PokerNews Interview: Josh Cranfill

Without online poker
the American handicapped community is struggling to play. Josh Cranfill
a victim of Werdnig-Hoffman Disease disease
explains why.

What Are You Doing You Dafty Old Cow?

Today marks the one year anniversary of the passing of a PokerPlasm Legend
Handsome Eddie LeFrancois. Known for his crude
unrelenting
and derogatory poker playing style
he was a breath of fresh air in a poker world filled with donkeys
self-appointed experts
and Euro trash. He was always there to listen and give his opinion. [...]

PartyPoker Launches New Poker Game Called Double Holdem
There is a new poker game in town and its called Double Holdem. This game was recently launched by the reputed online poker gaming site, PartyPoker which added the new poker game to its online offerings for players. Double Holdem from PartyPoker is quite similar to Texas Holdem poker but with comes incorporated with a few [...]

South Carolina Supreme Court Now Deciding Whether Poker is a Game of Skill or Chance
The Supreme Court of the state of South Carolina is currently in a tizzy over whether poker is game of skill or luck. The reason for this debate is because of the vote in favour of poker being game of skill issued by a Charleston judge in the year 2009. The Charlestons court decision is [...]

2010 WSOP
It's that time of year. The time when the poker world turns it's eyes to the Mecca of gambling and the site of the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP)-Las Vegas. The first gold bracelet was won on Saturday read more

Bankroll Builders
Vol. 10: 135-man Rush Poker SNGs
Part 1

Not every poker player can enjoy the flexible lifestyle of an online pro. Lets face it; most of us have day jobs and after a long day at the office you may not have the necessary stamina to make it through a large-field tournament that can take…

The Top Cities for Poker Players

1. Las Vegas, Nevada. No surprises here. Las Vegas is, and likely always will sit atop the poker stratosphere. When you’re home to the best players in the world, the best shopping for poker accessories, countless poker rooms that line the Las Vegas Strip…AND host the annual World Series of Poker you don’t have to worry about relinquishing your number one spot for quite some time.

2. Atlantic City, New Jersey. A short drive from New York City, Atlantic City is home to some of the largest Casinos in the world. With names like Trump and Harrah’s rising above the skyline, it’s easy to see why the area draws millions of gamblers each year (despite the rundown nature of the city itself). The online poker boom inspired many of these casinos to build massive Texas Hold ‘Em rooms – which even in tough economic times continue to be filled by East Coasters looking for some real action.

3. Los Angeles, California. Only a hop skip and jump from the glitter of Hollywood exists a series of the most well-respected poker rooms in the United States. That’s right, poker has come to Los Angeles, and thanks to Larry Flint’s Hustler Casino, The Hollywood Park Poker Rooms and the Commerce Casino (and several more) serious players will never fall short of places to play after they’ve hit the beach.

4. New York, New York. You won’t find many glittering casinos and poker rooms in the Big Apple, however if it is rough-and-tumble back room games you’re looking for, you have come to the right place. The most populated city in the world is also home to more poker games being held in the back of bodegas, record stores and bars than anywhere else in America. It is a throwback to the outlaw days of poker – and despite the Internet, Atlantic City and discount flights to Las Vegas, it has never quite left.

5. Dublin, Ireland. Dublin was recently named the top poker city in Europe by a panel of card-playing experts. In addition to being home to the Irish Open, one of the largest and most well-respected poker tournaments in Europe, it also has a rich community of poker players living there. These poker-playing families have passed the game on from generation to generation – ensuring that the game will continue to flourish here for years to come.

6. London, England. The United Kingdom takes a more laid-back approach to gambling than other countries, and with that permissiveness has come some of the finest luxury poker rooms in the world. London is a place to play high-stakes poker – without having to worry about the authorities knocking your door down.

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Poker & Pop Culture: Poker-Playing Presidents (source: pokernews.com)
Americans head to the polls today to elect their 44th president. It has been a long, arduous, hotly-contested battle, and those reporting it have seen fit on numerous occasions to employ a variety of poker metaphors along the way… (source: pokernews.com) – RSS and RSS Feed on Feedzilla.com

How-to-play-7-5-cardstud – Courtesy of Poker Skool (source: poker-skool.com)
How to play 7 and 5 card stud poker, where are the best places to play 7 and 5 card stud, can you play for free, how much will the casinos pay you to play. we show you how and where. (source: poker-skool.com) – RSS feeds and Widgets on Feedzilla.com

Poker News Digest 8/30/2008 – 9/2/2008 (source: PokerSourceOnline.com)
The Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville,

Before you go to Las Vegas to play poker, you should train your poker capabilities. Las Vegas is the place where you can play against some of the most famous poker stars in the world. Before you go to Las Vegas, make sure that you have set yourself a budget for playing. Otherwise you can lose all your money only in one night. There are mainly two types of poker players in Las Vegas, tourists and skilled players. A typical tourist has hardly any experience in Poker, he hardly knows the rules and he tends to make the wrong calls. He is an easy victim for other players. The other players play poker for many years, they are very experienced and play really an outstanding poker. So if you want to make money by playing Poker in Vegas, make sure that you always sit on a table with more tourists and less experienced players.

