Daily Online Poker Room News

[I Heart Gambling Online]

Maybe watching Danica Patrick become the first woman to win an Indy Car race inspired online poker players to come out to the Bodog Poker room and shoot for one of the largest prizes in online poker. Or, maybe she had nothing to do with it and online poker players just like playing for a piece of a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. Either way, 756 came out last night aiming to take home the $25,000 first-place prize and "kingsya" managed to outlast them all to take it home.

This is the largest career cash for "kingsya" at Bodog but just barely. The online poker player won $17,500 earlier this year for winning the $50 buy-in tournament as well as several other smaller tournament wins and final tables.

All told, the $100,000 paid out to 63 spots and here is the top of that list, otherwise known as the final table:

1. kingsya - $25,000
2. boozeorlose - $14,300
3. chrisc7 - $9,200
4. Cosmic Power - $6,900
5. soggyvag2 - $5,500
6. Thrash123 - $4,500
7. jacksup13 - $3,500
8. yello186bim - $2,500
9. JD9712 - $1,600

Bodog Poker's $100k Guaranteed online poker tourney is one of more than 80 tournaments that Bodog hosts every day that payout a guaranteed $5 million in prize money each month.

Check the Bodog Poker Tournament Schedule today to find out when you can get in on the next big online poker tournament, and get set to win your share of $5 million.

Charles Simmons regularly contributes poker news to the Bodog Beat.

[Sampson]

Thanks for the links, I never noticed the tips section, I'll be checking those out and I'll get back to you on how they're working out for me.

[I Heart Gambling Online]

To say that the field for Day 2 of the WPT World Championship featured some of the biggest names in the poker world would be an understatement. There were so many well-known poker pros among the 421 that started the day they were sitting about five deep at every nine-handed table, not a pleasant prospect for the amateur who found himself staring at that kind of talent from horizon to horizon.

After five levels of play, the field distilled from a fairly strong liquor to home-brewed moonshine as the relative talent of the remaining pool of players grew throughout the day. There aren't many names among the 195 that survived Day 2 that aren't recognizable at some level, making it easier to list those who didn't survive than to try and list those that did. So, notable bustouts from Day 2 include Layne Flack, Shannon Shorr, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb, David “The Dragon” Pham, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Joe Hachem, Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Chris "*****" Ferguson, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (who will not become at "WPT Poker-Made Millionaire this season, despite being the face of that campaign), Erica Schoenberg, and Phil Hellmuth.

Here are a couple of quick notes about the field as it stands going into Day 3. Team Bodog poker pro Josh Arieh is sitting well above average and is joined by Bodog regular online poker player Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra in the top third of the field. Defending champion Carlos Mortensen is still in fifth place after a day of play and looks like he will be making a serious run at a repeat title.

Here are the top ten with chip counts:

1. Robert Mizrachi - 523,200
2. Bryan Devonshire - 393,400
3. Cory Carroll - 384,700
4. John Celii - 376,800
5. Carlos Mortensen - 371,600
6. Kenny Tran - 367,400
7. Michael Gracz - 364,800
8. Marcel Luske - 325,200
9. Steve Wong - 306,600
10. Saifuddin Ahmad - 306,500

Play resumes at the Bellagio in a few hours and the players will plow through another five blind levels of play as the make their way toward the money bubble, which bursts with 100 players remaining, and eventually the $3,389,140 first-place prize. So, stay tuned to the Beat for more updates because we've got a lot of poker still left to play and this could be good…really, really, good.

Charles Simmons is regular contributor of poker news to the Bodog Beat and an adequate lister of names.

- Bodog Beat

[Mike0715]

We're not asking for much, are we Q?

Nude beaches I'm familiar with...gambling in Europe I'm not. So with the government regulating I take it the online gambling is more reliable? Less prone to scams?

If regulated it would be. Still the sites we promote are trustworth as well..we stand by them, and stake our reputation on them...that's how confident we are in the advertisers listed on our best sportsbooks page.

[I Heart Gambling Online]

Don't forget that tonight at 9:05 p.m. EST poker bloggers will have the chance to face a surprise Team Bodog poker pro as part of the weekly Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series and earn points for a shot at a $12,000 2008 WSOP prize package.

A few weeks ago, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh played in the tournament, but this time around players won't know which pro may be seated directly to their left. It could be Arieh again, David Williams, Evelyn Ng or Team Bodog newcomer Jean-Robert Bellande.

There will once again be a bounty on the Bodog pro's head, giving players a chance to walk away with a little extra something on top of the normal cash payouts, just as "Abby17" did when she knocked out Arieh in that previous tournament. However, if the Team Bodog pro wins the tournament, they will walk with the $100.

There is still plenty of time to accumulate enough points to climb the leader board and be one of the 18 poker bloggers who qualify for the final tournament on Tuesday, June 10, where the winner will walk away with a $12,000 WSOP prize package. For example, the blogger currently in 18th place on the leader board has 194.1 points, and just a couple of top five finishes by a single player would award them enough points to be above that mark and solidly in the top 18 on the leader board.

