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Fresh-faced poker champ knew just when to hold 'em
Published: 2006-03-15
 By KAREN HILL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/15/06
Everything looked normal Tuesday morning at Jeff Williams' home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Dunwoody. Only the constant ringing of the telephone let slip that this was an unusual day for the 19-year-old University of Georgia freshman.
"It was, it still is, insane," said a barefoot, still sleepy Williams. "When the 'Today' show called, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is crazy.' "
Friends and media outlets began calling and visiting as soon as Williams and his parents, Dave and Cindi Williams, arrived home Monday evening from Monaco, where he won $1 million over the weekend at the European Poker Tour main event.
It was his first live tournament. He beat almost 300 other card sharks.
Williams, a soft-spoken, slender young man with a wide smile, said he remembers very little of the winning moment: "I know I yelled, but I'll have to watch the video to see what else." He said his winning hand — an ace of spades and a 10 of clubs — was not a bluff, and that he had played his final opponent before, online.
"I knew he was very aggressive and I knew he would go all in. I had only bet a third of my chips, so even if I lost that hand, I would still have a shot."
Williams said he played about 2,000 hands of Texas Hold 'Em during the tournament. He hasn't played since winning the pot, mostly because of visits from friends and family and calls from media outlets. He also said he needed to take a break from the intense concentration required to win.
"Two thousand hands, and everyone of them I could have gone broke on," Williams recalled. "I really had to pay attention."
Williams' parents — mom's a real estate agent and dad's a regional manager for a security firm — flew to Monaco to surprise him when they realized how close he was to winning the tournament.
Cindi Williams said Tuesday that she and her husband always talked honestly with their children, Jeff and his 16-year-old sister, Amanda, about everything, including gambling. That kept him from gambling behind their backs, she said.
"Basically, we've tried to make them look at the consequences of their behavior, whether it was good or bad," Cindi Williams said.
She said they also stressed that he should "never wager more than you can lose."
So far, that advice has stuck.
Williams spent just $40 to enter the first of two online tournaments that earned him a spot in the Monaco tournament. Entry into that tournament was bankrolled by PokerStars.com, which paid $12,000 apiece for the top nine players in the second online tournament to play in Monaco.
Williams said he will probably spend the remainder of this week, the last of his spring break, in New York where he was invited to tape a segment for NBC's "Today" show.
"That would be another once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said. "In one week, going from being an average college student to making an appearance on national TV."
Williams attributes his poker prowess to practice. He had been playing cards with his sister and their mother, mostly gin rummy and quarter poker, for most of his life.
He began playing online poker two years ago, but only seriously six months ago.
Williams said he preferred Texas Hold 'Em to other poker games because, "It has the most skill in it."
The math whiz was able to take on more seasoned players, he said, because he can play four to six hands at a time online.
"That gives me a lot of practice so I can kind of catch up to guys who have been playing for 20 years and it helps me see a lot of hands," said Williams, who added that he's always had a good memory for cards.
Perhaps improbably, Williams studies neither mathematics nor statistics at UGA.
He's a political science major who's already laughing about the benefits that a world-class "poker face" could bring to a desired career in politics.
"I'd like to run for office someday, but if not that, maybe something in the Department of State, or Defense," he said.
In the interim, he doesn't plan any Pentagon-size spending sprees.
Once he gets the money in hand, Williams said, he'll set aside about $400,000 to pay taxes, and plans to invest most of the rest.
"My mom's a real estate agent so I think I'll get a few condominimus that I can rent and leverage that for investments," Williams said, adding that he would put the rest in mutual funds. He also might treat himself to "a few good dinners," although there's not yet a girlfriend to share them.
"I thought about a new car, something pretty and fast, maybe an Infiniti, but I'm not going to do that now."
The 1993 brown Honda Accord sitting in his driveway "is just fine," he said, "for now."
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA030906.3C.blount.poker.3d2704c.html
Published: 2006-03-09
 One of the great myths to poker is that it requires a lot of complex mathematics and logic to make good decisions on a consistent basis.
The truth is poker players need very little math to do well. Just the simple stuff learned in grade school.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist," said Phil Gordon, co-host of the popular "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on Bravo. "All it takes is the ability to play well, some book smarts and a fourth-grade education."
Gordon is the innovator of the simple yet effective "Rule of 4 and 2," which is documented in his latest book "The Little Green Book of Poker" and his DVD "Final Table Poker." Knowing the rule can go a long way in helping players make good, profitable decisions at the table.
The first application of the rule that every player has to take into account with a hand is the number of outs produced after the flop that could improve their holding.
Let's say you enter the pot with the ever-popular Js-10s and the flop comes down 7s-9s-5h, producing a flurry of outs. You would have the nine remaining spades for a flush and three additional eights for the straight (8s was counted as a flush out) for a total of 12 outs.
This number could grow to 18 with the addition of the three Jacks and the three 10's in the deck to give you an overpair to the board, but it is dangerous to assume so. These outs should only be counted if you are very certain what your opponents may be holding.
If one has Qd-Qh, these outs are extinct and could cost you a lot of money if you hit one and assume it's good enough to win. There are also a lot of other likely playable hands that could dominate yours such as K-J, Q-10, A-10, A-J, J-J, and 10-10 that could have you in bad shape.
By applying Gordon's rule, you would then multiply your outs (let's be humble and use 12) by four, which produces roughly a 48percent chance that you will hit your hand on either the turn or river.
Now let's assume that the turn card is the Qc. This isn't the card that you were hoping for, but it does produce a few extra outs for the river with three Kings that could also give you a straight.
There are now 15 outs, but since there is only one card to come, you now multiply that by two, producing a 30 percent chance to make the flush or straight on the river.
These percentages after the flop and turn are your guides in the decision-making in relation to the pot odds being offered at the table and figuring out if you are getting the correct price to proceed with the hand.
Let's say there is $800 in the pot after the turn and the opponent fires out a $200 bet for a $1,000 pot. The pot odds are 5-to-1. If you call the bet, your $200 would come out to 1/6 (17 percent) of the pot. Your odds of drawing to the better hand need to be at least this high to call, and since you have a 30 percent chance to hit your hand this is a decision.
You aren't going to hit your hand every time, but the math dictates that decisions made in this manner will put you ahead in the long run. The pots you take down when you hit your hand will exceed the value of the chips lost as long as you are properly applying the pot odds according to the "Rule of 4 and 2."
These calculations may seem difficult to apply at first, but with practice it will quickly become a very powerful weapon that will both save and win you a lot of money in the long run.
THE LINGO
Outs: Cards that will improve a hand into a more powerful holding.
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