Razpoker

Tom Dwan joins Full Tilt team

2009-11-10T00:58:00.001-08:00

Dwan began playing online poker with a $50 bankroll focusing initially on $6 sit-and-go's. After finding he could beat these games he turned to cash games where he grinded through the low stakes, building up his bankroll before reaching his current level of play which is often $500/$1000 stakes in which he plays against other notable professional players such as Phil Ivey, David Oppenheim, David Benyamine, Gus Hansen, John Juanda and Patrik Antonius. Dwan has said that since playing online he has never gone broke.

During this WSOP weekend the announcement of Tom “durrrr” Dwan and his recent addition to Team Full Tilt was not observed by everybody. Tom is renowned in the poker world as being one of the best high-stakes cash game players around and for his fearlessness at the tables, willing to take on anyone for any amount.

Dwan has yet to be re-added to the list of hosts for the ongoing series, but there are still three unoccupied spots up for grabs, including the Main Event, which takes place Sunday, November 15.
The last player to be added to the team was Patrik Antonius, in June of 2008. Dwan is currently in the middle of an epic 50,000-hand heads-up battle with Antonius titled the “Durrrr Challenge,” and is up approximately $780,000 through the halfway point of play.
“Team Full Tilt doesn’t take adding a team member lightly,” said Team Full Tilt pro, Howard Lederer. “But, Tom Dwan has proven, through skill and dynamic play, that he will be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. We are proud to count Tom as one of our own.”

Phil Hellmuth antics

2009-07-06T15:22:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows that Phil Hellmuth is quite a character . Not once he went on and on about his knowledge of the game and how good is he and his quote about : "if luck wouldn't be involved I would won every poker tournament" ....
He went crazy last year at the WSOP Main event against the Romanian player Cristian Dragomir after a bluff. You can find some of his funny stuff here.

This year at the WSOP Main Event 2009 Phil had one of his unforgetble entries. Check out this video :

Four men carried Hellmuth, who was dressed as the former Roman emperor, including a gold crown, grey furs and a black cape, to the red carpet where 11 models wearing body paint to look like Roman warriors and another row of women in white toga-like dresses were waiting for him.

They were his escort as he made his way up the red carpet before he entered the Rio and made his way to the tournament area for Day 1c of the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold’em (Event 57) in the Amazon Room.

As he followed the path, there were another almost 80 models tossing rose pedals in the air as he made his grand entrance, which included drums and horns, and a crowd with cameras in front, behind and alongside him the entire way.

Once he reached the tournament area with 12 minutes left in Level 1, his entourage followed him onto the stage around one of the two feature stages where ESPN was filming the table Hellmuth would be playing at for the day.

“We’re just having as much fun as we can have,” Hellmuth said during the 20-minute break at the end of the level. “I thought it was great. Having the girls with the body paint was just fun. I mean, come on, how often do you see girls with just body paint on?”

Hellmuth said he will be Caesar at the WSOP Europe, which will take place Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 in London.

“We’re going to do Caesar theme at the World Series of Poker Europe as well, so Caesar is like a yearlong theme,” the 1989 Main Event champion said. “Because when you do Caesar, you want to do him big and you want to do him right.”

The entrance added to the legend of Hellmuth, which some love and others can’t stand.

While hundreds of fans were lining the red carpet as he walked in and were taking photos and asking for autographs, others were scowling at the fashionably late entry.

Just as Hellmuth entered the Rio, one man told him, “Phil, you’re shameless, totally shameless.” It caught Hellmuth’s ear and he went over and shook the man’s hand.

Further into the hotel, however, Brett Jungblut walked by the exhibition after he left the tournament area and loudly said, “Biggest clown in town.”

The reaction and the large media coverage of it, Hellumth said, is good for the game.

WSOP Omaha Eight-or-Better event (#18)

2009-06-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

The WSOP is on the way , and the race for bracelets is at his peak, A few professionals came very close to win some, one of them actually won.

The $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker World Championship Omaha Eight-or-Better event (#18), wrapped up yesterday with Daniel Alaei taking the title and his second WSOP bracelet.

Alaei beat out a surprisingly star studded final 17 for an open event that included Scott Clements, Alex Kravchenko, John Monnette, Toto Leonidas and two PokerRoaders Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu.

Both Duke and Negreanu were dangerously short numerous times throughout the difficult final day of play, but remarkably were both still able to squeak their way onto the final table before finally being dispatched with.

For the first place finish Alaei pocketed $445,898.

The final table finish positions for Event #18, the $10,000 buy-in World Championship Omaha Hi/Lo were as follows:

1st. Daniel Alaei- $445,898

2nd. Scott Clements- $275,946

3rd. Ben Boyd- $182,730

4th. Daniel Negreanu- $130,401

5th. John Monnette- $97,422

6th. Greg Jamison- $77,736

7th. Thomas Koral- $65,453

8th. Annie Duke- $58,049

9th. Yueqi (Rich) Zhu- $54,179

For further details on Event #18 visit www.worldseriesofpoker.com

US players accepted at Carbon Poker

2009-06-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

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WSOP 2009

2009-05-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Finally ... the poker saga is approaching . In a few days WSOP 2009 will start in Las Vegas.

