Introduction.

It seems to be a quiet period for poker tournaments in bricks and mortar casinos - but the opportunities to enter online poker satellites for future tournaments are as strong as ever. Playing in online satellite tournaments is a great way to find out if you really are ready to take on the big boys at poker, as only the winner will be invited to attend the actual poker tournament – usually at the expense of the poker website running the satellite.

What are poker satellites?

No dear - sending your cards into orbit is nothing to do with poker satellites!

Originally a poker satellite was just one poker table giving the winner a seat at a big championship like the WSOP. Nowadays, especially for online poker satellites, they are multi-table poker games creating a super satellite poker environment that will draw in really inexperienced players who, if you’ve been reading our articles carefully, should be easy pickings for you. Poker satellites are an ideal way to get into those bigger tournaments as although your aim is to play tournament poker, you can play the satellite exactly the same as you play your regular poker game. The only thing you’ve got to remember is you’re playing to win the satellite, so play the long game. Most poker websites will give you a fixed amount of chips to play with and you have to build a winning stack from that, you can’t buy extra chips during the satellite – a big incentive to avoid betting when you can call!

Poker website generosity.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the terms “poker website” and “generosity” go together, especially if you’re only breaking even with them at the moment. But the fact is that when it comes to poker satellites – poker website generosity becomes a reality. Not only do they give you chips to start playing in the satellite but they’ll also offer a range of other bonuses for you. OK, so you get to a poker tournament or championship – but what about the buy-ins, no worries the poker website will give you cash for the buy-ins. What about travel and accommodation – again no worries the poker website will also take care of those.

Introduction.

It was only a few weeks ago that we were speculating if 2011 could be the year that finally sees a federal law passed to legalize online poker in the States, following the news that the “Internet Poker Act 2010” was managing to make some progress. However, internet poker players everywhere this week should breath a sigh of relief as one State, New Jersey, having tired of the interminable deliberations in Washington – have passed their own State laws legalizing online poker games.

New Jersey Online Gambling Legislation.

Legalized online poker in New Jersey - just waiting for his signature.

Back in November 2010 the New Jersey Senate passed an Internet Gambling Bill and this week, January 2011, saw the State Assembly vote 63-11 in favor of approving the Bill that will allow internet wagering throughout the State of New Jersey – with effect from July 4^th 2011. The only thing that can now prevent playing online poker from being completely legal would be the intervention of Governor Chris Christie. The Bill is now in his office for signing or vetoing. To date he’s not had much to say about the Bill and is expected to sign it or at least ignore it for 45 days, in which case it becomes law anyway.  As the name of the Bill implies it won’t just legalize sitting at an online poker table but will cover all online betting such as casino games and sports bets.

The New Jersey payoff!

Needless to say the move to legalize online poker and gambling by the New Jersey politicians isn’t without an ulterior motive. They see the opening up of legalized online gambling and poker as an opportunity to raise taxes and to help the Atlantic City casinos. To that end the online casinos and poker websites etc will all have to be hosted by an Atlantic City casino. One result of this is that, with the federal laws still as they are, only US residents in New Jersey will be able to play them online, despite the anomaly of overseas players being able to register accounts and play at will through NJ hosted gambling websites. Another potential downside is that with NJ ring-fencing online gambling the big international gambling and poker websites like PokerStars etc could well cease operating in NJ, the same as they did in Washington State. That would mean NJ poker players only being able to play against ‘local’ opposition; missing out on playing against the big name poker players.

Introduction

With a very welcome break over the Christmas period comes the opportunity for even more rookie poker players to start enjoying the delights of online poker games. So, for those rookies out there, what tips and advice can we give them to make sure they get the most out of their Christmas holiday poker?

Who knows - you might even get to play with one of Santa’s helpers?

Keep your cool.

