PokerStats Go Russian With New Poker Tour

Bit more of a news item than a standard strategy outbound link today... this really shows (as if it needed showing) that online poker is no longer something American like it was a few years ago - but a truly global phenomenon.

Two tournaments are scheduled in Russia this winter under the heading 'RPT' or Russian Poker Tour... these take place in St Petersburg at the end of Jan ($5k buy-in) and in Moscow at the end of Feb ($10k buy-in). You can win your seat at PokerStars by entering one of a number of sub-qualifiers or a supersatellite - had a quick look and not too many available at the moment, however we expect these to come in once the Aussie Millions and PCA are underway in just a few days time.

PokerStars RPT Info Page

Enjoy!

Poker Probability - All You Need To Know!

Math, so dull... except when it can help you win bucketloads of money of course! All of a sudden the numbers seem more significant, right??

Anyway, if you are looking for a good grounding in the basic poker probability then look no further than the wikipedia. The great thing about this site is that you will not be bombarded with pop-ups / banners etc (though the outbound links at the bottom of each article do sometimes look a little suspect!)

So, todays outbound link is for those who want to know the exact chances of hitting that straight-flush with 2 cards to come!

Poker Probability

Enjoy!

How To Build A Big Pot - By Rizen

Today's link goes to CardPlayer magazine... home of more strategy and news articles than it is possible to shake a stick at... it is from a now-defunct column of Rizen, also known as Eric Lynch.

Building a pot, or managing the size of a pot in general, is a key poker skill - after all assuming we all get the same cards over time then winning more when ahead and losing less when behind is a key factor. This article looks at how to build a big pot depending on several factors, the key ones being your stack size and position at the table. Rizen uses some examples to show what he means in this excellent poker article. While you are there why not check out some of his other pieces.

How To Build A Big Pot

Enjoy!

Oldy But Goody From Fox Sports

Funny how 2006 seems like decades ago - metaphorically speaking of course. Todays link does go back that far though (well, december at least). It concerns Sit N Go tournaments, the advice is pretty standard by todays reconning... stay tight early and push a lot later on. The reason for making this a link is that Fox is the mainstream as far as sports media is concerned... this shows that something which was once as obscure as SNG strategy has been considered a legitimate subject for mainstream sports media since 2006... as we head into 2009 this is a good time to relect on how much the game has changed and indeed matured over that time period.

Fox Sports SNG Strategy Article

Enjoy!

Bankrolls - Update!

Just a quicky today... an update on that last post about the bankrolls for SNG and MTT players in fact. This is another link - with a link inside... back over to pocket 5's where some enterprising people have taken the bankroll information provided by Jennifear - and made it into a spreadsheet.

What you should note is that there are several versions which did not work towards the top of the first page... the excel one that works is about half way down. Should go without saying really, but if you are downloading any documents from an unknown source then make sure that you run an anti-virus check before using it!

Speadsheet For Jenifears BR Management Plan

Enjoy!

Bankrolls For SNG and Tourney Players

Think this might be the second link for Jennifear... ah well, this is some useful information so worth linking to (after all, it is the whole purpose of this blog to link outwards instead of giving you bad beat stories like so many others ;o) ... )

What you will find in this link is bankroll management guidelines in numerical format. The idea being that this will give you aspiring SNGers / MTTers (do these terms exist?) a clear idea of the amount of money you need to avoid variance... and also guidelines on when to cash out your profits - wait - you are making profits right??!

Jennifears BR Management Guide

Daniel Negreanu's Blog - Always An Entertaining Read

Today we link to the blog of world-renouned poker pro, businessman and multi-millionaire - Daniel Negreanu. The blog is hosted over at CardPlayer and is one of the most honest, down to earth and entertaining reads you will find from this prolific writer.

Coming from Canada with Romanian parents, Negreanu is definitely a colorful character - the fact that he has fought so hard to gain his pro status - including going broke on his first jaunt to Vegas - is a credit to the man... you can also catch all the latest updates on his dog 'Mishu' right there on the blog (though we are unsure how good the latter is at poker!)

