The Poker Lab Rat

The United States has often been accused of being a country of contrasts and contradictions but this news item takes the cake.

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San Antonio police raided the home of World Series of Poker finalist Richard Lee early Wednesday.

Armed with a search warrant, members of the San Antonio Police Department Vice Squad conducted a search and seizure at Lee’s home in the 100 block of Geddington and found signs of an illegal gambling operation, police said.

Betting slips with names of players and gambling debts were also found, police said.

Police also said they found a person of interest at a computer looking at an illegal gambling Web site. Undercover officers seized money, several luxury cars and high-end computer equipment, police said.

Lee, who won nearly $3 million in the World Series of Poker in early August, has not been named a suspect and no arrests were made.

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RATTY SAYS :

OK - so a professional poker player has “high end” computer equipment, luxury cars, and a wad of cash and was looking at an “illegal” gambling site … where is the surprise in that ?!

Only in America can a man win $3,000,000 in a poker tournament that is televeised around the nation, and then find his house raided because someone is practising by playing a little online cards in the privacy of his own home !!

WTF is going on with LAW ENFORCEMENT?
Aren’t there better things that you could be doing with tax payer dollars ??

Sheesh !!

While the PokerLabRat.com team get our online casino testing & analysis underway for the next quarter here’s some links to a couple of really useful online gambling web pages you may not have come across yet.

GoonersGuide.com has recently published a couple of really useful Fact sheets called ‘poker room shootouts’ where you can quickly compare current info on the top online poker sites - all on one page.

1. A shootout between the top 12 recommended Poker Rooms (so you can answer questions like “which poker room offers the best bonus, has plenty of poker freerolls and accepts Maestro card or Moneybookers?”)

2. A comparison of the best poker sites for online Poker Tournament play (this page lets you compare sites from the Microgaming Prima Poker Network, Ongame and Tribeca Tables for bonuses, tournament options, freerolls and payment methods, payout, etc)

3. A shootout of the top 3 Prima Poker Sites (No - all Microgaming Poker Network sites are not the same!)

… and for those of you who fancy some other online gambling action the same site (www.Goonersguide.com) offers some other useful comparisions like:
Best Online Blackjack Sites, Best Microgaming Casinos and even a review of the world’s most popular online Backgammon site.

(Did you know betting on Backgammon is not illegal even in jurisdictions like the US where they are getting pretty tough? - Backgammon is classed as a ‘game of skill’ not ‘game of chance’ or ‘online gambling’ - you can make some good money playing cash games and tournament backgammon. Have a look at the review of GammonEmpire here).

Mike

About GoonersGuide.com - It’s owned and operated by Red Card Media Limited and has been online since 1999. Goonersguide.com specialises in UK & European Football previews & betting tips - but has diversified into other online gambling content to help punters fill in time - and potentially make some money - between football seasons and fixtures.  

Bet365 Poker (aka Poker365) is rated #1 Online Poker Site for the 3rd Quarter of 2006. Bet365 Poker (the poker arm of leading UK Bookie Bet365 and a leading member of Microgaming’s Prima Poker Network) has held this award for the last 2 consecutive quarters.

Will an online poker room be able to surpass the Bet365 Poker offering and steal Bet365 Poker’s ‘Best Poker Room’ award for Q4?

Ninety four (94) online poker rooms were Lab Tested in Q3 and an incredible one hundred & ten (110) poker rooms have approached PokerLabRat.com to be included in our Q4 ratings. There are some newcomers that look promising (like Betsson Poker) - and a few more long established poker rooms that have implemented serious changes to software, systems, alliances and even business practices that might just put them in the running!

This is far more than a poker shoot-out between Microgaming’s Prima Poker, the Ongame Poker Network and Tribeca Tables Poker and whether proprietary specialised poker offerings such as Full Tilt Poker and Poker.com can cut the mustard.

Our multi-national team of intrepid online poker room assessors perform formal scored analysis across a wide range of ‘nice to have’, ‘must have’ and ‘hell no’ online poker features (see our assessment method summarised HERE).

The assessments of online poker rooms for the 4th quarter are about to start with new reviews, ratings and comments due onsite at PokerLabRat.com in early October. PokerLabRat.com only reviews and recommends the top 10-12 online poker rooms that pass our tests so it’s going to be a busy month!

Elle

Introducing Betsson Poker - another newcomer to the PokerLabRat.com top 12 recommended online poker sites this quarter.

