Poker Guru Blog

Patricia Clark was a 51 year old preacher living in Chicago. Last Thursday, she visited a friend’s house in order to collect a $300 debt. Unfortunately she was persuaded to sit in on the game to give her friends a chance to win some money back.

Being a skilled poker player, Patricia managed to increase her winnings, and after she took an $800 pot, she was accused of cheating by the 46 year old host Rosie Morris. Patricia denied these accusations, and headed for the fridge to add some ice to her drink. This is when the alleged killer Rosie Morris fetched her gun from her bedroom and completely unexpectedly shot Patricia in the back, chest and head - the police say.

Patricia Clark                                                       Rosie Morris

Patricia was taken to the Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died of her wounds on Saturday. Rosie Morris fled the house after the shooting, but later turned herself in.

Let’s face it a good portion of our time these days is taken up in front of a computer. Either it be for grinding online or for entertainment, computers are now playing a larger role in all of our lives. With so much time spent in front of a computer it is important to think of our well-being and comfort levels. Facing these important matters is essential to create our own oasis. One of the best steps we can take to get closer to this can be with the use of the right equipment i.e. the right chair.

The Aeron chair designed in 1994 is still said to be one of the most comfortable and ergonomic chairs available on the market today. Just one of the many products that the American office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller has on offer it definitely stands out for its uniqueness. It is easy to see that the chairs designers Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf had one goal when designing this chair to make a chair that offers a wide range of adjustability.

Liv Boeree opens up in her latest video interview when she invited the Poker Players Magazine into her parent’s country home in Sittingbourne, UK where she was brought up. In the two part video interview with Liv not only do you get to see around the family home and meet her mum, but you can also get an interesting insight into her poker career and future plans.

The 25 year old UK born glamour girl has made a career out of being a TV presenter and model in the UK was first introduced into the poker world when she was selected to appear on the TV show "Ultimatepoker.com Showdown" in 2005. After getting a taste of poker Liv continued to play and improve her skills and it wasn’t until April 2010, when she got her big break, winning EPT San Remo, which shot her to poker superstar status.

Men Nguyen the Vietnamese poker professional also known as "The Master", has something to smile about this week after winning  the $10,000 buy-in Seven Card Stud World Championship and securing his 7th WSOP gold bracelet. His win came in his favourite form of poker so there was no surprise when he was quoted saying: “This is my game….I love to play Stud. Believe me, in any Stud tournament I will be there to play against the best in the world.”

The final table of the poker tournament saw a heads-up match between Men Nguyen and Brandon Adams who battle it out for the number one spot. But in the end it came down to Nguyen’s king of pair that crushed Adam’s pair of queens, giving "The Master" the number one spot and the $395,000 first place prize.

A recent article published by the Los Angeles Times covered the subject of poker players using performance-enhancing substances to improve their gameplay. These allegations were backed up by a recent study performed by Nova Southeastern University in Florida. The world-wide study conducted by the university interviewed over 190 poker players from all different player groups, ranging from recreational to professional.

From the study the university found that players were not just using conventional energy boosters, such as caffeine and energy drinks: 28% of players admitted taking at least one prescription medicine to increase their performance; 34% confessed to using marijuana to increase concentration and calm their nerves, and 8% hook themselves up on cocaine.

Move over, Terminator; it’s time for the robots to terminate the online poker world! Or at least, this is what people think in Indiana, where they have announced the First Annual Poker Bots Only Tournament. The tournament is set to kick off in August, and the only thing that will set the competition apart  will be the sophistication of software programming.

Organized for the undergraduates of the Indiana University, the game played will be Limit Hold’em and first prize is set at $200. This is a great way for the students to test their creative programming abilities to outwit each other. All poker bots are required to be programmed beforehand and once the tournaments starts, the decision-making is left solely to the bot.

In this video Victory Poker showcases some of the hottest women that can be found on Earth. These models are not just sexy, but they also love to play poker. Check out the Victory Poker girls, a group of some of the nicest, sexiest women in the world! Sara Jean Underwood, Jessica Burciaga, Jessa Lynn Hinton, Natalie Marie, Jesse Preston and Emma Glover.

The Swiss poker scene joins that of the ongoing American gambling restrictions, with the Swiss Supreme Court ruling this month that poker is a game of chance and should only be played at a casino. The Court reviewed opinions by experts from both sides of the arguments, but made its final decision to ban land-based and online poker, with the only exception being casinos and private homes.

The ones pushing for the ban were suggesting that poker is a game of luck and that strategy, position and bluffing play no part in winnings. On the other hand, poker supporters, experts and fans tried their best to prove that poker does not depend on sheer luck, but is more a game of skill and supplied several examples to back their statements.

Dutch poker pro Joran van der Sloot has made a nice living out of playing poker and has travelled most of the world using his poker skills to pay for his way. But the 23-year-old Dutch man has more than just poker on his mind, though: police considers him as the main suspect of kidnapping the American teenager Natalee Holloway in 2005 and killing Stephany Flores on the May 9, 2010, on the same day of Natalee’s disappearance five years earlier.

