Category Archives: Poker

The World Series of Poker returns this fall, and with it comes the return of the most legendary poker player in the history of the game.

Tuesday morning, 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson said that he would be returning to the Rio this fall to play a few select tournaments in the WSOP this year.

The 87-year-old poker legend last played a tournament at the 2018 WSOP when he entered the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 single draw championship. The man known affectionately as Texas Dolly finished sixth in that event for $43,963. Longtime pro Brian Rast ended up winning the event for $259,670.

At the time, Brunson tweeted that it would likely be the last WSOP event he ever played. In an interview with Card Player, he said that the main reason he entered was because his son, high-stakes pro and WSOP bracelet winner Todd, texted him and let him know that he could enter the event on Day 2.

But alas, the thrill of winning a WSOP bracelet was too much to keep Brunson away and poker fans will likely get at least one more chance to see Brunson in action later this year. The WSOP is scheduled to run from Sept. 30 through Nov. 23.

Card Player reached out to Brunson to see if he knew which events he plans on entering but havent received a response yet.

The WSOP released the 2021 schedule Tuesday and the $10,000 2-7 no-limit single draw championship is a 3-day event that kicks off on Monday, Oct. 25.

Continued here:

Poker Legend Doyle Brunson Plans On Playing The 2021 World Series Of Poker - CardPlayer.com

Card games have been an excellent way for people to spend time for hundreds of thousands of years.Playing cards were invented in China before AD1000, and they made their way to the EU in 1360. One of the oldest card game references is a game called the 'leaf game'.

With that being said, there are as many as 10,000 card games, depending on what you classify as a card game.From the inception of the 52-card deck, we have seen games like Solitaire, Teenpatti, Blackjack, Patience and Poker.Of all the 52-card games across the world, poker is the champion in terms of popularity.

What year did poker start?

Poker has been around since 1829 and started in New Orleans by French settlers. The game involved bluffing your way to a win or bets originally called Poques, which was similar to today's draw poker.

Joseph Cowell reported the game was played in 1829, with four players betting on the most valuable hand.By 1837, Hoyle, R.F. Foster noted that the game of poker, as it was played in the US, was 5 cards per player, from a 20-card deck. The game spread like rapid-fire, and shortly after, the 52-card deck we are familiar with today was introduced.

What is the longest game of poker ever?

The minimum buy-in was $1000, and it was played by very well-known wild west personalities like Diamond Jim Brady, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.Legend has it that over $10 million changed hands over the 8 years, and 10% of that went to the Bird Cage.

Poker is the most lucrative sport in the world

Football, baseball, and basketball are all notable high-earning sports. However, when pitted against the five most significant cash prize awards in the super-high roller tournaments, they do not match up.The sum of the awards for poker is more than $44.2 million, securing poker as the most lucrative sport in the world.

In 1993 the WSOP Main Event poker match was the first tournament to have a prize pool of 1 million dollars.

What is the biggest ever poker win?

There are several notable poker wins that increased pokers popularity globally.

The biggest prize belongs to Antonia Esfandiari.

Antonio entered the 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop, which was a $1 million buy-in, and he walked away with a record-breaking win of $18.3 million.

When was the first-ever online poker game?

Online poker, as advanced as it is to play now, is relatively young. Online poker started on January 1st, 1998.There were several places to play poker before these legitimate poker websites, but January 1 called in a new era.

Money was able to change hands, and it is reported that the first online hands of poker were $3/$6 Limit Hold 'em games.

Where does the term 'Passing the Buck' come from?

The phrase "Passing the Buck" may have originated from poker during the American Frontier era. A knife with a buckthorn handle was how it was indicated who would be the dealer.

If a player did not want to deal, they would pass the buck to the next player. Nowadays, the term is used for passing the responsibility onto someone else.

When was poker shown on TV?

The World Series of Poker was shown on TV in 1973. It was celebrated in a big way as it was the first-ever televised poker event.Showing poker on TV further pushed poker into the spotlight and increased its popularity once again.

You can now find a range of Twitch streamers streaming their live poker matches, truly taking poker into modern times.

