Cake Poker Bonus

Get a piece of the summer action. Cake Poker is now serving up $12,000 World Poker Tour prize packages to the North American Poker Championships, playing October 10th to 16th in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

Earn your seat today via cash or Gold Chip satellites to the first WPT direct qualifier playing Sunday, July 20th at 8 PM ET ($200 + $15).

New Depositors gain entry into a $500 Freeroll

Beginning at 12pm EST on June 22nd, 2008, Holdem Poker Chat will be running a 8 hour Mini Poker Marathon!

This will consist of both freerolls and money-added buyins. Tournaments will occur every hour, on the hour.

We will begin on the #1 online poker site, PokerStars, beginning with a $100 freeroll and ending with a $10 buyin on Cake Poker, with $100 added to the prize pool. Along the way, we will stop at FullTilt, and Reefer Poker! All and all, it will be a wonderful journey, with $800 added to the prize pools!

The Top 20 in each freeroll and the Top 30 in each buyin will receive points.

The leaderboard will consist of $250 up for grabs over the top 5 places.

More details

By Tony Guerrera

The Poker Table is No Place for Hope or Faith

Situation 1: Joe Schmoe is playing in a fullhanded no-limit hold’em ring game. Action folds to Joe, and he raises with A9 from the cutoff. The button and the blinds call, and the flop is AA9. The blinds check to Joe, and he makes a pot-sized bet fueled by two hopes: 1.) One of his opponents has the case ace and will go over the top. 2.) An opponent with a pocket pair will call on the flop 3.) An opponent with a flush draw will call or semibluff All three of Joe’s opponents dash Joe’s hopes and quickly fold.

Situation 2: Joe Schmoe is playing shorthanded no-limit hold’em. In 100 hands of play there’s only been one reraise preflop. Joe raised from the button, the small blind reraised, and Joe folded. This happened around hand #50 of Joe’s session.

During hands #101 and #102, Joe (who has been playing somewhat aggressively but far from manically) opens from the button and the cutoff with raises. Both times, the same player reraises. After not doing much for 8 hands, Joe opens for a raise with JJ. Joe is reraised again this time by a different player who has never reraised preflop. Being that this is the third time in the span of about 10 hands that he’s been reraised preflop, Joe has faith in his JJ, goes over the top, and ends up losing 100 big blinds versus his opponent’s AA.

Hope and faith adversely affect our poker playing. In situation #1, Joe needs to think about his opponents. Instead of betting pot and hoping, he should think realistically about his opponents’ distributions. In many but not all games, a half-pot bet (or even something slightly less) will be ideal. A pot-sized bet might actually force a player with the case ace out of the pot if he has a bad kicker to accompany it. And anyone who mucks an ace with a bad kicker here will do the same with a pocket pair. Instead of betting big and hoping for a monster confrontation, Joe should bet smaller and get value from his hand.

In situation #2, a lot of things happen within a short span of time, and Joe makes a common mistake. At a table where no preflop reraising is happening, the reality of the game is that players are waiting for cards. The player who reraised Joe twice in a row probably had big hands both times. It could be possible that the different player who reraises him the third time observed Joe’s reaction to the prior two reraises, but the texture of the table dictates that Joe probably ran into another big hand. If preflop reraises begins happening regularly on the order of once every two orbits or so Joe can reason that the dynamic of the game has changed. But by letting faith replace reason with a hand like JJ and a random short spurt of events, Joe got himself into a lot of trouble.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers and coauthor of Killer Poker Shorthanded (with John Vorhaus). Visit him at www.killerev.com.

EASTER Reload Bonus WeekendGet a piece of the long weekend action with a 25% EASTER reload bonus. Use the EASTER deposit code now through Sunday and enjoy a bonus of up to $100.**

Hef’s Mansion, Sunshine, LA, and a Celebrity Poker Tournament in Beverly Hills. Sound good? Jump in a satellite under the Events tab today to earn a seat in the first Hef’s Mansion qualifier playing Thursday, March 27th. You could find yourself among Hef’s girls in a Celebrity Poker Tournament May 17th, 2008 in California!

