Which Poker Pros Play at PokerStars.com

Harboring some of the biggest names in poker, PokerStars continues to add to their ever growing list of pro poker players and celebrity friends. They currently have 29 Pros and 5 Friends that can be found playing on online at any given time. We are sure you are familiar with Jason Alexander from Seinfeld and Orel Hershiser who is known as a retired pitcher from the L.A Dodgers. Although it was very difficult, we have compiled a list of our top 4 pros to try and catch on PokerStars. If you would like to try and catch up with a member of TeamPokerStars, we suggest you use the PokerStars Bonus Code to receive a great bonus as well.

Barry Greenstein

aka barryg1

Born December 30, 1954 in Chicago

Barry Greenstein has been playing poker most of his life. After graduating with a bachelors degree in computer science, he went to work for Symantec until he retired in 1991. Since then, his focus has been on poker. He is a master at mixed games and has personal preference for as many mixed games to be involved when playing their high stakes ring games. Barry Greenstein is also known as "The Bear" and more popularly known as "The Robin Hood of Poker" for his massively generous donations to various charities. He currently works on PokerRoad, a website created with stepson Joe Sebok, whom is also a poker pro. They have a radio show and various blogs from other poker pros. Some of his current winnings include cashing in 6 events in the 2008 WSOP for a total of $768,461. He also has won 3 bracelets, one in 2004 for 2-7 Draw NL, 2005 for Pot Limit Omaha, and 1 in 2008 for a $1,500 Razz tournament. If you would like to play with Barry, sign up at PokerStars and look for his screen name, barryg1.

Daniel Negreanu

aka KidPoker

Born July 26, 1974

Daniel Negreanu was simply born to gamble, not to mention play poker. After dropping out of high school with only a few credits to go, Negreanu headed over to Vegas to give it a shot playing poker. That didn't last long however as he made his way back to his hometown of Toronto to rebuild his bankroll. A couple years later, Daniel Negreanu is doing excellent and operating his site, Full Contact Poker, where he contributes daily to his blog and forum. He has an interesting challenge currently, trying to take $10 and turn it into $100,000 through proper bankroll management strategies. He simply states it was because he wanted a challenge. As of recent, he has placed in 5th place at the NBC Heads Up Event for a total of $75,000. His last 1st place finish was in 11/08 at the B.C Poker Championship. A fan of the "small ball" strategy, you can find tips from Daniel in Doyle Brunsons revised version of Super System II or you can pick up Daniels very own book, "more Holdem Wisdom For All Players." He can be found on PokerStars using the screen name KidPoker.

Chris Moneymaker

aka Money800

Born November 21, 1975

The man who started it all, Chris Moneymaker gave everyone hope when he turned a $39 satellite into a World Series Main Event win of over $2.5 million dollars. Prior to his big win, he an accountant and 9 months later quit his day job to play poker full time. He currently has a book out, "Moneymaker: How An Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker." As of 2008, his total earning are over $2.8 million. Some of his notable cash finishes include his 6th place finish at the WCOOP event 5, which was the NLHE event and he walked away with $139,000. He also finished in 5th place for event 16, earning $28,000. Chris Moneymaker currently has 2 companies with one being a poker school and the other is "Moneymaker Gaming," where they make poker chips. You can find Chris Moneymaker at PokerStars using the screen name Money800.

Vanessa Rousso

aka LadyMaverick

Born February 5, 1983

After graduating early in 2003 from Duke University with a major in Economics and a minor in Political Science, Vanessa Rousso decided to play poker full time. She has a number of cash finishes under her belt including, 7th place at the WPT championship, 8th place at the 2006 WSOP 5k HLHE event, and 2006 she cashed for $285,450 at the Borgata Open. She currently has her own site where she writes on her blog and has recently done a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated. 2009 has been a great year for Vanessa as she made it to the semi finals in the NBC Heads Up Event and finished in 7th place for $80,000 in the 7th season of WPT. You can find Vanessa Rousso using the screen name "LadyMaverick" over at PokerStars.

The short stack strategy – Pros and Cons

Usually you can buy in for 20 – 100 Big Blinds in No-Limit Cash Games. If you buy in for 20 Big Blinds your stack is one fifth of a big stack that buys-in for 100 Big Blinds. That's a big difference and sometimes a disadvantage. But some poker players buy-in for this minimum and playing the short stack strategy (SSS).

Pros of SSS

A big advantage is that the risk is small because you're only playing with a minimum buy-in. Especially in No-Limit Hold'em one mistake can be very expensive. If you're playing SSS and making a mistake it only costs your small buy-in. The damage is only one fifth compared to the big stack if he happens to go broke.

