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NAPP Tour Retains Poker Consultant
Published: 2006-01-05
LAS VEGAS – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Hansen Gray & Company, Inc. (OTC: HGCP) announced that its recently acquired NAPP Tour, Inc., a development stage event management and marketing company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, has retained professional poker tournament director Matt Savage as a consultant to the Company.
NAPP Tour, Inc., founder of the North American Poker Tour, retained Mr. Savage to manage the development and implementation of the Company's strategic plan to establish poker tournaments throughout North America.
NAPP Tour Inc., an event management, entertainment and television production company, plans to brand, host and televise poker tournaments throughout North America. NAPP Tour's management team has developed strategic relationships with industry experts and leaders to ensure the highest value product is delivered to its viewing audience.
William H. Waldrop, Chairman and CEO of NAPP Tour said, "Matt Savage is a remarkable individual and his guidance and expertise will help us build what we anticipate will be the premier Professional Poker Tour. He will be lead the development and implementation of the tournament structure for the tour, for which we have already received significant industry interest and support."
"I am delighted to be associated with a company like NAPP Tour which has the potential to become a recognized leader in the poker tournament industry. I look forward to working with management to help NAPP Tour capitalize on the growing popularity of professional competitive poker and implementing its plan to establish poker tournaments throughout North America."
Matt Savage is a founding member of the Tournament Directors Association and has garnered the respect of players, casino and television networks. He is the most sought after poker tournament director today, having worked on over 100 televised poker programs, more than any other individual in the industry. Mr. Savage has directed the World Series of Poker for the last three years and has played a vital role in establishing it as the largest poker tournament in the world. Additionally, he founded the Tournament Directors Association and has been instrumental in standardizing poker tournament rules worldwide.
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Now hear this: Headphone-wearing players may lose game
Published: 2005-12-31
By: Steve Roaenbloom - Poker is a game of incomplete information, Howard Lederer is fond of saying. So many unseen cards, so much to be deduced from your opponents' betting patterns.
So much to be read into their physical look and actions, too.
Which is why the "Professor of Poker" believes you lose out by wearing sunglasses or headphones. With that weapons-grade stare of his, Lederer gives away none of the tells that players wearing sunglasses fear they show.
But he reserves special scorn for players wearing headphones.
"They slow down the action and, on the whole, I believe they hurt the people who use them," Lederer said. "When a player throws a single, large chip into the pot, he usually announces 'raise' or 'call.' But all the guys at the table wearing headphones can't hear the call.
Invariably, they have to take off their headphones and ask the dealer what the bet is. It is annoying when the action comes to a grinding halt to clarify something that anyone without headphones already knows."
More important, Lederer contends, you lose the chance to pick up some profitable information - a point made in a hand he wrote about on the FullTiltPoker.net Poker Web site.
With the blinds at $4,000-$8,000 in the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in event at Las Vegas' Bellagio in April 2004, a tight player opened the pot for $25,000 from early position. The small blind called, as did Lederer with pocket 9s. The flop came 8-5-3, two spades. Checks all around. The turn came the 6 of clubs, putting a flush draw on board. The small blind checked.
"I felt like I must have the best hand, so I bet $50,000," Lederer said. "I was very surprised when the original opener raised all-in for a total of $175,000. The small blind folded, and now I had a big $125,000 decision to make. If I call and win, I have $550,000 and am in great shape. If I call and lose, I'm in real trouble.
"I didn't think he had a big hand, but it didn't seem like a very good bluffing situation either. The board looked really dangerous. Plus, I hadn't seen this player get out of line at all.
"But then I remembered a comment he had made to his neighbor about 10 minutes earlier. He had hardly played a hand for about an hour and said to the guy next to him that his cards had been so bad, it would have been just as well if he had stayed in his room after the last break.
Remembering that comment, I felt there was a good chance that he was frustrated. With that factored in, I made the call."
Lederer's opponent turned over K-Q suited. The river came a 2. Lederer's overpair held up.
"I won a key hand that put me in great shape in a big tournament," Lederer said. "If I had been listening to music, I don't think I could have made the call."
TABLE TALK
Suited: Hole cards of the same suit, giving added value to a player's holding by bringing the greater chance of a flush into play.
Flush draw: Board cards of the same suit that create flush possibilities.
(Steve Rosenbloom is a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune and the author of the new book "The Best Hand I Ever Played," now available in bookstores. He can be reached at srosenbloom@tribune.com.)
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