March 2nd, 2007
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Poker by
Diana Sterling
A South African native playing in his first ever live tournament came from behind to beat one of the toughest pros in the world and win $2.4 million at the L.A. Poker Classic. Eric Hershler, a lawyer who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA stunned everyone on the rail at the Commerce Casino when he overcame pro JC Tran for the L.A. Poker Classic title. Hershler joined an elite group of previous winners that included Gus Hansen (2003), Antonio Esfandiari (2004), Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (2005), and Alan Goehring (2006).
A record number of 791 players bought into the L.A. Poker Classic, which set a record for the biggest prize pool in a $10,000 buy-in event on the World Poker Tour. After six long and brutal days of poker, only six players remained. Hershler was by far the least inexperienced player at the table and oddsmakers listed him as a longshot to win it all.
Final Table starting chip counts:
1. JC Tran $3.47M
2. Paul Wasicka $3.39M
3. Jacobo Fernandez $3.37M
4. David Bach $2.07M
5. Eric Hershler $2.16M
6. Chau Giang $1.37M
Out of everyone at the final table, Paul Wasicka was the leader in lifetime career tournament earnings. After picking up a second place finish at the 2006 WSOP in Las Vegas, Wasicka collected over $6.4 million in tournaments. JC Tran earned almost $3 million total and that does not include online cashes. He won the Poker Stars WCOOP Championship at the end of 2006. Chau Giang won $2 million plus in tournaments. However, his overall lifetime winnings including cash games puts him over the top. He regularly plays in the Big Game in Las Vegas with Doyle Brunson, Bobby Baldwin, and Barry Greenstein.
The first half hour of play featured limited action from the table. There was only one hand that went to the river and was shown down. The pre-flop aggressor has been picking up pots through the first 15 hands or so with 180K or so being the standard raise. JC Tran increased the chip lead to over $4 million, while Chau Giang has slipped to 990K.
Here are the final table money winners:
1 Eric Hershler $2,429,970
2 JC Tran $1,177,010
3 Jacobo Fernandez $607,490
4 Paul Wasicka $455,615
5 Chau Giang $341,710
6 David Bach $257,425
Congrats to Eric Hershler for his $2.4 million score.
March 2nd, 2007
Following NETeller and MyCitadel puling out of the US online gambling market, nearly every third party payment processor did the same this past month. When all the dust cleared, it seemed as if only one remained, ePassporte.
But, ePassporte, one of the few remaining e-wallets available to U.S. online gamblers, is having some difficulty keeping up with demand judging by player communications with the company.
The result is that new clients could be waiting up to three weeks for their accounts to become active. In addition to volume delays, there are also “standard” delays in processing deposits. The average wait time for a deposit to load from a verified bank account is seven business days, according to the site. Several players have been told by harassed customer service reps, who released the following statement recently:
“Due to unusually high call and email volumes, you may experience extended hold times when calling us or there may be a delay receiving a response to your email inquiry. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are exerting all efforts so that we may attend to your phone calls and emails as soon as possible. Your calls and emails will be answered in the order they are received. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.”
There are also fees for loading and withdrawing money. For every $100 loaded into ePassporte, the e-wallet takes $5 or a portion thereof for lesser deposits. Withdrawing money from ePassporte to a bank account carries a $2 fee. If a player upgrades to the Visa Electron, a type of ATM card tied to a personal ePassporte account, he/she can expect to pay $2 per ATM transaction. There is a $35 activation fee for the card.
Visit Payment Methods page for more information.
March 2nd, 2007
Texas Holde’m Rules
The descriptions below assume a familiarity with the general game play of poker, and with poker hands. For a general introduction to these topics, see poker, poker hands, poker probability, and poker jargon.
Texas Holdem Objective
Like most variants of poker, the objective of Texas hold ‘em is to win pots, where a pot is the sum of the money bet by oneself and other players in a hand. A pot is won either at the showdown by forming the best five card poker hand out of the seven cards available, or by betting to cause other players to fold and abandon their claim to the pot.
The objective of winning players is not winning individual pots, but rather making mathematically correct decisions. As a result of making such decisions, winning poker players are able to maximize their expected utility and win more money than they lose in the long run.
The betting Part
A standard hold ‘em game with the blinds Hold ‘em is normally played using small and big blind bets. Antes may be used in addition to blinds, particularly in later stages of tournament play. A dealer button is used to represent the player in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and blinds.
The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer and is usually equal to half of the big blind. The big blind, posted by the player to the left of the small blind, is equal to the minimum bet. In tournament poker, the blind/ante structure periodically increases as the tournament progresses. (In some cases, the small blind is some other fraction of a small bet, e.g. $10 is a common small blind when the big blind is $15.
