Casinos and online gambling sites have one golden rule, thou salt not tolerate an empty table. Empty tables mean no players, mean no money coming in, mean no PROFIT (what? You thought they opened up just for our benefit).

The typical definition of a prop player is someone  who gets paid an hourly rate to start poker games or to keep them  active. Prop players are not Shills. Shills are people who play poker with the Casinos (or online Poker sites) money. Props still play with their own money but they also pick up an hourly wage.

Many Online Poker sites advertise for Prop players, it seems to be a win / win scenario as they websites get tables up and running an should (theoretically) never have a situation where someone wants to sit and play poker but can’t see anyone else at a table so clicks off elsewhere, while the Prop gets paid a bonus for every hour they do something that they were planning on doing anyway. Result!

Poker not being a 9 – 5 job means that a prop can work any hours of the day or night, and depending on the time of day, a prop may work anywhere from one to twenty games. If you start early in a session, you may be requested (by your bosses) to leave your place when there’s a queue for the table. Plus as you can’t play poker on your own (how would you bluff?) sometimes there can be as many as four props in a game early on because customers aren’t there (dragging their feet to the table). In cases like this the Props leave one at a time depending on their position against the blind, so games should end up Prop free when they’re full of “real” players. Playing online, with a lot more tables available bosses won’t expect their props to give up their seats.  Don’t expect to make a great pot of cash if you’re a prop the hourly wage won’t make you rich (even of you play 24-7) but it’s a very useful “bonus” to bulk your bankroll, but the real money is made off of your winnings.

If it’s not for the money, what’s the big advantage of being a prop? Well you get plenty of practice (at a reduced rate) also as you’re a prop and therefore “working” it instils a sense of discipline into your game. You should never get drink when you’re a prop, and as you represent the casino you should be well up on your poker etiquette and the customs of the game.

Playing poker means also meet plenty of characters, unfortunately some of them resent the Prop, they think as you’re an employee you get special treatment (as if) and they seem to forget that the chips you lose are still your chips. Also if you’re a Prop you don’t get to pick your games, if your boss calls on you to Play Omaha a when all you want is hold ‘em, I don’t matter ‘cos they’re paying your salary.

Online poker props are usually paid to play in games where the house wants them to play and sometimes get moved from great games to terrible ones, just when they get ripe. The big difference is that casino props are paid by the hour, while online props are paid in a variety of ways, like by the hand or depending on the amount of action at their table. Some online poker cardrooms let you be a “temporary prop” and offer players a bonus to join a specific game for a set number of hands.

If you fancy being a prop (for whatever reason) don’t forget that a job is a job, even when your being payed for playing.

Sit n Gos have a huge amount of strategy involved, which makes it a cool game for intermediately players.  There are many features that you can control to increase your chances of moneying or even winning the tournaments.

A sprint or a marathon?

Sit And Go isn’t all about winning the most dollars, it’s about being the last man standing. There is a difference. Beware the wild “poker joker” who goes all in on the opening hand, more popular on Sit n Gos for some reason. I tend to leave them to it as on  the one hand going all in on two cards insults my intelligence, we’ve all seen AA beaten by a 2 when the centre cards say 3, 4 8 Q & 2. The gods of poker don’t respect these players either.

The golden rule with Sit n Go is to play tight and aggressive, they sometimes can be a short game. You should play tighter especially early on (so play fewer but solider hands). In later positions you can loosen up a little and play more hands. This is because you are last (or later) to act and have the benefit of seeing what the other are doing. Golden rule #2 is learn and trust solid pre-flop hands that’s because (as opposed to ring games) sit and Goes  are more consistent this means it also offers less swings, thrills  and drama than playing Multi Table tournaments, and if that isn’t enough for you, Regular SnG play is a great way to improve your game. Try and restrict your play to premium hands in the early stages, then play more starting hands in later position as the number of players at the table drop. And then bring out the big guns and killer tactical play towards the end of the game.

What a lot of poker players like about Playing in single table tournaments get a lot of bang for your buck, you pay in and get a stack of chips (but all you can really lose is your original stake) so even if you’re up $10,000 (in chips) at one point you might only ever be losing $50.

Also Sit and go can be a very profitable game, if there’s say nine to a table you can finish in the money if you’re smart enough to last longer than six others (although rules vary). And importantly S&Gs have a pre-defined risk (ie. you only stand to lose the buy-in). Sit and Go poker tournaments tend to run for about an hour (they up the blind either whenever a player is eliminated or after a qualified amount of time) but, (As with all games of poker) patience isn’t just a virtue but an essential aspect. Other games require patience too, but with Sit and Go once you’re out … your out.