Who was the most secretive poker player?

Isildur1 had a reputation that precedes them. They would play any player and create a buzz, unlike any poker player before them.

In 2009, Isildur1 was a legendary name, and it appeared to come from nowhere and had zero sponsorship.Isildur1 beat Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patric Antonious and many other poker stars of the time.With this, other players decided to break down Isildur1's play and analyze how his run was so spectacular.

We now know that Isildur1 is Viktor Blom, and he had managed to create interest and a sense of excitement in poker like never before.What made Isildur1 so awe-inspiring is his aggressive playstyle won him over $2 million from just $2000 in a short space of time. Also, it is believed that Viktor Blom has made in excess of $6 million to date.

The Black Friday of poker

On April 15th, 2011, the Department of Justice seized the domains of some of the industry leaders in online poker.At the time, many poker players left large sums of money in their accounts, and they were not sure if they would get them back.Within a few days, it was announced that the US players would be impacted. It rocked the world of online poker.

The Black Friday of poker changed the game for millions of players and ended with some convictions.

How many people play online poker today?

According to the World Series of Poker, there are 100 million people playing poker online, and over 60 million of that is in the USA.All of those historical moments make poker one of the most popular ways to spend time both online and offline.

Poker's history dates back centuries and is set to keep growing for years to come. No doubt adding more exciting things to poker's already rich history.

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10 facts about poker and its history you should know - The Jerusalem Post

It seems to be a bit of odd scheduling for the World Poker Tour. While the first event of their Season XIX schedule kicks off in Tampa on Friday, the WPT will also be running an international event online. The WPT Heads Up Championship is set to begin on Friday alongside the first-ever WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event. The Heads Up Championship will most certainly feature some of the biggest names in the game with a price tag befitting of a heavyweight fight, while the Tampa tournament will be a utter street fight with a much larger field squaring off against each other.

Dwan/Polk Headlines Opening Round Action

32 players will be stepping into the breech for the WPT Heads Up Championship, and there will be some significant money on the line. The buy-in for the tournament is a hefty $25,000, making for a prize pool of $800,000 that surely has the participants salivating. There are also methods in place to attempt to make sure that skill might be more of a factor in the outcome than sheer luck.

Instead of a one and done style of bracket tournament, the WPT has decided to make each round a best of three match. That means that, although one of the celebrity participants may take down a skilled player once, they are going to have to do it again to move on in the event. In the finals, it gets even tougher; the championship will be decided in a best of five battle that should test the skills of both survivors.

There are some interesting matchups in the tournaments First Round bracket. Leading the way is the matchup of Tom Dwan against Doug Polk, which should draw the majority of the eyes of the poker world on Friday. The action on Friday will also have Wiktor Limitless Malinowski squaring off against Nick Petrangelo and Linus Loeliger matching up against heads up veteran Olivier Busquet.

Eight matches will be contested on Friday on the Poker King site, meaning another eight will take place on Saturday. A monumental battle will be in store for both Manig Loeser and Phil Ivey, while Andrew Lichtenberger and Stephen Chidwick will be facing off in another match on Saturday. All of the competition will be streamed on the WPTs Twitch channel, making for an entertaining weekend of poker not only online but live.

First round action will be conducted on Friday and Saturday, with the Round of 16 playing on Sunday and Monday. Heres a look at the bracket breakdown for the 2021 WPT Heads Up Championship:

WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Also Starts Friday

For those who might think that $25K is a bit rich for their blood, the WPT has a tournament on tap in the live arena. The inaugural WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event begins at noon on Friday, a $3500 buy in tournament with a $2 million guarantee. The chances of the guarantee being met are extremely good as the event features UNLIMITED buy-ins.

As a method of comparison, the event that finished off Season XVIII for the World Poker Tour is a fine example of what might happen this weekend in Tampa. The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open took place a few hundred miles to the southeast of Tampa in Hollywood, FL, and the action was incendiary. The format in Hollywood was similar to that in Tampa, except that there was only a singular re-entry for players in Hollywood over their two-Day Ones of play. With the unlimited re-entries in Tampa over the two-Day Ones of action, it is extremely possible that the record set in Hollywood 2482 entries and the nearly $8 million prize pool may be in jeopardy.

