Feb 29th at 18:30 – €2,500 New Player LeapRoll, entry is free for new players in February.
Feb 29th at 19:00 – €5,000 added by Fortune Poker, €5 + €0.50 buy-in.
Feb 29th at 19:30 – €5,000 LeapRoll, play 250 raked hands in February to enter.

As you can see in the first free poker tournament, all new Fortune Poker signups receive a ticket for the €2,500 New Player LeapRoll. And anybody who signs up through RakeTheRake will also get a 200% match deposit bonus up to €1,000 along with 30% rakeback. The other two events have requirements, but they’re pretty light in comparison to the amount of money that’s available.

Moving to the €10k Valentine’s Lovers Special, this promotion will award a total of €10,000 in hand bonuses on February 14th. Here are the different hand bonuses that will be available to cash game players:

Win a hand with a heart flush – €25
Lose 3 hands with the king and queen of hearts – €25
Win one hand with a straight flush in hearts – €250

Besides these requirements, players must also be on €0.12/€0.25 NL or PL holdem poker tables (and above), or on €0.25/€0.50 limit holdem tables (and above) to win. Additionally, both pocket cards need to be used, hands have to be played to the showdown, and a minimum of four players need to be dealt into qualifying hands. The €10k Valentine’s Lovers Special will run on Feb. 14th until the entire €10,000 prize pool has been paid out.

To get into the $25k Bankroll Booster, you need to play in the daily qualifiers that’ll be running from now until February 25th. There are three qualifiers running every day, and they take place at 13:30, 17:30 and 21:30 (server time). The entry is totally free, and the top 10 finishers in each poker tournament will receive a seat for the $25k freeroll.

Besides playing in the free daily qualifiers, another way you can get into this massive freeroll is by entering the daily VIP Points Earned qualifiers. As the name implies, you must earn a certain amount of VIP Points throughout the day in order to qualify for these freerolls. You track your points in the Player Admin area, and once you’ve earned enough to qualify for a specific satellite, you visit the Carbon Poker lobby and register for that event. Your points start getting tracked at 00:01 of each new day, and here’s a look at each qualifier’s requirements:

00:30 – 100 points
04:30 – 20 points
08:30 – 50 points
12:30 – 100 points
14:30 – 300 points
16:30 – 75 points
18:30 – 15 points
20:30 – 100 points
22:30 – 500 points

To illustrate how the VIP Points Earned requirements work, let’s say you were trying to make the 8:30 qualifier; you would then need to tally 50 VIP Points from 00:01 to 8:29 before being able to register. The nice thing about these qualifiers is that they feature much smaller fields than the free satellites.

As for the specifics of the $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freeroll, the tournament starts on Feb. 26th at 14:00 server time. This is a fairly deepstacked event because players receive 3,000 starting chips, and blind levels go up every 10 minutes. The winner of the freeroll will collect $5,000, which definitely makes this a freeroll worth trying to enter!

Unibet have organised a completely new Leaderboard structure for 2012, with no prize-pool deductions this season, and the top three players at the end of the year winning sponsorship to 2013 Unibet Open Events. While some things are changing, Unibet’s reputation for player hospitality will stay as strong as ever with Welcome Drinks on February 16th at the Cloud 9 bar, and a Players’ Party on the 19th at the Zlaty Storm Club in the old town.

In addition to the main event of a €1,500+150 NLH freezeout with a 20,000 starting stack and 60 minute blind levels, side events will include: daily turbo tournaments, cash games on demand, a €200 Omaha Bounty, a two-day €400 Deepstack event, a Ladies’ event, and the Unibet Team Challenge.

After its success in Riga, Prague will see the return of the Live Blackjack Final – but this year it’ll be even bigger and better, with eighteen players battling it out for a share of the €23,000 prize pool, with €8,000 going to the winner.

Eight online qualifiers will be flying out to participate in Unibet’s first ever Live Betting Final, playing for a share of the €10,000 prize pool, with the winner taking €5,000. Every finalist will also get a Samsung Galaxy tablet computer to use during the Live Betting Final, and will get to keep it no matter where they finish.

In the Poker Million Live Final, six of the winning fifty players of Unibet’s €25,000 rake race won €800 travel packages to compete in a six-handed sit ‘n’ go where the winner will get to draw for a potential €1 million prize!

