More Qualifiers for Aussie Millions

The Aussie Millions poker championship will be taking place between the 24th - 20th January 2010 at the prestigious Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is expected to attract a huge number of big names in poker, including Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein.

The good news for poker fans is that there are lots of satellite tournaments running for the tournament - the latest opportunity is being offered by Ladbrokes Poker - who are offering satellite entries from $4.

The prize package is worth more than $10,000 - including the $10,500 Main Event Buy-In, 10 nights’ stay at the Crown Promenade Hotel, and more than $2,000 in spending  money.

There are two prizes up for grabs - which will be awarded in two monthly finals.

Stay tuned for more information about the Aussie Millions as it becomes available.

Aussie Millions Qualifiers Starting Now

Full Tilt are offering players in the UK the chance to win a seat at next January’s Aussie Millions poker tournament.  The prize packages are worth $14,500, and include the $10,500 buy-in, $1,200 in spending money, and an 11 night stay at the Crown Casino.

There will be a series of satellite tournaments taking place every Saturday between now and the 10th January.  The $500 + $35 satellites will each award at least one prize package.  Qualifiers for the satellites start at 50 points, or $0.50.

Considering how dark and dull it is in the UK right now, you can expect this tournament to be hotly contested!  Good luck to all British friends.

Keep your emotions in check!

As poker players we are constantly faced with difficult decisions that sometimes do not always turn out in our favor even when we make the correct choice. This can send your emotions spiraling into the abyss of self-pity and turmoil. When you are involved in a poker tournament or cash game big hands are going to happen. Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose and it isn’t always fair but it is what it is. We all understand that our choices in the game of poker affect the outcome just as much as the community cards do. However, when we allow the outcome good or bad to send our emotions out of whack we put ourselves in a bad spot.Being emotional may work on the football field or in other sports but in poker emotion can cause your bankroll to completely disappear or your poker tournament to have an abrupt ending.

How many times have you sat down with a player at your table that was loud, obnoxious and lacked social skills. If you are anything like me you have probaly endured that kind of person many times. However, the thing that I try to remind myself of is that this kind of personality feeds off of other peoples energy and emotion. You always see this individual attempting to be the center of attention no matter how well he is playing or not. The way to deal with that is to simply not give that player any more energy than is necessary. You don’t respond to jokes, jabs or inquiries that have nothing to do with the hand you are involved in. After a while the obnoxious player begins to slow down because he has no partner in crime or fans to egg him on.

Emotional poker leads to poor play and a loss of profit. By keeping your emotions in check you enable yourself to stay balanced and in control of your decision making process. Staying in control leads to positive results over the long term. You can’t argue with that.

Hellmuth and Booth in Poker Short Movie

There aren’t that many poker movies to choose from at the moment, so it’s always good to learn that a new one is being made.  This time, it’s a Canadian short film called Shark Out Of Water.

Shark Out of Water looks like it could well stand out from other movies, because it takes a different perspective to the average casino flick - talking abot two poker players who are trying to come to terms with their addiction.  The movie will have a nice authentic feel too, with cameos being made by Phil Hellmuth and Brad Booth.

Shark Out of Water has been nominated for awards at several American film festivals, so keep your eyes open for it when it comes to our shores!

Bo Sehlstedt Wins EC Poker Tour

Bo Sehlstedt has taken first place at the EC Poker Tour, and has won €51,382 in prize money.  Play ran until 11PM yesterday, with a monumental final hand that saw two players eliminated in one fell swoop, leaving Bo Sehlstedt standing triumphant.
Bo defeated John Van Der Bruggen (who came second) and Michael Schuchardt (who takes third place).

The prizes awarded, in Euros, were:
1st: €51,382 - Bo Sehlstedt
2nd: €31,200 - John Van De Bruggen
3rd: €21,450 - Michael Schuchardt

This was the third year for the EC Poker Tour, and it was a very successful tournament with an action packed final day.

Poker player Notes

Did you know that one of the best ways to gain information on your opponents is to simply write down their tendencies? Yes, most online poker rooms allow you to take player notes. By doing so you have fresh information ready to go any time that particular players is involved in a tournament, cash game or heads-up event.

Online poker doesn’t have the typical physical tells available that live poker does. However, there is still plenty of information to be harvested on your opponents and player notes are where those tidbits should go. So don’t be lackadaisical about taking good player notes. It only takes a minute and it could help increase your profit in the short and long run.

