It has been touch and go for years for some of the best online casinos in the world; what with the American market looking so exciting to operators, and yet it not really being legal to offer these games. Operators argued that UIGEA contained too many grey areas and this is how they justified continuing to accept US players. Bodog is just such a site, but how they escaped US Department of Justice notice, since this authority closed down PokerStars, FullTilt and other gambling sites in the US; I really don’t?!

These sites were closed for business after their domains were seized by the DoJ on the 15th April. Gambling operators and fans alike, have dubbed this day ‘Black Friday’. So far it does not seem as though the best online casinos were affect, but the best poker sites certainly were and now one of the last men standing is getting out of the game. Bodog Europe is a very well-known online brand, and a modicum of their notoriety is garnered by the fact that they still accept US players. Up until now these real money gamblers have not been considered persona non grata. From the end of 2011 however this will change and no longer will any players from this country be allowed to use their accounts. At least they have been given time to close accounts and withdraw funds, unlike member of Full Tilt, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Bodog has also taken out a brand new license and been granted this by the UK Gambling Commission, and this is unusual in itself, as most operators choose to license offshore to escape the massive tax implications of running a gambling operation in the UK. But that is another story entirely.

Another implication for US players is – they will have to be extremely careful where they play, if they do. It could give rise to a spate of new charlatans coming online, in an attempt to part hard working Americans from their gambling money. Americans want to be able to gamble online, but the Government can’t see the woods for the trees and believe that they know better what residents should be allowed to partake of in the ‘land of the free’. Aaron Burr once said that freedom of speech in the USA was only as free as the politician they are allowed to repeat?!

Anyway – that all said and done, Bodog is on their way to concentrate completely on the UK and European market and US players are losing one of the last best online casinos – at least until these operations go legal, if this ever takes place.

There is a brand new game of poker, and to play it you really need to be able to flex your poker muscles. It encompasses a variety of skills and poker strategies, as well as knowledge of rules across a cross-section of poker games. The game is known as Poker Legs and if you want to find your poker legs, there is a great place to learn many variations of poker; this is to play online poker games. The expected value and degree of knowledge progresses much fast for players of online poker games, than it can ever do in the live poker realm.

Poker legs is a blast to play, it is being played from local pubs to casinos in Vegas, and it’s only a matter of time, till it becomes available online. The global poker craze is still sweeping the globe, and it never takes very long for a new game to take-up online. This is a game of poker for players with balls, regardless of gender. It is the ultimate gamblers game, and we have even heard it called ‘degenerate’, so, true to form it is taking the world by storm! The stakes can be very low, but as the betting continues in frame after frame; these prize pots can mount up into massive amounts of money.

The aim of this game is to collect three “legs”, because apparently three is better than two, especially when you’ve been drinking. There is a specific way to collect the legs while the tension mounts, as round after round and frame after frame of the game takes place. A new game kicks off with Round 1 and 2-card Hold em; where no flop is played, and a two card poker hand is the deal, we all know this is not easy. Round 2 is 3-card low and the next Round is 5-card Holdem. The final round is a 2-7 lowball game; meanwhile during the rounds, there are very specific rules to be adhered to. Bear in mind three legs still need to be collected.

This is a very brief and cobbled together outline of the game, but one can see right away that it is vital to know various poker game strategies. As we said before, the fastest way to pick up on these strategies is to play online poker games. If you receive an invite to play Poker Legs, the biggest favor your could do yourself, it to start playing poker online right away, this will put you a step ahead of the pack (hopefully), which ultimately may mean being in a better position to collect legs and win the prize pot. The game has all kinds of features such as collecting discounts for legs, and is a thrill a minute to play. Let your hair down too, and find out who has the biggest balls. It highly recommended to only play this game amongst very good friends – with 7 players tops.

Despite the fact that playing online poker games in the US is considered by the Department of Justice to be criminal. In the case of Washington State, this is a Class C Felony – not sure what that means; are felonies classed on a scale of A – Z? Online poker games have become kids’ games in a way, and kids are making a fortune by playing. When we say “kids” we are talking about young men aged around 18 – 22 but we do know they are playing online poker even younger. They have to be to get where they are so young, and they are changing the face of the poker EV.

