Poker News

Pokeriot.com is growing fast. We will soon launch two other languages Portugese and German and we offer a sneak preview to our faithful readers (eg You). If you are fluent in any of the languages we hope that you will tell us if we have made any mistakes, or if there is something else wrong with the site.

888.com’s World Poker Crown finals is about to take place at Peralada Castle (Barcelona) at May 8. The finalists have bested more than 2000 contestants in the online qualifier and will now win at least $22.000 each. The winner will walk away with $1.000.000.

The players that have qualified for the final table are:

Jack Hinchey (Canada)
Michael Lawson (Canada)
Bart Wetsteijn (Netherlands)
Piotr Skiba (Poland)
Pini Roberto (Italy)
Mark Rossler (Germany)
Mark Castonguay (Canada)
Arjan van Bavel (Netherlands)
Michael Leah (Canada) (
Gijsbert van Doesburg (Netherlands)

Read more on the: Official Website

Lots and lots of people dream of a passive income. Making money by showing ads online can be a very good way to do that. Running a poker site is somewhere in between a passive income and really hard work. If you succeed you can make big bucks without working hard but it can be a lot of work to actually get there. We want to give you a few pointers in how to succeed as a Poker Affiliate.

 Forget about it

To start with you need to forget the idea of a passive income, save that for later. When you start out you need to work hard, really hard. There are thousands of sites telling people everything they need to know about poker, there are thousands of forums and blogs dedicated to poker. If you want your site to take off you are going to need to spend lots and lots of hours writing good content and promoting your site.

 Getting started – setting up a poker site

First of all, you need a site. There are a few affiliates that make it without sites but you can count them on your indexfinger. You need to build a good site, with real quality content. The usual stuff about how you play Texas Hold’em just won’t do. You need a way to attract visitors, you need to offer something. There are lots of things you need to think about when you start a poker site and we’ll look in to a few of them.

 You need to decide if you want to target the US market. This decision is not as easy as it looks. The US market is the biggest market for online poker and if you manage to hit it off there you’re made of money but there are two problems. The competition is killing, it’s extremely hard to launch a poker site targeting US or in English in general. The other problem is that Online Poker is banned in the US. Most poker rooms don’t accept players from the US so affiliate deals might be a bit scarce. There is always the off-chance that if you go to the US they’ll want to arrest you if you promote online poker.

 Another thing to think about is whether you want to offer rakeback or not. Rakeback is a good way to attract the really good players and with revenue share and good players you can make a lot of money. The problem with rakeback is that most networks has put a stop to rakeback. The reason is that it’s not really profitable for the poker rooms to hand out rakeback.

 Next step - Promoting your site

There are of course a lot of ways to promote a site, no matter if it’s a poker site or any generic site. Search engines are usually a good way to start promoting but when it comes to poker sites you are somewhat limited. Google for example does not accept advertising for poker sites. You just can’t get those adwords if you deal in poker. You can of course turn your face to SEO to hit it in the organic results but lots and lots of good search engine optimizers work with poker sites, the competition is massive. Ordinary banner ads can be a start but in the long run it’s very hard to get profit from buying traffic like that and try to sell it to a poker room in the other end. The advise here is to get creative, do whatever is necessary to get people to start noticing your site. You can start competitions, arrange live tournaments or you can try to convince your buddies to walk around in your branded t-shirts.

 One of the best ways to attract visitors is to offer something someone else offers. Give everyone that signs up on one of your poker deals a free pizza or visit every one of them. You can even try and give your visitors an experience they didn’t expect, try setting the world record in most burgers eaten during a single poker tournament. The key here is to get creative.

It takes time to attract visitors. If you don’t hit it off in the first 6 months you need to give it 6 or 12 more. Keep up your advertising, force your friends to keep the t-shirts on for at least 6 months before you decide it didn’t work. As they say advertising is 10% creativity and 90% sweat.

 Making money – Get good deals

You have probably seen most of the offers the poker rooms give to future affiliates, you’ve been checking out the deals and think they look pretty slick. $60 for a player signing up and depositing looks good but it’s not. Don’t fall for the standard deals the poker rooms offer to anyone. Talk to their affiliate manager and get a better deal. There is quite a lot of room for improvement on a $60 deal, I’d even stretch and say that if you sign up for that one they are making a fool out of you. I wouldn’t send a player anywhere for less than $140 and that’s when I’m feeling really nice.

