Poker forum archive

Scientists Paul Fayngersh (Psychology, Binghamton University 2006) and Mark Kizelshteyn (Social Thought & Analysis, Washington University in St. Louis 2008) conducted a study that will certainly shed some light about the majority of personalities that you'll find at virtual poker tables. The report, simply titled The Poker Personality Study, summarizes independent research on the part of Fayngersh and Kizelshteyn, is the result of surveys and observation of 73 anonymous online poker players and the results, while not surprising, are still illuminating.

The pair of researches used five main points to look at their subjects and while they seemed to be equally balanced on neuroticism and the ability to be open to new experiences, the distinct trends appear in the most socially-relevant portions of the study and while it's easy to see it being true, the fact that online poker players tend to be anti-social is still an unpleasant fact. They tend to be introverted, which is no fault on its own, but "disagreeable" traits appeared often, including high self-interest and general suspicion of others as well as an overall "low conscientiousness," meaning that they are less disciplined and not driven by success.

The last one is a bit odd, but knowing the number of online poker players out there that don't shower before sitting down to play, it's probably very true.

Before you get upset, remember that there's always outliers in any survey like this and the fact that the game skews to a younger audience means that you're naturally going to see a less-altruistic personality emerge, but that frequently shifts as players begin to have their own families or simply get tired of the glow of an LCD screen and find that there's a balance to be had.

The United States Championship of Online Poker starts on Sunday at PokerStars, with more than $3.2 million in prize money guaranteed.

PokerStars is hosting “regional championships of online poker” all over the world this fall and winter, and the U.S. version is about to get under way. Only players in the United States are eligible to play in the tournaments.

The first event is a $55 rebuy, to be held Sunday at 17:00 Eastern, with $150K guaranteed. The tournament ID is 2010116001. The tournament series runs through November 28th, culminating with the main event, a $530 tourney with $1 million guaranteed. In addition to no-limit hold’em events, there are also tourneys for Omaha, stud, and HORSE.

Satellites are currently running for all of the USCOOP events, and the tourneys, and satellites, can be found under the “regional” tab under the “tourneys” heading in the lobby.

PokerStars has guaranteed that at least one member of Team PokerStars will play in each event, with former World Series of Poker main event champions Joe Cada, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer slated to make appearances. There are $50 bounties on each pro.

Here’s the schedule:

Event No. 1
Nov. 21, 14:00 PokerStars time
$55+rebuys, no-limit hold’em 6-max, $150K guaranteed

Event No. 2
Nov. 21, 17:00
$215 pot-limit Omaha hi-lo, $100K guaranteed

Event No. 3
Nov. 22, 18:30
$215 no-limit hold’em (2X chance, turbo), $200K guaranteed

Event No. 4
Nov. 23, 18:30
$320 no-limit hold’em, $750K guaranteed

Event No. 5
Nov. 24, 18:30
$215 no-limit hold’em heads-up, $100K guaranteed

Event No. 6
Nov. 26, 14:00
$320 HORSE, $150K guaranteed

Event No. 7
Nov. 26, 17:00
$320 no-limit hold’em, 6-max, $300K guaranteed

Event No. 8
Nov. 27, 14:00
$215 stud hi-lo, $75K guaranteed

Event No. 9
Nov. 27, 17:00
$215 no-limit hold’em, 1 rebuy, 1 add-on, $300K guaranteed

Event No. 10
Nov. 28, 14:00
$320 pot-limit Omaha, 1 rebuy, 1 add-on, $150K guaranteed

Event No. 11: Main event
Nov. 28, 17:00
$530 no-limit hold’em, $1 million guaranteed

A new overseas poker site has come up with a new way to both attract US-based customers and circumvent restrictive US anti-online gaming laws. ChiliPoker, an online poker site based in France and developed in Sweden, will offer access to US customers on a subscription basis starting in early 2011.


ChiliPoker will allow US players to subscribe to the site for a monthly fee. In exchange, players will be able to play in poker tournaments that offer cash and prizes to the top finishers. A player’s success or failure at the tables would not affect the subscription rate, nor will any cash that players win be applicable as buy-ins to other events.


