This is number is up from last year, which had 6,494 official entries. This has continued a trend over the last couple of years from the all-time high of 8,773 player field that took place in 2006 when Jamie Gold ran away from the field during the tournament.

It seemed like Texas Holdem’s popularity is decreasing; but if you take into account that the 2003 WSOP main event had then set a record for players with 839 (when Chris Moneymaker won), you can see that the main event has not suffered that much. This encouraged every garage league poker player to play online and try to make the main event with a minimum investment.

That fact of the matter is that from Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem that the majority of the recent winners of the main event have not been professional poker players before they won.

There was eventually going to be a point at which the casual poker fan stopped paying attention to the ESPN broadcasts with Norman Chad and Lon McEachern. It’s a known fact that casual fans of any activity will lose interest when things become predictable. But, the main core of internet poker players are still tuning in and online poker is still as popular as ever.

2010 WSOP Main Event

This year the total prize pool is going to be $68,798,600. This will be split up among the top 747 places. The lowest payout will be $19,263 or a little less than double the tournament entry fee.

First place will still take home a whopping $8.94 Million, which is still more than the $7.5 Million that Joe Hachem won during the 2005 main event. Also, only the top 8 players this year will win more than a million dollars.

Notable Main Event Casualties

One of the most notable players to be kicked out of the main event day 1 was self appointed poker brat Phil Helmuth. Although I have not seen the video footage, one can only imagine the spectacle that happened when he was eliminated. “If it wasn’t for luck, I’d win every tournament” or something along those lines.

Notable players to place in the money:

1987 and 1988 Champion Johnny Chan finished in a respectable 156th place and took home $57K.

1998 Champion Scotty Nguyen finished in 209th place, winning a little less than $49K.

Two-time WSOP Bracelet winner Hoyt Corkins finished in 318th place.

2003 WSOP main event runner-up and 3-time bracelet winner Sammy Farha finished in 452nd place.

5-time WSOP Bracelet winner Allen Cunningham finished in 581st place.

What does this all mean? It is still very difficult for professional poker players to make it far in the WSOP main event with the sea of amateur poker players looking to take them out. The odds that someone gets lucky when they are severally behind in the hand is still good enough that there are enough bad beats to send these pros home early.

November Nine

To drive home the point mentioned above, I have not heard of any of the top 9 players left in the tournament. You most likely have never heard of any of the “November Nine” either.

As it stands, Jonathan Duhamel leads the group with 65,900,000 in chips. John Dolan is second with 46,200,000; Joseph Cheong is third with 23,500,000; John Racener is currently 4th with 19,000,000; Matt Jarvis is 5th with 17,600,000. Filippo Candio is 6th with 16,400,000; Michael Mizrachi is 7th with 14,400,000; 8th place is Soi Nguyen with 9,600,000 and rounding out the group is Jason Senti with 7,600,000.

This goes to show you that luck (accompanied by a lot of skill) still appears to be the biggest factor for making the Main Event’s final table. All you wanna-be poker champions can enter next year’s tournament and shock the world!

There are several important things to remember when playing pocket aces. I hope to illustrate these important guidelines to follow when you have been dealt any large hand. But most importantly is the pokcet aces, precisely because it is the best preflop hand.

It is very important to remember that poker is not a game of guarantees, it is the game of probabilities. The biggest rule to remember is that the pocket aces are a 80% favorites over any other two cards in the deck. This means you can expect pocket aces to lose one out of every five times you go all-in before the flop.

It isn’t considered an anomaly to have your pocket aces beaten by two pair, a three of a kind, straight or flush. If you push someone into a risk vs reward kind of attitude, your pocket aces are bulletproof.

How to Play Pocket Aces

So, it is essential to play carefully from here on to take full advantage you’re your cards. The first thing that will happen is your heart will start to race a little. Controlling your visible emotions is only important when you are playing a live game.

But if you are in a live tournament or at home with your friends, you have to find a way to disguise the strength of your hand by finding a way to overcome the excitement you feel in order to win any money off of the other players.

It happens at times, you might become over confident make a rash play. The make bets which should not be made and try to turn the tables by hitting the flop too early. There is nothing worse that getting pocket aces dealt to you and only winning the blinds. Well, not quite, but you need to know how to make your pocket aces profitable.

How you should bet your pocket aces

This is totally dependent on the amount of players in front of you who have raised, folded or called and how many players are left to act behind you. All together now “POSITIONING!” Learn more about Texas Holdem positioning.

You position is extremely important to determine how to bet. No matter where you are in relationship to the dealer, the one word that should never ever come out of your mouth is “Call“. If you think this is a good strategy, please feel free to slap yourself in the face. Are you really planning on letting four or five other players an opportunity to suck out and beat you with a garbage hand?

