Introduction.

Being a keen online poker fan you’ll no doubt be registered with several online poker websites and will enjoy playing multiple games during your poker sessions. A problem with belonging to a lot of different websites is that in finding the ones you like and trust, you will inevitably come across ones that you don’t like or even worse don’t trust! Well here at advanced poker play we’re all for maintaining good internet security so we hope you’ll find the following about online poker security helpful to you.

What you could lose!

To play at an online poker table that allows you to gamble at it, whether using chips you purchase before starting to play or straight cash, by not checking that the poker website is a secure one you could lose a lot more than the amount you’re playing with. To begin with you have to register your name and address with them, just for the right to sit at the poker table – and already that’s enough information for an identity fraud to be perpetrated against you. Next you need to register either credit card or bank details with them – at which point they could just withdraw cash or make charges against you at will. Finally there’s the risk that it will simply be a crooked internet poker game that’s loaded against you, meaning you might just as well hand over your bank roll rather than buying chips or placing bets.

Sure hope she's going to show me some online poker security moves!

Is it a secure and safe site?

To determine if it is a safe site when entering personal or financial details, transferring money and even playing a game of poker at least look for a padlock symbol in the website address bar or taskbar. Even better, check that the webpage address begins https, rather than just http, which is a better indicator of good security levels. Regarding whether to trust a poker website, follow these quick guidelines: is it up front about where the website is domiciled and regulated, does it have good customer service and, perhaps most importantly, is it already a popular site with other poker players and poker professionals?

Online Poker Security is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

For any one living in the big cities of America like New York, Denver, LA to name but three – chances are you’ll be able to find a poker school nearby that will include access to poker games and workshops with the top professional poker players. Which is all well and good for the big city dwellers but what can those poker players in the USA outside of those main centers, all equally keen to brush up on their poker techniques, do to get into the best poker schools?

Face-To-face poker schools.

If you do live out in the country or at least not in one of the big cities that host the top poker schools one option for you of course is to simply get yourself along to the venue for a face-to-face poker school. Needless to say two problems could prevent you from doing this – time off work and the costs involved. It’s a fact that when it comes to face-to-face poker schools the professionals appearing at them need paying and so you’ll end up having to pay a fee to get into the poker school. But if the poker school requires you to travel and quite possibly stay overnight to really get your money’s worth you’ve also got the expense of the travel involved and finding somewhere to stay – making that poker school a considerably expensive venture. That’s all providing you can get time off work in the first place!

Online poker schools.

Who knows which professionals you might meet online?

The solution is of course, especially if you like laying online poker, to look for online poker schools – even if you live somewhere that hosts face-to-face poker schools. Online poker schools come in two flavours – those that are really just poker playing tutorials or lessons and those that actually involve you interacting with poker experts and professionals asking questions and getting answers in real time. The ones you need to search out are the ones where you are interacting with real players in real time. The communication could be through an instant messaging system or, these days, even a multi-media system using VoIP or even full video-conferencing. Even better, professional online poker schools are invariably run by online poker websites using their own stable of professionals. The websites see the poker schools as a way of advertising and marketing their poker tables and so offer these blue chip poker schools – free of charge.

Poker Schools is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

The 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was completed last weekend – resulting in a Main Event win for Galen Hall, a 24 year old from San Francisco. In the final game he managed to overturn a massive chip deficit held by Florida’s Chris Oliver to scoop the $2.3 million winner’s check.

The build up to the final table.

A very happy looking Galen Hall - 2011 PCA Main Event winner.

The final hand.

The winning final hand was played at 3:05 am on Sunday morning. In the hole Oliver must have been pleased with his Qh and Qc, while Hall held a useful Ac with 8c. As, Kd and 8s at the flop must have got Oliver thinking about a straight although 2h at the turn might have dampened those thoughts. The Ks at the river brought on a 600k raise from Hall, which saw Oliver re-raise. Needless to say Hall moved all-in to collect $2.3 million the 2011 PCA Main Event title.

2011 PCA is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

Has she got a Christmas treat for you?

As the end of December approaches no doubt you’ll be looking forward to a few days off work – and few days off work means more opportunities to play even more online poker. Of course when we’re on vacation we all like to relax a little and for some poker players that can mean betting stakes that they wouldn’t normally think of playing. Yeah, but why not have a bit of a Christmas treat? Nothing wrong with that of course – you’ve worked hard all year and so why not enjoy yourself a bit. However, you should know your betting limits and stick to them unless you really are on to a winner.

Your bankroll tells you your limit.

Knowing what betting limit to go up to should be quite straightforward. Whether your bankroll in the hundreds or thousands of dollars – your betting limit is the price of the stakes that mean you can play all your hands correctly. In other words if that bankroll is in the hundreds of dollars it’s no use sitting down at a poker table where the bets are $100/$200 – you’ll soon be out of it; much better to find a $10/$20 game and enjoy a good session of poker play. Having said that – the higher you play the more you’ll average in winnings. So the secret to progressing in the amounts you win is to add winnings to your bankroll and slowly increase the stakes you play with – rather than thinking you can win the ‘big one’ straight off.

