Poker purists hate jackpots and high hand gimmicks in any poker room. Because these bonuses are funded from a "bonus drop" at the tables, the "real" poker players feel their advantage over the weaker players is reduced because the jackpots not something you win with skill. The extra drop reduces each and every pot, won by skill, and funds one or more jackpot pools won randomly.
I think the big change in jackpots rooms is that players actually play the game differently when there are jackpots to be won. Let me cite two current examples. I was playing some limit hold'em last weekend in one of the Station casinos in Las Vegas. When an experienced player offered to "chop" the blinds with a new player, someone had to explain the concept to the rookie. The interesting part for me was the explanation contained the words: "First you check to see if you might have a jackpot hand and then you chop." None of the regulars "always chop" in a bonus room; they "chop if not jackpot eligible". Now to be fair the Station bad beat was over $225,000 last weekend, so there is some motivation to pay attention to the existence of the jackpot.
Then we have the online jackpots. Tell me that you aren't tempted to play a bit differently and a bit more, when outrageously monster jackpots are available. Right now, well at least while I am typing this, the Bad Beat Jackpot at Party Poker is approaching $1,000,000. No, that is not a typo. The BBJ at Party is currently Nine Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Dollars. The "loser" of the bad beat would win roughly one-third of a million dollars. Makes you a lot more willing to play those small pocket pairs in early position.

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So, you want to play in a poker tournament?
Well, you are not alone! Tournaments are growing bigger all the time.
Before we really get started, lets define poker tournament. Tournaments are poker competitions where all of the players play at the same time and continue to play until only one player is left. The player that is left is the one to take home all the loot!
Tournaments Are Hot!
Why are tournaments such big events? They
- Are fun to play in
- Have low entry fees
- Offer a large prize pool to be won
- Are an inexpensive way for novice poker players to learn how to play the game
- Provide a place for more experienced players gain experience
Types of Tournaments
While there are many different types of poker games played at casinos and online rooms, tournament play is usually reserved for Texas Holdem, Omaha, and 7-card Stud because these games have a large following.
Poker tournaments can have as few as 6 players (single table tournaments) to thousands of players for larger events. Large tournaments consist of many tables, each table having 8 to 10 players. The tables are slowly removed from the tourney as players are eliminated, and players are balanced from table to table as needed. (These are known as multi-table tournaments). Finally all but the last table will be removed and these last 8 to 10 players play until only one of them remains.
Tournament Basics
To play in a tournament players have to pay two fees.
1. They have to pay an entry fee to the poker room hosting the tournament to cover the expenses involved. This gives the player an assigned seat and a set quantity of tournament chips with which to play (these chips have no cash value).
2. Players also pay a buy-in fee. The buy-in fee is held and paid out as prizes. The prize payout differs from tournament to tournament but typically it all goes to the few players fortunate enough to make the final table.
The object of a tournament is to win all of the chips. All tournament players start out with the same quantity of chips to play with and all start playing at the same time. Players play until they lose all of their chips and are then removed from the tournament. A tournament continues non-stop, often for several hours, until only one person remains.
As playing progresses the stakes rise, making it more and more difficult for players with short stacks to remain in the game.
Players are awarded prize money based on their finishing position in the tournament. The top finishers earn the most money with the 1st place winner usually receiving about 30% of the total prize money, the 2nd place winner about 20% and so on.
The number of winners and the size of the payouts depend upon the rules for the tournament being played and the number of people playing.
Re-buys and Add-ons
Some poker tournaments allow players a re-buy option. This re-buy option allows players to purchase more chips if they run out of them at the start of the tournament. A player can purchase the same number of chips that he/she started the tournament with. Some poker tournaments allow unlimited re-buys during the first hour of play, while other tournaments allow only a single re-buy.
An add-on option is similar to the re-buy option. Add-ons differ in that they are usually only offered once at the end of the re-buy period and can be purchased regardless of how many chips you have. As the name implies, these chips are added on to your stack of chips.
All proceeds from re-buys and add-ons are added to the prize pool less house fees (if applicable).
Betting
Tournament betting is structured with the betting limit increasing regularly. The changes in betting limits occur differently depending on the tournament; some are timed while some increase the limit after a set number of rounds are played.
Balancing and Collapsing Tables
Larger tournaments start out with more than one table, each having 8 to 10 players. As the tournament progresses players will be eliminated and the number of players at each table will not remain the same. For the tournament to be fair, the number of players at each table should be the same, so the organizers move players from table to table in an attempt to keep all the tables equally populated.
Balancing is the practice of moving players from full tables to less full tables when the difference is 3 or more players.
Collapsing tables is the practice of removing tables once there are enough empty spaces among the rest of the tables to do so. Thus with 10 player tables when there are 10 empty spaces the players from one table are moved to empty spaces and that table is taken out of play.
And there you have it - the basics of tourney poker. New to the game or an old pro, getting into a tournament can be a great experience. Why not give it a try.

