ince there will be so many freerolls everyone who is determined is guaranteed a seat at one of the weekly finals, if not several. Freerolls are notorious for their fast paced action and crazy players so I’d suggest playing tight for the first hour. If you want to avoid the freeroll scene you can satellite you way into one (or all) of the weekly finals for as little as $1.10.
The Grand Final tournament will be held on October 3rd, 2010. The winner of this event will drive away in a brand new Lamborghini. This car costs over $200,000 and you can’t just go buy one at the local “Lamborghini dealer”. People wait years for these cars and Lamborghini only makes a limited number of them.
The Grand Final will have also have a $250,000 prize pool. To learn about the best Pokerstars deposit bonus in 2010 please check out our Poker Stars review.
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Pokerstars has recently embraced social networking and since everyone and their mother at least has a Twitter account these days I figured that I would share some info that will help you guys stay up to date with the latest news from Pokerstars. Granted, this blog is an adequate resource for news and promotions at Poker Stars but I certainly can’t cover everything. I only learned about this the other day because their affiliate program also has a Facebook & Twitter account. I will even be taking part in an affiliates only tournament that has a top prize of a $1,000 freeroll. What this means is that the winner will be able to host a $1,000 freeroll for his readers. The playing field is still very small (20-25 players) and I’m a pretty good tournament player so I might be hosting a $1,000 freeroll for you guys towards the end of this month, provided I win the damn thing. Just as an FYI, signing up to be an affiliate just to get into this event will do you no good so don’t try lol.
Anyway, if the affiliate program is hosting special promotions just for following them on Twitter and being their fan on Facebook I’m sure the poker room will do likewise. I especially like the Twitter account because you can keep up to date on all promotions very easily, such as the Ladies Only Bootcamp Promo. Here are some links to their FB and Twitter pages:
For more info on Pokerstars please check out our Pokerstars review. We are offering a 100% match bonus on your first three deposits up to $600.
]]>Most poker rooms do not appreciate their micro and small stakes players, but not Poker Stars. New players can receive three 100% bonuses up to $600. The marketing code new players need to enter during signup is PSP11820 and the bonus code to get the bonus mentioned above and the free $1.10 tournament ticket is MANIA.
- Read our Pokerstars Review for more info
Have you ever wished that you could compete in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker? Have you ever look past the prize pool money and look at the perks of being the champion? You might be wondering why anyone would care about perks when the winner of the main event takes home over $10,000,000 and I don’t blame you but there are some really cool perks to being the champion of poker. I’ll get to those perks in a bit but first let me tell you how YOU are going to win the main event at the 2010 WSOP.
You will start your road to greatness on June 20th, 2010. You’ll remember this day for the rest of your life. It will be the day you took part in the Mega WSOP Satellite bonanza at Pokerstars and won one of 200 seats to the WSOP. You might be wondering how you will do this? The answer is simple. Pokerstars is hosting a tournament that will award 200 main event seats, each valued at $12,000. You might be thinking the buy-in to this event is much higher than your bankroll allows but it’s not. To buy directly into this event it would cost you $370 but that’s a quite a bit of money so you’ll need to satellite your way into this satellite. Feeders to this event start at $1.10 or 100 FPP, which is good for any bankroll. You’ll simply need to win one of these sitngo feeders or place well in one of the feeder tournaments. That wont be too hard considering that for $25 you can compete in about 23 of them.
Once you have won your spot in the main satellite you’ll just need to finish in the top 200. This may be a bit trickier but I know you have it in you. From there you will be given travel money, money for a weeks stay at the Palms Resort in Vegas and the $10,000 buyin to the main event. Once your at the tables with thousands of other players including virtually every professional player things will get a bit harder but since you made it this far I’m sure you’ll make it all the way.
The prize pool for this year’s main event will probably exceed $75,000,000 so you’ll be up against around 7,500 players. Because I don’t know exactly how many players will compete I will use the prize pool info from last year, it will likely be 10-15% higher this year though.
