PokerEdge Online Poker Software for Player Profile and Stats is that help that you have been needing to improve your game. In this site you can search the profile of almost all on-line players in Internet and look out their statistics. For example, with AutoLookup Window provided by the website you can find the soft profitable tables. When you see a green ball near the player nickname it means it is a  weak players, and if it’s red the player probably is tight and tough.

Other tool they provide is that you can see recent hands your opponent was involved in, and the cards they had at the showdown. In this way you can figure out which strategy your play may use against you in a specific situation. Also, more than one hundred websites support this website, including the populars PokerStars, Full Tilt, Titan Poker , and Party Poker.

However in my opinion this website is not only  a source of benefits because, although it’s undeniable the advantage this database provides to you against your opponent, it  can also take the fun of the game. Since as one of the most pleasures thing in Poker is trying to guess what are the cards of your opponent may has and the whole psychological game around it. Moreover, if everybody has access to it, maybe it isn’t such an advantage (though you have a good analysis capacity).

Furthermore, it can be seen like cheating for one mainly reasons in my opinion. Firstly, because you have to ways to access it, one that is free and other that you may pay. The difference between them is that when you pay to register you have access to all database (you are able to look for more statistics and tools). So if it is not cheating it is at least an unfair selection, once who has more money gets advantage.

So what is your opinion about it ? Are you gonna use it or you (like me) will choose to continue playing the Old School Way.

Greg Raymer was born in Lansing, Michigan in June of 1964. In 2004, he won the main event of the World Series of Poker, winning 5 million dollars, the most ever won in a tournament at that time.

Greg Raymer won his entry to the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event through an online satellite at Pokerstars.com, making him the second WSOP winner in a row that came from satellites at Poker Stars. He paid $160 to enter the satellite that would lead him to the 5 million dollar prize.

Unlike his predecessor, Chirs Moneymaker, however, Raymer had played in brick-and-mortar tournaments before and had won a seven-card stud tournament in 2001.

“I think the way to win the WSOP is the same for any tournament, and any poker game. You study hard to improve your game, and play each game for itself.”
–from Bluff Magazine interview

Source: About.com: Poker

World Series of Poker

Bracelet(s)                                                 1

Money finishes                                       13

Highest ITM

Main Event finish                        Winner, 2004

World Poker Tour

Titles                                                  None

Final tables                                      None

Even though the year 2005 marked Joe Hachem’s first World Series of Poker, he is a professional poker player who has been playing poker for over 10 years.
Besides winning the WSOP bracelet in the main event, he also placed 10th in the 2005 WSOP.

In 2006, he made two final tables at smaller Hold’em events at the World Series of Poker, finishing 2nd in one and 4th in the other. Later on that same year, he won the World Poker Tour Five Diamond Classic, finishing off a great year in the spotlight.

He was ranked the best poker player of 2006.

His career:

World Series of Poker

Bracelet(s)                                                           1

Money finishes                                                  9

Highest ITM

Main Event finish                                   Winner, 2005

World Poker Tour Titles 1

Final tables                                                         1

Money finishes                                                  3

European Poker Tour Titles None

Final tables                                                     None

Money finishes                                                   1

Click here to visit his website

Source:  About.com:Poker

Very few tournament poker players enjoy playing a short stack. After all, the optimal tournament strategy is to stay ahead of the blinds and other players by accumulating chips for survival.

However, no Limit Texas Holdem is a game with filled with mistakes, bad cards, and bad flops. Because of this, being on the short stack is a frequent occurrence in tournaments. As a beginner, making some simple strategy adjustments to your short stack play will help you improve your results in these types of situations. Let’s take a look at a few pointers for improving your short stack play.

Push or fold…

In a no limit tournament, you often find yourself in a position when you can no longer afford to make a standard raise without pot committing yourself. For example, let’s say that the blinds are 100/200 and you find yourself sitting on 1200 chips. A standard raise is about 3-4 times the blinds, or 600-800 chips. Making such a raise will commit half or more of your chips to the pot, and gives you decent pot odds to continue with just about anything post-flop.

