The Team Titan Bounty tourneys are $6 buy-in events, 8 in all scheduled between August 18 and sometime as yet undetermined in October, 2010. The first event, on August 18, saw Voyager2001 knock out Jonas Klausen for a $100 bounty and tmm34 knock out Joel Benzinou for a $100 bounty. The second event saw kaziunia knock out Jonas Klausen for a $100 bounty and xxxFAITHxxx knock out Marvin Rettenmaier for a $100 bounty.

The next three Team Titan Poker Bounty tournaments are scheduled to take place September 1, 24, and 28, with the last three Team Titan Poker Bounty tournaments to take place at dates in October that are still to be announced.

Play at Titan Poker

The pair of Team Titan Poker players to compete in each of these upcoming bounty tournaments is also still to be announced, but the pool of names to fill those slots, besides those already mentioned in this post, are Sam Trickett and Sorel Mizzi.

Knocking out members of Team Titan Poker isn't the only way to win money in these bounty tournaments, however. The winner of each Team Titan Poker Bounty tournament will win $500 and, along with the other players in the top 10 of each event and the two players in each event who collect the bounties on the heads of the Team Titan Poker members in each game, will win a ticket into the Team Titan Heads-Up Qualifier.

The Team Titan Poker Heads-Up Qualifier, scheduled to take place on November 1, 2010, will find the five players who will go on to take on the members of Team Titan Poker Heads-Up. The fifth place qualifier finisher will take on Marvin Rettenmaier (aka xcrash154) for $100, with a $20K GTD token to the loser. The fourth place qualifier finisher will take on Jonas Klausen (aka JonasKlausen) for the same prize set, and the third place qualifier finisher will play Joel Benzinou (aka joben19) for the same prize set.

The runner-up in the qualifier will play heads-up against Sam Trickett (aka Lloydstsb) for $300 with $100 going to the loser. And the qualifier winner will face Sorel Mizzi (aka Imper1um) for $1,000 with $300 going to the loser.

• Titan Poker Review
• Titan Poker Bonus

There are two different satellite structures happening at PokerStars for the 2010 BOPC. One is just to award tickets-only into the main event. This is for players who either reside in or around Belgium or who don't have any problem getting themselves there and arranging for their own accommodations. Then there is the international satellite structure for players who need the whole nine yards - hotel, meal vouchers, etc.

For tickets-only, players have two sets of BOPC qualifiers to choose from, each with its own final tournament. Both sets of qualifiers have €2.20 Daily Rebuy tournaments leading into €27 Weekly Qualifiers which lead into a Super Satellite with a €215 direct buy-in - at the first Super Satellite, on Sunday, September 12, offering to award 7 seats in the BOPC guaranteed; at the second Super Satellite, on Sunday, October 3, offering to award 15 seats in the BOPC guaranteed.

The structure for Super Satellite 1 starts August 23. The structure for Super Satellite 2 starts September 13.

Plat at PokerStars

Players can also enter the BOPC satellite qualifier series using PokerStars Steps tournament tickets, with Super Satellite entry available for a Step E ticket. Weekly qualifiers can be entered for a Step C ticket.

Before getting to the international players' offering, with the full prize package including accommodations and meal vouchers, there's one other ways to win BOPC 2010 Main Event entries and that's direct through 1-seat guaranteed €33 rebuy/add-on events taking place Sundays, August 28 - October 3.

International players have the same €2.20 Daily Rebuy Satellites and €27 Weekly Qualifiers, the schedule August 23 - September 25, with the International Super Satellite taking place on Sunday, September 26, awarding 1 BOPC 2010 Main Event seat for every €2,500 in buy-ins.

The winner of last year's BOPC was Antonio Guida, who outlasted a playing field of 817 for a €250,000 plus payday.

Also highlighting the 2010 Belgian Open Poker Championship schedule are a Ladies Event with a €110 buy-in and a Team Heads-up Event with a €5,200 buy-in.

A coupon code, such as the one we have on offer for Celeb Poker, is always more recommended to use, instead of just the link pointing to a poker room. Are you wondering why? It's actually not that difficult to understand, really. In the following paragraph I'll briefly explain the advantages of using coupon codes.

Play at Celeb Poker

Always Use a Coupon Code

Say you've just followed a link to visit a poker room's website to be able to get a special bonus offered by a similar kind of site like ours. If the bonus you were expecting turns out to be inactive, you'll usually end up with a poker site's regular bonus, however, when you make sure to always use a coupon code upon registration, you'll get to know right away if the special bonus you were looking for is still available. If it turns out that the bonus going together with the coupon code you've used has expired, for whatever reason, you can at least search the web to find yourself another coupon code, and still be able to enjoy an improved bonus.

Our Celeb Poker Bonus Offer

Celeb Poker is one our primary partners. We've been working with them very closely, and our contacts reach deep within the company. At the moment of this writing, they are our top promoted online poker room, but not only for the reason that Poker For Free get's paid well, but also because of the fact that Celeb Poker has one of the highest - if not the very highest - first deposit bonus amongst all poker rooms present on the iPoker Network.

Sign-up using our coupon code for Celeb Poker - PFF600 - and get a bonus of 100% up to $600 on your first deposit. Besides, there are a few undisclosed things coming up between Poker For Free and Celeb Poker which will definitely blow you away! Stay tuned...

Of course you can read everything there is to know - including a comprehensive description, our Celeb Poker coupon code, and details about Celeb Poker loyalty program - on our dedicated page. Just follow the link.

Celeb Poker Coupon Code

Now, first and foremost, our Celeb Poker bonus offer that goes with our coupon code will not expire, and if it ever would, you can rest assured that our site will be updated before you know it. Bright readers have already undisclosed our coupon code for Celeb Poker in the paragraph above, but to be sure you get it right, here it comes again:

• Celeb Poker Coupon Code - PFF600 (This code gets you a first deposit bonus of 100% up to $600)

When you're registering a new players account at Celeb Poker, you will go through a couple of stages. At first stage - pay good attention to the field saying "Bonus Code" - you will see the following screen:

Play at Celeb Poker

So, the last field in the right column - "Bonus Code" - is the field where you will have to fill in our coupon code for Celeb Poker, you can't miss it! Fill in all the required fields, fill in bonus code PFF600, and you are all set to make a first deposit. A quick reminder: Make sure that you don't waste your first deposit bonus by depositing only a small amount of money, unless of course you don't have the required funds available. The thing is, you only have one chance to make a first deposit, so you'd better get as much as you can, all the way up to $600 free!

Rest me one more thing to say: Have fun playing poker and clearing your free poker $600 which comes along with Celeb Poker's deposit bonus!

The MiniFTOPS XVII schedule features thirty-four events in all, including six different Rush Poker Tournaments, a $600,000 guaranteed two-day event, and the $1 million MiniFTOPS XVII main event.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

What makes the MiniFTOPS so "mini" (as you probably know) is that the buy-ins for its events are one-tenth those of the respective Full Tilt Online Poker Series. But the prize pools are considerably larger than just one-tenth those of the FTOPS XVII, making for much better all around pot odds at every one of the series' 34 events.

The direct buy-in for the main event is $75 and the direct buy-in for the two day event is $216. But you can skirt both of those buy-ins, and those of all the other events in Full Tilt Poker's MiniFTOPS XVII, by playing in the various MiniFTOPS XVII satellite tournaments. There's even a way to win bonus cash in the MiniFTOPS XVII Satellite Challenge by winning the most satellite tournaments for the same MiniFTOPS XVII event.

Satellites into the Mini-FTOPS XVII started August 16 and are continuing now and throughout the series for buy-ins as small as 50 Full Tilt Points (FTP) or $0.50.

In addition to the cash prize pools won, players who finish in the money in any MiniFTOPS XVII event will be tracked on a leader board, with bonus cash prizes going to the top leaderboard finishers. Finish at the top of the MiniFTOPS XVII Leaderboard and win free entry in each and every event in the regular FTOPS XVIII (that's FTOPS 18), with the exception of the two day event - approximately $10,000 in FTOPS tournament tickets.

Moreover, the first place winners of each MiniFTOPS event will win, in addition to the lion's share of their respective prize pools, a limited edition MiniFTOPS XVII jersey.

Players have until September 14 to login to their PokerStars account (or sign up for one) and take the WCOOP Poker Quiz. The WCOOP Poker Quiz includes questions about the WCOOP, about members of Team PokerStars Pro, and the various PokerStars tours (like the EPT, NAPT, ANZPT, LAPT, etc.). The first player to answer all of the questions correctly will win a free seat in the 2010 WCOOP Main Event.

Play at PokerStars

All players who answer at least 90% of the questions correctly will win an exclusive entry into a PokerStars WCOOP Poker Quiz tournament to be held on September 18 in which seats in other WCOOP events (or rather, WCOOP seats of varying dollar amounts that you can apply as you desire) will be awarded. Again the top prize is a 2010 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event seat. Second prize is a $2,100 seat; third through sixth are $1,050 seats; seventh is a $530 seat; eighth is a $320 seat; and ninth is a $215 seat.

The total amount up for grabs in this year's PokerStars WCOOP is a $50 million in guaranteed prize pool.

Players can only enter the PokerStars WCOOP Poker Quiz once, and it is only their first entry made while logged into their account that will count as their one and only entry for that account. The entire quiz must be completed in one sitting; you cannot save your work for later. Tie-breaker questions have been prepared in case of a tie. Prize cannot, of course, be exchanged, sold, or transferred. And all the judge's decisions are final.

From Friday, August 27 at 4 pm ET through Sunday August 29 at 4 pm ET, players have the chance to win over $125,000 in cash and other prizes, including seats in the $50K Madness Freeroll.

Play in as many Sit & Go tournaments at Full Tilt Poker between August 27 and 29 and based on your performance you'll be ranked on a leaderboard that you'll then climb up or down, depending on your performance and that of your fellow players. Full Tilt will be running four different leaderboards, for four different groups of players (Group A-D), based on Sit & Go buy-in/table stakes ranges.

Plat at Full Tilt Poker

The 48-hour promotional period for Sit & Go Madness will be broken down into twenty-four blocks of two hours each. Prizes will be awarded at the end of each two hour block for the top 7 leaderboard achievers. These prizes range from $1 to $500 depending both on the place at which each player finishes and the table stakes of the Group. First place in Group A ($1 to $2 stakes) is $20, Group B ($5 to $11 stakes) is $100, Group C ($20 to $33) is $200, and Group D ($50 to $110) is $500. Full Tilt Poker will also maintain an overall leaderboard awarding top players entries into a $5K Sit & Go Freeroll.

There are actually several different ways to win big in Full Tilt Poker's Sit & Go Madness, just the first of which is the above mentioned leaderboard contest. But there is also the $50K Madness Freeroll, for players winning a minimum of two green Sit & Go Madness tournaments, and the Madness Raffle, for players cashing in any Sit & Go Madness event.

Apparently a full year in the making, PKR Poker Version 2.0 introduces a new user interface (or player interface, rather) that streamlines use to be simpler and faster, and a new multi-table interface that permits players to sit in at as many as 9 tables at the same time. Of course players must be warned that their system must be able to support such a graphics-heavy experience as, after all, PKR is a 3D poker experience.

The new version 2.0 of the PKR Poker software also includes a new feature called the Game Finder Wizard. Just as it sounds, this handy tool makes it simpler than ever to find just the right table to meet your needs and desires.

Other new features of the PKR Poker software version 2.0 are convenient graphs of players' tournament chip stack, brand new table layout designs and user options for the bet button. Along with the new features and functions of the PKR version 2.0 software are the return of player favorites like body language and expressions in player avatars, poker tells, and chip tricks.

Play at PKR Poker

Considering itself a community based poker site, PKR says the improvements in the software update are the result of feedback from PKR players.

PKR Poker currently boasts almost 3 and 3/4 million players and holds about $3 million in freeroll tournaments monthly.

This comes at a good time for the site as it just announced the return of its PKR Live event with PKR Live V (or PKR Live 5) in September, 2010. See our earlier post on the subject for more information.

The Snowball is so named because, unlike other tiered competitions where you have to give up one prize to advance to a higher level and claim its better prize, when you win a prize in the Snowball promotion, you get to keep it. Keep advancing up levels and heap prizes upon prizes, with the possibility of earning up to 15 prizes in all. And when we say "prizes" what we mean is cash. Well, cash and free entries into exclusive freerolls for more cash prizes.

Play at Party Poker

The contest is simple. It's a points race, with no opponents to race other than the clock. Earn as many PartyPoints as you can at Party Poker real money online poker tables between the dates of September 1 and September 30.

Range of points levels in the Party Poker Snowball promotion is from 5 PartyPoints to 50,000 PartyPoints. Cash prize levels range from $20 to $1,500 (building to a $5,000 max when factored cumulatively) and the freeroll entry prizes range from $5,000 to $50,000.

At first, earning between 5 and 499 PartyPoints you'll be collecting a pool of increasingly rewarding freeroll entries. At 500 PartyPoints, you get your first cash prize added to your bundle. Top prize, which as many players can win as can meet the requirements, is $5,000 plus 5 freeroll entries worth a total of $100,000 ($5K, $10, $15K, $20K, and $50K).

Cash prizes will be determined and awarded within a few days after the end of the promotion. The dates of the exclusive Snowball freerolls will be as follows:

• October 4, $5K Freeroll
• October 5, $10K Freeroll
• October 6, $15K Freeroll
• October 7, $20K Freeroll
• October 8, $50K Freeroll

All Snowball freeroll tournaments start at 2:30 pm ET.

The 3-day long event will start on the Friday night before the Main Event begins, with a PKR players' welcome reception with drinks. The PKR Live 5 Main Event has a $500 buy-in and a 150 person player cap. The prize pool for PKR Live 5 will be approximately $75,000, of which about $20,000 will go to the first prize winner.

On the next day, Sunday, as Day 2 of the PKR Live 5 Main Event is playing out, PKR Poker will host their familiar PKR Live bounty tournament, only this time around (perhaps in honor of the first time at a new location) the event will be a Terminator Bounty, the PKR Live V Terminator with a $150 + $10 buy-in, $50 of which is applied to the cash bounty on the head of each and every player participating in the event. The other $100, of course (not including the + $10, which goes to the site in fees), is contributed to the prize pool.

Play at PKR Poker

PKR Live V Qualifiers

The qualifier schedule into PKR Live V is built of three stages with $5.44, $29.70, and $162 direct buy-ins, respectively. PKR Live V qualifiers in all stages are being held daily.

PKR Poker is also putting an interesting twist on the Final Stage of qualifiers by giving players a choice of one of two packages to compete for.

The difference between the two packages is that one includes seats in the PKR Live V Main Event, Terminator Bounty and $500 cash while the other just includes the seats in the two PKR Live 5 events.

Celeb Poker is offering a full schedule of satellite tournaments into the 2010 GUKPT Brighton.

The upcoming 2010 GUKPT Brighton takes place from September 16th through 19th. The site is the Grosvenor Casino in Brighton, the UK. This is the fourth year of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, which each year makes stops at top poker hubs across the United Kingdom.

Play at Celeb Poker

Celeb Poker players can win seats in the GUKPT Brighton through Weekly Super Satellite rebuy/addon tournaments taking place on Mondays August 23, August 30, and September 6. For €30 players can get a rebuy of 3,000 chips or an addon of 5,000 chips.

GUKPT Satellites

Players interested in Celeb Poker's GUKPT Brighton Weekly Super Satellites can either pay the €60 + €6 direct buy-in or satellite their way in through one of Celeb Poker's many Sit 'n Go (or SNG) satellites running as of August 16. The SNG satellites have buy-ins that start as small as £0.50 and ranging up to £8.80.

Besides wining the prize money and bragging rights at the GUKPT Brighton, players will also be able to qualify for other legs on the 2010 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. Players who make it to the final leg of the competition then have the chance to become the one and only 2010 GUKPT Champion.

The prize packages Celeb Poker is awarding into the GUKPT Brighton include not only the £1,000 + £70 main event ticket, but 4 nights at Brighton's Jury Inn, and money to apply toward air travel, expenses, and registration fees.

One good reason to choose Celeb Poker over other sites on the iPoker Network is that Celeb Poker offers new players a sign-up bonus of 100% up to $600. Of course we have our very own Celeb Poker Coupon Code (PFF600) which you have to use to become eligible for the offer, but if you want to know more details about the bonus first, we suggest you click the link and read our dedicated page before signing-up.

The PokerStars Million Dollar Lamborghini Freeroll promotion is running now through September 25. Each day throughout the promotion, PokerStars is running twenty-four freeroll qualifier tournaments, along with satellite tournaments, each with a cash buy-in of either $11 or $1.10. Each week's slate of daily freeroll qualifiers leads up to a weekly qualifier final seeding players into the singular Grand Final in which the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 will be won.

The Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 is a prize worth approximately $200,000. Beyond that, the weekly finals each have a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, and the grand final has an added $250,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Play at PokerStars

The schedule for the PokerStars Million Dollar Lamborghini Freeroll promotion follows.

Daily through September 25, every hour on the hour is a freeroll qualifier from which the top 18 players will move on to the weekly final.

Daily through September 25, every two hours on the hour are two simultaneously running cash satellites, one with a $1.10 buy-in and one with an $11 buy-in, from each of which the top 27 players will move on to the weekly final. This will be on top of the regular cash prize pools also up for grabs.

On Sundays through September 26 at 2:30 pm ET are the PokerStars Million Dollar Lamborghini Freeroll Weekly Final Qualifiers, from which the top 2,000 will move on to the Grand Final.

Sunday, October 3 at 2:30 pm will be the PokerStars Million Dollar Lamborghini Freeroll Grand Final. Beyond the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 to be awarded to the winner, the $250,000 guaranteed prize pool will be split amongst the top 5,000 players.

PokerStars members can register for the Million Dollar Lamborghini Freeroll promotion's qualifiers and cash satellites by going into their PokerStars lobbies and clocking the Tourney tab and then the All tab, or alternatively by simply using the Tourney Filter with the search term Lamborghini.

The Mansion Poker Lord of the Rungs promotion is an ongoing promotion at Mansion Poker in which players climb a ladder with 5 rungs or levels, each with its own buy-in of progressively increasing value, all leading up to cash prizes ranging from $50 to $4,500.

What's more, to make the Lord of the Rungs promotion more palatable to players of all different bankrolls, Mansion Poker offers two different ladders, one for low stakes players with buy-ins ranging from $0.45 + $0.05 for Level 1 to $30 + $3 for Level 5, and one for high stakes players with buy-ins ranging from $9 + $1 for Level 1 to $950 + $50 for Level 5.

Play at Mansion Poker

The only level at which cash prizes will be awarded is Level 5. For low stakes players, the prize structure is:

• $50 for 3rd place
• $100 for 2nd place
• $150 for first place

For High stakes players, the prize structure is:

• $1,000 for 4th place
• $1,500 for 3rd place
• $2,500 for 2nd place
• $4,500 for 1st place

The prizes for all the levels below level 5, as in any steps style online poker tournament promotion, are tickets into the various other steps, levels, or "rungs" of the respective ladders. A first place finish (and sometimes 2nd and even 3rd too) advances you to the next higher rung up the ladder. A finish up through 5th place not high enough to advance you to the next level up could wind you either a second chance ticket into the same rung you're on or a free ticket into the rung immediately below the one you're on.

In this way, a player could conceivably start their journey to become Mansion Poker Lord of the Rungs for just 50 cents or $10 (low stakes/high stakes respectively) and not pay another dime until becoming the next Mansion Poker Lord of the Rungs.

Club PKR Loyalty Program

Club PKR is built on loyalty levels that, unlike at many other competing poker sites, are uni-directional, meaning that you can only advance up the ladder in loyalty levels; even if you are unable to keep up with the same level of play from month to month, PKR will never lower your loyalty level.

Club PKR offers players exclusive freeroll tournaments with big money prizes, large cash bonuses, rewarding free gifts, gear in the PKR Shop, and special VIP hospitality, including access to high stakes live poker tournament events.

Play at PKR

The way players advance up through the levels of Club PKR is by earning PKR Points by playing in real money online poker cash games and at tournament tables, and as a reward open the doors to fabulous prize and benefits.

At the PKR Shop players can redeem PKR Points for gifts such as PKR hoodies, high-end poker chip sets, and poker books.

To first become a member of Club PKR, a player must make at least one deposit into a real money PKR Poker account. From there, the Loyalty Levels in Club PKR Poker are as follows:

• You remain a member until 35,001 PKR Points
• You then advance to Bronze level until you reach 100,001 PKR Points
• You then advance to Silver level until you reach 500,001 PKR Points
• You then advance to Gold level until you reach 1,000,001 PKR Points
• You then advance to Platinum level until you reach 2,500,001 PKR Points
• You then become a Diamond level Club PKR member for life

In a future posting we'll explore the specific tiered benefits offered at each of these Club PKR levels.

Play at PokerStars

The Ninth PokerStars WCOOP Extreme Satellites start on August 21 and run thrice each day up through August 29. Two of each day's three Extreme Satellites are in No Limit Hold'em while the other might be any of a variety of poker variants, including: Limit Hold'em, Pot Limit Omaha, 8 Game Mixed, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Five Card Draw. "Pot odds" at these PokerStars WCOOP IX Extreme Satellites are higher than ever, giving players their absolute best chances of winning a WCOOP IX seat for as little as $5.50.

PokerStars WCOOP Extrem Satellites

What makes these satellites so extreme? It's that the guaranteed prize pool at each of these events is either 25 or 50 tournament tickets into the WCOOP IX. Ticket values at each tournament vary, so for example you may see an Extreme Satellite with a prize pool of 25 seats worth $109 each, or 50 seats worth $320 each, etc.

A few of the tournaments on the WCOOP IX Extreme Satellite schedule stand out. On August 26 at 5 pm ET there's a $55 No Limit Hold'em Extreme Satellite for 25 seats worth $1,050. On August 28 is a $109 Pot Limit Omaha event offering 25 seats worth $2,100. And on August 29 is a $260 No Limit Hold'em event offering 25 seats worth $5,200 each. In all, the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker IX Extreme Satellites offer $500,000 of added value.

The daily schedule of World Championship of Online Poker Extreme Satellites at PokerStars between August 21 and 29 has tournaments at 2 pm, 5 pm, and 8 pm ET.

The Incredible Sign-up Bonus at Mansion Poker (also called the Fabulous Sign-up Bonus) is a $500 bonus to brand new Mansion Poker members who deposit $500 into their new Mansion Poker real money account. That's a 100% match on an initial deposit of up to $500.

To be eligible for the sign-up bonus, the full deposit must be made at once. Deposits of smaller amounts will mean smaller bonuses (at a rate of 100%). And all subsequent deposits that first month will not be eligible for any reload bonus. But as of your second month as a Mansion Poker member, you can immediately start earning Reload Bonuses up to $100 each month.

Play at Mansion Poker

To access that poker bonus money, you must accumulate points by playing in Mansion Poker real money cash games and tournaments. The more you play in, the more points you will earn (even if you give a mixed performance) and the more points you earn, the more of your cash bonus you clear. It takes 1,000 points to clear $10 of your Mansion Poker bonus.

The amount of points awarded to a player depends on either the rake taken from the pot (if a cash game) or the amount of the tournament registration fee (if a tournament). In either case, the higher the stakes, the more points a hand is worth.

The points for each hand will be distributed based on the amount of cash each player contributed to the pot.

• In cash games, point awards range from 0.3 points for a rake of $0.01 - $0.09 to 21 points for a rake of $3.01 and higher.
• In tournaments, 20 points are awarded to each player for each $1 paid in registration fees.

Play at PKR Poker

The PKR Poker Raise Your Game section includes more than 250 articles on playing winning online poker. Browse articles by tags, by most recently added, by most recommended, by most commented, by most read, or use advanced search features to learn to develop the skills you feel you need to learn most in order to improve your game.

PKR's Raise Your Game also includes departments in Sit & Go Strategy, MTT Strategy, and Ring Game Strategy, as well as a full online poker Strategy Series for those who want to take it step-by-step from the beginning. The current Strategy Series running at PKR Poker is a Heads-Up Masterclass made up of 6 sequential feature articles. Other Strategy Series' include:

• Cash Machines (9 articles)
• Sit & Gos: Spice It Up! (6 articles)
• Going Deeper - How to Master Deep-Stack MTTs (10 articles)
• The Best of Team PKR Pro (10 articles)

There's even a How to Play department teaching true novices the basics of online poker from the bare bones up. Then there's the Bluefire Poker section, an elite members-only section moderated by the Bluefire Poker Team lead by Phil Galfond and other celebrity members of Team PKR. You can gain entry to the Bluefire Poker section with your PKR Points.

You can view videos of exciting moments in professional high-stakes live poker at PKR Poker Raise Your Game, like the incredible fold Hohn Duthie made against Tom Dwan in the first-ever PKR Heads Up Grand Slam.

Players are welcome (even urged) to add their own comments to the site and to rate the usefulness to them of the articles.

This isn't the first time we've told you about the OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions promotion and it won't be the last. You don't find many million dollar online poker freeroll tournaments out there.

The Freeroll into Millions promotion is divided into three different tournament series, the Freeroll into Millions Gold Chip Giveaway with a prize pool of 200 Gold Chips, the Freeroll into Millions $250K Satellite with a prize pool of 5 tickets into the Freeroll into Millions $250K Semi Final, and the Freeroll into Millions $250K Semi Final itself, a direct qualifier into the OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions Final tournament.

Both the Freeroll into Millions Gold Chip Giveaway and the Freeroll into Millions $250K Satellite run twice daily, once in the morning (either 9:30 am or 12:30 am on alternating days), once in the evening (either 2:30 pm or 7:30 pm on alternating days), Monday through Saturday. The $250K Freeroll into Millions Semi Final takes place every Saturday at 3 pm.

Play at OnlyPoker

Players can also buy in directly to the $250K Semi Final for $40. And in the Semi Final, one $250K Final seat will be awarded for every $268 in the prize pool, $268 being the direct buy-in into the OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions $250K Guarantee Final.

Over $1 million is up for grabs, between the ultimate $250K prize pool at the final and all the incremental prizes in the satellite events leading up to them.

Truly, you don't need a slew of online poker promotional offerings when you've got one like the OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions going on.

Satellite tournaments into that August 22 Poker Million Direct Qualifier start with buy-ins as low as $24+$2.

Players don't need to qualify for the Full Tilt Poker Poker Million Direct Qualifier through a satellite tournament. They can simply pay the direct buy-in, which in this case is $600+$40. The prize package from each of these Direct Qualifiers is valued at $32,000, comprised of the $30,000 buy-in into the Poker Million and $2,000 for traveling expenses.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

However you land your seat at the Poker Million, if you make it there you'll be playing poker on TV in front of thousands (maybe millions) of viewers alongside (or more like, opposite) some of the finest professionals in the poker circuit, all for a piece (the top piece, preferably) of a guaranteed minimum $1.4 million prize pool.

The latest Poker Million promotion started at Full Tilt Poker on June 1, 2010 and continues through December 10, 2010. After the September 5 event, the next Poker Million Direct Qualifier on the schedule is Sunday, October 3. Each Poker Million Direct Qualifier at Full Tilt Poker starts at 4:30 pm ET (21:30 GMT).

It's also worth mentioning that you can win more than one Poker Million Direct Qualifier. If you do, you'll just have all successive wins after the first credited to your Full Tilt Poker account as T$ or Tournament Dollars at a rate of T$32,000 for each win, which you can then apply toward any other big tournament buy-ins you wish to enter at a later date.

Full Tilt Poker sponsors the Poker Million, which is known throughout Europe as one of the most widely watched televised poker broadcasts.

Mansion Poker uses what it calls 'table level' chip conversions in order to always display your deposits and withdrawals in your own currency. Mansion Poker will also automatically convert a portion of your real money balance to the standard currency, or US dollars, based on the current applicable exchange rate at that time anytime you join a ring game or poker tournament.

In the Mansion Poker lobby, you will see buy-ins for the various tables and tournaments you have to choose from. When you point your mouse's cursor over any of these buy-ins for tables or tournaments you're considering joining, you'll see a box appear notifying you that your currency is different from the one used in the buy-in (US dollars). That box also contains a link to a thorough explanation of how to use the Mansion Poker multi-currency feature to convert your balance into the necessary currency.

This allows you to know in your own currency how much you'd be spending to enter a tournament or table. And even though when you sit at a ring game, your chip balance is shown in the standard US dollars, anytime you wish to purchase more chips, you'll be able to see what you'd be spending in your own currency so you can make a clear and informed (and responsible) decision. Then, when you exit the ring game, you'll see your chip balance converted back into your own currency.

Play at Mansion Poker

For poker tournaments at Mansion Poker, you'll see the buy-ins displayed in both the standard US dollars and your own currency, for your convenience. Rebuys and add-ons are displayed similarly, showing you exactly how much it would "really" cost you (in your own currency) to rebuy or add-on. Tournament prizes won by players for whom US dollars are not native currency will be displayed in both US dollars and the prize winner's currency.

The BestPoker VIP Club is broken down into 3 different sections:

• the Players Club
• the Gold Club
• the Platinum Club

Members of the BestPoker Players Club get live chat, phone, and email support; entry to exclusive freeroll tournaments; the opportunity for reload bonuses on subsequent deposits after your first; monthly VIP challenges with bonus prizes; and access to the VIP shop full of BestPoker gear.

Members of the BestPoker Gold Club receive everything listed above, plus entries to VIP Gold Tournaments and Gold Club Freerolls; personal invitations to VIP events; a one-time coupon for a free BestPoker t-shirt from the VIP store; and a 10% discount off all items purchased at the VIP store.

Members of the BestPoker Platinum Club receive all the benefits previously mentioned plus exclusive VIP concierge service while playing at the site; and a 20% discount off all items purchased at the BestPoker VIP Club Store. They also have exclusive access to the Platinum Anything Policy, which allows Platinum Club members to use their VIP points for anything at all on the site.

Play at BestPoker

All this having been said, BestPoker has announced that they are in the process of revamping the VIP Club and we can only assume it will be for the better. So if the above rewards and benefits are what the BestPoker VIP Club... or Clubs, more like it, offer now, imagine what they'll be like after the overhaul.

BestPoker does assure its current players that when the changes are made, players will remain at the same VIP status level as they were immediately preceding the changeover.

• a $250 seat in the $100K GTD PKR Masters,
• a seat in the $10K GTD PKR Open,
• a seat in a Stage 1 satellite qualifier tournament into the $100K GTD PKR Masters, or a package of 3 seats in PKR Premium Freerolls.

Distribution of bonus rewards to new PKR Poker players is determined by random drawing.

Play at PKR Poker

Existing members of PKR Poker may not be able to enter the drawing for the bonus prizes, but they do get to compete in satellites and qualifiers into both big tournaments - the $100K GTD PKR Masters and the $10K GTD PKR Open - and access to the PKR Premium Freerolls.

Besides the $100K GTD Masters tournament with its $25K guaranteed first prize and the qualifiers into it starting at just $2, there are a slew of other guaranteed tournaments at PKR Poker with guaranteed prize pools of all sizes for players new and old.

There's the Sunday Open $12,500 guaranteed for a $25 direct buy-in. There's the $10,000 guaranteed Bounty tournament for a $20 direct buy-in, with a bonus $100 bounty on various key PKR Poker pro team members. There's the $7,500 guaranteed PKR Open on Wednesday nights for a $20 direct buy-in. There's the Grand Prix tournament with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool during the week and an $8,000 guaranteed prize pool on the weekend, both for a $50 direct buy-in. There's the $3,500 guaranteed Omaha Showdown for a $50 buy-in. There's the $5,000 guaranteed Aussie Classic on Sundays for a $40 buy-in. There's the nightly $4,000 GTD Gold Rush with its meager $2 direct buy-in. And there's the $1,500 Canadian Open, also nightly.

All of the PKR Poker Guaranteed Tournaments have numerous satellite opportunities into them for lower buy-ins.

The Premium Freerolls PKR Poker offers, players can enter using PKR Points. The site also hosts Points Tournaments, 10 Cent Giveaways, and 25 Cent MTT Sit & Go tournaments.

The 2010 Malta Poker Open will be held at Portomaso Casino in the village of St. Julians, in Malta. Besides the €1,100 buy-in into the Malta Poker Open main event, winners of the "MPO" prize packages (as Power Poker calls them) will also get 5 nights of luxury accommodations at the St. Julians Hilton Hotel, entry to an exclusive players Welcome Party taking place at the Hilton's Club 22, and funds to apply toward your air fare to Malta. The Power Poker Team will accompany the prize package winners to the event and make sure that they have a good time during their stay.

Play at Power Poker

In order to win one of these 2010 Malta Poker Open prize packages, Power Poker only asks you to play in at least 1,001 raked hands during one of the two week periods of the promotion. The two week periods, after each of which, one prize package will be awarded to the most successful player, are: August 1 - 15, August 16 - 31, September 1 - 15, and September 16 - 30.

The qualifiers then, with a player pool made up of players who either successfully accumulated at least 1,001 raked hands at Power Poker during one of the above mentioned time periods or paid the €1,500 + €150 direct entry, are, respectively: August 18, September 3, September 18, and August 3. Each of these qualifiers starts at 18:00 GMT.

For players who want an easy way to get to the Malta Poker Open without having to win their seat in a satellite tournament, Power Poker is also selling MPO packages outright for $2,500.

The final stop on the season's World Poker Tour schedule, the WPT Borgata Poker Open is one of the most prestigious live poker tournament events in the World Poker Tour season and the entire international live poker circuit.

The satellite structures Party Poker is offering into this elite live poker tournament event are many, and include a variety of daily freeroll tournaments, ongoing Sit & Go and MTT qualifiers all leading up to scheduled weekly satellites in which the actual 2010 Borgata Poker Open Party Poker prize packages are going to be awarded.

Play at Party Poker

The Party Poker Borgata Poker Open promotion begins on Monday, August 2nd and runs through Sunday, September 5th.

The Party Poker prize package into the WPT Borgata Poker Open includes the $3,500 buy-in into the main event, $2,250 to spend as you like, 7 nights in luxurious Atlantic City hotel accommodations, and of course, Party Poker's world famous hospitality.

In 2009 the winner of the WPT Borgata Open received nearly one million dollars for his efforts, and over one million more was split among the players who cashed.

In registering for Party Poker's 2010 Borgata Poker Open promotion you are confirming that you yourself will be able to accept the award and attend the actual event September 19th to 24th (though Party Poker will have you there on the 17th).

If you make it to the final table of the 2010 Borgata Poker Open, then Party Poker will pay for your extra night's hotel stay, however long it takes until you either bust out or win.

However, if you cannot attend the 2010 Borgata Poker Open if you win, Party Poker will let you transfer your prize to another registered player on PartyPoker.com.

In the Titan Poker 2010 Irish Winter Festival of Poker satellite promotion the iPoker Network's largest poker site is giving out prize packages valued at €2,700 each to the big event, made up of:

• €720 for flight money, travel expenses, and handling fees
• €280 for a stay of four nights at Dublin's Burlington Hotel
• €1,500 + €150 for the 2010 Irish Winter Festival of poker main event

The 2010 Irish Winter Festival is taking place from October 22nd to 25th at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

Play at Titan Poker

As you may recall from the first time that we told you about the 2010 Titan Poker Irish Winter Festival satellite promotion, there are two different paths to glory, so to speak; that is, there are two different satellite structures, both alike in design but divergent in scheduling, styles of poker being played, stakes, and prizes awarded.

Both Structure A and Structure B, as they are called, feature ongoing satellite series, usually following a three step, or 3 stage, system. There are several of these ladders for both Sit and Go (or SNG) tournament players and for MTT (or Multi-table tournament) players alike.

The pinnacle of performance in both Structure A and Structure B, and the last step in all the ladders, as it were, are Super Satellite tournaments on Titan Poker where the actual 2010 Irish Winter Festival prize packages will be awarded. The Structure A Super Satellite tournaments take place every Sunday through October 10. The Structure B Super Satellite tournaments take place every Tuesday through October 5. And the Structure C Super Satellite tournaments just started yesterday, Thursday August 5, on Titan Poker and will continue every Thursday thereafter until October 7.

Power Poker's 10K Omaha Race runs for the entire month of August, 2010, at the end of which the site will dole out $10,000 cash to the top 40 finishers, split according to the following breakdown.

• First place will get $2,000
• Second place will get $1,500
• Third place will get $1,000
• Fourth place will get $600
• Fifth place will get $400
• Sixth through tenth places will each get $300
• Eleventh through fifteenth places will each get $200
• Sixteenth through thirtieth places will each get $100
• Thirty-first through fortieth places will each get $50

The concept of this Power Poker 10K Omaha Race is simple: play as much as you can and earn as many FPPs as you can from playing at the Omaha tables at Power Poker (FPPs standing for Frequent Player Points). Power Poker will be keeping a leader board tracking players as they progress.

Play at Power Poker

Sunday Sessions are a new part of the regular schedule at Power Poker starting on Sunday, August 8. There are four Power Poker Sunday Sessions in all, each of them in games of Omaha.

First, at 17:00 is the Omaha giveaway Freeroll. To enter, earn 1 - 10 FPPs in the period of time Monday through Friday. The top 3 finishers win Power Poker gifts.

Then, at 18:00 is the Omaha $100 Freeroll. To enter, earn at least 10 FPPs in the Monday through Friday period. The guaranteed prize pool is $100, plus some Power Poker gifts.

Then, at 19:00 is the Omaha $2 Tournament. Entry for this tournament is $2 + $0.20. The prize pool is built of the participating players' $2 buy-ins plus $25 added tot he prize pool by Power Poker.

Finally, at 20:00 every Sunday night is the Omaha $5 Tournament. Entry for this one is $5 + $0.50, and this time Power Poker is adding $50 to the prize pool.

The new PKR/Fox Club brainchild will be called The Fox Poker Club in association with PKR.com and it will be situated in the heart of the famous London West End, on Shaftesbury Avenue. Opening date is scheduled to be August 7th.

Not to be confused with Rupert Murdoch's FOX TV, Mayfair's prestigious members-only club, the Fox Poker Club was named for Charles Fox, an esteemed politician of the 18th century, to whom the club is connected. The new London club will take up 6,500 sq ft of space, with enough seating for up to 200 players. It will also have a poker library. At the Fox Poker Club in association with PKR.com, players can look forward to a slew of daily poker tournaments in the full spectrum of styles and stakes, as well as the same breadth and variety of cash games, too. Players can also enjoy free poker tutorials taking place every afternoon if they wish.

Play at PKR Poker

And of course, as you might expect, the co-sponsor of the club, PKR Poker is making this venue the exclusive site for all its live poker events, giving PKR Poker players numerous forthcoming opportunities to play for seats in those events at the inevitable satellite tournaments PKR.com will be hosting for them. The first of these will be for the Grand Opening. PKR Poker promises many promotions in store for players leading up to the opening, as a matter of fact.

PKR Poker, appropriately enough, is licensed in Alderney, which as most of you are no doubt aware is also located in the U.K., making it a perfect match for the new Fox Poker Club in London... or rather The Fox Club in association with PKR.com in London.

Now, on July 28th, H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act passed the House Financial Services Committee with a 41-22 vote. The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) that has over one million members in the U.S.A. was pleased with this important decision. The overall sentiment is that the Congress starts to realise that prohibition is failing (as the alcohol prohibition did back in the 20s and early 30s) and that a sensible regulation of online poker is the way to go.

Former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the PPA was quoted saying, "The fact is, online poker is not going away. Congress has a choice - it can license and regulate it to provide government oversight and consumer protections or our lawmakers can stick their heads in the sand, ignore it, and leave consumers to play on non-U.S. regulated websites in all 50 states. I'm glad the Financial Services Committee today overwhelmingly chose to act and protect Americans as well as preserve the fundamental freedoms of adults and the Internet."

Sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, H.R. 2267 is meant to ensure protection for underaged players and problem gamblers while intelligently regulating internet gaming for adult customers with the use of modern technologies and a regulatory authority. Furthermore the planned licensing and regulation are thought to bring companies back to the U.S. which in turn would mean a boost for the economy due to taxes (of a substantial amount) and lots of jobs.

At the same time that H.R. 2267 ensures the right and legal possibility for U.S. players to play poker online, it also goes further in consumer protection than the current law (UIGEA) that simply lacks possibilities of control and said consumer protection.

While there is still a lot of work to be done and lawmakers of the House and the Senate will have a thorough look at all the points in the new bill, there is already a very positive atmosphere amongst members of the PPA. "This is a great day not only for poker players, but for proponents of Internet freedom and individual liberty. We thank Chairman Frank for his leadership on this bill, and look forward to working with him to bring this bill through the legislative process." said Alfonse D'Amato.

Some key points of the bill:

• Mandatory implementation of technologies for the protection against underaged gambling (using commercial and government databases that are used for online banking in order to verify identity and age)
• Daily, weekly and/or monthly limits for deposits and losses in order to detect problem gamblers
• Regulated standards to detect and avoid fraud and cheating or any abuse of the poker software in order to ensure secure and fair games for all customers
• Regulations to prevent money laundering and tax avoidance

Play at Party Poker

Taking each one at a time then:

The Party Poker Full House $100K Grand Final is a freeroll based promotion with weekly satellite tournaments with $10K prize pools qualifying players for the monthly $100K Grand Final. To earn a ticket into a weekly $10K Freeroll just earn 1 Party Poker Point each day for three days of any given week in August. Then, to earn a ticket into the $100K Grand Final on August 30 all you have to do is qualify for two weekly $10K freerolls (of which there are four) that month.

The Party Poker Full House $50K Cash Game Race is, as it sounds, a points race. Just earn more Party Poker Points on the leader board by month's end than any other player in your status level (a condition of the $50K Cash Game Race is that it is only open to Gold, Silver and Bronze level Party Poker players). Only Party Poker Points earned at Party Poker's cash ring game tables count toward your overall performance in the race. PartyPoints earned at tournaments and SnG's don't count.

The Party Poker Full House Sit $ Go Jackpots are up to $160K to be awarded in increments of $10K to $50K to players who win 5 of these Full House Sit & Go jackpots in August.

The Titan Double is a progressive jackpot tournament, which means that the jackpot continues to grow until someone wins it. At the time of this writing, the Titan Double Progressive Jackpot stood at over $1K ($1,015.50 to be exact).

You can win a piece of this progressive jackpot every night at Titan Poker by playing in the two simultaneous Titan Double Tournaments. They start five minutes apart (the first at 21:35 GMT + 1 and the second at 21:40 GMT + 1), and they each have a $6 buy-in ($5 + $1).

From each player's $1 tournament registration fee, half (or $0.50) will be apportioned off to the Titan Double Progressive Jackpot, which always resets at (and never falls below) $1,000.

Play at Titan Poker

You can win a piece of the Titan Double Jackpot in a number of ways.

• Final Table: If you Final Table (that is, become one of the last remaining 10 players) in both of the Titan Double tournaments in a single given evening. Half of the jackpot money collected that day is split among all qualifying players. If no one qualifies, the money is added to the Titan Double jackpot.
• Top 3 in Both: If you finish both Titan Double tournaments in a single given evening in the top three then you split a flat $200 prize. There must be a minimum of 100 players registered for that Titan Double series (in other words both Titan Double tournaments of that given night) for the Top 3 in Both jackpot to be awarded, even if players otherwise qualify.
• Win Both: But if you win both of the Titan Double tournaments in a single given evening you hit the jackpot and win the full amount all to yourself!

FTOPS XVII is happening August 4th to 15th, 2010. The prize pool this time is over $19 million guaranteed. The series includes 34 events, including the $600 + $40 FTOPS XVII Main Event, which has a $3 million guaranteed prize pool.

The Mini FTOPS XVII is happening September 8th to 19th, 2010. The prize pool this time is over $6 million guaranteed. The Mini FTOPS XVII also has 34 events, the same 34 as the FTOPS XVII in fact, but at one-tenth of the buy-ins.

The FTOPS XVII schedule also features the $2 million guaranteed two-day event and includes Turbo, Super Turbo, Shootout, and Knockout events. Full Tilt Poker has even added some Rush Poker Tournaments to the Full Tilt Online Poker Series lineup.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker is already running around-the-clock satellite tournaments qualifying players into all of the events comprising FTOPS XVII. What's more, Full Tilt Poker has brought back the FTOPS Satellite Challenges, wherein you can win bonus cash and tournament tickets for winning more satellites than anyone else.

Win more satellites into the same FTOPS XVII event than anyone else and win the T$ (tournament dollar) equivalent of 2 more buy-ins to that same event. So if you win the FTOPS XVII Satellite Challenge for Event #1, for example, $200 + $16 NL Hold'em, then you win 2 x ($200 + $16) or 2 x $216 = $432 in T$ that you can then apply toward any other event on Full Tilt Poker in FTOPS XVII. Thirty-four such prizes will be awarded, one for each event leading up to (and including) the Main Event. Runners-up in each of the FTOPS XVII Satellite Challenges will win the tournament dollar equivalent of 1 more tournament buy-in.

The Incredible Sign-up Bonus at Poker Ocean (also called the Fabulous Sign-up Bonus) is a $100 bonus for new Poker Ocean members who deposit $200 into their new Poker Ocean real money account. That's a 50% match on an initial deposit of up to $200.

To be eligible for the sign-up bonus, the full deposit must be made at once. Deposits of smaller amounts will mean smaller bonuses (at a rate of 50%). And all subsequent deposits that first month will not be eligible for any reload bonus. But as of your second month as a Poker Ocean member, you can immediately start earning reload bonuses of up to $100 each month.

Play at Poker Ocean

To access that bonus money, you must accumulate points by playing in Poker Ocean real money cash games and tournaments. The more you play in, the more points you will earn (even if you give a mixed performance) and the more points you earn, the more of your cash bonus you clear. It takes 600 points to clear $5 of your cash bonus.

The amount of points awarded to a player depends on either the rake taken from the pot (if a cash game) or the amount of the tournament registration fee (if a tournament). In either case, the higher the stakes, the more points a hand is worth.

The points for each hand will be distributed based on the amount of cash each player contributed to the pot.

In cash games, at Poker Ocean point awards range from 0.2 points for a rake of $0.10 - $0.24 to 10 points for a rake of $2.76 and higher. In tournaments, 17 points are awarded to each player for each $1 paid in registration fees.

Deal-making enables the players in a final table of a tournament to halt game play to negotiate a different split of the pot. As an automated part of its game structure now, Party Poker lets players select from preset dealing structures and customized payout structures.

All active players must agree on a deal for it to go into effect. Otherwise, if a consensus isn't reached, normal game play is resumed.

When a pot is "chopped" (as it's called), it usually creates a more equitable split for all players involved, typically based on the players' respective chip counts at the time of deal-making. In this way, the winner of the game may not necessarily be the player who wins the largest share of the pot. But by the same token, a player involved in the split who busts out earlier than expected still gets to make more than they otherwise would have made.

Play at Party Poker

When the deal-making chat comes up, players will see the text in their chat window welcoming them to deal-making chat. It is there, in that window, that players chat about the prospective deal. The Chip Leader is the player put in charge of negotiations.

The Party Poker deal-making option is only available in real money tournaments where the prize pools are all cash. That means satellite tournaments don't apply, nor do tournaments where players can choose to take their prize in some form other than cash qualify.

At the end of every day, 5 days a week (Monday through Friday; Saturday and Sunday not included), Celeb Poker will rank players based on each one's number of tournament wins and award the top 3 players $100 cash, according to the following breakdown: the player who won the most Sit 'n Go tournaments that day will win a $50 cash bonus, the player who won the second most Sit 'n Go tournaments receives a $30 cash bonus, and the player who won the third most Sit 'n Gos gets a $20 cash bonus.

The tally is reset for the following day, an official "day" starting at 00:00 GMT and going until 23:59 GMT) with all players starting out equally again at zero Sit 'n Go tournament wins.

By basing its determination of winners by tournaments won, regardless of stakes level or prize amounts awarded, Celeb Poker effectively evens the playing field and allows players with small bankrolls equal opportunity to win a piece of the Sit 'n Go Daily Cash bonus as players with large bankrolls.

Play at Celeb Poker

Qualifying Celeb Poker Sit 'n Go tournaments are those with a minimum of a $1 buy-in. That's it. You can view the leader board daily on the Celeb Poker site. Payments will be made to all winners within 72 hours of qualifying.

All you have to do is play in the Celeb Poker Sit 'n Gos of minimum $1 buy in and win as many as possible during that day. The daily leaderboard will be published 5 days a week, and the payments to the winners will be made within 72 hours of winning. A day runs from 00:00 GMT to 23:59 GMT.

Daily at 10:05 am ET and 3:25 pm ET, as well as on Sundays at 9:50 am ET, are $200K GTD Sunday Sub Qualifier Special Speed events with a $16 buy-in. Also daily, these at 8:20 am ET and 2:20 pm ET, are $200K GTD Sunday Sub Qualifier Special Speed Rebuy events with a $6 buy-in. These both seed players into a $200K GTD Sunday Qualifier Special, which takes place Mondays through Fridays at 1:35 pm ET, Saturdays at 11:45 am ET, and Sundays (this a Turbo event) at 11:05 am ET, and has its own direct buy-in of $58. These then seed players directly into the Party Poker $200K Guaranteed Sunday.

Beyond these are eight other direct qualifiers into the Party Poker $200K Guaranteed Sunday, including Speed, Turbo, and Rebuy events, up to 15 seats guaranteed in some events, and with buy-ins ranging from $3 to over $100, or for just 50 Party Poker Points.

Play at Party Poker

On top of that are a bevy of single-table tournaments, all Sit & Go events, qualifying players for the Party Poker $200K Guaranteed Sunday. These are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and include 2-seaters, 6-seaters, and 10-seaters, with buy-ins ranging from $3 to $120.

The Party Poker $200K Guaranteed Sunday starts at 12:45 pm ET.

For a long time, custom player avatars were the only way to throw opponents on tilt (full tilt, that is) from the get-go, with the exception of cool usernames and chat intimidation. But now, Full Tilt Poker lets players earn Player Achievement Badges which let you give your opponents fair warning that they're about to have their butts handed to them, and their bankrolls taken away.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The Full Tilt Poker Player Achievement Badges are as follows:

Full Tilt Poker Academy Badges show that you have successfully completed at least three Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenges in a single month's time. Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenges are free to take and they give you the chance to hone your skills in different aspects of poker. You can choose from Cash Game Challenges, Sit and Go Challenges, and Multi-Table Tournament Challenges.

Iron Man Challenge Badges are awarded to any player who successfully qualifies for the Iron Man Challenge in a given month. The Iron Man Challenge is a multi-level FTP points race for entry into a special Iron Man Freeroll tournament. The amount of points you must earn to qualify for the Iron Man Challenge is dependent on your player status level: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Iron.

True Poker Player Badges are easy to earn. Just player in any real money games at Full Tilt Poker, It shows that you've at least played for real money before and you're not totally green at the game.

Rush Poker Badges are awarded to players who earn at least 50 FTPs (Full Tilt Points) at Rush Poker tables and tournaments during a given month. Rush Poker is a faster-paced, higher-risk/higher-reward version of online poker. So having a Rush Poker Badges shows that you're a fearless player with nerves of steel. It says that you thrive on quenching your thirst for adrenaline and that you're not one who can be intimidated or bluffed out so easily.

The Weekly and Monthly Summer Races offer a combined jackpot of $75,000 guaranteed. The Racing periods are between Monday and Thursday each week, with the two monthly periods broken down into July 12 - 29 (for a 3-week "month") and August 2 - 26 (a full 4-week "month").

For the Monthly Summer Races the top 50 players on the leader board based on their daily accumulated ranking will share a $20,000 prize pool. For the Weekly Summer Races, up to 10 players who successfully reach the top 10 in points earnings for each of 4 days in a single week's Monday-Thursday period will win $500 each for a total of $5,000 awarded per week.

Play at Titan Poker

The Super Side Pot is an additional prize available to all players other than those who've already won a share of a weekly jackpot. Any player reaching the top 10 in period 1 for seven times or in Period 2 for ten times will win a share of any of the prize money not already won during the Weekly Summer Races.

Also as part of the Titan Poker Summer Jackpot are bonuses on existing Titan Poker progressive jackpots. For example, now if you win 6 of their Fort Knox Sit 'n Go tournaments consecutively then you can win over $50,000. For another example, you can play in the usual Titan Double tournaments each night, but this time win even bigger jackpots than ever before.

The BestPoker poker school includes 6 different departments: Poker Games, Betting Structure, About Tournaments, Poker Lingo, Poker Glossary, and Poker Vocabulary.

Now one question you may be asking off the bat is, 'What's the difference between Poker Vocabulary, Poker Lingo, and a Poker Glossary?' Excellent question - and the answer is as follows. The Poker Vocabulary section is where you'll find all the important terminology necessary for holding your own cards in a game of poker, be it Hold'em or Draw. Included are descriptions of playing actions, game types, hand values, and betting structures. The Poker Lingo section is where you can brush up on all the latest online poker slang - particularly the abbreviations your fellow players will most frequently use in chat, such as "GH" for Good Hand or "WP" for Well Played. And the Poker Glossary is, at least for the moment, inaccessible.

The other parts of the poker school at BestPoker are where you'll learn how to apply those terms and lingo, in other words how to play poker, and more than that how to play good poker.

The Poker Games section describes Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha High/Low, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud High/Low. Descriptions are broken down into extensive detail, including: Players, Dealer, Blinds, Deal, Betting Order, and Showdown.

The Betting Structure section describes the differences between Limit Poker (or Fixed Limit Poker), No Limit Poker, and Pot Limit Poker in detail. The About Tournaments section is one of the most detailed of all, going into everything from the Types of Tournaments (like Sit and Go and Multi-table) to Heads-Up tournaments and Satellites to Rebuys and Add-Ons. It even includes a few choice tidbits of advice in playing tournament poker online.

