Category Archives: Poker Room

Winner Of Peter Eastgate’s 2008 WSOP Bracelet Looking To Help Charities With It

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You might remember back in November of 2010, when 2008 World Series of Poker main event winner Peter Eastgate auctioned off his bracelet, raising over $140,000 for charity. The winner of that auction, William Haughey, talked to a poker news website to discuss the bracelet and revealed how he wants to work with the WSOP organization to arrange a charity event where he’d match any money raised, up to $1,000,000.

Haughey’s got a history of such generousness: the British businessman (who has made his fortune through his own City Refrigeration Holdings) has donated over £5 million to various charities and thinks that the bracelet might be an “in” to raising more for them through the world of poker.

When asked how he was planning on doing that, Haughey responded: “Since I purchased the bracelet, I’ve never had it on and I never have my picture taken with it. It has been in a safe, and what I would like to do is maybe protect the integrity and the worthiness of the bracelet. I would like to discuss with the World Series of Poker if they would take the bracelet as a gift from me and keep it in the Hall of Fame. Maybe they could strike a one-off bracelet in Europe next year for charity. I could pick a charity of my choosing and they could pick one of their choosing. I think it’d be great for the poker community. Not everyone gets a chance to win a bracelet, so maybe we could do something online for a couple of hundred bucks and raise like $400,000 or $500,000.”

It’s a fascinating read and it really does prove that the poker community is more than just people trying to take each other’s money. Go to www.pokernews.com for more information.

In the meantime, if you’d like to get a lot of money for a small buy-in, check out Bovada’s $100,000 guaranteed online poker tournaments. You can qualify for them for as little as $1.

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World Poker Tour Announces Expanded TV Coverage In 2012

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If you enjoy watching poker as much as you like playing it, then Fox Sports Net has some good news for you. They’ll be extending their television coverage of Season X when the show returns in February. This expansion comes after the increased success of Season IX, which saw a 30% rise in audience share compared to previous seasons.

The new season will premiere on February 12 at 8pm and 11pm local time on the network. To provide a better look at the events, Season X will see each tournament broken into three separate episodes. That means the total number of programs this season is going to be 37 – 11 more than last season’s coverage.

“The steadfast effort put into revamping the World Poker Tour last season was rewarded with resounding fan and viewer support,” said WPT President Adam Pliska in a statement. “For Season X we’re giving our audience even more reason to tune in each week.

For those wondering if anything was going to chance behind the mic, worry not: Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will once again take on commentary duties for Season X of the WPT and they will be joined by anchor Kimberly Lansing, new Raw Deal analyst Tony Dunst and the Royal Flush Girls from the sidelines.

Not happy with just watching the game? Check out online poker at Bovada! You can start playing for free or take advantage of the online poker deposit bonus that can get you up to $1,000 extra for your bankroll.

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Bovada’s Play Your Way To Party Promo Heats Up, Delivers Awesomeness

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There are still three weeks left in Bovada’s Play Your Way To Party promotion and the best place to play is turning up the heat and giving even more of what the players want on top of giving away three more trips to a spectacular Bovada party to be held in a secret location!

Join Bovada and play your way now.

How easy is it to earn entries into the weekly prize draw where the winner gets treated like the VIP they are in the bombastic Bovada style? Very easy. You can:
• Refer a friend that signs up and makes a deposit (1 entry per friend)
• Bet on Sports or Horses (1 entry for each day in which you bet a minimum of $25)
• Play online poker (1 entry for each day in which you earn 25 poker points
• Play any casino game (1 entry for each day in which you bet a minimum of $250

That’s right — you can earn your way to one of the biggest parties of the year just by doing what you normally would at Bovada! In addition to the prize draw, Bovada’s pulled out all the stops and is offering players even more each week. Here’s what’s coming up:

Week 6: January 23 – 29
Get entry into a $25,000 Freeroll when you earn 50 Poker Points
Play free online poker or play in the next poker freeroll at Bovada.

Week 7: January 30 – Feb 5
Get a $10 Casino Chip Bonus when you bet $100 on the Super Bowl
Bet on the Super Bowl at Bovada.