The 2009 WSOP schedule will have a tough act to follow with last year's Series setting substantial new records. Despite a wretched global economy, an online poker market that has yet to fully recover from the US government's obsession with blocking its citizens from playing $5 Sit and Gos in their pajamas, and an overall drop in poker's sponsored overhyping, 2008 saw records in both overall entrants and total prize money.

Nearly 58,000 players battled for their share of over $180,000,000 in total prizes over the course of 55 events. It's truly refreshing to see so many poker players still flock to the WSOP and stimulate the poker economy, proving that there are still millions dedicated to the game. Peter Eastgate, a Denmark native, ended up winning the Main Event and over $9 million.

The 2009 WSOP schedule looks almost identical to last year's version: numerous $10,000 championship events, lots of mixed events, and a slight increase with 57 total events. I was happy to see Harrah's stick with the championship events, which creates the feel of several mini Main Events throughout the WSOP. While most still agree that No Limit Hold'em is the ultimate tournament game of choice, it's also refreshing to see so many mixed events worked into the schedule. Besides several Pot-Limit and Limit events, HORSE, Stud, and Omaha also make healthy appearances. Even Lowball will have 3 events and Razz will have 1.

With so much money being invested in everything from sports events to movies to video games to poker tournaments, sequels with minor tinkering are far easier to pull off and have become the norm rather than truly creating something creative and new. Despite high fees, questionable playing conditions, and inordinate marketing that ultimately lessens the player experience, Harrah's has done a solid job since they took over the tournament. Perhaps sticking with what has worked in the past isn't such a bad thing.

Good luck everyone !

Annie Duke fired !

2009-05-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

What a grand finale for the Celebrity Apprentice!

Annie Duke's first words after the last boardroom :

"I know people are wondering how I could go from saying I respected Joan in the last boardroom to the private interview where I said she was not a nice person and she had made the fight personal for me. I am aware it seemed like a weird juxtaposition from the boardroom to the final private interview last episode but here is what happened in between. I tried to extend some sort of “good game” to Joan. Just tell her I respected her for getting to the final two. And the video below is what a got in return. I particularly love where she says “I won’t allow America to hear it.” Makes that last interview of mine make more sense, I think."

Throughout the second season of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice the rivalry between poker pro Annie Duke and comedian Joan Rivers was heated to say the least. So it was only fitting that those two contestants go head-to-head in the final episode to determine who Donald Trump would name his “celebrity apprentice”.

The three-hour season finale had the two contestants each working on creating an event and auction for people attending a Cirque de Soleil show. Duke and Rivers were each given a team of recently fired contestants to help them with the task. During the task the design firm that both Duke and Rivers were too use quit after finding Rivers too difficult to work with.

Despite raising nearly three times as much money for charity during the final task Duke was fired after Trump chose the 75 year old Rivers as his second celebrity apprentice. During the season Rivers had compared Duke to Adolf Hitler and made numerous disparaging comments about poker players in general.

As the winner Rivers was awarded $250,000 for the charity she was playing for.

Face the Ace

2009-04-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

A new poker show is ready to debut on TV !
The company that produces NBC’s Poker After Dark will mix everyone’s favorite game with reality television when Face The Ace premieres this summer.

Poker Productions, the company responsible for the late night hit for NBC, is betting that poker fans nationwide will tune in to Face The Ace when the poker reality show debuts in August. Hosted by Steve Schirripa (”The Sopranos”), the show will center on contestants drawn from online qualifying tournaments who play heads-up no limit hold’em against poker pros.

Each contestant will start off by choosing one of four doors, behind each of which lies a pro player. If the contestant wins his match against the first pro, he’ll have to make a choice: take the money and run, or let it ride and play against another pro? Beating three pros in a row will be worth $1 million, but a loss means a trip home empty-handed.

NBC Universal TV executive VP Jerry Petry told Variety that the network had picked up an initial run of seven episodes, with the option of ordering more if the show succeeds in its Saturday afternoon time slot.

This isn’t the first time that poker and reality television have been mixed together. Fox Sports Net teamed with UltimateBet to start the trend with Best Damn Poker Show, where a field of contestants competed against one another on teams headed up by poker pros Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth.

What people don’t seem to understand is that there is much more than talent and knowledge that is required to be a great poker player. You have to be able to handle adversity without going off the deep end. You have to have the character to handle the pitfalls fo life. Also there is the ability to implement the things you do know. That is probably the biggest difference between good poker players and great poker players. Anyway, a freezeout between good poker players is usually a coin flip.

In addition to a different format - the players will play against pros, not other amateurs - Face The Ace will also have the benefit of being one of the big four television networks with its national audience. Poker fans will get their first taste of the show on Saturday, August 1, at 9 p.m. ET.

Bluff or fold ?

2009-03-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Are you dealt pocket Aces on every single hand? (If you are, I will pay for your airplane ticket and entry fee for the next World Poker Tour event). But for the rest of us, we have to do the best with our good cards and learn to win hands when we have nothing.I have played against people who say that bluffing is lying, and it is immoral. I don't even try to argue with these people, because bluffing is really the most fundamental strategy in Texas Hold 'Em. If there was no bluffing, the game would be luck, and you'd be better off playing "Rummy".