In all, the BestPoker poker school is a thorough resource for gaining a comprehensive education in the basics of poker (and online poker) that can have you up and playing (and winning) fast.

Although there's no minimum deposit the referred player must make in order for you to earn your reward, at Titan Poker, there is also the requirement that the referred player must earn 100 Titan Poker Points. (In order for your friends to earn their $25 welcome bonus, however, their deposit or deposits must amount to a minimum of $50).

When your referrals earn 100 points, you immediately receive $50 of your bonus with the other $50 considered "pending" which means that you yourself must earn a certain number of points in order to clear that bonus.

What's more, after you've successfully referred 4 friends to the site, your referral reward on all subsequent friends starting with the 5th jumps to $150 (with $75 of it being released to you immediately as cash and the other $75 pending).

Moving on to Celeb Poker, here's an interesting find, as it's even bigger than the Titan Poker refer-a-friend bonus, even though Titan Poker is the leading site on the iPoker Network.

Nonetheless, the Celeb Poker refer-a-friend bonus is actually twice as big, offering you $200 for each player that you refer. Plus, your friend gets an additional $100 bonus on top of their regular welcome bonus just for being referred by you, an existing Celeb Poker player.

There is no limit to the number of friends you can refer to Titan Poker or Celeb Poker to claim a refer-a-friend bonus, and enjoy plenty of free online poker opportunities at both sites.

One of the easiest ways to earn free poker money at poker sites is through their referral programs (often called refer-a-friend programs). Two of the sites offering such bonuses are Titan Poker and Celeb Poker, which happen to also share in common both being a part of the esteemed iPoker Network.

Poker rakes are taken from pots in online poker ring games just like they're taken in live, land-based, casino poker cash games. The rake is how the poker room (or in this case, the online poker room) pays itself for offering the cash ring games, much like the fee tacked on to a tournament buy-in (printed after a "+" sign, as in "$5 + $0.50", with $5 being the buy-in and 50 cents being the fee).

At OnlyPoker, which by the way is a US friendly online poker room, and many online poker sites like it, a poker rake is only taken if a hand makes it to the Flop. If no flop is dealt, no rake is taken. As in OnlyPoker, this is often called a No Flop, No Drop policy.

How much of a rake is taken from a pot depends on two factors: how many players participated in the hand and the table stakes for the game. For example in a 2 - 10 player game at Fixed Limit table stakes of $0.04/$0.08 the rake taken is $0.01 for every $0.20 in the pot up to a maximum rake of $0.08. While for a Pot Limit or No Limit game at $25/$50 stakes and higher with 6 or more players dealt cards in the hand, $0.05 in rake is taken for every $1 in the pot up to a maximum rake of $5.

The rake structure at each site varies slightly and, for cash game players, is one of the factors often used in deciding on a poker site at which to play. With that in mind, OnlyPoker has a very fair rake structure, next to a more than decent sign-up bonus for new players, being 110% up to $600.

Play at OnlyPoker

The Merit Cyprus Classic is one of the stops on the World Poker Tour, which is predominantly sponsored by Party Poker. However, for whatever reason Party Poker has opted not to sponsor the 2010 Merit Cyprus Classic which left the opportunity open for Full Tilt Poker to swoop in and take the helm. This will be Full Tilt Poker's first time hosting the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The Merit Cyprus Classic will take place from August 17 - 26 on the Turkish Occupied Side of the Cypriot Island and boasts an approximately $3 million total guaranteed prize pool.

The Full Tilt Poker prize packages into the Merit Cyprus Classic are valued at $7,500 and will include the $5,400 into the main event, as well as a luxurious, all-inclusive 10-day stay in the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino, which means that while you're there you'll enjoy the spa, private beach access, and attendance at the special Full Tilt Poker WPT Merit Cyprus Classic VIP Launch Party.

Qualifiers run on Sundays at 1:45 pm ET and Wednesdays at 2:45 pm ET at Full Tilt Poker. Buy-ins for the Sunday qualifiers are $300 + $22, while buy-ins for the Wednesday qualifiers are $200 + $16. Players can avoid paying those buy-ins, however, by qualifying for the qualifiers through Full Tilt's satellite tournaments.

August 20 is the start date for the 6-day main event of the 2010 Merit Cyprus Classic.

Be aware that as the Merit Cyprus Classic is to take place on the 37% of land on Cypriot Island that is not part of the EU, laws of the European Union are not applicable there.

Many of Full Tilt Poker's pro players will be in attendance at the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic to compete alongside the winners of the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic satellites.

$10 Flat Fee Single Table Tournaments

The $10 Flat Fee on Party Poker Single Table Tournaments (aka STT's) is a recent innovation at the site that applies to all Single Table Tournaments at all stakes levels. The buy-ins still vary as normal, but the registration fee tacked onto each buy-in has now been set at a fixed $10 flat fee no matter what the buy-in, stakes, or prize pool of the Single Table Tournaments.

The savings that this opens up to Party Poker Single Table Tournament players is phenomenal. As Party Poker says, before you even find yourself high-carding to place the dealer button, you'll already be saving money.

In honor of this new innovation in Party Poker Single Table Tournament buy-ins, the site is also introducing a bevy of new Single Table Tournaments (all with $10 reg fees, of course) with prize pools ranging up to $5,000. Just as one example, with only a $10 flat fee, the savings on entering a $5K Single Table Tournament at Party Poker is $90 for a 2-seater (or heads-up) STT and $190 for a 6-seater.

Single Table Tournaments are available at Party Poker with prize pools of: $200, $300, $500, $1,000, and $5,000.

$10,000,000 in Guaranteed Tournaments

The $10 Million in Guaranteed Tournaments is now a monthly guarantee at Party Poker.

The big one, of course, is the Party Poker Monthly Million, a $1 million guaranteed tournament that takes place on the first Sunday of every month at the site at 12:45 pm ET with a $640 buy-in.

Then there are $100K and $300K guaranteed tournaments held at PartyPoker every Sunday, along with $50K guaranteed tournaments taking place at Party Poker every Friday and Saturday both.

Of course, all $10 million worth of Party Poker guaranteed tournaments have satellite qualifiers leading into them, allowing players to get in for free or much less than the full cost of the respective guaranteed tournament's buy-in.

Play at Party Poker

There are several ways to win during Rush Week at Full Tilt Poker. The first, and easiest, is by continuing to play as you normally do at Full Tilt's Rush Poker tables and tournaments. As you do so, you will continue to accumulate Full Tilt Points, also as you normally do. Only now, those FTPs will also apply toward earning Full Tilt Poker bonus cash prizes. Within this part of the Rush Week promotion are three prize levels.

• The Bronze level is based on earning a minimum of 10 FTPs per day for at least 4 days of the promotion (giving players a $5 cash bonus) or all 7 days of the promotion (giving players a $10 cash bonus).
• The Silver level is based on earning a minimum of 100 FTPs per day for at least 4 days of the promotion (giving players a $25 cash bonus) or all 7 days of the promotion (giving players a $50 cash bonus).
• The Gold level is based on earning a minimum of 1,000 FTPs per day for at least 4 days of the promotion (giving players a $125 cash bonus) or all 7 days of the promotion (giving players a $250 cash bonus).

These rewards are not cumulative, which means that you earn whatever the highest cash award is for which you're eligible, not each bonus one on top of the other.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Additionally, every player who makes it to the final table of a Rush Poker Tournament will be given a free seat in the $50K Rush Week Freeroll.

Full Tilt Poker will also be converting many of its guaranteed prize pool tournaments during Rush Week to Rush Poker tournaments to help find more players for the $50K Rush Week Freeroll, including the regular Full Tilt Poker $1 million monthly guarantee.

The 2010 English Poker Open is scheduled to take place between September 11 and September 14, 2010 in London, England at the Palm Beach Casino. This will be the second annual running of this event.

Buy-ins for Power Poker satellite tournaments into the 2010 English Poker Open start at just $3. Power Poker is offering Step satellite tournaments, multi-table satellite tournaments, and of course, the final Sunday qualifiers into the EPO main event themselves.

Play at Power Poker

The $3.30 English Poker Open Satellite R&A events take place twice daily at 12:40 pm and 6:40 pm and award one English Poker Open Semi Final seat for every $27 in the prizepool. The $5.50 English Poker Open Satellite also runs twice daily, at 3:40 pm and 9:40 pm, and also awards one Semi Final seat for every $27 in the prizepool.

Then the English Poker Open Semi takes place three times daily, at 5:40 am, 1:40 pm, and 9:40 pm, for a $27 direct buy-in and awards one seat in the English Poker Open Final for every $268 in the prize pool. And finally, the English Poker Open $7K Final takes place every Sunday at 4 pm and awards one English Poker Open 2010 prize package for every $7K in the prize pool. The direct buy-in for this event is $268.

At each Sunday's Power Poker English Poker Open Satellite, at least one prize package that includes a seat in the 2010 main event will be awarded. These $7,000 prize packages also include Power Poker gear, an invite to the exclusive English Poker Open Welcome Party on September 10, and $1,650 cash deposited into your Power Poker account to apply toward travel and expenses.

Qualifiers started over at Party Poker on June 28 and continue through August 1 with ample free and low cost ways to win yourself a seat in the Sunday $400 + $30 WPT Legends of Poker Satellite Tournaments where 20% of players will win a WPT Legends of Poker 2010 prize package.

Play at Party Poker

Party Poker's WPT Legends of Poker 2010 prize package includes a seven night stay in luxury accommodations, two grand to spend how you like, VIP treatment, and of course let's not forget the $5,200 buy-in into the WPT Legends of Poker 2010 main event.

Paths to the WPT Legends of Poker Satellite include the following:

• Daily freeroll tournaments awarding the 50 best players in each a seat in one of the following two events,
• daily sub qualifier speed tournaments with $5 buy-ins awarding 10% of the players seats in the satellite qualifier (described below),
• and daily sub qualifier speed rebuy tournaments with $1 buy-ins awarding 1 seat in the satellite qualifier for every $46 in the prize pool.

All of which are Sit 'n Go events running throughout the day, everyday from now through August 1.

There are also direct satellite qualifiers for $43 + $3 running daily at 1:45 pm, with turbo events on Sundays, each of which award 10% of the players seats in the $430 WPT Legends of Poker Satellite.

The X2 Double or Nothing Sit 'n Go tournaments are what BestPoker describes as the "easiest way to double up" at the site. With buy-ins ranging from $2 + $0.20 to $100 + $8, the top five players in each X2 Double or Nothing Sit 'n Go win double their buy-in back.

In BestPoker's Turbo Tournaments, which run 7 days a week at 3 pm ET (9 pm CET) with a second Turbo scheduled each weekday evening Monday through Friday. All Turbo tournaments have a $5 + $0.50 buy-in and in all of them the blinds are increased at a lightning pace.

BestPoker hosts Euro Grand Prix tournaments every Saturday at 2 pm ET (8 pm CET) for $150 + $12 buy-ins in which a $60,000 total prize pool is guaranteed to be awarded. Multi-table qualifier tournaments into the weekly BestPoker Euro Grand Prix run throughout the week for much lower buy-ins.

Every Tuesday BestPoker hosts its Highroller Tournament, currently with a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool and a $500 + $25 buy-in. These Highroller Tournaments take place at 8:30 pm CET.

BestPoker also holds two big freeroll tournaments, one daily and one weekly, First, every weekday there's a $100 Freeroll at 7 pm. Then every Sunday at 8 pm CET BestPoker holds a $500 freeroll for players who earn at least 10 player points.

BestPoker's Royal Tournament is a $15,000 guaranteed tournament taking place every Saturday at 2:15 pm ET (8:15 pm CET) for a $10 + $1 buy-in. In the Royal Tournament, players start out with $1,500 in chips and blinds increase every dozen minutes.

Then BestPoker has a $5,000 Guaranteed Aussie Daily Tournament, a $7,000 Guaranteed Russian Daily Tournament, and a $9,000 Guaranteed Canadian Daily Tournament.

Play at BestPoker

This will mark the 4th season of broadcast for The Poker Show With Jesse May, and the 1st season to be sponsored by Party Poker. The season premiere of the program just took place last week and featured Mike Sexton, a Party Poker staple, and up-and-coming favorite Party Poker celebrities Kara Scott and Tony Guoga (aka Tony G.). The next episode will be available for viewing as of July 4. Additional episodes will then be broadcast each following Wed and Sun through July 25, at which point the program will take a short breather before rebroadcasting on August 29 and continuing on the twice weekly schedule through Sept 29.

In honor of their new sponsorship of this popular poker TV program, Party Poker will be hosting exclusive online poker tournaments after each of its initial eight episodes. The big twist to the exclusive Party Poker tournaments after the first eight Poker Show broadcasts is that players need to listen to The Poker Show in order to obtain the code needed to gain access to the tournament. Each Party Poker The Poker Show tournament will have a $6 buy-in and take place on each Thurs and Mon following the Wed and Sun broadcasts, respectively.

An additional freeroll final tournament will be offered for all the winners of the eight exclusive The Poker Show tournaments. The first of these finals will take place on August 1. The big prize for the winner of this freeroll final is the £5,000 buy-in for the World Poker Tour's London Poker Classic Main Event.

You can watch each episode of The Poker Show With Jesse May on the Party Poker blog (which can be found on PartyPoker.com) and on iTunes. Party Poker promises that it will be awarding additional bonuses exclusively for players who listen to The Poker Show With Jesse May.

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus & Loyalty Program

Party Poker's qualifier tournaments awarding as their top prizes free entries into the World Poker Tour London stop's main event, have begun. Running now through August 8, the Party Poker WPT London qualifiers run from Monday the 21st of June through Sunday the 8th of August.

Each Party Poker WPT London prize package is valued at $12K and comes with the $8K buy-in to the WPT London main event, $2K to spend as you like, a 7 nights of 5-star luxury accommodations during the event.

Play at Party Poker

WPT London Satellites

The official sponsor of the World Poker Tour, Party Poker is holding freeroll qualifiers and scheduled satellite tournaments every day for buy-ins starting as low as $1. Or you can skip the whole satellite tournament process and pay the $600 + $400 buy-in to register for the WPT London satellite directly. These WPT London satellites, which take place very Sunday at 2:15 ET, will each end with one out of every twenty players participating winning a $12,000 prize package into the WPT London.

The WPT London main event, otherwise known as the World Poker Tour London Poker Classic will take place at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair from August 30 through September 4. The main event begins August 30 with the 1st of 2 £5000 + £300 Day 1A events. The 8 player 2010 WPT London final table will occur on September 4.

The high rollers tournament, also a televised event, this one with a £15,000 buy-in, will happen September 3 - 5 and be broadcast on TV.

As Party Poker spokesperson and World Poker Tour commentator Mike Sexton tells the media, Party Poker is proud to see the WPT it sponsors coming to London, England for the very first time.

Full Tilt Poker qualifiers into the 2010 Bellagio Cup are taking place now at Full Tilt as of June 27th and are awarding as their top prizes a $12,000 prize package into the 2010 World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup VI that includes the event buy-in as well as money for travel, accommodations and spending.

US players are welcome to join this exciting promotion at one of the biggest US friendly, home of the most famous, and worlds renowned online poker rooms of the moment.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker's Step 7 Sit and Go satellite tournaments, which will be starting on Monday, June 28th, will also be giving out 2010 WPT Bellagio Cup VI prize packages as their top prizes. The direct buy-in into a Step 7 Sit & Go is $2,100 buy-in, but you can start yourself on the path up to Step 7 at an earlier Step for lower cost, with Step 1 costing on $3.30 to climb on.

Rather than awarding players accommodations during the Bellagio Cup at a specific hotel, Full Tilt Poker is instead awarding a cash stipend to apply toward accommodations, with discounts on local room rates arranged for Full Tilt satellite winners with many of the hotels on the Vegas strip.

At the same time as the WPT Bellagio Cup VI will be taking place at the Bellagio so will the 2010 WSOP Main Event at the Rio. Full Tilt Poker has given out 1,257 tickets into the World Series of Poker Main Event, which starts July 5th. Most recently Full Tilt held a 150-seat guaranteed main event qualifier. Full Tilt Poker is holding out a $10 million bonus to any online qualifier who goes on to win the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

These prizes are non-transferable so all players entering Full Tilt Poker's WPT Bellagio Cup VI qualifiers must be able to accept the prize and attend the event, which includes meeting the legal minimum age requirement in the US of 21 years old.

There are 3 different Feeder tournaments advancing players to the start of a 3-step BestPoker Step tournament satellite/qualifier structure. Feeder 1 and Feeder 2 advance players directly into Step 1, while Feeder 3 advances players directly to Step 3.

Play at BestPoker

Feeder 1 is a 20-seat event with a $1 + $0.20 buy-in. Each one awards a Step 1 ticket each to the winner and runner-up. Feeder 2 is a 10-seater into Step 1 with a $3 + $0.40 buy-in and a Step 1 ticket awarded to each of the top 3 finishers. Then Feeder 3 is a 10-seat satellite with a $20 + $5 buy-in that awards Step 3 tickets to the winner and runner-up along with a $20 + $5 "free" second chance at Feeder 3.

Steps 1 through 3, then, are like the BestPoker King of the Hill Final in that they cannot be bought into directly. They are only for players who won their way in there through one of the Feeder tournaments. Each of the steps are 10-seat events.

• The Step 1 buy-in is worth $8 + $2 and the tournament awards a Step 2 ticket and $10 to 1st place and 2nd place and a second chance Step 1 ticket to 3rd place.
• The Step 2 buy-in is worth $22 + $3 and the tournament awards a Step 3 ticket + $25 to 1st and 2nd place, and a second chance Step 1 ticket to 3rd place.
• The Step 3 buy-in is worth $73 + $7 and tournament awards a Final ticket + $80 to 1st and 2nd place, as well as a second chance Step 3 ticket to 3rd place.

All BestPoker King of the Hill events are Sit & Go tournaments.

The Party Poker Card Rush XL promotion is an instant game card promotion, similar to the scratch-off tickets we're all familiar with getting at the gas station or the convenience store. Except with these cards, every one is a winner.

The question with each Party Poker Card Rush XL instant game card is not whether or not you will win anything but how much you will win. Which makes them less like instant game cards and more like instant prize cards!

Play at Party Poker

How you collect Party Poker Card Rush XL instant prize cards is by collection Party Points (also known as Party Poker Points) is by playing in any of the real money cash ring games and tournament tables at Party Poker. For every raked hand in a Party Poker cash ring game, a certain number of Party Poker Points is awarded to the participating players. For every tournament registration fee a player pays to join, a certain number of Party Points is awarded.

The Card Rush XL promotion at Party Poker is different from other card collecting online poker promotions in that you don't have to collect a certain number of cards before you can win a prize, and your cards don't have to make a certain quality of poker hand in order to determine the quality of the prize. You don't even have to give up your Party Poker Points in order to redeem the prize card or the prizes they contain. You can still keep all your Party Poker Points collected and use them later for further tournament entries or cash withdrawals or Party Poker gear.

• Party Poker Bonus & Loyalty Program

• Only Poker Bonus
• Power Poker Bonus

The new Cake Poker 2.0 software for sites on the Cake Network that includes sites like Power Poker and Only Poker has now gone beta. That means players can now enjoy all the new features and benefits that come with the Cake Poker 2.0 upgrade, and participate in its improvement and perfecting.

The new features of the Cake Poker 2.0 software that players at Only Poker and Power Poker (along with other sites on the Cake Network) can look forward to include several improvements to the lobby, with a better look (through improved graphics) and a better feel (through an improved layout). What's more, the new Cake Network poker lobby is now resizeable.

Players at Only Poker and Power Poker will also notice that they can now view their number of Gold Chips, Gold Stacks, and Gold Cards, as well as their open tournament tickets right from the main lobby.

The main options listed now are for Ring Games, Tournaments, and Sit and Gos, each with radio buttons that allow players to narrow down their search for online poker games with filters for limits and table stakes. An advanced filter lets you select from additional ways to fine tune your choices, for example choose between 2-handed, 6-handed, 9-handed, or other size cash table.

Players at Power Poker and Only Poker, along with at their other fellow Cake Network poker sites, will notice sharper and more colorful table graphics, both in the classic theme view and in the simple theme view. Every facet of the table in each of these views - from the color of the felt to the face of the cards - is customizable.

And for players who enjoy playing in multiple tables or tournaments at once, you have a variety of ways you can view your various tables, choosing between the user-defined minimum (or default) preset table size, a view with the tables arranged at the 4 corners of your display screen, or tiled or cascading - whichever works best for you.

• Visit PowerPoker.com
• Visit OnlyPoker.com

The Poker Ocean Reload Bonus is deposited instantly into the player's Poker Ocean account as soon as the additional deposit is made. If that additional deposit is $100, then so is the reload bonus. Any less, of course, and the 100% reload bonus is equally less. This promotion only counts toward you first deposit of each given month, so you cannot, for example, deposit $50 on the first of the month and $50 on the 15th of the month and hope to receive $100. Only that first $50, in this case, would be matched.

Play at Poker Ocean

While deposited into the players' account instantly, the reload bonus cannot be withdrawn until it is cleared, at a rate of 600 Poker Ocean points (the currency for the Poker Ocean player loyalty and rewards program) per $5 cash redeemed.

Poker Ocean offers these reload bonuses on top of and in addition to any other bonuses offered, such as the new depositor welcome bonus. Each bonus, however, must be cleared separately to be released, and Poker Ocean applies points earned toward clearing the first bonus claimed (i.e. first your new player bonus and second your reload bonus).

All other terms and conditions that pertain to our enhanced Poker Ocean Sign-up Bonus of 100% on first deposits up to a maximum bonus of $200 (usually just 50%) apply as well to the Poker Ocean 100% Reload Bonus.

Power Poker Gold Cards are rewards for playing in Power Poker's real money ring game tables that can win you a variety of great prizes like entry into daily Mega Value Satellite Tournaments and other tournament tickets, and even cash. All through a regularly drawn Gold Card Lottery. The more Gold Cards you have, the better your chances of winning.

Play at Power Poker

And through the Power Poker $50,000 Gold Card Race players also have the chance to win up to $1K weekly. The Gold Race uses the same Gold Cards, and cards redeemed or drawn in the lottery are still counted toward that week's race. The fifty players with the most miles (or the highest collected value of cards) in a given week win cash bonuses - and still get to hold onto their Gold Cards.

Gold Cards are easy to earn at Power Poker cash ring games, and you don't need to be playing at certain stakes or with a certain bankroll or for a certain length of time to earn them. You can, in fact, even earn a Power Poker Gold Card in your first hand at a table, if sufficient rake is taken.

Gold Cards are issued to all players dealt in at a cash table every time that table achieves a preset rake amount (that is a set benchmark amount of rake taken is reached). Because of this, Gold Cards are issued more rapidly in higher stakes games, but they are issued at all levels none the less. Unfortunately, but understandable, Gold Cards will not be issued to players who hit the free online poker tables.

Twenty-three year old Bariller is from Montjean and has played high stakes poker regularly at PKR Poker for the past three years, turning his $5 win in a freeroll tournament into a $75,000 bankroll.

PKR Poker has a hot and fast growing community in France, in which Bariller has carved quite a niche for himself, steadily adding to his poker portfolio with wins in the PKR Open, the £50K PKR High Rollers event, and the PLO Super Series tournament. He also finished sixth in the PKR Live III Main Event.

Play at PKR Poker

Marc Bariller is also one among the elite few PKR players to have qualified for all four PKR Live events (PKR I-V) through the site's satellite structure, as well as having won 2010 WSOP and 2009 APT Manila and APT Macau entries at PKR Poker as well.

Describing this as the fruition of his ultimate goal at the site, Bariller becomes the fifth member of Team PKR Pro, joining:

• Sofia "Welllbet" Lovgren - the first and only woman on Team PKR Poker Pro and PKR cash game star
• Vladimir "Beyne" Geshkenbein - high-rolling 2009 APPT (Asian Pacific Poker Tour) champ (beating runner-up Johnny Chan) and 2009 PKR Heads-Up Grand Slam champ
• Adiren "zlatan35" Allain - winner of 2009 APT Macau (Asian Poker Tour), sixth place finisher in PKR Live II, and frequent winner of PKR online events
• James Sudworth - runner-up in the 2009 GUKPT Brighton Event
• Kai "Kingkai84" Paulsen - two-time WSOP casher and fifith place finisher at the 2008 Irish Open

Starting out playing only free poker online and freerolls, Bariller quickly turned his study into a bankroll that grew steadily to the tune of $75,000. Bariller's debut representing PKR Poker is at the 2010 World Series of Poker.

Titan Poker is offering APT Manila Super Satellites on Saturdays starting June 21 with direct buy-ins of $200 + $15 (through Satellite structure A) and on Thursdays starting June 24 with direct buy-ins of $80 + $8 (through Satellite structure B). Satellites into these Super Satellites run throughout each week of the promotion for buy-ins starting as low as thirty-three cents.

Play at Titan Poker

There are several qualification structures for players to choose from.

Structure A begins on June 21, with its first Super Satellite on Saturday, June 26 and its last Super Satellite on Saturday, August 14. SNG stage 1 satellites into these events go for $43 + $4 for 5-player tournaments and $21.50 + $2 for 10-player tournaments. Additionally, four different Stage 1 Satellite MTTs are scheduled daily with buy-ins ranging from $8 + $0.80 to $40 + $4. All of these Stage 1 MTT Satellites are Turbo R/A events (rebuy/addon) except for the $44 Freezeout.

Structure B satellites start on June 24 with the first Super Satellites happening on Thursday July 1 and the last happening on Thursday, August 12. Its schedule has the same amount of ongoing SNG Stage 1 events and daily MTT Stage 1 Satellites (though Structure A has an additional Saturday Stage 1 Satellite that Structure B does not). The other differences are mostly in the buy-ins, structures, and occasionally in the addition of a cash consolation prize for second place finishers in the SNGs. The structure for the Structure B APT Manila Super Satellites are rebuy/addon events.

Each $5,500 APT Manila prize package Titan Poker awards includes not only the free poker buy-in to the main event, a 6 night stay at the Manila Marriott Hotel, and as much as $2,000 for travel and expenses.

• Titan Poker Bonus & Loyalty Program

Power Poker is holding a Gold Stacks Cash Grab for the entire month of June, 2010, during which the site will be increasing Super Turbo rewards by half.

There's no limit to how many Gold Stacks you can build with the Gold Stacks Cash Grab, and even as you do so you get to keep all the Gold Chips you accumulate in the process. That also means you don't lose your Gold Stacks when you redeem your Gold Chips for entries in Power Poker online tournaments and big money live tournaments.

Play at Power Poker

With 50% more in Gold Stacks prizes, players can win as much as $340,000. What's more, you don't have to wait til the end of the promotional period of June 1 - 30 to get paid. Power Poker will pay you out for each Gold Stack completed as soon as it is completed.

Gold Chips are automatically earned on Power Poker by playing in any of the site's real money games, be they cash ring games or online poker tournaments (and that includes both multi-table tournaments or Sit 'n Gos). You can only build Gold Stacks from Gold Chips you accumulate one of these ways, that is in Power Poker's real money online poker games.

Gold Chips and Gold Stacks are distinct from Power Poker's Frequent Player Points (FPPs) that are a part of the site's VIP Program, though they are earned simultaneously and the same ways.

• Power Poker Bonus & Loyalty Program

Power Poker is the exclusive site of poker pro Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies, formerly of Full Tilt Poker.

In the Party Poker Steps Challenge, you pay the buy-in to register for one of six levels or steps to the $2,000 cash bonus, with the cost to enter Step 1 just $3. You can buy-in directly, however, to any of the levels, paying $10 to skip to Step 2, $30 to register for Step 3, $70 for Step 4, $170 for Step 5, and $500 for Step 6.

Play at Party Poker

The best part of the Party Poker Steps Challenge, though, is that you don't even have to win the respective Sit & Gos you enter in order to do well in the challenge.

Depending on the step at which you enter, you will either advance to the next step up, try again at the same step you're on, try again at one of the preceding steps down, or you are dropped out of the competition and have to start over with a new buy-in.

Conceivably, however, you can pay $3 to buy-in to the Party Poker Steps Challenge and travel up and down Steps through as many tournaments as it takes for you to ultimately reach the top and land the $2,000 cash bonus prize.

All Party Poker Steps Challenge Sit & Go's are 10-handed No Limit Holdem tournaments.

Co-produced by Power Poker, the music video is presented by Pablo Films and Rahina Records. The artist is Uniikki, one of the most renowned rappers in Finland and it also features rappers Spekti and Elastinen "Boys Will Be Boys" ("Pojat On Poikii").

Ziigmund is said to have been intimately involved in the concept for the video, according to Power Poker's VIP Manager, Jacqui Gatt. As the video starts, the Rähinä Records crew spend a night out with poker pro Ilari Sahamies. As the video progresses, with champagne and hot ladies galore, a cavalcade of other celebrities make appearances.

Born on March 3, 1983 in Helsinki, Finland and a friend of Patrik Antonius at an early age, Ilari Sahamies started playing poker when he was 15 years old and in 2001 could be seen playing at the Casino Helsinki beginning at $0.25/$0.50 table stakes. He then first appeared on the celebrity professional poker scene in 2007.

Then 2008 was a powerful year for Power Poker's sponsored pro, when he earned $1.6 million at the poker tables, and between August of 2008 and January of 2009 alone, he won $2.6 million. In January 2009 he took second in the Helsinki Freezeout for €125,000. Mostly a cash tablist, his total winnings from tournaments are $327,000.

He was first sponsored by Full Tilt Poker until he moved over to representing Power Poker. Now you can find him playing on Power Poker cash tables, including at low and medium stakes.

Power Poker is one of the rare poker rooms still accepting players from the United States. If you decide to give them a try, whether that's playing free poker online sitting at their fun money tables, or for real money, you will find out that they are a very decent pick. With a deposit bonus of 110% up to $600 you can't go wrong either, but make sure to use Power Poker bonus code PFF600, or you might end up with nothing.

Play at Power Poker

VIP Points that players earn toward the promotion are in addition to the Club Titan Points players are already earning simultaneously, and the prizes to which these VIP Points entitle you is on top of the benefits Club Titan regularly offers.

Play at Titan Poker

Titan Poker is trying to attract back old players who never made it past the Bronze status level. That's why all veteran Bronze players at Titan Poker who win one of the Titan Turbo All Points Races held weekly at the site or one of the $10,000 All Points Races held on June 28 and 29 will receive double whatever the prize amount offered is for each respective event.

Even though Titan Turbo isn't something free poker players will directly benefit from, it's good to know that if you end up in the highest 100 in any week's All Points Race you'll win a share of $5,000 in prizes.

The top 400 players over the course of the whole month will face off in the June 28-29 $10,000 guaranteed event. And there's still plenty of time to be one of those fortunate 400 in the June, 2010 $30,000 guaranteed Titan Turbo points race at Titan Poker.

Winning the Poker Ocean Dirty Dozen requires winning four Dirty Dozen Sit 'n Gos in a row. Each Dirty Dozen Sit 'n Go Tournament at Poker Ocean is capped at 12 players, competing over 2 tables. Each one has a buy-in of $2+$0.40.

Play at Poker Ocean

There are, of course, a few exceptions and stipulations regarding who can claim the $2,000 Dirty Dozen cash bonus, and under what conditions or criteria. For one, to be eligible for the $2,000 cash bonus, all Dirty Dozen Sit 'n Gos won have to be played within 14 days of each other.

In addition, if the 4 Dirty Dozen Sit 'n Gos that a given player won consecutively happened to have had the same 12 players competing, then the claimant of the bonus is refused the $2K. Also, players residing in the same household who compete against one another in Dirty Dozen Sit 'n Gos are not eligible to win the $2k cash bonus.

The Dirty Dozen Jackpot Sit 'n Go isn't the only jackpot sit 'n go at Poker Ocean. There are, in fact, three others, all of which boast progressive jackpots: the $15,000 Maui Progressive Jackpot (upped by $3,500 each week), the $25,000 Rio Progressive Jackpot and the $50,000 Fort Knox Progressive Jackpot (both upped by $10,000 each week).

• Poker Ocean Review
• Poker Ocean Bonus

Among the highlights of these free to enter real money online poker tournaments offered by Party Poker is the $1.5K New Player Freeroll which takes place every Saturday at 19:00 GMT (14:00 ET). A maximum of 5,000 seats are available in each of these No Limit Hold'em tournaments with a $1,500 guaranteed prize pool, and to be eligible to play you only need to have made your first deposit into a Party Poker account within 60 days prior to the start of the given tournament.

Play at Party Poker

Party Poker also hosts regular country-specific freeroll tournaments which, just like they sound, are only available to players residing in each event's given qualifying countries.

For example, players in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are able to enter two daily freeroll tournaments held just for them: the Trey Million Monthly Qualifier Speed Freerolls in which the top 10 finishers each win a seat in the Monthly Million Special, and the Trey Nations 50 Seat Frenzy Freeroll Qualifier with a $150 guaranteed prize pool.

Similar daily Monthly Million Qualifiers and 50 Seat Frenzy Freeroll Qualifiers then exist for Party Poker players in many other countries divided into the Americas, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Nordic Nations, UK & Ireland, and then Germany gets one all its own.

And these are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to Party Poker's monthly freeroll schedule, promising at least $20K per week and $100K total per month, all for no cost to enter, hence free online poker.

Bet on World Cup 2010 Games

Since many online poker players love to bet on sports, and we're currently in the middle of the action of this years FIFA World Cup, we like to take the opportunity to tell you about Internet Gambling Sites (IGS).

IGS is a brand new gambling portal full of information related to casinos, casino games, and sportsbooks, and has been developed in a partnership with creators of Poker For Free.

And because you love free - we can't be wrong here, as you are a visitor of Poker For Free after all - you might as well want to have a look at the free casino games which have completely been integrated into the website.

• Online Casino Sites
• Online Sports Betting Sites

BestPoker Players Club

The BestPoker Players Club is where every BestPoker player starts from day one of their experience at the site. At the Players Club, BestPoker players get treated to their first taste of VIP treatment with Live chat, email, and telephone support, reload bonuses, exclusive freeroll tournaments, monthly VIP challenges, and access to the BestPoker VIP Shop.

BestPoker Gold Club

The benefits of the BestPoker Gold Club include a 10% discount on items purchased at the VIP Shop, a one-time coupon for a free BestPoker t-shirt, personal invites to special VIP events, and entries into exclusive Gold Club freerolls and VIP Gold Tournaments.

BestPoker Platinum Club

At the top level, as a BestPoker Platinum Club member, you'll receive exclusive VIP concierge service at the site, a 20% discount on purchases at the VIP store, another one-time coupon for another free t-shirt, and access to the mysterious BestPoker Platinum Anything Policy, which BestPoker promises to reveal at a date coming soon.

Play at BestPoker

BestPoker is in the midst of redesigning its VIP Club to presumably be better than ever, and will also soon reveal the new points structure for advancing through the different VIP Club levels. Stay tuned here for immediate word once the details of these promised improvements to the BestPoker VIP Club are revealed.

There are weekly and monthly cash awards for excelling in whatever tournaments you play at Party Poker, whether they're Sit & Go's or MTT's. There's a Sit & Go Weekly Leader Board and a Multi-Table Weekly Leader Board, both running 12:00 am ET Mondays through 11:59 pm ET Sundays. For both leader boards, there's a set of main prizes and secondary prizes.

Play at Party Poker

For the main prizes, first place gets $600, a free poker entry into the Party Poker $300k Guaranteed event that Sunday for second through tenth places, and an entry into a $1,000 Tournament Leader Board Freeroll for the eleventh through fiftieth places. For the secondary prizes, first through tenth places get a $1,000 TLB Freeroll entry.

Monthly Leader Boards

The Sit & Go Monthly Leader Board and Multi-Table Monthly Leader Board prizes are a little more complicated. But in brief, they both pay out the first hundred places, with prizes ranging from $35 to $2,500. As you'd expect the monthly period starts at 12:00 am ET on the first of every month and runs through 11:59 pm ET on the last day of every month.

The formula for calculating where players place on their respective leader boards is provided by Party Poker openly (it's: √buy-in/2 + √wins), however as you see, unless you are a math genius you're better off taking their word for it.

• Party Poker Bonus

All you have to do is cash in the Super Turbo Sit & Go Tournament you choose and you unlock one (or two) of four pieces on your promotional ticket. Unlock each of the four, one by one or (two by two) and you land a seat in the exclusive $100,000 Super Turbo Step Freeroll tournament. Be aware, however, that the promised $100,000 is not in cash, but rather $100,000 worth of free poker tickets into other Full Tilt Poker Step Tournaments.

If the buy-in of the Super Turbo Sit & Go you choose is less than $5, then you unlock one part of the ticket. If the buy-in is at least $5 then you unlock two parts of the ticket.

In the same ramped up spirit of Full Tilt Poker's Rush Poker, these Super Turbo Sit & Go tournaments are even more turbo than Full Tilt Poker's regular Turbo tournaments. These Super Turbo Freerolls start players out with a starting stack of 300 chips, or 10x the starting big blind. The Super Turbo Sit &Gos are also 9-handed and last for all of 15 minutes.

To find Full Tilt Poker's Super Turbo Tournaments in the Full Tilt Tournament Lobby just look for the big yellow "T".

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The big $100K Super Turbo Step Freeroll will take place at 6:30 pm ET this Sunday, June 13, and will award over 2,000 Step Tournament tickets. Plus, the top twenty finishers each will get a Step 7 ticket worth $2,100. Step 7 is the last Step of the ladder before competing for one of Full Tilt Poker's $12,000 World Series of Poker Main Event prize package.

The structure for this contest is quite an interesting one, combining the best of poker and the best of online sports betting into one championship promotion. To win the World Cup tickets or share of the other $1 million in prizes, you must correctly guess the results of the most number of matches in the 25 match series June 11 - July 11.

How do you bet? That's where the online poker comes in. Players can earn one betting token per day throughout the promotion by playing as usual at their favorite Celeb Poker cash tables or tournaments. In the cash games, play a certain number of raked hands - the requisite number determined individually by table stakes (low or med-high), and Celeb Poker rewards program status level (Bronze, Silver, etc.). The specific stakes ranges for the low and med-high levels varies depending on whether the game or tournament played is Fixed stakes (in other words Limit Poker), Pot Limit, or No Limit. As for the tournaments, pay a certain amount of fees in relation to your rewards club status to get your token.

For each day's World Cup Match you can use your token to register for one of 3 different heads-up Sit 'n Go's based on your bet, with one SnG each representing each team winning and the third representing a draw. At this point you have automatically won yourself a prize. What kind of prize depends on several factors: your status level, whether you bet correctly or incorrectly, and whether you won or lost your Heads-Up Sit 'n Go.

Play at Celeb Poker

The promotion starts (and the opportunity to earn betting tokens begins) on June 9, 48-hours prior to the start of the first match on June 11, with the earning period for betting tokens for each match starting 48-hours prior to the start of the given match.

OnlyPoker gives its players over $5 million in guarantees each month, thanks in great part to its $200K Guarantee, which takes place on the last Sunday of every month. In addition, the top 20 finishers in every $200K Guaranteed main event will also earn themselves poker points to apply towards the esteemed Card Player Magazine Online Player of the Year award (OPOY).

In order to get in on the action you have several options. The first, and most obvious, is to pay the $200 + $68 buy-in into the main event and secure your seat that way. If you don't have (or don't want to spend) that kind of money, no problem. If you've got 1,100 Gold Chips in your OnlyPoker loyalty club account, you can redeem them for a ticket in the $200K Guaranteed main event.

Or, with the event nearly a full month away, you've got plenty of time to play in OnlyPoker's various satellite tournaments into the big event if you start now, and try and win yourself a seat there. The site also hosts Gold Chip direct qualifiers with buy-ins of just 3 Gold Chips. And then there's the all-luck method - winning one of the ten to thirty tickets awarded via the Gold Card Lottery drawing.

Play at OnlyPoker

And last but not least, there's always the Freeroll Into Millions tournament series, which doesn't just offer seats in this event but in the Freeroll Into Millions $250K Guarantee as well.

In order to be eligible to enter the World Cup Kick-Off Tournament that will be held at 20:00 CET on June 10, 2010, you must accumulate a minimum of 50 BestPoker player points by the end of June 9th.

First prize for the winner of the June 10th World Cup Kick-Off Tournament is an iPad along with $200 cash. Second prize is an iPhone along with $150 cash. And third prize is an iPod along with $100 cash. Then the fourth through tenth place finishers will each receive a $50 cash award and the eleventh through twentieth place finishers will each receive a $25 cash award.

Play at BestPoker

All participants must reside in the European Union as prizes will not be shipped to any address located outside of the EU.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa with 32 teams from around the world battling it out on the fields for the singular title of 2010 World Cup champions.

The BestPoker World Cup Kick-Off Tournament comes just in time for the actual kickoff of the FIFA World Cup which begins on June 11, 2010 and runs for a whole month through July 11.

Whoever wins the iPad, iPhone, and iPod in the BestPoker World Cup Kick-Off Tournament, sports fans who are also members of BestPoker will find that they can even bet on the results of the FIFA World Cup at BestPoker's sister sportsbetting site, BestBet.

• BestPoker Review
• BestPoker Bonuses

All you need to elevate yourself through the ladder of VIP Club levels is play at Poker Ocean's real money tournaments and ring games, which will earn you Poker Ocean Points. The more points you accumulate the higher up the status ladder you climb.

Play at Poker Ocean

One of the highlights of the benefits at the Poker Ocean VIP Club are the regular Monthly Loyalty Bonuses, cash bonuses awarded on the first of each month.

Other benefits of playing at Poker Ocean and being a part of their VIP Club include faster and faster accumulation of points as you play and progress up the ranks, entries into exclusive freerolls, and more advantageous terms for all Reload Bonuses.

Your VIP Club level is calculated according to the average number of points you earn over the last 3 month period, which means that you can go up and down the ladder accordingly. Players are only able to change VIP Club levels on the first of each month.

The Poker Ocean VIP Club contains six levels in total, with a 2,000 point average bringing you to the Silver level, 6,000 points taking you to the Gold level, 12,500 for Platinum, 25,000 for Titanium, and 60,000 for Diamond.

At each level you earn more points per $1 tournament fee in every Poker Ocean tournament you play, and more points per rake generated in ring table cash games.

Play at Party Poker

Starting June 1, Party Poker will give bonuses to players on the PartyPoints earned based on how much you play most recently at the site. In other words, the more frequently and recently you play at Party Poker, the more of a bonus you will be entitled to.

There are 11 Groups, or levels of bonus you can strive for. At Group A, the lowest level bonus, you earn a 1,000 PartyPoints boost for earning 6,000 PartyPoints on your own. At the highest level, Group K, you earn a 35,000 PartyPoints boost for clearing 100,000 PartyPoints.

As you are no doubt already aware, PartyPoints are a valued commodity at the site, and can be traded in for tournament entries, Party Poker gear and merchandise, and on some occasions even cold, hard cash, at the rate of as much as a 40% rakeback. Other extravagant prizes you can redeem PartyPoints for include a holiday for 2 worth $100,000 and access to the site's exclusive VIP concierge service.

In order to win any sort of PartyPoints boost on your earnings, you must first opt-in to the promotion. Make sure to do it before you play another game at Party Poker this month so that all your PartyPoints earned get a handsome boost for the summer.

• World Series of Poker
• 2010 WSOP Satellites

Not only is Full Tilt Poker offering its players multiple chances to win their way to the WSOP 2010 Main Event (as we conveniently laid out for you in our two previous blog posts) but the online poker room is also offering players the chance to win private poker lessons from a member of Team Full Tilt. The Full Tilt Poker Academy WSOP Main Event Challenge is going on now and runs through June 20th. When you take the Full Tilt Poker Academy Main Event Challenge you earn an entry into the Academy Challenge Freerolls to compete for your spot at the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

One of the highlights of the Full Tilt Poker Academy is a Sit-N-Learn section. Players who complete the Sit-N-Learn tutorial will be awarded entry into that day's Daily Freeroll. Everyone finishing in the top 100 of each Daily Freeroll will then advance to a Round 2 Freeroll, held weekly.

The winners of Round 2 will then advance to the final challenge on June 20th 2010, to go after the $12,000 Main Event prize package along with the bonus prize of the rare and unique opportunity to learn poker privately, firsthand from one of the esteemed members of Team Full Tilt's pro poker team.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

While in Vegas preparing for the Main Event, the winner of the Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenge will receive a one on one training with a Full Tilt Team member, with the lesson being recorded for web broadcast. And if the Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenge winner can outlast their Team Full Tilt tutor in the Main Event, then he'll receive an extra $5,000 in prize money on top of whatever amount they cash.

Full Tilt Poker is offering $1 dollar Main Event Seats, a promotion in which 1 buck is all that is needed to win yourself a seat at the largest live poker game in the world. Just register every Sunday from now till June 27th 2010.

Full Tilt Poker players can also take advantage of the 150 Seat Main Event Guarantee. Mark your calendars for June 20th and take your seat in the 150 Seat Main Event Guarantee. Just as the name promises, at the end of this event, 150 Main Event prize packages worth $12k each, each including a seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, will be awarded.

Full Tilt Poker is also holding Daily Shootouts, running daily at Full Tilt and giving players the chance to win a $12k prize package to the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Finally, Full Tilt Poker is offering Direct Qualifiers into the 2010 WSOP Main Event which run five times a week from now until the big event itself.

So whether it's a Direct Qualifier, a Daily Shootout, the 150-Seat Main Event Guarantee, a $1 Main Event Seat, the Race to the Main Event, or Steps to the Main Event, you have your choice of ways to win a seat in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event, on Full Tilt Poker.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker welcomes poker players from the United States, and of course from the rest of the world, with a first deposit bonus of 100% up to $600 when using bonus code POKERFORFREE.

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

The PKR Poker World Cup Promotion is already underway, having just started last Saturday, May 22, but there's still plenty of time to enter and win.

The PKR.com World Cup promo is comprised of 6 online poker series in which players score points that send them up the ranks in a leader board. At each series' finish, the four top competitors will land a spot in a 6-man national team, with the last two places being filled by the top Heads-Up and Sit 'n Go players from the qualifying period.

Once the twelve, 6-man national teams have been created, they will each then compete in a series of Sit 'n Go's for the chance to head to South Africa to watch the World Cup live.

Play at PKR Poker

Whichever of the 12 national PKR Poker World Cup teams, which will include one team representing the "Rest of the World", wins it all, each of their members gets not only the bragging rights of being one of the PKR Poker 2010 World Cup champs, but they'll also get a bonus of $750 cash along with a signed legends of the World Cup shirt.

The entire PKR World Cup Series runs through to June 26th. The tournaments making up the promotion are all $3,000 guaranteed events with $5 buy-ins.

Will you be the Torres, Ronaldo, or Rooney of the 3D online poker felt? Only time, and PKR Poker, will tell.

Steps to the Main Event is one of the ways online poker players at Full Tilt can earn a seat at the WSOP 2010. Steps to the Main Event buy-ins start at $3.30 for step one and play for entry into the next step. Or poker players can buy-n at the next level if they wish. The great thing about the Steps to the Main Event method is that even if you don't move on to the next step, you still win a seat at the same level or one step lower, which keeps in the game in the running for longer - maybe all the way to the Main Event.

Full Tilt is also holding a Race to the Main Event in which you could win a $10,000 prize package to the WSOP 2010. Start out with the Round 1 Sit & Go to win a seat at the next level. Online poker players at Full Tilt who win a Round 1 Sit & Go will then proceed to a Round 2 Freeroll tournament. The final two poker players in these Round 2 Freerolls will then land a spot in the weekly Main Event Race Final Freeroll tournament to win the $10,000 prize package. There are three short cuts to this offer if you do not wish to take your time.

• Race to the Main Event

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Make sure to check back later this week for the rest of the ways Full Tilt Poker is taking you to the Main Event of the 2010 WSOP.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

It is easy to win this prize package at Titan Poker. All you have to do is play on Titan Poker's real money tables till you drop. The 40 Titan Poker players who have played the most raked online poker hands will advance to the big Football Frenzy Multi Table Tournament (MTT). Raked hands are considered for this event to be any hand with a minimum big blind of $0.50 and up. The player to win the Football Frenzy Multi Table Tournament will be on his or her way to Johannesburg, South Africa with a prize package worth $10,000.

Play at Titan Poker

In South Africa the winner of the Football Frenzy prize package will enjoy four nights of accommodations at the Southern Sun Grayston Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, VIP services, including access to the VIP area of the stadium, and food and drinks while at the stadium for the World Cup games including a daily breakfast to start out the wonderful day in South Africa. The winner of the Titan Poker Football Frenzy prize package will also have a Mercedes providing transportation between hotel and stadium.

So continue to play at Titan Poker to your heart content and you could be on your way to the World Cup Finals in Johannesburg, South Africa with a Titan Poker prize package worth $10,000 dollars.

The buy-in for the OnlyPoker $200K Sunday Main Event is $268 but there are many other ways to land a seat in the event for much less. You can win a seat in the $200K Guaranteed by entering any of the site's ongoing cash satellites starting with buy-ins starting as low as $3, and Gold Points satellites, starting with buy-ins at only 3 Gold Chips. Or you can buy in directly for 1,100 Gold Chips.

• See the OnlyPoker Loyalty Program for more information about Gold Chips.

Also, you can even get yourself into the $200K OnlyPoker event for no cost at all, through the Freeroll into Millions promotion, a series of freerolls that lead ultimately to free seats in high OnlyPoker guaranteed events, including this one. And finally the Gold Card Lottery is giving out between 10 and 30 $200K Main Event seats.

And in terms of the prize pool, a new bonus associated with the OnlyPoker $200K Sunday awards the best 20 finishers in the Main Event points that apply toward the highly-esteemed Card Players Magazine Only Player of the Year Award (OPOY).

The $200,000 Guaranteed event takes place on the last Sunday of every month. This May and each consecutive month at OnlyPoker. Over the length of a month, the site gives away a guaranteed $5 million at least.

Play at OnlyPoker

After the May 30 OnlyPoker $200,000 Guaranteed Main Event, the next two runnings of this online poker tournament will be on Sunday, June 27 and Sunday July 25.

Weather you qualify for zip an play these tournaments as free poker ones, or you buy in for the full amount of $268, in each case you can count on a thrilling event. Besides, it's a known fact that the field of contestants at OnlyPoker isn't typically filled with the best poker players out there.

All seven members of Team Titan will be competing, each at a different ECOOP VI event, making 7 events in all at which you can earn big bonuses on top of whatever cash you may earn in the tournament.

In all, Titan Poker will be awarding $11,000 in bounties during this upcoming sixth running of the European Championship of Online Poker.

Play at Titan Poker

Win Bounties up to $5,000

The first Team Titan member to beat is team captain, Sorel Mizzi or " Imper1um" online, who will be competing in the ECOOP VI's kickoff event, #1 on May 24, for a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. If you're the one who knocks him out of the competition, you win a $5,000 bounty.

Next up with his head on the Titan Poker chopping block is Jonas Klausen (also "JonasKlausen" online) who will try to outlast all the players wanting to claim the $1,000 for knocking him out of ECOOP VI event #3 on May 26, a $200,000 guaranteed turbo event.

Samuel Trickett (aka "Lloydstsb" online) is up next, on May 27, with a $1,000 bounty on knocking him out of ECOOP VI event #4, a $350,000 guaranteed event.

Others with $1,000 guarantees are Yann Brosolo (aka "LastChance11") in ECOOP VI, event #7 on May 30 for $500,000 GP, Marvin Rettenmaier ("xcrash154") in ECOOP VI, event #8 for a $500,000 GP guarantee, Joël Benzinou ("joben19") in ECOOP VI, event #10 on June 2, a 6-max event for a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool, and Florian Desgouttes (aka "freraata") in ECOOP VI #12 on June 4, a rebuy/add-on event for $300,000 guarantee.

Knockout one, and you'll be done playing free poker!

The seven Team Titan members will be playing at seven different ECOOP VI events for a total of $11,000 worth of bounties!!! This gives you a chance to take more than the huge guaranteed ECOOP VI tournaments prizes.

Make your own WSOP team by taking your picks of which players will excel the most in the competition. After you register at Full Tilt Poker (you must be a registered Full Tilt Poker member to participate in this promotion) you will be given a list of over 300 top-level poker pros whose presence at the 2010 WSOP are confirmed. From those 300+ names, you just choose the 15 for your team who you think will do best.

Once you've selected your team, you can follow their progress throughout the WSOP to track whether you've won anything yet. Or if you're too busy to follow all the action live, you can simply visit the VIP section of the FullTiltPoker.com website to find out. There you can also compare your team's progress against the picks that Team Full Tilt and other Full Tilt Poker pros make.

The cash and prizes you can win will be based on how well the players in your team perform overall at the 2010 WSOP. The top prizes are free seats in the WSOP Main Event for 2011.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

But don't count yourself out of the running for a seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event either. There are still a bevy of ways, such as WSOP 2010 Satellites, still running at Full Tilt Poker for winning your way to Vegas. And even if you are going to Vegas, you can still compete in Full Tilt's Fantasy WSOP as well.

Play at Celeb Poker

• Celeb Poker Review
• Celeb Poker Bonus

Mini European Chamionship of Online Poker VI

There will be two parts to the ECOOP VI series this year. The first part of ECOOP VI is the mini series event. The mini series event will have a guaranteed prize pool of $600,000. The Mini ECOOP VI will be open to each and every Celeb Poker member. You may buy directly in if you choose, or you can try to win your seat into the ECOOP VI series via qualifier satellites. These satellites will enable entry level online players a chance to play in the ECOOP VI series. These sit and go satellites start out at $1.1 + $0.1 while the turbo satellites start at $ 0.6 + $ 0.06.

Get a Tag Heuer by Winning an ECOOP VI Event

The main series of the ECOOP VI will have a guaranteed prize pool of $4.5 million, with satellites starting from $3+0.3. All event winners will receive a special edition ECOOP VI Tag Heuer wristwatch so you can remember the ECOOP VI online poker series.

