Altogether there will be over $100,000 worth of prizes offered with the money spread out over several different promotions.  In Perfect 10, you will compete in $10 +$1 tournaments for leaderboard money; the better you finish on this leaderboard, the more of the $60,000 in Perfect 10 cash you will earn. 

In Perfect 3, you compete in the same leaderboard format, except the tournaments only cost $3 + $0.30 to enter; in all, $26,000 will be given out through the Perfect 3 leaderboard.  The player who finishes with the most cash on both the Perfect 10 and Perfect 3 poker tournament leaderboards combined will receive an additional $2,500 (called the Perfect Player Bonus).

Cash game and sit and go players aren’t left out of the mix either since there are Perfect Cash Games and Perfect Sit and Go’s.  In Perfect Cash Games, players will earn double loyalty points for playing at the $0.10/$0.20 poker tables and below.  For the Perfect Sit and Go promotion, you only need to win one $1.20 SNG labeled “Perfect Promo SnGs” to earn a spot in a $2,500 free poker tournament.  

The added bonus to participating in any of the Perfect Play promotions is that you can earn 30% rakeback if you sign up for a deal.  Players can sign up for 30% rakeback deals at Ultimate Bet Poker so if you aren’t signed up for one, it’s highly recommended that you do so.

The majority of buy-ins will range from £20 to £100 and players will have the opportunity take part in PLO, PLO8 and Heads Up events, as well as No Limit Hold’em. In addition therefore will also be a two day HORSE event. London Calling will finally conclude with a £300 buy-in main event.
There will also be a leaderboard running throughout the festival where players will have the opportunity to win points. Players who finish in a winning position will be able to convert their points for starting stacks in a special freeroll at PKR.com.
To sign up at PKR and take advantage of their online poker deals please click here

This promotion, which is entitled the LuckyGump Series, is actually named after Makarov and will run from October 6th to the 27th.  To play poker in the LuckyGump Series, all you need to do is look for the free, low, and medium stakes qualifiers in the PokerStars lobby.  Every LuckyGump poker tournament will offer a prize pool and either Marakov or Shcherbakov will be in the tourney with a bounty on their head.

Of course, the overall goal in these qualifiers is to make it to the $5,000 Final Freeroll that takes place on October 29th.  The qualifiers you can play in to make it to the $5,000 Final include the following:

LuckyGump Freeroll – free poker tournament ($0.50 rake), $50 prize pool and $50 bounty
LuckyGump Low Stakes Qualifier – $4.40 entry, $150 prize pool and $150 bounty
LuckyGump Medium Stakes Qualifier – $22 entry, $500 prize pool and $150 bounty

As mentioned before, the top players from these events will move on to the $5,000 Freeroll Final.  Besides the Freeroll Final prize pool, bounties on the pros’ heads, and qualifier prize pools the top 3 freeroll ticket earners in earlier rounds will earn $300 (1st place), $200 (2nd place), and $100 (3rd place). 

If you are somebody who is trying to build your bankroll through tournaments and other poker games, the LuckyGump Series gives you a perfect opportunity to do so.  The buy-ins are relatively inexpensive, you can win bounties that are on the pros’ heads, and there will be lots of cash in the tournament prize pools too.

To illustrate this point, consider that the FTOPS Main Event cost $640 to enter while the Mini FTOPS Main Event poker tournament, which offers a $1 million prize pool, only costs $75 to enter.  What’s even better is that most of the Mini FTOPS tournaments are much cheaper than this with buy-ins as low as $11.  And for tournaments with this low a buy-in, the prize pools offer incredible amounts such as $600,000, $400,000, and $300,000.  All you need to do to play poker in these extremely cheap, value-packed tournaments is complete the poker download of Full Tilt.

Once you’ve downloaded the poker software, you’ll have access to all 34 Mini FTOPS tournaments.  And if $11 or $22 buy-ins are too steep for you, there are lots of satellites and qualifiers running for players hoping to participate in the Mini FTOPS.  Many of the satellites are only $0.50 or 50 Full Tilt Points to enter so this is practically nothing! 

