We have decided to donate 100% of our monthly poker training membership revenues for all new memberships during the month of July, 2010, to victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. We will make the donation to Second Harvest Food Bank. We feel like this is the socially responsible thing for us to do. Many of our friends and family members live on the gulf coast, and they are going to face hardships for many years as a result of this accident. We believe our members will be glad to know that we are helping out a good cause, and it is a good opportunity for poker players to help out and get use of a valuable poker training service that many online poker players pay for anyway. We believe that we will be able to make a substantial contribution to a worthy cause, and help out our neighbors on the gulf coast.

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“Online gamblers are not necessarily losing a lot of money; they are just on there 14 hours a day to the detriment of their work and family life. Problem gambling is not just about the money. ”
- Keith Whyte, National Council on Problem Gambling

In our last two posts, we discussed the newly pending legislation in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and the huge boon it could be to the online poker industry. In this post, we will discuss the other side of the coin - the people and organizations who are against online poker and online gambling in general.

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“The proper role of the federal government is not that of a nanny, protecting citizens from any and every potential negative consequence of their actions. Although I personally believe gambling to be a dumb waste of money, American citizens should be just as free to spend their money playing online poker as they should be able to buy a used car, enter into a mortgage, or invest in a hedge fund. Risk is inherent in any economic activity, and it is not for the government to determine which risky behaviors Americans may or may not engage in.” - Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

In our last post, we discussed the newly pending legislation in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. In this post, we would like to discuss the lobbying activities of organizations interested in legalizing online poker in the U.S.

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“Americans ought to be free to do what they want with their own money” - Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass)

Congressman Frank summarizes the feelings of many Americans with his support of Internet gambling in the United States. He has been a staunch supporter of officially legalizing, regulating, and taxing Internet gambling, and he has recently received support from many very big power names in the worlds of gambling and politics. Over the next several posts, we are going to provide an update on the state of Internet gambling in the U.S., what attempts are being made in Congress to regulate and tax Internet gambling, what these efforts might mean to online poker, and what you can do to help out the cause.

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Over the past few years, many training sites have popped up online. We have taken the time to review all these sites, and compile a comprehensive list of sites that offer the best training materials for your buck.

We would like to emphasize that we have no connections with any of these sites and are not receiving anything in return from them. These are our honest opinions on these sites. The list is in no particular order, as different sites have different strengths.

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SPOILER ALERT:

These are some of my comments about the WSOP final table. The heads up part won’t be played until tomorrow night, and then it will be on ESPN on Tuesday. If you don’t want to know anything until you see it on TV, read no further.

Bring-Your-Own-Posse

The four month break gave everyone a chance to take some poker lessons. More than that, it gave them a chance to round up a posse. Several of the November Nine had large, very vocal cheering sections. Fights were even breaking out, and spectators were being ejected. I’m not making this up! But the rest of the audience – I mean everybody – was for Phil Ivey. Even when Ivey just took down the blinds, the crowd would roar with approval. But it wasn’t meant to be…

Phil Ivey

At one point Ivey lost a key coin flip to Joe Cada (who went on to make the final two). Then, there was a short break around 8PM, and upon the resumption of the game, Ivey went out on (I believe it was) the first hand. It was the dreaded AQ, but this time Ivey didn’t have it, he had AK. Darvin Moon had AQ. The crowd went wild, everybody was going absolutely crazy. Then, a queen came on the flop, and with no help on the turn or river…it was over. A lot of the crowd started to leave shortly after that. Phil Ivey takes home a lousy $1.4 million.  J

 Stamina

It’s one thing to talk about the stamina needed to win a major tournament. But the human body just isn’t meant to sit in a chair for 17 hours, with the cameras and lights and the knowledge that any misstep could cost you millions in real money. Playing until 5AM just gives a huge advantage to the younger players, or the players who just happen to be night owls. (Hey, I’m one of them, so I’m not complaining for my sake). Anyway, the winner should be determined by skill, not who can pop more no-doze. I suspect we might see a change next year, perhaps we’ll play down to 6, then to 2 the next day, and then play the heads up the following day. Either that, or just have a time limit – after 10 hours we call it a day and pick it up the next morning.

So what are we left with?

