Famous Stud Poker Player

A recent scandal on PokerStars resulted in the discovery of a Chinese collusion ring, which led to a $2 million refund to affected players, according to the 2+2 forum. The popular poker forum revealed that for the same Double or Nothing (DoN) sit and go tourneys around the $52 to $104 buy-ins, there were multiple Chinese players registering. with 10 players, these single-table tourneys start out and the last five players standing cash out with double the buy-in.

In the case of the Chinese cheaters, to ensure they’d cash out winners, the players would reveal to each other their hole cards and purposely exchange piles of chips. These guys’ ironically ousted by one of their own. in May, one of the players, “Jane0123” posted a thread that stated PokerStars had suspended his account and frozen the $10K in it. This was the resulted of regular DoN players reporting to PokerStars that something seemed fishy.

PokerStars paid out just under $600K to affected players, a month later, but Stars players demanding more, and the reparations were recently upped to $2 million. there still seems to be a problem, although the online poker site has done much to amend the issue. with similar playing styles to that of the collusion ring in tournaments and 7-card stud games, 2+2 posters have still reported new accounts held by Chinese players.

There is likely to be some sort of policy put in place to prevent this from happening in the future, while the problem is obviously far from over, as it seems like this practice has become an epidemic that will hopefully be contained very soon. The PokerStars brand name and reputation is now tarnished, although this isn’t the first time that online poker has been the center of a scandal. However, to allow such a negative connotation to be associated with their brand as say UltimateBet, Stars is much too big an empire, which ultimately re-branded as UB.com in an effort to save what little dignity they had left.

Zynga poker launch its beta version of Zynga Texas Poker this week in Taiwan and Hong Kong, making it the first Zynga game to be released in Asia (the game will not be available in mainland China).

I am sure Asia will enjoy the game as much as the almost 100 other countries already do. The game, which launched for most of us in July of 2007 has more then 28 million players a month and on an average day has 375,000 players simultaneously playing together live.

Asia’s version will be localized with traditional Chinese language, as well as characters and cultural references. Zynga players in Asia will start off in Zynga on a lucky note Eight is considered a lucky number locally 8/18 being the Launch date and an added bit of luck in the form of 8,888 welcome chips and a shootout tournament this month allowing local players a chance at a grand prize of $880,000 in cash. Players trying for this prize will compete in and have to win 3 rounds to get a seat in the final grand prize game.

Each round will consist of a single table with nine players. Players will have to win each round to move onto the next round. As an added bonus to the grand prize seats players winning the required three rounds will receive $500,000 in chips. And don’t worry if you don’t win the first time, Zynga Players can try to win as many times as they want.

June 16th, 2010 marked another exciting day at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, NV. Event number 26 ($2500 No Limit Hold’em 6 Max) and 27 ($1500 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better) came to their conclusions today, and crowned two new bracelet winners. William Haydon was the champion of the $2500 No Limit Hold’em 6 Max event, taking home a cool $630,000 for his efforts. The winner of the $1500 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better tournament was David Warga who won $208,000 and the right to call himself a world champ. Texas Holdem poker is also very popular among poker players.

Today was the second day of play for the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. With only 13 players remaining there is no notable pro in the top 10 chip leaders, meaning that some lucky aspiring poker player is going to be vaulted into the mainstream poker world if he can win this title. Kyle Ray currently leads the field with 643,000 chips, but has several players close to him in chip counts. Play will resume tomorrow at 5pm and continue until a champion is crowned, and $426,000 is handed out.

In addition to events 26 and 27 coming to their conclusions, and the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship continuing 2 more WSOP events got under way today. Event #30, which is a $1500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament, saw 2,394 entrants creating a staggering $3,231,900 prize pool. Meanwhile event #31 (a $1500 HORSE event) drew 828 players and a $1,117,800 prize pool. Both events are slated to run for three days, and should see their final tables occur on June 18th.

