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Poker
Tracking the World Series of Poker
The 2015 World Series of Poker started with 6,420 entries. They are now down to just 9 players. The 9 from 9th to 1st based on chip count are as follows: Federico Butteroni (6,200,000), Patrick Chan (6,225,000), Joshua Beckley (11,800,000), Thomas Cannuli (12,250,000), Max Steinberg (20,200,000), Pierre Neuville (21,075,000), Neil Blumenfield (22,000,000), Ofer Zvi Stern (29,800,000) and Joseph McKeehen (63,100,000). The entry fee for the tournament is $10,000. That said, only the top 1,000 out of 6,420 entrants walk away with money. Everyone from Dustin Cooper, who finished in 1,000th place, to Michael Greco, who finished in 649th, will take home $15,000. Once you’ve made it to the final 27 players, you’ve guaranteed yourself over a quarter of a million dollars at $262,574.
The final 9 players left in the WSOP.
The favorite at this stage of the tournament is chip leader Joseph McKeehen who has more than double the amount of chips of Ofer Zvi Stern who is in second place. Last year, Martin Jacobson won while Felix Stephenson was the runner-up, so we will definitely have a new winner and runner-up in 2015. Throughout the existence of the event, Phill Hellmuth has won the most bracelets with 14.
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Online Poker vs Daily Fantasy
While poker has been fairly popular both in reality and virtually (online poker), daily fantasy has grown at a rapid pace over the last few years. Daily fantasy is the ability to play season long fantasy baseball, football, basketball, etc, but on a daily basis. You enter a contest pool, draft players for that day or nights worth of games and hope that your teams combination of players outscores another teams. Of course you can’t just pick whoever you want, there is a salary cap for every website and each player is valued differently. Some of the most popular websites for daily fantasy currently are Draft Kings and Fanduel.
Draft Kings is a leader in daily fantasy.
Once upon a time, playing poker online was the only way to socially interact with others and also win money. With daily fantasy, people now have a newer, more hip, outlet to do so. While it may not seem like it, both daily fantasy and online poker are very similar. Both do take skill to a certain an extent while also relying on chance (or luck) in order to win money online. But where are there more winners? What gives an individual the best opportunity to take home money at the end of the day?
Some of these daily fantasy websites have contests where up to 300,000+ people can enter to win a different amounts of prizes. Now not everyone wins. Sometimes for a contest as big as this, the website will pay out the top 80,000 contestants. Now there are many different kinds of games and contest offerings across many different sports giving you so many options to play. Online poker allows you to play in tournaments and different kinds of games of poker but from a creative standpoint, it’s a bit more limited. For more on this interesting topic, check out it here at cnbc.com.
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Where to Start Your Poker Playing Career Continued
Last month we took a look at some of the greatest places to begin your poker playing career. We touched on two pretty obvious ones in Las Vegas, Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Here we’re going to touch on three more great locations. Again, what goes into these selections is the amount of venues to play at, how large the venue is, and the type of games that can be played at these venues.
Baltimore, Maryland
In 2012, Maryland was allowed to have table games in Casinos which ultimately led to poker taking off in popularity. With so much popularity, Baltimore makes for a great location to kick start your poker playing career. Maryland Live! is the states largest casino and is just a short drive away from Baltimore. Maryland Live! has 52 playing tables which makes for it as one of the largest in the Atlantic area and a top 15 venue nation wide. At any point in the week, you can you can play in a tournament that costs anywhere from $80 to $230.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
While it doesn’t have as many poker tables as some other locations on this list, Fort Lauderdale makes it based on the quality of games and not necessarily the quantity. With Florida late to the game in adding poker (1989), its booming growth paired with its high population makes for it a great place to find games. With many betting restrictions holding back players along the way, in 2010, Florida finally scrapped the idea of capping bets and letting players bet freely. To make playing matters better, Florida has no state income tax and a low sales tax.
Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles area has more poker game options than any other location in the United States. Los Angels has over 60 daily tournaments played per week so you’re never at a loss for a game. Because they’re are so many venues and games to play, you can find all levels and buy in sizes to play in. California and it’s 38 million residents is the #1 most sought online poker market.
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Where to Start Your Poker Playing Career
Poker is a game played around the world and it’s played by everyone from teenage beginners to professionals with 30 years experience that have won millions of dollars. But where is it best to play? Where do you stand the best chance to win? Find consistent games? You ultimately want to find a city that has a great combination of accessible games, games with different levels of entry fees, and great alternative aspects like cost of living or income tax. Lets take a look at some of the best cities to begin your poker playing career according to cardplayer.com.
Atlantic City, New Jersey
It’s no secret why Atlantic City makes this list. AC is home to many different casinos like Tropicana, Caesars, Harrah’s and Trump Taj Mahal to name a few. The largest poker operating resort in the city is Borgata holding 85 tables to host card games. The casinos vary in type of games to play. If you’re looking to play in smaller type games, you can play at Ballys, the Showboat, the Trump Taj Mahal, and Harrah’s for smaller stake games. Atlantic City is the home to current professional poker player Phil Ivey who has won 10 World Series of Poker Bracelets.
