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It looks like the party poopers at MasterCard  are at it again. They have discovered how the online poker sites are processing online transactions and decrypted the code. That means for those US poker players that were using MC to deposit can no longer do so. My guess is that Visa is not far behind. Your best choice for depositing online if you are a US poker player is Western Union or e-Wallet. They are both easy to use and your deposit will show up in your online poker account in a matter of minutes.

Yes, that’s what the rumblings are in the cyber poker world. It looks like former NBA world champion Dennis Rodman is a possible online poker host for Online Poker. Dennis can be seen on “Rehab with Dr. Drew.” That’s not exactly the kind of segue you want to see in a potential host but to each is own. I hope they know what they are getting themselves into.

Last year was an incredible learning experience. I got an opportunity to communicate with many of the editors of poker magazines that I have been reading for years. Some of that communication came from personal requests and others I solicited myself. In any event the experience and feedback has been extremely valuable in helping me to mold my writing into an even more viable “product” moving forward. I suppose the most fulfilling accomplishment was being hired as a regular writer with Oz Poker last year. Any time a web site comes and asks you to participate in a new venture and believes in your ability to communicate this great game to the masses it is an honor.

The fact of the matter is that those of us that writer articles for the larger poker web sites are very fortunate. I have been doing so for over two years now and I am still very thankful to be able to work and get paid for doing something that I have a love and passion for. Clearly the game of poker is and has been evolving over the years with all of the new faces and the aggressive style of play. It takes a lot of work to keep up with those faces and all of the goings-on in the poker world but I am still having the time of my life doing it. True, I am not playing nearly as much as I used to but that is a trade off I accepted a long time ago. In return I get to write my own blog and share my passion for the game with others.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

After a delay that appeared to signal the end of the Challenge Dwan has hooked back up with Patrick Antonius to continue the Challenge. He was already up over $700k+ before both players took a lengthy break from the Challenge. The break occurred in part because Dwan lost $5 million dollars to Isildur1. At that time Dwans bankroll was estimated at around $3 million dollars. Again, those were estimates and only Dwan knows what kind of swings he can and can’t handle.

Obviously losing a fortune like he did will severely affect what kind of games you intend to play from that point on. Rumblings suggest that Dwan is in over his head bankroll wise and needs to drop down a few levels to re-establish himself. Losing $5 million to anyone playing online poker would certainly indicate a major problem in money management even if it’s over several sessions. Hopefully Dwan puts away a few million for his future before it’s too late.

It looks like all of the speculation was true. Long time poker professional T.J. Cloutier put his 2005 WSOP bracelet up for sale a couple of days ago in an effort to pick up a few dollars. This is a sad story indeed considering Cloutier has won millions of dollars in his poker career but it should be a lesson to the younger generation. No matter how well you run you always need to be preparing for the future and that means investing half of your winnings in something outside of poker when you make a large score. Fortunately for Cloutier Cake Poker, the purchaser of the bracelet, plans on returning the bracelet “to it’s rightful owner.”

My hope is that whatever troubles Cloutier may be experiencing he is able to  somehow overcome. Kudos to Cake Poker for doing the right thing. Besides, what person in their right mind would wear a bracelet they didn’t earn?

Over the past couple of weeks Rush Poker has been one of the hottest topics in online poker. I have watched a few games and it is indeed an experience to see and play.  The idea is to get your hand, make a decision and as soon as that decision is made the hand is played out as you normally would. There is no waiting around for hands. When you fold a hand you are immediately moved to another table. Every player that plays Rush Poker is put into a player pool and assigned tables accordingly when you fold.  It’s a great game and speeds up the game even more without distorting the play.

So if you enjoy a fast paced style of play where you never sit in one place for any length of time then Rush Poker is for you. You can only find it on Full Tilt for now but I get the feeling that it will begin popping up in other forms VERY soon on other sites.

Enjoy!

I just got through reading the latest issue of Bluff Magazine and I have to tell you that this has really gotten stupid. First, we watched Joan Rivers call Annie Duke “Worse than Hitler” and that all of her friends were “Mafia friends.”

Really Joan? Really?