 One way of forcing the affiliate managers to give you that extra cash is to make them come to you. I they find you in Google they’ll be prepared to give you more money than if you mail them and tell them you want a deal. See if you can get a few articles hitting the search results on a few of the less competitive keywords and then just sit back and wait for them to send mails and ask you if they can give you free money.

 Revenue share or CPA

Most of the poker rooms offer revenue share or CPA. This is no easy decision. CPA will give you the money as soon as the player deposits. Revenue share will give you a percentage of all the profits from the player in the future. If you have really good players, revenue share is the key but if you have average or bad players; go with CPA. If you don’t know if you have good players you usually don’t, go with CPA.

 That’s all for now, hope you enjoyed the guide and I wish you good luck with your future affiliate business.

Are you a rotten player? Don’t ever manage to win a tournament? Played all the freerolls and every sit and go and still not a single victory? We’ve got a strategy for you.

Finding a good poker strategy is hard work and takes long time. You need to get yourself tuned with the game and adapt the strategies you read about to your own personal way. Copying good players might be a good way, but it will take a lot of time. You need to get their strategy to match your style to get it to work, and you need to play lots and lots of hands.

We’ve got a strategy that works with brute force instead of skill, you hardly need any practice and it’s actually decent. It’s not a good strategy but it can be good enough, at the beginner tables at least. It’s actually a strategy from a very crude No Limit Texas Hold’em Bot. It was never a very good bot but it didn’t loose too much money, meaning that it could play for the first deposit bonuses. How did it work then?

It’s pretty easy but works only sit and go’s, maybe in freerolls as well as you don’t have anything to lose. The important thing here is that it works worse the bigger the tournament. Another important thing is that if you happen to run in to a good or at least above average player, it’s not the best of poker strategies. Play on the small buy in sit and go’s on a poker site with lots of fish. As soon as you get a decent hand, go All in. Keep it up, every time you get a decent hand, go All in. Don’t stop and try to play smart, just go All in, every time a hand shows up. You’ll look like a moron, people will say you you play like an idiot and that you don’t have any skills. They’ll tell you that you just got lucky every time you win a hand. All those are true, you are playing like a moron and you get lucky every time you win a hand.

This is actually a decent strategy because you force the play. You make it more about luck than about skill because there is no way to kick you out of the hand by raising. There is no way to bluff because if you have a good hand you’ll go all in, no matter the pot or the previous bets. There is no way for the limpers to see a flop because they need a hand they are prepared to go all in with f they are playing against you. You are playing like a moron but like a very calculated moron. True, this strategy will not win every sit and go for you but tell me the poker players that win every sit and go. It should win more like every fourth or every third if you are a bit lucky, it’s actually a working sit and go strategy.

What starting hands should you play then? You should play all pairs that are at least better than sevens. You should play Ace with almost any kicker. You should play Jack-Ten and better. You can of course play this a bit tighter but this should be a valid poker strategy for idiots. Give it a try.     

A 22 year old student from Canada named Glen Chorny has made himself famous, at least for this year, and he has made himself 2 million euros as well. Glen Chorny came to the European Poker Tour from a satellite on Pokerstars. The Canadian economy student managed to beat the Hungarian Denes Kalo heads up with A5 vs KQ. Chorny could leave the beautiful Monte Carlo with a little more money then he came and he’ll need those economy studies in a completely different way today.

Part I, Part II, Part III

Feed your brain and watch it grow.

Who wouldn’t like to have a bigger brain for poker? Think of all the strategy you could learn, how quickly you could calculate odds and make devious plans to conquer pots all around! While we do not promise a 50% increase in brain mass, we can point you to some foods that will help your brain repair itself and even grow.

Unless you live under a rock (or chained to three flat screens and 20 single table tourneys, which is quite similar) you must have heard talk of “essential fatty acids” or “Omega 3” oils. This is not astronaut’s food, nor a new invention to make you buy more supplements. These nutrients are old as the hills, and they can be your best friends at the poker table, since eating enough of those will make your brain stronger, healthier, and maybe even bigger.

Essential fatty acids are not “essential” in the sense that oxygen is – they are called “essential” because you have to get them from your food, since the body cannot synthesize them. Hence these are foods you cannot omit altogether, because there is no other way you can get the fatty acids. This is what is so “essential” about them. Is all clear now? OK, so what are they and where do we find them?