EV means “expected value” and essentially expected value comes about when thousand of hours of poker have been played and experience gained. The thing is that these youngsters are playing thousands of hours of poker games in very short periods of time in multi-tabling situations, so they are getting the experience of the “old-guard” poker player – over very short periods of time. The same poker playing experience which may take one old fashioned player 25 years to get under his belt; the young hotshots can do in a year when they spend 14 hours a day playing; and playing up to 24 tables simultaneously – it is this that is changing EV.

Let’s look at Daniel “Jungleman” Cates as an example, we don’t know how long he has been playing online poker games, but he has always played games online. He is only 21 years old now, and not only does he take on the Phil Ivey’s and Erik Seidel’s of this world when he plays online, he takes them on at the live poker tournament tables too.

Daniel Cates has a lot in common with most of the other young poker bloods; the thing that is different is, that in 2010, he was the highest online poker games earner in the world. Daniel “Jungleman” Cates is a poker phenom; there is only one other young player who can currently lay claim to being a phenom, and this is Viktor Blom, whom we know “Isildur1″. But Viktor Blom is infamous for often losing more than he wins. These kids are out-sharking the poker sharks they are battering them river, turn and flop and are seated at the same tables with experts in this game. In 2010 Daniel Cates earned over $5.5 million playing online poker games!

He is also socially almost reclusive in terms of the real world, and doesn’t think twice about the fact that he lost $1.2 million to Gus Hanson in one week. Games with $30 000 stakes are boring as far as he is concerned and this; this, is the new breed of online poker games player.

Play poker and undoubtedly you will find this is a head game, experts talk about poker psychology all of the time. Some players don’t get this and they believe poker psychology is all about the bluff; nothing could be further from the truth. According to Anthony Holden ~
“Whether he likes it or not, a man’s character is stripped at the poker table; if the other players read him better than he does, he has only himself to blame. Unless he is both able and prepared to see himself as others do, flaws and all, he will be a loser in cards, as in life”.
And this describes poker psychology to the very last chip on the table.

Like any other sport you partake off; just because you win an Olympic Gold at age 18, does not mean you have reached the pinnacle of your success. If you think you are the best at this stage; whether you are swimming a relay or potting a polo puck (is it called a puck?), then your ego will never allow you to improve. Four years later when you return to the Olympics, if you have not improved, you will be at the bottom of the pile. When you play poker exactly the same applies. In order to understand you game better, you have to strip yourself bare, be true to yourself and never cow-tow to an ego

The major difference when you play poker; is you generally don’t have a coach to help you identify holes in your game. Anyone in the whole world can walk up to a WSOP Main Event, as long as they have their $10 000 buy-in! Plunk the money down at the registration table on the day the event starts and participate, so it is every man’s or woman’s game! You have to be 18 to play, but you don’t have to be 70 to stop and this is also what gives people who play poker a psychological edge right away. They know there is no limit of possibility to this game. Age, sex, color, creed, level of disability or ability, does not matter, all you need to be concerned about is – can you play poker?

No Fairy Godmother is going to wave their magic wand and improve a hole in your game – they are all too busy at Disney. This is relative to psychology not skill. If you think you are a really great player and cannot look inside yourself sufficiently to see that you play poker and stink, then you would be better off playing bingo. Play poker and the learning never stops, there is always possibility to improve your game and be realistic about it.

In a nutshell, anyone can play poker and anyone can play successfully, but only the player with the ability to strip down his own character and understand it well, will be a truly winning player.

This story just stepped off the Hollywood cutting floor – perhaps even written by Quentin Tarentino, only a with lot more money, a lot less violence; and the usual fabulous supporting cast. The Michael Mizrachi story has not ended in 2010, but this starring Texas Hold em Poker player will go down in the history books this year as an unbelievable success.

