Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Mansion Poker has decided to attract some new players by not only increasing the number of freerolls they have, but also increasing the size of the payouts!

As of today, they will be having the following freerolls:

Daily $500 Freeroll - They are running two of these daily at 12:00 GMT (13:00 CET) and 18:00 GMT (19:00 CET)

$1,000 Weekly Freerolls - These are running EVERY Saturday at 18:00 GMT (19:00 CET

$3,000 Monthly Freerolls - They are holding a regular monthly Freeroll with a very healthy $3,000 prize pool on the SECOND Friday of every month at 18:00 GMT (19:00 CET). Members must have made their first deposit and earned a minimum of 25 MANSION Poker Points (MPPs) by 23.59 GMT on the LAST day of the month. (00:59 CET on FIRST day of the month.

MANSION $15,000 Freeroll - MANSION rewards Members freeroll. If you’re a regular player you’ll be able to qualify for their big money $15,000 Freeroll on the SECOND Saturday of every month at 18:00 GMT (19:00 CET).
To qualify: Simply play and earn a minimum 200 MANSION Poker Points (MPPs) each calendar month by 23.59 GMT on the LAST day of the month (00:59 CET on FIRST day of the month).

All you need to do to play in these freerolls is open an account at Mansion, make your first deposit (use Bonus Code 76048 for a 100% up to $500 bonus!) and you are automatically eligible!

Hiding in the shadows of the great game of Texas HoldEm, Draw poker is all but extinct. This game that is not gone, just hiding in the shadows behind the cameras and anyone who knows some simple strategy for the game, will likely control the felt, and cash big. This will discuss the essentials of two pair, in a draw game. When was the last time you played draw?

Having two pair can be tricky in any poker game. These cards can push the game in either direction. It is not a clear cut winning hand, nor a clear losing hand, it needs to be played out. Should you be facing a pot that was opened and raised, the safest choice would be to call with tens up or worse. If you happen to be looking at jacks up or better, re-raise, by being aggressive you are calling out a likely one pair player who raised the open. The odds are in your favor in this situation. Should it be three bets than you, consider folding 10’s or lower, and call with jacks or better facing. This tactic will increase your rate of winning considerably. Any time you are looking two pair, the safest choice is to fold with anything 10’s under and call jacks up, particularly if you are facing a number of raises and re-raises.

Many poker players, online or off, will just call when there are two bets with aces up, and check to the other one card draw. This choice will often cost several bets each time, plus increase their chances of losing the pot because they are enticing other players who are able to now get the correct odds to play the hand. It may be costly for four bets or more instead of the two in the pots lost, but the hands won more than make up for it.

After all that has gone on with the UIGEA, many Americans are left wondering: “Where can Americans play online poker?“. We have decided to rank the top 5 online poker sites that accept players from the USA:

UPDATE: For an up to date listing, check our Top US Poker Sites page.

Top 5 Online Poker Sites For Americans

1) Full Tilt Poker - Full Tilt is the one of the biggest poker sites and they still take American players. This is where all the professional players such as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow and many more play poker online. (Read our Full Tilt Poker Review)

2) Pokerstars - The largest of all online poker sites, with an average of over 100,000 people online at any given time. This is a must visit site for any American poker player. (Read our PokerStars Review)

3) Ultimate Bet -Home to the poker brat Phil Hellmuth and the Aruba Poker Classic, Ultimate Bet is one of my personal favorite online sites. I always seem to do well at the $1/$2 NL games at this site. (Read our Ultimate Bet Review)

4) Cake Poker - Started in 2005, Cake Poker is becoming the site of choice for many online poker players. They offer tons of rewards for loyal players as well some great promotions. (Cake Poker Review coming soon)

5) Poker.com - Poker.com is a great site for newer players and players that prefer the lower stakes games. They have tons of freerolls to help you get going, so it is possible to build your bankroll up from NOTHING! (Read our Poker.com Review)

So next time you are looking for somewhere to play poker, bookmark this list, share it with your friends and you will never have to worry about finding a places as an American online poker player!

Pokerstars player DDBeast is probably a very happy man today after trading in his Pokerstars players points for a brand new Porsche! He saved up 3,000,000 player points and decided to trade them in for this nice shiny Porsche:

DDBeast started playing poker when he was 18 years old. Now 21, and a graduate of economics, DDBeast plays poker full-time online. What is full time? For DDBeast, it’s 8-12 tables of SNGs with the occasional multi-table tournament thrown in for good measure. It took him just about one year to pick up enough FPPs to get a new ride. He puts it mildly when he says, “The Porsche is quite a nice upgrade from my ‘93 Miata. I’m loving it!”

DDBeast is not the first player to trade in his player points for a new Porsche. At the beginning of the month BMC11 also traded in 3,000,000 FPP points for this new Porsche Cayenne:

I will have one too one day, I just have about 2,999,321 points to go.

Right now get a $50 sign-up bonus at Pokerstars when you use bonus code: First2007 - SIGN Up Now Today

The Full Tilt $1Million Scandal has taken a new step. In the 2plus2 forum it has been alleged that Full Tilt Poker has confirmed that during the October 21^st One Million Guarantee tournament the winner, aka BluffMagCV, handed his account to another player toward the end of the tournament.

Chris Vaughn, who also plays on PokerStars under the name SlippyJacks, made headlines when he followed the One Million Guarantee Poker Tournament with a PokerStars Sunday Million win, just one week later.

This information is being released while there have been great discussions about the various poker rooms having tournament corrupted by scandalous account holders. There have been alleged multi accounting and account handoffs, and PokerStars themselves chose to rescind the title awarded during the Main Event of the World Championship of Online Poker.

In the forum thread regarding the Million Guarantee scandal, a poster known as Soren Kongsgaard, the second place player in the tournament event, posted a portion of an email said to have been received from Full Tilt Poker support:

Upon conclusion of a lengthy investigation into the $500 + $35, “$1Million Guarantee” tournament held on October 21st, we have determined that you were among the victims of one player using more than one Full Tilt account in the tournament. Late into the tournament, a player who had already been eliminated took over the account of a player who was still in, which is against our tournament rules.

This story is continuing to unfold.

WagerWorks has announced a new starting jackpot for their progressive slots. The newest addition to the online progressive slot machine family is the Mega Jackpot slots, designed by WagerWorks, starts out at 1.5 million GBP. (3,111,628.10 USD) This is the highest starting payout for any progressive slots machine online today.

WagerWorks has released the MegaJackpots progressive slot game to the WagerWorks RGS system and they have also made it available to any WagerWorks Serviced sites. Any casino part of either network will have the opportunity to supply the new game to their online progressive slots customers.

With the MegaJackpots progressive slots game you will need to play the maximum bet, and land 5 symbols on the same center winning pay line.

Two well-known software competitors of WagerWorks, Cryptlogic and MicroGaming have both designed games that can build to the starting value of the Megajackpot game. Neither have designed or released any form of progressive slots game that has a beginning jackpot near the starting jackpot for MegaJackpots by WagerWorks.

“We have seen the online arena grow and grow over the last few years and feel the time is right to introduce MegaJackpots,” said Commercial Director of WagerWorks, Tom Kenny, in a press release regarding the new online slots game.