Know what to Bet:
Sports betting includes a fair amount of vocabulary which you will learn over time. But of most importance are the common bet types. There are side wagers where you bet on one of two teams directly competing. There are total wagers where you bet on a certain score to be reached (adding the teams score together). There are also future wagers which involve more than two competitors – for example, “Who will win the Superbowl” or “Who will win the US Open.”

Reading the Line – Spreads and Moneylines:
There are two components to a side wager, the spread and the moneyline. The spread is subtracted from the favorite or added to the underdog to determine the final outcome of the bet. The moneyline indicates how much the bet pays. If the moneyline is negative, you must wager the value to win $100. If it is positive, you win the value if you bet $100. For example, you want to try your hand at football betting. The NY Giants are 3 point favorites over Philadelphia Eagles. The moneyline for both teams is -110. You bet on the Eagles who lost 21-20. However, the Eagles were getting 3 points, so the score becomes 21-23. The sportsbook considers the Eagles a winner. You bet $100 on the game. But to win $100, you would have to bet $110. So the $100 bet pays out 100/110 = $90.91, plus your $100 stake back. Had you bet on the Giants, you would have lost your $100. It sounds complicated, but it becomes much clearer after just a few wagers.

Try Future Wagering:
When you bet a future, realize your stake will not be available until the bet settles. For example, if you bet on the Superbowl winner in August, that money will not be available for betting during all of football season. But, since these wagers involve more than two competitors the odds can provide for a big payday, especially if you correctly identify a dark horse early in the season. Some sports, like golf, rely almost exclusively on the future lines to bet on a tournament champion.

How to Get Started:
Getting started is easy. Find a sportsbook that works for you. That can take some research. None offer everything so be honest with yourself. Do you want the best line prices? The best new deposit bonus? Tournaments? Availability of poker, casino,
and a racebook? Once you have your account setup, only bet one or two games per day. Stick to teams you know well and only make small wagers, say $10-$25. Once you are comfortable, establish your strategy, bankroll, and conditions for making bets.

Have realistic expectations:
Even the best handicappers only win about 60% of their bets – and even they go through losing streaks. Never bet a huge amount of your bankroll on any one bet – nothing is a sure thing. Never chase a string of losses – take a break from betting if you are mired
in a slump. Keep an eye on what expert handicappers are saying – they can give you an alternative viewpoint. You can always make pretend wagers to get your confidence back. Remember to have fun – treat your gambling funds as a recreational expense.

Betfair’s official statement says:

It is important to note that Ongame is a rakeback-free network, so any players acquired as of today (July 12th) will not be eligible for rakeback deals but will instead automatically benefit from our loyalty scheme, once we migrate, known as the Betfair Player’s Club. Existing players however, will remain on their current rakeback deal.

Betfair Vs Ongame Traffic

Betfair is currently ranked #16 on PokerScout.com for traffic. Moving to the OnGame network will offer Betfair players more liquidity, wider game selection, access to some sick network wide promotions and some massive MTTs. Players will also be able to play using both a Mac or a PC.

New Betfair OnGame Promotions 12th-26th July

As you would expect poker and sports betting giants Betfair are laying on some promos so that all of their players have an incentive to grind on the new network

• $60,000 Points Race (AKA Rake Race) -Players simply need to grind and accumulate points (based on their play) to get to the top of the points leaderboard. $60,000 is up for grabs with $10k for the winner. A great additional bonus for playing this month.The race runs from 19th of July until 8th of August inclusive
• Free ‘SnG Step 2′ Tournament Ticket – Enter three sngs between 12th and 26th July and claim a free Sit-and-Go step 2 tournament ticket.
• 50 Free Seats to the $200,000 Guaranteed – Betfair are giving away 50 free tickets to their new Sunday Major tournament the $200K Guaranteed. On the 4th of August players can win a free tickets by earning earn 1,000 Betfair Points from the 12th -26th of July to receive a free entry to our 50 Seats Giveaway Tournament.

The End for Rakeback?

Could this be another indicator of the demise of poker rakeback deals? More and more poker rooms are moving to sites which off poker loyalty programs / poker VIP programs as opposed to flat rakeback payments. As of March 1st this year, online poker room FullTilt Poker announced a maximum of 3% commission for all new rakeback affiliates – saying in no uncertain terms that they don’t want rakeback players. The big daddy poker site, PokerStars doesn’t offer rakeback (instead they offer an interesting VIP Program), and rakeback isn’t permitted on the iPoker network either. It seems the poker industry is fed up with handing over rakeback to winning players and wants to focus on rewarding the low and mid-stakes grinders, to keep them from going broke, and of course to keep them raking, keeping the poker eco-system healthy and alive.

