Poker News and Poker Gossip

Lately I have been playing a lot of Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) online and have noticed that many of the games are VERY beatable.  In my ever lasting search to find the easiest PLO Poker sites, here is what I have found so far.

About 2 weeks ago I watched many of the PLO videos on Real Poker Training, so I decided to hit the tables with my new skills.

If you have the patience to wait for strong hands and pick the right tables, you can make a killing playing these games.  Here are the sites I have been playing, and my thoughts on each:

PokerStars.com - PokerStars has a ton of action at the PLO tables, but I think the players are slightly better and a little tighter here than at Full Tilt Poker.  I managed to make just over $1500 in about a week of grinding it out at the $1/$2 PLO tables on top of my original $800 buy-in.  To do well here I think you have to play a little more aggressive to force bigger pots with premium hands.

FullTiltPoker.com - I had $120 left in my account, so I decided to give their $.50/$1 tables a try.  The players on Full Tilt’s PLO tables are VERY aggressive (for the most part), so you need to be much more patient.  In just over 1 week I have run my original $120 up to over $1400.  I have tried their $1/$2 games a few times (though I don’t really have the bankroll for them), but when I build up a little more will be playing these more often.  Players are SUPER-AGGRESSIVE at these tables and love to gamble.  Wait to get all the money in on the turn and you will get some callers looking to outdraw you.

Pacific Poker - VERY beatable, though they don’t have the traffic that the sites above have.  There really is only action at $.25/$.50 and lower, so if you are a small stakes player this is probably the easiest site for you.

Prior to watching the videos I was probably winning a little here and there, but overall was probably breaking even, or possibly down.  My play used to be much more aggressive and I was getting involved in WAY too many pots.  David Eisenstein shares a lot of great tips in the videos, and has made me become a much tighter player.  If you are very aggressive right now, I definitely recommend trying the site out for a month at least to see his videos.

If you know of any other sites that are great for PLO, please post them in the comments below.

Good luck at the tables!

On Saturday night while I was playing on Full Tilt Poker I noticed some action going on at the high stakes PLO tables. So, I decided to check it out and noticed that Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, SteveSung, LoLina and several other players were doing $20k flips on the 200/400 PLO tables.

Basically the players would raise it up to $20k preflop, then check it around for the turn and the river. At some points there were 5 players at the table and they pots were $100,000 each hand.

I am not sure who the big winners and losers were, but when Antonius left he said he was down $100k and was sitting with over $350k at the table. Gus Hansen was the only one who seemed happy and typed “GGGG ” as he left the table.

Taylor Caby tried his luck, but lost $100k in about 5 minutes. As he left the table he wrote: “I lost a bad ferrari flipping”.

Some other players that joined included OnTheRize and pr1nnyraid.

It was pretty interesting to watch these degenerate gamblers throwing around such large amounts of money as this went on for about 2 hours.

You can see the logs from all the flips here, or you can download the chat from the game here.

If you have never seen this action online, you gotta download Full Tilt Poker today.

Many players think that poker sites are much more organized and planned then they actually are.  Here are some of the common myths people have about online poker sites:

1) New Players Always Win (at first): - FALSE - Many people seem to think that if they join a poker site they are guaranteed to win at first.  This is also known as beginners luck.  This is completely false as poker sites all use random number generators to create the cards, so really this is just a myth.  On the other hand, everytime I start playing Blackjack online I seem to start winning at first, followed by about 10 dealer blackjacks in a row.  That is definitely much more questionable than online poker.

2) Cash Out Myth - FALSE - Many players believe that if they cash out they will go on a losing streak.  This is does have some truth to it, but the reality is it is completely false.  The reason why there could be some truth is chances are someone cashing out rather soon is not practicing any form of bankroll management.  They are probably playing games way too high for their bankroll and don’t leave enough bankroll behind to factor in the variance of poker.

3) Online Poker Hands are Set Up to Make the Site More Money - FALSE - Nothing is more frustrating when your pocket kings run into pocket aces.  Sure, this may seem like the poker sites are against you, but the reality is this kind of stuff happens all the time in live poker too.  Poker sites don’t set up hands to make more money in rake.

4) You are playing against robots - POSSIBLY TRUE - Many people have developed advanced robots or poker bots that will play based on your play.  This does happen, but is also easily exploitable.  If you figure out you are playing against a robot you can usually get this machine off hands very easily.  Most sites do everything they can to stop these from existing, but the reality is they still do get through as they can be hard for the site to detect.