On Wednesday, June 2nd, players folded, bet, and rose as the action surrounding the 2010 World Series of Poker continued. 3 events had already concluded and 3 bracelets awarded, five days after the popular event started at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Including pros like Patrik Antonius and Doyle Brunson, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi battled against and outlasted a field of 115 competitors, to win the $50,000 Player’s Championship. A twelve-hour final table, a table featuring his brother Robert Mizrachi, finally came to an end with Michael capturing a WSOP bracelet and the $1.5 million first prize. Mizrachi also received the Chip Reese memorial trophy, named after the late poker great who was the first winner of the H.O.R.S.E. event, the predecessor of the Player’s Championship. As it forces players to master many different variations of poker, most consider this the true test of a poker player’s skill.

Professional player Michael Chow from Honolulu, Hawaii, won his sixth WSOP cash in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better event and his first bracelet. To capture the $237,140 first prize, Chow came out on top and defeated Dan Heimiller. The victory was even more special for Chow as the event concluded on the day of his 33rd birthday. Ylon Scwartz came in third for a $94,561 cash prize and he is a familiar face at WSOP final tables.

It has two starting days (Day 1A and Day 1B) and may take four playing days and five calendar days to complete, given the large number of expected participants.

In Tournament Chips, players begin with 3,000. The field will play ten levels and it will be split between Days 1A and 1B. On Day 2, the field will be combined and play will resume at 2:30 p.m. Ten levels will played again by them. Day 3 will also begin at 2:30 p.m. and they will play ten levels unless a winner is declared. Day 4, will continue until someone wins, if needed, start at 2:30 p.m. The tournament director has the option to suspend play after ten levels on Day 4 and resume the following day.

For an hour, all levels will last. After every two levels, there will be a 20 minute break. Players will have a 90 minute dinner break on the first day of play after six levels and there will be a 60 minute break after four levels on subsequent playing days.

By the end of the first day, the binds will grow until 400-800 and the blinds start out at 25-25. Starting with level 6, players will be required to ante. They will be asked to remove a certain amount of chips following levels 9, 15, 17, and 24.

Into the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament last year, there were 6,012 entrants. Internet betting star, Steve Sung, a South Korean professional poker player won it. He walked away with $771,106 and his first WSOP bracelet, which is quite impressive when compared to earnings in an online poker room.

On Saturday, May 29, the $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship will be held at Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It is the second event of the 2010 World Series of Poker and the first open event.

The $50,000 buy-in tournament was first held in 2006 and up until this year it has been a H.O.R.S.E. event in which play rotated between Texas hold’em, Omaha 8-or-better, Razz, stud, and stud 8-or-better, all played with a limit betting structure. The tournament was called the $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.

This year, it will include the five H.O.R.S.E. games followed by three additional games: no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha (high only), and limit 2–7 triple draw. Once the final table is reached, finalists will compete exclusively in no-limit hold’em. As a result of the changes to the tournament, it is now known as the Player’s Championship.

The Player’s Championship is a five-day event. Players will play five levels on the first day, six levels on days 2 and 3, and however many levels they need to on Day 4 until they have a final table. On the fifth and final day, the final table will play.
Each player will start with 150,000 in Tournament Chips. All levels will last 90 minutes. The game will change after every eight hands. There will be a 20 minute break after each level.

Given that this is a new event to the World Series of Poker, there is no reigning champion. There were 95 entries in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament last year, and David Bach walked away as the winner. He won a prize of $1,276,806.
No-Limit Hold’em $1,000 buy-in, Sunday, May 30

On Tuesday, April 13, Jason Mercier won the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun High Roller Bounty Shootout and took home an impressive $450,000. This young Team PokerStars Pro member is on a winning streak. In February, Jason finished in third place in the High Roller event of the L.A. Poker Classic, netting a cool $141,000. The next month he finished in fifth place at the National Heads-Up online poker Championship, banking another $75,000. Tuesday’s win cements his place at the next High Roller Bounty Shootout.