Betsson™ is part of a very successful & rapidly growing Swedish betting & gaming company. Betsson Poker complements Betsson’s sports book & betting exchange is a leading member of the Ongame Poker Network.

So what’s different?

Betsson Poker offers top-of-the-line poker play in 17 languages & the lobby is always full of cash game & tournament play opportunities to suit all time zones. Site languages include English, German, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish & Turkish - with payment & support services well established to cater for this global mix.

The emphasis at Betsson is on excellent Freeroll & tournament play opportunities - for example the $10,000 Monthly VIP Freeroll or the chance to win a seat in the Ongame Poker Classic $5,000,000 in Barcelona.

Satellites for entry to the Ongame Network Poker Classic are already up & running but in August Betsson’s special 40 seat Freeroll gives you the chance to win satellite tickets to the Poker Classic and/or a fully valued ticket to the Poker Classic main-event.

More details on site. (The Ongame Classic tournament starts online the 4th of November & continues in Barcelona the 2nd and 3rd of December).

   Good luck at the tables!

   Elle

   PS: Here’s the link to a full site
   review of Betsson Poker

For those of you who have not tried Tribeca Tables based online Poker - here’s an excellent excuse as this is a great join bonus! If you’re already a member at VC Poker here’s a reason to make a quick deposit as this is a an excellent Online Poker reload bonus too.

VC Poker (from the stable of Victor Chandler the top UK Bookmaker) has just announced a special limited time joining/reload bonus.

Deposit into a real money poker account at VC Poker using the code ‘augustchips‘ and when you deposit $20 (just over a tenner for the Brits) or more you are eligible for a bonus of up to 50% of your deposit free - up to $500.  Offer ends Sunday 27th of August.  VC Poker will also post you out a special pack of VC Poker playing cards. (The standard VC Bet joining offer is ‘up to $300 as a 30% first deposit match’).

In addition to the bonus you’re automatically invited to play in a special Freeroll tournament where the top 10 players win a luxury poker chip set each (500 quality chips in an aluminium lockable case).  The Freeroll will play on Wednesday 30th August at 20:00 GMT / 21:00 BST and is restricted to the first 999 players that use the poker bonus code ‘augustchips’.

Want to know more about VCPoker? Have a look at our poker room review HERE.
Want to go straight to VCPoker to see for yourself - here’s a link to the poker room.

This is what the tables look like…

Hope to meet you across a VCPoker table soon!

Elle.

One of the tough things for newbie players like myself is trying to get involved in online tournaments and learn while enjoying the experience.

We all know that freerolls attract loads of loose play and all-in merchants, while paying and playing in tournaments of $10+ still seems a little pricey to me.

And let’s face it winning tournments is nearly impossible - and even making the final table is only for the top 1-2% of players in any tourney. So what should a fledgling player be looking for?

First I’d say - play a few FREEROLLS - and make sure that you can get into the top 10% of players - no matter how loose they are just stay focused and get into that range.

Second, aim to make the FREEROLL cashline. At PRIMA that is 260 places from anywhere between 5000 to 10000 players. So you are in the top 2-5%. It’s tough but it is achieveable if you don’t play lose your head and play loose.

Third, get into small entry tournaments, with $1, $2 or $5 buy-ins. The target is simple here - get into the cash. Usually for paid tournaments the top 10% will be paid out.

That seems an easier target - but of course there will be far fewer “muppets” playing - so you’ll find that a challenge.

Then it’s just a case of tuning your play - getting used to the increasing blinds and chip totals and aiming to finish in the top 20, then the final table and eventually plan on winning the whole damn thing.

Good luck - and I hope to see you on the tables.

RELATED LINKS :

Prima Network Sites :
(Large tournaments all day, 1000+ players)
Bet365 Poker, 32 Red Poker, Spin Palace Poker

On-Game Network Sites :
(Medium Tournaments all day, 200-500 players)
Hollywood Poker, Canbet Poker, EuroBet Poker

Independant sites :
(Small-medium tournaments, 50-200 players)
Poker.com Poker, BetFred Poker

Big Entry Sites :
( Several $200-$500 buy-in tourneys, for serious players only)
Fulltilt Poker

Eds comment: Mike is one of our 12 testers and provides invaluable ‘newbie’ input into our poker site assessment & rankings. Thanks Mike for all your input to date - another round of PokerLabRat site assessments is about to start for the 4th Q - we’ll test 90 online poker sites next month and share our findings.

