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U.S. House to Hold Online Poker Hearing

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:18:16 +0000

U.S. House to Hold Online Poker Hearing
Submitted on Tue, 2010-05-18 00:00 The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will meet on May 19, 2010 at 9:30 am in the Longworth House Office Building. The focus of the hearing is to consider the fate of online poker in the U.S. in connection with “The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act” (UIGEA) that is scheduled to go into effect on June 1, 2010. Invited Testimony The U.S. House committee press release has said that the point is to “hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only.” The release also notes, “However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.” What is the UIGEA? This law prohibits anyone from accepting payments from someone if they know those payments are connected to illegal Internet gambling. However numerous Representative and Senators have been involved in excluding poker, which is considered to be a game of skill, from the law. Importance of this Meeting The meeting could be the start of the a movement in the U.S. House and Senate that would legalize online poker. There are numerous bills on tap that are designed to protect online poker in the U.S.

Strategy with Kristy: Mike Watson Discusses Playing Big Stacks

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:18:31 +0000

Strategy with Kristy: Mike Watson Discusses Playing Big Stacks
December 09 2011, Kristy Arnett Related Articles Strategy with Kristy: Randal Flowers Discusses Bluffing Preflop Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Amanda Musumeci Discusses WSOP Main Event Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Ben Wilinofsky Discusses Short-Stack Strategy Related Players Share It Tags Tournament Strategy, South Point, PokerNews Podcast, Mike Watson, Poker Player Interviews Print Mike Watson, also known as “SirWatts,” has accumulated more than $4 million in tournament winnings and is also one of the most respected high-stakes no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha players online. For this edition of Strategy with Kristy, brought to you by South Point, Watson discusses the strategy behind playing a big stack in a no-limit hold’em tournament. Here is a snippet from the interview: If you’re at a table with a player who’s good and has a big stack, how do you combat them? I mean, it’s a very difficult situation obviously. That’s the nightmare scenario in a tournament. Ideally you have position on them, but if you’re out of position, sometimes you have to tighten up a little bit. You might open-fold some of the speculative hands you’d usually try to pick up some chips with. If they’re going to give you trouble and three-bet you a lot, there’s not much you can do. All you can do is come up with a balanced strategy against them. You’re going to have to four-bet as a bluff sometimes. If they’re really over-aggressive, you might be looking to four-bet light for value hoping to induce them to spew. Sometimes, you can even take flops against them even though you’re out of position and try to outplay them postflop. They might be less comfortable in a postflop game. Players have to learn how to adapt, and for those who came up when no one was really playing that aggressive preflop, learning to four-bet as a bluff can be scary. I think it’s hard for players to integrate these types of plays into their game. Yeah definitely. I used to always be a very tight player, I think most people would say. That’s definitely stuff I used to be uncomfortable putting into my own game. Once you look at the game and break it down to a more theoretical level, you realize you just have to do stuff like that. These are plays that just have to be in your arsenal because it’s the only way to effectively combat the increased aggression of other players. Podcast Powered By Podbean Tune in every week for new episodes of Strategy with Kristy, brought to you by South Point. Feel free to send in questions, ideas or suggestions for the podcast to kristy@pokernews.com. Also remember to follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Follow Kristy Arnett on Twitter — @KristyArnett Comments

VC Poker bonus no longer available

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:18:55 +0000

VC Poker bonus no longer available
The long running free poker bonus from VC Poker has finally come to an end. Available since early 2007, this was one of the longest running free money promotions available directly from an online poker room. Unfortunately, as of September 2009 they have finished it, and VC Poker do not currently have any free money bonuses available. If you are looking specifically for a free bonus direct from a poker room then we recommend PokerTime for their $10 free cash bonus. The free $10 bonus from Poker Time is a straight forward free $10 to all new players. No quiz to take, no hoops to jump through, just $10 in free money. Claim this free $10 from Poker Time NOW If you are not looking specifically for a direct bonus from a poker room, but just want any free bonus you can get, check the main page for the latest free poker money bonuses and news. Related posts: Exclusive free money bonus at Poker Time! Poker Time Free $10 bonus PokerTime $10 Free ENDED Players from US No deposit bonus at Bodog Jacks n Queens Update 18th April 2007 Written by admin · Filed Under $10 Free, Poker Time Tagged as , $10 for free, $10 Free, direct free bonus, ended free offers, free bonus, free money promotions, free poker money, new accounts, no longer available, Poker Time, pokertime, VC Poker, Victor Chandler Poker

Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Seidman Discusses His Book, Easy Game

