Open to ALL WDIAV Forum Members

This is your LAST BEST CHANCE to win one of SIX $1,500 2009 World Series of Poker event tickets in Las Vegas!

May 17th, 9 pm EST - Put it on your calendar! $500 Freeroll PLUS a chance to win a ticket to our WSOP Step 4 final where we are giving away 6 WSOP seats. Top 18 placers in the event will win a Step 4 ticket.

Terms and conditions:

1. You MUST be a registered WDIAV Forum member. This Freeroll will be by pre-registration ONLY. No password.

2. You MUST have a minimum of 50 valid (i.e. non-spam or redundant) posts to the forum threads.

3. You must have a minimum of 50 forum points available to enter. You can still earn points under the CURRENT point system (more about that below) by making posts to the forum and by posting your avatar. When you enter this final freeroll tournament, you will be redeeming ALL of your current forum points for this last chance to win.

4. All Step 4 Tickets are transferable to another forum member or WDIAV Player. Anyone found selling tickets will be immediately disqualified and their forum account will be cancelled. All tickets have no cash value.

5. WSOP seat(s) are non-transferable and have no cash value. You must be present at the RIO with your Harrah’s players card to obtain your WSOP seat.

6. You MUST be 21 years old at the time you present your ticket in Las Vegas for your $1,500 event #7 seat. This event will be played on June 2nd, 2009 at 12 noon.

7. Winners are responsible for any and all taxes, travel, expenses and any other costs incurred in this promotion. Winners of WSOP seats agree to wear the shirt and hat of our choice while playing in the event. Winners agree to hold WDIAV harmless for any occurrence as a result of this promotion. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

8. The final date to earn forum points and to make 50 posts to the forum is May 15th, 2009. After that date, forum members who try to enter this tournament by completing their posts and points will not be allowed to play in this tournament!

If you haven’t had time to earn points and post into the forum or you’re a new forum member, here’s your chance to get into a really GREAT DEAL! Get your points and posts into the WDIAV forum by NO LATER than May 12th, 2009.

ANNOUNCEMENT - WDIAV POINTS WILL BE CHANGING

We’ve been working hard to try to create a point system that rewards forum members who contribute to our forum and who make it a fun and interesting place to visit. The DAY AFTER this special tournament, we will be announcing our new forum point system. At that time, all old WDIAV points will be come invalid.

Some of the new features:

* Automatic point calculation

* Automatic point redemption for passwords to tournaments

* Point rewards for all parts of the forum - threads, posts, photos, videos, referrals, blogs, comments, adding events to the calendar and much more.

* Redeem points for cash and gift certificates

Once again, we want to say thanks to all our members who have made our forum the success it is. Now we want to take it to the next step in enjoyment.

Regards, WDIAV Team

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If you were to have a chat with any normal guy or girl off the street about online Texas Hold’em poker, they almost certainly wouldn’t consider Texas Hold’em to be a game of practice, careful planning, or careful observation. More than likely when you refer to online poker with them, they would more than likely envision some friends lounging around their kitchen table chatting and drinking alcohol. They also may consider online poker to be a game of chance rather than expertise, more similar to a game of blackjack rather than a skill game, for example.

So the big question is: “Could I become rich by playing in poker tournaments?”. It may seem strange but, people actually do earn a living by playing poker. Some people not only win money by playing online poker, but also make a living by playing poker tournaments. The key point you have to remember about poker is that while you can play in a LV casino, beside craps tables and slots; in Texas Hold’em poker you are not contending against the house but against other Texas Hold’em contestants. Hence, in all reality, you are betting your poker chips against other contenders in a competition of aptitude as opposed to a game of luck.

You might be saying to yourself: “Isn’t being lucky a big part as well?” Obviously in online poker, nobody has any idea which cards will be dealt out. That doesn’t necessarily imply that you cannot play with a certain amount of pre-tournament know-how. One main issue to not forget in Texas Hold’em is that numbers will be your best friend. Math performs a very important part in the game of Texas Hold’em poker. Not to mention, that even if you become somewhat fortunate time and again the figures always seem to bring you back down to earth.

