Those studying online poker now note how this means that he is eligible for every single Epic Poker League tournament, even if he hasn’t matched the entry requirements. Quite simply, he can pick and choose when he wants to take part in these events.

Reacting to the news, Brunson said: “It’s unnecessary but I guess it’s nice to be remembered for what we went through to get poker to this point. Most people just don’t realize exactly what all transpired, but we went through some pretty adverse things.”

“As I’m getting older, these tournaments are getting too hard to come through. It’s probably not worth it to me anymore to really go on the tournament grind, so I don’t plan on playing a whole lot of tournaments the rest of my life.”I much prefer to play cash games.”

As for one of the men to make this decision, Executive Chairman of Federated Sports & Gaming Jeffrey Pollack praised the contribution Brunson has given poker throughout his career.

He said: ‘the modern history of poker is Doyle’s life’ while Executive Vice President of FS&G and Commissioner of the Epic Poker League Annie Duke continued the praise.

She said: “He just has this secret sauce of every accomplishment you can imagine, big generosity to the poker community, incredible longevity, amazing ambassadorship. And then on top of that he’s just an easy guy to really like.”

Those over at 888 poker online note how the 70-year-old is now bound to have a very eventful year, perhaps making him a poker legend even more so than he has already.

Even those focusing on Kong Slots Game Online will be interested to note that the 25-year-old is now top of the UK’s ‘All-Time Money List’ having earned at least $6.5 million during his poker career so far.

If this wasn’t enough, he has also been named as the ‘Best Cash Player’ at the British Poker Awards. This is a tag he has justified this week at the ‘Macau Big Game’. Most recently, he earned $1.8 million after an incredibly long session at the poker table.

Speaking about this experience, he said: “It’s sick how long the games run for here! Played 20 hours and had to leave, was a bit jet lagged, sometimes I wish humans didn’t have to sleep.”

Immediately after withdrawing from the most recent event – on Thursday 1st December alongside the likes of Tom Dwan – Trickett tweeted: “Feel ill, so had to quit the game, feel more ill about that.”

Then, earlier today, he tweeted: “Insane session, played for 25 hours straight! Can’t wait to get in bed”, so there is no doubting his commitment to the cause, but who can blame him when there is so much money at stake.

Elsewhere, it is without doubt worth checking out some of the Christmas Casino Promos on offer at this time of the year. With plenty of time off, there is time to get online and start playing!

Players’ hole cards being shown to the viewing audience has revolutionised televised poker. This simple technology allows everyone an insight into the heads of the world’s best players.

Viewers who have a solid game already and who understand the complexities of poker understand that the pros play in a different way to the regular Joe Bloggs for the simple reason that they are pros.

They don’t follow the regimented patterns that we mortals try to follow when we are grinding away at $.25/.50. They play hands like Q6 and A3. There should be a Jackass-style warning that accompanies these shows saying; Do Not Attempt Anything You See.

These pros have honed their skills over decades of play. They often play in a style which is the complete opposite of the style all the poker books tell you follow.

They are masters of the game, wizards of their trade. They employ misdirection, guile and cunning to lure their prey into a false sense of security. They are above the normal poker laws we abide by.

For more information on this and other poker tips, head over to the excellent www.pokerstars.co.uk today – you won’t regret it!

The Irish Poker Festival is among the top poker events in any poker players’ calendar. It is four days of pure live poker excitement, scheduled this year from September 29th to October 2nd. With an unbeatable prize pool of $250,000 it is sure to be an event like no other.

To get in on the action, Ladbrokes Poker is offering your players buy-ins to weekly finals starting at only $50+5, with daily satellites now available. To add even more value to this amazing offer, Ladbrokes Poker will enter their first 10 eliminated qualifiers from the Kilarney Main Event into the two day side event on Saturday, October 1st and Sunday, October 2nd, seats worth an impressive $300. In addition, Ladbrokes Poker qualifiers who are knocked out in position 11th to 20th will be entered to the one day side event of Sunday, October 2nd, a seat worth $150.

Last year, the Irish Poker Festival saw 633 and event planners are expecting even more this year. So make sure that all your online poker players know to head to Ladbrokes Poker to ensure that chances of winning big at the Irish Poker Festival 2011.

For more information about these and other great online poker promotions and updates at Ladbrokes Poker.

One such example of these variations is Three Card Poker. As the name would suggest, the game is played by dealing three cards to each player. Before the cards are dealt, the player must decide which mode he will be playing for the round. The first of these modes is called the Ante and Play, a mode that pits the player’s hand against the hand of the dealer. The second mode is the Pair Plus, a wager that pays out on a scale under the condition that the player’s hand is a pair or better.

Since there are fewer cards in the hand, there are fewer hand variations (22,100 to be precise). In ascending order of value, these are: High Card, Pair, Flush, Straight, Three of a Kind and Straight Flush.

In Ante and Play, you will have the option of placing an ante before the cards are dealt. Three cards are then dealt to each player and the dealer. If the player has placed an ante wager, they have the option to fold at this point or continue with a play wager. This wager must be equal or higher than the ante. The cards are then revealed and bets settled. For the dealer to play, they must have a Queen high or better. If the player wins, the ante and the play are paid 1:1.

In Pair Plus, the wager must be placed before the cards are dealt. Since the player is not in competition with the dealer, the hands of anyone else are irrelevant. If the player does not have a pair of higher then they lose.

The optimised strategy that most players use is Queen-6-4, i.e. if both you and the dealer have Queens then 6 is a good enough secondary high card.

Written by Dean Scriven, a blogger and poker enthusiast who likes to explore different gaming varieties from bingo to casino games to poker variations.

Having a good bluff is vital to winning at the online poker tables but inducing folds from your fellow players when they in fact have better hands than you.

