Archive for September, 2009
Join the October freeroll competition at PokerBRB with 250$ finals
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | Poker Freeroll, Poker News | No Comments
The PokerBRB October freeroll competition starts September 30th
We have a great line-up of tournaments and freerolls giving points to the PokerBRB leaderboard.
In October’s freeroll competition the top 20 on the leaderboard after the last tournament has been played will be invited to join two 125$ exclusive monthly finals.
Practical information
- Freeroll passwords can be found in the tournament table when you log in to your “My league profile page” through the PokerBRB front page.
- You will need a poker account both at Poker Nordica and Power Poker this month if you want your tournament results to count towards the leaderboard.
- Remember that we need your exact Poker Nordica and Power Poker usernames on file in order to calculate your points.
- The tournament starting times on the league overview page are stated in both EST (Eastern Standard Time) and GMT (Greenwich Mean time). Click here to learn more about EST and GMT times.
Hope to see you at the tables!!!
Refer-a-friend competition hosted by PokerBRB
Monday, September 28th, 2009 | Poker News | No Comments
We will be kicking of October’s freeroll competition with a 25$ Refer-a-Friend Competition.
The rules are simple. Tell your friends about the PokerBRB freeroll league and if they sign up, remind them to add your forum username in the “Referred by” field on the sign-up page.
The competition will start on September 27th and run for two weeks. We will keep track of the competition standings on the PokerBRB forum. The player who refers most friends over the two week period will receive 25$ payed into his Poker Nordica account at the end of the competition. The runner up will receive 15$ and the 3rd place 5$.
Best Regards
Your PokerBRB team
Mark, Artur and Michael
If you have any questions regarding the competition please feel free to contact us on support@pokerbrb.com
Top 10 flop moves from Mitchell Cogert’s Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves
Sunday, September 27th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Top 10 Lists, Poker Tournament | 2 Comments
In this series of top 10 lists I have selected top moves from Mitchell Cogert’s “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves”. I believe these moves have the largest probability of improving your chances of winning low to medium stakes online poker tournaments.
Top 10 lists in this series:
Mitchell Cogert is the author of “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves.” It is the only reference book to reveal the plays the Pros use to win a poker tournament. These plays are based on reviewing 20 years worth of tournament poker strategies and by actual play against Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Pham and other top pros. The book is available on Amazon and rated 5 out of 5 stars by customers. Find out more about Mitchell Cogert by visiting Tournament Poker or his website APokerExpert.
Top 10 flop moves
The flop moves listed below are mostly bluff and semi bluff moves designed to win pots on flops you haven’t caught a piece of. Since you will often represent a hand you don’t have, it is of the utmost importance that your betting history in the hand and general table image tell a convincing story. In addition you have to choose your flops and opponents carefully. Ideally you want to be up against a maximum of 2-3 opponents who will be able to lay down their hands depending on the move you choose. Needless to say flop moves require a lot more skill and experience to master as compared to preflop moves.
- Bet the rainbow “Steal flop”
Some flops contain low cards of different suits (rainbow) and in addition are uncoordinated meaning that there is little chance that one of your opponents has picked up a draw. An example of such a flop could be 2 (h) 4(c) 9 (d). Say you enter a pot with Q10 suited without raising and have 2 opponents on a rainbow “Steal flop”. You should make a more than half sized pot bet both if you are first to act and if the action is checked to you.
- Bet at flops with pairs
If the flop comes with a pair and is uncoordinated (no flush draws and obvious straight draws) you should bet if you are first to act or the action is checked to you. Take advantage of your opponent’s fear of facing trips. If you get called on the flop you need to consider whether you want to bet the turn or not. Your opponent could have hit trips but the probability is small since there are only two cards in the deck that could give him this hand. Your opponent could also be planning to steal the pot from you on the turn if you show weakness and check. Notice how poker player level thinking really comes into play when considering what to do on the flop, turn and river.
- Bet at flops with the same suit
When you are up against few opponents, flops with the same suit are a good opportunity to steal the pot. Your opponents may not believe you have hit the flop, but they know that they need a flush to win. They will have to fold if they don’t have any cards in the same suit or one low card in the same suit.
- The continuation bet
Most of you probably already know the continuation bet, but it is an important move to include in your arsenal, which is why I mention it here. If you take the lead preflop and raise with say AJ suited, you continue showing that your hand is strong by making a 50-75% pot bet on the flop (the continuation bet). You make this bet even if the flop did not improve your hand. If you are up against a couple of opponents the chances are high that they will fold. If you get called, you face a tough decision on the turn. Did your opponent hit the flop or is he defending against your continuation bet by calling the flop aiming to steal the pot from you on the turn if you show weakness and check? In these situations you have to evaluate both the texture of the flop and put your opponent on a range of possible hands.
