Texas Hold’em is the Rolls Royce of poker variants since it encapsulates the very essence of what the game of poker is all about.

I’m going to give you some handy tips when playing this wonderful poker variant be it online or offline. Since you can’t see your opponents’ pocket cards, the only indication you have of their hands is the manner in which they place their bets.

The number and experience of the players you’re up against will have an influence on the type of betting strategy you’re going to use. The more players there are at the table the greater the likelihood that there will be a couple of good hands. When there are a lot of players, try and cut down the competition as quickly as possible to ensure that those with mediocre hands fold before they get the chance to improve.

If you are playing against …

The game of poker is particularly vulnerable to cheating since their are lots of ways a player can be duped. In order to ensure that the game is played fairly it’s best to play it in a legal casino.

If you play in private games you must be aware of the many methods players can use to cheat. In this article I’m going to explore just this.

Holding Cards

This is when the player steals a card from the deck, usually an ace and keeps it up his sleeve until needed. The cheat will always acquire the card from the hand that is folded. Instead of putting all the cards in the discard pile only one card will be kept. When it gets matched it’s switched into play. If you suspect this form of cheating, you can check for held cards by counting the number of cards in the deck.

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As an avid poker player I often wondered how a poker tournament is structured. In this article I’m going to go under the hood, hopefully at the end of it you’ll know more about the technical aspects of it.

What Are Poker Tournaments?

A poker tournament is a competition where players get to compete against each other for a prize. Competing in tournaments is an increasingly popular way to play poker. Each year more and more tournaments are added to the global poker tour. Players get to win large cash prizes for a relatively small entrance fee. The more prestigious the poker event, the more skilled players it attracts. Less skilled players can hone their skills by playing tournaments with lower stake levels.

Tournaments can be played at casinos, card rooms and over the Internet. Casinos tend to host tournaments at off-peak times. There are tournaments that cater for a …

Since the U.S federal government indicted PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker in 2011 it left thousands of professional poker players practically with a job. The caveat is that the state regulation of the Internet and consequently online poker is national in scope, therefore reserved to the federal government and not the states.

The states’ attempts to legalize online poker within their own borders may be temporary but it’s up to the federal government to play its part in the regulation of online poker. Its prohibition has not only raised questions regarding the legal, legislative and constitutional implications of the game but had a dire impact on countless of professional players who make their living from poker.

Where To Now?

Singapore native and poker pro, Vanessa Peng said before she came to the United States she was under the impression that the country was the ‘Land of the Free‘. ‘I know better …

To find out the true history or origin of something, society relies heavily on verbal or written accounts on the subject. Certain things have been passed from one generation to the next with little verbal account.

Chances are nobody thought to write it down or talk about the origination hence the reason why most things simply get lost over time. Such is the fate of the game of poker.

History of Poker

Since there were no formal records, no one can really say for sure where and when the game originated. Some folks say that poker began from one single table, while others believe it was a group of individuals that invented the game. Sadly, the true origins of poker is still unknown.

Many experts believe that the game of poker originated in New Orleans. This bustling metropolice once belonged to the French in the early 1800’s. Since poker is …

Internet poker is also referred to as online poker. It is when you play poker via a computer connection over the internet. Many online casinos use poker software that connects players from all over the world. In this article I’m going to discuss the legality of online poker and also discuss the fairness of it.

Various types of poker can be played. Online card rooms offer different poker games which include Texas Hold’em, five-card draw, seven card stud and Omaha. You can play poker for fun or you can play it for real cash. There are games at all stake levels starting from $0.01 to no-limit games where you can wager as much as you like.

Real money games usually charge a rake of 5%. The rake is deducted from the winning pot. The rake charged charged varies with different poker sites. In addition to card rooms there are internet …

Republican Representative Daniel Winslow made an amendment to a bill that aims to develop land based gambling in the state of Massachusetts. With 123 votes against 32 the bill was passed in the House. eGaming experts warned that there’s nothing to cheer about at this stage. It is only the first step hurdle that’s been removed in a tedious process.

The vote in the Massachusetts Senate is the next step; on the 26th of September legalization issues will be addressed. The internet poker amendment that if it is dropped by the Senate, will most probably not be included in conference, which seeks to weed-out any irregularities between the versions of the bills passed in the House and in the Senate. Afterward Governor Deval Patrick must then sign it into law.

The law dictates that the Massachusetts gaming commission must establish a committee to analyze and develop recommendations and model legislation …

Congressmen John Campbell and Barney Frank have joined forces to support a probable rival internet poker bill from Texas Republican Joe Barton.

Barton said he’s in the interim of finalising a bill drafted in consultation with lobby group the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). He aims to introduce this new Poker bill of which he is the chairman emeritus under the jurisdiction of the United States Energy and Commerce Committee.

Republican Campbell, who proposed his own federal bill in March with Democrat Frank as co-sponsor, supports Barton’s bill on condition he “moves first”, Campbell notified the Las Vegas Sun.

Frank notified the Nevada newspaper: “In the United States there is a lot of limitation on people’s freedom right now, therefore I’m pushing the bill with all the resources at my disposal, that said I don’t want to come out the other side empty handed.”

Campbell was straightforward and did not mince …

Full Tilt Poker stuck by its guns stating that its Irish bank account’s cash is unfrozen, in spite of the U.S Department of Justice (DoJ) denying that the funds have been released.

Ensuing conjecture on various websites since Internet casinos reported FTP was in a position to access a sum which came to more than one third of the cash it owed players, a company source notified this publication the account in question is not the one that has been named in the original indictment, but a separate corporate account kept with the Bank of Ireland.

The source explained that Full Tilt approached the U.S Attorney’s Office for New York’s Southern District reassuring the bank it was safe to unfreeze the account. “The bank was not the one which was subjected to the Department of Justice’s freezing order, however the DoJ contacted the Bank of Ireland to get the funds …

Phil Ivey esteemed member of Full Tilt Poker has filed an “an electronic lawsuit” against the poker giant, Ivey claims he has not been paid by FTP and is the first professional player to break the silence subsequent the Black Friday indictments.

Early this morning Ivy made a statement on his official website and Facebook outlining the reasons for taking legal action against FTP, he said “It’s unacceptable that FTP has not refunded its players and I’m disappointed that people who have supported me during my career have been treated so badly.”

The 35-year-old poker veteran is also one of the game’s top earners with earnings of close to US$14m (£8.6m), Ivy also said that he would boycott this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) event, which already started in Las Vegas yesterday.

Since Black Friday Ivey is the first high-profile member of Team Full Tilt to take a stand …