Do Your Research

Many online casinos have tutorials and databases.  No matter how skilled you are, there is always another perspective or take on strategies.  Plus, many casinos have house rules, and it is important to remain aware of these house rules.

Different websites will have different styles of tutorial sections.  Some sites, such as 888, provide video or pictorial walkthroughs of game strategies.  Other sites have article libraries, such as PartyPoker.com’s tutorial section, which has articles on psychology, skill, and theory.  It is well worth the time required to skim through these resources.  Low limit poker is a great opportunity to try out new theories or tactics without losing a lot of money if the new strategy does not work; take advantage of any new ideas you can get!

Know Yourself

What frustrates you while playing?  When frustrated, are you more likely to leave the game or to start betting recklessly to recoup losses?  Be brutally honest with yourself and figure out what stresses you and how you respond.  The reason is simple: most of the biggest losing streaks occur as a result of a player getting frustrated and playing recklessly in order to recoup losses.  When s/he loses that poorly played hand, s/he becomes even more desperate, and the situation spirals downwards.

Before you begin playing, have a contingency plan and clear boundaries.  Maybe you plan to lose X rounds and then call it a day.  Maybe you plan to lose only X amount.  Maybe you play until you start taking bad hands personally.  Whatever your cutoff point is, make sure you have one and will stick to it.  Poker is a game; if poker is raising your blood pressure and stressing you out, it is time to take a break.

Have a soothing or decompressing activity ready to help you either calm down or celebrate afterwards, if necessary.  Before you start, find something that will engage you and take your mind off of the game so you are not rehashing individual hands in your head all night.  This may be a playing a video game, reading a book, or simply taking a walk.  Plan it out so that, if things go poorly and you find yourself stressed, you can dive into the activity immediately, without spending time fretting about what you can do to feel better.  (This is extra important if you tend to play poker to combat boredom.  If you are frustrated with the game, playing more poker will not help.)

Know Your Opponents

Many casinos post their big winners in various game categories.  If the casino has listed the week or month’s winners for low limit games, make a note of the names.  If you encounter those players at a table, watch their playing style carefully.  How often do they fold? Which hands do they play through?  How long do they sit at a table?  If you notice a definite trend among high winners that seems to bring them success, try imitating it.

Above all, remember that poker is just a game.  While it can be frustrating at times, it is meant to help you relax and have fun.  There is no shame in taking a break to regain your temper.  By knowing your own style and having some contingency plans, you can ensure that your leisure hobby continues to bring you joy rather than frustration.

In a field full of well-known poker pros such as Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and John Juanda, Ivey took home the title and moved into second place on the tournament poker all-time money list with $16 million. Ivey is now aiming to overtake Erik Seidel, who stands at first place on the list with $16.8 million in career earnings.

The win was Ivey’s largest tournament payday of his outstanding career. His previous best was $1.6 million in the World Poker Tour’s L.A. Poker Classic in 2008. A final table finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2009 was good for $1.4 million. The championship of the Monte Carlo Millions in 2005 added $1 million to Ivey’s totals.

Ivey reemerged on the live tournament scene in November following his self-imposed exile from the game due to Full Tilt Poker shutting down without reimbursing its players. Ivey had a long-time sponsorship agreement with the troubled poker site and felt it was unfair that he be allowed to play in events while many Full Tilt players could not buy-in to tournaments because their money was frozen at Full Tilt.

“I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed,” Ivey said in a statement released in late May of 2011. “I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot.”

Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker were indicted on April 15, 2011 and charged with a number of offenses, including fraud, money laundering and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). As the top three poker rooms among all Texas Hold’em websites, the online poker industry was rocked by the allegations made by the U.S. Department of Justice that has come to be known as Black Friday in the world of poker.

Ivey failed to cash in tournament action upon his November return at the Asian Pacific Poker Tour in Macau. But he is enjoying a successful run at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne. In the Main Event prior to his Super High Roller victory, Ivey finished in 12th place, pocketing $100,000.

