http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/ http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5664/london-poker-festival Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:33:38 BST
Also coming up is English Poker Open and the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). As well as these big tournaments there are a large number of small buy in events and sit-n-goes going on plus the British Poker Awards. It seems that everybody in London is playing poker.

The WPT London Classic is in session in the Palm Beach Casino in the Mayfair Hotel and 94 players remained at the start of day 2 but by the end all but 34 of them had been eliminated. Two big names to bite the dust were Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel.

By close of play the chip leader was Giovanni Safina with 508,800 chips. He was followed by  Tonio Roeder  with 424,200;  Talal Shakerchi with 357,900; Bruce Atkinson  with 344,600 and Philip Patrick  with 333,500. The two Brits Richard Ashby and Michael Greco remain in the action.

Altogether 171 players entered the London Classic contributing to a total prize pool of around £800,000 with around £250,000 going to the winner.

Poker is the Park is certainly worth a visit. Entrance is free and it really is a must for anybody with an interest in Poker who can make it.  Last year 20,000 people turned up and this year the organisers are expecting even more.

There is the opportunity to learn from the very best poker players, to play live poker, to attend poker lectures and presentations, and to participate in special poker events. Certainly the London Poker Festival is a great way to end the summer.

 

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5628/sheringham-set-for-best-ever-ept-finish Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:43 BST
Sheringham, who has become a keen player after ending his football career, lies in 15th position overall in Portugal's biggest ever tournament, which boasts a first prize of €467,835.

The Pokerstars ambassador returns for Day 4 today with 381,000 chips.

He set up his huge stack yesterday when he made a full house versus William Thorson, not long after he had texted a mutual friend of theirs that he planned to take the Swede's chips. That pot crippled Thorson who went on to finish in 26th place pocketing €9,312.

The 44-year-old has cashed in two previous EPT events, his best finish being 49th at last year's EPT London, where he walked away with £11,600.

His biggest ever win was £40,481 at the World Series of Poker Europe event, also in London, last year, although a final table finish here would eclipse that.

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5597/poker-sites-suffer-from-world-cup-fallout Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:09:04 BST
Many online poker players were clearly more interested in following the ups and downs of the 2010 Football World Cup than they were in playing poker. Now the scale of the downturn experienced by online poker sites has been revealed by 888.

Share holders in 888 who were expecting a healthy dividend have been disappointed by the news that in order to preserve its diminished supply of cash, the company has cancelled its half yearly interim dividend. During the first six months of the year 888 profits fell by 56% to £2.7 million.

Gigi Levy who is the chief executive of 888, said “Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment.”

The major reason for the decline was the World Cup but other factors also had an impact. The company had spent considerably more than the previous years on marketing activities and money was lost on unfavourable currency values.

Although poker revenues were down by around $7million other markets showed increasing revenues. Bingo revenues increased by around $5 million through Foxy Bingo, which is owned by 888, and the 888 casino income rose by 6%.

It seems that this was a temporary glitch and poker players have returned to the site. In addition a brand new platform has been launched which is attracting new customers.

The 888 share price is unchanged at 37p and city annalists believe that this is now too low so if you have any shares you should hold them and they could be a lucrative buy.

On the other hand, why not pop over to 888 Poker and give the new site a try.]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5606/world-poker-tour-london-classic-and-ept-vilamoura-update Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:16:47 BST Party Poker sponsored World Poker Tour (WPT) London Classic is taking place in the Palm Beach Casino in the Mayfair Hotel and Day 1B has now been completed.

The overall attendance was less than expected as only 72 players registered for day 1A and a further 94 for day 1B. Of the 94 that started the day only 54 of them made it to the end which means that 90 players will compete in day 2.

The days chip leader was Priyan de Mel  who bagged up 235,000 chips. He was followed by Richard Ashby (the top British player of the day) with 229,800, Giovanni Safina with 140,000, Tyler Shook with 139,200 and Joshua Field with134,400.

As promised, Tony G turned up but although he survived the day he was well down in the chip counts having ended with only 47,000 chips. Freddy Deeb also made it through with 70,000 chips.

