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Tournament Indicator is unlike any other poker calculator because it is specifically designed for Texas Holdem online tournament play. The indicators used in the software are the same you would use in a real tournament situation, but are quite different from a ring or cash game.

Poker calculator designed for ring games simply cannot offer the critical information used to make correct decisions in tournaments. Correct decision making at game critical intersects is what makes a tournament player successful.

Here are some of the features Tournament Indicator offers an online tournament player:

Instant MZone Calculations
Now you will know what MZone you are in as well as every other players' at your table. Depending on which MZone you are in can drastically alter your strategy, and the same is for your opponents. Only now, you are the only one with ALL the critical information at the table.

Player Profiling
In early tournament play you can learn a lot about your opponents by watching everything they do. Harder said than done, but Tournament Indicator does it all for you tracking VPIP%, Aggression, PFR%, showdown wins, and more. All these combined make for real-time player classifications that you can use against your opponents at the right time.

Tilt Factor Monitoring
New to poker calculator also is Tournament Indicator's ability to provide you with insight as to your opponent's tilt potential. By tracking hand streak in wins and losses and a tally on the player's stack over the last 10 hands gives you even more insight into that players current psyche.

MatchCard Showdown
Different criteria enter into the decision making process as a tournament winds down. Whether you are short stack, big stack or other, in the money or on the bubble, you will be faced with numerous all-in confrontations as part of the normal play of tournaments. What Tournament Indicator's MatchCard feature offers is a quick view of potential hands you might be up against.

Odds Calculations
Holdem Indicator set the standard for quick, easy to understand odds display while incorporating a visual display of comparing win odds to pot odds in each betting round. Tournament Indicator uses that same technology to give users the most relevant information with proven, reliable technology.

MiniView and Customized Settings
You won't feel squeezed on your computer screen as Tournament Indicator can be minimized on the game window. We like our profile settings but if you don't, just go ahead and adjust the profiling, and tilt factor settings to where they make more sense for you.

Video Tutorial Guide
Tournament Indicator introduces the Video Tutorial Guide compiled by Marty Smith. Watch these quick, informative videos and you will be using Tournament Indicator to it's full extent in your very first tournament.

Originally uploaded by HolyokeHangover

The saying goes that grinding low-stakes poker will suck the life out of you, but playing poker for a living has its obvious benefits. And it doesn't matter if you 17-table $25 NL 40 hours a week or you bust a couple chumps a week at Ivey deathmatch.

Drawbacks are pretty much guaranteed, true, but the positives so outweigh the negatives that it's really no contest. Let's go over the positives, as they are the most fun.

Best of all, you work for yourself. There's nobody breathing down your neck telling you to get stuff done. You are your own boss. You have nobody to answer to but yourself.

This freedom is easily the best benefit by far. If you don't feel like playing one day, guess what? You don't have to. Which brings me to my next point:

You can take time off whenever you want. Oh, your friends are going to be heading out of town for the week and want you to join them? No problem; you can just play more leading up to that week and take the whole week off. No holiday problems; no nothing. You want the time off, you take it. Simple as that.

You set your own hours. Sure, playing poker is a job just like any other. If you don't put the time in, you're not going to get ahead. However, when playing poker you get to decide when you put those hours in.

If the games are no good then you can go for a run and come back or try again in the evening when the games are better. If you are going out at night then get your hours in earlier in the day. Flexibility my friend: it's the spice of life.

You can get up whenever you want. Obviously a huge bonus. Who likes getting up early? Nobody, unless they are sick and twisted. When you bend cards for a living you can get up whenever you want. Sleeping in till 1 p.m. never felt so good. I mean what else are you going to do when you are taking flops till 5 a.m.?

You can work from home. If you don't want to make a trip to the casino, any number of online sites are only a click away. Online poker has brought poker into our living rooms. And me and my 42-inch LCD TV and wireless mouse and keyboard are more than happy to welcome it in from the couch.

You can make serious money. Rarely are you going to be able to make the money that is out there to be made doing anything else for yourself. There are supernovas on Stars making 100k+ a year grinding microstakes.

