Separating Poker From Social Life

Separating Poker From Social Life

Poker is a game of socialization. Whether you play online or live or even both, you are socializing and having fun. The game is far from boring, its something which entertains us all. This is what makes playing poker for a living an awesome job! The job has its ups and downs like any, mostly to do with bad swings and long hours. When using the word job in the previous sentence it is important to remember that those that play poker for a living or to supplement income must remember that this is far from a party, far from socialization. Playing poker is real work and must be separated from normal every day social life.

When we all first start playing poker we all do it for entertainment. I can not think of one person who walked into their first game of poker thinking “What a great job I have, shuffle up and deal and lets get this wage earned!” Simply it doesn’t seem to work like this. Every persons story I have heard on how they started playing poker starts differently but never that way. This means even the best and richest poker players in the world that have succumb poker as a hobby or fun time started the same as all of us. They played for fun and entertainment originally.

It isn’t always the case that any player should stop making poker a social game. Doing that is impossible regardless. Any poker player who is planning on making poker their main source of income or supplementary income needs to consider this article. They need to somewhat separate this new part time or full time job from their social life as much as possible.

How does one do this? How do we separate poker from our social life? I myself am only beginning to find out! In studying a lot of poker players lifestyles though it really is simple and something I must take my own advice on.

• Set your times that you plan on playing and make sure they are uninterrupted alike you were working an office job. Make your part time hours or full time hours 100% dedicated to your game and nothing else.
• Don't take social habits such as drinking and smoking to your live or online table. Don't take chit chat with friends unless it is about the game to your “job” with you.
• Manage your poker bankroll completely separately. This includes the separation of “partying funds” at live tournaments. In saying that, there is always the case that a man may find a fling night at a strip club (lol) a way to ease tensions before a big game.
• If you are to play a game of poker socially with friends and or family, make it that way. Don't make it serious - have your drinks and your snack food all sorted for the time of your life. Make it as if it were a day at the pool.
• Turn off ALL social networks! No facebooking, yahooing, orkuting, msning or anything UNLESS it is in regard to the game at the time – in saying that unless you are whining about a bad beat or your current status rank wise, I can not think WHY you would have them on. (says she who always does – again I must follow my own advice.)

All in all unless poker is a social aspect of your life these things need considering and not for one second am I saying there is not more things to do such as open specific bank accounts, keep running tally’s and associated expenses etc separate. Again, I am just separating myself!

Read More

What's A Poker Teleseminar?

What's A Poker Teleseminar?

Recently pokerteleseminars.com opened their online doors for business. This has left many people wondering what a poker teleseminar is. I thought seeing as though I was the next guest speaker I would put an explanation in my blog about what the benefits of poker teleseminars are as well as the main features of a poker teleseminar.


There are countless; thousands of teleseminars on the internet daily on various subjects and topics covering all walks of life. Seminars can be found on metaphysical subjects, fishing, camping, hunting, technology, internet and computer use, gardening, grief, you name it! You can find a teleseminar on any topic you like and this now includes poker!

A teleseminar is 100% LIVE training in the topic of choice. The seminars have guest speaker (trainers, teachers and educators) that are specialists in their areas of topic. For gardening you may find Don Burke a famous Aussie gardener talking about the art of keeping bugs out of your garden as an example. Pokerteleseminars.com have used the same concept but for poker.

Basically participants (in my words students) of the topic go to the seminar hosting site, enter their details and prepare for the live training which is held at a certain time and a certain day. They can participate as a student via the internet (web) or via telephone by ringing in. The trainer / guest speaker or teacher will be available at the organized time to cover curriculum and educate the participants on the chosen topic. In the case of my up and coming seminar, I will be discussing "The Art of Getting Sponsored" or gaining sponsorship in the many ways and forms it can be achieved by poker players.

Being 100% live training the students in the seminar have the ability to ask questions during question time. If they have participated in the seminar via telephone they simply push a button and it indicates to the host and co-coordinator they have placed their hand in the air to ask a question to the guest speaker / teacher. They then ask the question directly to the educator / trainer / teacher (whatever you would like to call them) and the question is answered for everyone to hear. There is also the option of submitting a question prior to the seminar on the topic via an "ask a question box" or during it; by typing the question in.

