Learn to Play Texas Holdem at PacificPoker.com

If you are learning to play from scratch at Pacific poker, you will find plenty of play money tables at which you can learn the basics. These are important in giving new players the chance to understand Texas Holdem, but it is equally important that you do not play for too long at this type of table, or you will learn a lot of bad habits.

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I terms of learning good habits, you need look no further than the Pacific Poker school. This is probably the best place to pick up on the finer points of the game, and provides a great service supporting new players who wish to learn the game. This pocker school consists mostly of rules and strategies to help get you started, but it is not the only help given to players taking their first steps into Texas Holdem.

If you decide you wish to play for real money, you get a 100% cash match bonus on your first deposit from Pacific Poker, but use these funds wisely. As a beginner at Texas Holdem, I think it best to spread these funds over small MTTs. The beauty of this type of tournament is that you get far more time playing, and learning the game for your money.

If you are looking for some personal words of advice, you can find a forum onsite where players chat to each other about all aspects of the game. Do not be afraid to write a post there asking for tips on the game. Above all else, enjoy your learning process. Poker rooms are there to help new players understand the game better, but do not be put off if you find that having read up on the game and explored the poker school, you still cannot make a profit. Not many players can make a consistent profit at poker, so concentrate on enjoying the experience of playing what is the most popular poker game in the world today.

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Promotions at VirginPocker.com

Starting with the first time deposit bonus at Virgin Poker, there is an additional sum paid on top of your initial deposit, which equates to 100%. This is paid up to an amount of £100, and the bonus sum will be released in £10 increments as you earn points for cash play onsite.

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Each month, Virgin poker run a Points race, which offers bonus cash prizes to those players who put in the gruelling hours to make it onto the leaderboard. This type of promotion does favour the higher stakes players as they accumulate more points per hand than lower limit players, but it still represents a great ongoing promotion.

If you are one of those players that enjoys trying to satellite their way to the WSOP each year, there is a promotion just for you at Virgin Poker. If you win your package with Virgin, they will give you enough flying miles to get there for free.

Great value freerolls are running at Virgin poker on a regular basis too, which shows a willingness to take care of the smaller bankrolled player as well as the bigger players, I feel.

Virgin Poker have also decided to ease the plight of the bubble finishers in guaranteed tournaments, by offering them back their buy in. All you need to do is email in with the details and they will refund you.
Bad beat jackpots and a series of jackpot Sit and Go tournaments make up the rest of what is in my opinion, a very good list of promotions at Virgin Poker.

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Daily Freerolls at CelebPocker.com

Freerolls are a strong area for Celeb Poker in my opinion, as they look to offer several chances each day for players to boost their funds with these tournaments.
Between 11am and 11pm each day, Celeb poker have many freerolls scheduled with prizes of 15, 25, and 50 Euros.

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Through the first week of June, they have even scheduled numerous freerolls with prize pools of either 100 Euros or 200 Euros, and all of these are completely free to enter.
This shows that Celeb poker have a willingness to help new players find thheir feet and accumulate some funds to work with.

Many online poker rooms these days seem to cater for the big stakes players more than any other, but you cannot say that about Celeb poker.

As June rolls on, you will even find higher prize pools than 200 Euros being offered. I would say that this is great value for money, but it’s even better than that, because you do not even have to spend any money in order to win.

On top of these regular freerolls, you will find that if you open an account with Celeb Poker, you will automatically be eligible for a new players freeroll. This has a prize pool of 1,000 Euros, offering the chance of a significant boost to your starting bankroll before you even have a chance to risk any of it.
These freerolls compliment what is already an excellent first time deposit bonus of 200%, and should keep the smaller stakes players here, very happy indeed.

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PacificPocker.com: Does Online Poker Help or Hinder Live Event Player Numbers?

With the ever growing number of players taking up pocker at PacificPocker.com and playing from home, you might start wondering if eventually everyone might take the easy route and play from home.

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After all, most players who make a living online, not only find it easier to sit down and play online, but they can play far greater numbers of hands within a given time.

More hands mean more profits for these players, but I do not think there is any imminent danger of pros abandoning live play in favour of online play.

