Tag: texas holdem

WSOP 2013 Champion is Ryan Riess

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This past Tuesday night, November 5, 2013, a 23-year-old pro poker player, Ryan Riess of Waterford, won the $8.4 million first prize in the $10,000 buy-in championship event of the 2013 World Series of Poker, outlasting a field of 6,352 players.

Runner-up was Jay Farber, a Las Vegas club promoter, who lost the title to Riess in an intense but brief final head-to-head battle.

The action all took place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the initial 7 players eliminated from the famed 2013 November Nine on Monday, November 4th. Farber started out the head-to-head portion of the event ahead by 19 million chips. But Riess was relentless, using both big and small plays alike to whittle down that lead. In the dramatic final hand, Riess called Farber’s bluff, not that it mattered, as he was holding an Ace-King and the cards continued coming out in his favor.

Riess, who this time last year was finishing acquiring his hospitality management degree from Michigan State University, claimed to have been coveting the WSOP Main Event gold bracelet since he was 14 years of age. After winning the 2013 championship while wearing his Calvin Johnson baseball jersey, he got a suite at the Palazzo, invited 100 friends and family, and celebrated.

Farber had come up with the $10K buy-in for the main event by selling multiple stakes in his winnings, a gamble that paid off for him and his investors as they got to split a share of his $5.2 million 2nd prize amounting to $520K for every $1K they put up.

Americas Cardroom Offers Freerolls On Demand

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You can now play freeroll tournaments for real cash rewards whenever you like with Americas Cardroom’s new Freerolls on Demand.

Offered all day, every day, Americas Cardroom’s Freerolls on Demand are multi-table Sit ‘n’ Go tournaments that start as soon as all 270 seats are filled. Additionally, these events all offer late registration for 30 minutes into the event. The moment an On Demand Freeroll starts at ACR, registration opens for the next one.

Each of these ACR On Demand Freerolls offer a $10 guaranteed prize pool, but more than that, each of them award the top 10 finishers points on a biweekly leaderboard running from the 1st to the 15th of each month, and again from the 16th to the last day of each month. The top 10 finishers on each biweekly leaderboard will share a prize pool of $270 worth of tournament entries.

Players get 10 points for finishing first in any ACR On Demand Freeroll; 9 points for 2nd; 8 points for 3rd; 7 points for 4th; 6 points for 5th, 5 points for 6th, 4 points for 7th, 3 points for 8th, 2 points for 9th; and 1 point for 10th place.

First place on the biweekly On Demand Freerolls Leaderboard will get a Beast tournament entry and a $215 Sunday tournament entry. The remaining players in the top 10 will each get a Beast tournament entry.

Players are free to enter as many Americas Cardroom On Demand Freerolls as they desire.

America’s Cardroom Boosts Beast Leaderboards For 1st Anniversary

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This month of August 2013 marks the one-year anniversary of Americas Cardroom’s The Beast progressive rake race tournaments. And in celebration of that fact, the site is about to make The Beast even bigger and meatier than ever, with a boost to the daily leaderboard awards and the addition of weekly leaderboards.

For starters, just this month, America’s Cardroom promises to award $31,000 more in daily leaderboard awards. Every day the site will award $1,000 in The Beast daily leaderboard prizes, with $300 going to the top finisher, $165 to 2nd, $140 to 3rd, $100 for 4th, $75 for 5th, $60 for 6th, $55 for 7th, $45 for 8th, $35 for 9th, and $25 for 10th. Players can win as many days as they are able, without restrictions.

What’s more, in addition to these and the regular monthly The Beast leaderboard, America’s Cardroom is now, as of this month, adding weekly leaderboards to The Beast promotion as well. Each week the site will award an additional $5,000 in weekly leaderboard awards with 1st place each week getting $500 and all players in the top $115 getting at least $10.

The qualifying periods for these weekly leaderboards is August 1 to 9, August 10 to 16, August 17 to 23, and August 24 to 31, starting at 00:00 EST on the given start date and ending at 23:59 EST on the given end date.

These leaderboards are track in addition to player’s regular The Beast standings and in no way does one interfere with the other.

Party Poker Hosting WPT Montreal Satellites

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The Party Poker WPT Montreal satellite series runs from Monday, August 5 to Sunday, November 24, awarding as its top prize seats in the WPT Montreal main event that takes place November 29 to December 5, 2013 at the Playground Poker Club.

The Party Poker WPT Montreal Satellites take place every Sunday during the stated promotional period, starting at 8:50 pm CET (2:50 pm ET), with 1 prize package guaranteed to be awarded at each running of the event. The WPT Montreal Satellite has a direct buy-in of $250 + $25 but players can avoid that cost by winning their seat in the event through a WPT Montreal Satellite Qualifier.