In the past few years, iPoker Network's ECOOP has developed into the premier poker event for online players outside of the United States. The ECOOP runs these events for two periods with some great cash prizes. For the sixth edition series, the ECOOP will have fourteen events beginning May 24th 2010, and ending 10 days later - on June 6th - with the $1.5 million Guaranteed Main Event.

And Party Poker will be giving its players a few ways of living out their wildest poker dreams. The first way to win one of the WSOP for Life packages is to be in the Rake Race. The Rake Race will be taking place on May 24th to June 20th, 2010. All of the players who take place in the Rake Race right up to the 500th player will be awarded various amounts of cash prizes.

The second way players can win the WSOP for Life package is by competing in the multi-table tournament taking place on June 20th. The satellites for the event are up and running already. This multi-table tournament will pay out three 2010 packages for the runners up and $50,000 to be split as per Party Poker's paying out structure.

The WSOP for Life package includes travel, hotel and spending money to the World Series of Poker and the $10,000 buy-in to the WSOP Main Event each year after this one for the next nineteen years of WSOP main events.

Party Poker has a total of four WSOP for Life packages to give away. The last two will be given to the VIPs where the player with the most points wins one of the packages, and there will be a a free poker tournament named the WSOP for Life freeroll for the top 500 finishers in the leader board competition.

Play at Party Poker

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus

The first step to stop yourself from tilting is to accept that you've lost a big hand, and move on to the next one like it never has happened. If you aren't capable of doing this, then there is one thing to help you to accomplish it. Think to yourself or talk out loud like you're giving poker advice to a friend. Yes, I know you're telling yourself how to act, but take some time to look examine your cards before you make a move, and tell yourself how you should play them. This will get you out of the mindset of tilting and get your focus back on playing the heads-up match properly.

Now that you are no longer tilting, it's time to turn the match around. Continue to play properly. Keep your mind of the previous losses by telling yourself - giving yourself advice - how to play each and every hand. Also, tell yourself what your opponent is doing. Learn his playing style and analyze each hand, flop, turn, and river. To put some pressure on your opponent, you sometimes choose to say it out loud. This will help to reinforce your focus on the game and retain full awareness of your opponents' actions.

Once you are sure of your opponents' playing style - it's either loose, tight, aggressive, or passive - you have the knowledge to beat him. Now it's the time to get your opponent on tilt, so he can't keep his focus on the game anymore. Make him believe the game has turned around. Make him feel so bad that he feels he can't get a hand to save his heads-up life, just like you did when you were on tilt.

Take Advantage of Your Opponents' Tilting

The minute this happens, take full advantage of your opponents' tilting. If he's a better poker player than you are, or not, you will surely have him up against the ropes in case he doesn't come with an answer quickly. Take as many of his chips for as long as you can. You will win the heads-up match! It's really doesn't matter which game or stakes you are playing, keeping the lead during a level will insure you with the victory.

Just remember to turn things around as early as you can because heads-up situations in No Limit - and Pot Limit Hold'em games never last long. Limit Hold'em games on the other hand provide you with plenty of time to overcome a tilt and fully battle it out with your opponent. Remember, the same counts for him, as he can get over the losing mindset just like you. From there, all left to win the heads-up match are your skills and poker strategy awareness.

The 2010 Irish Winter Festival Super Satellites over at Titan Poker started Sunday, May 9 and they run through October 10, just in time for the last winners to head over to merry ole Ireland for some hardcore poker action.

Irish Winter Poker Festival Prize Packages & Satellites

The Irish Winter Poker Festival prize package, valued at €2,700 total, includes the buy-in into the main event, worth €1,500 + €150, a four-night stay at the site of the event, worth €280, handling fees of €50, and flights and expense money totaling €720.

Play at Titan Poker

The €165+€15 Super Satellites for these prize packages run at Titan Poker every Sunday night at 19:45 GMT. There are 3 satellite structures offering players 3 different ways to advance to the 2010 Irish Winter Festival Super Satellite without having to pay the €180 direct buy-in.

An example, Structure A specifically, follows:

Titan Poker Stage 1 Sit 'n Go Satellites into those events run around the clock for either €36+€3.60 for 5-seated events or €60+€6 for 3-seated events, as well as Stage 1 Satellites running daily, including the Sundays of the big Super Satellites, for a wide variety of buy-ins and in an equally wide variety of poker formats, including rebuys, addons, turbo events, and freezeouts.

The other two satellite structures mirror this one, merely with variations in buy-ins, format, and scheduling.

All new members at Celeb Poker are eligible to play in a monthly $2,500 Guaranteed New Depositors Freeroll, running every first Wednesday of each month at 20:00 GMT+1.

However, new sign-ups will have to open a real money account at Celeb Poker first and fund it by making a first deposit.

Make sure to study our Celeb Poker bonus for first depositors as with 100% all the way up to $600 it's one of the better poker bonuses available on the Internet.

For all other members, including new players, there's a bevy of other guaranteed prize pool tournaments, starting with three different $50,000 Guaranteed Tournament offerings:

• There's the $50,000 Guaranteed Daily Tournament taking place each day at 18:45 GMT+1;
• There's the $50,000 Guaranteed Rebuy Tournament taking place each Monday through Thursday of every week at 18:45 GMT+1;
• And there's the $50,000 Guaranteed Freezeout Tournament taking place every Saturday at 19:30 GMT+1.

But that's not all! Celeb Poker also hosts a $100,000 Guaranteed Rebuy Tournament each Friday night at 19:00 GMT+1. These events have a direct buy-in of $100+$9, but Celeb Poker also offers plenty of satellites throughout the week for much lower buy-ins to qualify for the event:

• There are $8+$0.80 and $15+$1.50 stage 1 rebuy/addon satellites;
• There are $1.50+$0.10 stage 2 rebuy/addon satellites.

The pièce de résistance of guaranteed tournaments at Celeb Poker takes place each Sunday at 19:00 GMT+1. This $250,000 Guaranteed Tournaments has a direct buy-in of $300+$20, but can as well be entered through numerous of satellites starting with buy-ins as low as $3+$0.30.

Now is the best time to open a new account at Celeb Poker too, with ongoing satellites running for the sixth European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP VI) with a guaranteed prize pool of $5.1 million, and satellites into the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) taking place in Coventry the end of May.

All players are eligible to participate in this contest, with competition starting out as a points race with a leader board kept to track players progress as they accrue Titan Points at Titan Poker real money cash games and qualifying tournaments.

Anyone who finishes in the top hundred All Points Race of any given week will win a share of the $5,000 guaranteed prize pool. Those players will also move on to the All Points Race held May 29 - 30 where the 400 top scoring players from the month (the 100 winners from each week of the contest) vie for a piece of a $10,000 prize pool.

Play at Titan Poker

And if you're a Titan VIP player who wins an Titan Turbo event, that prize money comes to you on top of your Club Titan Points and consequent rewards. What's more, VIP Bronze members and new Titan Poker members who win the Titan Turbo weekly game or Titan Turbo $10,000 All Points Race (held on May 29 and 30).

The highest finishing 100 players in the $1,000 Tournament Players race will be awarded free entry into an exclusive ECOOP VI Main Event Freeroll satellite tournament to be held on May 30.

Up for grabs in this part of the Titan Turbo competition, made up of 24-hour Titan Points races for which all players are eligible to win a piece of $4,000 in cash prizes and tickets in the $1.5 million guarantee ECOOP VI Main Event on June 6, 2010.

Party Poker left the U.S. market in 2006 after Congress's passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

Implementation and enforcement of that act, however, which makes it illegal for poker sites to have U.S. residents as members playing with real money, has been delayed and spotty at best (or worst). And such resistance has it received, even from members of the same congress that passed it just 4 years ago, that one of the world's top online gambling businesses is wagering that the UIGEA will never be fully implemented and that across-the-board legal online poker in the U.S. in now imminent. That's a wager we sure like.

After much speculation, rumor, and gossip, the Party Gaming chief exec Jim Ryan pointed to a definite momentum in that movement when he came out and admitted that a reentry into the U.S. market is a distinct possibility for Party Poker and that they are ready should that time come.

A move like that would allow U.S. residents to take part in Party Poker's unique promotions like their regular Party Poker Cash Machine, The Million Dollar Hand, Bankroll Builder, and The Gladiator promotions. And in addition to satellites for the World Series of Poker, Party Poker also offers players satellites into the World Poker Tour events and more. They also host the Party Poker Monthly Million with buy-ins as low as $1.

With more $7 million guaranteed at stake across 30 events matching the schedule of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series XVI exactly but with a fraction of the buy-ins, and for a larger fraction of the prize pools. Otherwise there are the same events in NL, PL, and FL Holdem, Omaha, Stud, HORSE, Razz, and more, in shootout, freezeout, 6-max, and even rebuy, addon, and turbo events.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Highlights of the FTOPS XVI include the 2-day event, with a $200 + $16 buy-in for a $750,000 guaranteed prize pool, and the Main Event with a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, and for the first time ever in a MiniFTOPS, Rush Poker tournaments - not one, not two, but three Rush Poker tournaments with collectively a $450,000 guaranteed prize pool. One of them has a $50 + $5 buy-in, one of them has a $20 + $6 buy-in, and one of them is a rebuy event with a $20 + $2 buy-in. One has a $50K guarantee, one has a $150K guarantee, and one has a $250K guarantee.

Once again, the MiniFTOPS XVI offers satellites for free entry into the various MiniFTOPS XVI events, for buy-ins starting as low as 50 cents or 50 Full Tilt Points, going on now over at Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Bonus

Players new to Full Tilt Poker, one of Poker For Free's premium US friendly poker rooms, can also benefit from a 100% up to $600 first deposit bonus.The exact details can be seen on our Full Tilt Poker bonus page.

You may as well just use bonus code POKERFORFREE to get this bonus, in case you want to sign-up and play right away.

Option 1: Play For The Win

This is the most common way to win any tournament. Play your best to place in the cash positions and onto the final table, if your poker skills push you that far in the tournament.

Option 2: Play To Cashout Chips

This is the quickest way to profit from a cashout tournament. The best way to cashout chips and still maintain enough chips to play to rebuild your chip stack is to keep your chip the same as the average of the tournament.

For example:

• You are in a $10 + $1 buy-in cashout tournament. 1,500 chips = $5. You have 6,000 chips and the average chip stack is 3,000 chips. That main you should cashout 3,000 chips for $10 and start rebuilding your chip stack as if you had 3,000 chips the whole time. Keep cashing out any extra chips you have and maintain the average chip stack. Every time the average goes up, your chip stack should be right along with it.

Option 3: Cashout Profit & Play For The Win

This style of play I like to call the double up. You cashout double your buy-in and then play to win the tournament.

For example:

• You enter a cashout tournament with a $20 + $2 buy-in. You should cashout $44 and then play the rest of the tournament to win first place or at least make it to cash positions.

Everybody has their own playing style to profit from cash out tournaments. I highly recommend finding which of the three options work best for you. Once you learn which one works best for you, there will not be a single cashout tournament you couldn't make a profit from.

However, when going into these tournaments, available at Full Tilt Poker - a premium US friendly online poker room, you should always keep a level head and not tilt over losing a big hand. This could kill your own cashout tourney strategy.

If you need to sit out a few hands to walking around the house for a bit, do so as sitting out a few hands will not harm your tournament at all. Playing with your mind on that one lost could seriously harm any chance of completing any of the cashout tournament strategies above.

The GUKPT's fifth leg will be held at the G Casino in Coventry. The £1,800 prize package up for grabs includes a £1,000 + £70 ticket into the GUKPT Coventry event, plus £495 for a five night stay at Coventry's Novotel Hotel, May 19 - 24, £205 for airfare and expenses, and £30 for fees.

Play at Celeb Poker

Ongoing Sit 'n Go Satellites are running now for GUKPT Coventry over at Celeb Poker for buy-ins as low as £0.44 + £0.04, with weekly Super Satellites running as well. The Celeb Poker GUKPT Coventry satellite schedule includes Stage 1 Turbo and Speed events, and Stage 2 Turbo events.

All events on the GUKPT Coventry satellite schedule at Celeb Poker are rebuy/add-on events, including the weekly Super Satellites (although these are neither Turbo nor Speed events).

Winner of the 2009 GUKPT's final leg was Haitao "Colin" Wu. This year's top winner of GUKPT Coventry will claim a £25,000 top prize.

The most recent GUKPT winner was Kuljinder Sidhu who took down the 4th leg of the GUKPT, held recently at the Manchester G Casino, defeating a 192 player field for a £54,850 top prize.

After GUKPT Coventry, the remaining legs on this year's schedule are stops in Luton, Brighton, Blackpool, and the Grand Final in London. That will be followed by the final GUKPT event of the series, the Champion of Champions.

Players make their way through an online qualifying structure over at Party Poker to compete for one of five prize packages into an October 2nd final in which the Aston martin DB9 Coupe and other prize packages will be awarded.

Play at Party Poker

In addition to the final prizes for the promotion, Party Poker will also be giving out $175,000 worth of cash awards over the course of the promotion's weekly and monthly finals. The monthly finals are where the VIP prize package to the October 2 London final will be awarded.

To win one of the prize packages to the Drive the Dream final, you must win one of the $15,000 Guaranteed Drive the Dream Final Satellites held on the 2nd Sunday of every month between now and October. The top 150 finishers will split the guaranteed $15,000 prize pool. To get into the $15,000 Dream the Dream Final Satellite you must finish in the top 100 at one of the $5,000 Guaranteed Dream the Dream Weekly Qualifiers. There is no direct buy-in entry to either of these events.

The only ways to win your way into the weekly final are to finish in either the top 25 of one of the Drive the Dream Freeroll Sub Qualifiers running six times daily, or the top 100 of Drive the Dream Points Sub Qualifier for 25 PartyPoints running three times daily. While the freeroll is as good as it gets for free poker, the 25 PartyPoints are just as easy to accumulate that even this option can be considered as a free offer.

That left the main event winner Kirbynator, with the third smallest share of the split top prize, collecting $327,057.40 for his efforts, while second placer Antonio "apalma" Palma got the larger $342,851.96 share and 3rd place DaHussstla got a similar $342,296.75. Fourth and fifth placers Kev#213 and Joel "PNBRAZIL" Oliveira, respectively, both received in the range of $200K.

In other events, the biggest 2-day event of the series, FTOPS XVI Event #25, $2,000 No Limit Hold'em, the winner was urbandb888 who claimed $450,000 for his win. The top 5 players at that final table won 6-figure paydays, with Full Tilt having to shell out over $100,000 to meet the $2 million guarantee when only 946 players signed up to play. Runner-up palmao cashed in $285,000 and third place finisher Benny "psychobenny" Spindler cashed in $211,000 for his finish.

Another exciting event of FTOPS XVI was Event #28, the $240 6-handed NL Hold'em Knockout event. With one of the smallest overlays of this overlay-laden series (Full Tilt only had to pony up $600 to meet this guarantee), 4,997 players turned out and the top two placers, Dihxm and Peter "number1PEN" arranged a split pot deal with the former taking $165,520 and the latter taking $142,500.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Starting May 4 at 00:00 ET and running through 23:59 ET, players will earn random cards for accumulating points while playing at real money games at Party Poker at a rate of 1 card for every 15 points earned. Once a player accumulates 5 cards this way, Party Poker will evaluate that player's poker hand and award the player a cash prize ranging from $3 to $1 million depending on how high their poker hand ranks. With a Royal Flush, a player wins a million dollars.

Play at Party Poker

Party Poker players who have reached Palladium status will simultaneously be competing in the Million Dollar Hand VIP Race, accumulating bonus VIP points based on the same poker hands that Party Poker will be using to determine performance in the regular Million Dollar Hand promotion. Palladium players earn from 2 - 15 VIP points based on their hand, with additional bonus points being awarded for earning at least 300 PartyPoints in any given day.

The two highest ranked players on the leader board at the end of the promotion will win $13,000 prize packages into the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Players in the top 200 on the leader board are guaranteed to win cash prizes of at least $100, players in the top 30 will win at least $1,000.

What's more, all players finishing in the top 600 also gain entry into a special Million Dollar Hand VIP freeroll tournament for two additional WSOP 2010 prize packages. Yet another chance to go to Las Vegas and play free poker at the 2010 World Series of Poker.

You can choose to compete in the Micro Stakes, Low stakes, or Med-High stakes levels. Players are welcome to try and qualify in multiple stakes levels, but must meet the requirements for each stakes level individually and independently.

If you earn enough points in Stage 1 of the competition, you are granted "Royalty Status" that allows you to move on to Stage 2. To earn Royalty Status you need to play in a minimum of 50 daily raked hands for a minimum of 3 days of the promotion (to earn "Soldier" rank). Play in at least 50 raked hands for at least 8 days, or 200 raked hands for at least 3 days and with the "Officer" rank you achieve, you are not only guaranteed to advance to Stage 2, but you are also guaranteed to win a cash prize. Other status levels are Earl, Duke, Prince, and King. To earn King status you must play in 1500 raked hands for all 14 days of the promotion. These days do not have to be consecutive.

Qualifying players then advance through a series of King of the Ring Tournaments, with the top third from each rank's event moving up to the next rank.

The Soldier tournament will be May 16 - 17; the Officer tournament, May 18 - 19; Earl, May 20 - 21; Duke, May 22; Prince, May 23; and King, May 24.

Every player making it to the final Celeb Poker King of the Ring Tournament is guaranteed a cash prize of at least $60 (for micro stakes), $250 (for low), or $1,000 (for med-high).

Play at Celeb Poker

• Celeb Poker Review
• Celeb Poker Bonus

The BestPoker 2010 WSOP Main Event prize packages are worth $16,000 a piece and each one includes travel, accommodations, and of course, your main event ticket. Your stay will be at the Wynn Hotel from July 3 - 15.

There are also WSOP Side Event packages up for grabs that include accommodations at the Wynn Hotel from June 27 - July 6. And to make sure that you can keep playing at BestPoker online in between your live poker experiences, they've made that all the rooms have free internet access included.

Qualifiers are running now over at BestPoker for the remaining 2010 WSOP Main Event and Side Event prize packages. There are all different sorts of qualifiers events running daily too - including "Mad Tilt Rebuy" events and Turbo events. Buy-ins for these daily qualifiers run from $2.20 to $55.

There are three Main Event Qualifier Finals left to vie for in the 2010 WSOP qualifier series at BestPoker: May 23, May 30, and June 6. Each one starts at 20:00 CET and has a direct-buy of $320.

Play at BestPoker

The usual Terms and Conditions apply with the BestPoker WSOP Satellites as with most others, in that you must be 21 years old or older to win, you must be able to redeem the prize (in other words no cash substitutions), and you must wear branded BestPoker gear throughout the event (kind of a walking billboard). But it sure will be worth it to sit down alongside poker's finest for that $10 million top prize and international bragging rights.

The 6th European Championship of Online Poker will be running for the two weeks starting May 24, leading up to the $1,580 buy-in NL Hold'em ECOOP VI Main Event on June 6 and its $1.5 million guarantee.

Included on the ECOOP VI schedule are not only NL Hold'em events, but Limit 7-Card Stud and Pot Limit Omaha, with several Hi/Lo, Turbo, and R/A events.

Other highlights on the ECOOP VI schedule are two events with $500,000 guaranteed prize pools. They happen to be consecutive events, the first one on Day 7, Sunday May 30, a $535 NL Hold'em event, and the second one on Day 8, Monday May 31, a $2,600 NL Hold'em event.

Play at Titan Poker

Titan Poker Mini ECOOP VI

Meanwhile, there will also be a Mini ECOOP VI taking place at Titan Poker ahead of all that action (serving as a warm-up, we suppose) running from May 13 - 24.

The Mini ECOOP VI of course is a smaller scale version of the ECOOP VI with a fraction of the buy-ins and guaranteed prize pools. However, unlike the MiniFTOPS of Full Tilt Poker, the Titan Poker Mini ECOOP VI tournament schedule does not precisely mirror that of the larger series (for example there are only 10 events instead of 14) so do check the schedules closely. The Mini ECOOP VI Main Event takes place on Sunday May 23, has a $82.50 buy-in, and a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Qualifying satellites are running now at Titan Poker for both ECOOP VI and the Mini ECOOP VI.

Starting on Monday, April 26 and running through Sunday, June 20, Full Tilt Poker Academy is offering the 2010 WSOP Main Event Challenge - a chance to earn your way into special Academy Challenge Freerolls to ultimate play for your seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Sit-N-Learn Freerolls

One option is to compete in the Sit-N-Learn competition, the winners from which will receive one automatically Tournament Ticket into any of the daily Round 1 Freeroll qualifiers. Be one of the top 100 in one of the Round 1 Freeroll qualifiers and move on to one of the weekly Round 2 Freerolls.

Alternatively, you can enter the Academy Challenge and win yourself one of those Round 1 Freeroll Tournament Tickets just the same.

The Round 2 Freeroll winners will move on to the Challenge Final, set to take place on Sunday, June 20 at 3 pm ET. At this event, someone will win the Full Tilt Poker Academy Main Event Challenge and all its sundry prizes.

As another part of the Full Tilt Poker Academy Challenge, the top prize winner will get a chance to win a bonus $5,000 if you outlast the Team Full Tilt pro who gives you the one-one lesson.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker is one of Poker For Free's recommended US friendly online poker rooms.

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

The OnlyPoker $250K Guaranteed Tournament takes place each month on the last Sunday of the month. So following the next $250K Guaranteed event on May 30 will be the subsequent one on June 27 and then after that on July 25. Each event starts at the same time - 5 pm ET - and each event has the same buy-in of $268.

OnlyPoker $250,000 GTD Satellites

There are plenty of other ways to secure yourself a $250K Guaranteed Seat, though, and you can start those efforts right now.

OnlyPoker has $250K Guaranteed Satellites running around the clock for buy-ins starting as low as $3. There are also regular Gold Chip direct qualifiers with buy-ins starting at just 3 Gold Chips. Or you can skip the qualifiers and the cash buy-in and pay 1,100 Gold Chips for a direct buy-in into the monthly $250,000 Guaranteed Tournament.

Alternatively, you can fight for a seat in the OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions tournament series or you can accumulate Gold Cards and hope that your card is one of the 10-30 chosen in each month's Gold Card Lottery for $250,000 Guaranteed entry.

In all, OnlyPoker gives out a guaranteed $5 million monthly, with the $250K guaranteed event simply being the crowning glory of each month's regular tournament schedule.

Play at OnlyPoker

If you want to try out another skin on the Cake Network we suggest you have a look at Power Poker - the latest addition to the list of poker rooms on Poker For Free and the new home of high stakes poker pro Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies. Power Poker hosts daily $50 freeroll tournaments, which gives you the opportunity to try them out wile playing free poker.

1. WSOP 2010 Warrior Super League: A league-style leader board competition to become the WSOP Warrior. 9 different MTT tournaments running twice each week in May for a one-time $320 entry fee. Satellites into the Super League are running now.
2. WSOP 2010 Main Event: In this WSOP Satellite Celeb Poker will be giving one player a $13,000 all-expenses paid prize package to the 2010 WSOP Main Event.
3. WSOP 2010 Pot Limit Omaha Championship: Another $13,000 prize package will be awarded, this time for Event #55 of the 2010 WSOP, the Pot Limit Omaha Championship.
4. WSOP 2010 Experience Package: This $3,600 prize package will get you as far as a live WSOP Main Event satellite in Vegas, but you'll have to get yourself that last step of the way to the Main Event entry up for grabs.
5. WSOP 2010 Executive Package Jackpot SNG: These $12 Sit 'n Go tournaments are for a $25,000 WSOP 2010 Ultimate Prize Package that includes as well as a buy-in for the main event, one for the high-roller's event #56, with it's $2,500 price tag, as well. Plus there's limo pick-up, Cirque du Soleil tickets (for the Beatles one), a helicopter tour of the city, a dinner at the SW Steak House, and $2,000 of bonus perks and more.
6. WSOP 2010 Side Events: Win one of these $5,500 prize package and get a seat in not just one but two WSOP 2010 side events - Events #49 and #54.

Play at Celeb Poker

The very first Rush Poker Tournament kicked off on Full Tilt Poker last week on April 16 to great success. It attracted 892 players, not least of them being Team Full Tilt's own Andy Bloch. The buy-in was only $1 and the format of the game was, of course, Rush Poker.

What is Rush Poker?

Rush Poker, in case you don't know, is a Full Tilt Poker variation of regular poker except it cuts out the lag time waiting for hands that you're not involved in to finish.

Any time you fold out of a hand of Rush Poker, whether its pre-flop or on the Turn, the Full Tilt Poker software whisks you away from the table you're currently sitting in at to a matching table elsewhere on the site.

What is a Rush Poker Tournament?

A Rush Poker Tournament is the same idea as described above, except in a tournament setting and structure.

In order to keep things fair, the players on the blinds are determined by which two players at any given Rush Poker Tournament table when a hand is about to be dealt have gone the longest without being on either of the respective blinds.

Also, in a Rush Poker Tournament format, the tables will become short-handed as the playing field dwindles. When there are less than 10 players left, the tables will go four-handed.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The upcoming 16th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS XVI) is said to be including three Rush Poker Tournaments: 1 Turbo, 1 Rebuy, and 1 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout.

PKR Live IV takes place May 7 - 9, with the festivities kicking off with a Poker Party the night of the 7th (that's Friday) before the main event action kicks off the following day, Sunday May 8. On May 9, in addition to Day 2 of the Main Event, PKR will also be hosting the PKR Live IV Shootout.

Satellites into PKR Live IV are going on at PKR Poker now.

Stage 1 of the PKR Live IV satellite structure costs $4.95 + $0.49 to enter and qualifies one in six players for stage 2. Stage 1 qualifiers run 3 times daily-at 10:10, 15:20, and 21:20 GMT.

Stage 2 qualifiers cost $27 + $2.70 to enter directly and qualify one in six players for the third and final stage of the PKR Live IV satellite structure. Stage 2 qualifiers take place twice daily at 13:00 and 21:00 GMT.

The third and Final Stage takes place Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 20:00 GMT and costs $150 + $12 to enter directly. The winner of each wins one of two prizes depending on the night they're playing:

• on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the prize is a $650 buy-in for both the PKR Live IV Main event and shootout
• on Tuesdays and Saturdays the prize is a $1,200 prize package that includes the above, plus bonuses like accommodations.

At the [B]PKR Live IV[/B] event, PKR will also be giving away a Porsche Cayman sports car in a raffle drawing for players (new and old) depositing funds into a PKR Poker player account.

The total prize pool up for grabs at PKR Live IV is $20,000.

Play at PKR Poker

• PKR Poker Bonus

But Rush Poker Tournaments are not the only new release coming out with Ful lTilt's new software. There are also these great new changes:

• Steps Tournaments, familiar to many players from Step satellites into various larger MTT tournaments, give you a tiered tournament structure including multiple tournaments, each on its own tier, that you can climb toward achieving a much larger prize than you could otherwise attain for your original buy-in.
• Tournament Tickets which you can win through different tournaments, satellites, and other promotions, as well as buy directly in the Full Tilt Poker Store, Iron Man Challenge Store or Full Tilt Poker Academy Store. Tournament tickets give players an added option to buy into an MTT Sit & Go of their choice worth the face value of the given ticket.

And in case you missed out on the last improvements to Full Tilt's online poker room, here's a refresher:

• Folded Card Images, so you can look back on cards you folded in a hand to see how you would have done had you stayed in.
• Stack Tables, another multi-tabling view option on top of tiling and cascading that simply shows you the necessary table whenever your turn to act arrives.
• New Auto Post Options, including to wait to be dealt in until you're on the big blind, auto post blinds and antes, and more.
• Automatic Tournament Deals Update, which puts the player on the button in charge of the deal instead of the chip leader.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Because of its simplicity, applying this beginner poker strategy will help many players building up their initial bankroll. If you're a member of coaching sites such as PokerStrategy.com (where you can get a free bankroll of up to $150), you will notice that each and every coach will advice Short Stack Strategy for beginner No Limit Texas Hold'em players.

The Principles of Short Stack Strategy

First of all you should know that Short Stack Strategy can only be applied when playing full ring games with 7 players or more. As soon as a table reaches less than 7 players, you will have to get up and find yourself a new table to play at.

Another thing to watch out for is for players who also apply Short Stack Strategy to their games as well. Obvious, your winning changes will vanish the more players use this tactic when playing poker.

As I already mentioned before, playing the Short Stack Strategy is very simple. Once you've found a table that suits you, you will have to buy-in for the minimum table amount (which usually is 20 big blinds).

Now that you know this, you should not have any problems recognizing SSS players, as they will always buy-in for the minimum amount of money allowed at the table, just like you.

Since Short Stack Strategy is a very aggressive type of poker strategy, a rule of thumb is that you will never be calling. It's either raise (including shoving all-in) or fold.

Things to Keep in Mind

• It only works with No Limit Hold'em
• Only sit down at full ring games with 7 or more players
• Always buy-in for the minimum table amount
• Only raise (all-in) or a fold (thus no calling)
• Only play premium poker hands in the right position

Pre-Flop Starting Hand Requirements for SSS

There's a safer way of applying the Short Stack Strategy, using the starting hands suggested by PokerStrategy.com, or you can take a little more risk by using the starting hands Phill Hellmuth wrote about in one of his poker books.

Personally I'd recommend the way PokerStrategy.com teaches, especially if you're a beginner, and maybe play a somewhat wider range of starting hands once you seriously get the hang of it.

You can read a short description about both Short Stack Strategy methods below.

PokerStrategy.com recommends playing cards starting at pockets 7's and up, but please take in account your position at the table and any actions players in front of you might have made.

SSS When Nobody has Opened

Raise any of the following hands:

• Early position JJ - AA, and AK
• Middle position 99 - AA, and AK AQ
• Late position 77 - AA, and AT AJ AQ AK KQ

Your default raise must be a raise of four times the big blind, including an extra big blind for every other poker player who has limped in.

SSS When Someone has Raised

Move all-in with any of the hands in the following situations:

• 1 raise ahead of you JJ - AA, and AK
• 2 or more raises ahead of you - KK AA
• when your opening gets re-raised - TT - AA, and AK

Free In-Depth Short Stack Strategy Guide + $50

Since our Short Stack Strategy guide covers just the basics, we suggest that you pay a visit to PokerStrategy.com for a more detailed guide (the red button below gets you the free bankroll). They have a really nice and in-depth guide which also covers stealing and re-stealing. Also keep in mind that PokerStrategy.com even rewards their members with a free poker bankroll of up to $150 at one of the finest online poker rooms.

Visit PokerStrategy.com

• Please note that PokerStrategy.com does give away free bankrolls to sign-ups from the US due to local laws and regulations.

Now, lets briefly talk about the more aggressive SSS approach Phill Hellmuth came up with. He basically tells you to shove all-in before the flop with any hand in the range of 22 to AA, plus AQ and better. The main reason for this can be found in the probability these type of hands will occur.

Again, I would highly recommend PokerStrategy's method over Phil Hellmuth's, because once you're getting better at the game of poker, you should start and learn some more poker strategies, maybe the Big Stack Strategy, besides SSS. Until then... you'd better be on the safe side! If you really want to know what the poker pro recommends, I suggest you buy his poker book "Play Poker Like the Pros" or do some research on the Internet.

Let's carry on... as you have now learned the basics principles of how to apply the Short Stack Strategy before the flop is dealt. In case you have moved all-in and one of your opponents decided to call you, you can sit back and relax. You're perfectly fine since you're only playing premium hands, and in case of a call you'll end up having the best hand most of the times.

Post-Flop Short Stack Strategy

But what should you do after the flop, in case you didn't shove all your chips to the middle, but when you only made a standard raise as described above? Your consecutive play completely depends on the cards being dealt on the flop.

Did the flop bring you a monster (flush or a straight), or did you hit top - or middle pair? Maybe you didn't hit anything at all, but are you now holding a drawing hand - either a flush draw or an open ended straight draw - after the flop? Of course, any over pair is great too, even if the flop didn't improve your pocket hand.

Playable Post-Flop SSS Hands

• Flush or better
• Straight
• Over Pair
• Top Pair (only when you raised pre-flop and your kicker is at least a Jack)
• Middle Pair (only when you raised pre-flop)
• Flush Draw (only when you raised pre-flop)
• Open Ended Straight Draw (only when you raised pre-flop)

As you can see between the brackets, you will have to apply an even more conservative way of playing after the flop, in case you haven't raised before the flop (thus only when positioned on the big blind). Basically, without a pre-flop raise you will not continue to play hands that still need to improve, so you should only play top pair (Jack or a better kicker), and over pairs or better hands.

For all of the cases mentioned above, applying Short Stack Strategy to your game simply means that you should continue playing the hand. Are you holding anything worse, then make sure to back up and fold - unless you are given the option to see the turn card for free.

SSS Actions After the Flop

• When nobody has opened ahead of you Bet about 2/3 of the pot (if 2/3 of the pot is more than half you stack, move all-in)
• When facing a bet ahead of you Move all-in
• When your opening gets re-raised Move all-in

There's one important exception that allows you to continue playing the hand when you didn't hit on the flop. In case you are heads-up (meaning that you are playing against just one opponent) you can make a bluff by betting 2/3 of the pot. You either pick up the pot at once, or you give up and fold when your opponent doesn't back up.

SSS Actions After the Turn

• When someone has called your bet on the flop Move all-in

You have now learned the basic principles of SSS, including how you should apply this strategy before - and after the flop. The only remaining ingredient for a profitable poker career is bankroll management.

If you do everything we have written in this short guide, including reading the No Limit Hold'em Short Stack Strategy articles provided by PokerStrategy.com, plus apply proper bankroll management, then you should soon enough be ready to play in higher limits!

The raffle for the Porsche Cayman takes place at PKR Live IV, taking place from Friday May 7 to Sunday May 9 at the Loose Cannon Club in London, England.

Tickets can be acquired throughout the month of April at PKR Poker by making new cash deposits into your PKR real money account. For every $25 that you deposit, PKR will give you a single raffle entry for the Porsche Cayman drawing. Get 2 entries for $50, 3 for $75, and so on and so forth. There's no limit to how many tickets you can accumulate either.

And if you're a new player to PKR Poker, then it's even better for you, because you will also get, in addition to your PKR 100% match bonus for 1st time deposits, 5 extra raffle tickets for the free Porsche Cayman drawing.

Play at PKR Poker

The Porsche Cayman PKR is giving away has a 6 cylinder engine, can go from 0-60 MPH in 5.1 seconds, gets to a top speed of 171 MPH (265 km/h), and comes with Bose surround sound stereo system, bluetooth connectivity, and Porsche communication management features.

All deposits must be made by April 30 at 23:59 GMT in order to qualify the depositing player for a raffle ticket towards the Porsche Cayman drawing at PKR Poker.

This online poker tournament is able to attract the best online poker players from all over the world. It\'s the type of online poker event that any serious poker player wants to win so that he can prove to the world he is one of the best.

The first place at the PokerStars Sunday Million tournament is going to take home $160K most of the time, and during the peak periods the 1st prize is going to be even higher. Be part of this tournament and you will get the chance to take your current bankroll to some incredible new heights.

Play at PokerStars

PokerStars is currently running hundreds of satellites every week that could help you get a free seat to the Sunday Million tournament.

Here we are going to present you some interesting facts regarding the PokerStars\' Sunday Million tournament:

• The average number of players that are part of this tournament is 7,070.
• The largest Sunday Million attracted 36,169 players and generated a total prize pool of $7,233,800. This tournament took place on February 21, 2010.
• The first Sunday Million tournament tool place on March 5, 2006. There were 5,893 players in the game and the total prize pool was $1,178,600.
• The buy-in to be part of the Sunday Million tournament is currently $215 ($200+$15 buy-in + fee) and the guaranteed prize is $1,500,000.
• This tournament takes place every week on Sunday at 16:30 ET.

In case you still don\'t have $215 to invest and to pay for the buy-in of the Sunday Million tournament but you still want to be part of the worlds\' largest weekly tournament, we suggest that you take part of the Pokerstars satellite tournaments to the Sunday Million that take place all the time during the week. This way you will get a chance to take home a big sum of money with a very small investment that starts from as little as $2.20 or 400 FPP credits.

On Sunday, PokerStars is also holding other large tournaments except for the Sunday Million. Here is the list with all the other tournaments that you could join:

• Sunday Warm-up - Buy-in $215 - Takes place at 12:45 ET and the guaranteed prize is $750,000
• Sunday Two Hundred Grand - Buy-in $10 - Takes place at 15:30 ET and the guaranteed prize is $20,000.
• Sunday Second Chance - Buy-in $215 - Takes place at 18:30 ET and the guaranteed prize is $250,000.

In case you are going to take a peak at the online poker tournament schedule from PokerStars on Sunday you can notice that almost every 5 minutes a new online poker tournament will start. This means that in case you would like to be part of a large online poker tournament you should definitely do it on Sunday since the offers are a lot more varied compared to the rest of the week.

In this article we are going to give you a short guide on what you should do in order to improve your game of Sit and Go poker.

1. Take into consideration your position, when playing SNG tournaments. This means that you will have to play fewer hands the moment you find yourself in an early position, usually you should only play the strong and premium hands. Once you find yourself in a late position you can definitely loosen up your play and start playing more hands. Since you are going to be the last one to act, you will have the maximum amount of information at the table and it's always best that you use that in your advantage.
2. Learn to watch the other players at the table. You must take a close look at the cards that your opponents are playing. The weak players that are going to play very tight will certainly give away all their chips and you must be there to take advantage of them. There will also be many aggressive players that will force you to make some hard decisions. This is the reason why you should only play the premium hands that you get.
3. In case you start feeling that everybody knows what cards you have, and you see everybody at the table folding their cards the moment you have a big and strong hand, you should definitely start mixing your game. Start showing a couple of bluffs and this way you will manage to confuse your opponents a little bit.
4. When you are on the bubble make sure that you start making your move just before you will get short-stacked by the other players. Start being aggressive and try to steal some of the blinds that are there.
5. Don't become desperate ,and when the occasion occurs, try to steal some pots. When everybody will start folding to you, the stolen pots will definitely help you improve your position at the table.
6. Make sure that you pay attention to the stack level of your opponents. People will start to value cards differently when they have a short stack and they will place all ins during some different circumstances. It is very important that you play accordingly to the situation at the table.
7. The beginner players definitely love to play at the smaller buy-in Sit and Go poker tournaments, this is the reason why there is a big difference between a $5 SNG and a $50 SNG. Make sure that you are careful when moving up to higher levels; one mistake could totally blow out your bankroll.
8. Before you play them, it's better to watch a few SNG games that have a higher buy-in level. This way you will get to know the atmosphere at the higher buy-in level. You will also have to make sure to pick the right table and don't get involved into a too sharp game.
9. Some SNG tournaments might be a lot easier to play at the higher levels since many of the players will already have settled to a strategy and because of that they will be a lot more predictable.
10. Make sure that you adopt the right Sit and Go strategy against different types of players. This means that you will have to play tight against loose players and that you must play loose against tight players.

Recommeded Poker Rooms for Sit and Gos

If you're new to Sit and Go's, and looking to try to play a few, we can recommend the following poker rooms:

Full Tilt Poker (US Friendly)

Full Tilt Poker offers tons of Sit and Go tournaments. New ones are starting all the time because of the massive amount of traffic they have. Full Tilt Sit and Gos come in all kind of formats and buy-in levels. A very interesting format of SNG are their Knockouts - where you can pick up a bounty when you manage to knock out a player.

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus (Bonus code: POKERFORFREE)

Party Poker (No US Players)

Another recommended poker room for Sit and Gos is Party Poker. Since they don't accept players from the US, they have less traffic at the tables than the previously mentioned poker room. however, Party Poker is a very strong European focused brand with plenty of SNGs on offer during peak hours. In fact, you have to click quickly to be able to enter one, specifically the Double or Nothing Sit and Go (DoN) tournaments.

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus (Bonus code: PFF500)

The two week long Main Series of ECOOP VI is giving away a guaranteed total prize pool of at least $4.5 million spread across 14 poker events, one for each day of the series: May 24 - June 6. Events in ECOOP VI include Limit and Pot Limit games in addition to No Limit, as well as tournaments in Stud, Omaha, and Omaha Hi/Lo. There are also turbo, rebuy, add-on, and 6-max events.

Although most of the events in ECOOP VI have buy-ins of under $500, with several in the $100 range, there are a few high-rolling events in the Main Series as well. That includes event #6, the $1,060 six-max Pot Limit Omaha event with the $150,000 guarantee, a special event with 1 rebuy but no add-ons. Highlighting the high roller event schedule, though is the $2,600 NL Hold'em event, #8, with a $500,000 guarantee. There's even a quadric event, #11, which has a $215 buy-in and a $100,000 guarantee.

Play at Celeb Poker

Satellites into all the different ECOOP VI events are going on now and start with buy-ins down as low as around $3. Almost all of the Celeb Poker satellites into ECOOP VI are rebuy and addon events.

Winners of all ECOOP VI Main Series events will also win, in addition to their respective prize monies, a special edition ECOOP VI Tag Heuer commemorative wristwatch.

The fact is that if you are reading this article, you are reaching the final table section of the tournaments but are crashing out of the tournament before you are able to make a stand for the first place finish and so you are now looking for ways to improve your play.

The first thing that you need to look at when you reach the final table within a freeroll tournament situation is just exactly where you stand in terms of the stack that you have in front of you, this will help you to be able to determine what style of poker you should be playing to be able to maximise the chances of winning the tournament rather than spending hours playing them just to crash out before the real money comes into contention.

So to be able to establish exactly how you should be looking to play the final leg of the tournament, you need to be able to place your standing into one of any of these 4 categories, be honest here as believing that you are not within the category that you are representing could lead to you trying to play a strategy that doesn't suit your requirements in that particular tournament.

Tournament Hanger

• This is the name that I have credited to a stack that represents that a player is barely hanging on within the tournament.
  
  Basically this means that if you have just scraped into the final table proceedings with a very low chip count, you are most likely to be the player that is next to be sent to the viewing area rather than the winners compound.
  
  Being in this situation, many players consider their chances to win the tournament as so slim that they might as well play any hand that they are dealt, but play to the strategy surrounding this situation and you are in with a chance to be able to claw your way back into the tournament for a higher place finish.

Short Stack

• A general term that is used all over the poker industry to represent the player with the least chips, this is different to the 'Tournament Hanger' category because the difference between the chip stack of yourself and the next lowest chip count is much less than that of the 'Tournament Hanger'.
  
  You are considered to be the short stack of the tournament even if you are a couple of chips off the pace, realise this and adapt your strategy to best suit this situation and once again, you will be able to climb back into contention.

Midway Point

• A name given to a player who has entered into the final table sector of a tournament with a chip stack that is at least equal to the average amount of chips that each player should represent at this point.

Big Stack

• This is the category that has the top players of the tournament within it, allowing only the players who are leading the chip count and the player who is seated in second place into it.
  
  Obviously your strategy is going to be different to that of the other categories so you need to make sure that you are able to adapt to the strategy to be able to take the tournament down and fight for your place at the first place podium.
  
  Okay, now that we have given you the categories for which you should be able to relate to, let's get the strategy into play so that you can finally make these tournaments pay out the maximum amount of prize money.

Tournament Hanger Strategy

Being within this category means that you are most likely to become the player who is going to be targeted by the bigger stacks within the tournament and so you need to think about the hands that you are willing to play, limping into a pot with a medium strength hand just simply isn't going to cut it here as your likely to get raised and placed all in before the flop.

So the span of plays that are available to you in any other situation quickly become limited in terms of what you should be playing and what you should be laying down on the table to keep yourself out of the firing line.

You have to be willing to adopt a playing style that is known within the online poker community as 'Push or Fold', meaning that any hand that you are willing to play has to be played with an all in shout.

Failure to show this sign of strength within your hand will make you a sitting duck for a higher chip stack to re-raise or move you all in, you want to be the first player to show strength.

Showing that you have enough willing to invest the whole of your chips and your poker tournament life on this one hand will mean that many players will have to think long and hard about their decision to call your play or not, increasing the chances of you being able to take the blinds or to simply protect them at your time of need.

Obviously with the forced betting amounts raising, you need to be a little more accommodating with the hands in which you are willing to entertain making this play with otherwise you risk been forced into a play with a poor hand as the blinds pass over you and your chip stack decreases.

That doesn't mean that you should be looking to play each and every hand like this, doing that will show players what you are doing and they will lose any respect for your play that you might have earned while at the tables.

Short Stack Strategy

Playing a tournament final table as a short stack is just as hard as having to play it from a 'Tournament Hanger' prospective and so you need to be aware that players are likely to be looking to you as a prime target for their strong plays and bluffs.

With this in mind you need to think about what cards you are willing to use in order to enter into a pot as the likelihood is that your play will be considered to be a play for chips rather than a sign of strength.

You have two option in terms of the hands that you are going to play in order to keep yourself within the tournament, you can either play hands that are going to offer you a coin flip pre flop but you have to be willing to back up your hand with your entire stack is needed to, or you can sit and wait for a power hand.

Sitting for a power hand can be hard to do sometimes, taking you out of the action and rendering you useless as people look to steal your blinds but you have to think that hitting one strong hand could well see your chip stack double within a matter of minutes, offering you double the chance of holding on and turning your tournament around.

So to recap, you either wait for the premium poker starter hands to fall into your hole cards from the dealer or you play cards that you are willing to back up with the entire chip stack you are holding, otherwise fold your cards and get out of the action.

Midway Strategy

Being in this situation means that you are able to select how you want to play the game dependent on the opponents seated around you, you can either look to play more hands and force others into action or you have enough chips to sit and wait for the premium hands without the risk of forced bets eating away at your chip stack significantly.

Personally I prefer to play the waiting game and allow myself to pick up a strong hand before I am willing to wager additional chips into the central pot because this way I have some fire power to place behind my play rather than having to fold to players who are looking to re-raise you in order to steal the chips you have invested in the hand already.

Playing more hands means that you have to be willing to bring more bluffing into play as you need to show that you have the hand to keep playing within the hand, failure to do that will mean that you have the increased possibility of an opponent calling your action and reducing the chance of you winning the hand by betting alone.

Big Stack Strategy

Definitely the best position to be in within any poker tournament, thus not just a free poker tournament. This means that you don't only have time on your hands to wait for the best premium hands but you also offer a large fear factor to a number of your opponents, opponents who are less willing to enter into a hand with you in order to retain their tournament standing and lifeline.

Due to the fact that players are less likely to want to enter into hands with you while they are holding medium strength hands, you need to be willing to exploit that fact and once you have a hand that you are happy to play, you need to come out fighting, placing large amount bets into the pot so that your opponent has to either commit or fold.

If you play this strategy right and are able to avoid getting into a hand too deep with a player who is genuinely holding a strong hand, you will find that the players remaining at the table becomes less a lot quicker than if you were not to play strength each time that you enter into a pot. Keep the pressure on players and they will make mistakes or they will simply allow you to take the pot without contention.

Once you have managed to see of a couple of the players and things are rounding off to the last 5 players left within the tournament, it is then time to allow other players to play and you take a break, waiting for the premium hands before you enter into a pot.

Allowing others to absorb the risk of having to play cards that are less preferred within the poker starter hands listings means that you are keeping yourself out of the way of any bad beats or big hands that might occur while you are waiting on the hands to make your assault on the tables.

This means that players will soon begin to knock each other out of the tournament and the fact that you are not entering into the hands means that they are more likely to place higher level bets into the pot in order to try to win the pot themselves, you get one pot where three players feel that they have the best hand and you could well see two players being eliminated from the tournament without you having to stake more than any forced bets.

Finally once the table reaches the final two players, so you and one other opponent it is time to adapt your play again, breaking into heads up strategy rather than waiting on the hands that every poker player dreams of, doing this means that you are subject to lose a number of chips to hands that are more than likely no more than medium strength.

The only thing you need to do here is to broaden your starting hand selection to include some more of the picture cards, doing this means that you will more times than not have an over card of some value so even heading into a hand that could well be pocket pairs against you, offers you a number of outs.

All you have to remember at this point is to select your hands carefully and consider how your opponent has played while on the table with you, if they are aggressive they are likely to continue to be aggressive when it comes to their action but if they have a track record for being passive then they are likely to carry this though into the heads up section too.

• Poker Strategies (Poker For Free)
• Poker Articles - Poker Strategy (Poker For Free)
• Blog - Strategies & Tips (Max Poker Bonus)

Being able to distinguish when you as a poker player should make the step to moving into a higher stake is key to any players success because making the move too slowly would mean that you could be passing up the opportunity to increase your bankroll at a faster rate but make the move too quickly and you will find yourself within a learning curve that could well cost you your entire bankroll.

• Please read our article Playing Above your Limit to learn more about bankroll management.

As with a number of things within the real world, the power of a players bankroll is regarded in a number of different opinions and so with some players being more focused on the money aspect of the game rather than the experience, many feel that they need to ensure that they play prime poker at every opportunity that they have at the poker tables to be able to enjoy the game.

With that in mind, you can easily see why so many new players that take to the game of poker, choose their stakes way to high for their playing ability, lose their bankroll and then quit the game as quickly as they decided to play it.

So with so many players getting their timing wrong and funding the playing habits of other players who they come up against, what is the best general rule that you should try to exercise to ensure that you're playing the right stakes for you?

The best thing that you could base your decision on would be the number of big blinds that you would be able to sit through comfortably, with the lowest recommended minimum been between 30 and 40.

This means that you are able to allow the lower strength hands to pass without you having to act due to your chip stack sinking as the blinds include you within the forced betting.

Obviously the best way that a player would be able to generate a life changing amount of money while playing within the real money cash tables, they would need to progress through the stake levels as quickly as possible but that greed factor seems to kick in and players feel that they can jump up through the levels just because they have had success at the lower levels.

After looking over a number of texts surrounding the subject, many of them reveal another argument for ability progression and moving through the stakes as quickly as you can, saying that it is proven that as a player grows older, their willingness to wager higher amounts of money per hand decreases and so their tendency is to either stick to the stakes that they are within or to reduce them to decrease the opportunity to lose what they have worked so hard to create in their time at the tables.

On the flip side to the argument, a number of players reach stakes that they are comfortable with but then the fear of clashing with other higher ability player scares them into retaining their current stakes level.

Moving up into a new stake level can be frightening when you are moving into an unknown level but you need to be able to make the step into where you have never been before to maximise your winning potential.

Making sure that you learn about the game and the best strategy that you should look to include into your game while you're on the trail of a profitable time at the tables.

Learn deeply and advance quickly while still within a comfortable state and you will find that your winning amount becomes so much higher than you would have experienced if you failed to try to advance.

There is such a dramatic difference between the feelings that a bad beat offers to players who are involved in the hand, with the player who has just dealt out the bad beat feeling like they could walk on air and the player on the receiving end feeling like the world has just ended, especially if they have just lost their complete chip stack in the process.

That's Poker!

You have to remember that bad beats are part and parcel of the game of poker and that is what helps to increase the risks that players experience when they are playing the game, after all we all love to take a risk or two don't we?

So we know that the bad beats are part of the game but when you're on the receiving end of one, it can be impossible to keep a handle of yourself and your emotions.

Okay, you're not about to burst into tears and start kicking and screaming laid out on the floor but the impact that the bad beat can have on a player can be crushing, knocking them of their game and further increasing the players misfortune.

The most popular thing that is seen from a player who has just been through the experience is that they tend to tell every living sole about their beat, hoping that someone, somewhere can offer them the glimmer of sorrow that they are desperately seeking.

The truth is, you moan about a bad beat to another player, they are simply going to increase their desire to rain more misery on your game as lets face it, they are not about to place their arms around you and tell you its okay.

You need to be able to equip yourself mentally and be able to remain focused on the game in action, allowing the beat to play over in your mind is only going to cost you more money because you no longer have the focus on the game.

So what can you do to prevent further loss after a bad beat?

1. If you are unable to allow the hand to pass and not live on in your head, leave the table.

If you are allowing the hand to remain in your mind, you are not going to be able to play the best form of poker that you can play, lowering the chances of your success.

Leaving the table will allow you to regroup your thoughts and vent your anger away from the tables, meaning that you aren't showing anything in front of the players at the table and most importantly the opposing player.

2. Accept the loss as quickly as possible.

As we have explained already in the article, bad beats are part of the game, okay they aren't very common and so many players feel that they have been hard done by most of the time but it happens.

You know that, so accept it and wait for the right hand to seek your revenge.

3. Analyse the hand.

Did the bad beat come from a result of poor player from you or are you happy with how you played the hand? If it was a mistake that you have made or an error of judgement, can you now eliminate that from your game?

It can be hard to do this straight after the hand has played out, so we advise that you note the hand number down and come back to the hand history when the beat is out of your system and you are able to record a little more profit.

4. Don't tell other players about your beat.

At the end of the day, no player that you tell is going to offer you the bankroll back into your account, so remember that although they are looking like they are bothered about you and your losses, really they are thinking it happens to everyone.

5. Only play poker when you are in the right mind frame to do so.

Undertaking in a game where you are staking real money requires you to be completely focused on being able to compete at the highest standard of play that you can, failure to be able to play the game to the best of your ability means that you are more likely to lose out financially.

With so many differing opinions surrounding the topic, players have become divided within their choice over this topic and that is why poker is such a great game, the variance of play that each and every poker player possesses means that you're very unlikely to come across any two players who play exactly the same.

Lets look into why a poker player would even consider showing their hand.

There are a couple of reasons that might make a player become willing to show their hand to the table through a choice of their own, firstly the player could be looking to reveal that they have just beaten a player out of a large pot with a huge bluff or to show their strength of hand to those around them.

So showing your hand would be designed to either impress or anger your opponent but what negative effects could showing your hand have on your game?