- The probe bet
The aim of the probe bet is to find out if you have the best hand after the flop without risking too many of your chips. Say you call a preflop raiser with J10 and the flop comes J 7 2. If you are first to act you can make a small bet of less than half the pot to find out where you stand and if you’re lucky take down the pot. If you get reraised you can fold your hand without having risked too many chips. As with all the other bluff and steal moves, the probe bet works best when you are up against only a few opponents.
- The blocking bet
Say you called a preflop raiser out of position with a drawing hand such as 89 suited. The flop comes A J 7 with one card in your suit. You have an inside straight draw and a backdoor flush opportunity. By making a small blocking bet as the first to act on the flop, you aim to slow down your opponent and either get a cheap turn card or if you’re lucky make your opponent fold. If he raised preflop with pocket 10′s, pocket Q’s or even pocket K’s, he might interpret your blocking bet as if you have hit your Ace and aim to suck some chips out of him. Your defensive blocking bet has a better chance of succeeding if your opponents have seen you make the same size bet earlier when you have hit a big hand.
- Leading out
If you are up against two or less opponents you need to be aggressive if you hand caught any piece of the flop such as middle pair. This is true also if you are out of position. Remember that you hitting the flop means that your opponents are less likely to have hit the flop. Try a probe bet if you are first to act and if the action is checked to you bet to take down the pot.
- Bet when you hit a set or full house
Bet bet bet when you hit a set. Don’t check and try to trap your opponent. You want to build big pots with your made hands. If your opponent folds he was going to do so anyway. Avoid check raising the flop as it shows a lot of strength and will slow down your opponent on the following streets.
- Bet if the action is checked to you
Bet when you are last to act after the flop and the action is checked to you. Your opponents have shown weakness and you should react to this. Fold if you are check raised and don’t have a hand that can improve on the turn. Make a note on the opponent who check raised you so you remember him the next time you are in a pot together.
- When to move all in
Move all in on the flop if you have raised preflop and the potsize on the flop is roughly the same size as your chip stack. It doesn’t matter if the flop missed you. You need to accumulate chips and this is done by taking risks. Late in tournaments and during heads-up play this move should be almost automatic.
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.
Forum freeroll league hosted by PokerBRB.com and the Poker Bankroll Blog
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | Poker Freeroll, Poker News | 2 Comments
The concept
PokerBRB is all about having fun competing against each other in poker freerolls. We believe these freerolls could be even more fun if different forums were compete against each other. We have therefore teamed up with Poker Nordica to be able to host a forum freeroll stand off.
What’s in it for you?
- A fun and free poker tournament competition where your forum members will be competing against other forums.
- We will spread the word about your forum on the Poker Bankroll Blog
- An opportunity to earn revenue from your forum members from your own above standard affiliation deal at Poker Nordica. Here you can earn up to 40% of the NetGaming (Contributed Rake + Tournament Fees + Side Games) – (Bonuses + Chargebacks) for the life of the players you send to Poker Nordica. You can read more about being an affiliate at Poker Nordica here
- Your revenue share will be 30% up to 5000$, 35% from 5000-10001$ and 40% for anything above.
- You will be able to offer your forum members the best PokerNordica sign up bonus on the market at 200% up to 400$
What’s in it for us?
- We want to spread the word about the PokerBRB freeroll league, so in exchange for the poker tournament competition we would appreciate some positive mentioning of the PokerBRB freeroll league on your forum
What should you do?
- Send us three different options for the bonus code (e.g. POKERBRB200)) you want to offer your members. The bonus code will ensure that your members get the right sign up deal and get associated with your account.
- Send us your affiliation details (username and registered email) and we will make sure you get bumped up to the better than average affiliation deal and get your affiliation link and bonus codes.
More details
The competition will be open to 5 forums and consist of a qualifier tournament and a final as illustrated below:
Prior to the qualifier, each forum webmaster sends us a list of their top 10 poker talents (of course more people can join from each forum…we have limited the list to 10 players to keep the scoring as simple as possible).
We will score each participant in the qualifier using the PokerBRB point system and then sum up which two forums have made the most points based on the positions their chosen 10 players achieved.
The two forums with the most points each choose 10 players to represent their respective forum in the final and provide us with a list of the player’s usernames at Poker Nordica. We will leave it up to the individual forum webmasters to set-up criteria for selecting the 10 finalists.
Each of the 20 players will receive a coupon to enter the final. The winner of the final will receive 30$ paid into his/her Poker Nordica account and his/her forum will be crowned the overall forum champion. Each of the remaining players on the winning team will receive 10$ paid into their Poker Nordica account.
