Regarding Poker

KADI made online poker history by hitting a record-shattering $821,670.69 bad beat jackpot at Absolute Poker!

It happened today, August 29th; KADI lost a 10-high Straight Flush to a King-high Straight Flush. Normally, a loss like that would be upsetting, but not this time. Seated at one of Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot tables, KADI’s losing hand netted her $267,042.97 in cash for her share. The pot winner walked away with $133,521.48 and the participants in the hand each received $33,380.37.

To date, Absolute Poker has paid out over $1.5 million in bad beat jackpot money at their Bad Beat Jackpot tables.

How Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot Works:

Look for the ‘Bad Beat Jackpot’ cash tables, and they’ll collect $0.50 from the pot of each raked hand that is raked 25 cents or more. The bad beat poker jackpot will keep growing until someone hits a qualifying bad beat. If you lose a hand holding four eights (8888) or anything better, that’s a bad beat.

If your hand suffers a bad beat then everyone at the table will win a piece of the distributed jackpot. As soon as someone hits a qualifying bad beat, 65% of the jackpot will be shared between everyone at the online poker table where the bad beat went down. 25% will go towards the next jackpot and 10% will go to the house and they’ll take the new amount and divide it amongst the players seated at the Bad Beat Jackpot table.

- The loser of the hand, i.e. the bad beat victim - will take 50% of the prize
- The winner of the hand will take 25% of the prize
- The rest of the players seated at the table will share the remaining 25%

Congratulations to KADI and the rest of the players who cashed in big-time and became part of poker history!

Wanna try your luck, or should I say bad luck? Then head over to Absolute Poker and join one of their Bad Beat Jackpot Tables… you never do know!

More details are coming out on the legal conflict between 1st Technology LLC and Bodog Entertainment Group which resulted in Bodog’s domains being suspended.

The Bodog.com online gambling business was disrupted Monday and remained inoperative Tuesday due to a $48.6 million default judgment obtained by a Las Vegas company against Bodog in a patent infringement case, reports The Vancouver Sun.

By Tuesday afternoon, Bodog had established a new temporary website, Newbodog.com, which is virtually identical to the old site and enabled Bodog clients to resume their activities.

This is not the first time that 1st Technology has resorted to litigation to secure licensing agreements in cases of patent infringement. In December 2005, SportingBet PLC and Paradise Poker entered into a licensing agreement with 1st Technology to resolve patent litigation claims between the parties. Likewise, NDS Group PLC and Orbis Technology also agreed to a licensing deal as a means to settle the claim against them for patent infringement in 2005.

With the loss of their domain name, Bodog will also be losing superior rankings in Google search result listings, which may force the company to rely more heavily on their affiliates than they have in the past.

Bodog, who runs one of the most search engine optimized websites on the internet, can be found easily in Google by typing in such phrases as ‘online casino’, ’sports betting’, and ‘online casino games’. They also have top results in Yahoo’s search results, as well as MSN and other search engines. However, now when a user clicks on one of the results they are brought to a blank page.

Why the NewBodog.com?

Welcome to the new (temporary) Bodog. As you may know by now, Bodog.com is experiencing a technical issue impacting our players’ ability to access our website.

This is the result of a legal dispute over the ownership of the Bodog.com domain name. We are fighting this dispute. We are confident that we will win, but until all is settled, I do not want our battle to interrupt your play.

So, I present you with newbodog.com. You won’t notice very many changes: same website, same brand, same product, and same service. Just a new domain name.

We are working to resolve any remaining issues on the temporary site as soon as possible, and fully expect to have our original site back up shortly.

I sincerely apologize if you were affected by our interruption and assure you that I will update you soon.

Regards,

Calvin Ayre

Good luck Bodog!

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results:

1. Egar1m (United States) $243,115.80
2. Sir_DonaldRM (Spain) $123,607.00
3. kaweco (Canada) $81,831.80
4. rk58 (Sweden) $67,422.00
5. MattZman69 (United States) $54,202.00
6. scarface_79 (United States) $40,982.00
7. jeffreyjjj (United States) $28,819.60
8. pokerguru69 (United States) $18,243.60
9. OnlyPlayRagz (United States) $10,576.00

PokerStars High Stakes Showdown:
(Four players entered)

1. malicous222 (United States) $25,000.00
2. Iftarii (United States) $15,000.00

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results:
(Finishing order and 2-way deal)

1. ozzieowen (United Kingdom) $16,820.48
2. luckynutz21 (United States) $10,506.54
3. Duecesover3s (United States) $6,376.31
4. O.Mustang (United Kingdom) $4,554.51
5. 72_Chevy (United States) $2,732.71
6. drhoopsmd (United States) $1,821.81
7. DAVIDOXXX (France) $1,457.45
8. bibiaans (Netherlands) $1,184.18
9. mppowerm (Germany )$910.91

Absolute Poker made their most significant software upgrade to date and have labeled the new change Absolute Poker 8.0.

