Archive for the ‘Poker’ Category
At The Races Gets Into Poker and Other UK News
With a 900 000 strong online community already, the UK horse racing broadcaster, At the Races has launched an online poker and casino offering. The offerings called atrpokerclub.com and atrcasino.com are both powered by Genting Alderney. Alderney is a white listed licensing jurisdiction and therefore these sites have the capability to advertise in the UK.
The sites will feature all the classic online casino and poker games, as well as progressive jackpot prizes and poker tournaments. VIP prize packages will also include subscriptions, admission concessions and hospitality packages to major horse racing events. This cross promotional activity will be of benefit to all three operations. At The Races is a joint venture between major UK and Irish racecourses, Arena Plc and BskyB satellite broadcasting. Genting offers a best of breed online poker and casino product and are one of the biggest casino games operators in the UK and Asia in both the off and online industry.
In other UK poker news, Full Tilt Poker – also one of the large online brands have come up with what they believe is a novel way of increasing brand awareness in the British poker marketplace. They have signed up Audley Harrison in a sponsorship deal, in advance of the World Heavyweight title fight which takes place next month against David Haye. When they step into the ring on the 13th November at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, Full Tilt branding will be prominent. Audley Harrison, a former Olympic Gold Medalist will be 38 years old when he steps into the ring, so you can guarantee this fight will attract a great deal of attention. He won the Gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was the first British Boxer to win this medal in the Super Heavyweight division.
Harrison is also well known for his passion for poker, he has two WSOP cashes to his name and was a finisher at the famous Bellagio Cup. He took a third place in the Venetian Deep Stack in Jun of this year and will therefore also be making appearances at high profile live poker tournament on behalf of Full Tilt.
He recons that while he lived in Las Vegas, he “fell in love with poker”, and spent a lot of time learning to play from professionals who also lived in Sin City. He has received some good results and both he and Eddie Hearn (his promoter) have been looking to join a team for some time. This offer could not have come at a better time for both Audely and Full Tilt by the appearance of things, so let’s hope that not only will he be sporting a WSOP bracelet in the near future, but that he will also be belted with the WBA Heavyweight Championship belt. That should make a pretty sight at the poker tables.
I will wager that winning the belt may also land Mr. Harrison in some pretty dramatic proposition bets with his poker playing friends – it will just be too good to resist for them!
Beat the Casino – Play Poker
One of the best ways to beat the casino is to play live poker, while there is a strong element of luck involved in playing this game (you can’t control the way the cards are dealt) it is the skill of the player and their decision making ability which makes them winners. There is a far greater degree of control over the outcome of this game and it is for this reason that many poker pundits are attempting to get the game re-classified as a game of skill.
Poker is an engaging game to play and the beauty of this game is you can learn online and still be able to get into land games with high stakes and prize pots. All you need to get into one of these big money poker tournament is the price of the buy-in. It is every mans (or women) game and does not discriminate between the educated and non educated, black, brown or white, old or young, male or female, handicapped or whole. Poker is an equalizer and anyone can play, all you have to do is grasp the concept of the game and practice, practice, practice! Do this and you can earn a good living from playing these games.
There are many different variants of poker played around the world today, but by far the most popular are the Hold ‘em varieties. It is community game, so this means players are dealt hole cards (two cards of their own) and the balance of cards is dealt to the centre of the table. The player is then required to use their hole cards and the community cards to make a hand. Every player at the table has to make a hand from the same community cards, plus their own. This is another great equalizing factor which makes the game so incredibly fair.
In poker even online, players play against opponents, not against the casino so the money they win is their money as the cost of the buy-in covers costs for the casino. There is no real house edge or odds, although a certain amount of rake, could be called house edge. Poker is simply player against player and in some countries is already a game of skill, so is played as a sport would be played.
What surprises us most of all is that there are some people online who are actually cads, they say they have foolproof systems in place that will allow online poker players to win. If you see anything like this, don’t buy into the idea, there is no system or bot on the planet that can possibly help you achieve this aim. Rather spend your money on a good poker book written by Daniel Negranu or Phil Ivey; or any other poker player with a big name. It is from reading articles and books, and practicing the plays that they teach, that enables you to win when you play poker, so, practice, practice, practice. This cannot be stressed enough – you cannot actually beat the casino, you can only beat other players.