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World Poker Tour Heads Up Championship, Inaugural Tampa Stop Taking Place This Weekend - Poker News Daily

A heads-up match between Doug Polk and Tom Dwan will highlight the first round of matches in the $25,000 World Poker Tour heads-up championship.

The entire first round was drawn live on Polks YouTube channel Monday afternoon to decide the matchups that will pit some of pokers best against one another, as well as a handful of celebrities, influencers and a couple of online qualifiers.

The event will take place on the Poker King platform, but the production staff and many players will be located in Cabo San Lucas. The entire tournament will be streamed on Twitch with the first round kicking off on June 18 and the finals wrapping up on June 22.

With 32 players in the field, only the top four finishers will earn a cash. Winning three matches will guarantee an in-the-money finish. The first four matches will be a best-of-three series with every player needing to defeat their opponent twice to move on. The finals, however, will have a best-of-five format.

The left side of the bracket features several influencers and celebrities. Aside from the Polk/Dwan matchup, the left side features high-stakes pro Dan Smith squaring off celebrity DJ Steve Aoki, Patrik Antonius matched up against Japanese pop star GAKT and Alexandra Botez up against Hafu in a battle of the streamers. Poker vlogger Brad Owen will take on poker pro Daniel Dvoress on the left side as well.

Botez is a chess prodigy, YouTuber and Twitch streamer, who has taken up poker over the last few years. Hafu, whose real name is Rumay Wang is a former professional gamer from Massachusetts that is also somewhat new to poker. She was a professional World of Warcraft, Bloodline Champions and Hearthstone player.

Everyone in the field ponied up $25,000, but this match carries a little extra weight as the three streamers in the field, Botez, Hafu, and Shiphtur, are part of a separate $20,000 last longer bet.

Shiphtur, whose real name is Danny Le, is a former professional League of Legends player. He drew the right side of the bracket and will face-off against three-time WPT champion and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Anthony Zinno in the first round.

If Zinno comes out on top in his matchup against Shiphtur, then the winner of the Botez/Hafu match will immediately win the last longer and profit an extra $40,000 on top of whatever they potentially cash for.

With many of the influencers and celebrities paired up on the left side, the right side of the bracket became a much tougher route to victory and will feature several top pros battling in the first round.

The two online qualifiers who secured spots in through a steps tournament on Poker King, will face-off against four-time WPT champion Darren Elias and online pro ButtonClickr. Clickr was one of the coaches that worked with Doug Polk in his $1.2 million victory against Daniel Negreanu. During the stream Monday, Polk said that he was the closest thing poker currently has to a prodigy as he has already won million online before the age of 21.

Other notable matches on the right side include Linus Loeliger versus Olivier Busquet, Nick Schulman against Chris Kruk, Nick Petrangelo versus Wiktor Limitless Malinowski and Phil Ivey against German pro Manig Loeser.

You can take a look at the entire bracket below:

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Poker Pros Doug Polk and Tom Dwan To Square Off In First Round Of World Poker Tour Heads-Up Championship - CardPlayer.com

Posted on June 15, 2021 | 9:47 a.m.

United Boys& Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County will holda Poker Run, its summer event for car enthusiasts, Saturday, June 26. The Rally 4 Kids will return in April 2022.A poker run is an organized event in which participants, using motorcycles or high-end vehicles, must visit five checkpoints, drawing a playing card at each one. The object is to have the best poker hand at the end of the run. Having the best hand and winning is purely a matter of chance.

After the morning drive, Camp Whittier will be open for the afternoon for Poker Run participant family members to enjoy the camp's amenities and a ranch-style barbecue. Available facilities will include the new duel Zipline that opened in the spring, the pool, and archery area.

Levels of support include participating in the poker run for $1,000; $1,200 to sponsor a Club Kid, which covers the entry and guarantees one Club Kid will be sponsored for a year; or $5,000 to be a Checkpoint Sponsor.