Bluffing is simple, right? All you have to do is convince the other players that you have the best hand, and get them to fold their hands. Well, now that you know that, you are ready to win thousands of dollars an hour playing Texas Hold 'Em... If ONLY it were that easy. In fact, bluffing is not even a skill It's an ART as in the Bluffmagazine.

There are players that are very successful that never really master the art of bluffing, but you will never reach the "next level"unless you master the art of the bluff. Bluffing is the most powerful play in Texas Hold 'Em. It will give you complete control over the game, and allow you to win even when you catch bad cards. No matter who you are, or how talented and successful you are, you can strengthen your ability to bluff.

In Texas Hold 'Em, there are 4 rules of bluffing. If you follow these rules, you will see an immediate increase in your success in playing Texas Hold 'Em poker.

Rule No. 1

Calls and small raises are for wimps

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have played hands where some amateur called me down the line and when he turned over scraps told me he was "bluffing."Of course, I didn't tell him that he was wasting his money right away, instead I let him lose the rest of his chips to me, and then I told him the truth. If you are someone who always seems to get caught on your bluffs, chances are that you simply don't bet or raise enough to make any difference. Think about it, if you have a lot of chips committed to a pot, are you going to fold to a tiny raise? Of course not, so if you don't raise enough, you are going to get called, and your are going to lose your bankroll.

Rule #2

Never Bluff The Short Stack

When you are playing against a player who is on the short stack of the table, it is probably a good idea to avoid bluffing them. A player on the short stack is usually going to be a little more desperate, and much more likely to call you down the line, or re-raise you.There are some cases where this might not be true. If a player is short-stacked because people were able to buy pots from him, and you miss a draw or find yourself in a bad situation, you might want to bluff yourself out. However, as a general rule, you don't want to bluff the short-stacked player at your table.

Rule #3

Be Wary Of Bluffing Bad Players

Many times, you are going to find that bad players will call you all the way down even through you bluffed well, and they have only marginal hands. I have seen skilled, experienced players go broke trying to bluff some run-of-the-mill player with a pair of two's. The general rule of thumb is this... a bad player is usually more likely to call a bluff than a good player, so you should only bluff poor players when you have to.

Rule #4

Know The Bluffs

Bluffing takes many forms, and understanding and taking advantage of these forms will allow you to increase your ability to play Texas Hold 'Em significantly.

These forms of bluffing include:-

Stone Cold Bluff - when a player places a huge bet on nothing. This requires icy blood, but if you are able to pull it off, it can tear apart a player and put them on tilt. If you get caught on a stone-cold bluff, you are in big trouble. It means that another player at the table has a very good hand. To avoid getting called on a stone-cold bluff, make sure that you are in the correct position (the last person to act) and that there hasn't been any serious action before you (big bets or raises). Ideally, everyone before you would check, which would tell you that there are no strong hands in play. -

Semi-Bluff - when a player has a marginal hand or is on a draw. If someone has K-Q-J-10 of spades, and goes "all-in" they are on a semi-bluff. While the hand has the potential to be great, when they place the bet, it is nothing. If you think that someone is semi-bluffing, a re-raise will often force someone on a draw to fold their hand. If they call, watch out for cards that could complete a flush or a straight.

Representing The Flop - I played people who "knew" they had a better hand, but still folded away their money away because I "represented the flop." This is a very important skill to master, because this will work against players of all skill levels. The key to this is to bet enough to scare out most of the players before the flop, but little enough to let people think that you need to catch a card. Then when the flop comes, bet like they were the best cards that could have be dealt. If the flop is 2-2-7, your goal is to convince the other player that you were holding a pair of 7's... or better yet, 2's.

Rule #5

Mix Up Your Style

Bluffing is not something that can be set in stone. There are infinite combinations of personalities, cards, situations, and playing styles. So, never get caught up in any single bluffing style. There are a lot of ways that you can use bluffing to your advantage, for example, if you start mixing up your bluffing from time to time you can play "mind games" with your opponents. This can be a powerful advantage, because when your opponents cannot get a good read on you, you gain control of the game, and you gain an advantage over everyone at the table.If you follow the same bluffing style all night, your opponents will catch on, and sooner or later, you are going to get caught with your hand in the cookie jar.
And to show that you are a versatile player you can always show you cards after the hand is over or you can show just one card - option available only at Carbon Poker

FOLDING - THE HEART OF POKER

I suppose, I should admit that I am mistaken, bluffing is NOT the most important skill in Texas Hold 'Em - FOLDING is the most important skill in Texas Hold 'Em. If you don't know when to lay your cards down, you are destined for a career of bad beats, lost hands, and frustration about your lost money.The key to learning to fold is to leave your emotions at the door.

The reason that most people get burned is they start thinking, "Well, I already have so much money in this pot, I should just call, even though I know I am beat." NEVER, ever take this mentality. The second you feel that you are going to lose a hand, fold. You don't prove anything by throwing away your money. The only thing you prove is that you don't know anything about poker, and apparently, you don't like your money.