5) Hackers Can See Your Hole Cards - MOSTLY FALSE - Up until recently I would have said this was impossible, but the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet proved otherwise.  The only way this is possible is if it is done internally and most poker sites are honest.  The companies above were complete idiots though as they stand to make way more money frunning a legit poker site, then they do cheating players.  Something like this would never happen at a site like PokerStars.com as they make way too much money to jeopordize their reputation.

If you have any other myths about online poker, post them below in the comments section and we will write about them shortly.

Since I offer rakeback on my site, one of the questions I get all the time is: “Can I get rakeback at PokerStars?“.

As we all know PokerStars.com is the biggest poker sites and many big online poker players will not even consider playing at a site unless they offer rakeback.  PokerStars has always been a tough one though, because the site is so good, many players are willing to give up the rakeback, because they games are just THAT good.

Here are some of the common questions I get about rakeback at PokerStars:

Someone told me they can get me rakeback at PokerStars, is this true?

It is possible that they are a large affiliate on MGR, but the PokerStars affiliate back end has no way of finding out information about how much a player is playing.  Therefore it will be impossible for them to determine how much rake you generate.  Also, if they do find some way to do it, it won’t last lon.  When asked about if this is a possibility, the head of the PokerStars Affiliate department responded: “any affiliate found to be offering any form of rakeback will be terminated from the program”

Will PokerStars ever offer rakeback?

I highly doubt it.  PokerStars has spent a lot on their amazing VIP Program.  With their VIP Program you can essentially get an equivalent to rakeback with their reload bonus offers.  For example, a SilverStar player can get a $50 Bonus with 5000 player points.  This is the equivalent to about 8% rakeback.  As you move up in the VIP levels, the bonuses they offer will be equivalent to a rakeback percentage.  At the highest level, SuperNova Elite, you will be getting the equivalent of 60% rakeback, but this is no easy feat.  You will need to earn 1,000,000 VPPs in one year to get to this level.

So, if you are holding off signing up for PokerStars because you want rakeback, you might be waiting a very long time.  You are better off just taking the $50 Sign-Up Bonus and getting in now on some of the biggest poker tournaments in online poker.

Playing poker after a few drinks is a BAD IDEA.  All too often it seems that I lose the most money playing poker when I am drunk.  After a few drinks I get “the urge” to gamble, and start making stupid plays based on greed.  Your calling range goes way up and you think that you are probably going to hit your gutshot straight draw. When you drink, all you want to do is WIN, and often this means you will make stupid calls in hopes of sucking out for the win.

Here are 5 tips to avoid playing online poker after you have been drinking:
1) Hide your laptop (or get someone else to do this for you).  If you can’t find your computer it will be hard to play.
2) Pick up a girl/guy when you are drinking.  If you bring home someone from the opposite sex, chances are poker will be the last thing on your mind.
3) Withdrawal before going out.  If there is no money in your accounts, it will make it harder to play.
4) Drink more than usual.  If you get too drunk, you will probably not even be able to turn on your computer as you will probably be spending most of your time hovering over the toilet.
5) Phone a friend.  If you get the urge to play, work out a deal with a friend where you can call them and they will talk you out of it.

Preserve your poker bankroll, and don’t succumb to playing when you aren’t in the right mind state.

Disclaimer for the above points. We can not he held responsible if you:
1) Never find your laptop
2) Pick up an ugly guy/girl
4) Drink too much that you do something really stupid, or hurt yourself.

This post is intended for Entertainment Purposes only, but in all seriousness, DON’T PLAY POKER DRUNK!

Jotaele is the latest player to cash in big in Pokerstars weekly Sunday Millions tournament. No deal was made between the players and it came down to heads up with jotaele and JHBrenes. On the final hand JHBrenes called the blinds, only to be raised by Jotaele. Thinking he was being pushed around, he reraised his entire stack with K8. Jotaele made the call with A2, and the Ace held up to win the hand, $197,202.60, and the title of Sunday Million Champion. JHBrenes took home $99,300.60 for his second place finish.

Here are the Top 5 winners from the tournament:
1) Jotaele1 - $197,202.60
2) JHBrenes - $99,300.60
3) mass.mike - $69,930.00
4) OWWEX - $55,944.00
5) late_entry - $41,958

The sunday millions tournament runs weekly at 16:30 EST on Pokerstars.com, where you can win roughly $200,000 with just a $215 buy-in. (Use Pokestars Marketing Code: BRB50 when signing up to get $50 free, plus WSOP freerolls!)