Players will not do this if they believe their hand is better than yours so your actions must follow those of a player confident in his hand, hopefully with the end result of bringing in the chips that were not originally going your way with the deal.

Bluffing is a common tactic in all games so the first thing to consider is the frequency in which you use the tactic. Nobody is going to be fooled if you go in on every hand, regardless of its percentages. They will challenge you on your bluffs, forcing you slink away with fewer chips. However, it is also worth noting that bluffing too infrequently will also indicate to players around you that you are only playing on strong hands. They will simply give you some hands because they know you will most likely win.

The way to really have your opponents stumped to your bluffing arrangement is assign a random agent to decide whether or not you bluff on your hand. For instance, if you are dealt a weak hand and are unsure of whether or not to bluff your opponents to fold, let something that is out of your control decide for you such as the current time. If the minutes in the hour is at an even number then bluff, but if it is odd then do not. It would take a keen eye to spot a pattern like this.

Written by Dean Scriven, a poker enthusiast and blogger who test his skills at the table then brings back his findings to write about it. Aside from poker he enjoys broadening his gaming interests by learning to play games at Posh Bingo and casino games.

Reading your opponent is more difficult in online poker, but that does not mean their tells are not still there.

The speed of their bets can tell you a lot about their mind frame. If they are quick to check, this doesn’t necessarily mean they do not have a good hand. They may be luring you in to raising so they can re-raise on you. If there is a thoughtful pause before the check they again may be trying to mislead you, scaring the other players into checking along. It could actually be the case they that they are looking to complete their hand and just want a cheap or free card.

However, if there is a long pause followed by a bet then they should be wary. With money at stake, neither you nor your opponents are likely to have left the game unattended so they are probably trying to psych you out. In most cases you will find that they have a pretty decent hand and are trying to sow the seeds of skepticism in your mind.

When the river comes and your opponent is quickly raising, they probably will have a good hand. It is unlikely that they will bet mindlessly when they are bluffing so be aware of the strength of your own cards.

These are all subjective which you should keep in mind while you are playing, not necessarily a strict guideline. There will always be the varying factor that each individual may perceive the same hand to be stronger than if another player had the exact same.

Written by Dean Scriven, an enthusiastic poker play who gathers skills from various online games such as uk bingo sites and casino games.

When you enter tournaments online you don’t exactly know who you are coming up against, reputations count for nothing. The closer you get to the higher stake games, or tournaments holding prestigious entries to major tournaments, you are always likely to find some of the best players from around the world. Most players in this year’s WSOP will be regulars online.

There are not many sports or games in the world that this could happen in. If you get the right amount of luck and play good solid poker, there is every chance of coming out on top and claiming a big scalp.

Texas Holdem poker has transformed the lives of many people. It has given them a fantastic opportunity to earn a large amount of money from their skills. If you’re good enough, you’ll be rewarded. Bankrolls can easily be increased if you play the right games and the right way.

The big tournaments have enormous amount of entries and as a result carry large prize pools. Winning one of these can change your life as your name will be soon be recognised and you will have a bankroll to go with it.

Your winnings can even provide you enough to travel to top events and meet the buy in fee.

It is fair to say that poker is one of the few games that can bring fairytale to reality and keep alive the notion that you can go from rags to riches, if you work really hard at something.

Whilst a few of Ireland’s property developers maybe down to their last Champagne Mojito, Ireland’s Poker players are looking forward to the big money game in Dublin. Why not join them in Europe’s longest running Texas Hold’em tournament?

The Irish Poker Open is the longest running No Limit Texas Hold ‘em poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker, Las Vegas.

First organized in 1981 by Terry Rogers, a well known Irish bookmaker, the tournament has experienced tremendous growth over the years. Well known for the electric atmosphere and character like no other, this poker festival is now a firm fixture on the international poker calendar and a ‘must attend’ for many of the top poker players in the world. The paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open 2011 will take place from 22 – 25 April 2011 in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

The buy-in for this event is set at €3,200 + €300 and players will see a radical change to the structure in that the starting stack will increase from 10,000 to 20,000 chips. The event will once again feature a €100,000 Sole Survivor promotion meaning that the longest lasting Paddy Power Poker qualifier in the Irish Open 2011 will win a €100,000 sponsorship package (50% salary, 50% buy-ins and expenses) in addition to any event prize money they may be awarded.

The 2011 Irish Open will be held in the 4-star environs of the Burlington Hotel, in the heart of Dublin City centre. Just a short stroll from Grafton Street, the RDS and Lansdowne Road/Aviva Stadium – the 02 Arena and Croke Park venues are within quick access by car, bus or taxi.

The Burlington Hotel continues to shine as Dublin’s largest conference venue and premier leisure and corporate destination. The grand-scale of this Dublin Hotel’s famous ballroom is unrivalled anywhere in Ireland. The Hotel’s bars and restaurants are a buzzing hive of activity by night – the new Bellini’s bar adding a hint of panache to an evening where guests can sip a cocktail in a low-lit ambience, amidst the busy chatter of local clientele.

Qualifiers to the Irish Open 2011 are running on Paddy Power Poker now with a variety of feeders funning daily. Win your seat on paddypowerpoker.com and you’ll be in with a chance to become the €100,000 Sole Survivor at the Irish Open 2011!

By stealing I do not mean literally taking the blinds and antes but instead raising preflop, most of the time with a sub-standard hand, hoping to fold out the players who are yet to act so that you win the money already in the middle of the table. Doing this once or twice an orbit can be the difference in making it through to the money in the Betfair GSOP Gold Hunt or crashing out before you are financially rewarded.

