The young and talented Poker Tournaments player from Brighton in East Sussex has been winning quite a packet from playing poker for a living over the last couple of years. We had a look at ‘Pocket Fives’ and saw that he has already won 373 866 dollars at Full Tilt Poker and 630 286 dollars at Poker Stars.

Dempsey’s largest internet score to date was at the Poker Stars ‘09 SCOOP three hundred and twenty dollar Texas No-Limit Hold’em Poker event, where he managed to finish 2^nd, and made 211 000 dollars.

It is his last stint of success at the 2010 WSOP, however, which led to the Full Tilt Poker sponsorship deal.  Dempsey has managed to win more than 735 000 dollars from live poker tournaments since the year 2005. 511 867 alone came from his outstanding poker performance at the 2010 World Series of Poker, which included a World Series of Poker bracelet cash in at the  1 500 dollar Omaha and second place finish at the 10 000 dollar Omaha Hi/Lo poker event.

Dempsey now joins other British World Series of Poker winners Richard Ashby and Praz Bansi at Full Tilt Poker, and will be getting a large number of perks, which include a hundred per cent rake back and being paid thirty five dollars and hour just to play poker at the online poker hall.

When asked for a comment on how he feels about joining the Full Tilt Poker’s Red Pros team, Dempsey had the following to say:

“I couldn’t be more excited. This is a such a dream of mine. I’ve worked very hard for this over the years and to have won a bracelet and now this – it’s just fantastic.”

7 Stud is however still very popular, and it is actually one of our favorite games here at card kings. You will find a whole number of 7 card stud game varieties online. The Poker Room and Caribbean Sun have a large amount of 7 card stud players. The Absolute Poker online poker room has active 7 Card Stud games that range from micro limits to five or ten dollar games. Lastly, for the high roller players out there, you can play with $100 chips per pot at the Party Poker’s high limit 7 Card Stud tables.

The Ante, Deal, and Bring In
Most of the 7 card stud poker tables need an ante from all players before the cards are dealt. After the ante is done, every player gets three cards, of which two are face down and one is face up. The player with the lowest door card posts the bring in. Players to the left of the bring in then choose whether they want to fold, call or raise.

Forth to Sixth Street
In every round, each poker player gets a card face up. Here, the high hand is the one that starts the betting. Because of this the order of action can alternate every round. Another difference in play is that the betting limits go up on fifth street. If you play at a five or ten dollar table, third and forth street’s maximum raise is five dollars a bet. On fifth, sixth and seventh street, the limit will be ten dollars a bet.

Seventh Street
Everyone gets a seventh face down card. As with previous streets, there is another betting round, beginning with the person with the highest face up cards.

The Showdown
A showdown occurs if there are more than one person left after seventh street. The person who can form the highest five card hand will win. The standard best five card hand rules apply here.

Poker Stars is one of the largest online poker rooms internationally, and this online poker room is also offering you some great beginner bonuses.  For example, if you sign up now you can get a six hundred dollar first deposit bonus and a three hundred dollar reload bonus.

From July 15 to 28, The Poker Stars £2000 Daily Giveaway will offer a £2K prize for every day of the week. What makes this especially great is that you can win your share of the pot without having to spend a penny in entrance fees.

Poker Stars is offering you the best chance to enter for free, and win big to be able to fund future poker bankrolls.  All you have to do to take advantage of this great poker special is to download their free online poker software and follow the instructions onscreen.  Current account holders must simply visit the site to find out how to register for these amazing tournaments.

Let’s look at how you can take part in the £2 000 Poker Daily Giveaway.  Every prize pool is worth £2K. You can take part in the free roll tournaments every day from July 15 to July 28.  Find the tournaments in the Poker Stars lobby by clicking on Tourney and then Regional.  The tournaments start at 21:30 UK time.  You can enter the tournaments for free and for those who want to rebuy, its only 10P.

It’s great to know that the tournaments have a ten pee re-buy option, to give those of us who bust out a second chance.  There is more information on the re-buy events on their website.  If you win in any of the poker tournaments after having to make a re-buy, you will get a Sit & Go ticket.

You have to be in the top fifth of all players to get some of the prize pool.  This means that many players will be going home with at least some prize money.  Players from the UK and Ireland can take part in these tournaments.

Be sure to also check out our other poker news articles here.

Your mom was right when she taught you that patience is a virtue, as this skill will help you come far as a poker player.  Here are a few tips as to how to develop patience as a virtue when playing poker:

Patient poker players do not ever chase cards.  Yes, they will make you believe they are chasing cards, but this is actually all for show, to ensure the pot gets a lot fatter before they can claim their victory.  It is in inconvenient truth that poker players who are always chasing cards, are usually those who end up going home broke.