Visit Betfair Poker

Discuss Betfair’s move to the on the OnGame Network in our Betting Forum.

One of that huge tournaments is the European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) and it’s sixth edition is about to begin. The famous tournament held every year by Titan Poker is back again and promises to bring lots of money and lots of action for poker fans. The total prize pool of over $5,000,000 will certainly attract lots of competitors, starting with small fishes and going up to big poker sharks. The ECOOP main event will run on Sunday, June 6th, and has a guaranteed prize pool of $1,500,000.

The tournament itself will run for 14 days starting with 24th of May 2010, but before the competition starts there is a small warm up tournament: the Mini ECOOP. The 10 days tournament starts on 14th May, has a prize pool of $600,000 and will end Sunday, May 23, with $300,000 Guaranteed NL Hold’em Main Event.

This year, poker players have even greater chances to win cash prizes, because all seven members of the Titan Team will enter the ECOOP events with bounties on their heads. There is an additional $11,000 worth of bounty prizes in stake for poker players that will take down a Titan Team member.

The first ECOOP, held at the end of 2007 had a guaranteed prize pool of $2.5 million and lasted for just 10 days. Five editions later, ECOOP has a double guaranteed prize pool and his length, with the mini tournament included, has been extended to 24 days. These upgrades can be translated into more action and more money for everyone.

There is even more good news because the satellites for ECOOP VI are already running and the buy-in starts from just $2. Believe it or not, but with just a couple of dollars you can end up winning hundreds of thousands of dollars and the fame you always dreamed about.

Discuss the ECOOP in the Furness Poker Poker Forum.

After a few knockouts, the heads up was to be fought by Akenhead played and Juha Helppi. Akenhead evened the chipstacks up quickly, and continued his aggression by taking down some good pots. In the last hand of the tournament Akenhead was dealt pocket tens and he was up against Helppi’s sixes. Akenhead opened and Helppi Jammed. The flop came an interesting 5; 4; 3 giving Helppi some more good outs, but the turn and the river sealed the deal for Helppi, rolling off a king and an Ace.

Akenhead’s is running super hot this year, with a grand profit of $1,300,000 from the World Series of Poker (WSOP) this year as well as the World Series of Poker Europe (WOSPE).

Having turned professional only three years ago, Akenhead has already amassed winnings of in excess of $2,600,000.

For his second place, Helppi collected $250,000.

Play at Full Tilt Poker and claim your $600 deposit bonus.

This week five of the world’s top poker players will bare up to the ultimate poker challenge at the $8,000 Buy in, $576,000 televised PartyPoker.com World Open, where body language will take on a new meaning.

Up and coming poker star, Russian player 23yr old ‘Catgirl,’ was due to celebrate her birthday by playing poker in her ‘Birthday Suit’ totally Naked bar a few Swarovski Gems to keep her modesty. Alas, at the last moment Channel Five put a ban on her total nudity, instead the Catgirl will adorn a sensational body painted outfit to keep her honest.

Opposition at this TV poker table could not get any tougher, players in this heat include, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Surinder Sunar, Liam Flood, World Series of Poker Europe Runner Up John Tabatabai, and Ian Woodley.

This heat is going to bring a new dimension of glamour to TV poker, which can often be dominated by not quite so attractive male poker faces. Who wouldn’t want to watch the flushing face of the Devilfish as he tries to get a read on Catgirls body language, then tries to bluff this lady in the buff, this will be must watch TV Poker.

Ex gymnast and professional player, the Catgirl, is fast becoming one of the rising stars of the poker scene and enthuses in making this powerful and brave statement to the male dominated world of poker. She is no stranger to the world of high stakes, being sponsored into one of Europe’s biggest regular cash games.

Catgirl said, “I’ve played poker for two years now and have had a lot of success in high stakes cash. Poker is about entertainment as well being a very serious business, I want to go forward as a professional player, so why not give the world something to talk about – There is a lot at stake, but I want to have some fun and if it is my lucky day, then the sky’s the limit. I am grateful to my sponsors POKERTRILLION.com for giving me this opportunity, I am playing to win.”