Before you go out and begin raising as if it is going out of fashion spend a few minutes to think about the ideal scenario for a successful blind steal. Firstly you should be seated in one of the late positions at the table, preferably in the cutoff or on the button. This is because your raise has to go through fewer people so is more likely to be successful. Also, you should have a relatively tight image or have at least not shown down some weak hands in the past couple of orbits otherwise you run the risk of one of your opponents attempting to re-steal from you, costing you chips.

Also, the players in the blinds should preferably be tighter than the average player so that they are more inclined to fold. Loose-aggressive players are far more likely to play back at you, again costing you crucial chips at a time you are trying to accumulate them. Finally, stack sizes of those in the blinds are important. Big stacks are going to be more inclined to call you, short stacks to move all in on you so average sized stacked opponents are best.

If you are serious about taking down the Betfair GSOP 6 Hattrick promotion then you will need to finish in the top three places in three separate GSOP events. To do that you are going to need chips, lots of chips so why not put your new chip stealing skills to good use?

His victory earned him a monumental first prize of $1.5 million.

38 people managed to find $100,000 stuffed under their mattresses making it the largest ever field for a $100,000 event.

Of those 38 players, those studying the Betfair Bonus note that eight of them sat down to battle it out for the $1.5 million prize money and Katchalov started third in chips.

Nick Shulman – 2,990,000
Daniel Negreanu – 2,166,000
Eugene Katchalov – 1,476,000
Bryn Kenney – 1,390,000
Humberto Brenes – 757,000
Demjan Sandor – 379,000
Andrew Lichtenberger – 373,000

Those over at www.betfairpoker.com note how the first to be eliminated was Lichtenberger after shoving with AT pre flop only to be called by the pocket kings of Negreanu. Then the Hungarian Sandor Demjan was next when he shoved on a board of 8d8h2d with pocket tens and Katchalov called with pocket Jacks. Brenes, Schulman followed before Katchalov “killed Kenney” with the American finishing in 3rd place for $643,000.

This left Eugene Katchalov and Daniel Negreanu heads up for the $1,500,000 and the Super High Roller trophy. The final hand came when Negreanu shoved pre flop with pocket fives and was called by the pocket fours of Katchalov. It is not often that pocket five’s dominate much but they certainly looked huge compared to the pair that Katchalov held in his hand. After the AcTs8s flop it appeared Negreanu would double up but a cruel 4s turn meant that Negreanu was drawing to two outs and on the river it was a 2c and Katchalov was victorious.

However, Daniel Negreanu had a $1,000,000 consolation and he also leap frogged Phil Ivey into first place in the all-time money list for tournaments with $14,116,192.

Those over at betfairpoker.com note that the act of setting goals is important but setting the right goals for you is vital otherwise they can have the co,mplete opposite desired effect that you wanted them to have. Setting the wrong type of goals, or making them too ambitious can see you become disillusioned, which in turn can cause you to play in a less than optimal way, losing you money and confidence.

A common goal and one that almost every poker player worth his salt has set at some point in their career is a monetary one, that is a goal of making a certain amount of money. It should be quite obvious why this is a popular goal choice but I advise you not to make any goals that revolves around money. This is simply because you do not have full control over how much money you earn as you can play perfect poker yet still lose money, and setting money related goals can often see you play too aggressively when you are chasing a total and too passively if you have reached your goal and are trying to protect it.

The same goes for goals relating to volume, or hands and tournaments played. Whilst I fully agree that it is critical to play as many hands and tournaments as you can if you want to be a successful poker player, setting goals heavily linked to volume can go horribly wrong, for reasons similar to monetary goals. Firstly, you may find yourself behind pace for your goal and start to add extra tables in order to catch up or you may find yourself folding more so that your hands per hour rate increases, both are bad for your game.

The best goals to set, whether using the Betfair Bonus or not, are those that you have full control of, such as promising yourself that you will study a set amount of hours per week in relation to how many hours of table time you put in, or trying to learn how to keep your emotions under control. Do not let your goals completely consume you and you will not go far wrong.

The most popular game spread by online poker rooms is No Limit Texas Hold’em but as the various sites fight to be the best online poker room they are constantly adding new games for players to play. The most natural new game to try if you are a Hold’em player is Pot Limit Omaha, a game that is favoured by the high stakes players as it generates a lot of action and pots are often double that of Hold’em at the equivalent stakes.

As both No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha are popular with the masses they attract the better players and there are more strategy articles written about both games meaning your edge is generally lower. However, trying games such as Seven-card Stud, Omaha hi/lo, and Razz, games traditionally played by older, less knowledgeable players, players who are behind the times when it comes to modern strategy. Whilst there are some very strong players in the lesser played games, there are also a plethora of very weak, misinformed players who are ripe for taking cash from!

By far the weakest games on the internet are mixed games, which is where a series of games are played in rotation. The original format of these was HORSE which played limit games of Hold’em, Omaha hi/low, Razz, Stud and Stud hi/low but these have been replaced by the extremely popular 8-game and now even 10-game. The reason these games are so profitable is that players tend to specialise in one or two of the more popular games and then play very poorly or passively during rounds that they are not overly familiar with. To find out which poker sites have mixed games available simply check some online poker room reviews and you should be able to see what games are spread where.

“I’ll bet everything.”

There are 100 chips in the pot and the amateur has moved all-in for 5,000 chips. Granddad chuckles to himself before mucking his hand. This is why people used to over bet while taking advantage of the betfair welcome bonus. It was reserved for absolute fish who didn’t know how to extract value. These same types of players didn’t know how to bluff either and would use the same tactic.

Today the over bet has made a comeback and is now found in the quiver of all the top professionals. Now when you are faced with an over bet you don’t chuckle like Granddad and instead you sit upright and think.