The PokerBRB freeroll league forum will participate with our own team in the qualifier and we have set a maximum of 5 participating forums for our first competition, so if you’re interested please let us know at support@pokerbrb.com as soon as possible so we can start planning. We already have one participating forum namely Clubcaptain.
The first monthly PokerBRB Freeroll League competition has ended
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 | Poker Freeroll, Poker News | 3 Comments
We have successfully completed our first monthly freeroll league competition and the following 14 players have made it to our monthly 100$ final which is played on Poker Nordica on Sunday the 20th of September:´
- mepusica, 360 points
- dewmanjet66, 274 points
- astra, 185 points
- bremensha, 97 points
- pokeraces8738, 97 points
- MGirl, 96 points
- Gregorg, 96 points
- teo1981, 95 points
- I AM OZ, 95 points
- savidan59264, 93 points
- spike, 92 points
- Kentis666, 89 points
- Akorps, 86 points
- RapidMister, 84 points
If you want to participate in next month’s competition starting October 1st, you can sign up free on the league sign-up page.
See you at the tables!!
Top 10 preflop moves from Mitchell Cogert’s Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves
Sunday, September 13th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Top 10 Lists, Poker Tournament | 3 Comments
In this series of top 10 lists I have selected top moves from Mitchell Cogert’s “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves”. I believe these moves have the largest probability of improving your chances of winning low to medium stakes online poker tournaments.
Top 10 lists in this series:
Mitchell Cogert is the author of “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves.” It is the only reference book to reveal the plays the Pros use to win a poker tournament. These plays are based on reviewing 20 years worth of tournament poker strategies and by actual play against Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Pham and other top pros. The book is available on Amazon and rated 5 out of 5 stars by customers. Find out more about Mitchell Cogert by visiting Tournament Poker or his website APokerExpert.
Top 10 preflop moves
The following preflop moves are intended to either set you up to win all your opponent’s chips, win blinds and limps uncontested or make sure you don’t bleed out your stack to the ever increasing blinds.
- Early in the event limp with pocket Aces
When you are dealt pocket Aces early in an event you don’t want to settle with merely picking up the blinds. Limping with pocket Aces is risky business but could win you a larger pot compared to the standard play of raising with Aces. You want to be up against a maximum of 3 opponents when you limp with pocket Aces. In addition, the flop should optimally contain only one card in the playing zone (any card from 9s to Aces). If you limp with pocket Aces, get two additional callers and the flop is K (h) 8 (c) 2(d) that’s a great situation for you if one of your opponents has hit a pair of Kings. However, if you instead get 7 callers and the flop is K (h) J (h) 3 (c) you should have the discipline to fold your Aces since you will have almost no chance of winning the hand.
- The under-the-gun steal raise
Use this move later in tournaments to pick up the blinds uncontested. You don’t need a playable hand to make this move; you will be taking advantage of your position at the table since a 2 or 3xBB raise under-the-gun represents a strong hand. The move has a higher chance of succeeding if your overall table image is tight.
- The position power raise
The position power raise is intended to win both the blinds and the additional money in the pot from previous limpers. It works best during the middle or later stages of low stakes online multi-table tournaments where a raise represents a significant amount of your opponent’s stacks. If your hand is good enough to limp with, then it is also good enough to raise strongly to 4xBB with the goal of making the other players fold. If a player calls your hand can still improve on the flop. Make sure the opponents you want to fold have stack sizes comparable to yours. If they are low stacked they might push all in to your raise and if they are big stacked they are more likely to call you.
- The leave something behind re-raise
In the middle to late stages of an online tournament you need to seize every opportunity you can to accumulate chips. Say you hold a medium hand in the big blind such as A8 suited and an opponent in the cut off position with a medium stack size similar to yours raises 3xBB. Your opponent could be using his position to steal the blinds so this might be a good spot to re-raise him to get him to fold. But what is the optimal re-raise amount? If you re-raise your opponent all in, you put maximum pressure on him, but the all in re-raise is often perceived as a move and might lead your opponent to call. However if you re-raise your opponent with two thirds or more of your stack, this signals you have a premium hand. By leaving something behind you are telling your opponent that you are prepared to go all the way with your hand.
- Be aggressive near the bubble
You did not enter the tournament to finish in the money. You entered the tournament to win it! Keeping this in mind is especially important near the bubble. Most of your opponents will tighten up near the bubble looking to secure that prize money finish to justify the time and investment they have made in the tournament. Don’t be like your opponents. Take advantage of their tight play by stepping up your aggression level and loosening up your starting hand requirements. Bubble play is a great phase in a tournament to accumulate chips and increase your chances of making the final table.