Week 8: February 6 – 12
Receive 1 ticket for every $50 you stake on slots. Earn 25 tickets and receive a $25 casino cash bonus.
Play your favorite online slots game at Bovada today.

Join players Like Bradley P of Texas and Greg S of Virginia today! Sign up, start betting and Play Your Way to Party — you may soon get the invite that all of your friends will be jealous of.

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Trickett Looking For Aussie Millions $100,000 Challenge Repeat

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2011 was a good year of UK poker pro Sam Trickett and 2012 looks like it might already by on track to make good again. It was last year’s $100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions that got him started and it looks like it may all be happening again as the gregarious pro is sitting at the final table of this year’s Challenge, once again.

This year’s tournament attracted 16 fewer players than 2011′s, but that still means there were 22 of the best poker players in the world in attendance, including Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey. How competitive is the $100,000 Challenge? Those four players all busted out on the first day. By the way, speaking of four playersy: only four finalists will cash in this event. The top spot sees $1.01 million; second place gets $616,000; third earns $330,000 and the fourth-place finisher sees $242,000.

Trickett’s currently at the bottom of the roster, which is set up as follows:

Seat 1: Tony G (102,000 chips)
Seat 2: Gus Hansen (567,000 chips)
Seat 3: Nam Le (79,500 chips)
Seat 4: Sam Trickett (73,000 chips)
Seat 5: Mikhail Smirnov (265,000 chips)
Seat 6: Joe Hachem (538,500 chips)
Seat 7: Sorel Mizzi (228,500 chips)
Seat 8: Dan Smith (346,500 chips)

As you can see, he’s got a long way to go, and a short time to get there as blinds are now at 2,500/5,000, but if last year’s streak proved anything, it’s that Trickett can do the seemingly impossible.

Do you want to complete in tournaments where you can get your share of up to $100,000? Check out Bovada’s online poker tournaments today!

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NHL Betting Lines: San Jose Sharks at Edmonton Oilers on Monday

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San Jose at Edmonton
When: 9:30 PM ET, Monday, January 23, 2012
Where: Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta

CLICK HERE to Claim your $100 NHL Hockey bet at Bovada Sportsbook

THE STORY: The San Jose Sharks are trying to make it to the All-Star break in first place in the Pacific Division. All they need to do is survive the Western Canada triangle. The Sharks fell just short in their first stop at Vancouver on Saturday and visit the lowly Edmonton Oilers on Monday before closing the first half at Calgary. Teams regularly schedule the British Columbia-Alberta swing as one trip, and several of those teams have used the Oilers to make it out of the triangle with at least two points. Of Edmonton’s eight regulation home losses, five have come to non-division opponents. The Oilers have dropped eight of nine overall and have been outscored 11-4 during their current three-game slide. San Jose skids into the contest having dropped three of its last four while allowing four goals in each of the setbacks.

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TSN (Edmonton), CS California (San Jose)

ABOUT THE SHARKS (26-14-5): San Jose’s biggest troubles this season have come on special teams, where it ranks in the bottom half of the NHL on the power play and the penalty kill. Logan Couture tried his best to single-handedly fix that with short-handed and power-play goals Saturday but the Sharks lost 4-3. San Jose has been getting better on the penalty kill, snuffing out 19 of 21 chances in the last 10 games.

ABOUT THE OILERS (17-26-4): Edmonton has surrendered at least four goals in nine of its last 11 losses. While no team could be expected to outscore that lack of defense, the Oilers have been extremely poor at finding the net. They have not topped two goals in any of their last seven contests. Edmonton has a rookie to be excited about in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and figure to add a few more young pieces at the upcoming trade deadline. Veteran right wing Ales Hemsky’s name has been tossed around in several trade rumors.

OVERTIME:

1. Nugent-Hopkins is out until next month with a shoulder injury.

2. Couture has three points – two goals – in five career games against Edmonton.

3.San Jose has taken eight of the last 10 meetings, including a 3-2 triumph on Dec. 17.