I always thought that their software was lacking in appeal and functionality compared to the other big poker rooms, like PokerStars and FullTilt Poker. So when I opened my Absolute Poker software today I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did some major changes to their software that greatly improved their poker room.

So now instead of the old boring and cluttered poker table they used to have, they now offer two sleek, clean, and functional poker tables to choose from along with the classic table view.

Other new Absolute Poker 8.0 changes include:

- Modern, cutting edge graphics
- Faster card dealing
- New and improved poker room menus and displays
- Resizable poker tables
- Table tiling so you can easily organize many tables in a single view
- Table cascading for those who wish to ‘layer’ their tables
- And a few minor changes that contribute to an overall great new look and feel for Absolute Poker

Another option I noticed at Absolute Poker was the ability to transfer real-money cash from Absolute Poker to the UltimateBet (UB) poker site (and vise versa). You can transfer between your own accounts or to a friends account and the minimum transfer amount is $50.00.

That’s a pretty cool feature, and because of that I may go ahead and check out UltimateBet as I never played that online poker room before.

Absolute Poker’s New Poker Tables:

I already know that because of these changes I will definitely play at Absolute Poker more often now… now to see what Ultimate Bet’s poker room is like.

P.S. Absolute Poker’s Bad Beat Jackpot is over $600,000.00!

Aintluck is a great site for you players playing on Absolute Poker and FullTilt Poker. Aintluck has probably the largest collection of free poker table skins on the Net.

You can download college, sports teams, poker themes and more for your Absolute Poker and FullTilt Poker tables.

As of this writing there are 463 Absolute Poker table skins and 249 FullTilt Poker table skins and full instructions on how to change your table skin for each site.

So head over to Aintluck and change your boring old Absolute or FullTilt Poker table skin to something new and personal!

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results:
(Based on two-way deal)

1. hockeystud94 (United States) $166,000.00
2. Dunk_17 (Canada) $116,516.66
3. wwwBTHEREcom (United States) $69,628.02
4. SevenToes (United States) $54,255.60
5. ArbahChamesh (United States) $41,466.78
6. jeanette_33 (Norway )$29,711.40
7. ZillaalliZ1 (United States) $21,314.70
8. PrtyPsux (United States) $12,918.00
9. sharp (France) $8,009.16

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results:
(Based on six-way deal)

1. jogu68 (Sweden) $11,311.78
2. bbdoll23 (United States) $9,204.57
3. robfoot (Canada) $6,558.39
4. deznuts (United States) $5,153.82
5. calidris (Sweden) $6,925.23
6. Teh_Miser~ (United States) $3,989.92
7. cocnhai (Canada) $1,468.73
8. $wanswan (Ireland) $1,193.34
9. chribrain (Italy) $917.96

PokerStars High Stakes Showdown:

1. barrgy1 (United States) $25,000.00
2. UGOTPZD (United States) $15,000.00

The High Stakes showdown winner was none other than barryg1, aka Team PokerStars’ Barry Greenstein!

Don’t have a PokerStars account yet? Use PokerStars Bonus Code: First2007 and get a 100% deposit match bonus up to $50.00.

4,578 players anted-up $535.00 to play in this year’s FTOPS V Main Event, which was hosted by Paul Wasicka. The prize pool was a whopping $2,289,000 of which 648 places were paid, with the top four spots worth a six-figure payday. Paul Sexton lasted the longest of all the Full Tilt professionals, finishing in 25th place and cashing in $8,469.30.

CrazyZachary was crowned the champion and took home $395,905.44!

Top 25 FTOPS V Main Event Results:

1 CrazyZachary $395,905.44
2 Clayton_27 $240,345.00
3 chardrian $155,652.00
4 MFjimmyLOWRY $121,317.00
5 pokerskibum $91,560.00
6 jbaggs $68,670.00
7 rppkoz $52,647.00
8 kiwid10 $40,057.50
9 chubbawubba $29,757.00
10 balagarba $21,745.50
11 Mieville $21,745.50
12 cmk1536 $21,745.50
13 no not baxter $16,023.00
14 csimmsux $16,023.00
15 da Mom2 $16,023.00
16 Mentor tue $11,330.55
17 TheJamo $11,330.55
18 Beach Dawg $11,330.55
19 dreamer10000 $8,469.30
20 fatmonk74 $8,469.30
21 JanMcJ $8,469.30
22 XTraCey $8,469.30
23 STOMPINTRON $8,469.30
24 timkrank $8,469.30
25 Paul Sexton $8,469.30

If you pay attention to the way the players at your table say ‘check’ in a live game then you can sometimes tell if they don’t have a good hand and you’ll have a tell that most players don’t even look out for.

Listen to how your opponents say ‘check’. They will either say ‘check’ or ‘check?’. When they say ‘check’ as a question, then most of the time it means that they don’t have a very strong hand and without knowing what they are saying they are asking you if you have a strong hand.

You’ll need a good ear to hear the subtle differences between the different ways people say ‘check’, but once you identify a ‘check’ presented as a question then you have a powerful tell that will win you a more pots.