There is, however one exception to this rule. At the beginning of a game, it is always a good idea to learn how each player thinks and plays. If you are having trouble figuring out a player's tells and playing style, it is worth it to lose a couple of chips to find them. If you are reading this and thinking... "Wow, I really need to take my poker skills to the next level, and start making money with my hobby"... then you are absolutely right.

Author: Rory Monahan (Texas-Holdem-Secrets.com)

High Stakes Poker Season 5

2009-03-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Arguably the best televised poker show of the moment has recently released its line-up. The fifth season of High Stakes Poker was filmed between 19 to 21st of December in the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino and has some very interesting names making their appearance. Both the winner and the runner-up of this year's WSOP Main Event, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov are amongst those who will be there.

We'll also be able to see young pros Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Dario Minieri making their first appearance to High Stakes Poker. Other newcomers include Hollywood director Nick Cassavetes (director of movies like John Q, Alpha Dog and The Notebook), the creator of The Simpsons: Sam Simon, and Giorgio Medici, a successful businessman and president of the Medici Consulting and Investment LLC.

Of course we'll see familiar faces as well. Players like Doyle Brunson, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine and Phil Ivey will be playing as well, amongst others.

Here is a little teaser of what we gonna see --------->

The full list of players scheduled include (in alphabetical order): Patrik Antonius, Mike Baxter, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Nick Cassavetes, Ivan Demidov, Tom Dwan, Peter Eastgate, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer, Giorgio Medici, Dario Minieri, Daniel Negreanu, Ilari Sahamies, Bob Safai and Sam Simon.

The minimum buy-in for this season will be $200,000.
We ll be back with details about what happened .

Tight poker

2008-11-20T00:53:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we feel like playing extremely prudent , trying to play only when we have the best hand definitely.

When it comes to poker, the truth is, most people play way too many hands. In fact, some poker experts suggest that you should play less than 15% of the hands you’re dealt…because you probably won’t have more than one big win per hour. For many online poker players, it would require too much patience to wait for that big hand—and be very tough to throw away anything except the “best hands.” But if you’ve got the patience and are willing to play tight, here are a few tips for playing the pre-flop, and deciding when to set money in or get out fast.

When in early position, only play hands AA, KK, AKs, AK, AQs, AQ, AJs, QQ, JJ, TT, 99 and 88. That’s it—nothing more. And if you’re raised, you may even want to throw some of the latter away. Only re-raise with the first few.

When in middle position, you can play all the above hands, plus AJ, ATs, KQs, 77, 66, 55. And that’s it! Again, if raised, you may want to throw some of these away. Re-raise only with the top cards.

In late position, or if in the small blind, play all of the above hands plus AT, KQ, KJs, QJs, 44, 33, 22. If raised, don’t be hesitant to throw any of these away. Only re-raise with the best cards above.

Of course, it never hurts to check anything in the big blind position and see what flops. But if someone has raised, use the above strategies to determine if it’s worth staying in.

Is this tight play? You bet! When playing with this strategy, the first thing you’ll discover is how hard it is to throw away cards such as KT or even A9…but the odds show that for every one time you threw away a hand that would have won, you also threw away a hand that would have lost much more.

Playing tight like this isn’t always the most dramatic or fast-paced, but more often than not, it is more profitable over the long run. So get out there and play tight! And as you learn more about the game and your opponents, you can loosen up and increase your profits even more.
Good luck and many won pots!

Contact

2008-10-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

For any kind of inquiries please use the form below !
Thank you !

UB invades the WSOP Main Event

2008-07-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

For most of the players in the World Series physically getting there isn't much of a big deal. Even if you're from out of town it's not like finding a taxi in Vegas is hard. You get to the Rio, find out if you're playing in the Amazon Room or elsewhere in the casino, and then find your table. Piece of cake.

But some people don't like to take the easy way out. They don't just want to show up. The want to make an entrance. A grand entrance. A big splash. They don't want people breaking off conversations in mid-thread to follow them across the room, murmured comments barely audible above the hush. No, they want noise. Lots of noise. A ruckus, a hullabaloo.

As if you haven't already guessed, I'm writing about Phil Hellmuth's entrance today to the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. As you may have heard Phil "invaded" the Rio with members of the UB Army. All Phil has to do now is negotiate his way through 6,844 players and capture his second World Championship and his 12th bracelet. I think he'll find more resistance from the opposition than he did during today's assault.

Absolute Poker statement

2007-10-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

In order to clarify the incident from the Absolute Poker Room , every player received a statement from Joe Norton, the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake .
The statement acknowledges the security breach within Absolute's system that allowed information about opponents' hole cards to be transmitted to several suspect accounts, and confirmed that the hand log released accidentally to Marco 'CrazyMarco' Johnson, the runner-up in the suspect tournament, did in fact highlight the security flaw that allowed the site to be compromised.

October 21, 2007

Dear AP Player:

I am the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, which holds a 100% interest in Absolute Poker.

As many of our players are aware, there has been a security breach in our system that allowed unlawful access to player information that resulted in unfair play. I am writing to you today to let you know what we know so far in order to set the record straight, and to assure you of AP's commitment to player security. I am sure that this letter will not address all of the questions and concerns you may have, nor will it extinguish the heated discussion surrounding this issue. At this point, our intention is to let you know all we can disclose and to assure you of our continued efforts to keep you informed as best we can as the investigations continue.