The double-blind structure described above is relatively recent; until the 1980s, a single-blind structure was most common.)
When only two players remain, special ‘head-to-head’ or ‘heads up’ rules are enforced and the blinds are posted differently than expected. In this case, the dealer posts the small blind, while his/her opponent places the big blind.
The three most common variations of hold ‘em are limit hold ‘em, no-limit hold ‘em and pot-limit hold ‘em. Limit hold ‘em has historically been the most popular form of hold ‘em found in casino live action games in the United States. In limit hold ‘em, bets and raises during the first two rounds of betting (pre-flop and flop) must be equal to the big blind; this amount is called the small bet. In the next two rounds of betting (turn and river), bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind; this amount is called the big bet.
No-limit hold ‘em is the form most commonly found in televised tournament poker and is the game played in the main event of the World Series of Poker. In no-limit hold ‘em, players may bet or raise any amount over the minimum raise up to all of the chips the player has at the table (called an all-in bet). In pot-limit hold ‘em, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot.
Playing the hand
Play begins with each player being dealt two cards face down. These cards are the player’s hole or pocket cards. These are the only cards each player will receive individually, and they will only (possibly) be revealed at the showdown, making Texas hold ‘em a closed poker game.
The hand begins with a “pre-flop” betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. A round of betting continues until every player has either folded, put in all of their chips, or matched the amount put in by all other active players. See betting for a detailed account. Note that the blinds are considered “live” in the pre-flop betting round
.After the pre-flop betting round, assuming there remain at least two players taking part in the hand, the dealer deals a flop, three face-up community cards. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer’s left and continue clockwise.
After the flop betting round ends a single community card (called the turn or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river or fifth street) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary.
The Texas Holdem Showdown
If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show his hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. On the showdown, each player plays the best five-card hand he can make from the seven cards comprising his two hole cards and the board (the five community cards).
A player may use both of his own two hole cards, only one, or none at all, to form his final five-card hand. If the five community cards form the player’s best hand, then the player is said to be playing the board and can only hope to split the pot, since the other player can also use the same five cards to construct the same hand.
If the best hand is shared by more than one player, then the pot is split equally among them, with any extra chips going to the first players after the button in clockwise order. It is common for players to have closely-valued, but not identically ranked hands. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand; if the hand involves fewer than five cards, (such as two pair or three of a kind), then kickers are used to settle ties (see the second example below). Note that the card’s numerical rank is of sole importance; suit values are irrelevant in Hold’em.
The best possible hand given the five community cards is referred to as the nuts. For example, on a board such as 2-3-7-8-Q, with no more than two cards of any one suit, the nuts is three queens.
Some Texas Hodem Terms
Buy-in: There is a minimum chip value required to sit at any given table. Normally the minimum is 10 times the higher stake for that game. For some special games, that value may be higher.
Blind: This term refers to the required bets, called the small blind and the big blind used to put money into play. The blinds are mandatory bets and rotate around the table.
Small Blind: This is the mandatory bet required of the player to the left of the dealer.
Big Blind: In games using a blind to put money in play, the big blind is generally equal to the lower amount of the stakes for that game. In a $5/$10 game, the big blind is $5. The big blind follows the small blind, which is put up by the first player to the left of the dealer.
Pot: The chips available to win in any given hand.
Freeroll: This term applies to poker tournaments where the entry fee, the stakes, or both the entry fee and stakes are waived. In some non-freeroll tournaments, the house may guarantee a minimum prize pool.
The Ring table
Poker Rooms provide a vast variety of ring table for play money and real money players. In fact ring games can be found in popular micro limits that start at $0.02/$0.04 and on up to $150 /$300 blinds. On a ring table you have from two to nine players.
A Single table tournaments
Nine players, one table, one goal. Single table tournaments are fill and go tournaments available at a wide range of buy-ins starting at just 10 cents and rising to a serious $500. A single table tournament takes place on one table of nine players. Unlike multi-table tournaments, which have a scheduled start time and registration period, single table tournaments are “fill and go” games. There’s no hanging about; as soon as nine people have sat down at the table, play begins, and once a game has started, another table at those levels opens for registration.
As in any tournament, each player pays the buy-in fee and receives an equal number of chips. Play then starts and continues until one player has won all the available chips at the table. The prize pool is divided between the top 3 finishers, with the winner taking 50% of the prize pool, second place taking 30% and third taking the final 20%.
Doyle’s Room offers a wide variety of tournament levels, with buy-ins ranging from $0.10 to $25. Fast and fun, they don’t want to be missing out.