Furthermore SSS is easy to learn. You're just waiting for the right hands take a look at the flop and move all-in if it's the right one or move in pre-flop after a raise. For novice players SSS is an option because they are looking for easy-to-learn strategies with minimal risk.

Cons of SSS

But there are also disadvantages that should be considered. First of all there is the belief SSS has nothing to do with playing poker. This is understandable because you need no skills to wait for the right hand and move all-in then. You don't need any post-flop skills and this is the most interesting part of poker.

So we're already at the second disadvantage: You don't learn to play properly. You don't have to deal with poker strategy, you're decision is either go all-in fold. You're playing like a robot always with the same program running. There's no need to read poker books or talk with other players about hands. So you'll always be a machine rather than a poker player.

There are two good reasons for novice poker players to start with SSS: small risk and easy-to-learn strategy. But the two disadvantages are also powerful. I highly recommend playing SSS only at the beginning and switch to big stack strategy as soon as possible.

Virtual Poker For Real Money

Using state-of-the-art computer technology, thousands of people play poker online for real money. By linking their computers to the Internet, players living as far apart as New York, London, and Tokyo are able to play together simultaneously in computer-generated poker games - for real cash.

Until recently, such games weren't feasible. The challenge was to invent poker software that would enable strangers to play against each other in live games from different locations -and with enough confidence to back their mouse clicks with cash.

Without real money at stake, online casinos cannot make profits. (They take a rake - a fixed percentage of each pot -just as a real casino poker room does. The only difference is that it's taken electronically rather than by a human dealer.)

Milestone advances in computer graphics, sound, and programming made Internet cash games possible. On January 1, 1998, Planet Poker was the first Internet poker casino to offer poker for cash stakes. Others followed.

But is it legal?

The answer as to whether such games are legal depends on which side of the business you're on - supplier side or client side - and also on where you live.

If you're thinking of starting an online poker casino, you'd better get out of Dodge! In the United States, you may be prosecuted for operating such a business, since federal law likely prohibits them.

Seeing a potential gold rush of almost unlimited client demand, foreign entrepreneurs rushed in to fill the void. Internet poker casinos are based in countries where laws are more lenient, such as Costa Rica.

The clients, however, may live anywhere. In some areas, it is against the law to place bets on the Internet. Depending on where you live, it may be illegal to play poker for cash stakes online.

Easier to achieve monthly VIP Levels at PokerStars

PokerStars lowered the amount of VIP Player Points (VPPs) required to achieve SilverStar, GoldStar and PlatinumStar status. Starting with March, the new amounts of VPPs required are:

Requirement lowered to 1,200 VPPs per month
(from 1,500)

Requirement lowered to 3,000 VPPs per month
(from 4,000)

Requirement lowered to 7,500 VPPs per month
(from 10,000)

Are You a Responsible Gambler

Responsible gambling is good gambling. Below is a 20-item questionnaire published by gamblers anonymous regarding gambling addiction.

Answer these twenty questions honestly and carefully. If you answer, “yes” to seven or more questions, you may have a gambling problem.

This is strongly recommend that you pass this page questionnaire to the fellow poker players as well who you may think is in danger of having a problem.

1. Did you lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last penny was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use “gambling money” for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself and your family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

Please answer all the questions honestly as this is for self-assessment and you can easily judge yourself that what are you actually in or up to.

An Overview Of Online Gambling

Like any commercial business, online gambling also took its chance of having to saturate a broader area of gaming via Internet. Every kind of gambling has to face their online counter parts on the Web.

Most believe that online gambling is just safe as gambling is done is well known casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Before engaging for online gambling you need to have license and permits just as you do in normal casino gambling

This is though necessary to make the environment more professional and to protect users from any fraud or scam from unauthorized entries

Another bonus of online gambling is they tend to offer you some free money on your initial deposit. This is the foremost reason that most people believe that they have a better chance to win in online gambling then real life gambling, but also to consider that risk appetite is same in all.

For playing online people can deposit money through credit card or pre-paid cards as this is the safest way and mostly preferred in by wider group of users.

Further online casinos can be classified into two groups but that is most change in their playing interface. Web based and download based online casinos are the two types.

Web based casinos can be directly played from the Internet Browser only but you just need to check that you have the plugins like Macromedia Flash, Shockwave, or Java.

And for the download-based casinos there is piece of software that you have to download in your computer or laptop before initiate playing. Thus because of its local presence most people tend to believe that they are faster to initiate casinos games as compared with the web based casinos.

Online gambling is considered to be highly interactive game, like while playing online player can make their own choices based on prerogatives. Therefore before playing online gambling players must know their own dispositions so that they should not be deceived