Thursday, October 21st, 2010
The bluff is perhaps the most famous element of poker. Only in a game like poker can you have absolutely no chance of winning, yet still pull out a victory just because you acted confident. Still, there are some rules that need to be abide by when it comes to bluffing. For one, you cannot bluff on a regular basis; if you do your opponents will recognize that you are bluffing and will be able to beat you with extremely weak hands. Obviously, the bluff, if overused, loses its entire efficacy.
Another situation that you will not want to use a bluff in is when there are several people in the pot. A bluff might scare one of two people away, but if there is a large pot, the odds are that at least one of the people active in the hand will have a hand that they will not fold. A true bluff cannot beat this type of hand, and if they are not going to be folding, a bluff is simply throwing your money away.
Deception should always be an element of your game. This does not mean that it should always be at the forefront of your playing repertoire, though. A big bet will sometimes scare a weak hand away, causing you to win a hand that you otherwise would not have. The more often your opponents make mistakes, the more money you will make. This is most true when there is only one other person in the pot. It is also most effective with small pots. The bigger the pot in question, the less likely people are to fold at the end—even with weak hands. The thinking behind this is that they have already invested a lot of money into the hand, why should they fold when they have even the slightest chance of scoring big? Therefore, deception is less valuable in big pots because it will not work nearly as often as it would against a solo opponent over a small pot.
Sometimes people will bluff as a sort of false advertising. If they get “caught” bluffing in one situation, perhaps their opponents will suspect that they are bluffing during a later hand where they are actually playing a good strong hand. This is something that should be done rarely, and only against players observant enough to notice that you are not playing the hand correctly.
Tags: Bluffing, Poker Face
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Friday, October 15th, 2010
UB.com’s “Seven Deuce” tables are turning poker upside down. The way it works is pretty simple: if you win a hand with a seven and a two, you win an additional side pot. But, as top poker players know, this is much easier said than done. 7-2 is the worst hand in poker and it will take a lot to win with these hands. The craziness begins when people start bluffing to try and scare others out of the hand so that their weak hand can take down the pot and the side bet. This starts a psychological war; is the person bluffing because they want the side pot? Or are they playing like they are bluffing so that I will call and they really have a strong hand that they are trapping me with? These tables promise to deliver more action than normal tables because of this.
When you join a Seven Deuce table, you put a portion of your money into a side pot. If you leave the table before there is a winner, your side bet is returned to you. If however, someone wins with a 7-2, they are awarded the entire side pot, and the process starts over again.
UB.com has become one of the top online gaming rooms because of attractions like Seven Deuce. Their Rai$e program is also top-notch. For players that spend a lot of time playing poker online, this is something you do not want to miss. With items like free tournament entries, play against professionals, and VIP treatment, Rai$e is another revolutionary feature from UB. Although it takes quite a while to reach the top of the five levels of play, it is worth it for the serious poker player. You can even start earning interest on the money in your poker account, a thing almost unheard of in the vast majority of poker rooms.
Every Sunday, there is an opportunity to play in one of the biggest tournaments out there. With the $200,000 guaranteed payout tournament, you can play against some of the best online players out there. There are daily satellite tournaments to enter this big one starting with as little as $1.10.
Tags: Cash Games, UB tournaments, ub.com
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
The size of the pot up for grabs should play a definite role in your poker playing. There are several reasons for this, one of which has to do with the fact that it is better to win one extremely large hand rather than a bunch of small ones. Think about it this way, would you rather win $100 one time or $10 nine times? Sure with the latter you would be winning more hands and probably be a bit less frustrated, but the $100 is a larger amount. We play poker to win money, not to win hands.
So if the pot is large, you need to try harder to win it. This does not mean chasing bad hands all the way to the end of a hand. It means intelligently strategizing so that if you do have a strong hand, you are maximizing the amount that goes into that pot. A big pot should be played aggressively, if only for the reason that others will be playing aggressively as well.
If the pot is very big, you will want to try and win it immediately. The more chances you give your opponents to outdraw you the more times over the course of your playing career you will lose those big pots. So even if you think you have the second best hand, you will want to play more aggressively to try and win the pot right away.
If you have the absolute nuts, meaning there is no possibility that your hand can lose, you may want to contemplate slow playing. This is strategy is the exact opposite of the one outlined above. You will want to mask the strength of your hand so that your opponent thinks that they have you beat. This will encourage them to play their hands too aggressively and put even more money into the pot. It does need to be reiterated that this play only will be successful over the long term if you cannot be beaten. If you have any possibility of losing the hand, you will want to win big pots as quickly as possible.
Tags: pot size
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Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
You hear all about the poker players at PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com, but you rarely here about players from other online poker rooms, such as Bodog. Bodog.com has two players that stand out from the pack. Evelyn Ng and Amanda Musumeci.
Evelyn Ng – Lives in Las Vegas and is very striking when you see her up close. She has some big wins to her name and you can always find her playing cash games and tournaments at Bodog.com
Amanda Musumeci - Also lives in Las Vegas and is a professional poker player. She is a player who has been recently added to the Bodog team, but shows a lot of potential for sure. She is known as the BodogMander at the online tables. At the age of 25 she has a long way to go, but you may see her name on TV one of these days.