The willingness to show your cards means that you are willing to give opponents the opportunity to get an insight into your game and playing strategy as once they can see your hand they can replay the hand over in their head and analyse where you showed the strength or weakness.

This means that should you do this on a regular basis against an opponent, you are basically opening up your mind and playing style for them to read and analyse, helping them to counter act your plays and in turn profit from you.

Remember that what ever you have to show to a player will have already been seen, you're not going to get anything from your showing of the cards, instead you're giving information away.

• The huge bluff that you have just played - its been done before.
• The pocket aces that you have in your hand - they have been seen before.

So if you look at your hand in that way, you have no reason to show your cards and reveal anything about your game.

Keeping an air of mystery about your play will mean that until players are able to analyse you and your play, they will offer you the respect that you have them beat in a situation that they have nothing, reveal that you're prone to bluffing and you're likely to lose that respect and they will become more willing to bet or call your play.

So with all these negatives, why would any poker player want to show their hand?

An experienced poker player could well be willing to show a hand every hour in order to reveal their play to their opponents but the only way that a player would consider doing this is if their play was uncharacteristic to their regular playing style or they are about to switch their approach to the game.

In this situation, the player who is showing the cards is trying to feed their opponents a wrongful insight into how they are playing their hands, basically showing a further bluff.

I guess that the decision remains in the hand of the player, if they feel that they can benefit from showing their hand while not revealing too much about their game play and strategy, then they have the right to show their cards.

Personally I refrain from showing my cards due to the fear of revealing information about my play to stronger players, if they were ever able to get into my head and figure out how I play the game at what points, my high roller poker career would soon become small stakes.

The deal came through the National Rugby League's initiative, when they sent an email to Full Tilt Poker asking if the company would like to advertise its free, poker educational site, FullTiltPoker.net with the league and its 16 clubs.

The deal, looking at an expected starting duration of around six to twelve months, would have FullTiltPoker.net appearing before all Australian NRL fans and landing the league some AUD $100,000. Of course, the Full Tilt advertising during the National Rugby League games will be limited to FullTiltPoker.net, the practice poker learning site, and not FullTiltPoker.com, the real money equivalent.

However, as players currently enjoying Full Tilt Poker's real money tables understand, just having exposure to the opportunities available to a poker lover at Full Tilt Poker's online poker tables, even the practice ones, will have those players laying down real money on FullTiltPoker.com before you know it. And as long-time online poker players know, online sports betting enthusiasts tend to be each fish to consume in online poker, as they're prone to call and raise large, and bluff as often as they can.

By the same token, any online sports betting enthusiasts reading this, can steadily build a nice bankroll on Full Tilt Poker pretending to be one of that school.

Full Tilt Poker joins PokerStars, the supposedly largest poker site many poker players around the world consider to be rigged, now in having an Australian advertising presence.

It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to accept that the mystery man is Blom, as he is a pretty-faced 19-year-old who does not look so intimidating in pictures as he does pouty. Keeping that face hidden could be an advantage to him and a factor in his big online winnings. It's believable.

And it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to understand why he may have backed out of the Party Poker Big Game IV after supposedly accepting Tony G.'s invitation. Because apparently, the Swedish government is looking to identify this millionaire in their midst so they can tax the heck out of him. Whoever Isildur1 is, he owes the Swedish government millions in taxes-or so they're saying. So if it is you, Viktor, we can see doubly why you'd want to keep it on the down low.

In the meantime, the Party Poker Big Game IV took place yesterday, Sunday, April 11 as Les Ambassadeurs in London, England.

Players that did turn out with Tony G. for this star-studded cash game included Phil Laak, Luke Schwartz (aka "Full Flush"), hot actress turned even hotter poker star Jennifer Tilly, along with Justin Bonomo, Roland de Wolfe, and a host of others. Winners will be announced in a future blog.

Round-the-clock satellites into the 2010 WSOP Main Event are already taking place at Titan Poker, as well as satellites into other major 2010 WSOP events, such as the Pot Limit Omaha Championship as well as side events 49 and 54.

Any player to win one of Titan Poker's World Series of Poker 2010 Main Event Super Satellites gets an all-inclusive prize package worth $13,000 that includes a luxury hotel stay at the Wynn Las Vegas for the 7 nights of your stay, from July 6 to July 13. The package includes the $10,000 buy-in for the event, 7 night's accommodation at the Wynn Las Vegas, and spending money.

Titan Poker WSOP Experience

Special Titan Poker WSOP Experience prize packages are also being awarded during this promotion, giving players the chance to win a Main Event seat at a live poker satellite event, not online but in Las Vegas itself.

Another part of the Titan Poker WSOP 2010 promotion, as in years past, is the Jackpot SNG Executive series of satellites. Win 6 of these Sit 'n Go's in a row and receive a special executive WSOP 2010 prize package that includes not only the $10,000 main event seat but VIP transportation by limo to and from the event, luxury accommodations, and a helicopter tour, a value totaling $25,000.

The 2010 World Series of Poker will take place this June and July at the Harrah's Rio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Titan Poker satellites into the 2010 WSOP Main Event are running daily now.

Play at Titan Poker

The FTOPS XVI starts April 23 and includes 30 events up through the main event on May 2 for a total guaranteed prize pool of $18 million. Events making up the FTOPS XVI schedule run the gamut, from NL Texas Hold'em to Pot Limit Omaha. It includes stud events and mixed game events, heads up games, and even a few events still left to be determined. The guaranteed prize pools for the various FTOPS XVI events include several set at $1 million or above, include the culminating $3 million main event. And the buy-ins for the FTOPS XVI range between $100 and $2,000, with plenty of action at every stakes level in between.

Of course, you can avoid paying these buy-ins by winning your seats in the various FTOPS XVI events instead by way of Full Tilt Poker's numerous online poker satellite tournaments into the series, many with buy-ins under $10. FTOPS XVI Main Event satellites start with buy-ins at $20 and up. Direct buy-in to the main event otherwise is $600 + $40.

The premiere event on the FTOPS XVI schedule is a $750,000 guaranteed NL Holde'm events with a $200 + $16 direct buy-in.

The timing for Full Tilt Poker's FTOPS XVI couldn't be better either, what with the 2010 World Series of Poker just around the corner itself.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

Small and low pocket pair strategy can be hard to master, allowing the fact that you have a pocket pair over rule your head and how you think is best to play the hand.

So many players think that with low pocket pairs, they should be looking to raise the pot in order to scare opponents out of the hand and to take the pot down early but should you get a caller, you can be pretty sure that you're heading into a hand where you're likely to be behind if the whole five community cards are seen.

The best poker strategy that you could exercise would be to limp into a hand, allowing other players to set the pace of the pre flop betting.

You simply call the bet, unless it is an all in, seeing the flop as cheaply as you possibly can.

Now that the bets are equal and there are a number of players simply watching this hand, you need to hope that you catch a card on the flop to further increase the strength of your hand, without that you run the risk of being behind to any player that is holding an over card that is displayed on the board.

If you find that you miss on the flop and the three cards placed onto the community board are of a higher value to the ones that you are currently holding, you need to be very willing to fold to any bet that is placed, failure to have that self control could well see you heading into a large pot with a hand that should have been folded at the round of betting that followed the flop, increasing the number of chips that you have lost in the process.

Reality is, pocket pairs are only considered to be playable if they meet the standard required to be within the premium poker starter hands that so many plays stand by and execute so firmly.

A player should always be aware of the risk that they are taking when they are playing low or small pocket pairs and be willing to fold their cards after the flop has been shown if they were to miss the cards that would empower their hand further.

That being said, should you hit a card on the flop you would be instantly find yourself heading into the lead of the hand, with a hand value that would be so hard for even an experienced poker player to decipher and escape from.

Being in this situation would be profitable for a player should they keep their thoughts about them and let others continue to play the game, allowing someone to make a top pair would further increase your pot value potential, as would a player who was to make two pair.

A player who is able to look into their hand and see that they have made two pair from the cards within their hand, not due to a pair on the community board, is very likely to be willing to bet their entire stack into the pot, play your hand right and you could see a handsome return.

So what tips can we offer you when you're faced with how to play those low or small pocket pairs?

1. Simply call pre flop

• Betting into a pot at this stage will increase your chances of losing a higher number of chips than you needed to, after all damage limitation is key within smaller hands.

2. If you miss on the flop its time to fold to any bet

• If you are unable to increase the strength of your hand on the flop, meaning that you create a set or three of a kind, you need to stop your betting and simply try to see the next cards for free.
• If a player bets into the pot after you failed to increase your hand, they have you beaten, simple.

3. If you hit your set on the flop, you open the betting where possible

• You need to be willing to make the first move in this situation as allowing a player the possibility to see another card for free could well reverse the outcome of the hand, so running the risk of check-raising and opponent is simply not the best form of play here as they might not choose to bet and simply check the hand.

The 3 rules that have been outlined above are easy to remember and will guide you through the times that you're in a low or small pocket pair hand situation, remember those and you will be able to either avoid getting into a hand too far or increase the potential winning value of a hand that you're holding.

The full racetrack for the Full Tilt Poker Race to the Main Event is as follows:

1. Start by playing in any Main Event Race Round 1 Sit & Go Freeroll tournament, running daily and around the clock. Win and you advance to one of the Main Event Race Round 2 Sit & Go Freeroll tournaments, also running daily
2. End up in the top two of any Round 2 tournament and advance to one of the weekly Main Event Race Finals Freeroll tournaments
3. End up in the top eight of any weekly Finals tournament and claim your $10,000 WSOP Main Event prize package

There are also several shortcuts on the Full Tilt Poker Race to the Main Event - detours of sorts by which you can skirt around the normal requirements for winning a 2010 WSOP Main Event prize package and take the fast track there. These three shortcuts are:

1. Make a first time deposit and skip to Round 2
2. Refer a friend and skip to Round 2
3. Accrue at least 3,000 FTPs (that's Full Tilt Points) in a single week and skip to the Finals

And remember, Full Tilt Poker's Race to the Main Event is not to be confused with their other big 2010 WSOP race, and that the Race for Bracelets. These are daily online poker tournaments with buy-ins from $26 - $216 with at least one WSOP prize package worth $2,000 that can be applied toward any 2010 WSOP preliminary event.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

On walking into the venue you have to carry yourself with confidence, showing that will mean that players are taking strong feelings from your body language that you could well be a seasoned player who is a regular tournament player, giving them a slight sense of fear should they have never played live before.

Gathering Information about Opponents

The worst thing that I have seen players do is that they talk way too much, giving away too much information about their previous poker experience or the sheer lack of it.

Within minutes of walking into the venue, I was approached by two young guys who seemed to be more about making friends than getting into the 'zone' of where a poker player needs to be when undertaking in a situation like this. Before I was even able to finish my drink, I had already been told that this was their first live tournament as they were more at home at the online poker tables, something that gave me the information to know that their style of play would be more suited to the comfort of their bedroom or where ever their computer is at home.

I was given the advice that if you're getting caught up within a conversation, be careful not to give away too much, in fact the best thing that you could do is to show a strong amount of experience, highlighting a number of other tournaments, maybe even online poker tournaments, that you've won and telling stories of the hands.

Now I'm not one for telling lies but when you're having to give information to players that soon could well be looking to use that information against you for their own financial gain, its time to think poker, think bluffing. Feed them information that shows strength within your play, something that's going to make them really have to think about how they are going to face off against you should the chance arise.

You have to remember that many players at the tournament have bought into the tournament with previous experience because lets face it, even as a gambling person, you're not about to stake thousands of dollars into a game that you're not confident that you can win are you?

Players will look to show strength and weakness through oral interaction with you but you have to be able to distinguish when someone is being naïve and telling you the truth or being careful about what they are willing to tell you and using methods such as reverse psychology on you, making you think that they are either weak within the environment or that they feel right at home.

Image is Everything when Playing Live Poker

Heading to the tables, you have to think about what you are going to portray to your rivals seated alongside you, are you going to enter the table as a person that going to hide behind a hat, cap or sunglasses or are you going to be a talkative player who is looking to probe with each and every piece of small talk?

Personally, I prefer to approach the table, say nothing and hear everything.

This means that I am able to concentrate on my strategy while still being able to obtain information from conversations that are going on at the table, well what you can hear with all that noise.

I can recalled being sat at the table waiting for a couple of the other players who were due to be seated and looking about the room to get a good idea of the faces that I could be facing off against, another opportunity to feed myself information.

Looking about the room, I was able to spot a number of players who were drinking lager, something that is massively discouraged within all poker strategies that I have ever read and written. Take note that there are players drinking alcohol and try to remember their faces, after all, the government seems to like to remind us that alcohol reduces your ability to make decisions, could that mean that they are going to get their game play all wrong?

Efficient Live Poker Tournament Tips

So, lets have a look at what advice I can give you for when you decide that you're ready to take part in a live poker tournament.

• Arrive early
  The earlier that you arrive the better. This gives you time to scope out the playing field as well as allowing you to find your way about the building.
• Keep talking to a minimum
  So many players who play live poker tend to speak way too much, it could be a nervous thing or could be that they are looking to pass the waiting time by making friends.
  Remember that you're there to take their money, not arrange a dinner date.
• If asked about your experience within live tournaments by another player, lie!
  Players aren't asking this question to see if they can offer you advice or hold your hand when the tournament starts, they are looking for information that they can use against you.
  If you're new to the live tournament scene, tell them that you have played a couple of times and that you're hitting the final table the majority of the time, keep it brief and then move on.
  If you're the more experienced player, why not feed them a line that will mean that they believe that you have never played a poker tournament before as you're more based around cash games? Make them think that you're weak and then exploit their play towards you.
• Stick to water or soft drinks
  You need to keep your game at its strongest point and so drinking anything that contains alcohol will only reduce your chances of doing so.
• Stay focused
  Remember that you're playing live here, you're not able to click a button at the top of your screen to see what just happened while you were checking out the waitress.
  Stay focused and keep your thoughts on the game in hand, that way you will be set to play your strongest poker game.
• Enjoy the experience
  At the end of the day you're there to enjoy the game and try to make a good return on your buy in. If you're not going to enjoy the experience, you're not going to leave with anything other than an empty pocket.

Direct WSOP Qualifiers

First off, calling the Direct Qualifiers a single opportunity is kind of a misnomer, because there are 5 different Direct Qualifiers running weekly, as follows:

• Tuesdays for $300 + $22 at 21:00 ET awarding 2 prize packages
• Wednesdays for $200 + $16 at 16:30 ET awarding 1 prize package
• Thursdays for $1,000 + $60 at 21:00 ET awarding 5 prize packages
• Saturdays for $200 + $16 at 19:00 ET awarding 1 prize package
• Sundays for $600 + $40 at 16:30 ET awarding 5 prize packages

For each of these events, Full Tilt Poker is also offering satellites for as inexpensive as $1 or 50 FTPs to enter. Many of these satellites are Turbo events.

150-Seat Main Event Guarantee

And then there's the 150-Seat Main Event Guarantee, scheduled for June 20 at 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT). With 150 prize packages each worth $12,000 up for grabs at once, that makes for a total guaranteed prize pool worth $1.8 million. You can buy into the 150-Seat Main Event Guarantee directly for $600 + $40 or satellite in, once again. For as inexpensive as just 50 FTPs or $1.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

That completes our two part look at the current 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event qualifiers next up at Full Tilt Poker. As we approach Main Event Week, we'll give you a closer look at that final chance to win a 2010 WSOP Main Event seat then.

The most common reason why poker became so popular in such a short time is because the core of the game is the individual's mind. Mastering excellent life skills such as making the right choices and disciplining yourself whenever you run out of choices are some of the virtues of this game.

The ones who have played poker know that this is a game for a lifetime. If life hasn't taught players how to have discipline and how to be aggressive without being reckless then the poker game will fulfill this educative task.

Discipline and Patience

Everyday routine provides enough events that are parallel to basic poker strategies. For example, we must have patience and discipline when we fry an egg for breakfast or wait for our best friend at the corner. Imagine the aftermath of these basic events if we lack discipline and patience. Odds are that we would end up at the hospital with burn marks on our face or we would flush down the toilet an incredible friendship.

It goes without saying that these two principles are at the basis of the golden rule. Having patience is essential in poker; in fact it makes all the difference. You could have truckloads of money to buy chips, if you don't have that tiny detail.

The Goal in Poker

I've never seen anybody who played poker to lose. It defies ant logic to come to the poker table and be inpatient. The most evasive interpretation would be that somebody is eager to win, but this in turn omits losing.

The conclusion is that simple: not having patience is poisonous for the game. Not having consistent discipline will prevent you from becoming a successful poker player in the long run. The goal of every player is to gather as much money as possible and go home victoriously.

Crushing the Competition

Poker implies mastering the psychological manifestations. Contrary to what others believe, staying within your own head and guiding the impulses is mandatory. Avoid the temptation of getting into somebody else's head in order to win the pot.

The secret behind crushing the competition is so simple: knowing how to unleash your mental faculties and nothing else.

Lack of Patience Leads to Mistakes

With so much enthusiasm under their shirt, players often play hands they are forbidden, or this is how logic would dictate it. If anything, then this is a pure sign of lack of patience. The bottom point is that playing trash hands from the wrong position should be always avoided. Missing the big blind is a result of negligence, which in turn triggers frustration and soon you'll discover that you are at the verge of rocketing from the table. Whatever you do, do not show your emotions or you'll risk throwing your patience to the wind. Avoid these mistakes and you will strike gold.

No matter if you play free poker, online poker for real money, or together with friends, you will discover that patience is one of the most important keys to poker.

Full Tilt Poker has long been known for introducing great new poker shows to the broadcast television lineup - with hits like Face the Ace under its belt, to name just one of several. Well now they're about to roll out a new one, and it could be the best yet, with one online satellite qualifier pitting his skills (and luck) against 5 of poker's biggest name players (and not coincidentally, some of the biggest names on Team Full Tilt's pro roster) for a winner take all top prize of $120K.

Satellite tournaments to qualify for that choice spot on The Full Tilt Poker Lounge run the three months from April 4 to July 4 with the show itself taking place June 21 to August 23 in London, England and airing on Channel 4 TV. There are 10 matches in The Poker Lounge in all, 8 of which have spots open for any Full Tilt Poker member to fill.

Buy-ins into the various satellite qualifiers are priced at $640 but an alternate way to get into a qualifier is by winning a satellite into it. Satellites in The Full Tilt Poker Lounge qualifier tournaments are priced as low as $10.

Each prize package into The Full Tilt Poker Lounge, to sit opposite players like 2009 WSOP Main Event final table player Phil Ivey, is valued at $22,000.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker Bonus

$1 Main Event Seats

Probably the hottest ticket - or at least the cheapest - is the $1 Main Event Seat. Every Sunday at 13:30 ET (18:30 GMT) starting April 4 and running through June 27, Full Tilt Poker will be awarding at least 5 prize packages into the 2010 WSOP Main Event, each package worth $12K.

Direct buy-in into the Full Tilt Poker $1 Main Event Seat qualifiers are actually $1.10, although you can qualify for even cheaper, with satellites into the $1 Main Event Seat events going for as low as 30 FTPs or 30 cents. From the look of things in the Full Tilt lobby, all of the $1 Main Event Seat tournaments are Turbo poker events.

Daily Shootouts

Also running now are Daily WSOP Shootouts, 81-player events running up until June 27. Players have two opportunities every day to win a free $12K 2010 WSOP Main Event prize package, scheduled for 15:30 ET (20:30 GMT) and 21:30 ET (02:30 GMT) daily. Buy-ins range from $216 direct to $1 or 50 FTPs by satellite.

The difference between shootouts and regular MTTs, by the way, is that players are not shuffled around to keep play balanced but rather players are simply knocked out Sit 'n Go style. Then the last player standing from each shootout faces off against the others.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Stay tuned this week for Part II of this in-depth look at Full Tilt Poker's many chances going on now to win a free seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

You see, much like your typical multi-table online poker guaranteed tournament, the Party Poker Online Cash Game Championship runs for a set length of time - in this case April 5 to May 5 - constantly winnowing down the playing field until only one top winner remains. The difference here is that instead of playing tournament poker to achieve that end, you'll be playing in cash ring games.

Play at Party Poker

The Party Poker OCGC (as it's being called for short) operates using a leader board that keeps track of players performance over the course of the competition, which is broken down into 7 levels, at each of which players must choose at least one day of the competition and play in at least 400 cash game hands on that given day. The best performing players move on to each successive level.

The levels in the inaugural Party Poker OCGC are as follows:

• Level 1, April 5 - 9, $0.50/$1
  - the top 30% move on to Level 2, everyone else to Second Chance
• Level 2, April 12 - 16, $0.50/$1
  - the top 30% move on to Level 3 and get $50 cash
• Second Chance, April 12 - 16, $0.50/$1
  - the top 10% get $50 cash and move on to Level 3
• Level 3, April 9 - 21, $1/$2
  - the top 30% get $200 cash each and move on to Level 4
• Level 4, April 26 - 27, $1/$2
  - the top 50 players get $400 cash and move on to Level 5
• Level 5, April 29 - 30, $2/$4
  - the top 18 players get $1,500 cash and $1,500 toward Level 6 semi-final
• Level 6 Semi-Final, May 3, $5/$10
  - must play min. 400 hands/judged on 500 hands
  - top 6 players get $5,000 cash and $5,000 toward Level 7 Final Table
• Level 7 Final Table, May 7, $25/$50

OCGC Top Prizes

• 1st place gets $40,000
• 2nd place gets $20,000
• 3rd place gets $10,000

With the Party Poker Online Cash Game Championships, at last there's a tournament-style competition for cash ring game players. For many online poker players, who prefer the cash games to the tournaments, this is a long time coming.

That's right, the math behind the concept is that when you think that you have the best hand after all of the community cards have been placed into play, you can place a smaller bet into the pot in the hope that your opponent will only call your action.

The use of a smaller bet in your moment of doubt means that you are able to prevent yourself placing too many chips into a pot when you have a feeling that you have the strongest hand but your not entirely sure.

If you think about what this would mean, you can see that placing a bet of say 300 chips would be better towards you chip stack than if you were to lead out with a bet worth 1000 chips.

When you have any sort of doubt in the strength of your hand, you need to perform damage limitation just in case your subconscious mind is correct and you are in fact trailing at this point.

A blocking bet could also be referred to as a protection bet or information bet, meaning that you are able to take more information from your opponents actions following you bet.

If the player simply calls, you are in with a chance of being right and winning the hand as the player isn't willing to stake more chips than you are on their hand, meaning that they don't have the best hand clearly.

Should your opponent opt to raise they are signaling to you that they have a hand of strength and so you need to think about laying your hand down, you will have still saved yourself chips should you lose. Placing a blocking bet means that your opponent needs to think about how they are going to act, eliminating the possibility of simply checking the hand and eliminating hands that were played in order to chase a straight draw or flush.

Replacing the option of seeing the card showdown for free, you are replacing their options with the removal of a positive play for a negative.

Success within poker relies on your ability to limit another player's choices and making them pay to continue to continue within a hand.

There is no rule that states that a player who feels that they are holding the strongest hand after the community cards are within play, so you need to hold off doing so unless you know that your holding the nuts.

Even once you are holding the nuts, you have to evaluate the opponent that you are still within the action with, how much are they likely to be willing to call?

Taking a moment to think about the player that you are against will mean that you are able to increase the value of the pot and furthermore, your potential winnings.

It only makes sense that Party Poker would be giving some of its action to France, since the country has given birth to many of the games rising stars, both online and off, including Betrand Grospellier (aka "Elky" online), and Antoine Saout, who made it to the final table of this past year's 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. What's more, both of these shining examples - Grospellier and Saout - got their start in online poker before making big gains in live poker. In fact, Antoine won his spot in the 2009 WSOP Main Event through a $5 online satellite qualifier.

In an interesting juxtaposition of online gambling activities, Party Poker France will also be teamed up with an online horse race betting site that members can hop over to for a change of action. What's particularly nice about this type of cross platform online gambling is that, for experienced online poker players, the influx of horce race betting enthusiasts onto the online felt means heavy betters, lots of raises and calls and bluffs... in other words easy to beat. You don't even have to be a poker shark to catch yourself some of these fish.

Party Poker France players will no doubt enjoy many of the same promotions Party Poker offers all its players all over the world, giving French poker players and and online poker players from everywhere else on the (legal online poker parts of the) planet the opportunity to test their mettle against each other. Party Poker France players will also be able to join the rewarding PartyPoints players loyalty program.

Play at Party Poker

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus

Play at PKR Poker

2010 PKR World Series Experience

At stake are 7 prizes packages worth $4,000 each into a 2010 World Series of Poker event plus a slew of bonuses. Among those bonuses coming with the 2010 PKR World Series Experience prize packages (besides the old tried and true hotel accommodations and travel/expense funds) are invites to two exclusive PKR events: the official PKR WSOP party and the PKR July 4th BBQ.

The PKR Road to Vegas promotion is structured as a league event with points awarded based on performance in daily multi-table tournaments and tracked on a leader board.

Each week over the next 11 weeks starting March 23 and ending June 3 will see PKR Poker hosting two Road to Vegas League tournaments, one each on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The styles of poker game play will vary from event to event, with the Road to Vegas passing through deep stacked and short-handed events; No Limit, Pot Limit and Fixed Limit; Hold'em and Omaha.

No matter the event, though, the buy-ins are a flat $10 across the board. The 100 top leader board finishers will receive league points to be added to their leader board tally.

With two PKR Poker Road to Vegas League tournaments per week over a period of 11 weeks, that makes 22 opportunities to inch your way toward a free seat at the 2010 WSOP, event #54, $1000 No Limit Hold'em.

A little background on why this is such a big deal, in case you need catching up. No one knows who Isildur1 is. That's a huge accomplishment for starters right there, what with technology being what it is today. But what's even more amazing is that this great unknown has literally slaughtered Tom "durrrr" Dwan (the oft-cited world's best No Limit Texas Hold'em player alive) at Full Tilt Poker's high-stakes heads-up cash tables. He's since taken huge chunks from poker's biggest lifetime winner, Phil Ivey and the man who scored the Guinness Record for the World's Biggest Online Poker Pot Won three times in the same year. Meet Isildur1.

So when Party Poker invites Isildur1 to its Big Game IV, a live poker event, everyone is itching to see if he'll actually turn out and show himself.

Tony G., in particular, is the player who made the invitation to Isildur1 to attend the event, even sweetening the deal by offering to pay the mystery poker pro's airfare and hotel stay as well as stake him for the entire game, which will last 48 hours.

Now here's the catch. Tony G. and Party Poker compatriots have even told Isildur1 that he can show up in disguise or wear a mask. Check out the Party Poker website (click on the button below) for more details on the upcoming Big Game IV.

Play at Party Poker

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus

But also none too late in the game, Full Tilt Poker is giving its players loads of opportunities to win loads of 2010 WSOP Main Event prize packages.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

To give you an example - Full Tilt Poker is hosting one qualifier on June 20 that's going to give the top 150 players free seats in the 2010 WSOP Main Event (plus accommodations and some spending cash, of course), a total value of $1.8 million in a single online poker tournament. The direct buy-in into this event is $640, but there are satellites into the big 150-seat guaranteed qualifier for buy-ins starting as low as $1 or 50 Full Tilt Points (FTPs), And that's just part (granted the pinnacle) of a whole Main Event Week happening at Full Tilt Poker between June 14 and June 20.

The buy-in for the 2010 WSOP Main Event (as in recent years' past) is $10,000. Contrarily, the buy-ins for the Full Tilt WSOP Main Event qualifiers are as low as $1. That particular buy-in is for the innovative $1 Main Event Seat, one of Full Tilt Poker's 2010 WSOP Main Event qualifiers which runs every Sunday between April 4 and June 27. At each one, 5 WSOP Main Event prize packages are guaranteed to be awarded.

Each Full Tilt Poker 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event prize package is worth $12,000 total.

The structure for Party Poker's 2010 WSOP qualifiers is as follows:

1. Start with a Party Poker WSOP Freeroll at 1:15 pm and 7:15 pm ET daily. Finish in the top 25 and advance to the $2 WSOP Sub Qualifier Speed Rebuy
2. There are three different Party Poker WSOP Sub Qualifiers, all running daily. If you don't win your seat in the $2 one through a freeroll then you can pay that $2 buy-in or pay the buy-in for the $4 WSOP Sub Qualifier Speed Rebuy; either way one ticket into the WSOP Satellite Qualifier will be awarded for every $80 in buy-ins paid for that tournament. Alternatively, you could join the $9 WSOP Sub Qualifier Speed event (with no rebuys) where 1 in every 10 registrants will advance to the WSOP Satellite Qualifier.
3. The WSOP Satellite Qualifier happen twice daily (at 3:35 pm and 9:40 pm ET) and once, as a speed event, on Sundays (at 1:45 pm ET). Each has a $75 + $5 ($80) direct buy-in and awards 1 seat in the final WSOP Satellite for every 10 players registered in the event.
4. The WSOP Satellite happens twice weekly, on Fridays at 6 pm ET and Sundays at 3:35 pm ET, with a $700 + $50 direct buy-in and awards one $14,000 World Series of Poker prize package for every 20 participants.

Play at Party Poker

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus

As with prior incarnations of this event, PKR Live IV will take place in London at its famous Loose Cannon Club, where last year Vincent Diver (aka "vdl2345"), a Londoner, took the PKR Live III top prize, and the year before Karl Fenton (aka "discomonkey"), a PKR satellite tournament winner who got his seat in the event for all of a $5 investment, took down PKR Live II. This year's PKR Live IV winner stands to gain at least $20,000 guaranteed.

The dates for PKR Live IV are Friday May 7th through Sunday May 9th, with a big party on Friday night, the start of the main event on Saturday, and the completion of the main event on Sunday, along with a side event, a shootout tournament with a $150 buy-in.

Satellite tournaments at PKR Poker cost $162 to enter and the top prize packages include seats in both of the weekend's big tournaments. You can similarly earn your seat in the satellite and avoid paying its direct buy-in by winning a $5 qualifier.

And if you don't win a PKR satellite, don't rule yourself out of the competition just yet. The buy-in for PKR Live IV is half of what it used to be, at a more reasonable $500 rather than $1,000.

Play at PKR Poker

• PKR Poker Review
• PKR Poker Bonus

Just download the mobile version of the BestPoker software to your internet enabled cell phone or smartphone and you're set to play. The BestPoker mobile online poker software is as full-featured as the desktop software, giving you the same intuitive flexibility and control that you get when you play at BestPoker at home, except here you can do it while you're on the go.

Have you ever had the experience of needing to leave home (or wherever your computer is) for an appointment, but you were in the middle of a huge hand with a huge pot in a BestPoker cash game, or perhaps doing well in a heated online poker tournament there? And you had to make a choice - be late for your appointment or quit the game. But now you don't have to make that choice. Never again do you have to separate your life into online poker time and all other time. Now online poker time can be all the time, thanks to mobile online poker through sites like BestPoker.

BestPoker mobile poker games are connected straight to your existing BestPoker real money account (which you do have to set up first in order to download the mobile poker software) and funds for your bankroll are withdrawn directly from your BestPoker account. There's no extra cost to BestPoker for the mobile poker software downloads or the games themselves - only the possible data costs from your mobile internet service provider. Playing online poker using the BestPoker mobile poker software takes about 300Kb - 900Kb of game play per hour.

See BestPoker by clicking the red button below to see if your mobile phone is supported for mobile poker.

Play at BestPoker

• BestPoker Review
• BestPoker Bonus

Season 2 of the Full Tilt Poker España Series starts next month with a stop at the Casino Castell de Peralada in Gerona, Spain from April 25 - 27. From there, the Full Tilt Poker España Series travels to the Casino Torrequebrada in historic Malaga from June 4 - 6.

Full Tilt will then take a brief break from the España Series for the 2010 World Series of Poker before it resumes its travels to its next stop at the Casino Gran in Madrid from August 27 - 29. Then the fourth and final trip in the 2010 season of the Full Tilt Poker España Series is the Grand Final on December 2 - 5 to take place at the Gran Casino de Barcelona in, of course, Barcelona.

The buy-ins for the Gerona, Malaga, and Madrid stops are €1500 each and each boast a €150,000 guaranteed prize pool while the buy-in for the Barcelona Grand Final will be €3,000 and a €550,000 guaranteed prize pool.

But of course, if there's one thing an online poker site's live tournament series with guaranteed prize pools offers, it's loads of satellite tournaments awarding free seats into the various tournaments making up that series. And Full Tilt Poker has done no differently for its España series, with satellites into the Gerona stop running now.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

• Full Tilt Poker Review
• Full Tilt Poker First Deposit Bonus

US players are welcome at OnlyPoker!

Play at OnlyPoker

The OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions satellite series includes three different tournament promotions giving you three different opportunities to win Gold Chips or cash:

• The OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions Gold Chip Giveaway with a top prize of 200 Gold Chips.
• The OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions $250k Satellite with a top prize of 5 seats into the Freeroll Into Millions $250,000 Semi-Final.
• The OnlyPoker Freeroll into Millions $250,000 Semi-Final which is a direct qualifier into the OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions $250,000 Guaranteed tournament.

You can buy-in directly to the OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions $250,000 Semi-Final for $40 or you can win your way in through a qualifying freeroll tournament. One seat for every $268 in the Freeroll Into Millions Semi-Final prize pool will be awarded into the OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions $250,000 guaranteed Final.

The $250K Satellites and the Gold Chip Giveaway both take place twice a day, Monday through Friday, while the OnlyPoker Freeroll Into Millions $250K Semi-Final takes place just once a week, on Saturdays.

Other big freeroll tournaments that are a part of the OnlyPoker regular online poker tournament schedule include the $1,000 Bankroll Freeroll in which the only way you can enter is to win a seat through the OnlyPoker $1000 Bankroll Freeroll Satellite tournaments.

Since late last month Celeb Poker has been running a series of satellites and mega satellite tournaments for free entry into the 2010 Irish Open tournament in Dublin, Ireland April 1 - 5, with 20 such prize packages being awarded in all. And time is almost running out to get yours.

The next and final Mega Satellite into the 2010 Irish Open happens this Sunday

The 2010 Irish Open will take place between April 1 and 5, 2010 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

And now is a great time to sign up at Celeb Poker if you're not already a member because when you do so, you will get, in addition to a 50% match on your first deposit with a $300 maximum bonus (making for a $600 first deposit), a token for entry into an exclusive Celeb Poker New Depositor Freeroll worth $2,500. This is a monthly event open only to all new Celeb Poker members that month who make their first cash deposit into their new Celeb Poker real money account (or new Celeb Poker members from previous months) who have yet to redeem their free token for a $2,500 New Depositor Freeroll entry. Your token into this event is credited to you within 72 hrs of your first deposit.

Play at Celeb Poker

As for your Celeb Poker first deposit bonus, it is credited to your account immediately but you don't get access to it immediately. Instead it is released to you at a rate of $5 for every 600 Celeb Poker Points (CPPs) you earn over the course of the 90-day period you have in which to redeem it.

For example, consider the Maui Sit 'n Go progressive jackpot. It starts out at a guaranteed $15,000 to any player who wins 5 Maui Sit 'n Go tournaments in a row. Every day that goes by without anyone winning that $15,000 Maui Sit 'n Go jackpot, Poker Ocean adds more money to the jackpot, keeping on this way day after day until someone wins it all.

Then there's the Rio Jackpot Sit 'n Go tourneys. Also a progressive jackpot. Win 6 consecutive Rio Jackpot Sit 'n Go tournaments and win a $25,000 jackpot bonus. But for each day that goes by without anyone winning the Rio Sit 'n Go Jackpot, it grows even bigger, resetting at $25,000 every time it's won.

And finally there's the biggest of the Poker Ocean Sit & Go jackpots, the Fort Knox $50,000 jackpot. Win six consecutive Fort Knox Sit & Go tournaments and win a $50,000 jackpot bonus. This one's not a progressive jackpot, but at $50,000, who's really going to complain?

Play at Poker Ocean

To win any of these jackpots, all of the Sit 'n Gos won must be of the same type (Maui, Rio, or Fort Knox) and all wins must be consecutive (that's in-a-row). The $15,000 Maui progressive jackpot, the $25,000 Rio progressive jackpot, and the $50,000 Fort Knox jackpot can all be found at Poker Ocean.

• Poker Ocean Review
• Poker Ocean Bonus

New Features and Rewards for Players

The site's user interface, and particularly its revamped use of Flash technology, is sharper than it's ever been. It's even got a slick new logo to go with it.

Following in the lead of many other online poker sites with an international presence, The Titan Poker software is now also available in multiple languages, including Portuguese, Greek, Czech, Romanian, and Hungarian. This allows non-English speaking players from all around the world to sit in at the online poker table together.

Also worth noting to an untapped 5-10% of computer users out there is that the new Titan Poker software is completely Mac compatible.

On a more meaty, game-oriented level, Titan Poker has now introduced the game of Razz into its mix. And the site has launched Titan Poker Academy, an online poker educational resource for online poker players of any level that will teach not only the ins and outs of the game, but tips and hints on some smart online poker strategy as well.

With new software upgrades generally comes new promotions and bonuses to look forward to, and since the site already awards a guaranteed $16 million minimum, with $100,000 progressive jackpots, one can only begin to imagine what new rewards and opportunities Titan Poker will come up with next. Currently players can win 2010 World Series of Poker seats through the Titan Poker World Challenge.

The Party Poker Women's World Open IV will start out as a deep-stacked event, with three heats of eight players each, with the two top players from each heat moving on to the final table. Players will each pay a $3,000 buy-in to enter the tournament.

On the list of confirmed competitors are the winner and runner-up from the event's last running, the Party Poker Women's World Open III, those being Aisling Collins of the UK and Wooka Kim of Japan. All eyes are on these two again this year, to see if Aisling can land the title for another year running or if Wooka can successfully snatch it away this year where she was unsuccessful last year.

Also on the list are Stefanie Bergener, Marian Demetriou, Laurence Grondin, Pippa Flanders, Soraya Homan, Christine Kleez, Annette Obrestad, Shelley Rubenstein, and Kara Scott.

A spokesman for the event noted that the structure for this year's Party Poker Women's World Open IV is a bit different from those of previous incarnations of the event, with a game more deeply stacked, requiring a lot more skill from the players than in event's past.

OnlyPoker is a part of the Cake Poker Network. Cake is a U.S. friendly network, and OnlyPoker does accept US players. It's the 10th largest online poker network in the world with a 7-day running average of nearly 2,000 players.

Besides his many publicity exploits, Rodman also makes a great face for OnlyPoker because of his poker playing exploits, which include beating skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, comic Ryan Stiles, and actors Bobby Cannavle and Cheryl Hines on Bravo television's "Celebrity Poker Showdown". Rodman was also on the same season of TV's Celebrity Apprentice with female poker legend and winner of the recent NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship Annie Duke.

With their logo being "No Bullshit, Only Poker", OnlyPoker made an appropriate choice signing Dennis Rodman. Although OnlyPoker is currently keeping hush-hush about its plans for Rodman, there's little doubt that players will get the chance to compete against him at the OnlyPoker online poker tables, and there's surely going to be at least one NBA basketball themed OnlyPoker online poker promotion starring the Bad Boy Dennis Rodman himself.

Play at OnlyPoker

As a fierce poker competitor who was on the slate for last year's World Series of Poker charity event, Ante Up For Africa, he will probably be appearing at the 2010 WSOP representing OnlyPoker, but this is OnlySpeculation.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The MiniFTOPS gives players with a smaller pocketbook a chance to win a larger than usual prize pool. The buy-ins for the MiniFTOPS are one-tenth that of the full-fledged FTOPS, but the prize pools are not. They are smaller, indeed, but not that much smaller, more in the range of 1/4 the value.

The total guaranteed prize pool for the MiniFTOPS XV is $6 million (as compared with the more than $30 million given away at the FTOPS XV).

The MiniFTOPS lasts for two weeks and wraps up with an $800,000 guaranteed main event, which has a $50 + $5 buy-in to enter. But just before that is another popular event, the high-rolling $250 + $16 buy-in $600,000 guaranteed two-day event.

Any player making it to the final table of any MiniFTOPS XV event will also get a limited edition Full Tilt Poker jacket. Event winners will receive a bonus prize in addition to their prize money of a silver jersey player avatar to use to throw players on tilt at the Full Tilt Poker tables.

A leader board will also be kept throughout all of MiniFTOPS XV, with a bonus prize going to the series' top overall performer of free entries to all events in FTOPS XVI except for the two-day event, a bonus prize package valuing approximately $85,000.

This is happening due to the restrictions placed in 2006. These restrictions are also imposed to a number of online payment processors that used to offer an alternative to make deposits to online poker rooms. However there are some US poker payment options still available for those US friendly poker rooms.

Here we are going to present you some of the most important payment methods that you can use to make a deposit in your online poker room account.

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard and American Express

Right now almost any online poker room on the internet is accepting deposits via credit cards. In case you are located in US, the main problem with the credit cards is that very often it happens that the banks from US restrict the transactions made via credit cards to online poker rooms and you will have your credit cards rejected when trying to make a deposit.

One way to successfully make a credit card deposit to your favorite online poker room is to buy a pre paid Visa credit card. These cards have a higher success rate and they can be brought from most gas stations or convenience stores.

The fees for using such a payment methods are very small and one of the most important benefits that you will get is the fact that the money is going to be deposited into your online poker account instantly and you can start playing poker in a matter of seconds.

On the Poker For Free website we even have a poker room that accepts players from the US, as well as accepts deposits with a credit card from American Express (AMEX). This is a very rare case. The poker room we're talking about is OnlyPoker. Make sure to check out our OnlyPoker review for all the details.

E-wallets Poker Payments: eWalletXpress, QuickTender and UseMyWallet

The e-wallets are another important payment method that can be used to make deposits to poker rooms. These companies are going to be the middle man between your bank and the online poker rooms. This means that you will transfer the money over to an e-wallet payment processor and from there you can make the transfer over to your favorite online poker room, Full Tilt Poker for example. This way the bank will not know where the money will go to so they will have no reason to block it.

In order to fund your online poker account you need to follow the next steps:

• Sign-up by filling out the form and open an account with your payment processor company of choice.
• Verify your e-wallet account by going through the verification process. This is asked only at some online e-wallet websites.
• Load money into your e-wallet account. You can do this by using your credit cards or via a bank wire transfer.
• Use the money you have available in your e-wallet account to fund your online poker room account.

The process is very simple and usually e-wallets companies are one of the best ways to make a deposit at online poker rooms. The fees are usually small, less than 5% of the total sum and everything is very fast since the payments will be made instantly.

Cash Transfers: Western Union

Western Union is another way you can make a deposit or withdrawal to your online poker account. You can say that, just like with e-wallets, Western Union is the middle man between you and the online poker rooms.

Western Union dealers can be found all over the place in United States so it shouldn't be hard to make a transfer.

The only problem with Western Union is the fact that the fees are a little bit higher compared to all the other payment options that we've reviewed so far. But they are definitely a reliable and fast payment processor.

Sources say the poker player is really 16 years old and actually has a backer covering his money. This comes directly from a TwoPlusTwo thread. TwoPlusTwo is a popular forum in the poker industry. So is this really true?

Supposedly, JMaverick, found this player on ESPN Poker and decided to back him in a few multi-table tournaments at Full Tilt Poker to see how he could do. JackQKA quickly earned over $1,000 in his first 3 events. JMaverick continued staking JackQKA until he build up a large enough bankroll to part ways.

So the story continues now when JackQKA comes back to JMaverick in October asking for $2,500 more in stake. Supposedly the deal included the clause the JMaverick got 50% of all tournament winnings until the stake was paid back.

You know how this story ends, JackQKA just recently won $237,000 in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series Main Event and JMaverick demanded $115,000 from him.

JackQKA said no which sparked the following quote from JMaverick:

"JackQKA first of all is only 16 Years Old, his parents have no clue he plays online poker... Jack I am telling you I will personally call them and tell them there gonna need legal representation because if I don't see $115,000 in my account by 12AM this will turn into a legal issue!"

JackQKA has reportedly responded saying it's all false and he's a 24 year old that have never taken any backing in his life. JMaverick has since calmed down on his accusations and said the two are going to work things out in private.

So is this all just industry drama? I believe so. Full Tilt Poker supposedly did a check for multi-accounting and confirmed that JackQKA did indeed pass the age restrictions.

What was different about this event? Well, it was certainly a unique format. The tournament began on Tuesday with seven tables of seven poker players. The simple goal was to win your table. The 7 winners of their table then met at the final table to compete for the championship. All players started at the final table with the same amount (150,000) in chips. Didn\'t matter how many chips each had coming in, everyone started on a level playing ground.

Take a quick look at the top 5 from the 2010 PokerStars NAPT High-Roller Bounty Shootout:

• 1st Place, Ashton Griffin - $560,000
• 2nd Place, Hoyt Corkins - $100,000
• 3rd Place, Joe Cassidy - $95,000
• 4th Place, Scott Seiver - $215,000
• 5th Place, Faraz Jaka - $95,000

Only one of the PokerStars Pro\'s made the final table and that was Peter Eastgate. He finished in 7th place for the tournament.

The heads up for the tournament championship came down to Aston Griffin and Hoyt Corkins. Corkins is a veteran to the game and has played in many of tournaments. On the other hand, Griffin is a youngster just trying to make his name in the professional poker world. Once these two got to heads up play, it only took two hands before they were all-in and someone was going home. The final hand was pretty weak in comparison to some hands. Griffin had 9-8 up against Corkins 9-3. The flop hit 4-5-9 and Griffin out kicked Corkins for the win.

A cool feature about this tournament was that part of the goal was to knock people out of the tournament. Players earned money for knocking others out.

Ashton Griffin surely made his name in the poker world and took home a nice check of $560,000. Check back often for more poker tournament news and PokerStars pro news.

Not only does Poker Ocean has excellent game play, along with a tremendous customer support staff, they are also currently offering excellent poker bonuses and promotions.

Poker Ocean, being a member of the iPoker Network, Europe's largest poker network, offers bonuses and promotions that are some of the best around!

Play at Poker Ocean

Poker Ocean Bonuses

Sign-up Bonus

• The first thing gamers look at when joining at poker room is the sign-up bonus that is offered. At Poker Ocean they will give a 50% bonus up to an initial deposit of $200. We managed to make that 50% higher. Sign-up through Poker For Free and get 100% up to $200! That is an excellent chance to come up with some big time money, before even getting started with your first game! Take advantage, and sign-up now!

Reload Bonus

• Poker Ocean is offering a reload bonus as well. On your first deposit of every month, they will give you 100% up to $100. Deposit $100 more into your account, and be granted $200 in total! There is no reason not to take advantage of this free poker money offer!

ECOOP IV

Currently, the best promotion not only online at Poker Ocean, but possibly in all online gaming agencies is their ECOOP IV. Within the ECOOP IV promotion offered at Poker Ocean, users can win big cash prizes. They are offering over $4.5 million in prizes! Starting May 25th and ending June 7th, cash prizes will be awarded from $50,000 to $1,500.000!

The ECOOP IV has the potential to be one of the coolest promotions on the web, don't miss the action!

Fort Knox Jackpot

The Fort Knox promotion is an interesting one that ensures a consolidated amount of $50,000 to the winner. All it takes is six straight wins in the Fort Knox - Sit 'n Go contest. Go to Poker Ocean now and find all the details about this great offer!

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the promotions offered at Poker Ocean. Please read our complete Poker Ocean review for more info, have a look at the Poker Ocean bonus details, and take full advantage of these promotions now!

Here are the remaining top 5 finishers:

1. JackQKA - $237,644
2. PageUpV - $239,485
3. dfhijk - $261,077
4. ReloadPlz - $186,531
5. SurferKel - $236,865

This Main Event was FTOPS XIV. This field was the largest player pool in the FTOPS Main Event history. JackQKA had to beat PageUpV for the championship. PageUpV is no stranger to Full Tilt Poker online poker tournaments as he had previously won the Full Tilt Poker $38K Guaranteed and the $75K Guaranteed. He also won a smaller $13,000 tournament earlier in November. PageUpV lost the heads up had with K-6 against JackQKA's pocket Aces. The Aces held up and JackQKA took home the 1st place title.

Some very big name pro's were a part of this years FTOPS Main Event as well. Joe Cassidy ended up in 12th place in this years Main Event. Meanwhile, the 7th ranked poker player in the world (Casey Jarzabek) finished 22nd. Full Tilt Poker sponsored pro, Michael Tureniec, finished in a very respectful 33rd place.

Full Tilt Poker MiniFTOPS XV

The next big tournament series at Full Tilt Poker are the MiniFTOPS XV. These tournament series starts March 10th and is identical to the FTOPS XV schedule. The buy-ins are smaller but this should be a great online tournament series to be part of.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

If you don't already have a Full Tilt Poker account be sure to register today and get involved in some of these monster tournaments. We'll cover more on the MiniFTOPS XV next week as well, but for now we want to congratulate JackQKA on winning the Full Tilt Online Poke Series Main Event here in 2010.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Recently, Full Tilt Poker announced their professional players were allowed to play in any other site's tournament. It was undecided recently whether players would be playing in this past weekend's PokerStars North American Poker Tour Main Event. The tournament had a $5,000 buy-in.

Recently some of the top players at Full Tilt Poker had some members in the Caribbean Adventure Main Event in the Bahamas. Peter Feldman placed 35th, while Eric Froehlich placed 41st. Full Tilt member John Juanda won the event in 2008, which netted him over $800K.

Full Tilt Poker is known for their top standards and super sharp security. The integrity of all the games are well kept and the protection of users are completely kept. There are tournaments running constantly at Full Tilt Poker, with daily, weekly and monthly winners. Several of the promotions that Full Tilt Poker are offering, are some of the best amongst all gambling sites on the web!

When Full Tilt Poker started up back in 2004, it sputtered out of the gate. Since that time, they have turned the room into the second largest online poker room; behind PokerStars. You can also play in cash games, if tournaments are not your interest. If blinds are your concern, they have tables that go as low as $0.01/$0.02 and all the way up to 2K/4K. In July of 2009, Full Tilt Poker made a run at the world record for most players in an online poker tournament. At that point they broke the record, but since then saw the record go down twice to PokerStars.

Full Tilt Poker has announced the addition of Marc Karam to the team. Karam has been playing professional poker since 2007, and placed second place in the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Finale; netting him over $1 million. Overall, Karam has won over $2.3 million. Karam is 29 years old and originally from Montreal Canada.

Full Tilt Poker already has some of the top poker players in the country. Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda and Howard Lederer are a few of the top names. The folks at Full Tilt Poker have committed themselves to responsible gaming and keep all legal information safe and secure. The software at Full Tilt Poker is easily accessible, which allows for quick gaming.

Currently, Full Tilt Poker is offering a 100% bonus for first time deposits. The Full Tilt Poker bonus allows for up to $600. Also the FTOPS XV Promotion is currently rolling. With this, during the month of February, you can win up to $17 million in guaranteed prize money. The Big Little Tournament is going on in February as well, which allows players to play for up to $200K with just a $2 buy-in. Full Tilt Poker prides themselves on allowing for quality gaming for 1,600 hours per week.

Be sure to get rolling at Full Tilt Poker today. If you have never played at, nor visited Full Tilt Poker, have a look at the complete coverage of the poker room in our Full Tilt Poker review. You will love the bonuses that they are offering you today. The professional players at Full Tilt have won over 37 World Series of Poker Bracelets; you could be the next to do so!

Schwartz came into the battle with a huge lead, but it took just three hands for that to go away. After not much action in the first hand, the second hand saw Benyamine turn a straight. Benyamine kept Schwartz in the game for the river card, which also allowed Schwartz to receive a straight, but not as high as Benyamine. After Benyamine raised, Schwartz folded, feeling Benyamine had a flush. The third hand was the final hand, seeing both players go all in. Schwartz boasted that he had a queen, but then found out it was not good enough.

One of the surprises in the Premier League IV; Giovanni Safina had a solid performance, only to see him get knocked out by Schwartz to finish third. Phil Laak brought home $146,000 for his fourth place finish, while Daniel Negreanu picked up $132,000 for his fifth place finish. Big name Phil Hellmuth finished ninth place in the tournament.

Benyamine is a 37 year old professional poker player that was born and raised in Paris France. He started out as a professional tennis player, only to retire early due to shoulder injuries. He also enjoys billiards, and became a top ten player in 2004. He currently lives in Henderson Nevada, and engaged to poker player Erica Schoenberg. Benyamine has made three final tables in the World Poker Tour; with his first in 2003, and most recent in 2008.

Party Poker continues to roll out terrific promotions regarding online poker tournaments. The poker room is regulated with all the official rules for online poker rooms, and thrives to keep all players information safe and secure. The games at Party Poker remain among the most exciting on the web. Find a detailed Party Poker review and more info about the Party Poker bonuses today!

The FTOPS XV kicks off with a $216 NL Hold'em event hosted by Team Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel and boasting a prize pool guaranteed at $1 million. There are many satellites into this event happening at Full Tilt Poker now, but the most recommended are the two leading right up to the event, one on the day before, February 9 at 9:45 pm ET, with a $55 buy-in and a guarantee that at least 100 seats in the event will be awarded and one satellite on the day of (February 10 at 2:30 pm ET), also with a $55 buy-in but with a Turbo tournament with a guarantee that at least 200 seats in the event will be awarded.

Also happening on the first day of FTOPS XV is another hot satellite, this one with a cheaper buy-in of only $33. It's for the event taking place on February 14, Valentine's Day, at 2 pm ET, event #14, NL Hold'em with a $800,000 prize pool guaranteed (and that's just a minimum). The satellite, again, is only February 10, this one at 11:30 am ET with a 200 seats guarantee.

Stay tuned on Poker For Free for more announcements of other hot satellites taking place for FTOPS XV this week and next.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

FTOPS XV Starts February 10

FTOPS XV runs from February 10 - 21 and the Mini-FTOPS XV, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series' lower budget sibling, takes place from March 10 - 21. Up for grabs is a $23 million guaranteed prize pool at FTOPS XV and $6 million guaranteed total prize pool at MiniFTOPS XV.