W’SOP? Cake Poker will tell you w’sop. It’s the World Series of Poker* at CakePoker. Earn your poker street cred by winning your way to the world’s largest poker event.

A place where one hand can turn you in to a multi millionaire. Where it’s acceptable for men to wear bracelets. Where you may get the chance to play heads up with Jesus. And its coming early this year. Join Team Cake in Vegas to take on the world.

The G-Spot: Pleasure Your Poker Playing Profits

By By Tony Guerrera

Boost Your Single Table Tournament Results

Online poker has popularized the single table tournament (STT). STT’s are a very unique form of poker. If you’re using multitable tournament strategies to navigate through STTs, you’re costing yourself some serious money. This article talks about handling 9-10 player STTs where 1st pays 50 per cent, 2nd pays 30 per cent, and 3rd pays 20 per cent.

I write a bit about being capable of breaking away from straightforward tight-aggressive play. But when it comes to the early stages of single table tournaments, tight is right. In early position, you should play pretty much nothing. AA-KK and AK is about on target. If your table is really loose passive, you can limp with any pocket pair. And if your postflop play is superb, you can toss AQ into the early position mix.

In late position, you can come in with a slightly wider mix in unraised pots (hands like AJ, KQ and KJ). But in raised pots, keep it simple and stay really tight. When you do enter a pot with an unpaired hand like AK, either limp or raise small for value. If you raise preflop and get only one opponent, continuation betting is a play you shouldn’t be excited about.

Play hands that play themselves post-flop,  you want to be able to play confidently for stacks if you hit postflop because the starting stacks in STTs don’t give you much room for probe bets.

Once the blinds have increased, it’s jam or fold time. And now, tight is far from right. especially when it comes to aggressing on the bubble. When you have 4-8 big blinds, you have opponents who’ll only call you with something like AA-55, AK-A9, and you’re in the cutoff or later, push all-in no matter what two cards you have when you’re first to enter the pot. Your opponents will fold a huge percentage of the time, and you’ll never be a prohibitive underdog the times that you’re called (32o wins 24% of the time against AA-55, AK-A9). When the bubble has burst, and opponents widen their calling distributions, you’ll need to tighten up a tad, but hyper-aggressive shoving will still be par for the course when you have 4-8 big blinds.

When it comes to calling all-ins, you should typically be somewhat tight because you can always fall back on your jamming edge. And with the 50/30/20 payout, survival and just getting in the money is important. But you shouldn’t take it to the extreme where you’re only calling all-ins with super-premium hands. With the size of the blinds, you should be willing to get your chips in whenever your hand is a little bit better than 50% against a jammer’s distribution.

Times may exist where you can profitably stray from the generic battle plan outlined here. But generally, "Tight and snug early; loose-aggressive late" is the successful STTer’s creed.

Tony Guerrera is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers and coauthor of Killer Poker Shorthanded (with John Vorhaus). Visit him at www.killerev.com.

Visit Holdem Poker Forums for more in depth poker strategy and the best USA poker sites.

Professional poker players are turning more towards online poker websites than ever before. Most of them have chosen it as it is convenient in all senses. From the calm environment of their home, these websites can be accessed. Although there are numerous and more experienced players participating in a game apart from them, still there is no noise acting as a distraction. Again, the participating and betting fees are also reasonable along with greater number of promotions. To fulfill their desires, the count of online poker sites has been increasing on a regular basis.

However, even professionals find it difficult in selecting a poker website from this galore of options that they have to confront in the modern world. In the initial stages, they used to opt on the basis of the promotions or the number of games that were provided. The current scenario sees every poker site providing them with similar promotions. Most of the sites use such options for disguising their drawbacks. Again, they might be waiting to trick you in loosing a large sum through these promotions.

Such situations are very difficult to be avoided, if you have little knowledge in knowing what are the criteria required for an online casino to be adequate. You should always be prepared to take outside aid in the form of online forums for finding perfect online casinos. Holdempokerchat.com gives you the scope of choosing the best poker website from a huge lot. It has poker forums from where you can find views of both experts and other fellow players on different poker websites presently listed on the web.

