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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As online poker action happens very quick, most players using a kind of short hand to speed things up. Online poker acronyms can be very which confusing to new player. So I’ve have put together a list of the most common poker terms used online.

• vnh = Very Nice Hand, sign of appreciation from other players for your hand.
• gg = Good Game, If you leave a table sign out with GG.
• nh = Nice Hand, same as VNH.
• n1 = Nice One, sign of good play.
• nfh = Nice F*cking Hand.
• gh = Good Hand, like VNH.
• gc = Good Call, someone was bluffing and you correctly called them.
• str8 = Straight.
• zzz = This means someone at the table is taking too much time.
• WTF = What The F*CK, as in “I can’t believe you just beat me with that hand”
• LOL = Laugh Out Loud, amused by a play or joke.
• TY, THX = Thank You, it’s always nice to be polite in victory.
• BRB = Be Right Back, if you leave a table for a short time.
• ULB = You Lucky B@stard = another player gets a lucky card.

That’s just some of the poker terms that pop up during an online game, if you know of any other terms then add them below in the comments section.

Even then you’re going to need a miracle of biblical proportions to win with these hands! If you see these cards at any other time, fold faster than Superman on laundry day!

A common mistake many new poker players make is playing too many hands, caught up in the excitement of the game they over play poor hands. Don’t force weak hands, even for the odd time you’ll get a lucky flop, it won’t pay in the long run to push weak cards. You might see Gus Hansen do it in the WSOP, but that doesn’t mean you can do it online, Gus has a reputation and that allows him to get away with some crazy moves. Online players call more often than players in real world games, remember Chris Ferguson’s tip. “Pump it or Dump it ~ if your hand isn’t strong enough for a raise it’s too weak for a call!”

The Worst Poker Hands

These are the very worst of the worst poker hands, here is a couple of reasons why these hands are considered sooooo bad. With these hands you have no straight draw, no flush draw, and even if you make a pair it’s unlikely you’ll have the best hand at the table because the card values are so low. Just because you might see a rare 7-7-2 flop, that doesn’t make it a good reason to play these hands.

So now you know the worst poker hands, lets look at some of the best hands you can get in texas holdem.

For example, a ‘Fish’ may think that flopping bottom pair in a three or four handed game is good simply because it’s a pair! They don’t consider over pairs on the board, higher pocket pairs, potential straights, flushes or even look at the betting strategy of opponents to develop awareness for how they play the game. Fish have less ability to consider the hands of the others around the table and because of this tend to call far too much. Players like that will rarely give up, always thinking that their own hand is good enough, ignoring all the signs to the contrary. So what else do ‘Fish’ do that puts them into this category?

Firstly they limp into the majority of hands even if they hold completely rubbish cards. Secondly they call a pre-flop raise also with terrible cards (mostly out of the false hope that comes with wanting to see the blind!). Thirdly they will always pay off the river. If you get a fish to this stage i.e. at the river, then don’t bother to bluff because he will always call! Of course you can always use this to your advantage to get more chips – provided you actually have a winning hand.

Fish are easy prey in the world of poker and can, more often then not, be found at the lower end tables. But let’s be honest – we’ve all been there in the beginning, concentrating only on our own hand, insisting on seeing every flop “Just in case” and have studied our own two cards so much that we completely neglected to think about anybody else. So go easy, we’ve all been fish at some point! The basic rule of thumb is… If you’re at the poker table and you can’t figure out who the ‘fish’ is… It’s probably you!

Like Texas Hold ‘Em there is a disc to indicate the player that acts as the dealer position for the upcoming game – this is the player who is sitting immediately clockwise of the button. This ‘dealer’ places a bet called the ‘small blind’, which is usually half the value of the small bet for the stakes at the table. The player immediately clockwise of the small blind then places a ‘big blind’ – a bet equal in value to the small bet for the stakes at the table. Following the placing of the blinds all the players receive four hole cards. Now the player immediately left of the big blind places his/her bet, followed by the other players, going in a clockwise direction. When all the players have played – whether folding, calling, betting or raising – the three Flop cards (community cards) care dealt onto the board, face up. The players again act, beginning with the player directly left of the button. Following this a fourth community card, the Turn is dealt face up. During this round the betting doubles from the small to the big blind value. Following this round of betting the fifth community card, the River is dealt, again face up on the board. Once all bets have been made, the players who still remain in the game reveal their cards, and the player with the best hand wins the game. For the next game the button is moved clockwise to the next player.