You will either be over betting for value or as a bluff. When deciding to over bet, much will depend on the type of opponent you are making the move against and the history between the two of you. If your opponent is a fish who calls down anything and to which money doesn’t matter – then you could deploy the move for value.

While using the betfair codes poker wise, you need to make sure you don’t just try it as a bluff. Reserve the over bet bluffs for people with tighter images or you know are in games that are beyond their bankroll. When bluffing – the board texture is very important. Try to stick to small-medium size pots on innocuous looking boards and leave the trickier spots to Durrrr and Ivey.

When Tom Dwan created the Durrr Challenge, those focusing on the poker sign up bonus note how only one person was exempt from participating and that was Phil Galfond. This is what JMan was saying about Isildur1 back then. “Say what you want about this guy but he is freakin amazing. He’s playing HU vs the best online players in the world at their best game and just crushing them all. I mean the guy just has no fear. I can’t wait to see if anyone can figure him out and beat him.”

This is what the JMan said after crossing swords with Isildur again last week.

“I played a long HU match with Isildur last week. I almost busted my Stars roll at the beginning, which was actually stressing me out a lot since I wanted to be able to last for what I knew would be a long and swingy match. I ended up running good at the right times and booked a big win. He’s a complete sicko…so fearless and aggressive. It leads to a ton of variance, and you just have to be willing to stick it in with much weaker hands than usual in order to not get run over. I feel that I have an edge (just like every other poker player) but I was very lucky during my session. I can admit that.”

You don’t erupt quite yet but your mind has created a block of anger and it will be followed by another one quite soon. Before you know it you will have built up a large wall of these things. It is inevitable that sooner, rather than later, one moment will turn the anger into rage.

In his excellent book, Devilfish: The Life and Times of a Poker Legend, Dave Ulliot said that when he was younger money was seen as fuel to him. Fuel to help ignite the fires of his addiction. These angry trains of thoughts are the same thing. They too are fuel. Fuel to ignite your eventual rage.

So how do we try to avoid these blocks of anger building up to almost uncontrollable levels?

Firstly, those using the latest betfair offers need to be aware that they exist. Admit to yourself that you are prone to moments of anger and rage. Then start to make records of times when your body starts to feel that state of arousal. It could be anything from a tightness in your stomach or you lobbing your mouse out of the window.

Be a diligent note taker while you are playing or researching the latest betfair promo. Not just notes on your opponents tendencies but notes on what makes you angry. After the session review those notes and you will start to become more aware of what situations are causing you to feel this way.

Once you understand why you feel the way you do you are at last ready to do something about it.

Poker literature and advice will stick in your memory like dog hairs on your clothes after taking your pet to the vets in the car. In your mind, when you think about suited connectors, you probably think about playing them in multi way pots, losing small pots and winning huge pots.

But do they do what is painted on the tin?

For those using the poker sign up bonus to find the answer for this you need some statistics about YOUR play. Just because your friends mothers auntie makes a profit with 78s doesn’t mean you do. What spots are making you money with these holdings and what spots are not. To find this out you need to be the owner of poker tracking software.

The other important facet to playing suited connectors is the behaviour of your opponents and your position in the hand. If you are holding a suited connector against a very weak opponent whom you have position over then you may want to raise behind him to isolate him.

This way, those using the Betfair Promo Code can play some post flop poker against him with a hand that will provide you with a lot of opportunities to semi bluff. If the weakness comes from the blinds then you may want to just cold call from later position and allow the blinds to join the action as well. You are now getting better implied odds and still have position over your weaker opponents.

They are also a very good hand to use as a three-bet bluff against an opponent with a high fold to three bet percentage because when called they still provide you with a lot of post flop equity on most boards.

So is poker a game of skill or is it governed by luck? The actually answer is both, which probably does not help but let me explain.

If you take a look at the leaderboards for online Texas Holdem tournaments and cash games it is always the same players who are there. When you look at players such as Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey, why are they the two most profitable tournament players of all time? Are they simply luckier than everyone else? Surely not.

The thing is that poker is a game that, in the long term, is a game of total skill but is massively effected in the short-term by the luck of the draw, so to speak. Poker is unique in that the very worst player in the world can take on the best and beat him on any given day but if the two opposites play for long enough the good player will take all the weak player’s money. Compare this to a game such as football where you would expect a team like Manchester United to beat Yeovil Town every single time they played, without fail.

Behind all the attempts to read players, making bluffs and everything, poker is a game base don mathematics, mostly odds and probabilities of cards arriving on the next street or not. This is why poker, in the short term, is a game of luck because you have a set chance a card you need will come or not. But in the long term, as the mathematics converge to the norm, or what you would expect, skill starts to be the dominant force in play.

One of the reasons those who play poker online often say they are better players than those who only play live is because the online players will often have played more hands in a single year than their live counterparts will have done in their entire lifetimes. This means that the online players are less likely to be winning due to variance and more to the fact they are beating the game which cannot always be said of the live players as they simply will not have played enough hands or tournaments to be able to truly say they are winning due to skill.

There are dozens of top quality poker books out there that will help you improve at online Texas Holdem if you read them thoroughly, understand them then go out and practice what you have learned at the poker tables. Some of the older books, such as “Super System” and “The Theory of Poker” may have been written a couple of decades ago but are still relevant in today’s game. Before you buy a book make sure you read the reviews carefully as Holdem is one of the most written about subjects in recent years and not all authors are exactly qualified to write on the subject.

Another way, and one that is usually free, is to join a poker forum and take part in the discussions on there. The biggest and best, although sometimes a little cut-throat, is Two Plus Two, a site where some of the best poker players in the world discuss hands, theory and a whole matter of subjects with anyone who will listen. To get the most out of the forum you need to post some of your own hands too.