Meanwhile in Portugal the Vilamoura lag of the European Poker Tour is in session. In the last session 69 players sat at the tables and by the end of the day only 24 of them remained.

In the lead is Martin Jacobson who has a huge 1,362,000 chips. In accumulating this lead he wiped put several players including several of the British contingent including Paul Foltyn and JP Kelly. The leading British player Sam Trickett, who went into the day with the fourth highest chip count, is still hanging in with a tremendous stack of 712,000 chips. Teddy Sheringham the ex-footballer is also doing well with a little shy of 400,000 chips.

The winner of this event will receive prize money of €467,835 along with a free seat at the EPT Grand Final which takes place in Monte Carlo.

Think you've got poker skills? Prove them now at Party Poker!

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5591/european-poker-tour-vilamoura Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:09:32 BST
The day started with the young Russian Leonid Bilokur in the chip lead but things went against him all day and he was eventually eliminated.  

By the end of Day 2 Brandon Cantu emerged as the chip leader though not by many. He ended with 557,400 chips just a little ahead of the second placed Andre Coimbra who has 476,400 chips. In third place with 384,000 chips was Johan Berg and he was followed by Sam Trickett with 351,900 who is the highest placed Brit,  Grzegorz Cichocki with 339,500 and JP Kelly, also a Brit, with 314,000 chips. Two other Brits, Toby Lewis and Teddy Sheringham are still in the action.

Cantu comes from Vancouver and he recently won the WSOP $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha High-Low Split. He is known as the bounty hunter and has been playing in live tournaments for four years. During that time his winnings amount to $3,461,410.

The tournament unfortunately lost both Vicky Coren and Liv Boeree as just seventy players survived into the third day. Daniel Negreanu also failed to make it as did Bertrand Grospellier.

The tournament is taking place in the Vilamoura Resort and Golf Haven in the Algarve, Portugal. The buy in was €5,300 and the tournament lasts for five days. In total 384 players competed in the two opening days which makes it the largest poker tournament ever to be held in the country. The prize pool stands at €1,862,400 and the top prize will be almost €500,000.


]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5587/world-poker-tour-london-classic Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:05:59 BST
The WPT London Classic is sponsored by Party Poker and is taking place in the luxurious Palm Beach Casino in the Mayfair Hotel from 29th August until the 5th September. The buy in for this main event is $8,000 along with a free seat in the 2011 WPT Championship final in Las Vegas.

The chip leader at the end of the first day  (day 1 A) was Erik Seidel who bagged up 226,200 chips. Seidel is no stranger to WPT events, and the London Classic is the hundredth that he has competed in. His cloasest rival is Talal Shakerchi who has 188,600 chips and he is followed by Bruce Atkinson with 149,800 chips.

Perhaps Shakerchi has less to fear from numbers two and three than he has from the player with the fourth biggest chip stack. With 146,200 chips, Phil Ivey in fourth is probably the player to fear the most. Ivey has eight WSOP bracelets and is considered by many to be the greatest poker player in the world. Othe big names still in the action are Praz Bans, Joe Beevers and Huck Seed.

A big name who crashed out in style was James Akenhead who was eliminated when his full house of 3s and twos was beaten by four 2s.

Altogether 36 of the original 72 players survived into day 2. Although this was a lower than expected turnout, day 1B is anticipated to bring a larger number of players to the tables, their numbers swollen by people who have already been eliminated from the EPT Vilamoura. It is also anticipated that Tony G will turn up.

The WPT London Classic final table will be recorded for television.

Think you've got poker skills? Prove them at Party Poker!

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5566/top-poker-players-unite-over-commerce-casinos-position-on-online-gambling Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:53:13 BST
Commerce Casino along with many other bricks and mortar casinos in the USA are against the government repealing the current gambling laws which effectively ban online poker and online gambling. This amazingly hypocritical attitude is born entirely out of their own commercial interests. Their belief is that if online gambling is permitted, then their businesses will suffer.