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:00:27 +0000

Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Seidman Discusses His Book, Easy Game
November 03 2011, Kristy Arnett Related Articles Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Robl Discusses Televised Cash Game Hands Strategy with Kristy Podcast Part 2 with Tommy Angelo Strategy with Kristy Podcast Part 1 with Tommy Angelo Share It Tags Poker Strategy, PokerNews Strategy, PokerNews Podcast, Poker Strategy Print Andrew “Balugawhale” Seidman was the premiere guest on the Strategy with Kristy podcast and has come back to discuss topics in his updated, re-released book Easy Game. Here is a snippet from the interview: The first thing that we have to realize at any given time is that our hand is always going to fit in one of these three categories: low value, medium value, or premium value. Premium just means that it’s good enough to raise for value. We don’t need to raise, but it’s good enough to. So, obviously aces are always good enough to raise for value preflop. A hand like jacks, whether or not it’s a good hand to reraise for value preflop would depend on a lot of things. Against a really tight player who only opens the nuts preflop, then we probably don’t want to reraise jacks, but against a crazy maniac person we do. We can actually see the beginning of how these value categories might change depending on a whole bunch of different circumstances like our stack sizes, our opponents, everything. What we find is that, if we’re not in premium value, and we can’t raise for value, then do we have enough value to play our hand? That would put us in the medium value. So let’s say we’re up against a huge nit, we have jacks, and he opens. We think, “OK, we’re not in premium because I can’t raise for value, but do I have value to play my hand? Yes, I can flop a set, so I’m in medium value.” Now, if we go one step further, we might say, “My hand is not quite good enough to be in medium value because I don’t think it has enough value to call.” Let’s say I have a hand like eight-five suited and a regular raises. It’s sort of on the borderline between medium value and low value. If we decide it’s low value then we can’t continue by calling because we don’t have enough value to capitalize on and we can’t raise for value ourselves. So, we have to either fold our hand, or we could bluff with it. We don’t lose any value if we have to fold our hand at some point in the hand because we were planning on folding it anyway. I’m going to tie this back now to polarized and strong ranges (depolarized ranges). When we want to create a strong range, we don’t raise any of our low value hands, we just fold all of them, and the premium range becomes very wide. So now, jacks is clearly premium, king-queen is premium, ace-nine is premium half the time. The medium-strength hand ranges become a little bit more narrow and a little bit weaker because most of the higher end of the medium-value range is now considered premium value because we’re choosing to adopt a strong range. On the other hand, if we want to create a polarized range, our medium-value range gets very big. Now, our premium range is very small and there are only a few hands we’re going to raise for value, and we have as many low value hands as we do want to raise. Want more? Listen to the Strategy with Kristy podcast below. Podcast Powered By Podbean Tune in every Thursday for new episodes of Strategy with Kristy and feel free to send in questions, ideas or suggestions for the podcast to kristy@pokernews.com. Also remember, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Follow Kristy Arnett on Twitter — @KristyArnett Comments

Strategy with Kristy: Randal Flowers Discusses Bluffing Preflop

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:54:05 +0000

Strategy with Kristy: Randal Flowers Discusses Bluffing Preflop
November 10 2011, Kristy Arnett Related Articles Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Amanda Musumeci Discusses WSOP Main Event Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Ben Wilinofsky Discusses Short-Stack Strategy Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Seidman Discusses His Book, Easy Game Share It Tags Poker Strategy, PokerNews Podcast, PokerNews Strategy, Randal Flowers, Tournament Strategy Print Randal Flowers, 23, has accumulated more than $2.7 million in tournament winnings, including two World Poker Tour titles. For this edition of Strategy with Kristy, brought to you by South Point, Flowers sits down with Kristy Arnett to discuss bluffing preflop. Here is a snippet from the interview: How do you balance the need to steal with the fact that these days many players know that you’re stealing? If I have a very aggressive player or two to my left and I’m in late position, and there’s an obvious weak [player in the] big blind, I don’t know how often I’m going to open very light. I’m anticipating getting flatted, and people messing with me after the flop because they know I don’t have that great of a range. A lot of times, the general strategy should change to fold. Play tighter if there are good aggressive players behind you. But, if no one is really messing with you, you can sneak in a raise with a pretty weak hand. With what kind of range are you willing to go for blind steals? Well, live is way different than online, and I haven’t played online in so long that I guess my strict math fundamentals aren’t as good as they should be. When you play live, people look at their hands before they’re supposed to, so I could be in the hijack and know the guy on the button is already holding his cards that he wants to fold. So then, I’m really in the cutoff. You should play way, way more hands in live poker, in my opinion. What raise size do you prefer? I vary my raise sizing more than most, but generally, I think 2.5 times the big blind is fine. What really matters is, if it’s really early in the tournament, and you’re very deep, I would recommend raising 3 times. Maybe midway through the tournament, when there still aren’t antes and the average stack is around 50 big blinds, I think under 2.5 times is probably better because you’re risking 250 to win 150 if the blinds are 50/100. With no antes, if you get three-bet, it puts you in a tough spot. You’re never really getting a good price so depending on stack sizes, I think you can risk less. Podcast Powered By Podbean Tune in every Thursday for new episodes of Strategy with Kristy, brought to you by South Point. Feel free to send in questions, ideas or suggestions for the podcast to kristy@pokernews.com. Also remember to follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Follow Kristy Arnett on Twitter — @KristyArnett Comments

