entertainment - "poker"

then had a long conversation with Lee Childs and Nick Brancato, two WPT boot camp instructors and respected poker professionals. Lee went deep in last year's Main Event, finishing in 7th place. We talked about a topic near and dear to all of us... teaching people to play poker. Lee was telling me about his new website and how he'd been spending the majority of his time lately teaching people to play poker. Lee plans on playing five to ten events while he is here. The thing that impressed me about Lee was that as I was leaving to get some work done he called out to me by my name (we'd just met) and gave me his card and told me to keep in touch. read more in pokerworks.com

And then there were three. three bracelets awarded in a single day's play at the Rio. The 2008 World Series of poker on Tuesday showcased the final tables of three different events, spanning the spectrum of the game, while the one...

It was another day of six events running concurrently at the World Series of poker, though start times were staggered as usual. The day started with a PLO tournament, which drew a smaller than expected crowd, and ended with a $2K LHE event that brought every limit player from miles around. In the middle, the 2-7 Lowball played down to its final table while three tournaments - the shootout, Omaha, and ladies events - played to determine the bracelet winners. read more in pokerworks.com

Surf the web for poker sites long enough and you'll find plenty of them that feature some type of leaderboard to keep track of who's doing well. The poker rooms that record this information may even reward those at the top of the boards by giving either a monthly cash prize and/or a yearly prize. But very few sites out there keep as detailed of leaderboards as Duplicate poker does. read more in pokerworks.com

After 16 completed events in the 2008 WSOP poker professionals seem determined to re-claim their territory in the winners circule. Since Chris Moneymaker took down the No Limit Championship in 2003 fields have only gotten larger and larger in each event. It was good for poker then and it still is now. However, with larger fields, it becomes tougher for even the most skilled professional player to make the final table and win the event. Popular professional players like Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan each had to re-calibrate their game to adjust to the larger fields and ultimately the increased luck factor to optimize their chances of winning a tournament. Since then Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson each have won bracelets in the 2005 WSOP. Phil Hellmuth won a bracelet last year at the 2007 WSOP. read more

With notable players like Ralph Perry, Scott Clements, and Ted Forrest at the final table, no one probably gave 25 year old Andrew Brown much of a chance of winning. Brown, however, showed no fear and took on all comers with fearless aggression and well timed raises. Andrew Brown is the winner of the 2008 World Series of poker $2,000 Limit Omaha High Low Split event and takes home $226,483 for his victory. Congratulations Andrew! read more in pokerworks.com

Poker players often develop a reputation of a certain style of play, and often that is as a direct result of laying a certain way. This is certainly true for the Great Dane.

I look at tournaments as a numbers game. There is a lot of luck involved. I don't care how good you are. If you pick up K-K and run into A-A, most of the time you're going to try and get all your chips in pre-flop and go broke. Bad beats are so much more common in tournament poker as well. There's a lot of shoving all-in late in tournaments. 'Push and pray.' read more in pokerworks.com

Today is the lucky thirteenth day of the 2008 World Series of poker, and there will be plenty of players hoping a little of that luck will rub off on them as they take their seats to continue, start, or finish an event. One new event this year is a cheaper version of the Big One (in terms of buy in), a $2,500 HORSE. HORSE, as you may not know, stands for Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Stud, and Omaha Eight or better. This is a round robin style game that really puts the brain to work, calling upon constantly shifting strategies; or, if not constantly, then as often as the levels change.

The latest champ at the 2008 World Series of poker is Duncan Bell, who rung out the competition in the $2,500 buy in No Limit Holdem event, Event #13. A prize pool of over three million was up for grabs, thanks to the nearly 1,400 players who participated. Ninety nine place paid, but none more than place number one, taken by Bell...