ChiliPoker is not the first site to offer online poker on a subscription basis. The online poker site SpadeClub offered a subscription service to access its online poker games. CardPlayer Magazine sponsored the site and editor-in-chief Jeff Shulman promoted the site during his appearance at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. The site closed in September due to lack of revenues.


ChiliPoker’s business model is an attempt to work around US laws that prohibit US-based banks from conducting transactions with overseas gaming sites. Since the fees ChiliPoker collects are a “subscription” and not a deposit into an online gaming account, representatives for the site say that they are not breaking the law.


Alexandre Dreyfus, Chief Executive Officer of ChiliPoker, said that the company is “very excited about this new dimension to our business.” He also said that the subscription model would “help fill the void that exists in markets where online gaming is restricted and consumers want to play poker.”

Speculation that professional poker player Phil Hellmuth could be on the verge of splitting with UB.com. his sponsors, have grown significantly following a month of appearances without any form of UB.com branding on his attire.

The spot was seen by TwoPlusTwo forum user Mike Johnson who also runs PokerCast, and Johnson raised the question whether UB.com and Hellmuth are about to go their separate ways, with UB.com possibly about to lose their biggest named pro player.

The World Poker Tour has announced a series of tournaments that will utilize the WPT branding, while featuring buy-ins that are more accessible to the average poker player. In the United States, these tournaments will be known as The WPT Regional Series; a similar program is being unveiled in Europe, where it will be known as the WPT National Series.

The World Poker Tour has yet to schedule a full series of events for either tour, but they have announced a handful of stops. For the Regional Series, two events were immediately scheduled for this weekend in Indiana and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Florida; the Florida event featured a $5,000 buy-in, while the tournament in Indiana was a $1,500 affair.

Meanwhile, the National Series has scheduled their first event for February 2011, to take place in the Aviation Club in Paris, France. That tournament will have a buy-in of €5,000. More events are expected to be announced for both tours in the near future, as the World Poker Tour finds partner casinos who would like to host events.

While the events on these two tours will have WPT branding, they will share little else with the World Poker Tour. Players in these tours will not receive points towards the World Poker Tour standings, will not have the opportunity to win seats into the World Championship, and will not be fighting for a WPT bracelet. Instead, these events are designed to give players a taste of the World Poker Tour at a more affordable price, but not interact directly with the main tour.

It is possible that these regional tours are designed to compete with the European Poker Tour and North American Poker Tour, both of which are sponsored by PokerStars. They may also be used as a testing ground for new tournament sites for future World Poker Tour events.

:dirol

People joke about Compton, but the Crystal Casino hosted a pretty fantastic poker tournament last week with the North American Poker Tour with final table action that was easily among the best we've seen in 2010. Joe Tehan won the NAPT title for the LA stop's main event.

When he hit the final table of the $5,000 main event, Tehan was in fifth place, trailing Chris DeMaci by a gap that looked to be too large to overtake, but an early double-up helped put him in position and he dramatically eliminated the rest of the opposition in short order. Tehan earned $725,000 for the title, his first major tournament win since taking home a WPT trophy in 2006.

Talking to the press afterward, Tehan displayed a great deal of aplomb about his fortune and abilities at the tables: "I didn't have a strategy coming in, but if I did have a strategy, it would be to knock out every player and win the trophy. I had all these hands that were 50-50 type hands that I won and all the pots in between I was just picking up chips as we went along."

Eric Baldwin won the other poker title that was up for grabs this weekend: the NAPT Bounty Shootout. "Won the NAPT bounty shootout!" Baldwin said on Twitter. "Can now proudly claim to have won a shootout in Compton!"