Joe Cada came from nearly being out, to doubling up time after time and now going into heads up play with $135 million chips. Darvin Moon started the day as the chip leader, and finished the day with almost exactly the same number of chips, roughly $60 million. He had some very strange plays along the way, and I can’t wait to see if they show these hands on ESPN to see what the heck he was holding. By the way, Cada is only 21 years old. If he wins he’ll claim the title of youngest World Champion ever (Peter Eastgate was 22). 

The following list is comprised of the casinos with the best live poker tournaments in the U.S., with high payouts. We don’t have any affiliation or kickback from any of these places, we just like playing at them. We tried to include a wide variety of destinations, so as not to limit you to one place. So, what are you waiting for – pack your bags and head to the some of the best gaming places in the USA. We have provided links to the tournament page for each of these casinos.

1. Commerce Casino (Commerce, CA) – Commerce is home to two cavernous poker rooms — a sprawling low-limit area and a high-limit room that hosts some of the biggest games on the west coast. They also host the L.A. poker classic.

2. Trump Taj Mahal (Atlantic City, NJ) - The Trump Taj Mahal has a massive poker room, with well over 80 tables. They have the most diverse selection of games & limits anywhere in Atlantic City. The link here is to their daily poker tournaments.

3. The Borgata (Atlantic City, NJ) – The new 85-table Borgata poker room is a completely different experience than the Trump Taj Mahal – it is like a Las Vegas poker room in New Jersey.
The Borgata hosts a $500,000 Deep Stacks tournament.

4. The Tropicana (Las Vegas, NV) - The Tropicana, or “trop” to its regulars, is another super poker room on the boardwalk. It’s really well-run and they have a great variety of games at their 43 tables, including their unique “pink chip” game, which uses special $2.50 pink chips in a $7.50/$15 hold’em game. We’ve linked to their poker tournament schedule.

5. Peppermill Casino (Reno, NV) - The Peppermill features Reno’s most comfortable and exciting poker room. Their dealers are trained to assist new players, in addition to offering private and group lessons upon request. They host several tournaments a day, with a wide range of stakes.

6. Grand Sierra Resort & Casino (Reno, NV) – With over 115,000 square-feet, the casino at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino is easily northern Nevada’s largest. Grand Sierra is known for their structured poker tournaments with high payouts. They play all kinds of games here, including HORSE. They comp their regulars well, and it’s a great place for vacationers.

7. Caesars Atlantic City (Atlantic City, NJ) - Most people have heard of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and they also have a huge poker room that is newly remodeled in the past couple years. But this is the Atlantic City counterpart. Their poker room is open 24 hours a day for live cash games. With structured games starting at $2-4, $3-6 and $4-8, this is the place to play. Higher limit games are also available based on demand. They have a schedule of deep stacks poker tournaments that are listed at the link we provide.

8. Gold Strike Casino and Resort (Tunica, MS) – With two levels of poker play, the Gold Strike Casino is the hottest non-stop poker action in Tunica. Match wits with players of all skill levels in Texas Hold ‘Em, 7-Card Stud, etc., as well as a daily slew of tournaments.

9. The Wynn Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV) – The Wynn offers a twenty-six poker table room with a variety of games and limits to suite all levels of play. Game limits generally range from $4/$8 up to $100/$200. Their tournaments run daily at 2pm and 7pm currently, with buy-ins of $100 and up. The page we linked takes a while to load, I guess the Wynn does everything to the max.

10. Bicycle Casino (Los Angeles, CA) - The Bicycle Casino ranks as one of the world’s largest Card Casinos and is renowned for its World Class Poker Tournaments. They have 3 tournaments most days, and it is packed with players from all over. If you’ve never played at The Bike, you owe yourself a trip.

This list is by no means comprehensive, and there are some really good live poker tournaments out there that we haven’t listed, especially in Europe (which we’ll cover separately) or related to the World Series of Poker (which we figure everyone knows about). But, the above casinos are offering some of the best daily tournaments in 2009. Why not check them out and report back to us!

Most serious poker players read blogs at one time or another. It’s hard to avoid them if you spend any significant amount of time online reading about poker. But some blogs are definitely better than others. All of the blogs listed in this article are active and have high quality posts.

