In the course of nature things begin a new and the species, whatever that is, seems to mature, ever growing ever evolving. That’s the order of things. Not so in the poker industry.

In the poker industry the order of things is somewhat skewed and that’s because as poker evolves it expands. It spreads out, and when it spreads into a new area, once again poker enters into its infancy.

Let’s look at the evolvement of poker and online poker.

Poker has been around since the late 1800’s. It was played in saloons and homes in the old west. Its variations were simple; one card down and 4 cards up or in its simplest form draw poker. In those days people would play for gold or silver, sometimes land. In fact sometimes they played for the covered wagons they rode in to get to the saloons.

This is where we get the term today that tells people that you have the best hand.

“The Nuts” in today’s terms means that you have an unbeatable hand, but in those days when you had no tangible assets you bet your covered wagon and to keep you from riding away after you lost that hand you had to go to your wagon and remove one of the “nuts” that held your wheel on. Thus the birth of the term ‘The Nuts’

Today the versions of poker are many and players number in the millions. Everything from high end casinos to penny games at Grandmas house.

Back in the year 2000, when poker was, to today’s standards just a baby, pre the hole cam card revolution, poker was played mostly in casinos and home games. There were a few visionaries however that saw the personal computer as a way to advance poker from its then infancy and take it to a new level.

A few of those companies are still in business today, but their journey wasn’t an easy one. Paradise Poker, Party Poker and True Poker to name three brought to the forefront a notion that poker can be played from the comfort of your home. It wasn’t an easy sell. Thoughts of honesty and integrity arose but were quickly dispatched by a new generation of poker players.

In the early days it was quite a sight to see 200 players sitting online from points around the world playing poker with each other. Think about that, in the early west you may have had to travel two days from your ranch into town for a good poker game, now you merely had to have a PC and a desire to play. Once again poker in another form in its infancy.

Well this notion of playing online seemed to catch fire and when the WPT and WSOP started using hole cams to show cards on TV broadcasts and all hell broke loose. 200 players was a thing of the past and 2000 players was now the norm. Maturing once again, poker grew in leaps and bounds.

The next natural step was competition and it came in droves. Poker magazines that were once filled with ads for tournaments in brick and mortar card rooms now had pages over-flowing with online poker site ads.

The next step in maturity was the players, because online poker deals out hands at approximately three times the rate of a brick and mortar card rooms. Players learned the game quicker and of course took that game even further as is natural in the maturity of any game. Players are always getting smarter and playing the game in new and different manners and from that the game evolved again.

Then a marketing change occurred; online poker rooms starting holding satellites and started sending players to major brick and mortar tournaments, like the WSOP. Most marketing gurus will tell you that any strategy which sends your customer to a competitor and with him a chunk of money is crazy! But someone there was a genius. What happened was the masses of players, young and old, that wanted to go to the Big Dance known as the WSOP Main Event found online poker to be their only avenue. Sign-ups on online sights skyrocketed and online tournaments started drawing an almost unbelievable number of players.

No site benefitted from this more than PokerStars. PokerStars tournament software at the time was the only scalable online software out there; so many new players went there to qualify for the WSOP and in the meantime populated the small everyday tournaments. Then the unlikeliest of things occurred. A guy who entered a satellite on PokerStars for 24.00 won a seat to the main event and then won the WSOP Main Event. His name was Moneymaker!!

With the birth of the televised poker explosion came a new infancy, using the poker pro as the face of the online site to draw new players and with it the birth of logo wear. Moneymaker was the face of PokerStars, but then what about the competition? Many sites tried to emulate what was happening at Stars, but only one really succeeded; Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt took some of the top names in the game and opened their own site. Names like Ivey, Ferguson, Lederer, Harmon and Lindgren, etc. A blockbuster if you will from the best names in poker.