This past Sunday, November 21, saw another one of Bodog's ongoing $100,000 guaranteed tournaments. These massive events take place each and every Sunday at 4pm EST and feature some of the best online poker action going. Sentapied took first place and walked away from their computer with an additional $25,000 in their bankroll. They were followed by UWMartin ($15,000) and Dartanian, who rounded out the top three while earning $9,500. Here's the rest of the final table results: Fox60 ($7,000); DalyWinVeryGood ($5,500); jonycash23 ($4,500); jcsaint ($3,500); felimaniax ($2,200); kindetk ($1,700);

In addition to our show-stopping Sunday events, Bodog hosts its regular weekly tournaments to players, and here's the winners of last week's events!

* November 15 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack Balla686
* >November 16 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack brose15union
* >November 17 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack Shawry5
* >November 18 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack Ron_1759
* >November 21 $10k Guaranteed Double-Stack DrDankRx23
* >November 21 $10k Guaranteed Turbo Double-Stack ImTheJackal

Bodog's guaranteed tournaments mean that there's always a big cash pool. Play poker online at Bodog and get your share!

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has pledged to stay in power until budget measures are passed and then call a parliamentary election in January despite calls for his resignation and a snap poll.

That puts the ball back in the court of the main opposition parties Fine Gael and Labour, and the two independent politicians in whose hands the fate of the budget could rest.

Independents Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy-Rae threw into doubt the passage of Ireland's 2011 budget -- a plank of its four-year austerity plan and of bailout negotiations with the EU and IMF -- after both said they may not support it.

The government has a majority of only three, and this is expected to fall to two after a by-election on Thursday. The support of Healy-Rae and Lowry -- who is a former member of opposition Fine Gael and an ex-minister -- is therefore crucial.

Analysts say Fine Gael and Labour may agree to abstain from voting on the 2011 budget if it becomes clear Cowen does not have the numbers to get the plan passed. They have yet to comment on whether they would agree to abstain.

Taking place alongside the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand final this week was the World Heads Up Poker Championships, an event that always brings out the big guns. 28 players in total bought into the £2,000 event which was a healthy mix of live veterans and up and coming online stars.

For the second year in a row it would be a hometown hero that would take top honours, as BlackBelt Pokers own Nik Persaud defeated runner up Leon Lewis in the final. Also making the money and semi finals were former champion Jeff Kimber and form man EPT champion Toby Lewis.

No doubt it will feel like a long time coming for Persaud, who has many major near misses in his live career including making three GUKPT main event final tables. He bagged £30,000 and the trophy for his efforts and no doubt will be sticking around for the main event.

"I'm really pleased to have won a title," added Nik. "There were some great players in there, so it feels good to have won, especially in a format which I've been playing a lot of. It's also great for Black Belt Poker, and hopefully shows what a great team spirit we have. It spurs you on when you see everyone else doing so well."

1st Nik Persaud - £30,000
2nd Leon Louis - £15,000
3rd Toby Lewis - £5,500
3rd Jeff Kimber - £5,500

Poker After Dark’s new season will start airing on January 3rd, with players like Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Patrik Antonius featured in 2011.

In addition to the details on the new season, the company that produces PAD, POKER PROductions, announced that it has reached a deal with NBC to produce the show through 2014.

Meanwhile, Poker After Dark has completed filming its seventh season at a new set at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Aria will host Poker After Dark through 2013, the show’s production company revealed.

Starting with the new week of episodes on January 3rd, there will be 13 weeks of shows that will air throughout the year. This year, there will be fewer episodes dedicated to the “sit an go” six-player tournaments that have been favored in past seasons. The emphasis for the new season will be cash games, which have attracted some of the top cash-game players in the world. The cash games will be broadcast over two-week periods. Most of the cash games will be no-limit hold’em. But as reported previously, at least two weeks will be dedicated to a pot-limit Omaha cash game.

The first week of episodes will be a $100K freezeout tournament, with the winner taking all $600K. John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Huckleberry Seed, Tom Dwan and Phil Galfond will be the players in the week of episodes.