In case you go to Las Vegas for making cash with Poker, you should stick to some simple rules. The best time to play poker is somewhat after midnight. As a rule, there will be some tourists who think that they can play after a long day of sight-seeing in Las Vegas. Usually they are very easy victims even for little experienced players. The golden rule for a poker player is that he needs to be absolutely focused and concentrated on the game. So if you intend to play during the night, you should sleep during the day and have some rest. You should prepare yourself for the game, free your mind and be ready for playing.

Las Vegas Poker can be a very exciting experience for a passionate poker player. With a little bit of luck, you can share a table with one or two poker legends and learn from them. Although Poker is considered a gambling game, the main component of the game is the strategy. So it is wise to start in a smaller casino in order to learn from better players before sitting in one of the famous places, like the Bellagio, Cesar’s Palace or the Venetian. Real Vegas Poker differs a lot from the typical internet poker game. The game is slower but due to the personal interaction, more intensive. And instead of watching chips on the screen, you can actually hold some real Las Vegas Poker chips in your hands while you are enjoying the game.

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Win Your Way to Kandy Vegas
Play your poker cards right at Absolute Poker and you could be heading to Las-Vegas for a lip-smacking weekend of candy-coated bliss beginning July 24th. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/Poker_Promotions/Win_Your_Way_to_Kandy_Vegas.html

For many, the money is not at all what matters, it could be the prestige and pride at winning the games, or the educational profit that many poker players earn are what matters to them. There is such as thing called an Online Poker Training School, and you can start learning how to win at serious poker games by enrolling to this training school. Poker is considered a mental exercise game, which lets you think about how to win with just your hand.

There are those who would rather learn it the easy way, and want to get ahead of others even if it entails cheating at some point. When playing poker, you always hear how people try to read their opponents’ minds, and how they try to gauge which hand they would get dealt next by just looking at their opponents’ movements or actions. Now, there are downloadable software programs which provide assistance to poker players who would like to get ahead a notch or two on their game of poker. Many poker players may have won a game or two this way. But there is no telling for sure whether these programs are 100% accurate. These programs work by reading all the type of hands your opponents have, their style, the number of hands they have been dealt, and everything that has happened around the poker table. The program acts as an advisor, which will tell you exactly what hand to choose, and how to play that hand. It is usually called an odds calculator, computing the odds at which you may or may not win the pot money.

Earning more money playing poker can be a risky task since you would be betting your money on more games just to win at even one. Poker players can possibly become millionaires by betting on high-stakes poker but it rarely happens, and when it does, many players often get their money and try to bet on it to win higher pot money from other games. The trick is to win a game at one poker room and then move onto playing other poker rooms, that way you can also get to play against different poker players with different styles and you can learn from their styles as well.

If you prefer to win at every game against more experienced poker players, find more experience for yourself. Most poker players will advise new players that before playing a game of poker, make sure you know much about the game. If you know a lot more, you will have the right attitude towards the game, and get defeated less often. Play game after game with the goal of just learning. You can bet as much as you can but stay within the limit, that way, you can never be bankrupt or lose all your money over online gambling.

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Congress Gets Graded – By The PPA
The Poker Players Alliance has released a guide that rates member of Congress according to their voting history on poker legislation. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/PokerNews/ns_16102008_60.html

Belgium Seeks to Nationalize Online Poker Industry
Belgian online poker players will be excluded from poker sites situated outside the country’s borders. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/PokerNews/ns_05012010_434.html

Draft California Poker Act Becomes Public
California’s proposed poker legalisation law is released into the wild. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/PokerNews/ns_01052009_215.html

Poker is a popular card game across the world with the excitement of gambling and potential for huge payoffs. Almost integral to the poker game are the poker chips, and indeed poker does not feel like poker without poker chip sets.

The chips are small discs of various colors representing different denominations, meant as substitutes for real money, which is instead stored in a more secure place. The use of money substitutes, or token money, can be traced back through the 13th to 17th centuries in Europe. Today poker chips are often made according to themes and formats that unite a particular set of chips. This is useful in avoiding counterfeiters, even for games at home or in private.

Casino chips use many different anti-counterfeiting measures, with the most basic being chip coloration and embossed or molded patterning. Holographic inlays, distinctive colored markings on the edges and ultraviolet markings on the inlays further deter potential counterfeiters. Lastly, Radio Frequency Identification or RFID tags are used by some establishments. The latter method can be quite costly, but the establishments that use them feel the cost is justified. Given the difficulty in counterfeiting chips, poker chip frauds in casinos are rare.

