David Benyamine has been a regular at the highest stakes tables on Full Tilt and other big name rooms over the last few years. He has managed to play against the top pros at the highest level on a regular basis, and has continually had great winning sessions that earned him literally millions in winnings. However, over the last year things haven’t been going so well for him, as he encounters one losing session after another. Read the rest of this entry »

The majority of poker players will specialize in one form of poker. For most players that have entered the game over the last four or five years, this will probably be Texas Holdem. Texas Holdem has been greatly glamorised over recent years through the media, which has attracted high volumes of players to this one game in particular. However, there are a wealth of other poker variants out there that can be just as enjoyable. Read the rest of this entry »

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed that from the 1^st of September, any gambling companies that do not meet the strict requirements of the British Government will not be allowed to advertise within the UK. Any organisations breaking this law can expect hefty fines and even a jail sentence. 

There will still be a large number of poker rooms that will be allowed to advertise within the British media, but a few rooms like Littlewoods Poker and Betfred will no longer be able to. This ban is meant to help prevent Read the rest of this entry »

Pacific Poker is one of the oldest rooms in the industry, and over recent weeks it has experienced a much-needed makeover. The old software had started to become very dated, which made the look room look a lot less attractive than some of the other big-name rooms on the market. The directors of the Pacific Poker room are now hoping that this graphical improvement will help in attracting and retaining higher numbers of visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Every live card room has their own specific rules of etiquette. These rules may vary from room to room, but they will usually have a fundamental set of rules common to them all. The online poker rooms are not too different, but a lot of these rules are not actively enforced, and it is expected that each of the players adhere to them to help the games run as smoothly as possible. Here are a few of the most common rules of online poker etiquette: Read the rest of this entry »

If you have read much poker literature or overheard any poker-related conversations, you may have come across different terms to describe the styles of play that opponents may posses. Terms that are frequently used are passive, aggressive, loose and tight, and often these will be combined to greater define specific styles of play. At first if you are fairly new to the game, these terms will mean very little to you, I know that I remember not having the faintest clue about what these meant when I first heard them. However, they are all fairly easy to understand and make perfect sense when you think about them. Read the rest of this entry »

A large European Poker tournament is currently being planned, and it may well become the biggest Poker tournament to ever take place within Europe. The tournament organisers Poker Ireland are teaming up with Mermaid Poker to organise the International Poker Open to take place in October. The event will last for two days from Saturday the 6th to Sunday the 7th, and will have a buy in of €125+25 (roughly $205 altogether). Read the rest of this entry »

If we are being honest with ourselves, we can all think of a time when we have gone on tilt, and stepped up a level or two to try and win some quick money. It really isn’t that uncommon at all, and it isn’t help by the fact that the limit above is only a few clicks of the mouse away. Some people have a greater tendency to play out of their bankroll than others, but what affect does playing out of your bankroll have on our game? Read the rest of this entry »

The ever popular Sunday million tournament hosted by PokerStars saw another big turnout, with over 3,000 players signing up and taking their seats to try and get a piece of the $1,510,500 prize pool. The top 486 finishers would receive a portion of the total prize pool, with the first place finisher taking away a cool quarter of a million. After many hours of play, the lucky winner named ‘Zutzman’ was crowned the Sunday million champion for the week. Read the rest of this entry »

Anthony Sandstrom, also known as ‘Tuff Fish’, will be petitioning to try and obtain 430,000 names within 4 months to try and have online poker legalized in California. The online poker would be state-run, so any players wishing to play poker online for money would be able to do so without any fears of making illegal transactions. Read the rest of this entry »

If you sit down at any Texas Holdem poker table, you will notice that before the flop there will usually be a raiser. This will force other players at the table to call more bets instead of just the blind alone to see a flop. To the amateur this may seem a little frustrating; why are players making each other pay more to see a flop? Why don’t they just call the Big Blind and see a flop for cheap? Surely that way everyone has a chance to make a good hand, instead of cutting everyone out preflop. Read the rest of this entry »

It is very common to have half a hand in poker, where you are looking to catch a certain card to complete a potentially big hand. These are often referred to as ‘drawing hands’, and they can win you a lot of money if you play them correctly. It is easy enough to work out the odds we have to win the hand by comparing the number of outs to the cards left in the deck along with the bet and pot size, but there is another additional factor that we should be included when deciding whether or not to make the call. Read the rest of this entry »

With all the advertising campaigns and promotions from the online poker rooms, which one out of them all is currently attracting the most players? At the moment, PokerStars receives the highest player volume, with Full-Tilt Poker not too far behind. Party Poker is hanging on in 3rd, which is a big drop from holding the top position for so many years up until a few months ago. The player traffic standings have changed many times over the years, and there are numerous ways in which a poker room will gain or lose traffic over periods of time. Read the rest of this entry »

The check-raise is a very powerful move in poker. It is a very popular move amongst advanced players, but there is no reason why it cannot be successfully employed at the lower limits and against weaker players. However, some players can actually consider the move unfair, but this is only because they know they are being outplayed when they come up against a check-raise. Some card rooms have actually banned the move, but the real fact of the matter is check-raising is a perfectly legal move and can potentially win you much larger pots if used correctly. Read the rest of this entry »

Through all the problems that have taken place over the last few months regarding NETeller and US customers, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel for the players with seized funds. It has been expected for some time that NETeller would be paying out the seized funds fairly soon, but now the wheels are in motion and a definite date has been set. Read the rest of this entry »