Don’t forget that Sin City casino games such as online Texas Hold’em where you are in reality contending against other actual contenders CAN be won. One will find that the more you play the game of online Texas Hold’em, you will realize that it is more of game of talent rather than natural chance.

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The two biggest poker industries around are joining forces presently in what is anticipated to be an enormously successful gamble. The hugely popular poker website FullTiltPoker.com has just announced that they are collaborating with WPT for the following World Poker Tour season. FullTiltPoker.com is on tap to be the key sponsor of the W.P.T.’s TV season, and the Texas Hold’em website is on tap to be highlighted in every single one of the shows which are shown on F.S.N.. Full Tilt Poker will secure all the control of the learning portion of the episodes.

Details of this agreement have not been made known thus far, but the pact is guaranteed to be a winner. This merger will bring together two particularly prominent poker companies. WPT which is an outstanding powerhouse on television due to F.S.N. and Full Tilt which has a massive Texas Hold’em poker fan base, not to mention a poker team containing players who have collected a total of ten W.P.T.E. titles and thirty-five WSOP bracelets. Full Tilt also backs many other Texas Hold’em players and now the Texas Hold’em poker site has begun providing Texas Hold’em poker teaching as well.

This union is certain to lure a brand new set of fans and is guaranteed to meet with the brand new distinction which poker is creating. This merger reveals World Poker Tour Enterprises’ yield of the online poker room market as World Poker Tour Enterprises will shortly close up their Texas Hold’em page World Poker Tour Enterprises online. Their subscription website ClubWPT.com will in all probability continue to run.

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The popular online poker room FullTiltPoker.com, just let everyone know that for the tenth time they will run the Full Tilt Online Poker Series or “FTOPS” a few weeks from now. This Texas Hold em event will launch with a $216 no-limit Texas Hold em championship. The Texas Hold em tournament will have a guaranteed prize pool of $15 million. This tournament will have 25 poker games leading up to the main event on Sunday, November 16th which will award a $2.5 million prize pool.

There is an opportunity for any FullTiltPoker.com player to join in the Texas Hold em tournament, by coming first in as many satellite games as they are able to do. Depending on how many satellite games you take first place in, the more FTOPS chips you will receive. If by chance you win more satellite Texas Hold em games than the other players, you will gain the tournament equivalent of two more FTOPS buy-ins. The satellite Texas Hold em games are being played at the moment, and are open for members of Full Tilt Poker.

The Full Tilt Poker Tournament began in 2006 when it consisted of 8 events and awarded $1 million in prizes. Since then, the Texas Hold Em Tournament has become hugely popular, with FTOPS IX holding 25 poker events and giving away prizes of over $15 million. This year’s tournament will present a Two-Day Event with incredible buy-in amounts ranging from $2500 to $5000. The first ever Two-Day Event was FTOPS V, that poker tournament had a winner of $400,000 in prize money. This year’s Two-Day event has a guaranteed pot of over $2 million. This event will commence on November 15th.

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The Biggest cash prize yet was announced by Bodog’s website, with the main Texas hold em event giving away $300,000. The total for the eight day poker event will be more than $650,000, over the course of the weeklong poker tournament. The Bodog Texas Hold em event will begin Sunday, September 28th and continues through Sunday, October 5th. The well-known Texas Hold em tournament website will also feature six “Bounty” tournaments, where the participants can win $109 in Texas Hold em credits for each Team Bodog poker competitor they knock out of the poker event. The biggest poker celebs will be playing all rivals in the poker tournament.

Team Bodog star, Justin Bonomo, is undeniably thrilled about the event. Over the course of his poker playing career, the 23 year old has brought home nearly $1.4 million. He says that if you thought the first poker championship was big, you will definitely be astounded with this year’s tournament and the prize money involved. He also challenges anyone that has the courage to eliminate him from the poker tournament to step forward.

