If you’ve reached a very late table in a freeroll tournament, chances are that you’re an excellent player and that you’re playing against some high level players. At the later stages, you’ll need to really consider your strategy carefully. If you play very tightly, you’ll be able to stay in, but your chip stack will dwindle, and you won’t be able to continue to place the blinds as you go on. You’ll need to play loosely enough to take some pots even if you’re not holding pocket aces or ace-king suited.

On the other hand, if you play too loosely, you can easily lose your stack to another player who holds trips to your high pair. You’ll have to strike a careful balance there. At this point in the tournament, you’ll be playing against the same opponents for longer stretches, so you’ll need to vary your style of play more in order to keep them guessing. On the other hand, you should keep watch on your opponents’ styles as much as possible. If an opponent has been playing fairly tightly and they make a modest raise, be aware that they may have a better hand than that raise lets on.

On the other hand, if an opponent has been calling almost every bet, then their continued calling shouldn’t trouble you too much.

When you get to the final table, you’ll have to play somewhat aggressively. At the final table, your goal is no longer to stay in or to amass chips. At this point, your goal is to knock out other players. While you can be passive and try to amass chips and stay in the game up until the final table, it simply doesn’t work at that point. You still need to avoid going all-in with a less than optimum hand, and you’ll want to drop any poor pocket cards before the flop if you’re not on the blinds. If you can see the flop without paying, you should always take it, of course.

When you’re down to only one other player, then you’ll have to play heads up, and that presents a whole different set of challenges.

Once you’ve gotten past the early stages of the freeroll, most of the players who remain are players who use a standard strategy, but some “red herrings” can remain in the game if they’ve had a few lucky hands. As a result, you can start to loosen up your play a little.

Whereas early on in the tournament, you have to assume that everyone will stay for the flop regardless of their hand, by the time you’re several rounds in, those players who called every raise on a pocket 3,8 to see the flop have already been eliminated. At this point, your play should be slightly more aggressive. Since many players are still recovering from the extremely loose play of the novices and are playing very very tightly at this point, they will fold to any raise they don’t feel they can meet. Again, though, don’t get into a betting contest if your hand can’t support it. Some of your opponents will use the same strategies that you do.

Like in every poker game, modest raises are a good way to go. If you hold an excellent hand and you double the pot,  your opponents will instantly fold, leaving you with a small win. Raise the amount of the big blind or double that and you’ll get some opponents who will stick around just out of curiosity. Do the same thing for each of the four rounds of betting and you’ll build a solid pot to win. On the other hand, if you have an opponent who raises to your raise, calculate carefully. If you think it’s really likely that you have the winning hand, then take them down, especially if you can force them all in. You’ll drive all of the other players out of that round, but it won’t much matter if you take the player’s entire bankroll in one hand.

Remember that the key to winning the final table is coming in with as many chips as possible.

Some of the globe’s biggest Poker stars have already paid their ten thousand euro entry fee.  This large sum of money is of course peanuts to these players who are used to winning large poker pots.  Some of the poker stars included local players Patrik Antonius, as well as Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu.  All of these poker pros are ready to ‘fight to death’ to win Europe’s most prestigious poker title.

Many of the European Poker Tour’s best players sank in day one of the tournament’s shark infested waters, the sport star poker enthusiasts held their own nicely. Sporty poker players included Teddy Sheringham, former Tottenham & Man U striker. Sheringham is no stranger to the UK poker circuit and has won very large prizes, including the 2009 London based WSOPE.

The European Poker Tour will take place later this week and 1 lucky player will walk away with a swagger in his step and one million Euros in his back pocket.

Several hopefuls belong to Team PokerStars Pro.  More than twenty of their members managed to complete day one, including: Johannes Steindl, Joe Cada, Alex Gomes, Chris Moneymaker, and Vicky Coren.

The PokerStars team online members that continued to day two of the tournament included: Grayson Physioc, Alfio Battisti, Luca Moschitta, Jorge Arias, Liv Boeree, Aaron Gustavson, Anton Wigg, Harrison Gimbel, Carter Phillips, and Kevin MacPhee.

The European Poker Tour runs from April 25 to 30 2010 at the prestigious Le Sporting venue, based at the luxurious Monte Carlo Bay Hotel. Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver won last year’s European Poker Tour – the first prize was a whopping €2,300,000.

You can find full reports of the The European Poker Tour Grand Final on the PokerStars video blog and blog at PokerStars.tv.

Pre-flop

Playing your JJ pre-flop isn’t that difficult because what you have to do is generally clear. The problems typically occurs post flop. The first thing that will influence how you play your middle pair is your table position. When you’re in early positions, you want to raise at least 3 times the big blinds. This accomplishes a few things. The first thing you’ll say happening when an early position player raises is that many opponents will fold their hand, and this is exactly what you want. It’s easier to win against fewer opponents.