Poker promotions going on right now
1. 110% Bonus on your first deposit.
2. Earn double points on your play once you get started.
3. You always have the Sunday $100k with a very nice Overlay
4. Daily Freerolls for all our newbies and seasoned players
You have plenty of options when you play online, but Bodog also gives you access to their online sportsbook and casino. These combined with their awesome customer service gives you several great reasons to play there.
Tags: evelyn ng, poker babes, poker pros
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Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
Become a Sponsored Poker Player Live your Poker Dream
Wouldn’t it be great to have someone to pay your deposit money so you can play your favorite game of poker? How would you like to have a rich sponsor pay your tournament entry fees so you don’t spend your own funds? Seems too good to be true, but the explosion of numerous websites cropping up all over the internet may well turn your desire into reality. Several sites claim to give away free poker sponsorships but you need to find one that is legitimate and not just a marketing gimmick.
Rest assured, there are genuine websites that really have poker sponsorships on offer for the serious poker player. If you have set your heart on playing poker without spending a dime out of your pocket, it would certainly be worth your while to scout around a bit to find one such site that offers exactly what you are looking for. There’s a catch, though – you need to be a winning poker player; websites typically prefer to sponsor quality poker players that turn out to be a good value for their money.
Most of these sites would like to watch your game while you play with your own money before offering to back you up. There are others that may test your knowledge about poker by quizzing you while yet others may just offer you money upfront to play poker. As expected, there are conditions to any sponsorship deal. You might be required to share your winnings with the sponsor or promote their site. Earlier, I mentioned sites that offer real money upfront to play poker, without expecting anything in return. These are affiliate sites – they are paid by the poker room for bringing in new customers that generate rake.
So, as a poker player, how do you capitalize on this idea of a “free sponsorship”? Well, you could play exceptional poker and make a lot of money, in fact, you can even think of poker as a full time career. There are various types of poker sponsorships available nowadays. For example, buyinbank.com is one such site offering a unique sponsorship program. If you see yourself as an aspiring tournament player, take a look at what Buy-in bank has in store for you.
Buyinbank.com is a new site that lets you exchange reward points for buy-ins for live tournaments and sponsored poker package deals. The conditions are simple – all you do is play poker for real money at any of the poker rooms that Buy-in bank has tied up with. You earn points for playing raked hands which can be exchanged at the site’s Poker Tour Store. If interested, you can choose to promote the site at the live tournament and you will be given a kit containing their clothing gear to wear at the event.
To become a member and participate in the rewards program, you can sign up for a free account at buyinbank.com. The more raked hands you play at the poker room, the more points you earn. Also, if you perform well at the tournament and bring home the title, you can look forward to a sponsorship deal with Buy-in Bank. Visit buyinbank.com to find out more about their amazing offers.
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Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Right now, Absolute Poker and UB.com have a bad beat jackpot that stands at $197,000. Now we know the odds are pretty slim on winning this bad beat jackpot but if you do, the payout is substantial. Please consider before you playing these tables that you have to pay extra into the rake every hand to be eligible to win this prize.
You can join the thousands of players at UB.com and absolutepoker.com and play some of the greatest tournaments online. On September 12th Absolute Poker is hosting a super satellite where they’re guaranteeing free top prizes to the main event at the WSOPE. These packages are valued at over $18,000. You can start satellite play for the low price of $.10.
Also on September 12th, Absolute Poker is hosting an event to raise money for the Vincent Lacavalier pediatric cancer center. This hockey player is hosting the tournament in St. Petersburg on September 10th and over $2100 in tournament entry fees will be given away.
Some current promotions at UB.com and absolute poker include 111% bonus with a minimum of $10 deposit and up to $1100 free. For over 10 years UB.com and absolute poker have been shuffling cards for online poker players just like you.
One other thing to consider when playing online is the in game points you receive for playing the cash games or poker tournaments. All these points add up in which you can earn special prizes including poker tables, iPads and everything in between. AP offers special power hours which will allow you to double your points the day your playing. Good luck at the tables and we’ll see you at the final table.
Tags: absolutepoker events, poker news
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Party poker is one of the original online poker rooms to offer players live poker action. Players from around the world are able to play cash games and poker tournaments throughout the day 24 hours a day seven days a week. Recently French players have been disabled from playing at PartyPoker.com. Now, with the resurrection of PartyPoker.fr players from France can start playing poker again online. Players who sign up between September 3rd and September 7th will receive a FREE five dollar bonus. This is a huge offer for new players to the game of poker. This promotion has been seen on French TV’s for a the past few weeks, so you might want to jump on board before time runs out.
There are 25 packages for the WPT Amnéville poker tournament still available from PartyPoker.fr with satellites going on right now. This offer is exclusive to all French players. Each package is worth €5000, which will include the event buy-in, €500 in spending money, hotel accommodations and excellent hospitality. What are you waiting for?