Don’t despair if you’re not in on the action in Prague; there’s still plenty to play for at Unibet’s online poker room. Check out the $3,500 rake race exclusively at RakeTheRake and also the €6000 of additional promotions and tournaments on offer.

1) Be Selective in the Hands you play – The most important beginners poker tip is to be selective in the hands you play preflop. Sure it’s tempting to play lots of poker hands just to see what will turn up on the flop, but you need to consider all of the money you could be losing when the flop isn’t good. Even when you do hit something on the flop, it can put you in a very difficult situation. For example, if you have As-5h on a flop of Ah-Jd-3s, you’ve got top pair, but the 5h kicker is extremely weak and will be beaten by A-6 or better. Long story short, don’t only think about your hand preflop, but also what situations it will put you in postflop. And remember that folding is one of the best moves in online poker!

2) Always consider Table Position – Aside from the cards you hold, poker table position is the biggest beginners poker concept that players need to learn right away. The reason why is because the later you act in a hand, the more information you have to go off of when making decisions. The best seat to be in is the dealer (button) spot because they act last in the hand (postflop), while seats to the dealer’s right are also fairly desirable. With late position, you get to see who’s raised and shown strength in their hand, which is a huge advantage. If you’re in early position (seats closest to the dealer’s left), you need a stronger hand to play because you’ve got less information to act on.

3) Watch Opponents’ Betting Patterns – You’ve probably heard that online poker is just as much about knowing opponents as it is about the cards you hold. And the best way to understand an opponent in online poker is by watching their betting patterns. Every player has specific betting tendencies based on the strength of their hand, and you’ll move a lot closer to realizing these tendencies when you watch how they bet from each position. For example, some players will bet big in the dealer’s seat with weak cards because they’re hoping to steal the hand. Others will check/call with strong hands in hopes that somebody will raise them, thus setting up a potential trap. The more attention you pay to detail during games, the better you’ll be at figuring out opponents.

4) Always bet with a Purpose – One of the most common beginners poker mistakes out there is not having a goal when making bets. All of the internet poker bets you make should fall into two main categories: forcing a fold (bluffing), or betting for value (getting an opponent to call). When betting to force a fold, you only want to bet the minimum amount that you think will get the job done; otherwise, you risk losing your chip stack when somebody has a great hand. So don’t just raise all-in when bluffing, but instead, raise just the right amount to where that specific opponent will fold. When betting for value with a good hand, the idea here is to make the maximum wager that you think the opponent is willing to call. Basically, you don’t want to scare the other player(s) out of a hand when you’re ahead.

5) Get a Top Rakeback Deal – If you’re totally new to poker, there’s a good chance that you haven’t hear of online poker rakeback. Even if you have heard of it, you may not be entirely clear on how rakeback works. In any case, to get a rakeback deal you need to sign up through a poker affiliate site because you’re essentially splitting their commission for recruiting you. And if you signed up for a 40% rakeback offer at Minted Poker, you would receive 40% of the money back that you pay in poker rake. Assuming you bought into a $100 + $10(rake) poker tournament, the rake would now be reduced to $6.

Looking at things from a broad perspective, the world of poker strategy is seemingly endless, but if you keep the aforementioned five points in mind, it will help you get off to a good start.

In regards to Williams’ record micro stakes profits, he was quoted as saying, “I guess (people were impressed) because no one was playing as many hands as I was and getting such high win rates. And people just thought it was crazy.” He continued by saying, “At the very lowest stakes, I have the most winnings ever on PokerStars at 2NL and 5NL.”

The micro stakes phenomenon also discussed how he got into poker coaching at DTB by saying, “I’ve been blogging for a long time, and in 2010, I got involved with coaching and now I work with DragTheBar.” Since then, he has been giving other players poker strategy advice, and helping them improve their profits. But it appears as if Williams wanted to reach a wider audience with his teachings, so he recently wrote a book called “Crushing the Microstakes.”

One of the more eccentric tips offered in this book includes making preflop raises of 10 times the big blind or more with excellent poker hands to thin out the postflop field. Also, Williams advocates rarely bluffing because of the tendency for micro stakes players to call, and shoving your stack frequently with the nuts because low stakes players overvalue hands and might call.