As if having the opportunity to compete for 34 prize pools ranging from $25,000 to $1,000,000 isn’t enough, you can also get in on Full Tilt’s incredible 27% rakeback deals.  If you are signed up for the rakeback offer at Full Tilt, you’ll get up to 27% of the money back you pay in Mini FTOPS rake.  And this is just one more thing that makes the Mini FTOPS worth playing.

Negreanu recently spoke of his disdain for sunglasses on the popular holdem poker show High Stakes Poker.  He basically said sunglasses hurt the game, and that sunglasses aren’t needed to learn how to play poker.  The other people who were playing poker hands with him such as Doyle Brunson and Tom Dwan agreed that sunglasses aren’t necessary.

Daniel Negreanu wasn’t happy with just the approval of his peers though since he also wrote a post on his texas poker blog about the subject.  He wrote, “They are so bad for poker on so many levels.  Poker wouldn’t be on TV if everyone wore hoodies and sunglasses to hide their eyes.”

Negreanu continued his rant by adding, “If anyone wants to start a petition to ban them in any form of poker, whether it’s tournaments, cash games, or televised events, I’d do whatever I could to help.”  Apparently, he is gaining supporters since the new PokerStars-sponsored show “The Big Game” has already banned sunglasses amongst their list of poker rules. 

When asked by reporters to expand on his hatred for sunglasses, Negreanu basically said that they give people an unfair advantage and allow them to rake in more poker chips.  Negreanu stated, “You should always be uncomfortable playing high stakes poker against someone wearing sunglasses.  I’m not making this up, it’s just a fact.  Banning sunglasses helps to protect the integrity of the game against cheating.”

It would be a stretch to think that live poker tournament events around the world will start banning sunglasses anytime soon.  So if Negreanu hates sunglasses so much, perhaps he should stick to playing at online poker rooms where he can earn lots of rakeback money.

If you’d like to join them this year, you should start playing at PokerStars since they are offering €2,500 prize packages to this event.  Lots of online poker satellites and qualifiers are currently running so as long as you’ve downloaded the poker software at PokerStars, you’ll be able to start playing.  The cheapest satellite is the €2.20 Daily Rebuy Satellite where one player advances to the Weekly Qualifier for every €27 in the prize pool.  Speaking of the Weekly Qualifier, this costs €27 to enter and one player moves on to the Super Satellite for every €215 in the prize pool.

And the Super Satellite is where the aforementioned €2,500 prize packages are being given away to internet poker players.  The following Super Satellite events will give out Belgian Open Main Event seats:

September 12th Super Satellite: 7 seats guaranteed
September 26th International Super Satellite: 10 seats guaranteed
October 3rd Super Satellite: 15 seats guaranteed

Assuming you win a prize package, your €1,700 Main Event seat will be covered in addition to a 5-night hotel stay and 5 free buffet vouchers.  So not only will you get to play poker hands at one of the largest holdem poker tournaments in Europe, but you also won’t need to worry about any of the additional expenses.

The biggest poker news in FTOPS XVII came during the Main Event when “TyboVegas” navigated through 4,805 players to capture the title.  Interestingly enough though, “TyboVegas” ($423,057) earned less money than his heads-up opponent “DQnk” ($446,942) since a deal was made before the two played the final poker hands.

Another big story in FTOPS XVII included Mike “chapmoney” Chapp taking first place on the holdem poker leaderboard after winning two different FTOPS events; Chapp’s prize was a $10,000 prize package that will get him free entry into almost all the FTOPS XVIII tournaments. 

The great thing about the FTOPS series is that it’s not completely over yet because the Mini FTOPS internet poker series will be starting on September 8th.  So if you missed your chance to get into the regular FTOPS series, or just didn’t have a large enough bankroll, you can still get in on the action during Mini FTOPS.  Mini FTOPS will have 34 tournaments that mirror the main FTOPS series, and $6 million in guaranteed money will be awarded. 