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Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
You can start qualifying now with the numerous satellites FullTilt is offering for the Mini Tops XVII. These are the same 34 events as the FTOPS, but the price is 1/10th the cost. Starting Wednesday, Septemeber 8th, the Mini FTOPS kicks in to high gear with over $6 million in guaranteed money. Too get things going is Event #1, $20 + 2 NL Hold’em event. A great way to start.
If big tournaments is not your thing, then maybe you’re into Sit and Go’s. Another Sit and Go madness begins on August 27th and runs through the 29th at FullTilt. This is a great weekend for the sit and go grinders as well as players looking to get more involved in tournament play. To learn more about this future promotion, you can see it at Full Tilt.
Keep in mind when signing up with a new poker rooms, you may want to take advantage of our poker rakeback deals. It is pretty simple to get started and it’s free cash back in your pocket. Just make sure you follow the steps when you sign up so everything is tracked properly. If you have any questions please contact us. We look forward to seeing every one at the tables whether it’s at FullTilt, UB.com or Doyles Room.
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Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
What is happening at Bodog this month? Beside being our poker room of the month, BodogPoker.com is offering it’s UK players 25 FREE pounds for a sports bet, 100% casino match and up to 50 pounds in Poker Bonuses. For a period of time Bodog players will also get another 10% on top of everything else. Just so we are clear, this is for players from the UK.
Some other things happening at Bodog is the Exclusive New Slot Machine. Witches and Wizards slot machine is now ready for your gaming pleasure. You can download the game as well as use the instant play feature Bodog offers it’s players.
The NFL season is right around the corner and the betting will be strong going into the first week. Make sure you take advantage of our exclusive bonus options.
Of course there are plenty of poker promotions going on. Besides the nice bonus upgrades, the VIP status, and daily freerolls, there are some other cool things happening. The Sunday 100k is always a great poker tournament. Let’s not forget the badbeat jackpot bonus. Someone at Feltstars.com just hit it and cleared over $90k. That is a great way to win some money, by being beat with a monster hand by another monster hand.
As we always say, you have to be in it to win it.
Tags: bodogpoker.com, nfl betting, slots
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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
This past weeks PokerStars Sunday million had some great action giving BarneyR2005 a nice top prize of $244,749. Not a bad day at the office for this gentleman. With a buy-in of $215, 8319 entrants and a cash pool of $1,663,800, it only makes sense this game lasted over 11 hours. That is a long time of playing a single poker tournament with only a five minute break on the hour. Winning top prize
definitely took some commitment.
When it finally got to heads up action, it came down to BarneyR2005 with 43 million chips and B Buddy with 39 million chips. This was a pretty tight heads up match chip wise. Aggressive style paid off in the end for Barney. Barney is now added to the history books of big winners at the Sunday Million.
Have you ever been in a Lamborghini before? How about owning one? Now is your chance to get in on this huge PokerStars.net event. You can win this amazing car for free. That’s right FREE!!! A $200,000 car could be yours if you take down the qualifiers and the main event. This event runs from July 25th through October 3rd. The final day is when the Lamborghini Gallardo will be rewarded, not to mention a $250,000 prize pool will be given out to the top 5000 finishers. Remember, there will be a lot of competition, so bring your best poker game.
Tags: Lamborghini Freeroll
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Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
After two weeks of non stop battling, the 2010 WSOP November 9 is all set. We’ve seen the fanfare, the Poker Pros get crushed and the lonely amatuer donk off their stack. This is nothing new when it comes to a WSOP main event.
Some Significant WSOP Stats
Entrants: 7,319
Total Prize Pool: $68,798,600 – Sick
Number of player reaching the money : 747
First Place $8,944,138
Lowest Payout at the final Table: $811,823
Countries Represented: USA, Canada, Italy
Except for the one Sales Manager at the age of 37, the rest of the players are Poker Pros and the average age is around 25. This is one of those years where most likely a poker pro will win a bracelet. There will be a lot of FullTiltPoker.net hats floating around for sure. Coming into the event in November a Canadian has a commanding lead on the rest of the crew. This really doesn’t matter, since it only takes one hand to change things in a big fashion.
Of course, the favorite at this final table is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. This guy is truly on fire. He has taken down a bracelet this year already and several big cashes in the past. Although he is a bit short-stacked, he will make a run for first place by the end of the day.
All the magic will happen on Novemeber 6th. I’m sure ESPN is excited to bring you all the action to their viewers coming soon. Enjoy!
Tags: November nine, wsop november 9
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Mark is the name, and I’m the owner and one of the main writers of Poker Bankroll Blog. The people behind Tips4poker.com have been nice enough to give me the chance to write a guest post for their site.
Before starting on the central topic for this article, I want to give a short introduction to my blog. Currently it has more than 350 articles covering topics like poker bankroll management, poker mathematics, poker strategy and much more. My ultimate goal is to become one of the top online poker article databases. I have in total 6 years of online poker experience which gives me plenty to write about. But since I run my blog on a hobby basis I don’t have enough time to write about everything myself. As a result, I have decided to give fellow poker writers the opportunity to contribute to my blog in order to build my article database and get different point of views on the many aspects of poker.