So what happened to the 2000 players who first started on Paradise Poker, well they’ve grown some. In fact there are now 100’s of sites and poker networks that have over 20 skins. How many players? Well to say that there are well over 100,000 wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Sundays are our best barometer when it comes to size and scope. It seems like every site has a huge Sunday tournament offering and some sites more than one. Full Tilt has a $750,000.00 guarantee which pales in comparison to the 1.5 million guaranteed on PokerStars. The buy-in is a mere $215.00

So has poker now done all the maturing it’s going to do? The answer comes from history and history tells us certainly not! The reason of course is that poker still has to travel the world. It’s easy to see the new growth in Europe and emerging countries, but what about places like South Africa and now Asia. To these areas poker is once again in its infancy and by the time poker matures there I’m sure there’ll be some new form of the game to learn or some new tournament to play.

Hope that helps,

Warren Karp

Sunday has turned out to be the biggest day in online poker. It’s gotten so big in fact, that brick and mortar tournament organizers have adapted their schedules with the knowledge that fields will be smaller because the online events offer so much value. Online Sunday buy-ins to First Place Dollars is a ratio that can’t be and isn’t being ignored by poker tournament players.

Every online network whether stand alone or multiple skin sites is trying to compete in the Sunday time slots, but where to play and why?

There are buy-in events that range from $65 to $500 and events that start at 8AM eastern and run throughout the day. There are shootouts, knockouts and re-buy events as well.

Events can start with as little as 1500 in chips and go up to 10,000!

So with the multitude of opportunities where does one point his or her mouse on a Sunday? Further, is there a site you shouldn’t point your mouse.

This answer of course depends on your bankroll, but if all things were equal and you had a choice I think the clear cut winner is:

Best Overlay would be BoDog, now at $250,000.00, it’s been awhile since I’ve played here, but their overlays are famous

Best Value, meaning most $$ for your buy-in is PokerStars. Their Sunday Million is now up to 1.5 Million for 200+15. Also, they give you 10,000 in starting chips. That’s a real plus for me because you can really play the game.

Best Re-buy event might be the 65.00 buy-in Multiple re-buy on Microgaming $175,000 guaranteed, which isn’t the biggest out there, but if you get there on 1 buy-in of 65.00 it’s a great ratio.

The Worst value I think is Full Tilt. Their Sunday Guarantee is $750.000 which is half the guarantee of Stars with the same buy-in; in fact they even charge you 1.00 more in juice! Further they only give you 3000 in starting chips, why? More embarrassing still is the Sunday Warm up on Stars is a 750,000 guarantee for the same 215.00 where once again you get 10,000 starting chips and some days is an overlay.

There is an upside; if you knock out one of the FT pros you get 200 and a t-shirt. Then again, who wants to play against pros in a 200 event?

What I’d like to see is a challenge put out by all rooms where if you make more than 1 final table in a Sunday Guarantee you get a bonus. This would benefit all rooms as they would get more players and the guarantees would go up.

Either way Sundays is now reserved for online poker. My wife doesn’t even schedule family outings anymore!

Hope to see you at the tables.

Where are you pointing your mouse?

Hope that helps

Warren Karp

After coming back from spending seven weeks in Vegas for the WSOP I was thrilled to take off from playing tournaments for 3 weeks. I got to do some things around the house, not the least of which was spending time with my beautiful wife and daughter.

Alas, all good things must come to an end and it was August so it was time for the Legends event to begin at the Bicycle casino in Los Angeles, so back to work I went. I made my 45 minute trek up to LA from the OC and was pleasantly surprised to see 800 players for a 300.00 event

This is when the reality of playing in L.A. hit me again. I’m not sure why I forget what it’s like but it takes less than the first round for me to see. Cheating in L.A. is rampant and off time it’s blaring. So visible that it might as well be in 30 foot letters scanning 42nd street and Times Square.

I hear quotes like:

I didn’t want to bust you so I bet small

I could have gone all in there but you’re a friend

Our home game wouldn’t be the same if I busted him

Words in Farsi after a hand between two participants

Words in multiple languages in fact, Vietnamese, Pilipino, Chinese, Hebrew Etc.

The words in English are offensive enough to me, merely because I understand the implications.

