Poker Player magazine has announced their list of winners for the 2008 European Poker Awards. The European Poker Awards have been in existence for several years and the recent batch of poker winners was recently announced at a glittering gala dinner and awards ceremony at the Aviation Club de France in Paris, the magazine reports. There were several categories of awards, ranging from online poker player of the year to rookie of the year, and a lifetime achievement award Player of the Year was Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier, who won several major tournaments in 2008, including a World Poker tour victory. Rookie of the Year -was Ivan Demidov, who made final tables in both the World Series Of Poker and WSOP Europe main events. Tournament Performance of the Year was given to Scandanavian Peter Eastgate, who won the WSOP main event last year. The Lifetime Achievement achievement award was given to Dutchman Marcel Luske, whom many of you who watched televised casino online tournaments may recognize for his eccentric style and propensity to sing show tunes during hands. For all you European players out there, whether just beginning or veterans, just remember: if you constantly work on improving your game and play well enough in 2009, perhaps you can win one of these prestigious awards as well. Remember, it’s not a popularity contest or only for famous players, if you win a lot, you will get recognized. For more information on the awards, check out Poker Player online at www.pokerplayernewspaper.com.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 11:54 AM CST
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There comes a point near the end of many kinds of poker player’s session where they tend toward one extreme of exit play or anotherthey get tight, wanting to keep their winning for the night, or they get loose, wanting to make some of their money back or gamble with what they’ve won. Some players will nearly turn off completely once they’ve hit a certain level of profit, playing only to see if the cards will deal them the nuts a time or two again before they go for good, ever mindful of being protective of the stack they’ve built.
These types of players might be waiting for a specific time they’ve set to leave, or for the poker table to finish a final orbit to maximize their free hand time, or they might just not feel like getting up yet. Often, though, these players will fold the majority of their hands, and every now and then will get involved for a raise. Much of the time, when set in off mode, these players won’t come into a hand without a huge one. You can often assume that when they raise preflop they have a big pair, and getting involved against them likely won’t have big implied odds, as they are already one foot out the door. Remember this when you play poker online.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 10:08 AM CST
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In Texas Hold ‘Em, the fourth card to come out is the Turn card. This card typically separates the made winning hands from the weak ones. That’s because when the turn comes out, online poker players still in the pot will have a good idea about the best hand that can made and where their own hands stand in relation to potential winner. Few players are willing to lose any more chips at this point if they don’t have made hand or lots of outs.
When a player bets aggressively on the turn, it’s best to believe that online poker player has already made a big hand. You must be very judicious about calling a turn card bet. Smooth calling a turn bet, without the nuts in your hand, is most often trouble. When a raise comes out on the turn, you’ll probably need more than a good pair to call.
Obviously, if you’re heads up against a player you know to be a loose aggressive player, then you must adjust your strategy for that type of opponent. When there are multiple poker players remaining after the turn card comes out, then the board is presenting too many possible ways to win. If your hand in not already a big made winner or a draw to the winner with a lot of outs, then get out of the way.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 9:42 AM CST
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Big stacks have a tendency to happen quickly, many times over the course of just one or two online poker hands. Usually after a night of small wins and losses, an online poker player will find himself on the winning end of a monster hand and will suddenly be the chip leader at his table. The main problem with this sudden state of wealth is that many players will try to ride that momentum to the end of the game. They’ll start playing looser and more aggressively and will try to use their stack to make short work of their opponents, trying to force them to go all in with a wide variety of starting hands. The problem with that is that often you’ll end up building up your opponent’s stacks at your own expense. Pushing poker players all in and giving them a chance to outdraw you will end up burning you in the long run, costing you the big stack and possibly the tournament. When you find yourself to be the big stack, slow your game down. Don’t try to double your stack with every hand-you’re not desperate, so don’t act as if you are. Take down small, low risk pots and steal blinds. If you build your stack slowly, you’ll build it surely.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 11:19 AM CST
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I am not a mathematician. Never have been, probably never will be. The hard facts of math just don’t appeal to me. I prefer the softer sciences where it is necessary to infer and understand the totality of a situation, much like reading the situation at a online poker table. However, in the modern poker environment, we can’t all stick our heads in the sand and hope the numbers will go away.
