Poker Cartoon Time
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Posted at 8:37 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Posted at 8:37 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Poker.com Version 2.6
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
The programming team have been working hard for the past few weeks on a new update to the Poker.com software that will hopefully be ready for release next week.Here's just a few of the new features and tweaks on the way.
- Fold & Show expose cards gamesmanship feature introduced, that allows players that are last to fold, or last folded to, to show a selected card rather than show both cards. Show that you are folding your pair of aces without revealing your deuce kicker!
- Stand Up & Bank bug removed. Good poker ettiquette is now not requested, but required with players no longer able to stand up and bank winnings. They must return to the table with the same number of chips that they left with if they return within an hour.
- Comp Points introduced and will be accumulating for Ring & Tournament game play.
- Fold To Any Bet option added.
- User accolades have been modified to allow players to customize the accolade that is displayed by default. Accolades now also magnify on mouse over so you can show off your proudest poker achievements.
- Ability to revoke a player's chat privileges for all current games (and any new ones opened) for a configurable amount of time. This will be used to discipline any 'potty mouthed' players.
- Support initiated live chat implemented.
- An indicator appears on the table if a Poker.com staff member is watching the table.
- Tournament watchers can now chat once the table has finished (ie. after the table has been broken or the last table has finished)
- The number of people allowed in a tournament with the same ip address is now configurable to allow husbands and wives etc to play in the same custom tournaments.
- Sit N Go tournaments improved to automatically create new tournaments based on configurable thresholds. No more waits for your preferred Sit & Go games!
- Filter feature introduced to allow players to search for games that meet their chosen configurable filter criteria.
- Our Ring games now their own table names based on game type and stakes. For example, it will be easy to meet your friends at a 'StoneHenge' table and you know it will be a $4/$8 limit game.
- Tournament level information has been added to the tournament details window
- On leaving a table, players will be shown how many hands they could see for free (without playing blinds) just in case they'd like to stay and see a few more free cards. Why leave the table when you might get dealt pocket aces for free!
- Play money Sit & Gos added.
- New random charge credit card verification system to help verify & protect the integrity of player credit card transactions.
- Client news & player tips added to the lobby (if Paulie gets it finished ;)
Make sure you keep telling us what you'd like to see in the software on the forum, because we're here to build it.
;)
Programming Team @ Poker.com
Posted at 9:36 PM Permalink | 4 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
WSOP 2006 Announced!
Harrahs has announced the schedule for the 2006 World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.It all begins on June 25 and there will be 44 bracelets up for grabs. The Poker Lifestyle expo is also running again and starts on July 27.
Here's the schedule;
Date Day Time Event # Event Name Buy-In
25-Jun-06 Sunday 9:00 AM Satellites/Live Action
begins
26-Jun-06 Monday 12 noon 1 Casino Employee No-Limit $500.00
Event
27-Jun-06 Tuesday 12 noon 2 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
28-Jun-06 Wednesday 12 noon 3 Pot-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
29-Jun-06 Thursday 12 noon 4 Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
30-Jun-06 Friday 12 noon 5 Short Handed (6/table) $2,500.00
No-Limit Hold'em
1-Jul-06 Saturday 12 noon 6 No-Limit Hold'em $2,000.00
2-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 7 Limit Hold'em $3,000.00
3-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 8 Omaha Hi-low Split $2,000.00
4-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 9 No-Limit Hold'em $5,000.00
5-Jul-06 Wednesday 12 noon 10 Seven Card Stud $1,500.00
6-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 11 Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
6-Jul-06 Thursday 2:00 PM 12 Omaha Hi-low Split $5,000.00