These events take place every day at the same times listed above for the WPT Montreal Satellite, with an additional running of the event taking place on Sundays at 6:50 pm CET (12:50 pm ET) as a Turbo tournament event. The direct buy-in for the WPT Montreal Satellite Qualifier is $27.50 + $2.50 but players can avoid that cost by winning their seat in the event through a WPT Montreal Sub Qualifier Speed event with a $3 buy-in or a WPT Montreal Sub Qualifier Speed Rebuy event with a $1 buy-in and rebuy. Both events take place as sit ‘n’ go tournaments throughout the day.

Players can even win their seat in the Sub Qualifier (at least the $1 rebuy version) through a WPT Montreal Freeroll costing nothing at all to enter. The 25 top players from each running of this event will move on to the $1 sub qualifier speed rebuy event.

Poker770 Offers $25K Bounty Pro770 Tournaments

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After taking a brief reprieve for the 2013 World Series of Poker, the Texas Holdem Bounty tournaments at Poker770 return as of Wednesday, July 17. This is a chance for players to compete against some of poker’s top pros online for only a $5.50 buy-in. What’s more, there’s an increasing bounty the better you do in the events and you can even win a sponsorship deal to be the next member of Poker770’s Team Pro770, worth $25,000.

The Poker770 Bounty Pro770 tournaments take place nightly at 8:00 pm and unlike the bounty tournaments at other sites, at this one you get a larger and larger bounty the more pros you knock out of the running.

Knock out one pro and get $25; knock out two pros in the same week and get $125; knock out a pro who has already taken a bounty in the tournament and get $250; knock out three pros in the same week and get $500; knock out four pros in the same week and get a $25,000 year of sponsorship as a member of Poker770’s Pro Team 770.

On Mondays, knock out Stjepan “Privko” Jokic; on Tuesdays, knock out Sonja “Afroditaluna”; on Wednesdays knock out Oanh “Oanhtime” Bui; on Thursdays knock out Dominik “polkapool” Kulicki; and on Fridays knock out Jonathan “Royallus” Rozzema.

In addition to the cash bounty and possible Poker770 sponsorship that you can win in the site’s nightly Bounty Pro770 tournaments, you’ll also get your names posted on the website next to the size of the bounty you won and the pro player you knocked out.

Poker Stars Selling Main Event Passports For $2

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PokerStars is now selling passports into the main events of the World Series of Poker and an assortment of live poker tours sponsored by the site for as little as $2.

Win a PokerStars Main Event passport into the WSOP, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), the European Poker Tour (EPT), the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT). When you win a main event passport, you get a prize package worth $13,000 into the main event of your choice from the above mentioned tours. Prize packages into some events are worth even more than $13,000, when you add in hotel accommodations and spending money.

Poker Stars is holding several satellite tournaments awarding these passports between now and July 3, 2011: cash satellites, FPP satellites and Steps satellites, all in a variety of buy-ins.

All qualifying main events are in No Limit Texas Hold’em. Choose the European Poker Tour and you’ll be entered in the EPT London main event, worth $13,700. The 2012 PCA main event prize package is worth $14,500. If you elect to play in the APPT or LAPT, you can choose which event from those series’ you wish to enter. APPT main event by-ins are usually $8,000 and LAPT main event buy-ins are usually $5,000.

There are 5 main event prize packages in all in the Poker Stars Main Event Passport promotion, You can win one prize package to a main event in each tour. If you manage to win a seat in all 5 tours, then your subsequent prizes will be credited to you in tournament dollars (T$).

WSOP to Stream 55 Final Tables in 2011

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WSOPAfter announcing last week that they are more than doubling the television coverage of the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker® on ESPN, the WSOP has announced that poker lovers around the world will be able to watch the final table action of 55 gold bracelet events live (on a five-minute delay) via the Internet.  WSOP.com will be the exclusive home to the streaming, which will include two-camera coverage and audio via the tournament’s final table announcer.

This is the first time in the history of the WSOP that all 58 gold bracelet events will receive some sort of video coverage.  (ESPN3 is streaming the $25K Heads Up, $50K Poker Players Championship and the Main Event).

The WSOP.com coverage will not involve any hole card coverage.  It will be delayed 5 minutes per gaming regulations, and be commentary-free (outside the announcer providing betting action).  In essence, the coverage will allow those unable to witness the action in person, the ability to watch the event in similar fashion to spectators on-site.

“We are proud to provide video of the culminating action to a worldwide audience in real time,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “This online initiative will complement our spectacular television package on ESPN and deliver even more of this year’s WSOP to fans who want the most immediate coverage possible.”

On most days, two final tables will be streamed.  The typical start times for these will be 2:30 or 3:00 PM Pacific time.  The streams will last until the event concludes, and no video will be shown during the standard breaks in action.  Beginning June 1 and running through July 7, there will be at least one stream a day except for June 2, June 7 and July 4-6, where no final tables are scheduled to be contested.  All times and dates are subject to change without notice.