We deeply regret this situation has occurred. A breach in security in online poker is serious and of great concern to players and the industry worldwide, and this particular situation has been the subject of debate within the poker player community and in the media, giving rise to the creation of several websites and hundreds and hundreds of comments, opinions, and theories of what occurred – some of which are accurate, and some that are not.

Like you, I have not been happy that during the initial stage of our investigation, AP has not been more forthcoming in providing a timely or comprehensive explanation on this matter, giving rise to anger, suspicion, and concern on the part of our valued customers. I hope that our customers can appreciate that this remains an incredibly complex and sensitive issue, and I want to give you my strongest possible assurance that we will be as forthcoming as possible on how this breach occurred and what we are doing to remedy the situation.

What We Know and Actions We Have

AP was notified by a customer that a possible cheating incident occurred during a recent tournament, and in response forwarded players' hand logs. This disclosure of the hand logs prompted our customers to determine that a more serious security breach had occurred. We immediately launched an internal investigation and also requested a formal audit by Gaming Associates, an acknowledged world-wide expert in audits, interactive gaming tests, and information security.

Based upon our preliminary findings, it appears that the integrity of our poker system was compromised by a high-ranking trusted consultant employed by AP whose position gave him extraordinary access to certain security systems. As has been speculated in several online forums, this consultant devised a sophisticated scheme to manipulate internal systems to access third-party computers and accounts to view hole cards of other customers during play without their knowledge. As this consultant was aware of the details of our fraud detection process, the likelihood that the scheme would be uncovered through our normal procedures was minimized. We consider this security breach to be a horrendous and inexcusable offense.

We will pay for all losses suffered by the affected players as soon as our audit is finished and the amounts are determined. Although we are in the process of attempting to recover all the winnings of this consultant, any unrecovered losses of affected players will be paid by Absolute Poker so that all affected persons will be made whole.

Next Steps

We are still investigating whether the consultant was acting alone or in concert with others, and it appears at this time that all account holders are innocent of collusion and were unaware of any wrong-doing by the consultant, who was immediately terminated. We continue to investigate this matter aggressively, and all of these preliminary findings are subject to the audits currently underway. We have recently uncovered additional accounts used by the consultant that have not been publicly reported. So as to not compromise the investigation, we are not releasing the names of these additional accounts at this time, and will contact these affected customers individually.

The specific allegations of unlawful activity are being investigated both by AP and by the authorized authorities, including the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. We will continue to actively cooperate with these authorities in full compliance with the Regulations Concerning Interactive Gaming. In addition to our own investigation and the audit by Gaming Associates, we have also submitted to an audit by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

Please be assured that we have corrected the problem that allowed the system to be unfairly manipulated. We are working furiously to increase the safeguards within our systems. While we are satisfied that our systems are secured, we realize that our security systems must be continuously monitored and enhanced.

Without question, this incident has been unfortunate for all concerned, and we will emerge as a stronger company. I realize it will take some time and much more information for AP to re-earn the trust and confidence of our customers who are in doubt of our commitment to the highest levels of security, privacy and integrity. As we move to address and correct this situation, our valued customers have played a vital role in uncovering this scheme through various online forums and have become an active part of the solution.

With my full sincerity, I thank you, and I promise to keep you updated as we bring this situation to a close.

Sincerely,
Joe Norton

Absolute also announced plans to begin working on calculating refunds based on cash-game play involving the supposed cheating accounts, the entire list of which has not been released at this time. Those payments are expected to be calculated within the upcoming Gaming Associates audit.

Pokerstars weekend winners

2007-10-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations for the following players who Final Tabled the following MTTs this weekend on the best online poker room PokerStars :

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Pairofnothin - $183,086
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McNAbb2 - $68,625
twin peaks07 - $53,474
LukeFromB13 - $40,869
Ralfinator - $29,283
Crawfdad - $21,007
canalman - $12,732
Binde - $7,893

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Kennethmedh - $88,828
n1stunnor - $45,005
the wa®den - $29,958
daobvious - $24,093
walrus_poker - $19,093
Slaktaren007 - $14,501
Poker Tuck - $10,410
blai528 - $6,546
power2prut - $3,818

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Gyuliend - $47,171
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clarkatroid - $14,041
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jesse42782 - $6,362
dogsballs - $4,388
Stoweski - $2,523

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Buy-In: $215 with Rebuys
286 entrants
$231,600 paid out to 27 places

agriffrod - $63,690
crice25 - $40,530
GRinDer444 - $26,865
The Anvil - $18,528
THE__D__RY - $13,896
LITTTLEMAN - $10,422
scarface_79 - $8,106
BackDoorovic - $6,021
dblgutshot - $3,937

How random is Online Poker ?

2007-10-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

You ever wonder how the deck is shuffled in an online poker game? Who can you hold responsible for that terrible suckout on the river? Randomly shuffled cards can be seen as the core business of online poker rooms and you will be surprised how much effort is required to achieve truly random cards. Read on about online poker rooms, quantum mechanics, radioactive decay and more.