When you’re in middle position, how to play your hand can be trickier but it usually involves a raise. If no one raised before you and most folded, then betting 3 times the big blind or more is a good play. If someone raised and everyone else folded, you can call. If someone raised, and other players called the raise, you have a difficult decision to make. If you call, then it’s likely that a big pot will grow and since there’s a bunch of players acting after you. It is not uncommon to see someone going all in under those conditions. If that happens, then what do you do? Risk it all, or give up the hand? It’s not a great position to be in with middle pair. A risky but often effective play is to be the one to raise the bar. Reraise instead of calling and make it expensive IF you can afford too. Don’t loose your shirt over it. Even experienced players will fold good starting hands after seeing a raise followed by a reraise because it usually indicates someone has a high pair.

When you have options but are unsure what to do, always consider the table image and chip stacks of the opponents that will go after you. Are you facing tight players that will likely fold or call a raise/re-raise or are you facing a reckless aggressive player with a large chip stack? Sometimes, when you have no clue what to do, or when the price of playing poker is just too high for the risks, you can always play it safe and fold your hand. There will be more.

In late position, it’s easier to play because everyone else acted before you. The safe play is to close the bet when you’re in a position to do so. That means you are the last player to act and you call, making sure no one else can raise after you. You’ll get to see the flop and then play another betting round. Another option is to raise, but because you are in late position opponents might think you’re making a move and aggressive players could be tempted to put you all in. The safe play is to call. You will rarely fold in this position because the by the time your turn comes up, the pot is usually interesting. You should consider folding in cases when you see a raise and a reraise before you for reasons I indicated earlier.

Post-flop

After the flop, you either hit or missed. Depending on that result, your goal is to thin the competition, or to set a trap, or to minimize your losses. The first thing you want to consider is the flop. Are your JJ top pair? In other word, are the flop cards 10 or less? If so, you might consider trapping (and assume all the risks that go with this play). But only trap when you’re facing one or two opponents. Any thing more is too much of a risk and you need to bet a significant amount, perhaps half the pot, to encourage players to fold.

If you missed the flop and high cards than your middle pair come up, then you have to analyze the last betting round to get a sense of what your opponents may hold. For instance, let’s say there’s an A and a K on the flop, and you are facing three opponents. How did they play last time? Did all three initially called a minimum bet, then you raised, then they reluctantly called your raise? That could indicate that they don’t have a high card. Maybe they have a small pair, or suited connectors for instance. But if player one raised, then the other two immediately call and you called as well, that is a sign that someone probably has a high card. Consider the number of opponents and how they played the last betting round. When you figure they likely hit the flop, don’t spend more money on it. Check it, or fold it if you have to call a bet. When you have no clue where you stand, a feeler bet can provide information but you might also be throwing money away. It’s really a decision of “can you afford to gamble”, meaning do you have the chips to spare.

Let’s say you did hit the flop and made three of a kind, that’s a great position to be in, but consider the flop. Is there a straight or flush potential? If so, you’d better try to take down the pot right away with a large bet. If not, you can act weak and trap. Let someone else make a bet, and depending on how many players are left, call or reraise. Don’t be afraid to go all in at this point, but be careful about letting opponents catch cheap cards. Again, the table image of your opponent should guide your actions. Let aggressive players bet into you.

On subsequent betting rounds, the same concepts apply. If there’s still a 3 or 4 players involved in the hand by the third betting round because they all called a bet, then you know they either hit something or had the right pot odds to chase a card. Take the time to consider what potential hands these players may have, or may be looking to get, and put them under pressure with a large bet when you conclude you have them beat.

The twelve hour event, held at Manchester’s G Casino, culminated in an exciting heads-up duel between Bryan and Daniel “dantb10″ Brown; a member of Team Sky Poker at the World Series of Poker earlier this year. The advantage swung between both players, with Bryan, who had started the final table with the smallest chip count, being roared on by friends and family. The decisive hand saw Bryan dealt pocket nines, which hit a set on the flop to seal victory over Brown.

“No-one was more surprised than me to pick up that trophy,” said Bryan. “This was my first live win, my first live final table and for it to be in my hometown made it all the more special. From being down to 7000 chips to piping ‘Vegas’ Dan heads up was a completely surreal experience!”

In a repeat of the 2008/09 Sky Poker Tour, the first leg of the 2009/10 tour was played in a fun, friendly and enjoyable atmosphere. “The Sky Poker community is as much about friendship and enjoyment as it is about simply playing the game and that is something pretty special and should be cherished by us all whatever your level of ability,” Bryan continued.