Patient poker players know when to raise the stakes.  These players are always aware of the right time to make their move, as they are always on top of the general feeling and ‘vibe’ of the table.

Patient poker players make very few mistakes.  When all is said in done, it’s usually the poker players who make the least mistakes that walk away victorious.  And as with all areas of life – patience leads to fewer mistakes in poker games.

Patient poker players know not to take the games personally.  You get a lot of poker players who focus on revenge and “getting back at” the guy who won the pot in the previous round. Many stupid mistakes are made because players get their ego and pride get in the way.  Really good and patient poker players know that this is pointless and they do not allow themselves to get involved in this.

Patient poker players do not allow themselves to react emotionally.  They know that everyone gets a couple of bad beats every now and then. Good players are always patient and don’t allow their emotions to get in the way of their best game

Be sure to also check out our other poker strategy articles here.

Random Rules

We have already explained how you can play the game of Texas Hold’ em poker and will now look at some random rules that you will encounter during the game.  Take note of these rules as they form part of the rules of the game.

Raising

When you have three or more players, it is possible to only have 1 bet and 3 raises during the entire betting round. This means that when the 3^rd raise has been made the betting is so called ‘capped’.  When the betting process has been capped, players may only choose between calling and folding.

There is something known as a string bet.  It is when a player tries to place their chips, go back to their stack, and then place more chips.  This is not allowed.  A poker player must say verbally that they intent to raise before they go over to action.  They can also choose to bet double the amount of the raise.

Buying Chips

When playing Texas Hold’em Poker, there is no maximum amount of chips that you can buy at any time but there is a minimum amount of chips. The house rules of the game will tell you how many chips you are allowed to buy before you start playing your first round.  This minimum amount of chips is usually around fifty or hundred times the amount of the big blind.

A poker players is allowed to add more chips to their poker stack aka reload, in between hands.  But once they have started playing a hand, they may not add any more chips.  Any extra chips will not be used in this game until the next hand is dealt.

We have now come to the end of our Learning How to Play Texas Hold’ em Poker series.  We hope that you have enjoyed reading this series and that you are on your way to becoming a good Texas Hold’ em Poker player.  Once you know the basics you still have to make sure to practice, practice, practice if you want to be able to compete against the big boys.  Luckily Texas Hold’ em is such a fun game that it won’t even seem like work.  Good luck at the tables!

There is a rumour doing the rounds that the Scottish Poker open is going to be cancelled.  This ambitious £2500 event was set to take place in August.  Before the rumour started, we heard quite a few criticisms for the event, which took profit from the online satellite prize pools and for charging punters to organise yacht and limo transport.  We are still wating for full confirmation that the event has indeed been cancelled.

British Masters Poker Tour Liverpool Takes Place this Weekend

Now is a great time to play local poker in the UK, as most of the pros are taking part in this main event.  The British Masters Poker Tour takes place at Liverpool’s Gala Casino next.  The 200 quid side event takes place at six pm.  Five hundred quid main event will start tomorrow at 3pm, and there is also a hundred quid side event that takes place on Sunday.  If you are in the area, make a plan to get to this event, as you will be able to take part in some great poker, and enjoy great value for money.

The 1D Main Event Day

It has been reported that a total of 7 319 players have taken part in this years 1D Main day event.  This large amount of players has created a whopping big prize pool of $8,944,138. This prize pool is in fact the 2^nd largest ever to be recorded in the history of the World Series of Poker.  Almost five thousand players will take place in day two, to stand a chance of winning this stack.

GUKPT Club Championships

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is having the 2nd wave of new ‘Club Championships’ event format.  It will take place tomorrow at two pm. G Casinos in Coventry, Sheffield, Newcastle, Cardiff, Salford and London will host this two hundred quid event.  The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Club Championships event will also have league points and has a hundred and fifty thousand quid Champion of Champions seat to offer to the winner of each event.

The Poker Stars Sit N Go Sizzlers Promotion

First time players at Poker Stars can make use of an exclusive Poker Stars Sit N Go Sizzler offer. Every new sign up at the Poker Starts website will gain a free entry into a one dollar, twenty cent Sit N Go challenge. They also get a ticket to an exclusive free roll where $ 2000 will be won each Saturday of the month until tye 31st of July. First time players will get their ticket instantly after sign-up.

The Poker Stars UKIPT Brighton Free rolls Promotion

The new UKIPT poker leg is just a few days away, and Poker Stars is offering a chance to players to be a part of this promotion by method of a special Twitter free roll. You can sign up for this Twitter free roll after you have registered with the Poker Starts online poker room. The players who rank the highest will qualify to go through to an exclusive Sunday tournament. Here they can win a seat to the UKIPT Brighton Main Event that will take place on the 15th to the 19th of July.