If you plan to play in private though, you should be careful of frauds, especially if you are using mass-produced chips. Another reason for these security measures is to identify which casinos they came from. This is usually not a problem, since casinos usually honor only their own chips and it is more of a matter of branding. In Nevada however, casinos are permitted to honor chips from other casinos, and these identifiers make returning chips to the casinos they belong to easier.

Poker Chip Sets – Composition and Coloration

Authentic casino poker chips are made of clay, though not pure clay which is too soft. Special composite mixtures have been made, using trade-secret techniques, the confidential nature of which is yet another speed bump on the counterfeiter’s path. Sometimes, special edition poker chip sets may be bought from casinos, though generally poker chips stay in the casinos. Poker chips made for home use on the other hand may or may not be of the same quality as their casino counterparts.

For home use poker chips, ceramic and ABS plastic are the most common materials. When ceramic is used, special compositions allow them to approximate the feel of real clay while maintaining a lower price profile. Ceramic chips are also used in some casinos. ABS plastic chips on the other hand may be molded with a metal disk or slug inside, to give them some heft. For those in Europe, poker chips may come in mother of pearl, which gives them an incomparable sheen and luster. Coloration is standard for different denominations in one set, but may differ across sets. For example, in some places there are standard coloration schemes for chips, while in others there are none. Of note is the US State of Nevada, where casinos are given free rein on their chip designs and colors.

Poker Chip Sets – Sets and Themes

Since poker games often involve large amounts of money, a large number of chips are needed. Standard sets have 300 pieces, while others can have 500 pieces, and yet others reaching a stunning 1000 pieces. Some casinos sell poker chips similar to those used on the floor but with a few differences for identification purposes. This is great for those who want to emulate the feel of their favorite places of gambling at home games. Limited edition sets can be highly collectible, and there is a thriving community of poker chip collectors.

Many of the poker chips are traded via eBay, and the most special ones can go for thousands of US dollars, regardless of face value. Whole sets of these special poker chips can cost even more than the individual pieces. What really ties the members of all poker chip sets together is the design of the chips. Poker chips in one set are often of identical sizes, of consistent coloration, and having similar inlays. Colors and inlays vary according to denomination, but the idea is that chips from one set are identifiably from the very same set.

The edges and rims may also be embossed with characteristic patterns and even have colored sections made via special multi stage molding techniques. The designs may be simple and straight forward, just simple chips with numbers. They could just as well be whimsical, like having humorous or otherwise interesting prints on the inlays. A set of poker chips will often be packaged in a poker chip case or some such container such as an acrylic poker chip carrier or humidor style wooden poker chip case, in the tradition followed in casinos worldwide. One would suppose that if you are going for the authentic feel, then there’s no point skimping on the little details.

Poker Chip Sets – Elements of Authenticity

Poker chips are essential to playing poker. One can “play” poker without them, but it will not feel like poker without the chips would it? It is the feel of these poker chips that gives a tactile sense of authenticity. The clink of these poker chips as they hit the table and trade hands adds to the ambiance. The nature of these poker chips ensures that no one can weasel out of the bet that they placed, so it ensures a fair game as far as bets are concerned. Speaking of amounts, the printed or inlaid values may vary depending on where you buy your poker chip sets.

It is even possible to find manufacturers that make poker chips that reflect your country’s currency and useful denominations, though generic chips are also available. With the popularity of televised poker and TV series set in casinos, the mystique of poker chip sets has increased, and many people feel that poker chips are the only way with which to play poker. If you are the kind of person who likes taking souvenirs, then chips from the casinos you have visited make fine reminders of good and bad times alike. Poker chips are definitely the elements of authenticity in poker games.

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Win a seat at the 2009 ECPokerTour Salzburg
Titan Poker presents the year’s most prestigious new tournament, the ECPokerTour Salzburg 2009. The ECPokerTour poker championship will be staged in the lavish new Alpine Palace Card Casino between April 3rd and 5th 2009. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/Poker_Promotions/2009_ECPokerTour_Salzburg.html

Be a Winner with WINNER’S 2 Billionth Hand
Winner Poker is giving away an extraordinary range of prizes in true poker spirit. Read the full story at http://www.classicasinos.com/Poker_Promotions/Two_Billionth_Hand.html

Free Poker – If you are looking to play online poker for pure recreation
and not for money
ensure that the site you are interested in accommodates “free” players. Most online poker sites do cater to free players.