It’s important to note that we are not affiliated with any of these blogs, and these rankings are just based on the opinions of our team here at www.testyourpoker.com. There are plenty of blogs that we read, but these are the ones that really stood out to us. If you have a personal favorite that we’ve missed, feel free to comment about it.

1. Tao of Poker by Pauly – This blog deals with the social aspects of poker, by providing weekly posts for readers to follow and comment on. Always entertaining, and gives you a good picture of what’s going on in the world of poker. This is not a blog for someone looking to become a much better poker player - there isn’t all that much serious poker content. But several of us follow Pauly’s blog, and it’s one of the most widely read poker blogs on the net for a good reason - it’s entertaining.
2. Full Contact Poker – This is Daniel Negreanu’s blog. He keeps his fans informed about how he’s doing, and also gives a bunch of insight into the way he thinks. Posts are made 4-5 a week, so there is always something to comment about. This is an absolute must for fans of Daniel’s.
3. Hard Boiled Poker – This blog deals with the serious nuts and bolts discussion of poker. The blog posts a discussion daily, so this is a great blog to bookmark and check out to learn the ins and outs poker. This is the place to go if you want to read a serious blog for serious players.
4. Pokerati - This is another great blog that deals with the social aspects of poker, as well as the tournament scene. Posts are daily, so you are never left without something to read about. This is one that will keep you entertained, as well as informed.
5. Neverwin Poker Blogs – This is not really a single blog, it’s a compilation of blogs. But it’s great for keeping up to date with what’s going on in the poker world, and it is a very highly followed website.
6. Las Vegas Vegas - This blog deals with everything going on in the world of poker, mostly in Las Vegas. Posts are made 4-5 a week, mainly about tournament news and results. One of our favorite parts of this blog are the pictures. They make you want to be there in the action.
7. Melted Felt - This blog deals with the social aspects of poker, by providing posts 3-4 a week for readers to follow and comment on. Most of the posts will make you laugh. As an example, they recently had a post titled, "Credit Crunch Hits Poker World as Matusow Auctions Lucky Underpants".
8. Noted Poker Authority - This blog deals with the serious nuts and bolts discussion of poker from acclaimed author, Ed Miller. Ed posts 2-3 times a week, by providing poker advise to people’s questions. Ed has very strong opinions on a variety of poker topics, and gives advice that is bound to make a thinking player take some time to assess it. This is not a blog to read for pleasure, this is for serious players who want to improve.
9. Guinness and Poker – This blog deals with the social aspects of poker, providing recent news briefs relating to gambling and poker. Posts are made 1-2 a week, and there is a great archive section set up for you to review. This is a great blog to follow to learn about the politics behind the U.S. ban on internet gambling, and the efforts to get it overturned.
10. Wicked Chops Poker – The self-proclaimed "Daily Dose of All Things Poker + GIRLS", this blog deals with the social aspects of poker, with daily posts ranging from tournament updates, to mug shots, to centerfold pictures. You are sure to find something here to talk about. This is definitely an entertaining blog with plenty of information to keep you up to date.

This list is by no means comprehensive, and there are some really good blogs left off of this list. But you could spend your life reading through blogs only to waste precious time you could be spending training or playing. Instead, this list will provide you something to do when you are waiting for opponents to join you at the online poker table.

We are pround to introduce our new fixed limit holdem test, available now for our members.  The test consists of 50 challenging hands, designed to test your skill at some of the more difficult aspects of Fixed Limit Holdem.

The test comes complete with a professional replay, conducted by noted online fixed limit player and coach BigBadBabar.  His expert advice was also used in preparing the hand-by-hand personal replayer and analyzer that our members also get to use with this test.  It’s just like having one of the top limit coaches spot you for 50 difficult hands, with most of them playable.

To take the test, sign into your account and click the fixed limit test link on the left side of your member page.  If you are not already a member, click the “Train Now” link above or just sign up at this link to start your personalized poker training program, including all our tests, training plans, professional replays, and personalized hand-by-hand replay analysis.

When the World Series of Poker Academy needed a way to accurately assess the skills of their participants, they chose TestYourPoker.com to design exclusive software for use at their poker training academy. This software is used to give their students a detailed, custom analysis of their poker skills, and is based on the same analysis technology that our members enjoy on a daily basis.

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