Seminars are held in halls and costs sometimes thousands of dollars to be trained in your particular field or topic of interest. Making an online seminar your choice of training gives you all the same benefits with the only difference being you are not face to face. There is no travel involved and no need to organize the pets, kids or motel room. What's more you can attend a seminar every week by various speakers on your subject of choice rather then once a year. This makes a teleseminar perfect for high level and quantity education purposes at a limited cost to you or me the students!

When I first looked at pokerteleseminars; to be honest i thought I could learn nothing from it. After attending seminars on other topics across the net and the pokerteleseminar held last week with guest speaker Tony Hachem on the "The Art of Consistency" I realized it is more then sure to work for everyone involved, particularly the students! My thoughts have indeed changed.

Anyway; this should explain a poker teleseminar I hope! It is something that even some pro's have added into their training schedule, after all - poker takes a life time to master even if it only takes a day to learn. With each and every pro in the world having awesome skills in very different areas; pokerteleseimnars will deliver more then any strategy book or video available anywhere. You have the best of the best teaching the best aspect of their game. From the smallest of Pro's through to our world champions! best of luck with your game and happy learning if you happen to participate in a poker teleseminar.

The official home of pokerteleseminars can be found by clicking this: POKERTELESEMINARS 100% LIVE TRAINING

Read More

Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

Pain, Pills, Poker and Fighting for Life! Are You At Risk?

We all whinge and whine about bad beats, suck outs and donkeys at some stage. The words ALL IN, with your tournament life on the line are frightening words! Being knocked out after those words really sucks! Tell me though; would you say those words ALL IN if your life depended on it? Not your tournament life your life existing on this planet.

Let me tell you about those suck outs whinges and whines I have had to deal with beyond poker. Let me tell you about my ALL-IN call. Let me tell how amongst everything you all see me do what I battle. I don’t write this for sympathy or for attention. I don’t write this to big note myself either. A friend told me BLOG IT! Blog what you do and what you are going through; you could save the lives of fellow players, it will also inspire people who don’t want to fight. Well; here I am blogging a personal struggle for my own existence. I am battling my final table on the felt of life!

Here is what I have done in the poker industry in the last 2 years. These are things you hopefully know of: Columnist Australian Poker Weekly, Columnist Woman Poker Player Magazine, Pokerpodradio Co-Host, WTF Poker Show Host, Poker Coach, Manager Raidbet, Manager Australia New Zealand Cybertech, Book Co-Author, Director PR Cybertech, Played Poker and Administered Various Poker Forums. I also have 4 kids and a house to care for. I am busy to say the least.

At times I have battled to lift my head off a pillow to do these jobs, not through laziness but illness. I have had personal issues that no one has a clue about. Normally it isn’t a good thing to spread personal business but for the sake of the countless poker players that may be in a similar position this time I am.

During the course of doing all the above I have spent countless hours back and forth to the doctor. I have a condition (endometriosis) and my doctor’s treatment of this condition has all but left me fighting for my life. I had 4 operations; more surgery was pointless according to the specialists. Surgery hasn’t worked.

The doctor continued treating my symptoms, agonising pain. Pain in my tummy, my back, my legs, my groin, the pain was so bad; so excruciating I was prescribed 120 panadiene forte at a time, 8 each day. I was relieved at having these meds on hand. The pills didn’t completely kill the pain but did take the edge off it. I remember having dinner with Barry Shulman and Wife Allyn (Card Player Magazine and Spadeclub) in Sydney and going into sudden agony. The pills were not going to work that night. Thank goodness they are understanding people because I truly started acting odd as it onset, all I could think was OH NO! Now? This happened many times to me over 2 years and this precious moment was one of them.

I changed doctors just recently and thank god I did! I had to have a nasty lump cut out and of course had blood tests and what not taken. I was crying so hard the night before my trip to the doctors to get my results. Always a bad thing when the nurse rings up and says “The doctor would like to see you ASAP, and no he won’t wait til your next appointment, he would like to start treatment tomorrow, your tests have come back bad.”. I expected I had malignant cancer of course, not a benign tumour after these words. I knew I had dreadful news to deal with.