What they are all saying is, I don’t want to bust out a friend, a clan member and home game buddy, my backer etc…In other words CHEATING!!

Cheating is rampant in LA, not that this kind of cheating isn’t happening elsewhere, I know it is, but maybe because L.A. is such a vast community that all gather at either the Bike of Commerce that I find it so visible.

Worse is the notion that these players don’t even think they’re cheating!

When I ask ‘why wouldn’t you bust him”?, the answers are un-real:

‘Well he’s the host of my home game”

“Hey sorry, I’m not busting the guy who backs me”

“I want to keep him in because we drove together”

“I would have beaten you with my pair, but I folded because it was you that raised”

and many more unbelievable answers…

Worse come from the guys that know they’re cheating but have a hard time with their justifications. From these guys I hear:

“Hey I never slow play, but I’ll make a big bet or move all-in to let him know where I’m at”

“I won’t lay down a big pair, but I probably will not go for that flush or straight draw”

Ladies and Gentleman, you are all cheating and you should be penalized, thrown out and should never be allowed in poker tournament.

Aren’t you being to harsh here Warren?

NO, I’m not, this is no different that passing chips to a friend in the bathroom

Soft playing is cheating

Not betting your nut hand in last position is cheating

Keeping a friend or a backer or a horse in an event when you can bust them is cheating

I hope someday that those who do this are dealt with properly and those who are now getting away with it will stop

Hope that helps

Warren Karp

The UIGEA (unlawful internet gaming enforcement act) has been a hindrance for some, meaning those that still find a way to get their funds online. The law has been an absolute non starter for others, the ones who chose not to find a way to play online and have moved either to Brick and Mortar casinos or home games. There are still others who’ve moved to subscription sites, where you “legally” pay a monthly fee to play poker online

Remember the UIGEA doesn’t say anywhere in its many words that it’s illegal for anyone to play online poker. No it’s interpreted as saying that it’s now incumbent on Banks not to transact with online gaming sites and further to do their own enforcement of the same.

To that end some payment processors have removed themselves from the market and further some online poker site have decided it’s best to concentrate their efforts elsewhere and have removed the ability to play poker on their network if you live in the United States.

This mixed bag of reaction to the UIGEA has left many sites, players and processors looking for ways to shake hands again. There are still dozens of sites that cater to the US market and those with a will have found the proverbial way to continue to play.

One company, however, has taken to heart another old proverb “that there must be a better way’. That company is the PIC Club or Players Investment Club and is located at www.picclub.com

One bold and bright for online poker players’ statement in the UIGEA explains that while banking institutions can not transact with online poker sites there are some businesses that are exempt from this law. One of those businesses is the Commodity Trading business. In other words you can’t stop a company house like a Schwab or E-trade or Lynch from investing in businesses or trading in commodity products around the world.

The PIC Club is exactly that, an internationally licensed Commodity Trading Company. So literally the UIGEA says it’s ok for a company like the PIC Club to transfer funds between it and any other business. Another way to put it is the UIGEA says it’s legal for the PIC Club to operate as a Commodity Trading Company to transact with anyone it chooses. The PIC Club just happens to be the first of its kind to choose to trade in poker as a product.

How does that help you as a player then?

Well as I understand it here’s how it works:

You deposit into PIC Club, well actually you are buying shares of a product with the same value as your deposit. Because you own these shares, PIC Club will at your request to transfer, sell the shares you own to the poker room. The poker room places the money that they owe you for those shares in your players account for you to play with. You can transfer all or a portion of them to an online poker site…then you can play, transfer, and withdraw. You even transfer between rooms thru the PIC Club interface.

There are also some great features like PIC Club only member benefits. There’s a Pro Team filled with names of high end players, a Celebrity team filled with Hollywood notables. These teams are found weekly at some PIC Club tournament on one of the networks. You get a chance to play with some great folks who kindly have a bounty on their head each week. Further because they move around, you get to download and play on other online poker software. That broadens your game play and who knows you might just find that perfect game for you!!

