Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Alpine Cup Finalists

According to bwin's poker blog (http://www.bwinpokerblog.com/ ) focusing on online poker tournaments, bwin's top three finishers in their December 27th Alpine Cup texas holdem finals are kingmemo36, Hydro8, and Don Cool. They, as the latest members of bwin, can claim their $8,000 online poker prize package and get a ski/snowboarding weekend fit for poker royalty. PokerNews teamed up with bwin to reward these guys with a package at the PokerNews Cup Austria.

The PokerNews Cup Austria is held at Salzburg’s Concord Card Casino. The winners that make up Team bwin have won accommodations in the posh Alpine Palace nestled in the awe-inspiring Austrian Alps. The bwin Team is in for a luxury trip combining first class poker with winter fun. How to qualify now! The qualifiers run from now to early Febuary.

Here is what the $8,000 PokerNews Cup Premium Package includes;
• 7 nights luxury accommodation at the 5 star Alpine Palace
• Buy-in to the PokerNews Cup Main Event and 1 side event
• Flights and spending money
• Ski pass for the duration of your stay
• VIP shuttle from Salzburg to Alpine Palace with return by helicopter
• The VIP treatment including a spa treatment and invite to the VIP Welcome Party

Kingmemo36, Hydro8, and Don Cool join previous winners mazlumb2, liverpool170, and mr.Schne for a fun-filled weekend. The action was fast and furious and it took a bad beat for the winners to get their prize money as badblatt61, the bubble boy, got it all in with pocket Queens only to have the dominated pocket 10s of Kingmemo36 set up on the flop. The set held and badblatt61 was bad beated and sent home. He got a final ticket and $241 in cash for 4th. The top three are jet-setting though.

Kingmemo36 ran well with pocket 10s as he also knocked out the fifth place finisher, Playboy Royal, with them too. Playboy had 8s and hit his set on the flop, but Kingmemo36 also hit his set and Playboy, who was the chipleader at the beginning of 5 handed play was drawing thin and then sent to the rail.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Poker Strategy

I found an interesting short read on poker strategy at http://www.holdempoker.com/poker-strategy. I liked it because it mentioned the different types of players and a couple of ways to key in to their weakness, inherent in their playing strategy and their strengths. think when you sit down at a table, and if you don't have some sort of Sharkscope or Holdem Manager to help you select a table, the first couple of rounds you have to key into your opponents. Sometimes I'll make notes on what styles each player is playing.

For the purposes of this post, I want to focus on one type of player. If I have an inclination that one player will fold to a certain size bet when repopped on the flop, I note that, and later when I need to create a stealing opportunity, I'm going after them. Even better, is there are players that will often call when repopped preflop and the fold post flop to any bet. I love these kinds of passive fish.

In tournament poker if you focus your two bets into them, preferably in position, you won't steal the blinds, you'll steal the blinds and whatever they call to see the flop. All you have to do is win two out of three for this move to be profitable. Against this type of player your c-bets will often be very successful. In cash texas hold 'em poker they can be just as lucrative. Even better, this pseudo-call stations will often call your flop bet and then fold to your aggression on the turn.

Course, I find if they can call your turn bet this particular type of player has hit his hand. Some players you want to fire a third barrel against, I find this passive fish isn't one of them. Still, you'll find that even firing two barrels will be profitable against him if you can isolate. You win 2 out of 3 and once every three hands, you are winning the preflop amounts, and your post flop bets. Can be lucrative.

The rest of the table isn't blind so you'll probably get a passenger or two down the line when you try and isolate. Now you'll have to be selective with your agression as usually these passengers have recognized you are picking on an opponent and raising light and c-betting empty. Next time we'll focus how to handle those players in a three way pot.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

UB Scandal

This latest scandal on UB could just be a computer glitch. It could be a freak occurrence that just happened to happen when the face of their company was playing online poker. Allegedly he's been on a tear... playing texas holdem limit poker. Allegedly not only isn't he a good texas hold'em limit poker player he's been a bit of a fish of that game. And he's been on a bit of a tear. Sometimes fish get lucky right?