Checkpoint sponsorship includes one car entry into the Poker Run, signage at the checkpoint, recognition on printed material, and a goodie bag for the driver and navigator.

To learn more about the event or make a donation, visit http://www.unitedbg.org or call 805-681-1315.

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Fun is in the Cards at United Boys & Girls Clubs Poker Run - Noozhawk

June 02, 2021Mo Nuwwarah

For the first time in more than a year, the PokerGO Studio will play host to one of its proprietary poker tournament series as the U.S. Poker Open returns on Thursday with the first of 12 high-stakes events.

For the following week-plus the USPO is scheduled for June 3-15 daily events with buy-ins of at least $10K will run, usually alternating between eight-handed (seven-handed after the end of registration) no-limit hold'em and a different game or format. At the conclusion of the series, the top points earner will be awarded an extra $50,000 along with a special trophy.

Remember, an annual subscription to PokerGO costs $99.99, but you can save $20 off by using promo code USPO21 at checkout. Sign up by going here.

The U.S. Poker Open begins with Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em, with the first livestreamed action kicking off the next day with the final table of that tournament. From June 4 on, a daily stream will be provided so PokerGO subscribers can follow the action on a short delay.

Tournaments on the docket include pot-limit Omaha, "big-bet mix," 8-game and short deck. Structure sheets and rules are posted here.

Everything builds up to the $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event, set to run June 14.

PokerNews will provide daily recaps of the play. Among those confirmed to be playing this year include Ali Imsirovic, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Sam Soverel, Chris Brewer, Dan Smith, Sean Winter, Alex Foxen, Kristen Bicknell, Jake Schindler, and Randall Emmett.

Past champions of the USPO were Stephen Chidwick in 2018 and David Peters in 2019. An archive of past coverage of the event can be found here, and PokerGO subscribers can go back and watch past streamed coverage here.

While this is the first big festival to be held by Poker Central since last year, high roller action has already returned to ARIA, with players getting back to their usual schedules competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.

For the first time, though, poker fans can get a little sweat as well thanks to SuperDraft. PokerGO has partnered with the fantasy sports company to bring a fantasy poker offering, increasing the potential rooting interest of those who don't have the bankroll or willingness to pony up $10K or more for the tournaments themselves.

Adding poker into fantasy sports is an idea that weve discussed for years," said SuperDraft CEO Steve Wang in a press release. "Our innovative development team in partnership with PokerGO finally brought that idea to life. As the popularity of pro poker grows, this partnership will help us deliver what everyone immersed in the world of poker has been waiting for.

The plan appears to be for SuperDraft to offer fantasy poker for a slew of events going forward, including the World Series of Poker the company remains partnered with WSOP parent company Caesars as well.

They'll celebrate the opening of the PokerGO partnership with a $10,000 freeroll, according to the press release announcing the game. Scoring will be based on stats provided by PokerGO, including "player performance and chip stacks."

Speaking of player performance, another subplot attached to the USPO will be the continued race for points on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard.

Announced in late April, the PokerGO Tour will allow players to accrue points toward a year-long leaderboard with the goal of claiming up to $100K in additional prize money.

More than a dozen events have already been played out of the 150-plus promised by PokerGO, and Ali Imsirovic has emerged as top dog thus far with five wins and 12 cashes worth just shy of $2 million. Here's a look a the current top five:

A full list of the rankings can be found here.

All USPO events will count toward the leaderboard, so expect some big moves up the ladder when the dust settles at the end of the high-stakes series.

Interested in signing up for a PokerGO subscription to watch the USPO? Use the code "USPO21" to save $20 off a $99.99 annual subscription at checkout.

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2021 U.S. Poker Open Begins Thursday With First of 12 Events - PokerNews.com

The PokerGO Studio welcomes back the U.S. Poker Open this week, with the series set to take place from June 3-15. There will be 12 high-stakes events taking place with buy-ins starting in the $10,000 range. The series kicks off with Event #1, the $10,000 NLH option, with PokerGO streaming all the action. Subscribers of PokerGO can easily follow along with the gameplay, with a short delay in place.