Randy Couture

Randy Couture, the Ultimate Fighting (UFC) Legend and poker ambassador, is hosting a Charity Poker Run by motorcycle to raise money and awareness  for the veterans of America’s armed forces.

In aid of his own Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, the fighter will lead the “Motorcycle Charity Poker Run” on Saturday, 7th May and has sent out an open invitation to riders to meet up at O School Choppers in Las Vegas to then ride alongside him and several other celebrities.

Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke are amongst the celebrities who are rumoured to attend, as well as actor Kevin James, NFL reporter Jay Glazer and magician Chris Angel. As at his other charity events, Couture is expected is to invite numerous UFC and Mix Martial Arts (MMA) stars.

The Charity Poker Run will involve the participants riding to different checkpoints where they will draw a card at each. The riders must attempt to make the best five-card poker hand they can in order to win. The prize pool will include cash, signed memorabilia, Xtreme Couture clothing and and Affliction leather Jacket, amongst other goodies.

Xtreme Couture GI Foundation was founded by Couture to honor for the veterans of America’s armed forces. The foundation was especially formed to raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families. To date, more than 24,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war against terrorism, which doesn’t include the many more suffering the mental effects. Many of the injuries are traumatic amputations, gunshot wounds, burns and blast injuries that will retire these brave men and woman from the armed forces. Even though some of these men and woman are severely injured, they have the courage, strength and determination to win this battle.Foundation’s aims to help these vets fulfil any of their unmet needs as they return back to civilian life.

Poker Riders can sign up for the event on the day (May 7) at the start point, O School Choppers, Las Vegas. Registration starts at 9 a.m. that morning, will costs $25 per rider and $10 per passenger.

Forget the big scores they’ll come along on time but if you want to be there for when they arrive you have to play the long game, and that means obey the three Ds Discipline, Discipline and Discipline. Don’t fret and don’t worry about fancy plays, just start with solid sensible poker and take advantage of the cards you’re dealt.
Discipline #1 don’t play every hand, obvious enough but as an example don’t play every hand you get just cos it’s got an Ace in it. Single aces with small kickers will often leave you chasing leprechauns, by that I mean going after something that doesn’t exist. Play like a grown up, this IS NOT high school you are not after some king of cool nickname; you are here to play cards. If you have a strong hand played it in a straightforward manner with raises and re-raises, don’t bother with tricky play, slow-playing or cheap theatrics. Leave this to the final tables.

Remember you need a reason to call, as in “is your hand good enough” – but a great early tip is if our hand is good enough to call, ask yourself is it good enough to raise. Either your hand is tough enough for a raise or it is not played at all. This discipline very swiftly separates the men from the boys.

Grow balls early (this is similar to the aggressive tip above), make continuation bets. By that I mean raised pre-flop, it scares off those players trawling for good hands and protects any bluffs you’ll make later. Learn to bounce back, and by that I certainly don’t mean fly all in on the very next hand. It’s true that tha takes heart but show me a cardsman who was nothing but heart and I’ll show you a man waiting for a beating. Be sensible, after you’ve lost a big pot wait for something with showdown value, something worth playing. Best piece of advice I ever heard was when a man said to me, “Going all in after a bad beat, you might as well be throwing in a towel. Those players are looking for an excuse to be beat”. Look a little harder for your excuse; make your beating work a little harder.

Come back soon for more tips from Grandpa.

John Racener

John Racener, the runner-up in last year’s WSOP Main Event, has revealed more details and also retracted some of the more personal aspects of an alleged cheating scandal that surrounds Sorel Mizzi in a telephone interview released  by Marco Valerio of QuadJacks.com.

The incident first came to light after PokerStars Caribbean Adventure held last January. Racener gave permission to Shaun Deeb, seemingly a one-man sounding board for scandals on forum central, TwoPlusTwo.com, to publish the story of the incident back then in January.

A poker challenge between Racener and Mizzi during their stay in the Bahamas provides the background for the tale and is best-described by Deeb’s forum post version of Racener’s primary material: “Sorel and John during PCA were doing lots of gambling towards the end of the trip Sorel says let’s play Chinese and says we should also play with a joker. They also did some weird scoring when whoever won most pts/hands every 10 hands the winner gets $5k, Sorel had tried to bump up the stakes a few times as well to might higher. So, they are rotating the deal and the dealer gets the 14th card in 1 of their hands.”