Daniel Negreanu's Blog

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Blogrolls - Starting Next Week

A unique post - one without a link!

Decided that what the frog is missing is some blogs to put into a blogroll... going to start next week to add some, probably starting with my personal favorites.

If you have a blog (that is not just full of paid adverts of course) then lets hook up - bloggerphorically!

Frog.

Bond Is Back On P5's

A new article to link to on Pocket 5's today - this is by one of the frogs favorites, Bond18. The multi-table tournament player has seen great success both online and live and has managed to create himself a niche of explaining some of the concepts and tournament strategies involved clearly.... making his articles a consistant good read.

The one we are linking to today is actually part one of two (the second part might be ready by the time you read this!). It concerns the evolution of poker strategy... by examining some of the poker 'moves' which used to be effective - but are now to well understood and over-used that they have completely lost their effectiveness.

Stop-N-Go, Squeezing and the Go-N-Go are familiar terms to many tournament professionals, I'm afraid that if you are not already using them then it is a little late - at least according to Bond18 they are on their way out already!


Poker Trends And Plays By Bond18

Enjoy!

2+2 December Magazine - Creating Bet Sizing

Linked to the 2+2 Magazine before - always a source of some thought-provoking poker articles, even if some of them are a little too heavy-duty for me.

Todays outbound link is to an article on 'creative bet sizing', which in short is anything outside of the accepted standards of 2.5x to 4x pre flop and up to pot sized on the flop. Thus was by a gentleman called Andrew Brokos and includes an excellent look at overbetting, underbetting and just why these are useful additions to your game.

Creative Bet Sizing

One other thing to mention - this is centred on NL Holdem... but there is really no reason why the concepts can not be adaped to many forms of poker.

Enjoy!

Mike Caro - The Mad Genuis Of Poker

Mike Caro is one of the poker-worlds funniest and most thought-provoking writers - and certainly looks more than a little like the 'mad' in his title... (though to be honest it is probably for the press!).

This guy really looks into the poker mind, how to think about situations and the wider game and insights into why people succeed (or otherwise)... long time friend of Doyle Brunson apparently!

Anyway, his site is full of insights and excellent advise - as well as some handy odds charts for a wide variety of poker games. Definitely worth a link.

Mike Caro's Poker University

Enjoy!

Photoshop Funnies - If They Never Played Poker

Todays link is to an ongoing and very funny thread over at 2+2... this one is titled 'If They Never Played Poker' ... well , you'll pretty quickly see for yourself what it is about! My personal favorites include Phil Helmuth in McDonalds and the 'Village People' with Daniel Negreanu, looks like this thread could keep on rolling along for a while to come yet.

If They Never Played Poker

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More On The 60 Minutes / Washington Post Story

Poker News is one of those sites I am not so sure if I actually want to link to... and the strange thing is there is no particular rational reason why this should be! It is not as if they did anything to offend me personally, on the contrary really, they are pretty good at what they do - providing poker news.

Hmmm, maybe it is the old 'support the underdog' philosophy which stops me wanting to help the behemoth to grow...

But, they have produced a comprehensive article which is more than worthy of a link - and so a link they shall have. It is actually on the same subject as yesterday, but since this is the 'story of the week' that should not be a problem.

60 Minutes Outline From Poker News

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60 Minutes Poker / Washington Post Story

Well - can hardly get away with posting anything else today - with the whole poker world digesting the impact of last night's 60 minutes episode on the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandals.

Me? Well, actually had a better offer, a meal out with family, I will watch it, its on my recorder - maybe tonight after work if the coast is clear.

Ah, but Frog - you are forgetting - this is the blog that looks outwards - and not in. We give the info rather than trying to become the story ourselves... so where exactly are we going with this here post?? Out!

Haha, the link is actually an obvious one, no-body else in the poker world covers the Washington post / 60 minutes and any other saga better than one Nat Arem - you can read his blog via the following link.

http://www.natarem.com/

Enjoy!