Now this tell is not 100% full-proof, but there are many weaker players that give off this tell. To exploit this tell it would really only work when you are heads-up. There’s no sense in bluffing into a pot if you know one player is weak and are unsure of the other player(s). So if you are heads-up and you hear someone say ‘check?’ then you should probably go a head and make a decent bet at the pot and most of the time you’ll take the pot down right there.

In a live game last night we played a single table NLH game and four of the eight players on the table had this tell (these players would verbally say check as opposed to gesture checking with their hand). One of the players was a check-raiser addict and when he didn’t say ‘check’ as a question then I knew he was ready to setup his check-raise.

So listen carefully on how the players say ‘check’ and not only will it possibly tell you if they are weak but it may also give you an indication that they may be holding a strong hand.

Shortly after learning this tell I caught myself doing this tell a lot and now I try to only use my hand to gesture a check whenever possible.

Want to learn more poker tells? Caro’s Book of Poker Tells is a great classic poker book that every poker player should own.

If you haven’t heard already there are some big changes coming to thepokerdb starting on August 21st, 2007 that was initiated by PokerStars mandate for a change for all online poker tournament database sites.

PokerStars mandated that websites displaying player’s rankings and ratings require players to opt-in before displaying certain data. Within thepokerdb this only pertains to PokerStars data.

PokerStars’ Policy Regarding “Rankings/Ratings” Services

To ensure player privacy regarding certain player statistics and financial information gathered by websites (hereinafter “Service Operator”) that collect and organize PokerStars players’ results by various means, PokerStars has devised the following rules with which such Service Operators must comply:

1) No player profitability data (i.e. ROI, net profit, etc) may be displayed on any player unless the player has explicitly opted into such display by transferring $0.03 to a prominently published PokerStars account owned by the Service Operator. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.03 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days.

2) Any player may choose to completely opt out of having any information about them displayed on the Service. To do so, player will transfer $0.01 to the service operator’s PokerStars account. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.01 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days. Note that the amount here is different, in order to distinguish an opt-out request from an opt-in request.

3) The use of the “transfer from user to Service and back again” method for opt-in and opt-out is required. This method permits these requests to be handled privately and securely without the disclosure of the player’s Email, real name, or other private information. Only the player’s PokerStars User ID is required.

4) Both the opt-in and opt-out options must be prominently displayed on the main / front page of the Service (at minimum, a normal-sized link on the front page to a more complete description elsewhere).

5) If the service’s operation pre-dates the establishment of these guidelines (December 2006), there shall be no “grandfather clause” for existing data. 100% of historical profitability data must be removed from view until such time as a player explicitly opts in as above.

Any Service Operator found to be in violation of these rules risks having their access to PokerStars’ game client restricted and/or the service impeded, including but not limited to the warning of players who access the Service while the PokerStars client is open.

For more information on this please visit thepokerdb website.

The Full Tilt Poker FTOPS V is well underway and it’s not too late to get a seat in one of these tournaments. With over 7 million in guaranteed prize money this is one tournament series that you don’t want to miss.

Join Full Tilt Poker now for the largest series of guaranteed tournaments in Full Tilt Poker’s history. FTOPS V features 14 events in total with 7 events still left to play, including:

Event #8 - Tuesday, Aug 14th, 21:00 ET
$200 + $16 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo
Prize Pool Guarantee: $150,000
Host: Stuart Paterson

Event #9 - Wednesday, Aug 15th, 21:00 ET
$300 + $22 NL Hold ‘em 6-Max Rebuy
Prize Pool Guarantee: $450,000
Host: John D’Agostino

Event #10 - Thursday, Aug 16th, 21:00 ET
$200 + $16 7 Stud
Prize Pool Guarantee: $100,000
Host: David Oppenheim

Event #11 - Friday, Aug 17th, 21:00 ET
$200 + $16 Limit Hold ‘em 6-max
Prize Pool Guarantee: $200,000
Host: Greg Mueller

Event #12 - Saturday, Aug 18th, 15:00 ET
$2,500 + $120 NL Hold ‘em
Prize Pool Guarantee: $600,000
Host: Phil Ivey

Event #13 - Saturday, Aug 18th, 16:30 ET
$100 + $9 PL Omaha Rebuy
Prize Pool Guarantee: $200,000
Host: Max Pescatori

Main Event - Sunday, Aug 19th, 18:00 ET
$500 + $35 NL Hold ‘em
Prize Pool Guarantee: $2,000,000
Host: Paul Wasicka

FTOPS V Prizes:

- Players who finish in the money in any FTOPS V tournament will receive a limited-edition FTOPS baseball cap
- Players who reach the final table in any FTOPS V tournament will receive a baseball cap and a limited-edition FTOPS jacket
- Players who win an FTOPS V tournament will receive the baseball cap and jacket, along with a gold FTOPS jersey and a gold jersey avatar for use on Full Tilt Poker

Visit Full Tilt Poker now to register your FTOP V seat.