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Olympics marching on in Beijing, its natural to have ones eyes open to other countries, their cultures, and how they play their poker and sports. For the large majority of the world, the two are distinctly separate - poker is regarded with the slight disdain of a gambling game, where as sport is typically upstanding and competitive.

However in Russia poker is a sport. The fact that the game has been declared a sport by the government opens doors for many counties to follow suit. While there is little doubt that they will do the exact same in declaring poker a sport. It does give precedent for them to change and alleviate their stance on what is usually regarded as gambling and often illegal.

As a result poker in Russia is booming, with many poker only clubs opening up in Moscow.

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Bodog Poker wants to help you read your poker opponents and improve your game, so we put together this short and humorous video that shows you involuntary and common poker tells to look for the first time you sit down with someone.
Most skilled poker players have is the ability to read their opponents, which is why in the game of poker we often hear about poker tells - any physical reaction, kind of behavior, or habit that gives (or tells) the other players information about your hand.
Generally, when a player acts like they have a strong hand, they usually have a weak hand and when they act like they have a weak hand, they probably have a strong hand. This example of a common poker tell is easily spotted when you know what to look for.
If you learn how to profile your poker opponent and how to spot common tells, you can not only keep an eye on your own behavior, but you can also watch for the habits of the others.

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Bodogs own Grant Hinkle has picked up the ultimate World Series of Poker prize:  a winning bracelet.
Grant won the $1500 No Limit Holdem event in Las Vegas on June 4th, outlasting nearly four thousand players that had competed in WSOP event #2.  The take home?  A cool $831,462.  Thats a big wad o cash, even if youre a European and do the conversion to Euros.
It was a little bit of an adjustment for Grant to move from his normal $50 buy-in game at home, but it was obviously a successful change in strategy.  He hear he got help with his strategy from his younger brother.  The gist of that advice is something weve all heard a million times, but still holds true.  Table playing tight?  Loosen up!
Theres a lot of World Series still left to go (months and months and months in fact, because of the delayed final table), so check back for more WSOP news.

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Six Of WSOP ME’s “November Nine” PokerStars Players

