Online Poker Strategy

No matter how many poker strategy articles you have read, there is one skill which every player must learn, and that is calculating pot odds. Some of the greatest poker players are also the smartest mathematically which some people suggest is the reason for their great success.

Firstly, to calculate your pot odds you must calculate how many ‘outs’ you have. An ‘out’ is a card which will help your hand, or make it stronger. For example, let’s say you were dealt Queen-Jack both of hearts; and a rainbow flop came, King, 7, 10. In this example your outs would be Aces and Eights, so four Aces and four Eights equal eight outs in total (four cards which will help you make a straight). To calculate your pot odds of hitting one of your outs on the turn you must multiply your number of outs by two, and then add on one. So our example would give you a 17% chance of hitting an out on the turn. Chasing draws like this isn’t always recommended and many beginners’ waste chips chasing draws, this is why pot odds are an essential poker strategy to help you make the right decision.

When playing poker, your pot odds should determine whether you call a bet or not. If you have 6 outs and your opponent bets $10 into a $90 pot (making it $100), this is giving you around a 15% chance meaning you should call since you have more than a 10% chance ($10/$100=10). If the bet was $20 however, a fold would have been the correct decision since the pot odds weren’t in your favour.

Take your time and calculate pot odds every hand because it could decide whether you are a winning player or a losing player.

Microgaming Blows Whistle on Insolvency

Calling a company insolvent is one of the absolute worst things that you could claim. The company automatically loses brand confidence and if it happens to be a publicly traded company there could very well be a run on its stock. For that reason, you need to be damn sure that a company actually is insolvent before blowing the whistle on that company. This appears to be what Microgaming has done after declaring that Linx Media Group insolvent.

The Linx Media Group was involved with dealings with the Microgaming brand. Specifically, Microgaming was responsible for powering BetOnBet, Eurolinx and Linx Casino, all of which happened to be operations run by the Linx Media Group. Microgaming cancelling its dealings with LMG essentially means that they must break off all relations with subsidiaries. All three of the operations mentioned above are quite naturally subsidiaries since all three are owned by LMG.

LMG has also gone as far as to announce that liquidation is going to be what happens to their business. This essentially means that the assets of the group will be sold off with the raised money then going to pay the creditors in order of priority. All three online gambling institutions would count as assets of LMG and for that reason one can expect them to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, assuming that there is a bidder out there that is interested in acquiring those operations now that there is a financial liquidation scandal attached to them.

The Microgaming Corporation has told players that still have money in one of those three operations to contact the liquidator as soon as possible. They appear to be taking a completely hands-off approach to this, citing the fact that they merely provide software for the online gambling institutions and therefore do not really have relevant information for any players. The players are essentially on their own with trying to get their money back.

Unfortunately, liquidation is part of the game when it comes to the online gambling marketplace. It is just something that people are going to have to deal with now and it will most certainly rear its ugly head again at some point in the future.

Card Rush at Party Poker

The Card Rush is an instant scratch and win game. This is quite impressive from the point of view of an online gaming website because there are many out there that have had nothing to do with this potentially lucrative form of online gambling. Now, Party Poker has combined their skill poker operations with the operations of online gambling in order to produce a scratch and win extravaganza that could net a player up to $50,000 if they happen on the right cards.

The way it works is simple. During the Card Rush promotion, every 20 Party Points that you get from real money cash games will get you a ticket. On this ticket, you have a 1 in 3 chance of winning a prize of some kind. Prizes include things like freeroll tournament entries, additional Party Points and of course cash prizes as well. As of the time of writing there were still over 200,000 of these cards left and Party Poker had made a deal with everyone that allowed them to grab their first card for a mere 10 Party Points.

The promotion will continue through to September with the freeroll tournaments associated with the Party Poker Card Rush promotion actually taking place early on in the month. Another thing that is worth noting about this particular promotion is that it is not really a promotion that costs the player anything. Even though the Party Points are used as a threshold amount to gauge how many Party Points you should get, the fact of the matter is that those points are not actually taken from your account. Therefore, they can still be used for other things.

If this promotion sounds interesting to you, the only thing that is worth mentioning in closing is that you should probably get over to Party Poker and start playing as soon as possible. This is because Party Poker happens to be the fourth largest website in the world and the second that does not deal in the US market. With those kinds of playing numbers, one can easily imagine that the remaining cards will go fast.

FTOPS XIII

FTOPS XIII begins today and it once again promises to be an action packed poker series with a lot of money exchanging hands. This series promises to award at least $16,000,000 over 25 online poker events and 12 days of action. You can follow your progress on the FTOPS leaderboard or take part in the new FTOPS challenges or the always popular satellite challenge promo.

