Mad Tilt Poker…

Okay… we all know the dangers of tilting, we also know the even bigger dangers of tilting when you decide to play online poker.  It’s a risk and it’s a fact of life that poker is a tiltfest.  We are never far from our next tilt as it come with any hand, with any insult in the chatbox (or as some call it the tiltbox).  There is one prevailing school of thought when it comes to Tilt.  Don’t play on Tilt.  Never play on Tilt.  Avoid Tilt at all costs.  Makes you wonder why one site in particular would use Tilt in their name.  Repeat that mantra enough and you probably aren’t going to pay them rake any time soon.

What besides a bad beat or a well place insult can fuel tilt?  Just about anything.  In fact, sometimes the cause of Tilt isn’t even poker related.  Sometimes Mad Tilt ensues when playing poker with too little sleep, too much caffeine, too much alcohol or simply your eyes being weary and you being wary of looking at the same screen for too long in one day. 

Normally, you say to avoid tilt at all costs will only lead to bigger wins and smaller losses.  If you can contiain your tilt you won’t spew and it you don’t spew you bottom line grows.  That’s true to a degree.  However, learning how to play when on tilt can be a very useful tool.

Here’s two scenarios why you need to learn how to play when on Tilt.  You are stuck waiting at the casino you have no where to go.  Rather than play the one armed bandits your best chance at turning a profit for the day is to play poker.  Let’s say you have two hours before you meet someone.  Then your set of Aces gets called down by a guy with a gutshot to the wheel on a scary board.  He calls your all-in and hits it.  Then he starts insulting you.

This guy is terrible has a lot of chips, and you know if you bust him he’s got deep pockets to go to again and again.  Tilt or not you shouldn’t leave this table.  Besides, what are you going do?  Feed quarters into an electronic machine?  No, of course not.  So you need to be able to deal with your tilt and still play well enough to felt this guy.

Second scenario you are deep in an online poker tournament.  The blinds have escalated quickly.  The price of poker has gone up but so too the payouts.  One guy has needled you all day.  You find a spot where you attempt a hero call and are wrong.  The chatbox lights up with criticism.  You are tilted.  You can feel your face get flush with color as your anger gets up.

Because of the fast structure you can’t get up and walk around until it goes away.  Just like in the cash game scenario above you can’t walk it off because you only so much time to poach the fish.  Here it’s vital to learn how to survive tilting.  That’s why the new Mad Tilt structures on bwin are so useful.  The structures are fast and it’s an all in fest.

The buy-ins are low.  The thinking is simple: shove or fold.  Let’s say you go deep in one of their poker tournaments and just bubble.  You are tilting so you don’t want to play cash.  Why not sit in one of their Mad Tilt sit ‘n gos and shove the Tilt away.  One, you’ll learn how to play with tilt and two you’ll be able to have a little fun without high stakes at risk or consequences. 

This way once you learn how to compartmentalize your tilt you’ll be ready to tackle the games anew.  So what if you are getting the needle, so what if you took the worst poker beat of your life, you’ve learned how to handle Mad Tilt and now you can handle any Tilt.

Aussie Millions

One of my favorite tournaments in the world is coming.  And you have to be a little bit of a world traveler to get there.  This tournament made Shannon Shorr, Goboboy and cemented Gus Hansen’s live poker legacy.  Yes, it’s the Aussie Millions.

Paul Hogan re-introduced America and the World to the splendors of the Outback and the land down under.  Since then the continent that is a country has been a much sought after game show prize and a dream destination for travelers.  Sure the country has it’s less desirables…  Men at Work anyone?  But in general the Kangaroo country is a little slice of heaven.   

The same could be said for the poker tournament in Melbourne, the Aussie Millions  is one tournament nobody wants to miss on the international poker calender.    You could argue that it is somewhat becoming part of an offical poker tournament grand slam.  In fact, somebody already has here.   There they suggest the Aussie Millions is the poker version of the Australian open.  The World Series of Poker Europe in London doubles naturally for Wimbledom.  They are quite eating strawberries and cream and hosting a royal box but the presitge of the tournament is on the rise.  Tennis also has a French Open to go with the U.S. Open.  While most poker tournaments are Texas Hold ‘Em affairs and the main events generally are, it’s make sense for the French tournament to feature an Omaha main event instead.

The red clay replaced by a slightly different version of poker.  That seems right enough. 

Well, if the fabled and much needed Grand Slam of Poker never comes to fruition that’s no reason to not go to Australia.  The poker boom might have come slightly behind the U.S. poker boom but it came.    The tournament  has morphed from a local affair, catering to that corner of the Oceania region to a major, major event.  Once upon a time, way back in 1998 the first event featured a 1k buy-in and 74 entrants.  It was then known as the Australasian Poker Championship.  Wonder if the asians were upset they got lopped off the title of the tournament.  Course Aussie Millions seems to have a certain cache Australasian Poker Championship seems to lack.  Though the very wordy WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic tournament didn’t opt for easy. 