The most important fatty acids are the famous Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids (i.e. oils), which are all over the news and talk shows these days because of their cholesterol-reducing powers. But reduced cholesterol is only a secondary benefit – what we are really interested in is poker, right? Well, consider this: brain tissue is composed of fat, and not just any fat but – you guessed it – essential fatty acids: Omega 3 and Omega 6 and something called DHA which we will get to in a minute. EFAs are the main components of brain tissue – the blocks out of which your brain is built.

This is a two-pronged issue: on the one hand, the more of these acids you get, the more building material your brain will have available to repair itself and grow. On the other, if you do not eat enough of these substances (and remember they are “essential” because you have to eat them to get them) then your brain will have to resort to lower quality fats to rebuild itself, which will result literally in a lower-quality brain: decreased memory, lower attention span, reduced analytic capabilities. The horror!

So where are these fats and how soon can you start eating them by the bushel? Omega 6 is easy to find and ingest, as it is present in vegetable oils (such as sunflower, corn and sesame) and cereals; go for whole grain versions whenever possible for extra nutrition. Omega 3 is abundant in oily fish such as salmon, tuna and herring (is that perhaps why Scandinavians are so good at the tables? All those pickled herrings and smoked salmon?) and doctors recommend at least 2 servings per week to cover your brain’s basic needs – however, if you want increased mental powers for those WSOP satellites we recommend you aim for 4 servings of at least 4 ounces each per week. Indulge in lox bagels, or enjoy a meaty tuna steak with a side of wilted spinach or chard for a super powerful brain. Vegetarians need not despair: flaxseed is an excellent source of Omega 3, and walnuts, spinach, eggs and algae are also very high in EFAs. A spinach omelette should be just the thing to eat before a big tourney, and adding walnuts to your cereal or salads on a daily basis will not just make them tastier but also increase your brainpower.

And now let’s talk about DHA, also known as docosahexaenoic acid. DHA is one of the main components of brain tissues, and therefore an important part of any poker player’s diet. The good news are that DHA is not an essential acid, meaning that your body can synthesize it if you get enough Omegas. The better news are that you can also ingest DHA ready made, making it easy for your brain to get all it needs to perform at top capacity. Like the essential fatty acids, DHA can also be found in coldwater fish and seafood, so try to make those a part of your diet and eat them a few times a week Vegetarians are well advised to stock up on flaxseed, soy and canola oil and eating plenty of algae – sushi and miso soup should be a quite tasty way of getting your EFA fix. Daniel Negreanu is a vegan, and look how well he fares!

So go on, order the shrimp kabob or the lobster and tell yourself “this is good for my brain!” You can almost justify it as an inversion to increase your poker ROI. For those still on lower stakes, start off a successful poker career by eating sardines on whole-wheat toast and adding anchovies to your pizza – the lobster will not be far off. Vegetarian grinders could do worse than stock up on trailer mix full of walnuts, brazil nuts and pumpkin seed to snack on while playing, and a fancy meal of wilted chard of collard greens with blue cheese is an excellent way to get EFAs into the system. Vegetarians and meat eaters alike will probably enjoy snacks of guacamole and baked tortillas, knowing that avocados are not just delicious but also make you smarter.

If you stock your pantry with the right foods, and include them regularly in your diet, you will be doing yourself a favor in more than one way: EFAs will help lower your cholesterol levels, keep your brain healthy and solid, and increase your mental capabilities for better poker results!

And for those who read the previous article and were wondering about “the miracle nutrients that will make you smarter, healthier, and more attractive;” what can be more attractive than being a smart, powerful, winning player?

Cheating in gambling isn’t the best of ideas, and when it comes to cheating in professional poker it is down right damn risky. That doesn’t change the fact that it does happen. And it isn’t always that easy settling what is cheating and what is not. After all, poker is a game that is partially based on dishonesty and bluffing. We are trying to create the illusion of disappointment when looking at our Royal Straight Flush, in order to make the other player bet higher. In the same way we act confident however cold cards we are holding.

I don’t suggest cheating – on the contrary I recommend strongly against it. But to be able to spot cheaters, and just for the fun of the observation, let’s take a look at how poker cheating can be performed.

It is generally much easier to cheat when you have a partner in crime. If you are two that are playing unfair, then one of you deal good cards to the other and then the pot is split between you.

Note that there are a few different kinds of cheating, where “soft play” is the mild one whereas so called “sandwiching” is a bit worse. “Soft play” is just to be nicer to one of the other players and not betting against him or her. This can even happen when it is not deliberately, like if your spouse or sibling is at the table. However, that is not allowed in professional poker in some places in the U.S for example.