As usual, the FTOPS XV is more than just the 27 big money online poker tournament events. It also includes a bevy of Satellite Challenges, FTOPS Challenges, the FTOPS Leader Board, and the FTOPS Turbo Warm-Up. In brief:

• FTOPS XV Satellite Challenges - skip all the buy-ins and win your seats in the various FTOPS XV events, including the main event, through these satellite tournaments
• FTOPS XV Challenges - complete series of tasks and win cash bonuses and entries into exclusive freerolls
• FTOPS XV Leader Board - climb to the top and win a custom Full Tilt avatar and free seats in all the next FTOPS XVI events
• FTOPS XV Turbo Warm-Up - play in a $250,000 guaranteed tournament leading up to the start of FTOPS XV

The main event of FTOPS XV is on February 21 at 6 pm ET and has a guaranteed prize pool of $2.5 million.

That's the amount you would win if you hit 10 times and had a completely successful run. Players are allowed to play as many as 10 Hit or Run games each day, which brings the total that each person can conceivably win on any given day of the promotion, which is any given day in February, $10,240.

Play at Party Poker

The Party Poker Hit or Run promotion is going on from midnight eastern time on February 1 through one minute to midnight on the evening of February 28. To be eligible for the Hit Or Run heads-up game, a player must earn 20 PartyPoints at Party Poker real money cash tables. All 20 PartyPoints must be earned in a single day to qualify. Players who earn more than 200 PartyPoints per day will still only be able to play in 10 Hit or Run tournaments for that day.

Titan Doubles Tournaments

To participate, simply register for the two Titan Doubles Tournaments on any given night. You must register for and play in both Titan Doubles Tournaments in order to be eligible to win the progressive jackpot. The two Titan Doubles Tournaments start 5 minutes apart from each other, the first at 21:35 GMT and the second at 21:40 GMT each night. The buy-in for each Titan Double Tournament is $5 + $1 which makes the total investment required to participate in any given nights Titan Double event just $12.

Most of the buy-in money will apply toward the tournament prize pool, but fifty cents from each player's registration fee will be applied to the Titan Double progressive jackpot.

Play at Titan Poker

Here's how the Titan Double promotion is structured:

• Any players who finish in the top three positions in both tournaments of a single evening's Titan Double series will win a $200 bonus paid out from the progressive jackpot.
• Any players reaching the final table (top 10) in both of a single evening's Titan Double tournaments win 50% of that day's withheld registration fee, split evenly amongst all qualifying players.
• Any player who wins both Titan Doubles in a single night wins the entire Titan Double Progressive Jackpot.

The GSOP IV, as it's called for short, is comprised of 18 guaranteed tournament events in the full gamut of online poker variants: Texas Hold'em, Omaha, 7-Card-Stud, and 5-Card Draw.

Play at BestPoker

GSOP IV Main Event

The February 14th GSOP IV Main Event, aka the Grand Slam IV, has a $5,000 buy-in, but you can also avoid all that and win yourself a seat by participating in any of BestPoker's lower cost satellite events.

Qualifiers for the BestPoker GSOP IV Grand Slam have buy-ins of $20 + $2 and $30 + $3. They run daily up to the day of the event at 20:30 CET during the GSOP period.

GSOP IV Leader Board

BestPoker will also be running a leader board tracking players' progress throughout the Grand Series of Poker IV. Every player that finishes in the money will earn points toward their ranking on the leader board.

For the top 100 performers by the time of the Grand Slam Main Event 4 $5,000 tickets into the event will be up for grabs. The 1st place performer will, of course, get a full $5,000 ticket into the Grand Slam.

The remaining 99 will be divided into three groups, each of which will compete in exclusive NL Hold'em Freezeouts on February 13 at 20:00 CET for those other 3 tickets, 1 per group.

PokerStars will be running these Daily £2,000 Freerolls starting now and running for the next 6 weeks. Each one starts at 21:30 pm GMT with a second smaller freeroll for those who showed up too late to register for the big one (or who busted out early) an hour later at 22:30 pm GMT with a guaranteed prize pool of £250.

The £2,000 PokerStars Daily Freeroll is a re-buy event, should a player bust out sooner than they'd like and wish to re-enter, with an inexpensive rebuy of only 50c.

Meanwhile, the next stop on the newly created PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) is happening February 11 - 14 in Manchester, England. The UKIPT is newest innovation from the creators of the APPT (Asia Pacific Poker Tour), the also new NAPT (North American Poker Tour), and of course the long-standing favorite, the EPT (European Poker Tour), all of which PokerStars runs satellites for throughout the year.

And if you're not yet a PokerStars player this is also a particularly good time to join as the site just increased the amount of VPPs (VIP Player Points) a player can earn from each $1 in rake.

If you're not from the UK, or even if you are, and want to see something really cool, check out Rush Poker at Full Tilt Poker. Rush Poker is the latest invention in online poker, and if you like action packed games, then you're guaranteed to love Rush Poker at Full Tilt Poker.

Creators and sponsors of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), PokerStars hasn't had a World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) since 2008.

Only poker bloggers with a online poker blog active for at least two months prior to entry qualify for entry into the 2010 WBCOOP. But if you do qualify, as mentioned above, there is no buy-in or registration fee.

The 2010 WBCOOP, as with PokerStars' other big online poker tournament series', has several prelim events (in this case, six) all leading up to the 2010 WBCOOP Main Event. The 6 prelim events run January 25 - 30 with the main event taking place January 31.

Winners of 2010 WBCOOP events will get seats worth varying amounts into the 2010 SCOOP or Step satellite events into the 2010 SCOOP. The top prize, of course, will be a full 2010 SCOOP Main Event seat.

Additional 2010 SCOOP seats and 2010 SCOOP Step satellite event seats will be given out throughout the 2010 WBCOOP to the bloggers who publish the best blog posts and Tweets during the week of competition.

Kara Scott is not only a fine poker player, having won the Sports Stars Challenge III in 2008, but she is also a fine hostess and emcee, having presented for the Party Poker World Open V (a performance she will repeat for the Party Poker World Open VI, when it rolls around). Kara Scott\'s other poker accomplishments are making it to the final table at the Party Poker Women\'s World Open I in 2007 and placing 2nd at the Irish Open in 2009.

Tony G. (less commonly known by his given name Antanas Guoga) was the second player signed to Team Party Poker. Tony G., as you might already know, has his own online poker site, TonyGPoker, which has also been absorbed into the Party Poker empire. TonyGPoker players will not be sent to Party Poker, however, but rather to Noble Poker, another property of the PartyGaming empire.

Tony G.\'s poker accomplishments include making the final table at the World Poker Tour Euro Finals and his career poker winnings amount to over $4 million. His first official Party Poker act was representing the site along with fellow Australian and 2009 Aussie Millions winner Stewart Scott at the 2010 Aussie Millions.

The other members of Team Party Poker are Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe \"Mojave\" Ramos, Bodo Sbrzesny, and the sole 2009 inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame, Mike Sexton.

Tony G. and Kara Scott will both be appearing (read: competing) in the upcoming Party Poker Premier League IV tournament.

The Last Man Standing promo is just like it sounds. For the promotional period starting February 1st and running through February 28th, Titan Poker will counting up the Player Points each player earns that day. Depending on what level that player is in the Titan Poker VIP Program, Club Titan, at the start of the promotion (i.e. Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc.), each player will have a certain daily quota of Player Points that must be earned.

Play at Titan Poker

Every player who reaches their quota, survives elimination for another day. Every player who does not reach their daily quota on any given day is eliminated from the competition. The process continues until there is only one player remaining, the Last Man Standing in each \"group\" (that is, Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc.), who each receive a $13,000 prize package that includes a free seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

At benchmark points throughout the competition, Titan Poker is also planning to give out extra bonus rewards to certain players still standing at that time. Among those rewards are free seats in a $5,000 freeroll that takes place on Feb. 28th.

Player Points are earned by playing at Titan Poker\'s real money cash tables. A player is eligible for progressively more groups\' top prizes the higher their level in the Club Titan VIP Program at the start of The Last Man Standing contest.

As a visitor of the Poker For Free website you\'re probably aware of all great our ongoing free poker promos, but a periodical promotion such as this one, one that may bring you to Las Vegas for free to participate in the 2010 WSOP might be the best of all!

It\'s especially tiresome when you\'ve already folded out of the hand before the flop even. In fact, that\'s why many players have taken to multi-tabling. Which gave the whizzes at Full Tilt Poker an idea, one they\'ve decided to dub Rush Poker.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

They decided to make it even easier for players to multi-table and keep the action going, so there is no lag in play time during an online poker playing session, even when you fold out of a hand.

The brilliant innovation Full Tilt Poker came up with, Rush Poker, automatically switches a player and their chip stack to a seat in a table with the same table stakes where the dealer is just dealing a new hand. That way you don\'t have to sit and wait for other people to play out hands you\'re already out of. You can just be transported instantly to a similar table where a new hand is just starting.

Rush Poker is already taking off like wildfire, with players experiencing incredible leaps in hands dealt to them per hour. Full Tilt Poker knows that poker players (online and off) love the thrill of the game, the adrenaline rush of being deep into a hand, but players don\'t like the boring lulls so much. With Rush Poker, Full Tilt Poker has taken the boring lulls out of the equation.

The Full Tilt docket of weekly guarantees in tremendous, starting with the relatively low Monday $1K Guarantee and shooting up into the outer stratosphere with Big Money Sundays, made up of three huge tournaments totaling a one day payout of $1.3 million guaranteed.

Over $25 Million to be Won

So for this one $25 Million Double Guarantees Week, Full Tilt Poker is literally going to double the guaranteed prize pools at every one of its weekly guarantees. That includes those just named above, as well as the two Doubles tournaments with progressive jackpots, the $200K and $400K Double Deuces. And it includes the $20K Guaranteed Daily Dollar and the $100K Guaranteed Fifty-Fifty. Every guaranteed tournament in the Full Tilt weekly lineup is twice as large for this one week only.

All you have to do to participate in this promotion is be there to play in these Full Tilt Poker weekly guarantees (and cash in, of course).

The actual total figure to be won at Full Tilt Poker the week of January 25 - 31 is $25,265,000. And the Big Money Sunday climax of the Full Tilt Poker $25 Million Double Guarantees Week, the site is billing as \"The Biggest Big Money Sunday Ever\"!

PokerStars is giving one lucky player the chance to spend a full day with 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada. In addition, PokerStars will give this winning player a seat in its new Vegas NAPT event.

The NAPT Venetian is only the third event announced in PokerStars\' newly created poker tour, the North American Poker Tour. NAPT Season 1 started with the recent PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and continues with the NAPT Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

Plat at PokerStars

To win the opportunity to Meet Joe Cada, just head over to PokerStars and play in one of their daily freerolls (happening once daily) or their $1.10 satellites (happening twice daily). The top 45 players from the freerolls and 1 in 5 players from each satellite will wind up in the Weekly Finals (happening Sundays at 6:30 pm ET), which in turn will feed the top 18 players into the Grand Final on February 13 at 9 pm ET.

In addition to the day with Joe Cada and the NAPT Venetian entry, the winning player will also get 5 nights of accommodations in Las Vegas plus flight from any United States airport, and $1,000 spending cash.

Important! Only U.S. residents can participate in the PokerStars Meet Joe Cada promotion, but players from outside of the U.S. can find numerous of other great promotions, including free poker games and a very interesting VIP program.

The 2010 Irish Open is going to take place from April 1st through the 5th in Dublin City Center in Dublin, Ireland at the Burlington Hotel. Win your €3,200 + €300 seat in the 2010 Irish Open through Titan Poker and you will get a free 5 night stay, from March 31st to April 6th, at the site of the tournament, for your total convenience.

Play at Titan Poker

You\'ll also receive €800 for flights and expense cash as well as the €100 entry for an organized Titan Poker party / lounge event.

To win one of these $7,200 prize packages you a couple of options - daily qualifying tournaments and ongoing Sit \'n Go satellites. You can even play in a \"1 Hand\" Stage 3 Sit \'n Go satellite for only $0.33 + $0.03.

Titan Poker is holding 2010 Irish Open Super Satellites every Sunday night at 19:30 GMT for a $250 + $18 buy-in. Round the clock Titan Poker 2010 Irish Open qualifier satellites are also available for buy-ins as low as $2 + $0.20.

There\'s also a second weekly Titan Poker 2010 Irish Open Super Satellite, this time an $80 + $8 R/A will begin running on Tuesdays at 19:30 GMT.

Titan Poker is not the only poker site only offering satellites and qualifiers into the 2010 Irish Open, but with their \"1 Hand\" Stage 3 Sit \'n Go satellite for only $0.33 + $0.03 (that\'s almost as good as free poker), it\'s probably the cheapest ticket around.

Party Poker is giving players a chance to win a free seat in the WPT LA Poker Classic. And that\'s not all. They\'re also adding $1 million to the WPT LA Poker Classic prize pool, available only to Party Poker players.

If a Party Poker player takes the 2010 LA Poker Classic title, then that player will get an extra $500,000 from Party Poker, on top of whatever prize money they win for taking down the 2010 WPT LA Poker Classic. And where does the other $500,000 go? It gets distributed evenly to every Party Poker player playing at the event.

Play at Party Poker

The Party Poker LA Poker Classic prize packages are worth $14,000 and include the $10,000 buy-in into the event, plus 7 nights of accommodations in a luxury Los Angeles hotel, along with $2,500 cash to spend as you wish.

Players advance through Party Poker LA Poker Classic Sub Qualifier Speed events to Party Poker LA Poker Classic Satellite Qualifiers and ultimately to the weekly Party Poker LA Poker Classic Satellite itself, in which at least 2 players will get $14,000 Party Poker LA Poker Classic prize package.

Finally, 1 in every 10 players in this event gain entry into the Sunday $750 WPT LA Poker Classic Satellite, with 1 in every 20 players winning $14,000 prize packages into the big event (2 prize packages guaranteed at each).

The WPT LA Poker Classic takes place at The Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California from February 26 to March 4, 2010.

Play at BestPoker

• Feeder 1 is a 20 seat tournament for a $1 buy-in feeding the top 2 players into a Step 1 tournament, this a 10 seat tournament feeding the top player to Step 2 and the 2nd place player to Step 3, the 3rd place player getting another shot at Step 1.
• Feeder 2 is a 10 seat tournament for a $3 buy-in that feeds the top 3 players to Step 1. Step 2 feeds the top 2 placers into Step 3, and gives the 3rd placer another shot at Step 1.
• Feeder 3 is another 10 seater, this time with a $20 buy-in, feeding the top 2 players to step 3. Step 3 feeds the top two players into the Final and gives the 3 place player another shot at Step 3.

This promotion is an unique opportunity to earn yourself a really nice price playing almost free online poker when entering Feeder 1, but of course you can enter at whatever level you\'d like to. You can even pay the $230 direct buy-in to the King of the Hill Finals and skip all the earlier steps and if you \"go all the way\" you\'ll be the BestPoker King of the Hill, and $2,500 richer.

BestPoker bills this as a bridge over the gap between cash tournament and qualifier tournaments, and we\'d have to agree.

PartyGaming Gets in the Game Early

Two countries - Denmark and Estonia - have already or are about to legalize online poker. And PartyGaming is going to be right there at forefront for at least one of them.

Denmark\'s Danske Spil, the state-run gaming operation, has signed PartyGaming to provide its online gaming platforms, including online casinos and online poker rooms. In addition to being a government running gambling operation, Danske Spil is the largest and most successful in the Denmark.

Sounds like a great model for other countries (like the U.S., maybe?) to follow. As for PartyGaming (parent company of Party Poker) this is the first government contract they have secured, but surely it is not the last.

Estonia comes fresh off another highly successful Baltic Festival of Poker, and the government of the small and not commonly known country found big bucks in its coffers coming from the festivities. So unlike the hemming and hawing Washingtonians, the government of Estonia decided to fatten their wallets further by legalizing (and of course regulating and taxing) online poker.

Brilliant! Wouldn\'t it be great if some state in the U.S., some progressive leaning state occupying the better part of the western coast perhaps, set a precedent for its country by legalizing and subsequently regulating and taxing online poker? Hello, Governor Arnold - are you listening?

The 100% welcome bonus with the $800 max is on first time deposits made into a PKR Poker account (so if you\'re already a PKR Poker player, you are not eligible to receive this bonus).

Play at PKR Poker

PKR Premium Freerolls

And that\'s not all you get as a first time depositor at PKR in 2010. You\'ll also get 6 free entries into a Premium Freeroll. There are two types of Premium Freerolls - one that rewards you wish cash and one that rewards you with free seats into some of the world\'s biggest live poker tournaments.

These aren\'t the only kinds of freerolls at PKR, by the way. There are also a dozen Daily Freerolls (that\'s read: 12 per day) and there\'s the PKR 10 Cent Giveaway.

You\'ll also get 1,500 PKR Points to start your player rewards program account at PKR Poker off with some meat on its bones. You can use PKR Points for free entries into Premium Freerolls, or you can redeem them for cool poker gear and other great prizes. You can also trade PKR Points in for cash reload bonuses. And as you accumulate PKR Points, you\'ll climb up the ladder of Club PKR, the VIP program over at PKR where you earn greater rewards faster.

And you get all this no matter how big your deposit is: $10 or $800. Read the details about this offer on our special PKR Poker bonus page.

To explain, most poker sites host different qualifiers and satellite tournaments for different live poker events. So a site may have an EPT Monte Carlo qualifier and an Aussie Millions qualifier, but if you win one, you can\'t just up and choose to switch your ticket to the other event. But at BestPoker, if you win one of their Live Event Qualifiers, you get to choose which live event you get to compete in.

Play at BestPoker

The live events BestPoker is awarding free tickets too include the Aussie Millions and the main events of several European Poker Tour events, including EPT Copenhagen, EPT Germany, EPT Snowfest, EPT San Remo, and the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final.

What\'s more, you can enter these qualifiers at whatever buy-in range you\'re comfortable with. Live Event Qualifiers are being held at Best Poke with buy-ins of: $2 + $0.20, $5 + $0.50, $20 + $2, and $30 + $3. Win any of these and receive a $300 + $20 Final Event Satellite Ticket. In very rare cases BestPoker offers free poker satellites to live events.

You can also buy-in directly to the Final Event Satellite by paying the $320 direct buy-in. Win a Final Event Satellite and choose which qualifying live event you\'d like to win your prize package into.

European Poker Tour events are sponsored by PokerStars.

Check BestPoker.com for the schedule of Live Event Qualifiers, running all year long.

Presumably that includes Canada and Mexico, though the move to create the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) was no doubt motivated by the huge discrepancy between the supply and demand for legal U.S. poker tournaments.

The PokerStars NAPT 1 launches with the currently running PCA (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure) in the Bahamas as its inaugural poker tournament event.

Next on its schedule are stops at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut for NAPT Mohegan Sun from February 20 - 24 and the Las Vegas Venetian for NAPT Venetian, as part of the Venetian\'s Deep Stack Extravaganza, from April 7 - 11. Buy-in for the main events at both of these stops are $5,000 each, though there are lower cost side events scheduled too.

The PokerStars NAPT 1 has been going since January 5 and will be running through the end of April, PokerStars is offering numerous satellites and qualifiers for free or low-cost entry into the various NAPT Season 1 events, including the NAPT 1 Main Event.

Some of the confirmed prize packages for the North American Poker Tour Season 1 freeroll include entry into the main event along with travel expenses and hotel accommodations.

And just announced: swimsuit supermodel and accomplished poker player Joanna Krupa will be hosting the televised broadcast of the NAPT 1 events.

Of course, as you would expect, Full Tilt Poker is already running satellite tournaments for free or low cost entry into the FTOPS XV events, particularly the $500 + $35 main event closing out the series on February 21 with a whopping guaranteed prize pool of $2 1/2 million. This time around Full Tilt promises to award at least $17 million guaranteed. And that doesn\'t even include the $6 million guaranteed prize pool for the follow-up MiniFTOPS XV that will be taking place exactly one month later, from March 10 through 21.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The schedule of events in FTOPS 15 and MiniFTOPS 15 both much resembles the FTOPS and MiniFTOPS schedules of the past, with 27 events this time instead of the 25 of the past, including Fixed Limit and Pot Limit events in addition to No Limit, and including Stud and Omaha events in addition to Hold\'em. And this doesn\'t even include all the FTOPS XV side events.

And don\'t forget, the FTOPS XV schedule also includes numerous FTOPS Challenges and FTOPS XV Satellite Challenges offering, in addition to free entries into various FTOPS XV events, cash and freeroll entries.

In all, there are 1/2 dozen events in FTOPS XV with prize pools of over $1 million, including the coveted $2 million two-day event.

The premiere event of FTOPS XV will take place on February 10 at 9:00 pm ET for a $200 + $16 buy-in.

On January 3, Europe\'s largest poker site, Titan Poker, kicked off its World Challenge, an 18 week long opportunity to win a free seat in the upcoming 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Titan Poker plans to send 5 players to the 2010 WSOP Main Event through its World Challenge promotion, a regional based poker league where online poker players compete against other online poker players in regional leagues, with individual and league performance tracked in a points based leader board style.

Play at Titan Poker

First there will be 2 rounds with players divided into 12 countries/regions where players will compete only against other online poker players from their region or country. Players can follow their progress on a leader board divided into the various participating countries/regions.

At the end of this whole 18 week adventure, the best performing 200 online poker players from those rounds advance to the next phase where they will sit down live to square off against each other in eight final rounds to determine the five players who will represent their countries and Titan Poker in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The 5 remaining players from these elimination rounds will win $13,000 prize packages that include the buy-in for the 2010 WSOP Main Event (worth $10,000), along with travel expenses and hotel accommodations during the event.

Even though it\'s not a free poker opportunity, this is one of the first opportunities poker players online have for getting into the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event for less than $10,000.

Play at PokerStars

Just in time for Christmas, actually, PokerStars announced the names of the 23 players picked for this great honor.

Among the players on the inaugural roster of Team PokerStars Online are:

• stevesbets, aka Steve Jacobs, winner of the $25,000 Heads-Up event at the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker
• Boku87, aka Thomas Boekhoff, who is in the midst of a stated mission of turning $5 into a $100,000 bankroll
• spacegravy, aka Grayson Physioc, runner-up in the PokerStars $10,000 Guaranteed and one-time winner of the site's $200 rebuy event
• NicP, aka Nichoel Peppe, the woman who graced ESPN 2009 WSOP Main Event cameras as she took a worthy 75th place finish

In all, there are 18 different countries represented in the inaugural Team PokerStars Online. To be eligible a player had to be one of the 5,000 to have achieved SuperNova status at the site, and that\'s (jokingly) a plenty to clear the PokerStars bonus.

And for all those of you who didn\'t get selected (or didn\'t even get the memo that there was an application process in first place), take heart - PokerStars has announced that it will be adding new players to Team PokerStars Online in 2010.

The night before the event, however, is the night everyone is currently talking about, because Monday, January 4, is the night of the always exciting private party PokerStars holds for its pros, main event entrants, and PokerStars satellite winners. That\'s set to get going on Paradise Island at the Royal Tower of the Atlantis Resort, starting at 7:00 pm and set to run until 9:00 pm.

One of the expected highlights of the 2010 PCA is the confirmed presence of Kelly Rowland, who made quite a splash at last year\'s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA).

Another invitation-only PCA party hosted by PokerStars will take place on January 9 at Paradise Harbour and will feature entertainment from Kelly Rowland of Destiny\'s Child.

Hip-Hop and R&B seem to be a running theme with PokerStars, as the last time they hosted a big party, this one at the 2009 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the musical entertainment was provided by Nelly. He appears to be quite the poker player, participating in many events in the 2009 WSOP. He also played in the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final. Now rumor has it that Nelly might make an appearance at the 2010 PCA.

Another highlight of the 2010 PCA is the amfAR Charity Poker Tournament with a $5,250 buy-in and confirmed celebrity entrants including Team PokerStars Sports pros Mats Sundin, Sebastian Chabal, and Boris Becker.

Play at Party Poker

Here\'s how Party Poker Cash Machine bonus amounts are figured out. After the promotion ends (so on February 1, basically) Party Poker will look at all the days you earned PartyPoints over the month, and how many PartyPoints you earned on each of those days. Then Party Poker will take the 10th highest earning of those days and use that amount to calculate your reward, based on a return of $1 per PartyPoint, with the minimum payout being $10.

If, however, you earn PartyPoints on 10 days of the month, but not a minimum of 10 PartyPoints on each of those days, you\'re not out of luck entirely. You will still get a free entry into an exclusive $25,000 Cash Machine Freeroll, to be held on February, 3, 2010 at 3 pm ET.

On the flipside, for all your overachievers in the Party Poker community, if you earn at least 1,000 PartyPoints per day for at least 20 days of the promotional period, then you\'ll win a special Cash Machine Booster Bonus, from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $5,000.

You must head to the Party Poker lobby and opt-in to the January 2010 Cash Machine promotion in order to have your PartyPoints counted toward any Cash Machine Bonus.

BestPoker Player Points, like the loyalty or rewards programs for all other poker sites, rewards a player for frequent play in real money games (both cash games and tournaments, thus free poker games are excluded). As you accumulate enough Player Points, you can start trading them in for tournament entries, valuable prizes, and now cash too.

Play at BestPoker

The amount of your cash redemption value depends not only on how many Player Points you earn, but on how many Player Points you earn per month. The more Player Points you earn per month, the greater the percentage cash back you receive for redeeming them.

• Collect up to 999 per month and get 8-12% cash back
• Collect 1,000 to 2,999 per month and get 12-16% cash back
• Collect 3,000 to 5,999 per month and get 16-20% cash back
• Collect 6,000 to 7,199 per month and get 20-30% cash back
• Collect at least 7,200 in a 1 year (12 month) period and get 30-40% cash back

But you don\'t have to do the math yourself. BestPoker has a CashBack Calculator right at the site for you to see with a mouse-click how much cash you could get deposited into your BestPoker account in redemption for those Player Points.

The minimum amount of BestPoker Player Points you can redeem at once is 50 Player Points. And only Player Points earned March 1, 2009 or after are eligible for cash back redemption. Also, Player Points collected to clear a BestPoker bonus have no Cash Back value.

• Big prize pool: $250,000 guaranteed (x 4)
• Little buy-in: only $5 + $0.50 (x 4)

The $1 Million Dollar Big Little Tournament promotion is divided into four smaller $250K Guaranteed Big Little Tournaments, one each week for the first four weeks of January 2010, on Sundays January 3, 10, 17, and 24 at 1:45 pm ET.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Take note also that the first and third Big Little Tournaments (on January 3 and January 17) are regular NL Hold\'em events, but the second and fourth Big Little Tournaments (on January 10 and January 24) are NL Hold\'em Turbo events.

Each Big Little $250K Guaranteed Tournament has a $5.50 buy-in, although Full Tilt Poker offers plenty of even cheaper satellites into these Big Little events, for as low as 50 Full Tilt Points or 50 cents.

The player pool is capped at 50,000 for each weekly $250,000 guaranteed event.

Finding the Big Little Tournaments in the Full Tilt lobby is a little tricky, so pay attention. Since the buy-ins for each of these is so low, you can find these Big Little Tournaments listed in the Low Stakes section of the NL Hold\'em Guaranteed Tournament tab. You can find satellites into them the same way, in the Low Stakes section of the NL Hold\'em Satellite Tournaments tab.

Full Tilt Poker is favorite to many poker players around the world. They offer free poker games, as well as real money games in all stakes. Best of all, they also accept players from the United States. Sign-up today and also receive a stunning bonus of up to $600.

On a purely entertainment level, the Nuts and Loaded partnerships allow PKR members to choose to clothe their player avatar in a Nuts or Loaded t-shirt. More, players can even choose from a selection of new, sexy Nuts and Loaded player avatars.

Play at PKR Poker

What\'s more, Nuts and Loaded readers present and future will be able to play online poker in a themed poker room designed with Nuts and Loaded branded imagery, including (and especially) the buxom babes that make the two magazines so popular with men. Readers of Nuts or Loaded will also start to see new features from PKR staff and Team PKR Pro players on how to play online poker and such, as well as tales of their personal tournament exploits.

On the promotional rewards level, there is a whopping $800 welcome bonus for any new members coming from the Nuts and Loaded readership. Nuts and Loaded readers will also get a free book called How to Play Online Poker. There will also be more Nuts and Loaded related promotions over at PKR online throughout the year. And from now on, players can sit in at tables in the Nuts room or the Loaded room, at all different stakes, by looking for their names in the PKR poker lobby.

Of course with all these hot babes slathered all over the poker room, it could be harder to keep your attention on the game.

PKR also has a huge crowd at the free poker tables, so if you are looking to play some free online poker games, then you\'ll be sure to find plenty of action at PKR Poker!

Party Poker started satellites on December 17, and there\'s still plenty of time to throw your hat into the ring, as the big event itself isn\'t scheduled to take place until February, 2010.

Play at Party Poker

Party Poker satellites into the Premier League IV have buy-ins starting as low as $2. The top 16 players in the Premier League IV qualifier series will head to Las Vegas to compete against one another in a playoff where only one person will be left standing and the winner of the Party Poker Premier League IV qualifier series will be decided.

That player will win the $100,000 buy-in into the exclusive Premier League IV, a high intensity, high stakes live single-table tournament consisting of only 12 players total.

One of the 16 semi-finalists in the Party Poker Premier League Qualifier series (and not necessarily the same one who wins the free poker entry in the big event either) will win a $100,000 contract with Party Poker to be a sponsored player on the Team Party pro team. So it\'s not just a poker tournament, it\'s also an audition!

Both the qualifier playoff and the Premier League IV Final itself will be televised. And among the other 11 players present besides the winner of the Party Poker Premier League IV Qualifier series will be the winner of the Premier League III Final, J.C. Tran.

As always, the series will culminate in the main event, in recent years what\'s become known as the $10,000 Main Event, for the price of the direct buy-in. But don\'t worry if that\'s too steep for your wallet. Most of the major online poker sites offer satellites and qualifiers (many going on right now) awarding free seats into the 2010 World Series of Poker main event and other events.

Harrah\'s will continue to host the World Series of Poker in its Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, only this time, because the event has drawn such packed houses of late, they\'ll be using two rooms instead of one for all the hot poker action.

Some other changes in store for WSOP attendees this time around will be a $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event instead of a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, and where the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event was will now be a $50,000 mixed games event comprised of 8 games. And the top prize still includes the Chip Reese Memorial trophy. For 2010 there will also be a high-rollers $25,000 6-max NL Hold\'em event.

The 2010 World Series of Poker will take place between May 27 to July 17. The November Nine will then play the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table from November 6 to November 9.

But it\'s okay, because Full Tilt Poker has another holiday themed bonus going on right now and it\'s even better than the \"meager\" $100 you may have won with the Holiday Hundred bonus. They\'re calling it the 3Xmas Happy Hour.

The 3Xmas Happy Hour is an extension of Full Tilt Poker\'s regular and on-going Happy Hour promotion wherein players can earn 2x - 3x the Full Tilt Points (or FTPs) by playing at tables marked in the Full Tilt lobby with a smiling yellow face icon during indicated \"Happy Hours\". But for the period between Monday December 1st and Friday January 1st, those Full Tilt Points awarded will be tripled. That\'s makes these 3Xmas Happy Hours the party to attend this year, especially on the two big days, Christmas day and again on New Year\'s Day themselves.

Because on those two days, all Happy Hours will be extended to 3x their normal duration, giving you 3x as much time to amass those points.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker Happy Hours take place every day, at all different stakes levels, and in both cash games and tournaments. But it\'s not the same Happy Hours with the same bonuses at the same tables and tournaments each day, so check the Full Tilt Poker lobby to be sure you\'re playing in a 3Xmas Happy Hour game.

While all the biggest name poker rooms like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Titan Poker are whacking swords with welcome bonuses (aka first deposit bonuses) in the $600-$650 realm, a vastly lesser known site BestPoker comes along and puts them all to share with an 8x bonus up to $2,000. It\'s a little complicated to explain, but we\'ll try to do better at it than the BestPoker site did.

There are 6 different welcome bonuses for new BestPoker players to choose from, designed so that players at any stakes level can find the best bonus for their buck. They\'re set up as follows:

• The $50 Bonus: you get $50 completely free, no deposit necessary. It's released to you in 5 installments of $10 each, with each installment released once you've collected 80 player points or PP (400 in all). You have 90 days to collect the whole bonus. Bonus code: PFF50.
• The $100 Bonus: you get $100 completely free, no deposit necessary. It's released to you in 4 installments of $25 each, with 200 PP needed to release each installment (800 in all), and 60 days in which to do it. Bonus code: PFF100.
• The $300 Bonus: you get $300 free with no deposit, released in 4 $75 installments for 600 PP per (2,400 in all) and a 60-day time window. Bonus code: PFF300.
• The $600 Bonus: you get $600 completely free, no deposit necessary. It's released in 4 $150 installments for 1,200 PP per (2,800 in all) a 60 days in which to do it. Bonus code: PFF600.
• The $1,200 Bonus: you get $1.200 completely free, no deposit necessary. It's released in 4 $300 installments for 2,400 PP per (9,600 in all) and a 60-day window. Bonus code: PFF1200.
• The $2,000 Bonus: you get $2.000 completely free, no deposit necessary. It's released in 2 $1,000 installments for 8,000 PP per (16,000 in all) and only 20 days to complete it. Bonus code: PFF2000.

But as most of the PokerStars membership competes for seats in the PCA main event, there is a whole weekend of excitement part and parcel of the PCA that you can also find big free winnings in. It\'s the PCA Ladies Weekend.

Play at PokerStars

And PokerStars knows how to treat its ladies. Because with the prize package that the winners receive are not only the $1,000 entry for the PCA Ladies Weekend Main Event, full accommodations at the Atlantis Resort and Casino, and $900 pocket change, but a $250 voucher for the spa as well.

Plus the total $3,500 value also includes an invite to an exclusive PCA Ladies Poker Bootcamp where you\'ll pick up invaluable tips and get personal coaching from some of poker\'s finest female players, like Vanessa Rousso, Katja Thater, and Vicky Coren.

Qualifiers are running now at PokerStars for the PCA Ladies Weekend main event and prize package. Daily, PokerStars offers 3 different opportunities - unfortunately no free poker options, but for buy-ins starting at just $2.20 or 500 FPPs (Frequent Player Points) it\'s almost free - to win a seat in $215 PCA Ladies Weekend Final Qualifier held every Sunday at 5:30 pm ET with 1 prize package awarded for every $3,500 in the prize pool.

Tom \"durrrr\" Dwan, whose meteoric rise to fame as one of the reputed best in the world at NL Hold\'em started not too long ago with a cheap satellite on Full Tilt Poker, put out a $1 million challenge for 50,000 hands of play at Full Tilt Poker\'s heads-up high stakes NL [url=http://www.pokerforfree.org/en/online-poker-rules/texas-hold-em/]Texas Hold\'em[/url] tables. Patrik Antonius took that challenge, and after much back and forth, it is still anybody\'s game.

During this time, Patrik Antonius twice (in less than 2 weeks time) claimed the world\'s record for the biggest pot won in online poker history.

Shortly thereafter, an unknown, who remains to this day unknown, who is only known by his Full Tilt Poker username Isildur1 started taking on these two rivals during their \"downtimes\" from competition with one another. In so doing, this mystery player from Sweden took millions of dollars off of each of these players. At one point, Isildur1 was $6 million-plus ahead, $5 million of that off of Dwan and $1 million off of Antonius.

Of course that wasn\'t meant to last, and after a little helpful interference from Phil Ivey, the other two pros, along with Ilari Sahamies and a few others, managed to make a dent in Isildur1\'s killing about $4.1 million deep.

Then, while Isildur1\'s on tilt at Full Tilt, enter Brain Hastings. Not as big a name as Dwan or Antonius, but every bit as big a pro player, and he showed it when he swept into the ring to find out what Isildur1 was really made of and walked away with $4.2 million of what risen and fallen mystery Swede had left.

And now you\'re caught up to the pro-amateur rivalry at the high stakes heads-up No Limit Hold\'em tables over at Full Tilt Poker. If you\'re not quite yet ready to play for millions of dollars you can play a free poker game, or two, or you can even go there to just watch the high stakers from the rail.

Play at PokerStars

Team PokerStars Pros like both 2008 and 2009 WSOP main event champs Peter Eastgate and Joe Cada (respectively), along with the man who inspired their PokerStars satellite climb to victory, Chris Moneymaker, as well as some of live poker\'s biggest PokerStars like Daniel Negreanu and online poker\'s biggest young contenders like Bertrand \"ElkY\" Grospellier will be turning out in spades at tournament tables and cash games alike - even Sit \'n Go\'s - and at all buy-ins and stakes levels.

You can even come on by to observe from the rail, and throw in your support (or your two cents) via live chat now and again.

Then, at 1 pm and again at 8 pm ET every Tuesday this month, PokerStars will have the highlight of Team Pro Tuesdays, its two Outlast the Pro tourneys. These have a buy-in of $11, with PokerStars adding $1,000 to the prize pool, to be divided evenly amongst the players remaining after all the Team PokerStars Pros in attendance have been shut out of the competition. This on top of whatever prize pool is awarded to all the players who cash in the tournament.

All this adds up to make Tuesdays in December a special occasion worth celebrating.

Among them are synchronized breaks and easier multi-table tracking. These improvements, and several others, are all a part of the latest Party Poker software upgrade.

Synchronized Breaks

Synchronized breaks, as many online poker players already know, are a site-wide pause in almost all multi-table tournament play, so that players can take a break from their computer, get up, stretch, refill their water, fix something to eat, etc. Party Poker\'s new synchronized breaks will last for 5 minutes and take place every hour at 55 minutes past the hour (or 5 minutes before - however you prefer to think about it).

Plat at Party Poker

You may have noticed the word \"almost\" up there indicating, accurately, that not all tournaments will have these breaks. Among the exceptions are the following:

• Any tournament still in the 1st level of play;
• Any turbo tournament still in the 1st or 2nd level of play;
• A tournament already running but still open for late registration.

Party Poker Stacking Console

As for the multi-table improvements, there is now a new multi-table console view besides Cascading and Tiling, called Stacked. In the Party Poker Stacked view, players can order their tables according to their position at each one, with timers alerting them when to act.

Other changes at Party Poker are an extension of the late registration period (to 6 levels) in some tournaments, the ability to register for a tournament from the PartyPoker.com site without logging into one\'s desktop Party Poker client, and a clearly stated deadline for unregistering from a tournament and receiving a full refund of your buy-in.

Poker For Free also offers a free poker option at Party Poker! Deposit at least $50, use our unique Party Poker bonus code PFFPARTY25 and you\'ll get $25 free on top of your deposit instantly.

One of the nicest things about the $2010 promotion is that it\'s open to all Titan Poker players, new and old, sit \'n go, cash game, or multi-table tournament players. The site, Europe\'s biggest, accomplishes this feat by providing multiple ways to win.

Multi-table tournament players can sit down at a Nightly $2010 event that takes place at 8:10 pm ET (20:10 GMT), with a buy-in also aptly set at $2 + $0.10. The top 10 finishers at each night\'s event will compete in a monthly $2010 freeroll.

Play at Titan Poker

New players making their first deposit into a Titan Poker real money account will receive, as part of their welcome bonus package, 4 entries into an exclusive $2010 freeroll, with a guaranteed $2010 prize pool at each one.

And Titan Poker is honoring its VIPs as much as its new players with a bevy of exclusive $2010 VIP tournaments scheduled throughout the month, each with guaranteed prize pools ranging from $2010 to $4020.

Additionally, Titan Poker is holding a $2010 Cash Game Race, a $2010 Sit & Go Tournament Race, and a $2010 Tournament Race. There even is a $2010 Omaha Race. All of these $2010 races use Titan Points and leader boards to track a players progress throughout the month, with $2010 in cash prizes up for grabs at each.

Titan Poker even includes it\'s side game players in the excitement with a $2010 Blackjack Race and a $2010 Slots Race as well.

In all, Titan Poker will award a guaranteed $120,000 in cash prizes in this $2010 promotion.

Anybody who participated in the FTOPS XIV will find the schedule for its lower-stakes companion series very familiar, because it contains all the same events, scheduled in the same order. The only difference is that they\'ve got 1/10th of the buy-in. What\'s nice, you might also notice, is that the $4 million guaranteed prize pool is a lot more than 1/10th the $20 million total prize pool awarded at the FTOPS XIV, which seems to make the Mini-FTOPS XIV the better value.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

As with its big brother, at the Mini-FTOPS XIV there will be a 2-day event, starting December 19, this time with a $256 buy-in and a $400,000 guaranteed prize pool. The main event, taking place December 20, only has a $55 buy-in, and the total prize pool is $600,000.

In addition to the 25 events making up the Mini-FTOPS XIV, there will also be a few side opportunities to win some extra bonus cash, including a MiniFTOPS XIV leader board with a top prize worth $7,500 comprised of free entries into every FTOPS XV event except for the 2-day event. It also includes a collection of MiniFTOPS XIV Challenges, 4 in all - the Satellite Seat Challenge, the Hold-em Challenge, the Survivor Challenge, and the Double Up Challenge.

There\'s still time to satellite your way into the Full Tilt Poker Mini-FTOPS XIV, with buy-ins starting at 50 FTPs or $0.50.

The $50,000 Cash Game Race is for cash game players, as you might expect. It runs from December 3 to 23 and involves climbing a leader board by accumulating as many PartyPoints as you can during the promotional term. The top 500 finishers will receive a cash prize, with the top finisher getting $3,000 and the top 4 finishers guaranteed a four-figure award. One hitch - only Bronze, Silver, and Gold Party Poker members can participate.

Play at Party Poker

The Jackpot Hunter is for Sit \'n Go players, with a total of $160,000 up for grabs. Claiming part of that jackpot involves playing in single-table Sit \'n Go tournaments that have buy-ins of $55 or higher. Win 5 in a row and win a jackpot. The size of the jackpot depends on the stakes level at which you\'re playing, with the higher stakes having 3 $20,000 top prizes, the lower-stakes having 5 $10,000 top prizes. There are a few other restrictions, like the fact that all 5 have to be at the same stakes level.

Last part of the Party Poker Full House promotion for December 2009 is the $1 Million Multi-Table Tournament Jackpots. Like the Jackpot Hunter, this runs the entire month long, December 1 to 31. To participate, pay 20 PartyPoints to buy-in to a tournament with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool, and the top 200 finishers at each being awarded a seat in a January 3 final with a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000. Direct buy-in to the final is 1,000 PartyPoints. Prizes will also be awarded for winning multiple $5,000 tournaments.

Playing Suited Connectors Pre-Flop

If your stack is small relative to the blinds or to your opponents it makes it much less advantageous for you to play suited connectors. The reason you play suited connectors is to win a big pot and you can only win as many chips as you or your opponent has. It is also important to note that the majority of the time you will be throwing away your suited connectors after the flop so you want the risk to reward ratio to be advantageous for you to play your suited connectors pre-flop. With a short stack you should usually fold your suited connectors pre-flop. The only time you can really justify calling is if you are in late position in a limped pot. If you do find yourself in a hand and you flop a straight draw or a flush draw it is often a good move to push in if you are short stacked. You will often pick up the pot right here and if you do get a caller you won\'t be too far behind. It is very difficult to play suited connectors with a short stack, but if you are able to see a flop for the right price, make sure you are the aggressor post-flop if you improve your hand.

If you pick up suited connectors with a bigger stack you have many more options. You can limp or raise pre-flop from many positions in poker. You should change up your play with the suited connectors to keep your opponents unaware of what you are holding. If you are in late position and the pot has been raised, you need to take into account the size of the raise, the number of opponents remaining and the size of your opponents\' stacks. Suited connectors are a great starting hand when there are a lot of players to the flop. This is because if you make your hand you likely have the best of it regardless of how many opponents there are remaining. Also, the bigger your opponents stacks, the more chips you can win from them if you manage to hit the nuts. If there aren\'t many players in the hand it\'s often smart to bet out if you get a piece of the flop, such as 4 to a flush or a gut shot straight draw. This semi-bluff will often take down the pot right away and even if your opponent makes the call the pot will be larger for if you do make your hand. If there are a lot of players you can either check it in hopes of seeing another card or make a small bet to build the pot. When you have a big stack suited connectors are a great starting hand because there are a lot more ways to play the hand and there is the possibility of winning a very large pot.

Playing Suited Connectors Post-Flop

The biggest mistake playing suited connectors often occurs when you make the wrong hand. This \"wrong hand\" would be middle pair, top pair or even two pair. These hands are really quite easy to beat and even if you do have the two pair is the best hand it won\'t win you a big pot. You need to remember that you are playing the suited connectors in the hopes of making a straight or a flush. If you find yourself in a big pot with just two pair you are very likely behind. If you make two pair you should definitely bet out at the pot, but if you get re-raised or the pot gets too large don\'t be afraid to lay the hand down.

Suited connectors are great for winning big pots because they are hard to detect and they can often make some of the best hands in poker such as a flush or a straight. However, it\'s important to remember that you can only win a big pot if you have a lot of chips. For this reason you should rarely play suited connectors with a short stack. Suited connectors are a fun hand to play, but it\'s important to remember that it is rare to make the hand you are hoping for, so you should throw them away if the price isn\'t right.

This post is in regards to our Summer Survival League, a competition of 8 $50 added events with low buy-ins and a final of $1,000 where only 20 players will qualify for. The first prize of the league is nothing less than $500!

Quite frankly, I am a bit fed up with how things are going when we\'re running special events. As most of you already know, we had plenty of leagues running at Poker For Free in the past, but because of all the freeroll whores ruining the atmosphere, we decided to change our concept around and went from free poker to low buy-ins.

This summer, we decided to give it yet another try and got in touch with our contact at Titan Poker. After a little bit of negotiating, they offered to put in a nice chunk of cash into the final\'s prize pool and we decided to add-on $50 to each qualification tournament to make them attractive as well.

Last week we started promoting the Summer Survival League on Poker For Free, as well as on PokerKamers.nl, our Dutch sister site. Yesterday I personally changed the style of our newsletter and send it to over 4,000 Poker Club members (excluding all members from the US, as they aren\'t allowed to play anyway).

Well..... with that being said you can understand that I was expecting this league to run smoothly, since ONLY 5 players were needed to get it started. So, this morning I woke up, checked the forums and ended being really deceptive. The first tournament was cancelled!

A total of 3 players signed-up for yesterday\'s event, including some of our most active forum members. Unfortunately, some other members couldn\'t register because they didn\'t sign-up at Titan Poker through our site. I am truly sorry for that and will see what we can do about it for next week.

To be totally clear: \"I am not giving up!\" You can rely on the fact that I will do anything in my power to attract enough players. Whatever it takes, next week there will be a Summer Survival League tournament, (even if that means that I need to terminate my self-exclusion at Titan Poker).

This means that I am specifically asking the ones registered in yesterday\'s cancelled tournament, Gigagonnie and Rob Edwards (not sure about the third player), to hang in there with me and try again next week.

// End of rant

With the World Series of Poker coming to a close Full Tilt Poker has announced FTOPS XIII, which is the newest instalment of the successful FTOPS poker series\'. FTOPS XIII begins on August 5th and concludes on August 16th after 12 days of intense poker action and at least $16 Million of cash being won. Over the 12 days of action, 25 FTOPS XIII events will be played and 25 gold FTOPS jerseys will be awarded. FTOPS XIII will also have a leader board where you can follow your progress, the popular satellite challenge promotion and a new FTOPS challenges section. The month after FTOPS XIII has completed MiniFTOPS XIII will begin with the same 25 events being held with buy-ins 1/10th the size. MiniFTOPS XIII is great for players with smaller bankrolls to enjoy their own personal online poker series.

The 25 events of FTOPS XIII cover a wide variety of poker games and buy-ins. The lowest buy-ins are in the $100 range, while the largest buy-in is the $2500 two day event. There are a ton of different tournaments as well including a few standard hold\'em and Omaha tournaments, as well as a heads up pot limit Omaha tourney, 2 no limit hold\'em shootouts, no limit hold\'em and pot limit Omaha heads up tourneys, a razz tournament, a stud tournament, a HORSE tournament and more. You are sure to find a game to your liking in FTOPS XIII.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

The added prizes for FTOPS XIII are the same as they have been for the past few FTOPS series\'. Every player who reaches the final table of a FTOPS XIII tourney will receive a FTOPS jacket and if you win a tournament you receive a limited-edition gold FTOPS jersey to go along with your jacket. The top finisher on the FTOPS XIII leader board wins a custom Full Tilt avatar, as well as a free entry into every FTOPS XIV event, which is worth about $7.5K. The MiniFTOPS prizes are basically the same except the winner\'s jersey is silver instead of gold.

FTOPS Satellites

The popular FTOPS satellite challenge is back in full swing for FTOPS XIII. The FTOPS XIII satellite challenge basically awards three free entries to every FTOPS XIII event. If you are able to win the most satellites into one of the FTOPS events you win the equivalent of 2 event buy-ins in Full Tilt tournament dollars and if you finish second on one of the FTOPS satellite challenge leader boards you win the equivalent of 1 buy-in in tournament dollars.

Full Tilt is also adding a new promotion to this FTOPS series, with the addition of the FTOPS Challenges section. A challenge will be an in game task you need to complete such as turning $1 into a $26 satellite coupon. There will be prizes for completing these tasks, such as FTOPS and MiniFTOPS event entries and more.

The MiniFTOPS

The inclusion of a MiniFTOPS series was a great move by Full Tilt Poker because by offering all of the same events as FTOPS XIII at 1/10th the buy-in, they are able to reach a completely different demographic of online poker player. The events will take place about a month after the FTOPS series has completed with the series scheduled to run from September 9th to 20th. MiniFTOPS XIII will have the exact same 25 events and will be guaranteeing $3 Million for the series. This goes to show that Full Tilt will be expecting about twice as many players to participate in MiniFTOPS XIII as FTOPS XIII.

Play at Full Tilt Poker

Overall, both the FTOPS XIII and MiniFTOPS XIII poker series\' will be a lot of fun for every player involved. The opportunity to win big cash prizes, as well as the coveted gold and silver jerseys is sure to bring out a lot of players and ensure that the newest FTOPS instalment is another success.

As already mentioned, all events have a low buy-in and we add an extra $50 to the pot. While playing in our weekly events you can earn leader board points and if you happen to be among the top 10 in July, or the top 10 in August, then you will qualify for our Summer Survival League final on September 2nd. The final will have a total prize pool of $1,000 divided by 3. The payout structure will be 50%, 30% and 20%, which equals to $500, $300, and $200 respectively.

All tournaments will start every Wednesday evening at 19:30 GMT (21:30 CET).

All players who register an account at Titan Poker following one of the link on Poker For Free can participate, of course also the ones who have registered an account through us in the past.

• Titan Poker Review
• Titan Poker Bonus
• Titan Poker Website

Time table Summer Survival League

All Summer Survival League tournaments will be played on the following dates:

• Wednesday July 8th: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday July 15th: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday July 22nd: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday July 29th: $5+$0.50 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday August 5th: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday August 12th: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday August 19th: $1+$0.10 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday August 26th: $5+$0.50 buy-in ($50 added)
• Wednesday September 2nd: final ($1.000)

Titan Poker

Titan Poker is one of the biggest poker rooms on the iPoker Network. When you choose to play at Titan Poker following one of the links published on Poker For Free, then we will upgrade your first deposit bonus with an additional $20 free, which can be used as soon as it is added to your players account. (In other words, you don\'t have to clear it first.) Of course you will also receive a nice welcome bonus of 100% up to $500 on your first deposit.

Titan Poker Sign-up

League points and results

The points that you can earned while playing in our league depend on your final position and will be published in this blog approximately 24 hours after an event has ended.

PKR Super Series 09 kicks off on June 26th at 3:15pm EST with a $10,000 guaranteed, $10 rebuy tournament. The second tournament of the series will be considered the $100K PKR Masters event with a buy-in of $250 that usually runs on the last Saturday of the month anyways. PKR decided to kill two birds with one stone by adding this already existing event to the Super Series schedule. After these two events there are 7 more affordable events with buy-ins ranging from $12 to $50. These 7 Super Series events will be a lot of fun with many popular variations including a terminator bounty tournament, a deep & steep stack tournament, a heads-up \'terminator two\' tournament, a Pot Limit Omaha hi/low tourney and a double chance tournament where you have the option to only risk half of your stack at once. Finally, the last event of the series is a $100 no limit hold\'em 6-handed deep stack tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $35,000.

Play Poker at PKR

10 tournaments, 10 bracelets

There are 10 great tournaments in this PKR tournament series and that means there are 10 unique Super Series 09 winners\' bracelets to be won. They may not be World Series of Poker bracelets, but they are the next best thing.

Almost all of the Super Series 09 events will have many satellites running to allow players with all sizes of bankrolls to have a shot at winning a Super Series bracelet. Satellites range in price from $4 for the $20 events, up to $20 for the final $100 event.

After the 10 events have concluded the top 200 finishers on the leader board will be entered into the $5,000 Super Series 2009 freeroll on July 12th. Each player will start the tournament with one chip for every leader board point they earned during the series, so it is advantageous to earn as many points as possible during the Super Series in order to give yourself the best chance at running deep in the $5K freeroll. Leader board points are awarded based on a complex mathematical formula that takes into account the place you finished, the number of entrants and the buy-in amount. For example, if you came 10th in a 200 player tournament with a buy-in of $50 you would earn 483 points. It\'s also important to note that the heads-up \'terminator two\' event will not count towards the leader board points.

PKR always puts on great online poker series and the PKR Super Series 2009 is sure to be no different. With 10 bracelets on the line and $5,000 in added prizes this online poker series is sure to be great value and lots of fun for everyone involved.

