Poker in Eastern Europe: Popularity Rises

Being an occasional home games poker player I am missing some action while on a trip in Europe. So the other day I browsed through all sorts of TV channels to see whether I can watch some professional poker. And I could, even in my native language – Slovak.

I am currently visiting Slovakia, an eastern European (former communist) country, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw poker on their TV. The tourney was from PartyPoker tour, or something like that, but the cards where the same )

I wasn’t aware about popularity of poker in eastern European countries at all but now I am getting some “inside” look. Of course it isn’t like in North America where you can talk poker strategy with almost anyone on the street but surely poker is getting more attention over here.

I’ll be keeping my eye on people to see whether poker topics are discussed at least occasionally. If not I will try to seed some poker enthusiasm within eastern Europeans thus we can enjoy a more competitive poker in the future which can be assured only by an increasing poker players’ base around the world.

Stanoo Calista

World Poker Champion crowned at the 2007 WSOP

After around 16 hours of poker at the final table of the Main Event at the 2007 World Series of Poker the champion was crowned – Jerry Yang. This Laos born Californian is a 39 year-old psychologist that qualified for the Main Event through a $225 buy-in.

The WSOP Main Event hosted 6,350 players and lasted over 6 days. With a buy-in fee of $10,000 the prizes we spectacular. The prize money spots started at around 600 and the winner took home just little over $8.2 million.

Second place finisher was Tuan Lam from Canada and took home over $4 million. Going heads-up against Yang in the finale, he was seriously short-stacked but never the less he put in a good fight.

With the Main Event finished the 2007 World Series of Poker is officially done as well. The whole Series that lasted almost 7 weeks attracted more players then ever before thus suggesting that poker’s popularity is rising with a lightning speed around the globe.

The Dark Side of Poker – Very Juice Story

Even though poker is a gambling activity I don’t associate neither term – poker or gambling – with something bad or unethical. It’s a game where one loses and one wins. Sure they play for big bucks but so do tennis, golf or football players.

However, there can be a really dark side to poker and especially gambling. To support this claim I am urging you to read an amazing story that is going on between two pro poker players, which urged me to let you know about it.

The story was posted as a blog entry on WiseHandPoker.com and its title “NEVERWIN IS A SCUMBAG…” summarizes the whole thing quite well – one poker player chases another player for money he once loaned him, thus he accuses him of being a scumbag.

In this case, the dog is Mark Newhouse and the rabbit is Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf. Whether you know either of these guys or not it sure is a juice piece to read.

I wonder how many such cases go on daily between “play-for-living” poker players and gamblers. But after all isn’t this how the whole business world works?

Phil Hellmuth takes his 11th bracelet at the 2007 WSOP

Phil Hellmuth – “Poker Brat” – might not be the most favorite player to watch or an opponent to play as many people and pros would point out. However, he never said he is intending to be likeable.

His obsession to be the best is also a point of many conversations as again many pros would say that “to be considered to be the Best you need to behave along the way as well”. But again, Phil never said he wants to be considered the Best.

Simply, all Phil cares about is whether he is on top of that bracelet ladder or not. And on June 11th, 2007 he claimed his 11th golden bracelet at the World Series of Poker and took down a prize of $637,254. Thus becoming the all time bracelet leader. (Not bad for a “nasty” guy.)

And perhaps he made even more enemies on the way to his 11th bracelet, but who cares! And I am sure that Phil doesn’t care either as long as he tops the history records.

3 simple facts about Phil Hellmuth being the Best:

• This was his 38th final table appearance and he is now one away from the all-time leader, T.J. Cloutier – currently with 39.
• This marked the 59th time Phil Hellmuth has finished in-the-money at the WSOP. He is the all-time leader in that category.
• When Phil Hellmuth won the world championship in 1989, he was (and still is) the youngest main event winner in history – at 24.

I guess I don’t like him too but he sure is one hell of a poker player!

World Series of Poker 2007

With the World Series of Poker well underway it is interesting to follow what’s going on on a daily basis. The big pros started to make their appearances as well as they started to take some cash prizes. However, none of them produced anything spectacular yet.

While probably the best place to follow the daily actions of the 2007 WSOP is the WorldSeriesOfPoker.com, the most interesting is most likely WiseHandPoker.com because it brings actual hand analysis combined with history knowledge of Gary Wise. Also, Gary’s blog is quite interesting as well, since it’s not an official look at the things that go on behind the tables.

Whichever source you chose I strongly recommend that you follow the 2007 WSOP action regularly because you can learn so much by reading and paying attention to every detail.

2007 World Series of Poker Begins Today

Well folks it is that time of year again for the WSOP. I know, I know poker ain’t sports unless you are Russian. It seems that a few months ago the Russians declared that poker was a sport. For me I am not sure how it is a sport but hey… who am I to question the Russians?

So with the start of the World Series of Poker I can imagine that the online poker rooms will be a little less busy, especially during the first few days of the WSOP, as the better online players are all trying to win their millions.

Our good friend and colleague Gary Wise of Wise Hand Poker is once again covering the 2007 WSOP. Not only for his usual client’s but this time he is actually covering the event for ESPN.com and has his own section plus page 1 placement. Looks good on ya Gary, keep up the excellent “poker historian” coverage for us all.

E. Zack Lee

Poker Rooms?

I would just like to know which poker rooms you all find the best. I have tried Tiger Gaming, Pacific Poker, Absolute Poker..and a couple others. So far I find Absolute to be the best. I do the tournaments->sit and go->fun, which is free to play in the tourneys. I find the players play more like a real tourney. You don’t get so many idiots going all in with a 6-2 or whatever, I have amassed a total of 150k free chips .

They also have freeroll tourneys with around 2-3000 players and if you win you actually win some cash. If you win, you also get an entry into a cash tourney. Not bad for nothing…who says you you can’t get something for free? If you want to play me I am BENNYBLUBALLS lol.

If you think you need to learn more before you enter tourneys, try to read up on poker strategy either online or from one of the many great poker books available.