The one case people will often make is that they go 30 hands without raising and every time they get a big pair and make a raise, everyone else folds. Well, this is a case of somebody is playing way too predictably. Live a little a semi-bluff once in a while; that way the other players won’t try to pick you apart.

You must raise your pocket aces, it’s just a matter of how much. Ideally, you either want one or two other players to call. Once you get three or more, you are asking for someone to beat the aces and take all of your money.

If you are in an early position, you should at least raise twice the big blind. Raising the blinds once is not enough to get the loose players off of their suited connectors.

If you are in a middle position, you need to act accordingly to what has happened before you. If someone is very aggressive and bets big, this may be the only acceptable time to call them, simply because no one else is likely to hang around. Your opponent will have no idea that his is betting into his own grave.

If you have a caller/small raiser, you have to re-raise the pot to get as many people out as possible. Worst case scenario is that everyone folds and you win more than the blinds.

When no one else has called, I would make a modest raise. The one thing you must be careful of is letting the big blind make a hand without having to bet much to get it.

If you are in a late position, most of the action has already happened. Do the people seem to like their hands? If no one is betting, make a small raise and take the pretenders out. If people look like they are sticking around for the flop, make it expensive for them to do so. Chasing people out at this point is a small price to pay if you don’t get them to fold and they beat you.

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When you are playing a home game

Once you have that big grin on your face and your bets come freely, everyone on the table comes to know that you have strong cards and thus they avoid making bigger bets which makes the pot only smaller. Also, ending the game too early can make you end you end up eating the half-cooked curry.

What is it that you play the game for? It’s the pot and the bigger it is the better. The pot grows in size with the progress of the game. You have to give it some time to get big enough to be worthy of the 2 aces that you are going to put down to get it.

And as I said before, poker, especially Texas Hold-em poker is game of odds and no matter how good a hand you have, you can still end up being a loser if you act like a fool. Keep doing you math as you would have done it if you would have got a normal hand. Don’t lose the opportunity in the excitement.

A very important role in Texas Hold’em is played by the community cards. They are used as part of the hand thus the value of the community cards can change the entire picture for you.

Of course, it’s not only that two aces which are going to make up you hand. So, keep a sharp watch on all the events of the table and keep an alert mind. It is very probable that an opponent gets excellent community which he uses to make his hand stronger than yours.

You have to make you decision of pushing all in or waiting for the right time to arrive. Take your time and do your calculations before you come to a conclusion.

In case you feel that you another player on the table may have the chance of overpowering you later in the game, it is wise to go for the pre-flop. In such a situation, you should make your efforts to have the pot to grow to the maximum possible size. The best way to do this is to make raises and increase the size of the wager.

Don’t be too obvious with your steps or you may just give your game away. Be subtle and be quick. Your odds are good, but will only continue to be so till the time is right. Once you lose the opportunity, you will end up wasting your beautiful aces.

The most important thing is to make the right decision at the right time. So, keep the leashes on your wits and constraint on you hands. Do your math and make he right move.

The poker odd calculator calculates and tells you, your chances of winning in the game. This helps you play better like experienced people and maximize your wins or minimize your losses. There are many types of poker odds calculator and they differ on the basis of their mechanisms. Some of them are listed below for you:

• Based on real-life games: it work outs the chances of winning a game when a particular set of cards is given on the basis of the observations made from real-life poker games. Here, the database is backed by the statistics from numerous real-time games played.
• Based on statistical calculations: this poker odd calculator works on the basis of the statistical data collected by the programmers. Though, many people don’t support this type of calculator saying it is too abstract for real world playing.

Of all poker calculators, Omaha Poker Odds Calculator is quite popular and trusted. It is based on real life statistics. You can access this calculator for free online and improve your betting and gambling experience manifold times. This is because the results are exact and not any speculation. So, next time you sit to play poker, don’t forget to make use of poker odd calculator to know about your probability of winning.

Check This Out:

Here is more information about poker odds calculators. This will give you a basic idea of what hands you should play and which hands to fold.

• First and foremost, mistake the players do is to play too many hands. As the other bad things, it is always tempting to get into many hands. No doubt, your hand may just get better on the slump but if you had already committed break off with weak hand selection it is the way to the poor house. Be careful about the game pot you get start with and play fewer of them. Wait for the late position from a few callers that means wait for the strong hands or the right moments to get your cards in. In case you do have a strong hand play confidently but do not play one after the other hand on the chance that you will win and get lucky. All the time you might not be lucky and it will surely hurt you.