If you finish in the top 648 you’ll take home over $20,000. That’s only a little more than twice the buy-in but it’s still a lot. Finish in the top 50 and you’ll take home over $100,000. Mathematically speaking you will have a 1/130 chance of placing in the top 50, those are pretty good odds. Finish in the top 10 and you’ll win anywhere from an easy million to $10,000,000.
If you can take this tournament down you’ll be a celebrity for life, as well as rich. You’ll get your own avatar at Pokerstars and can opt to sign on as one of their pro’s. You’ll get invites to special tournaments and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote poker rooms. You’ll get commercial deals and all kinds of other perks.
Even if you finish at the very bottom of the prize pool you’ll still get loads of cool incentives. When you win your seat at the main event Pokerstars will ask you to sign a special advertising contract. All you’ll need to do is wear one of their t-shirts at the tables. For doing this you will receive tournament packages to live events, invites to special partys, free tournament buy-ins and a bunch of other stuff. All of your buddies will envy you for the rest of their lives.
New Players – Exclusive Pokerstars Signup Bonus
I am offering three 100% match bonuses, up to $600 to new players at Pokerstars. After visiting Pokerstars.com and downloading their software you will need to register. During this process you will be asked to enter a marketig code. Enter our code PSP11820. Then when you make your first deposit enter the bonus code STARS600, it’s that easy. Check out our 2010 Pokerstars review for more info.
]]>Stud Poker At Poker Stars
Pokerstars is the clear winner when it comes to overall traffic for each of these games. The overall Stud poker action here during peak hours is 1,600-2,000 real money players. That is pretty amazing when you think about it. Pokerstars has more real money Stud players online than 99% of all poker networks and independent poker rooms have real money players at every game combined. If Pokerstars put their Stud players onto a separate poker room it would rank as the 6th largest online poker room based on peak real money player traffic. Some poker networks consist of hundreds of separate skins so that is an impressive feat. Here is a line-up of their Stud games in order of popularity:
- 7 Card Stud
- Stud HL
- Razz
Stud Poker At Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker receives around 25% less Stud poker traffic than Pokerstars. In regards to tournaments they are evenly matched though. Every week they host a wide range of small to mid stakes buyin Stud tournaments including a high stakes $5,000-$10,000 guaranteed event for each of the three games every weekend. Their game popularity is the same (Stud, Stud HL and Razz).
Stud Poker At Absolute Poker
Absolute Poker is a distant third but they still offer more than enough traffic for 90% of the buy-in levels. They boast 500-600 real money Stud poker players during peak hours. The unique thing about Absolute Poker is thaf 7 Card Stud HL is their most popular Stud poker variant. You’ll find around the same number of RM Stud HL players at AP than you will at FTP, a room 5 times their size.
Up-And-Coming Stud Poker Rooms
The three rooms above all accept U.S. players so I usually stick to them in my promotions. They are also the largest poker rooms online with the exception of Absolute Poker. Pokerstars and Full Tilt are independent rooms (no shady skins) which is also a big plus but there are some international rooms that offer small stakes Stud action. Party Poker, the 4th largest poker room and the largest stand alone international poker room usually offers 5-10 active real money 7 Card Stud and Stud HL tables. Party Poker is one of the oldest and most popular non-US internet poker rooms. Party Poker offers a $100 free bonus and freerolls to new players. Click here to signup for this exclusive bonus.
Red Kings Poker, a skin on the iPoker Network, offers 5-10 real money 7 Card Stud tables around the clock as well. They also offer 2-3 active real money 5 Card Stud tables, a rare but fun Stud poker variant. They used to have more Stud traffic but when it started to decline I removed their listing. I still have an un-to-date Red Kings Poker Review so be sureto check that out for bonus info.
