Well yesterday the poker event of poker events began with the Casino Employee No limit Hold’em tournament, a tradition for the last decade. This two day event began with 722 players and by the end of yesterday we were down to a mere 53. Looks like the heads up matches will take place this afternoon or early this evening.
Here are the top seven players and their chip counts at the close of play Friday:
1 Kent Washington 168,300
2  Jonathan Kotula 108,700
3 Christopher Reider 107,500
4 Samuel Sperrazza 96,800
5 Arthur Vea 95,800 92
6 Yuta Motoyama 72,100
7 Matthew Hollinger 71,700
Currently in second place with the chip count, Jonathan Kotula was the winner of the 2008 bracelet for this event so perhaps he’s hoping for a repeat performance.  Kent Washington is the main at the top and it would be a first bracelet for him.
Notables among the final 53 are Jack McClelland former director of WSOP and current director of [...]

With a $500 buy in the opening tournament of the 2010 World Series of Poker has begun. This initial game last two days and last year had over 800 players in attendance. Casino employee Andrew Cohen won over $80,000 as the winner of the tournament. This year play is still taking place as I write this. Poker fans and players around the world are hyped up today as the best poker of the year takes to the screens and the Internet.
The Casino Employee event is one of the three WSOP events that are closed to the public. It has been a tradition since 2000 when the folks over at WSOP wanted a way to say thank you to casino workers. The opening tournament offers a bracelet and cash win.
The most famous player at this year’s tournament is Jack McClelland. He is the tournament director over at the Bellagio and is the former director over at [...]

I headed over to the WSOP website this morning and was excited to see the welcome page feature the first scenes from the 2010 tournament. Row after row of tables waiting for the excited hopefuls to take their places and…dare I say it? Okay then, SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL.
Like most poker fans I am enjoying this cyber excitement around the super bowl of poker the WSOP main event. As we are still waiting for television coverage to begin and the live reporting from the uber poker blogs is just starting out, I don’t have much in the way of facts and figures to share. So it seems before things start getting a little hectic that we should recap the 2009 WSOP main event to see how the following seven weeks will stack up.
On May 27, 2009, the 40th annual WSOP main event began at the Rio All Suite and Casino in Vegas. There were over [...]

The big event is almost upon us and poker players and poker enthusiasts across the globe are checking their channel subscriptions, downloading their online viewing software and making friendly bets with their friends and co-workers about who will win and who will lose at this year’s WSOP Main event set to begin this Friday, May 28. I’ve already predicted my big winners so now it’s time to look at those who have won in the past that I just don’t feel are gonna strike it rich this time around.
Dale Brunson is a favorite on the circuit but all his ads in the poker magazines make me think his new casino website isn’t doing as well as predicted and that can hurt a man’s ego. I think the shot to his confidence may stop him from getting that 11th (12th?) bracelet. An excellent player who knows more about poker than I could imagine but I just [...]

Well every other poker blog is having a stab at guessing who the winners of this year’s WSOP main event will be so why can’t I? Here are my top picks to play and win at the tournament that starts this Friday.
I’m going to go with Erik Seidel for the tournament of Champions winner this year. He’s always a big money winner and maybe it’s time for a second title win and a ninth bracelet. Seidel is a focused player and I would be happy to watch him at the final table. Heads up against Hellmuth would be fun to watch.
Phil Ivey will take home a bracelet I think and perhaps even David Williams. Both players have been a little under the radar lately and I enjoy watching both of them play so its time they got back in the spotlight. Both have a steady track record and may be ready to strut their stuff [...]

It seems any online poker forum you visit lately is discussing, rather complaining, about the numerous “short stackers” on the cyber circuit who are driving everyone nutty.  So who are they, why do they do it and what can we “normal” players do to stop them?
Hmmm…
Just a quick refresher for you, a short stacker is someone who plays the minimum amount allowed in a given game.  This can mean having numerous players in a game with little or no money to bid and nothing to do except take up your valuable time and chips.  Typically, short stackers bid and play by a predetermined set of rules, ruining the spontaneity and strategy of the other players.
Short stackers often make out in the online poker world as many seasoned players see no point playing to win against them. The amount you can win is pretty low and every time you call pre-flop you let your opponents know [...]

Seems these days there is an application or app for every occasion. Of course poker isn’t left out of the cyber revolution. Far from it. Here are my top poker app choices for downloading to your personal devices.
Zynga Texas Hold Em: The most popular poker app for the I-Phone this handy little download allows users to play with other online players pretty much day and night. The graphics are easy and fun and very like a regular online poker site. The app lets you import data from social networking sites and the playing tools are simple and easy to grasp.
Apple Texas Hold ‘em: It’s great when the personal device manufacturer make the app for their device as it guaranteed to work better, look better and provide more fun that an off brand app. The Apple Texas Hold em is one of the computer company’s most popular apps.  The graphics are excellent and the game play [...]

Not wanting to overwhelm my humble readers with a book of poker terms in one go, I’ve broken the poker glossary up into several blogs so a few terms are learned in one sitting. Here’s some more poker  terms that begin with the letter A.
“A” Continued
Action: a generic term for the playing of poker or any other card game. Getting in on the action means to join a game or place a bet in a game already taking place. Can also refer to a player’s turn.
Advantage Tool: any tool, trick or technique that helps a player win a poker hand i.e. cheat. This can mean marked cards or a dodgy card counting and shuffling machine.
Advertising: to knowingly allow other players to see your hand.  Can also refer to a player’s attempt to confuse opponents regarding their style of play. Bluffing to present a playing style rather than to win a particular hand is called advertising.
Air: [...]

The Bayou Poker Challenge ended the 2009-2010 poker season and made Fred Berger a winner. This game of no limit holdem took place in the big easy and had 156 players who put down the five grand buy in money. Berger took home nearly $200,000 after a heads up match against Mike Beasley. He not only walked away with the biggest pay out of the day but a WSOP circuit ring to treasure. He can put it on the shelf next to his WSOP bracelet.
Having both the ring and the bracelet means Berger joins the five other poker professionals who hold both pieces of jewelry. Berger got the bracelet back in 2002 after heads up play with Chris Ferguson. Winning in New Orleans was a victory for this little known Louisiana boy who intends to give at least ten percent of his poker winnings to charity.
Fred Berger has been making his name in professional tournaments [...]

When it comes to poker, there’s a lot of specialized lingo. Whether it’s online or in the casino the pros have their own language. This is the first installment of a blog based poker term glossary. This glossary is an introduction for the newbees and a refresher course for the old pros.
A
Able: The first name in the phrase “Able, Baker, Charlie.” A term for the placement of players at the poker table, “Able” is the name given to the person sitting immediately left of the dealer. “Baker” is the second player sitting left of the dealer and “Charlie” is the third seated player left of the dealer. The term is thought to originate from the old radio codes dating back to 1954.
According to Hoyle: This is a reference to Edmond Hoyle (1672 to 1769), who was an English lawyer and writer with a controversial body of work and a penchant for card games, including poker. [...]