As far as I know, all poker players experience bad beats on a regular basis. The reason for this is that poker is in essence a game of probabilities (some critics will state it’s a game of luck but that’s because they don’t know better). Even if you’re ahead of your opponent with a J10 on a KAQ rainbow flop, there’s always the possibility she catches a Q on the river for a full house. The element of chance is the primary source of variance in poker. Variance combined with your poker abilities is what makes your stack size vary from hand to hand, and your bankroll fluctuate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. If you’re a poker beginner, negative variance will most likely be due to your lack of experience, but even poker pros have bad runs.
Sound bankroll management is your top weapon against variance and the associated risk of ruin. Clearly you’re much more likely to lose a 200$ bankroll playing two 100$ DON SNGs compared to playing 5$ SNGs. With sound bankroll management you will always have enough SNG buyins in your bankroll to survive bad runs. When it comes to SNGs, most experts recommend a bankroll around 50 buyins on the level you’re playing to minimize the risk of going broke in the long run. However, since the variance in DON SNGs is lower compared to regular SNGs it suffices to have 25 buyins.
Before you make your bankroll deposit, make sure you realize the consequences of your bankroll management choice. If your deposit is intended for quick thrills and the possibility of building a bankroll in no time, by all means go ahead and risk your entire bankroll on one DON SNG. Just be prepared for a low success rate. If, on the other hand, you’re looking to maintain your bankroll over a longer period of time then stick to the 25 buyin rule of thumb. By doing so you also make the choice to grind it out in small buyin SNGs until your bankroll is large enough to move up to the next level.
If you’re new to poker your chances of sustaining a bankroll will increase a great deal by learning all the poker rules. I’ve put together a series of articles describing all the knowledge you’ll need to start playing poker. You might also be interested to know there’s a new poker site available with freerolls every 15 minutes. I’ve written a review of High Pulse poker site where you can find more information.
Tags: Bankroll, Proper Bankroll Management
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Monday, July 12th, 2010
We started with 7319 entrants on Day 1 and we are now down to 2557. Still a long way to go, but we are definitely making some progress. We felt obligated to show some of the Ladies still remaining in the tournament as well as show some of the ladies that have been eliminated. This does not mean they are all hot. This is just a shout out to the women of poker. This tournament is more than likely 95% male, however women have played really strong in the past main events. It is just a matter of time until we see a women at the final table of the WSOP main event.
Current Standings. These will change by the end of the day 2B.
8th Place – Vanessa Selbst
12th Place – JJ Liu
20th Place – Khamsy Nuanmanee
33rd Place – Karina Jett
53rd Place – Vanessa Rousso
115th Place – Lisa Parsons
123rd Place – Barbara Enright
125th Place – Erica Schoenberg
126th Place – Kara Scott
129th Place – Jennifer Harman
Eliminated Honorable Mentions
Trishelle Cannatella
Nichoel Peppe
Melanie Weisner
Shannon Elizabeth
Cyndy Violette
Tags: poker ladies, wsop babes
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Thursday, July 8th, 2010
The World Series of Poker 2010 started on May 28th with the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event. Although most of us have never heard of these guys, this was the start of a huge WSOP event taking place in Las Vegas, NV. The 41st World Series is now winding down and after 56 events have already been fought to the end, with millions of cash prizes being given out we are down to the MAIN EVENT.
July 4th has already come and gone, and that means it’s main event time. Day 1a began on July 5th and today will conclude the final day 1 entrants. With so many people at this event, the need for multiple starts is the only way to accommodate this many people. Of course, the more people the better, which also means bigger cash prizes as well as bigger competition. If you have never been out to Las Vegas for the main event, it is worth checking out if you are a poker player or just a fan.
The $10,000 buy-in definitely doesn’t scare too many people off. After today we will have a full count of players. All the big names are here including all the pros and sponsored pros. You will see FullTilt hats and PokerStars shirts everywhere. People get really amped up for this event, and for good reason. Top place finisher will win more than $6 million. Your odds of winning this event are pretty slim, but compared to other games like the lottery, you actually have a fighting chance.
We’ll keep you posted on how things progress and we may even have some pictures for you. Look for the big name pros to move up early, but you can always count on the amateurs to make there move as well. This event will finish up with 9 players on July 17th. These nine players will battle for the bracelet and cash in November. Either way, we are really excited about the turnout and the cards will be flying big time over the next two weeks. Good luck luck if you are a participant and have fun.
Updated July 9, 2010
The actual player numbers are in.
ENTRANTS: 7,319
PRIZE POOL: $68,798,600
1st PLACE PRIZE: $8,944,138
Tags: wsop, wsop 2010 10000, wsop main event poker tournament
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Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Playing poker online is one of the best places to bluff. Everyone is in a virtual space and they can’t really tap into your physical behavior to call your bluff.
Online Poker Tips to Call a Bluff
1. Size of the bet: Since you can’t see the player you will have to base your call on the
amount of money they are betting. If you are aware of a player’s reputation and know that
they may be bluffing given the size of the bet from the very first round, do not call the bluff
yet. Wait for a round or two and then call the bluff if you are extremely certain.