In the first hour of the tournament you should play extremely aggressive. Everyone will be playing looser so when you do get a big hand you can bet big and you will still usually be called. For example, if you are dealt pocket aces or kings in the rebuy stage of the tournament you can make a raise of four times the big blind. Then if you are reraised you can move all-in. Often time\'s players are happy to get their chips in for a coin flip or even slightly behind at this stage because they are trying to build their stack. You should use this fact to your advantage and double up when you have a strong hand.

Coin Flips in the Early Stages

Players like coin flips in the early stages of a rebuy tournament because they are actually positive expected value. Your goal is to build your chips at this stage so as long as you aren\'t behind when you go all in it\'s the right play. You are hoping to win a few coin flips in a row and build a stack for the freeze out portion of the tourney. That being said it is possible to go too far with this strategy and get your chips in with by far the worst hand. For example, if you have pocket 2\'s the best thing you can hope for is a coin flip, but if you are up against a higher pocket pair you are crushed. You still have to be smart about when you get your money into the pot. Low pairs aren\'t really what you are looking for. Mid to high pairs or big cards like (A,K) are what you want to move in with pre-flop. If you start moving in with almost anything you will quickly find yourself down a lot of rebuys.

The Add-On Stage

If you are able to make it to the add-on stage you should always purchase the add-on. It will be the cost of the buy-in, but you will receive double the chips, which is obviously great value. Every player who wants to give themselves the best possible chance at winning the tournament will purchase the add-on. Remember, the more chips you have the more chips you can win in a double up situation. So don\'t look at the add-on as just 3,000 chips or however much it is. Look at the chips as a way to help you continue to build your stack.

Once the rebuy stage of the tournament has finished you should apply your regular tournament strategy. You should tighten up and try to get your chips in with the best hand, not just when you think you may be in a coin flip situation. Some of your opponents won\'t be able to change gears and you can take advantage of these loose players later in the tournament once you spot who they are.

Rebuy tournaments are very popular at online poker rooms and they can be very profitable if you use the structure to your advantage and get in on the crazy action of the first hour. The optimal strategy is loose aggressive during the early stages to build your stack, followed by a tight aggressive style in the freeze out portion of the tourney. Remember to change gears after you purchase the add-on and you will be on your way to success.

The second last event the European Poker Tour schedule took place in San Remo, Italy. The event had a buy-in of €5,300 and brought in a field of 1178 players, which made for a €5,713,300 prize pool. The event started on April 18th and concluded on April 23rd when Dutchman Constant Rijkenberg took home the €1,508,000 first place prize. All of the chips got in when Niemi, the second place finisher, pushed with (A,10) on a 10 high board. Rijkenberg, quickly called with pocket aces and dodged a ten on the river to take down the cash and the championship.

EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo

The EPT grand final took place in Monte Carlo from April 28th to May 3rd and it was a tournament to remember. In total 935 players forked over the €10,000 entry fee, which made for a massive €9,350,000 prize pool. The tournament showcased the biggest comeback in EPT history when Dutchman Pieter De Korver came back from three big blinds at the final table to take home the €2,300,000 first place prize and the title of EPT Grand Final champion. De Korver went on an insane heater winning all-in after all-in and continuing to double and triple up his stack back into contention. De Korver took the title when his middle pair held up against his opponents flush draw and middle pair with a weak kicker.

In other news from EPT Monte Carlo, Vanessa Rousso took down the €25,000 buy-in high rollers event for a €720,000 payday. Rousso outlasted 78 of the best no limit tournament players in the world to win the event. This victory, along with Rousso\'s recent second place finish at the NBC Heads Up Championships helps to prove that Rousso isn\'t just a pretty face. A lot of people in the poker world weren\'t giving her much credit for her poker playing abilities, but after these two very strong showings everyone will have to give her the respect she rightfully deserves.

No schedule has been set for season six of the European Poker Tour, but it is expected Barcelona will once again kick of the tournament series. We will have to wait until then to crown the next big champion of European Poker.

• PKR Review
• PKR Bonus

1. Amazing 3D software

PKR has one unique, one-of-a-kind 3D software that allowed PKR to become an instant competitor in the online poker industry. The software includes many unique features to allow you to display your emotions through your character during game play. At PKR you can do chip tricks, get your player to do a dance, chirp other players and much more. These features makes PKR feel more like a live poker game because you can pick up on other players in game tells or use the features to confuse your opponents.

Play Poker at PKR

2. Create your own character

At PKR you are able to create your own character to represent you at the poker table. You are able to create your player to your own likeness with your own unique style. This feature is a lot like the \"create a player\" feature included in many video games and it adds more personality to the online poker game. You can even unlock new clothes and chip tricks for your player by earning PKR points. Once you earn enough PKR points there is even the option to upload your very own face to your PKR character.

3. Club PKR loyalty program

Club PKR is the loyalty program in place at PKR that is meant to give back perks to loyal PKR players. There are 6 different levels you can achieve over your PKR playing career. The great thing about the PKR loyalty program is that once you achieve one of the levels you cannot drop down, even if you take a break from poker for a few months, you will always be at that loyalty level. The easiest level to achieve is member status, which you achieve after earning 5000 PKR points. The most difficult to achieve is Diamond status which you earn after 2,500,000 PKR points. Club PKR awards freerolls, birthday gifts, PKR magazine subscriptions and even VIP access to PKR hosted events.

4. Terminator bounty tournaments

PKR\'s terminator bounty tournaments have become very popular among PKR players. In the terminator bounty tournaments half or your buy-in goes to the prize pool and the other half goes as a bounty on your own head. When you knock a player out you earn 80% of their bounty and the other 20% is added to your head. This means that later in the tournament the bounties will be worth more than they were in the early stages of the tournament. There are terminator bounty tourneys constantly running at all levels at PKR.

5. Lots of fish

The PKR video game like software does two things to increase the soft competition at PKR. First of all it brings in a lot of new players who are just looking for a fun place to play some poker in a video game like environment. And second of all it keeps the professional players away because the PKR software takes longer than most poker rooms to play through all the bells and whistles of each hand. Pros want to play as many hands per hour as possible to increase their profitability and the PKR software doesn\'t allow them to do this. The lower stake games at PKR are home to a wide variety of fish and would be easy pickings for a solid, tight aggressive player.

Play Poker at PKR

Definition

Implied odds are the ratio between the amount of money expected to be in the pot after the last betting round and the size of the call you will have to make to remain in the hand and see the next dealt card. This definition varies from the pot odds definition because with implied odds you are also including the amount of money that you are anticipating your opponent(s) will call if you do make your flush or straight. Your implied odds can also be looked at as a percentage, where the implied odds are the size of the bet you must call divided by the size of the pot plus the amount of chips you think your opponent would put into the pot if you make your hand.

For example, if after the turn the pot is at $20 and you must make a $10 bet to see the river and you feel your opponent is a calling station and would call a $15 bet if you make your hand on the river. Then your implied odds are $10/$35 which equals 28.5%.

Using implied odds to your advantage

Continuing with above example, in order to call the additional $10 bet on the turn your odds of making the best hand should be over 28.5%. For example if you have an open ended straight draw on the turn and you are putting your opponent on top pair, this means that you have 8 outs to hit your hand. Since there are 46 cards remaining unseen then you would only have a 17.4% chance of making what you feel would be the best hand. In this situation it would be the right decision to fold your hand. On the other hand if you have a flush draw and bottom pair and you are putting your opponent on top pair then if you make a flush, a set or two pair you feel you will have the best hand. This means that you have 9 outs to the flush, 2 outs to the set and 3 outs to two pair which equals 14 outs in total. Therefore your odds to make the best hand on the river are 30%. This 30% is higher than the 28.5% implied odds so it would be the right move to make the call in this situation and hope to make the best hand.

Here is one more detailed example. You have (4C,5C) in your hand and the board shows (6C, 9D, KC, 3H) after the turn. The pot was $100 and your opponent bets another $80, making the total pot $180. You feel that both your straight or flush would be good and you have your opponent on a big hand. You feel that your opponent would call another $120 on the river if you make your hand which makes the amount you could win from making the call $300. This means that you need to have better odds than 26.66% to make your hand in order to make the call. The flush draw gives you 9 outs and the straight draw gives you 8 outs, which means that you have a 37% chance of making the best hand on the river. Since the 37% chance of making the best hand is better than the 26.66% implied odds then you should make the call.

One thing to watch when calculating your implied odds is that you do not get overly optimistic. In order to calculate the implied odds correctly you must make accurate assessments of how much your opponent will call on the river. If you are too optimistic when calculating these odds you stand to lose more using implied odds than you will win.

All Poker Club members may submit as many testimonials as they wish, but limited to one per poker room, as only one counts as a entry-ticket for this promotion. You will only become eligible for the monthly prize-draw if you have used the same name when posting a testimonial as you have signed-up with upon your Poker Club registration.

Only one testimonial per poker room, per person is allowed. At the end of each month we will draw one winner out of all people who have submitted a testimonial. The prize will be distributed approximately the 10th of a following month.

For example: You may submit a testimonial for each of the poker rooms you play at in one month, or you can spread these over several month, as we select one winner every new month.

You can find the link to a poker rooms\' testimonial page, on the poker rooms\' review of your choice, in the right column where it says \"related links\".

The winners will be announced via e-mail and in our forums.

Join Poker Club

More details about our monthly $100 sweepstakes can be found after logging into your Poker Club account, in the members only zone.

• Odds and Probabilities
• Calculating Card Outs
• Poker Odds Calculator

Definition

Pot odds are the ratio between the size of the pot and the size of the call you will have to make to stay in the hand and see the next card. This can also be looked at as a percentage, where the pot odds are the percentage of chips to call divided by the total size of the pot.

For example, if there is a pot of $20 after the turn and you are forced to make a call of $5 to see the river, then your pot odds would be 25%.

Using Pot Odds to Your Advantage

Continuing with the example from above, in order to call the additional $5 you should either feel you already have the best hand, or (this is where the pot odds come in) you should be able to draw to the best hand more than 25% of the time. To elaborate on this, if you have 4 cards to a flush after the turn, the odds of the next card being the suit you need is roughly 20%. (You can calculate this by dividing the 9 remaining cards of your suit by the 46 remaining cards in the deck. You know the values of 6 of the cards so you must subtract these cards from the total deck.) Therefore in this situation making the call of $5 to see the river is the wrong play because you aren\'t receiving the right pot odds to make the draw worthwhile. (This example does not include implied odds which we will get into in a later post.)

Now consider that you have four to a flush with a bottom pair and you are putting your opponent on top pair. In this situation you have 9 cards that would make you a flush and 4 additional cards that would make you either 2 pair or a set, each of which you feel would be the best hand. Therefore, in this situation you have a 28% chance to catch one of your cards on the river to give you the best hand. In this situation you should call the bet of $5 because your 28% chance of making the best hand is greater than the 25% pot odds that you need to make the call.

Here is one more detailed example. You have (7h,8h) in your hand and the board shows (6C, 9D, KH, 2H) after the turn. The pot was $100 and your opponent bets another $50, making the total pot $150. You are putting your opponent on a big hand like top pair, two pair or a set. This is when you have to take a look at your pot odds to see if you should make this call. The flush draw gives you 9 outs and the open ended straight draw gives you another 8 outs. This means that your odds of making a hand that you feel will win the pot are 37%. The call you have to make is only 33% of the pot, which means that given your pot odds of 37%, you should definitely make this call.

1. Play super tight early in the tournament

The first few blind levels you should play an extremely tight style and only be playing premium hands in position. By preserving your stack through the first few levels you give your opponents time to bust each other and you also set yourself up to be able to make raises in the middle stages. You do not want to take any risk at this stage in the tournament and you should try not to waste chips.

2. Maintain your stack through the middle stages

As the blinds start to increase you will want to try to maintain your stack size by making some smart raises from good positions and hopefully stealing some blinds.

3. Don't call raises through the middle and late stages

Once the blinds are up to 50/100 or so it is not smart to waste your chips by calling raises. Instead you should just be thinking about folding or pushing over the top when facing a raise. It is not worth wasting a few chips to see a flop because those few chips may end up being the difference between a double or a nothing in this payout structure.

4. Avoid coin flips

Coin flip all-ins are not to your advantage in double or nothing sit and go\'s. The value of the chips you would earn does not equal the value of the chips you already have and because of this it is not a smart play to risk your chips on a coin flip. This means do not make all-in calls with hands you know will only have about a 50% chance of winning such as low pocket pairs.

5. Stay tight at the bubble

The easiest way to not bubble in these tournaments is to not risk your chips. It is easier to stay tight in double or nothing sit and go\'s than normal ones because there are more players remaining that can bubble. The extra players also means there is less pressure from the blinds. Remember, you are playing for 5th not 1st, so gathering chips should not be a concern. Your only concern should be survival.

6. Move all-in from good positions late

This is a survival technique, not a chip accumulation technique. Your goal is to steal enough blinds to re-place the ones that are being stolen from you. You should only be pushing from good positions and against players that have shown they are going to fold most hands.

Play Poker at PokerStars

$60K in New Depositors Freerolls

All new players who enter bonus code \"fdf2500\" on their initial deposits are eligible to play in all of the $2500 freerolls running from February 15th to 22nd. The freerolls take place every day at 12pm, 4pm and 8pm EST.

Milestone Hands

Starting from the 24.85 billionth hand, every millionth hand thereafter is considered a milestone hand and prizes will be awarded to the winner of the hand as well as everyone at the table. That is a total of 150 milestone hands that can be won. The higher the limits of the milestone hand tables, the more money that will be given away. For example the winner of a milestone hand at the low limits would win $750, whereas a milestone winner at the high limits would win $2,500.

25% Reload Bonus

PokerStars is also offering a 25% reload bonus up to $250 on all deposits made between February 11th and 18th. To receive the bonus you must enter \"25bash\" in the bonus field when making a deposit. This is PokerStars biggest reload bonus ever so you should take advantage of it if you can.

Bigger Sunday Guarantees

The PokerStars Sunday Million will also be getting in on the celebration with the prize pool being raised to $2,500,000 guaranteed on February 15th for this promotion. The Sunday Warm-Up will also be bumped up to $1,250,000 guaranteed!

Mega Milestone Hand

If you are lucky enough to be dealt into and win the 25 billionth hand you will receive $100K in cash, a EPT Monte Carlo package, a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package, a WSOP package and a World Championship of Online Poker main event ticket! The total prize package is worth over $150K! The other players at the mega milestone table are also winners and will receive a share of $100K.

The bounty structure varies slightly from room to room. For instance, Merge network poker rooms such as Poker Nordica have half of your buy-in become your bounty, whereas at CakePoker only a third of the buy-in amount becomes a bounty. PKR\'s terminator bounty tournaments are even more complex with half of each players buy-in becoming their bounty, but each time you knock a player out you only win 80% of their bounty, with the remaining 20% being added to your bounty amount. This variation makes the bounties you earn later in the tournament worth more than the ones you win early on. Regardless what structure of bounty tournament you are playing there are a few adjustments you should make to your game to increase your bounty tournament success.

1. Isolate the super short stacks with monster hands

When you notice a player\'s stack dwindling on the brink of extinction you should be licking your lips and ready to pounce. There are often times in the game a player will double through a slightly larger stack leaving someone with only a few chips left and his bounty up for grabs. If you manage to get dealt a monster hand when the super short stack player is having to put in his last few chips you should make an effort to isolate him and keep everyone else out of the pot. You don\'t want other players to get a cheap look at the flop and steal the short stacks bounty and possibly a good chunk of your chips.

2. Try to see the flop against super short stacks

If a player\'s chip count is getting very low and you know he has to make a move soon it\'s a good idea to see a lot of flops with him. Chances are he will be moving in if he catches anything on the flop and possibly even if he doesn\'t, so if you can see a flop with him and catch a piece of it, this is a good opportunity for you to try to pick up a bounty for relatively cheap. You should include the player\'s bounty when calculating pot odds in these situations. For example, consider if you make four to a flush on the flop with a player who had 800 chips, with the blinds at 50/100 and the pot at 350. The player moves in for the rest of his stack, which is now 700 chips. You will have about 35% to win which normally wouldn\'t be enough to justify this big of a call. However, in a bounty tournament you have to add in the fact that you have a 35% chance to win half of a buy-in, which would probably justify a call in this situation.

3. Double through the big stacks

In bounty tournaments you are much more likely to get your all-in called than in regular tournaments because players will be looking for your bounty. For this reason you can start pushing earlier than you normally would and you should restrict yourself to only pushing with big hands. In the 8-15 big blinds range you should only be pushing with top quality hands because you can still afford to be patient and get your money in with a big edge. Once you drop down below 8 big blinds you have to increase your range and push with more moderate hands even if it means trying to win coin flips to double up.

4. Don't risk too much trying for a bounty

As much as you do earn money from bounties, you can't afford to forget about the prize pool. Bounty tournaments are basically the same structure as normal tournaments so you shouldn't change your strategy too much looking for bounties. Follow the few points we outlined above, but don't go completely bounty crazy and take your eye off the main prize.

You might have noticed that we recently started working together with PokerStrategy, a school where you can learn all aspects of the game of poker, as well as get the opportunity to play with real money without the need of making a deposit.

Currently, we would suggest this no deposit bonus to everybody, because PokerStrategy has it all and you get to play with $50 totally free.

What\'s the scoop you\'re asking yourself? It\'s easy, they make money while you play, so they are willing to invest in you and hopefully for them, you\'re going to be the next online poker pro! Technically spoken, they make a small percentage off all the rake you generate and tournament fees you pay. The more you play, the more commission they get. Also, once you have earned a specific amount of points (which equals to a specific amount of earned money for them), they are going to give you yet another $100 to play with - as you have proven to be a solid and skilled poker player.

The PokerStrategy quiz

Now, there are a few things you should know before joining, because it\'s in your best benefit to qualify right after signing-up. Before PokerStrategy rewards you with a free poker bankroll, you must complete a quiz. These questions are not too hard, but as they don\'t want to throw away their money, it\'s not dead simple either. They simply want to convert you into a good poker player and if you follow their lessons, you will.

From the start, we really want to emphasize the fact that you must read their beginner strategy articles, before making the quiz! Why? Because this will help you pass the test at once. Yes, you may try again just 1 hours later, but since you only have a total of 5 attempts, it\'s better to pass asap!

The quiz consists of 20 random questions related to their articles and you have to correctly answer at least 70% of them. Now be smart and take this advice for granted, that way you won\'t be presented with the following message: \"Unfortunately you failed the quiz!\"

What you'll get from PokerStrategy

PokerStrategy provides its\' members with hundreds of strategy videos made by professional poker players. You will gain access to materials like strategy articles, as well as a very active forum and interesting blog - but best of all are their live coaching sessions at various online poker rooms next to a free bankroll of $150!

Join PokerStrategy Now

The verification process

Once you sign-up, you will receive an e-mail with a verification number. You will need this number to continue the sign-up process. After you have read the articles, completed and passed the quiz successfully, you will have to register at one of the poker rooms listed. Personally, I'd go for Party Poker, but the decision is all up to yourself.

The poker rooms where you can choose from for a free bankroll are:

• Party Poker (independent)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100
• Mansion (iPoker Network)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100
• Titan Poker (iPoker Network)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100
• Pacific Poker (888)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100
• PokerStars (independent)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$50
• Full Tilt Poker (independent)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$50
• Bet365 Poker (iPoker Network)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100
• Cake Poker (Cake Poker Network)
  Free Bankroll: $50+$100

Once you have signed-up, you will now have to complete your data, so they will verify your account against fraud, i.e. duplicate registrations in order to get their no deposit bonus. One of PokerStrategy\'s customer support employees will call you to check your details. Once again, false applications will get caught. Be smart!

Restrictions

Yes, there are a few restrictions, or maybe say requirements. You have to sign-up at a specific poker room, so you are not allowed to have an account at the poker rooms they have listed. Since there are quite a few to choose from, this should not be a problem in most cases, but please be aware of the fact that PokerStrategy will verify all sign-ups and that all your accounts will be closed and your name ends up on a black list if you try to fool them! In the long run, it\'s not worth risking it, trust me!

Also be aware that you will only get the first $50 plus the additional $50 or $100 once. In other words, pick the poker room that fits you best!

Play at PokerStrategy for Free

Oh, unfortunately they don\'t allow players from the United States to sign-up. We\'re still looking into it if we can offer an additional promotion specially for our US visitors.

For me personally, I have been able to travel quite a bit. I traveled to Miami to meet with friends, stayed at a luxury hotel at Sunny Isles and had an amazing time. Later that year my favorite niece got married in Forza d\'Agro (near Taormina, Sicily) in the actual church where they filmed one of the Godfather movies. Then there was another wedding in Philly, where I happened to be best man!

CAP Euro 2008

The CAP conference in Barcelona was my first conference outside of the country. I finally met Kurt from Max Poker Bonus. We have been friends for many years, all the way from the good old EuroSlam basketball leagues, but never happen to meet in real life before. We both stayed at the Barceló Sants Hotel and shared many Conoritas in the lobby and Monte Christos just outside.

At this conference I also spoke to a lot of interesting people and closed many great deals for Poker For Free. Besides business, we had dinner in the best restaurants and went to several VIP parties, including high class clubs as the Joker and Mundo. Before flying home, we ended our stay with a guided bus tour throughout Barcelona.

CAP was a great experience, just like the Casino Affiliate Convention where I went earlier in 2008.

Only a couple of months ago, I had the highlight of my life poker carreer so far. In October I took my dad, who turned 75, to see my brother in Sint Maarten, which is one of the beautiful Dutch Caribbean islands full of casinos. That was actually one of my best poker vacations ever! I played live poker almost every night at the Casino Royale, just across the street from where we stayed.

Poker For Free

Well, thinking of Poker For Free, the website has gone through a lot of changes. First and foremost we introduced the leader board in March 2008. Until now there have been six episodes. The current leader board is the biggest prize wise, with over $1000 in freeroll and added money + $354.40 in APT tokens for the top 3 finishers. With one more tourney to go we haven\'t crowned a winner yet, but there\'s a big chance that it\'s going to be Maciej Kasior.

Of course, the biggest change was redesigning the whole website and next to that we were able to introduce some kick ass features, such as the dynamic tournaments schedule, an improved Poker Club as well as this blog. Poker For Free has grown amazingly since version 2 and keeps growing. We\'re looking forward to great deals because of this in 2009!

More recently, Poker For Free said goodbye, but not farewell as it stays part of the PFF network, to the Dutch version of Poker For Free. The site has been moved and is now on it\'s own domain: PokerKamers.nl. There are several reasons for this, but the main reason is that in the end it will help our company grow, thus helps us get bigger and bolder deals for our visitors.

Unfortunately the forums never grew to the size we hoped for, but we\'re not giving up yet! Just the other day, small changes to the look and feel were made to make it look slightly better and maybe some day we will see more loyal members like Sean and Rob.

Talking about loyalty, did you know we give away money to our most active forum members each month?

Big plans for 2009

Our plans for 2009 are big, but we are not able/allowed to reveal everything yet.

The leader board shall continue, but we are getting rid of the freerolls. Too many people are disgusted with the bad behavior of some players who only join PFF to steal - and share our passwords! We sincerely believe that it\'s the right time to switch to a buy-in only league and that it will help mature Poker For Free as a whole.

Since the future looks so bright (as long as we manage to stay out of the financial debacle the world is in now) we are planning to introduce some new strategy writers. Since these people cost a lot of money and we don\'t want this to suddenly end, we will start out on a low pace and see from there.

Personally, I am looking forward to become a father of our second child in March of 2009. This will of course be my personal highlight of the year and makes everything else looks tiny. This also means that, besides PFF, there\'s a lot more work in the house (like changing diapers) to be done... sigh :)

Poker wise I hope to be able to play a lot more live games, be it cash games with my friends, games at one of the Dutch casinos or a major tournament overseas. Heck, if the situation lets me, I might even try to qualify online for the 2009 WSOP, else ways maybe some other major live tournament as the European Poker Tour would be cool. In fact, I am already practicing playing double-up tourneys at CakePoker and haven\'t lost one yet!

Coming to this point, I think I have mentioned the most important things regarding the past and the present. I am pretty sure I have forgotten something, so if it comes in mind, I will edit this blog later on and add it.

Rest me to wish you and your loved ones all the best for 2009 and a prosperous poker year!

Tonight I came home and took a look at the messages in the forum and as usual... there were not too many, though my attention fell on one that had the word \"password\" in it\'s title. I thought to myself, oh no... not a password hunter again, but later I could only wish that was the case. It appeared that I forgot to set the password for leader board event 8, which would have been on tonight at 20:00 GMT, so I let down a lot of players that showed up to play.

This time the mistake was completely on my side and not Titan\'s, so I guess the best I can do is contact them at first occasion and have it postponed to a new date, probably early January 2009.

Sorry for all the inconvenience that it may have caused, fellow Poker Clubbers!

Nearing the end

With two more leader board events to come, the end of Poker For Free\'s leader board is in sight and again, December\'s edition is exciting as it gets.

Maciej Kasior from Poland, playing at Titan Poker with screen name \"matti7476\", is in the lead, but depending on the amount of players in the next added tournament, his current position is not yet a sure first place finish. Ending in the points would be necessary to take away the doubts, but runner up Dezider \"ato11\" Meško from Slovakia will do everything in his power to end higher and come closer to that much wanted PFF leader board first prize.

The third prize, currently taken by Czech player Petr Beneš a.k.a. \"Benny1312\", is theoretically still possible to end up with someone who decides to play in the last two upcoming tournaments.

Remarkable about the top three placed players is that they all played 6 tournaments and had four point finishes. That is a pretty solid accomplishment!

• Poker For Free Leaderboard

Changes

We will continue having the leader board in 2009, but with a slightly different approach. We have read several complaints in the forum and agree that the freerolls don\'t really bring in a lot of attractive poker players. Therefor we have decided to cut out the freerolls and have a buy-in only leader board starting next month. We expect to have everything worked out in the next few days, so make sure to stay tuned for news.

Many of you will play a lot more of (online) poker during the holidays and so do I. When I was going through some poker promotions this morning, I stumbled upon the PokerStars world record attempt. This Sunday they will run a tournament where they aim for 35,000 participators and get a Guinness Book of Records listing for the largest online poker tournament to date.

There will be a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and the buy-in is only $11. You can play at PokerStars for humongous prizes and even become part of history. If you happen to make the final table, you would become famous, next to being awarded with a nice sum of cash.

Play at PokerStars Now!

• Date/time: Sunday December 28 at 15:30 ET
• Prize pool: $500,000 guaranteed
• Buy-in: $11
• Capacity: 35,000

If you haven\'t got an account at PokerStars, then it\'s time to hit the big bold red button and sign-up, because PokerStars is the largest online poker room in the world. Action is around twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. They have games in all levels, small stakes to huge stakes, as well as plenty of games in all major poker games, like [url=http://www.pokerforfree.org/en/online-poker-rules/texas-hold-em/]Texas Hold\'em[/url], Omaha, Stud and all their variations.

PokerStars also accepts real money players from the United States of America!

PokerStars is also home of Team PokerStars, with poker players Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Dario Minieri, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Isabelle Mercier, the lovely Vanessa Russo and many many other well known poker professionals.

• PokerStars Review
• PokerStars Bonus
• PokerStars Website

During this promotion there\'s a total prize pool of $75,000 up for grabs. Playing this amount of tourneys for the given total prize pool is a great way to work on your poker skills and build on a solid bankroll for free.

Everyday until December 27, there will be five $500 freerolls per day (see schedule below). If you make it in the money in any of these freerolls, then you will also win a ticket to one of the five freeroll finals on December 28. These finals will all have a prize pool of $5,000!

Play at PokerStars Now!

• Remember, to qualify you must deposit using bonus code "FDP1" instead of our regular bonus code.
• On first deposit you will also get a 100% first deposit bonus up to $50. This bonus releases very easy!
• PokerStars Review
• PokerStars Bonus Details & VIP Program

Play Cash Games at PokerStars

Finding the fish

An important part of the cash games is indeed the cash and many skilled players enjoy taking advantage of beginner players and their wallets. This is fair game and for a player looking for fish there are plenty of great online poker rooms to join. If there is a lot of traffic it will usually mean a lot of fish but this is not always for sure. A poker room that gets traffic from an online casino is usually a sure place to find fish. These are players that play it loose and will give you the pot without much of a sweat.

Easy navigation

For a poker room to be enjoyable the lobby needs to be clear and easy to navigate in. When you are looking for a specific type of table you don\'t want to ask the customer support how to find it. The best sites for cash games clearly mark in the lobby what links lead to what type of cash games. You will want to know how many players are active in order to determine what the pace at the table is. You also need to check out the average pot rate so that you get an idea of who the players around the table are.

Play Cash Games at Full Tilt

Tools for better play

In the best online poker rooms there are many tools that can enhance your general gaming and your specific results in the cash games. Something that is A and O for success in cash games is the ability to take notes while you are playing. This function lets you keep track of your opponents and give you an idea of what to expect when you meet them again. Try to join a poker room that has a good rumor for smooth and well developed software. It should aim to customize the technique to the needs of the individual players.

Set rakes

Some poker rooms offer cash games with set rakes and other will take a fee for every half an hour. A cash game could stretch out in time, especially if it is a full ring game. Make sure to check what the rake policy of the poker room is before you start playing so that you won\'t pay the casino more than necessary.

Depending on where you live you need to check where there is the most traffic in the hours that you like to play. It is also a good idea to keep an eye on when your games come out the best and adjust your hours to this.

When the fish come out

A lot of players mean a lot of fish. If you want to catch the loose games you\'ll need to be around when the people who play just for fun come into the poker room. This is typically on weekends and in the nights. With the holidays coming up there will most likely be more players coming in to the poker rooms from adjoining casinos and this creates good fishing waters. When poker rooms are offering special bonuses or promotions it could also create greater traffic by beginner players that you could try and exploit.

Time difference

Don't forget the time difference between different countries. Most poker players active online come from the USA and the UK. Depending on where you live you will have to take this into consideration. If you are in Europe but you prefer to play against the US crowd you need to play late at night or early morning to catch their evenings and late nights. Some poker rooms have software that will make it clear what the clock is around the globe so that you understand if it is really rush hour by the tables or not.

Worst time to play

The worst time to play poker online is usually around mid-day and in the middle of the week. Only the very big poker sites will have enough traffic to support enough tables at these hours and you won't see much fish. Also, the pros tend to be playing during the day. For some it is not so good to play late at night even if this lets you play against a certain crowd. If the dark makes you tired it is better to stick to the early evening when your game is still fresh.

Personal statistics

It is very wise to make use of the excellent tools for statistics that many online poker rooms are offering. With these you can see when you are playing the best. You might be surprised to find your winning games are concentrated to hours you weren\'t expecting. Take into account who your opponents were and what your general status was. It is not to recommend kicking back with a beer when you are trying to stay focused on your poker game. Learning to read your own game will also let you know when your best time to play is.

• Satellite qualifier strategy
• Playing above your limit
• PokerStars Review
• PokerStars Bonus
• PokerStars Website

So you do everything right, you play a solid game of poker, you do proper bankroll management and because of that you have been able to consistently play well at a certain level. Way to go! If you are capable of this, I have a lot of respect for you, because most online poker players tend to deposit and loose it all, or either cash out their winnings directly. It seems though, that you understand the point of growing and becoming a better poker player very well. Start low; move up a step at the time and most important, being able to move back to a lower limit instead of jeopardizing your bankroll and having to reload.

Although the first paragraph of this article seems to focus on bankroll management, it actually doesn\'t. Instead, this particular poker article is about how you can play among the big guys, for instance in the Sunday Warm-up or the Sunday Million at PokerStars, without going broke naturally.

I\'m sure that you know that the best way to play in poker tournaments in the higher buy-ins range is through online satellites. Satellites are +EV, you play to qualify and usually that can be accomplished without having to finish first, or among the firsts.

Play Poker at PokerStars

Many times you\'ll see that regular tournaments have a payout structure where a lot of players get ITM, but only the top 5 players get a significant prize. When playing satellites, about 1 entry-ticket per 10 players is guaranteed. This means that your chance to accomplish your goal in a satellite is a lot higher, as you don\'t need to finish in the top 5 out of 1000 players (0.5%) to get paid well.

The reason I chose to blog about this subject is that I will try to qualify online for the main Event of the World Series of Poker 2009.

Yup, that\'s right! I am also flattered after reading stories about Chris Moneymaker, who qualified through a $39 Satellite and eventually managed to win the 2003 WSOP Main Event. He wasn\'t just an exception, as Greg \"Fossilman\" Raymer did the same only a year later. He qualified through a $160 satellite and won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2004.

Closer to home is the success of my friend Avy Rijnbergen. He qualified last year on PKR and played himself all the way to the Rio in Las Vegas for just a little over a buck! He didn\'t win, nor get In The Money, but he had an unforgettable experience!

Sunday Million Satellites

Now, back to the subject of this writing again, as I will update you about my shot to qualify for the next WSOP in a series of articles that I plan to write, starting somewhere next month.

Let's focus on the Sunday Million for now, as this is a very interesting weekly tournament at PokerStars with a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, where the winner may easily get as much as -, or even more than $150,000.

Usually you will need quite a big bankroll to back-up playing such a tourney, as the buy-in for this online poker tournament is as much as $215. Let's do some bankroll math: $215 x 30 = $6,450. Does this match your bankroll? Probably not, since you're a visitor of Poker For Free. (Exceptions excluded of course.)

Don't be disappointed yet, because PokerStars offers you several satellites to qualify cheaply for the Sunday Million:

• 500 Frequent Player Points (500 FPP)
• $3 Rebuy
• $3.30 Triple Shootout
• $11 Rebuy
• $11 Triple Shootout

Basically, you will only need a bankroll of $90 to take a shot for a share of $1 Million, but of course a little more wouldn\'t harm. An example would be the $11 Rebuy. On average, this tournament gives 1 entry for the Sunday Million to 1 out of 6 players... Do you now understand what we mean by saying that satellites are +EV?

Again, let\'s do some more poker math to show you some perspectives:

Sub Satellites

Sub Satellites are low buy-in satellites where you can qualify for another satellite.

Many times you will find a range of multi tier qualifier tournaments where you can start playing for a very low buy-in of cash or even FPP's and eventually play yourself all the way up to a grand final. This is usually the case when they give away tickets to the WSOP, EPT or for instance the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker). This way, any player with skills, but without budget can take a shot of fulfilling their dream.

Top notch satellite tournaments at PokerStars

We have previously mentioned PokerStars' Sunday Million Satellites, but there are more interesting satellite tourneys at the biggest online poker room. Here are the ones for online events that to me seem most appealing:

• $1 Million Turbo Takedown
  8 FPP up to 750 FPP
• Super Tuesday ($400,000 Guaranteed)
  $4.40 up to $225
• Sunday Million ($1,000,000 Guaranteed)
  $3 up to $55
  400 up to 500 FPP
• Sunday Warm-Up ($750,000 Guaranteed)
  $3 up to $39
  400 FPP up to 2250 FPP
• Sunday Two Hundred Grand
  $2.20 up to $11
  70 FPP up to 210 FPP

The best part about Mirada\'s new product will be its availability across other platforms. Virtual dealer roulette will be available streaming over the web, through major live platforms and even on television. The product will also feature multi player capability, live chat, messaging, real time stats and rich three dimensional graphics.

Mirada has created the product to create a more pleasing and interactive experience for online gamers, and at a fraction of the cost of an actual live dealer game. Virtual Dealer roulette is also very adaptable and easily integrated into existing platforms. This makes for easy integration of player accounts, wallets, back office applications, additional games and customer management.

Mirada\'s CEO had the following to say regarding their latest product.

\"Games need to be fun, visual, provide a sense of community and these are all the ingredients we are adding to traditional gambling products. The result is a video roulette that stands out from the competition, applies to both online and interactive TV worlds and offers platform operators a great way to differentiate their offer for a fraction of the cost of live dealer solutions.\"

PokerStars had to pony up some money for the most recent million dollar Sunday tournament. With 7,303 entrants, PokerStars had to reach into their pockets for an additional $38,600 to complete the prize pool to the guaranteed one million dollar mark. Doing the math on the fees however it looks like Poker Stars still made a cool $70,000 even after paying for the overlay. The seven thousand entrants were all vying for a first prize of $184,500. In the end it was GovShark2 who took home the main prize leaving princio in second place and with a payout of $124,950.

Here are the payouts for the final table:

1. govshark2: $184,500
2. princio: $124,950
3. trangers15: $84,000
4. Br0ke24/7: $69,000
5. DeuceBuster: $54,000
6. BOKINHA: $39,000
7. Y2JKID: $26,250
8. MyGambit : $17,250
9. Jazz604 : $10,500

The Full Tilt $750,000 guaranteed and the Ultimate Bet $200,000 guaranteed also both had overlays. Full Tilt Poker had to contribute nearly $60,000 while Ultimate Bet had to come up with just shy of $35,000 to complete their guaranteed amount. Action in both tournaments was exciting with DahJinerat taking home the nearly $133,000 first prize in the Full Tilt tournament, while ibraindead took home a cool $44,000 from the tough final table field in the Ultimate Bet tournament.

Here are the final payouts for the Full Tilt tournament:

1. DahJinerat: $132,788
2. Wasaki coke: $80,250
3. Matt Kay: $52,500
4. mordi20: $41,400
5. maxflicks: $31,050
6. sccowboy: $23,025
7. rokhead: $17,250
8. Sir_winalot9:$13,500
9. SomethingDank: $10,050

And lastly here are the result for the Ultimate Bet $200,000 Sunday guaranteed:

1. ibraindead: $45,000
2. Jay Kinkade: $27,000
3. Middlemiss08: $18,500
4. Chris Kline: $13,000
5. Nick Maimone: $11,000
6. bigjimaz: $9,000
7. Halldor Mar Sverrisson : $7,000
8. redbaron08: $5,000
9. Chris Tipper: $3,500
10. aconsuma: $2,000

The general feedback from the first event was very positive according to Glenn Casale, the Director Casino Operations. He went on to say, \"The players were so pleased with the tournament - the way we ran the events, the reasonable buy-ins, the quality of our dealers, the level of competition - they practically insisted we make it an annual event.\"

So Binions did just that offering a range of events from your standard [url=http://www.pokerforfree.org/en/online-poker-rules/texas-hold-em/]Hold\'em[/url] tournaments to the popular HORSE event and a ladies-only game set to take place next week. The championship event takes place on November 3 and will mark the end of the very popular event for players willing to put up the still manageable $1,000 entry fee. For a chance to compete in the hallowed halls of a poker landmark like Binions, that\'s a small price to pay for most poker players.

The current decline in revenues is the largest recorded since the control board began keeping records in 1984. The first eight months of 2008 show that revenues have dropped six point eight percent. The Strip, Las Vegas' famous line of amazing high rise casinos and lavish attractions has been hit with a six point six percent decline in revenues. Obviously the reduction in gaming revenues has also led to a reduction in tax revenue for the state. There was a six percent drop in tax revenues for the state to this point so far in the year.

In other areas of the state, gaming revenues were off by as much as seventeen point eight percent and twenty two point four percent. Clearly the difficult times in the American economy are having an influence American's and their willingness to come out and gamble away their money.

The news from Las Vegas is in sharp contrast to some of the success foreign based online casinos have been seeing as of late. A rise in the number of participating players has brought some record numbers to several online casino properties. Proprietors in Las Vegas might soon be getting a break however as fuel prices start returning to normal levels and long distance travel becomes more of a reality again.

The online version of their television channel is set to deliver short and long-form video coverage of major poker tournaments, \"how to\" videos, interviews with famous poker players, and much more. Major names that The Poker Channel promises to serve up include Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson. Starting in 2009 they even plan to serve up these videos translated into other languages.

Competing against established brands such as ESPN.com and CardPlayer.com will be a tall order for the European company. With more languages supported and the Brightcove techonology, Chris White from The Poker Channel had this to say: \"With Brightcove\'s technology, we can help make pokerchanneleurope.com the premier destination for poker fans worldwide, and offer more ways to engage and interact with our audiences whether on TV or online.\"

• Waking up
• $2000 Freeroll
• Ace on the river
  Catching up
• The last night

On my last poker night in St. Maarten I went to Casino Royal as planned, after deciding earlier that tourneys where starting way too early and I would have to miss my seafood linguine at Pineapple Pete\'s.

So I got in a little over 22:00 and it was just Freddy and one of the gorgeous looking dealers sitting at the table. I was surprised because it looked crowded to me in the Maho Beach area, as well as at the blackjack tables.

Anyway, I sat down and listened to some more of Freddy\'s interesting poker tales. After about 30 minutes, a guy from Chicago, which I played with before, came in and we started playing poker with just the three of us. This lasted for about 1 hour (!) and I went from $200 to $50 to $200+ before more people joined us. Within no time the table was almost filled up entirely, so I changed gears and played conservative until I had to pick up my dad at Lady-C. I left with $290, a $90 profit for the night so far. I stood up, but promised to be back ASAP.

Session 2

By now, there were still 8 players playing, including Kazim, the guy I have been playing and chatting with from New York. It was good to see him, as he's a nice guy, but also has an interesting style of playing poker. He is unpredictable as it gets, as he calls ATC (any two cards) no matter how much you'll raise. More about this later on...

I took my seat and bought in for $200. After a few folds, one player went broke and two others left, leaving the table with only 6, including me. Only a few more in the game, the US dude got sucked out by Nate (a Canadian who's the waiter/bartender at Soprano's restaurant). His pocket Queens were beaten by Nate's trips fives on the turn for a pot well over $200.

A big guy started complaining somewhat and got up as well, leaving me just with Freddy, Kazim, Nate. This turned out to become one of my extraordinary poker experiences ever.

Meet the Mississippi straddle

Straddling had already become a very common action at Casino Royale, but from this point we introduced a couple of new table actions: the reverse straddle, blind calls and blind raises. Let me introduce you the reverse straddle first:

When nobody straddles, then the button can do it, this is called a Mississippi straddle. In such a situation, the poker player sitting to the right of the button can do a reverse straddle. Quite frankly, I am not sure if it stops there or if more reverse straddles are allowed.

Since we were officially playing $2/$5 stakes, you would have to call for at least $10 now because of the straddling that kept going on continuously, but what we also started doing was all but decent poker. We started gambling, i.e. calling, as well as raising before we even took a look at our cards. Even pocket cowboys were no guarantee to win anymore, as you never knew it if someone hit a monster with his crap hands. Not that this would have been any different for Kazim at a full table, but with 4 players left, hand selection obviously didn\'t exist any longer. One time, I had an open ended straight and flush draw on the turn, so I called an all-in and lost big time. I was already in this hand with a lot of cash, as I had a gutshot and flush draw on the river and initially started betting. So, this joking around cost me my full buy-in of $200 and I had to re-buy, even though we would only play one more orbit. Now two things could happen, I could loose some more or I could win a little.

With just four more hands two play, I firstly won approx $75 from Nate, but I can\'t recall the hand\'s details. I folded out of the 2nd and 3rd hand, but raised the last hand to $30 with AT. I had the intention to steal the blinds and call it a night, but was called by Freddy. The flop came AA4 and Freddy made a $30 bet. I called and the turn brought a blank. Freddy started betting again, now for another $30, so I raised him to $60 where he went all-in for his last stack of chips. I had to put in just $15 more to call, which I obviously did. He showed A6 and the river didn\'t help him, nor the board, so I won the hand and all his chips + the blinds.

I came back to where I started the second session earlier, in just 4 hands of which I played only 2. We quit, went to the cashier and exchanged the chips. I received $390, meaning I had a total profit of $80 over the whole night. That\'s how crazy poker gets sometimes... I love this game!

Will it be goodbye or farewell?

And that\'s where my poker adventures in St. Maarten/St. Martin have ended. I have learned lot of things during my days, I had a nice profit, got to hang out with some nice fellows, but most important of all: I had a good time and a lot of fun!

I will soon add the Sint Maarten Poker Guide, which will give you some insights where to play tournaments, where to hit the cash games tables + tips as well as some of Sint Maarten\'s non hot spots to please the wife and kill the day.

Alex Bond was the events heartbreak kid when his clearly superior AQ lost to Wang Che Jung\'s QT on a long shot straight draw. Bond was ridding the bubble and took the fall. The remaining 32 players all then took a relaxing dinner break before continuing their quest for the final table.

Play for the second day ended once the field was limited to eleven players. Andrew Pantling fell in twelfth place taking home just over ten thousand dollars. Pantling\'s KJ off suite was beat by Eward Holdcroft with the AQ. Holdcroft nailed two pair on the flop and never looked back.

Here are the standings for the remaining eleven players:

• Luke Stanford - 575,000
• Nathanael Seet - 400,000
• Wang Che Jung - 400,000
• Daniel Craker - 335,000
• Michael Miriakis - 210,000
• Eric Mutrie - 170,000
• Wai Yuen - 160,000
• Edward Holdcroft - 140,000
• Matthew Konnecke - 115,000
• Dan Sing - 73,000
• Jani Karke - 70,000

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour is sponsored by PokerStars and is in its second season. The tournament series offers players in the Pacific Rim the chance to participate in large prize pool sponsored poker tournaments. A large influx of Asian players into the world of poker has definitely pushed the demand for the APPT through the roof.

That the authorities felt compelled to cite these soldiers with a misdemeanor is disappointing, as these people all are serving our country and should have the opportunity to play legal poker as an outlet of some sort. Unfortunately in North Carolina that's not the case as poker is clearly against the law according to the books.

It's unlikely they'll get a break in court as both states frown heavily on illegal gambling and often pose fines in the thousands of dollars to offenders that are convicted.

• Waking up
• $2000 Freeroll
• Ace on the river
  Catching up
• The last night

Well, after loosing $200 in a hand where I was an 83% favorite (see the previous Poker in St. Maarten recap), I have been in action twice again at Casino Royale, just across from where we're staying. The reason I prefer playing there, instead of the Atlantis is that you have to drive to get to the Atlantis and back, as well as that there is an awful lot of crime on St. Maarten. The drive from Maho to near Cupecoi, where the Atlantis World Casino is located, is through a very dark couple of roads near Mullet, where nobody lives and it's a know fact that people who win big, occasionally get robbed at gunpoint when they are on their ways home. I am the careful type of guy and always look around for trouble or shady persons in such situations, but still... why should I risk it when I don't have to.

Cash games

Back to playing poker, as I really have some catching up to do. The second night was my dad's birthday, so after eating out at Rancho's and a Monte Christo (Cuban) cigar at Soprano's Piano Bar, I sat down at the table with $200, which is twice the minimum buy-in amount. When I took place, nobody, but Freddy the poker room manager, was there. Since it was just him and me waiting we have been chatting for a while, which was very interesting. Freddy is an older (70+) fellow, who has been teaching dealers for a long time around the world. He's appears to be a well-known person in the world of poker and has been playing with some of the major Vegas legends, but also said to know Dutch player Marcel Luske very well, as he brought the Poker Classic to St. Maarten in 2004. He started managing the poker room a couple of years ago, when he came to Casino Royale, which at the time didn't have poker in it's assortment of games. Now a days he kills time at the tables and teaches the lovely dealers all about the game.

After a while, a few others filled up some empty seats, including the New Yorkie who took my chips the day before showed up and the table was nicely filled up. I have been playing for a couple of hours and managed to make a $119 profit, but have failed to remember details about the hands I have played, although I remember I was simply hitting big hands in a short while.

The Straddle's

Yesterday, we went eating at Bajatsu\'s, on of [url=http://www.dinesxm.com]St. Maarten\'s finest restaurants[/url]. I had a nice Mahi Mahi fillet and enjoyed it a lot. Afterward my dad and I went to the casino again. This time there was action at the table, right from the start, which pleased me a lot.

Between 4 and 8 players have been playing all night long and the shifts made me to have to adjust my game. Unfortunately things started out bad for me, as I was not adapting to changes and played very loose. I soon managed to loose a lot of my stack, getting as low as only $50! At a certain moment I though, oh well... push or fold and see where I will strand. So when I had Qx 9d I moved all in on a Q high flop, all of diamonds. I was called twice and when the turn brought the fifth diamond for me, I had the flush, but was convinced that someone else would have a better diamond than my 9. Another diamond on the river and the two other players seemed satisfied splitting the pot, but sad when I showed them I had beaten them with my 9.

So I was back in the game, now with a $150 stack. Only two hands later I got dealt pocket Jacks. I raised a straddled hand, which was a common thing this night, to $40. One player called, but another re-raised me to $80. I immediately thought he must have aces, but still wanted to see the flop for $40 more. The flop was Ace high of all clubs and I pushed all my chips in, as one of my Jacks was of clubs. The second player folded and the third instantly called me with Kings, one of them clubs. He won the hand with completing his flush on the turn.

With $200 down the drain and no cash in my pocket I had to get back to the hotel where I kept the rest of my money in the safe deposit box. I grabbed it, hassled back and took place at the poker table once again. By this time, I made up my mind and decided to play tight as hell, resulting in a nice $114 extra when I left the table 2 hours later. I just managed to pick up small pots without risking any large amounts.

My dad was there all along and learned a great deal about the game of poker. It\'s still a bit fast and confusing, but I am sure to introduce him playing a home game with the buddies soon.

Tournament or cash game?

Since there are quite a lot of poker tournaments going on in all the different casinos around the Dutch side of the island of St. Maarten, for instance at the Princess Casino and at the Atlantis World Casino, I have been trying to decide what I will do tonight. By the looks of it, it\'s going be Casino Royale once more, as I don\'t really feel like crashing the tables already at 20:30. This afternoon I drove over to Hollywood Casino (where I played some cash games last year) because they advertised with a $7000 guaranteed, but it appeared to be a \"winner takes all\" tournament with a buy-in of $220. Now, IMO that\'s a bad concept and that\'s probably the reason why only 3 to 4 tables will fill up there. I wouldn\'t be surprised if the game itself appears to be rigged somehow, because it doesn\'t make any sense to me at all.

Tomorrow I will fly back home, so you can expect an update the day after, that will also include a Sint Maarten Poker Guide.

• Waking up
• $2000 Freeroll
• Ace on the river
• Catching up
• The last night

This morning when I was doing my daily workout in the hotel\'s gym, I was rethinking yesterday\'s poker night. First of all, I didn\'t make it to the R&A tournament at the Atlantis World Casino, since we went out eating sushi at Wasabi\'s. While doing my thing on the home trainer I was also debating in my mind about the title for this article. Many ideas came up in my mind, but I finally decided to choose \"Ace on the river\", so it will at least leave the readers guessing a little bit.

Anyway, after dinner we split up, some of the group went to Lady-C, my dad was exhausted and went to sleep and I had the night all for myself, so I went to Casino Royale across the street to see if I could catch some cash game action. Surprisingly the table was filled with 5 players and I was happy to join them. The stakes were $5/$2 with bets of multiplies of $5 only.

I have been playing for about 3 hours and never managed to get a higher profit than about 50%. More players also came and at a certain moment we had 9 players at the table. I still went up and down, and with just 4 players left it was time for the last orbit around 1:00 AM when I got dealt pocket Jacks. I placed a $15 bet UTG and was called twice. The King high flop brought another Jack as well, there you go, I had trips. I checked and another check followed before the BB placed a $15 bet. I raised him with another $15 making the other on SB fold. It was me against a friendly guy from New York, a really experienced poker player according to what I picked up. At this time he re-raised me with $100 and I wanted to move all-in, if it wasn\'t that I made a communication error with the dealer. So I just called leaving me with just $25 left. The turn was a blank.

At this moment he checked and I shoved the remainder of my stack to the middle. Of course he called for value and we opened up. I showed him my Jacks and he showed an open ended, holding QT in his hands. Only an Ace or a 9 could help him, 6 outs... and the... well... needless to say anything more, as you know the title of this article.

He had approximately 17% chance to win this hand and these things happen, sometimes also in your favor. I was invited to join them going to the Atlantis, but they were going to play Omaha. As I didn\'t want to risk a tilt and loose more than I already did, I decided to go to the resort and get some sleep.

So that was the story of last night\'s live poker. Having a total loss of $200, I\'d say: \"Shit happens!\" I can\'t care less about the money as I did have a great night, although I hope to be a little more successful tonight!

By the way, I am now sitting under an umbrella on the terrace of Fashion Cafe, which has free WiFi access. The temperature on St. Maarten/St Martin is approx 32 degrees centigrade and yes, yesterday I managed to get sunburned in less than 2 hours :( Oh, by the way... today\'s my dad\'s birthday!

• Waking up
• $2000 Freeroll
• Ace on the river
• Catching up
• The last night

It's only 10:33 AM, but usually I will post the poker article later because, unfortunately, there's no WiFi Internet connection at the Maho Beach Resort.

As you might have read in the forum, I didn't play any live poker on Monday night, as I couldn't find any action at Casino Royal when I checked. Yesterday I planned to play the $2000 freeroll at the Atlantis World Casino, at Southern Dutch/French border of St. Maarten. My dad and I managed to get there 2 hours early, so we could also have dinner before the tournament would start at 20:30. I was the first to register and was a little sceptical, but since the Atlantis World has many tourneys, as well as one of the biggest poker rooms on the island, I could be easily wrong... and I was.

After finishing dinner, a nice piece of swordfish for me and a pepperoni pizza for my dad, we entered the casino. By now lots of people gathered around the registration area and it was obviously that the freeroll "sold out".

Table 1, seat 1

I took place at table 1, seat 1, as did the other 59 poker players. Everybody got 5000 starting chips and the tournament was a freezeout. When the first cards where shuffled, I didn't think out a strategy yet, or decided if I would play loose aggressive or passive aggressive. I limped in, as did most of the players on the first hand, with K7s. The flop came, Kc 9d 9h. I started out raising an unbet pot for 12 times the BB (of 25), but got re-raised twice before backing out. One of the guys, the one that placed the initial raise went all-in with 9x and got called by the second player who flopped a full house 9's over Kings. "PLAYER OUT!" shouted the dealer.