Only three positions were guaranteed money at the Super High Roller event. With four players remaining, Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu moved all-in from the big blind holding A? 8? for around 750,000 in chips. Patrick Antonius called with pocket Jacks. The Jacks held up on a board of Q? 7? 4? 9? 10?, knocking out bubble boy Negreanu. Had Negreanu won the tournament, he would have passed Seidel to become the all-time money leader. Instead, he dropped to third place on the list as Ivey passed him and now sits at second place.

Antonius finished as runner-up in the Super High Roller tourney, winning $1.2 million Australian dollars. In heads-up play against Ivey’s slight lead in chips, Antonius shoved all-in with K-3 against the A-Q of Ivey. A flop of 3-6-5 was looking good for Antonius, but a Q? on the turn gave Ivey top pair. The river card of 8? was no help to Antonius, giving Ivey the title. Gus Hansen took the final cash position of third place, good for $800,000 Aussie dollars.

Ivey is considered by many to be the greatest all-around poker player in the world today. The 35-year-old has finished in-the-money at 40 WSOP events, making it to the final table 22 times, and capturing first place eight of those times.

#1 – Trying To Bluff A Calling Station

Some players just do not like to fold. Those who call with any hand (however weak) or some obscure draw to a straight or flush with more cards to come and keep on calling, even when it seems ‘obvious’ that they are beaten, are known as ‘calling stations’. Now, if you are going to get called a huge proportion of the time then bluffing has little value… you might as well just give away your chips and have done with it!

#2 – Playing ‘Backwards’

Some players think of themselves as tricky individuals, they bet big when their hand is weak or they have a draw, and they bet small or check-raise whenever they are strong. The extreme of this is the backwards player who plays the opposite of their true strength so diligently, that they are completely predictable. An experienced player will tear these guys apart – after all what could be a worse strategy than putting lots of chips into the pot when you have no hand and none when you have the nuts!!

#3 – Ignoring Flop Texture

Some flops are great for bluffing and some are terrible. One of the determining factors is the presence of an ace (it is hard for someone without one to call a flop bet). Another is the connectedness of the cards in terms of possible draws to straights or flushes. If a couple of people call you pre-flop and the flop comes 9-10-Q with 3 hearts, there is a good chance someone has enough of a hand or draw to stick around and call your flop bet. Contrast this with a 2-7-J flop of 3 suits… the latter is known as a ‘dry’ board and will miss a lot of the hands people flat call with pre.

#4 – Not Telling A Consistent Story

This one requires some experience, however bets before and on the flop + turn can tell a story of what your likely holding is to an observant opponent. A basic example might be if you re-raised pre flop representing a big hand it is difficult to ‘represent’ a nut hand which would require small straight cards by the river. Look out for players who call with their draws all the way, then shove all in as a bluff when the flush or straight does not get there – this is more common than you think.

#5 – You Ignored Stack Sizes (In tournaments)

In tournament poker you might re-raise as a bluff, only to find yourself called by the most unlikely of holdings. There are several reasons for this, and stack sizes are at the heart of all of them. If you bluff a small stack you might get called out of desperation. Conversely a big stack might call you just to accumulate chips, since it would do them minimal damage to lose the hand. Even more common is someone who raises, gets re-raised (sometimes as a bluff) and then faces odds of 2-to-1 or more on the remainder of their chips. Since that player only needs to win 34% of the time to show a profit, they call with a huge variety of hands – potentially causing your bluff to backfire.

Bonuses

Carbon is all about some free money for their players.  The Carbon Poker bonus is one that will help any level online poker player build their bankroll, and also help avoid some of those tough downswings that end up hitting.  For anyone who likes to get a good chunk of change simply for signing up with a poker site and making your first deposit, then you can’t go wrong using the Carbon Poker bonus code. Carbon breaks down exactly how they do their first deposit bonuses to help you maximize the amount of money that you can get for free, but they also offer some great reload bonuses as well if you end up needing to add some additional cash at any point during your time on the site.