2. Table Limit: Even players who are known to bluff will not bluff when the limit at
the table is low. So if you have a strong inkling that players may be bluffing, resist your
urge. It does not make sense bluffing on a small pot and smart players know that. Let
the game slide even if you think they are bluffing because in all likeliness they are not.
3. Your hand: The best way to call a bet is by being absolutely sure of what cards you have.
If you have a great pair and know for sure that there is no chance that the player who is
constantly raising the bets can match your hand, it is likely that he is bluffing. Stick around
for a round or two though. Allow for everyone to fold and then call the bluff.
4. Veterans: If you have a new player at your table, it is likely that he will not bluff. New
players want to understand the game in its true nature before they start bluffing. Calling a
bluff on a player that is new could cost your bankroll. Be sure of the player’s history
before you start making random accusations.
Calling a bluff needs a lot of practice. You have to be extremely proficient with the game and
understand your cards extremely well to call a bluff. It is indeed difficult to spot a genuine
player from one who is bluffing, but with practice one tends to learn. Poker is a great game to
play and often people bluff for the sake of it.
Tags: online bluffing, poker bluffing
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Friday, June 25th, 2010
Your poker game can depend on one of two things, how good your cards are or how good you are at bluffing. You
could have the worse set of cards and still win a huge pot if you know how to work your way
around a good bluff.
It may take beginners a while to get used to the ways of the game. But once you have learned
how to read your cards and play them according to the hand rankings, you are on your way
to becoming a poker pro. Listed below are a few tips you could use to make lots of money
online through poker.
Online Poker Tips
1. Know the odds: Often you may be 75% sure that you will win, however there is a high
possibility that there is someone out there who has a better hand. Check in your mind if the
hand ranking you have is high enough to keep you in the game. You have to be able to judge
whether your cards are good enough or not. If you have the slightest doubt that someone else
may have a bigger hand you should fold immediately.
2. Hand Rankings: Before you start playing poker online you should memorize the hand
rankings. It is essential that you know which set of cards are capable of winning. For
beginners it can be a little tough to memorize but as time goes by and you keep playing you
will learn the weight each set of cards carries.
3. Patience: It’s important that you observe patience. Do not get too excited if you have a set
of cards that look good. Start low and take your time to observe how people are betting. After
one round check the scene, observe people and make your move accordingly.
4. Out means out: Unless you are a master at bluffing and are absolutely sure that the other
players do not have a winning hand, get out. If you have a bad hand get out. This is one of the
best ways to save money and keep playing.
5. Change is good: It’s not good to be predictable, especially when you are playing with the
same people. Change your strategies, change your habits and change your playing pattern. A
true poker player will never let you know what his hand is like.
If you are a beginner and want to learn the game of poker, it is essential that you read up on
these online poker tips. They could indeed be of great help when you have a hand of cards
that is a sure winner. Be careful and be wise, get out when you have to and stay in when your
cards are good. Start low and go higher as the game progresses all the time keeping track of
what the other people on the table are doing.
Tags: becoming a better poker player, poker tips online
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Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Staring on June 28th, PartyPoker.com will start it’s Card Rush instant win promotion. With over 1.8 million cards to be given out, you are sure to be a winner. This is a huge promotion for all players at Party Poker and the rules are fairly simple. All you have to do is have an account at PartyPoker. You can get your bonus cash here if you aren’t already a member of this elite crowd.
Earn a Rush Card every time you earn 15 party points. The more points you earn the more prizes you have a chance at winning. Every single card earned has a prize. These prizes include, Cash, Party Points, Freeroll entries and the biggest prize of all is the leader board competition. The top three people on the leaderboard have a choice of $10,000 luxury package. After the top 3 prizes are given out, you have tons of cash prizes available.
1. Luxury package for two to the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales, from 1st to 3rd October, 2010
2. Luxury package for two to the Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander in Monza, Italy, from 11th to 12th September, 2010
3. Luxury package for two to the 2010 World Series of Baseball in the USA in October, 2010
With thousand’s of dollars to be given out and plenty of freerolls to play in, you will find yourself winning more often. Earn a card, earn a prize.
Go big with PartyPoker.com
Tags: card frerolls, card rush, Card Rush Prizes
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Friday, June 18th, 2010
The cool thing about being a new poker player are the numerous amounts of FreeRolls that are offered to you. Once you’ve made that first Poker Desposit you are eligible for a sizable freeroll with other new players. FeltStars.com is a great site to play a freeroll. You have a lot of juicy games, so if you play a tight aggressive game against other newbies, you have a shot at making the final table. Free Cash Baby!
At Feltstars you have 14 days to take on this challenge. A $500 freeroll is offered at the times below.
* Monday – 19:15
* Tuesday – 13:15
* Wednesday – 19:15
* Thursday – 13:15
* Friday – 19:15
* Saturday – 13:15
* Sunday – 13:15
A lot times freerolls can be a bit boring since you are playing for small stakes. However, a $500 freeroll offered daily vs. other new depositors means the field will not be that large. Felt Stars is not the biggest poker room online and if you have any skill you can take this tournament down and bring a boost to your bankroll. Either way you have nothing to lose in a freeroll. This promotion by Feltstars is one of the many things they do for their players. You can sign up today and start playing for free at FeltStars.net or you can get on the cash games. More information and a Felt Stars Review can be found within our site.