Saturday’s final table also included Mike “Maggiesdad” Quinlan, who represented Sky Poker in the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Top ranked professional snooker player Ryan Day and, playing in his first ever live event, Craig “OnlyOneCT” Tranter, also made the final table. The top three finishers also received automatic qualification into the grand final of the Sky Poker Tour, which will be held at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham on the 11th and 12th September 2010.

Other celebrities to play in Saturday’s tournament included snooker’s Dennis Taylor and Stephen Maguire as well as former England and Arsenal footballer, Kenny Sansom.

The final payout list for the first leg of the Sky Poker Tour is:

1st David “David36″ Bryan             £4,000
2nd Daniel “dantb10″ Brown           £2,600
3rd Kevin”AdAmi10″ Gandon          £1,800
4th Mike”maggiesdad” Quinlan        £1,350
5th Craig “OnlyOneCT” Tranter       £1,050
6th Ryan Day                              £900
7th Gordon “Dollie” Parton             £750
8th David “Jaegerbomb” Pilling       £600
9th Stephen Nelson                      £450

The next leg of the Sky Poker Tour will be held in Newcastle on Saturday 9th January 2010. For more details of this tournament, other dates in the tour and how to qualify for a seat please visit www.skypoker.com.

Action 24/7

The number one reason why online poker is better live poker is because there’s always a game to be found. Sure, some times of day are busier than others- such as evenings and weekends. But it doesn’t matter what time of day, there’s people playing poker online 24/7. Possibly the most annoying aspect of live poker is waiting around for a game to start. Of course this is assuming they even have enough people wanting to play poker. While with online poker, you might not be able to always jump straight into the game of your choice, there’s never much waiting around.

Comfort of Home

Not only are there an abundance of poker games waiting for you, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home. There are no travel costs, no worries about how you’re going to get home, or getting stuck in traffic. There’s no need to bother getting dressed up either. Heck, you can even play poker naked if you like. Doing this at a live poker game would get you locked up. Let’s not forget, you also save money on food and drink, as the fridge is never far away when you’re playing online poker.

Online Poker is Cheaper

Online poker doesn’t just save you money on travel, food and drink. The poker itself is also much cheaper, which is particularly beneficial if you’re just starting out learning how to play poker, and don’t want to spend too much. If you go to a casino or card room you might find many cash games below $1/$2. The rake at live poker venues is also much higher than at online poker sites. Plus if you win a hand playing poker online there’s no obligation to tip the dealer – you can’t anyway!

Play More Poker Hands

The most noticeable difference between online poker and live poker is the hands per hour ratio. When you play poker online there’s no waiting around for the dealer to shuffle the cards, potential miss-deals, working out the pot, and the players are generally much quicker to act – to name just a few things. You get to see so many more hands per hour playing online poker, which means more opportunities, more decisions, and less boredom.

Multi-Tabling

Many online poker players like to play on multiple tables at the same time. Just playing one table at a time means you get to see more hands per hour than in live poker, but if you’re playing on multiple tables then obviously this becomes an even bigger factor. Playing multiple tables also reduces the variance, and you can play at much lower limits – thereby spreading the risk. If you are playing poker in a live venue, let’s say a $1/$2 NL game, you’d probably want to sit down with about $200 – which is at risk on any given hand. You could spread this same $200 across multiple tables, at lower stakes, when you play online.

Tracking Your Game

It’s always nice to know if you’re winning, losing, or breaking even at poker. Sure, you can keep notes on how much you’re spending when you play live poker. I used to keep a spreadsheet to track my income and expenses from live poker games. But sometimes it’s easy to forget how much was spent, particularly with re-buy events. Of course, this is just basic tracking. When you play poker online you can get instant hand histories, and access to a huge wealth of data. It goes far beyond just saying if you’re a profitable player or not. You can find leaks in your game and plug the holes. By analysing your play you can improve your skills as a poker player.

Bonuses and Promotions

Online poker is a fiercely competitive industry, and with so many poker sites looking to attract customers, there are a multitude of bonuses and promotions on offer. Casinos like to offer promotions to their patrons, but when it comes to poker they care much less. Poker rooms don’t make much money for casinos, so they don’t really bother trying too hard. However online poker sites are only too eager to offer bonuses and promotions, be it 100% signup bonuses for new poker players, or re-load bonuses for existing players. They really want you to play poker at their site, which is something you can and should take advantage of.

Conclusion

I think the advantages of online poker that have been outlined so far, are fairly comprehensive. Of course playing poker in a live environment has its advantages too – such as the social interaction, and being able to see players’ reactions. The purpose of this article is not to knock live poker, but to give valid reasons for why online poker is superior in so many ways. It’s fair to say this has been achieved. Good luck at the tables!

