The Tournament Circuit

I recently had the pleasure of playing in the WPT Bratislava poker tournament. As many of you know, I have played a lot of tournaments in a variety of casinos in many different countries run by very different companies (EPT, WPT, WSOP, LAPT, APPT, etc.) After playing WPT Bratislava, I can say with a high degree of certainty that it was one of the best run tournaments (along with those at Bellagio) I've played thus far. What sets this tournament apart from the rest? Well for one the Sunshine Corp (the company that runs the tournament) has one of the best and most competent staffs - headed up by Steve, Charlie and Troy. They were extremely accommodating to the players every demand as well as devised the best structure of any tournament I've played thus far. They didn't skip a single level and the slow style play really increased the edge for the better players. Aside from the exorbitant rake (400 euros on a 4,000 buy in) which they weren't in control of and promised to lower next year, everything else was nearly perfect. It is because of this tournament, that I realized some changes that could be made to ALL tournaments to drastically improve things for the dealers, floors, players and directors.

If you want to know some more about my poker career, from upbringing, early days, pivotal points, role models, etc. I just recently did an interview with PokerCurious.com which covers a lot of this in detail. The link is below!

 http://www.pokercurious.com/interviews/view/alec-traheho-torelli-interview/

Several months ago I wrote a blog post titled "Why I Play Poker"
(pretty self explanatory). There are many reasons one can choose to
play ranging from competition, spirit, money, joy of winning,
accomplishment, intellectual stimulation, enjoyment, and countless
other reasons. My reasons are a hybrid of the ones above, each one
comprising a small, yet significant part of the pie. I thoroughly
enjoy learning, winning and competing yet recently I have found that I
have not been stimulated by poker. I found many of my recent sessions
to be mundane and I have been forcing myself to play - often resulting
in poor play, negatively stimulated mood, bad mindset and inevitably,
losing. Fortunately I had a big February to compensate for my recent
inadequacy, but that's beside the point. I have recently (starting from
my last trip to Vegas in the beginning of March where I lost the
biggest pot of my life with KK to AA) until today (March 26th) not
played a hand of poker. Since then I have noticed some significant changes in my
daily life which may seem trivial to some, but to a full time poker
player those subtleties can make all the difference. (I should also
note that this is my longest break since I started playing in 2004
when I was just a junior in high school.)

This is an article I recently wrote for a UK or European magazine (sadly I don't know which) called Inside Poker. I'm not really sure how I thought of the analogy but I think it's fitting. Hope you enjoy!

Game and Opponent Selection


I am frequently asked by my peers, and students as well as, what I think is the most important element of a successful poker player. Other similar questions include, "what do you think is the pitfall of most poker players?" or "what do most poker players need to work on?" While the answers to these questions may often be ambiguous, there is a single fundamental "skill" that I believe will make the biggest difference in one's success. It is something that is often not talked about enough, nor given the credit that is due, and that is game and opponent selection.

I have developed a way to emphasize this point to help those better understand the significance of the idea. Many people use as an example, and may believe, if you are the 10th best poker player in the world, one would logically assume that you would be a profitable poker player. However, if you took the hypothetical scenario that you ONLY played with the nine other best players, well then that would make you a loser! While this example may seem obvious to most and unpractical to others, I have developed an analogy that I hope will better illustrate my point. Let's imagine you are an NBA basketball team. One morning, while you are reviewing tapes from a horrific loss that you suffered the night before, you receive a phone call from the commissioner of the league.

"Hello Jim!"