How sick is that? You need no schooling for poker. Just the will to put in time to get better. Anyone can beat this game; it's just whether or not you want it bad enough.

So there you have it - even if you are just playing microstakes, you get to reap the rewards of the poker lifestyle. Contrast that with working every day in a cubicle getting blinded by fluorescent lights.

(Source)

Celebrity poker player Ben Affleck bested 100 players to win the "Poker at the Ballpark" charity poker tournament hosted by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) in Denver during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The event raised over $60,000 for the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

The charity poker tournament was held at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, this past Tuesday (August 26).

Besides Affleck, other celebrities who attendaed included recently-single (yay) Sarah Silverman, Richard Dreyfuss and Montel Williams, along with poker pros Andy Bloch and Barry Greenstein. There were also lawmakers, aides and delegates that played in the tournament.

There were new ethic rules and laws put into action in 2007 to make it harder for lobbyists to buy their way in. But this charity tournament got the okay from the Congressional Ethics Committee because all of the proceeds from the tournament were going to charity.

The event raised about $60,000 dollars for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and hopefully it changed the minds of lawmakers towards online poker.

The Poker Players Alliance will continue to lobby a new set of folks for legalizing online poker at another tournament next week, at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota (click here for related article).

(Source)

Omaha Hi-Lo, or O8 as it's commonly called, is growing in popularity both live and online thanks to its heavy action and the complexity of play compared to No-Limit Hold'em.

This article details basic beginner strategy for playing O8 in a loose-aggressive cash-game setting.

The majority of O8 games you will play - especially at the lower limits - will be very active and aggressive games, with upward of five players seeing a flop every hand. This is even common in many higher-limit games.

For the basic rules of how a Hi-Lo game works, refer to this article: More to Poker Than Hold'em Part 1: Omaha.

Key Skills for Winning at Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

>Seldom raise before the flop.
>Remember that your aim is to scoop the pot.
>Be able to fold on the flop very often.
>Play premium starting hands.
>Select your table carefully. Only play in loose games where five or more players see the flop on average.
>Hone your ability to quickly calculate accurate odds.
>All of this advice is very general, but will serve you well if you apply it judiciously. Seldom raising before the flop does not mean it's incorrect to ever raise before the flop.

In a game like O8, with almost-guaranteed high, loose action, raising before the flop with anything less than a premium hand does little more than increase the size of the pot.

Key Advice for Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

Much as Omaha Hi is, O8 is considered to be a nut game. Meaning that if you do not have the nut hand, there is a very good chance you will not win the pot. For this reason, you want to be very selective in the hands you play, only playing hands with "nut" potential.

The most important thing to remember is the scooping advice. Your main goal in O8 is to win both the high and the low. In reality, scooping (winning both the high and low) is a difficult thing to do and, for the most part, rather rare.

When playing Omaha, your goal is to play for the high, with a redraw to the low. If you have the nut high, you are guaranteed half the pot. Holding nothing but the nut low still puts you at risk for being quartered, or worse.

Common Mistakes in Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

>Playing too many starting hands.
>Calling all the way with only a low potential.
>Seeing flops with four middle cards, like 6-7-8-9.
>Raising with A-2 in early position and making players fold instead of seeing the flop cheaply with more players in.
>Starting Hand Guide for Limit Omaha Hi-Lo (full table, 8-10 players)

The best starting hands in Omaha Hi-Lo are A-A-2-3 double-suited, followed by A-A-2-4 double-suited. This kind of hand is very strong because it can be played for both high and low, which gives it great scoop potential. Of course, being suited or (even better) double-suited adds value to every hand.

Profitable starting hands
A-A-2-x
A-A-3-x
A-A-4-5
A-2-3-x
A-2-K-K
A-2-Q-Q
A-2-J-J
A-3-4-5
A-A-x-x
A-2-K-Q
A-2-K-J
A-2-x-x (suited ace)
A-3-K-K
A-3-4-x
2-3-4-5 (fold if there is no ace on the flop)
J-Q-K-A
T-J-Q-K
K-K-Q-J
Q-J-T-9
2-3-4-x (fold if there is no ace on the flop)

Beginners may find themselves getting overzealous with any hand containing an ace-deuce. Although A-2 will make the nut low more often than any other two-card combination, it's a losing-money proposition to be overly aggressive with weak hands containing strictly low possibilities.