Omaha is a more technical game than Texas Hold ‘Em, and the best strategy is to play aggressively when you have the best hand – straight, flush or full house. Due to the fact that you are more than likely to be playing with four or five other players, it is unlikely that you will win without a flush or full house – getting to the River with a two pair is more than likely not going to cut it – there are just too many good combinations that could be made. Your starting hand is crucial, much more so than in Texas Hold ‘Em, as you are working off four cards and therefore need strong combinations. In Pot-Limit Omaha, in particular, if the odds are in your favour either bet or raise, if they are not then quickly fold. Don’t call just for the sake of it, unless you have a good reason for doing so, such as wanting to trap your challenger. And bluffing won’t help you like it would in Texas Hold ‘Em, as it is a hand-driven game.

The following online poker rooms have free and cash Omaha Poker games: William Hill Poker, VC Poker and 32 Red Poker.

In each of the games the player is dealt three cards. Pair Plus is the simpler of the games, involving no necessary skill on the player’s behalf – you don’t even have to beat the dealers hand. The outcome of the game is purely dependent on the hand rank of the player’s hand – whether or not you get dealt winning cards. So to play, you simply make a bet in the Pair Plus field and examine your three cards. Winning cards and their payouts include: Straight Flush: 40 to 1, Three of a Kind: 30 to 1, Straight 6 to 1, Flush 4 to 1, Pair: 1 to 1. The values of certain hands differ from traditional games of poker – most notably, a straight is superior to a flush, which is because a flush has a probability of appearing 4.95% of the time, which is greater than that of a straight.

Ante and Play is the second game in Three Card Poker, and is just a bit more challenging than Pair Plus. Before any cards are dealt the player places an Ante wager. Three cards are then dealt both to the player and the dealer. The player then has to decide whether to fold or raise by putting a second bet in the ‘Play’ area. If the player folds then all bets made are lost, including the Pair Plus wager. If the player raises, then play goes to the dealer, who now has to show his cards, and the hands are compared. For the dealer to qualify he has to achieve a Queen high or better. If the dealer doesn’t qualify, the Ante bet is paid off at 1 to 1 and the Play bet is returned to the Player. If the dealers hand qualifies, but the player wins, both the Ante bet and Play bet are paid off at 1 to 1. If the dealers hand qualifies and wins the player loses both Ante and Play wagers. Finally, if the dealers hand qualifies but the player and dealer tie both the Ante and play wagers remain unaffected (push).

The Ante bet has a special bonus which is independent of the dealers hand – typical payouts for the Ante bonus are: Straight Flush: 5 to 1, Three of a Kind: 4 to 1 and Straight 1 to 1.

Three Card Poker, like most casino poker games, is simple to play, but it is difficult to win at it consistently. It is a great game to get into if you are new to the world of gambling or even online gambling, as it will give you an idea of how things work. With Three Care Poker there is also the added advantage of the house having a low edge of 2.5% so it is definitely worthwhile having a go!

Negreanu is often considered one of the more recognisable players around a lot of which is due to his TV appearances and poker game commentary which can often be seen (an heard) on the WPT televised events. An when he’s not caught up on the final table of a tournament or appearing at the WPT events, Negreanu writes a regular column for Card Player Magazine, with over 100 articles to his name.

You’d think that with such a lot on his plate, Negreanu would be trying to take it easy with the rest of his time but not so – he is set to appear in the 2006 poker movie ‘Lucky You’ and also has an Xbox game out – Stacked with Daniel Negreanu – clearly not just a shrewd poker player, Negreanu is also a shrewd business man!
Daniel exudes the confidence and professionalism of a new poker generation, raised on MTV, the internet and game consoles. He is renowned for his fresh candid approach to life, and his cool style embodies poker’s evolution from smoky back room poker dens to a world class sports enterprise.

It is always good to learn from your mistakes, and you will make plenty of them as a beginner, so it is best to try free sessions in the practice games before you actually start placing real money bets. However there are a few big mistakes that beginners tend to make, so don’t fall into their trap! Don’t ever underestimate your opponents hand – you may think that your hand is the best that it could be, but make sure to look at what is left on the board and judge by this the likelihood that someone else has a better hand than you – you can never be too careful with this!

Another mistake that beginners (and even some more experienced players!) make is being predictable. If you always play and bet in the same way the other players will be very quick to pick up on it. So work on using a mix of styles and try not to play against the same people all the time!

