Confessions of a poker junkie.

I have been playing online poker for over 6 years now. Presently I play online poker every single day for at least 2 hours. I have tried almost every poker room and poker software provider. I have written reviews of most of the poker rooms in existence. I think all of that qualifies me as a total poker junkie.

After all this time playing on different rooms, I have picked what I believe is THE best poker room available.

Those that made my top 5 were easy to pick. From there, it got a little tougher. Here is my top 5.

fulltiltpoker.com
pokerstars.com
partypoker.com
pokerroom.com
ultimatebet.com

After taking a very hard look at all the rooms, I now know believe that FullTilt offers the best deal. The factors I considered were:

Deposit Bonus - FullTilt still has one of the top bonuses in poker and is the best among the top 5 with a 100% up to $600 Deposit Bonus.

Software - FullTilt ranks among the top 3 in software used to run their poker games along with PartyPoker and PokerStars. Fulltilt has some cool features that the other rooms don't like the ability to see your last hands in a graphic display that looks just like the table you are playing on.

Ability to Learn Poker - FullTilt takes an active interest in making their players better via their Tips from the Pros as well as their active forum on the site. These tools are invaluable and set FullTiltPoker.com apart from the other rooms.

Intangibles - The other rooms try and associate themselves with poker players. FullTilt takes it to a totally new level. They have MOST of the pros on their site where you can play with them and chat with them. They are available in the site chat and for you to talk to while they are at the tables playing.

I could list a lot more, but these are the highlights. FullTilt Poker is #1 in my book. See you there.

10 Tips for Poker Tournament Success

Here is a great read from a good friend of mine, Brad Daugherty. Brad, as many of you know, just might know a thing or 2 about winning poker tournaments as he won the 1991 World Series of Poker main event and has written 2 great poker books.

Here is Brad's tips on winning a poker tournament.

1. Want to improve your end game? Want to build your level of experience in playing final tables? Want to learn how to 'close the deal' and win an event? Play a single table satellite! And when you do, pretend you are at the final table of the World Championship. Remember, every chip is precious. Playing single-table tournaments is great practice for the end game of multi-table tournaments. The strategies are very similar; with the biggest difference being single-table tournaments usually take less than an hour to play, where the multi-table tournaments take over 4 hours to play.
2. A good basic strategy for the single-table tournaments is to play solid poker, playing only premium hands in the first three rounds. After that, open up and play more hands, becoming more aggressive the higher the blinds get, and the shorter handed the tournament becomes.
3. Be a bettor, not a caller. Remember, the bettor has two chances to win, the first being you might be able to show down the best hand, and secondly, if everyone folds, you win an uncontested pot!
4. When your chip stack gets less than five times the size of the big blind in a no-limit single-table tournament or a multi-table tournament, consider moving all in with any two cards as long as you are the first one in the pot. In these situations you are just betting that no one has a hand that they can call you with. If you do get called and have the worst hand, you might get lucky and draw out on them. If you aren't the first one in, you are joining a pot with automatic competition.
5. In the late stages when you have a large stack of chips and it's one or two spots from the money, it's easy to rob players that are desperately trying to make the money. Play more aggressive in that spot, reduce your starting requirements, and pick up some extra chips!

Like what Brad is saying? Read the bottom 5 for more info.

1. When you have an opponent who is overly aggressive, use it against them. Let them think you have a weak hand when you really have a strong one. Check into them so they will bet. You will then have the option to checkraise and take advantage of their aggressiveness. In the case of a real monster, check it a second time, and then pop it up!
2. Play Real Money poker games to practice for the early rounds of multi-table tournaments. The play here is very close to the same because you aren't under pressure from the blinds. So play real money games anytime you have the time to improve your play for the early rounds. Play solid poker.
3. Have a game plan for your tournament. Decide if you are going to start out playing tight in the early rounds, or if are you going to play fast and try to accumulate chips early. Consider adjustments you might make if you get short of chips, if you get a large stack, or how you might adjust to different types of opponents styles. Be prepared for everything!
4. When you are playing, always observe your opponents and pick out who will and who wont, defend the blinds. The higher the blinds get, the more valuable this information becomes. Remember the tight players are easier to rob. Be ready to take advantage of them.
5. Save the best for last. Play your own tournament! That's right, your own little event that starts and ends when you want. You are the tournament director and can play any form of poker you'd like. Sit in the smallest game you can find. The rounds are 20, 30, 40 minutes, anything you want, so set an alarm clock. When the clock goes off, you must get up and move to the next highest game. Keep going and see how much you can accumulate and how far you can go. Get to the biggest game and you win the trophy. Of course, in this tournament, you can quit at any time and cash in your checkers. Good Luck!

I think this solid advice from one of the games greats on poker.

The Pot Just Got Bigger

Most of you know I am always looking for good deals. I like getting a bang for my buck.

Here is a pretty spiffy deal.

WDIAV is now giving away $1200 MONTHLY in their poker freeroll. This is FREE POKER MONEY folks.

To find out how you can play EVERY month, just click here.

$500 Monthly Free Roll at FullTilt - No Deposit Required

Thanks to the good folks at WeDoItAllVegas.com, you can now play in a MONTHLY $500 Poker Free Roll.

Read about it here. how you can play EVERY Month for a $500 Prize Pool. This promotion is sponsored by www.fulltiltpoker.com

Rakeback and what it really means

Rakeback really is the defining difference in winning online poker players and break even players. Getting back 20-30% of the rake you play to play poker can be huge.

Check this rakeback calculator to see just how much you are missing out by not having a rake back deal with an affiliate.

A player who plays 8 hours per week of 1/2 NL poker will receive about $70 per month back for their poker play. That is almost $900 a year FREE MONEY.

Was NewBodog a Marketing Tool for Bodog?

I took a look at the traffic for our web sites and was amazed to find that we had a huge spike in searches for NewBodog and NewBodog.com. I also noticed that the changing of the Bodog name got a tremendous amount of news releases and news coverage.

I think that Calvin has turned a very bad situation into a marketing gold mine. Now they have done it again with Bodoglife Sportsbook and Bodoglife.com. This has started all the process over again with news releases and stories on all the major poker sites.

What do you think? Marketing Tool or not?

NewBodog - Bodoglife - Bodog - NewCalvinAyre

In the ever changing world for NewBodog it seems that Bodog has an identity problem.

Their New New site is called Bodoglife.com. Here is a great post and review on Bodoglife. from the guys at Wedoitallvegas.com.

Bodog does it again. Now it is Bodoglife

In the ever changing Bodog, NewBodog saga they have come up with a new name AGAIN!
Now the name is BodogLife.com What will be next? BogodLife? NewBodogLife? I will have more as the story develops.

Sign Up for NewBodog and play in a $500 Freeroll

Here is a very good deal. Sign up for NewBodog and play in a MONTHLY Five Hundred Dollar Poker Freeroll. Just click the link above.

What is a GOOD Rakeback Deal?

The best rakeback available right now is a 27% FullTilt Poker Rakeback which is like walking along the street and picking up dollar bills.

FullTilt Rakeback has the best rakeback deals available with a MONTHLY $500 Poker Freeroll Tournament from www.wedoitallvegas.com.

Get in on the action and start getting some of your rakeback.