26 Jan 06
TV Looks Beyond Tournament Poker
"Tournament poker has long dominated the television landscape in America. While ratings have been strong for the multitude of broadcasts there are, it also indicates that there is a desire by the viewing public that they would like to see more than just that. Two new programs that have come on in the United States are attempting to satiate that desire and both, while they have some drawbacks, do an excellent job overall."
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25 Jan 06
Hollywood Poker Starts 'Celeb Night'
"Demonstrating the continued interest and ties between poker and the celebrity community, Hollywood Poker has recently started a highly interesting tournament that they are billing as 'Celebrity Poker Night'.
The idea is to draw competitors to a weekly online tournament, featuring one star each week as the "host" of the event. The celebrity of the week will also be featured on the website's "Green Room" and have a bio showcased as well.
With a buy in of only $5 (with no juice), players will have the opportunity to battle it out with each other as well as the multitude of Hollywood actors, actresses and professional sports stars that frequent the site."
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25 Jan 06
Know your odds
"find that the best way to introduce pot odds is to use an example of a player who obviously didn’t grasp the concept. Once during an online tournament in which I was playing there was a player on the small blind who was down to his last 75 chips with the blinds at 25-50. The player to his left - the big blind - was the chip leader with more than 2,500 chips.
The remaining players folded to the players on the blinds, and in a move that shocked no one, the small blind did what he should have done and tossed in his final 50 chips to go all-in. That left the big blind with the easy decision to throw in another 25 chips and have a showdown for the 150 chips in the pot -- yet he folded, much to the exasperation of the remaining players."
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25 Jan 06
The other Doyle tries poker
"JUST SO THERE'S no confusion, Doyle Brunson is a famous poker player, skilled enough to win more than $1 million playing cards. People buy the book he wrote to learn how he did it.
Doyle Murphy is a rookie reporter, skilled enough to lose 50 cents as a third-grader when the one card trick he ever performed failed. People buy the things he writes to line their shelves and clean their windows.
Unfortunately, I'm not the millionaire, but in an effort to right that cosmic wrong, I persuaded Aims Community College instructor John Hutson to let me sit in on the one-night poker class he taught on Monday with his wife, Diane."
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24 Jan 06
Hellmuth to Defend Heads-Up Title
"Last May, people across the country watched Phil Hellmuth win the first ever National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC. This year, he’ll try to defend his title.
The National Heads-Up Poker Championship will take place March 4-6 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. NBC will air the tournament in six episodes that will total 10 hours starting noon EST Sunday, April 16."
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24 Jan 06
Nguyen’s most fortunate moment
"After several WPT final table appearances, Scotty ‘the Prince’ Nguyen finally breaks through and earns victory; Mike ‘the Grinder’ Mizrachi is runner up in wild finale.
Poker tournaments are won and lost not necessarily at final tables and in front of television cameras. What the public rarely sees are the hundreds, if not thousands of mind-numbing hands played out on previous days leading up to the crescendo. Small pots, blind steals, semi-bluffs, tough calls and excruciating laydowns are the building blocks of a final table appearance, and ultimately of a tournament victory. And, as any poker champion will surely attest – it takes a little luck to win, too."
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24 Jan 06
Couples Poker
"Sam and Janice Marsh were both celebrating this week after they both won seats on the PartyPoker Million V cruise to Jamaica. Both Sam and Janice posted separate winning entries on the same day, beating thousands of other hopefuls to the seats on the luxurious cruise."
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23 Jan 06
Topless Poker?
"Sin Gentlemen’s Club in Las Vegas is hosting poker tournaments bound to tickle someone's fancy. The appropriately-named Sin is saying goodbye to buy-ins and a great big hello to nudity with its upcoming 2006 Topless Poker Tournament season. Starting February 7, Sin's 'gentlemen' clientele will be treated to No-Limit Hold 'em of a different color. Each player will be assigned to a table, provided with a given number of chips, and left to ogle the exotic dancers that shed their clothes with the rising antes."
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23 Jan 06
The Heavyweight Championship of Poker
"A new contender on the block has arisen from the poker tournament world as Sam's Town Las Vegas plays host the Heavyweight Championship of Poker (HCP) during the first week of April. According to HCP head honcho, Stan Sludikoff, the event has been in the works for over a year. 'The idea was thought of by my partner Jerry Reed, but he had a hard time getting the concept off of the ground, so he brought it to me because of my connections and my involvement with Poker Player Magazine. I was able to open up a few doors and things have moved forward ever since,' Sludikoff said in a recent interview with Pokernews."
