partypocker - The Pros and Cons of Moving All in
The all in bet can often be the one most feared by a poker player as it?s implications to a chipstack and and entire tournament can be huge. Unless of course you are holding the best hand possible, you will always have to think very carefully before calling such a bet, and the same goes for if you are making the bet in the first place.
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The first obvious good and bad points surrounding the all in bet are the possibilities after the hand has been decided, either you lose the maximum possible or you make the maximum possible in chips considering your opponents stack, but the strength of the bet can of course force a player to fold and the pot can be picked up there and then which is never a bad thing.
Even if you had (A,A) preflop, obviously you would prefer a call here but at least you havnt been called and outdrawn. Many players use this type of bet when bluffing because it is shows so much strength and indicates you have a hand to back it up, to the opposing player, but if you decide to risk it all in this manner you should certainly have this courage allied with some reading skills that tell you your opponent will fold.
The dangers however are that if your reading skills are not accurate, the moment you push all in, you have immediately taken all your options, and possiblities of getting out of the hand alive, away. I do think that if you feel your reads on a player are generally good then in the right circumstances, the all in bet is a good one to make because you give yourself good chances to win the pot, firstly by your opponent folding, secondly by your hand winning the pot at showdown, note that the opposing player calling the bet can only win the pot by beating your hand at a showdown.
An all in bet I feel always gains more strength if you have placed a bet on a preceding round of betting too, ths indicates to your opponent that you were very strong and wanted to build the pot a little without forcing them out of the hand, before making an all in raise on the following round of betting.
Whichever way you choose to bet during hands it is important that the aforementioned reading of your opponent is a catalyst in you making the all in bet, if you choose to make this bet randomly then of course, you might get away with it once or twice but you are leaving yourself wide open to walking into a made hand, and the moment all those chips cross the felt, there?s no turning back.
Full Tilt Poker Player Sponsorships
Full Tilt have always had an excellent team which includes some of the finest players ever seen, however, one of their lesser known sponsored players was recently deemed to have allowed other people to access his account and play in his name.
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This in itself directly contravenes the rules of almost any gaming site, Full Tilt included, and it was good to see Full Tilt display a zero tolerance policy on the players perceived show of dishonesty and they immediately severed all links to the player Jonathan Little alias ‘Fiery Justice’. This gives out a clear message about Full Tilts standards when it comes to members of their team, they will only allow those of an honest nature to be part of their team and those that fly the Full Tilt flag must be impeccable in their conduct.
After all, if customers sit down at a table with a pro player they need to be able to trust that it is indeed that person they are playing against, and it is good to see this standard being rigorously upheld. This case of a team member behaving improperly is of course an isolated one and the team at Full Tilt as a whole is made from both the most talented players around and those of the highest levels of integrity, names such as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson are fantastic to watch and all make fine ambassadors for both Full Tilt and poker as a whole.
As some of the major tournaments begin to loom closer this year it will be many of these skilled players who will be seen making it deep into major tournaments and there should be little doubt that 2008 will be another great year for all the great players sponsored by Full Tilt.
Bodog Poker Review
Bodog poker has some good offers running and a $100,000 freeroll available on a weekly basis for those who can qualify. Also there are satellites to major land based tournaments available and for those that enjoy playing ring games, those at Bodog is notorious for attracting weaker players to cash games and so can be very profitable for the more expeienced player.
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The site itself has been established for 10 years and the poker aspect of the site has been running for 4 years and has an excellent reputation. The games on offer are the usual and expected games which are played most often, Omaha, 7 card Stud, Holdem in No limit, Pot Limit, and Limit formats.
The onsite lobby is very accessible and easy to use, games can be found, and tournaments entered with relative ease, the graphics and gameplay look very impressive and of a high quality too. The support and help aspects of the site are said to be friendly and reliable and this helps to make the site the success that it is, for a player starting out there is a minimum deposit limit of $20, although for a first time deposit there is a 110% cash match bonus, this is subject to completing a certain number of hands within the first month, this shouldnt be too much of a worry though and is relatively attainable for the average player.
Another innovative idea that Bodog has in effect is tournaments aimed solely at the beginner with a higher percentage of placings being paid out to, which really helps first time players on site build some sort of starting bankroll. It has to be said that Bodog is an impressive site and an enjoyable one to play on, with good offers on for beginners, and many gauranteed prize pool tournaments for the more seasoned player, is certainly a place in which I would be happy to play.
Aussie Millions Info
The Aussie Millions tournament has enjoyed a vast amount of attention over the past few years and has quickly grown in stature to become one of the most important live tournaments on the poker calendar. It has been running in its current format for around 7 years and is held at the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne, in January each year, giving the tournament its proper title, ‘The Crown Australian Poker Championship’.