First let's determine the requirements for the source of a true random generator: Firstly it should be high-entropic source. Entropy is the 'measure of the disorder and randomness in a closed system'. You're still reading? Good, the second requirement is that the source should be nondeterministic. This means the there is no way in which the source can be controlled, calculated or predicted (note: our first requirement guarantees those last two properties).

Now we know this we can throw computers out of the window as far as randomness is concerned. Math is the only language your computer speaks and randomness and math are mutually exclusive. Basically any random function which is created by humans or by machines built by humans can not be nondeterministic. To create true randomness we must turn to something bigger (or actually much, much smaller) then ourselves.

The way to go is physics and the field of quantum mechanics in particular (the relationship between radiation and matter). In quantum mechanics certain physical phenomena, such as the nuclear decay of certain atoms, are fundamentally random and cannot, in principle, be predicted. This right here is our answer. These phenomenon's are used by hardware random number generators to generate a truly (from our perspective, at this time) random number.

The hardware number generators are used by poker sites to shuffle the deck and are thoroughly tested by independent third parties. The implementation of the generator differs per site but you can be sure the deck is shuffled more randomly then a dealer in a live game ever will.

I hope this article provided some insight in how the deck is shuffled in an online poker game. It's pretty sick the state of an atom (about 1 million times as small as the thickness of a hair) is responsible for the cards you get. So next time you suffer a bad beat, think of this article, count to ten, and blame the atoms!

NOTE: I only know for a fact PokerStars , Carbon Poker , and PokerNordica use certified random number generators. If you're not sure about the software you use, drop them an email.

Howto play AA ?

2007-10-14T00:18:00.000-07:00

How to play Aces post-flop in deep stack situations ?

This hand is from the PokerStars $11 Sunday Hundred Grand - the largest tournament on the net with over 17,000 players. The standard in this tournament is typically quite bad, with most players playing either too wild or too predictably, with the average hand usually following pretty basic and predictable patterns.

The hand

Blinds were 25/50 with no ante.

Player one is under the gun with a stack of 2740.

Player two is in the small blind with 2830.

Player one limped under the gun for 50.

All other players folded round to player two in the small blind who raises to 200 with AsAd.

The big blind folds and player one calls - leaving the pot at 450.

The flop is 7sQc10c.

Player two bets 399 and player one calls - leaving the pot at 1248.

Turn is the Qh.

Player two checks and player one bets 500 - Player two calls after thinking for a while - leaving the pot at 2248.

The river is the 3s.

Player two checks and player one goes all in for 1641 which player two instantly calls.

Player one turns over 8c9c for a missed open ended straight and flush draw and player twos aces and queens wins the pot.

Analysis

The reason I picked this hand is afterwards some players at the table called player two an idiot while others complimented him for making a great play - any hand that divides player opinions like this is always interesting.

The pre-flop action is pretty standard in a tournament like this: player one wants to see a flop with a suited connector and player two wants to build a pot with aces. Calling a smallish re-raise from a player in the small blind is ok from player one - a suited connector is a good hand to take a flop with in position with decent stacks behind.

The flop is a great flop for both players - over pair for player two and flush draw and open-ended straight draw for player one. Player two makes an interesting bet - 399 into a pot of 450 - which sells the hand nicely (think of shops selling goods at $3.99 instead of $4 - a subtle psychological ploy), while also pricing out draws.

Player one elects to just call this bet with their monster (8c9c is actually a 5% favourite over aces on the flop) probably wanting to hit one of their 15 outs before committing all of their stack.

The turn comes the Qh - a dangerous card for player two as it is quite likely player one called with a hand like KQ/QJ/AQ pre-flop and has now made trips - and elects to check. Player one bets 500 into a pot of 1248.

In my opinion this bet gives away a huge amount of information about their hand. Firstly, it is unlikely that they have a queen or a full house, nearly all low stakes players would check their trips/full house in this spot, hoping that they can let you catch up and trap you for more bets later. Secondly, that they do have a hand of some kind - it is rare at these stakes that players will make advanced plays like calling large bets on the flop and value bet bluffing the turn.

This leaves a variety of hands left - straight draws, flush draws and possibly hands like 88, 99, or JJ (they may think you have AK and are genuinely trying to get value from their hand) - all of which Aces are beating. In the face of these factors I think player two’s flat call is good for one reason - how the river will be played.

If the river comes a club or a card that fills a straight draw (all of which could give player one trips if they hold a medium pocket pair), player one is likely to value bet the river and aces can be folded easily.

If none of these cards come then player one is probably going to either a) check the hand down, or b) put in a big bet bluff on the river. Either of these options is desirable for player two if a blank river comes - either way a big pot is won - the only question is how big.

Player two’s check when the three comes out is not actually a defensive move - it is a trap. I think this is pretty likely considering the instant call player two makes. Surely they would think for at least a second if they were worried about trip Queens or a full house? After all, they put in a long pause on the turn thinking about the 500 bet.
Good luck and don t forget ... Pocket acesr are not invincible ! Don t overvalue them !