Once you have initially studied the game you will learn much quicker if you log plenty of volume, that is play plaenty of hands. The best way to learn is to actually sit at a cash game because you will often be playing with deeper effective stacks so will have to constantly consider proper bet sizing, and a whole range of poker moves will be open to you. The skills you learn at the cash game can and will be transferred over to tournament poker but it is difficult to do the opposite.

Finally, once you have done all of the above you can start to consider joining a training site. There are also many of these on the internet so make sure you choose one of the three bets one, Poker X Factor for SNG and MTT and Cardrunners of Deuces Cracked for cash games. If you are feeling exceptionally flush you could hire a personal coach but these often charge in excess of $500 per hour for the very best in the business.

When the decision to pause the tournament for four months was first announced a couple of years ago it was met with mixed feelings. Some only saw the negative qualities such as it detracting away from the history of the tournament or the fact it takes the momentum away from the final tablists. But others saw some positives including allowing the WSOP to gain extra publicity and the players who made the final table receive great deals from poker sites wanting them to endorse their product. Regardless of your views the “November Nine” as the gimmick has been called has been a success so it looks as if it is here to stay.

Each of the nine remaining players are guaranteed to take home no less than $811,823 but all of them will have at least one eye on the $8,944,138 first prize, and of course the coveted WSOP bracelet that comes with winning the Main Event.

The biggest story of the November Nine is that Michael Mizrachi, the player who won the inaugural $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship and with it his first bracelet, has also made the final table of the Main Event. He already has over $8.8m in live tournament winnings and a win or runner-up finish will see him overtake Phil Ivey as the number one in the all-time money listings.

The rest of the final table of nine are relatively unknowns with many of them playing online poker professionally. The only other player at the final table with at least $1m in live tournament winnings is Tampa based poker pro John Racener, all the rest have won around $600,000 between them.

All but one player, Cuong “Soi” Nguyen have listed their profession as a professional poker player which adds substance to the claim that poker is a game of skill but the non-poker playing public love an underdog story and would prefer a rank amateur to win poker’s biggest prize.

When the players return to The Rio on November 6 they will be seated as follows:

Seat 1 – Jason Senti – 7,625,000 chips

Seat 2 – Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000

Seat 3 – John Dolan – 46,250,000

Seat 4 – Johnathan Duhamel – 65,975,000

Seat 5 – Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000

Seat 6 – Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000

Seat 7 – John Racener – 19,050,000

Seat 8 – Filippo Candio – 16,400,000

Seat 9 – Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000

This makes playing in one of the later positions at the table much more attractive as you have more information at your disposal before you have to make your decision. Many players are aware of this, especially online poker players who have a plethora of information available to them via forums and software but a large percentage of these players fail to actually fail to fully utilise their positional advantage over their opponents.

If you are playing position properly then you should be playing aggressively preflop, raising limpers and isolating weaker players. You can actually force your opponents to tighten up dramatically preflop by three-betting them lighter than usual. Some players will try to become the table captain and try to run things their way but if you have position on such a player then you should retake control and show them that position is king.

You should also run more multi-street bluffs, particularly in a cash game. There is a large percentage of players who will limp into the pot, call your preflop raise and then check/call your continuation bet. At this point many players will give up on their hand, unless they have a made hand of course, but having a position means you can fire again on the turn and even the river if needed to put your opponents under maximum pressure. For example, a player limps in and you raise with 9h8h. He calls and you both see a flop reading Tc4d2h. He checks, you continuation bet and he calls. Now the turn brings the Ac, a lot of players here would check behind if checked to but it is perfect for firing again and you will take the pot more times than you would give the move credit for.

Finally, you should be willing to value bet more thinly whilst you have position on your opponent. Many players will simply check behind their opponent on the river when they have a hand they think to be best but are not 100% sure but when you have position on them you should bet a large percentage of the time and put the pressure back onto your opponent to make the call. The amount of pots you will win without showdown will far outweigh the times you lose when you are beaten or have to fold to a check-raise.

At least three players who have already won bracelets would come under the umbrella of being an online player. Although British pro Praz Bansi, winner of a $1,500 no-limit Hold’em event, now plays predominately live poker, he first started to play poker online before the lure of big money live tournaments became too much.

Simon Watt, a New Zealand based player stated that he mainly plays online and that the experience gained from playing a large number of hands helped him win another of the $1,500 no-limit Hold’em events, a tournament where he had to defeat the iconic online poker star Tom “durrrr” Dwan heads-up in order to win his first WSOP bracelet.

Another British pro who has won a bracelet this year, James “Flushy” Dempsey, said in his final table bio that he prefers to play pot-limit Omaha cash games online and that the majority of his income stems from playing online poker from the comfort of his own home.

There is an age old debate that is still raging where the online poker players say they are better than their live counterparts and vice versa. Whilst the live players have the advantage over physical tells and reads, the online players are much more used to navigating huge fields in tournaments and thanks to the ability to play multiple tables simultaneously, many of the big name online players have played many more hands and tournaments in just a couple of years grinding than some of the big live players have in their entire careers.

With the likes of Paul Foltyn, Chris “Moorman1” Moorman, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, David “Bakes” Baker and David “Doc Sands” Sands all taking part in numerous events at this year’s World Series of Poker, it would not surprise me if online poker players do far better than the live players by the time the entire 57 events have been completed.

Whilst I am an advocate for making standard raise sizes preflop in order to completely mask the strength of your hand, I do believe that you should be making different sized bets on later streets, but not based on your hand strength but instead based on the texture of the flop.

When discussing flop texture, two terms are generally used. If a flop, or board, contains a number of possible draws it is often referred to as being wet, whilst one containing no or very few unlikely draws would be called dry. A typical wt flop would be one that reads KhQhJs but a dry flop would look something like Kh7c2d.