BackBet at CelebPoker

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:36:13 +0000

BackBet at CelebPoker
BackBet at CelebPoker CelebPoker launched the newest feature that the poker world has to offer. Increase your action with BackBet’s side games while playing poker at our CelebPoker tables. Look for the NL Hold’em BackBet tables in the CelebPoker software. Back Bets are side bets on possible occurrences (prop best), e.g. – betting on a specific Formula1 driver to win a race, a football team scoring the first goal, or in the case of poker, predicting your next pocket cards. Read more about our BackBet now. Publish Date : 06/10/2011 Print Article Send To Friend

Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Robl Discusses Televised Cash Game Hands

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:18:04 +0000

Strategy with Kristy: Andrew Robl Discusses Televised Cash Game Hands
October 27 2011, Kristy Arnett Related Articles Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Olivier Busquet Discusses Tough Spots Strategy with Kristy Podcast Part 2 with Tommy Angelo Strategy with Kristy Podcast Part 1 with Tommy Angelo Related Players Share It Tags Andrew Robl, Cash Poker, High Stakes Poker, Lex Veldhuis, PokerNews Podcast, PokerNews Strategy, Poker Strategy Print Andrew “Good2cu” Robl is known for both his cash game and tournament skill. He’s played in a number of televised cash games, and the cameras have caught plenty of interesting hands for viewers to discuss. For this edition of Strategy with Kristy, Robl sits down with Kristy Arnett to discuss a few of his most-talked-about televised cash-game hands. To view the hands as they played out on television, check Arnett’s latest blog post. Here is a snippet from the interview, in which Robl discusses a hand from High Stakes Poker [game details and action of the hand are written separately]: Game Lex Veldhuis straddled to $1,600. Phil Ivey raised to $7,000 from the cutoff. Robl had on the button and called. Patrik Antonius looked down at in the small blind and reraised to $30,400. Ivey folded. Robl moved all-in for $113,900 and Antonius called, making the pot $299,600. Why did you decide to flat Ivey’s raise? I mean, I could have raised. I just didn’t want to reraise and have Ivey four-bet. I’d be in a tough spot and not really know what to do. It’s kind of a hand where I don’t really want to get it in if I three-bet, but I don’t want to fold either. It’s also very deceiving if I flat there. You wouldn’t normally put me on this type of hand when I flat. You said that it’s kind of hard to put you on this type of hand since you flatted on the button so Antonius’ move kind of looks like a squeeze. Were you thinking that he might do this with a pretty wide range? Yeah, I mean, Antonius is a good enough player that you’re never going to really know exactly what he has when he reraises one time. It’s not like he’s going to have a super-tight range of hands. He and Ivey were super deep. So, he’s not going to be reraising strong hands like ace-jack and ace-ten offsuit because it would get him in trouble playing deep with Ivey out of position. I do think he reraises with a lot of hands, though. Once he reraises, there’s already like $50,000 in the pot, and I only have another $100,000 left. You continued playing in the game after losing this pot. How do you, personally, recover and continue playing well. I don’t know. I’ve played a lot of poker. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you win. I definitely wasn’t happy, but things like this have happened to me a lot in my poker career. There’s no reason not to play your A-game and give money away after that. Want to know what else Robl told Arnett? You’re going to have to listen to the podcast: Podcast Powered By Podbean Tune in every Thursday for new episodes of Strategy with Kristy and feel free to send in questions, ideas or suggestions for the podcast to kristy@pokernews.com. Also remember to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Follow Kristy Arnett on Twitter — @KristyArnett Comments

Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Lex Veldhuis Discusses Pot-Limit Omaha