PREDICTION: Sharks 4, Oilers 1

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Dutch Poker Pro Van der Sloot Receives Maximum Sentence For Stephany Flores Murder

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It’s official: Dutch poker player Joran van der Sloot has been sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian jail for the murder of Stephany Flores, the 21-year-old woman whose body was discovered in van der Sloot’s hotel room in Lima in June, 2010. In addition to this sentence, he may also be facing extradition to the United States in connection with the investigation of Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance. He was arrested on suspicion of his involvement on the island of Aruba but later released for lack of evidence.

For the moment, however, van der Sloot will be locked down after his confession about the killing of Flores. His lawyer argued that being hounded for Ms Holloway’s death caused van der Sloot to become psychologically unhinged, which resulted in Flores’ death. According to his confession, Flores and van der Sloot were playing online poker in his hotel room when she discovered his connection with Holloway’s disappearance. The two argued and van der Sloot then strangled Flores in a fit of rage before leaving the country with $200 in cash and credit cards from his victim’s purse.

“He was faced against the entire world for the past five years prior to the events. It was five years after the disappearance of this American citizen, and all media pointed at my client without having any evidence that he was in fact a monster,” argued Sloot’s lawyer, Jose Luis Jiminez.

The explanation held no water in the judge’s mind, it seemed, and thus the Dutch poker player who once told Greta Van Susteren than he’d sold a 17-year-old girl into sexual slavery and then recanted on his interview will be spending a lot of time staring at men who aren’t going to be impressed that he won over $12,000 in an online poker tournament

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Lockwood Doubles Up In Minutes, Wins WSOPC Event Like A Machine

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It’s the sort of story that poker players that were there will be talking about for years to come: Harold “Buddy” Lockwood overcame a 2-to-1 chip deficit in heads-up play to beat Raja Kattamuri to win event #6 at the World Series of Poker stop at the Choctaw Casino Resort. His play was relentless and his focus was admirable over the two-day 372-person tournament.

However, everyone observing thought that there was no way he could take on six-time WSOP casher Kattamuri in heads-up. But he shocked everyone by winning a streak of serious pots at the start of the match and the stacks were quickly evened. He soon had the chip lead and seeming never looked up as he kept winning.

“I knew I could win when I couldn’t get through stacking my chips before the next hand started,” Lockwood told WSOP.com. “I never looked up. I was always just stacking chips, taking a quick peak at my hand and then playing. After a while it dawned on me that’s all I was doing. I couldn’t even take time to count them.”

The conclusion of the $345 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed tournament marks the halfway point for the World Series of Poker Circuit events at Choctaw. Six ring events remain, including a $555 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event (January 19) and the $1,600 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry event (January 21).

“A few years ago I won a World Poker Open bracelet, and I wanted to prove to myself it wasn’t just a flash-in-the-pan happening,” the 66-year old retiree said. “Now at least it’s a two-time flash in the pan.”

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Bovada Poker Tourney Sends Player To Super Bowl XLVI…For Free

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Seventeen online poker players made it to Bovada’s Super Bowl Freeroll Finale and after a mere four hours of play, Adam Greear of Riverview, MI took the top spot and earned himself an expenses-paid trip to Indanapolis’s Lucas Oil stadium for Super Bowl XLVI.

How’d he get there? By sticking to his guns and waiting to strike. After three and a half hours of play, the tension was understandably high: the winner was getting the most coveted seats in the game. One hand in particular seemed to tilt the game in Adam’s favor, though, and he wasn’t even playing in it.

Player #12 raised from the button while holding a well-disguised 6c3c. Player #9 called while holding Qs9s and looked to have it in the bag when the flop fell: QQT, giving him a set. Player #9 went all-in against his opponent, but ended up getting booted by a Club flush thanks to Ac on the turn. All the hoping in the world didn’t help, however, and that miracle full house never appeared, leaving Player #12 facing off against Adam.

Heads-up play between the two lasted a scant ten minutes before both players were dealt ultra-premium hands that virtually ensured that all their chips would end up in the pot. After a raising war pre-flop, Adam and his opponent both found themselves all-in with 5 cards to come. Adam held AdQd while Player 12 held pocket 10′s. The 7-high flop was surely welcomed by the pocket 10′s, but once again, the game changed radically on the turn as Qh, giving Adam the winning hand that would get him to Indianapolis.