Betting in early and later rounds.

Sitting at a $10/$20 game the early rounds of betting will be quite straightforward. But in the later rounds of a pot-limit or worse no-limit game, those stakes can suddenly rise steeply. So here you need to adopt a different betting strategy. As the stakes rise so to do your implied odds, so it will pay you to play loose early on in the game and then tighten up as the betting rounds progress. That way you’re betting on improving your hand into a winning one – and a big win.

Know Your Betting Limits is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction

Last week, at a special Thanksgiving Day auction, Peter Eastgate sold his 2008 WSOP Main Event Gold Bracelet for $147,500. Fortunately the 2008 WSOP champion, having won over $9 million before even his mid-20s, didn’t need the money. In fact the auction was to raise funds for a very worthy cause instead – UNICEF. Although the eventual winner of the bidding remains anonymous, this really was a great philanthropic gesture from Eastgate that is to be applauded.

Other WSOP bracelet sales

WSOP gold bracelets - worth more than money!

Unfortunately there have in recent times been other instances of WSOP gold bracelets being sold for what can only be described as personal gain by the owner. Now it is, of course, very difficult to cast judgment on an individual for doing such a thing as we don’t know what sort of financial situation they might be in but – should something as prestigious as a WSOP gold bracelet be allowed to be openly sold like some trinket in a pawn shop? One quite surprising example of this was when in January 2010 when one of T J Coultier’s six bracelets was put up for sale by a pawn shop, bought by Cake Poker for $4006 they returned it to Coultier. The perplexing bit here is that Coultier won over $9 million himself, was almost unstoppable some 10 years ago and although now in his 70s – surely he doesn’t need the cash? Going a similar way is Paul “Eskimo” Clark’s 1999 bracelet, which having already been sold by Clark was then advertised on eBay for re-sale!

Should they be sold to anyone?

Should a WSOP gold bracelet owner be allowed to sell their trophy to just anyone and for any reason? To me it just cheapens the whole concept of winning a WSOP gold bracelet being the pinnacle of a poker player’s dreams – if someone else can just go out there and buy one. The whole point of the gold bracelet is that it marks the owner out as someone who has truly achieved something in the game of poker. To that end, perhaps the bracelets should be given on the understanding that they are the property of WSOP and that the winner of one is not allowed to sell it without the express permission of the WSOP. Why do I say this – well in no time at all WSOP gold bracelets could become a commodity in their own right being traded within the poker community for far more that their worth in gold and potentially for more that they were worth in prize money from some of the lower buy-in events. Mark my words, if one goes for over $100k at a charity auction – one will soon enough go for over $100k on the open market!

WSOP Bracelet Sale is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

The first week in November that saw one Canadian crowned as the 2010 WSOP champion, also saw another top Canadian poker playing professional in effect barred for life from entering the USA and, therefore, the more lucrative poker tournaments. So how do the fortunes of these two Canadian poker players compare.

Poker winner.

At just 23 years of age Canadian Jonathan Duhamel is literally on top of the poker world. Not only did he win this years’ WSOP but picked up another gold bracelet and nearly $9 million in the process. Life can’t get much better at the moment Duhamel who dropped out of university to pursue his dream of playing poker professionally. Not that he’d advocate anyone following in his footsteps, preferring to advise others to stay on at college and get those qualifications. Sound advice of course but when you’re that sort of age, whatever your dream might be, surely you should follow it? The secret to Duhamel’s success apparently is reading poker books and practicing by playing online poker. Prior to his big WSOP win he spent two years earning a living from online poker, often playing six-handed cash poker tables, perfecting his aggressive style of play.

Poker loser.

PokerStars Terrance “unassigned” Chan - set to play his poker in Europe from now on.

For another Canadian poker player, Texas Hold ‘em expert Terrance Chan, he seems to have lost out big-time on the big money American poker tournaments. A regular cash winner himself at WSOP events in the last few years, even being a runner-up in one of the 2007 games,  having been refused entry to the USA he is almost certainly now barred from the country for good. His problem was to do with his visa, having expired he was unable to convince Customs and Immigration that he had no intention of staying in America, despite having plenty of documents supporting his good intent. The net result of this is that Terrance has now vowed to look to Europe instead for big money tournaments and opportunities to win a WSOP gold bracelet at events such as the one in London.

Canadian Poker Fortunes is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

Two poker players have been announced as having the honor of being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame 2010 – Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington. The two players are great friends having both started out on their poker careers, having begun playing the game around the same time at the Mayfair club in New York, having previously both been very keen tournament backgammon players.  As has become customary, the induction ceremony into the Poker Hall of Fame will take place on in Las Vegas, November 8, immediately before the ‘heads-up’ final of the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Erik Seidel.

Erik Seidel - 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee.

