Playing Poker Against Your Friends… Can It Work?

Does mixing friendship and poker really work when you are sat opposite each other in a poker game?

There are dividing opinions on whether there is even such a thing as friends at the poker table as Parker Talbot will attest to. But are there some instances where it can work?

888 takes a deep dive into the matter and asks poker pros Parker Talbot, Sofia Lovgren and Doyle Brunson about their experiences at playing at the poker table against their friends.

Find out what they all had to say in 888’s e-magazine here.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink

MILLIONS Online Will Return in 2019

A historic moment was created on December 4 as partypoker pulled off an incredible feat by setting the record for the biggest tournament in the history of online poker.

A total of 4367 entries were made across the five starting flights of the $5300 buy-in MILLIONS Online to create a mammoth prize pool of $21,835,000.

Portuguese player Manuel “Sheparentao” Ruivo living in the Netherlands took down the event last night with a massive $2,329,943 first-place prize which is also a record for the biggest prize ever awarded in an online poker tournament. He made a heads-up deal with Pim “ForMatherRussia” de Goede from Malta who also took home well over $2.3 million—the second biggest prize ever.

Two more players pocketed seven-figure prizes including the Slovenian player 'Scarmak3r’ who finished third for $1.3 million by qualifying via a $5.50 feeder satellite and winning almost 250,000 times the buy-in.

Apart from setting the record for the biggest online tournament prize pool and awarding the biggest prize, MILLIONS created several other mind blowing records.

Here are the following records which MILLIONS created:

  • Biggest Online Tournament Prize Pool
  • Biggest-ever Starting Flight in an Online Tournament
  • Biggest Turnout for a $5k buy-in Online Tournament
  • Awarded Biggest First-Place and Second-Place Prize in an Online Tournament
  • Created Four Millionaires in a Single Online Tournament
  • Awarded Biggest Prize Pool in Terms of Seats Guaranteed
  • Total Chips Crossed Over $4.3 Billion

The room has already made its plan to host another MILLIONS Online tournament in 2019.

“...following on from the success of the 2018 $20,000,000 GTD MILLIONS Online. 2019 will end with another phenomenal MILLIONS Online festival, where multiple millionaires will be made,” party wrote on its website.

However, no further details have been revealed yet including what the guarantee will be. Looking at how it went down, partypoker could return MILLIONS Online with yet another $20 million guaranteed if not more.

If they do, we’ll find out soon.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink

“This Year, Christmas is Coming Early”

Indeed, Christmas is coming early at PokerStars as the site has announced the dates for its upcoming online MTT series called “Winter Series”.

Winter Series will kick off on December 23 and run through January 7.

The series made its debut last year and had a guaranteed prize pool of $25 million in the dot-com market. It paid out a whopping $38 million across 152 tournaments.

This year, it is expected the site will up the ante by increasing the series overall guarantee to $35 million or even $40 million.

It is already running Winter Series special Spin & Go tournaments in its European segregated markets as well as the Italian market.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink

Tomorrow Run It Once Poker will Conduct its Third Beta Test

Poker fans around the world if you have been waiting for Phil Galfond’s much-awaited online poker site, Run It Once, then there is a good news for you as the room will be running its third beta-test tomorrow.

RIO poker room will conduct its third invite-only beta test on December 6 for three hours from 18:00 CET. Both NLHE and PLO will be available for test at €0.05/€0.10 Stakes.

“We’ve made many improvements and fixed a number of the bugs reported by users during the previous session, and we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our process,” it was mentioned on the beta-invite email.

The testing will be open to the invite-only participants who will be randomly selected. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so by logging in to their site and click on “I Want In!”

If selected, invitees will receive a confirmation email, and upon confirming, the site will send all the details including the download link for RIO software.

It is expected that RIO will once again be offering a deposit bonus as a gift to the best-testers testing for the first time. Players who deposit €10 will receive a free €30.

Previous testers will automatically receive an invite.

If you have more questions like when is the site launch, if it will be available in your region, deposit/withdrawal methods, what games will be available, you can check out Run It Once Poker: Everything You Need to Know on our big-brother site, pokerfuse, where you will find most of these questions answered.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink

Doug Polk Launches PLO Solver

Doug Polk, known for co-founding Upswing Poker and as one of the great No Limit Hold’em Heads Up players, has announced a new tool for learning Pot Limit Omaha.

PLO Matrix is a “preflop learning tool, tailored for different rake levels and stack sizes. “

Available for $49 per month, the PLO Matrix is designed for low, mid or high stakes players looking to improve their PLO game. The PLO Matrix covers all of the most common preflop situations so that best GTO approach can be learned.

Here Polk demos shows how the PLO Matrix will work.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink

Want To Host A Home Game?

PokerStars pro, Jaime Staples is bringing you a vlog all about how to host the perfect home poker game.

So if you are looking to get a home game going and don’t know where to start then look no further.

Check out Jaime’s top tips below.

published 5 years, 3 months ago • by permalink