Bets made on dry flops could and should be smaller than those made on a wet flop. This is because on a dry flop it is usually a case of hit or miss, in that your opponent will have either hit the flop hard or completely missed it. He will miss more often that he hits so it makes sense to bet smaller and put less chips at risk.

Quite the opposite is true of wet flops, which require a larger bet than their dry counterparts. Poker Tips suggest that wet flops are much more likely to have hit your opponents in some way and even if they have not pair one or both of their holecards, they could have picked up one of a number of draws so you risk being outdrawn by the river. Betting enough to give your opponents insufficient pot odds and implied pot odds, often with a ¾ or pot sized bet, is a much better idea than betting a smaller amount such as ½ pot as this will force your opponents to pay the maximum for their draws, making a mistake in the process.

The next time you sit down to play cash games or a poker tournament take extra notice of the texture of the flop, even when you are not involved in a hand, and think of an amount you would and would not call based on a specific hand. Doing this will help you to decide how much to bet on both types of boards when you are next in action yourself.

The concept also shows that by calling a player only has one way of winning a pot, that is by having the best hand, but a player who raises has two as he can win with the best hand or cause their opponents to fold and win the hand immediately.

Most solid players are aware of the gap concept but there are many that are unaware that the gap can increase or narrow depending on their opponent’s playing style, which position the raise came from, the stage of the tournament or a player’s stack size. Continually folding when an opponent raises is not how to play mtt poker successfully. Instead you need to make a judgement of your hand strength in relation to the factors mentioned above.

If a tight player opens during the early stages of a tournament from early position you should only play the very best of hands as the gap will be very wide. It is wide because you are risking a large stack of chips by calling the raise and a tight player in early position is unlikely to be raising weak hands. In this scenario I would probably fold most of my holdings but consider playing, and re-raising, with queens, kings, aces and possibly suited ace-king.

However, if the same player open-raised from the button I would be much more likely to play back at him with a much wider range of hands as I know his raising standards will be much less when my opponent only has the blinds to get through with his raise.

Likewise, if your opponent is loose and has been raising many hands preflop, meaning the gap is narrower, you can start to call him with less then premium holdings as many of them will be in front of his range. This also goes for the latter stages of a tournament when players begin to raise much more lightly in order to steal blinds and antes.

The latest iteration of the online festival also includes a ‘Mini’ series of tournaments with smaller buy-ins but substantial guarantees; the Mini ECOOP VI is scheduled from May 14th to May 23rd and features ten tournaments with an overall guaranteed prizepool of $600,000.

Following on from previous ECOOP festivals, Holdem, Omaha and 7 Card Stud are included in both series, with ECOOP VI buy-ins ranging from $100 + $9 to $2,500 + $100 and Mini ECOOP VI buy-ins from $5 + 50c to $75 + $7.50.

Satellites to the ECOOP VI and Mini ECOOP VI tournaments run daily on Paddy Power Poker, with buy-ins from less than $1.

To register for an ECOOP VI or Mini ECOOP VI tournament or qualifier, visit Paddy Power Poker, register, open the software lobby and select ‘ECOOP VI’ or ‘Mini ECOOP’ from the left-hand navigation pane, then sort the tournaments by name or date and select the tournament of your choice.

One overly simplified example to quote when you learn Poker issues like this, would be to make a very loose call on the river so that your opponents, especially the one you called lightly, will be less likely to bluff you on the river or value bet thinly. This is because they will now expect you to call their bets. Another example would be to three-bet a raiser with a hand like six-five suited and show aggression on every street then show your bluff at the end of the hand, or to start playing loose-aggressive then switch gears and play very tight and hope to still be paid off because of your loose image.

For metagame to be successful you need your opponents to be intelligent enough to adjust to his or her surroundings yet not enough for them to understand exactly what you are doing and your change or play needs to be dramatic enough so that it is remembered long enough for you to take advantage of it.

One of the main problems, especially with online poker, is that your opponents do not actually take any notice. Online your opponents may be playing on multiple tables and fail to see your metagame play properly. You also need your opponent to start to act they way you want them to, something you have no control over. The biggest risk is you not actually getting inside your opponent’s head at all and therefore making a risky move for little or no reward to yourself.

Suppose you make bluff the river and get called by one of your opponents, you may begin to assume you can now bet most rivers for value as your opponent called your bluff and saw you had nothing. However, this particular opponent may have actually been bluffing himself and each time you bet for value on the river in future he may actually bluff himself, essentially turning a solid, straight forward player into a crazy bluffing machine!

Metagame is probably best used in a live arena and at medium stakes because low and micro stakes players are simply too bad for the plays to work consistently. Metagame often works, but sometimes backfires, at high stakes games were each player out-think s themselves each time they act rather than just playing strong, solid poker.

One hand history I saw recently depicted a player wondering how to play his set because he thought by check/calling he would give his hand away so he thought betting out would be a good option but then he thought his opponent would think like this so he check/called anyway! Confused? Me too!

Humans, by nature, love to talk and in doing so they will inadvertently give away valuable information about their thought processes and how they play the game. If you listen in on the table chatter at any live event a common conversation you will hear is people discussing big hands they have won and bad beats they have suffered. This happens whether you are playing in your local casino or taking part in a wsop tournament.

Another thing people love to do is exaggerate their stories to make them more interesting, so try not to pay too much attention to people bragging about their exploits. By all means listen in because you may get some clue as to how experienced a player is but if they start saying they are a regular winner at the $100 games, question why they are sat playing in a $10 re-buy.

You should pay more attention to how they describe hands they have been involved in as this can give a good insight into the sort of player they are. If a player says something along the lines of “I had a pair of aces, went all-in and some donkey called me with a pair of tens and hit a ten on the flop to bust me” then you should assume they are either an amateur player or do not actually pay much attention to table dynamics or what components make up a typical hand.