“Your tumour isn’t going to kill you” explained the doctor, “But your liver is going into failure. How much alcohol do you drink?” I was honest of course, a few bourbons every few nights and a ton of them at parties which are few and far between with my busy poker and home schedules. He then asked about the medications the other doctor had placed me on and also the length of my treatment. I told him, pain pills prescribed by the doctor. For the record they are Tylenol (I think) in the USA and Panadiene Forte in Australia. He declares: “YOUR PAIN PILLS HAVE CAUSED THIS! THEY ARE KILLING YOU!”

Any wonder I was sick! My other doctor was killing me. I took those pills to function, to walk tourney floors, play long poker sessions, blog like I am now, do interviews write articles, mother kids, mow the damn lawn! They worked somewhat and were better than nothing it seemed. They were better than no poker!

Listen everyone; I have a long road to a full recovery. I am not taking pain meds and am in agony 24/7. I am having more surgery on my stomach and implants put in my body, I have changed my eating habits and can’t drink alcohol all in a battle to save myself and all this change in a matter of days. I must rejuvenate the liver! Thank fully it is one organ in the body that can fix itself. It takes, time effort and work though.

POKERPLAYERS – If you have a headache; a backache; a tummy ache; any pain at all – avoid taking pills(Yes I have seen quite a few of you reach for the headache pills at tables!). Find out why and have it fixed if you can and go for a second and third opinion. Choose the right ALL IN. Don’t go all in on the felt as you use a bandaid treatment for your pain. Go all in off the felt working out what’s wrong because if the pain isn’t going to kill you the medications will.

You can’t play poker when you’re dead; simple!

Read More

Easy Instructions on How to Play Poker

Easy Instructions on How to Play Poker

I thought seeing as though I was on the track of where I play, what I do and how to play poker online I would cover the topic. Easy Instructions on how to play poker and also follow this topic with Poker Rules! (I don’t mean rules as in rocks and is awesome even if it is for the record, I mean: THE POKER RULES!).

So how to play poker! That’s what I am writing; let me get back to it. Playing poker at a beginner’s level is fun and easy going on the mind. Learning to play is as easy as soaking water into a sponge BUT the game takes a lifetime to master.

I will cover Texas Hold’em, the game that has taken the world to a poker high!

1. Texas Hold’em has 2 to 10 players per table.

2. You are dealt 2 hole cards (only you can see them), so is everyone else of course

3. Any how to play poker tutorial will first talk about bets. So here goes . There are compulsory bets in a poker game called blinds – Big Blind and Small Blind. The blinds are determined at the start of a game by the highest dealt card. Whoever gets the high card is classed as the dealer, following him is the small blind then the big blind. These blinds are forced at the start of each hand.

4. Each person looks at their cards and depending on how good they are they choose their option: fold, call (the same amount of money as the big blind) raise, (make a bet bigger than the big blind) or re-raise if someone has bet before them. The big blind has the option to check if no player before them (Big Blind is last to take their turn) has risen.

5. The dealer then deals 3 cards onto the poker table for all to see. These are called community cards. The community cards are used by everyone! You don’t take them off the table ;-) you use them to make the best poker hand you can combined with the two cards you have.

6. Another round of check, fold, raise and re-raise occurs as players determine whether they have the best hand or can make the best hand. This is followed by another community card (the fourth called the turn) another round of betting, folding and checking followed by the last community card (the 5^th, called the river).

7. Final bets, checks and folds are made and the remaining players turn over their cards. The best hand wins! It’s as simple as that. (This is how to play poker in very basic terms)

So, what is the best hand? Here are the Poker Hand Rankings!

· Royal Flush - A, K, Q, J, 10 - all of the same suit

· Straight Flush - Any five card sequence in the same suit - 5, 6, 7, 8,9 of diamonds an example

· Four of a Kind (also called quads) – All 4 cards of the same denomination – AAAA as an example

· Full House (also called boat) - Three of a kind combined with a pair – K, K, K, Q, Q as an example

· Flush - Any five cards of the same suit – 5 diamonds as an example but not in a straight form.