Perhaps the first thing to remember is, the same as when you’re doing anything online, to always keep your cool. Playing poker online is pretty well the same as playing poker in a casino and you can expect to get a run of bad hands, that’s just the way the cards and dealt and not some internet conspiracy to rip you off. Similarly, if you think the poker game is running slow – before blaming the poker website you might want to check your computer settings and broadband speed, as the poker websites are rarely at fault here. After all they want to keep you playing and not going off to some other online poker game.

Know your game!

Presuming you already know the basics of playing poker and making poker bets, then you should already be familiar with the terms loose and tight play. You should try and avoid becoming a predictably loose or tight player, as the opposition will soon be able to predict what you’re going to do in certain situations and win that pot from you. So it is vital that you have a game plan that allows you to move between being a loose or tight player. However, that’s not to say you can’t also try the occasional bluff – just do make sure it is an occasional bluff.

The cost of poker.

It’s especially important as a rookie not to get too carried away too quickly with what you think you can achieve at poker. So, to remind yourself you’re still a rookie set yourself a daily cash limit and when you’ve got up to that limit, that’s enough for one day – the online poker tables will still be there tomorrow. Also, remember, you can get just as much enjoyment out of playing $1/$2 games as you can out of $100/$200 ones – the winning cards are always the same regardless of the betting stakes or pot.

Introduction

The WSOP 2010 final table started on Saturday November 6^th and was completed in the early morning of the following Monday. The nine players sat down at that final poker table were: Jonathan Duhamel, John Racener, Filippo Candio, Michael Mizrachi, Joseph Cheong, John Dolan, Jason Senti, Mather Jarvis and Soi Nguyen – so that was 6 poker players wrapped in Old Glory, two in the Maple Leaf and one in the Tricolor.

Day 1 decimation!

Day 1 turned out to be decimation day as 7 players were eliminated, leaving all of the second days play to the final two. First to go was Nguyen who must have realized what it can be like to lose a regular job, being the last one in to the 2010 WSOP final table and the first to go from it! However, Soi must have been feeling sore at the way he went out, having Ad & Kc in the hole he went out to Senti, Senti had a pair of Queens and when another Queen came at the flop – Nguyen was undone despite a King appearing at the turn. Next out was the Canadian Jarvis in another close-call game. Head-to-Head with Mizrachi, Jarvis was holding Ad & Qd with Qs, Qc & 8d on the table; whilst Jarvis held 9c & 9h. When the 9s came at the turn, the river became the vital card to see – which was nothing other than the As! Next out was Dolan, followed by Mizrachi, despite having earlier collected 30 million chips from the Senti pot. Candio, the first Italian player ever to make it to the WSOP final table, went out in 4^th place; despite having the biggest stack just an hour before being eliminated. Cheong went out in third place; leaving Racener and Duhamel to go head-to-head on Day 2.

WSOP 2010 winner.

With a stack like that - little wonder Jonathan Duhamel went on to win WSOP 2010

From the outset on Day 2 all the money was on a Duhamel win, as Duhamel held nearly 200 million chips to Racener’s meager 30 odd million! Having said, that Racener put up a good fight that took Duhamel nearly 6 hours to break down. Duhamel’s win after some 43 hands was pretty straightforward with an ace; he held As & Jh to Racener’s Kd & 8d – with 9d, 4d, 4c, 6c and 5c community cards. So, WSOP 2010 brought about another first at the final table – a win by a Canadian picking up just under $9 million and another gold bracelet.

Introduction.

Next week we’ll know for sure but the way things are going the mid-terms could prove to be mighty tough on the Democrats and, as if it’s not struggled enough anyway, could prove to be the downfall of Barney Franks’ Bill to relax the online poker and gambling laws. Although the Bill has passed through the Financial Services Committee it’s not got any further due to the impending mid-terms and a complication caused by Jim McDermott’s internet gambling tax Bill.

Stand up and be counted.