Multi-table tournaments
Multi-table tournaments are the ultimate tournament experience, as they pit their wits against hundreds of players for a share of the prize pool. With buy-ins starting from just 10c and rising to $200, there’s action aimed at everyone. And if they don’t want to risk any of the hard-earned, their are lots of freerolls too.
Featuring up to 999 players, multi-table tournaments mirror how real world poker tournaments work, and are an exciting way of pitting the wits against other players to take often substantial prizes.
Each multi-table tournament has a set start date and time, with all players registering to play in advance. You can register at any time from when the tournament details are posted up until about 5 minutes before kick off. When registering, they will need to pay the buy-in together with the registration fee, which is typically 10% of the buy-in. Sound confusing? Don’t worry, it’s not. For example, if they wanted to play in a $10 No Limit tournament, the buy-in would be $10 and the entry fee $1, giving a grand total of $11.
When they buy-in, each players starts with the same number of chips and is assigned a random seat on a randomly selected table. The number of tables in play will reflect the number of players who have entered, so if 999 players have entered, then there will be 111 tables at the start of play. As the tournament progresses, and players get knocked out, tables are closed and players are reseated to make sure that tables remain well balanced. Table and seat reassignment is again conducted at random, but takes into consideration the position in relation to the blinds so they don’t lose out. Eventually, nine players will remain on the final table where they will battle it until one player has all the chips.
Once they register, prior to the tournament start, they will receive audio and visual reminders within the poker client and will be allocated a seat at random. You will be able to view the table and seat a few minutes before the tournament start time.
The real beauty of multi-table tournaments is that all the buy-ins form a prize pool, a prize pool that they will be playing for a share of. The pool is determined by a range of factors, such as the number of entrants, the stakes and any possible add-ons (that’s extra money that we put in), and the patheyt structure is similarly determined by the number of entrants. Perhaps the prize pool and patheyts are best illustrated by another example. Say 450 people enter a $10 NL tournament, then their will be a prize pool of $4,500. Using our standard patheyt structure, the winner will walk away with just over $1,200, the runner-up $765. Which isn’t a bad return for $11 and a couple of hours play?
We have a huge range of multi-table tournaments running every day, including freerolls and tournaments with buy-ins ranging from just 10 cents to $200. Our games are fun, fast and exciting, to make sure they experience the thrill of the competition.
Satellite tournaments also called Feeders
Throughout the week there are single-table tournament (STT) satellite qualifiers (labeled “Feeders” in Red in the poker program schedule), leading up to Grand Final games that night plus the big Grand Final on Saturday night. These satellites start as soon as there are 9 people seated. But, unlike our normal single-table tournaments, only the winner takes a prize (nothing for second or third in this game). And instead of taking the money, the satellite winner gets a place in the Grand Final table and a shot at the huge prize pool.
Then, every night we run a big multi-table tournament that’s our Satellite Grand Final, where the prize pools can be thousands and thousands of dollars, the Saturday Grand Final will be in the Tens of thousands! Being a satellite final, there are two ways that they can get a seat. One: they can pay the money and take a place, just as they would for any multi-table tournament. Or two: they can qualify for the final by playing in one of our satellite qualifiers mentioned above. This option may be more appealing, as they can qualify for a fraction of the price.
Speed or Turbo Tournaments
Speed Tournaments offer double the fun in half the time. With blinds increasing every three minutes, Turbo Tournaments increase the blinds every minute! These tournaments offer some of the fastest, most exciting tournament action to be found anywhere on the net, and if they are looking for an exciting poker experience but don’t have hours to spare, we think that they will like these.
With a range of both single table and multi-table speed tournaments on offer, simply look down the list of available tournaments in the poker client and look for those marked as “Speed” or “Turbo”. Entering a speed tournament is uses exactly the same process as normal tournaments.
Rebuy tournament
Make a silly mistake at the start of the tournament? These Rebuy Tourneys will allow they to stay in!
There’s nothing worse than having an early exit from a tournament. There they are, settling in for a nice long poker session and before they know it one silly mistake or horrible bad-beat has sent them packing. But with our rebuy tournaments, the end isn’t necessarily the end, and they can have more lives than a very lucky cat.
How? Because in a rebuy tournament they can purchase additional chips within a certain predefined period of a tournament if they bust out or fall below a certain chip count. For example:
You’re playing in a $5 tournament and they started with 2,000 chips. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes they have lost the lot. Naturally, they would like to carry on playing (come on, who wouldn’t?) and the good news is, that in a rebuy tournament they can! When they get busted, a little pop-up window will appear asking if they would like to pay a further $5 to carry on in the tournament. Click no, and it’s adios. But click yes, and 2,000 more chips will be delivered to them before the next hand.
Good Luck!
xox