· Straight - Five cards in sequence, but not in the same suit - 7,8,9,10,J, of varied suits

· Three of a Kind (also known as trips or a set) – Three cards of the same denomination - 999

· Two Pair – Two Separate Pairs – 88 99 as an example

· One Pair - 77 as an example

· High Card – The highest card wins the hand as no player has even made a pair.

So, out of the hand rankings the great poker hand of them all is A Royal Flush! Have fun learning how to play poker by playing away on a play money table and trying to get one .Be sure to push the PrtSc (Print Screen) button on your keyboard if you get 1. The button is located between F12 and Pause Break. You can simply push this button and open paint from your accessories and paste the image of your royal flush to keep for a life time. If you get one live, be sure to get a photo taken, they don’t come too often!

That all for now about how to play poker . Promise to write more on this topics soon :-)

Read More

Senior Citizens in Poker

Senior Citizens in Poker

I have previously covered the topic of underage poker players. This blog I thought it to be necessary to give a mention to the other end of the age scale; The Senior Citizens in Poker. The senior citizens have a lot going for them at the poker table. Most are experienced players and have been around the block quite a few times. They are sometimes very much wiser when it comes to life also; they have been alive longer and this is expected. Life skills are definitely something we use in our little world of poker also.

Senior Citizens in poker are usually very good bankroll managers and have a load more cash than the young guns to invest into their hobby, career or lifestyle; whichever you may call poker. Remember senior citizens have had a life time of learning, saving and building their bankroll. As poker players say; “Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”. Senior citizens are well on their way to being masters of the game.

It can be very hard for the senior citizens though; many of us just don’t realize! There are players that are almost 90 years of age. I know from my personal experiences with close relatives that at this age we humans like to have what I call “nanny naps” in the middle of the day; senior citizens do tire a lot easier. Tiring can make tournament play very difficult in particular. Some tournaments such as the Aussie Millions Poker Championship you are playing 13 to 16 hours a day to make the final table. The thought is enough to tire me without adding on another 40 years to my life. I feel tired playing 7 and 8 hours of tournaments and I ‘think’ I am at peak age for sports.

On a very bright note the senior citizens in poker are keeping an active brain. Active minds equate to wonderful outcomes for our health and well being. As we age we tend to slow down our thinking processes. We retire and lay back a little. Sure we may read some books and do jigsaw puzzles but is that really keeping an active mind? By active I mean ACTIVE! I mean thinking as hard as you can to sum up a situation, to count, read, act, watch and be alert nonstop. All of this is in the game of poker.

Many senior citizens I know enjoy walks in the park, bingo, gardening, home bridge games, lawn bowels – I may be biased but I will be a poker player at age 80. It takes more cunning, whit and skill on a mental note than anything else I can think of I would participate in as a hobby after retirement from my day job. It also takes extreme physical effort when you consider the statement above about playing 13-16 hour tournaments. Stewart Scott as an example lost 6 kilograms when he took down the Aussie Millions in 2008 and he is not a big man! It is no easy feat to play these games and any poker player will know it. At the end of each day you have the life drawn out of you. Our Senior Citizens in Poker are indeed TOUGH!

Many of the friends I have that play poker are almost if not over retirement age. To all of you reading this you all rock! Senior Citizens in Poker such as these friends have a load of knowledge to give; to pass down. As the years roll on we all will be passing down our knowledge. I am passing mine to my 12 year old son during home games already. In fact; my 5 year old daughter knows the hand rankings in poker also and at an early age! My point is that senior citizens in poker have wisdom and knowledge that just shouldn’t be over looked. Next time a senior citizen is talking poker to you; don’t laugh or giggle as I have seen some younger poker players do -> LISTEN. You may just learn a trick or two. They are indeed very good on picking up on game and play faults.

Read More

Omaha Poker Variants

Omaha Poker Variants

As the poker boom increases so does the popularity of Omaha and the different Omaha poker variants. It only makes sense to touch on this every growing poker game; one that is rarely touched on and very much overlooked.

