A monster prize pool was announced by Bodog’s website, with the main tournament giving away $300,000. The total for the eight day tournament will be more than $650,000, over the course of the weeklong Texas hold em tournament. The Bodog Texas Hold em tournament will begin Sunday, September 28th and continues through Sunday, October 5th. The popular sportsbetting website will also feature six “Bounty” eliminatories, where the contestants can win $109 in poker credits for each Team Bodog poker player they eliminate from the poker event. David Williams, Jean-Robert Bellande, Evelyn Ng and Justin Bonomo are just a small number of the Bodog Texas Hold em pros challenging all participators in the poker contest.

Team Bodog professional, Justin Bonomo, is definitely energized about the Texas Hold em championship. Throughout his poker career, the 23 year old has made about $1.4 million. He says that if you thought the first poker championship was great, you will definitely be amazed with this year’s poker open and the prizes involved. He also challenges anyone that has the courage to knock him out of the poker tournament to come forward.

The first Bounty Tournament is going to be the first event in the championship on Sunday. Any player is able to buy-In right into this, and any of the other poker games with cash. Or another alternative is to win their way into the events through the satellites which are presented every night during the Texas Hold em contest week. Bodog will have six bounty events and seven “Championship Events”, that will have higher buy-ins and deeper stacks.

There are thirteen games which will lead up to the main event on Sunday, October 5 at 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. This is the championship with a guaranteed $300,000 in cash, regardless of the amount of players in the Bodog Open. All the players who wish to enter the main poker tournament will have to pay $500 for the buy-in and in exchange will accept 10,000 in Texas Hold em chips.

No Comments »

Is it more effective to play a tight game or a loose poker tournament?

You will undeniably hear two sides of this argument from your fellow poker players or perhaps the so-called poker authorities. Let’s take a look first at the tight players. Everyone including yourself will find it hard winning, if the entire table is playing a tight game. Probably what will occur if you have a poker table full of tight Texas holdem’players is the poker players will wind up trading the smaller pots back and forth to each other. All the while the poker room is raking in loads of your hard-earned poker money, and that of your competition. So now you could think, is it better to play loose? Well, in this situation the better poker players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to succeed.

How can I perfect my Texas holdem’ playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as straightforward as a piece of paper and a pen. A great approach to find out a lot about your playing style and tactic, is to keep track of your Texas holdem’ playing. You could write down this information during the poker game, and then pass it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your competitor’s playing style, and what is the best strategy to defeat them.

Should I use the same strategy for every Texas holdem’ game?

If you think that being predictable is a winning tactic for playing poker, then you should consider changing your poker tactic. The poker pros have the same opinion that varying your Texas holdem’ playing method is the best way to confuse and baffle your poker opponents. You should try a handful of methods, discover the ones that work for you and alter them for each poker game.

No Comments »

According to the 2006 WSOP bracelet winner, Jamie Gold, he wants to be known as the best bluffer in the game of poker. But if his last tournament is any indication, his wish may not come true any time soon.

The site is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Las Vegas Bellagio Hotel and Casino in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is just barely holding on. The seat 4 player has just raised his wager to $300, a minor increase with only one player biting the line. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie thought that Brad Booth would make a move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a good hand, but he was in a good position to make a move considering the quantity of dead money in the pot. Dicken folded, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

At this point there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie raised the wager by $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no chance they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace came up. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

Coming out of the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s primary thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus turning his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 in all likelihood had an ace, but you have to look after it in case he hits his set on the upcoming card.

A 2 of hearts showed up on the turn, and Jamie folded to what he was thinking was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 displayed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 beat Gold by bluffing with a superb hand, he created a terrific play and kept the bluff going all the way through to the finish.

No Comments »

The game of poker used to be a game accessible only in Sin City casinos or from video poker machines, but now it is more widespread than ever in Sin City thanks to the TV and the internet.

The famous Venetian Casino, is now betting on this popularity with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its Venetian Showroom, starting in October.

This new idea will join comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to take part in the popular game of Texas Holdem’ alongside the world’s best poker players.  There will be prizes for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience members will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu.  Around 10 professional players have already signed up for the poker game show.  The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who take a vacation in Sin City want to play poker,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a big game with the people like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.”  At the beginning of each show, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two professional players.   Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique hand on their devices.  Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

The show’s creators say that you don’t have to be a poker player to join in the game.  There are other ways to enhance your point total, that doesn’t involve playing poker necessarily.  Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a champion in poker in this game.

The show’s creators are also betting on the great personalities of the pro poker players to create some exciting moments.  Someone like Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time World Series of Poker winner, definitely knows about entertaining the crowd and should provide some memorable moments in this upcoming show .

No Comments »

Shortly after the start of last week’s charity poker event to help the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He winces when two of his challengers call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is upset when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no actual cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other online poker enthusiasts are pushing for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only function of the poker event held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize internet poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which forbids U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online poker websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for internet poker, and not for all online gambling. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about internet poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity celebrity poker tournament. “Some people think that online gaming is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

No Comments »