An extraordinary story has brewed around the world’s largest online poker room, PokerStars, as it’s been confirmed that six of the 2008 World Series of Poker’s final tablists – the November Nine – are PokerStars players.
In order of WSOP Main Event final table chip leads, these six exceptionally skilled poker players and members of PokerStars.com are:
Dennis Phillips, with 26,295,000
A commercial truck dealer in Missouri, 53 year-old Dennis Phillips is elated to be in his current position in the 2008 WSOP. Holding the highest stack for the last several days of WSOP competition, the only person truly surprised that Phillips is entering the November final table with the lead is Dennis himself. A truly humble man, he did not even bother to tell his friends he had won a satellite seat in the WSOP Main Event until several weeks after the fact, and even then it took a few beers to loosen his modest lips.
Dennis Phillips has only been playing poker for about 4 years, taking up cards as a hobby. Phillips rejected numerous offers to wear online poker paraphernalia, but finally accepted an offer from PokerStars to wear a logo patch on his ST Louis Cardinals cap and tucking company shirt.
Ivan Demidov, with 24,400,000
Currently holding the second highest chip stack in the WSOP Main Event final table, Ivan is a 27 year old from Moscow. The WSOP Main Event is Demidov’s first live poker tournament, and what a kick-off career move it will be, guaranteeing at least $900,000 already. Should Ivan go on to win the 2008 WSOP Main Event bracelet, he will become the first ever Russian poker player to do so.
Peter Eastgate, with 18,375,000
22 year old Peter Eastgate from Europe has been playing poker for quite some time, having an extensive online poker career that includes membership at PokerStars. With a relatively low stack of 10 million chips (compared to the competition), Eastgate nearly doubled to 18 million, earning a spot in the November Nine when his Pocket Aces held true.
Ylon Schwarz, with 12,525,000
Ylon Schwarz is a professional poker player who’s earned 11 cashes in WSOP vents alone since 2005. At 38 years of age, the New York poker pro kept a low-key profile throughout the WSOP Main Event, claiming numerous small pots to keep himself alive for the Final Nine. When Ylon found himself under the lights of television cameras, he “went a little nuts”. Thankful for the dinner break, Schwarz regrouped himself and came back strong to end with the 5th highest chip stack going into the final table.
Darus Suharto, with 12,520,000
Darus Suharto, or “Dennis_TO” as he’s known at Poker Stars, is a 39 year old accountant from Canada. Darus is no stranger to the World Series of Poker, having won a seat in the 2006 WSOP Main Event through PokerStars, where he played well enough to finish in the money bubble. Suharto was instantly hooked, and is more than pleased to be awaiting the final table in November.
David Rheem, with 10,230,000
David “Chino” Rheem is a professional poker player out of California who earned himself 15 live tournament cashes worth $634,657; 5 in WSOP events, but none thus far in the WSOP Main Event. While he may seem out-stacked at the moment, one advantage Rheem takes into the final table is that he has actually taken down a live poker tournament in the history of his career, not something many of his fellow November Nine can claim.

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A little over half way through a 90 player multi table Sit n go on Full Tilt the other night, I made a mistake that I wanted to share because it re-enforces a belief of mine about calling an all-in during an online game. That is, at least 95% of the time, unless a player is short stacked, his all-in means he has a very good hand, no matter how stupid making that all-in bet may have been. Most online players are not sophisticated enough to disguise a monster hand. Their first reaction is to go all-in. If you interpret that as a play to push you out of a hand, you may be in trouble more often than not.
There were about 40 players left out of 90, and I had a comfortable chip stack of about $14,900 or nearly double the average stack. I had been playing smart, efficient, poker, capitalizing on other players mistakes and I let my guard down for an instant.
The player under the gun was very short stacked with about $1250 in chips. He went all-in. The other big stack at the table called this all-in (he had about $15,500 in chips) and I called as well, following the 10x rule, with my J-T off suit. Everyone else folded. It is worth noting that this was a tournament as well, so there was a bounty for knocking out the small stack. I assumed this was why the other big stack was in the hand, and he probably thought the same thing about me.
The Flop came J-6-2 rainbow. This was a very good Flop for me, and since I had seen this player push other players out of the pot to collect a in previous hands, I decided to bet. This is common place in knockout tournaments, you will see it a lot. So, I bet out with $1200 after he checked. The pot was already $4350, so I figured to either move him out of the way or build it for my top pair.
He responded by going all-in. At this point, I was suspicious, because as I said, I had seen him push other players off a pot in order to knock someone else out and collect their I did not figure him for A-A, K-K, or Q-Q as he did not re-raise me pre-flop. In my mind he probably had A-K or A-Q and was trying to see if I would go away. Against A-K or A-Q I was better than a 4:1 favorite to win the hand. If he had a small pocket pair, which was my other suspicion, then would be nearly a lock with over a 90% chance of winning the hand. If he made trips, then I would obviously be in trouble, but I just could not imagine him not slow-playing if he had made a set on the Flop.
In retrospect, I should have thought about it longer; I was in the top 10 in this tournament and really set up well to make the money. It was just not worth the call in the overall picture of things, but I made the call nevertheless. He turned over A-J and when no miracle came on the Turn or River, he doubled up and put two players out at the same time.
There are two lessons here, one is KICKER KICKER KICKER. Quite possibly I over analyzed what he had and talked myself into making the call based on some of his previous plays. I really did not have a high enough kicker to make this call. The other lesson is, respect the all-in. Most internet players are just not savy enough to try and maximize their wins. They hit top hand and get excited and go all-in. 95% of the time this is the case. Top players would try to give you irresistible pot odds to keep making calls and sucking money out of your chip stack. Novice players see a good hand and go all-in. It is such a basic move that it works much of the time because you think that their bet is so stupid that they must be bluffing. Respect the all-in and it will keep you from falling into the trap of making the bone-head call that I made in this case.
If you are interested in more in depth, hand analysis such as this one, please check out my e-book, The No B.S. Guide To Winning Online No Limit Texas Holdem.

