Open to ALL WDIAV Forum Members

This is your LAST BEST CHANCE to win one of SIX $1,500 2009 World Series of Poker event tickets in Las Vegas!

May 17th, 9 pm EST - Put it on your calendar! $500 Freeroll PLUS a chance to win a ticket to our WSOP Step 4 final where we are giving away 6 WSOP seats. Top 18 placers in the event will win a Step 4 ticket.

Terms and conditions:

1. You MUST be a registered WDIAV Forum member. This Freeroll will be by pre-registration ONLY. No password.

2. You MUST have a minimum of 50 valid (i.e. non-spam or redundant) posts to the forum threads.

3. You must have a minimum of 50 forum points available to enter. You can still earn points under the CURRENT point system (more about that below) by making posts to the forum and by posting your avatar. When you enter this final freeroll tournament, you will be redeeming ALL of your current forum points for this last chance to win.

4. All Step 4 Tickets are transferable to another forum member or WDIAV Player. Anyone found selling tickets will be immediately disqualified and their forum account will be cancelled. All tickets have no cash value.

5. WSOP seat(s) are non-transferable and have no cash value. You must be present at the RIO with your Harrah’s players card to obtain your WSOP seat.

6. You MUST be 21 years old at the time you present your ticket in Las Vegas for your $1,500 event #7 seat. This event will be played on June 2nd, 2009 at 12 noon.

7. Winners are responsible for any and all taxes, travel, expenses and any other costs incurred in this promotion. Winners of WSOP seats agree to wear the shirt and hat of our choice while playing in the event. Winners agree to hold WDIAV harmless for any occurrence as a result of this promotion. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

8. The final date to earn forum points and to make 50 posts to the forum is May 15th, 2009. After that date, forum members who try to enter this tournament by completing their posts and points will not be allowed to play in this tournament!

If you haven’t had time to earn points and post into the forum or you’re a new forum member, here’s your chance to get into a really GREAT DEAL! Get your points and posts into the WDIAV forum by NO LATER than May 12th, 2009.

ANNOUNCEMENT - WDIAV POINTS WILL BE CHANGING

We’ve been working hard to try to create a point system that rewards forum members who contribute to our forum and who make it a fun and interesting place to visit. The DAY AFTER this special tournament, we will be announcing our new forum point system. At that time, all old WDIAV points will be come invalid.

Some of the new features:

* Automatic point calculation

* Automatic point redemption for passwords to tournaments

* Point rewards for all parts of the forum - threads, posts, photos, videos, referrals, blogs, comments, adding events to the calendar and much more.

* Redeem points for cash and gift certificates

Once again, we want to say thanks to all our members who have made our forum the success it is. Now we want to take it to the next step in enjoyment.

Regards, WDIAV Team

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Should I play a tight Texas holdem’ tournament or loose?

You will undoubtedly hear two theories from your poker buddies or even the so-called poker stars. Let’s take a look first at the tight poker players. Each player including yourself will find it difficult winning, if the whole poker table is playing tight. What will take place if you have a poker table full of tight Texas holdem’players is the Texas holdem’ players will end up trading the smaller pots back and forth to each other. Meanwhile the poker lounge is raking in loads of your hard-earned cash, and that of your competitors. So now you could say, is it better to play loose? Well, in this situation the better Texas holdem’ players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to prevail.

How can I better my poker playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as effortless as a piece of paper and a pen. A terrific plan to discover a lot about your playing technique and tactic, is to keep track of your Texas holdem’ playing. You could write down this information during the poker game, and then pass it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your challenger’s playing style, and what is the best tactic to overpower them.

Should I use the same strategy for every Texas holdem’ game?

If you consider that playing predictable poker is a winning strategy for playing poker, then you should consider changing your poker strategy. The poker pros have the same opinion that modifying your Texas holdem’ playing technique is the best way to confuse and puzzle your Texas holdem’ opponents. You should try a number of tactics, discover the ones that work for you and vary them for each poker game.

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According to the 2006 WSOP bracelet winner, Jamie Gold, he would like to be known as the top bluffer in the game of Texas Holdem’. But if his last poker tournament is any indication, his wish may not be granted any time soon.

The setting is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Sin City Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is hanging on in the tournament for dear life. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a minor raise with only one player taking the bait. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie thought that Brad Booth would make a move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a reasonable hand, but he was in an excellent position to make a move taking into account the quantity of dead money in the pot. Dicken finally folded, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

Now there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie wagered another $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no way they would make that call. Jamie’s plan was to make a sizeable move on the flop, as long as no ace came up. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

Coming out of the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s first thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 threw out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus converting his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 definitely had an ace, but you have to defend it in case he hits his set on the upcoming card.

A 2 of hearts showed up on the turn, and Jamie decided to fold to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 showed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 tricked Gold by bluffing with a superb hand, he created a great poker play and continued with the bluff to the end of the Texas Holdem’ tournament.

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Texas Holdem’ in the past was a game available only in hotels in Vegas or from video poker, but now it is more widespread than ever in Vegas thanks to the internet and TV.