Here are the rest of the games that will be aired in 2011; the air dates have not yet been determined:
–$100K cash game No. 1. The players include Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Michael Mizrachi, Brandon Adams, Peter Jetten, Jean-Robert Bellande and Phil Hellmuth.
–$100K cash game No. 2. Phil Hellmuth, Andy Bloch, Huck Seed, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad and Justin Smith will be the players.
–$150K cash game. Eli Elezra, David Peat, Olivier Busquet, Phil Laak, Greg Mueller, and Howard Lederer.
–$200K cash game. Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, David Peat, Eli Elezra and David Oppenheim.
–$100K pot-limit Omaha cash game: Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Brandon Adams, Brian Hastings, Phil Galfond, Patrik Antonius and Jared Bleznick.
–$20K buy-in tournament (one week): Pros Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman, Erica Schoenberg and Chris Ferguson take on Mike Dappen, who won the Howard and Suzie Lederer Charity Poker Tournament
–$50K buy-in tournament (one week): Doyle Brunson, Eric Baldwin, Andrew Lichtenberger, Annette Obrestad, Melanie Weisner and Tom Dwan.

Last week, the North American Poker Tour stopped off in L.A. and fans were in for a treat during one of the events – the Bounty Shootout where heads-up play was played out by two best friends. While L.A. also had a main event tournament running throughout the week, one tournament to bring a different type of excitement to the felt was the Pokerstars NAPT Bounty Shootout; a great concept that consisted of 81 players taking to 9 tables of 9 and with a buy-in of $5,250.

Every player at the table had a $1,000 bounty placed on their heads, meaning that if you knocked a player out of the tournament then you take the $1,000 too. Instead of a normal tournament where the tables would keep merging until they formed one final table, in this event the winner from each table of 9 progressed to the final table, where they would start again and have another ‘shootout’.

From the 81 that entered there were some massive names to take to the felt; Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth, Annette Obrestad and Bertrand Grospellier all fancied their chances but it was another well established pro that would eventually see out this gruelling contest.

Eric Baldwin was the man to take first place and add to his ever-growing tournament winnings of over $3million. The prize for this victory was a more conservative $134,800 along with $20,000 for his initial first table win and $3,000 for the ‘killing’ he made along the way.

While you would expect this type of tournament to be much quicker than most, due to the nature of actively targeting players to knock them out, Baldwin actually had to endure hours at the felt in order to claim his victory. Not only that, he had to go heads-up against one of his best friends, Justin Young.

Whether it was a case of knowing your opponent too well and not willing to change your game for fear of mistakes or whether it was just out of courtesy for each other, the two players battled it out until Baldwin finally got his money in with the right cards.

All the money went in pre-flop when Justin Young had Ad Qd which he felt was strong enough to catch Baldwin out but Baldwin turned over pocket Kings and it went down to the flop, turn and river, all of which helped neither Young nor Baldwin further, ensuring that the latter took down the prize.

The final table also featured November Niner, Michael ‘the Grinder’ Mizrachi, Pokerstars pro’s David Williams and Pat Pezzin and both NAPT and EPT previous winners. However, Baldwin has previous too having won a WSOP bracelet already; during 2009 he took down the $1,500 NL Hold’em event. In the same year he won the Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond world poker classic on the WPT and had his biggest cash return to date finishing 2nd on the WPT Five Star world poker classic for $1,034,715.

While the cash prize may have been smaller than others before it, Baldwin knows that due to the nature of the event and the names that entered it, this tournament win is one that is much-coveted by all who play the game.

When the NAPT season 2 kicks off again with the PCA event in January, an event that runner-up Justin Young gets free buy-in to due to him taking down more bounties than any other in L.A., you can be sure that Baldwin is back and ready for another go at another title.

The New Jersey State Senate has passed a bill that would regulate online poker, making it the first legislative body in the United States to do so. The bill passed easily on Monday, making it through the legislature by a 29-5 margin.

The bill passed as part of an effort by the Senate to help reinvigorate the struggling gambling and horse racing industries in the state. Atlantic City casinos have seen years of declining revenues, and several of the bills passed are aimed specifically at driving more revenue into the struggling city.

The online poker allowed by this bill would be intrastate only, meaning that only New Jersey residents and not other American citizens would be eligible to play on the site or sites created by the legislation. However, an amendment to the bill would allow players from other countries to also create accounts on these sites.