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Online poker rooms often run tournaments with guaranteed prize pools. When not enough players enter to make the guarantee, the room has to make up the difference. That difference is called an overlay, and it basically amounts to money added to the prize pool of a tournament - a great value for online poker players.
We review dozens of guaranteed tournaments every week and let you know which ones have an overlays and which don't. By reviewing the past performance of a tournament, you get a very good sense for what tournaments are likely to have overlays in the future - and those are the tournaments smart players want to enter.

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Following the success of the first two Virgin Poker Festivals which were held Birmingham and Newcastle respectively, Virgin Poker held its third event at the largest poker room in Europe, Dusk Till Dawn Poker Room in Nottingham, on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th June 2008. 259 poker players turned up for the weekend and took part in a two-day live poker tournament all battling for a share of Virgin Pokers £ 32,000 prize pot!
There was no direct buy-in all players had to qualify through VirginPoker.com, the main tournament saw 259 poker players compete in the 3rd Virgin Poker Festival, . Stephen Docherty from Carlisle walked away with the £ 10,800 first prize after beating Malcolm Muskett, who took down the £ 6,115 runner-up prize.
Stephen Docherty won the third Virgin Poker Festival when he hit a six on the river, giving him a pair of tens and sixes with a Queen kicker, which put out Malcolm Musketts two pair of tens and fives.
To add a Virgin kick to the tournament, players in the main event were given the chance to knock-out key opponents whose heads carried bounties of fantastic Virgin giveaways. For those not lucky enough to win a seat at the main tournament table - or those players who suffered an early exit - side events ran over the weekend giving everyone the opportunity to get involved and be in with the chance of winning 50,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles courtesy of Virgin.
Practice tables offered live play classes for less experienced players, while Wii bowling was called back by popular demand.
The next Virgin Poker Festival is sexpected to take place in London Town this September with qualification on the Virgin Poker website set to get underway in early July.
Final results:
1. Stephen Docherty, £ 10,800
2. Malcolm Muskett, £ 6,115
3. Jamie OConnor, £ 3,820
4. Derek Miller, £ 2,6580
5. Robert Swindell, £ 2,160
6. David Newstead, £ 1,495
7. Jonathan Titley, £ 1,165
8. Brian Boing Blit Yates, £ 830
9. Frazer Beattie, £ 665
10.

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and cash game poker. Bob will also be one of the online commentators for the poker Tour of the Americas (PTA). Vega has licensed the trademarked name Bob the Butcher to ButcherPoker, LTD for use on their online gaming website. We are also working with other companies to expand their brands internationally and will provide updates as they become available.
Media Production Services. We recently announced the development of the poker Tour of the Americas (PTA). The PTA is a series of poker tournaments held in locations in North and South America. The Tour, similar to the World poker Tour, will be filmed for television and Vega will be the Executive Producer. As Executive Producer, we will own the content and will be responsible for selling the advertising for the programming. Rather than sell the idea to the network, we will purchase the necessary airtime to run the programming. The programs will be aired throughout North and South America and we will profit from the sale of advertising each time the programs are aired. More information about the PTA will be provided as it becomes available.
We want to thank our loyal shareholders for their continued patience and understanding during this time of growth and look forward to providing further information on the projects we are working on as we move forward.
Sincerely,
Michael Herron
CEO
About Vega Promotional Systems, Inc.:
Vega Promotional Systems, Inc. is a promotions and marketing company that is seeking complementary business opportunities that will allow it to increase its shareholder value. The Companys stock trades under the symbol VGPR on the pink sheets.
Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words and similar expressions and all statements, which are not historical facts, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance (finance or operating) or achievements to differ from future results, performance (financing and operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Vega Promotional Systems, Inc.