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:18:04 +0000

Strategy with Kristy Podcast: Lex Veldhuis Discusses Pot-Limit Omaha
September 15 2011, Kristy Arnett Related Articles Playing Aces in Pot-Limit Omaha: Part 2 Playing Aces in Pot-Limit Omaha Strategy with Kristy Podcast Part 2 with Tommy Angelo Related Players Share It Tags PokerNews Podcast, PokerNews Strategy, Lex Veldhuis, Omaha Print Lex Veldhuis has always been acclaimed for his no-limit hold’em cash-game skills, but he has recently transitioned to pot-limit Omaha. He’s been putting in thousands upon thousands of hands in an attempt to become highly skilled in a game that is new to him. For this edition of Strategy with Kristy, Veldhuis sits down with Donnie Peters and Kristy Arnett to discuss three cash-game pot-limit Omaha hands he played online. To view the hand history for these hands, check Arnett’s latest PokerNews Blog post. Here is a snippet from the interview in which Veldhuis shares a hand he feels he misplayed [game details and action of the hand is written separately]: Game: $2/$4 pot-limit Omaha Preflop Action: Veldhuis raised to $12 under-the-gun with . Next to act, Villain reraised to $42. Action folded around. Veldhuis four-bet to $132, and Villain called. Before we talk about this hand, I’ve been noticing that I don’t have a four-bet fold range. Anything I four-bet, I’m like, “OK let’s go.” For instance, I’ll have good double-suited kings, aces, or an insane rundown against a guy who three-bets a lot and anytime I four-bet, I pretty much go for the hand. I’ve been trying to put more stuff in my range where I four-bet fold because I’m always really impressed when someone does that. I’m trying to incorporate that into my play, so I figured I’d choose hands with holes in them so that I wouldn’t want to just run it out with them, but that can flop really well. Flop Action: The flop came . Veldhuis bet $100, and Villain called. The flop is pretty perfect for my four-betting range because I “never” four-bet bluff. So I don’t have to bet big on this flop, and also by the way, I have two backdoor flush draws and running gutshots. The most important thing about this is the ace of course. I know that he doesn’t have aces because he’s going to pot preflop. People don’t really three-bet all that much with queens, so I don’t think he has a set. I can bet really small I think, to represent aces because I “want” action. I’m pretty much all-in anyway. I bet $100. I would have actually liked to bet a little smaller, but I think $100 is fine. When he called the flop, I made the mistake of thinking that he’d do that with draws. I thought he might have some gunshot type of hand or something like queen-jack-ten but queen-jack-ten is like the only hand I could see him calling the flop and folding the turn. It’s so wrong to put someone on one specific hand. I think most of the time, he’s just going to have an ace, and on a good turn for him, he’s just going to call. People just don’t call this flop and fold. I went all-in on the turn, which is just horrible. Turn Action: The turn was the . Veldhuis moved all-in for $254, and Villain called with . He called with top two pair, but I don’t think that he would have folded any ace to me in this case. I think the only chance I had was to get him to fold with a small bet on the flop since I was representing a strong range with my four-bet preflop. I should have stopped on the turn because if he did have king-jack-ten, he’s not going to fold anyway. It’s just one of those hands where I had to hope he had a low rundown hand that he’d fold on the flop. This is just one of those hands where I wasn’t thinking about ranges well enough. This isn’t a spot where people peel with like queen-ten-nine-seven to see the turn because they know I’m going to be firing. Want to know what else Veldhuis told Arnett and Peters? You’re going to have to listen to the podcast: Tune in every Thursday for new episodes of Strategy with Kristy and feel free to send in questions, ideas or suggestions for the podcast to kristy@pokernews.com. Also remember, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Follow Kristy Arnett on Twitter — @KristyArnett Comments