A former Wall Street stockbroker Erik Seidel has been a professional poker player since  1987, entering his first WSOP in 1988 he finished runner-up to the defending champion Johnny Chan – pretty impressive for it being not only his first time at the WSOP but even being his first major poker tournament. Since then, between 1998 and 2007, he has won 8 Gold bracelets and with a career now spanning four decades he has to date lifetime winnings in excess of $10 million. Considering that other nominees for the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame included the likes of Phil Ivey and Scott Nguyen, the fact that Erik is to be inducted has raised a few eye-brows amongst the poker community.

Dan Harrington.

Dan Harrington - 2010 Poker Hall of Fame inductee.

Hall Of Fame 2010 is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

No matter what your favorite online poker game is one thing you can be utterly sure of is that you won’t need a massive bank-roll to start playing online poker. However, did you know that many of the better online poker websites will offer you totally free poker games, even better these free poker games are usually in an online poker tournament and can even gain you a seat at some of the biggest poker tournaments on the planet?

Free poker game – too good to be true?

I bet she likes a freeroll poker game?

We all know the saying that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” – well just for once there is such a thing as a free poker game. Quite simply with so many poker websites to choose from – they all want to attract your business, so what better way than to offer you free entry into a poker tournament. Of course, ultimately, the poker websites hope that you enjoy the poker tournament experience that much that you want to go back and play even more poker with them. But, at the point of delivery, if they’re advertising a free poker tournament – that’s what it will be. So what better way could there possibly be for the rookie player to get the feel for poker tournament play than by taking advantage of one of the free poker games. Don’t forget as well, in a freeroll poker game you’ve really nothing to lose – so that’s the time to have a shot at some really aggressive and loose poker game.

Types of free poker game

Free online poker games are usually offered in one of the two following formats. Firstly there’s ‘member points based’ freerolls. To get into one of these you’ll already need to be signed up with a particular poker website and have played sufficient poker games to accrue the minimum number of points making you eligible for the freeroll poker game. The other one is a ‘no-strings attached’ tournament. These are rarer than points based ones, but to be invited into a no-strings freeroll tournament all you need is to be registered with a poker website and wait to be invited, even if you never actually play a poker game first.

Free Online Tournaments is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction.

With the World Championship of Online Poker 2010 well under way, we thought it time to give you an update on the big winners and games so far. WCOOP is, of course, sponsored by pokerstars and is every online poker players dream event, as anyone might find themselves sitting at a poker table with the top professional players, simply by qualifying through one of the numerous satellite poker games - some of which are even free. With 62 events and a total of $50 million to be won – surely its worth going online and at least seeing if you’re good enough to make some progress in this poker tournament.

The biggest wins so far.

David Shallow - the biggest winner so far at WCOOP 2010.

The biggest wins so far came earlier in September with two games offering a $2 million payout. The first was an afternoon game of No Limit Hold ‘em for high rollers with a buy-in of $10,300, then in the evening there was another NL Hold ‘em game, this time with the buy in at just $215. It might seem odd to have had a high roller game starting in the afternoon to possibly favor Asian players, but in the end the $605k and gold bracelet first place was won by CrabMaki (the young Irishman David Shallow), beating PokerStars own professional Ville Wahlbeck into second place with a diamond flush. In the evening game the Algerian Joao Bauer took the gold bracelet and a check for $316k after beating cmpjo (Carlos Oliveira). This game took a near marathon 20 hours from start to finish and was finally decided by a pair of sevens!

In the lead so far.

Approaching the half way stage and cal42688 (all we know is he’s called Cal and he’s from the USA) is top of the leader board with 190 points with Kroko-dill (the Russian from Full Tilt Poker) is in second place, some way behind on 165 points. USA takes another 5 places in the top 10, with the other three spots being held by Hungary, Netherlands and Greece – so a truly international poker competition is shaping up this year.

WCOOP 2010 Update is a post from advanced poker play

Introduction

Any truly competitive poker player must surely want to play in poker tournaments. Whether they consider themselves still to be somewhat of a rookie or an advanced poker player, there’s always a casino or online poker tournament starting up somewhere or other, which will suit both their level of experience and pocket. Accordingly the prize money on offer in tournaments can also vary widely and whilst paying an entry fee of a few dollars and only the final table being in the payout seats might not be over upsetting, pay an entry fee in the thousands of dollars and you might well expect to have a better chance of at least recouping some of your money.

Casino tournaments and the affect of entry fees on the play

Excuse me miss - what’s the entry fee?

Online tournaments and the affect of entry fees on the play

For some, rather unfathomable, reason online poker tournaments do not attract the same level of tight play – even if the entry fee is a large one. Quite possibly a reason for this is that there are simply so many online poker tournaments and, being online, somewhere in the world  there’ll always be another one to play in tomorrow. Whereas for a casino tournament you’d have purposely made your way to it, be it at your local casino, one in Las Vegas or abroad etc. The net result of this is that online poker tournaments see quite aggressive play, even in the early stages – perhaps time to tighten up a bit yourself?

Poker Entry Fee is a post from advanced poker play