The post continued, “Racener has played a ton of live poker, so he tends to know procedure and what to look for. He notices Sorel’s shuffling is leaving the 2 bottom cards in place they haven’t moved from the deck. As he starts to deal, he notices the first card he deals himself is the bottom card of the deck. He keeps watching Sorel and once he’s done dealing, John says he’s going take the hand with 14 cards in it Sorel goes into a tantrum saying it’s his hand his deal. … John says I know what you were doing picks up the 14 card pile and shows the bottom card, which is the joker. He tells Sorel he’s not paying him whatever amount he’s down $5-$20k and that he’s a scumbag etc.”

Mizzi, a player with a reputation oft-blighted by cheating scandals, later responded to the thread and negated his perceived role as cheater. Further mud had been slung in the aftermath as Racener is alleged to have claimed that Mizzi had initially blamed the incident on the effects of prescription drugs he had been taking after a death in the family. Racener has more recently played down this aspect of the “debate” but has revealed details of other occasions on which he believes Mizzi had played unfairly or looked for an exaggerated advantage.

“Since this episode, (Mizzi) cryingly begged me over phone calls and text messaging not to say anything… I just had no interest in hiding this. For him to continue doing it to other people is just unfair.” Wrote Racener.

Patrik Antonius

The 821 starters in the Main Event of the 2011 Aussie Millions at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, had been whittled down to only eight to decide this year’s final table.

American Randy Dorfman lead the pack at the start as the chip leader with a stack of 3,895,000 – approximately a quarter of the chips on the table.

The remaining gang of thieves at the final table includes three Englishmen in Chris Moorman, James Keys and actor Sam Razavi. They will take on a equivalent-sized team of Australians int the form of Jeff Rossiter, David Gorr and Michael Ryan.

The biggest name of the last eight was the first to be eliminated with Finn Patrick Antonius being expelled just at the time of writing to burst the eight-man bubble after only an hour. Limping-in with kings against two cute, I mean two Q-T pairs flopped by David Gorr has sent Antonius back to the hotel.

Thirty minutes later, with this blogger being sucked-in to the action, (albeit virtually thanks to some great online commentary all the way from the other side of world), the action sees Englishman Chris Moorman also going out after a risky all-in against now-chip leader James Keys. As Keys predicted in some pre-match video interviews, it is likely that a number of players will fall early on. Moorman held on though, and managed to double up.

There’ll be more to follow in a few hours as this game will surely go in to the early hours or even further down under. If we get a quick result, read back here later to see how it went down. There are $2 million dollars up for grabs for first place and that is certainly a reason to play aggressive but we all have to time our runs, a bluff can win it, as this year’s “Shuffle up and deal” local star, Joe Hachem, proved at the WSOP.

The advancement of the bill to the Senate floor is highly newsworthy after the recent arrest of five men for playing a home game in the town of Mount Pleasant, S.C. Such a bill would oust strict gambling laws that have banned home games with cards or dice for over 100 years. The recent case, heard in October 2010, found the men guilty of gambling for playing Texas Hold’em in a private residence.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, the player and aficionado watchdog for the poker indusrtry, commented through a press release: “We are encouraged by the Senate’s overwhelming vote to replace the antiquated law restricting South Carolina’s basic citizen’s rights to enjoy a friendly game of poker in their home. Though the debate is far from over, this step represents a significant opportunity for lawmakers to fix misguided legislation on behalf of the individual rights of their constituents.”

Attempting to prove that Texas Hold’em poker has the necessary elements to be considered a game of skill and not chance, potentially proving it not to be an act of gambling under S.C. law means the case has gone as far as the sending of an appeal to the State Supreme Court.

615 players participated in the event to create a prize pool that went over $120,000. The first- and second-place finishers made a pact and both took away around $24,000.

Soctt Ian has been an Online Team UB player for a number of years since getting a taste for poker in 2007, growing from a self-confessed terrible player: “[I had] no idea what I was doing. My first tournament win was mostly because I had amazing cards. My instinct was all I had.” Ian’s poker career began to spark after securing his spot in the 2007 Aruba Poker Classic by winning VH1′s Rock Stars of Poker charity Texas Hold’em tournament.

