Online Poker News

As sure as another day will dawn, more players are exiting from the WSOP main event and the number of tables has now diminished. Phil Collins of Las Vegas picked up 3.5 million in chips during the first two hours of play on Sunday and 72 players were eliminated from the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament after six hours, as the finalists pushed into six-figure payout territory. Phil is a26-year-old poker professional who used to play online before federal indictments shut down the top poker websites to Americans. He took the chip lead Sunday at the World Series of Poker main event, and then added to his stack by taking out last year’s third-place finisher.

Collins has been playing aggressively and his boldness certainly seems to be paying dividends as he eliminated player after player and moved past the 10 million in chips. “I’ve been playing the best poker of my life, and playing this tournament exactly how I want to play it,” he remarked and it his strategy of not playing big pots in situations where he has marginal hands is paying off for now at least. We shall be keeping an eye on his progress.

No one can promise that you’ll win the game with these tips but they will keep you in the game longer. 23 year-old, Jonathan Duhamel became the World Champion of Poker this week. He dropped out of university about 2 years ago to play poker for a living and these are some of his tips.

Build up your skills by playing at an online poker site, many poker players study poker by playing online, building up skills before they even think of becoming professional poker players. It’s all down to study, you really have to study the game hard and you will find that many pro’s read books and articles online. They believe that it takes years to build up the needed skills of analysis, strategy, mathematics and problem solving; many poker players play 15-20 poker games online at any one time, some savvy younger players can even play 30 and 40 at a time. Perhaps it’s time to go to your online casino and get in some practice!

It’s here in Europe and already it’s a sell out, you know, the WSOP hit town and the bracelet chase is underway once again as play has started in London for the 2010 edition of the World Series of Poker Europe. Five events are scheduled from Sept. 14 through Sept. 28 and the first event, a £ 2,500, six-handed no-limit hold ‘em event began on Tuesday with a capacity field of 244 players.

The three-day event witnessed a ton of eliminations early on with more than half the field heading home less than six hours into play. Some early victims included Tom Dwan, Mike Matusow, Sorel Mizzi, Barry Greenstein and Annette Obrestad. Frank Kassela, the leaders for 2010 World Series of Poker Player of the Year honours, made the trip overseas, but also failed to make it through the first six levels. The chase is on and it should be hot!

It’s a lovely story and what makes the World Series of Poker Main Event so special is its egalitarianism. The tournament does not discriminate based on sex, race, or physical ability; anyone with $10,000 to spare, alternatively the skill and good fortune to win a satellite tournament for a lower price, all can play in its seminal event and test his or her luck against the game’s biggest stars. It was not about a group of 7,319 men and women who put up the five-figure sum doing everything possible to get the largest possible piece of the tournament’s $68.8 million prize pool. It was about the love shared between a father and son.

Gary Kostiuk, a 49-year-old optometrist from Grande Prairie, Alberta, finished 85th to win $79,806. Kostiuk, who won a $350 satellite in a home game with a group of 44 friends to get into the Main Event, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago and now gets around in a wheelchair. His son Ryan is quoted as saying “this might be his last year to be able to make it out here. This is special.” Six years ago, Ryan convinced his father to take up online poker. Two months later, Ryan had a $7,000 score in an online tournament, and both father and son were hooked. Gary’s run finally ended when his pocket 10s fell to an opponent’s pocket king. All you really needed to see was his son lean down to give him a giant bear hug in his wheelchair before rolling him out the door.

Because in Las Vegas, gamblers must be twenty-one years of age to enter a casino, one of the best young professional poker players in the world was prevented from playing in the World Series of Poker the past several years.  However, now Annette Obrestad has reached maturity, and has reached the magical age of twenty one years of age, she is now ready to descend on Las Vegas and make a splash at the tables. Obrestad will not be catching any of the other top players off guard, because she has played in many pro tournaments located in jurisdictions that allow eighteen year-old gamblers.

Heading into the WSOP, which begins this week, Obrestad has been honing her skills online. On Sunday, Obrestad won the PokerStars Sunday 500, and in the process, took home $87,000 that will be used for some of her buy-ins at the WSOP. Will she beat Phil Ivey who made the longest run through the Main Event of any pro player, landing at the final table. Ivey fell short of winning the top prize, however, and will be back again this year to try and rewrite history.