“Crushing the Microstakes” is definitely an interesting read for those who are having trouble beating low stakes poker games. After all, many players claim micro stakes games can’t be beaten because they use conventional poker strategy methods that don’t work at low limits. Of course, those who perform the best at this level, like Williams, normally use more extreme methods to exploit recreational players who populate the micro stakes.

The company is certainly getting a quality pro in Rutter because the Cambridge mathematics graduate is one of the best cash game players in England, and his $770,379 in live poker tournament winnings are an added bonus. Rutter’s biggest tourney cash came in a 2010 WSOP $5,000 holdem poker event where he placed third and earned $179,617.

In regards to his duties with Sky Poker TV, the head of the channel, Claire Cook, laid this out by saying, “Stuart is just one of a handful of successful British poker players who will now appear on your screens to bring you top poker tips and advice.” She continued by saying, “He’s one of the most charismatic players on the circuit, and I am sure viewers will enjoy Stuart’s regular appearances on the Sky Poker TV channel.”

The fact that Stuart Rutter will be dispensing tips on TV is no surprise because he writes poker strategy articles and is also involved in online poker coaching too. His addition to Sky Poker TV shows how dedicated the company is to improving their brand and drawing in more players.

Fellow analyst Julian Thew is certainly a part of this process too because he’s one of the most successful poker tournament players in UK history. The Nottingham native has $2,701,550 in live tourney winnings, which includes a 2007 EPT Baden title ($947,806), a 2008 GUPT Brighton win ($176,000) and a Deep Stack Extravaganza III side event title ($251,001). As for Ryan Spittles, he has $25,549 in live tournament cashes with all of this money coming in 2011.

The event will be called Poker Maximus and will officially start on March 4th 2012. Satellites will start running for the events in late January 2012.

For all you RakeThe Rake players signed up at Carbon, here’s the details:

Dates – March 4-25th

Satellites – Will start early to mid January and run until completion. Players who have existing tournament entry coupons will be able to use them throughout Poker Maximus. Poker Maximus specific satellite tickets will need to be used between March 4 – 25.

Main event – $109 entry – $150,000 Guaranteed NLH Freezeout. Players receive 5000 chip starting stacks and the tournament will run 15 minute levels commencing at 10/20.

Other bonuses / Awards – Tournament Leaderboard Champion (players of the series paid to 1st, 2nd and 3rd) and a Tournament of Champions event.

Schedule: Starting from the 4th March, there will be a minimum of three tournaments per day with buyins for daily tournaments ranging from $3 to $200.

• $85,000 Guaranteed Poker Maximus High Roller Main Event ($215 Buyin)
• Poker Maximus $530 Deepstack Main Event ($100,000 Guaranteed)
• Minimum $200,000 Guaranteed Main Event ($109 Buyin, with at least $50,000 Guaranteed to the winner)
• A Tournament of Champions for all Poker Maximus Tournament Winners
• Over $1.5M worth of guaranteed cash and prizes
• Buyins ranging from $1.10 to $530
• Unique accolades for event winners and leaderboard places.
• Over $25,000 in bonus prizes for those who finish in the top 100 on the leaderboard or play in the tournament of champions.
• Players Choice tournament – an event decided by the players!

New Satellites

• $5.60 – Winner take all, Super Turbo Shorthanded. Winner receives a $33 Coupon.
• $1.91 – Winner take all Super Turbo Shorthanded. Winner receives a $11 Coupon.
• $11.20 Winner take all Super Turbo Shorthanded. Winners receive a $33 Coupon.
• $10.19 Winner take all Super Turbo Shorthanded. Winners receive a $60 Coupon.
• $1.05 Super Turbo Satelllites – Winners receive $33 Coupons.
• $2.20 Super Turbo Satellites – Winners receive $60 Coupons.
• $60 Monthly Superstack Freezeout Satellite – Winners receive $530 tournament entry coupons. Running daily at 21.00 server time ($60 coupon ticket eligible)
• $33 Monthly Superstack Freezeout Satellite – Winners reveive $530 tournament entry coupons. Running daily at 22.00 server time ($33 Coupon ticket eligible)

Rakeback Percentages vary from Site to Site – Many rakeback deals differ in how much money you receive from them. For example, if you sign up at Americas Cardroom through RakeTheRake, you can get a 27% rakeback deal; assuming you sign up for Minted Poker’s 40% rakeback offer. Obviously the goal here is to get the top rakeback deals possible, but you should also consider other factors when signing up such as the VIP program benefits, player traffic, player competition and promotions.