FTOPS XIII Events

The 25 FTOPS XIII events will include a vast variety of poker games and many different buy-ins. There will be many standard no limit hold’em and pot limit Omaha tournaments, but also many interesting events such as no limit hold’em shootouts, heads up tournaments in both hold’em and Omaha, a HORSE tourney, a razz tourney, a stud tourney and more. The buy-ins range from $100 to $2500 and there are plenty of satellites into every event, which makes FTOPS XIII playable for players of all bankrolls.

FTOPS XIII Prizes

The FTOPS XIII prizes are the same as they have been for the majority of the previous FTOPS series’. If you win an FTOPS event you win a limited-edition FTOPS gold jersey and every player who makes the final table of an event receives an FTOPS jacket. If you finish atop the leaderboard you take home a highly sought after custom Full Tilt Poker avatar and free entry into almost every FTOPS XIV event worth about $7,500.

New FTOPS Challenges

Full Tilt Poker has added a new FTOPS challenges promotion to FTOPS XII. This promo adds a lot of value to players, but providing many freerolls and more opportunities to win entry into FTOPS events. One of the challenges is a satellite seat challenge, where you must satellite into as many different FTOPS events as possible. The more events you satellite into, the better the freeroll you gain exclusive access to. There is also a hold’em challenge where you must complete a few tasks, a survival challenge where you must make it to level 10 in as many FTOPS events as possible, a double-up challenge where you must attempt to double your starting stack in as many FTOPS events as possible, a zero to here challenge and even a Million Dollar Challenge, where you win $1,000,000 if you can cash in 17 FTOPS events.

FTOPS Satellites Challenge

The FTOPS satellite challenge is back and plenty of tournament dollars will be awarded. If you win the most satellites into an FTOPS event you win two times the buy-in for that event in tournament dollars and if you win the second most satellites you win the tournament buy-in back in tourney dollars. Keep track of your progress on the FTOPS satellite challenge leaderboards.

FTOPS XIII is sure to be a success, just like the many Full Tilt Online Poker Series’ before it. You have 25 more opportunities to win one of Full Tilt’s coveted gold jerseys, so start winning your seats in some events today. If you’re looking for some great online tournaments, but don’t have a Full Tilt Poker account this is the perfect time to sign up. Use a Full Tilt Poker bonus code when signing up and you will have up to an extra $600 to use in some great FTOPS XIII events.

Full Tilt Poker Huge Software Update and $100 Bonus Promotion

Full Tilt Poker announced last week that they will be giving every player who played at Full Tilt Poker prior to July 28^th a free $100 bonus. To receive your bonus you just have to click on “Requests” and “Check my Bonus Offer” in the Full Tilt lobby. You will then be able to opt into the Biggest Bonus Ever promotion and you don’t even need to use a Full Tilt referral code! $100 will be added to your pending bonus account and this bonus will be released in $10 increments every time you earn 167 Full Tilt points. Full Tilt decided to award this bonus to each of their players, to entice them to try out the new Full Tilt Poker software which recently had a massive makeover. Full Tilt has revamped the entire Full Tilt Poker lobby, added advanced filters and lobby widgets, added a new final table deals feature and even included a full hand replayer.

Revamped Lobby

Full Tilt Poker now has three lobby views you can choose from. There is classic view, basic view and standard view. Classic view is the old version of the lobby, which Full Tilt kept around for those people who find it difficult adjusting to change. The basic view provides you with a step by step guide to finding your game and standard view is the fully featured lobby that provides advanced game filters, personalized widgets and more. The standard view would be right for most players, but the other layouts give you more options to find what you prefer.

Filters, Favourites and Widgets

The advanced filters make game selection extremely easy. You just need to fill in four filters to greatly reduce the number of games you must choose from. You can even save your filters as favourites to make it easier to repeat the search next time. Full Tilt also added lobby widgets so you can make your lobby perfectly suited to your needs. The widget goes under the Full Tilt Poker clock and there are a variety you can choose from.

Final Table Deals

Full Tilt Poker has added a final table deals option in this update. This option allows you to make deals with your competitors at the final table of any multi-table or even single table tournament. All players must first click that they are willing to consider making a deal and then you can choose how to split the prize pool based on independent chip modelling, chip ratio or a custom deal.

Full Tilt Hand Replayer
This last hand replayer is a huge upgrade from the previous Full Tilt last hand viewer. This hand replayer allows you to replay every hand you have played in a tournament or cash game session. This allows you to drastically improve your play by finding out where you went wrong and studying your in game actions.

This recent software update is a huge improvement and better yet, you receive $100 free to try it out. There is no reason not to take Full Tilt up on this offer, so opt in today.

PokerStars Biggest Reload Bonus Ever!

Current Pokerstars players can get a huge reload bonus of 50% up to a maximum bonus of $300. You can make three deposit towards this bonus, and all three deposits must be
made within 90 days of the first eligible deposit. You will have 6 months to earn the bonus in full. All deposits made for this bonus must use the code WCOOP.