In reality when looked at seriously each and every Omaha tournament you enter is going to have easier competition. The world seems to know the game of NL Texas Hold'em like the back of their hands; this doesn't apply to the different Omaha poker variants giving you a much better chance in any game. This of course only applies if you take a serious attempt at learning the game of Omaha or already know it like the back of your hands.

Let’s take a look at Omaha poker variants and what each have to offer; specifically for those who are thinking of taking up the game and know little about it.

Omaha (Hi): The rules are the same as Texas Hold'em with a few slight differences. Firstly in Omaha you start with 4 hole cards and not two. You MUST use two of these cards plus chosen cards from the board (community cards) to make your hand. You may use no more and no less. Apart from this if one compares this and the the hi-lo Omaha poker variants, the same rules apply as Texas Hold'em Pot or Limit.

Omaha Hi/Lo: As with Omaha Hi you start with 4 hole cards. Again you must and can only use 2 of them. The main difference between the two Omaha poker variants while moving from Hi/Lo to Omaha Hi is that you can have a high and a low winner in each hand. The player with the “high hand” wins the high (hand rankings according to Texas Hold'em) and the player with nothing “low hand” wins the low. The pot is split evenly. If there is no low winner the high hand takes all.

As time goes on more and more players are taking up the different Omaha poker variants so I suggest an immediate switch to ensure you take advantage of the fishy competition, Remember that most people playing Omaha variants are learners and fishy is indeed a word to sum them up. Don't be one of them; do some learning first rather than try learning with your money on the tables.

Omaha poker variants have tournaments and cash table to suit most bankrolls. Regardless of the poker site chosen you should be able to afford to build an Omaha bank roll. It is suggested that you keep in mind that Omaha cash and Omaha tournaments have very different play structures so you need to make sure you have that part of your game very clear. The strategy used in the two Omaha poker variants varies dramatically. It is essential to learn cash to fund your Omaha tournament bankroll so cash / ring games are a certain starting point.

There is still big prize money to earn in these games. Do not think for a second you have no chance of playing and earning from them. In my first Omaha Hi tournament only a few months ago I placed 32^nd out of a massive 8985 players. With each player paying a $1 entry this accounts to a massive prize pool for little risk.

Take the switch and see how you go. You may be the next online or live champ in one or more Omaha poker variants. As with all poker variants you don't know your ability until you try!

Read More

Fundraising Through Poker Tournaments

Fundraising Through Poker Tournaments

Last article I covered fundraising through poker in 3 specific ways. All through facebook and connecting with poker players.

1. Selling your photos on owned -through basically playing games and having your poker friends bid for you

2. Inviting poker players to causes and having them invite their friends.

3. Making a birthday wish with donations going to your cause and no presents for you.

This article I will cover setting up online tournaments and live tournaments and advise you of the pros and cons of fundraising through poker tournaments. I will also cover another poker fundraising method associated directly with tournaments which is donations of winnings and the most obvious – direct advertising of the charity or appeal.

Usually when tragedy erupts in the poker scene people think immediately of poker tournaments as a great way of fundraising through poker. Setting up online poker tournaments can be a difficult and somewhat frustrating task as a means to fundraise. Let’s look at the steps involved and the issues that arise.

Firstly, you need to find a poker room that is willing to host the tournament for you. This usually isn’t so hard but does take some time to have processed. You must remember that the poker room hosting the tournament is going to make absolutely no money from this charity venture. They usually host the tourney in hope that they will gain players they didn’t have before. In saying this, many players are reluctant to join as they simply don’t have money to spread across many sites or are branded to a particular site. There are also other things to consider when fundraising through poker tournaments. You must advertise it! Advertising costs money and time. Also; you must find the perfect tournament buy in. Do you go for quantity or quality as such? $100+$10 buy in with fewer people or $5+50c buy in with more people but most likely less funds?

I have found online poker tournaments as a method of fundraising through poker to date a waste of time. But others may have been successful. I think advertising on how to deposit directly to a charity is much more efficient and has a better outcome, let’s face it poker players will donate $10, the bigger players more. It takes less effort then playing a tournament online for 4-5hours for a limited prize. What’s easier for all involved? – Organise online tournament, advertise online tournament, deposit for online tournament, play online tournament and then forward money to charity OR advertise to poker players to donate direct to charity?