Tournaments on the schedule will be a mix of Texas Holdem, Omaha, 8-game, big-bet mix, and short deck. Several top players are expected to compete including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Kristen Bicknell, Dan Smith, Ali Imsirovic, and more.

Details of the Series

Starting tomorrow, through June 15, the best of the best in the poker world will hit the felt at the PokerGO Studio within the ARIA to see who will claim the title wins. The Las Vegas Casino will feature the series, with one tournament set to take place each day of the schedule.

The first ten events all have $10,000 buy-ins. On June 13, a $25,000 tournament is on the schedule, featuring a No-Limit Holdem format. The final event on the schedule has the largest buy-in at $50,000. This event is also an NLH format.

All tournaments in the Open will have double re-entry except for the final event. The $50,000 tournament will have a single re-entry only.

PokerGO Tour

Each of the poker tournaments included in the U.S. Poker Open is part of the PokerGO Tour. During the tour, players earn points for competing and cashing out in events. The points also help to decide who wins the U.S. Poker Open Championship. The title includes $50,000 in added prize money plus a Golden Eagle Trophy.

Once the U.S. Poker Open comes to an end, the ARIA will host a High Roller event on June 15. This tournament will have a $25,000 buy-in and NLH format. On June 25, the Wynn Las Vegas will host the PokerGO Tour with the Wynn MILLIONS, which includes a $10,000 buy-in and NLH format.

Fast-forward to July and PokerGO will start the PokerGO Cup. The Cup will take place at the ARIA and will offer NLH events with buy-ins ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. On July 12, the ARIA will host the PokerGO Heads-Up Championship which has a $100,000 buy-in.

The schedule then continues throughout the year, moving down to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida then back up to Las Vegas, with events set at The Venetian and the ARIA once again.

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U.S. Poker Open starts this week in Las Vegas at the PokerGO Studio - World Casino Directory

Welcome to The Queue your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, were watching a video essay that looks at what makes the poker scene in Casino Royale so captivating.

Casino Royalecontains some of the most blood-pumping set-pieces in James Bonds long and illustrious cinematic run. Theres the scene where Bond (Daniel Craig) flips his Aston Martin, rolling the out-of-control vehicle down a dark windy road. In another scene, 007 pursues a bomb maker over the rooftops of Madagascar, jumping, scrambling, and maneuvering through laundry lines and scaffolding. This is to say nothing of the final sequence in the film, where a Venetian house sinks (!) into the sea.

And yet, in my opinion, for all its action-packed thrills, the most captivating, edge-of-your-seat scene in the film is the central, high-stakes poker game. The critical narrative puzzle piece of the film sees Bond enter a Texas hold em tournament at the titular Casino Royale in Montenegro. His mission: to beat the villainous, weepy-eyed Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), forcing the terrorist-assisting banker to seek asylum with the British government in exchange for information about his clients.

The sequence, which is broken up into three distinct scenes, is as dramatically engaging and bombastic as the rest of Bonds sweatier, high-octane exploits. For my money, its the highlight of the film, and a real tour-de-force from director Martin Campbell and cinematographer Phil Meheux on how to turn a simple card game into thrilling cinema, regardless of the audiences understanding of, oh I dont know, how Texas hold em actually works.

The video essay below breaks down how each poker scenes distinct visual language keeps us captivated while continually raising the stakes. By using staples of visual storytelling like movement, framing, and average shot length, Campbell and Meheux keep us engaged in the pivotal game.

Watch James Bond & the Casino Royale Poker Scene How to Turn a Simple Card Game into Gripping Cinema:

This video about the Casino Royale poker scenewas created byStudioBinder, a production management software creator that also happens to produce wildly informative video essays. They tend to focus on the mechanics of filmmaking itself, from staging to pitches and directorial techniques. You can check out their YouTube accounthere.

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Bluffs, Tells, and Martinis: An Analysis of the Casino Royale Poker Scene - Film School Rejects

I read an account of how a card of the day promotion works in video poker. I dont know if this kind of promotion is still available at major casinos on a regular basis, but these kinds of marketing schemes tend to roll back around given some time.

Also, this card of the day promotion illustrates some gambling concepts that I think casino gamblers should be aware of. Keep reading below to learn more.