Harrah’s in Atlantic City
Las Vegas, Nevada
Another no brainer to make this list, Las Vegas, Nevada is essentially the betting capital of the United States. Card playing takes the back seat to slot machines and sports betting in this city. The city holds just under 50 card rooms and you’ll never have to worry about these tables having players at them. If you go to the Venetian, you’ll find yourself in the largest venue in the city holding 59 tables. Other venues on the strip like Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Aria, and Orleans hold anywhere from 24 to 39 tables. An underlying reason to begin your poker playing career here is due to the low state income tax. The city does however have high sales tax so take that into account.
The Las Vegas strip.
Check this article out to find out other great cities to start your poker career.
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The Art of the Bluff
Poker is a great game to play, especially when you really understand the game and strategy. The beauty of poker is that even when you don’t have the winning hand, or a good hand for that matter, you can still win. It’s no secret that the person dealt the best hands the whole night always wins. Just think about it, what are the chances you’re dealt the best hands all night and eventually win? Slim to none. Cards are dealt at random and it’s what you do with them that ultimately decides hands. I’m talking about bluffing. Bluffing is a beautiful thing in cards as you can manipulate others to thinking you have one hand when you really have another.
A key part to bluffing is your “poker face.” It’s one thing to be dealt a poor hand and lie that it’s poor, but it’s another to make others believe you have something better. For example, lets say you have a 7, 2 off suite. This hand is the worst hand because the cards are far apart enough that you can’t complete a straight, they’re the 2 lowest that don’t connect in a straight, and because they’re off suite you’re immediately at a disadvantage to complete a flush. Now if you were to place a high bet, pretending you had pocket aces (two aces) while an ace was on the board, you would need to keep a great poker face. A great poker face has a dead face. You don’t smile nor show disgust regardless of the hand. You have to really let your opponent try to read you based off as minimal information as possible. Let them look into cards in their hand, cards on the board, and what could be left in your hand. Don’t over due it and bet an insane amount if you’re not the greatest bluffer. You don’t want to give away everything. Another point to make is if you get caught in a bluff, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t be afraid to try again, you’re not meant to win every bluff. Also remember that the person also playing may be bluffing. Even when you think you don’t have the best hand but are acting as if you do, you may have the best hand after all.
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World Series of Poker’s ‘Colossus’ Tournament Sets New Record
Since the early 2000′s, the sport of poker has picked up a lot of momentum. Often times, poker is now televised on some of the biggest TV networks, like ESPN for example. The sport is so big that tournaments to play the card game are increasing in size, dramatically. The World Series of Poker’s “Colossus” has broke the record for the largest live tournament in history. The tournament crushed the old record of 8,773 entrants at the 2006 Main Event by hitting a total of 22,374 entrants for the $565 buy in tournament.
With tournaments getting to sizes of this nature, the take home prize money is increasing rapidly as well. If you’re fortunate to place first out of the 22,374 entrants, you’ll take home $638,880. The total prize pool is $11,187,000. Yes, that’s million. Should you finish in 2,241st place, the final spot that still walks away with money, you will win $1,096. That’s not bad for a $565 buy in. There were actually initially 25,571 paid entries for the tournament but the official number fell down to 22,374 due to no-shows.
For more on this tournament and others, check out this article at reviewjournal.com.
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The Winning Hands of Texas Hold’em
Established in the early 1900′s, Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular poker games known to date. The objective is have the best five card hand after you have been dealt two cards and the board shows five. You need to use each of your two cards as well as three of the five cards showing on the board. Obviously, there is betting involved as cards are dealt and ultimately can be used to your advantage in order to make a competitor believe your hand is better than his, even if it’s not.
There are many different great winnings hands. Lets start from the ultimate best hand and work our way down the pecking order. The “Royal Flush” is the best hand you can have. This is when you have an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten, all of the same suit. The next best hand is the “Straight Flush.” Similar to the Royal Flush, a straight flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit. Now someone else can also have a straight flush but the straight flush that finishes at the highest card wins. The next best hand is “Four of a Kind.” Here you hold all of the same card, for example four Jack’s. The next best hand would be a “Full House.” A full house is the combination of three of one card and two of another. For example, if you had three tens and two fives, you would have a tens full of fives full house. Now the higher the top card in the full house when it comes to two different full houses determines the winner of the hand. The next best hand you could have is a “Flush.” A flush is when you have five cards of the same suit. An example would be a two, five, seven, eight, and queen all of spades. This would be a queen high flush. The flush with the highest card at the top it wins the hand. The next best hand is a “Straight.” A straight is when you have five consecutive cards based on number/rank. An example of this would be a combo of eight, nine, ten, jack, queen. The straight leading up to the highest card would ultimately win. The next best hand would be “Three of a Kind.” Three of a kind is just as it sounds, when your card combination holds three of the same card. After Three of a Kind comes “Two Pair.” Two Pair is when you have two card and matched them with two card on the board. The next best hand would be “One Pair.” Here you will have matched one card that you hold with a card on the board. If there are no combinations at all on the board, you play the “High Card.” Here it’s whoever holds the highest card, the highest possible card would be an ace.
As you can see, there are many different combinations that can win you a hand. You’ll have to leverage the bets you place based on the cards you hold and what the board shows in order to capitalize the most on your hand. You certainly don’t want to not win a big betting hand when you have a straight flush.
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