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20 Jan 06
Poker Share Files Suit
"... According to the London Sunday Express earlier this week, as UltimateBet and Excapsa consider a possible floatation on the London Stock Exchange that could be worth up to 200 million British pounds, PokerShare has filed suit against UltimateBet for 100 million pounds. PokerShare cites that the actions of Excapsa and UltimateBet, especially the removal of usage rights to the software and technology that had been agreed upon between the rooms, as being the prime reason why the site was forced to cease activity."
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20 Jan 06
‘Girls can’t play poker!’
"‘Girls can’t play poker!’ or so Deanna Goodson has been told by almost everyone in her life since she first fell in love with the game. Nevertheless, and much to the dismay of her family, Goodson has turned her fascination with poker into becoming a successful professional poker player."
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19 Jan 06
Seven left in 'Aussie Millions'
"Out of 418 players, just 36 remained at the start of day four of the five-day Australian Poker Championships, better known to poker fans as the Aussie Millions. With the bubble having burst and each remaining player already in the money, the final three dozen continued to battle it out for the top prize in the richest poker tournament held in the southern hemisphere.
More major names dropped off the tournament roster during the course of day four, such as Michael Gracz and Kathy Liebert, as well as the notable disappearance of Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari."
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19 Jan 06
PokerRoom.com Chosen Top Poker Software
"COSTA RICA--(MARKET WIRE)--01/19/2006
PokerRoom.com, a leading online site dedicated to poker and casino games owned and operated by Safepay Int S.R.L., has received one of the highest accolades in the gaming industry by receiving Gambling Online Magazine's 2005 Readers Poll Award for Top Poker Software Award.
In addition to receiving the top poker software category, PokerRoom.com received honorable mention status as Top Poker Site. As one of the few sites offering a Java platform, PokerRoom.com is available to players using PC, MAC and Linux."
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19 Jan 06
Best in Heads-Up Tourney
By Dan Clauss, Courtesy NBC Sports
"David vs. Goliath. Coke vs. Pepsi. Friends vs. Seinfeld. Some of the world’s biggest battles have been heads-up, and in the poker world, the theme is no different. That’s why when NBC announced in 2005 it was going to run a heads-up tournament with 64 of the best poker players, the poker world took notice. This year, the poker world is taking notice again."
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18 Jan 06
US law enforcement eyes on Poker
By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
"With poker's growing popularity has come greater scrutiny by law enforcement agencies, and arrests and crackdowns are taking place from Baltimore and New York to Monterey, Calif. ... Poker has become so ubiquitous that some may not realize that they are committing a crime. In what Baltimore police said was the largest such raid in their city since 1932, 75 people were cited in November for playing in a poker game advertised in the local newspaper."
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18 Jan 06
Mastering No Limit Hold Em
"For the last ten years, whenever people have asked me to recommend them a poker book, I had one of two answers for them. If I felt they were serious, I would recommend 'Theory of Poker' by David Sklansky - but I would caution them that they need to play - and possibly play a lot - for that book to really have any impact. If, on the other hand, I felt like the person asking just wanted to go to the card club, have some fun, and slow their 'burn rate', I would recommend Lee Jones "Winning Low Limit Hold em", which is a well written, simple approach to, well, winning low limit hold em. But poker has changed a lot in the last few years, and most notably, the way poker is played in card clubs has changed. I recently stumbled upon a book that I think does a really good job of describing how poker is played today, and in at least one specific area, will definitely help your game."
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17 Jan 06
Tunica Is Poker Central
"With two major poker events taking place, Tunica, Mississippi, has become the place to be for tournament poker in January. ... The World Poker Open began Jan. 9, with a $540 no-limit hold’em event, but the monthlong celebration of tournament poker in Tunica started Jan. 5, when the $550 no-limit hold’em tournament kicked off the Jack Binion World Series of Poker Circuit at the Grand Casino Tunica."
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16 Jan 06
AOL opens Blackjack Site
The new "blackjack hub" is expected to launch in April and offer free playing of blackjack, tips from the pros, and, during GSN's World Series of Blackjack TV show in June, exclusive behind-the-scenes video.
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16 Jan 06
Some hands can be nothing but trouble
By DANIEL NEGREANU "When you're playing No Limit Texas Hold'em, there are certain cards dealt that are known as trouble hands. They earn this label because they're difficult to play and often dominated by better hands. Here are the top 10 trouble hands to watch out for: J-8 ... A-10 ... K-Q ... A-x suited ... K-10 ... A-J ... Q-9 ... Q-9 ... K-J ... J-J ... A-Q ...."
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13 Jan 06
Poker craze an interesting bet
"Poker seems to be even more popular than ever. This week, ESPN was showing the World Series of Poker (or the WSOP, if you're cool) from 2004. People must be watching this stuff, or they wouldn't keep showing it. As an out-of-touch suburban dad, I often think that maybe I'm missing something. So I thought I'd do a little research. Who's playing this? Why is it always on? What's so exciting about it?"
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