Texas Hold ‘em Poker is every man’s game, it is also fast becoming every women’s game too, and 2010 has been a good year for the ladies – in particular Vanessa Selbst. In the case of Mizrachi, the whole family plays the game, which includes Michael’s three brothers; Robert, Eric, Donny, and his wife Lily. But picture this…the Hollywood scene …it is July 2010, all four brothers buy-in at $10 000 and take to the felt to play Texas Hold em Poker; it’s the WSOP Main Event – what a start to an epic journey? This has got people talking and avidly, following four poker playing brothers and one huge event.

Day one and two came and went, all four brothers were still in. Then came day three with only Eric below the mark – he yielded to 718th place on day four; took home $19,263 and also took on the role of first cheerleader for his remaining three brothers. The brothers battled it out and on day five Donny cashed in for $36,463 and 345th-place. Michael and Robert returned for day six with 205 players still in the running for this Texas Hold em poker marathon game. Michael in 30th place, true to his nick-name, ground his way into second place with Robert doubling up twice after being left with a very short stack.

At this point in the drama, it must be known that Michael Mizrachi was being called the “best poker player without a bracelet”!

Robert, who has a bracelet, joined the rest of the family on the rail, while Michael continued playing the game. Down to $1.5million his stack went; then back up to $7.5 – the Grinder was in 16th place. Day seven, day eight and his seat in the November Nine was set – $8 million up and thanks to a 10th place exit from Brandon Stevenson.

The hype was tremendous – but he took second place to Duhamel and earned a legendary place in the “best ever to play” Main Event history annals. However there was still the Players’ Championship and Player of the Year to come, and he nearly pulled off a Triple Crown. 2010 was this “Grinders” year and you might be delighted to know this story ahs a happy ending, he earned his bracelet and won the 41st Annual WSOP opening event, a one-off $50,000 Players’ Championship for the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, which he won at the same time.

This is the stuff that dreams, legendary Hollywood movies and Texas Hold em poker are made of!!

Flop Turn River.com, commonly known as FTR, has recently finished with Season VI of its own online poker league, the FTR Gauntlet. The Gauntlet tournament had started way back in 2004 where it was initially a room to provide some experience to different poker players at all levels, to play next to each other in a casual tournament within the FTR community. The gauntlet allows free entry to all of its players, and includes a series of tournaments hosting different poker leagues. These have a very nominal investment and are termed as low-buy-in tournaments. Players over here need to gather up sufficient points till the entire tournament gets over.

Novice poker players at The Gauntlet gets a high chance in learning to mix and match the twists and turns of their brain power with the proper online poker techniques against the skilled players at a very nominal investment. Though Gauntlet attracts a good number of players by its low buy-in-tournaments, still it is only the bragging adjustments that attract most of the experts over here. The poker section of FTR.com has a special forum, which is only meant to discuss and share everything in reference to The Gauntlet and The Gauntlet tournaments.

A season in the Gauntlet tournaments hosts a series of twenty-four multi-table tournaments or championships. The players are allowed to choose their own games on their own personal preference, but on the other hand are permitted to play only twelve games in the entire season. Players who complete each individual games is declared the winner of that game for that season and is rewarded the cash prizes as offered, similar to other online poker tournaments. Besides, the Flop Turn River declares more cash and other additional prizes such as incentives, bounties and rewards all over the entire season.

This online poker tournament takes place solely at pokerstars.com. Members playing for the first time can use “flop, turn, river”, the marketing code of the Flop Turn River Poker Stars, to get affiliation to all tournaments hosted by The Gauntlet, but the member can only choose twelve games for one season.

The Flop Turn River keeps a track of all its players by maintaining a leader board on account of the points earned. This leader board is accordingly updated with the latest scores after each game gets over. As the season ends, the additional rewards i.e. the additional cash prizes declared are awarded to the three league closers who stand with the highest points. But, only the player having the top score takes home the FTR Gauntlet Trophy.

The scoop:

Jimmy Mac, the champion of Gauntlet VI, takes home the FTR Gauntlet Trophy for this season! Normally, the entire tournament is much more like a race; the one who finishes first takes the trophy back home and continues till the last game of that season. Yet, the scenario was found to be a bit different for this season; Jimmy Mac was found to reign with points over the leader board throughout the season.