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Although there are more accomplished WSOP champions, there are few who can claim to have done more for the game of poker today than 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker even has a poker phenomenon named after him. “The Moneymaker” Effect refers to the boom in poker activity directly resulting from ESPNs coverage of Moneymaker’s historic 2003 main event victory.

Chris Moneymaker and the WSOP

Before 2003, Moneymaker was an accountant and a largely unsuccessful sports gambler. He did enjoy playing poker occasionally on PokerStars and regarded it as a harmless, if not particularly profitable, diversion. That all changed the day he sat down to play a $39 step satellite on PokerStars. The prize for the satellite was entry into a larger satellite, for which the top three finishers would get a seat into the World Series of Poker, and the fourth finisher a cash prize. Although Moneymaker did not necessarily expect to win, he took the satellite extremely seriously, and sequestered himself to play.

The Historic WSOP Online Satellite

As he climbed the money ladder, he decided he wanted to play for the thousands of dollars awarded for fourth place. Moneymaker had mounting debts and desperately needed the money. However, a friend convinced him to play poker tournaments for the seat, promising to buy half of it if Moneymaker won. Moneymaker decided to play on, a fateful decision that turned his winnings from a few thousand for some debts to a life changing multi-million dollar payday.

Chris Moneymaker, WSOP Champion

To Moneymaker’s dismay, the friend could not come up with the money, and Moneymaker was stuck. Fortunately, his dad came to the rescue and bought part of the seat. This turned out to be a great investment as Moneymaker tore through the 839 player field to get heads up with Sammy Farha. In a heads up match watched by more poker fans on ESPN than any WSOP broadcast before, Moneymaker outplayed Farha to win the title.

Moneymaker’s win proved that an amateur could be a world poker champion, and thousands flocked to their computers to try to win their own WSOP seats on the Internet, creating the poker boom that we know today.

A lot of hands in poker stand out as automatic. You know to play pocket rockets every single time preflop. And you know that you’re supposed to fold 7-2 or 6-3 if someone even hints that they’re going to raise the pot. But what do you do about 8-9 of hearts or 10-J of diamonds? These suited connectors can be big hands if the price is right.

If you’re the type of poker player that takes advice from the pros, then you already know to play these suited connectors whenever you can get into a pot – even if you’re playing 5-6 of clubs. Unless someone’s putting a large portion of your stack at risk, the odds are just too great to fold.

For starters, having two different cards gives you a solid probability of catching two pair. In a short-handed game or reading someone with a strong Ace or big pair, two pair is a heartbreaker for opponents.

A bigger pocket, like the blackjack on line special A-J, is going to tie your opponent’s hands if he catches a 5-6-J board and you’re holding a 5-6. Nobody sees this coming. At best, he’s going to think you’re holding a bigger pair or a set.

Then you have a straight possibility. Middle-of-the-road suited connectors will always have something either in front of them or behind them to give you a reason to play. And if you have a reason to be in the hand, you become dangerous. The only thing more dangerous than a bluff is a semi-bluff.

Save the online slots for lucky spinners. Suited connectors are a pro’s hand because they also bring the flush possibilities out of the woodwork. Catching a five-card board with the A, J and 10 of hearts puts you in the driver’s seat if you’re holding the 6-7. What did your opponent play? K-5? It’s possible, but the odds suggest you win.

Of course, the same poker rules apply with this hand as with any hand – must know when to act and when to get away. But coming in with suited connectors gives you multiple ways to take down the pot. They’re just too good to pass up.

Now that the online poker boom has well and truly passed it has become quite difficult to beat online poker. Players that once were able to turn a profit at their favorite card game are now barely breaking even or posting a loss.

The reasons for this are many. One reason is the rise of poker training sites. Another reason is the growing popularity of online poker tools.

These days, there are a lot of people that are taking the game very seriously indeed, which has made it increasingly difficult for the casual play to beat online poker.

The possibility of making a living from playing texas hold’em has taken quite a hold and everyday what once were casual players are now taking their game to the next level – becoming semi pro, or even full time professional players.

So now there is a whole online poker economy that has a sizable number of career online players that need to be fed by a steady supply of losing players, either existing players or newcomers.

So from the heady days of the boom in the first years of this century, when most players were newbies, the whole landscape of the game has changed to one where there is a growing percentage of professional swimming with the fishes, so to speak.

What can a casual player do in this changed world? Well, the first thing to consider is where you want to go with your game. Do you figure on becoming more serious? Or do you want to continue playing for recreational purposes but maybe reduce the cost a bit? Or do you simply want to improve your online poker game a bit?

If you want to go pro then that is a whole nother story, which we will get to in time. But if you want ot stay playing casually but go back to your earlier winning ways then we have a few bits of advice that may help you with that.

First things first, you have to take a look at the poker site that you are currently playing on. If it is one of the bigger sites, like Stars or Tilt, then you have a big decision in front of you; whether you want to continue playing there or are willing to move to a smaller room.

Changing to a smaller room will have a couple of advantages. First, the bigger rooms are where most of the full time players hang out, and so you are more likely to be playing against winning players on those sites. Whereas the smaller rooms don’t have enough losing players to provide enough of a feeding ground for most pros.

Of course, if you go to a really small poker site then there might be difficulty getting a game at the stakes you are used to, due to the vastly reduced player pool. If you can face the prospect of changing to a smaller room, you will also be looking at a fresh deposit bonus as a new player, which will help to boost your online bankroll a bit too.

A good smaller room to consider moving to is Carbon Poker. Not the smallest room out there, as they continue to accept American players, Carbon is currently offering up to $600 bonus dollars to new players. You can check them out here – Carbon Poker.

UltimateBet poker is firmly in the middle of yet another scandal after ther incredible events that occurred there this past weekend.

For the few online poker players out there that don’t already know, UltimateBet was involved in the ‘super user’ scandal earlier this year, and didn’t cover themselves in glory with their less than honorable handling of the affair. If you really haven’t heard about this a google search should point you in the right direction.

The latest scandal involves something that is fundamental to the integrity of the online game of poker. To put this as concisely as possible, the software shipped the pot from a heads-up hand to the losing player.  Yes, you read that right.  The pot was given to the player that lost the hand. Continue Reading »

What drives poker? Is it the fall of the cards or the fall of the players?

It’s both, of course. In fact, human interaction and behavior play more of a role in live poker as well as online poker than most players realize. Experienced poker players may think they are in control of their tells, but many physical actions that reveal tells are done subconsciously, and can be applied to both the live game as well as the virtual one. Continue Reading »