This time is often considered “the point of no return”. This is the time when you should be narrowing your decisions down to two main options… pushing all in, or folding.

How can I tell if I have reached “point of no return”?

In general, when making a raise (or calling one) puts a large percentage of your chips into the pot, you have hit this point. Ask ten poker players this question, and they might give you ten different answers.

Most people typically consider themselves at this point when they have less than or equal to 8-10 big blinds. Once they hit this point in the tournament, they should make some strategy adjustments.

If you want to read more about this point, you can refer to Dan Harrington’s book “Harrington on Holdem, Vol. 2”

Short Stack Strategy Adjustments

Failing to make strategy adjustments when your chip stack starts to diminish can be an expensive mistake. Let’s explain some important ways that show how you should change your style when you’re faced with a short stack.

1. Don’t make speculative calls

   Limping with low pocket pairs (to catch a set), or suited connectors is a bad idea for a couple of reasons. One, you’re taking the risk of being re-raised and having to make the decision of calling for all your chips with 78 of spades, or pocket fours. Not a good spot to be in. Second, you will only hit your set or flush/straight draw a small percentage of the time, and you don’t have enough chips to make it worth your while when you do hit.

2. Don’t raise with a hand you’re not willing to take to showdown, meaning a week hand.
   Because of your short stack, you don’t have the luxury of raising, then folding when the flop misses you. You will be getting good pot odds to call post flop with all but the worst of hands, so folding post flop is a mistake. Don’t waste your time with mediocre hands like Q8, A9, etc. You will find yourself wasting quite a few chips on hands that are frequently outkicked.
3. When you fire your final shot, make sure it’s a bullet, and not a pellet.
   You want to take a shot at stealing the blinds, and/or doubling up before you have almost no chips left. Don’t let yourself get blinded down to nothing before taking a stab at the pot. Even if that means doing it with less than premium hands. If you don’t have enough chips to scare people away, you certainly cannot accomplish this goal.
4. Unless you have premium cards, make sure you’re first into the pot
   When you consider pushing all in as a short stack, you should become aware of two factors. 1) You must have very good cards, or 2) you’re the only one in the pot so far. Consider that if you still have a fair amount of chips, and your table image is not that of a maniac, players will need a better than average hand to warrant a call. This is why you should always make sure you’re alone in the pot before shoving in to steal the blinds. Force the players behind you to make the decision. If there are already one or two players in the pot, you’re more likely to get a call, which is not favorable when you want to steal the blinds with two random cards.

So…

Sure, it is true that nobody likes playing on the short stack, but learning to play it correctly is a necessary evil of tournament poker. Making these few simple adjustments to your short stack game will most likey yield positive results to your tournament placement, and should have you making better use of the chips you have in front of you.

Since 1970, Worls Series Of Poker has been held in Las Vegas. In September 2007, the first WSOP championship events outside of Las Vegas, complete with bracelets, were held. The first WSOPE included three events held in London from September 6–17, 2007.

The £ 10,000 buy-in no-limit hold ‘em event was won by Annette Obrestad on the day before her 19th birthday. She is the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet, a record that cannot be broken in the Las Vegas WSOP under current laws because the minimum legal age for casino gaming in Nevada is 21. But in Europe she was able to play, because the minimum age in Great Britian for gaming in a casino is 18.

The WSOPE was the first offset but it will not be the last.  Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said that in the next one to three years other countries may start holding WSOP events. Two locations that have been mentioned as possible expansion sites are Egypt and South Africa.

I was looking for the most well paid players in Poker, however I it took sometime to figure out that poker players don’t have salary. The money that they receive comes from their success in Poker champioships, besides the money they make with publicity and sponsors. So I decided to check out what were the biggest premium in poker history and who were the “luckies” winners.