Live poker tournaments are a little different. Most people are going to go out and play them anyway. If you can ring a load of poker venues or contact them through the internet and ask them to collect, this works very well for fundraising through poker. You can also advertise the need for them to do it and they can advertise that they are . This gives double promoting of your charity event and takes minimal effort. I am not saying set up an entire charity event but rather ask for donations from players while they arrive as part of your fundraising through poker. This money can then be deposited directly to the charity the next day by each venue. Simplicity!

Let’s use APL Australia as an example. You could send an email to head office and to all the groups over facebook asking them to assist your fundraising through poker. They in turn send a mass mail to all venues, have a collection tin for players to deposit to on arrival and the tournament director deposits this cash the next day. If each registered APL player is playing that particular night that’s more than 500,000 players. All of them donate $1 each that’s a whopping $500,000 needed dollars, and the tournament directors can make a simple deposit to the fund of choice the next day. Advertisements can be done prior through various media sources.

As with organizing an online poker tournament specifically for charity fundraising through poker; organizing a live tournament has the same issues. You must arrange, have the venues / casinos agree to forfeiting their rake and making nothing and follow with advertising and getting players there for a minimum prize pool. At least with live tourneys people don’t have to take that extra step and deposit online; they do need to find the time to transit and also play though. It’s always best to stick with the normal. Contact your local venues and casinos and enquire about collecting during a set tournament schedule.

Lastly on the line of tournaments and fundraising through poker using these methods is the direct cash win donation. Many poker players globally donate percentages of their winnings directly to charities of choice. This is a great way if you have the contacts of getting that desperately needed money. Jerry Yang donated 10% of his winnings to children’s charities upon winning the WSOP main event. Barry Greenstein donates all of his winnings and then there are players such as Vanessa Rousso setting up organizations such as nolimitnoprofit.org. This is only to name a few players who are into fundraising through poker; there are heaps out there! In recent times the very much blog mentioned Erik Aude’ vowed to donate 10% of his Aussie Millions winnings to charity, seriously the list is endless! If you can find a player about to play a big event that is willing to help your chosen charity fund when they cash this is easy and simple way for fundraising through poker. It is a great way to advertise your charity to get extra funds to it as more people will want to donate and also a way that the poker players themselves can advertise their brand or play.

Finally, there is straight out advertising your fundraising through poker! Most poker magazines, newspapers, radio stations, online gaming companies, bloggers, forums etc; etc; etc will advertise free of charge and; hopefully people will donate through links, internet banking and directly through the charity or organizational sites.

Please remember; whatever method you choose fundraising through poker you must have a not for profit organization setup or appeal fund or; be donating directly to one. If you don’t you are unfortunately committing a crime! Check with your government’s regulations before making any steps to setup such fundraising ideas.

Happy fundraising through poker!

Read More

Fundraising Through Poker

Fundraising Through Poker

It seems I have become charitable in a different way in the last 2 years. I was one of those little girls that knocked on the door with a box of candy many years back. I moved forward from this to supporting children by feeding them breakfast and working with many community organizations in Australia in even the smallest way. Take the Forty Hour Famine as an example; every year I fasted that I could until the doctor told me NO MORE. I was then ready to sponsor an overseas child in need but moved to donating via owned. This is one way of fundraising through poker – from my photo sales. My donations to date are as follows:

• 42,150 cups clean drinking water
• 144,595 grains rice for the hungry
• 31,063 words new books
• 99,914 seconds peacekeeping in troubled regions
• 81,965 milligrams teddy bear stuffing
• 33,090 milliseconds cancer research
• 551 ounces CO2 from the atmosphere
• 193 square inches blankets
• 479 calories food for animals in need
• 327 square feet the rainforest

Now that may not seem a lot but add up everyone else’s contributions and it is empowering! The same applies to fundraising through poker. I learnt early last year methods that could be used. Some methods worked successfully others didn’t. Banding together all poker players’ worldwide works wonders!