Fast forward to 2004, and the Aussie Millions became the Aussie Millions.  With a main event prize pool over a million the tournament started to attract the attention of the rest of the poker world.  133 players registered to try their luck in the Crown Casino in Melboure.  A couple of years later, in 2006 , it was up to 418 entrants and 1.3 million first place prize (that’s right first place was equal to the entire prize pool of 2004–juicy).  Course the Aussies had a face for poker by this point, the WSOP main event winner Joe Hachem.   

Two more years later first place 1.65 million and the players pool was over 780.  This last year 2 million went to first.  Course that masks a little bit a loss of players.  Only a little over 680 plopped down their 10k Australian to play.    The Aussie Millions attracts the big name players as well as the deep pocketed world travelers.  In 2007 Gus Hansen took down the event winning one for Denmark and foretelling a Peter Eastgate victory in the WSOP a year later.  It was Denmark’s poker heyday.   Erik Seidel came in second in ‘08 proving he was more than just an extra in the movie Rounders and still able to match wits with all the up and comer online poker players.

Got an iPhone? Need a Poker Tournament Clock? They got an App for that…

Noted online poker site bwin has always been mac friendly. If you want to play poker on a mac, there is no better site. And now they’ve outdone themselves, they bring the ease of their tournament structure to a handheld device near you. Near you? Yes, it’s probably in your pocket right now. Course now it helps to have an apple as opposed to back in the pc days when it was easier to own a non apple.

The apps are available in the Apple’s iTunes App Store. Hint: go to you iTunes, hit Apps, and search for Tournament Clock. The little app packs a wallop, with a simple to use interface, they call intuitive, we call simple to use, because intuitive is like saying it’s obvious. It may be obvious for any iPhone users under the age of 30 but that doesn’t necessarily hold true for the over 30 set. Still, after they play with it, they’ll realize it’s easy to use.

The app includes settings which allow you to fine tune your home tournament or to start straight out of the dealer’s box with a “Quick Mode.” No need to use an egg-timer, melt your microwave by confusing the clock for cooking air on high, or using a stop watch, the Poker Tournament Clock will give you all the options right there. For those of you with a little more sophistication feel free to toss your laptop application out the window, this one is true portability on a device near you. It’s in your pocket remember.

There is plenty of flexibility in the easy to use interface. Those happy mac users and iphone owners can attest to the ease of the platform and the app is just as smooth. For those of you poker playing techies who would be ashamed to instigate “Quick Mode” no matter how good it is, rest easy they’ve thought of you too. Tournament organizers can manipulate blind structures and create profiles of the players, and there is some sophistication to the App.

The bwin group has over 20 million customers who sports bet, play poker, casino games, fortune and skill games, as utilize the audio and video streams of top sporting events. Bwin wasn’t only a first adaptor of their platform to macs they also were one of the first to offer mobile poker games against live opponents. They are on the cutting edge of all the new technologies so it’s no surprise they came up with this convenient easy to use app.

Sit N Go Decathlon at Bwin

The good poker folks over at bwin put together an great idea for a poker promotion. A decathlon awarding (rewarding?) success for their top sit ‘n go players. The premise was pretty simple. Offering a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool with a 10k live event package for the winner the prizes were rewarded in bwin tickets for positions 2 through 200.

2nd place won a ton of tickets, two $500 tickets, a $300 ticket, a $200 ticket, five $100 tickets and five $50 tickets. The great part of this promotion was even spots 151 to 200 won tickets (a $50 ticket to each). 61 to 100 won two tickets. And above that each player was assured of at least 3 tickets.

Still, the best part of the promotion was the fact it was completely free. To qualify all you had to do was have a bwin account and take part in their free sit n gos. There were 10 different freeroll sit n go formats and the first sitting of each counted toward the leaderboard.

The player who achieved the most success over the ten different formats by accumulating points who the top prize. Not only that, you could play as many sit n gos as you liked afterward, for free, and of course your success could stymie somebody else’s. So you still had something to play for. Not sure if any players adopted that strategy to prevent oppponents from pointing in a particular format but they certainly had that option.

Perhaps, the winner will take the 10k package and turn it into an Aussie Millions buy-in and win Millions off a freeroll. This format is the first of its kind and allows for even a beginning player to build their bankroll by tackling the challenge. The prizes are so good that top players will vie with newcomers and players that normally couldn’t afford that kind of action get a chance to hone their skills with the best.

Look for results from the decathlon here.