You're also better off folding hands that hold two gaps (for example A-4-5-9). The chances of making a straight are under 1% and you seldom win the low.

Hands like 3-4-5-6, 4-5-6-7, 5-6-7-8 and 6-7-8-9 also have a negative expected value. Omaha variants being the nut games they are, these sorts of middle-connected hands are useless. They have a very low possibility of making the nuts and thus should not be played.

High pairs with two random cards like K-K-x-x or Q-Q-x-x are rarely, if ever, playable on a full table, although a high pair with two low cards that also make your hand suited or double-suited is playable in most games.

For example K-K-2-4 double-suited is a playable hand with decent scooping potential. Be sure not to over-value the hand when hitting second nuts.

Part two of the beginners guide to Omaha Hi-Lo will go into basic strategy and play on all five streets, plus how to put your starting hand selection into use.

(Source)

brian-townsend-03
Originally uploaded by fulltiltpoker

For the past 6 months I have been playing under the 2nd aliases Stellarnebula on FTP and makersmark66 on PokerStars. I have not used the aba20 account on Stars since I began playing on the Makersmark66 account. I have since gone back to using the aba20 account and will play only that account. During this time I played the 25/50 and 100/200 PLO games. I played under the Stellarnebula account from February until the end of June at which time Lee Jones and I had a discussion and we came to an agreement that I needed to close it.

During this time I was playing under the Brian Townsend account, never at the same table with the Stellarnebula. Under the Stellarnebula account I played 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 PLO. During this time I played a very small amount of 50/100 PLO and primarily 200/400 PLO under the Brian Townsend account. I wanted to have come forward and make this public sooner, but unfortunately because of certain business relationships I could not do that. What I did was wrong and I am going to be punished by FullTilt poker by having my red pro status revoked for 6 months. I am unsure what action, if any, PokerStars will take. I have also hurt those that I work closely with primarily at CardRunners but also at FullTilt.

To compensate those that were hurt by my actions I am going to be donating $25,000 dollars to a charity to be determined in the future. This money will be removed from my CardRunners distributions. This is by no means me making my actions correct but I hope that it shows some good faith towards those that I work closely with. I am very proud of CardRunners; we are doing something very special. My first reaction when this occurred was to go hide under a rock. I am not going to do that and I will answer any questions that are asked of me. I feel that I have nothing to hide. Those are the pertinent facts. The reason why I created these accounts was because I enjoy anonymity when playing smaller and am very prideful in what I do.

The past two years I have made a lot of money playing poker. This year I have been breakeven. For me it’s correct to play smaller when things aren’t going well. I have never played poker for the money; it has always been a byproduct of my play. Whatever I do I want to be the best at it. For me playing the 200/400 PLO games was not the right thing to do because my results haven’t been good. I think I am a winner in those games and I intend to prove to myself that I am one of the best poker players in the world. I believe what it takes is an incredible amount of focus and work to accomplish this goal. I intend to work harder than anyone to prove this, because I have not been playing my best for the past year. I have something to prove to myself. I have removed what I have online and left myself with 100K. From here I am going to play 25/50 PLO until I have 200K then 50/100 until I have 400K online then 100/200 until I have 800K online. From there I will play 200/400. If things don’t go well when I first move up I will move back down and rinse and repeat until I am at the 200/400 PLO games. I used to think that playing 25/50, 50/100, and 100/200 was a failure because I wasn’t playing the largest limits. I am smart enough to move down when things aren’t going well; I was just too prideful to make it public.

Along with this I plan on continuing managing CardRunners and create the best poker instructional videos. I have put a lot of effort into my past videos and I want my partners to know that effort will continue, as well as the effort I put into running the company. I hope that people can look to me and not only learn about poker and bankroll management, but also how to do the right thing and be a good person.