Andy Pyrah, C.E.O of Catgirls sponsors POKERTRILLION.COM said, “Catgirls heat is like a who’s who of poker, she’s going to need to have all her talent on display if she’s going to take down this table”, Pyrah continued to comment, “Let’s just hope the likes of Flood and Devilfish don’t decide to go topless!”

Whatever the outcome of this historical event, we are sure to see a lot more of the Catgirl.

The PartyPoker.com World Open will be televised later this year, produced by Matchroom Sport for Channel 5 TV and worldwide distribution.

Click to download Poker Trillion

Discuss this article in our Poker Forum

PokerTrillion.com have just released the following press release detailing the reasons for their law suit against Boss Media and Webdollar for alleged fraudulent and criminal activities.

April 12, 2008 Malta – Trillion Limited (POKERTRILLION.com).

There have been a lot of rumours, a lot of speculation, and a lot of questions surrounding the current position between POKERTRILLION.com, Boss Holdings Limited and Boss Media Malta Poker Ltd. This statement seeks to clarify everything.

On Friday 11th April 2008 POKERTRILLION.com achieved a freezing order of the bank accounts of Boss Holdings Limited and Boss Media Malta Poker Ltd. The freezing order was executed at five of the banks where they hold accounts, and it will be executed at the reaming two banks early Monday morning. The freezing order has been made in conjunction and relating to a €45million initial law suit being taken by POKERTRILLION against Boss Media and Webdollar for alleged fraudulent, and potential criminal activities of various personnel and/or the management of Boss Media, or their associated companies in various jurisdictions including but not restricted to, Sweden and Malta.

It is anticipated that this will have a serious detrimental impact on the players who have money with Boss Media or any of its associated companies including Webdollar, because obviously the accounts have now been frozen so it is likely that when the freezing order is executed across all the Webdollar and Boss Media accounts, players will find it impossible to withdraw funds.

POKERTRILLION.com as a small and new entrant to the market is taking a zero tolerance approach to being mistreated by Boss Media, furthermore, owing to the massive irregularities surrounding Boss Media and their handling of POKERTRILLION.com this led to a number of contractual issues that led to POKERTRILLION.com making extremely exciting and important developments in the way in which it operated its business.

Further information will be released as and when the courts give permission for POKERTRILLION.com to discuss such developments. In the interim, all players who hold accounts with POKERTRILLION.com have an unconditional and unlimited guarantee on all funds they hold through POKERTRILLION.com.

It is highly likely, if Boss Media follows the proper code of conduct as it should do, it will have to make a full and complete disclosure to the Stockholm Stock Exchange where they are listed. This invariably will have a catastrophic effect on their share price, and may even lead to the arrest by the authorities of certain members of their management team and the possible suspension of their sharers. This in turn, would mean that players not in the POKERTRILLION.com stable would find their funds in serious jeopardy yet again.

POKERTRILLION.com however is delighted that this situation has created the ability to develop some fantastic new opportunities which are to be revealed in the coming week.

Should you require any further information please contact manager@pokertrillion.com or the judicial courts in Malta.

paddypowerpoker.com today announces full details of the Irish Winter Festival, which will take place the 25th to 27th October 2008. The festival will be headlined by the Irish Masters (a tournament with an estimated prizepool of €1,000,000) and also feature two one-day side event tournaments.

The Irish Masters is a €1,500 + €150 buy-in No Limit Hold’em freezeout tournament with a capacity for 800 players and will take place in Citywest Hotel, the home of the 2008 Irish Open. Starting on Friday October 25th and running for three days, the tournament will pit the cream of the Irish poker community versus the best the rest of the world has to offer.

The side event tournaments will consist of a €200 + €20 buy-in No Limit Hold’em rebuy tournament (with rebuys available for 90 minutes) on Sunday October 26th and a €500 + €50 buy-in No Limit Hold’em freezeout tournament on Monday October 27th.

“We are very excited to confirm our sponsorship of the 8th annual Irish Winter Festival”, said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for paddypowerpoker.com. “We are building on the back of a successful Irish Open and will spare no effort in making the Irish Masters a ‘poker player’s tournament’, well structured and accessible to both local and international players. Pints, a party atmosphere and lots of poker; what else could anyone ask for!”

Weekly super satellites (€200 + $20 freezeouts) to the Irish Masters start online at paddypowerpoker.com on Sunday April 13th, with daily qualifiers ($15 + $1.50 rebuys) at 2pm and 8pm to the Sunday super satellites. The $3,500 Irish Winter Festival packages to be won at the super satellites will be made up of an Irish Masters ticket plus expenses.

