Big Tourny at the Borgata

I know how many of us hit Atlantic City so often, I thought this was noteworthy.

From Bluff Magazine:

Tab Duchateau and the brains behind the Borgata Hotel and Casino Poker Room continue to deliver great value to the players on the East Coast. The Atlantic City resort announced this week yet another $500,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack tournament.

The $1,650 buy-in event will run March 21 - 24 and will include two starting days. Players will start with 30,000 in chips each. In an effort to put as many players as possible into the tournament the Borgata is also hosting a number of qualifying events with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $380.

* Friday, March 6 at 11AM ($165 + $35)
* Sunday, March 8 at 11AM ($165 + $35)
* Sunday, March 15 at 11AM ($330 + $50)
* Friday, March 20 at 4PM ($330 + $50)

In the first two qualifiers one in every 10 players will qualify for the $500,000 Guaranteed Tournament and the final two will award one seat for every five players. For more information visit www.theborgata.com.

Team Poker: A Twist on Tournaments

I am getting this from our friends at the great poker blog, The Poker Prof.

Interesting twist on Texas Hold'em tournaments, Team poker, sounds like fun and am wondering if we could implement something like this for our quarterly tournaments at Johnny Joe's and the Field House:

The second annual Dream Team Poker Event takes place at Caesars Palace from March 27-29.

Unlike last year's event, the $500+50 tourney has now been opened to all, with an opportunity to go up against poker celebrities and professionals.

An expected 100 teams composed of 300 players will be vying for a $150,000 prize pool.

The tournament is patent-pendingly unique in that players compete individually while also receiving scores as part of a team (teams will be given customized jerseys to wear). Players then compete for both individual as well as team prizes.

To register and for more information, visit Dream Team Poker.

Top Ten Hold’em Starting Hands

There was a debate last night at the Field House of Etters about the best pre-flop hands, here is basically the answer, it can be argued if A-K is higher than Q-Q, however, mathematically it is not... Here is an article from OnlinePoker.com

When beginner Texas Hold’em players first pick up the game, there’s a tendency to want to over value hands and to call big raises with mediocre starting cards. The common mistake is believing that having a Ace with any kicker is something worth holding on to, or thinking that any suited cards (two hearts, two spades, etc) will more often than not lead to a flush. Until you learn the more intricate math and theory behind Hold’em, you would be wise to adhere to a system followed by many intermediate and even some professional poker players. That system involves playing only the top ten starting hands. Now just how aggressively or conservatively you should play the top ten hands depends on where in the list the particular hand ranks.

Here are the Top Ten Texas Hold’em Starting Hands:

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK
5. JJ
6. 10-10
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. AQ
10. 7-7

Now there is some debate as to order of these hands, and yes it is true that any pocket pair has a slight mathematical edge over any Ace-X hand, but hands like AK rank higher overall because they carry a higher potential for success on the flop, turn and river.

Stick with the top ten hands during the early stages of your poker development and you will find yourself winning more when it counts and losing less overall. Then as your skill grows, you can start to add a wider range of hands to your repertoire.