Poker isn’t about luck or how you are running. It’s about the work and effort that you put into it. I have not had good results this year because of my poor play and lack of focus, not because I have run below expectation. I want to prove that to everyone. If you follow my play as I move up you will see the trials and tribulations that I face. There will be days of intense frustration and times when I will doubt my game. But I know that with hard work I can accomplish the goal I am setting. I hope that people can not only look to me for poker education but also for the way to live their lives. I made a mistake and I am willing to take responsibility for it. I am willing to stand up and face the music. I apologize to entire the online community. I will never partake in this type of activity in the future. This post should act as a full admission of my guilt, and I sincerely apologize to anyone that I've wronged.

(SOUCRE - My Apology)

Pot limit Omaha is catching on like wild fire in card rooms and casinos around the world, especially in high stakes online cash games. The game is poker's newest fad.

Here's how to play Omaha.

Just like Texas Hold'em, there's a small blind and big blind to help start the action. Then, each player is dealt four cards face down followed by the first round of betting. Once the betting is complete, three community cards are flopped in the middle. Another round of betting is followed by the turn card. There's another round of betting, the river card, and the final round of betting.

The biggest differences between Omaha and Hold'em is that you get four hole cards in Omaha as opposed to two in Hold'em, and in Omaha, you can only use two of your hole cards and must play three cards from the board.

Okay, let's proceed.

In Hold'em, if the final board read A-K-Q-J-10 with no flush draw, you'd obviously play the straight on the board without using either of your hole cards. In Omaha, though, you'd have to have in your hand any two card combination containing a ten or higher to complete that straight.

Keep in mind that the average winning hand in Omaha is much stronger than in Hold'em because players start the game with more cards. One pair rarely wins an Omaha pot even if that pair is aces. In Hold'em, on the other hand, a pair of aces is right around the average winning hand.

Pot limit Omaha is growing in popularity because the game creates much more action than Hold'em; the game simply affords more opportunity to gamble. It's common for pots to get pretty big in Omaha because two or more players are likely to develop strong hands after the flop.

Consider this example: Player A holds Ah-Jh-Qs-9d and Player B holds 10c-10s-8c-7d. The flop comes 10h-8h-2c.
Although Player B has the best hand after the flop with three tens, Player A holds a powerful drawing hand with the ace high flush draw as well as a wrap - a straight draw with more than two different cards to complete it. Player A is looking for a 7, 9, jack or a heart to win the pot, provided that the board doesn't pair which would make a full house for Player B.

So, if you had to put all of your money into the pot, which hand would you choose?
Well, it's actually a trick question. These hands are exactly even in strength after the flop. It's 50-50, right on the dot. Both players would be absolutely correct to risk all of their chips after the flop. It's rare to find these true coin flip situations in Hold'em, but surprisingly common in Omaha.

That's one of the reasons why Omaha is the perfect game for action junkies who relish the notion of flipping coins for large sums of money.

But don't fool yourself, pot limit Omaha is clearly a game of immense skill. Over the long run, the most talented players will win by making good folds and big bluffs; weak players will chase draws they should be folding and call bets on the river when their hands are hopeless.

Among high stakes online players, pot limit Omaha has already surpassed Hold'em in popularity. Mainstream players, however, will always prefer to play Hold'em because it's definitely an easier game to learn. Also, most people just aren't crazy about risking it all on one hand - a fairly common occurrence in pot limit Omaha.

High stakes gamblers love heart-racing Omaha-type action; normal poker players don't!


Written by Daniel Negreanu
Friday, 22 August 2008 10:23

Sunday Warm-Up Guarantee Also Increases to $750,000

PokerStars, the largest poker site in the world, is staying ahead of the game as it recently announced that its flagship tournament, the Sunday Million, will now have a guarantee of $1.5 million, an increase of 50 percent.

The $215 buy-in Sunday Million runs weekly at 4:30 p.m. ET. Satellites run around the clock for as little as $3. This isn’t the only tournament getting increased guarantees, either. The Sunday Warm-Up is also offering an upped minimum prize pool of $750,000. That event also features a buy-in of $215 and is no-limit hold'em, but it runs just before the Sunday Million at 12:45 p.m. ET. The $1,050 buy-in Super Tuesday tournament's guarantee will now be $300,000 (up from $250,000).