However, if the same player described a hand by saying, “I had a stack of only eight big blinds and open shoved with a pair of aces from on the button. The big blind, the chip leader, made the call with tens and flopped a set to bust me,” then I would be wary of this player. In those couple of sentences he has shown he is positionally aware, observant of his and his opponents’ chip stacks and also that he realises the big stacked big blind was compelled to call. This type of player is more likely to be a solid winning player than the previous person is.

Keep your ears open, you never know what you might learn.

When a player decides to start taking the game a little more seriously, he or she will usually purchase a number of poker books, join an online training site or go on the search for the ultimate poker training guide. Unfortunately, no such guide exists, if it did we would either all be very rich or the games would be so tough because everyone would know how to play perfectly, that there would be very little money to make from the game.

Books and videos are great for giving you examples of how to play specific hands in specific situations but there is no substitute for experience. It is no coincidence that the better online poker players also play dozens of tables simultaneously. Yes they do this to make money first and foremost but some of them will have played more hands in a five year period than someone like Doyle Brunson would have played in their entire 50 year career.

Brunson once stated that each and every day he sits at the poker tables he learns something new, even if he is playing with the same group of players he has done for many years. One of them will look at their cards slightly differently, one will make a slightly different bet size, it could be anything, even learning something about himself.

By all means read some of the better strategy books out there, join a training site and discuss hands on a poker forum but once you have done this take some money and play some poker in an attempt to apply your new found knowledge. If you play enough poker you will come across similar situations day in day out that you will know exactly what to do regardless of the actions of your opponents meaning you will rarely be left in difficult, confusing spots and your poker playing will be a much more comfortable experience.

Bankroll management is important for playing rebuy tournaments and I would suggest having around 1,000 buy-ins available if you want to play rebuy’s regularly. This may seem overly excessive to players of standard freezeout tournaments, especially as around 100-200 buy-ins is usually sufficient in those, but you have to account for at least two rebuys and an add-on at the break, which means you will be spending around four buy-ins per tournament.

The jury is still out on the optimal strategy to play during the rebuy period but the general consensus is that you should be willing to gamble very early on when you and your opponents can buy back your chips. Watch any rebuy tournament online and you will see hand upon hand going all-in preflop, some open shoving with AA-QQ and others calling with some amazingly bad hands. You need to gamble to acquire a big stack to carry you through the rest of the game.

If you manage to survive the rebuy period and make it to the break, you will usually be offered an add-on to purchase. Unless you have only just managed to get through the rebuy period with minimal chips then I would advise to always take the add-on if you can afford it. In most cases the add-on offers a larger stack of chips than you received for your initial buy-in so there is value to be had in just purchasing the add-on.

Straight after the restart it is not uncommon for people to either not know or have forgotten the rebuy period is over so be wary of all-ins for ridiculously large amounts but also be aware that the players who are left in the tournament will, on average, have a much deeper stack that they are used to handling which leads to some great value to be had as players play out of their comfort zone and fail to adjust to being so deep.

Rebuy tournaments can be fun and very profitable if played correctly but set yourself an amount you are prepared to lose and stick to it religiously or they can become very expensive. To aid you in doing this download poker tournament results into a basic spreadsheet so you can see how often you and your opponents rebuy and what seems an optimal amount for you.

Those who play mtt poker tournaments are the ones who really should be taking detailed notes on their opponents, even more so than cash game players, I would argue. The reason I say this is because you will play against cash game players more regularly than tournament players so you will have a larger sample size of logged hands but you may only meet a tournament player again on a rare occasion so any extra information you have at your disposal is extra welcome.

So what sort of notes should you be taking when playing in a tournament? Thanks to a number of websites that track tournament play every player’s results, for most of the big sites, are available to view. One of the first things you should do, especially if deep in a tournament, is to check these websites and see if the players on your table are winning players or not.

Secondly, when making notes on key hands, make sure you note what size stack the players in the hand had, what position they were all in, what hands were revealed at showdown and how close to the money places you were at the time. The reason for all this detail is so that you can start to picture together how the player you are taking notes on plays at certain stages of a tournament. You should also note the tournament buy-in amount as some players play a variety of stakes so it is good to know at what stakes you saw them make a play.

Some players start off by playing tight and gradually play more loose and aggressive when they have a certain sized stack or are close to the money. Others will isolate short-stacks with marginal hands whilst others will only isolate them with premium holdings. The more information you have to hand the better as it will allow you to avoid dangerous confrontations and also allow you to win some vital extra chips in the right spots.

Each and every player online has had to select a screen name to represent them at tables. Whilst most people will only notice bizarre or funny names being displayed, you should take a few minutes to read each of the names, and how they are written, when you sit down to play your session..

One of the oldest tricks in the book is to pretend to be female when the player is actually male. In today’s climate there are some fantastic women players so this is becoming less common with each passing month. The thinking behind pretending to be the opposite sex is that women are perceived to be less aggressive then men as a whole so they are hoping to be given extra credit when they raise or bet.

Watch out for numbers at the end of names as this can give an indication to a player’s age or poker playing experience. Someone with the name Bob81 is likely to have been born in 1981 where as a name such as ProPlayer07 would suggest they have been playing since 2007. Generally, the older a player the less likely they are to be loose and aggressive and vice versa. You should be less likely to bluff or make complex moves on an inexperienced player such as Tony10 than you would the aforementioned ProPlayer07.

Some other pointers you should look out for are names written in uppercase are generally aggressive players as writing this way on the internet is interpreted as shouting. Names that suggest they are extremely poor players are usually quite the opposite so beware of the player called IamAFish or WhatAreOdds as they are likely to be experienced players.