“Sandwiching” is when two players at each side of the table take turns raising the pot. If you get a winning hand and manage to signal that to your co-player, then the two of you can start to bid over each other and make the other players do likewise.  

This brings us to the signalling systems that cheating poker players are developing. To use signals is probably the most effective way of cheating, but also one of the most dangerous ones if you have attentive players at the table. A signal for a certain card or a certain combination of cards could have almost any shape. It could be a word, a gesture, a frown or a tap. The only real requirement is that it is possible to do it over and over again without anyone else taking notice, which makes a certain sentence, melody or dramatic move too obvious.

You can be more than two to cheat, but at this point it is starting to get highly immoral. If you really want to scam someone, the fastest way would be to collaborate with all the other players at the table but one. It would naturally not be as profitable as cheating alone or in a pair, but it would work gruesomely well as, say, revenge.

The most famous, or infamous, ways to cheat is to fiddle with the cards. This calls for some practise that definitely should be performed in solitude. There are different kinds of trick to be pulled, all of which goes under the name “sleight of hand”. A sleight of hand could be dealing from the bottom of the deck, cutting it in a certain way or hiding cards. 

Regardless of who your fellow players are, you don’t want to get caught cheating. But if you do, remember the old saying:

Denial is, at all times, bliss.

After the controversial smoking ban law was put into effect this year, Enghien-les-Bains, the first french casino, shows a serious fall of its sales turnover since the beginning of the year. Its financial loss represents already 1,5 million euros.

In order to restitue it’s revenue, the casino issued a complaint to the Higher Comission of Gaming in order to get new tables of Hold’em poker and slot machines.

Concerning the question of tobacco near the players, some see this application like a relief. Nevertheless, the legislatioin is very unpopular among players, and the majority disaproves this law. Apparently, tobacco brings a better stimulation to the play and even, some players claim, it helps them stay awake. Dissatisfaction regarding the ban are numerous and increasing.

A woman even suggests installing machines under the open air. Another player explains how this ban has made him enjoy much more the online action at his favorite online poker site- Pokerloco.com.

Due to this restrictioin, more and more casinos in France are being emptied. Would this be their end and a new era for online poker ?

We leave it up to you to answer…

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Guest Columnist - Francois Samuel

The World Series of Poker is the biggest poker competition in the world, or at least the most prestigious poker tournament there is. Winning WSOP is the same as placing you permanently on the poker map among the great players of the world. Other players that have won the main event are Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar and Phil Hellmuth. These of course being players everyone recognize.

A big change to the poker society and to WSOP in particular came in 2003 when something big took place. This was the first time someone that came from an online satellite won the main event. The proud winner of 2003 years main event was Chris Moneymaker who had qualified from a $39 satellite online.

Lots of poker players didn’t want to admit that the online players had the talent but the main event of WSOP in 2003 changed it forever. In 2004 the “Moneymaker effect” had it’s way and the participants in the World Series of Poker Main Event increased from 839 participants to 2 576 in 2004. In 2006 the same number had climbed all the way to 8 773, some claim that better media cover has a part in the increase but it’s not called the “Moneymaker effect” for nothing. There is no question that online poker changed the WSOP forever.

Today most poker rooms offer some sort of WSOP Satellite where participants can win the entrance to the most prestigious poker tournament in the world. The number of players playing the satellites is incredible and the competition is getting harder and harder every year in the main event. Most WSOP satellites starts with a small qualifier to the real satellite and in most cases even more steps between the first qualifier and the actual World Series of Poker main event.

Most of us have tried our skills in at least one or two qualifiers but as you might guess, most players don’t make it to the main event final table, most of course does not even make it to the qualifier final table. Even less of us have done with Chris Moneymaker did but in 2004 the year after Moneymaker won the main event Greg Raymer, another satellite player did it again. Raymer and Moneymaker managed to add a lot of credit to the online poker community by showing what the community could produce at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main event.

Ongame Ntwork haven’t allowed Rakeback for their partners for quite a long period. Many of the partners have had repetitive bonuses of different kinds though and these have been available on Rakeback sites. For legal reasons Ongame and the owner Bwin disagrees with this and are now making the rules a bit tougher. From now on Ongame partner aren’t allowed to be mentioned on Rakebacks sites. The question is how the poker rooms can handle this. They can of course stop paying CPA to the sites offering rakeback but if someone wanted to make trouble for a site in the Ongame Network they can just start a rakeback site and link to the site in question. It would be especially funny if it was to one of Ongames own sites, how will they handle that? Will they kick Pokerroom out of the network?