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Poker's Time Warp Effect
Poker is so 2008 now. Well according to Sorel Mizzi it is, a top online and live tournament player who believes since the Black Friday fall out, and the absence of US players the online poker scene is where it was 3 years ago.
The bottom line is online poker is easier now, because as it turns out on average the US players were better than the rest of the world. Who can argue with him, as he just took down the FTOPS XX player of the series honours with a convicing win.
Personally I tend to agree with him, it definately seems that the US players were on average better and now the standard of play is somewhat easier than it used to be. That means despite the doom and gloom of Black Friday, non-US players should feel like their win rates have a chance of improving.
It doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of good non-US players out there, its just that as a percentage of the playing field it is less. How much less, well that is difficult to quantify.
According to Sorel, he is getting paid off more and can make more sophisticated bluffs. With the SCOOP coming up I think its an exciting opportunity for the players that can play. Not only are the fields smaller, which means more chance of making a final table but the fields should be softer. Its a good opportunity to look at your game and tweak it a little, because if you could beat online poker 3 years ago, more sunny days are ahead!
Read the full interview with Sorel Mizzi here
Big 3 Poker Sites, where to play?
Whats the latest with the big online sites that have been indicted ?
Well lets take a look at what PokerStars, FullTilt and UB have been up to.
PokerStars seems to be leading the way, it has already successfully processed US withdrawals. Business has dropped by about 25% but its still going strong. Sunday Guarantees are about 2/3 of what they used to be, but PokerStars still seems like the best place to play on at the moment. The popular tournaments have shifted to a more European time friendly spot, with the SCOOP being shifted back 3 hours. That's great for Europeans, good for Canadians and bad for Aussies. Get a good alarm clock if you are planning to play a lot of SCOOP in Australia. Some Aussies have already headed over to Canada to play in a bette time zone.
Read PokerStars USA player FAQ for more info
FullTilt just weeks before Black Friday seemed to be on a roll. With the multi-entry tournaments, Onyx Cup, Rush Poker on your mobile, it seemed like Full Tilt were making all the big break throughs in Online Poker. Then they decided to cancel a $1k FTOPS event , 3 handed because they needed to restart the servers, and that signalled some pretty poor customer relations with Full Tilt and their dedicated millions of users. Since Black Friday their owners and Team Full Tilt have been surprisingly quiet. In fact apart from some small communications on TwoPlusTwo, no one really knows whats going on? Their annoucement regarding US player withdrawals has been pushed back a week. That being said, people are generally confident Full Tilt will get it all sorted, its just they could have done a lot better job. Full Tilt's traffic has take a big hit, with a large US player base and poor customer service.
Read Fulltilt USA player FAQ for more info
UB and Absolute - The cereus network has tried to allow US players to play on their network in the wake of Black Friday, However they did prevent new users from signing up. If Full Tilt have not provided any information, then at least that has been better than UB and Absolute's handling of the media. Just yesterday there were news stories that they were filing for bankruptcy. Today it has come out that this is actually incorrect. Read PokerNews story here, Bankrupt one day, liquidated the next? Well they only liquidated their entire workforce, and then are rehiring 20% of employees ?? Sounds like these sites are a complete mess. I used to like playing on these sites, but since being a victim of the UB scandal and now pending bankruptcy it would be hard to recommend anyone to playing with too much cash on the Cereus network.
Since I couldn't find a useful FAQ for UB I provided this, the last user on UB....
Party Poker 48 hour cash game, Buy TonyG Shares on ChipMeUp!
PokerNews is announcing an exclusive interactive live stream of the Party Poker Big Game V, which starts on Friday, April 15. The live coverage will include hole-card cameras, and, for the very first time, PokerNews viewers will be able to vote players off the show.
ChipMeUp users have the exclusive opportunity to invest in TonyG, who is listing 10% of his cash game action right here on ChipMeUp. TonyG 48hr Cash Game event! This show is the first poker game in history to allow viewers to vote off players from the table. Make sure you keep TonyG on the table to protect your investment! During the game, Party Poker is giving viewers the chance to win great prizes with exclusive tournaments and other giveaways.
The New ChipMeUp
2011 has seen the launch of an awesome new design for ChipMeUp. This new interface is easy to use and hopefully simple to understand. For those of you who don't know what ChipMeUp is, it's the home of Poker Staking. Simply put if you want to get staked to play in a tournament or cash game, or want to buy a piece of someone, then ChipMeUp is the place to go. ChipMeUp is supported by PokerNews and features some of the world's best players. With winnings on ChipMeUp approaching $20 Million and close to 50,000 users then this is one of the most exciting poker communities to be a part of. Check out this video below to see what ChipMeUp can offer.
Keep an eye out on this blog for more exciting updates and offers!