How’d Adam get the win? Turns out he’s been playing for almost a decade now: the 25-year-old started playing poker with his friends in his Junior year of High School after seeing the 2003 WSOP Main Event. And despite having a 13 month old daughter and a brand-new 2 month old son, he stays pretty active. “I enjoy getting out and going golfing along with playing in spring/fall softball leagues with all my friends I grew up with. Other than that I’m a huge fan of all the Detroit/Michigan sports teams and always have their games on,” he said in an email interview.

And as for the game itself? “I’m a die hard Lions fan, so now that they’re out I really don’t have a preference. I suppose I’d like to see the Broncos make it so that we can confirm Tebow is the Messiah.” ”

“That’s a joke,” he added quickly. Unfortunately, Tebow’s team won’t be in the big face-off, but with lots of stuff happening in Indianapolis along with the big game, Adam’s definitely going to make the most of his ultra-swank Bovada prize package. When he was asked if he was going to take advantage of Bovada’s online sports betting services, he replied with a calm, cool and collected “Yes. Yes, I am.”

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How To Play Poker: Implied Odds

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We’ve talked about pot odds before on the Gambling Beat, but there’s another type of odds that poker players need to learn their way around implied odds. Simply put, implied odds indicate how much money you expect to win after you complete your draw.

While there are fairly simple mathematical formulae that helps you determine how your pot odds work, implied odds require you to trust your guts a bit more. You’ll be making an estimate of them based on an understanding of your opponent and the situation you’re playing.

Let’s look at a situation where you have good implied odds to help you understand. You’re holding Kh6c and the flop is Kd7c8s. You’ve got a nice open-ended straight draw there and even if you opponent bets into you, you still have good implied odds. If you make your straight, you’re going to be able to extract more money from your opponent in later rounds of betting.

A situation with bad implied odds and a straight draw would look like this: you’re holding Ks4c and the board reads QhJdTc. Yes, you can make a good hand but your implied odds are far worse in this situation because the second you bet, your opponent is going to be onto you. It’s obvious that you’re going to make your straight if the Ace or 9 hits, so you’re going to be able to extract much less money from the other player.

A note: while casual free and microlimit players aren’t likely to understand implied odds, if you’re playing real money online poker, particularly in middle and higher stakes games they’re a major part of the game.

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Poker Players Jim Rice and Albert Destrade Appear On Survivor

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High-stakes poker and Survivor have a lot in common: they require nerves of steel, the ability to effortlessly deceive and most of all, a willingness to go shirtless and do ridiculous things for the top spot. You may not be familiar with Albert Destrade or Jim Rice, but they’ve both played and found success on the felt. Destrade’s a baseball coach who makes the majority of his money in South Florida’s bustling scene and Rice is a legalized marijuana distributor from Denver who’s managed to score in multiple tournaments, including a $116,555 win in a $2,000 buy-in Festa Al Lago preliminary event.

The goal of Survivor is to outwit and outlive a field of 16-20 opponents while building a society in a remote location. Along the way, they’re playing game where they vote out one of their own every three days and once the numbers hit a certain point and then the evicted players vote for the champion, who receives $1,000,000 for their trouble. n a lot of ways, it’s like poker: winning takes patience and guts as well as skill.

“There is never a concerted effort to cast any specific type of profession on ‘Survivor’, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that poker players make for such great characters,” Survivor host/executive producer Jeff Probst told ESPN in an email interview. “‘Survivor’ is the social politics equivalent of poker. It’s a game about reading other people, learning their tendencies, showing them only as much as you want them to see, but letting them think they are seeing more than they should. In the end, as we say on the show, ‘only one will remain’ — that is the essence of ‘Survivor’ and poker.”

Unfortunately, neither Rice nor Destrade won. Rice claimed 12th place while the handsome, charismatic Destrade finished third on Survivor: South Pacific, the twenty-third installment of the reality show.

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