a wide berth. "Either you dominate or you don't," he says. "If you think you're the best, why not narrow the competition to the point where the luck factor goes away? And if you don't think you're the best, why are you playing in the first place?"

DON'T GO BROKE WITH JACKS!

Straight from the horse's mouth: "Don't ever go broke with two jacks!!! If there is preflop craziness, you have to think to yourself what does this person have that he is willing to put all this money in? He either has you completely dominated or it's a coin flip. Either way, it's not worth it. I play jacks almost like a pair of threes.

"Obviously the nature of the game and the amount of people in the game have a lot to do with it, but in general you should play jacks slowly and very carefully."

'Nuff said.

STEAL!

Every time you and a single opponent see a flop, the odds are about 2-1 against his hitting a piece of it. Think about it! Two out of every three flops are just going begging for the player bold enough to grab them. Your foe might think you missed the flop, but most of the time he knows he missed it, and unless he's very bold and very tricky (a fact you already know from watching him play, right?) he won't feel too jazzed about playing back at you.

"Here's where I benefit from playing lots of pots," says Antonio. "They know I could be in there with anything. A flop come 7-7-6. You think I missed, but you know that if you mess with me, I'll mess with you right back. And I could be in there with 7-6. It's happened many, many times before."

Adopt those orphan pots! If you don't, somebody else will!

THINK AT A HIGHER LEVEL

If you want to raise your game to Esfandiarian heights, you have to get past the cards in front of your face and play the game from inside your opponent's brain. Can it be done? Oh, yeah. Here's a textbook case.

"I'm playing in the WPT championship event. We're down to about 120 people. I have a tough table, but still I'm playing a lot of pots. On this one hand, I bring it in for a raise. The player two to my left calls, the player next to him calls and, next to him, the button calls, too. All three of my opponents are VERY good players. This is important, because the play I am about to explain would never work on an average player.

"I have the 4.-5.. The flop comes K-K-7 with two spades. Chances are (as always) that no one connected. I bet right out. The player two to my left and the player behind him are probably not going to mess with it because if they call or raise me they have to worry about the player behind them. They both fold. Thank you lord! So far so good. One more to go. He announces, 'I call.' Oops. Not good right? I know that he knows that I know that he knows that I know that he knows that I know. Got it?! I know he is calling just to take it away. In that situation if I do not have a king I have to shut down on the turn and just give up the pot right? Well the only problem for him is that I knew that.

"The turn brings the 7.. Board is K-K-7-7. Now, if I had a king I would probably check it, so I have to play as if I have a king. I go ahead and check. He bets. If I had a king I would probably just call right? If I raise it might send him a signal that I was bluffing because he too knows that I would probably just call with a king. So I call. Yes, I call with 5 high because I KNOW that I can win the pot on the river with a bet.

"River comes a blank card and I bet. Without hesitation he folds. What can he do? He can't possibly take it to the next level and raise me again. If he had a king, well, then that was that, but it worked out just fine. Everything went as planned."

Bold, fearless, creative, hell-for-leather poker. That's the way Antonio plays it. And that's how you can, too.