Merge Poker adds Weekly 100k Guaranteed

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Lock PokerThe Merge Poker Network has announced that $100,000 will now be the guaranteed prize pool for the Sunday Deepstack every week, including this one. Take your seat this Sunday with a $109 entrance coupon, by buying in for $100 + $9, or by qualifying through the 100 Seats to $100K Freeroll. There are several online poker sites that we highly recommend on the Merge network with Lock Poker being the most popular one.

The Merge Poker Network has become the place to play since Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars pulled out of the US. Look for their daily and weekly guaranteed tournaments to continue to grow as the network grows. More USA Accepted Poker Sites.

$100,000 Sunday Guaranteed

When: Sunday, May 15th @ 15:00 Merge Poker Time (16:00 EST)
How: $100 + $9, $109 Deepstack Coupon, 10,900 VIP Points
Prizes: $100,000 Guaranteed
Where: Tournaments >> Scheduled >> Special

In addition to the usual buy-ins, players can now qualify for this major tourney via the 100 Seats to $100K Freeroll. Earn 250 VIP points in the week before the 100 Seats freeroll, then finish in the top 100 to win a $109 Coupon for Sunday’s showdown.

100 Seats to $100K Freeroll

When: Saturday, May 14th @ 15:00 Merge Poker Time (16:00 EST)
How: Earn 250 VIP pts before the freeroll starts
Prizes: 100 free seats for $100k Guaranteed
Where: Tournaments >> Scheduled >> Special

Full Tilt Poker Series Goes Ukrainian

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Full Tilt Poker is taking their live poker series to the Ukraine, with three newly scheduled tournaments offering up a total guaranteed prize pool of about $1 million. With the full support of the Ukranian Sport Poker Federation behind it, the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series will take place July 24 – 31, September 18 – 25 and November 18 – 27 in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev. Buy-ins for these three events range from $1,500 to $2,500 but satellites are running now at Full Tilt Poker offering seats in these events for as little as nothing.

Freeroll satellite qualifiers into the Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series started on May 1, 2011 and run three times daily, at 14:00, 17:00 and 20:00 MSK. Each event’s player pool is capped at 1,000. From each of these events, the top 100 players will move on to a weekly freeroll final taking place every Thursday at 19:00 MSK. From each of these final round freerolls, 5 players will win seats in the next scheduled live event in Kiev.

Besides winning seats in these first-ever Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker Series events, satellite winners will also receive live poker lessons from Full Tilt pros Vitaly Lunkin and Nikolay Evdakov.

The first two events on the schedule have $1,500 buy-ins while event #3 is being considered the Grand Final of the inaugural Full Tilt Poker Russia and Ukraine Poker series and therefore has a $2,500 buy-in.

Six handed limit hold’em tips

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Loose aggressive players can be difficult to combat in any form of poker and these types of players present some very difficult obstacles for novice and even intermediate players to combat. If you are using PokerTracker then you will find these players with very high VPIP’s and PFR percentages relative to the game and the number of players. Let us look at how a LAG may play a certain hand over a solid regular. It has been folded around to the solid regular who opens with K-J and he gets three bet by the LAG who has 10-9s.

The flop comes 5-5-2 and the original raiser tries to wrestle the initiative by donk betting the flop. But the LAG places maximum pressure on his opponent by raising in situations where most other players would fold. This is high variance play and does not suit many people but if there is one thing that true LAG’s are not afraid of and it is greater swings. But if you do encounter these types of players then they can present you with some very formidable problems.

There are numerous types of LAG’s and a LAG could be highly skilled or someone who is a temporary LAG and simply blowing some money off. If someone who is playing $1-$2 limit with $50 and is looking to blow their money off then they may do so and take you with them. If you are multi-tabling then you really need to be careful with LAG’s because they have a tendency to affect your mental equilibrium and when that happens on several tables at once then you may have something of a problem.

At the end of the day then if you do not feel comfortable playing poker in a certain way then this is your subconscious mind telling you that you are either out of your depth or you do not have the experience level of several of your opponents. Far too many players stay in games when they are either being run over or outplayed. This could be because of variance or because you are simply out gunned by your opponent or opponents. The lesson here is clear in that you should never be afraid to leave a game if you do not feel comfortable.

Most players only have accounts at one site and many stay in bad games simply because there are no other games running. However if you have accounts at numerous sites or different networks then you have options to go and play in other games. If you feel uncomfortable in any game of poker then you have that feeling for a reason. If your game feels wrong then get out and do so quickly. Do not think that you should be fighting “fire with fire” or anything like that if doing so drags you away from the style of poker that you want to play.