Now, here’s one of the coolest features for me. Every transaction you make they remove a dollar and put it for you into an interest bearing investment account which you get back during the winter holidays, just in time for gift giving. In 2007 this account paid 14% interest to all PIC Club members.

Withdrawal is as easy as depositing, all PIC Club does buy your shares and then send you back your money, hopefully if you played good it’s more than you deposited!!

This begins a new era in online poker and banking for online poker, me, I’m glad I joined the PIC Club and I recommend you do too.

Hope that helps

Warren Karp

Back in the old days when I used to write for Card Player magazine, people used to come up to me and chat like they knew me. They told me that because of my style of writing, it seemed as though I was talking directly to them. Instead of it just being a column I was writing the words jumped off like a conversation. I took this as a compliment and haven’t changed my writing style since. The only downfall I suppose is that it gave my readers license to ask me questions about the game, their game and game strategy as we were playing.

The above was one of the reasons I originally opened the PokerMD website. It was a place I could tell my stories, talk about my trip reports, tell people where my up-coming events were happening, but most important was the forum.

Whenever players would ask me things at the table, I’d say “I won’t answer that here, but if you post it on my forum I’ll answer anything. Game strategy, where the best tournaments are, who the best players are and I’ll even include the hand I bluffed you with!!

I laughed and said seriously that the PokerMD site was founded to help players. After-all, the category I wrote for in Card Player was for “The Beginner”. Poker has been very good to me and I’ve always wanted to give back to the industry.

About 6 months ago my good friend and owner of www.wedoitallvegas.com asked me to help jump start his forum with an Ask the PokerMD section. I was flattered and honored but told him that hardly anyone knows me anymore and he might not get any hits. He pushed the issue and up went the section on the forum.

He was right and I was flattered again. More importantly I found that my advice still rings true with many players and that I can still help in some small way. I’ve been told by many readers of that forum that I’ve flat out helped their game. It’s very satisfying!!

So I decided it was time to give back to my loyal PokerMD readers and new PokerMD readers to come. I am re-opening my own forum on the PokerMD website (it will be active soon)

Ask anything, there’s very little I won’t cover. Be specific and remember there’s no question that’s too stupid or I won’t cover. Live play, tournaments, poker books I recommend etc. The range of readers includes pros to beginners, so a question you might think is dumb is on plenty of reader’s minds.

Look for the Forum to open soon and keep those questions and suggestions coming in. The PokerMD site is as much you’re as it is mine if you want it to be and as my tag line always says….

Hope that Helps

Warren Karp

We all know the name Men “The Master” Nguyen. Not only has he been one of the leading poker players in the world for more than two decades, he’s the only 4 time winner of the Card Player “Player of the Year”.

During his illustrious career which includes bracelets from the WSOP and WPO, watches from the Hall of Fame and trophies that fill a room in his house, he has been one of the steadiest players in our great game for over two decades. Playing the game isn’t his only passion, teaching is a big part of what makes Men great for our industry so add to those trophies many wins by his many students, like his younger cousin David “The Dragon” Pham to name just one. Teaching is the reason he got the moniker “The Master”.

Men is no stranger to adversity however, having been a refugee from Viet Nam, he’s known his struggles. One of which was getting his wife Van a Visa to leave Viet Nam and to bring his children to the states so his family can be whole.

When Van first arrived she didn’t speak any English. Not speaking the language wasn’t a problem at first because everyone in her household spoke Vietnamese and when Men would take her with him to the Casinos and Poker Events there was always plenty of Vietnamese there to talk to. She was however shy when talking to an American, and she was reluctant to play poker at higher levels till she learned the game

Van as it turns out may be as driven to win as Men, maybe even more. She didn’t take America lying down. She immediately started English classes and today you can talk to her about anything, but she’d rather talk about poker. Somewhere along the line Men must have taught her the game and as it turns out Van ‘The Masterss” Nguyen may be his brightest student yet.