The Poker Stars UK and Ireland Poker Free rolls Promotion

Poker Stars is also hosting a series of daily free rolls where they are offering poker players a chance to win money for absolutely no entry fee. They will give a way two grand on every night from Thursday the fifteenth of July to Thursday the twenty-ninth of July. The finishers in the top 20% of the game will earn cash. Those who’ve made their first deposit with also get entry into an extra free roll where they can win £1 000 and fifty tickets to the Sunday ¼ Million tournament.

How to evaluate your hands

The aim of Texas Hold’em Poker is to form the best possible hand by using any combo of your 2 cards & the 5 community cards that you will find on the table.

You can choose whether you want to use none, one, or both of your own Texas Hold’em cards to form your best hand. Let’s look at some rules that can help you learn how to evaluate the best possible poker hand:
• There is a specific poker hand ranking order. This order is always the same and there are no exceptions. For example, 3 of a kind always beats two of a pair and a flush will always beat a straight.
• Poker hands must consist of exactly 5 cards, and those five cards only.
• When 2 players have the same hand, it means that the pot will be split between them. The rest of the cards and what the other players have (which is not such great hands) means nothing. Only the best 5-card hand will be taken into consideration.

• If the rest of the players have nothing to contend these hands the winning hand is the one with the single card of the highest-value:
o A of clubs, 3 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 6 of spades & 7 of spades trumps K of spades, Q of spades, J of clubs, 9 of clubs & 8 of diamonds
o A of clubs, J of hearts, 9 of spades, 8 of diamonds & 6 of hearts trumps A of hearts, J of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 8 of clubs & 2 of spades
• Suits do not determine the strength of a poker hand.

Once the winning hand is determined, that player wins the pot. The person to the left of the dealer now gets the dealer button and the 2 players who is now to the left of the dealer button will have to put out their big & small blinds.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 10, which will be published on this site next week.

This win is Ellis’ first WSOP gold bracelet win in his career.  He has so far won more than half a million dollars in international poker career tournaments.  This win was great for him as this singular victory paid out more than half a million dollars in itself.  Christopher Gonzalez from California came in at second place, but played really well right up to the end.

Ellis came in strong at the end.  He doubled up his bet a couple of times and took the lead chip-wise when they went heads up.  It was about time too as the clock has already passed the five am mark at that point.  Gonzalez didn’t do too bad in the winning stakes, as he himself won more than three and a half thousand dollars.

Ellis is the 4th UK player to win a gold bracelet at this year’s World Series of Poker. Previous winners of the title are James Dempsey, Praz Bansi, and Richard Ashby.

The one and a half thousand buy-in tournament saw 2 394 entrants. The players who finished in the top 243, all went home with prize money. Of those who had previously won WSOP gold bracelets, and won cash here included – Carlos Mortensen (in 23^rd place) and Howard Andrew (in 192^nd place).

Howard Andrew has the record for the player who has taken part in the World Series of Poker in the most consecutive years. Andrew first taking part in the WSOP in 1974, and has been taking part ever since.

More on Michael Ellis – The WSOP champion

Ellis is 45-years-old and graduated from Oxford University.  He has bee playing poker since his college days and have been passionate about poker for several years now.  He used to work in the banking industry but has been a pro poker player since 2004.  This career decision coincided with the 2004 global poker boom.  Ellis has to date won more than a million dollars in career tournament games.

In this eights part of our Learning how to play Texas Hold’em poker series, we will take a look at two of the most important parts of the Texas Hold’em game: the river and the showdown.  This is the part of the game which will really make or break your game.  Please pay special attention when reading this part and make sure you are fully alert when taking part in the River and Showdown part of your Texas Hold’em game.

The Texas Hold’em Poker River

When the Texas Hold’em game comes to the river part, there has to be more than one player left at this stage.  If there are more than one left who hasn’t given up and decided to fold on the previous streets stages, the fiver cards are now dealt.  The dealer deals the river cards just like he did the turn cards, with one face down card, and another single cards being dealt faceup.

The river is the final street of the Texas Hold’em game, and there will be no more cards dealt after this. This betting round is the same as the turn betting round.

The Texas Hold’em Poker Showdown

Once the river phase has completed, the players enter into the Texas Hold’em showdown. At this stage, having the best hand will win you the pot.

Here are the rules about the Hold’em showdown:

• The player who wagered at the river stage is the first player that must reveal their hand. If another player prefers to go first, this is allowed.
• If no one bet at the river stage, the player on the left of the poker dealer must reveal their hand first, and this continues in a clockwise fashion.
• If a player has a losing hand, they can now decide to simply fold or to reveal their hand to the other players.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 9, which will be published on this site next week.