While the bill was widely popular and passed easily, there were groups that stood in opposition to the idea of regulating online poker in the state. Most notably, Harrah’s Entertainment had come out staunchly against the bill, despite having supported similar bills on the federal level. According to a report by pokernews.com, Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association chairman Joe Brennan Jr. speculated about what it might take to get Harrah’s on board with the legislation.

“By opposing this, it makes Harrah's seem like they only want a federal bill so the jobs and investment go to corporate headquarters in Nevada,” Brennan said. “I think they alienated a lot of politicians in New Jersey, a lot of people who matter."

The legislation still has some way to go before it would become law in New Jersey. The law would also need to be passed by the New Jersey State Assembly, and would then have to be signed into law by Governor Chris Christie. The large margin of victory in the Senate, however, has given many supporters hope that this bill will indeed become law in the near future.

"New Jersey is very serious about this," Brennan said. "They want to be the capital of this industry in the U.S. and have the resources to make a legitimate claim to be the home for this industry beyond being the first ones to pass a law."

Despite being a prolific poker player, Gus Hansen has had a hard time matching his achievements at Full Tilt’s cash tables to those he has enjoyed on the tournament circuit.

The ‘Great Dane’ has won around $8 million from live tournaments, but has also lost an equivalent amount online playing high stakes cash games.

After hitting a high of $2.33 million in January 2010 and a low of $3.68 million in September, Gus Hansen’s fortune seems to be on the turn once more. He has now successfully managed to claw back around $2.5 million over the last few weeks to limit his losses for the year to $1.2 million.

Hansen’s latest winning session came at the weekend when he walked away a $280k winner, after playing Pot-Limit Omaha at various stakes against the likes of such online pros as harrington25, Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin. DrugsOrMe and luckexpress10.

Both Luckexpress10 and DrugsOrM lost $80,000 pots to Hansen who, despite losing a $33,100 pot to ASHMAN103, finished a big winner for the session.

Hansen is continuing to play solid poker and show great composure as he battles to eek out a profit for 2010. However, either way Gus is unlikely to go broke anytime soon as in 2005 he sold his online poker site pokerchamps.com for $15 million and now has a lucrative contract in place at Full Tilt Poker as a part owner.

In other news, Finnish pro Patrik Antonius has continued to go from strength to strength after being stuck $3.61 million in February. Since then, Antonius has been on a massive $5.18 million upswing to show a profit of $1,574,800 for 2010.

Antonius’ results were helped along by a $505,000 boost to his bankroll yesterday, after playing 1,257 hands of $2K/$4K fixed limit against IhateJuice.

Patrik has been a big winner in the online cash games since hitting Full Tilt, and in 2008 made a profit of $1,346,820, and a massive $8,973,946 in 2009. Looks like 2010 will be no exception and is likely to finish yet another winning year for the 29 year-old pro.

After all the parity that has spread throughout the Canadian Football League this season, we are back to where we were last year. On Sunday, Nov. 28 it’s the Montreal Alouettes vs. the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the 2010 Grey Cup – live from Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Alouettes have opened as 6.5-point favourites, which is understandable considering Montreal embarrassed the Toronto Argonauts 48-17 last weekend as 10.5-point favorites.

Plus, their offensive and defensive rankings are dominant across the board: First in passing yards, second in scoring, first in rushing yards allowed and third in total defense. But as we learned last week, the Roughriders have the talent to surprise. The only plus going in to their conference matchup with the Calgary Stampeders is their ability to play to the level of their opponent – which has both hurt and helped them this season. They pulled off the 20-16 upset despite being 7.5-point underdogs, shutting down the top offense in the CFL.

Plus, lets not forget the ‘Riders were one stupid penalty from hoisting the cup last year, or that they are 4-0 against the spread in their last four meetings with Montreal.

One key to the ‘Riders pulling off the upset was quarterback Darian Durant playing mistake-free football. Saskatchewan is 0-4 straight up on the season when he throws two or more interceptions, and in the playoffs his five-to-one TD ratio is what has kept them in games. He’ll need to maintain his solid play for the ‘Riders to hoist the Grey Cup.