For the less mathematically inclined, here is a brief primary on the most common poker online mathematical terms. Probability is the most common term by far because poker online players use probability to calculate the potential of receiving potential cards, or making a good hand. Probabilities are normally expressed in a percentage or a faction, for example 25% or . If you ever find a probability that is 0%, it means that there is actually no chance of the event occurring. Lower percentages have less chance of occurring, while higher percentages have more chance of occurring. Odds, on the other hand, express the chance of an event not occurring. You can think of odds as a negative probability is that make sit easier to handle. To further add to the confusion, odds are also expressed in a percentage. Learning the terms will put you in the best position to learn what you need to know in order to succeed at Texas Holdem.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 3:12 PM CDT
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Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournaments can be formatted for short or long play. A deep stack tournament at the casino starts with large amounts and typically has longer blind intervals designed to allow extended play.
A deep stack tournament provides some leeway early on. It can be approached like a cash game in the early stages because your stack starts out large, and the blinds are not going to erode your chips quickly. Getting your chips into the pot early with good cards can add more ammunition to your deep stack.
Unlike sit-n-go tournaments with short stacks and fast blinds, the deep stack format lets you make more value bets to get information. If you play too conservatively early on, you give other players the opportunity to fortify their stacks against you. Instead, you can use your chips to get useful information about the other players’ styles without drastically depleting your stack during the early stages. You might even win or steal a pot with some aggressive play.
A deep stack lets you chase more speculative hands early in the tournament too. These types of tournaments are not the place for ’scared money.’ The beauty of deep stack contests is the ability to play more hands than you would in a sit-n-go or small multi-table poker events.
A deep stack tournament is not a blank check for just peeling off your chips. It is a format that lets you be a little more ‘playful’ in your decision making to bet or raise.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 10:26 AM CDT
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The winner of this year’s WSOP Hold ‘Em event, Peter Eastgate had a bit of a problem on his hands at the final play of the tournament. As any seasoned poker player knows, the game is divided into two basic categories: math and psychology.
And here was Eastgate’s problem. He held the A of diamonds and 5 of spades and the board ended up giving him the straight. Now on the math side of things, Eastgate’s looking good. His opponent, Ivan Demidov, could only hold 12 hands that could beat him (I won’t go into the math here), and that may sound daunting. Well, it did until you realize that only that 12 was out of 990 total possible poker hands, making the probability right around 1%.
Sure enough, the math was right on and Demidov only held two pair, but what of the psychology. Surely Eastgate had to be feeling pretty excited, but the obstacle he has to overcome is to not give his opponent the psychological advantage. That is, Eastgate had to make sure Demidov didn’t know that he was beat.
And if you’re no stranger to poker you realize this isn’t always as easy as it seems. What it came down to was the betting patterns . Eastgate limped to begin with and Demidov checked. Flop came 2-K-3, which put Eastgate on a flush draw, so he value bets 1.25M. Again Demidov calls. River comes a 4 which makes Eastgate’s flush, this time he follows with a continuation bet, and this is why it didn’t look tricky. Eastgate’s continuation bet here simply assured Demidov that the game was still on, so Demidov check-raised to 6M. Eastgate paused then made the call.
The 7 on the river all but sealed it for Demidov. Confident now that he had the winning hand, he pushed all in to which Eastgate immediately called. His straight beat Demidov’s two pairs of 2s and 4s. It was Eastgate’s value bet that let Demidov think that he was betting on a high pair (probably the king), and the continuation bet that allowed him to take it all the way.
Posted by admin as Fun Stuff, Online Games, World Of Gambling at 10:49 AM CST
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