Holdempokerchat.com is more recognized for the information on Texas Holdem Poker events on the web. Along with reviews on such events taking place around the globe, this website also allows you to have the best tips for being successful in the game. Again, you can find reviews on casinos having them as their main attractions. So if you are a lover of Hold Em Poker games, find the list of the best websites having the game at Holdempokerchat.com.

Apart from Holdem Poker games, it also provides a calendar displaying the time of poker events taking place throughout the year. It also has a list of all the recognized USA poker sites on the web. Henceforth, this website can give you a better chance of using your monitory resources and poker skills for getting the maximum outcome.

So stop wasting your time and get connected to the best online poker websites like ReeferPoker.com through holdempokerchat.com.

Cake Poker is having holiday Cake giveaways from December 22nd through January 2nd.

We are also having a Cake Poker freeroll on our Poker Forums website. Along with Cake Poker, we are also running freerolls at Titan Poker, Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars. coming up next month we will have more tournaments at the sites mentioned as well as some others like PokerKings.

Be sure to stop by and join us for great poker.

RELOAD BONUS WEEKEND 25% BONUS

Taste the rewards. Use the EASYCAKE deposit code this weekend to receive a 25% bonus on your deposit, to a maximum of $100*. Offer valid Saturday September 1st through Monday September 3rd.

This weekend CakePoker is home to Guaranteed tournaments, Cake Reward events and your last shot at a WPT $12,000 Turks & Caicos Poker Classic prize package! Get your Cake on to get a piece of our action:

CakePoker Weekend Tournament Highlights:

$10,000 Guaranteed Gold Chip tournament plays Saturday at 5 pm EST. Buy in for 50 Gold Chips to claim your share of the Cake.

$50,000 Guaranteed Cake Sunday at 8 pm EST. Satellites start at only $3.

$100,000 Guaranteed Cake satellites now running to the largest prize pool event yet! Win your seat early to the main event Sunday, September 9th at 5 pm EST.

WPT Turks & Caicos final qualifier plays Sunday at 5 pm EST. It’s your last shot at a $12,000 WPT Prize Pack including a main event seat, 7 all-inclusive nights at Club Med and cash to help get you there! Live event plays September 25-30th!

Start playing for Canadian Cake with new WPT Satellites to the
4th Annual North American Poker Championships in Niagara Falls, Canada!

It’s been a busy month at CakePoker and they’re bringing you more action than ever. The Sunday $50,000 Guaranteed event continues to offer great value and they’re building their way up to the first $100,000 R&A main event coming early September!

The Gold Card 500 Race is in its final days. Check your Gold Card status to see if you’ve qualified for our ‘winners only’ Gold Card 500 Final which sends the winner south, to the WPT Turks & Caicos Poker Classic main event.

$100,000 Guaranteed R&A
Satellites are now on the board for Cake’s largest prize pool to date. Win your seat today in a sit & go or multi table satellite or buy in directly for $50. The big event plays Sunday, September 9th at 8 pm EST.

$10,000 Freeroll
Free Cake! Go & get it. This weekend Cake will host a $10,000 Freeroll. Jump in the game Saturday, August 25th at 5 pm EST to win your share.

CakePoker on Tour
Don’t miss your chance to extend your summer with a poker trip to the sunny shores of the Caribbean, hotel, cash & WPT seat included. The final WPT Turks & Caicos qualifier plays Sunday, September 2nd at 5 pm EST.

$10,000 Gold Chip Giveaway
What’s your chip count? Gold chips that is. Saturday, September 1st at 5 pm EST, a 50 Gold Chip buy in will give you a shot at a $10,000 prize pool. Check your Gold Card stack under Cake Rewards while logged in to your CakePoker players account.

Canadian Cake
It could be the coolest stop on the World Poker Tour circuit (depending on the weather). Take your game to Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada with a $12,000 WPT North American Poker Championship prize pack, including a WPT Seat plus cash to help get you there. Satellites start Sunday, September 2nd.