EC Poker Tour Final Day

The final day of the Euro City Poker Tour is underway at the Casino Di Venezia in Malta, and it’s shaping up to be an exciting session, with some rapid eliminations in the early stages of play.

The winner of the tournament will take home €51,382  in prize money for this, the third edition of the EC Poker Tour.

Hoff was the most recently eliminated, so there are just four players left in the game, including Schuchardt, who has been getting stronger and stronger throughout the tournament. Hoff will be taking home just over €13,000 for his efforts.

Keep checking back for more news about the final four, and an announcement of the winner of the Euro City Poker Tour.

Huck Seed wins Late Night Poker series

Huck Seeed has won the latest series of Late Night Poker after beating Gus Hansen in heads up play.  Third place was taken by Annette Obrestad, while Sam Trickett took fourth place.

At one point, Hansen looked like he was well placed to take the title, holding A7 while Seed had A2.  On the river, the deuce Seed required to survive appeared.  The win was eventually sealed when Seed had pocket threes against Hansen’s Q8.  There was no help for Hansen on the river, so he was forced to take second place and a $100,000 prize.

Seed, who earned the first prize of $200,000 said, “I’ve been playing poker for 20 years against the best of the best many times. I really like playing against good competition. It was exciting and fun to play. It’s been a good trip all the way round. I’ve had a lot of fun, seen a beautiful new city. It’s been great.”

Hansen was gracious in defeat, and said, “It’s a pretty good result for me. There were a lot of strong players from all over the world. I came second, you can’t really argue with that, it’s a good result. It is a little more shiny to come in first though.”

Titan Poker $20,000 Freeroll

Titan Poker is holding a $20,000 freeroll for new depositors. Once you make the first deposit you will receive 5 tokens to play in any of the new depositor freerolls for a share of the $20k.

These tournaments run every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday @ 20:00GMT

Download the software and start playing today!

College Dropout’s 8Million Poker Win

Joe Cada, college dropout, has become a multimillionaire after winning $8.5 million in a poker tournament.  Cada, aged 21, is the youngest person to ever win the World Series of Poker.

Cada said of the win that the money is “pretty sweet.”

He won the tournament in a preflop; “I raised it up to $3 million, he made it $8 million, and I moved in for like $60 some million, and he called,” Cada said. “I was kind of too scared to look so I just had my back turned, hoping it would work out for the best.”

Cada’s two nines bested his opponents jack and a queen of diamonds, making him the youngest winner - in his first ever World Series of Poker.  Cada had been eager to turn 21 so that he could take part in the tournament, and said that he had played cards with his friends since he was young.  “I was really excited to play,” he said. “It’s a really long shot because there’s 6,500 people in the tournament. But I was still looking forward to playing in it.”
He added that the long days of play were pretty surreal - “You kind of get in the zone after a while,” he said. “The tournament lasted for about 10 days total. Once you start playing for a long time, it was just like you had to wake up and go and play another day.”
Cada’s mother works as a blackjack dealer in Detroit, and was skeptical of his involvement in poker. “She’d always see people gambling and you know, lose money, so she was always kind of nervous about me playing poker for a living,” he said. “It brought her to tears when I won the thing. She said she was really proud of me.”

Cada says that he doesn’t plan on going back to college any time soon.  As a multimillionaire, can you blame him?

Cada a favorite to win Main Event

So now we are down to the final two players and will be crowning the champion with a new bracelet in no time at all. Both Darvin Moon and Joe Cada are decent guys and certainly good poker players. However, where does the WSOP go from here? What do either one of the final 2 players bring to the game outside of their ability to play it?

I can’t see Moon going out and promoting the game of poker and Cada, although a very talented player, is literally just getting started in the game having dropped out of college. However, he would be one of the youngest players to take down the main event title if he can do so. That could be the spring board needed to draw more attention to the game.

We will find out shortly.

No Poker Player in Next Celebrity Apprentice?

Ever since Annie Duke finished as a runner up in the most recent Celebrity Apprentice, the poker community has been busy speculating that there may be a poker stars on future editions of the show.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.  The cast for the next season of Celebrity Apprentice - which, this year, saw Annie Duke fighting with Joan Rivers, bringing lots of mainstream attention to the game of poker, has been confirmed, and there will not be a professional poker player on the main cast.

This does not mean that professional poker is disappearing from TV.  There are a number of poker based reality TV shows debuting this season, so there will be plenty to keep poker fans entertained - both in terms of televised poker tournaments, and general entertainment.

Next Page »