11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and world poker champion Annie Duke spent a week with Ian in Aruba to teach him hot to truly play poker and hone his skills online.

Born in New York on New Year’s Eve in 1963, and a current resident of Los Angeles, Scott Ian has spent the better part of three decades as the guitarist for a little heavy metal band he formed in 1981 called Anthrax. As he toured the world entertaining his fans, a poker career was the last thing on Scott’s mind.

In 2010, UB.com sponsored Anthrax, the rock band that Ian formed in 1981, and their tour bus as it careened around the United States during September and October. The poker room gave away concert tickets to loyal players who completed certain tasks posted on the online poker room’s Wesbite on the day of each concert. For example, on the day of the New Orleans tour stop, players were asked to take a picture of the Anthrax website and a UB.com table together and post it to the UB wall on Facebook.

Paddy Power Poker today announces details of the Irish Open 20-Seat Guaranteed Super Satellite tournament, which will take place on Sunday March 21st at 7.30pm.  The buy-in for this online freezeout tournament is set at €300 + €20 and players will start with 4,000 chips, which ensures a slow gradual structure.   Qualifier tournaments to the 20-Seat Guaranteed take place daily with buy-ins starting from 44 cent.

Each Paddy Power Poker Irish Open package is worth €4,800 and includes an Irish Open main event seat (€3,500), five night’s accommodation and access to an exclusive online qualifier player lounge for the duration of the poker festival.  Additionally, each player who qualifies to play in the Irish Open via a Paddy Power Poker satellite is eligible to take part in the €100,000 Sole Survivor promotion and win a €100,000 prize package.

Irish Open 20-Seat Guaranteed:

• Sunday March 21st @ 7.30pm

“This will be the biggest Irish Open satellite we’ve ever run, with at least 20 packages up for grabs”, said Paddy Power, Communication Manager at Paddy Power Poker.  “For those who want to take part for less, there are loads of feeder tournaments running each and every day, with buy-ins from less than a euro.  The 20-Seat Guaranteed is yet another reason why players should qualify for the Irish Open on Paddy Power Poker and nowhere else!”

The Paddy Power Poke Irish Open 2010 takes place in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin from Friday 2nd – Monday 5th April 2010.   Feeder tournaments to the Irish Open 20-Seat Guaranteed take place daily.  Weekly super satellites to the Irish Open 2010 Main Event run on Paddy Power Poker each Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening.

Paddy Power Poker today announces details of a live Irish Open 2010 Super Satellite tournament to take place in Dusk Till Dawn card club in Nottingham on Friday March 19th at 8pm.  The re-buy event will feature a 7-seat guarantee, with buy-in set at £100.  Each Paddy Power Poker Irish Open seat is worth €3,500 (circa £3,150).

Players can buy-in direct on the night or qualify for the Super Satellite via online qualifiers on Paddy Power Poker.

Online qualifier schedule:

• Saturdays @ 9.15pm
• Wednesdays @ 9.15pm

Players who take part in the live tournament will be able to win a seat at the Irish Open even if they miss out at the live event, as they will be given a second chance by Paddy Power Poker to get to Dublin.  All players will be offered a seat in a Buy One Get One Free-Roll tournament on Paddy Power Poker, where an Irish Open seat will be offered as first prize.  Full details of the Buy One Get One Free-Roll will be provided to players at the live satellite.

“We are delighted to partner with one of Europe’s leading poker venues to allow UK-based players secure a seat at the Paddy Power Poker Irish Open 2010 before making the journey over the water in April”, said Eric Booth, Head of Poker at Paddy Power Poker.  “We are guaranteeing 7 Irish Open seats so expect a busy night in Nottingham; it will almost seem like the first event of this year’s Irish Open festival is taking place on British soil!”

Rebuy qualifiers to the live event run on Paddy Power Poker each Saturday and Wednesday evening, with buy-in set at £7 and one seat guaranteed once a minimum of 5 players take part.

The Paddy Power Poker Irish Open 2010 takes place in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin from Friday 2nd – Monday 5th April 2010.   Weekly super satellites to the Irish Open 2010 Main Event run on Paddy Power Poker each Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening, with a variety of feeders running daily.

Dusk Till Dawn is located in Nottingham, England and is one of Europe’s premier Poker Clubs.  It offers 45 poker tables with a capacity to comfortably sit 405 players at any one time and all games are dealer dealt by professionals trained to the highest standard.