Hi guys

Some great news from Carbon Poker - they've just launched a free poker odds calculator which works alongside the Carbon Poker software.

It gives you really helpful information such as pot odds, outs and probabilities of winning the hand, real time opponent statistics and a new hand replayer. This is an incredibly useful piece of software and is a great free alternative to the likes of Holdem Manager and Poker Office.

Also they've just announced a reload promotion for between now and April 20 - if you make a further deposit (a 'reload'), you can grab a 75% bonus up to a maximum of $375 - just use bonus code APR75 when you make your deposit.

Interested? Read out review of Carbon Poker or play now.

Good luck and enjoy the odds calculator!

World Series of Poker

 The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has its roots in the late 1940s. As the story goes, a high stakes gambler by the name of Nicholas “Nick the Greek” Dandolos approached the owner of Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel and Casino with an idea to hold a marathon poker match up between himself and another great player of the time, Johnny Moss. Benny Binion agreed to allow his hotel and casino to be the host for the event and as the Moss and Dandolos’s poker marathon lasted for approximately five months, Binion noticed that his casino business prospered as a result of the large influx of people that had come to watch the high stakes poker marathon. Moss defeated Dandolos in the event but the beginnings of the World Series of Poker had begun.

Evolution of a Tournament

In 1970, Benny Binion decided to host another high stakes tournament similar to the one played by Moss and Dandolos. The tournament was entitled the World Series of Poker and after many hand of poker had been played the winner was decided by a vote amongst the players. Johnny Moss once again emerged victorious and claimed the title of WSOP Champion. The 1971 tournament saw a change in format. Gone was the voting process by which the 1970 winner was determined. In its place was an elimination style format in which the last player standing won the title.

 The early years saw small playing fields with tournaments generally having no more than 20 players. However, in the 1980s the amount of entries into the World Series of Poker grew dramatically. In 1987, there were 2,141 entries into the WSOP and in the year 2002 there were 7,595 participants. As the number of players increased, so did the prize money.

 In 2002, the prize money for the WSOP totaled $19,599,230, a sharp increase from the $7,769,000 that was handed out during the 1992 WSOP. The number of events also increased for the WSOP. In 1988 there were 12 events but in 2004 there were 33 events in all. Benny Binion only saw the beginnings of the growth of his tournament as he passed away in 1989, but the WSOP events continued to grow as did the global poker economy, with television giants such as ESPN making the decision to broadcast WSOP events.

 In 2010 7,319 players turned out to play in the main event that year, and there was no reason to think the attendance would be similar or even bigger the following year. Of course, that was until "Black Friday" took place on April 15th 2011, and I am sure you already know the backstory behind what happened. Due to this incident many poker players speculated the WSOP fields for some tournaments would suffer greatly as a result.

However, as it turned out, this was not the case at all. With US players really not being able to play online poker unless they moved abroad or wanted to play at smaller poker sites, it meant most professional tournament players were still up for the challenge of trying to take down the WSOP ME.

In 2011 6,856 players registered to play in the $10k buy-in event, and Pius Heinz won $8.7 million and became the first German player to claim the World Series of Poker title.

What will the attendance be like in 2012? A lot of people expected numbers to drop in a big way in 2011 and that didn’t happen Things still haven’t changed much regarding online poker in the U.S. but a lot of the tourney players still have the poker bug and would be just as motivated to play in the most prestigious live poker tournament. With many foreign players also taking part in the tournament, it really is a global event today, and as a result I think you can expect similar numbers to last year and some of the best tournament players in the world turning out.

Some good news - Paddy Power have finally announced details of their hotly awaited "Paddy's Power Rewards" which sees a complete overhaul and huge improvements to their poker player loyalty program.

The main draw is they now have a player point store as well as cash credits, bonuses, freerolls and so on.

The great thing is, from now until May 2, they're offering double Power Points earning on real money poker, and also for new players you get 1,000 Power Points free just for joining the site.

Another new addition to the scheme is the concept of 'Milestone Prizes' - so for example if you get your first 30,000 Power Points you get a free hoodie - whereas if you earn 150,000 Points you'll earn yourself a very nice iPad 3, and so on.

Arguably with these new improvements Paddy Power Poker have one of the best reward schemes in the business - a great move all round.

>> Read our review of Paddy Power Poker or play now.

Good luck at the tables

I'm a big fan of Lock - not only are they a very classy USA friendly online poker site but they consistently have some ass-kicking promotions, for both new and existing players alike.

The Lock Lotto promotion is awesome - the basic premise is that there are three winners each day who can win anything from a hoodie to an iPad2.

Now on top of that they've added a monthly winner who can win their choice of a Ducatti superbike or a WSOP main event tournament buyin!

Every day you qualify (earning 1000,1500 or 3000 VIP Points per day) you get one entry into the major draw. So the more days you play, the more chances you have of winning that huge prize.

Some pretty awesome reasons to play poker on Lock, I'm sure you'll agree.

And if you're not already a member of Lock Poker, do remember that they have a huge $750 welcome bonus up for grabs for new players as well.

Good luck at the tables and in the Lock lotto!

Read our Lock Poker review

Hi guys

I have been a bit lax about updating this as I have been working on a new sports betting site, Winbetz.com which went live recently.