After a few hands I made up my mind and I decided to play tight, opposed to the table, which seemed to be very loose in overall. I kept folding for a while until I got balanced to another table.

Flush draw

One of the weirdest things must have been the tournament\'s blind structure, as we started out with 25/50 and moving up to 100/200 afterwards. This would give me just a M a little over 10, so I thought I should be a little less selective to prevent bleeding to death. At the new table I got dealt As Ts and limped in while being on the cut-off. I could have raised there and most of the time I would have, but any (future) raise from an opponent would have made me crippled and it didn\'t feel the time was right. The flop was kind of good for me, 5s 7s 9x and the pot was checked to me when I moved all my chips in to pick up the pot right there. A guy to my right called while he only hit middle pair, but he was already drawing dead after I hit my flush on the turn. Hey... that\'s poker, he shouldn\'t have made the call anyway! I grew to about 7000 chips in this hand and felt like having enough to last for a while.

Moved... over and over

After a while my table was split up and everybody was moved to their new table. Since the levels were only 20 minutes, things seemed to move around really quickly. The table I was on now was again very loose, but 2 of the players seemed a little better than the average. On the cut-off I was dealt Jc 9c and I tried to pick up the pot with just one limper moving all my chips into the middle. The small blind and the big blind both folded, but... the limper was extremely pleased with my action and happily showed his pocket Aces. Bummer!!! Fortunately, since I owned this guy I still had a very reasonable stack before the pizza break started.

Where's dad, dad, dadio?

During the break I went looking for my dad to find him playing behind a 25c standard slots machine. He was enjoying himself, as well as enjoying the complimentary drinks from the casino. I told him that I was running good and went back to the poker room.

After the break

I kept grinding a bit and picked up a few small pots now and then, but nothing really significant happened until I got dealt pocket deuces on the big blind after just being moved to a new table again. A guy in middle position placed a bet of 4000, four times the BB. Since everybody folded and I put him on Ace something, I decided that the time arrived to make a double or nothing move. Doubling up would allow me to play for the money and nothing would leave me with almost nothing. Of course there was an option that my opponent would fold, but I wanted him to call here as we we\'re heads-up anyway. With slightly better winning odds on my side he called and showed a big slick. My deuces stood and I did become one of the bigger stacks indeed.

Somehow this seemed to be my momentum, as I got big hands being lucky on the flop, but also some nice pockets. For instance, I had nothing on BB and was called by the SB, hitting just a pair. I initiated a bet and she called, where I made my second pair with the turn. As I luckily held two pair T\'s over 4\'s, I kept on betting for value. With no straights and flushes after the river I placed another small bet, but didn\'t get the call as the lady seemed to have been looking to complete a straight (which I honestly over looked, hence the low bets of just the BB).

Shortly after I got dealt Ax Qx UTG and made a nice raise of 3 times the BB to force everybody out of the hand, as they did. Once more I got dealt AQ, this time suited of clubs. I placed a significant bet of 20K (blinds were 2000/4000 now) and got one caller in middle position. With a K high board I continued my bet and a call would make him pot committed. He folded and I managed to take up a nice pot here. The table was now shorthanded, thus my hand requirements changed a bit. Because of this I was able to pick up some more blinds before heading to the final table.

The final table

I sat down at seat 4 with a little over average stack. I felt really comfortable and thought I had a chance of getting ITM, but then something strange happened... The tournament director moved the blinds up from 5000/10000 to 15000/35000, of course just the moment it was my turn to pay the BB.

Paying the ridiculous blinds left me over with just one yellow chip of 5K, thus making me pot committed no matter what cards. My hand was decent and I was lucky to get called by just the small blind. I am not 100% sure about the hand, it was K something, but it stood and that's all that mattered to me.

So I was still in the game and others (also in push or fold condition because of the blinds) went out one by one. With 7 players left I pushed all-in with KJ to pick up the blinds, but got called. I don't remember his exact hand, but he either had a pair or over cards. He hit the flop well and it seemed that he was going to pick up the pot, but the Queen on the river gave me an Ace high straight. The dealer didn't notice it right away, but luckily I did :) and I became the chip leader.

Once again I got KJo and I pushed again to isolate a player. Even though I just became chip leader only a few hands earlier, the blinds were high now and I would not last more than 2 orbits. This time two players called me!!! The hi-jack, the big blind and UTG+1 (who went all-in with his last 30000 chips) were all in this hand. Obviously, this was not the action I was seeking and I was ready to shake hands, if it wasn't that lady luck was totally on my side here. The big stack on the hi-jack also showed KJo, the small-stacked lady on BB had Ax and the other guy some low connected cards. With an Ace + 2 pair board, only the lady would triple up and all others would chop because of the board.

In the money

After all these crap shoots I lowered the pace of pushing until the bubble got eliminated. I really felt excited now, as I got ITM! I have to admit that I did get very lucky now and then, but that\'s what it takes to win multi table tournaments.

With three players left playing for a share of $2000 I made a nice fold after the guy directly on my right re-raised the other player all-in. I did loose my blinds, but was fine with it when I saw the second player, who was committed to call never mind which hand he had, showing up pocket Kings. Unfortunately for him the other guy\'s AQ out drew him.

My 3-outer elimination

Being heads-up was a great accomplishment, but now it was time to battle for either $1000 or $600. The fight only lasted three hands, where I folded the first, but had the best hand in the next two occasions.

The first time I pushed all-in with A7o and got called by his A6o. He didn't get any help, but all over cards on the table made it a split pot.

The second - and last hand I moved all-in with A4o and got called by his J4o... I seemed to double up and take the lead if it wasn't for a Jack to show up on the turn. I was done because of a 3-outer (and that hurts) but congratulated my opponent with his win.

Conclusion

Now that I am almost done writing, I know I realize that I have left some details out. For instance, I won a 3 way all-in with pocket 7\'s at a certain time, where I went in first and got called twice. I am just not sure where/when this hand happened and how it exactly evolved, but in generally the recap contains the most important details. I hope you enjoyed the long read and you know... you can leave a comment if you\'ve like it :)

Overall I was very satisfied with the result I made at the Atlantis World Casino leaving a field of 97 players behind me (60 + 37 from the alternate list) and pick up a net profit of $595 after tipping the dealer $5. The tournament totally lasted for about for about 3 hours and 45 minutes, a little over midnight.

I will probably hit the tables again tonight, as there is a $75 Rebuy and Addon tournament, once again at the Atlantis.

My dad finally lost about $160 playing slots, but fortunately he didn\'t really care about it since he was just killing time while I was confiscating chips. By now he also had enough free drinks, rum without ice! I called up my bro, we left the casino and we met with him at the Lady-C floating bar. Later on we went to the Red Piano Bar for a couple more drinks before heading back to the hotel at 2:30 AM.

Back to living it large, time for a swim now!

Giorgio

• Waking up
• $2000 Freeroll
• Ace on the river
• Catching up
• The last night

Jetlagged

To make you understand the reason why this paragraphs\' title is called Jetlagged, I have to take you back in time about 24 hours, when we (my dad and I) left Amsterdam for Sint Maarten, \"the Friendly Island\". After a drive from the North of Holland to Schiphol Airport, in typical Dutch weather (dark clouds and heavy rain), we checked in, kissed my girlfriend and little one goodbye and got through customs. Coincidentally I bumped into a one of my basketball teammates. Even more coincidentally, he appeared to be flying on the same plane, only we were getting off on Sint Maarten, where he stayed on the plane to continue his journey to Curacao. During our flight we saw the movie 21, where a couple of students colluded against the casino playing blackjack. It was quite a nice movie IMO.

The reason for our short trip is that my dad turns 75 years old and we thought it would be a killer idea to celebrate it together with my brother, who moved to Sint Maarten more than 6 years ago. We never told him that we were coming... imagine the looks on his face when we surprised him :)

After the hugs and some coffee in my bro\'s office we took the car and drove to Maho to meet with friends at a restaurant called Sopranos, as well having a few drinks and some pizza. The Maho area is also the area where our hotel, the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort is located, so we were done driving for the day. At about midnight we decided to call it a night and my dad and I went back to our room to get some sleep.

Anyway, when I started writing this article it was only 6:00 AM and I was clearly awake. Jetlagged!!! Obviously, the cause is that I have been drinking a few Vodka Red Bulls. It always makes me sleep shorter + of course the fact that there is a 6 hours time difference with home.

Plans

We\'re staying here until next Sunday, thus plenty of time to have some fun. Since the weather is awesome (30 degrees centigrade) and the forecast looks great, I will try to relax a bit in the morning. I found out there is a gym, so that\'s where I will spend some time after breakfast. After working out a bit I will move to either the poolside or the (private) beach and do some reading. I still have to finish reading Dan Harrington\'s second book (Harrington on Hold\'em) and brought a bunch of poker magazines as well. Don\'t worry I will make sure to take a dive into the water now and then to cool down!

Most probably I will take a siesta after lunch, so I will get rid of the jetlag and then off to my brother\'s office in the afternoon to answer e-mails and get some work done.

And then there are the nights... These will kick off with a nice dinner, because there are plenty of great restaurants according to DineSXM. I personally prefer seafood when I am near the ocean. And after dinner it\'s quality time... Time to play some poker! There are a couple of places I will play at and since I have played poker on Sint Maarten before, I know exactly where to go for cash games as well as multi table tournaments.

Playing poker

As you may guess, I have specially been looking forward to playing poker during my stay. I can basically play as long as I like, since my girlfriend didn\'t join me on this trip. All the guys reading this know exactly what I mean, don\'t ya? ;) Our hotel has it\'s own casino, Casino Royale, where you can play $2/$4 Texas Hold\'em cash games every night starting at 21:00. That\'s where I am heading tonight! This Tuesday they run a $2000 freeroll at the in the Atlantis World Casino, as well as a $100 freezeout on Wednesdays. In this mornings paper I saw an add for a $50 freezeout at the Princess Casino every Thursday. I will make sure to do some more research \"where to strip tourists\'\" and create a nice Sint Maarten Poker Guide by the time I will trade the sun for the rain again.

Unfortunately, it takes money to hire big lobbyists and that's what keeps Washington running. The trickle down effect is what helps the common folks, like us with legislation that hopefully makes our lives a little better. When it comes to poker and protecting our game it's good to know that we have an ally like the PPA on our side. Spending by the PPA on lobbying efforts has ramped up considerably since their launch in 2005. The spending curve has progressed as follows:

• 2005 - $260K
• 2006 - $540K
• 2007 - $900K
• 2008 - $629K (year to date)

So remember the next time you get an email asking for your membership dues or a donation to the PPA, that money is well spent. In other words take the $20.00 that you were about to use to enter a small tournament and send it to the PPA. Without it, you may see the day where that $20.00 can't be used to play ANY poker online.

The Norwegian proposal has been highly debated since its introduction. The local press in Norway is creating a very bad picture for online poker which is not helping the cause for poker players. On the other hand, the European Commission in Brussels has cited heavy criticism of the proposal. It is very possible that if the ban does pass in the Norwegian Parliament, it will simply end up in European Court of Justice.

One reason behind the Norwegian proposal is heavy public outcry about the number of people playing too much online poker and the increase in gambling addiction. The Norwegian Culture Minister has cited an increase in people turning to help through government sponsored gambling addiction programs. Hopefully this will just be another failed attempt at legislating morality and online poker will continue to prevail in Scandinavian countries.

While it\'s exciting to see another player jump into the fray for the online gaming market, one has to wonder if these applications will ever see the light of day. Established brands such as Prima and Microgaming already have mature applications that can be licensed. A quick visit to their website yielded nothing as far as demos or even references for the fledgling company.

The one encouraging tidbit here is the growth of the online gambling industry because if the analysts are even half right, that\'s a $60+ billion dollar industry we will see in just under 10 years. So perhaps there is indeed room for new players such as Castle but only time will tell.

The polar opposite of that spectrum is the online poker world, which has completely turned that concept inside out. With the two top online poker sites taking in hordes of new players, the industry continues to buck trends and grow when so many other economic indicators are faltering.

During the month of September PokerStars remained the leader by a wide margin with an average of 18,644 players per day. They hit their peak on September 28th with 21,340 players were seated and playing real money games. Following closely behind was Full Tilt Poker with 8,039 players on average and a peak of 8,598 reached on September 17th.

Based on the outcome of this critical bill in the US, we will have to check back in another month to see how these same sites fared for the month of October.

The main event in Seoul was a no limit [url=http://www.pokerforfree.org/en/online-poker-rules/texas-hold-em/]Texas Hold\'em[/url] tournament with a buy in just shy of three thousand dollars. Day one saw 165 players ante up in hopes of taking home the first prize of nearly $130,000. Yoshihiro Tasaka, a player from Japan was one of six Japanese competitors to finish in the money at APPT Seoul. Tasaka had a fierce heads up battle at the final table with a fellow Japanese player Hidenari Shiono before finally knocking him out and taking home the first prize.

Here are the final results for APPT Seoul:

1. Yoshihiro Tasaka $128,250
2. Hidenari Shiono $80,156
3. Brian Kang $44,085
4. Fam Yat $32,062
5. Yuji Masaki $26,050
6. Daniel Schreiber $20,038
7. David Horvath $16,031
8. Daniel Williams $12,023
9. Sam Faqiryar $8,015

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour next moves to Auckland New Zealand where players will meet at the Skycity Casino from October 9th through the 12th to compete for over well over a half a million dollar prize pool. Players looking to enter an APPT event can do so by either qualifying through PokerStars satellite tournaments or by buying in directly up to two weeks before the event.

In a final email, the perpetrator sent Jespen a PDF file which contained information on the show and some of the details. Jespen however wouldn\'t be fooled that easily. The supposed PDF file wasn\'t a PDF at all but rather was an executable file. Upon investigation the executable file was found to be infected with a dangerous Trojan file that was capable of key logging. Key logging is a dangerous and devastating tactic that hackers use to capture peoples passwords and personal information.

When later contacted about the incident, OTW indicated that there weren\'t even current plans to make another season of \"The Game\" and that if there would have been, email is not the method by which they would of contacted Jespen. This is once again a scary but all to true reality that comes with being a high stakes poker player, remember to always be on the lookout for Internet predators.

Some significant improvements include new betting features such as half pot, three quarter pot and full pot as well as an improved slider button for more clear and concise betting in tough situations. The note taking feature has been improved as well allowing for quicker and cleaner note taking.

Of special note in the update is the welcome addition of new avatars! Party Poker players for years have been begging to drop the 1990\'s style figures with something a tad more modern. Well the wish has finally been granted with a set of sharp and well done avatars.

Some of the new Party Poker features include:

• New lobby, including a quick seat feature, which makes finding a table much easier.
• Easier to play multiple tables. Open another table from your active table, as well as the tables are better resizeable and you can set custom alerts to control all the action.
• Preview of action at a table before joining.
• Personalization of your appearance with avatars (from library or custom).
• User friendly tables, including more betting features.
• A fully integrated cashier, which helps you to instantly make deposits and request for cash outs.

The bottom line is Party Poker is again setting the standard by which the industry will follow by redesigning their software and releasing a mind blowing package. Although it might be a little overdo, its definitely worth checking out and really brings Party Poker to the forefront in terms of online poker software.

Rest us to say that we will soon start updating our current Party Poker review.

• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus
• Sign-up at Party Poker

The World Series of Poker Europe runs through October 2nd and features four big poker events. After event one concludes on Monday the 22nd, there will be a H.O.R.S.E. event followed by a Pot Limit Omaha event and then the ten thousand pound Main Event starting on Saturday September 27th. Last years Main Event was won by the quiet female assassin, Norwegian Annette Obrestad. Annette was only twenty years old at the time and the first women to win a World Series of Poker Main Event.

£1,500 No Limit Hold'em

Kicking things off on Friday the 19th was the £1,500 No Limit Hold\'em event. Scheduled to run through Monday September 22nd, event #1 has seen some great action and some big names fall.

After doubling up early in the tournament, Erik Siedel was eliminated when his offsuit AK couldn\'t pair against a made pocket pair of queens. David LaRonde, struggling to stay alive into Sunday\'s rounds, desperately hoped his pocket tens would hold up when there were no over cards on the flop. Unfortunately his crying call against Fuad Serhan proved ultimately futile when Serhan turned over pocket aces and no further help came for the tens. Serhan became the chip leader at that point amassing a huge stack of 180,000 in chips. In this second to last day of action there are 37 out of the 410 players remaining. Players at the final table will compete for a first prize of £144,000.

With one day of tournament action remaining, the chip counts were:

1. Fuad Serhan 180,000
2. Daniel Negreanu 145,000
3. Yevgeniy Timoshenko 142,000
4. Adam Junglen 140,000
5. Jesper Hougaard 137,000
6. Costas Artemi 120,000
7. Jason Gray 115,000
8. Linda Lee 110,000
9. Daniel Nutt 98,000
10. Tim Pennington 67,000

Finally, 24 years old poker pro Jesper Hougaard from Denmark managed to climb up from 8th position at the final table to win event #1 and was the first player ever to win a WSOPE bracelet, as well as a WSOP bracelet in the same year. He overcame a total of 409 participators and took home £144,218. 2nd place finisher Foud Serhan won £89,175, while Yevgeniy Timoshenko who was eliminated in 3rd position, won £55,350.

The single biggest mistake beginner Omaha players make is that they are unable to shift gears from the Hold\'em mindset. A classic example is thinking you can play a single hole card to make a five-card hand. This isn\'t the case and you can find yourself losing a large pot if you ever make this mistake. In Omaha, you must play TWO of your hole cards to make a winning hand. Here\'s an example of a typical Omaha hand:

• You're dealt Ad Qh 5s 9h
• The board reads Ac 6h 3h Jh 5h

Do you have a Queen high flush or two pair (the weaker hand)? You're holding two pair and will likely lose to another player who may have two hearts in their hole cards. Again, this is an easy mistake to make when you've played Hold'em for many years but one that must be avoided at all costs.

Types of Omaha games

In addition to the game described above, which is commonly called Omaha High there\'s also Omaha Hi/Lo (aka Omaha Split). In this game the betting rounds are the same but a player can win the pot with the high hand or the low hand and in most cases the pot is split. Strategy for this game is more complex than Hold\'em due to the increased number of possible hands when players have four hole cards. While we can\'t detail the strategy in depth on this article, make sure to read our follow up Omaha Hi/Lo strategy entry.

Unlike Hold\'em where the most popular version is No-Limit, you will mostly see Pot-Limit or Limit versions of Omaha being played. While some sites like Full Tilt Poker now offer NL Omaha games, it\'s best for the beginner to start with Limit. Omaha can be a bankroll-busting experience in a hurry if you\'re not prepared for this exciting game! The pace of the limit version of the game also allows a new player time to think about his or her options without risking a large bet each time.

So if you\'re looking for a new challenge after playing Hold\'em you should seriously consider Omaha. It\'s a fun and very exciting game with enough action to satisfy even the craziest poker junkie. Beware however, that the game takes time to learn and you must avoid so many of the traps that newer/weaker players coming from a Hold\'em background make when transitioning to Omaha. To learn more about Omaha strategy, please read our Omaha Hi/Lo Strategy Guide and our Omaha Strategy Guide.

Loose, maniac, or rock?

Some of the easier reads are made easier when a player sits down at an online poker room and proceeds to play every single hand to the river and quickly lose a large amount of cash. Some reads are more subtle and take time to fully compute. Let\'s take a look at the following example:

Johnny has been playing 2/4 NL Hold\'em at Titan Poker on the same table for an hour. He\'s watched a player named Xmode play for the same hours time and take forever on every call, raise, or fold. He doesn\'t type anything into the chat box and sometimes, even times out and has his hand folded. Wow, what a terrible player right? Maybe, maybe not. Xmode may have a slow Internet connection, or he may be trying to read a starting hand value chart as he plays for the first time. Of course, he could just be a 75-year-old Grandfather who\'s as solid as a rock and only plays the nuts.

So how do you figure out whether Xmode is a donkey, a rock, or just a geriatric Pappy who\'s playing on his Grandson\'s account? While there\'s no sure-fire way to know for sure, you can do a little digging to find out. First of all, some sites display the connection strength of players so that\'s the first thing to check. If it\'s low, it\'s likely the connection that\'s causing his slow play.

You can try to start a conversation with him in the chat box. Don\'t be nasty and tell him how bad his play is or how slow he is. He may just agree with you and leave! Take a look at his city (if the poker room shows this information) and ask him about the weather. It doesn\'t matter what topic you choose just start a conversation. He may or may not answer but if he does, you can usually be assured that his connection is fine.

You can also pull up the hand history (you may want to take a five minute break to do this) and look at the hands he\'s shown down. This information is self-explanatory and will help you as you continue to play with him. If you\'re playing a tournament go to a site such as SharkScope and enter his player name. If he\'s a long-term loser with a negative ROI, you have yourself a prime target there.

Conversely, a player that sits and makes instant decisions but rarely plays a hand is almost always a rock. Stay away from them unless you have a really big hand. If a player has only played 6 hands in a session and plays to river every time, again you\'re likely against a solid player who rarely bluffs or shows down the second best hand. Steer clear if you can.

So what about your table image? Simple, take this information that you\'ve just read and reverse it. Regardless of your connection speed, fake it and tell the viewers in the chat window that you\'re having issues. Make quick calls and raises if you\'re on a bluff, or perhaps only when you\'re holding the nuts. Switch gears often and make the subtle changes to your game to send whatever message you choose. As you perfect this skill, you can truly change your table image from table to table as you continue to play online poker.

The Federal Reserve System and The Department of the Treasury both admit that UGIEA is confusing and will be very difficult for financial institutions to follow properly. Frank's bill will hopefully bring some clarification to the daunting bill that in addition to making most forms of online gaming in America illegal has also made the online gaming environment in the United States ambiguous as ever.

Another facet of the bill would be the requirement of an administrative law judge to define exactly what is unlawful internet gambling and for a report on economic impact and consequences on American financial institutions. This bill is similar to an earlier attempt by Frank to bring some clarification to UGIEA. The last attempt failed to make it to the table from Frank's own committee debating the issue.

The semi final match of the tournament brought together Steve \"stevesbets\" Jacobs against online player \"zivziv\" in what zivziv recalls was a very tough match. Jacobs is a very fast player and zivziv undoubtedly was having trouble making good poker decision in all the fast play. Steve Jacobs would go on to defeat zivziv and then take on ElkY. ElkY (Bertrand Grospellier) is actually a world renowned video gamer and could easily keep up with Jacobs speed in the championship match. In fact at one point ElkY held a three to one chip lead, unfortunately for him he couldn\'t hold on and Steve Jacobs went on to win the title and the $560,000 first prize. Below are the top ten finishers in the heads up tournament:

1. stevesbets (United States) $560,000
2. Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier (France) $320,000
3. zivziv (Israel) $160,000
4. Gavin Griffin (United States) $160,000
5. Vanessa "Lady Maverick" Rousso (United States) $100,000
6. Victor Ramdin (United States) $100,000
7. PAW717 (United States) $100,000
8. brianm15 (Unites States) $100,000

Action for this tournament will be concluding tonight as the final thirty player\'s battle it out for the bulk of the prize pool. At the time of this writing the chip counts are as follows:

1. Numbass 4,786,592
2. VuaXi'Tô' 4,051,181
3. QuasiFiction 3,595,863
4. I'am_Sound 3,219,852
5. tpreston 2,555,949
6. JT3013 2,461,607
7. BJKing 2,437,022
8. tmmy2win 2,267,054
9. Humberto B (Humberto Brenes) 2,150,683
10. JSchnett 2,000,727

Grospellier, the other remaining PokerStars team member currently has over one point six million chips and is in twelfth place going into tonight\'s action. You can watch all the action and get live updates throughout the night at the PokerStars Blog.

Rather than battling it out themselves, the challenge is for the Ultimate Bet Pro's to teach poker students to be an excellent player and then those players will take each other on. Annie Duke and Phil Helmuth will be instructing 18 different players. Players were selected as part of a contest hosted by Ultimate Bet.com. Potential players created an audition video and submitted it to Ultimate Bet. In the video, players had to plead their case as to why they are the best choice for a reality show about poker.

Ultimate Bet also held a live audition at this years World Series of Poker where they were able to get around a lot of great players at once. In addition to the WSOP auditions and the send in tapes, Ultimate Bet gave away a few spots to people who qualified via online tournaments.

The show has already begun filming and will begin airing on October 27th on Fox Sports Net.

Essentially, what the poker room is doing is taking the prize pool and dividing it by the number of \"seats\", or entries to the main event that you\'re trying to qualify for. So if the tournament you\'re trying to qualify for requires a $1,000 entry fee and you\'re playing a $100.00 satellite, then for each 10 players there will be one seat available ($100.00 X 10 entries = $1,000.00). So if there are 105 players in the event, ten seats would be awarded and the remaining $500 in cash would distributed to the players that finished 11th, 12th, and so on.

Unlike a tournament however, where you are playing to win and take home the big prize, satellite strategy is fundamentally different. If you\'re in 5th place in a satellite that awards 10 seats, you should avoid any big confrontations as the bubble approaches. Think about it, in this scenario first place is the same award as tenth place. So there\'s no need for you to risk chips needlessly (so fold that weak ace from middle position!). Just as in a regular tournament the bubble players will sooner or later be forced to play a marginal hand and hopefully, lost to a larger stack so that you have secured your seat to the bigger event.

Early play in a satellite should not differ too much from a standard tournament. Your primary goal at this point remains the same, which is to chip up and be in a good position to make moves on weaker (smaller stacked) opponents as the middle point of the tournament approaches. Again, it\'s important to note at this point in a satellite that your play should remain steady just as if it were a standard tournament.

At the middle point, you can typically expect the remaining entrants to be relatively solid poker players. Of course, donks can run deep in poker satellites just like standard tournaments so be careful to try and spot these players also. From this point on you must focus on the donks and the weaker stacks but still maintain a solid starting hand/positional strategy to ensure you\'re in a good spot as the bubble approaches. The best tactic at this point is use your reads and exploit patterns that the weaker players have demonstrated.

As the bubble approaches, remember what you\'ve already learned in this article and that\'s to avoid unnecessary confrontations. Even holding a premium hand like KK may be a wise lay down with only one player to the bubble in a qualifier situation. This is contrary to what you have learned in cash games but again this isn\'t a cash game! Take the following example:

You hold KK in middle position and an early player raises 5X the BB. Hand for hand play is in effect as after only one more elimination, you\'ve earned a seat to the big one. The raiser has 2X the chips you have and can eliminate you if he wins the hand; you\'re currently 6th in chips. Do you call, raise, or fold here? In the author\'s humble opinion, a fold is the right move. Early position raises from a chip leader at this point usually indicate strength. He may not hold AA but he could hit a set, a flush, or any two cards to take your Kings. In other words live to fight another battle, the odds of a smaller stacked opponent going out on the bubble are much greater than you getting chipped off due to blinds at this point.

So you must remember to shift gears and also your logic during a satellite. If you\'re able to effectively do this, your bankroll will thank you for it!

All important features work, but there is still some work left, though you will probably not even notice :)

What's new?

First of all, we have recently said goodbye to a couple of poker rooms we used to promote. We decided it's better to focus on 12 at max, that way we simply have more and better opportunities as we are able to give less rooms more exposure. As a visitor you will certainly going to feel the benefits of this soon.

Secondly, we have been implementing many new features. I like to specially thank the crew (Kurt, Bernd and Max) at Max Poker Bonus for making this possible plus their support and patience :)

New features include:

• Improved structure of the site
• Live Poker Tournament Schedule (Updated every hour + filter)
  More rooms will be added to the schedule soon.
• Poker Articles (Blog, which finally makes it possible to submit comments)
  Feel free to post your comments (and suggestions) and let us know what you think of the new site. Wanna write a guest blog? Just let us know and we set it up.
• Updated Poker Club (Log-in option on the homepage.)
• Improved Bonus Codes page with sub pages
  Have a look at the Titan Poker Bonus page.

So... many new things, a lot more information and I am pretty sure that I have forgotten to mention a lot more. Also, much stuff around the site has been updated and/or improved, for instance the Leader Board, which soon will start again. Have a look at the history... Is your name in it? Congrats :)

See you at the tables,

Giorgio

Let's dig a little deeper to give you a clear view of what I am talking about. Jackpot Sit 'n Gos have an additional prize for winning a given amount in a row. For instance, you will get a bonus of $50.000+ when you win 6 Fort Knox Sit 'n Gos in a row. Honestly, this is a little hard and you will need variance of the cards to be a on your side, but it\'s definitely doable, in fact it\'s been done many times before. Also, when you manage to make 6 top 2 finishes you will receive a nice consolation prize of $750.

The reason I personally love these type of tourneys is that you have 3 places paid out of 6, instead of 2 like in regular Sit 'n Gos. As I am a real bubble-boy when playing shorthanded Sit 'n Gos, I now tend to break even many more times because of this pay-out structure. I also made the consolation prize a few times, but unfortunately I never managed to hit the jackpot!

So, as mentioned already, the iPoker Network offers three different type of Jackpot Sit 'n Gos:

Dirty Dozen Jackpot Sit n' Go

• Buy-in $2+$0,40
• 12 players, 2 tables SNG
• Jackpot Win 4 in a row for a $2000 prize
• Pay-out $12 / $6 / $3,60 / $2,40

Maui Jackpot Sit n' Go

• Buy-in $5+$1
• 1 table, 10 handed SNG
• Jackpot Win 5 in a row for a $15.000 prize (progressive weekly)
• Consolation prize 5 top finishes pays $200
• Pay-out $25 / $15 / $10

Rio Jackpot Sit n' Go

• Buy-in $20+$3,50
• 1 table, 6 handed SNG
• Jackpot Win 6 in a row for a $25.000 prize (progressive +$10K weekly)
• Consolation prize 6 top finishes pays $750
• Pay-out $60 / $36 / $24

Fort Knox Jackpot Sit n' Go

• Buy-in $50+$9
• 1 table, 6 handed SNG
• Jackpot Win 6 in a row for a $50.000 prize (progressive +$10K weekly)
• Consolation prize 6 top finishes pays $750
• Pay-out $150 / $90 / $60

As you can see the jackpot prizes are quite high, but they'll rise $10.000 progressively each week the jackpot doesn't go out. It occasionally happens that the jackpot passes the $100K mark, imagine winning that amount in a day :) Before you start playing, I advice you to read over the terms and conditions at the poker room of your choice. They are not really bad or tricky, but there are a couple of things (like etiquette at the table) to keep in mind while playing, so you won't be surprised later on.

Because of this you see that many players re-deposit, while it's so much better to step down if you're serious at becoming better. I speak out of experience, but recently began with basic bankroll management and I can say it really helps me a lot overall. Let me explain what happened prior to this.

I have played a lot of poker for a long time, initially freerolls, but I made the move to playing poker for real money within a year after I started playing. Loosing becomes a much bigger factor when playing poker for money, but it happens. Every online poker player will have periods that the odds are against them, these periods are called down swings. It's hard, it's frustrating and can cost you a lot of your money, specially when you're not managing your bankroll. Hardest of all is definitely to avoid getting on tilt when you constantly keep loosing when having pot odds.

To overcome down swings you should, no... you must do proper bankroll management! This way you can take a loss two, or even more. The best part, you can play over "the long haul", because that's what matters for getting positive odds in poker. Sure you will see yourself being sucked out occasionally, but over a longer period of time the odds change in your favor when playing the right hands.

With bankroll management you play in levels of limits-heights dependent to your bankroll. Once you drop below a certain amount of money, you will also have to move down in limits. For instance, if you loose a 95% winning hand when playing $5/10, but still have $99,000 left, you won't care about it and playing poker becomes a lot less stressful.

So, knowing all this might mean you have to step down a few levels from where you're playing online poker now, but the benefits of good bankroll management are simple, you won't go broke! Trust me, your bankroll will grow, thus you will move up soon enough, if you win consequently. Below you will find a few guidelines, I'd say hit the printer friendly button (printer icon) stick it to your wall next to your monitor.

This is not really an article as you are used to, but since Scott Brown vanished from the world of online poker and has been spotted on XBox Live lately, plus the fact that I personally don't have the time to blog frequently, we're seriously looking for a blogger.

Of course it would make sense if you are one of our regulars, because that way you know your way around, maybe play in our leader board and have some material to blog about. Other subjects to write about could be poker tournaments online, live poker tournaments, for instance one of the major events like the World Series or the EPT.

You will get $10 in a poker account per article to start with, payments will be made in the first week of a new month. Later on we will evaluate and see if there's more space to lift the payments up.

The only thing we want is someone who has superb English grammar skills, so we don't loose time reviewing articles.

So, if you're having fun at writing and want to play poker for real money... this is your chance! Please contact us if you believe to have what it takes and if you're seriously interested for a longer period of time.

I decided to enter a $2+$0 satellite and about 200 or so people entered while I waited for it to start... As I got my seat at my table, some people we re-buying some extra chips, but I decided not to do so at the start and see how the cards would fall. People at my table were "Dvautl", "Hem70601" and others! A full table of 9 people I think.

My first hand was A-7 and there were 3 players calling the 20 BB. The flop came down, K-J-T and it was checked around. The turn brought a J and it got checked around again. I feared someone could be slow playing three of a kind Jacks, so I checked my hand as well. The river was a T and it got checked around once again. I won the hand with two pair and my Ace high. It's great to win the 1st pot, even though it was just a small one! So from my starting 1000 chips I went up to 1040.

The second hand brought A-8 and I just called the Big Blind, together with 3 other limpers. The flop brought K-9-7, all rainbow and I checked since it was all checked to me. The turn brought a J and someone made a pot sized bet. Everyone folded and so did I.

The third hand was another Ace, this time it was A-6. I was thinking: I might get lucky getting an Ace hand for the 3rd time in a row, so I limped into the pot together with 4 more people. The flop brought A-7-5 and I decided to make a pot sized bet. Everybody but one player folded and the turn brought a 6, giving me two pair. So I made another pot bet and it got called. The river brought a 3 and with no flush or straight draws I made a final pot sized bet. My opponent called and showed A-6... a split pot! Everyone's happy splitting the blinds and bets.

Blinds now went up to 15-30 as I got dealt Q-7. I called the BB and the flop came down as J-7-6. I paired my 7 and someone called. "Nneff" betted 30, I called and so does one other person. The turn brought a 3 and again "Nneff" made a bet of 30 chips. I called and so did the other person. The river brought a K and it got checked around. "Nneff" got his King on the river, helping him pick up the pot.

A small flat spot of cards came were I was getting nothing really worth playing, so I folded and waited on the good cards. I got J-8 and called the BB of 30. There were 5 others in the pot and the flop brought down A-7-5. Someone betted just over the pot making me and everyone else fold.

The blinds went up again, with the rounds now being only five minutes. You really have to make good and strong moves not getting blinded out...

I was sitting on the Big Blind and I got dealt 5-2 off suit. If I could check I would have, but someone moved all-in for 820, so I folded there just like everyone else. He just took my blinds.

Again I hit a small period of rubbish cards, so I folded and watched other peoples' betting ways and noticed a few things. People were making pot sized bets when they hit the flop and just betting the blinds if they had some kind of straight draw or flush draw! Watching other people bet is also great... After a while I got Q-9 and it's my Small Blind, thinking: "I'm going to see a flop if nobody raises", but someone pushed his chips in for 790 and got one caller. That made me fold and the other person made a Full House Sevens over Aces. NH and GG was said and one more person was eliminated from my table. The seat got filled up with yet another person who maybe was hoping to get to the WSOP in Las Vegas.

I decided that, as the blinds were going up fast, I would re-buy for $2 to get another 1000 chips. With the blinds now at 50-100 I had to make it and not very much after I got dealt pocket 5's. Someone pushed all-in for 300. I called on the button and everyone else folded, so being heads up he showed pocket 2's. I showed my 5's, having the edge and they held up. Another person gone from my table! A few hands down the line I got A-K and someone pushed all his chips in, about 250. I called and everybody else folded. My A-K held up again as I hit the K on the turn...

Folding again and picking my moments I finally got dealt pocket T's. Since it was my BB, someone tried to steal it by pushing in all his 700 chips. Everyone else folded around to me and I decided to call him with pot odds and maybe being in front already. He showed A-7 of hearts. The flop brought J-T-4, the turn a Jack and I don't remember the river since I already made my full house, eliminating another person from the table. The blinds now went up to 100-200 and I got pocket 8's. Someone raised to 400 and I decided to call. The flop brought 7-2-2 and it was checked to me, thinking he would raise on 7 or a 2. I made a pot sized bet for about 800 and he folded. I thought he might had A-K or something like J-T.

The 5-minute break started and I saw people buying 1500 add-ons for $2. I decided not to do so, as I felt I had enough chips already, plus I also made a re-buy before. I had 3584 in chips and with the blinds at 100-200 I was OK for a bit.

But as the poker tournament continued, the blinds were up to 150-300, now including an ante of 25 chips. I was thinking to myself that I could better have added-on, but hey... you learn from your mistakes :)

Folding my cards, as I had nothing to play with, I noticed that the antes were hurting my stack. I had to keep folding, even my BB's and SB's, because the small stakes kept going all-in and I had nothing to call them down with.

When I got dealt K-9 of hearts, I decided to push the remains of my chip stack in the middle, hoping to pick up the blinds, but 2 people called my bet: A-K and A-Q. An Ace hits the flop and with no hearts on board, no gut shot straight draw, I got eliminated in 91st place. I realized I should have added-on, but like I already said... you have to learn from your mistakes, especially if you want to make it to the World Series of Poker!

The Poker For Free freeroll, about 90 players were registered? I think due to a small error with GMT+1 hour... Getting seated at the table, it's my 1st visit to Poker Nordica and everything looks great, the cards are nice to read, the players sitting well, 10 minute blinds so a good game is going to be in hand. For the 1st blind limit I didn't see 1 picture card, not even a pocket pair, so I really had no choice but to fold away...

I get a hand of Q-J suited of clubs, I raised up to about 60 which was 3 times the big blind, and I got 4 callers. Not really what I wanted to see, but the flop came down J-T-8 rainbow.

I made a pot sized bet hoping to take the pot there and then, didn't wanna see no more cards. I got one person calling me, "Forsenking", the turn brought a 5 so that was ok. I bet about 300 chips and got called again, the river was a Q, now giving me 2 pairs. I check because of the straight draw with "Forsenking" pushing nearly all his chip stack into the pot. I don't know but it screamed 9... giving him a straight which had me battered... I decided to fold with him showing 8-9... a good fold for me.

A few more hands down the line and me with about 700 in chips... I was in the Big Blind with 30 in and 3-2 suited of hearts. I check, the flop comes down 4-2-2, nobody's betting, and then someone puts a 200 bet in. I thought he might have got a 4? I raised him about 200 on top and he puts me all-in, thinking that maybe he has A-2, but with me being so committed to the pot I had to call him. I think he showed A-J, but the turn brought another 2! I made quads and the river was a 3 to add a little bit of salt to his wound. I was very happy that I made quads and won a pot :)

Then the card dead part came again trying to wait it out. I got dealt K-J, I thought a raise up would get rid of people but I got one caller. The flop brought nothing, so thought a bet would put him off, but he called. The turn brought nothing as well, he checked and I thought maybe he's weak and pushed the rest of my chip stack in the middle. After a short think he called and showed pocket T's. I needed a King or Jack on the river... which didn't come.

I had loads of fun though, and there was some great action... Some of the people at my table were "Forsenking", "Pokeristu232" and "BestBoy1", it was great playing you all and I look forward to playing you all again soon! Don't forget to register for the leader board!

PokerStars

I'm still playing PokerStars as well, I really enjoy this site as there's something that keeps making me go back to it. I think the play money S&G's are what do it for me! Not a huge fan of the new freeroll they got, but if you want some very deep stack playing, and you have lady luck on your side I would go for it. I can be found playing the S&G's 9 person table's or the 18 person tables.

Live Poker

Playing the other night (Monday night) I was getting annoyed of the amount of people that was limping in. We were having like 7-way pots all the time, while I had big cards or pocket pairs. I was raising 3 times the BB almost every hand. I say that it was annoying because of the "new people" that started playing poker, but I was getting really frustrated getting big cards hitting the flop, betting big and not getting some kind of gut shot, funky draw because they limped in with any 2 cards and stayed in the pot... Guess what, last night I got beat sooooo much but lucky? Questionable hands... But that's poker I guess. I came out 4th of about 15 people, so not too bad.

Playing CD Poker is very enjoyable, I really like the game play. I've been playing cash on there for a while now, and it seems good, there's not so much "fishing" even on the small stakes, and people respect bets. I've been up and down from my starting $10. I just like to play, really love to see flops with good cards, and sometimes the small connecting 2-3 4-5 kind of hands.

The only bad beat I've had is when I had A-A and the flop came A-T-K all of spades, giving me trips. The next card came, a Q also of spades, and you can guess what the other player had in his hand, the Jack of spades... A lil frustrated by it maybe, but I really didn't put him on a Jack, nor a flush draw because he checked and when I bet min, he just flat called the checked the turn. I bet min, he called, and you would have thought he was weak or maybe say on a King? But then the final card came, I tad doughts now, but to be bluffed on nothing maybe? And throwing such a good hand away... I was already pot committed in some sense, as I only took $3 dollars to the table and maybe had $2 in there already! But he was happy with his royal flush (and my money) and I learned another lesson on poker! So even though I may have lost, I learned something in the process!

The freeroll tourneys are great, they do fill up really quickly though, so you really have to sit and wait for them to open for registration, but the game play is great. Everyone plays proper and respects bets even on the freerolls, and its quite easy to make the money if you play good cards, think about the way and how much your betting! Plus there seems to be some very good SNG's and some satellites I want to play in, when I next get $$$ on my account, to see how I can do on them? Seat at the WSOP?? I can only wish.... But you never know!

PokerStars

I'm still playing the PokerStars freerolls and the NL heads up games, they are really fun, and great to play... I've made it into the (Play) Money loads of times, its just a great way, I feel, to brush up on the skills for when your at the final table heads up against people, live or online.

Live Play

I still haven't played much live because all the leagues are finishing or changing days that I can't get to, but my other league has now finished and my good friend Ben won it. He plays good poker! So well done Ben, I think I came in about 4th or 5th place, so not too bad waiting for the new league to start. I've missed a few of the other leagues days due to being busy, so I've got no chance of winning them now, but I'm still going to play for the practice and just for the fun, you never know if I will all of them from now until I finish. Maybe I can get to 3rd place or something, I will have to look at the leader board to find out!

Full Tilt Poker holds a couple of freerolls through the day and they all fill up quite quick. I've been ranking anywhere from 47th place to 23rd of about 3000 people, being at my best, because the blinds soon start creeping up on you. But the other day I found my self at 20th place, 10 away from the money with a noticeable chip stack that wasn't being killed from the blinds. I was playing my blinds and just sitting tight being just 10 away from the money.

I got A-A and made a pot size raise, and got a person push all in. Now most people would instantly call but A-A can lose just as much as 7-2 in my eyes, although the odds seemed very good for me. I did call and he showed K-K in his hand, so as long as no runner-runner or anything funny like that appears I would be good. Damn, a K on the flop making his 3 of a kind, thinking I'm out I watched the turn being blank and then the river….. ACE! Three of a kind Ace's, yes!

Now I'm very comfy in chips and I can sit and play my blinds only, unless I get some very good cards. Now being just 3 away from the money, there's a 3 way all in call on the other table, thinking this was great, but the chip leader had the most chips, so he wasn't going out. I was hoping that he would take both the all-in calls out, but he only took one of them out, so that left 2 more to go.

Down to 12 people with both tables shorthanded. The blinds were pushing up on people and soon enough I've was In The Money! I think the 10th place paid $8? As we all were on 1 table now, the blinds increased took out the short stacks. If anybody pushed all-in, I would fold and let the other people take them out. Now it was all about how much money I could get and the money went up with each person going out! Down to 9 people… then 8… then 7… I was thinking great, I'm going to make some good $$$ for free.

6th place soon fell, also that was a A-A hand losing to J-10, hitting a straight Jack high. So now I'm guaranteed at least $18 and I got dealt A-K. This was definitely my pushing in hand. I got called by A-Q and he hit his Queen, so I'm out... but $18 for free is great and I've learned now to really play my hands hard while the blinds are low, so I can have a comfy chip lead and not worry about the blinds once they increase.

My $18 has turned into $24 by now and I'm going to keep playing micro stakes poker and just build up my bankroll, and of course I'm going to keep playing the freerolls.

CD Poker

Playing CD Poker for cash is great just like VC Poker, which I also have played the players are of a good quality and they respect bets, the SNG's are great also, I will have more on this when I've played more hands but its very good play and I like the layout and the players are great I would recommend a account here!

PokerStars

If you want some really long, deep stack and challenging poker games, then I recommend the Hubble freeroll on PokerStars. It gets about 12,000 people that enter and seems to go on forever. The best position I've got to until now, is about 3,000 or so. The blinds are set-up nicely, and there's plenty of action. I love playing this freeroll. I'm also still playing the 9/18 person play money Sit 'n Gos, trying to reach my target of 50,000 play chips. I think these serve great to learn on how to make the best bets and reading online tells.

Live Play

So, one of my leagues has now finished and I'm down to just my local league which I really enjoy playing. I'm playing there with my friends and I enjoy the banter that goes on, although some people don't like the talk at the tables. I always find something to talk about, and I don't think it affects my play at all to be honest, because I've done this from day one. I have missed one week, because I had to go to London for a audition, but I shall be playing again tonight and I need to finish in the top 3 to put me in 4th place. With prizes going to the first three positions, puts me right on target with another eight weeks to go.

I've also noticed that I'm starting to play a lot of different hands lately and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. People don't expect you to be playing certain hands. I fold when I miss the flop and it only costs me the blinds. I've been playing a lot of cards, like 5-6, 9-10, 2-3, that kind of thing. I don't know if this is good or bad for my game, so if anybody has any views on this, please use the forum and let me know what you think.

Playing at PokerStars I thought of entering the NLHE Heads up $1000 + $50 (play money). So I registered and waited for it to start, thinking to myself: "people will go all-in all the time being heads up..." What I noticed was people raising a lot and hoping to hit the flop and others having small pocket pairs in hand.

The best way I find is to bet small amounts, unless I have the absolute nuts. I always try to see a cheap flop, as then you know if you have hit it or not, making my hand playable. Also watch out for the bluffs. I had one guy re-raise me when I had 3 of a kind 9's. He re-raised on nothing hoping me to fold my hand, maybe he thought I had a weak hand, but even my way of betting should have rang bells telling him I was holding something strong!

4096 people entered the tournament and I came 80th. I think that's amazing, a really good position. My strategy worked out about 4/5 heads up matches, but the competition became so much harder closer to the top. I'm going to play these more often, they're fun and its a great way to work on your live play when playing heads up!

CD Poker

I am playing at CD Poker lately and enjoy the colours and table layouts. I haven't played with real cash on here yet, but I will soon. I enjoy the Sit 'n Gos that are going on but they fill up very quick, so that's a thing to keep in mind. Other than that it's a great site with great promotions and with the Poker For Free bonus you'll get $20 extra on first deposit. I recommend everyone to get an account over at CD Poker. I think they are very enjoyable and if you're not playing for real money, there are plenty of freerolls as well, including Poker For Free's monthly private freerolls!

Live Play - The Bells - Monday night league!

This was my first time playing in another pub after they've changed venue. Everyone was getting back in their flow, but I forgot how some of the people played. I was just playing my hands and getting an OK chip stack. When I was dealt A-3 of hearts with a A-4-5 (two hearts) flop I pushed quite a bit into the pot. The turn came with a 9 and the river a 4, giving me two pair A's and 4's, but not completing my flush.

The other guy turned a full house 4's full of 9's and that ended that hand. I didn't think anybody would have stayed in the pot after my 1st bet, but I guess I've got to be really careful for this from now on!

Loaded Nightclubs - Wednesday night league!

Game 1

Playing the 1st of 2 games, as we missed a week last week, I sat down to a full table of 10 all the same faces. I enjoy playing in this league as it's in a really nice venue, with a very nice table. Food and drink are also available, even at 10PM at night you can get a full English breakfast if you want.

Anyways, playing poker I found myself playing a lot of suited connectors and it was working really well. I was getting lucky and hitting many flops, just waiting for people to bet into me, then either flat calling or raising over the top to pressure them. It was working and we were getting down to the final 3 on my table. I had a good chip stack, maybe even 1st in chips.

It was very close between me and a guy called Matt. Another friend, Chris, moved all-in for 3000 in chips. I called with 5-6 of diamonds. I know… maybe a silly call but with about 25,000 in chips you might understand why I called. Suited connectors worked for me all night, but not with this hand. He turned A-Q and hit an Ace on the all black flop, so that was me dead with no outs. I lost 3000 chips there but still had 22,000 chips left over, leaving me still good.

Later, calling his all-in with K-T hitting a King and knocked Chris out. I was now heads up with Matt, just waiting on cards to come until I got dealt J-T unsuited hitting the flop. I got called, then called again thinking he might have held a big pocket pair. It turned out he had A-K, so I won the pot right there, which took him down to about 10,000. On the next hand I received pocket T's. I moved him all-in pre flop. He called with something like A-6 and my Tens held up. I won the 1st game!

Game 2

Playing game 2 now with a table of 6 this time. The 1st hand I got pocket rockets (A-A) and raised up to 200 from the 50 big blind. I got re-raised to 1000 and I put the guy all-in straight away. He turned over J-T suited and I showed him my Aces making him look a little wild. The flop brought him a ten, so now he had some outs there, but my pocket rockets held up and I took someone out on the 1st hand.

After that it was the same kind of luck from the 1st game. I took someone out on 2 pairs 7's and T's, then made it to heads up playing again against a good player named Ben. He respects bets and plays very good poker. I lost to him but a second place was just as good. I'm now in the top 3 of the league!

So, after a long time of getting beaten on BestPoker I decided to give up on playing Internet poker for a while, but later on I decided that 2008 was going to be a great year for poker, so I eventually logged into my BestPoker account again to play some PLAY money SNG's. I know play money is quite a different story, but still I've managed to win something just about every game I've played. I definitely made the last 3 all of the times and I'm now getting some great cards again.

My mind's currently more refreshed, I've recovered from losing a bit of money and am now back on track to play money again. So... a little advise from someone that knows, if you do lose a BIG pot, turn off your laptop/PC and take a break from it all together. Play live to stay focused, but just don't play online...

My live league has just started up again after changing venues. I'm now playing in my local nightclub, so I will have more news about how my games coming along as of this Sunday! I apologize that my report is really short this time, but I will have more to tell next time!

Happy new year,

Scott

Because of the nature of this site, Poker For Free, we see many players choosing for free online poker money and instant poker bonuses. Let tell you a little bit about them in a nut shell, and how you can get the maximum value out of each of them.

No Deposit Bonus

The no deposit bonus is usually an instant poker given to welcome new players. As it says, there is no deposit needed to get some free cash into your poker bankroll, thus it's very interesting for players new to the game of poker.

Unfortunately, many beginning poker players don't see the real value of free money. They simply forget that it is real and blow it away just like it's play money, by playing impatiently and above their personal level - not thinking about bankroll management at all!

VC Poker offers one of the most generous no deposit bonuses in the industry, in fact you are able to get a total of $35 free. At first you'll get $10 for signing-up and later on, after generating 2000 Action Points, they will add another $25 to your account.

To get the most out of it you have to treat the free online poker money seriously. It's wise to play cash games solely, so at least you'll have a decent shot at generating enough Action Points. Be prepared that this might take a while when playing micro stakes poker.

Instant Poker Bonus

An instant poker bonus, or also know as direct cash bonuses are given to players for making a (small) deposit. This bonus is paid out instantly, and can be used to poker directly. For instance, Poker For Free has negotiated a special deal with CD Poker and Titan Poker, all players signing up with them, and making a deposit will get a $20 instant poker bonus plus the regular first deposit bonus. Party Poker has a similar bonus, but there you\'ve got to make a deposit of at least $50 to receive $25 free.

Though, in general there is one problem with instant poker bonuses. Players make really small deposits just to get some free poker cash and generally tend to forget that they are wasting a one time first deposit bonus. In fact, it\'s adviced to make a significant first deposit to get the most out of it. Let me give you a couple of examples:

CD Poker - $20 + 150% up to $500

• Deposit $20
• Receive $40
• First Deposit Bonus $30

Recommended:

• Deposit $200 (or more up to $500)
• Receive $220
• First Deposit Bonus $600

Note: you may withdraw your initial deposit at any time.

First Deposit Bonus

Basically you\'re better of with instant poker bonuses as explained above, since you\'ll be able to benefit from both the deals. Unfortunately not all online poker rooms promoted on Poker For Free offer them and sometimes you want to play at a specific room to gain from a certain promotion. Again, and I keep repeating this, don\'t waste your precious first time deposit bonus!

Reload Bonus

The reload bonus is very valuable to frequent poker players. This might not be your biggest concern if you are new to the game, but if you're a daily poker player and make regular deposits, then this is something to take in mind when choosing an online poker room.

Most recommended rooms with reload bonuses are VC Poker and Poker Nordica. VC Poker offers their players a regular reload bonus up to $3,000 per year. You can receive up to $250 each and every month. Simply enter the relevant code as listed on the VC Poker website in conjunction with one of your monthly deposits and you will receive a generous 25% bonus on that deposit amount.

• Visit the VC Poker website

PokerStars

Well I think they have got rid of the British_Irish freeroll as I can't find it :( so now I'm playing the $50.000 freeroll tournaments, which seems so be very hard with 10.000 players entering, so I tend to stick to the play money SNG's trying to reach my goal of 100.000 play chips before 25th December. I think when I last looked I had about 30,000, other than that I haven't really played much for the love of my new poker site.

BestPoker!!!

