Poker players go all-in for A.C. boot camp

February 27, 2006 - Debby Cuneo, of Egg Harbor Township, bided her time Saturday. She folded hand after hand in a single-table poker tournament.

Finally, she made her move. As the big blind in a No Limit Texas Hold 'Em contest, forced to be in the pot, she went all-in with a pair of eights. Her entire stack of $1,350 in tournament chips went into the kitty. The cards were turned face up, and the dealer turned over five community cards. Cuneo's low pair held up, and she doubled her stack.

“I had no choice,” Cuneo said. In a fast-paced tournament like this one, “you either get chips now, or you don't have anything to play with later.”

Then she discussed the play with her opponents — something she would normally never think of doing, at least not in so much detail.

But this was not a regular tournament. Cuneo was one of 60 students in World Poker Tour Poker Boot Camp, held over the weekend at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The students paid $1,500 each for an intensive two-day course where they learned from experts how to improve their tournament play. Saturday's contest, with instructors helping students as needed, was part of the learning experience.

Cuneo's gutsy move eventually paid off. She won the tournament for her table, but she got only a WPT shirt as a prize.

“This one's for nothing, and I'm getting all the cards,” Cuneo said when it was over. “It's fun to win, but it's frustrating.”

Cuneo has been playing poker for 10 years, in Atlantic City casinos and online. She started playing in tournaments about a year and a half ago, and made several final tables but won only one contest, she said. She enrolled in the boot camp to improve her game.

“There are a couple of things I've definitely taken away from it,” and she'll recoup her tuition fee if she wins even one tournament, she said.

Ron Rubens, co-founder of the Poker Boot Camp, said he started the venture about a year and a half ago. He played poker on the side while running an information-technology boot camp, and decided to merge his hobby with his business.

Last weekend's event was the first in Atlantic City, Rubens said. Another session, catering to women players, will be held next month at the Borgata.

The boot camp is divided into sessions of lecture and tournament play.

The instructors have hundreds of hours of videotape from the WPT, and use the films to illustrate their point, Rubens said.

Players learn how to make decisions in a tournament based on the cards they hold, the number of chips they have, the way their opponents have been playing, the amount of money in the pot and their position at the table, instructor Crispin Leyser said.

Poker pro T.J. Cloutier, who has won more than $5 million in tournaments, also shared his experiences with students.

Saturday night, the students put their lessons to the test in another tournament — with a prize of free entry into a $1,000 WPT tournament to be held at the Borgata.

“By next weekend, we'll have five or six e-mails from students saying they have (won) back their entry fee,” Leyser said.

 

The advice flowed freely Saturday afternoon as the students sat at six poker tables brought to the Borgata for the occasion. Students who normally play their cards close to the vest in a real tournament were happy to help each other.

Instructor Alex Outhred took the microphone. If you're the big blind, already forced to bet, and someone goes all-in for just a couple hundred dollars more, “don't even look at your cards — call,” or match the bet, he said.

Cuneo didn't follow that advice when she decided to fold on one hand. She showed Outhred her cards, and he told her he would have stayed in the game.

But she pulled a pair of pocket aces a few hands later and won, eliminating another player from the contest.

“Where is this when you're playing for real money?” Cuneo said.

Soon it was down to Cuneo and Curt Charles, of New Albany, Ohio. Cuneo had the larger stack of chips.

Charles finally got a hand he thought he could play and raised the bets. Cuneo raised again, forcing him to risk all his chips to stay in the hand. Charles folded. It happened again a few hands later. Cuneo hesitated, then made the same move. Charles called her bluff and Cuneo drew a straight to win the contest.

Then Cuneo told Charles how she knew he had a weak hand. Because he raised the pot, but didn't go all-in, she knew he didn't want to make a full commitment to the hand, and she called his bluff. If he had risked all, she might have folded her queen and 10 and let him have the kitty.

Rubens noticed this and similar exchanges, and called it to the students' attention in the lecture after the tournament.

“If you're going to make your raise, make your raise!” he said, clapping his hands for emphasis. “Don't leave yourself with a small amount of chips behind.”

Cloutier shared the reason he's been so successful on the tournament circuit.

“I never play to be in the money,” he said. “I play to win.”