Archive for Fun Links
September 1, 2010 at 11:02 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Worldwide gambling operator Station Casinos moved one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy intact Friday when a judge approved the sale of 11 online poker casinos, land holdings and American Indian gaming contracts to a group backed by Fertitta Gaming for $772 million, according to Poker News. The transactions are expected to close early next year. The locals online poker gaming company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year ago with about $6 billion in debt. Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive did not need to hold a planned auction Friday because the only other qualified bidder that submitted a letter of intent, Boyd Gaming Corp., dropped out of the auction last week, complaining that the auction process was tilted in favor of insiders. That left the Fertitta Gaming-backed bid as the only qualified one, according to court documents. The first leg of the reorganization involved establishing a new holding company that would be owned by partner Colony Capital, secured lenders Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Fertitta Gaming, which was formed by Station Casinos founders Frank Fertitta III and his brother Lorenzo. The new company would take over Everest Poker casinos that provide more than half of Station Casinos’ revenues: Red Rock Resort, Palace Station, Sunset Station, Boulder Station and the Wild Wild West and its adjoining 110 acres. The Fertittas will put up $85 million for their share of this company.
June 6, 2010 at 2:38 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games
You may enter a national lottery for simple enjoyment, but there are better odds on the web if you wish to win particular items. Typing in words such as win a blackberry phone in Google, you will locate a lot of websites proffering the particular product you desire to win. Usually you purchase a ticket for this type of prize draw, and then complete some quiz questions that - if you give the right answer to - takes you further into the draw, cutting your betting odds in the process.
Perhaps it’s the knowledge requirement that attracts a lot of participants, who feel they have more opportunity of winning as their own skills can ensure the length of their odds of winning. Given that the initial ticket purchase cost is oftentimes a small charge, these sorts of draws put up a much better chance for its participants than any major lottery ever can.
Ultimately though, you should enter such a competition purely as a bit of fun. If you become a winner, well done. If you don’t, then there’s little to cause you distress - there will invariably be other prize draws on the web that one may participate in. In my opinion, it’s better to enter a contest that involves some skill and knowledge than a prize draw that purely depends upon luck to be the winner.
June 4, 2010 at 9:38 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Even if you’ve got a poker strategy that works the majority of the time you use it, there are going to be times when it just isn’t working. Sometimes the reason is clear-opponents may catch on to how you play and are making good reads on you, or maybe your opponents’ playing styles aren’t susceptible to your particular strategy. Sometimes the reason is unknown-you just aren’t winning like you usually do. Regardless of why, it’s important to know when your strategy just isn’t working. If you’re getting called when you want to see folds, and if no one will play with you when you’ve got a winning hand, your poker strategy might be dead in the water.
Once you’ve realized that your strategy is burning you, it’s important to let it go. Many players will stick with what they know regardless of how effective it is, simply because they know that strategy well and they’ve one with it before. But when a strategy isn’t winning anymore, there isn’t a better time to try out some new tactics. You’re not winning anyway, so what better time to try playing in a way that you’re not familiar with? If your style isn’t getting the job done, try playing just the opposite. If nothing else, it’ll give you an edge by keeping your opponents off guard when you play poker online.
May 14, 2010 at 8:59 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
When it comes to traits that new players should try to emulate, nothing is more important than the steely self control shown by the poker players at the top. The most profitable players in the poker world know their limits. They know their skill set. They know their bankroll. As a result, they rarely find themselves on tilt. In basic terms, these top notch players can funnel their self knowledge into a highly profitable time at the table. They win more than the average player because they know themselves better than the average player.
Not every player can start off their poker career with the kind of mental acuity that distinguishes the best players. However, even the greenest player can learn to stay within their limits. This is generally good bankroll management practice, but it is also good mental management as well. Learning to stay within your bankroll is a practice of learning your own limits. You can learn when to say no to another round, when to bet a little more, and when you have had too much if you learn how to manage your bankroll. If you ever want to be a truly great poker player, you need to know your limits. Start by learning your financial limits and the rest will follow.
May 3, 2010 at 8:52 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Poker superstar Annie Duke, who was trashed by Joan Rivers in Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” show, has won the 6th Annual Heads-Up Poker Championship sponsored by GoDaddy.com. The contest took place at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas with the final match held on March 7th.
This was a first-time win for Duke, who in previous Heads-Up events had difficulty making it out of the second round. During this year’s contest, she defeated several other well-known poker players, including Andy Bloch, Darvin Moon, Paul Wasicka, Jerry Yang and Dennis Phillips.
The final match took place between Duke and online poker pro Eric Seidel, who has eight WSOP bracelets and ranks as #9 in lifetime online poker earnings. Duke won $500,000 for her efforts and Seidel $250,000.
During the third round, Duke made a dramatic comeback against Wasicka. The Heads-Up Championship had 64 original entrants who face each other in one-on-one matches. Each player moves onto to further challenges after surviving a round, and the eventual winner is based on a best-of-three format.
Duke is the first woman to win the Heads-Up challenge though she is no stranger to big wins. She finished 10th in the 2000 WSOP Main Event while eight months pregnant, and she won $2 million in the 10-player WSOP Tournament of Champions in 2004.