As if those moments of stupidity on Celebrity Apprentice were not enough she let loose with another tirade against poker players last November. This time it was Doyle Brunson who was the target of Joan’s wrath on Miami’s Sports Talk 790 radio suggesting that Doyle should “Go and die under a deck of cards!” Doyle certainly doesn’t need my help defending himself against the insecure Joan Rivers but that crosses all lines of decency in my book. Whatever her opinion may be on those of us that play the game of poker she certainly could have expressed it without suggesting that someone meet the ultimate fate. To add insult to injury she suggested Doyle was trying to ride her coattails to acquire fame.

Doyle simply laughed it off and suggested it was better than dying under a pile of manure. Good for you Doyle!

Joan River’s has absolutely NO CLASS. She is attempting to shoot down people that play this game with absolutely no understanding of those of us that play it. Pathetic!

It’s official folks! I am now an Ultimate Bet online poker player. I decided to make the move this weekend after a lot of analysis and deep thinking. This decision was not easy for me but one that I felt I needed to make. I have been a long time PokerStars player for the past 4 years and I have been successful with 2009 being my best year. So it isn’t about how PokerStars is “rigged” or somehow did something to make me change rooms.

Quite the contrary.

I decided to change poker rooms for 2 particular reasons.

1. For the first time I am actually playing for a seat in the WSOP Main Event as one of my goals.
2. The fields are significantly smaller than the thousands that I play against nightly on PokerStars.

Let me talk about reason number one first. I have never really had any desire to play the Main Event prior to this year. But this year I decided that if I am to do so I need to put myself in the best position possible to do so and that meant making a change in poker rooms where the satellites were more conducive to my style of play and, again, the fields I am competing in are smaller.

Second, smaller fields just make more sense for me. The better the player you are the smaller fields play to your advantage. There is no doubt in my mind that some of those cashes I made in the 1000+, 2000+, and 3000+ player fields on PokerStars would have been final tables had the fields not been so ridiculously large. True, you can play the 180 SnG’s and I did that with very good success. But again it comes down to wanting to play the larger tournaments without the entries being distorted. To me once you hit the 1000+ mark it becomes more of a luck scenario than skill. I want my skill to matter more than getting lucky in these uber large tournaments. Thus the change to Ultimate Bet.

Yes, I realize that UB is coming off of an online scandal from a couple of years ago. However, I have done my homework and I do not have my life savings invested in my poker account. So, if anything should happen on UB or anywhere else for that matter I would be far from in tears about it. Also, I have a great deal of faith in Joe Sebok and believe he is on the right track getting the site back to respectability. I looked at a number of poker rooms that accept U.S. poker players. I asked a few friends that play in those rooms that I was looking at. When I boiled it all down UB was the best choice for me. I am by no means dissatisfied with PokerStars and I still recommend people play there too. I still have money on PokerStars and will play there occasionally but UB will be my primary online poker home.

The bottom line is I am expecting this year to be my best year of online poker ever and a lot of it has to do with the smaller fields on UB. I believe I have an edge and that edge can be exploited much more easily playing in smaller fields. It’s the best decision for me and my game.

PS: I made my first UB final table last night in only my second tournament on the site and took down 6th place. Maybe I am on to something. Ya think?

Recently I read a very interesting article “Social and Psychological Challenges of Poker” by Kyle Siler. This article puts into perspective the play of 27 million hands of poker and analyzes them from low stakes, medium stakes and high stakes online poker games. The author believes that in the long term even really good players do not have the edge as their success would indicate. At face value it seems absurd. However, after reading the article in it’s entirety it makes perfectly good sense.

Some of the reasoning behind Silers theory is that success is not the norm but that sucees does fluctuate. I think most poker players would agree with that thinking. However, most players would counter and ask, “How come there are only a hand full of online poker players that consistently win at the higher levels?”  Good question. The article also correctly suggests that low stakes and beginner caliber players do not correctly correlate risk with reward and often times make poor choices in playing hands because of it. I could go on and on about the various theories that are spoken about in relation to the game of poker. The article was a very good read and certainly worth your time and effort.

Check it out in the Journal of Gambling Studies. Release Date:1/6/10 Publisher: Spring Netherlands

Poker player Amir Vahedi has passed away. I am saddened when anyone in the poker community passes away. Early reports suggest that Amir died of complications from diabetes. I took my poker mantra from Amir Vahedi when I first got serious about the game in 2003. He was a character with the cigar, accent and his penchant for bluffing.