Tournaments

Let’s face it, one of the key reasons why online poker became so big in the United States was because of huge poker tournaments that run out there.  Carbon Poker understands that, as they offer some of the best online poker tournaments on the board for US players since Black Friday.  What we mean by this is that there are great guaranteed events, big prize pools, fairly good sized player pools, and also different types of tournaments so that you can choose what type of tournament you are looking to play in.  The buy-in’s will also range quite a bit, so there are different tournaments offered for all levels of players out there.

Sit-N-Go’s

You won’t find a site out there who does sit-n-go’s as well as Carbon Poker does.  A sit-n-go is essentially a small poker tournament that has a max number of players allowed to enter, and a set prize pool that will pay out the top percentage of players.  The buy-in’s on these types of tournaments range quite a bit, but most importantly there are all different types of them as well with different numbers of entrants for each.  If you are looking for some quick games that you can pick up the strategy behind quickly, you can’t go wrong with a sit-n-go at Carbon Poker.

Another thing that’s interesting about online poker sites is that you’ll find that some poker news sites mention some of the bigger online poker sites as shout outs, and part of the reason for this is because the site has a reputation to live up to, and does a great job of doing so.  A poker news site will typically mention a site that knows how to get the job done in terms of their bonuses, because no one wants to work with a site that doesn’t give you their best efforts from the word go right?  So while this is all true, let’s jump into taking a look at some things that can help choosing an online poker deposit bonus a bit easier.

Clearing Bonuses

Many online poker sites will do their bonus clearing differently.  But it’s important to find a bonus that won’t take you years on end to clear, and also one that gives you an extended amount of time to be able to clear that bonus!  Most bonuses release at either $5.00 or $10.00 a clip, which will depend on how many frequent player points that you are getting.  Obviously if you are a lower stakes player or play poker tournaments, then you’ll want to find a bonus that won’t expire within 30 or 60 days, so that you have some time to be able to earn the full amount of money.  These two things are very important, but both are listed under the poker bonus information on each site, so it won’t be too hard for you to be sure that the site will work with you.  Also, if you are a mid-stakes to high-stakes cash game player, you probably won’t have much trouble clearing many bonuses, but it’s still a good idea to check!

First Deposit Bonuses

Those words are KEY when it comes to making that deposit and getting your free money.  You need to remember that in almost all situations these big bonuses are only first deposit bonuses, which means that they will match whatever you deposit that FIRST time.  So if you end up depositing $20, but then want to put another $80 on later, you will only get your bonus based on that first $20 deposit.  It’s important to be sure that if you are planning to deposit a larger amount, to realize that the best time to do it is probably on the first deposit so that you can get more free money out of it!

PayPal

I’d bet that many people are shocked to not see the words “Credit Card” or “Debit Card” listed up here first, but that may be because you haven’t used PayPal before.  PayPal poker sites are some of the best in the online poker world for a few reasons, but one of the most important is that it keeps your money completely safe.  PayPal is one of the safest ways to do any type of online fund transfers at any site across the internet, including online poker sites.  Many online poker sites have just recently added the option for their players to use PayPal, and if they did then it was probably an excellent decision on their end.  Signing up for PayPal takes about one minute, and you can easily transfer funds from your bank account into your PayPal and then send money from PayPal to wherever you’d like it to go.

Going back to the whole “safety” topic with PayPal, they are so highly recommended because they back their users on almost all situations.  In a worst case scenario if something was to happen, you can bet that PayPal would be there to help you, and their customer service is almost instant as well.  There is also typically no fee for using PayPal for almost any type of payment that you are making, so realistically there is just no reason not to give them the chance to earn your business and help you deposit money onto your favorite online poker site.

*Important note: Paypal online allows gaming payments in well regulated and legal markets, like the United Kingdom.  US players are not allowed to use Paypal for online gaming.