Online Poker Winners last week

2007-10-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Betonpoker congratulates the following players who Final Tabled the following MTTs this weekend:

PokerStars Sunday Million
$1 Million Guaranteed
Buy-In: $215
6,330 entrants
$1,266,000 paid out to 900 places

Haligon - $182,050
TeamWispy - $94,823
hansou - $68,237
dh3684 - $53,172
PkrHolic - $40,638
bb55 - $29,118
fladfisk111 - $20,889
zoomboy - $12,660
Urlings - $7,849

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up
$400k Guaranteed
Buy-In: $215
2,104 entrants
$420,800 paid out to 270 places

MasterJNeel - $82,560
nicava - $41,659
Zugwat - $29,624
youscareppl - $23,985
bjerke1972 - $18,809
Yank46 - $14,180
Kenny Rap - $9,972
Mrsgardener - $6,185
postmannen - $3,703

PokerStars Second Chance
$200k Guaranteed
Buy-In: $215
1,071 entrants
$214,200 paid out to 153 places

downosaur - $46,053
bigpman8 - $25,339
777toome - $17,136
troster16 - $13,708
Livin on Luk - $11,031
PieOhMy - $8,353
bds18 - $6,211
Dude Seeger - $4,284
g8nana - $2,463

PokerStars 150k Guaranteed NLH
Buy-In: $215 with Rebuys
263 entrants
$209,00 paid out to 27 places

AJKHoosier1 - $57,475
UGOTPZD - $36,575
Pwnasaurus - $24,244
ocrowe - $16,720
ch0ppy - $12,540
rockets23 - $9,405
charder30 - $7,315
muchbetter - $5,434
youwannaknow - $3,553

PokerStars High Stakes Showdown
Buy-In: $10,300
4 entrants
$40,000 paid out to 2 places

1 $tinger 88 - $25,000
2 lftarii - $15,000

200k Guranteed
Buy-In: $215
937 entrants
$200,000 paid out to 100 places

mnsprout - $45,000
Tool_Triad - $26,500
Uli Kunkel - $18,000
Trifecta07 - $13,100
Ruprikkt - 10,500
Tha_karas1212 - $8,500
IDoUrDaughter - $6,500
ELMO_MASK - $4,500
woot woot - $3,400
Runarsson - $2,000

World Blogger Championship

2007-10-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

PokerStars is home to the world's largest online poker tournaments and qualifies more players for World Series of Poker Satellites, the World Poker Tour, and the European Poker Tour than any other internet poker site.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5969206

From now until the end of 2007, if you make your first-ever real money deposit, PokerStars will give you a 100% bonus up to $50. Use the bonus code "First2007" to begin earning your extra cash.
Play at PokerStars , the number one site on the Internet for poker tournaments.

The Pokerbowl

2007-10-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Poker League has announced the PokerBowl, a competition in which 25 U.S. cities will compete for a national title. The event is set to kick off on October 20th, 2007 in Las Vegas, and many cities are scrambling to fill their rosters with the best talent that poker has to offer.

Some have already secured local pros willing to represent their hometowns. Lee Watkinson will play for Seattle, T.J. Cloutier for Dallas and Paul Darden jr. for Boston. Other teams have made chemistry a priority, rounding up players that know each other well. Full Tilt pros Clonie Gowen and Chris Ferguson with play for Houston alongside 2006 WSOP 3rd place finisher Michael Binger. Meanwhile, Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly feel confident representing host city Las Vegas with pals Antonio Esfandiari and Danny Masterson.

Although ‘poker rankings’ have yet to be established, one team likely to top such a list would be the “Denver High Rollers.” With solid players Paul Wasicka, Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso already on board, the team recently added father and son powerhouse, poker legend Doyle Brunson and his son Todd.

As the event nears, many questions still linger. How will team-poker fare in the primarily player-independent game of poker? What strategies will teams employ and to what degree will team chemistry be a factor? With the PokerBowl set to air on Fox Sports beginning in early 2008, these questions will soon be answered.

Bluffing in live games

2007-10-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

When many players bluff in live games they go to great lengths to try and be as serious and still as possible. They will sit motionless, hold their breath, avoid eye contact, anything to try and give off the gravity of the play they have made. They want you to believe they have a big hand (to go with their big bet) and to display the seriousness of the situation and the power of their holding.

This is typical human behaviour when trying to deceive people. The ‘mad genius’ of poker - Mike Caro has frequently talked about how humans try and disguise their actions by behaving in the opposite manner to their true cards.
People seem to associate seriousness with strength for obvious reasons; many of the most powerful institutions in the world maintain an aura of seriousness at all times-the royal family, the police, the government, the tax man - the list goes on and on. If a player seems to be exuding serious behaviours they will often be bluffing - it is an instinctual cultural behave when trying to show your power over somebody.

Compare this with when a player is holding the stone cold nuts - it is very hard to act in a serious manner when you are holding an unbeatable hand. There are two simple reasons for this; firstly, the hand is already won, the player feels no stress about how to win the actual pot; secondly, the player is no longer trying to dominate their opponent; they simply want to influence them into getting more money in the pot.
Influencing people looks like it requires some kind of stimulation (think of basic propaganda techniques) and leads people to think that by moving, talking, laughing, or using an object (a cigarette for example) that they will persuade the player threat they are lying about their hand and that their bet is a bluff. If a weak player is doing any of these things often they will not be bluffing.