Real Madrid and Bwin together again…

In a tough economic climate many of the world’s biggest clubs, those that regularly pepper Champions League broadcasts with star-studded rosters and highlight film worthy plays are actually improving their bottom line. Perhaps, none more impressive than the renewal of the partnership of bwin, a global betting and eGaming provider, and Real Madrid.
The new Galaticos which boast a roster of the world’s finest players including Christiano Ronaldo, Kaka, and Karim Benzama also have the world’s biggest payroll when it comes to football. The money has to come from somewhere.

Fortunately, bwin which views it’s deal as necassary to their bottom line as Real Madrid does to theirs, came through again with a lucrative sponsorship deal. Florentino Perez, President for Real Madrid commented stating that ‘International football needs partners like Bwin’.

The sponsorship deal between Bwin and nine times European champions Real Madrid continues their partnership until the end of the 2012 / 2013 season. Bwin, has over 20 million registered users, and will work hard with Real Madrid to promote both Football and the club.

Bwin was equally effusive saying that they were very proud to sponsor the worlds biggest football club and that they are linked together with far more than just a sponsorship deal. Their current Magic Moments of Poker tour is proof of that. Working with Real Madrid bwin was able to offer it’s poker players the rare opportunity to win a chance to train with the team as well as win their own sponsorship.

Football and bwin are a natural pair, as the world’s most popular sport football is the tentpole sport of all sports gambling. It’s been a good season for Real Madrid, as they forecasted a 3.5 percent increase in sales to 421.7 million euros ($621 million) because of ticket sales and other stadium-related income.

Meet the Stars of Real Madrid.

Bwin’s Magic Moments of Poker Tour is about to get a tad bit ridiculous. Maybe you’ve heard of Ronaldo or Kaka or Karim or Raul or Ruud… wouldn’t it be fun to train with them.

The Galacticos, some of the greatest soccer (football) players in the world don’t just wear bwin on the jerseys they are also going to be a part of bwin’s Magic Moments of Poker Tour, by hosting a meet and training session.

Jet off to Madrid, see the sites, take in some Real Madrid activities and then head over to a televised poker table to battle it out for the last ticket for the Magic Moments of Poker final. That’s a valuable ticket, and despite all the fun and enchantment Madrid might bring the ticket is the real prize.

Win that and you get to join back up with bwin at the Grand Final in Vienna. All that is up for grabs is a bwin Poker team sponsorship and a deal worth $100,000.

Here’s all the Magic Moments in Madrid:

Train at the Real Madrid training ground and meet the stars of the Spanish break the bank team. Perhaps, no bigger team in the world. Then, take a tour of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and the Real Madrid museum. Oh yeah, you’ll also be able to venture out at night in Madrid. There are bad places to go out at night like: Baghdad or Mogadishu, and there are great places like Vegas or Madrid. After all that, you also get to experience a televised semi-final table.

The best par of the whole deal is you can register for freerolls and climb the ladder all the way to the Grand Prize final table having never wagered a dime. Or play a sit & go for as little as $4.40 for a chance to win a seat in the online final. The online final can also be bought into for $44.

How They Running?

Saw the Pokerbat has been running bad. Feel bad for the guy. Somebody not running bad is Chad Brown.

Vanessa Ruosso’s better half (of late in a purely poker sense) came to the Gulf Coast and beat up on the locals. He took down a Pot Limit Omaha title and then promptly bested local kid Tyler Smith heads up in the Main Event Championship.

Brown overcame a massive chip deficit to climb back into contention and from an early point at the final table it was pretty clear those two would be locking horns at the end.

Also running hot has been Phil Ivey. After crushing the World Series, and he’s still at it, in that event, Ivey has gone on to crush Poker After Dark’s cash game. Ivey is simply the stone cold nuts.

Running bad like the Poker Bat is Face the Ace. That show was simply terrible. Piss-poor in application, concept and entertainment. The fact that somebody is suing the producers of the show for stealing his idea is a bit like somebody suiing the Titanic for playing his song while the ship sunk.

Runningbad? Former NFL football players. 78 per cent of NFL players are bankrupt or in financial trouble within two years of retirement. They aren’t the only ones as all professional athletes face similar startling bloodletting of their cash. That mirrors the poor uneducated powerball winners or poker players that hit their big score too young to know what to do with the money.

Running bad? Gus Hansen. It appears the Great Dane has been spewing money online every since Peter Eastgate won the Main Event last year. Coincidence? Maybe not. Hansen got pushed off the pedestal of best Danish player for the moment and has been on tilt since. Eastgate won his Main Event at younger age than anybody before him and it might have affected his pysche. He’s bleeding money like a NFLer.

New Durrrr Challenge

Recently reignited is the Durrrr Challenge pitting Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan in heads up online poker action. Featuring No Limit Hold ‘Em and Omaha Poker (Pot Limit). It fizzled for a little bit but came back with a vengence when Patrik cut into Durrrr’s lead this week.