Don’t try and learn all the games at once – going from one type of game to another (eg: from Texas Hold ‘em to Limit to No-Limit) will not make you a better player, it will just make you average at all of them. Restrict yourself to one type of game until you really know what you’re doing with it, and then when you have excelled you can move on to another type of poker game. On the same token, go up the stakes slowly – the games will get tighter and tighter the further up the stakes you go.

Don’t play at too many multi-table tournaments – there could be hundreds if not thousands of people playing and you will need more luck to win! Stick to the smaller tables in order to learn and develop your skills.

Keep track of your wins and your losses. Documenting this type of information will help you determine which kind of games you play best at, making it easier for you to know and where to be in with a chance of winning money. You can check out more of our poker articles below.

The first Series had just seven players and the winner was decided by vote. Johnny Moss, known as ‘The Grand Old Man of Poker’ was the fortunate one in the first Series, being elected by his fellow players for the Champion title, winning a silver trophy and $30,000. The story goes (possibly fictional!) that every one of the players when asked to vote for the best player voted for themselves! It was only when the players were asked to vote for the second best player that Moss emerged victorious. The format obviously needed to be changed and so it was for the next Series in 1971, where they employed the freezeout tournament structure that is still utilised in the competition today – and Johnny Moss won that one too! The freezeout structure made the event far more exciting and as the years have gone by the field sizes have grown, as have the prizes. More events have been added in a wider range of poker games, but players still gravitate towards the Main Event – and the reasons for this are clear: the Main Event has a $10,000 buy-in and the winner is awarded a huge cash prize and is crowned World Champion.

The joy of the World Series is that the event of online poker has enabled everyday amateur players to win seats in the tournament – Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event after winning his seat through a $39 satellite, winning himself a cool $2,500,000!!!!! Due to the fact that amateurs can enter in this way the event has grown massively and in 2008 there were 6,844 entrants, with the winner of the Main Event, Peter Eastgate winning $9,152,416. The Main Event started on July 3rd and reached the final table of nine players on July 14th. The final table was delayed until November to allow ESPN to broadcast the event. All players were paid ninth place prize money ($900,670) in July with the remaining prize pool distributed at the end of game in November. The lowest payouts of the game are more than double the buy-in ($21,230) of $10,000, compared to $10,616 in 2006.

The 2009 Main Event, while not over until November, saw 2008 Champion Peter Eastman making a strong defence of his title, finishing in 78th place. Nine players remain from the 6,494 entrants that started the Event on July 3rd.

So what kind of strategy does one employ if they are lucky enough to get a seat at the World Series of Poker? Current world champion Peter Eastman says that the strategy that he used to win the 2008 Main Event was to not have a pre-tournament strategy! There are so many unknown variables such as quality of cards drawn, and such an abundance of players with hugely differing emotional states, it is difficult to have a pre-determined strategy. He does say that the key to playing in a long and hard tournament like the WSOP is to find the balance between accumulation of chips and maintaining your chip stack, and stay relaxed especially as the money increases.

If you fancy winning a seat at the WSOP main event then VC Poker offers you the chance to win a place at the main table via satellite tournaments online, buy ins from just $0.84!

You have to maintain a proper sense of demeanour, especially if you are playing at multiplayer games like poker where there are others players’ considerations to think about. While we are all used to the whooping and bawling that goes on at certain tables, it is important that you remain polite to the other players, staff and dealers. This remains true when gambling online – don’t get too wild or drunkenly harass the other players, as you are quite likely to get kicked off the game if you are being too rambunctious. Harassing others, be it staff or other players, will also more than likely end up with terminated membership. People do not go online to gamble to get into fights – they play for fun, so only go on the sites if you feel the same way.

On the same lines, don’t pressurize others to gamble for money. Most sites allow people to play just for fun, without having to have any monetary involvement and some people just want a friendly bet. Playing for fun is fine and if you put pressure on people to bet for money they will feel harassed and leave the site, damaging its reputation and putting your play at risk! Remember that online gambling is more fun to a lot of people – they don’t have the same pressure on them that they would have in a traditional casino, so don’t ruin it for them!

On the same token, don’t chastise other players for poor or incorrect plays – not everyone is a pro! The only way people can learn is to practice and play, and you berating them won’t do them or you any favours – in fact it is likely to make you a few enemies at the table, and your next mistake is likely to be targeted with a lot of criticism.