7-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 13 No-Limit Hold'em $2,500.00
8-Jul-06 Saturday 12 noon 14 No-Limit Hold'em $1,000.00
w/re-buys
9-Jul-06 Sunday 11:00 AM 15 Ladies Event No-Limit $1,000.00
Hold'em 1 day event
9-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 16 Pot-Limit Omaha $10,000.00
10-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 17 No-Limit Hold'em $1,000.00
11-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 18 Pot-Limit Hold'em $2,000.00
12-Jul-06 Wednesday 11:00 AM 19 Seniors No-Limit $1,000.00
Hold'em 1 day event
12-Jul-06 Wednesday 12 noon 20 No-Limit 2-7 Draw $5,000.00
Lowball w/rebuys
13-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 21 No-Limit Hold'em- $2,500.00
Short handed 6/table
14-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 22 No-Limit Hold'em $2,000.00
15-Jul-06 Saturday 12 noon 23 Limit Hold'em $3,000.00
15-Jul-06 Saturday 2:00 PM 24 Omaha Hi-low Split $3,000.00
16-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 25 No-Limit Hold'em $2,000.00
Shootout
17-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 26 Pot-Limit Omaha $1,500.00
18-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 27 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
19-Jul-06 Wednesday 12 noon 28 Seven Card Stud $5,000.00
19-Jul-06 Wednesday 2:00 PM 29 Pot-Limit Hold'em $2,500.00
20-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 30 No-Limit Hold'em- $5,000.00
Short handed 6/table
21-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 31 No-Limit Hold'em $2,000.00
22-Jul-06 Saturday 12 noon 32 Pot-Limit Hold'em $5,000.00
22-Jul-06 Saturday 2:00 PM 33 Seven Card Razz $1,500.00
23-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 34 No-Limit Hold'em $1,000.00
w/re-buys
24-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 35 Seven Card Hi Low $1,000.00
Split
24-Jul-06 Monday 2:00 PM 36 Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
Shootout
25-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 37 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
26-Jul-06 Wednesday see below Satellite Day
27-Jul-06 Thursday see below Media/Celebrity Event
and Satellite Day
28-Jul-06 Friday 38 No-Limit Texas Hold'em $10,000.00
World Championship
Event
28-Jul-06 Friday 12 Noon Day 1A 2000 play down to 800
29-Jul-06 Saturday 12 Noon Day 1B 2000 play down to 800
30-Jul-06 Sunday 12 Noon Day 1C 2000 play down to 800
31-Jul-06 Monday 12 Noon Day 1D 2000 play down to 800
1-Aug-06 Tuesday 12 noon A + B 1600 to 700
2-Aug-06 Wednesday 12 noon C + D 1600 to 700
3-Aug-06 Thursday Day off for main event
3-Aug-06 Thursday 10:00 AM 39 No-Limit Hold'em $1,000.00
1 day event
4-Aug-06 Friday 12 noon ABCD Play 1400 down to 600
5-Aug-06 Saturday 12 noon Play 600 down to 300
5-Aug-06 Saturday 10:00 AM 40 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
6-Aug-06 Sunday 12 noon Play 300 down to 150
6-Aug-06 Sunday 10:00 AM 41 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
7-Aug-06 Monday 12 noon Play 150 down to 60
7-Aug-06 Monday 10:00 AM 42 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
8-Aug-06 Tuesday 12 noon Play 60 down to 27
8-Aug-06 Tuesday 10:00 AM 43 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
9-Aug-06 Wednesday 12 noon Play 27 down to 9
9-Aug-06 Wednesday 10:00 AM 44 No-Limit Hold'em $1,500.00
10-Aug-06 Thursday 12 noon Final Table Poker.com will be holding Satellites to the WSOP starting in January. We are thinking about something special to kick off proceedings on New Years Day, so mark that down as a designated poker day on your calendar now.Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 5:22 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Zmacintyre is on his way Down Under!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Hand number 223 in today's Aussie Millions main event will be remembered by Zmacintyre as one of his luckiest ever as he hit an Ace on the board to pair up his A8 hearts and cripple drw21020 who was holding KK. Both players were all in and the tournament was pretty much decided on that fateful hand.Drw21020 did very well to come second, after winning his way through in a 1000 player freeroll.
Liam's calling Zmacintyre now to congratulate him and organise his Aussie Millions Package.
You could be our next winner! With S & G and scheduled satellites into the weekend main events starting from $1 and 2 daily 1000 player freerolls, there is no easier place to win a trip to the Aussie Millions than at Poker.com.
Congrats again Zmacintyre.