[BestPoker has become my poker site of choice after not playing it for so long. I got $10 put on to my account, and looked around for the best way to make money. I found the $1.00 + $0.20 six person SNG (turbo) with 2 places paid, I won and lost on this, sometimes a 1st, sometimes a 2nd, and sometimes nothing. At my lowest I went down to $2.40, just enough for 2 more SNG's, but then I looked at sitting down to the cash games, $0.05 - $0.10 blinds, 4 persons per table. I took my last $2.40 to the table and waited on some good cards. People really respect the bets, and they don't chase, so I could bet at my hand or play the cards on the table if it was all checked to me. I was soon back up to $5 thinking to myself: if I play down to $3 then leave, but to my amazement I was soon up to $10, which matched my original starting bank roll :) Thinking that's enough for 1 night I left the table with $11.65.

Sitting down again, can of Coke and some dry roasted nuts. I load up BestPoker again and sit down with the $1.65 and waited on my good cards, suited connectors or pairs. The good thing is that you can always see a flop cheap, as nobody really raises unless they have AA, KK or something like it.

Well, playing again I bet out if its all checked around to me, and fold thinking I've got top pair or something, when in fact sometimes I was just 9 high ;) But I was soon up to about $5 again, and just waited for the cards to come to make my move with. You can use your bigger stack against the smaller stacks as well, because they don't want their money to be wiped out! Still playing I soon went up to $10, making a total bank roll of $20, thus a $10 profit!!! Leaving the table when I was at about $13 dollars, looking at my bank roll having $23 dollars in it gave me a good feeling.

Again last night (Wednesday November 28th) I sat down to BestPoker, same can of Coke, and nuts (thinking these could be lucky) and took my $3 to the table. I did exactly the same as the last time, seeing flops, folding if it was bet at or putting a small bet to see were I stood. By small bet I mean $0.10, and most of the time this was enough to make people fold. But if didn't, then you know to fold if you haven't got anything. Anyways, I was playing my cards last night and I got up to about $9. I was thinking this would be the last few hands to play as it became a bit late, but then I got dealt 2 cards of Diamonds, not remembering the exact cards though. I thought, oh well... let me just see the flop, which consisted of all Diamonds!!!

Now there was a guy here who had been showing bluffs all night long, and had taken a $6 bet earlier which I think put him a bit on tilt. I raised to $2 thinking I'm just going to pick up the blinds with my flush, but he raised me all in for about $9, almost the same as I had. I thought about it for a split second and called, thinking I was beaten though the percentage was 100% to me! He was drawing dead on the flop with just 7 high. What was he thinking??? So with a pot of just under $20 I was like WOW! $40 in the bank roll, that's a $30 profit. Then over the chat box this guy said: OMG how could you've made that call, that's such a bad call :( I replied that it's a flush! be careful with your money ;)

Playing away I realize I have $25 at the table, and decided to leave. So I now have $45 in my poker bank roll from a starting $10 :D I'm very happy with this result, and it shows that you don't need to play big ball poker to make a decent profit. Maybe if your reading this and you play poker on BestPoker look out for me, Scott 20uk :D

Would just like to say a huge THANK YOU to my backer for giving me advise on my game, and always there to help. So thank you!!!

For instance, a $100 added tourney with the buy-in of $1.10 and 20 participating players will have a total pot of $120. The $0.10 fee per player goes to the online poker room for hosting the event, that's how they make their profit.

The difference between freerolls and added tournaments at first sight is definitely the buy-in. But what's really better, the level of game play is much more serious because the people at the tables have actually spent some real money to be able to play - so that's a lot less all-ins with A-x you'll be facing!

Here at Poker For Free we like these added tournaments much better than freerolls. You probably don\'t agree if you\'re a beginning poker player, but trust me... it will be just a matter of time. In fact, if I personally knew about added tournaments when I started playing poker, I would have probably made a sport out of it locating the passwords, as the value lies in the low amount of participators.

For the near future we\'re developing a Poker Club League in cooperation with a poker room on the iPoker Network. There will be a leader board, and (monthly) rewards will be given to the participators. You can earn points when joining our weekly added tourneys. I have to say, things look promising, and I can\'t wait to get this thing started.

• CD Poker $100 Added MTT Wednesday November 21st, 19:00 GMT
  Sign up at CD Poker

Rake Race

Another new kind of Poker For Free promotion is our rake race. We're having the first coming December at one of our four official site sponsors. If you're going to be playing during the month of December and generate the most rake of all others who signed up through Poker For Free, you will be rewarded with an extra $200 to your poker bankroll at the end of the month.

This sounds tougher than it actually is. Honestly yes, for someone new to poker it might be just one step to far, but for the average player it is doubtless accomplishable. Remember, our site is targeting beginners whom are just learning the game of poker. You'll have some advantage if you're with us a little longer.

I guess this is it for now, hope to see you at the tables and making some real bucks!

Cheers,

Giorgio

Well I'm still playing PokerStars trying to reach my target of 100.000 play chips by December 25th, I've got 21.000 at the minute and still going strong! Playing the SNG's and doing well at them.

Also, I have started to play the $50,000 freeroll where the top 6 people get a ticket to the $50,000 freeroll. The other 26 top finishers all make the money, and with a field of about 10000 people I expect to be there for quite some time bringing on my best game. I came 2987 out of 10000 people, some may say that's quite poor, but for my 1st go at it I didn't feel too bad.

BestPoker

Finally I've been playing BestPoker, and I do really like it. The competition is very hard and there are so many quality players. I've been playing the $1.00 + $0.20 SNG's. I've probably won about 4 and lost about 4, but it's all a learning curve and I'm keeping a note of were I could be going wrong. I've also started to use my notes now because I noticed that I seen a few of the same names time and time again! I do like BestPoker and if you don't have an account I'd say: Why not, it's great and well worth the play! Cash games and tourney's are always available and you can create private tables for you and your mates. So what are you waiting for, click on the link on this site and get playing! :) Look out for me on the tables, scott 20uk.

Live Play

Well it's just cash games now @ my local pub until after the new year. So it's 5 UK Pounds buy-in, and away you go. I sat down to a full table of 9 people, had the time to pick my hands with the blinds just being at 25-50, and with a starting stack of 4500 I could be picky. Playing only the best hands, I got dealt pocket 9's, raised it to 300 and got 2 callers. Flop brought a 9 which gave me a set. I used some Jamie Gold talk and got someone to call, then to call again, and then to fold adding some extra chips to my stack.

Still picking my moments, I got dealt pocket Jacks and someone went all in for 1,025. Someone called and I pushed all in sensing weakness. He then called me for 3,775 which put him all in as well. So that's 3 people all in. 1 guy turns over J/T and the other 97. I have them dominated, and the Jacks hold up! That gave me more chips to sit on and wait for my time, and that's exactly what I did. With the final 2 in play I had about 35,000 in chips. My opponent had just 5,000, so I kept raising on all good hands. Just the 3rd hand into heads up game when the other guy went all in with a K97 flop. I called that holding Q-7 while he had J-7. The other 2 cards came blank for both and I won on better kicker!!! So with a win of 45 UK Pounds back made me feel happy. Some free drinks completed to make this night a good one!

Well like I said in my last blog, I really am playing PokerStars a lot, still loving the 27 person sit & go's and the British_Irish $100 freeroll. Well I've been playing them loads and I cash in just about every night, it may only be $0.10 or whatever it is, but still it all adds up.

I've also decided to set myself a challenge: I want to make 100,000 in play chips by Christmas from the starting 1,000 you'll get. Some will properly be thinking this is way to easy, but its not as easy as you would think, so I'm going to be playing a lot of 27/45 person SNG's. My screen name on PokerStars is scott_20uk, if you see me on the table say hi. (Sit & Go -> Play money -> Low or Medium tabs)

BestPoker

I said I had yet to play BestPoker for properly and I'm still yet to do that. I had a little play money action and I really like it, one thing I like is that you can make a private table, and play only your mates! Which is great if you wanna show them who's the boss! So that's a great feature I really like about the site, the $1000 freeroll is also quality and is getting bigger and bigger all the time.

High Stakes Poker Season 4

I think tonight (Tuesday 6th Nov) on the GSN network, it's the start of the 500,000 minimum buy-in game. I can't wait for this to be uploaded to YouTube, I'm sure there will be a lot of great plays and amazing bluffs with Jamie Gold, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak and other great pro's. I'm sure it will be fun to watch. You can check out what it's all about in the poker tv section on Poker For Free.

PokerStars

PokerStars seems to be the site I log into the most, playing the free play Sit 'n Go and the English_Irish $100 freeroll, which I seem to cash in nearly every time! From not even making a deposit at PokerStars I'm up to about $8, does not seem like a lot, but it’s great to play the small Sit 'n Gos with, and you don’t get the all in people every time, because it’s real money!

I seem to be playing the 45 person SNG's as the 9 person SNG I feel is less of a challenge, 45 person is quite a deep stack tourney so you have to wait on the cards, bluffing you can not really do as it’s play money people will call you on just about anything, so you really have to make sure you have the best hand in your eyes!

As for the $100 freeroll, everybody seems to play properly which is good. I missed a few though because our clocks have gone back an hour, meaning the freeroll now starts at 7pm (reg. at 5pm) now instead of the 8pm start. Which is good, means I get to pay the Hubbles freeroll as well ($1000 freeroll if you make it to round 2).

BestPoker

BestPoker, I'm still not made up on this one yet. I played a few of the freerolls but that’s about it, I’m not sure what I think of it yet, I really need to pay some real money on there I think, then I will make up my mind on it. The other players all seem to be good though and even on play money they fold and not chase cards, which is good in some respects!

My Live Cash Game

Sitting around a table with a group of friends, a few cold beers and poker! What more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon? Perfect!!!

So there's 6 people in this, 5 pounds buy-in (1 re-buy before the 1st hour - you have to be out of chips before re-buy is aloud). Thinking to myself that I'm probably going to be a bit rusty as I've not played live in ages, but to be honest I did really well. Small blind 50, big blind 100. I got Q of clubs. I raised up to 300 and got 2 callers, flop comes down Q, 3, 10. I check it and the table checks it out, turn is a 7 and I think to myself, no more free cards and beat about half the pot which was about 500. I think there was fold and a call. The river brings a 9, and I bet 800. I get called, my opponent holds pocket Jacks, so my Queens beat him for a nice little pot there.

I was folding away since I was only playing the best hands, or suited connectors... with 3 people left in me and 2 others, I decided to mix my game up a bit, but that turned out to be a bad move. I had 3c 2c and flopped a set of 2's pushing nearly all my stack in on the turn. The river brought the other guy a straight, not knowing this I pushed all in and got a instant call :( Not to worry though I felt like I did OK for my 1st game back from holiday.

As for the re-buy I felt it’s best not to re-buy when you taken a beat because I’m just steaming from the beat and my card playing wouldn’t be up to par!

High Stakes Poker - Season 4

OMG, you all need to start watching this, what a great show! It's on the video section of Poker For Free! It’s awesome, the 7-2 game brought in by Laak really makes people thinking. Imagine, there’s even going to be a $500,000 buy-in game!!! With up to 6 million on the table, how can you say no to watching this great show! Also the final of the WSOP main event is all so showing on YouTube and other internet sites now! Does anybody even know where Jamie Gold finished this year???

For those of you in the Euro zone who are still doubting about playing for real money, currently it\'s a great moment to make the move. Let me define why. Because of today\'s US economic situation we see a huge devaluation of the US Dollar. The Dollar has fallen to an all time low record, in other words: \"You will get quite a lot more Dollars for your Euros.\" On this very moment of writing the Dollar rates is 0.70 in Euros, so this means you get 1.40 Dollars for every Euro you deposit.

Now, since you will still be making Dollars online, it basically stays the same, though there are two scenarios where you can gain advantage of this situation.

Scenario 1
You make a deposit, play tight, or Limit Texas Hold\'em to release some of your first deposit bonus, and make a withdrawal when the Dollar has gained in value.

Scenario 2
You make a deposit at a site where US players are allowed. No offense against our US visitors, but... since their currency values more to them, than it does to Europeans, you have an advantage of about 40%. This, and the fact that the majority of American poker players are known to have a loose game should make this scenario considerable.

Recomended USA poker rooms on Poker For Free

We promote a few online poker rooms that (still) allow players from the United States, let's talk about them a bit, including their deposit methods, and - limits.

PokerStars

Very recommendable for their high amounts of traffic. This is where most US players are active since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was rammed through Congress. Superb multi table tournaments, with prizes in the higher thousands. Buy-ins start really low at PokerStars, and you can expect lot's of participators.

A huge list of deposit methods, starting at $10 across all deposit method. (€7)

• Read our PokerStars Review

Full Tilt Poker

Home of the pro's! Their downloadable poker client is available for Windows, as well as Mac. Full Tilt has a larger percentage of USA poker players than any other online poker room out there. The level of play is a little over average, so watch your back!

An average list of deposit methods, starting at $20. (€14)

• Read our Full Tilt Poker Review

Bodog Poker

A well respected brand in the wagering industry. Bodog has it's own sophisticated platform which is unique in it's kind. Love it or hate it, but it comes with all the industry standards, and more. I would specially recommend them for their daily freerolls of $1500 and $500. A lot of action in the lower limits, and the overall competition is low.

A small list of deposit methods, starting at $20. (€14)

• Read our Bodog Poker Review

I downloaded VC Poker sometime ago and was waiting for this freeroll for ages. I sat down to a tourney of 300 players, all poker for free members! :)

I was the 1st big blind, and had something like 8-4 off suit. I decided to fold as a raise was called. To be honest this hand was representative for the kind of hands I was getting all night. I was bluffing my way around, got me a couple of pots but nothing huge. When I did find myself with say J-T, I raised a small amount and nothing would come on the flop. When I bet at it trying for a bluff I got called so instead of bluffing all my chips away I decided to fold... I was dealt K-7 suited of hearts and decided to make my move, pushing all in with my stack of 1000 chips left (starting with 2000 each). I got 1 caller holding A-X. The flop came down, all black cards and not even one pair. The turn was an A and the river... well that didn't matter, nothing could of helped me as I was drawing dead :( So going out in 132nd place (or very close to that) out of 300 people is not too bad I suppose, but since I was that card dead, what else could I do :(

PokerStars Sit 'n Gos

I'm playing a lot more now on PokerStars, these Sit \'n Gos I feel are really helping to develop my game! Everyone plays properly and has a decent game. I'm building up my chip bank very nicely now! I would recommend to play these these to anybody if you want to practice playing poker! Great way to get used to the Sit \'n Gos without wasting money. :)

PokerStars Brittish Irish $100 Freeroll

I sat down at 8 PM (UK time) to play this and as I'm playing on PokerStars more than I thought, I would try to get in the top 100 of this as there are always about 2000 registered players! And ohh my, I was hitting cards like A-K, A-J, J-J, A-A, 7-7, and K-Q. I was getting all the best hands and was making the flops a little bit more expensive for anyone to get a flop! And ohh my, was it working... getting up to about 12,000 in chips and being the table chip leader gave me a little more power as nobody really wanted to get knocked out!

I was raising preflop on good cards, and always making pot sized bets. The cards just kept coming and when I looked at the stats I was 3rd out of 1004 people left. Playing away just the good cards, I soon realized we were down to 800 players. The blinds were taking out all the "sit out people", so the number of players was falling fast! My chip stack was now at about 60,000 and with only 200 people left I was in the money.

It was only a small amount, but I didn't care about the $0.12 or whatever they were giving. I just wanted to reach my goal! My player notes came in really hand as well. If it wasn't for them I would have lost 15,000 to a guy that in my notes said "bluffs with random bets like 1,967". So I called and guess what... he was bluffing and I took him out of the game. :)

With the players now down to about 100 I was really happy and starting to play a few more mediocre hands. Still sitting around the 60,000 mark I was looking good, and down to 80 players I thought maybe I could do this... maybe I could win, but then I got involved in a big pot worth about 30,000 and I lost :( a straight to a flush! so that crippled me a bit. Down to 50 players I was very happy with the way I played, getting dealt A-T I decided to push all in with my remaining chips. I got one caller who had A-A.

So that was me done, but going out in 42nd place I was very happy since my goal was to make the top 100 and I did that and won myself $0.20 at the same time. ;) Besides, I also got recognized there as a "Poker For Free Poker Pro"! He he :)

Monday Night League

Well what can I say... I finished 3rd over all after a couple of weeks of poor play from myself and not such great cards, but thats a good place to finish. So going to be my aim for next season is to win ;)

Playing the cash game that we have at the end of each 12 week season I was so card dead, it was unreal. I don't know what it is at the minute, I'm just not getting the cards. I know it sounds like I'm just excusing myself, but honest to God, I've had so many card dead games lately, live and online. My luck's gotta change soon! Going out in 9th place I'm well out of the money. :(

Getting a drink and sitting down again the players that got knocked out had a small 5 pounds [url=http://www.pokerforfree.org/en/poker-strategies/sit-and-go-strategies/]Sit \'n Go[/url]! I played this and guess what, I WON! Finally I won something, I was getting really naff cards, but hitting them making full house's and trips!

Now why couldn't it do that in the big cash game? I took the 1st person out, having 9-5. The flop came A-K-9. I bet about 300 and got called. The turn was a 5, so now I've got 2 pairs. I bet 500 to be called again, and the river, another 9 made me a full house! I went all in 3000 and got called, like I thought he had an Ace in his hand, and my cards just kept coming! And I won :) so happy about that!

Let's hope my run of cards keeps coming. I'm looking forward to all the freerolls coming up on Poker For Free and I've also downloaded Party Poker. For all of you who haven't got this yet: GET IT! It's very good and there's always a game you want. I'm just getting used to it and its great! Great game play, loads of people to play. Just what you want if you need a poker fix!

Party Poker

• Sign-up at Party Poker
• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus Code

Why this hassle you're asking? Well, I won't mislead you by telling you a lot of BS. Party Poker is currently among our most promoted poker sites for three reasons:

1. They are one of our sites' top sponsors, and we're currently negotiating better deals for our Poker Club members.
2. They are one of the biggest poker rooms in the field with the most European members. This, and specifically the traffic makes them a great product to promote.
3. We are exploring the opportunities to do some special things for our players. (I.e.: we hope to get some special freerolls and better bonuses in return for the near future.)

One other very important factor: "they deliver trust!", that's how they have grown to become such a big room, and such a well known name in the industry.

Steps Challenges

Anyway, now and then I also take some cash to the Party Poker tables myself. For instance, the promotions such as the yearly WSOP qualifiers at Party are great. Another superb (and unique) type of SNG's are their Steps Challenges. There are a total of 6 steps, and you can turn $3 into $2,000. The table below shows that you don't have to win to do well.

I promise you that this is really a great method to learn and play poker for real money. The entry prize starts as low as $3, and you can have a whole lot of fun for a long time. Besides fun, there's a nice catch if you make it to Step 6!

Not convinced yet? Please read the full Party Poker Review on our site.

Party Poker Bonuses and Promotions

$25 Sign-up Bonus
Bonus code: PFFPARTY25
Click to sign up at Party Poker for $25 Sign-up Bonus

30% up to $150 Extra on First Deposit
Bonus code: PFF100
Click to sign up at Party Poker for 30% up to $150 Extra on First Deposit

The bonuses are not very high, but they are very attractive to beginners as they are quite easy to clear.

Furthermore, Party Poker offers great freerolls (including specials for depositors), the very best promotions and satellites to well known live events like the WSOP, EPT, and even free cash to keep their regulars happy (birthday bonuses & occasional free online poker money).

• Sign-up at Party Poker
• Party Poker Review
• Party Poker Bonus Code

So like I said last week, PokerStars has these great play money Sit 'n Gos that I feel really help you to get better and pick up reads on people. Also playing a 46 person SNG is a great way to keep your tournament play fresh! And like I said before... its free!

Playing these I always feel like I'm going to get a million and one bluffs, or all in'ers, but really you don’t. People play to win, and the more play chips you get, the better Sit 'n Gos you get to enter! My screen name is Scott_20UK and you will find me on the SNG tables 310 + 40 most days, so if you see me say hi :)

I've won a few of these SNG's, so I'm making my way up playing only the best cards. My best hand on PokerStars has been a Straight Flush hitting it on the river. My worst beat was Kings over Aces, to be beat by Aces over Kings :(

Monday Night League

So as usual I play live poker on a Monday night. Sitting down at my table I realise I've got a OK table, apart from a guy called Norton who's a really strong and aggressive player. Having him on my right really didn’t help me :( No cheap flops, no nothing, so I really had to select my cards! But my luck must of come in as he got taken out first. It was a bad beat I have to say, but it helped me because now my table was full of people who only play now and then. I got lucky so bad though, on like my 7th hand flop comes 2, 5, 10. I'm holding 9-10 and check. Someone bets 200, and I call. The turn is a 6. I check, and the guy bets 400. This guy is renoud to do this, and moving all in on the river. He's the one that's "got you beat every time", the kind’ a guy which talks air a lot according to most players. So I decided to push all in. He calls and turns over A-10, making me think to myself: "OK, I'm going to be crippled if he wins", but the river brings a lucky 9... Whooooo! (Punching the air.) I'm not out! My 2 Pairs in the ending beating his Pair with top kicker. Knocking him out helped to increase my chip stack, and I made it to the final table...

On the final table 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were all on there and I decided to play really tight, hoping that the others would go out before me. 1st and 2nd place did, so that helped me as I was 4th and with only 20 points between the top 4 places I was good. The blinds were starting to chip into my stack, so Having Q-Q I pushed all in. I got one caller, so with a pot of about 20,000 he held A-K. I was a little worried of the flop, after saying “low cards” to the dealer about a million times, the flop comes J, 7, 9. The turn was a 2 and the river a 4. I'm safe, and made a big chip stack. Holding on to my chip stack just playing the blinds and letting the others knock each other out gave me a 3rd place finish, putting me back in the prizes. I went out on A-9, not remembering the flop, but I'm sure the guy won on a Straight :( But still I'm back in the prizes!

Since signing up for VC Poker I have neglected the other online site I play on. I only logging in at PokerStars for the British_Irish freeroll, so after a small bit of thought and a sip of my drink I log into PokerStars to look around what else I can play, and there it was free play Sit & Go's from small chip stack entries of 300+10 to 50.000+1000 entries. As my PokerStars play money stack has not been touched, I had to play the 300+10 Sit & Go's. You get to pick 9 / 10 / 18 / 27 / 40 person games as well. I opted to play the 9 / 10 person ones to start with, just to warm up, and to my surprise you don't get a lot of all-in'ers.

Playing away I realized I liked this and it was a great way to learn tells and reads on people play, and working out the proper bets to put in, home in my skills you could call it, with a few 4th's - 2nd's under my belt I was building up my over all chip stacks and making myself feel good at the same time.

A great feature of PokerStars is the Notes section which I have started to use, it can store all your notes on players that you have played against, and as I'm playing the Sit & Go play money games I'm sure to bump into those people again & again, and then with my notes I already know how this person plays and will have a small yet effective upper hand.

Monday Night League

Turning up at my local pub and ordering my coke yep ice but no slice I sit down and wait for other to roll in, I'm sat on a easier table than last week, which is great because of all my bad placements over the last couple of weeks. Second place is only 1 point behind me! Playing my table I know that when I raise a lot of them will fold, but having people who are 19-13 with no way of winning the league with only 2 weeks to go is quite dangerous for me.

I played my hands well, raising on all A-X etc. etc. not letting anyone see a cheap flop. This worked out really well for me. When I hit trips a few hands in, with an Ace out, I decided to raise a small amount, when someone pushed an all in into my face. I called instantly with my set of 9's, and they held up perfectly against A-K. That's one person out! The table went down to just 6 players, so another 3 to go out before we could move on. Sitting back for a while with a dry spell on cards and no real need to risk my chip stack to take people out that are bellow me, I left them to fight it out between themselves.

I was only playing my blinds, and A-X's. This worked out well. We were soon down to 3 and awaiting the final table!

Sitting down to the final table, all people ranked 2-8 are there. A small amount of nerves kick in as I really don't want to be knocked from top spot, since I have been there for 6 weeks now. It would be a shame for me to get so close, so near, then loose...

So, 1st hand I fold with the blinds at 400 / 800. I was only going to play the best hands, until I get dealt K-J suited of Clubs. I raise up to 1200 and get one caller. The flop comes down: A Clubs, K Diamonds, 10 Clubs... I was thinking in my head, ROYAL FLUSH, please, please, please, or flush, or straight, or... anything. The guy moves in, and a call would cost me about half my chip stack. I thought that if I would made the call, I would not have enough left to carry on, so I re-raise all in with the amount of outs I got I must hit something. The guy called and flips over Q-J (the Q isn't the Club, so a Royal Flush was still on). So he's made a straight, the turn comes a blank, and so does the river :(

I can't believe I had that many outs and not hitting any, when will my good run of cards come back to me? I suppose that's poker though, win some and lose some. There's always next week, and I'm going to try get my 1st place finish back. I'm 3rd now, still in the prizes, but wanting that 1st place finish so bad as I've worked so hard for it :)

So I played the 1st one of about 2000 entries and didn't do well, playing very loose, and chasing so many cards, I came something like 1400 which kind’ a sucks, and for a few more nights I was not getting under the 1000 mark, with hitting bad cards and sucking out on the river...

Then my luck turned Saturday night. I sat down again and this time there were 1522 entrants, I was hitting good cards from the start, all A-Q, K-J, 10-10 that kind' a thing and always hitting the flop, Flushes and Trips everywhere. I got myself up to a very nice 22,000 in chips from a starting chip count of 1,500.

With the 1st break about to come in I was still sitting, pretty just playing the best cards, and waiting for my turn to strike! One guy I noticed was calling just about everything, I thought great person to pick off his chip stack. His stack was about 30,000, and I think he got there by hitting cards when it counted. So I thought I would try to get me and him in the pot, and I did to sting 10,000 off him, he held 9-9 I had A-J, and my Ace held up hitting one on the flop. So with that the guy went into all in mode, every hand all in. I just sat back and watched him tilt, and the obvious happened, he went out of the tourney! So now I'm looking at about 35,000 in chips, and the 2nd break starting.

I'm now in the money, not big money but anything is a bonus. I play for the fun and the excitement, starting the 3rd time. Blinds were now up at 1,200/600. I thought making a move soon would be good because the blinds still creep up on you, and since I was making a very satisfactory placement of somewhere in between 30-40. I can't quite remember but out of 1522 to come there I played well I think! I've now freerolled enough times to have enough in my bankroll to play micro stakes poker and try to build up a bigger bankroll... :)

VC Poker

So I downloaded VC Poker also from Poker For Free after reading about the free money you can get, $10 for free which works out at 6 UK pounds. I started playing micro stakes poker, $0.01/$0.02 blinds but thought I wasn't getting much from it, so I played the $1.10/$0.40 Sit and Go's with 6 players to a table. This proved more cost effective. By winning I was increasing my bankroll, just letting the others fight between themselves, and waiting on the good cards, going up to about 10 UK pounds, I thought I would enter the $5.20/$0.30 Sit and Go, and winning that one gave me $21 dollars I think :) My VC account is now looking very nice, and I'm just playing the Sit and Go's now. My aim is to try get to the $100 dollar mark by the end of the year! Playing a 30 person sit and go the other day, I came 2 places before the money which I was gutted about but still, its all a learning curve!!! :)

Live Play @ My Local League

4,500 starting chips! Sitting down, my table is full of people below me, all below 5th place, so they are a bit of a hazard to me, as they not got quite enough to loose as me. So I decided to play only the very best cards, took a few small pots down with just Pairs, 2 Pairs but to be honest I was card dead for most of my time at the table, having loads of 5-8, 3-7, 9-2, that kind’ a thing. Then after a while I decided to mix my game yet again, I can feel this being one of my weaknesses as I hate sitting for an hour or so on only 2 hands, and with the blinds going up every 15 minutes you soon notice your chip stack falling short. Taking down another pot Ace High Flush put me back to a healthy chip stack, but then the dead hands came again, and the blinds crippling me. I decided to make my move when I got pocket queens in my hand, and pushed all-in with my remaining 2,900 chips. I got called by 7-8 hearts... Flop: I hit nothing. River: also a blank, but landed the other guy with a straight :( My queens didn't hold up and that was me out’ a the tourney, a disappointing 8th place :( But my position is still holding up. I'm still 1st, but 2nd and 3rd are breathing down my neck now with maybe only 5-10 splitting us all. (Will have to check that though.) Maybe next week there will be a better result.

Must say everyone liked my Poker For Free T-shirt :) So all good!!!

Scott Brown, one of Poker For Free's active members will be blogging weekly about his progress online, as well as in real live.

• Name Scott Brown
• Age 21 (13-09-1985)
• Location Spalding, UK

I play poker live at least 2 times a week and play online just about everyday! It's something I've been playing for just under a year now. I got the bug from watching Poker Superstars 2 on Bravo (Sky TV). Went out bought some poker chips and asked about who played, and then looked online and the winning hands, then played and from that it's progressed to a hobby and something I really like playing. I Play on VC Poker / PokerStars / TigerGaming. My screen name is Scott21Spalding or Scott20UK.

Monday Night League

I also play live poker in my local league, Once a week, and play in another live game through the week 1 of which is a sit and go the other is a 12 week tourney were all places are based on points with the top 3 places paid. :D The league consists of 28 or more players (pending on who turns up), 8 players to a table, and 8 players go to the final table. The field of players is a complete mix of first timers to the good regular players. We all start on about 4,500 chips, (2 x 1000 chips, 3 x 500 chips, 8 x 100 chips, 8 x 25 chips) and the levels go up every 15 min, starting with 25/50 blinds. So I'm 1st in the league at this moment. I've placed a few final table finishes, and then a 2nd, 3rd and two 1st place finishes. :D

So I'm going to pick up the run down from this Monday.

Sitting down at my table, I look to see who I'm going to be playing, so far a nice easy table, of people that don't play too much, they tend to be very loose, but hard to read, as you never quite know what they got. Then a guy called Norton sits down to my table. He has won the event 2 times running, taken top prize and plays loads more than me, he's a good better, and knows how to walk the walk and talk the talk. I have a lot of respect for his play. So we kick of and everything I'm being dealt is rubbish, loads of 9-3, 5-9, that kind of thing. Everyone's going into the pot because the blinds are "cheap" so I'm folding away, then hit A-10 of diamonds, and raise it up 300 over the 50 Bb... I get 4 callers!!! which I hate because you don't know what these people have got, flop comes down a blank but brings 2 diamonds, so I put another small bet in, and I get 2 callers, the turn comes a blank also, so thinking I'm not going to put anymore in the pot, I check and then someone bets 1000, so I fold, and starting to get frustrated as the blinds are starting to chew my sack. I'm thinking should I play more random any 2 cards? Keep them on there toes? The blinds are now 200/400, still not seeing very good cards. I hear 2nd place (overall) has gone out 1st. :D This is a good thing for me as I'm currently 1st in the league. Knowing they wouldn't catch me I decided to mix my game up a bit, I raised pre flop on J-6 (off-suit), about 600 more on top of the big blind, and get 1 caller. A guy called Clive, also a good player been playing for years, a lot older and wiser than me. The flop brings an Ace with 2 blanks, I've hit nothing, but I put in an 800 bet and he calls. The turn brings a J, so now I've got something on the board, I bet 1000 after a small time thinking about how I should bet, and saying nearly every card in the deck he folds. This is how I got to my final table, just playing random cards, and hoping that I hit, I wasn't playing stupid if I didn't hit and someone bet before me I would fold, but if it was checked all the way to me, then I would bet!

Final table, 8 of us on there all good players who play a lot, all except Norton, who got knocked out just before the final table. I was thinking I could just stick around and wait for the short stacks to go. Just folding was a good idea and playing my blinds saw me in 4th, but now I was short stacked. So someone goes all in, and I'm looking at Q-J. Another guy calls the guy, the other guy folds. I then pushed all in, the pot was of a nice size, so thought why not, the guy then says: "Your not pushing me out of the pot!" At this point, any other time he would have folded, but he called since he had the nuts pre-flop A-A. Seeing A-A layed down very proudly I said good luck to all, and waited for the flop… 22,000 in the pot, and the flop comes, 9-10-K. Bring it on! I've made a straight punching the air. I look at the guy with bullets, to get "I got lucky" said, LOL. ;) The turn and river were blanks for everyone. Now I'm 3rd and feeling good. The blinds are going up again and again, 5000/10,000, so after folding a few times, I realized I'm not going to be in much longer as I had 1 and a half blinds left I pushed all in with x-J (off-suit) wishing good luck again. Flop comes J-7-9 thinking to myself looking good, the other guy had A-2, turn was a blank for both but to my dismay the deadly river brought a Ace!!! :(

But im happy with a 3rd, that's 55 more points to my total, and still looking strong only a couple more weeks to go before it's over. I'm sure I can hold on to that 1st spot! :)

Best tell of the night: I saw someone counting the straight to see if he had made it on his fingers before betting. ;)

I have just returned home from a two week vacation to the Caribbean island Saint Martin with my family. It was a whole lot of fun, especially seeing my almost 2 year old son enjoying the ocean and the pool at our hotel. Besides that, my girlfriend and I went out eating and drinking almost every night, together with a couple of friends from the States (who came over to join us for a week), while my mother was babysitting our son. It\'s been years since we went out this frequently, and this holiday was very enjoyable, even though my mother came along. ;)

On a couple of occasions I went playing poker in two of the 12 casinos the island counts. St. Martin is partitioned between two different nations (Dutch and French), and the casinos are only allowed on the Dutch side. Some of the Saint Martin casinos are small, have lot\'s of slots and no poker rooms. Very few players (except for some huge Americans and locals) could be found playing, mainly because it\'s currently low season, but some others were larger (not massive like Las Vegas, but respectable) and offered also a couple of poker tables.

The Atlantis Casino

I was recommended by my brother who's a resident of St. Martin to go to the Atlantis Casino, very close to the French border (not that there is an actually crossing line). They host 3 multi table tournaments per week. A $75 Rebuy and Addon on Saturdays and Sundays, and on Wednesday a $150 freezeout. Because I had only one night off, I had to make a choice between one of these three poker tourneys. I decided to pick the $75 R&A on Saturday since I was very eager to play in real life.

When I arrived at the Atlantis Casino I felt really excited. This was my first time to play in a live tourney, besides the games I play with friends. I made sure to come in time, so I would not miss registration. After I registered I sat down at the bar for an espresso seeing more and more poker players arrive. At 9 PM everybody was called to their table. I was sitting at table 4, seat 10, just right to the dealer who was quite cute, but not very friendly.

The Atlantis Casino has 8 tables, and about 64 players were registered (8 per table). Many of the players were French. It kind felt like some of the men sitting at my table were celebrities, looking at their clothes, watches, polished nails, and age differences between them and their accompanying women. The Atlantis Casino is also very close to the Low Lands area on Saint Martin, which is where the very rich have their mansions, so it could definitely be the case. In any case, they held a whole lot more of cash in their wallets than I did. ;)

Everybody received 2000 starting chips, and immediate rebuys were allowed. Because of this some who could afford it started with double the amount I had. As I didn't want to spend too much money, I just decided to wait for the good hands, not risking a quick rebuy. The main reason I decided to play anyway was to have a good time!

5 Hours, 6 Hands

For a while I kept folding... but when nobody bet while I was sitting on the big blind, I was able to see my first flop. This is one of the few hands I didn't remember very well when analyzing afterwards, but one of the two cards in my hand was a 9. With another 9 on the flop I decided to call a small bet, even though I had middle pair with also at least one over card (K) on the table. The fourth street didn't help me. When everybody checked up to me I decided to make a small informational bet. I got called by just "the French Goth-father", an older man dressed up in all white clothes. The river came, and again it didn't help me. I do remember there were a few over cards, so I was ready to lay my hand down. Don Corleone instead just checked, so I could see the showdown for free. I checked and took away the pot with only a pair of 9's.

Cowboys

Just a couple of hands later I got dealt pocket K's. I really felt uncomfortable (nervous) and wanted to hide all my tells, but I did raise about three times the big blind. The only caller this time was "the Writer". I gave this name to the man sitting on seat 7. This was the type of guy that you couldn't miss when walking into the Atlantis Casino. He had long curly brown hair, and I put him on fifty-some years. The girls around him seemed at least 30 years younger. He had such typical expressions that it was very amusing to observe him, and by the looks of it he also didn't mind to drink a few now and then. Anyway, as you can understand... this was one of those men that beat me straight away if we would have count the money in our wallets. Though, "the Writer" was definitely not a good poker player, sometimes you just don't believe the hands people show.

This hand started perfectly when I hit trips with the flop, what a shame that it was just me versus "the Writer". I raised about half the pot size, and hoped he held the other K in his hands, having top pair or perhaps even 2 pair. He called, and I decided to bet a bit more after the turn card. Unfortunately he folded without showing his hands.

Because of my conservative way of playing, people respected my stealing attempt while sitting in late position. With this move I managed to raise my stack up to 4000, just before the break.

Pizza Time

Pizza's came in for all players when the break began. Most players left their seats for a slice or two, including me. Players were given the opportunity to addon for $75 right after the break. At first I didn't want to, but when I noticed that everybody got 5000 extra chips to their stacks, I decided to put in the money so at least I could still compete. I gave the tournament director 80 bucks, got my chips, but never received the change... Oh well, I couldn't really care since I was having a great time!

For a while I was back to folding pre flop, since I received only trashy hands not matching my tight way of playing. As time ticked by, I was finally dealt a reasonable starting hand. I was in late position and decided to call a bet of three times the big blind with AT suited of Diamonds. I was the only caller, so I needed to hit on the flop to make this hand work out. There were two Queens on the flop, and I don't remember the third card. What I do remember is that the third card, and one of the Queens were Diamonds giving me a nut flush draw. Chasing the flush unfortunately cost me more than half my of stack, dropping to less than 4000. My opponent was a smart player, a bit scary since it was a guy wearing eye brow make-up, but he made sure to get as much as he could giving me the proper calling odds after the river. He showed AQ, and took the pot.

Another Table

Not much later they moved me to another table together with a guy sitting on the small blind. This was actually a frustrating move, since I had plenty of tells on some of the men at my table. When I was moved, the manager switched me from big blind to small blind, and the other guy got "my seat". Of course I had to lay my first hand down, and he showed the nuts making him win a nice pot. Don't let me bother you telling how that feels!

The second play was actually quite good for me. I was sitting on small blind, and the button moved all in to steal my chips. I needed to make a move sooner or later, so I decided to call with pocket 3's. My read was good, he showed K8 off-suit and my three's held up. The man acknowledged my play, and complimented me for the call. I doubled up to 6000 and was ready to sit and fold for another while.

That "other while" didn't last very long because only three hands later I was dealt pocket Queens. This was my best hand, besides the Kings in the early stage of this tournament. To play this hand I had to face a few arguments. My stack (low compared to most opponents at the the table) made it do or die time, I was in early/middle position, and didn't have a lot of information about the other poker players. The man just in front of me raised twice the big blind. I didn't think he had a better hand than I did after thinking for a few seconds. Isolating him seemed to be the best play, thus moving all in was the right play IMO. The two players right after me folded, but the third one also moved all his chips in. Oops, I didn't see this one coming! The man who made the initial bet called and we all opened up. He showed AK off-suit, the man after me showed a pair of sevens (Hearts and Diamonds), and I was happy to hold the strongest hand. Unfortunately luck wasn't on my side. The flop had a King, the turn an Ace, and the river was a Hearts completing the lucky flush of Hearts for the guy holding sevens, and ending my tournament.

The End

After being eliminated I actually felt a bit miserable. I over thought my play, and thought about alternative plays I could have made. Until this very moment I'm still confident that moving all in was the best decision.

It was past 2 AM, the total pot was over $16,000 and I stayed observing the tables for a short while. Not much later I decided to leave the Atlantis Casino on Saint Martin, leaving me with a wonderful memory of my first life poker tournament. This experience cost quite some money, but was well worth all of it. I loved sitting at the table with "the French Goth-father" and "the Writer", I loved staying alive for 5 hours just playing a total of 6 hands, I just wish that I held one Hearts in my hand on that last play. ;)

Titan Poker is part of the iPoker Network, which is among the leading poker networks in the industry. Actually, Titan Poker is the largest poker client operating there with currently over 16,000 simultaneous poker players on an average night.

The reason that I have picked Titan Poker is because of their large number of poker tournaments and SNG's. I personally love the Jackpot SNG, where you will earn a bonus after finishing in the top positions six times in a row. The fee is quite high, but you'll understand when you win your first jackpot. If you play to get in the money, then you won't have to worry about the buy-in fee anyway. By the way, getting ITM is not that hard since three out of six places get paid. My personal strategy... oh well let me keep that to myself since I don't want to see you beat me heads up!

These are the Jackpot SNG's I am talking about:

• Fort Knox ($50+$9) 1/6 gets $150, Jackpot $50,000 (6 in a row)
• Rio ($20+$3.50) 1/6 gets $60, Jackpot $25,000 (6 in a row)
• Dirty Dozen ($2+$0.40) 1/12 gets $12, Jackpot $2000 (4 in a row)
• Maui ($5+$1) 1/10 gets $25, Jackpot 29,000 (5 in a row)

They also pay a nice consolation prize if you finish top two instead of first.

Titan Poker also offers high quality bonuses next to the poker tournaments and SNG's. Because of their top promotion on Poker For Free we are able to offer 100% poker bonus up to $500, which is available to poker info sites that meet certain requirements. Clearing this bonus is quite easy, specially when you are up a few (frequent player) levels. I am in the Gold level now and I have to play just 6 Rio Sit 'n Gos to clear $5. Basically I clear $15 to $20 bonus on an average night, not bad is it? Signing up at Titan Poker through Poker For Free will also give you more great things than the bonus, you can read all about it on our Titan Poker bonus code page.

If you sign up at Titan Poker through our website and make a minimum deposit, you will receive $20 credited to your account instantly, a free copy of Gamecalc, and a very generous poker bonus. (100% up to $500, use bonus code PFF500.)

• Titan Poker Website
• Titan Poker Review
• Titan Poker Bonus Code (PFF500)

First we had a bug in our newsletter software causing all members to receive between 1 up to 918 copies of the same e-mail. Some were so mad at us that they called us names, others simply unsubscribed, and also quite a lot of (very friendly) members understood that we never meant to sent that many emails. Thank you, you've put a smile on our face when we felt miserable!

Second we had trouble sending the password in time with a temporary made newsletter script. (We just didn't want to risk making another mistake.) Because of this some members didn't received the password for our freeroll at PKR in time.

Third we found out that PKR Poker didn't give us a $100 freeroll as promised, but just 3 seats into a $2 tournament on August 9th.

Can it get any worse?!?

Everybody who's mad at us are so right! Poker For Free is the only one to blame. This all came in a period that we have plans on expanding the site and doing some really cool things. In each case we will continue, and we definitely promise to make it up to those members who remained loyal and understanding. You guys and girls stand out!!!

Once again, we apologize to everyone for our mistakes and the inconvenience you may have had from it, and hope for your forgiveness. We assure that we have taken proper actions to prevent it from happening again!

Best regards,

All people that make Poker For Free happen

I myself am a Mac user, because it has simply the best and very user friendly operating system. Though, I also own a Windows computer, since I can't live without one for several reasons. My Mac is a Power Book G4 and is about 2 years old. This means it doesn't have the Intel processor that current Mac Pro's have. Not having an Intel processor is a huge disadvantage if you're looking in ways to run a stable version of Windows. I basically spent hours trying to get everything to work, just to be able to play online poker on my Mac. Sure, these hours may be less if you have experience, but I did not (just like many others out there).

This article will be divided in two sub articles from here. You may be interested in reading both, but most probably you will just read the article that fits your Mac.

First Sub: MAC WITHOUT INTEL

OK, so this is the situation I am in. I love to play online poker, but I hate to be sitting upstairs all the time. Besides me, my girlfriend hates it as well and she has told me that several times! I have a wireless network installed, so I can use my laptop anywhere in the house. At first I was playing online poker at rooms with the ability to play on a Mac. Unfortunately these rooms are not my favourite. Don't get me wrong, there are seriously some great online poker rooms available for the Mac. It's more like a personal thing.

Well, because I really wanted to play at this particular online poker room, I have Googled for a solution and found several options.

I found out later that the easiest way to run Windows on a Mac is by installing Virtual PC 7. It creates a Windows machine on your Mac. It's also not so expensive, since you can choose form several versions: XP Pro, XP Home, Win 2K Pro, and a standalone version for people who own a copy of Windows. The retail prizes range between $129 for the standalone, up to $249 for the Pro versions.

Let's me start by telling you this: "If you can afford it, this is what you want!" Virtual PC 7 makes it possible to run PC programs and peripherals right from your Mac, but even better is that Virtual PC 7 runs in a window when using your Mac operating system! It brings a lot of advantages to your Mac, which might not all be related to this article since we're specifically talking about "how to play online poker on a Mac". There's a pretty good demo that covers a lot of options (shared clipboard, shared folders, full screen mode, and lot's more) on the Virtual PC website.

• All information about Virtual PC 7

Before I found out about Virtual PC 7, I found with the following solution to my problem, since I was looking for a way to be able to participate in a poker freeroll for frequent players. It's definitely just as good as the solution previously mentioned, and best of all it's free! Though, you should be aware of the fact that it requires a PC on a network having a Windows Pro version installed on it.

Microsoft offers a free "Remote Desktop" client application for the Mac. Installing this on your Mac enables you to work on your Mac and your Windows-based computer from a single location. You have to make sure that your PC has "Remote Desktop" installed, which can be done by following these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. Click Internet Information Services, and then click Details.
5. Click World Wide Web Service, and then click Details.
6. Select the Remote Desktop Web Connection check box, and then click OK.
7. Click OK on the Internet Information Services screen.
8. Click Next on the Windows Components Wizard screen.

Next you have to make sure that "Remote Desktop" is enabled, which can be done by following these steps:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on the desktop, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Remote tab.
3. Make sure that the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer check box is selected, and then click OK.

You also need to know the IP address of the Windows-based PC, which can be done by following these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, and then type cmd.
2. At the command prompt, type ipconfig.
3. Write down the IP address on a piece of paper.

You can now try to connect to your Windows-based computer using the Remote Desktop Client on your Mac by connecting to its' IP address.

1. On your Mac, open Remote Desktop Connection.
2. In Computer, type the IP address.
3. Click Connect.

You are now able to remotely login to your Windows-based machine. I hope this solution helps you just like it did me, have fin playing online poker on your Mac!

• All information about Remote Desktop Connection for Mac
• All information about setting up RDC on a Mac

I have to admit that I personally have no experience with what I am writing here. I have Googled for this information, and I believe that it covers all there is to know in a nut shell.

Owners of a Mac Pro containing an Intel processor are the ones who can choose from several products to run Windows.

First of all there is Apple's Boot Camp. It is free, and easy to install. Boot Camp enables Mac users to run a copy of Windows natively, just like a PC. The only thing you need to do is pressing the Alt-key at start up.

Advantage: Use your Mac as a Windows machine.
Disadvantage: You can't switch between the two operating systems simultaneously.

• All information about Boot Camp

Second there are several other products similar to Apple's Boot Camp. Applications like Parallels are even better since they can run OSX and Windows at the same time. All these products have their pro's and con's, but the main principles are comparable. The biggest difference between Boot Camp and the others? Surely the prices, Boot Camp is free...

• All information about Parallels

No matter what product you'll choose, all will provide you with the same features and possibilities as a regular Windows machine does, thus it enables you to play poker at the online poker rooms you choose, with or without a Mac version!

So what's up next? Freerolls baby, we've got some interesting tournaments coming up. We will start July 6th with a $100 freeroll at Everest Poker, and only 2 days later (July 8th) we will have a major $250 freeroll at VC Poker. We have also agreed to have a freeroll at PKR Poker, so make sure to be ready for it once we'll announce the date.

Yet, Poker For Free is growing quickly, thus you will notice things around here change quickly. New things will be added, and we'll have at least two poker freerolls per month. Basically it works like this: "The more players we deliver, the more freerolls online poker rooms will give for our members." We hope to grow to at least one freeroll per week within a short matter of time, so we can finally start creating a league with added (cash) prizes and build up a nice poker community.

More new things are the in dept promotion pages for specific online poker rooms, for instance Everest Poker. They have given us a better than average sign up bonus. This together with their special poker promotions makes Everest Poker a very attractive site to play online poker! We have also added a few pages where you can find satellites to qualify online for some of the major live poker tournaments, including the WSOP Main Event, WSOP Europe, and the European Poker Tour (EPT).

By the way, you might have missed out on the new poker room reviews. We have added many new poker room reviews, plus we have also taken care of, and rewritten some of the older reviews. Don't forget to check out our online poker bonuses before signing up, since some sites offer more than one poker bonus code.

See you at the tables!

Giorgio

Besides lots of guest speakers, workshops, and exhibit stands, there will be a whole lot of partying. Many of the greater affiliate programs will throw parties. Imagine how much I am looking forward to these days!

It was actually quite a shocking moment when I found out that the ticket price was as high as $750. I already gave up on going when I received an invitation from PKR Poker, whom decided to offer me a sponsorship for my ticket. I am very thankful to them, but then again, this matter fits perfectly in their profile as a top poker site!

I hope to get inspired at the CAC to improve the Poker For Free website, but next to that I will aim my target on getting the best deals possible with poker sites that I am currently promoting, and maybe also some new poker rooms. The word goes that informal meetings with affiliate managers at conventions are the best to get great deals for your site. We have already scheduled a few meetings, so you will notice it later.

If you like to meet me at the CAC, then please let me know by contacting me. It will be a pleasure to meet with a visitor and discuss how I can improve the Poker For Free website. Of course, affiliate managers reading this article are also invited to contact me!

I will definitely let you know how this ends. A report, including pictures will be placed online only a few days after the convention.

PKR is a quite new poker room, but the traffic is raising. More players find their way to the PKR poker room each day. The games played are mostly Texas Hold'em. You will always be able to find yourself a suitable ring game, online poker tournament, or Sit 'n Go.

They also offer fine first deposit bonuses, including a 50% bonus up to $250, or a free $25 bonus. The bonuses are actually quite easy to clear, therefor we recommend PKR to poker bonus chasers. If you're not ready to make your first deposit yet, then we suggest you take a shot in one of their freeroll tournaments.

• PKR Poker Review (including screenshots and movie clips)
• More info on the PKR website

You hear me right, I am gonna give you some valuable advice if you're a rookie poker player that is looking for a good poker room to start out with. It's too early for you to spent your money, isn't it? Don't worry, we've all started out trying to figure out what's best for us!

I still remember those days when I started playing poker, not even knowing that a quad hand ranked higher than a flush? I wasn't even aware of the hand rankings at all, but the more I played, the more I fell in love with the game. You could find me day in, day out at the Pitbull Poker freerolls. I made sure to get up early in the morning to be able to make the last $50 tournament. But be careful that you make sure not to start out overwhelmed. Poker is a skill-game, and experience and patience are two very big factors for your success. I have personally learned a lot by playing zillions of freeroll tournaments.

So why Pitbull Poker you ask? They have a freeroll every hour, but better yet... there's no competition! Also in favor is that their freerolls start at the half, instead of the full hour.

But let's focus on the level of competition at Pitbull Poker for a minute. Hmmm, there is none! Seriously, as a poker player with almost zero poker knowledge I was able to make the final table several times. Playing tight was the key to my success, and nowadays still is. That's how I slowly managed to build my first bankroll!

If I haven't convinced you yet, here's another thing that might change your mind. Pitbull Poker gives away $10 for free, no deposit needed! All the information that you need to develop a winning game can be found on our website.

Good luck!

Giorgio

One of my personal favorite poker sites at this moment is PKR. I'm sure you've heard about them. PKR is 3D and a totally new experience. if you're a fan of first person computer games, then you are certainly going to like this. If you have always wondered how it's like to play at a poker table in real life, then PKR Poker is the next best thing. It's so close to real that you get excited before the game starts.

Does my article makes you curious? PKR organizes a $250 freeroll with a maximum of 750 participating players, every night starting at 21:30 GMT+1.

I'll be there most of the nights, and you can recognize me by the name "PokerForFree". Make sure you register in time since the spots are filled up sooner every night.

Have a good one!

Giorgio a.k.a. PokerForFree

• Visit the PKR website for more information
• PKR Poker Review

Many poker sites around the web offer special holiday promotions, so we\'ve organized our information and listed a few of the very best poker promotions and tournaments for you just below.

• CD Poker
  Starting from 20/12/06 to 1/1/07, CD Poker will celebrate Christmas and the New-Year. Each depositing player will get 2 tokens:
  1. The 100k guaranteed qualifier - held on January 6th at 15:00 EST
  2. WPT "PYT" qualifying freeroll - held on January 13th at 15:00 EST
  As well, from 25/12/06 to 1/1/07, each player will enjoy a reload bonus of 100% up to $500.
• PKR Poker (review)
  Earn your way to a massive $5,000 freeroll from Saturday, 16 December 2006 to Sunday, 1 January 2007! Also four $500 Festive Freerolls on Monday, 25 December, and many other special promos daily.
• Full Tilt Poker (review)
  More than $15K daily in cash and prizes from December 20th to December 31st. One Full Tilt Poker point on any day qualifies you to be entered into that day's daily drawing for prizes like iPods, digital cameras, and flat panel TVs. Earn more points per day, and you can also take home some free money to pad your bankroll.

Fortunately there are still a few online poker rooms that still accept US poker players.

We've been in touch with the sites' customer service and they have confirmed to us that they will keep accepting US based poker players until any further notice. You can recognize an online poker room that accepts US poker players by the icon as below.

We have listed the online poker rooms that still accept Americans with the icon under the poker site reviews section of our website.

Hopefully at some point, online poker will be regulated, and controlled... but not forbidden, because this is ridiculous! Isn't it?!

Giorgio