Regarding Poker

There has been much said lately regarding the Absolute Poker scandal regarding a ’superuser’ account from Absolute Poker player ‘POTRIPPER’. After reading much about this situation, I feel that there is strong evidence against Absolute Poker.

For those of you who haven’t heard about this developing story, here is a blog post that summarizes the Absolute Poker Scandal.

Forums regarding this story:

2 + 2 Forum

PocketFives.com

Here is a Youtube video (1 of 4) of ‘POTRIPPER’ in action:

Click here to watch the other videos in this series.

I truly hope that Absolute Poker can prove to their players that they themselves had nothing to do with this scandal. Time will tell… until then, I won’t be playing there.

The 2007 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker drew over 1,300 players from all over the world. I myself was in this tournament, which was held yesterday on PokerStars. I didn’t fair very well (a trend of late); after getting nothing but garbage hands for almost 90 minutes I was finally dealt something decent; QQ. I pushed in my remaining chips of 6K and was instantly called by someone holding AA, which ended my run.

This tournament was for bloggers only; to qualify you had to have a blog and it had to be at least two months old. I didn’t see anywhere in the rules if these blogs had to be poker related or not, which I don’t think they had to be, which might explain why there were so many entries.

I also thought the prizes were not very well thought of, for example, 9th place paid out a poker chip set while 11th to 18th paid out an X-Box Elite, or 19th to 27th paid out an iPod Classic! You would think that the poker chip set would have not been a final table prize. Oh well, can’t complain though as PokerStars gave away $40,000 in prizes and the tournament was free!

2007 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Final Table Results:

1. LParreira (Portugal) — $12,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure package
2. mathwise (Canada) — 50″ Plasma TV
3. lborba (Brazil) — 24″ computer monitor, a Canon Rebel digital SLR camera, and a Sony Camcorder
4. ulan-ude (United States) — poker table, a deluxe 500-piece clay chip set, Sunday Million ticket
5. Abellyus (France) — Eight $215 Sunday Million tickets
6. NileFever (United Kingdom) — $1,050 and $530 Sunday Million tickets
7. stakaman1962 (Greece) — $1,050 Sunday Million ticket
8. BoreN =P (Norway) — Canon Rebel Digital SLR Camera
9. fourflushers (United States)- Luxury Poker Chip Set

Thanks PokerStars for the free tournament and congratulations to LParreira of Portugal for winning the main prize, a $12,000 prize package to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure which included: one World Poker Tour event buy-in ($8,000), $3,000 - seven nights at Atlantis Paradise Island, $1,000 food credit, and $1,000 for spending and travel expenses.

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results:

1. Pairofnothin (United States) $140,448.84
2. ClubbedBoat (United States) $138,000.00
3. McNAbb2 (Canada) $68,625.48
4. twin peaks07 (Belgium) $53,474.40
5. LukeFromB13 (United States) $40,869.72
6. Ralfinator (United States) $29,283.60
7. Crawfdad (United States) $21,007.80
8. canalman (United Kingdom) $12,732.00
9. Binde (Sweden) $7,893.84

PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand Final Table Results:

1. ChadNFreude (United States) $18,411.01
2. krc1337 (Poland) $9,205.51
3. Joympi (Germany) $6,443.86
4. blackmadness (Canada) $4,602.76
5. Michaja2006 (Netherlands) $2,761.66
6. deaky (United Kingdom) $1,841.11
7. wasylaa (Poland) $1,472.89
8. !!BADlady (United States) $1,196.72
9. Huizuh (Netherlands) $920.56

Making money from poker doesn’t always have to be from playing poker, that is of course, if you are a winning player. If you run a web site or a blog (which is easy to setup), then you can make an additional income from poker by simply referring players to online poker rooms. This is called ‘affiliate marketing’, and for some, a very lucrative revenue stream and a great way to grow your bankroll for free!

Becoming a poker affiliate is very easy, all you need is a web site or poker related blog and you are well under way. To get started, you apply to the poker rooms that you want to be an affiliate with (most have affiliate programs). There are many poker rooms; so deciding which ones to promote can be tough, and applying to each one can be time consuming. I recommend that you signup with the PAW Integrated Affiliate Network. The PAW Affiliate Network is the easiest solution; you signup once, and from one place you can promote many of the top online poker rooms, such as: PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, Absolute Poker, Titan Poker, PartyPoker, and many others. The PAW Network also allows you to promote online casinos and skill gaming sites.

Here is an example of what you can make for referring new players to these poker rooms:

• PokerStars ($100-$300)
• Full Tilt Poker ($125.00+)
• PartyPoker ($125)
• SportsBook.com ($125)
• Paradise Poker ($150)
• Hollywood Poker ($150)

The PAW Integrated Affiliate Network has many benefits, aside from promoting many different online poker rooms and other gaming sites, such as: one account to manage and promote many online gaming sites, stats for all the rooms, one monthly consolidated payment paid by bank wire or even paid to your poker account, special freerolls, affiliate tournaments, and much more.

So join the PAW Network today for free and start referring your friends, family, co-workers, and your traffic from your web site or blog and start diversifying your poker revenue!

My tournament experience with the Master, Johnny Chan, didn’t go as well as I hoped it would. There were only 35 players in this private tournament and I busted out in 25th place.

I didn’t get any decent cards and after a few players limped in front of me I looked down at 88 and decided to push all-in with my remaining chips of 1k.

Everyone folded but one player who called with AJo. The Flop came down pairing the guy’s Jacks and the River gave him another for Trip Jacks over my two pair, Jacks and eights.

I also missed out on playing with Johnny Chan at the same table. Oh well, I’ve been told there will be more of these tournaments in the future… maybe then I’ll get to play a hand against the Master and fair better than 25th!

I quite enjoyed playing at ChanPoker. The software is sleek and modern, and the staff there are friendly and supportive.

The Main Event of PokerStars’ WCOOP is one for the record books; nearly 3,000 players anteed up $2,600.00 each which contributed almost 7.5 million to the prize pool!

Congratulations to ‘TheV0id‘ for winning this event and pocketing $1,378,330.50!

There were a few top poker players at the final table, and most notably, professional poker pro, Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso who finished 3rd and earned herself $463,940.50 for her efforts.

Congratulations to all the poker players who cashed in on all the WCOOP events at PokerStars this year and we look forward to another record-breaking tournament series next year!

2007 WCOOP Event #23 Final Table Results:
(Finishing order and $150,000 saved for second place)

1. TheV0id (United Kingdom) $1,228,330.50
2. ka$ino (United States) $850,782.50
3. LadyMaverick (United States) $463,940.50
4. HelmetSky (Israel) $382,245.00
5. mpg1000 (United States) $307,295.00
6. nitbuster (United States) $232,345.00
7. E-Daddie (United States) $163,391.00
8. mao15 (United States) $103,431.00
9. Fischer80 (Denmark) $59,960.00

Event Number: 23
Game: No Limit Texas Hold’em
Buy-in: $2,500 + $100
Add-ons/Re-buys: No
Entries: 2,998
Starting Chips: 20,000
Blind Increments: 30 min.
Places Paid: 414
1st Paid: $1,378,330.50
414th Paid: $2,998.00
Duration: 22 hrs 51 min.

Good job PokerStars!