“In order to live, you MUST be willing to die!”

Indeed a very profound statement about the game we all love.

Amir will truly be missed.

Whether you are a cash game or tournament poker player winning is no longer a given. Only 4 years ago I can recall jumping online or even into a live tournament or cash game and pretty much could pick off the players seemingly effortlessly. Over the last 2 years the game has changed significantly. No longer are poker players new to the game. Players have access to so much video, software, books and TV shows that pretty much anyone that you are going to encounter in a casino poker game has a fairly good grasp of the basic concepts and fundamentals of No Limit Hold’em.

Today, with the increased knowledge of most players, you can still do quite well but you are going to have to work a lot harder at it. There are so many tactics both traditional and non-traditional to be aware of that you almost have to be seasoned to even have a chance even at low stakes cash game tables. Times have indeed changed and changed for the better. You can always identify and adjust to opponents or tactics once you recognize them. It’s just that there are so many more players to be aware of than ever before. At least that has been my experience. You used to sit down and only have to worry about 2 or 3 players. Now many of those same $1/2 and $5 / $10 cash tables have as many as 5 really good players which cuts down your profit.

The bottom line is consistency and staying away from distractions are more necessary. No matter where you play or whom you play with you can expect to see 3 or more players in your cash game. Count on it.

I just found out that Phil Ivey has filed for divorce from his long time wife and high school sweetheart Luciaetta. Ivey and Luciaetta have been married for 7 years. Fortunately there are no children involved. More details coming soon.

I am sure you have heard rumblings about the Full Tilt cheating scandal involving Brian Townsend by now. If not, Townsend and a couple of buddies of his took down $4 million dollars playing a cash game against well known online poker pro isildur1. Townsend basically colluded with a couple of other players comparing hand histories. This allowed them to put isildur1 on a range of hands and also to recognize betting patterns which gives the player with that knowledge a HUGE advantage!

To say that I am pissed off would be an understatement. This isn’t the first time I have heard Brian Townsend’s name mentioned in a cheating scandal. I have never met or spoken to Brian Townsend a day in my life. However, I am extremely disappointed in his conduct or lack thereof. The reason being is that Brian was extremely selfish along with those he colluded with in not taking into account the repercussions to online poker. Online poker is in the midst of its toughest fight ever and yet again it gets hit with another cheating scandal. Townsend is a fantastic player in his own right. I have seen him play both cash and tournaments just as many others have. He has the talent to win in high stakes games. That is what makes this entire situation so puzzling. I realize that it was Hastings that was doing the playing but sharing specific hand histories is a no no. Yes, we all read our hand histories but not necessarily to take down one particular player as is the case with this scenario.

What the hell was he thinking?

It’s my hope that Townsend gives this situation some serious thought over the next few weeks. He has done damage to himself and to the game of online poker. I don’t believe he is a bad guy but he sure has made some very poor choices lately. In 2008 he lost his Full Tilt Pro status due to multi-accounting.

Hey! Brian Townsend!

“C’mon MAN!”

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The 2010 WSOP schedule has been announced.There will be 57 bracelet events this time around which is the same as last year. The WSOP will run from May 27th through July 17th. In a twist on the past two years the Chip Reese memorial H.O.R.S.E. event will be the first event open to all comers. The H.O.R.S.E. event still has the lofty $50k buy-in but this time will be televised unlike last season. It has also been re-named to the “Players Championship.”

Otherwise, it looks pretty much the same as last year. Unfortunately there will be another delayed final table.

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I had an opportunity to sit down and watch the CNBC Illegal Gambling Special this evening and I thought they did a pretty good job. They highlighted arguments from both sides of the aisle and really broke down the reasoning behind why online gambling should be legalized and regulated in the United States. They also had a few of our friendly politicians on to discuss their take on it pro and con.

The consensus seemed to be that online gambling will be legal within a couple of years. I tend to agree with that assessment based on all of the information I have been able to tap into since this non-sense began. We are progressing and we should expect things to change in the short and long term. The fact of the matter is that $40 Billion dollars is a lot of money and it’s there for the asking.

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