The way a card of the day promotion works is actually simple: Every four of a kind of a certain ranking on a specific day gets a double payout.

For example, on Sundays, a four of a kind made up of threes might pay double. The card of the day for Monday might be a four, and on Tuesday, a five, and so on. On those days, a four of a kind made up of fours and fives, respectively, would trigger the bonus payout.

If youre playing 9/6 Jacks or Better at a casino offering this promotion, doubling that four of a kind payout on that one hand adds 0.44% to the expected return for the game. Since 9/6 Jacks or Better normally offers a 99.54% expected return, assuming you play optimally with this promotion in effect, the game offers a 99.98% expected return.

Thats the same thing as a house edge of only 0.02%. Its almost as close to a breakeven game as youll ever find in a casino.

If youre trying to make a living playing real money video poker, you still cant do it with this game even with the card of the day promotion. But if youre just wanting to earn comps and enjoy a vacation without spending a lot of money, a 99.98% return is great.

As luck would have it, there are other video poker games where such a promotion might make a negative expectation game into a positive expectation game. For example, a 10/7 Double Bonus video poker game already has a positive expectation for the player with its 100.17% return.

Even a 9/7 Double Bonus game has a 99.11% return. And since youre getting a bigger payout for four of a kind already because youre playing Double Bonus Poker, you get to add 1.37% to your return instead of just 0.44%.

This would turn either version of Double Bonus Poker into a profitable opportunity. You might not get rich playing these games, but you could show a long-term profit.

What would this do to your expected win rate? Assume a quarter game and a max bet per hand, and youre wagering $1.25 per hand. An average video poker player probably gets in 600 hands per hour, so thats $750/hour in action. With an expected return of 101.54%, your hourly win rate is $11.55.

Now, suppose that the casino has both a quarter game with the 10/7 pay table along with a dollar game with the 9/7 pay table. Which one should you choose?

Assuming a dollar game and a max bet per hand, youre wagering $5 per hand. At 600 hands per hour, thats $3,000 per hour in action. With an expected return of 100.48%, your expected earnings per hour are $14.40.

Even though the expected return for the game with the worse pay table is significantly lower, the fact that you can play for higher stakes makes it more profitable.

You should be able to do this calculation for any game youre playing where you have an edge so that you can calculate your most profitable opportunities.

The formula is simple: Take the average bet size and multiply it by bets per hour and by the size of your edge, which equals expected win rate per hour.

Even with a generous promotion like this, you must know how to play the game with optimal strategy to have a hope of getting any kind of edge over the casino.

How much does playing with an incorrect strategy subtract from your expected return?

It depends on how often youre deviating from the correct strategy, but a safe estimate is that a novice video poker player ignoring correct strategy is giving between 2% and 4% back to the house. This is assuming that you know something about poker to begin with.

If youre a complete novice and have never played poker, you have a little studying and practicing to do before you ever try video poker.

Youll notice that even in the best-case scenarios Ive used in the above examples, the size of your edge was never more than 1.54%.

If youre losing 2% in expectation because of strategy mistakes, youre back to playing a game where the house has an edge. Thats okay if youre a recreational gambler, but Im convinced that if youre going to do something, you should learn how to do it as well as possible.

This applies to video poker as well as any other endeavor you pursue.

20 years ago, it was hard to find an optimal strategy for most video poker games. There were a handful of books offering some strategies for some games, but nothing comprehensive.

For years, though, you could buy a software package called Video Poker for Winners that would generate the correct strategy for any pay table you fed into it. That software is no longer available, but you can find online resources that will do the same thing for you.

My favorite resource for learning the correct strategy for video poker games is the series of books about video poker strategy from Bob Dancer. He has six of these books available:

You can buy these for around $20 a book on his website, but you can also buy the entire set. He also sells laminated video poker strategy cards, similar to the kinds of strategy cards you can get for blackjack with color-coding and everything.

Something I havent mentioned yet is that when youre playing in a game with a promotion like this, the optimal strategy for the game changes. For example, suppose you have a have with four cards to a flush, but you also have a pair that matches the card of the day.