World Series of Poker Europe Coming Soon

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:18:26 +0000

World Series of Poker Europe Coming Soon
The WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe) is coming soon, and will be taking place in Cannes, France. This exciting poker tournament will begin on 7th October, and will end on 20th October, 2011. This is the first time that this poker tournament will take place in Cannes, France. There are seven gold bracelet events that will take place, and ther are 51 other events that will be taking place in the very busy two weeks of the World Series of Poker Europe tournament. Both beginner and advanced poker players should all be able to find events that suit their skill levels. There will be televised coverage of the Main Event of the WSOPE, and it will be broadcast globally by ESPN, so those that are unable to attend can still keep an eye on the most exciting event of the poker tournament. For those who wish to watch the seven gold bracelet events in real time, there will be live coverage of the events that will be streamed on the WSOP.com website. Bracelet event number 1 is Six Handed No Limit Hold’em with a buy-in of €2,680. Bracelet event number 2 is No Limit Hold’em with a buy-in of €1,090. Bracelet event number 3 is Pot Limit Omaha with a buy-in of €5,300. Bracelet event number 4 is No Limit Hold’em SHOOTOUT with a buy-in of 3,200. Bracelet event number 5 is NL Hold’em Split with a buy-in of €10,400. Bracelet event number 6 is Six Handed Pot Limit Omaha with a buy-in of €1,620. The WSOPE Main Event championship will take place on 15th October 2011. Cannes is a great venue to hold this exciting poker event. Cannes is most well known for the Cannes Film Festival that also takes place there. It is a great seaside vacation spot that is frequented by people from all over the world. Players can play hard at the tables and have the chance to really relax when they are not playing poker. Related Posts Merge Poker Back in the US Nominees for Poker Hall of Fame Announced World Poker Tour Returns to Nevada Microgaming Poker Network Improves Victor Chandler Poker Offers Facebook Promo Share on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace…

PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato Will Be Witness at Subcommittee Hearing on Internet Poker

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:18:14 +0000

PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato Will Be Witness at Subcommittee Hearing on Internet Poker
October 20 2011, Matthew Kredell Related Articles Reid, Kyl Pen Letter to Department of Justice Regarding Internet Poker Rep. Joe Barton’s Online Poker Bill Going Forward Rep. Joe Barton Introduces Online Poker Act of 2011 Share It Tags Poker Players Alliance, Gambling legislation, Online Poker, Poker and the Law Print Poker Players Alliance chairman Alfonse D’Amato will be a witness at the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade hearing on Internet poker on Tuesday. The hearing isn’t on Rep. Joe Barton’s online poker bill, though Barton is a member of the subcommittee. Instead, it will focus on the more general theme “Internet Gaming: Is There a Safe Bet?” “I think there are different stakeholders who are not necessarily on board with Barton’s bill and would like to have a general discussion on how Internet poker can be regulated,” said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA. “It will be a learning opportunity for the committee members to get their heads around an issue without confusing specific legislation. We think it will be good for building momentum.” Pappas indicated that D’Amato will speak on what players would like to see in federal legislation, including the solvency of operators, ensuring player funds are kept in a separate trust account, and the fairness of games. “Given the committee’s interest in player protections, I think it is appropriate that someone from the PPA testifies,” Pappas said. “It’s certainly a big moment for the organization and we’re very excited that D’Amato has been invited.” The subcommittee is chaired by Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), who won a special election to take the place of husband Sonny Bono when he died in a skiing accident in 1998 and is now in her sixth term. She has been tagged as being an opponent of federally legislated online poker in the past, though more will be known after the hearing. She comes from Palm Springs, where tribal interests are prominent. The subcommittee is part of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In past years, Rep. Barney Frank’s Internet gambling bills have went in front of the full Financial Services Committee without going through a subcommittee. Pappas said that was more a product of Frank being chairman of the full committee, and that going through a subcommittee is normally how the process goes. Because the hearing is not on a specific bill, the subcommittee might have to hold another hearing and then markup on Barton’s bill before it could go in front of the full Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. “I am pleased that Chairman Bono Mack is holding a hearing on the important issue of Internet gaming,” Barton said in a statement. “It’s a first step to showing why the current law is a lose-lose for everyone — the public, the taxpayer, the banking industry, and the people who want to play online poker openly and honestly on the Internet. I look forward to an open exchange of ideas.” The PPA is asking for poker players to use Twitter and Facebook to send encouraging messages regarding online poker to subcommittee members prior to the hearing. For people who are constituents of subcommittee members, emails and phone calls would be of greater impact. Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news. Recent Articles The Nightly Turbo: Another Class Action FTP Suit, Trump Eyes Online Poker, and More Global Poker Index: Seidel Leads; Buchanan Set to Make Push Towards the Top Previewing the 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Hammond Win Fast at PokerStars in the New Time Tourneys AGCC Incorrectly Reported Amount Seized from Full Tilt Poker Most Popular This Week The Nightly Turbo: Antonius Opens Up About FTP, NHL All-Star Endorses Poker, and More Where Are They Now: 2003 WSOP Main Event Final Tablist, Tomer Benvenisti The Weekly Turbo: Poker Funds Seized, NBC Cancels Heads-Up Championship, and More The Nightly Turbo: Secret Service Seizes Funds, More Changes at Epic Poker, and More The Nightly Turbo: Tony G Bets on Himself, PartyPoker Premier League Returns, and More Comments