- Move all in preflop as the first raiser when your stack is less than 9xBB
If your chip stack has declined to less than 9xBB your only remaining play is all in. When you pick your spot to go all in, it is more important that you are the first preflop raiser than what starting hand you have. Being the first preflop raiser you have a good chance of picking up the blinds and antes uncontested. Look to go all in as the first preflop raiser with any pocket pair, any Ace, any two face cards, any suited connectors and medium hands such as K10, Q10, J9 etc..
- Move all in with your good hands when you have 8 times or less than the initial raisers bet
You need to take risks to win an online multi table tournament. Obviously it is best to take risks when you have a good hand such as medium or high pocket pairs or face cards such as AJ suited or higher. When facing a preflop raise, look to double your stack or win a big pot uncontested by moving all in with your good hands when your chip stack is less than 8 times as big as the initial preflop raise.
- Moving all in when you are the BB and there are multiple callers
Consider moving all in to win a big pot during the middle or late stages of a tournament if you have a playable hand in the BB in a pot with many limpers. Often you will succeed and win the pot uncontested. Sometimes however, players will limp with high pocket pairs just waiting for a player to make a move like yours. In this case you will have to pray to the poker gods that you get lucky. Keep in mind that the stack sizes of your limping opponents should be comparable to your medium stack. If one of the limpers is either short or big stacked, the probability of winning the pot uncontested drops significantly.
- The stop and go
I like this move a lot. If you find yourself short stacked during the middle or late stages of a tournament and pick up a hand which you are prepared to go all the way with, consider using the stop and go move to increase your chances of winning the hand. The stop and go is an alternative to pushing all in preflop with your good hands when facing a preflop raiser. Simply call the initial raisers raise and push all in on the flop no matter what. 68% of times your opponent will have missed his hand on the flop and you have just presented him with a good reason to fold. If you had pushed all in preflop, the initial raiser would have most likely called leaving the outcome of the hand in the hands of the poker gods. With the stop and go move you still have some influence on the outcome of the hand.
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.
All In Poker Radio Show 19- Mike “The Force” Eise at WPT – Vanessa Rousso on Poker Training
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Pro | 1 Comment
This is the 10th installment of the weekly All in Poker Radio Show resume series I have planned for the Poker Bankroll blog.
The All in Poker Radio show is hosted by Vic Porcelli who is joined in the studio by Big Slick Andy Kazen, The Young Gun Aggressor Craig Hogard and The Insider Cody Duffey. Produced by Game On Network Entertainment the show can be downloaded as podcast at All In Podomatic and listened to live each Saturday through the Team 1380 website.
In show 19 the crew interviews Mike Eise, WSOP 2009 bracelet winner, and poker babe and brainiac Vanessa Rousso.
Highlights:
Andy “Big Slick” Kazen is back on his seat which was kept warm by Mike Eise while Andy toured the country during his holiday!
As in most shows, Vic and his crew spend quite some time complimenting Dan Harrington. You guys sure like him! What about Gus Hansen? You never mention him and he would run circles around Dan Harrington 
You will also hear about the Ante up for Africa charity event that included celebrities such as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck at the tables. Apparent people playing against Matt Damon think he is as good as the character he plays in the great poker movie Rounders. The blinds went up fast in the tournament making for plenty of loose play and Chris Moneymaker as the chip leader on the final table with only 10xBB.
One a side (and a bit primal) note all the guys in the studio agreed that Jennifer Harman looks good these days. Cody said it best: “Slutty girls look hot” referring to Jennifer’s eye makeup I think.
Mike Eise joins the show live from the WPT event at the Bicycle casino in Los Angeles. Mike knocked out poker legend Barbara Enright in a 100$ tournament. Barbara Enright is the only woman ever to make the final table at a WSOP Main Event (back in 1995) and has been in the game long enough to have great stories about all the legendary poker players including Stu Ungar. The best comment of the show came up when Mike talked about some guy who sucked out on him in another tournament: “That horse shoe is deep in his butt I think”. Great comment.
As usual on the show you will hear the WSOP classic clip and the “Does he have the nuts or is he just nuts” bit. Relive the famous Jennifer Harman bad beat against Cory Zeidman at the 2005 WSOP main event and find out whether Tom McEvoy actually had a better hand when he re-raised Carlos Mortensen all in in the 2009 WSOP Champions Invitational Event.
Finally Vanessa Rousso talks about her Big Slick Poker Strategy boot camp and the tournament results that have given her 1,5 million $ in winnings this year alone. Vanessa Rousso is both intelligent, a gifted poker player and smoking hot!!!
You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.
Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.
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