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Today, the World Series of Poker is watched by millions of poker fans around the world, and is a magnet for professional poker players and wealthy amateurs alike. If you like playing poker, but haven’t quite got the means or the expertise to attend the WSOP, you can build up both by playing poker online at skypoker.com.
WSOP 2011

The World Series of Poker has its roots in 1969 at an event known as the Texas Gambling Reunion. This was an invitation-only event that was held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno, Texas, and was sponsored by San Antonio resident Tom Moore. This event was won by Crandell Addington.

 

The following year, Las Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny Binion held a follow-up event at his Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, which was the first to be known as the World Series of Poker, or WSOP for short. The winner of this event, Johnny Moss, was crowned by his fellow gamblers as the first World Poker Champion, and he received a silver cup as a prize. In 1971, the format for the main event as a freeze-out game of Texas Hold ‘em was established.

The World Series of Poker continued at Binion’s Horseshoe casino until it was bought out by Harrah’s Entertainment in 2004. Harrah’s decided to keep on the Horseshoe and WSOP poker brands, but sell off the hotel and casino to the MTR Gaming Group. From 2005 onwards, WSOP became a tournament circuit, with qualifiers at eleven Harrah’s-owned venues around the US, and the Main Event was held at the Harrah’s-owned Rio Hotel and Casino. However, in 2005, the final two days of the event were held at the old Binion’s venue as part of Las Vegas’ centennial celebrations.

2005 also saw the introduction of the Tournament of Champions. The 2005 TOC was made up of the top twenty qualifiers from each WSOP circuit event, alongside winners of nine or more bracelets and the final table from the Main Event. The top prize of $1 million was won by Mike Matusow, and all of the players at the final table were guaranteed to go home with at least $25,000.

To this date, the biggest prize ever won at the World Series of Poker was the $12 million won by 2006 Tournament of Champions winner Jamie Gold. However, that record is set to be broken this year, with a guaranteed prize of over $12.3 million, and possibly as much as $18.3 million, waiting for the winner of The Big One for One Drop, a charity poker game with a buy-in of $1 million. For more information about the charity One Drop, which aims to provide people in poor countries with safe drinking water, visit onedrop.org.

While pretty much anything goes when you want to have fun at your online casino, there are certain things that you would want to avoid if you are serious about winning some cash and maybe even striking a jackpot or two.

For instance, it’s normally not a good idea to take out an insurance bet when you play blackjack at your online casino as these have very little odds in your favor. Taking out insurance bets doubles the house odds and you are in essence wasting your money on them.

Don’t play for too long periods of time, the more you play, the bigger the house advantage gets, so rather log off and come back some other time.

Also, only play when you are in good spirits and you want to have some fun at your online casino. Playing when you are angry or desperate to win money or are tired or have had too much alcohol, will only ensure that the online casino is the only thing that wins at the end of the day.

Don’t play American Roulette if you have the option of rather to play European roulette. European Roulette offers you better odds at winning. The reason for this is that American roulette has an extra double zero bet, and this option ensures that the online casino has double the odds in their favor. Payment methods are quite variable and if you have Visa Electron Casino the payment is easy such as buying milk and bread.

Don’t take the play mode games for granted. While you can’t win money while you are playing free games, you can get some valuable insight into the games and into what you should do when you do decide to deposit money and play for real. Remember that online casino games are run by random number generators, which means that your odds are the same whether you are playing games for fun or for real money, but there is no way in ensuring you can duplicate the same winning experience the next day.

There are a lot of sites offering the game of poker today. You can even start playing poker without making any deposit thanks to no-deposit bonus offers available at different online casino and poker rooms. Although they are perfect for risk-free online poker experiences, they may not be suitable for practicing your poker skills. The no-deposit bonus is very limited in term of amount and you should really save it to win some real money.

Zynga Texas Hold’em Pooker, available through social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, is among the best online poker games you can use to practice your poker skills. You will be up against different level of opponents and different playing strategies, allowing you to learn how to adapt to possible situations quickly.

Another important aspect you can learn by playing poker for free using Zynga’s poker room is bankroll management. Being able to manage your bankroll is essentially important in poker, and you can test your bankroll management strategy while having tons of fun with friends and relatives here. It is literally the best way to enhance your poker skills; before you know it, you will be ready for live poker games with real cash pots to win.

A good rule of thumb to use whenever you practice your poker skills here is to apply your poker strategy with discipline. Don’t worry about what other people are doing and simply stick to your poker formula; you will be able to learn so much in an instant.

Poker is a very interesting casino game to play. It is played against other opponents and not against the house, and it is mainly based on skills instead of just pure luck. That is why you need to make sure you have what it takes to win in poker. One of the most important things to prepare whenever you are playing poker is proper control of your confidence level.

Not many people realize this, but too much confidence can literally kill you in poker. Let’s say you are starting with a hand of A-K, and the flow shows K-2-2; most inexperienced poker players will certainly raise under this circumstance, thinking that their Two Pairs are strong enough. However, the same Two Pairs can easily get beaten by Three of a Kind should anyone on the table has an additional 2.