2006 WSOP Main Event	$82,512,162	Jamie Gold	$12,000,000
2008 WSOP Main Event	$64,333,600	Peter Eastgate	$9,152,416
2007 WSOP Main Event	$59,784,954	Jerry Yang	$8,250,000
2005 WSOP Main Event	$52,818,610	Joe Hachem	$7,500,000
2004 WSOP Main Event	$24,224,400	Greg Raymer	$5,000,000
2007 WPT Championship	$15,495,750	Carlos Mortensen	$3,970,415
2006 WPT Championship	$14,671,250	Joe Bartholdi Jr	$3,760,165
2008 EPT Grand Final	$13,323,417	Glen Chorny	$3,196,354
2008 WPT Championship	$13,216,250	David Chiu	$3,389,140
2009 EPT Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure	$12,674,000	Poorya Nazari	$3,000,000

So what do you think ? Maybe is worth getting out of college and start o play, isn’t it?

Here is the video of the 2006 WSOP Main Event, when Jamie Gold on the biggest pot ever.

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyễn (born October 28, 1962 in Nha Trang, Vietnam) is a Vietnamese American professional poker player who is a five time Wolrd Series of Poker bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and the 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. Nguyen is one of the most active players in professional poker today, and from 2000 to 2004 he finished in the money in more than 100 events. “Nguyen is noted for playing with lots of emotion”.

“Bad habits plagued Nguyen as recreational use of marijuana, alcohol and cocaine developed into full addictions. As with all casino gambling the odds eventually turned against him and he ended up losing everything. Nguyen was sympathically spared a room and $5000 in cash.”(Wikipedia.org)

Click here to view his profile of World Poker and here for his Poker Babes profile.

His career:

World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)                                         5
Money finishes                                36
Highest ITM
Main Event finish Winner            1998

World Poker Tour
Titles                                                      1
Final tables                                         7(+1)
Money finishes                                  12

European Poker Tour
Titles                                                      None
Final tables                                           0
Money finishes                                    1

Marcel Lüske (born March 23, 1953) is a professional poker player from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. With the growing popularity of televised poker he has become a recognized celebrity, with his trademark style of wearing upside-down sunglasses, singing during play, and always wearing suits in an era when most players dress casually.

“Lüske is well known for a televised hand during the 2004 Wolrd Series of Poker when he made an impressive read of another player. Lüske laid down his hand before the flop and confidently stated, “your kings are good”. The other player tried to claim that he held ace-king, but tv viewers could see that he indeed held pocket kings” (PokerBabes.com).

Click here to visit his profile on Poker Babes.

His career:

World Series of Poker

Bracelet(s)                                                None

Money finishes                                         19

Highest ITM Main Event finish          10th, 2004

World Poker Tour

Titles                                                    None

Final tables                                               0

Money finishes                                        4

European Poker Tour

Titles                                                    None

Final tables                                             2

Money finishes                                       4

This way, the others won't notice if i'm bluffing.

When it comes to developing a reputation at the poker table, especially at a live card room, I believe that image is everything.  If you look like you know what you’re doing, people will treat you as such, and that added advantage can prove to be very powerful.  Casinos are packed with new and beginning level poker players, many of who can be easily intimidated if they think they are up against someone that frequents the card rooms on a regular basis.

Want to look the part of a professional poker player?  This is what you’ll need.

1.  Sunglasses – The poker pros that are easiest to remember because of their personal appearance (ex. Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Greg Raymer) are the ones that normally wear sunglasses of some sort.  Wearing sunglasses gives you a permanent aggressive stare, and removes any nervousness or doubtful looks your eyes might give off.

2.  iPod/Headphones – When you see someone sitting at your table with one headphone cup around their ear, you normally identify that player as someone that plays a lot of poker.  Fill up your iPod with your personal choice of music, or just leave it off the whole time.  The visual image you’re trying to convey does not require that you actually turn on the iPod at any time.  ☺

3.  Hat – Cowboy hats are normally reserved for the very eccentric professional players, but wearing a simple poker-themed hat will add a little extra flair to your overall appearance and will improve that air of mystery you’re going for.

4.  Card Protector – A card protector is something you place on top of your cards in order to signal to the dealer and the other players that you plan on playing a hand.  They can range from special coins you purchase online to even personal trinkets from home.  These are another poker accessory that you typically only see experienced players using, and if you have a personal story as to why you use that particular card protector, all the better.