Normally, drawing to the flush would be the correct play, but what happens when youre getting twice as much of a payout for the four of a kind? Is it worth it to go for the four of a kind when you have a pair in that situation?

These deviations are derived by looking at the probability of hitting the hand multiplied by the payout for the hand.

Lets assume the payout for a flush is 7 for 1. You have a 9/47 probability of getting your flush, so the expected return for that playignoring other results for simplicitys sakeis 9/47 x 7, or 1.34.

Assuming that the payout for the four of a kind is 160 for instead of 80 for 1 because of the promotion, youd need to calculate the probability of getting that payout.

You have to get both of the cards of that ranking, so the probability of that happening is 1/47 x 1/47, but thats offset somewhat by being able to get another try on that third card youre drawing to.

As it turns out, the odds of making your four of a kind are still too low for this to be a viable change in your playing strategy. But its something to consider, and thats not the only dilemma youre liable to face either.

And the strategy decisions also change when the card is a different rank. For example, if the card of the day is seven, that has a different set of strategy implications than if the card of the day is four.

When you have a card of the day promotion, youll sometimes want to break a made hand like a full house to draw to the four of a kind instead. Youll also often want to draw to a pair even if you have four cards to an open-ended straight.

You might find a casino that offers you a double payout for the four of a kind of that rank AND gives you a free $5 bet on the roulette wheel. How much is that free bet worth?

If you lose, its worth $0. But if you win, its worth the probability of winning multiplied by $5.

On a standard American Roulette wheel, the probability of winning an even money bet is 18/38, or 47.37%. This means that the free roulette spin is worth another $2.37.

This also adds to the expected return to the game.

Being a savvy gambler means learning how to spot good promotions like a card of the day promotion in video poker, but thats not enough. You also need to know how to analyze that promotion to see what it does to your expected return.

Sometimes, it will turn into a profitable opportunity, while other times, it might not be worth it. Either way, the better educated you are as a gambler, the better off you are. Good luck on your gambling!

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Video Poker Promotions - How a Card of the Day Bonus Works - BestUSCasinos.org

NBA legend Tony Parker is the first player confirmed to be playing in the 2021 World Series of Poker main event.

According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, the four-time NBA champion won a charity poker event run by The PM Group in January. By taking down the charity event, the former point guard earned a seat in the $10,000 buy-in event this fall.

He is very excited to play the main event for the first time, WSOP director Gregory Chochon told the San Antonio Express-News. Because of his career, he never had the time to participate but he is ready for the challenge. We always promote poker as a sport, so Tonys qualification is great news!

Parker played nearly two decades in the NBA, almost entirely with the San Antonio Spurs. He was a first-round draft pick of the Spurs in 2001 and played with the organization through the end of the 2018 season. He played with the Charlotte Hornets for the 2018-2019 season before retiring. He was an NBA All-Star selection six times and was the NBA Finals MVP in 2007.

While there is no official record of Parker playing poker at any competitive level and doesnt have a recorded tournament cash, the NBA is full of poker enthusiasts.

Golden State Warriors minority owner Chamath Palihapitiya is well-known for dipping his toes into high-stakes cash games and is good friends with 15-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Palihapitiya has three cashes in WSOP events and was even gifted Hellmuths 13th bracelet.

Hellmuth also coached David Lee, a 12-year NBA veteran who spent a good chunk of his career in a Warriors uniform. In December 2019, Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson said that he got killed in team poker games and that the roster was filled with card sharks.

NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce has been a part of the high-stakes poker world for quite some time, as well. Pierce held the chip lead on Day 2 of the 2013 WSOP $10,000 pot-limit Omaha championship and fell just a few spots shy of a cash in the 2014 main event.

He recently lost his job as a basketball analyst for ESPN after he posted raunchy videos on social media from a home game.

The 2021 WSOP will be held this fall from Sept. 30 through Nov. 23. The main event will run Nov. 4 through Nov. 17.

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Basketball Legend Tony Parker Becomes First Known Participant In The 2021 World Series Of Poker Main Event - CardPlayer.com