It’ll be on the ‘Riders defense to keep their hopes alive too. Montreal QB Anthony Calvillo torched the Argos for 334 passing yards and two touchdowns. He is 5-1 SU when he throws for 300 or more.
BET ON THE 2010 CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP – GREY CUP GAME AT Bodog Sportsbook TODAY😡!

If you've not heard, Eastgate, who earned a senses-shattering $9.15 million by beating a field of over 6,800 poker players a couple of years ago, has announced his retirement from the game and is selling off assets related to it to help out those in need. Eastgate broke 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth's record as the youngest World Series of Poker champion ever and has stunned many observers by dropping the game entirely, choosing to focus his efforts elsewhere.

"In my 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way," Eastgate said in a statement. "I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want do with the rest of my life. What this will be, I do not yet know."

The World Series of Poker bracelet is made from 168 grams of 18-karat white gold and has 291 diamonds embedded into the surface, making a total of 2.81 carats encrusted into it.

Holy moly. At least the shipping's free 😄

One of the biggest games this past week occurred at the limit hold’em tables.

Unlike the usual fireworks at no-limit hold’em or pot-limit Omaha, $2,000-$4,000 limit at Full Tilt Poker over the past seven days was the home to some massive swings.

Patrik Antonius and unknown IHateJuice continued to battle at the highest stakes offered in the discipline. Antonius took more than $500,000 off his opponent over the past week. So far this year, Antonius is up close to $1 million against IHateJuice in limit hold’em.

Danish pro Gus Hansen also did well on the virtual felts this past week. Hansen won more than $250,000 this past weekend at cap pot-limit Omaha and is now down slightly more than $1 million on the year. Hansen was in the red more than $3 million a couple months ago.

Last week Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies suffered a loss at the hands of Phil Ivey at $200-$400 pot-limit Omaha, bringing his extended downswing to around $3 million since October. According to the Finnish pro’s facebook, he is taking a short break from poker.

World Series of Poker winner Peter Eastgate has sold his gold and diamond championship bracelet for $147,500 on eBay and plans to donate the proceeds to the children’s charity UNICEF.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the online auction attracted 116 bids. The buyer was not disclosed.

Eastgate originally listed the bracelet at $16,000.

The 24-year-old from Denmark earned $9.15 million and the bracelet for topping a field 6,843 players during the $10,000 buy-in No Limit holdem World Championship in 2008. He has since retired from poker.

The World Series of Poker bracelet is made from 168 grams of 18-karat white gold and 291 diamonds.

World Series of Poker winner Peter Eastgate has sold his gold and diamond championship bracelet for $147,500 on eBay and plans to donate the proceeds to the children’s charity UNICEF.
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Eastgate Donating the money to UNICEF.
:thumbsup

Best of Luck with retirement Mr Eastgate.

Lots of Cash Games and a $100K pot-limit Omaha game.

PLO on Poker After Dark.

Interesting line up.

Following on from former World Series of Poker Main Event winner Peter Eastgate’s decision to put his 2008 championship bracelet up for auction, 1999 $1,500 Razz winner Paul “Eskimo” Clark has decided to follow suit.

Like Eastgate, Clark will be placing his gold bracelet up for sale on online auction site Ebay.com, however, it is unlikely that his title will fetch anywhere near the $147,500 that the Dane eventually sold his diamond-encrusted piece for.

Unlike Eastgate’s World Championship bracelet, Clark’s version does not feature 291 diamonds on its face and only reads “World Series of Poker 1999” on the front. It is 117 grams, approximately eight and quarter inches in length and available for $2,800.

“This is an exquisite piece of gold jewellery that rarely ever comes on the market,” read a statement from the unnamed seller of Clark’s Razz bracelet, who is listed as being based in Donegal, Ireland on the popular auction site.

Ebay.com will be accepting bids on the unique and collectable piece of poker memorabilia from now up until December 1, when the auction will close at 10.00am Los Angeles time. Bid online now and you might just capture a little piece of poker history.