Following on from the last post where we’ve had hassles with the Prima Poker Network - here’s a suggestion - try Ongame for a change!

A new poker site qualified for entry into our top recommended online poker rooms list this quarter. Congratulations to the crew at Hollywood Poker as PokerLabrat are fairly demanding!

Hollywood Poker is Costa Rica licenced and a key member of the Ongame Poker Network. Hollywood Poker shares tournament players with other PokerLabRat recommended Ongame sites like Eurobet Poker and Canbet Poker but has some great differentiating features! It looks a bit different too (spot the extra cleavage, plaid jacket and missing handbag? See image below).

Hollywood Poker is an excellent site for USA residents to play online poker!

It is really well geared up for hassle free Hold’em for Americans. Many sites struggle to provide a good safe site for USA residents as jurisdiction, payment and/or support issues get in the way. Hollywood Poker has got it right!

Joining and player bonuses at Hollywood Poker really favor Amercians too – anyone can earn the cash bonuses (of 500% deposit match up to $1000!) but USA residents are eligible for extra free stuff (e.g. iPod Nanos, iPod Shuffles, Poker Magazine Subscriptions, Poker T-shirts and caps). A bit of a bugger if you’re not American though    but the bonus dollars, $17,500 in freeroll prizes each month and quality poker on offer is certainly not to be sneezed at.

‘Where the stars come to play’ is the theme that runs through Hollywood Poker – and each week you can play in at least 3 Celebrity poker tournaments – some include celebrity bounty prizes.  (These are ‘real celebrities’ (ha!) not ‘poker celebrities’ like Full Tilt’s …)

Have a look at our review of Hollywood Poker, see how Hollywood’s bonuses compare to other top online poker rooms  or visit them to see for yourself.

PS: It’s still not too late to win or buy entry into the $5,000,000 (that’s 5 million dollar) Ongame Network Poker Classic. Hollywood Poker’s tournament schedule gives you a number of great opportunities.

It is just me - or has everyone been having problems logging on and playing at the PRIMA network over the last few days?

Certainly we’ve seen the number of players registering for FREEROLLS climb dramatically towards 8,000+ players on average - and that seems to be having a damaging affect on the the state of the network.

I’m frequently getting average, poor and bad connections to the game out - and a connection status like that frequently means being dropped off - missing complete hands and extended pauses followed by frantic flicking of that cards on screen.

The upshot of it all is that if you get a bad connection and you want to play then you find yourself being forced into going “all-in” prior to the flop - just because you cannot be sure that you’ll be online to call any raises that come down.

So next time you see a player go all-in early - be aware that they may not be “a muppet player” - they may simply be suffering as the PRIMA network collapses under the load of so many FREE players.

If you’re playing on PRIMA - please post a comment and let us know of you currently having any problems at all?

Well it was getting to be about time I succeeded in one of those FREEROLL things - and at lunchtime today we finally got into the top 260 places and in the money.

Over 7000 entrants for it - and it took just a shade under 2 hours to battle it down into the money before finally going all-in under the increasing pressure of the blinds and finishing in 220th place.

Our reward for the effort? Just $1.50. But it’s not the size of the pot - it’s the achievement of a blog target that counts.

So that’s a nice slice of cheese as a reward for me. Catch ya later … I’ve got some well earned lunch to tuck into …

RELATED LINKS :

32Red Prima Poker, Bet365 Prima Poker, SpinPalace Prima Poker.

House of Cheese online shop

If you’re searching for sites that offer you POKERBET look no further! (We’ve had quite a few search engine hits for this in August).

Pokerbet is not actually playing poker – just a side betting game to challenge your skills at picking and backing a good poker hand.

Pokerbet lets you bet on the outcome of an imaginary hand of poker. Place a bet on your system-allocated hand before the hole cards are revealed and then you can bet again as the community cards are dealt. You can play for free - but real money play tests how highly you rate your poker nous!

You can access PokerBet directly from the real poker tables at the following great online poker sites.

Bet365 Poker – a Microgaming Poker Network site (aka Prima Poker Network)

VCPoker (aka Victor Chandler Poker) – runs on Tribeca Tables software

Ladbrokes Poker – runs on Microgaming Poker software but not part of the Prima Poker Network.

PS: For other ways of placing side bets on poker – have you tried Fulltilt Poker’s Player to Player payments? You can transfer funds from your Full Tilt Poker account to another player’s Full Tilt Poker account - directly. Hmmm. No one else offers this facility that we are aware of.