Tags: feltstars freerolls, new player freerolls
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Monday, June 14th, 2010
If you don’t know what a hi/lo poker game is, it’s basically a game where high hands and really crappy hands both have a chance at winning a pot. On the high side, the rules are just like they would be for any poker game. On the low side, disconnected cards of 8 or lower can be considered. That means that you can’t have any pairs, trips or quads and your cards have to be valued at 8 or lower. Aces count. The rules in this case are similar to Razz, but the cap on the cards being 8 does make it so that there isn’t always a low hand in play.
Working with a hi/lo situation does have its advantages. Of course, the most obvious one is that you have a chance to win a pot, even if you have a crappy hand. If you get dealt crap, you still have a chance to play it and win half of a pot. You can’t win the whole thing unless the other person is going for a low hand, but you can split what’s out there.
The down side to playing like this is that monster hands often only collect half pots because of the low hands on the table. Quad kings only get half the money if the wheel (A2345) is in someone else’s hand. If you’ve put a ton of effort into winning a big pot and find out you’ll have to split it with someone else, the result can be shear frustration. That’s just the art of h/lo though. Take it with a grain of salt and try to kick ass in the next hand.
Tags: hi/lo, omaha hilo, razz
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Thursday, June 10th, 2010
What is this Super Turbo weekend all about at FullTilt.com? It’s your chance to get in on the super fast poker Sit and go’s this weekend and earn your tickets to the $100k Super Step Freeroll.
These games are much different than the turbo poker tournaments you are used too. Instead of the 1500 normal stack size you would start with, you begin the game with only 300 chips. Although there is a lot of luck involved a super turbo tournament can be completed in under 20 minutes. We’ve all played a standard SNG, where people sit around for the blinds to take them out an hour later. You won’t have that chance with the super turbo tournaments.
By playing in just a few of these events you will unlock your ticket into the $100k Super Turbo Step Freeroll. You can see all the rules on the Full Tilt site. The cool thing is, this all leads up to the main packages, which is a step ticket to the $12k WSOP Main Event Prize.
It doesn’t take much to get in on the action and within a couple of hours you can be on your way to the WSOP.
Tags: poker freerolls, sng, turbo tournament strategy
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Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Easy Ways to Make Money If You Can Pull It off
A lot of people see a professional playing in a tournament on FullTilt and run the other direction for fear that the pro will annihilate the tables. While that may be true with some of the pros, many of them are just regular people who happen to know what they’re doing online. With that in mind, those people make mistakes…a lot. They win a lot, of course, but they also have their losing moments. With FullTilt, you can take advantage of this…
Any time you knockout a pro in a tournament, you get their buyin amount credited to your account. This is called the Pro Knockout Bounty. In essence, it allows you to knockout a pro on a table and then play out the tournament for free. This is similar to playing knockout tournaments to win your buyin back, but you get it all with one person.
The key is to play with a pro just like you would any other player because that is exactly what he or she is. Don’t get intimidated by the red name and the special avatar. Unless Gus Hansen or Phil Ivey happen to pop on your table, chances are you will be playing with a regular Joe or Jane who happens to have hit it big on the site. That person started out just like you. If you get a good hand and can trap the pro, do so. If not, don’t worry about it and just play to win the tournament like you would anyways. Just know that another opportunity to make money is out there.
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Sunday, June 6th, 2010
With most internet poker sites, you’ll find a convenient little option that allows you to check/fold in a hand or to automatically bet or raise a person if you happen to be playing limit. While those buttons do make it very easy to get through the game quickly, they aren’t exactly ideal for your playing strategy. You could be really hurting your chances of winning by jumping into bets, raises and folds. How? Let’s find out…
When you check/fold a hand, you end up losing the ability to bluff later on. Even if you want out of the hand, there is always a chance that you could win with just a minimum bet because the other person also doesn’t have a hand. You can’t bluff if you just check it through. As much as it may hurt you to wait an extra five seconds to check, it could help your game out a lot. Otherwise you might be the one who gets bluffed.
If you are going to bet in a hand, wait for the clock to start going before you do so. This makes it seem like you had to think a second, and it’s about the only way you can put on a poker face in internet poker. If insta-betting is part of your strategy (perhaps for a bluff) then that’s fine, but don’t make it a habit just because you want to jump the gun and get the game rolling.
Take a second to fold too if it comes around to you. Again, you want to make it seem like you are thinking about something. That allows a bit of time for your opponents to sweat out the time wondering what in the world you might do next.
Tags: bet pot, half pot bet, quick fold
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Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
When you play poker online, you will find a lot of different kinds of tournaments. The more “turbo” a tournament is, the faster the blinds will change. If you happen to enter into a super turbo, you will likely be given very few chips and very short bind rounds. You can either lose a lot of money in this system or win a lot of it very quickly. It’s just a matter of how you play things out. Here are some tips to help you make money with super turbos on a fairly consistent basis.