Software Download vs. Web-based – Most
if not all
online poker sites require you to download their poker client software onto your computer system to run. If you are adverse to downloading such software onto your system
then you might want to check to see if the poker site alternatively has a web-based poker interface
which allows you to play poker on the site from within your browser. Software installs run the potential risk of viruses and/or adware being loaded onto your system (although most of the reputable firms would never do that)
but software installs on your computer generally run a lot faster than web-based sessions. Software installations harness the power of your local PC’s CPU
whereas web-based interfaces rely on downloading any screen real estate updates over the Internet during play. This can be slow
particularly
if you are running over a slow internet connection (e.g.
a dialup line). Hence
if you are after speed
select local software installations; if you are concerned about your computer’s safety or cannot afford the disk space used by a software installation
select a web-based poker site.

Methods of Deposit/Withdrawal – If you are planning to play poker for money over the Internet
it is very important to consider the methods of deposit and withdrawal that a poker site supports. Many of these sites permit major credit cards to be used
which seem to be the universal deposit mechanism of choice. Others permit the use of bank transfer
ACH transfer
checks
and wire transfer from banks. Most poker sites also support some form of 3rd party eWallets
which provide an intermediary between banking institutions and the poker site itself. The main criteria to look at are: 1) What methods of deposit/withdrawal are supported by the poker site
and how many of these methods are supported by the locale that you live in ?; 2) Is it legal to fund/withdraw to/from a poker site
from the jurisdiction that you are playing in ?; 3) What are the fees associated with the 3rd party eWallet companies that you are able to use
and how reliable are they (this latter question can be researched on some of the poker message forum boards) ?

Locale Restrictions – Some poker sites restrict the playing for money (and even free play sometimes)
based on your locale
and the laws governing gambling in your locale. You should check with the laws of your local jurisdiction and check with the poker site
to see if there are any imposed restrictions on play
based on your locale.

Support – You should definitely look at the methods of support that a poker site offers. Poker sites generally provide one (or more) methods of support that include: telephone support
fax support
Email support
and live chat support. The more of these that a poker site offers
the better. For telephone support
check and see if the poker site offers toll-free support from your playing jurisdiction or not.

Game Variety – Depending on your level of poker playing expertise and your interest in variety
it is important to determine which game types the poker site supports. Almost all of the sites offer Texas Holdem
but depending on your leve
l of interest
you should check to see if they offer games like Five and Seven Card Stud
Omaha Poker (and all of its variations)
blackjack (not poker
but often included as a game option)
Stud (and its variations)
Draw poker
Tournament support
and limit and pot limit games. Tournaments in particular are very popular with online poker sites
and some site tournaments offer very large prize pools.

Bonuses – Most
but not all
of the poker sites offer some form of bonus to the player
when you initially sign up with the site. Each site’s bonus is somewhat different
but of the one’s that offer first time bonus
it is usually predicated on a minimum initial deposit. Many bonuses are also calculated based on the amount of money deposited and spent on the site. Additionally
many sites offer reload bonuses
which are bonuses that are offered to existing customers
beyond their initial deposit bonus
and as an incentive to keep you as a customer.

Graphics and Useability – This is a very important consideration. Every poker site has a different look and feel to it. If you are going to be playing poker for money
it is important that you feel comfortable with the screen graphics and your ability to navigate (via mouse or keyboard clicks) through the poker program. If you feel uncomfortable at all with the poker site
you should definitely not consider playing at it for money. You should always test a poker site out in “free” mode first
before actually considering it for real-money wagering.

Game Features – You should always consider the game features that are available with a given poker site. Game features such as hand history
multiple simultaneous playing windows
player notes
audible and visual indicators
player statistics
connection status indicator
player chat
turbo games
and screen options should always be considered.

Rake – Rake is the amount of the pot that the poker site takes (as part of its fee for doing business)
from each hand. You should always be aware of how much rake a poker site takes (compared to another site). Poker sites usually use a Weighted Contribution rake method or an Average Contribution method
when calculating rake. Obviously
the lower the rake
the more money you will take home on hand wins
but this criteria by itself should not dictate which poker site you use
since all of the above factors need to be taken into consideration as well. In summary
the aforementioned criteria should always be used
when deciding which Poker site is best for you. Depending on your preferences
some of these criteria should be given more weight than others. Happy Poker site hunting !!

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Turning Poker into a Full-time Occupation

Turning Poker into a Full-time Occupation If you are good at it
you can turn poker into a full-time career. The fact that more and more people are joining the professional poker circuit means that playing poker can be a viable source of income for the person who has the right combination of luck
strategy and [...]

The November Niners

The November Niners Now that the last remaining players to compete on one of the most famous
one of the most prestigious and definitely the one of the richest sporting event in the world
are completed
its time to learn a bit of them and have a taste of what could happen in the poker table [...]

British Poker Software Company Joins with Italian Poker (source: launchpoker.com)
Playtech Ltd recently signed a deal with a leading Italian betting shop company to take them online
competing for the flood of Italian poker players looking for more online action. The British software supplier Playtech signed the deal with Snai
the Ital… (source: launchpoker.com) – RSS news feeds and Widgets on Feedzilla.com