Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Over the past few weeks or so, the 2009 Aussie Millions has been running at the Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia.  I have never personally thought much of this tournament, but when I was looking at the schedule the other day I have to admit that it sounds like a pretty cool event.  They have all sorts of unique events, and most of the buy-ins aren’t big enough to bust your bank account.

Here are a few of the events that really stood out for me in the 2009 Aussie Millions Schedule:

$1100 Buy-in with $500k GUARANTEED (Event 1).  That is a pretty good guarantee for a live tourney with only an $1100 buyin.

PokerPro No Limit Holdem – A whole tournament being played on PokerPro machines without dealers!

$100,000 No Limit Holdem Challenge – They even have something for the really big ballers

Aussie Millions Main Event – Standard $10k buy-in event, but since it is in Aussie dollars its not as expensive as other $10k events.

Australian Heads Up Championship – Who doesn’t love a little HU4Rollz action!

No Limit Holdem – Teams Event – I have no idea how this is going to work playing holdem in teams, but I am definitely interested.

Turbo No Limit Holdem – Last chance tourney for all those that didn’t cash in the other events, this is a great $1k event where you can earn some decent cash.

This is just a few of the events, but were the ones that really stood out for me.  Not to mention winner of these events will also get one of these nice little bracelets:

All in all I think they are doing a great job organizing this poker event down under.

US Poker Players are banding together to try and get the government to re-think their passing of the UIGEA that has made online poker much more difficult in the USA over the past few years.  So far over 12,000 people have signed up on the President Obama’s Change.gov site to request that the government look at online poker as a game of skill, instead of deeming it an evil activity.

Currently there are only a handful of poker sites that accept US players, but the poll on Change.gov suggests that the government look to legalize and regulate online poker to help boost the struggling US economy “by letting American companies and American players make money and pay taxes instead of sending online poker businesses offshore”.

Not only will this be good for the ecomony, it will also be better for players as it will promote regulation to ensure rogue poker sites don’t steal from poker players.

American Poker players are urged to vote for this intiative as the more people that voice their opinions, the better the chance this might get pushed through.  To vote, click the link below:

Boost America’s Economy with Legal Online Poker

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan has started off the new year by putting out a crazy challenge that has the high stakes poker world buzzing.  He will risk $1.5 Million of his own money to win $500,000 of anyone else’s!

Possibly Durrrr hadn’t recovered fully from his New Year’s partying when he made this challenge, but he is pretty confident that he is THE BEST POKER PLAYER out there.

“I’m making this heads-up challenge to the world. Anyone can accept. Four tables, minimum of $200/$400, and I’ll put up $1.5 million to their $500,000. We play 50,000 hands minimum and if they end up a dollar after rake they keep the side money or whatever. So basically, if you and I played and you won a dollar, you would get my $1.5 million and if I won a dollar I would win your $500,000.

“So I’m giving a million dollars free if anyone thinks they can do it.”

Don’t let the funny hats fool you, Dwan knows what he is doing at the poker table!

If and when these games go down, you can be sure that they will be played over at FullTiltPoker.com.

Welcome to 2009!  Its a new year, and if 2008 was a bad year for your poker game, its time to turn that all around.  2009 means a fresh start, and a 2nd chance for you to correct all the things that you were doing wrong to become a winning poker player.  Here are 5 poker tips to help you have more wins in 2009…

Top 5 Poker Tips

1) Stop Bluffing – If bluffing is a big part of your game right now, then STOP IT!  Many players tend to lose a lot of money when they attempt to bluff their way at a massive pot.  Stop it!  Sure, this may work sometimes, but bluffing is a skill that takes a ton of practice and requires for you to master the other parts of the game first.  For now, try and stop it completely, or at least do your best to cut back the amount of bluffing that you are doing right now significantly!

2) Patience – Do you feel like the stakes you are playing aren’t enough, or you often find yourself trying to force the action in hands?  Well, it sounds to me like you have no patience.  To do well in poker you need to be able to wait for the perfect situations to win massive pots, not try and force them to happen by gambling with your opponents.  If you find you are playing way to many hands and acting completely out of control, maybe you should try occupying your mind with something else while you are playing.  Invite an escort over, read a book, write a book… it really doesn’t matter.  Just try to do something to keep your mind active so you don’t get bored and make stupid plays!

3) Bankroll Management -You’ve probably heard this time and time again, but it IS IMPORTANT.  Play in games that you can afford and aren’t going to cause you to go broke instantly.  The players that do the best online are often grinding away at somewhat lower stakes but over time building up a bankroll that can get in the millions of dollars!

4) Table/Game Selection – You shouldn’t just be sitting down at a table because there is an empty seat.  Study your opponents, find ones with lots of money and if they are playing irradically, then all the better.  Instead of going too much into this one, here is an awsome site to help you find a good table to play at online: http://www.pokertableratings.com/

5) Seek Help – Books are a thing of the past.  Nowadays there is a new way to improve your poker game called poker training sites.  These sites are run by poker players that are WINNING LOTS OF MONEY!  On these sites they share all their secrets to how they make a lot of money playing poker.  These sites are usually only like $30/month (some even less) which is nothing considering what you can potentially make with this wealth of information.  They give you a ton of great tips and REALLY WANT you to take your game to the next level.  You can watch the instructors in real game action talking you through what is going through their mind at that given time.  Even for seasoned players, this should be a no brainer.

Follow these relatively simple tips and you should be winning more in no time for 2009!  If you have never played poker online before, be sure to check out our top 10 online poker sites list.

Canada is home to some of the World’s best poker players. Daniel “kidpoker” Negreanu, Michael “Timex” Macdonald, Ryan “GotSkillz” Fisler, Glen “Choron” Chorny, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Sorrel “Imper1um” Mizzi, Maxime “beepbeepimajeep” Villemure, the list goes on and on! Unlike the United States, Canadians have access to most of the best online poker sites.

The Canadian players are really performing incredibly at all of the international poker events and bringing home many of the biggest titles in poker to Canada.

Most of these players got their start playing poker online, winning lots of money in the process. They all play at the best online poker sites because these are the sites that hold the biggest and have the most action. We play alot of poker so we know how to find the best sites and have compiled some good lists of the best sites for Canadians to play poker.

Top 5 Canadian Poker Sites

1) Players Only Poker – 110% up to $1100 Bonus (includes $100 instant cash offer)
2) SportsBook Poker – 100% up to $1000 plus an extra $100 instant cash bonus
3) Party Poker- 100% up to $500 bonus.
4) Pacific Poker – 75% up to $300 match bonus + 25% up to $100 cash bonus
5) Carbon Poker – 100% up to $500 first deposit bonus

Here are a few other choices for Canadian Poker Players when picking a room:

Top 5 Poker Sites – These are the current list of the best all around poker sites in the World. This is based on traffic levels, bonuses, tournaments, promotions, support, security and a few more factors.

Easiest Poker Sites – Looking for a site with a lot of loose and novice players? These are some of our favorite sites to go make some easy money (but this isn’t always good because you will probably see more bad beats).

Best New Poker Sites – Looking for the sites with the cool new features? These are the latest sites to enter the online market ranked in order of which ones we expect to be big names in the near future.

Good luck!