The Kick off Bounty Tournament is going to be the first poker game in the championship on Sunday. Any poker player is able to buy-In right into this, and any of the other poker matches with cash. Or another option is to win their way into the events through the satellites which are presented every night during the Texas Hold em contest week. There will be six bounty events and seven “Championship Events”, which will feature higher buy-ins and deeper stacks.

There are thirteen eliminatories which will lead up to the main poker event on Sunday, October 5 at 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. This is the grand prize event with a guaranteed $300,000 in cash, despite the amount of poker players in the Bodog Open. All the players who decide to enter the main poker contest will have to shell out $500 for the buy-in and in exchange will be given 10,000 in tournament chips.

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Is it more effective to play tight or a loose poker game?

You will unquestionably hear both theories from your fellow poker players or possibly the so-called poker stars. Let’s have a look first at the tight Texas holdem’ players. All players including yourself will find it hard winning, if the entire table is playing a tight Texas holdem’ game. What could happen if you have a poker table full of tight Texas holdem’players is the poker players will wind up exchanging the smaller pots back and forth to each other. In the meantime the poker room is raking in heaps of your hard-earned cash, and that of your competitors. So now you may think, is it better to play loose? Well, in this circumstance the better Texas holdem’ players are going to lose a smaller number of hands, but at the end of it all nobody is going to triumph.

How can I improve my poker playing in the long run?

The answer to this question is as effortless as a piece of paper and a pen. A great tactic to discover a lot about your playing technique and tactic, is to keep some sort of record of your Texas holdem’ playing. You could write down this information during the poker game, and then transfer it to a database on your home computer. This can also help you learn about your challenger’s playing style, and what is the best tactic to conquer them.

Is it a good idea to use the same tactics for every poker game?

If you think that being predictable is a winning tactic for playing Texas holdem’, then you should think about varying your Texas holdem’ tactic. The Texas holdem’ pros have the same opinion that modifying your poker playing technique is the greatest way to confuse and bewilder your poker opponents. You should try a handful of tactics, find the ones that work for you and adjust them for each Texas holdem’ tournament.

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According to the 2006 World Series of Poker champ, Jamie Gold, he would be happy to be celebrated as the all time best bluffer in the world. But if his last Texas Holdem tournament is any indication, his wish may not come true ever.

The setting is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Vegas Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is close to the end of his run. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a pretty small raise with only one player biting the line. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie was thinking that Brad Booth would make some kind of move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a reasonable hand, but he was in a superb position to make a move considering the amount of dead money in the pot. Dicken folded, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

At this point there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie raised the wager by $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no possibility they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace was dealt. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

On the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s first thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus turning his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 most likely had an ace, but you have to protect it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts appeared on the turn, and Jamie folded to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 displayed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 beat Gold by bluffing with a higher hand, he forced a magnificent poker play and took the bluff to the end of the poker tournament.

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Considering the popularity of the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments around the world, selecting this type of event as a promoter is a wise choice and will generally end up with a highly profitable take at the end of the business day. With the popularity of the Texas Hold’em poker tournament, it is not surprising to see so many proprietors leaning on this type of event in order to bring in more players to the tournaments in general. With more players come more revenue and more in coming dollars from players who may not get the chance to compete very often in these types of tournaments. As world famous players are attracted to this type of event as well as new players who have never competed, the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments have done an ample job of bringing in players from all around the world in the competitions that exists at these types of tournaments

As players flock from all over to the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments that are so popular and effectively generate so much revenue, it becomes readily apparent that these types of poker tournament circuits and tours are calculated for the maximum impact and exposure to allow more and more players to come on board as they become interested in competing.

With so many players coming in to try their luck, skilled and unskilled, experienced and inexperienced, it is obvious that planners and organizers of these types of events, as well as the establishment proprietors, benefit from the accumulation of a tremendous amount of revenue. With the focus on holding these over-the-top events in as profitable an area as possible, the establishment proprietors and planners as well as organizers make every effort to ensure that every penny is generated through these types of events.