Getting away from FTOPS, you can also earn 27% in rakeback money from Full Tilt just by playing in any of their tournaments or cash games.  This is one of the highest rakeback deals around so it’s definitely worth playing at Full Tilt just to cash in on this money. 

Plus they have a bunch of other online poker deals that offer extra cash away from the poker tables.  So whether you’re an experienced player, or just somebody who wants to learn how to play poker, Full Tilt is a great place to play.

1. Sometimes folding is the best option. Not every hand was meant to be played. If you are dealt a poor hand there is no reason to try and transform it into something usable, this will only cost you in the long run. Sometimes it is very clear when you have been beaten at the table, if this is the case- fold. No matter how much money you have sunk into a pot, a losing hand isn’t going to win.

2. Bluffing sparingly is bluffing insightfully. Never bluff simply for the fun of the act of bluffing or as a means of avoiding having to fold. If you need to fold, fold. Bluff only when absolutely necessary. A game based on bluffing is rarely a convincing, nor a winning game.

3. Don’t raise without expecting to be re-raised. If you aren’t able to react to a re-raise on your raise, you probably shouldn’t be raising in the first place. Furthermore, if you can’t raise don’t call – simple as that. If one of your opponents bets and you are confident you have the winning hand, then you should play the hand, that way you can make the other players chip in until they can draw you out.

We’re certainly not saying that these three policies are guaranteed to bring you home the dough, but the respect they have gained from novice to expert players alike is certainly worth something. If anything they are worth considering and might be worth drawing upon in a situation where all you really need is something trusted and true; try it out for yourself and check out the promotions at RakeTheRake where you can choose to participate in exclusive tournaments, winning not only cash but also expense paid packages to worldwide live poker events.

If you haven’t heard about Poker in the Park, it is Europe’s largest free poker festival, and it’s held in London’s Leicester Square.  Poker in the Park offers lots of different events including 40-person sit and go poker games, a chance to play 5-time boxing Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield in heads-up holdem poker, lectures from top poker players such as Dave Ulliott, Neil Channing, Phil Laak, and Roland De Wolfe, and sessions where you play poker with pros providing poker tips in the middle of the action.

As if this isn’t enough, there will also be opportunities to enter huge poker tournaments absolutely free, models from NUTS Magazine handing out prizes, free merchandise such as poker chips and t-shirts, and a dunk tank where the losing poker player’s dunk tank model goes for a swim.

Last year’s Poker in the Park event attracted over 20,000 people, and this year’s festival is expected to draw even more!  Normally you only see numbers like this in huge online poker tournaments so you know the 2010 Poker in the Park extravaganza will be huge.  And what’s amazing is that this festival can’t even offer rakeback money to the attendees so it must be really special if so many people are attending.

The Women’s Poker League gives ladies around the world a chance to compete in poker games just for women.  These ladies-only tournaments run every day and the buy-ins start at just $5.50.  Whenever you enter one of these tournaments, you’ll earn points in the Women’s Poker League standings.  The women who earn the most points in this league will win cash or even a prize package to a land-based poker tournament.

The first place winner of each month will pocket $300 while 2nd through 5th will earn between $200 and $60; the top 50 places will all earn some sort of cash prize.  The female who plays their poker hands the best and accumulates the most points by the end of the year will receive a $1,500 prize package to a land-based ladies tournament.  2nd through third place will all receive between $1,000 and $300 while everybody in the top 50 of the yearly leaderboard will earn cash.

To get started in the Women’s Poker League, you should complete the poker download of PokerStars and start looking in the lobby for the tourneys.  Daily tournaments run at 9:00 pm ET, and the buy-in to play in these is $5.50; the $55 Sunday ladies tournament starts at 9:10 pm ET.

As long as you take part in a women’s-only holdem poker tournament, you earn 1 point for the leaderboard.  If you’re able to cash in one of these tournaments, you’ll receive between 5 and 20 points (depending on the finish).  So basically, you want to play as many of these online poker tournaments as possible so you can win an extra cash prize – or even the $1,500 prize package!