The well-known Venetian, is now banking on this popularity with its new audience-participation show called “The Real Deal!” in its showroom in the Venetian Hotel and Casino, starting in October.

This new idea will combine comedy and game show elements to entertain its live audience. The audience will also be able to participate in the famous Texas-Holdem’ alongside the best poker players in the world. Many prizes are available for the audience including a chance to win 1$ million.

In “The Real Deal!” the audience will play with players like Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Around 10 of the best poker players in the world have already signed up for the show. The audience will be able to play along with the 90 minute game thanks to handheld, wireless, touch screen devices located on each seat.

“People who take a vacation in Las Vegas casinos want to play different types of poker games,” Negreanu says, “but obviously they can’t play in a top poker tournament with the players like Doyle or Phil Hellmuth. But, in this show, they actually can.” When the show begins, six audience members will be chosen to sit at the poker table on stage with two pro poker players. Each audience member is then involved in the action by being dealt a unique poker hand on their devices. Everyone in the showroom is then involved in the action with big-screen monitors located on stage.

Creators of the show say that you don’t have to be a poker player to play in the game. There are other ways to add to your point total, that doesn’t involve poker necessarily. Betting on the suit of the next poker card or trying to guess which state a particular audience member is from, are just some of the ways to come out a champ in this game.

The show’s creators are also betting on the charisma of the professional players to create some interesting moments. People like Scotty Nguyen, the flamboyant five-time winner of the World Series of Poker, definitely knows how to work the crowd and should provide some memorable moments in this new idea for poker .

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Shortly after the start of last week’s charity poker tournament to support the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He flinches when two of his challengers call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is disappointed when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no actual cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other online poker enthusiasts are petitioning for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only function of the celebrity poker tournament held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize online poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to online poker websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for internet poker, and not for all internet gambling. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity celebrity poker game. “Some people think that online poker is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

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Can you imagine walking into a well known Vegas hotel and seeing no poker dealers, chips, or cards? Well if this seems difficult to believe, you may be in for a big surprise. The Las Vegas based casino Excalibur is now testing with this new radical idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Chairmen from the hotel are going to equip the game rooms with 12 digitial machines for a six-month trial period.
The North-Carolina based company PokerTek is in charge of the electronic machines, which are revolutionizing the way poker will be played in Sin City. The enterprise already has 230 computers around the world, with the biggest located in Casino du Montreal (a total of 25 machines were installed in this Canadian casino).
So what are the negatives of this change? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new employment. Some of these dealers have been working at the hotel since its opening in 1990. Todd DeRemer, Excalibur’s Vice President of Casino Operations, says that the poker dealers will be offered other dealer careers in the same hotel.
According to DeRemer, the modification is being made to give rookie poker players a chance to play this popular game without feeling intimidated. He had already played these new machines before deciding upon the change. “It’s not overpowering”, he says, “We think that element will bring back the gamblers”.
The new computers will allow the players to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen monitors, which are located in the hub of the table, will display each table’s community cards, gambler’s stakes and the pot.

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One of the newest and oddest innovations in the world of Texas Hold’em Poker is the tremendous amount of Texas Hold’em Poker schools that have begun to pop up all over the United States and around the world.  At these world famous Poker schools, players can learn the intricate details of every type of variation on the game of poker, including Omaha, Texas Hold’em and even stud variations.  With this extremely comprehensive approach, these types of Poker schools make it fairly simple to compete and win at various forms of poker tournaments both online at poker rooms on the Internet such as Fulltiltpoker.com as well as off-line at Las Vegas hotels and casinos that are so popular and draw so many visitors from around the world to events such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas.  Considering the massive explosion in popularity of the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments on television as well as in the traditional Las Vegas setting, it is simple enough to understand how there can be such a tremendous draw for players who want to participate and win at the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments to attend these types of Texas Hold’em poker tournament schools and classes.

With the Texas Hold’em Poker schools that have come into existence in recent years, it seems that there is no end of individuals who will shell out cash to learn the secrets from the pros that can make all the difference in the player’s ability to succeed at the tournaments themselves.  As more and more players focus on this type of education to allow themselves to succeed at individual variations of Texas Hold’em and other types of poker tournaments, the Poker schools that have popped up all over the world enjoy a tremendous level of incoming attention and revenue from players who are concerned with improving their abilities to the point that they can compete against highly skilled and experienced opponents on the web.

Learning from the pros is always good advice, and with the development of so many schools that focus on teaching the art of Texas Hold’em poker and other variations of poker tournaments and how to win and succeed against even the stiffest competition, it is a simple matter to gain the skills and experience to emerge victorious.  By honing the players skills endlessly in this manner and learning from professionals in the field, players can get a huge jump on their poker career and eliminate much of the wasted time than it takes to learn the intricacies of the game.