This is the key focus of these types of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, bringing in more and more players to the poker rooms and casinos in general. The major poker tournaments are a highly popular way of affecting this, as each tournament brings hundreds upon hundreds and sometimes thousands of players, creating an advertising and marketing bonanza that many industries would love to take advantage of. With all the popularity of the poker tournament and the poker competitions that are held around the world, it is not hard to see that there is a committed amount of revenue generated through these types of events. With these ultra-popular Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, it is not hard to see that there is a tremendous amount of revenue being generated through these types of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments and the popularity that they enjoy.

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You have most likely heard the miracle stories about dogs sensing stuff before it happens, or animals acting weird or behaving weird before major events happen. This is because animals rely on inner self, they trust and rely on instinct for survival. They don’t have time to thoroughly think things through or contemplate, they feel there gut trust it and react on it.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t think about decisions or problems and should just do what your first inner self is, because evaluation is an important and critical part of the decision making process. Going over all the variables presented to you to come up with a conclusion. So evaluation is important and should be done, but you should be able to feel your first natural instinct and let it play a major role in your decision making process. You should give your gut feeling the best value on the list of variables that you consider when making a decision.

For the majority of people they will never be able to tap into there inner self or will never be able to know when they hear it or feel it, this is because in order to hear and listen your gut feeling you need to have balance in your mind and body, you need to have emotional control over yourself, you need to be in touch with your feelings. Everyone has instinct and gut feeling so if you don’t know what your gut feeling is it’s probably because your mind is clouded and cannot clearly identify when your gut feeling kicks in and talks to you.

Being able to hear and listen to your gut feeling can become a very powerful tool in your poker playing, you have to listen to your gut though, the first instinct or thought you have is usually always the correct decision. Your mind is a powerful database more powerful then any computer and has a hard drive that stores every hand you play, every bet that people make, every situation that happens. So your gut feeling is usually what the mind feels based on your database of similar Hold’em poker situations.

So practice listening to your self, identify when your gut tells you something and believe in it and use it in life, use it on the Texas Hold’em tables. Hopefully this will help you improve your Hold’em game and make you a better player.

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When an event such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is advertised and hyped to such an extent that it is at the forefront of the popular conscious of the world, it can sometimes unbalance the level of activity and interest that takes place in the gaming and gambling capital in the desert. With this extremely polarizing effect, the players who are fascinated with the World Series of poker might forego traveling to the area for any other reason throughout the year, preferring to save up for the one big shot at the World Series of poker tournament. While it is true that the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is one of the most exhilarating and exciting experiences in the gaming and gambling world, it does not make sense to put all of the emphasis on this one event to the exclusion of all other events throughout the year, this is exactly what happens as the Las Vegas World Series of poker tournament becomes more and more hyped through marketing and advertising efforts around the world. With professional level players who travel less and less, intending to put all their effort into this one annual competition, the revenues generated throughout the rest of the year in Las Vegas tend to dwindle at the gaming and gambling tables only to resurge again when the famous events such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas are held. Beginning weeks in advance and lasting till long after the event itself is over, the hyping and marketing of the event has much to do with Las Vegas hotels and casinos and their determination to earn revenue from the investments that they have made in these types of events as well as the excitement and buzz that builds around the tournament on its own.

With the extreme popularity of this one type of event, it makes it easy to overlook the wealth of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments that take place throughout the year in various locations including Las Vegas and other cities around the world. By overshadowing and even eclipsing the popularity of the lesser-known Texas Hold’em poker tournament events, the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas creates a warping effect on the Las Vegas economy that is focused on the one world-famous event to the exclusion of all others, creating a vacuum of advertising and exposure that is detrimental to the Las Vegas economy in general due to the lack of year-round income and effort to stay strong at the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments.

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