If you are quite new to the game, don’t ask for advice from the other players when you in the middle of the game with them! If you have a tough decision to make – just make it! Asking for advice will let others know how inexperienced you are and could lead to animosity if their advice results in your failure (which to be honest, it’s more than likely to, as they want to win the game!) If you mess up and feel like you need some advice wait until after the game and go to the forums or chatrooms – this is the place to ask others for advice: not in the middle of a game!

Below is a guide to the very best ‘starting hands’ in poker. Starting hands are the cards you are dealt at the beginning of the game – the strength of these hands could weaken or improve after the flop. Remember that your position on the table and your table image could have a big effect on how you play these strong hands. Limping in with Aces or Kings (slow playing) can leave you open to players looking for a straight draw or flush draw, bear this in mind when playing strong hands, push out those players with cards that could hurt you.

The Best Starting Hands

These are the very best hands you can see before the flop in texas holdem poker, with any of these hands you should come out raising before the flop – Hopefully this will drive those on ‘drawing hands’ out of the game. If you’re playing on low-limit tables you may not be able to push those on flush draws or suited connectors out of the pot, so watch the flop careful. Having said that you will nearly always be ahead with these cards.

Strong Starting Hands

Whilst these cards aren’t as good as the ‘Best Hands’ they still remain very, very strong starting hands. If you’re in late table position then you should be raising these hands, many of the ‘Strong Starting Hands’ also carry good flush or straight potential – you’ll still need a little help from the table with these cards before you could consider them a sure thing.

These starting hands won’t always win you a pot, and as all poker players know you will always get the odd bad beat holding pocket aces. But if you stick to playing these hands then over time you will come out on top. Now take a look at the worst poker hands!

The list is just a bit of fun, I will be looking out for more entries soon, obviously one song that’s missing from the list is Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ ~ I don’t really care for it much myself. I’m more of an old skool rocker when it comes to poker songs!

• Final Table – P. Windrum
• The Joker – Steve Miller Band
• Deal – Grateful Dead
• The Ace Of Spades – Motorhead
• Winner Takes it All – Abba
• Three Card Trick – The Clash
• Draw Of The Cards – Kim Carnes
• Blues for Gamblers – Lightnin’ Hopkins
• Riverboat Gambler – Carly Simon
• House of the Rising Sun – The Animals
• Luck be a Lady – Frank Sinatra
• Losing Hand – Ray Charles
• No Cheap Thrill – Suzanne Vega
• The Jack – AC/DC
• Angel And The Gambler (The) – Iron Maiden
• Easy Money – Billy Joel

How to set your Poker Wallpaper as a desktop

To set the wallpaper as your new desktop background just click on one of the images below. Once the image has opened in a new window, right click with your mouse and select the ‘Set as Background‘ option from the list – hey presto your new poker wallpaper background will be display on your desktop – easy! I’ve just added two new Poker Wallpapers, one features the lovely Shana Hiatt from the old World Series Of Poker TV show and the other features Evangeline Lilly otherwise known as ‘Kate’ from the hit TV Lost. I’m always adding new wallpapers so check back soon for more.

I’ve just added three new Eva Green poker wallpapers, they have a cool retro feel to them.

Over-valuers do exactly that – they over value the cards that they are holding. Players like this tend to place far too much weight in suited cards and will quite often play bad hands such as 10 and 3 simply because they are the same suit. They don’t consider the fact that flushes are relatively uncommon (given the number of overall hands played during a game) and that even a top pair of 10′s (should the second one flop) is still not great given the over-pairs that can still beat them.

Over-valuers like the big cards and so while most of us would throw away a Q 2, over-valuers will play it simply because they hold the picture card Queen, believing that a second Queen will flop and win them the game. Of course they are forgetting one simple thing – not all big cards were created equally so even a pair of Queens is no good if the King or an Ace flops. What’s worse is that even if their opponent only holds Queen high as well, a 2 is no good as a kicker!

Of course knowing this can help you spot an ‘over-valuer’ at the table but be wary because like the ‘Fish’ they do over call and as such you will need a winning hand to beat them. Be careful, players like this will play anything that is reasonably connected so if the board flops low cards then there’s a good chance that they could win as many will play low connected cards.

On the upside though, you can loosen up your play against them – you know that they will play low pairs or low connected cards so it pays to go to the river with them. Also, they don’t tend to bluff, they call and raise because they believe they have the best hand which is not necessarily always the case!