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 6:46 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Final Table Action
We're down the to final 4 players in today's Aussie Millions Main Event Satellite. When I started typing this entry there were 6, but a couple of big hands later and we're down to 4....
Flipit bowed out and Zmacintyre doubled up when his A9 held up with 3 players all in on the hand below.
Here's the chip counts at hand # 203.
drw21020 66282
zmacintyre 28710
pantherdk 25669
skodaskoda 14359
Good luck guys! And how cool do those Aussie Millions tables look....
Kris @ Poker.com
Flipit bowed out and Zmacintyre doubled up when his A9 held up with 3 players all in on the hand below.
Here's the chip counts at hand # 203.
drw21020 66282
zmacintyre 28710
pantherdk 25669
skodaskoda 14359
Good luck guys! And how cool do those Aussie Millions tables look....
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 6:22 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Success At The Bellagio Festa Al Lago IV!
I was back in Vegas this week with a vague idea of playing in one of the smaller Festa Al Lago tournaments at the Bellagio - a series of poker events that attracted all the top players in the world. The culmination of the festival was the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, a $10,000 + $400 buy-in, and a world poker tour event. That was scheduled to start on the Tuesday, and I thought it would be a good idea to play in Event #10 at the Festa Al lago: The super-satellite for this event, which was held the day before on the Monday.The buy-in for the super satellite was only $1000 + $60, more my speed at this fledgling stage of my poker career. I am a poker neophyte still, and neophytes should not put up $10k to tackle the world’s best just yet. So my intention when I started the event on Monday, facing over 400 top players, was to try and broker a deal if it looked like I had any chance of winning one of the seats. My conservative nature determined that it was better value for me to take $10,000, or a figure close to that, rather than risking it all for a long-shot money finish in the main event. My over-analysis was very premature, since I was thinking all this when they announced that there would be 37 seats up for grabs. It was Noon, and there was still 9 hours of no-limit tournament poker to go.
In the first two hours of play I was pretty sure that there would be no need for deals, or agonizing over whether to take the seat or the cash, because I was short-stacked and close to going back to my hotel room $1060 lighter. I had no cards early on, and the pots I won were small high-risk affairs where I raised simply to steal blinds. I then found JJ in my big blind and was raised by another short-stack from the cut-off position. I re-raised all-in and after thinking about it for 10 seconds he made a bad call. He turned over 77 and the pocket Jacks held up for a nice win. But as is often the case with my tournament play I managed to turn that little burst of good fortune into an act of hubris, betting strong with KQ suited the very next hand only to find a rock in my way. This guy was on my left, with position (of course), and more chips (of course), and his smooth call followed by a big raise after my puny continuation bet on the flop saw me back down in the chip count once more.
I was moved to a new table with only 3200 chips in my rack. Not a great effort considering we started with 3000. But I had survived the first three limits and the field was already whittled down to 265. At the new table I decided to try out a bold all-in raise to get things started. Evelyn Ng had been moved to my first table and done this to good effect when she first sat down, why not I? Or so I reasoned. After folding a couple of hands, and with the blinds now at 200/400 with 25 antes, I moved all-in from middle position with A8. An awful play, and one that I cannot defend, other than to say I had made tight lay-downs all afternoon with no reward. One player called, which was not what I wanted to see at all. He had me covered and turned over 99. An Ace came on the turn, and from then on I was able to play very strong poker.
I had established a table reputation as a weakling and a poor player, neither of which are remotely true but hey, no one knows me at this level. I was able to double through against some very tough players and hold my own against guys with big reputations: pros who were at my table during the event included Joe Sebok (Barry Greenstein's son who made 2 WSOP final tables this year), Mark Fleddermann, Mark Gregorich, Chris Bigler, Eddie Schaarf, James Van Alstyne, and Kenna James. The latter certainly lives up to his reputation as “the signing cowboy”. He was moved to my immediate left after I knocked out Joe Sebok (my A4 suited flopping a full-house against his KK, when he was short-stacked and had moved all-in; an easy call for me considering my chip stack at the time). Kenna began belting out a collection of tunes, ranging from maudlin country and western laments to that hideous Eric Carmen song, “I can’t live if living is without you”, and Kenna hits those high notes with aplomb.