Credit Cards and Debit Cards

We still can’t deny that Credit and Debit Cards are two of the best options for depositing money.  If a site allows you to use your Credit or Debit Card, then you should definitely look into this as a potential option.  Most Credit Card and Debit Card companies will protect their users on almost all situations, so you should feel comfortable using it as well.  It’s also very straight forward and easy to use, as it takes about one minute to type in your information and wait for the payment to process through the site.  After that, the money is credited into your account and you are all set and good to play!

Poker Bonuses

Online poker bonuses are always a huge part of the game.  The best way to start your online poker experience is with a nice bonus that can help you build up your account quickly, and also to help you avoid any type of bad down swings that you may hit from playing at the cash game poker tables or the tournaments.  Almost all online poker sites will offer you different bonus options and great match percentages, so never overlook this option before you get signed up with an online poker site.  Also, be aware of what you need to do in order to take advantage of that poker bonus that is offered as well!

Deposit Options

This is a HUGE part of online poker that many players will simply overlook.  Typically there will be a preferred method when it comes to deposit options for US players, so you should always be sure that whichever site that you are looking at offers that for you.  Many sites will offer many different deposit options, but this isn’t a guarantee that it is the one that you are looking for.  If you are set up your account and forget to check this before getting all squared away then you’ll have to start back over from the word go to search for a new online poker site once again.

Games and Tournaments Offered

Remember that just because you play a specific type of poker, that it doesn’t necessarily mean that all sites offer that game.  This is especially true for cash games, as some people prefer to play games that are different than Texas Hold’em and Omaha sometimes.  As far as the tournaments that are offered, you’ll find that you have the option for guaranteed tournaments, which are definitely a fan favorite in most situations.  Just search through the online poker site before you deposit anything on to see what types of games and tournaments, and also what limits are offered on these sites as well.  It’s never a bad idea to research as much as you can when it comes to an online poker site before you make the commitment!

Overall, finding an online poker site for US players shouldn’t be as hard as some of your friends have made it seem, but often times it ends up being that way.  Follow these steps above and you’ll find that everything becomes just a bit easier, and you’ll be at the tables playing in no time.

In fact he says that he never wears any jewelry at all. That is why he has decided that instead of gathering dust in a drawer somewhere of sitting in a safe deposit box, he is going to put the bracelet, and a couple of other watches that he has worn, up for sale on ebay.

The proceeds are going to UNICEF which is a major charity. I am pretty certain that this is the first time that a World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet has been sold. Well I guess it is possible that when Stu Unger was on drugs and down and out he might have sold his but I never heard anything about that.

If you won the World Series of Poker Main Event, would you sell your bracelet? I guess there is only one way to find out. You have to get to the WSOP next year and win a bracelet. The best way to get there is through winning a WSOP prize package from an online poker site.

You can do this for just a few dollars. Sure you have to be lucky but you also have to be smart.  Try to download UB poker for all of the best online poker action and see for yourself.

You all remember Chris Moneymaker. He is the guy that won the World Series of Poker Main Event that is credited with setting off the gambling explosion. It was a lot easier to win a WSOP Championship in the days before Moneymaker because the field was so much smaller.

It wasn’t easy of course but the importance of luck plays a much bigger role in a field of thousands versus a field of hundreds. Chris Moneymaker won his entry into the ten thousand dollar buy in WSOP Main Event through an online tournament qualifier. He probably would never have even played in the event if it hadn’t been for that.

Get the best sign up bonus by going to onlinepoker.net – they have done the research for you to find the best deposit bonus codes.

1970 was the first year at the World Series of Poker. It was quite different that year from what it ha turned in to. The owner of the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, Benny Binion, invited six poker player to the first event that was held in 1970. So the field was only 6 players.

That year the winner was not determined by who won all of the chips. It was determined by a secret ballot by the six players so I guess we won’t count that one. Amarillo Slim won the World Series of Poker in the first year that it was truly determined by who won the tournament. That was 1972. Amarillo Slim won that WSOP Title by wading through a field of eight players.