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The number of participants has been on the increase each year and the prize pools for the main event have consequently been larger each time the tournament comes round, this has been helped along a great deal by television coverage over the past few years, and some of the most renowned faces in poker have been seen squaring off in some truly classic duels.
This year has seen a young 21 year old by the name of Alexander Kostritsyn take home a life changing sum of $1.65 million and the Aussie Millions title, but with a great favourite of poker fans, Gus Hansen, winning the event the previous year, and other high profile names such as Phil Ivey, and Erik Seidel playing extremely well and going far in the tournament, it has been a real showpiece on the live major tournament schedule in recent years.
As this tournament continues to grow and gain recognition with each passing year, it is unsurprising that it has quickly established itself as one of the most coveted tournament titles among many of the professional players. With next years Aussie Millions tournament prize pool probably exceeding $8 million, it should make great viewing, as some of the finest poker players on the planet will be battling for both supremacy over their opponents, and the prize money that goes with it.
Old Movies Featuring Pocker
When looking at the older, pocker based movies, ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ is a very notable one which embodies much of the understandings of pocker in it’s day.
Included in the film are some famous lines, such as ‘that’s what it’s all about, doing the wrong thing at the right time’ although in reality, doing the right thing at the right time is a more accurate portrayal of the object of 888 pacific pocker. Dating back further still, are films such as ‘The Gambler’ and ‘Three Godfathers’ all including pocker playing with a rather dated interpretation of the game, and with somewhat unrealistic pocker play, but these films can still provide some entertainment of course, to those that enjoy the older movies. Sites like 888 pacific pocker are the best sites to try your pocker skills learned in these classic pocker movies.
As far as pocker movies from a later era go, ‘The Sting’ from 1973 is a well known and popular one with the storyline hingeing on men who are ultimately trying to out cheat each other on a train during a game of pocker, and is certainly an enjoyable film for it’s time too.
One theme which is always recurring in these older movies I find, is the attitudes towards pocker in those days being very visible, with shady characters and criminals always drinking, and cheating each other out of money. As such it is debateable as to whether many of these older pocker movies really do anything for the game itself, mostly I feel that, although they can be very enjoyable to watch, they serve as a constant reminder of how far pocker, and the average persons opinion of the game have moved on from several decades ago.
As the times and opinions change towards pocker, of course the often do too, and I personally have heard rumours of a much more up to date pocker based film being made at the moment, and with the recent surge of interest in the game it seems very possible indeed.
I shall definitely be keeping an eye out for it, if and when it is released, and with any luck it can throw off the old cliches of pocker and be a real hit.
Until then, head on over to 888 pacific pocker and brush up on your pocker skills so that you can appreciate these great movies!
Pockerstars and the WSOP
Each year some of the finest pocker players around can be seen competing at the WSOP, amongst these are professionals who have been sponsored by pockerstars, and also a number of players who have gained access to the tournament through satellites onsite. Sign Up Today at pockerstars and you never know, we may profile you next!
Through sites such as pockerstars online pocker players have the chance to compete on pockers biggest stage and some of these online qualifiers have been extremely successful too, Chris Moneymaker, for instance, having been an internet qualifier for the tournament, went on to win the main event and is now part of the pockerstars sponsored team of influential professionals.
Other illustrious names that can be found both at the WSOP and playing on pockerstars site are, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Tuan Lam amongst others. With such a list of professionals adorned with the ‘pockerstars’ logo, the amount of new players that take the time to check out the site must be numerous, especially given that these sponsored players often make it far into the WSOP and consequently see their fair share of cameras giving coverage on the event.
As the site grows further over the coming years as I am sure it will, expect to see more internet qualifying players and players sponsored by pockerstars getting deep into major tournaments, both at the WSOP and all across the globe.
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Partypocker Player Profile - Phil Hellmuth jr
Phil Hellmuth jr A.K.A ‘The pocker Brat’ gained his nickname from his occassional fiery outbursts at the pocker tables, particularly when lady luck decides to be less than pleasant towards him.
You could be just like Phil and play in the WSOP poker by practicing your skils at partypocker.
He is however, widely regarded as one of the greatest pocker players on the planet and once famously quipped ‘if there was no luck involved in pocker, I’d win every time’ and with his unrivalled total of 11 World Series bracelets, it would be difficult to argue against this claim.