Along with names you should also pay attention to the avatar each opponent selects to represent them. Many, stupidly, use the logo of a training site which means they have joined a poker school online which in turn can be interpreted as they are a decent, or at least trying to be a decent, player as they are actually paying a site for poker training.

No name or avatar based tell is 100% accurate but you can use it with other information you gather and they can certainly help to profile your opponent.

A common question on poker forums around the world is how to play poker cash games and it is a good one to ask as they are completely different to tournament poker and require a different set of skills in order to win.

The first major difference is that in a cash game the blinds static, where as in a tournament scenario the blinds will increase after a period of time and continue to go up until the tournament is completed. With the blinds remaining the same there is less pressure to play hands so you can literally wait for premium or playable hands when in a cash game.

The second difference between cash games and tournament poker is the stack sizes. In a typical online tournament players will start with 75-100 big blinds and, unless they add to their stacks significantly, they will often find themselves playing with a stack between 20 and 50 big blinds. Compare this to a cash game where most players will buy in for 100 big blinds and if they lose some of their chips they will reload to a full stack. Playing deep-stacked poker gives you increased implied odds and better chances to fold your hand.

Something else to consider is that when you lose all of your chips in a tournament you are eliminated from the game but in a cash game you can reload your stack and continue. This means it is much more difficult to force your opponent to fold in a cash game as they know if they make the wrong decision they can carry on playing. Tournament players are much more likely to fold in order to save their tournament life.

Finally, if you are making the switch from tournament poker to cash games you should be aware there is much more post-flop poker being played at the cash tables. Towards the middle and late stages of a tournament, it is quite common for hands to be settled preflop or on the flop due to the shallow stack sizes but in cash games, where players are often 100-200 big blinds deep, there is much more scope to fire bets and raises on all three streets.

Irish Open satellite tokens can be won in more than a dozen tournaments each week. Two Irish Open freeroll (free-to-play) tournaments will take place daily from Saturday through Thursday at 7.30pm and 9.30pm, with a special with $200 in satellite tokens scheduled each Friday evening at 8pm.

The Irish Open freerolls appear in the Paddy Power Poker tournament lobby 90 minutes before each one is due to begin; this helps to ensure that all players will have an equal chance to register and take part.

Any player who wins a Paddy Power Poker Irish Open ticket after participating in the freerolls and going on to win a super satellite tournament will be eligible to take part in the €100,000 Sole Survivor qualifier promotion in April.

“We want to give all of our players, even those who are temporarily light in the wallet, a chance to win their way to the Irish Open 2010″, said Paddy Power, Communications Manager at paddypowerpoker.com. “Our daily freerolls are perfect for new players with a limited bankroll or existing players who want the chance to get to one of the biggest live events for free; if I wasn’t working at the Irish Open I’d be playing these myself!”

The paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open 2010 takes place in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin from Friday 2nd – Monday 5th April 2010. Weekly super satellites to the Irish Open 2010 Main Event run on paddypowerpoker.com each Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evening, with a variety of feeders running daily.

Visit Paddy Power Poker to book your place at the final table.

Like many poker players, years of playing backgammon has contributed to his developed skill and aggressive gambling style. Hansen credits the lessons learned from being a ranked professional backgammon player for his rapid rise to success in poker.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Hansen is relatively new to the world poker scene but has already amassed winnings in excess of $1.8 million and has three WPT championship wins to his name. Hansen plays cards that most of us would rather walk away from the table then play but incredible skill, great bluffing techniques and hard-line betting goes a long way – it’s taken Gus Hansen to three WPT titles so how bad can it be?

Gus Hansen even has his own personal website ‘www.gushansenpoker.com‘ so check it out if you’d like to know more about this great player.

Instead she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania for Cognitive Psychology. It was while she was studying for her doctorate that she proposed to Ben Duke, an old friend, and then left her doctorate with one month to go, to live in good old-fashioned romantic poverty! In order to try and make some money she started playing in local poker rooms to help pay for their mortgage.

At the suggestion of her brother Howard she entered the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas in 1994, and shocked all (including her brother) by placing 13th, knocking him out of the game! She made $70,000 in her first month of competition and decided to move to Las Vegas with her husband, so that she could player poker professionally. Duke quickly moved up the ranks establishing herself as one of the best poker players in the world and in 2004 won her first WSOP bracelet, beating 234 other players. This was a winner takes all event which featured 10 of the best poker players in the world – for her victory she received international acclaim and even featured on the David Letterman programme in the U.S. In the same year she also won $2 million in the No-Limit Texas Hold’em winner-take-all, invitation only WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Duke has famously taught Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ashton Kutcher and Charles Barkley how to play poker. She has written an autobiography ‘Annie Duke: How I raised, folded, bluffed, flirted, cursed and won millions at the World Series of Poker”. She has also released poker tutorial DVDs which include ‘Annie Duke’s Advanced Texas Hold’em Secrets: How to Beat the Big Boys’, ‘Annie Duke’s Beginner’s Guide To Texas Hold ‘em’ and ‘Annie Duke’s Girl’s Guide To Texas Hold ‘em’.

In 2007, her career live tournament winnings exceeded the $3.4 million mark and her sibling rivalry with her brother Howard, who was once her former coach, continues. In 2004, she eliminated Howard in four WSOP events, and the rivalry is likely to continue especially when their sister Katy Lederer, an author and poet, writes books such as ‘Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers’ about Howard and Annie.
Duke is widely regarded as one of poker’s best players, and by many as the best woman player in poker, but she declines to participate in women’s only tournaments. She has said (fairly) that poker is one of the few sports where a woman can compete on a totally equal footing with a man, so she can’t understand why there’s a ladies only tournament. Annie fits poker in between being a mum of four children and working for several charities.