I was very pleased to have raised a massive amount of money via fundraising through poker for the victims of the 2009 Victorian Bushfire Disaster. In addition to raising funds I generated clothing, toiletries and other small items – sent from the community for the effected community. I did not do gathering alone but very much helped with the co-ordination through the VIC premier’s office; passing on messages via a MASSIVE Facebook group and cause. In the end I had to pass on the message to stop. Stopping 1 million people from sending what they could was alike sending myself to slaughter. Regardless it had to be done and I did it. The clothing donations were so plentiful there were too many, there were embers flying everywhere and well; embers and clothing piles don’t go together too well. I won’t encourage this amount of donations again while doing fundraising through poker.

I asked all members of the poker community to donate through the cause; spread the word to their friends and have them donate also and become a part of this fundraising through poker. The numbers, for Facebook causes we are huge. Most poker pro’s, poker affiliates and poker managers have 2000 friends. When you have you have a GREAT cause, they will invite and donate. Let me show you a figure (it’s rough). 2000 of my invited friends invite 1000 friends each to donate $1 to a Facebook driven cause. This equates to: $200,000.00 raised for a good and needy cause and a super fundraising through poker. If only each person did take that time. A domino effect continues in the online gaming industry and before you know it the figures hit $500,000. I believe this is what happened with the bushfire relief fund in VIC with some poker players donating 1 big blind which to them is peanuts but to the needy HUGE!

Anyway there’s 2 ways that you can do fundraising through poker:

1. Selling your pics on owned and encouraging all poker player friends to.

2. Inviting players to a cause and asking them to invite all of their poker playing friends. Each donating $1.

Other methods I have used include; using media resources, birthday wishes, online poker tournament setups, live poker tournament organization, asking players to vow to donate a % of their wins to your cause. There are MANY ways of fundraising through poker! We really are charitable!

I will cover these methods and exactly how to do fundraising through poker in a future post so stay tuned. I will tell you what tournaments are successful, how to advertise them and what to do to organize them. How to setup live poker tournaments, talking to the right people about donating some of their wins and how they can claim this back in tax and much; much more.

In the meantime, check out my birthday wish here:

Your gift now will help distribute relief supplies – including food, clean water, blankets, and tents to children and families impacted by the earthquake and aftershocks in Haiti. I wish this tragedy had never happened, seeing as though it has, please - give the gift of food, water, medication and medical supplies to these innocently struck people. For my birthday, I want to help the people of Haiti who have survived.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/258126?m=7989e80b&ref=mf

Donate even $1, and we are on our way to helping the people of Haiti and at the same time making me a wonderfully happy birthday.

Read More

3 Stage NL Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament Play (1 – First Stage)

3 Stage NL Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament Play (1 – First Stage)

It has always been a certainty in my mind that tournament play must be split into 3 stages, the start, middle and final stages. I have had many people tell me that it is the first stages of a poker tournament that they find very relaxing. Play safe, play tight, sit back and relax is their theory.

The survival stages of a tournament are seen as phase 1 and 2 by most of these players. The final stage: cashing!

I tend to think a little differently, especially seeing these people who find “the first stages of a tournament very relaxing (that according to them is merely a “survival stage”) come to me for advice on the final stage of their poker tournament. Usually I direct them to look closely at their initial tournament phase, as I know this is where the actual issue is. They haven’t played enough hands! They have played the “safe, survival” theory!

Surviving is a must in a poker tournament, especially in the first stage; but survival does not mean playing completely safe and taking no risks, in my opinion. I have been cashing non-stop lately during online poker tournament play. In fact, not just cashing, but winning. I am taking down a lot of tourneys! I shall discuss my tournament play strategy as compared to most.

I don’t just play premium hands in the first stages of a poker tournament. I play position; I steal, and like a chipmunk I gather chips! I don’t fold every hand that isn’t premium. I play what people see as “risky” but it is all worthwhile! I am always out in front come middle and final poker tournament stages because I chip gathered and did not sit waiting for pocket aces.

Try my method in your next tourney. Forget about the common theories! See how you go using my theory and see if it works for you. The main points of my first stage theory are; thieve blinds, play small suited connectors, A 10 off suit, the unexpected hands, do it while everyone else plays SAFE - but back off when you smell danger. Remember the blinds are small and you can take advantage of playing these types of poker hands cheaply!

Read More