OK, so we can’t say for sure that if the Republicans gain strength from the mid-term elections that Barney Frank’s Bill is doomed, but it won’t look too good for it either. The answer then is for all online poker players and online betting fans to do their bit and make sure that the candidates who’ll help Barney Frank’s Bill to fully legalize online poker get elected. If you think that’s likely to be a one sided affair all blue and donkeys, think again as there are some Republicans out there to vote for too.

Check your candidate.

She’d sure get my vote!

If you live in New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Texas, California, Nevada or Georgia – rejoice as there are mid-term candidates you can vote for, and get your friends and fellow poker players to vote for, who will be supporting the Barney Frank legislation once the Capitol is back up and working. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has drawn up a list of 58 candidates known to be supportive of legalizing poker and 15 of them are Republicans. With all the House of Representatives all up for re-election there’s still time to exert pressure on candidates of any persuasion, who’ll all be eager for our votes and whose congress voices in favor of legalizing online poker could only help the cause.

Introduction

How many times do you hear the comment – what ever your poker game plan is stick to it, play your game and don’t get bounced into making a rash decision. Quite simply poker is a game where, so long as you can be patient, a persistent style of play will pay off for you. However, just to prove how hard that can be – even the professionals and high-rollers can forget that most basic of poker rules, which can often prove very expensive for them.

In deep – the surely you should change your play?

The problem with sticking to rigidly to a game plan is that you can become and slave to it and miss a simple opportunity to win – just because you doggedly stick to the plan. Imagine this as a potential scenario, you’re in a $3000 poker tournament and on the bubble, the next player out loses out on the pay-outs which start at $10,000. All through the session you’ve been playing aggressively and haven’t been afraid to move all-in. Things are going well with your system and playing your game seems about to pay-off. You’re holding the 10 and 6 of Diamonds, with six players around the poker table four of them fold – a wrong move now and you could be the one out. Your opponent raises pre-flop to 5000 whilst you’ve got 30,000 in front of you. What do you do?

Play your game of course.

Looks like there could be a fun pair here to play with!

So you get in and flat call it, having watched their play all evening and expect them to meekly fold. The flop shows 10h and 4d with 4s. Your reaction – why, it’s worked all session, so you move all in. Oh dear! You’re called instantly and your opponents holding 10h with the Ace of Spades – and you’re utterly undone. With two pair you should, of course have really check-raised rather than shoving all your pile in, so you missed the opportunity to change your game after the flop. OK, so you could still have lost at the river or turn, but to have gone out so easily would really hurt!

Introduction.

No need for the London fog cloud your poker play!

‘Old Blue Eyes’ himself sang about “a foggy day in London town” and if you fancy tasting the Fall weather in England and you’re a poker fan – then get yourself off to London at the end of September for the London event in the European Poker Tour (EPT). Sponsored by pokerstars this poker tournament begins September 27^th and runs all week through to October 4^th; and it will be held at the Metropole Hilton, in the heart of this city renowned for its foggy autumnal days. If you want a bit of a classic reference to what an early autumn day can be like over the pond – try Keats’ ‘Ode to Autumn’ and his “mists of mellow fruitfulness” etc.

Enough of this literary stuff – let’s get back to the poker

Yeah, yeah, yeah – I hear you, I know, you only want to read about the poker. Well, just for that – don’t forget the end of September also sees the 2010 Ryder Cup taking place in the UK at the Celtic Manor course, in the principality of Wales. So, you might just also want to pull in one of the great golfing tournaments between the top European and USA players. OK, now back to the poker.

Buy-ins and games.

Being sponsored by pokerstars there are plenty of online satellite tournaments for online poker players to qualify through if you’re not yet ready to simply register and play directly. Buy-ins start from just £30 +£6, that’s around $45 + $10 in real money, and rise up to a maximum of £5000 + £250 (c. $8000 + $400) for the Main Event and the high-roller No Limits games. The tournament is dominated by No Limit and Hold’em games, the Brits and Europeans do like their Texas Hold ‘em, but with so many NL games this won’t be a tournament for the feint hearted.

