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The world watches as the World Series of Poker approaches the "Main Event."  The event promises the largest purse of the year for a game of no-limit Teaxs Hold’em Poker, with the bulk of the money going to the winner.  Starting on July 3, 2009, thousands of would be Poker Heros convene at the Rio in Las Vegas for a shot at the huge pile of money.  Professionals and amateurs alike will compete for what promises to be many exciting days of poker action, culminating in a final table of millionaires. 

Check out www.wsop.com for more information.

The 2009 WSOP kicked off Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at the RIO in Las Vegas with satellites beginning and registration open.

Visit www.worldseriesofpoker.com for more information.

Poker Listings – Play Texas Holdem Poker Online!
PokerListings.com is the leading online poker guide, featuring the world’s largest poker directory, reviews on all poker rooms, top lists of best poker games and poker rules. Find where to play poker online in our daily free roll schedules!
www.PokerListings.com

You can play free online poker and learn without risk of losing any money at any number of vitual poker sites.

Two of the most popular sites are PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Both sites offer free play at Texas Hold’em tables as well as other forms of poker including Stud, HORSE, Omaha, and more.

Throughout the world, poker tournaments have become a very popular sporting event. Whether playing in a major tournament or just for fun, poker is an exciting activity. If you are interested in improving your current game, you can with practice, determination, and good strategies and tips. One strategy that many players ignore has to do with the player’s position at the poker table. Think about real estate. The number one thing you hear is “location, location, location.” With poker, it is “position, position, position.”

Generally, a player will go to his or her favorite casino, walk in, find a table, and then sit down next to family or friends. Other players find a table and wait to sit in a specific seat that they consider as “lucky”. Although in both cases, the player made their decision based on preference and not strategy. Do not think for one minute that your position at a poker table makes no difference because it does. To help you choose the right position at a poker table, consider the following scenarios: If you sat down at a table with an aggressive player that raised bets often or a player that had a large stack of chips, you want to sit to their right. In this case, if you are dealt a large hand or even Aces, when the aggressive player raises the bet, more money is available from calls around the table. This allows you to raise your bet even more by the time it is your turn. While this could be advantageous, keep in mind that money, not action that moves clockwise. Therefore, each time you call an insignificant hand hoping to see a flop, the aggressive player on your left will act next. This could leave you to make a decision of passing, leaving money in the pot, or paying out more money to see a flop than what your hand is worth. To have the advantage of seeing when the aggressive player is going to raise, you need to sit to his or her left, not right. In addition to knowing the amount of your next bet, it will now be your choice of when play. If a player is sitting with a huge pile of chips, all those chips will end up “moving” clockwise toward you. Never underestimate the importance of the table position. Unfortunately, you do not always have a choice of where to sit but when you do, take it. With poker, the key to winning is to know how to work the game, how to outplay your competition. Therefore, use all of your strategies when it comes to betting, calling, folding, bluffing, and so on but also, never forget about the value in sitting at the right position.

Royal Flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit. The "NUTS". You win.
Straight Flush: Straight with all five cards in sequence and the same suit.
Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same number or face value.
Full House: Three cards of one number or face value and two cards of another number or face value. If more than one player has a full house, the full house with the highest ranking three of a kind wins.
Flush: Five cards of the same suit. If there is more than one flush, the hand with the highest card(s) wins.
Straight: Five cards in sequence. Cards can be in any suit. An Ace can be used in the highest straight (10, J, Q, K, A) and the lowest straight (A, 2, 3, 4, 5). Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same number or face value ("trips").
Two Pair: If two players have two pair, the hand with the highest pair wins. If they have the same high pair, whoever has the second highest pair wins. If they have the same two pair, whoever has the highest fifth card ("kicker") wins.
One Pair: Two cards of the same number or face value. If two players have the same pair, the highest outside card(s) wins.
High Card:The hand with the highest card(s) wins.

New players often ask the following questions: "How does one become a winning poker player?" "What separates the winners from the losers?" "What’s the most important thing a player can do to become a winner?" Like most things in life, to be successful, it takes effort, and poker is no different. You must think about and work at poker to improve. There is a common denominator in these questions, and it’s easy to remember. You can find it in the theme line of Kenny Rodger’s song The Gambler: "You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em." One of the biggest differences between winning and losing players is that the losers don’t know when to get away from a hand. They continue to "chase" (call the hand all the way down) and hope to get lucky. There’s an axiom in poker: "If you can’t beat a calling station, you can’t beat anybody." This is true. Calling stations are losing poker players. Certainly, to become a winner, selecting a good starting hand is extremely important (probably the most important thing for beginners). But regardless of what you start with, knowing when to jettison a hand is the key to successful poker. We all see weak players who play a lot of hands. Bad players are considered "bad" because they play too many hands. Many of the best players also play a lot of hands! They do. You might be wondering, "How can that be?" How can some players who play a lot of hands be "bad" and others who play a lot of hands be "great"? v There are two major reasons. First, the top players are betting/raising while the weak players are calling. Second, and most important, the top players know when to get away from a hand. As the song says, they know when to fold ‘em. To illustrate, here’s an example: Assume that a player held the 7H 6H and the flop came Q-10-8 offsuit or A-10-9. Weak players would continue to call, hoping to make a straight (which may not be good if they make it). Good players would virtually never call and continue to play after the flop. They would simply throw the hand away. In Omaha (high and high-low split), one mistake that weak players make is drawing to straights and flushes when there is a pair on the board. Good players rarely do this. In Omaha eight-or-better, how many times do you see weak players calling raises when drawing to a low that is not even the "nuts" (to say nothing of their hoping to win just half the pot)? It happens all the time. This kind of play is throwing money away in the long run. When you think about getting away from a hand and knowing when to fold ‘em, always think about a famous Omaha story. It goes like this: Did you hear about the guy who lost seven river bottom farms drawing to king-high flushes in pot-limit Omaha? He missed the first four flushes he drew to, and made the last three. The moral of the story is that he shouldn’t have been drawing to the king-high flushes. He went broke when he missed the flush, and he went broke when he made it. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em. You will become a much better poker player by not "chasing." Learn to throw your hand away and don’t worry about being bluffed out. Worry about the money you are wasting by calling hands to the river. Saving bets will put a lot of money in your pocket at the end of the year. As Mike Caro likes to say, "Money saved is money earned." By learning when to fold ‘em, not only will there be "time enough for counting when the game is done," there will be much more to count.