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Are you having an issue with your Pokerstars e-check cashout or deposit? It may not comfort you much but you are not alone. I recently made a couple echeck cashouts, the 28th and the 29th, and only just received them today. 99.9% of the time echecks take 24-48 hours so this was quite disturbing. After reading a boat-load of posts on 2+2 from other players in the same boat as me I really wasn’t feeling much better, initially. I was under the assumption that I would have to wait the 10 business days, have the money re-credited to my account and then make new cashout requests. That was not a very appealing idea. Late last night reports started coming in that others that cashed out the same days I did were receiving their funds. I stayed up til about 6:00 am (CST) just to see if my cashouts would hit my bank account. Thankfully they did but there are still some problems. I just attempted to make a deposit via e-check at Poker Stars and this is the message I got:
Status: DECLINED
Your deposit attempt was declined by our eCheck processor’s Account Verification Service. We are not informed of the exact reason for the decline, but such reasons can include the following:
- Checking accounts that have been closed by a bank
- Checking accounts that do not support electronic funds transfer
- Accounts that are valid but cannot be used for echeck deposits (such as
a loan or mortgage account)
- Checking accounts that have insufficient funds
- Checking accounts that have outstanding unpaid checks with other merchantsIf you have sufficient available funds in your bank account, it appears you cannot use this bank account to make eCheck deposits. Please use another bank account or another deposit method.
This is not a very good sign but from what I hear it is being taken care of. Below I have listed some times for players that are having trouble depositing at Pokerstars due to the June, 2010 e-check issue.
Tips For Depositing At Pokerstars
The first tip I want to share is to try, try and try again. Poker Stars using several different e-check and credit card processors. The e-check deposit that was declined at 5pm by one processor may be approved at 7pm by another processor. The same is true for credit card deposits. If all else fails though there is always Western Union. Please keep in mind that this is only a temporary problem and echecks will be back up and running in no time. For real time information on the status of echeck problems at Pokerstars please visit this thread AT 2+2:
General information about Pokerstars can be found in our review of Pokerstars.com.
]]>- Tournament Overlay – An overlay occurs when the combined buy-ins for every registered player is lower than the guaranteed amount placed by the poker room.
The winner this week was the $215 buy-in 7 Card Stud tournament at Pokerstars that is held every Sunday. There were 20 registered players which comes to $4,000, plus $300 in tournament fees but those are not a factor. The guaranteed prize pool was $5,000 so this tournament had a $1,000 overlay. This means that everyone’s $200 buy-in was really worth $250.
The tournament paid the top three places. In an unusual event the three winners of this event ending up making a final table deal. Each received $1,666.66 instead of the traditional payouts of $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000.
The three lucky winners were AceQuad, MissHerpes and pooli.
]]>Why To Start Off Playing 7 Card Stud – Reason 1
Seven card stud will teach you basics of all three Stud poker variants. You will be basically starting off simple. Once you have mastered the basic Stud version you can move on to the variants that are generally viewed as more complex. It will also give you a solid understanding on odds of catching this hand or that hand, which will carry over to Stud HL and Razz.
Why To Start Off Playing 7 Card Stud – Reason 2
7 Card Stud is where most new players start off at. This means you will be playing against players like yourself sometimes. You probably won’t lose as much while you are learning and you can learn from the mistakes other novice players make for free.
Why To Start Off Playing 7 Card Stud – Reason 3
Another good reason to start your Stud poker career with traditional 7 Card Stud is that you will learn how important remembering dead cards are. Granted you will learn this regardless of which game you start off with but in 7 Card Stud it probably won’t be that expensive.
Exceptions To The Rule
The only major exception I can think of is if you are coming from a game like Omaha Hi-Lo instead of Hold’em. Experience with split pot games will go a long way in 7 Card Stud HL. If you have experience playing lowball games like Badugi or 2-7 Triple Draw than Razz will be a good game to try.
]]>As I mentioned in my last blog post the SCOOP promotion at Pokerstars is packed with huge overlays. The Razz poker tournaments will likely have the largest overlays of all. An overlay occurs when the guaranteed prize pool amount if lower than the sum of the buy-ins. With only 13 hours left there is a combined overlay of a quarter of a million dollars in the three Razz poker championships running tomorrow. Here is a breakdown of each of the three tournies.