Is it worth going?

The $64,000 question – and only you can decide that. If you crash out in the first few days there is always that Ryder Cup match or you can just enjoy a short vacation in one of the most iconic of European cities. However, there are plenty of cash prizes to be won from a total of 37 poker games. Last year our very own Aaron Gustavson, who won his seat through a satellite game, beat the poker pro Peter Eastgate to win the Main Event and a very cool £850,000 – which is well over $1.25 million! So you decide if you think that’s worth the trip or not!

Introduction

We all know how popular playing online poker has become over the years and especially playing Texas Hold ‘em online. As online poker players become more experienced and sophisticated they naturally seek to expand the repertoire of online games they play, meaning that both Omaha and Seven-Card Stud are also now quite common in the online casinos. So, needless to say, the game of Razz is also becoming a more common game offered online.

What is Razz?

Wanna play Razz?

In a nutshell Razz turns the regular poker hands upside down. You’d only expect to be offered a game of Razz when sitting at a poker table playing Seven-Card Stud, the same rules apply for the Seven-Card Stud in that two hole cards are dealt face down followed by four face up with the seventh again being dealt face down. The twist in a Razz game comes in the winning hands where what in other circumstances would be the worst hand – wins! This means that straights and flushes are ignored totally and the Ace – is always low; so, taking your five best cards from the seven dealt – the lowest card wins! Having just said ignore straights, a straight Ace through 5 would win – as the ace is still the lowest. In a Razz game, if you get three low cards of different rank at the first betting round – things should be looking good for you.

High/Low could be win-win

More common in Las Vegas style casinos is the Seven-Card Stud variation called High/Low. This combines a regular game of Seven-card Stud with a game of Razz. Accordingly the pot is split in two and the conventionally highest hand wins half the pot with the best Razz hand winning the other half. However, in this game if from your seven cards you can make a normal high hand and the best Razz hand, you could walk away with all of the pot – which is called scooping the pot! To scoop the pot you really do need Aces, as with aces you can bet on both a high and/or low hand winning.

Introduction

Just over a week ago the poker blogosphere was awash with excited comments about Barney Frank’s Bill to license and regulate internet poker finally being approved. Alas, but if you were thinking “alleluia” and “about time too” – well sorry, but again the state of play regarding the legality of playing online poker is yet again back in limbo.

Some progress made

It is true and fair to say that last week the Barney Frank Bill did make some progress through the House of Representatives, but the speed of that progress is truly glacial. One report that I read last week boldly stated that the Barney Frank Bill had been “voted on and approved by the senate”. Now whilst that statement was true, some further digging reveals that unfortunately it does not tell the whole story, so you still can’t be that fully 100% sure that the law won’t come knocking on your door if you start betting in your favorite online poker cash game - even in the privacy of your own home! The reason is that – yes, the Bill was voted on and did secure enough votes to be passed (approved if you will) but the vote only referred to it passing through the committee stage, of the House Financial Services Committee. Sadly even that doesn’t mean it will now be voted on by the House as Jim McDermott’s separate Bill to tax internet gambling is stuck in the Ways and Means committee. Yes, you guessed it, until that Bill passes through its Congress committee as well – legalized poker online is held in limbo.

Legalized online poker in 2010 – no way?

They all look like legal poker players to me.

With the summer recess rapidly approaching then mid-term elections further delaying proceedings the chances of McDermott’s Bill clearing it’s committee, both Bills being voted through by Congress and then their equivalent Bills passing through Senate by the end of 2010 is, at best, fanciful. In fact, despite having made some real progress this year, the whole prospect of legalized online poker could be sunk for a couple of years at least, if the Republicans end up with a majority in both houses come November. So, whilst progress is undoubtedly being made in terms of being able to play online casino games legally, it is hard to see that online poker will be legalized and poker players protected by the law until next year at the very earliest.