A number of major UK forums have been questioning the legitimacy event, most of which think that this could be a possible scam. I don’t want to say it is for sure a scam, as there are many reasons this could be happening.  Although, I’m hard pressed to think of any, maybe it’s a promotional event? Maybe it’s an intro into bigger events.  Maybe it’s just to get their names out there.  But before i plonked down my 100 quid, I’d make sure that i knew where the prize money was coming from and how they justified paying the top 10 players with more than they’re making from the tourney.

Some other concerning items have been raised such as the fact that you have to pay for the event with a credit/debit card after one of their Representatives calls you. You have to register an interest online and then await a phone call, rather than being able to ring them directly to register. A number of people have been contacted by the call centre (And when they are the phone number is blocked) and been told that over 1000 people have registered an interest, yet the call staff have rang several players multiple times to request payment for the event from them.

The website is very basic, contains no tournament structure information and does not include any terms & conditions. The listed phone number does not appear to work when called.

Overall it doesn’t appear that a lot of thought went into this tourney.  If i got a call from a rep asking for my credit card to pay for this tourney, i probably wouldn’t give it.  I’d much rather place my money into a reputable online poker room, or just go to a casino.  Much less risky, and probably much better pay off.

There are more than 1,100 players trying for the top prize at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino this year (In the first day last year there were 1,297 registered players).  Pros,Amateurs, Celebrities (I’m looking at you Jennifer Tilly) anyone who has won a ticket online or just had the cash sitting under their mattress is there and the blinds have already started counting down.  Will it be a “moneymaker” year or more of a Raymer year?  It looks like Pro’s are at the top of the betting line to win the main event this year, with the co-favorites being Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Gus Hansen, and Tom Dwan. Each is listed at +12000, and as a close second are Andrew Black, Juha Helppi, Ivan Demidov, John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, and Allen Cunningham at +17000 (according to betED).  But hey, anything can happen in poker right!

Last year’s winner, Peter Eastgate, took home $9.15 million after topping a field of 6,844 players — including eight others who had a four month break before the final table in November.  Raphael Zimmerman, a 27-year-old poker player from Oneonta, N.Y., was the first player eliminated from last years tournament when his aggressive play on a straight draw ran into three queens after the first three community cards were dealt.  Zimmerman hit his straight on the turn, but his opponent hit a full house on the river to end Zimmerman’s tournament. “Next year, I’m going to be last out,” said Zimmerman, who said he regularly plays cash games with $50 and $100 blinds. “For a minute, I thought I was going to win anyway.”

I guess we’ll see soon if Zimmerman’s prediction will come true.

Who do you think is going to win this year?

Starting Young

Players who start playing online at 18 years old are able to make the mistakes all newbies make, but do it in a way that is very minimal risk to them.  By the time they’re 21 and able to play in major live tourneys in the states, they have had 3 years to correct those mistakes and are already well past the nerves of most first time players.

The other advantage to playing online early is all of the tournament entry’s possible to be won.  A lot of these players are able to not only win entry into tourneys in the Caribbean or Monte Carlo (or Canada), but they’re able to cash.  These tournaments have as wide a variance as any tourney in the states, and gives these players a real look at what live poker is all about (not to mention some nice paydays).

Translating their Skills to a live Game

I don’t care what anyone says, online poker and live poker are 2 different monsters.  Translating your skills from sitting in front of a computer to sitting across from someone at a major tourney is a huge challenge.  Even the most  veteran online player has bad habits that need correcting and new skills that need to be learned before becoming a really successful live player.  But i think this discussion is something for a different post.

Overall i think that starting young, online is the way to go.  It really gives you the ability to, at 21 years old, walk in and sit across the table from any of the big names, and realize that everyone is playing the same game…and you know it as well as they do.

“I’m just preparing for the live poker grind. Six weeks of live poker is a shit ton, so I think getting in the right mindset and trying not to burnout,” – Harder

Link to the article

The next big record that was shattered at Pokerstars was the most people ever online at a single poker site.  At approximately 3:30 PM EST yesterday, Pokerstars had a total of 250,540 people on their site playing poker!  This is twice their daily average and a HUGE accomplishment for the site and online poker in general.  I guess the whole “global recession” isn’t slowing down poker players!

Pokerstars also set some personal records with their big Sunday tournaments.  The Sunday warm-up had its biggest field ever with 5,836 players and a prize pool over $1.1 Million Dollars.  Also, the Sunday Millions tournament guarantee was raised from $1.5 Million to $2.5 Million, but this was shattered again when 16,260 people registered bringing the prize pool up to $3,252,000!  In the end, a player from Sweden under the alias lp_SakiSaki took 1st place and $331,378.80 in cash without a chop at the final table!

If you aren’t playing at Pokerstars.com, then you really don’t know what you are missing!