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Collecting the rakeback that is offered through online poker rooms and casinos can be a lucrative and extremely exciting way to earn residual income through the programs and online poker room promotions that exist on the web.  With the rakeback program that is offered in these types of Internet-based gaming establishments, it is a simple enough matter for the player to continue to earn additional income from the simple effort of competing in these types of online poker rooms and casinos.  As more and more individuals flock to the rake back programs offered on the web, it becomes clear that these online poker promotions have successfully generated a tremendous amount of interest in websites and players have lined up to take advantage of the rakeback sharing programs that are available in these online poker rooms and casinos.  With the popularity of the rakeback program it is widely accepted that any online poker room and casino that does not offer this type of rakeback sharing affiliate program is not competing to their fullest potential.  As long as any online poker room and casino does not offer a rakeback program they have a severe disadvantage when compared to poker rooms and Internet-based websites \which offer extremely lucrative online poker room and casino rakeback sharing affiliate deals.

In the case of individuals who have effectively optimized and maximized their rakeback programs, the trick is actually not in competing for higher stakes or more often but in recruiting as many additional players as possible.  By recruiting additional players, the affiliate who participates in the rakeback program can generate residual income from the rakeback that is accumulated by the players that they recruit.  With this focus on bringing in new players and new action to the online poker rooms and casinos, everyone wins.  The players win from having an additional source of action, the affiliate wins by receiving additional income through the rakeback sharing affiliate program and the online poker room and casino wins by experiencing a veritable explosion in popularity due to these online poker promotions that are so effective at bringing in new players to the online poker room and casinos.

By understanding the secret behind maximizing the rakeback sharing affiliate program, players can effectively put themselves in a position to earn additional income regardless of their own level of skill and ability to win at the online poker room and casino tables.

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Online poker rooms and casinos such as Fulltiltpoker.com have been phenomenally successful, leaving no stone unturned in drawing a tremendous amount of participants in the Internet based poker rooms.  With the world-famous online poker rooms and casinos in full swing, it only makes sense for these types of Internet-based gambling and gaming establishments to put a tremendous amount of effort into advertising and promotional vehicles that generate so much business from so many people around the world.  As long as this type of effort continues, the action in online poker rooms and casinos will be strong enough to keep the players that already exist there as well as allow new players to find adequate competition that is fair for their competitive level.  In the case of new players who are less than confident in their abilities, it is a simple matter for them to find the perfect competition level by simply studying their opponents and logging onto the Web.  In these online poker rooms and casinos, there is always a tracking feature that allows players to understand who the strong players and the weak players are in the online poker rooms and casinos on a regular basis.  With this ease of use and complete understanding of the nature of the opponent on the poker tables, it is a simple matter to compete in these types of online poker rooms and casinos on an even playing field.

 As the competition increases between the online poker rooms and casinos in a heated battle for dominance over market share, these online poker rooms and casinos target international markets and worldwide industries for expansion purposes as the Internet based poker rooms move on into new markets around the world that are considered to be extremely profitable and lucrative.  With the highly profitable nature of participation in these types of online poker rooms and casinos it is not surprising at the level of success that they experience nearly everywhere that they are presented.  Moving into the European market and other markets around the world is not surprising at all, as there is so much money to be made in the world that there is no point in not making the attempt to generate new revenue through these international sources of income.

As long as there is interest in gaming and gambling around the world, the online poker rooms and casinos will continue to exploit that interest and generate new sources of income regardless of geographical area.

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There is so much emphasis on professional poker players lately that the amount of new players getting into the game of poker on a daily basis is truly staggering.  These players approach the game with steel in their eyes and fire in their hearts, determined to make their mark on the poker world and go home a winner.  Players are so serious and so determined to win that they purchase books, buy special apparel and even spend inordinate amounts of time learning the trade and game of poker.  This type of player is very common to the world of poker, as diving in head first and giving it your best shot is generally considered to be the best strategy.  But watching these new players in action, grim faced and determined to win, it is easy to see that the focus on professional poker players has taken away a lot of the fun that existed in the game before the professional angle was so widely adopted.

 Many players in days past would actually play poker more for fun than for profit, as players flocked to the tables at low limit games for the chance to play a few rounds and have a good time at what was largely considered to be a social function as well as a chance to earn some money by winning at poker.  By contrast, today’s players are all about winning and only winning.  The serious mindset of the current poker player today stands in stark contrast to the friendly and sociable tournaments of the past, when players knew each other in great detail and remained close throughout their careers.  Simply winning at poker wasn’t enough for these players, as maintaining these lifelong friendships became as critical as playing well at the poker tables.

In the modern day world, with such an extreme focus on winning and crushing the enemy, there is very little opportunity for players to increase their social network and participate in friendly games for anything less than the absolute best odds of winning.  These players of the modern day have seemingly taken all the life out of the game, leaving behind the trappings of a friendly and gentler era for the cutthroat world of brutal and ruthless poker in the most effective play styles available.

 Unfortunately, the tendency for players to become more and more serious and for the poker player to become a less hospitable place to be seems to be on the rise more and more as players with stars in their eyes fill the tables and play all manner of aggressive styles with winning the only concern.

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