Another common circumstance when it comes to online poker is to go all-in before seeing the flop. Most people do this when they have high pocket pair, although others are just plain gamblers with ordinary starting hand. Although you may be tempted to call the all-in attempt, be sure to consider your decision thoroughly before you actually make the call.

Having too much confidence can seriously damage your poker bankroll. You need to make sure you have a winning hand before you decide to bet a large portion of your poker bankroll. You may get lucky once or twice, but in poker you can’t always count on luck to stay profitable.

New poker players tend to make mistakes whenever they are making decisions. This is pretty common – even today’s best poker players made mistakes when they were younger – and the best thing to do about it is to learn more about poker and learn from the mistakes. In this part, we are going to discuss about a common mistake most poker beginners make: playing with the wrong starting hand.

2-7 and 2-8, even when they are same-suited, are considered the two lowest possible starting hands in poker. Unless you want to play the hand just for fun, you should always fold these two hands. There is no way you can construct a straight with this kind of starting hand. A Flush is possible when same suited, but it will be a low Flush and can still be easily beaten.

2-10, known as the “Doyle Branson”, is a mediocre starting hand. However, it is definitely not for beginners. The same goes for 3-7, 3-8, 2-6, 2-9, 3-9, 4-9, and the “Dolly Parton” 5-9. They are still playable, but statistically they are not the best gambles in the long run. Remember that poker is all about staying profitable in the long run, and these starting hands will not help you whatsoever in achieving that goal.

Playing an unsuited Ace + low card is also not advised. When suited, the hand can be quite powerful. Unsuited, it is just not good enough. Unless the stake is low and you can live with losing the money just to see the Flop, or Turn, then you should fold instead.

We’ve discussed several poker tips before – some of them are more advanced than the rest – but this time we are going to take a simpler approach and discuss about the most basic thing in poker: hand rankings. Yes, different hands have different relative strength compared to others; understanding them, knowing how to spot them quickly in plays, and of course understanding the relative strength of each hand are essentially important if you want to be a successful poker player.

At the bottom of the food chain – I mean, the poker hand rankings – we have High Card. If you have nothing constructed with your hand, it is categorized as High Card based on the highest card you have. Next, we have Pair; of course, it is constructed by a pair of certain cards. Two Pair is even stronger than Pair because now you have two pairs in your hand.

If you are holding Two Pairs, don’t get overconfident just yet because your hand can easy be topped with a Three of a Kind, followed by a Straight; Straight is achieved when you have different suited cards in order, such as 5-6-7-8-9. To beat a Straight, you will need at least a Flush – same-suited 5-card combination – or a Four of a Kind.

The second strongest hands in poker are of course Straight Flush – same-suited cards in order – and the best of them all is a Royal Flush – same-suited 10-J-Q-K-A. If you have a Royal Flush, lure your opponents into betting more of their money and take down the pot with your unbeatable hand.

If you are new to poker and you want to start playing the game right away, there are several preparations you may want to make. Understanding rules and developing proper poker skills are among the things that are important to master if your goal is to win a lot of money, but knowing how to pick the right poker game to play is also just as important.

There are multiple ways to choose the right game of poker for you. If you have minimum skills and you simply want to practice, for example, it would be best to stay away from live games and seek free poker rooms instead. Different variations of poker may have different rules and of course excitements as well, so simply pick the one you are comfortable with the most.

Choosing the right poker table to engage means knowing your skill level and poker bankroll properly. If you are new and you have limited poker bankroll, it would be best to approach $1/$2 table instead of $5/$10; it may not seem important, but higher stakes tables can quickly decrease your poker bankroll, especially when you are up against more skilled opponents.

Last but not least, consider choosing the right table based on the crowds that are playing. Being comfortable is essential when it comes to playing poker, so you should always take your time and find another table should you feel less comfortable with one. The last thing you would want is to play on tilt because other players irritate you, right?

There are so many factors to consider in a round of poker. In order to make the right decision, you need to consider your hand’s relative strength compared to those of your opponents’, your opponents’ betting pattern, possible stronger hands, etc. and you need to consider them fast. The only way you can master the art of predicting hands is by practicing. In this part, we are going to talk about some basics that you can use to improve your skills right away.

A good approach is to understand each player’s playing style before you start predicting hands. You can easily observe how other players are reacting based on the hand they are holding, and quickly create a summary of their behavior. Then, you can use the understanding to guide your plays easily.

Another good approach is to evaluate the strongest possible hand that can be constructed with table cards and consider any hand stronger than you. Simply think about how would you bet if you are holding stronger hand and assess your opponents based on it. You will be able to make probe bets – if you are playing online – or read tells if you are thorough enough in observing your opponents.

By knowing how to predict hands and how to assess the relative strength of your hand quickly, you can make better, more calculated, decisions that will certainly make you even more profitable when playing poker. Practice make perfect, so be sure to use the skill frequently in order to master it.