Joran van der Sloot and his brothers were first arrested on June 9, 2005, as suspects in the disappearance of American Natalee Holloway. Van der Sloot and his brothers were released on September 3, 2005, due to lack of evidence.  Natalee’s disappearance has frustrated authorities and garnered wide attention on television and in newspapers in the United States and Europe.

Joran van der Sloot and Natalee Holloway

Joran van der Sloot was arrested in Chile, four days after fleeing from Peru following the discovery of the body of 21-year-old Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez, who was beaten and stabbed to death in the Hotel Tac Sac in Lima, Peru. The room in which her body was found was coincidentally rented out under the name Joran van der Sloot. On top of that, witnesses claim to have seen the couple enter the room together and police also have video footage of Joran and Stephany at the Atlantic Casino the day before the murder.

As I have already mentioned in a previous post, Phil ’Unabomber’ Laak is attempting to break the world record in playing non-stop poker for eighty hours to beat the current 74-hour record, held by Paul Zimber.

Phil Laak

Paul set the previous record at the time and venue of the WSOP Europe last year. Playing heads-up for more than 74 hours straight, he managed to beat 102 opponents out of 183.

Phil has now embarked on his mission to break this record, which started on the 2nd June in the Bellagio and can be watched through the live stream video on the American poker player’s website.

CardPlayer Magazine is also closely following this special event. They have just recently checked on Phil's progress in a video interview which can be viewed below. 

Absolute Poker is looking to its players to demonstrate their creative side in its two separate promotions the Craziest Last Longer Bet (CLLB) and the Table Skin Design Contest (TSDC). Both of these contests started on the 10th of May and will finish on the 8th of June and competitors will be judged on their creativeness.

In the Craziest Last Longer Bet, Absolute Poker is seeking for players to make a YouTube video of a bet against a friend. If you believe you can outlast your friend in the WSOP $1,000 NLH Event #54 challenge him with a bet. Of course Absolute Poker will be looking for the most creative and mind-blowing bet and will send the winner and his mate to Las Vegas to challenge it out at the WSOP. The winner and the loser of the two friends will be judged by who last the longest in the WSOP $1,000 NLH Event #54.

Here is just one of the many bets so far:

On the 6th of June the world's biggest online poker room, PokerStars launches a brand new poker league on Twitter. If you're a fan of Twitter and play on PokerStars this league is for you.

PokerStars is asking Twitter users to express their joy in a 140 characters or less (make sure you tag each tweet with #tpoker) and they will be looking for the best tournament tweets. It is not clear yet if your tweets will count towards your Twitter Poker League listings.

There is an official Twitter Poker League website, which can be reached via this link.

Although his brother, Robert Mizrachi started the final table of the Event #2 ahead of Michael, it was Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi who ended winning the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. The final table show down saw The Grinder go up against the Russian Vladimir Schmelev in a heads-up match, who he outwitted, to win his first WSOP bracelet and the $1,559,046 cash prize.

The winning of over a million and half dollars came to Michael as a blessing in time of need considering he was almost bankrupt. In a previously posted article we looked how Michael was in serious financial trouble and even facing losing his house because of his unwise spending sprees and a huge tax bill. This latest win will pull Michael into the green enabling him to pay his tax bill of $339,711 which has been hunting him.

Considering Michael was broke, I hope he did not to sell too much part of his action.

A little more than a month after Cole South said his farewells and left CardRunners, Brian Townsend is now also throwing in the towel announcing his exit from the most known coaching site. Full Tilt Poker wasted no time in their announcement that they will be immediately dropping Brians unique avatar and withdrawing his sponsorship deal which was tied to his CardRunners instructor status.

Brian told in his blog on the 2nd of June that his resonation came because he felt he has been tied down to the company for too long and would like to concentrate more on playing poker. Although Full Tilt Poker has taken away Brian’s playing nick name and unique avatar which held “red pro” status. He will continue to play a Full Tilt Poker but under his old nickname “sbrugby” once again. Brian will not leave CardRunners completely and will continue to participate on the website’s forum, but not as an official instructor.

I’m sure most of you have already seen the 1994 film titled Maverick, but I still feel like it needs to be mentioned. It is an all-time classic, and despite my feelings that this movie has about as much to do with poker as I do with ballet, it is still definintely worth a watch.

Believe it or not, I have only just seen this film last week. I made four attempts to sit through the whole film, and on my fourth day I finally succeeded and made it to the end. I always wondered why the film was considered the ultimate poker movie. I personally think it doesn’t live up to these expectations and for the people who believe it does, I suggest they take a look at the film Rounders, they’ll come out quite surprised.

Overall, I would have to say this film is boring. Not a bit, but a lot. It also tries to be funny, but most of the time the humour feels pushed and becomes rather irritating than hilarious. It’s like when you go to see a movie at a cinema and the film is so bad that you sink in your chair, hoping no one sees you watching it. This movie gives you a similar feeling. But luckily, it is on dvd and in the safety of your own home you can easily switch it off, just like I did for four days in a row.
To mention one positive to come out of the film to help bear the two hours would have to be Jodie Foster (Annabelle Bransford), who is so glamorous and beautiful that it sends your brain into a trance just seeing her walking around.