The World Series of Poker originated in the United States of America, and the first event was organised by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas, in 1969 at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno. The WSOP has always been played on American soil.. Until now, that is!

The World Series of Poker announced this month that poker’s biggest tournament institution will creep into Europe September 2007, with a number of events hosted across three separate London casinos in a poker schedule that will span eleven days.

The events which will constitute the WSOP in London mark the first time that WSOP champions’ bracelets (possibly the most coveted baubles in the poker world) are awarded outside of Las Vegas.

September 10th is the kickoff of the inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event. The No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournnament features a £10,000 buy-in (That’s US$19,600!!!) , and will include the Sportsman and Filly casinos in addition to Leicester Square.

Play will continue at all three sites simultaneously until September 13th, when the remaining players will all return to Leicester Square, to continue late-table action, concluding on September 16th. This can only improve the popularity of Poker in the UK.

Resources

• – Official WSOP site
• – WSOP History

September 2007

The International Poker Open commences in Dublin on October 6th 2007, (Shelbourne Hall, RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4) – promising to be the biggest ever poker tournament in Europe.

Online Qualifiers are running on Mermaid Poker:

How to Play?
Details:Instructions for registration into what will be the biggest ever poker tournament in Europe.
1. Download and Install Mermaid Poker (usually only takes a few seconds).
2. Follow the instructions to open an account with Mermaid.
3. Click on cashier and use any of the secure options available to deposit your International Poker Open entry fee.
4. Click on ‘Multi-Table’ in the main lobby and scroll down to ‘Inter. Poker Open’ which is listed under Sept 1st for technical reasons (registration will actually close on Oct 1st).
5. Click register and the entry fee will be deducted from your account.
6. Arrive at the Shelbourne Hall, Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 on Saturday October 6th 2007 before 12pm and your Mermaid ‘nickname’ will be displayed on a screen with your corresponding seat number. Once you take your seat you are ready to play.

Please note that only persons registered on Mermaid Poker before Oct 1st will be eligible to play and that we are asking all players to bring passport/drivers licence I.D. to the RDS on Oct 6th to confirm their identity…..

This will be an excellent sponsored event with a guaranteed prize pool. The tournament will take place in the Shelbourne Hall in the RDS on October 6th, starting at high noon, 12 midday. Day 2 will take place in the Jackpot Casino Club, Montague Street, D.2.

Tournament Information
Starting Stack: 10,000 Chips.
Event Duration: 2 Days.
Fully dealer dealt.
Registration: Registration is open. All registration will be online and all players must be paid up before Oct 1st for this tournament. Standard payout structure will be used (ie approx top 10% paid)

Stephen Mc Lean will be tournament director along with Luke Ivory, Derek “The Clamper” Williams and Pamela Morris.

Blind Structure:

12:00 1. 25-50
12:40 2. 50-100
13.20 3. 75-150
14:00 4. 100-200
14:40 5. 150-300
15:20 30 minute break
15:50 6. 200-400
16:30 7. 300-600
17:10 8. 400-800
17:50 9. 500-1000
18.30 60 minute break
19:30 10. 600-1200
20:10 11. 800-1500
20:50 12. 1000-2000
21:30 13. 1500-3000
22:10 30 minute break
22:40 14. 2000-4000
23:10 15. 3000-6000
23:50 20 min break
00:10 16. 4000-8000
00:50 17. 5000-10000
01:30…end of day 1
END DAY 1.

DAY 2 Sunday 7th Oct – 1 hour levels
14:00 6000-12000
15:00 8000-15000
16:00 10000-20000
17:00 15000-30000
18:00 18000-36000
19:00 20000-40000
20:00 30000-60000
21:00 40000-80000
22:00 50000-100000

Buy In: €125 (+ €25 registration)
Location: RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Register online now: Download Mermaid Poker

“theV0id” loses the $1.2 million win – the biggest win in the history of online poker and also forfeits the coveted WCOOP Bracelet. PokerStars has disqualified the winner of its WCOOP main event, TheV0id, following an internal investigation for “breach of the PokerStars Terms of Service”.

A PokerStars representative stated that “In the interests of Game Integrity, “TheV0id” has been disqualified from first place.” Other Participants in the event will be “bumped up” one place on the pay and placement ladders – some players will gain upto $300K from this arrangement. ka$ino (who finished in second), will receive an extra $377K in his account (and no doubt a coveted WCOOP poker bracelet).