April 21, 2010 at 2:35 pm · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Every seasoned online poker player knows the dangers of going on tilt-the loose style of poker online play, the over-aggression with mediocre hands, the refusal to fold a losing hand, there’s not a lot of money to be made when a player is tilting. Unfortunately, no matter how experienced he is, every online poker player is susceptible to going on tilt every now and then. If left unchecked, going on tilt can be disastrous-after all, the end of your game is only an all-in call away, but like most debilitating maladies, the damage caused by going on tilt can be held to a minimum if it’s caught early. If you catch yourself making some bad plays because you lost your temper, take the time to sit back and calm yourself down. Then act as if you’re still on tilt. If you’ve noticed your subpar playing, there’s a good chance that your opponents have noticed it as well. So calm down, start playing like you know you should, but feel free to let your opponents continue to think that you’re on tilt. Use their observation to your advantage-if they play you like you’re being loose-aggressive, tighten up your game and bet like a maniac when you get a winning hand. They’ll probably be happy to go all in with you.
April 12, 2010 at 8:36 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Chipping away at your poker online opponents isn’t as exciting, but it’s a far more reliable way to build up your bankroll. I’ve spent countless hours building up towers of stacks one hand at a time, only to see them fall into my opponent’s hands with an ill-advised all-in call or raise.
A few nights ago, I was playing a cash game online, and over several hours, I’d built up my stack to about fifteen times what I’d bought in for. It wasn’t a huge amount of money, but I’d been playing smart, and was proud that I’d gotten there even though I wasn’t getting very good cards. After a while, I started seeing better starting poker hands and I started making bigger bets.
Usually that wouldn’t be a problem, but in this case it led to disaster. The only problem with that was that I started playing poker online much more aggressively than my cards were warranting. After winning all night by semi-bluffing with semi-good hands, I started overbetting hands that I thought would win, hands like middle pair and suited connectors. Eventually I went all in with top two pair when there were four clubs on the board. Needless to say, all of the hard work that went in to building up my bankroll went down the drain in one misguided hand.
March 10, 2010 at 11:00 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Speaking of young poker prodigies, another 20-something has won a prestigious NAPT event. 22-year-old Tom Marchese, a professional poker player from Parsipanny, New Jersey outlasted a pro-heavy 872-player field, claiming the inaugural $5,000 buy-in NAPT Venetian Main Event championship in Las Vegas. Marchese overcame a major poker chip differential against runner-up Sam Stein en route to winning the first ever NAPT event held on American soil. “It’s a bit overwhelming,” said a camera shy Marchese in a postgame interview. “The event is definitely one of my new favorites. The turnout was great, the structure was really good and the tournament staff did a really good job all week. I’ll definitely be back next year,” Marchese said. A total of 35 countries were represented in the five-day poker tournament, though the final table was an all-American affair. The event was 18 players away from reaching its 890-player cap and the prizepool eclipsed the $4 million mark. The top 128 finishers were paid. The Main Event attracted numerous celebrity players including baseb Orel Hershiser, talk show host Montel Williams and comedian Brad Garrett. A charity tournament was held on the eve of the Main Event, raising over $42,000 for Las Vegas based philanthropy Three Square. Tony Hawk, Christian Slater, Jason Alexander, Marlon Wayans and Slash all participated in the event. Recording artist T-Pain performed a set at the PokerStars.net player party.
February 22, 2010 at 11:09 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
Experience. That’s the one thing that most pros will agree on that is the most important thing a player can have. You can have an encyclopedic and robotic knowledge of poker theorems and strategies, but unless you’ve been battle tested and baptized by fire, this knowledge does you no good.
So first things first, where is a good practice field? That depends. Yeah I know, a common answer to nearly every poker question, but let’s think about what kind of practice you’re looking for.
If you’re looking on improving your tournament game, there are several play money sites you can play on. The higher up the stakes, the better the play. But what if you just want to work on the ABCs? Well in those cases, I suggest not playing against live players at all. The ideal practice partner here would be against a machine. The concept is simple, yet often overlooked. The sophisticated poker online programs out there are programmed to play poker by the numbers and solely by the numbers. If you’re having trouble with the basics like learning starting hand strength and bet sizing, playing against computer opponents will help you refine these skills.
For example, say you’re betting too much in early position. The computer will punish you for this since they will rank their hand based on the programming and call or fold accordingly. While it’s safe to assume that most of the players you will encounter playing live will not play like the computer, by being able to continually beat the computer, you will have a mathematical advantage over your live counterparts as you will have refined your ability to make decisions based on mathematical reasoning rather than playing with emotion.
January 4, 2010 at 10:55 am · Filed under Fun Links, Games, Lady Luck's Lair
As a Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament draws to a conclusion, the atmosphere grows tense as the players await for the bubble to break - the cut off for winning any prize money. Once the bubble breaks, your focus is on advancing as far as you can get all the way up to last player standing.
To make it to the final table and rounds of the contest, you must aim to at scoop up the blinds at least once per round so your chip stack remains strong enough to withstand the escalating bet amounts. Your chip stack size should dictate the style of play you pursue at this point. Since a poker tournament is a contest of elimination, you should make it a goal to have others go out ahead of you.
If you are a big stack at the table, then you can be aggressive about raising to steal blinds or to put a short stack all-in. Every player that is eliminated, and every stack decimated to short stature can help advance you to the big prize.
With only a medium stack, you have to play conservatively. Adopting a patient attitude and refraining from entering any pots without absolute premium cards is your best strategy. Let others poker players knock each other out. You will advance closer to the bigger prizes by simply doing nothing.
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