Poker for Beginners

Online poker guide with all the up to date poker news related to all tournaments, upcoming events, pro poker players, poker championships and more along with tips , video and poker school. Find out all the rules, strategies, tips and take part in to the discussion forum and chat up with professional poker players on you favourite poker table game.

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South Africa banned online gambling game

Tony G, has a reputation for being a smart-mouthed poker player, whether he plays online or off. He is the player who drove up the bidding on Peter Eastgate's WSOP Main Event bracelet, when it was sold on eBay to raise funds for Unicef. He caught people's interest when he said he would buy it to make his dog a collar. However, he was out-bid and by his own admission, also out-of-his league. He does have a huge reputation for speaking his mind, and we believe that much of this is his own way of creating PR, Tony G. is certainly not publicity-shy.

He seems to have not been as controversial since the Peter Eastgate eBay auction. Although, he has been considering suing the Alderney Gambling Control Commission for the way in which they handled the FTP fiasco. Now he is making poker news again, by taking a proposition bet on himself to cash in the recent World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. The reason why it's making news is because he won! He took a bet at 5 - 1 for $20 000. So, not only did he cash in the event to the tune of $37 000, despite being short-stacked, he also lucked out on the prop bet and was paid $100 grand.

Sit around the poker table or your computer for long enough and even poker starts to get just a bit tedious. Hence the reason why poker players have reputations for taking prop bets. Something off-the-wall will come up in conversation; one player says 'impossible' the others say 'let's put our money where our mouths are'. This is the birth of a prop bet, and boy have there been some high-stakes doozies! The challenges are outlandish, even disturbing to say the least, and the wagers are titanic in many instances. This Tony G. foray into proposition betting is tame compared to some!

Rep. Joe Barton introduced the Online Poker Act of 2011 the aim of which is to override obsolete and imperfect provisions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that formed a base for the April crackdown on online poker sites who offered online poker to U.S. citizens. Under that act, online gambling itself was not banned, however, it was illegal to process transactions associated with it. The new act should solve this issue and enable Americans to play on this internet for money and actually get their winnings if they make some. However, criticism already emerged over the new law as it does not allow for card transactions and, what’s more, for the first two years it would only benefit major land based casinos and racetracks.

It has been really quiet on the US online poker scene, since the indictment of PokerStars Full Tilt and various other sites (10 in total) early in 2011. There was a whole slew of commentary taking place back-and-forth after the event, but nothing much since then. We know that most of the sites did not recover, but that PokerStars has put a good fight and has bounced back strongly into the UK and European marketplace, a marketplace where they had already made sure they had a strong online presence.

The second largest online poker site - Full Tilt is having a torrid time of it. They reopened; could not pay US and other members withdrawals, had their license suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and in France by ARJEL. If reports are correct, they have since been trying to sell the remnants of a non-operational online poker business with several DoJ indictments against it, and a seriously tarnished reputation with its former members. This does not look like a very attractive business proposition, does it?

As for the rest of the seized online gambling domains, they appear to have rapidly faded into obscurity, but one might assume that any information us sub-judicae. Doyles Room, another online poker room fronted by Texas Dolly (Doyle) Brunson, was another indicted entity. Just last year this legend of poker, Brunson himself, indicted to Forbes that he and the rest of the online poker industry was ready to take on the US DoJ and were armed for a fight. Even he appears to be eating his words and has distanced himself from this site. He was not indicted, and it appears that he did not consider himself an owner - merely a shareholder of Doyles Room.

There is a great deal more to playing poker than Texas hold 'em, but this is without doubt the most popular form of the game played worldwide currently. When you are playing poker online the same applies, but, there are more variations of poker than immediately meets the eye. Don't get us wrong however, one of the best games for beginners to begin with, is definitely Texas Hold 'em. As far as poker variations go, this is one of the newer kids in town, but the classic form of this game is probably the also popular Stud Poker.

Stud poker was the most popular poker game played at one point, but was quickly knocked off its pedestal by the rise and rise of Texas Hold 'em. Stud is the game you will find playing at kitchen tables with family and friends across the world, where they have not learned about Texas Hold 'em and Omaha poker as yet. There are many variations of Stud poker, with the most common three being:

1. 7 Card Stud
2. 7 Card Stud Hi Lo
3. 5 Card Stud

There are no community cards used in this game and the players are each dealt 7 cards for example, when they are playing 7 Card Stud. Two cards are dealt face-down and five cards are dealt face-up as the game progresses. The aim of the game is like any game of poker; to make the best and most valuable poker hand using classic poker hand rankings. Find 7 Card Stud played online at sites such as PokerStars, 888 Poker, Bodog, Party Poker, PKR and many more.

HORSE is another name we often see mentioned at poker sites online. This is the ultimate test of a players' skill. What it does is combine a variation of different games: 'H' stands for Texas Hold 'em, 'O' is for Omaha, 'R' is for Razz, 'S' stands for 7 Card Stud, and 'E' is the tail end of the horse, for a variation of 7 Card Stud - of the Eight or Better variety. The structure of this multi-game version of poker makes it idea for tournament play, and again you will find it online at the very good sites – generally in ring and tournament format. It is not a game for the faint of heart, because it is no joke to be playing with Omaha strategy when you are playing 7 Card Stud. Just make sure you know the rules of each game and can swap comfortably without thinking too much.

We mentioned Razz when talking about HORSE; this is also a form of stud poker, but played for the best lowest hand. You may also come across Badugi which is draw poker and only four cards are used. It is this that makes it unique in the formation of ranking hands. Sorry, we have also not mentioned draw poker yet, but check it out for yourself – they say in poker, you never stop learning – so, just don't stop!