Daniel Negreanu is having a good WSOP 2008. He has four cashes, including two final tables and his fourth WSOP bracelet. He’s made over $375,000 so far, and there are lots of events left. It appears that Kid Poker is back in the saddle again, making final tables and cashing big checks.
Many people think that Daniel Negreanu has been in a slump, but that’s not true. In 2004 his tournament results were insane. He won everywhere and looked like he would be the dominant force in the game. But that doesn’t happen in poker.
Daniel has still been winning his share of checks since 2004. He won over $700,000 in 2007, nearly $2M in 2006 and $460,000 in 2005. His skill level keeps him winning every year but when the cards are running for him as well, he’s unstoppable. Kid Poker is not back; he’s just on a roll again. He was never away.
Polaris 2, a poker playing machine, is plugged in and ready to go heads-up against some of the best poker pros in the world. Developed by the University of Alberta’s Computer Poker Research Group, Polaris is a series of computer programs created to beat amateur and pros alike. The new poker machine will be set up at this year’s Gaming Life Expo in Las Vegas this July.
The names of the poker pros enlisted to participate in this Man vs. Machine poker tournament have not yet been released, but last year’s participants included Phil Laak and Ali Eslami. Both pros managed to beat Polaris, but not by much.
“Against the current AI in Polaris 2, the average poker player would be completely dominated,” said Bryce Paradis, lead poker coach with Stoxpoker.com, the team representing Polaris. “The Polaris 2 team has made incredible improvements since the match last year. The most powerful change is that the AI will now learn from and adapt to its opponents’ play as the match progresses. This year’s Man vs. Machine match is going to push our team to their limit.”
The Man vs. Machine match is set to take place on July 3-6th at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Some think that the Ladies event at the WSOP has some kind of sexist stigma attached to it. Personally, I don’t know what’s wrong with Togel Hongkong women having their own event. Yes, there are women that are as good as men at poker, and yes, many of the top female players don’t play in the Ladies event because there’s usually a bigger tournament going on at the same time.
But the Ladies event continues to serve its original purpose – to increase female interest in poker. The fact that the best female players don’t play in it means nothing; it’s a choice they make. It gives new female players a chance to win a bracelet without having to compete against the best players in the world, male or female. When there are as many female poker players as male players, then maybe we could think about getting rid of it. Until then it should be played.
Just as it appeared that the Absolute Poker scandal was going to fade away, UltimateBet has admitted that their security has been breached by an employee using a super account; one where they were able to view opponent’s cards. That’s two breaches that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has allowed to occur in eight months. This latest breach could be in excess of a million dollars once all hand histories are studied.
The Gaming Commission is trying to sweep this under the rug, but something must be done before public opinion swells that online poker is unsafe to play. How was this permitted to happen again? Is the Kahnawake Gaming Commission going to take steps beyond the fines it issued last time this happened?
That move was shady enough, let alone doing it twice. If the Commission gives another $500K fine this time, someone will have made a cool $500k profit.
Re-buy tournaments can be a great deal for your buy-in dollar. With players re-buying and adding to the prize pool, the ratio of buy-in to prize pool will be better than a regular tournament. These tournaments play a little differently, especially in the early going. Play is aggressive as players try to double up and build a chip stack. They know they can buy-in again, so they throw caution to the wind.
You should bring at least three-buy-ins with you when you play one of these tournaments. A good trick is to stay out of the action until you’ve been in the big blind once. As soon as that hand is over you can re-buy, giving you an instant chip lead and twice as any chips as the other players (minus the big blind of course). And don’t be shy about raising big pairs pre-flop; you’ll get action on them.