Phil was born on July 16th 1964 in Wisconsin and began his pocker playing in college, gradually building up enough money to pay off his tuition fees. It wasn’t long though before Phil moved onto the bigger stage and eventually won the WSOP main event in 1989 at the young age of 24, he continues to play at, and be extremely successful in the WSOP.www.partypocker.com
He has an estimated career earnings total of over $9 million and has had several books on pocker published which hold a wealth of wisdom for both amateurs and seasoned professionals alike.
With this years World Series just around the corner he will no doubt be preparing for his attempt to extend his lead over Doyle Brunson (10) and Johnny Chan (10) in the WSOP bracelet count.
With a glittering pocker career thus far and one of the best all round games out there, who would bet against him moving further ahead of the two pocker legends hot on his heels at this years World Series.
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Pockerstars.com Player Profile - 2007 WSOP Finalist Tuan Lam
Tuan Lam was born on the 1st of January 1966 in Vietnam and after emigrating to canada aged 19 he took on labouring jobs earn his living, but after being laid off from his job in a metal working company, he then had little choice but to take on a job as a card dealer he was offered at a small local game, and immediately began to gain an interest in the game of pocker.
As his pocker game developed he started to set his sights higher and began to look to the World Series as the place to truly test himself. Some successes followed at the WSOP in 2005 and 2006 with cash finishes, his achievment in 2007 however, was a huge step up from anything he had achieved before, especially as he regards himself as primarily a pockerstars.com cash game specialist.
His finish of 2nd place in 2007 earned him over $4.5 million and a great amount respect on the pocker circuit, he has also since become a member of pockerstars.com distinguished team of professional players and plays on their site, mainly in limit cash games.
With his commitments to pockerstars taking him to an increasing number of tournaments as well as his usual, and favoured cash games, he may well be a name to look out for at this years main event too.
Having had such an excellent tournament last year, I am sure many of the top names, and indeed any other player, will be wary of him if they find themselves seated at his pockerstars.com table.
Profile on Doyle Brunson
Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson was born on the 10th of August 1933 and didnt always harbour ambitions of becoming a poker superstar, he was a keen basketball player through college but a badly broken leg unfortunately ended these aspirations. And so it was that Doyle started putting more time and energy into playing poker, with a natural gift for the game he soon began to develop his reading abilities and all round game to a level where he was regularly cleaning up at all the local games. After several years of roaming from town to town with his friends to win cash at poker, he inevitably found himself in Las Vegas where he could play with the best players around. Eventually, some years later, he went on to win back to back WSOP main event titles in 1976 and 1977 and Amazingly, won both of these tournaments with (10,2) in the hole on the final hand, making a full house both times.
His nickname ‘Dolly’ came about by chance when an announcer misread the name Doyle, and he has been known across the poker tournaments as ‘Dolly’ to this day. As well as being perhaps the greatest poker player that has ever lived he is also an accomplished writer on the subject and has several books published, the most famous of which was, Super/System and as he once said, divulges so much strategy that it has probably cost him money rather than making him any. Despite this he remains at the age of 75, one of the most successful poker players in the world today with estimated live tournament earnings of around $5.3 million, and will be looking to increase his WSOP bracelet haul to a record equalling 11 when the World Series begins this year.
Lucky Charms in Poker
It is unusual you might think that seasoned poker players who learn the logic and skill of the game very carefully, could entertain the notion that some type of inanimate object may somehow bring them fortune, and of course there really isnt any basis for this in logical thinking, so why do we often see people with different lucky charms and the most outlandish of things set upon their cards when they are playing? I think all of us in some way or other take notice when we happen to be wearing the same shirt as we did last time we played and won a tournament or we may have something that we kept with us and then had a similar amount of good luck.
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I think this could mostly be attributed to coincidence of course, but even I, have had my own experiences of this when I used the same first deck of cards I ever bought to play poker with my friends. Having only just discovered poker we often played five card draw which is largly a game of luck, for some reason though I always seemed to be fortuitous when using my own deck, there was nothing extraordinary about that particular deck, they just seemed to give me the cards I needed more often than they didnt. I played with that deck for around two years until they got too worn to use anymore, and I still wonder when buying a new deck of cards if they might hold the same magic in them, but alas, they never do.
It is probably just a fluke that I seemed to get a lot of luck with my previous deck of cards, or a trick of the mind, perhaps I was merely remembering more of the good hands than the bad, but I still feel such lucky trinkets and habits have their place in poker. Even if your charms dont actually bring you luck as such, they may serve the purpose of giving you a little extra confidence in some way and perhaps do help your game along, after all, I know I personally, play better poker when I am in a positive frame of mind. So if you feel that you have something which brings you luck in your poker games, whether it be at home or in casinos or wherever, by all means bring it with you, you never know what effect it might have, even if the effects are superficial and of your own minds making.