My reasoning for this, is that I feel all players recognise the tradition and social enjoyment to be gained from sitting down and playing cards face to face. It may not be the fastest way for pros to make money, but it gives them a chance to show the world what they can do, as well as showing off the names of any online poker room they might be affiliated with.

As for attendances in live events, well they certainly do not seem in decline, despite the explosion in popularity of online poker. If anything, you could say that the internet has had a positiive effect in making the learning of poker a simpler task. Players who had an interest in the game but were maybe too nervous to go to a casino without understanding the rules properly, can now learn with ease. These online players then go on and compete in live events later on.

We only have to look at the WSOP every year to see that the growth of online poker, has been matched by growth in live tournament attendance numbers.

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Tournaments Available on CoralPocker.com

There is a lot of choice available at Coral Poker, with a good spread of tournament types too. The game types are a pleasing mix for a player such as myself who enjoys Holdem ,Omaha, and Five Card Draw more than other games. These three games are all offered here, as well as Seven Card Stud.

Play online pocker tournaments now at CoralPoker.com

You can find tournaments for each of these games onsite, with a nice array of buy in levels to match.
Coral are running a ‘British Masters Poker Tour’ event later this year, and players can qualify for this onsite, with a chance to go on and compete for big prize pools.

Also running recently, were 26 events from April through to June, giving players the chance to spend their points on a series of tournaments with big cash prizes.

The World Series has already begun, but there is still time to win a seat to the main event, with satellites to be found onsite at Coral Poker.

Coral have had a long running ‘Guest List’ tournament which involves seats being won for completing set objectives each month, or winning satellites to claim a seat. The last ever guest list tournament is on the 10th of June, but this tournament is only reaching it’s end so that a new set of promotions can be introduced.

Every Sunday, Coral poker are now offering a massive guaranteed tournament with a $250,000 prize pool.
So for those that want to chase a life changing win, you can find satellites to the event at Coral Poker.

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Responding to Poker Setbacks

I can certainly say that playing online pocker this week, and indeed last week, I had some moments that really tested my character. Strangely there have been three occasions these past two weeks where I have been looking great on the flop with an opposing player all in, and they have hit runners for a Straight.

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Pocket Kings against (8,8), top set on the flop with (5,5), and (A,K) against (9,9) with a king falling on the first card of the flop all, ended in this same way. But there is nothing to be gained by feeling sorry for yourself.
We all have to deal with these tests of resolve sometimes, and it is how you respond to them that can have a huge impact on whether you bounce back or go on to lose much more through sheer frustration.

In the short term, it is important to deal with these situations in the right way. I often allow myself a smile when faced with unpleasant outdraws, partly that’s to let my opponents know that it hasn’t gotten under my skin of course. When I make that next bluff, I do not want people to think it is a bet born of frustration or anger.

In the long term we simply have to trust the odds. No matter who you are or how unlucky/lucky you might feel on a given night, it all evens out in the end. That is why responding to bad beats is so important, because the hand itself is just one of many that will happen for or aginst you over time.

It is the hands afterwards where you either go off the rails and do something silly, or calmly smile and carry on playing logical, calculated, pocker, that will determine your profits or deficits at the end of a month or a year.

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Virgin Poker Reviewed

Virgin Poker offers a first time deposit bonus of 100% up to an amount of 100 Euros. In my opinion, the upper limit of 100 Euros is a little bit low, but still a reasonable offer.

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There is a refer a friend bonus on offer too, which stands at 25 Euros for you once your friend has played in 500 raked hands. Small daily freerolls are available too, but in truth it would be nice to see higher sums of money on offer.

In terms of graphics at the tables, they are rasonable enough and serve their purpose, but perhaps there is a little room for improvement in this regard. One obvious plus point is the number of games on offer at Virgin Poker. Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Five card Stud, Holdem, and Five Card Draw are all on offer which should keep most players more than happy. help and support are swift and helpful and can be contacted via seveal outlets 24/7. Satellites to the WSOP, as well as many guaranteed tournaments help to make up a nice looking schedule of tournaments, and the cash tables fill up fairly quickly on the more popular games.