Rakeback is a Refund on the Rake you pay – Those who aren’t entirely clear on how rakeback is paid out should note that it’s a refund on the rake they’re charged by online poker sites. For example, if you pay $100 in rake throughout the week via cash games and poker tournaments, you’d be owed $40 under a 40% rakeback deal.

Poker Affiliates pay the Rakeback – One common misconception among poker beginners is that the online poker sites themselves pay rakeback. However, it’s actually affiliate sites like RakeTheRake that pay rakeback out of the commissions they receive. So if you want to receive rakeback, you need to go through an affiliate site, and then sign up at an online poker room.

Rakeback Pay Dates differ – The exact date when you’ll be paid your rakeback money varies between poker sites. In most cases, rakeback payments are either made every two weeks or each month, but there’s no uniform timetable.

There is no Limit to how much you can earn through Rakeback – One nice thing about rakeback is that there’s no limit to how much money you can earn through this deal. In other words, poker sites don’t cut you off after $1,000 in rakeback earnings or anything like that. However, keep in mind that rake is usually capped at $3 per hand, so the amount of rakeback you can get in an individual hand will be limited. But only people who play higher stakes need to worry about this.

Many Online Poker Players make their Living through Rakeback – While many people think professional online poker players earn all of their money through the games, the reality is that plenty of players count on rakeback to make a living. Some of the pros break even on the tables (or even lose a little money), but play so many poker hands that they make big profits through rakeback. So take note of this if you’ve ever been interested in playing online poker for a job.

Event still, the Londoner battled his way onto the final poker table with the third best chip stack (9.63 million). And Akenhead wouldn’t be behind for long since he got a lucky double-up against chip leader “pnp23” (14.85 million). He accidentally raised 8 million chips with K-T (mis-click) instead of 800k, and pnp23 quickly called with Q-Q. However, the board was kind to Akenhead, and he got a two pair to take the chip lead.

Interestingly enough, this wouldn’t be the end of the Romanian pnp23 because he fought back to meet the Brit in heads-up play. The only problem was that Akenhead held a 4-1 chip advantage, and was quickly able to dispatch pnp23 after rivering a pair of kings to beat pocket eights. Here is a quick look at the final table results from this PokerStars Sunday Million tournament:

1. James “Asprin1” Akenhead – $213,750
2. pnp23 – $157,277
3. Ansgar2000 – $114,000
4. Gambler4444 – $75,525
5. sigopi – $58,425
6. Milana Jones – $44,175
7. shibinha – $30,637
8. tyxerakias – $17,100
9. philipoo – $11,043

Despite his big victory in the PokerStars Sunday Million, James Akenhead will always be known for his live tournament play first. He’s made $2,994,779 in tourney earnings, which ranks him 9th on England’s all-time winnings list. Akenhead’s biggest accomplishments include finishing ninth in the 2009 WSOP Main Event ($1,263,602), ninth in the 2009 WSOPE Main Event ($109,687), first in the Poker Million VIII ($500,000) and second in a 2008 WSOP* $1,500 holdem poker tournament ($520,219).

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (“Harrah’s”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with RakeTheRake or its partners, products, services promotions or tournaments.

The Super 2012 is being held in Dublin at the Citywest International Events Centre, Dublin, on  25th and 26th February  and has the support and participation of poker players and poker clubs from across Europe. As such it is set to be a remarkable and exciting new live event on the poker calendar!

With an estimated prize pool of between €600,000 to €1.2 million, the Super 2012 offers poker players the chance to experience the big time for a ridiculously low buy-in of €300+€49.20 registration fee.

With at least 200 full tables playing at the same time, it’s also a great opportunity to play alongside some of the best Irish and UK pros out there.

And the great news for RakeTheRake rakeback players who have accounts at 888, Cake, Genting, Minted and RedKings is that these rooms are currently running satellites for the Super 2012, so check them out fast.

If you’re not already signed up to one of these rooms, then what are you waiting for? Sign up here for one of the rooms listed above.

If you’d prefer to register direct for the Super 2012, then  visit www.superpokerevent.com/register

Full tournament details can be found at www.superpokerevent.com/tournament-details

The final table of 8 players will be played out on Saturday 31st March 2012.