Last go around everything smelled real funny, real funny and finally people were able to show it was. This go round, this would be brutal for poker. If Hellmuth goes down we all suffer greatly. I don't think it lights a fire under the collective asses in Congress to regulate it I think it puts a fork in a "rogue" industry that is online poker.

Of late I've been pimping bWin poker (https://poker.bwin.com/poker.aspx) as a place to play online texas holdem for many reasons. Anybody that follows international sports will know they advertise on AC Milan's jerseys. You might see David Beckham wearing one in the next couple of weeks. What's significant about that? Well, in the U.S. how many poker sites have you seen affiliated with major sports teams? Yes, it's a different culture over there. They advertise bookmakers on the sidelines. I watched one game with the second half line scrolling on the bottom of the screen.

So, I recognize them being on the jerseys of one of the biggest sports franchises in the world does not legitimize them, but at the same time it kind of does. It just feels safer.You can reply with ENRON field, and the bogus-ness of that thought so that's understood. Still, I feel like bWin and other established sites with more official status have more to lose then some of the closer networks. On the sports gambling side they actively notify the European governments about betting pattern irregularities, and actively abide and aide governments seeking to regulate. Shouldn't we already be there in the U.S.?http://www.igamingbusiness.com/article-detail.php?articleID=19526

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

How to Play Poker Online on a Mac...

I have a good friend of mine who is a little dejected he can’t get involved in the online poker boom because he doesn’t have a pc. Many companies don’t offer online gaming or poker to Mac software. Mac texas holdem is hard to come by and when you can play it, oit is a bit of a hassle to use one. He found recently a site that does just that www.pokerroom.com/mac/.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my pc, but I admire the capabilities of his mac. He’s into heavy graphic programs and film editing so he’s felt it’s mandatory that he own a macintosh. I’ve always felt like I’ve had the upperhand because of the limitations on his macintosh poker. Now he can play mac texas holdem whenever he wants.

I’ll have to look into Apple a bit more. He’s now got a poker mac as well as his cool iPhone, iPod, and devices that have a symbiotic relationship with his home computer.

I have another friend on http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/ Shoats, that whines about not being able to play poker on his mac. I’m going to have to ship him the link to www.pokerroom.com/mac/ and see if he likes it. I’ll put up a review if he does one.

In my own news, I had a good day of texas holdem. I chased a couple of flush draws and got there on the turn. One guy had a set but didn’t pair the board and paid me hansomely. The other guy rivered a straight and shoved like he was holding the gonads. He wasn’t. I was. Ace high flush. Nice chunk of change.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Play Online Poker

I have recently started to look for other sites to play online poker on besides the normal ones. I consider myself a good poker player and have played at the big two sites as well as both the sites featured on the 60 minutes profile. I have success at all of them but recently I've found the best place to play online texas holdem is on https://poker.bwin.com/poker.aspx.

I did not know much about the site before too recently. However, I saw an ad for them on http://www.gulfcoastpoker.net/. Been from Louisiana I check out that site a lot. Anyway, I expected a European site to have a lot of donks, or Eurodonks, players that were likely to play fast and furious and could get caught up overplaying certain hands. I thought if I played my tight and normal style of poker and I'd get paid. Texas Holdem is not that hard a game if people overplay their hands.

I'd have to say that is exactly what has been happening. I'm going to brag a little. In one particular hand during my last texas hold 'em poker session I had AA in mid position. Normally, I'd like to raise aggressively to thin the field. However, I discovered on this site if the pot is unopened as it was, I could simply limp and let the maniacs to my left do my betting for me. Why do the pushing if the Eurodonkeys will do the pulling, right?

Sure enough, one of the guys puts out a raise, the button re-raises, and the BB three bets it. Time to shove the $500 sitting in front of me. BB calls me with AK. Nice try sir. It's never easy so I had to sweat a four outer as the flop brought a J and a 10. Oh well. I'll take that matchup every hand. If that gets lucky on me I'll happily reload and fire again.

I will continue to post my poker online hands on here.

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