Remember that these sort of behaviours are not fool proof. Many of the top pros go into the tank with both big hands and bluffs alike (Phil Hellmuth or Phil Laak are good examples of this), while others will talk and move with both bluffs and hands (Tony G or Mike Caro, for example). Any player doing well in a game will probably not be giving off consistent tells - try and focus on the more predictable behaviour of the losers in a game and punish them accordingly.

* a great article by Philip Tuck

Thomas Bihl

2007-09-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

Thomas Bihl Wins First Ever WSOPE Bracelet

A German player primarily known for playing online has won the first World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) event...

German player Thomas Bihl , who plays under the screen name "Buzzer" online, has seen off one of the most high class fields ever seen in a World Series of Poker event to taken down the very first WSOPE bracelet.

The event, a £2,500 HORSE tournament, saw a final table that boasted nine WSOP bracelets among the contenders including Jennifer Harman and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Bihl is sponsored by the poker division of WSOPE offial sponsor Betfair which is great news for the poker site.

The action took place in London Club International's new casino The Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square. The £10,000 main event will begin there tomorrow.

Bihl started the day in the middle of the pack with the final table chip counts and seat assignments looking like this:

Seat 1: Jennifer Harman — 204,000
Seat 2: Gary Jones — 30,000
Seat 3: Joe Beevers — 74,500
Seat 4: Kirk Morrison — 172,500
Seat 5: Thomas Bihl — 130,500
Seat 6: Yuval Bronshtein — 185,500
Seat 7: Alex Kravchenko — 114,500
Seat 8: Chris Ferguson — 142,500

Before taking down the £70,875 for first place Bihl ad said: "It's not the easiest field I will ever face but I'm so happy to get this far in a field of 105 of the best players in the world. I think I have every chance now. A few key pots and I could be the first WSOP Europe bracelet winner."

There were two players on home turf who both final tabled the event: Gary 'The Choirboy' Jones and Joe 'The Elegance' Beevers, who is well-known to British poker fans for being part of North London poker gang the Hendon Mob. They came 8th and 7th, picking up £9,188 and £11,812 respectively.

Here is the final-table finishing order with pay-outs:

1. Thomas Bihl £70,875
2. Jennifer Harman £40,688
3. Kirk Morrison £26,250
4. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson £21,700
5. Alex Kravchenko £17,850
6. Yuval Bronshtein £14,438
7. Joe Beevers £11,812
8. Gary Jones £9,188

SunPoker crazy Promo !

2007-09-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

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High stakes Poker is back !

2007-09-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

As you can see this is one of my favorite shows to come out of the poker boom. How can you not love a show where you get to see Daniel Negreanu push all-in for a million dollars of his own money?

There's something really enjoyable about watching the best of the best together and seeing how they get along -- or don't. In one episode Todd Brunson basically says that Sean Sheikhan can't play and will lose all his money soon -- and Brunson is going to enjoy that -- for instance.

I also enjoy how players come and go throughout the episodes, so while there's a continuity in the players that stay from show to show, there's a fresh element each episode too, and you can see how the dynamic of the game changes as the lineup does. There's also just something very unique and exciting about watching people play with hundreds of thousands of dollars of their own money that can't be beat.

I ll let you enjoy another part from this amazing poker show !

Tonight players : Brian Brandon, Todd Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Antonio Solario and Haralabus Voulgaris .

For a great experience try this : Interwetten

Hellmuth vs Matusow

2007-08-29T00:46:00.000-07:00

This is the first crash in High Stakes Poker season 4 ...
After Antonio Esfandiari came up with a proposal that whoever wins a hand with 7 2 ... will get 500 $ from every player .. the show was rollin...

Enjoy it !

High Stakes Poker

2007-08-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

The ever popular Game Show Network (GSN) has announced the airing of a brand new season of its hot live High Stakes Poker show. Season four is scheduled to air its first episode on August 27th at 6pm PST. The show will be taped from the gorgeous South Point Hotel and Casino located in Sin City! Commentaries will be done by the show's favorite duo AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan. The show starts with buy ins of only $100,000. However, come the 5th of November, High Stakes Poker does the unthinkable and raises the stakes a little higher making the minimum buy in to half a million dollars!

There will be 17 episodes in the fourth season featuring famous poker pros such as Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Antonio Solorio, Phil 'The Unabomber' Laak and many more including the player with the most Gold WSOP bracelets ever making his appearance after a 2 season absence, Phil Hellmuth. In the final 7 episodes of the season you are guaranteed high stakes, fun and excitement! You will also be pleased with the appearances of some of your favorite well known poker names and personas such as Sammy Farha, Patrik Antonius, Jamie Gold and of course, Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson.

The action on those $500k buy in episodes is really fast.
It's all in fun, but with the money so high with the new elevated buy in, the tensions run kind of high as well, and that makes for good television. Be sure to check out the new season of High Stakes Poker .

We will be uploading all the high stakes poker season 4 videos to this site each week, so be sure to add this site to your favourites and come back in august to watch all the episodes of high stakes poker season 4. No poker show apart from the world poker tour episodes come close to matching high stakes poker, compulsive viewing and a must see for any true poker fan.