That’s not the only challenge for Durrrr. It seems now, with the aid and money of a TV station, Durrrr is offering another to the entire world of poker. Players just have to join him in a made for television event. For those don’t get English TV don’t worry, there is always the internet.

Instead of an online challenge this one will be head to head, face to face in live play. We can only hope it is more like High Stakes Poker than Face the Ace.

The first contender Dwan travels to London to play is European Sammy George. George is a regular on poker TV in Europe. George and Dwan will both buy-in for 500k. No rebuys. The blinds will be static at $500/$1000.

The match will be broken into segments. Probably TV friendly is the reasoning behind the breakdown. The segments will each be 500 hands long. The match ends when one player wins all the money. Segments be damned. We suppose.

If after 2,000 hands there isn’t a winner, the chip stacks will determine who prevails. Just like the old challenge, Durrrr is offering his opponent a choice of Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold ‘Em. Supposedly the chink in internet phenoms armors is their ample tells in live play. Wonder if George is skilled like a Daniel Negreanu in picking up on those.

Sammy “any two” George will certainly offer a great counter balance to Dwan. They both like to play “any two” cards and will be going multiple levels deep on any hand. Course this matchup might play better on a multi-table as heads up play kind of nessitates an any two card strategy and aggression. ,

George isn’t bashful about hyping the match up either. While he is quick to praise other pros, such as Dwan he’s been quoted as saying said “Guys like Durrrr … are normal … nothing special.” Wonder if Sammy George will say it to Durrrr’s face.

Floor Decisions Can Motivate a Player to Play Online

In live play, there is a huge factor of human error that can impact your poker career. Dealer errors are common, angle shooting players are almost as common, and floor people without a clue can all be problems. I know a player that sat down in a game in Atlantic City after a long night of gambling. There was a problem with an angle shooter mucking and then pulling his chips from the pot.

The floor had to be called. The floor ruled for the local guy. Later the exact same situation occured only problem there had been a shift change and there was a new guy in charge. Sure enough this guy ruled the opposite way. Course this time my friend was on the other side of things to. Despite his protests and the table joining him in saying the other guy had ruled a different way, the floor could not be swayed. So, effectively the floor ruled against him twice even if they had to contradcit themselves to do so.

In online play, there are no floor people contradicting other floor people. There are no dealer mistakes (sure there are software glitches but that’s far less common then a dealer delivering you pocket aces and then misdealing a second later invalidating the hand by pitching one of the table.) Also, there is not hiearchy of poker players with clout. The computer deals the cards and human error is minimized.

In live play some players have a little more clout than others. Some know the poker room well, and become more than table captains, they become pseudo-floor men. Dealers even defer to their decisions. My same friend was in a situation where a name player was seated at the table, and “ruled” one way. The dealer agreed with him, the floor agreed with him, despite the name player’s ruling being wrong and helping himself.

The name player declared a misdeal. This decision was made well after action had been completed by 6 other players. As soon as he said it. The button and small blind insta-mucked. Sure enough my friend was in the Big Blind and stared down at pocket aces.

In the online world this is a moot point. The dealer doesn’t misdeal, and the floormen don’t misrule because they aren’t there. Players don’t lord influence they don’t deserve (at least on the virtual felt) because computers don’t care who they are.

Daniel Negreanu Says Mike Sexton Not Me…

No, he wasn’t confused for the guy, even if both are great ambassadors of poker. Negreanu was answering his fans who are clamoring for him to be inducted in an early ballot for the hall of fame. Danny believes he’ll make the hall of fame one day, but for now the honor should be all Sexton’s.

Mike, the world renonwed voice of the WPT has done the impossible more than once. One he’s the expert but instead of burying the viewer in minutia he’s the one who kicks up the excitement. Two, Vince Van Patten now sounds like a competent Texas Hold ‘em poker player. Surely, his time in the booth with Sexton is reason why. Three, Sexton who was a shill for an online poker site, and has been recently resigned again by the same site, managed to both carry the broadcast and do ads without making the viewer feel inundated by one guy.

He’s also a pretty good poker player. He’s excelled in his era, the moneymaker era, and now the online era. Sexton can just as easily spin a yarn about Stu Unger, Phil Ivey, or Jonathan Little. He’s been there and seen it all. If anybody meets the criteria for the Hall of Fame it’s Sexton.

Negreanu makes many of the same points, and simply says he’s probably too young. As there is a clause in the Hall of Fame voting that puts a premium on experience Sexton does have that advantage on the talented Canadian. Negreanu, however, is an even bigger “poker” star without carrying a broadcast.

He’s a flame and the cameras are moths. He brings entertaining poker thought to televised hands that give insight many analysts can’t meet. Sexton probably can, but not many others. As Doyle Brunson also recently blogged his endorsement of Sexton it’s clear who the players think belong in their hall of fame. It’s Mike Sexton.