Push All In
When you only have 300 chips to work with, there isn’t much room to play the standard way. More often than not, you will be in an all in situation. Try to be the aggressor as much as possible so you can collect the blinds if everyone folds. Don’t call someone’s all in if you have a marginal hand, but don’t be afraid to push with one. A8 suited is a good all in hand for a super turbo, even if it isn’t a good hand in most other situations.
Don’t Play Bad Hands
In this situation, you can’t just play a hand to play a hand. You have to play to double up. Thus you can’t waste blind after blind on hands that don’t equate to anything. Your chips will dwindle very quickly if you go down that route.
Ignore Pot Odds
When you don’t have many chips to work with, you can’t be concerned about being pot committed or getting into a pot for cheap to see the flop. It’s all about absolute survival. Conserve those chips until you get a good hand; then push. It’s as simple as that.
Tags: full tilt turbo poker, speed poker, super turbo
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Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
If you plan on playing a long tournament online, you might find yourself slipping really quickly out of shear boredom. To alleviate some of that, follow the tips below.
Play More than One Table
To fight off the monotony of playing with the same people over and over, you can always just play at a table while you play the tournament. If things get heated on the tournament, sit out of the table and focus on the tourney. If you’re getting frustrated in the tourney, go to the table to relieve some stress. You don’t even have to play for real money. Just mess around with some fake chips you don’t care about.
Wait People out
If you develop a high enough chip stack early on, you can usually wait those last people out right before you get into the money. The key to this is to never let yourself get on the bottom. This isn’t always possible, but if you maintain a good chip stack throughout the tournament, you’ll be less likely to be bubble boy when it comes time to get rid of the last few people.
Use Your Breaks
Tournaments have breaks in them for a reason. Use them. Those four or five minute without a hand give you time to use the restroom, have a smoke, grab a snack, and potentially scream in frustration. Don’t sit at the computer impatiently waiting for the time to go faster. Step away to clear your head or a second and you’ll be able to make better decisions when you return. With the introduction of synchronized breaks, taking a few minutes away from the computer screen just got a whole lot easier.
Never Give up
This may be a bit of a cliché, but your attitude will greatly determine your success. If you give up, you’ll start playing poorly out of frustration. Just remind yourself that everything will be okay and you should see a comparable set of profits coming your way.
Tags: poker tournament tips, synchronized breaks
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Sunday, May 30th, 2010
If you are going to play poker online, you might as well use your anonymity to your advantage. No one knows who’s actually playing behind the screen, so you can literally be anyone you want to be. Here are a few different characters you might portray to yield positive results on an internet table.
Be a Woman
On most sites, you can put up some sort of avatar of yourself that would indicate your gender. If you portray yourself as a woman, people will be more surprised when you play well. You can also use this to your advantage by flirting with other players on the table. If, for instance, you have a particularly chesty avatar, you can get a lot of guys to comment on that really quickly. If they are focused on your fake boobs, they won’t be focused on the game. That’s just a quick way to develop a tall chip stack.
If you can’t choose a female avatar, at least pick a name that will indicate your sex. Something like “sexypair” or “i_own_the_boys” would suggest that you’re a woman. Select a name accordingly.
Be a Donkey
If you portray yourself as an absolute idiot online, you will get a lot of people who think they can take advantage of you. Ask stupid questions in chats and make the occasional dumb call just so people think you’re stupid. Then wow them when you make amazing play after amazing play, defying their image of you in their mind. The element of surprise is often the key to poker success online.
Be an Ass
Indeed, acting like Hellmuth every once and awhile does pay off. If you can make yourself look like an absolute jerk, you can get a lot of people angry on your table. Angry people usually make bad calls and tilt pretty easily, so getting them hot under the collar can also get them to hand their chips over, in essence. As long as you don’t get genuinely angry along the way, you should be good to go.
Tags: poker donkeys, poker faces, poker ladies, poker tells
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Thursday, April 15th, 2010
No matter where you play poker online, you should have the option to chat with others at your table, or with people that are observing your table. A lot of times that simple box might seem like it’s in a foreign language though as people use chat speak in there to congratulate one another or, more commonly, to tell each other off. If you don’t know what’s going on with the chats at your table, think look at some of these terms for quick reference.
nh: Nice hand. A lot of people don’t use this enough. If you see someone on your tale with a great hand and a legitimate betting style, throw an “nh” their way. You may also see vnh, which just means very nice hand.
nb: Nice bet. This is usually used to tell someone that they played a hand well and made a bet that caused the opponent to really think about their own hand. This can also be used sarcastically though, so be careful and read the context.
np: Nice play. This again is used to congratulate someone on a well played hand, often the result of either a good bluff or a good trap.
gg: Good game. This is used to tell someone goodbye when they get knocked out of a tournament, assuming that the person actually did play a good game. If the person made stupid calls, stupid bets, or stupid raises, he or she will likely not receive any “gg’s”.
os: off suit. If a person says they have A10 os, that means that they have an Ace and a ten in their hand and the cards are not of the same suit. This could be any combination of cards.
donkey: This is a universal poker term for a really crappy player. Other versions of this include donk, fish, and some unpleasant words that are best left out of this article. If you are called a donkey or any derivative of that term, take it as an offense.
