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Paul McGuire Column

Paul "Pauly" McGuire is the author of Tao of Poker, one of the most popular and entertaining poker blogs on the Internet. The Tao of Poker a "a flavorful mixture of travel tales, casino trip reports, wild home games, and stories about his late night forays into online poker" (full review available here). The Tao of Poker is extremely well written, and frequently transcends the limitations of a traditional poker blog, becoming a new literary art form: Blog Fiction.

Paul McGuire with Poker Pro Max Pescatori at a
Vegas tournament (the WPBT Holiday Classic).Paul McGuire is also a writer of five novels, a poet, a painter, and much more. He lives in New York City and you can visit his main blog the Tao of Pauly for more information.

In his capacity as a writer and a skilled poker player, Paul will contribute to our site on a regular basis. We are very happy Paul has agreed to do this column, and look forward to his future articles, which will undoubtedly rank among the very best our site has to offer.

Pauly has profiled many professional poker players in his columns. These player profiles are not listed on this page but separately archived on our poker players page. Pauly's weekly 2005 WSoP recaps are archived on our 2005 World Series of Poker page.

Top Three Online Poker Sites for Tournaments

One of the best advantages of playing online poker is the opportunity to play in different types of tournaments at all hours of the day. You have everything from multi-table free rolls to high buy-in Sit & Go tournaments. No matter how small your bankroll, there is always something to play. Tournaments are always fun because you get to play for a long amount of time for a small investment. Some of my favorite sites to play tournaments on include Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and Party Poker.

Interview with Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey won his fifth World Series of Poker bracelet in the Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys event. Phil Ivey sits in the highest stakes cash game in Las Vegas. It’s called “The Big Game” and the other players include Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Chau Giang, Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Bobby Baldwin, and Lyle Berman.

Poker on TV

Without a doubt, the most recent poker boom has been aided by television. With the addition of lipstick cameras or “hole cams” and being able to see player’s cards, an extra layer of excitement has been added to televised poker coverage. What used to be boring, was all of a sudden transformed overnight into some of the most thrilling and breathtaking entertainment on TV due to the technological advances of hole cams.

European Poker Tour: Barcelona Open recap

The European Poker Tour started its second season at the Casino de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. Last year only 227 players entered the first EPT event. At this year’s Barcelona Open, 325 players bought in for €4,000 and they were competing for a prize pool worth over €1.3 million. The top 27 players would win prize money.

Las Vegas Card Rooms

During the three months I lived in Las Vegas, I regularly attended a few of my favorite card rooms. The Mirage, the Bellagio, the Mandalay Bay, the Palms, and the Excalibur were some of the casinos you’d find me wandering around at odd hours. Here’s a quick round up of each of their poker rooms. All of them are non-smoking.

Interview with T.J. Cloutier

T.J. Cloutier has won more major tournaments that anyone else in the history of poker. Despite being ill over the last year and having the difficult task of facing an expanding field of players, T.J. still managed to beat out 466 of the best poker players in the world. Here is an excerpt from an interview conducted with T.J. a few minutes after he took first place in the World Series of Poker $5,000 NL event, where he won his sixth WSOP bracelet.

Poker Movies

In the early days of speaking films in Hollywood, poker could often be found in many Westerns. Poker was an exciting game played by cowboys, outlaws, and notorious gamblers or at least it was portrayed that way in the films of that era.

Small Stakes Hold'em: Winning Big with Expert Play

This book is not for novices. It is designed for players who already have a grasp on the game. The authors are very blunt when they say that, “This book picks up where all other beginner books leave off.” Indeed, the premise of Small Stakes Hold’em is not just to turn you into a better player, but its goal is to also teach you how to become a consistent winning player by teaching the reader a tight-aggressive-attacking style.

Poker Hall of Fame

The Poker Hall of Fame is located at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. It was created by Benny Binion in 1979 to pay homage to the best card players in history and to drum up more tourist traffic for the Horseshoe. A new player is enshrined into the Poker Hall of Fame almost every year, aside from the initial induction of seven charter members in the inaugural year.

European Poker Tour

The European Poker Tour is a series of poker tournaments held in the most elegant casinos in Europe. The EPT concluded its inaugural season in March of 2005. Without a doubt, the EPT was a huge success. The EPT is the brain child of John Duthie, an acclaimed producer and director of British TV and cinema, in addition to being a skilled poker player.

Benny Binion's Horseshoe Casino

Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas is one of the most famous casinos in the world. It is the cumulative work of Benny Binion. He took chances that his peers were afraid to make and with his Texas grit and eager vision, he helped shape the way Las Vegas is run to this day.

The Tao of Poker - Larry W. Phillips

I have often felt that there is a connection between poker and philosophy. I was intrigued when I first heard about Larry Phillips’ first book, Zen and the Art of Poker where he attempted to show the correlation between Zen Buddhism and poker. I wondered how he could combine Taoism and poker. Tao is roughly translated as “the way” or “the path.” Basically the Tao cannot be described. It has to be lived. The Tao is the power which surrounds and flows through all things living and non-living. The symbol of Taoism is the Yin Yang. This represents balance in the universe, which the Tao regulates.

Internet Texas Hold'em by Matthew Hilger

Matthew Hilger has been playing poker online successfully for the last few years. He has done well in live tournaments, too. From those experiences to today, he shares what he has learned from playing over seven thousand hours online in his book, Internet Texas Hold'em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro, which specifically focuses on limit Texas Hold'em. If you are thinking about playing on the internet, this is the book for you.

Single Table Tournament Strategy

Here are some basic tips on playing in ten-person single table tournaments, which are commonly called "Sit and Gos" or "SNGs". I recommend playing Sit and Gos if you do not have a lot of time to play online. You can win as much as five times your buy-in in less than an hour. Most SNGs pay prize money to the top three places with 50% of the prize pool going to the winner. SNGs are also a great way to gain experience playing short-handed.