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A bracelet win has so far not been in the cards for Phil Hellmuth in the 2008 WSOP. He managed to get close again in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, but he hit the rail in third place on Tuesday. Instead it was amateur player James Schaaf who picked up a new bracelet after never having cashed in a WSOP event before.
Schaaf is a 36-year-old software engineer from Torrance, Calif. He plays very few tournaments, and almost didnt make it past the first day of this one.
All the players started out with $3,000 in chips in this event, and at one point, Schaaf was down to just $200. He was all-in a few times to get his stack to around $500, which he hovered at for several hands before going all-in again with J-T-8 in a Razz round.
Normally that would be a terrible starting hand in a lowball game like Razz, but it worked out for Schaaf and he tripled up and made it through the day.
In the end it came down to Schaaf versus Tommy Hang. The final hand came during a round of Stud Eight-or-Better.
Schaaf raised with #6h and Hang called with #Jc. On fourth street, Hang bet his #2h, and Schaaf called with #8c. Schaaf took the lead on fifth street, betting out with his #9h, and Hang called with the #7h. When sixth street came along, Schaaf bet his #8h, Hang raised all-in with #7s, and Schaaf made the call.
Hang had trip sevens for a powerful heads-up hand, but Schaafs run of good cards continued and he turned up an eight in the hole for trip eights.

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Poker has gained tremendous popularity on the net in the past several years and you can find a wide array of poker games at any good online poker. Poker has the most variations of all the classic casino games and offers the player a wide range of games to choose from. One popular variation of poker is Jacks or Better. Jacks or Better is based on the standard poker game but has several different rules.

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Crude, yes, but effective ( or is that affected?! ) I ended up using this formula because it accommodates different buy-in amounts and weve had a couple of those already.
It doesnt include knockout points / counts, and money totals, but if theres enough clamor for any of those Im sure we could figure something out.
This also doesnt include any results from Tourney #9 (because somebody hasnt posted them yetMike!).

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Barry Gibb, big-money poker and cards flying on a Friday, how good can it get?
Especially if you're John Stevenson. Or Gary Flur.
Those two were among the locals sitting at Barry Gibb's table at the Seminole Hard Rock and Casino Friday, for the opening hands of the casino's first big-money charity tournament.
By rules of the recently negotiated compact between the Seminoles and the state (see John Holland's story here), the Hard Rock can hold six big-money tournaments a year, providing a cut of it goes to charity.
In this case, 20 percent of the entry fee went toward the Miami Beach Health Foundation, which Gibb co-chairs. (Accounting question: If you play in a poker tournament where you can win money, but some goes to charity, can you write it off? Trying to find that one out...)
About 90 people showed up for Friday, the first day of play. The tournament is also taking entrants on Saturday. Then those players surviving either of those two opening days meet on Sunday to play it down to a winner.
Back to Gibb. Turns out he plays a little bit in Vegas, according to a family friend, but his wife, Linda, is the real player, he said. A couple of other Gibb relatives also were scattered across the room.
Gibb's friend was a prophet: 55 minutes into the tournament, Linda hit a full house and knocked out Barry, who had a set.
Who are John Stevenson and Gary Flur?
Well, Stevenson owns Stevenson Roofing in Plantation, and was seated next to Gibb (he's also known as "the commissioner" of the basketball court along S.R. A1A and Fort Lauderdale Beach). So when the tournament got ready to start, paparazzi galore started firing off flashbulbs in his eyes. (Apparently Gibb's photo is worth something to celeb photographers.)
"It was kind of cool, no problem," said Stephenson, who like many, plays in bigger tournaments elsewhere in the country, so he was eager to see larger tournaments happen here. (He's the guy in the photo with Gibb. Photo/courtesy of Ralph Notaro/NDM Images)
Flur lives in Plantation Acres and was also at the table, and is a friend of mine, so what the heck, I' m throwing him on the blog here. He's headed out to Vegas for the WSOP in a few days.
2007 WSOP event bracelet winner Fred Goldberg of Plantation showed up, but couldn't play because he had a commitment Sunday. But he said most of the players are the better Hard Rock players, the locals.

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