Arena Of Poker

One of the few organizations put together to look out for poker players’ legal interest is looking for a few good lawyers to join. The Poker Players Alliance has launched a free litigation support network in order to provide basic legal advice to poker players in need. Powering this network would be lawyers from around the country who would volunteer their expert advice on a number of topics like what to do if you get arrested as a result of a poker raid…

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Poker pro Jeff Madsen recently wrote in his blog that he will be involved in a redesign of the look and feel of the Bellagio poker room. He and an artist friend have put the word out that they will be forming committee comprised of people who wish to donate to this project. The committee will then select poker players who will have their portraits done by the artist…

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Great big killer hands are what we all want to pull. We want that flush or that straight or that straight flush that will guarantee us victory and the big, fat pot. The problem is that these hands are incredibly difficult to develop, and so while we all wish for them, we don’t really expect them to come up. There are people who hunt for these big hands, and what they’re doing is emphatically wrong. There are a couple of reasons for this, and they all come down to one thing: it just isn’t worth it.

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Tunnel vision is a very, very dangerous thing. It is also to blame for a fair number of blunders at the poker table as well. Here is an example of what we mean. Let’s say that you’re holding an A-6. After the flop and the turn the cards showing on the board are 9-6-9-6. The good news is that you have a Full House. It would be easy to attach to this fact and start betting the mortgage. Take a second and think though, you have an opponent who isn’t blinking and is throughout the hand has been following calling every bet and after the flop actually got more aggressive.

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Poker player Rick Salomon would probably rather be famous winning multiple WSOP bracelets or being called a donkey after gutting out a tough, high profile win over Phil Hellmuth than having the world know him for the women he has been associated with. He first garnered attention by marrying “Berverly Hills 90210″ actress Shannen Doherty. After his nuptials went the way of the Do-Do, he was filmed treating Paris Hilton’s naughty bits the way German Wehrmacht treated the city of Paris sixty years earlier. He latest high profile romance included him basically winning Pamela Anderson in a strip poker game. As of today his storybook marriage to the Baywatch Babe has been annulled.

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Sometimes someone becomes a butt-kicking poker ace, emerging from a previous profession that requires a stiff education and a lot of brains. Among those analytical, brainy types, there have been educated financial gurus - and those more focused on the molecular and atomic make-up of their surroundings. Now add engineering to the mix and you’ll discover poker giant James Van Alstyne. Previously an engineer and now a guy who’s engineering poker moves that win him tons of money.

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During Hecklers’ Week of Poker After Dark - featuring Sam Grizzle, Phil Hellmuth, Shawn Sheikhan, Jean-Robert Bellande, Mike Matusow, and Gavin Smith - one player had finally busted and it was time to shake things up a bit.

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Much of the art of Mixed Martial Arts is the lack of rules. With few exceptions just about anything goes. Two guys walk into a cage and beat the stuffing out of each other until one gives up, gets knocked out, or dies. Those of us whose arms have more in common with those little sticks that you stir coffee with than mighty oaks have very few “no rules” options open to us when it comes to games. Strip poker was one of our few outlets for rules free fun, and now Playboy has gone and ruined that.

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In modern society having a small pair is something that pop-culture says can be dealt with using either some potent self-esteem building exercises or a really good plastic surgeon. In the sport of poker a small pair can be just as vexing as it can in the world dominated by much more prodigious and occasionally augmented pairs. The temptation with any pair is to drive as many people out of the hand and leave your cards facing as little competition as possible. This is especially true for people who are sitting in a late position.

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An official WSOP satellite tournament is nothing to sneeze at, and now the Fort Collins Series of Poker has officially joined the World Series of Poker. The event, which is a charity event raising money for the Realities for Children Triumph Awards Scholarship Fund, gets a big boost in recognition by becoming affiliated with the biggest name in poker. The WSOP has been running longer than any poker tournament of its kind in the world, and now will use that reputation to help the children…

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Online poker room Full Tilt Poker recently concluded their $750,000 guaranteed tournament on Easter Sunday and one player left the game with more than $100,000 as his prize. The final table action got underway with nine players out of the field of 3,784, the number of players who put up the $200 buy in to participate in the online tournament. JohnnyBax was the only professional poker player in the game whose name was recognized by those watching…

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Imagine being caught in a life where you are perpetually 10 years old. These are the golden years where society at large pretty much accepts that you’re not old enough to be responsible for the carnage that follows in your wake. It is also the age that is the paradise before hormones screw everything up. This is the life that Nancy Cartwright has pretty much lived for almost two-decades. Most of us know her as the voice of the precocious (and sometimes felonious, cartoon icon) Bart Simpson.

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The computer operated, self maintained poker tables that are becoming a huge hit in many poker rooms have found their way to the New Buffalo, Michigan, poker room of the Four Winds Casino Resort. The tables, dubbed PokerPro, combine the computer power of an online poker room with the enjoyment of live poker, and seem to inspire a love it or hate it reaction in users. The Four Winds poker room now sports 19 of these tables, with four heads-up tables and 15 full-size, 10-player tables…

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In Australia the debate over poker machines and problem gambling continues. The Victorian Government recently announced a new idea to tackle the old problem, implementing time limits for gambling on the infamous poker machines. Starting in the year 2010 voluntary time limits will be available for gamblers to set on the machines…

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One thing is for sure: when you put together a Poker After Dark show and call it “Hecklers’ Week”, you are sure to get players that will voice their opinions. With the table, that opinion is normally centered around how good the individual player is, and how bad the rest are.

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Boredom is a bad reason to do anything. If you play a drawing hand simply because you are sick of folding your hole cards and think you need to do something, then you are playing poker with the same mindset that Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss manages his office. During tournaments and cash games you are going to want to pick your spot when playing your drawing hands. There are certain situations that work well with that sort of hole cards. The best possible situation when playing your drawing hand is for you to have really good odds.

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The week had dragged on with no casualties as yet, but that was soon to change. It was Hecklers’ Week at NBC’s hit poker show, Poker After Dark, and all six players were still in.

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Author Collin Moshman - like many who play or write about poker, has a degree in mathematics. Moshman gained much of what he knows about sit n go strategy from his own online play. Moshman now wants to share his own aggressive playing style and strategy with others through his recent release called “Sit ‘n Go Strategy.” The book is best for mid to advance level players and might especially appeal to those who share Moshman’s interest in succeeding through aggressive play.

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Most of what you come into contact is made from or covered in plastic in one way or another. It really is a wonder material. Part of its wonder comes from its flexibility, its plasticity. Being flexible is very important to successful poker play. It’s undeniable that a flexible player can outplay a rigid one. The former is simply better able to adapt to the ever changing game situation than the latter. Plastic is only flexible under certain situations; at other times, plastic is itself very rigid. Plastic can be very strong and unyielding when we require it to be. You should be the same in poker.

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The very first World Poker Challenge was the first World Poker Tour event back in 2003, and this year it will be the last time it is held. The World Poker Challenge has been running since 2001, but it did not make it on to the 2009 WPT schedule. Next year will be the seventh season for the WPT, which is credited for bringing about the poker boom…

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