I was then faced with that very decision I had been sweating over the entire time - namely whether to take one of the seats for the main event, or a cash settlement instead. In the end I opted for the cash, so I was officially listed as the 38th place “bubble” finisher for the tournament, but I simply surrendered the 20,000 chips in front of me for plenty of those real-money yellow $1k chips that the Bellagio hands out. It’s my second deal in as many months in only my second “big” live-game tournament. I feel like I am progressing rapidly, and that I can more than hold my own in the highest poker company. But, I also recognize the value of the money outside of the poker room, and $10,000 buys a lot of regular stuff, so I opted out. Next time, though...I swear I’ll take my chances in the main event.
For now, I want to concentrate on winning a Poker.com Aussie Millions satellite so that I can play in one of these prestigious tournaments on a true free-roll. But if I do win one, don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to do a deal in exchange for cold, hard cash. :)
Marc Weinberg
More about online poker at Online Poker Insider
Posted at 4:58 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Negreanu Down $150k - not all that bad?
Daniel Negreanu detailed a night in Bobby's room at the Bellagio on his blog at FullContactPoker.com.
He lost nearly $150k and said it wasn't 'all that bad'. Another player lost $1 million! It's an eye opener to be privvy to what goes on in that big game.
No wonder they say that every poker pro goes broke at least a couple of times in their life.
And there's only a few more hours to qualify for the next Aussie Millions main event at Poker.com too. I can't wait to see who wins the next trip down under.
Kris @ Poker.com
He lost nearly $150k and said it wasn't 'all that bad'. Another player lost $1 million! It's an eye opener to be privvy to what goes on in that big game.
No wonder they say that every poker pro goes broke at least a couple of times in their life.
And there's only a few more hours to qualify for the next Aussie Millions main event at Poker.com too. I can't wait to see who wins the next trip down under.
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 4:44 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Heads Up Poker moves to Caesers Palace
Friday, October 21, 2005
It's good to see that the 'National Heads Up Poker Championship' will be moving to Caesers Palace in 2006.The first-ever "National Heads-Up Poker Championship,"held at The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas in March this year, generated big crowds at the casino plus an average of 4 million home television viewers for each of the six telecasts. It was a great made for TV poker event.
TV audiences grew as the tournament progressed, with a total audience of six million poker fans watching the finale on May 22, when Phil 'The Brat" Hellmuth bested Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.
On Thursday March 2, 2006, a blind draw will put the pre-selected contestants into college basketball tournament-like brackets that, because of the quality of the invitational field, produce attractive match-ups between some of the best players in the world throughout the competition.
I'm not sure how they can call this the 'National' heads up poker championship when they select the participants themselves? It should just be called the NBC Invitational heads up championship, as there is nothing 'National' about it!
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 12:30 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
North American Championship
Thursday, October 20, 2005
The World Poker Tour is in Las Vegas this week for the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship at the Bellagio.Here are some ship counts at the end of day 2.
Gavin Smith 497500
Tony Grand 457000
Michael Gracz 402500
Dan Harrington 375000
Young Phan 362500
Chris Ferguson 359000
Joe Clapper 323000
Kanh Hua 287000
Steve Brecher 276500
Tom Lock 241500
Jeff Brock 233000
Darrell Dicken 230000
Massu Nikjouian 228500
Jan Sorensen 223000
Abraham Gray 223000
Thom Werthmann 220000
Don Barton 218500
Joe Sanders 198500
Minh Ly 195000
Kathy Liebert 190500
Sam Rashid 190500
Davood Mehrmend 187000
Arnold Spee 168000
Bill Edler 154500
Craig Hartman 144000
Gus Hansen 143500
Scott Lundberg 132500
Neil Matthews 108000
Don Zewin 92000
Mark Cole 80000
Bob Feduniak 78000
Wayne Lewis 70500
Ernest Scherer 67500
Jim McManus 57000
Danny Shiff 55000
Rodeen Talebi 55000
Eskimo Clark 53000
Matt Lefkowitz 42000
Too bad that Doyle has already busted out of the tournament named after him!
