Party Poker is no longer the biggest online poker room in the world, but it continues to be one of the best despite no longer accepting American action. The site is known for having great around-the-clock cash games and tournament action. The software is good and fast, but isn’t the flashiest available. The functionality of the software does offer features like deal making and very good hand-history access.

Party Poker runs lots of special events and tournament satellites, and they also have an excellent loyalty program for their regulars. Action is offered in Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo. Short-handed and heads-up action is available.  Limits vary between Fixed Limit, Pot Limit and No limit betting structures. Current volumes have 10,000 cash game players and 60,000 tournament players, at peak levels. Party Poker is still one of the world’s best poker sites.

It’s no secret that the aggression level is a little cranked up online compared to a live game. In any aggressive game, position is one of the most important factors.

Position is important in any poker game because last position holds the advantage of knowing what everyone in the hand is going to do before they have to act. If everyone folds to you and only the blinds remain, a raise will often allow you to win the blinds.

Last position holds another big edge because many flops miss the players in the hand. The button can pick up the pot with another timely bet. Aggressive players will often bet into you when you have position on them, and this allows you to slow play big hands undetected until you decide to turn the tables on them. Many online players will continually bet into you and you can just let them dump to you.

Some players think that posing as something they are not can give them an edge over some players around the poker tables. I’ve come across many players with a picture of an attractive woman as their avatar, only to have him (!) turn out to be a grinder in disguise.

This can certainly create an edge against a player that will be more interested in the picture than the game. It could also work against the player who figures that all women play a certain way, and cause their ignorance to backfire on them.

The players who pose as women, for example, will usually be willing to take the charade to the next level, and will begin to flirt with any interested party. This is designed to throw them off their game, so pay attention to what they’re doing and saying.

I’m always wary of a pretty girl in a picture. After a few hands you should know if you’re playing a good player or not, as long as you’re not distracted by the red herring.

Online Giveaways and Tells 

Picking up tells online is not as easy as in a live game. Players can only give away physical signs online. Oversize bets are usually a sign of a bluff late in a hand.

The most common online tell is the pregnant pause. This will often occur when a player has a big hand and they want to appear as if they’re having a hard time deciding what to do next.

Many players like to make a small bet in early position to control the betting and get the next card cheap. This move is usually a player on a draw, and if you think you have the lead you should raise this player up. Don’t let them get what they want, a cheap card, without paying a price for it.

And the old all-in bet followed by a message saying “they have to leave the game”, is a ploy that’s usually followed by pocket Aces.

If you want to get any time out of your gambling money you have to play the games at the proper level for your bankroll. When playing poker, the rules are quite specific.

If you want to try your luck at a limit poker table at a recreational level, I suggest that you sit down with at least 20 times the big blind and you should be good for a few rounds around the table. If you want to maintain a bankroll over time, you should have at least 200 times the big blind of the game you are in.

Most no-limit ring games have a limit to the buy-in amount. Try and keep your amounts to less than 25% of your bankroll. That way one tough table won’t break you. Tournament buy-ins should be even less than this percentage, more like 5% or less.

While the online poker market is hitting hard times in America, where the government crackdown has limited the choice in poker rooms and online gambling sites for the American public, the gambling scene across the Atlantic is flourishing.

A national survey done in the UK recently by the Gambling Commission has found that online gambling is on the rise all over the country. The survey discovered that 8.6 percent of UK adults had tried at least one form of online gambling during the previous month.

That was up from 7.4 percent a year earlier. The most popular form of online gambling in the nation is of course online poker, and it trails only the National Lottery as the most popular form of gambling, period, in the UK. The survey also found for the first time ever that poker has overtaken Casino games in popularity and player numbers.

Can’t make it to the 2007 WSOP? That’s okay. You can still read all about it…

The next best thing to being at the World Series of Poker is reading about it through all of the entertaining poker blogs that have exploded all over the net. There are so many poker or poker-related blogs out there right now that PokerStars can offer a yearly tournament for poker blog purveyors and end up with thousands of entrants.

One of the most famous blogs out there is the Party Poker blog. When you’re one of the most well-known and popular poker sites in the world, it’s probably not that hard to get your blog noticed. Most of the time the Party Poker blog has some interesting stories and tidbits from the insane world of online poker, but it’s not a great destination for WSOP news and opinion. Right now, by looking at the blog you wouldn’t even know the WSOP was going on because they aren’t even talking about it. If you’re looking for some fun poker info check out the Party Poker Blog, but if you’re looking for WSOP info give it a pass.

The best WSOP info from the Rio I’ve found recently comes from pokerblog.com. What an original web address, huh? If you want to know the goings-on at the WSOP down to the most minute detail, this is the best blog on the web. Even if you’re in Vegas and you’re looking for event starting times, I’d go here before I would go to the extremely inane official WSOP website.

