Sports Legends Challenge to be postponed until 2010

Atlantis Resort and Casino was supposed to be the proving ground this year from September 14th to 17th as some of the best names in the world battled it out for glory in poker, gambling and general sporting fun.

However, the organizers of the event came to a point where they felt the best thing to do would be to postpone the event until 2010 and run it at that point. The organizers of the event are Bruce Bibbero and Larry Lubin, both of whom were looking forward to seeing people rub shoulders with the best in the poker and sporting business. According to the organizers, they were disappointed at having to reach the decision they reached. However, the difficulty for domestic US citizens to travel abroad at this point combined with the poor weather the Bahamas has been experiencing forced the decision on them.

A lot of the people that had won Absolute Poker satellite tournaments or even shelled out the $10,000 that was the running cost for a single seat at the tournament were also disappointed with the decision. They were looking forward to meeting some of the best poker players in the world such as Johnny Chan, Mike Sexton, Gavin Smith, Antonio Esfandiari and Annie Duke. They were also looking forward to meeting legendary sports personalities like Herschel Walker, Randy Couture, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tony Hawk and Troy Aikman.

Even though many people were disappointed at the decision, most of those same people understood the need for making it. The fact of the matter is that most people would rather play in 2010 in good conditions than play in 2009 under conditions that could make them feel really miserable really quickly.

Part of the reason that many people were placated after the announcement was that Bibbero and Lubin promised to take things to the next level with the postponement. It is now expected that they will add multiple new elements to the challenge during the downtime, making it an even more exciting event in the end as a result. That is something that everyone can certainly get behind.

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.

August 21st Marks Next Online Poker Showdown

The Poker Players Alliance, or PPA for short, has certainly been in the thick of things recently. Not only have they been responsible for presenting the President with a petition regarding online poker, but they have also been responsible for raising a lot of awareness regarding the game of poker through their National Poker Week. Now, it looks as though they are set for yet another showdown against the US government over the issue of the legality of online poker within the United States of America.

August 21st is scheduled to be the day in court and PPA lawyers will be representing the case of Account Services, a payment processor that had around $14 million in funds seized by the government under the auspices of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. PPA lawyers will be challenging this particular perception and the battleground for this legal battle will be the Southern District Court of California.

While details are sketchy at best at the moment, it appears to be a strong possibility that the Poker Players Alliance will adopt a strategy of attempting to prove that online poker is predominantly a game of skill rather than a game of luck. If they are able to do this to the satisfaction of the court, it is quite possible that it could set the groundwork for a national poker definition that legally ends up exempting it from the UIGEA.

The focal point for their argument will be a study that was done last year regarding hands that had been played at Poker Stars. The study took a close look at 103 million hands at the cash game tables and came to the conclusion that 3 out of 4 hands never ended up going to the last betting street. Furthermore, the hands that did go to that last street ended up largely not going to the player with the best hand because of betting and bluffing.

This is important because it shows that less than 15% of the time does the best five-card poker hand actually win the pot. In other words, luck determines less than 15% of the hands while skill determines the other 85%+.

PPA and Howard Stern now Allies

One of the most interesting online advocacy groups in recent history and one of the most controversial talk show hosts in all of history are now allies in the fight to make sure that law-abiding American citizens are allowed the full right to play poker that should come with the freedom of choice enshrined in the American constitution.

Alfonse D’Amato, the current chairman of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA for short), surprised many with a Monday morning visit to Howard Stern’s radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. At the same time, Howard Stern announced his intention to join PPA and support the right of the people of the United States to play online poker where and when they chose to. He is now a member of the PPA and is involved in their political struggle.

One particularly interesting aspect of this was the timing of the overall announcement. Howard Stern’s decision to join the PPA came about at the same time that the PPA’s National Poker Week is going on. This particular week of awareness, set to go on until July 25th, is a week that has been gaining a lot of attention for poker and the Stern-D’Amato alliance is just one more feather in their cap when it comes to these issues.