These chat terms may come in handy especially at rooms like UB.net and Absolutepoker.net where the players are more out there.
Tags: all in chat, chat in poker, note taking, player notes
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Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
The $25,000 PokerStars.net Nohegan Sun High Roller Bounty Shootout ended with a bang for Jason Mercier. 35 players were entered into this event with such a huge buy-in in this $450,000 first place prize event. The Bounty hunter with the most bounties ends up with the $450,000 and of course owns the title.
In event with such importance on chip stacks, Luis Vazques came to the final table short handed against other players including Jason Mercier, Sam Stein, Matt Glanz, Shawn Buchanan, and Faraz Jaka. All player new what was at stake to take down the huge cash prize.
With 7 bounties on the Jason Mercier actually walked home with $450,000 for his efforts. Not a bad day if you ask me. The rest of the players had some nice payouts as well.
Tags: NAPT tournament results
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Monday, April 12th, 2010
Have you ever had a hand where you knew you had nothing but you already had enough chips out there to call? This is called being “pot committed”, and a lot of times if you follow through with that, it pays off. Below are a few different scenarios where it’s better just to call and see what happens.
Someone Goes All-In
If you already have a big blind in the pot and a low stack on your table goes all-in, you’re usually already pot committed. That means that no matter what two cards you have you have to call the guy’s all-in with the possibility of knocking him out. Bet thing to do is to see what you would be getting out of a possible win. If the amount of money that you have to put out is half or less than half of the pot that is already out there, you should probably call. The exception to that would be if you are a low stack yourself and would be risking your own tournament with stupid cards.
You Face a Small Bet
If a person bets a really small amount into a really huge pot, you usually have to call. Folding will just indicate that you were bluffing the whole time and didn’t have anything. If that’s true, then you have to determine if the other person was bluffing as well. Either way, you should probably put up the chips just to see what happens.
You Have a Ton of Chips Invested
If you’ve already invested a very large portion of your chip stack into a pot, then you probably have to follow through. You of course can fold to preserve your stack, but if you have put in half of your money into one pot, the other half will likely need to follow.
Things will always progress in Internet Poker, but sticking to odds may be your best bet sometimes.
Tags: pot committed, pot odds
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Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
No matter which poker room you play in there will be plenty of times when you find a Guaranteed tournament that is ripe for the taking. What this means is, on top of the buy-ins from all the players there will be cash the Poker room has to put up to meet the guarantee. In other words, there are not enough players in the tournament to meet the amount everyone is expecting. Especially in the smaller rooms, you will find these all the time. The amount of free money will vary of course, but when you do find one, it is such an advantage.
If you have a poker tournament that has a $10,000 cash prize pool GUARANTEE with the Buy-in set at $50, you will need at least 200 players to meet the guarantee. Say only 175 players make it in the tournament, by the time late registration is over. That leaves 25 players already eliminated from the tournament, before you even start. This adds $1250 to the prize pool. This is fantastic for players who play in a lot of tournaments. This gives you better odds of not only making it into the money, but actually winning a good percentage more cash.
Listed below are a couple of poker tournaments that were hosted at UB.com, in which there were some nice overlays. Obviously finding these games takes some research, but you will find them soon after you start playing on a daily basis.
Notice in the $15K tournament there are only 178 players enrolled. With a $60 buy-in you need 250 players to get to the $15,000. This tournament was 72 players short and $4,320 was added by UB to fill the Guarantee. What a great overlay this was for the players in this one.
In this $2.5K guarantee poker tournament you can see that there were only 78 entrants. With a $25 buy-in you need 100 players to meet the number. This put us ahead of 22 players in guaranteed cash which is $550 added by UB.com to meet the match.
Tags: added to the prize pool tournaments, poker overlays, tournament overlays
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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Standard Bets for Poker Beginners
If you’re new to the poker world or just wanting to make your bets a little more consistent, there are some standard amounts that you can consider. Sure, bets change from hand to hand, but for the most part, you can learn some of these basic values and apply them to your game so you look a bit less like a donkey. Overbetting and underbetting are both signs of someone who doesn’t know the game. Follow the tips below so you don’t look like that person.
Pre-Flop Raises
If you are going to raise before the flop, three times big blind is the standard. That means that if the big blind is 20, you would raise it to 60. If someone has already raised, the standard is to raise it three times their raise, so the 60 would be raised to 180. This may lead to an all in eventually, but go through the raising first.
Value Bets
If you want to just make a bet to see what the other person has, you need to at least make it the same as the bet you had the previous round. For instance, if you didn’t catch the flop at all and you bet three times blind the round before, you would bet that same amount again just to see if the other person re-raises you or folds. If the person does re-raise you, then you can get out of the hand but still leave knowing you were the aggressor.
Half or Two Thirds Pot
Most of the time a bet in a hand will be half or two thirds the size of the pot, depending of course on the size of the pot and the circumstances of the hand. Nevertheless, you’ll look like a donkey if you bet a really small amount into a really huge pot, so at least bet one third of it. If not, then don’t bet at all. See what the other person says and then respond accordingly.
Tags: betting on streets, poker bets, value betting the pot
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