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!

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!

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!

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!

Play Cash Games at PokerStars

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.

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 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.\"

Here are the payouts for the final table:

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.\"

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.

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:

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.

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.

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".

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 :)

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:

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:

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:

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.

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:

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:

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:

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 :)

Let's dig a little deeper to give you a clear view of what I am talking about. Jackpot Sit n' Go's 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' Go's 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' Go's. As I am a real bubble-boy when playing shorthanded Sit n' Go's, 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' Go's:

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!

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!

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!

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 short handed. 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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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)

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.

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 :(

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' Go's 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 :(

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... :)

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.

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.

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

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:

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!</