Anyway, as you'll probably have picked up, I'm quite a fan of the iPoker network, which is, aside from Party and Stars, the biggest network in the world and is growing by the day.

The big draw for the network is they're mostly offering $2000 welcome bonuses, and BetFred Poker is no exception. It's an awesome 100% deposit match that's not too difficult to clear, especially as they give you a very generous three months to do it in.

There's also a nice $75 refer a friend bonus and a great reward scheme.

Anyway, check out our review of BetFred Poker and see what you think!

Cheers

Andy

Hi guys

I hope the tables are treating you well. I believe today is 'the day' for Full Tilt Poker's much postponed court case so let's keep our fingers crossed for some kind of a positive outcome.

I thought I'd write today about the promotions going on over at Titan, as they're so good and there's so many of them!

I mentioned in my review of Titan Poker about the huge $2000 welcome bonus on offer which is obviously the main draw for players new to the site, along with the huge player traffic that the site and network (iPoker) attracts.

But there is also a ton of other promotions going on, both on an ongoing and ad-hoc basis at Titan, let's take a look -

Titan Poker invite a friend bonus

Pretty much as it says - you can earn up to $500 for each person you refer to Titan - as far as I know, this is the most generous player referral bonus on the market.

Weekend big tourneys

Some absolutely huge prize-pools being taken down each weekend - there's the $60k guaranteed on Fridays (2000 GMT), the $40k on Saturdays (1930 GMT) and of course the ever popular and massive $200k guaranteed freezout each and every Sunday (1800 GMT). Plenty to play for and well worth having an account on Titan even it's just for those huge games.

Irish Open 2012

This is a pretty big offline poker event that's kicking off soon, being held from April 6 - 9 this year in Dublin. The buy-in is €3500 and Titan have got a whole range of satellites and mega satellites happening including ongoing SNGs and daily satties.
The winner's prize package to the Irish Open includes the entry, five nights' accommodation and money for flights and spending. Awesome!

>> Start playing now

Titan Poker $10,000 Monthly Bonanza

On the last day of every money Titan is holding this huge tournament (the next one being on March 30 at 2030 GMT). You can either buy in to the game for 2000 Points, or qualify through a satellite freeroll.

>> Start playing now

There's plenty of other things going on besides this, if you're not already registered with Titan be sure to check them out today, you'll easily be able to see why this is the world's third largest poker room!

Good luck at the tables.

Hi guys

Well with an email out only the day before, we had the news over the weekend that Chili Poker was shutting up shop and merging with Poker770, another site on the iPoker network. Whilst there will be some benefits (bigger sites usually have better service, bigger freerolls and better ongoing promotions), it will be a shame to see the back of such innovations as Chili Connect.

Anyway, I've just written up a review of Poker 770.  Overall I've been really impressed - it was going to be good from the off as being on iPoker you've automatically got great levels of player traffic and good software. There's also the $2000 welcome bonus to sweeten things up.

Plus at the moment they're offering $7.70 free to new players just for signing up (remember this one isn't automatic and you'll need to email in ) which is a great way of trying things out.

Give it a go :)

Hi

Well True Poker, who are one of the few USA friendly online poker rooms going right now, just got a ton better with the introduction of the Elite player reward scheme.

As with most player schemes, the general idea is simple - you earn Player Points every time you play for real money on True Poker. The more poker you play, and the higher the stakes you play at, the more Points you earn.

BUT you also earn Benefit Points - these determine what your status is within the Elite scheme.

For example, for MTT and SNG play, 5,5 Benefit Points are earned for each $1 in tourney fee paid.
For cash games, the Points depend on the size of the pot/rake, but are awarded on the same amount so 5.5 Benefit Points for each $1 in rake collected.

There's a load of different levels of status in the scheme - Player, Rounder, Grinder, Veteran and Legend,

Each of these levels gives you progressively better and better benefits, from freerolls, bonuses, to access to a better player store. The more Points you earn therefore, the more you can expect to achieve in return.

So what can you get for your Points? Well there's two things - firstly an 'achievement reward' bonus, which starts at $10 for 750 BPs earned in a year. But the main draw is going to be the player reward store which launches soon, keep an eye out for that!

So basically they've revamped the scheme, made it simpler and more lucrative, and we can guarantee the new player store when it goes live is going to be simply awesome.

Good luck at the tables

Read our review of True Poker

or

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PKR are really kicking ass right now on the bonus front.

If you use bonus code BIGDEAL here's what you get for your first deposit:

• Free $5 cash added to your PKR account
• Free tourney tickets to the $5000 EXP Mini Primetime Super Deep Stack ($5.50 value) and $10k GTD Mini Masters ($5.50 value)
• 100% bonus up to $250
• 5,000 free PKR Points to spend on premium freerolls or your avatar
• Entry to $2500 depositors freeroll

If that's not a damn good value welcome to a new player I don't know what is!

Read our review of PKR Poker or..

Hi guys

A quick update for you from Celeb Poker - they are changing from 1 March to a weighted contribution method of calculating points earning from the rake.

What this means is when you play and earn points, the points are earned based on the rake AND your contribution to the pot.

This is generally considered the fairest way of calculating rake and the points awarded. Basically means the more money you have in the pot the more points you will earn versus someone with a smaller amount in.

There is still the $2000 welcome bonus going on as well, which makes it one of the best poker bonuses available at the moment

Read our review of Celeb Poker