The boys and girls at pokerblog.com know their stuff and they know how to deliver it in an interesting manner that won’t have you clicking somewhere else before you get halfway down the page.

Another good one? Bodog Beat. They’ve got a couple of guys at the WSOP covering all the events so their reporting is first-hand and first-rate.

Are you ready for the World Series of Poker?  That depends on who you are, I guess.  If it’s your first trip there, getting ready for the most famous poker tournament in the world shouldn’t be a serious thing.  If you love to play poker then you’ve looked forward to going to the big show since you first played.  Your first trip should be fun and not too serious.  If you’re nervous, you’ll make foolish decisions so just relax and play your game with a positive attitude.

You can still play your best game at the tables, but make sure you take in all that the tournament offers.  All the latest things that are poker are on display at this tournament, and don’t forget your camera because all the poker stars will be there and you’ll be able to meet most of them if you want to.  Take it all in; you may not get back next year, so enjoy the experience regardless of any outcomes on the tables.

If you’re returning from previous trips you should have some leaks worked out of your game over the last year.  You should have been playing a lot of tournament poker over the last few weeks in the variations that you plan on playing at the WSOP.  You should know by know that pre-registering for your events will save you hours of frustration the morning of your event.

You should also be envisioning yourself going deep into the tournament, playing at the final table, and eventually holding the bracelet in one hand and a wad of pretend cash in the other.  You should believe that it can happen to you, because it will happen to you, because you deserve it.  To believe anything else is a waste of your time.  Winning a WSOP bracelet isn’t something that happens to you, it’s something you make happen.  And it’s ok for you to have fun too.

If you’re a true beginner poker player who’s looking for a good poker room, you’ll want to think both big and small. Let’s start with the big.

By big we mean the size of the poker room. The more players at a poker room during peak hours the better chance there will be a bunch of other fish just like you trying to go from student to masters of the game too quickly. Another good thing to do is try out one of the more heavily-advertised rooms. Poker rooms like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Bodog get more traffic because the less-knowledgeable poker player knows they exist due to their large number of advertisements on TV, in magazines and online.

Now that we’ve covered the big, let’s talk about the small. When we’re referring to small we’re talking about limits and buy-ins. If you’re trying out online poker for the first time do not play over your head. This is one of the more common mistakes that poker rookies make, and the end result is their bankroll gets chewed up quick.

Look for rooms that offer cheap limits like 5 cent/10 cent or less, if you can find it. Don’t step up to $1/$2 table and think you’re going to start hauling in the big bucks. First of all, those limits aren’t where you win the big bucks. And, second you won’t make money as a rookie at those tables; you’ll simply lose it all faster.

If you’re more into tournament play, then look for rooms that offer cheap tournaments where you can improve your skills without having your entire bankroll decimated in one fell swoop. Most rooms also offer introductory freerolls for new players. If you can money in one of those, you can offset some of the cost of your first deposit.

Lucky You departs from previous poker-themed films like the wildly impossible final hand from The Cincinnati Kid and the cookie-cutter tells from Rounders, but unfortunately it forgot a key component those films included: Great casting, great acting, and characters you actually liked and cheered for.

I was expecting a lot more from Lucky You since it was directed by Curtis Hanson, of L.A. Confidential fame. What drags the movie down is the horrible casting of Eric Bana in the lead role and Drew Barrymore as the woman he chases. Also along for the ride is Robert Duvall, who actually gives a good performance in stark contrast to the rest of the deadweight.

In the film Bana plays Huck Cheever, an overly aggressive poker player who constantly lets his emotions get the best of him resulting in him ending up broke, over and over again. Barrymore plays the horribly-named Billie Offer, a Vegas lounge singer who – thanks to Barrymore – can’t sing to save her life. Duvall is Bana’s estranged father, a poker legend who everyone in the world loves, except Bana who’s never forgiven him for walking out on him and his mom. The usual jaded father-and-son clichés ring true (yes they meet up at the final table, who didn’t see that one coming?), with only Duvall’s lively performance adding any real life to the story.

The poker scenes in Lucky You are actually well done and demonstrate that the filmmakers really did know something about poker when they were filming it. Having cameos by poker pros like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein probably helped, as well as a bit-part by Jennifer Harman. Unfortunately they didn’t pay as close attention to the plot or the characters, or maybe Lucky You would be worth a look instead of being a poker film that fails in every aspect expect the poker.

In case you didn’t already know, Lucky You has been gathering dust on the Hollywood shelf for almost two years. Movies that go through long delays like that usually aren’t worth wasting 11 bucks to go see on the big screen, and Luck You is no exception.