• Betting too much amount on suited hands is the second mistake that generally players commit. If you are holding two cards of the same suit, you might waste the money on chasing the flush. As you, need just three more same cards to get a suit of hole cards. Until and unless you have a big kicker, your chances to be beaten up are more as the opponent may have a bigger flush than you may. So think a plenty of it before doing so. Perhaps chase the flush when you have other suits too. Chasing a flush more tend to loose more money.




• Playing out of your strength means if you play at higher scales than you are used to, it may affect your bankroll adversely. As after some success, you will come on the table of good players and until you improve you’re playing you may suffer with a bad bankroll. Make yourself-expert and then play at a higher level. When you notice your bankroll, suffering there is nothing wrong in stepping back a step, as you are not fit for that step still. After all poker is not all about to play ,it is most of it about to make profits, so play where you make more profits.




• Being overconfident when you have an Ace is another silly thing to do in any kind of poker, especially online. If you think that because you have an ace you are unbeatable, then you are sadly mistaken. If you are holding an ace five or ace six and you stick to it, you are likely to loose by the player holding an ace queen. Do not rag behind the ace, be very careful while using your ace and do not consider your small aces as your jackpot. Chasing a flush very often holding a hand with small ace is a very wrong step and may cost you.




• Never get emotionally involved with your hands. Online poker lovers usually do it. Play the game practically and not emotionally. Holding the bad cards just because of your emotional attachment to them is not at all a good idea to win. Think analytically about your hand and about the opponent’s strategy, take the emotions out, and remain focused to your objective to win. No doubt, you should play your pocket aces aggressively but always think rationally before holding or folding your hand.




• Don’t get pot committed to a hand you don’t already have won. This is one of the most common mistakes made by people playing online poker. If you don’t think you have the best hand already, don’t try to draw for it. This will end up costing you a lot more money and will only frustrate the other players into trying to take you out when you win.

Keeping the above mistakes in mind you may lead to a winning poker game. Are you looking for a great place to play online poker? If so then check out a poker room online to find some of the best.

The rules for playing all the card stud games are almost identical with the same terminology. But there are a few differences between 5 card stud, 7 card stud and 7 card stud hi-low and these differences set these version apart. Let’s have a look at them:

1. 5 Card stud:
   I will use this version of the game to give the basic idea of the game play and the rules so that I can compare it with the other versions. The game starts with the first bet which is called the ante and this is the bet which makes up the pot. One face down card and one face up card are dealt to all the players. The face up is called the door card and the player who has the door card of the lowest value starts the first round of betting.

   The players can either bet, check, raise or fold in any of the betting rounds of the game. The round of betting is followed by the dealing of the second face up card, which is again followed by a round of betting. This continues till the players have been dealt one face down card and 4 face up cards, thus 5 cards each. The total number of cards dealt to each player is 5 and thus the game is called 5 card stud.

   The last part of the game is called the Showdown. In this part of the game, all the players have to lay their hands on the table. The hand of each player is composed of the 5 cards that have been dealt to him/her so far. The player who possesses the hand of the highest value wins the game.





2. 7 Card Stud:
   In this form of stud poker each player gets 2 private face down cards, followed by one face up card, door card. The betting rounds are very similar in the procedure with each player having the same options of betting, checking, raising or folding. As the name suggests, in this game all the players receive 7 cards each. 2 of them are private cards and 5 are face up cards.

   The seventh card to be dealt to the payers is called the river card and this card is followed by the last round of betting and then comes the showdown. The showdown is similar to the 5 card stud, with all the surviving players laying their cards on the table. The player with the strongest hand wins the pot. If two players have the same type of hand, then the values of individual cards are taken into consideration to decide the winner.





3. 7 Card stud Hi-Lo:
   This game is mostly similar to the 7 card stud. The only difference is the criteria of deciding the winner. Unlike the other two forms of the game, in this game there can be two winners. The first winner is of course the player with the strongest hand.

   The second winner, who gets to share the pot with the winner, is the one with the weakest hand. But the second winner can only get a share of the pot, if all the cards in his hand are below 8 and it is the weakest possible hand among all the other hands. The second winner gets at most, half of the pot. Since in this game, players have to think about two types of hands, so this is clearly the most complex of the card stud games.





4. Caribbean Stud Poker:
   This is the casino’s version of a 5 card stud game. It is almost identical to the normal 5 card stud, but with a few exceptions:
   1. Your hand only has to beat the dealer’s hand
   2. The dealer has to qualify for the hand by getting Ace/King or better
   3. You can win a caribbean stud progressive jackpot

   Here is a great website if you would like to know more about Caribbean stud poker.

As you can see by the rules of the games, these versions of stud games are very similar to each other. 5 card is the simplest of the lot and thus is the best one to start with.