All in all, I would say that as a relatively new site, Virgin poker offer a good place to play online poker, but they must continue to work hard if they are going to be up there with the biggest names in poker. There are a few points I mentioned earlier which need improvement, but overall, I think Virgin Poker do have potential.

A night in playing online pocker at PacificPocker.com

Omaha is a game I play very little of live, mostly because most of the players I know enjoy Holdem far more, but I do manage to play often online.

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Whilst I do not claim to be an exceptionally gifted Omaha pocker player, I certainly know enough to pinpoint mistakes I see made every day by amateur players. I feel that many players are branching out from Holdem to experiment with Omaha at the moment, and this brings me to my first point. If you pair both your hole cards in Holdem you are usually in a commanding position on the flop, but this is not often the case in Omaha. Whilst I admit there is a reasonable chance you are in front, you will find that especially on lower stakes cash tables, you will get several callers and end up losing the pot.

When there are less online pocker players going to the flop you can of course be more confident of these type of hands, but you still have to be extremely wary of any three cards to a suit on board, or potential Straight combinations. These hands are the obvious dangers that can hurt you after a seemingly great flop of top two, or a set. The basic fact is that in Omaha, you are never safe until you have the absolute nuts.

On a similar point, big pocket pairs are pretty in Omaha, but they are still just a pair. I would recommend caution with these hands, as they are only as strong as the other two cards supporting them. Ideally you want your two Aces or Kings to give you Flush or Straight options too in relation to your other hole cards. So often I see players betting the maximum on every street regardless of the board cards, then turn over hands like (A,A,7,10) for a single pair. Reading the potential dangers of the board cards is of huge importance in Omaha.

New Online Pocker games at CoralPocker.com

This week I have thankfully made a reasonable addition of Coral Pocker points to aid my league position, but there were a few other positives to take from the session other than this.

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I was a little unlucky in not seeing a pocker hand bigger than (Ad,4h) or (6,6) in the first hour. I shall try not to speak too much of this though, as I don’t like to blame luck whenever I do not succeed, as this is counter productive I feel.

I managed to take a cheap flop with (Js,10s) early on though after (A,K) fatally failed to put any sort of substantial raise out preflop. I flopped my trip tens, checked the three way pot, then a King came off on the turn. I decided to make a small bet in the hope of someone having connected and thankfully my opponent had. I made enough chips to see me through for the next hour, with the occasional blind steal, and after being moved tables I finally picked up a hand of (J,J) which was the best I’d seen all night. I moved my last 5,500 in and was called by (Q,Q). I hit my Jack, he hit his Queen, and I was eliminated in 10th place. I know I didn’t see many cards to work with but we all have that problem sometimes, I am happy enough with what I achieved regardless of this.

So a few more online pocker points now should put me into the top ten of the league table, despite playing two less games than most other players and so I cannot be unhappy with that. To be honest, I am already anticipating the big end of league game on May 24th, having managed 4th place last time around, let us just hope I am getting my poor luck out of the way before then.

Celeb Pocker Tournaments

This was the last hand I played in last nights live Celeb Pocker event, and involved being dealt (Q,J) in the small blind. The player to my right had mentioned two hands previously, folding (A,6) preflop, and he limped in from the button.

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The flop came down (A,5,9) and it was checked to the button player. He led out with a raise of 1,600 and I decided to come over the top for another 4,500 all in bet. The fact that he had mentioned folding a mid to low Ace two hands previously swayed my decision, as did the fact that he was last to act after the pocker action had been checked on the flop.

I felt he was folding mid to low Aces preflop and would have raised wih a strong Ace. So of course I didn’t feel he was as strong as an Ace, and he sat thinking for a long time before another player urged him to make a decision. Calling time on the player was perhaps fatal for me, as usually, I find that the longer a player thinks, the more likely they are to fold.

As soon as the online pocker player said to hurry up and decide either way though, my opponent sighed and threw the chips in saying he felt he was probably behind. He showed (A,4) for top pair which meant he had made a call which was slightly out of character preflop, and on the flop too actually. That said, I still have to take resposibility for making a dangerous play and coming off worse. This serves as another reminder that I need to adapt my play at my local live event and tighten up my play.