He used his trademark pocket threes to claim the lead and pitted himself in a head to head against fellow PocketFives.com member Sam Stein. Mercier has always been a big fan of the pocket threes but this is definitely his largest win with that hand. The hand came later during heads-up play, which lasted well over three hours. Mercier was all-in pre-flop with pocket threes. Stein held A-J of diamonds when the flop produced J-2-6. The commanding lead was held by Stein, but a four on the turn gave Jason a straight draw to a five.

As luck would have it, Mercier doubled up when a five landed on the river. The tournament finally came to an end a few hands later. Stein’s 9-3 of hearts was no match for Mercier’s 10-6. The total take home of $450,000 was a combination of $350,000 final table prize, $60,000 for making it past Day 1 of the tournament, and $40,000 in bounty spoils. Be sure to follow Mercier’s career and look for him at the next High Roller Bounty Shootout.

As far back as the Middle Ages go back the roots of Poker in Europe and Asia. The game came with the people when they started moving West.

During the Gold Rush, 5 card stud was very popular in the gold fields. The miners relaxed at night by playing poker, after spending long, hard days in the gold mine. The game of 5 card stud starting out as a form of entertainment and then moved on to a way for professional gamblers to make a living.

Only 20 cards were used up until the 1820’s. In the four suits, 10 through Ace. Since there were so few options of winning hands, people were starting to get bored with the game. More people could play and there were more winning combinations as they started using a full deck of 52 cards.

The game began to thrive. It was started being played on riverboats that floated down the Mississippi River and before that it was played in the wild west during the civil war. Of 5 card stud, New Orleans became a hot bed.
To raise profitability, more and more variations were added to the game. Originally, there was only one round of betting and 5 cards were dealt face down. Professional gamblers began adding wild cards and bluffing to make it possible to make more money at the game. To add another round of betting, the draw was added to the game around 1850

Poker has a variety of casino games that can be played, however; the most common is seven-card stud.

Before any cards are dealt all players must put up what is called an ante. An ante is an agreed upon amount of dollars to initially start the betting process of the game, followed by five betting rounds. All players are dealt three cards face down and four cards are dealt and centered on the table face up or fully exposed for all players to see. The objective is to try to make the best hand of five cards out of the seven available. Once you understand the hierarchy of this casino game it’s a lot easier to strategize.

The basic rules are as follows: you must have at least a pair of anything to start the betting. Three of a kind beats a pair. A Flush-meaning five cards of any suit, such as diamonds or clubs in any order beats three of a kind. A full house beats a flush; a full house is three of a kind and two pair of anything. A straight flush beats a full house, however the flush must be in exact numerical order. A four of a kind beats a straight flush and a royal flush beats anything on the table. A royal flush is ace-high, and 10-low of the same suit.

The difference between this game and other types of poker is the betting rounds, the amount of cards dealt, and the number of players allowed.

Many companies are jumping on the bandwagon as more systems are legalizing online gaming and the latest jump has been by Loto-Quebec. Online gambling is becoming more and more popular these days all over the world. Loto-Quebec announced that they are going to start offering online poker to their clients which is scheduled to begin this coming summer.  But, opposition could push it back to a later date. Betting on online poker games are always available.

Alain Cousineau, president of Lottery corporation gave this information to the Montreal Board of Trade back in November and is still planning on going through with it. The plan is to have Loto-Quebec collaborate with five other provinces that are already in the online poker service industry including the four Atlantic provinces as well as British Columbia.  The world market for gambling is around $24 billion a year which is quite a considerable figure.

Growth of the gambling industry has been a trend in Canada and has risen by almost 30 percent since 2003. Payments that are related to gambling are expected to pass over $1 billion in the next two years. To enter the online poker market, Loto-Quebec is currently waiting on the province to make some legislative changes so that regulations allow which would bring a lot of needed revenue to the province. The change will definitely be a huge boost to the gambling industry. Check out all the online poker betting with the different sportsbooks.