Van started out playing Limit Hold em in Commerce or wherever Men traveled to. You can usually find her sitting in a Limit ring game. Even in the few tournaments she played she usually entered the Limit events. Today that’s all changed.

She entered into the Commerce Invitational and became the first women to win a WPT event in an open field besting over 400 players. A fluke you ask? I think not. She followed up on that performance by finishing 6th in a Bay 101 Shooting Stars event and now has made the final 6 again in the WPTL Ladies event at Bellagio, to be aired on GSN.

When I spoke to Van she told me about the play and how she came to the final table of 10 short handed. She explained how she followed the strategy that her and Men laid out to get into the top 6. Masteress of Poker and English as well.

Men couldn’t be prouder of her and will once again be in the audience to cheer on his latest student and his wife. Good Luck Van and when you get done will you ask Men to teach me!!

Hope that helps,

Warren Karp

www.PokerMD.com

Recently I was invited, along with many others to the Coushatta Casino in Louisiana. This wonderful Indian tribe decided to put their casino on the map. How’d they do that? Well they planned to invest a few $$ in marketing a major poker event and they weren’t concerned if they lost a few bucks. How much did they lose? Well into 6 figures!! So this begged another question. Is it just because they don’t know any better or is it because they DO know better than most how to make a little known casino the talk of the poker world. Here was the deal. It was a $3000.00 buy in with a 1 Million Dollar guarantee. Scheduling this event during the Bellagio 5 Diamond event was a gamble, but because the WSOP circuit event in New Orleans was just ending and the buy-in was lower than many of the 5 Diamonds, they decided to go ahead with the event. There was more to entice the true players of the game too. The structure and starting chips were outstanding. $20,000T chips to start, 90 minute rounds and all the play in the world. I thought I gave generous structures, but nothing compared to this.

Here’s an example: 200-400 250-500 300-600 400-800 500-1000 600-1200 700-1400 I repeat 700-1400; I mean I never even heard of this level!!! And all in 90 minute levels. Tom, I’m nominating you for Tournament Director of the year!! The organizers soon discovered that they weren’t going to cover the million so they invited pros from Vegas and paid for everything. Kido Pham hosted the invited players and the casino hosted everything else. How detailed, well the Vietnamese players were served Pho!! Further they decided that it was better to have players seated rather than have a small field, so they ran 2 for1 $325.00 satellites. That’s not a misprint. If they ran 50 satellites they gave away an extra 50 seats.

So was it worth it? To those of us that came a free-roll with an overlay the answer is obvious, but was it worth it to Coushatta? I can’t tell you what the final loss figures were, but I can certainly tell you the gains. Monetarily the pit was filled with poker players, the win or loss there is irrelevant. The poker room was full and the action was incredible. Limit, No Limit and yes Pot Limit. There was even a ½ & ½ game. More, the games were as juicy as Tunica. The food, well ok it was fried, but fried deliciously and the service was southern hospitality So what did I learn about Coushatta, the people and Louisiana? First off when you get there ask for Randell, he might be the best host in any casino. Then see just how happy the people are.

These are down to earth working people that are either into lumber, oil, rice, nurseries or crawfish. The weather was great, warm even when it rained. And oh yes some are in the casino business, and sometimes they lose money during a promotion. What they did though was show a large number of people just how serious they are about getting you to know Coushatta. Every one of us talked about how nice we were treated and how we’d all be looking forward to coming back. Hey it even got me fired up enough to write this article. Randall, Kido, Coushatta keep me on your mailing list!!! Warren Karp

Everyone back on the boat!!!! That’s right 1 more week on the Mariner of the seas. This World Poker Showdown event promises to be the biggest yet!! Dozens of players tried qualifying on the net and winners took home a cruise and all tourney entries. 4 Ports of call means more fun in the sun and when we’re at sea we’re playing poker!! Join us the April or be the Fool See the Schedule at www.worldpokershowdown.com Get cruise booking help from the girls at CI Travel ALL ABOARD!!!! www.worldpokershowdown.com