Small Razz Tournament – $22 Buy-in – $50k GTD – $40k Overlay
The small stakes Razz poker tournament has an overlay of $40,000+. Only 20% of the guaranteed amount has been met. This means that you’ll be getting over $100 worth of value out of your $22 buy-in, if the tourney started right now.
Medium Razz Tournament – $215 Buy-in – $100k GTD – $83k Overlay
The medium stakes Razz tourney in this years SCOOP event has an overlay that is twice as large. Right now, with only 13 hours to go, the overlay stands at $83,000. There is no way that this tournament will even reach 50% of the GTD amount.
Large Razz Tournament – $2,100 Buy-in – $150k GTD – $126k Overlay
Once again the current buy-in amount only equals around 20-30% of the amount guaranteed by Pokerstars. They will be losing quite a bit of money on this one, money you can claim for yourself. $2,100 is quite a large sum but as it stands right now a buy-in to this event is worth over $13,000! This will most likely be the largest overlay for a Stud poker game I have seen in my online poker career.
$600 Bonus + $600 Bonus + $600 Bonus When You Sign-up Now
To claim three 100% matches, up to $600, you just need to sign-up at Pokerstars using the link below and during registration & desposit enter the following codes:
- Marketing code (registration) – PSP11820
- Bonus Code (Deposit) – STARS600
Use THIS LINK to visit Pokerstars now! Read our 2010 Pokerstars review for more info.
]]>On May 12th, Pokerstars.com will run three massive Razz poker tournaments. These events each have a guaranteed (GTD) prize pool and are the most prestigious Razz tournaments thus far in 2010. As with most Razz tournaments, overlays are expected. An overlay occurs when the guaranteed amount is higher than the actual amount payed by the players. For instance, if a $20 buy-in tournament has a GTD prize pool of $1,000 and only 25 players register ($500), the overlay will be $500. That means you are getting twice the bang for your buck. These tournaments are part of the 2010 SCOOP event at Poker Stars, the world’s largest online poker room. All three Razz tournaments start on May 12th at 14:00 ET. There will be a small, mid and high Razz poker tournament so all Razz poker fans will be able to participate. Here are some links to our overviews on the other Stud poker tournaments in this years SCOOP event at Pokerstars.com.
Razz Poker – Small Buy-in Event
The small buyin Razz poker tournament has a $22 buyin and a GTD prize pool of $50,000. For Pokerstars to break even on the GTD amount 2272 players will have to register. This is unlikely to happen since Razz isn’t the most popular card game out there. I’m sure they will end up with around 1,xxx players though so this definitely won’t be a cake walk or anything. Right now there are only 224 registrants, including one professional player. Feeders/satellites start at $2.20 or 275 FPP’s.
- Read our Pokerstars Review – Three 100% bonuses ($600 max)!
Razz Poker – Medium Buy-in Event
This Razz poker tournament has a buy-in of $215 and a GTD prize pool of $100,000. I intend on playing in this event since an overlay is almost certain. I prefer tournaments with small playing fields so this one if perfect for me. To meet the guaranteed amount there will need to be almost 500 entries. I just checked and only 22 players have registered. I estimate that a total of 100-200 players will play in this event, which would mean you are getting 2-3 times more bank for your buck. Anyone playing in this tournament will need to read our general Razz poker strategy and Razz tournament strategy guides beforehand.
- Read our Pokerstars Review – Three 100% bonuses ($600 max)!
Razz Poker – Highroller Buy-in Event
This is the largest Razz tournament you will be able to play in for quite some time, online or offline. The buy-in is a massive $2,100, which is beyond 99% of most players’ bankrolls. I don’t know how this tournament could even come close to reaching the prize pool though, despite the huge buy-in. $150,000 is up for grabs in this tournament. That may sound like a lot but it only equals 71 buy-ins. Either way though, Razz is an acquired taste and with that buy-in size, Pokerstars will be lucky to get 30-40 players competing in this event.
- Read our Pokerstars Review – Three 100% bonuses ($600 max)!