At the center of their National Poker Week is what is best referred to as The Petition. There are many petitions out there, but the PPA petition has really become known as The Petition to those that follow the online poker industry. With 355,000 signatures on it already, the petition is going strong in an attempt to help the members of Congress see the light on this issue. With the main online poker sites having thrown their full weight behind helping people get a chance to sign this petition, there are many in the industry that have a sincere belief that this particular petition might actually be one that makes a difference.

Only time will tell though, with members of the online poker media eagerly awaiting the next development in order to see exactly what happens.

Apple iPhone Applications Get Upgraded

Apple has always been at the forefront of the mobile industry. In fact, part of the reason that they were able to basically resurrect from the dead earlier was because of the fact that the Apple iPhone and other mobile applications allowed them to steal a march on their competitors within the electronics industry. A large part of the march will be turned over to the iPhone 3G S, the newest product to be released in that line.

A lot of people are very excited about the Apple iPhone 3G S for the simple reason that it is coming to market with the force of a number of different applications behind it. In fact, as far as the world of poker is concerned, any player will be able to get some of the best poker applications around through this particular iPhone product.

A good example is a piece of software known as the Poker Tournament Manager. This is basically a piece of software that you can use to track your home games and keep statistics of all kinds. No longer do you have to walk around with a pen and paper. Instead, you can just use your iPhone as the headquarters for your home poker game with nobody being the wiser.

Another good example of a poker utility program would have to be Hold ‘Em Odds Quizzer. This game does exactly what the name implies. Because of that, it will allow you to brush up on your knowledge of Hold ‘Em while at the same time really enjoying everything that the game has to offer.

These are not the only types of applications available however, as the iPhone offers serious poker gaming as well. Zynga’s Live Poker 40k is a good example of that. It is a poker game that you can play on your new iPhone. Because of its overall excellence however, it is perhaps not at all surprising that it happens to be one of the most popular iPhone applications right now. As far as the Apple iPhone 3G S is concerned, this is a sweet time to be interested in playing poker games.

Heads Up Poker Strategy

Thousands of online poker players have started playing heads-up tournaments over the past year and there are numerous reasons as to why players have been starting to play these types of tournaments. One of the reasons why these tournaments are so popular is because you only need to beat one player in order to win the tournament. Another reason why players like these tournaments is because they are typically quick to play so you will be able to play a lot more of them then if you were playing nine player sit and go tournaments. One thing that you will need to do in order to be successful is change your strategy because your regular tournament strategy isn’t going to work when you’re playing heads-up tournaments. If you have never played heads-up tournaments in the past then make sure you read the tips below to assist your poker game.

Aggression is going to be a huge factor in how well you do in heads-up tournaments. You need to be able to apply pressure in the right situations, but you also need to know when to back off a little bit and slow down. From the very beginning of a heads-up tournament you want to let your opponent know that you won’t back down from raises or else they will end up taking advantage of you.

Position remains a key factor in heads-up play although it isn’t as big a factor when compared to playing a nine player tournament. When you get to act last you will be able to see how the other player acts before you which should give you some insight on where you stand in the hand. If they check to you then it’s also an open invitation to try and take the pot down with a bet, but don’t bet too much in case they are trapping you.

Pot control is vital when you’re playing in heads-up tournaments because you both only start with 1500 chips and the blinds don’t take that long to go up. It’s important that you keep the pots you lose to a minimum and that you get the most out of your opponent when you have a winning hand. You can also use pot control in order to keep the pots low when you’re on a draw. Often this can be achieved by throwing out a small bet on the flop and then checking the turn if you don’t hit so you can see the river for free.

Starting hand selection isn’t as important when you’re playing heads-up poker because you’re playing your opponent more then your own cards pre-flop. Any two cards can win the pot pre-flop so don’t limit yourself to only playing strong hands especially when you can limp into the pot. Almost any suited connectors are worth playing in heads-up poker and most pocket pairs.

Take notes on your opponent so that you can learn how they play and keep the notes so that if you play them again you have notes on them already. Often when you play heads-up poker tournaments you will end up playing the same group of players over time so you need to take notes and keep them to have the upper edge on your opponent.

One of the best online poker sites for playing heads-up poker tournaments is by far PokerStars as they have plenty of players actively competing in these types of events at all of the buy-ins.