The law that currently bans online gambling is the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and an alternative bill has been drafted with the intention of regulating rather than banning it. The bill includes poker and casino games, but still prohibits sports betting online. The new bill is, to give it its full title, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act and has the full backing of the online poker community.

The most active casino voice speaking against the new bill is Tom Malkasian who heads the Commerce Casino Strategic Planning Department. At a recent hearing regarding the bill he said ““I must testify in strong opposition to HR2267 (the official designation of the bill) and urge Member of the Committee to vote against it, barring numerous and significant changes.”

The petition was organised by The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) and is called “Players Before Profits.”

It is argued that the casinos are shooting themselves in the foot, for as has been seen in Europe online poker merely increases the size of the poker playing community and allows poker players to hone their skills. These new players are far more likely to make use of real casinos than they would have done otherwise.

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5552/wpt-legends-of-poker-won-by-andy-frankenberger Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:47:35 BST
This had been the first time Frankenberger had made a final table in a WPT main event, and he admitted that he had been nervous at the prospect. What contributed to his nerves was the fact that the match was recorded to television and that his hole cards would be visible to the public.

All through the tournament Frankenberger, who comes from New York, had been playing aggressively and this was the reason he had built up his chip lead after eliminating several other players. He continued playing aggressively right until the end.

This is the first time that he has won such a substantial sum at a live poker tournament, He largest previous win was $162,000 that he was awarded for winning the Deep Stack event at the WSOP.

Finishing in second place was Kyle Wilson who collected $370,000 in prize money. This was Wilson’s second final table at the Legends of Poker. Third was Tome Less who collected $175,000 followed by Tom Braband ($109,000), Jared Jaffee ($86,000) and finally Franco Brunetti, who started the day with the shortest stack, ($63,000).

The next the WPT calendar is in London at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair. This gets underway on 30th August and the buy in for the Main Event is $5,000; there is still time to qualify.

Think you've got poker skills? Prove them at Full Tilt Poker!

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5567/online-poker-tells Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:53:53 BST
Some of the variables that can help you build up a picture of the other person are his or her speed of play; whether or not the player is using any of the poker room’s automatic features such as “call any” or “raise any”; the proportion of hands that they play; their chat box comments or lack of them; whether or not the player waits for the big blind or starts playing immediately; and tells which allow you to mark him down as a beginner.

It is important to keep notes on the players you meet as it is quite likely that you will meet them again. Of course you don’t always have time to do this, but you should record as much information as you are able to without distracting yourself from the actual game.

Poker tracking software has become very popular and although not all poker sites allow its use, a number do. This can be a major benefit in building up a database of online players and the way in which they play.

The overall level of skill that you will encounter when playing poker online can be very daunting (though there will always be beginners too). Many players of the latest generation are better than the professional players of old. To ignore online poker tells is to play at a disadvantage.

]]> http://poker.gamingsupermarket.com/news/5553/how-to-play-aggressive-poker Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:49:57 BST
We all watch some of the top poker players taking very aggressive positions in their Hold’em play, and although we ordinary poker players may try to emulate them, more often than not it doesn’t work out too well. The problem is that the aggressive novice is easily seen through and often taken to the cleaners by the better players.

To play aggressively you should play lots of hands and bet big, this does not mean that you should play every hand like that, but your bets should be big consistently. You should aim to bet a minimum of three to five times the big blind. Checking is forbidden as is calling; checking and calling is, like breakfast, for wimps. If you don’t like your cards then you should fold them rather than limp along. This strategy will also save you having to spend mental energy working out the size of your bets.

Once you are playing a hand, continue to play it. It is pointless starting off aggressively only to fold when you worry that things might not be going your way. Stay in for the kill – it will pay off most of the time if you are aggressive enough.

In order to play like the above you will need to take care on which hands to play. If you do not think you are sufficiently strong, then don’t play.  Make up your mind in advance regarding which cards you will play and stick to your strategy.

Once you develop a reputation as an aggressive player you will find that the rest of the table will treat you with greater respect.

Why not show off your poker skills at Poker Stars?

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