There are seven tournaments left in the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series and they run every Tuesday at 9:05 p.m. EST. The top 30 percent of finishers in each qualifying tournament earn points based on their finish, and these points are used to rank players over the four months of qualifying. At the end of the qualifying series, the top 18 players on the Tournament Leader Board will play in the Final Tournament on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 with the first-place finisher winning a $12,000 WSOP prize package.

For online poker players who want to be part of Team Bodog at the 2008 WSOP but don't have a blog, Bodog is currently running a number of online qualifiers for poker's biggest event this summer. A guaranteed four WSOP seats are up for grabs every week at the Bodog Poker tables for the rest of April, with that number jumping to five per week in May and June.

Each Main Event prize package includes the $10,000 buy-in to the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, $2,000 for travel expenses, loads of Team Bodog gear and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Las Vegas in total Bodog style, including meeting the Bodog Girls and much, much more.

- Bodog Beat

[I Heart Gambling Online]

If you'll remember, we mentioned this morning that Team Bodog poker pro Josh Arieh and Bodog online poker regular Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra made it through to Day 3 of the WPT World Championship.

Well, we just got a quick update from Westra to let us know that they are both sitting at the same table to start the day. Also at their table is online poker phenom, Tom "durrrr" Dwan. Fortunately, it seems that the rest of the table are unknown fish. So, as long as they stay out of each other's way, and "durrrr"s, they could both stack up pretty nicely with the dead money at the table.

Anyway, stay tuned for more updates from the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

- Bodog Beat

[Ruddem]

How often do you indulge yourself in playing in online poker tournaments? Do you play in poker tournaments online more often than you play in tournaments at actual casinos?

[I Heart Gambling Online]

After Day 3 of the WPT World Championship wrapped up yesterday, there were 55 players left out of the 188 that began and the money bubble was well beyond burst. The field moved with speed down to the money and never slowed down, ridding itself of two-thirds of the starting players with only 45 getting anything for their troubles.

When Day 4 kicks off in a few hours there will still be a lot of big names out at the tables and one of the biggest is sitting in the top spot. Danish poker pro Gus Hansen rode a late day surge up to the top and currently sits with a 2,246,000 chip stack, mainly thanks to a tangle with Tim Phan. Hansen made a sick call with A-K over Phan's A-Q, crippling Pham and catapulting himself into good position for today's battle. The Dane will be looking to add a record fourth WPT title to his resume.

Just behind him are a couple of online poker pros, Cory "ugotpzd" Carroll in second with 1,900,000 in chips and Tom "durrrr" Dwan a little further down with 850,000. Also in the top ten are Martin de Knijff (856,000), Nick Binger (829,000), CardPlayer Magazine editor and publisher Jeff Shulman (771,000), Mark "Newhizzle" Newhouse (770,000) and Day 2 chip leader Robert Mizrachi (701,000).

Other notables sprinkled throughout include Amir Vahedi, 2007 WSOP Main Event final tablist Jon Kalmar, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Irish pro Andy Black, TJ Cloutier, JC Tran, defending champ Carlos Mortensen, Joe Sebok and Tom "DonkeyBomber" Schneider. They will all be walking home with at least $39,570 and that number will, obviously, get larger as players are eliminated en route to the $3,389,140 first-place prize.

Play resumes at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in just a few hours and will go until the final 27 players are set. So, stay tuned to the Beat for updates on the action from the 2008 WPT World Championship.

Charles Simmons is a regular contributor of poker news to the Bodog Beat.

- Bodog Beat

ON THE BUTTON: The Trouble with Pocket Jacks
This installment of On the Button gives advice on how to play those tricky pocket jacks

April 23, 2008

By Nick Lanteri
Bodog Nation Contributing Writer

Why all the fuss about pocket jacks? It's the fifth-best starting hand in Texas Holdem, so why does it have such a bad reputation? Players moan and groan at the Bodog tables all the time about how much money they lose with this hand. Didn't anyone ever win with jacks?

Of course they did. But sometimes you have to fold pocket jacks (also known as hooks) or you’ll lose a race with them, and you can be sure that most poker players will bitch all day and night about that. Suddenly, the wins don't count. That's called selective memory. Tell you what, the dreaded ace-king starting hand is going to miss the flop two out of three times, so give me jacks any day, especially when I can push chips around knowing that I already have a made hand.

If you're losing too many pots with pocket jacks, then you're probably misplaying them most of the time (and getting unlucky other times). Here are three of the biggest mistakes I see at the Bodog tables with pocket jacks:

1. Playing Scared

Why so many min-raises? You're just inviting more players into the pot. This is basic stuff, but always raise three to four times over the blind with pocket jacks because you don't want to let drawing hands see a cheap flop. Don't be sheepish, you have to make your opponents pay. You'll have the best hand most of the time. If you are dealt jacks in a 10-handed game, there will be a higher pocket pair dealt to someone else only about one time in eight, which means that you can play those hooks aggressively (in tournament poker, or cash games) because you're ahead. And even if K-Q or A-Q calls your raise, you’re still a small favorite. Don't be afraid to bet pocket jacks even if you’re out of position. Open the pot for a raise and see where you're at.

Also, do not be afraid to reraise pre-flop from middle position at a big table with jacks. There are many bad players online who will open pots in early position, so reraise them. Let them call you with their A-9 or A-10 suited, and hit the 9- or 10-high flop. These types will get their money in bad after that.

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