Posted at 8:24 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Shetland Poker Club
Monday, October 17, 2005
The men of A few of the Shetland boys play at Poker.com and they have told us that at the most recent Shetland tournament of 48 locals, two of the final table players were regulars at Poker.com. Billwhizzer finished 2nd and Salmon finished 6th - good work fellas!
There'll be more of these Shetland tournaments in the future, and we will be setting up a page for them soon, hosted at Poker.com.
If you have a local game, then tell us about it! We love it when our players use their skills learned at Poker.com to win some cash at their local tables.
Liam @ Poker.com
Posted at 11:47 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Monday's Poker Cartoon (Better Late than never)
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Posted at 2:51 AM Permalink | 2 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Chris1234 is coming down under
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Our first Aussie Millions seat winner was decided on Sunday, with Chris1234 winning the right to come down under and play for over a million dollars at Crown Casino.There's quite a story behind this winner who built his way up from winning 12c in a $100 Poker.com freeroll. He then worked at the low limit tables to build up a sizeable bankroll. He won a spot in Sunday's main event through a $1 satellite and went on to win the main event in just over 4.5 hours. From 12c to a $12,000 trip to Australia to play for over $1 million - that's amazing!
Lets hope that Chris1234 can replicate his underdog poker success down under. Win your trip to Australia by playing in our Satellites starting from just $1.
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 3:24 AM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
The Poker Queen in print
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Tina, the Poker.com Queen of hearts has been featured recently in a few European magazines. Belgian Maxim & Hungarian FHM have both featured Tina this month following on from many Australian magazines that have featured our Queen.It was a little tough to work out what they were saying about her though as it didn't translate very well. Something about a bath, glamour and Australian beaches is all I could work out from the Dutch/French/German combo language.
Maybe you'll be lucky enough to see Tina a magazine in your part of the world soon too.
Posted at 5:56 AM Permalink | 2 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Aussie Millions Main Event this weekend
Monday, October 03, 2005
The first of our Aussie Millions Main Event satellites is on this Sunday at 15:00 Poker.com time and the amount of players becoming eligible is growing by the day.Don't forget to register for the tournament before Sunday if you have won your entry coupon through a satellite. So far there are only 41 players registered even though many more have won their way in already.
Liam's been busy planning a calendar of events for our lucky winners to make sure everyone gets to sample all the sights sounds and tastes of Melbourne, Australia.
What are you waiting for? Log in now and win your chance to visit us down under today.
Just as an aside, a few of our players have contacted me asking 'What is a satellite?". Some in the past have asked 'What is a freeroll?'. Here's a brief explanation of some of the different types of tournaments that we run at Poker.com.
A Satellite Tournament is a tournament run to provide the winner(s) seats into a another tournament. For example the current Aussie Millions Main Event satellites that Poker.com is running on Sundays will send players to the actual Aussie Millions Tournament in Australia next January. Satellite setups always have a tiered structure, with the goal being to win your way to the tournament at the top. Using Poker.com as an example again, you could win a $1 buyin satellite for a place in the main event satellite which would cost $100 to buy into. From there you could win the Aussie Millions seat worth $12k, all for an initial outlay of just $1!
A Freeroll Tournament is a tournament with no cost to enter, but with a real value prize. For example Poker.com runs a $3ooo daily freeroll and two $500 freeroll tournament for our regular players that cost $0 to enter. Some freerolls have eligibility requirements, and some do not not. Our 12 $100 daily freeroll tournaments are open to absolutely any Poker.com members (and are sometimes described as requirement free), but the $3000 and $500 tournaments are available only to regular players.
Just to really confuse you we are thinking about running some freeroll satellites soon for seats into the Sunday Aussie Millions main event. A freeroll satellite is..... You guessed it - a tournament giving away a seat in a larger tournament, but without any buyin cost.
Hope that those explanations clear up any doubts that some players may have had about what different tournament descriptions mean.
Good luck at the tables!
Kris @ Poker.com
Posted at 11:57 PM Permalink | 0 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
Monday Morning Cartoon
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Here's the first of our Monday morning Poker Cartoons. Check back each week for a new cartoon.
Posted at 7:17 PM Permalink | 1 comments | Talk on the Poker Forum
