POKER QUIZ

Congratulations to steviec7 for winning our previous Poker Quiz (click here for details).

Welcome to 32Red’s regularly updated Poker Quiz section where we ask you all sorts of poker questions and all you have to do is answer them correctly to enter our draw for free cash prizes & tournament tickets!

Are you ready?

 

What are 32Red’s morning Freerolls called?

A: Breakfast Freerolls
B: Early Bird Freerolls
C: Morning Freerolls

Click here for a clue!

Post your answers below and if we pick your name out of the hat and you’ve posted the correct answer, you’ll receive a FREE €32 CHIP to play at 32Red Poker!

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Phil Ivey breaks silence over Full Tilt crisis; files lawsuit against Tiltware.

Phil Ivey breaks silence over Full Tilt crisis; files lawsuit against Tiltware.

After the prolonged and conspicuous silence of a host of big name players sponsored by online poker rooms battling with the US, one of the game’s most recognisable and high profile stars has brought out the proverbial bargepole – in the form of an official press release on his website – with which to distance himself from the problems at Full Tilt.

Not only has he taken a stand on principle, supporting the many players who have been adversely affected by opting out of this summer’s World Series of Poker, he has also set in motion the filing of a lawsuit against Tiltware in relation to these account problems. For such a player to give up his chance of winning the ultimate prize in poker is one thing, but this latter action suggests Ivey is interested in more than merely repairing the damage to his reputation caused by his association with Full Tilt, rather that he is willing to use what influence he has to address what he calls ‘non-action’ regarding player funds.

Here’s the statement in full:

‘For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I whole heartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.’

It will be interesting to see in what way, if any, other top names follow Ivey’s lead.

Angus Dunnington
32Red Poker Ambassador

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Wise Guys Results (23rd – 29th May)

Win at the 32Red Poker cash tables and you may qualify for even more cash rewards with our Wise Guys weekly leaderboards. Yes, we reward our biggest winners at 32Red Poker and we reward them well, with over $1,000 in prizes every week!

Congratulations to last week’s prize winners…

32Red’s Wise Guys

32Red Poker rewards loyalty, and winners – so if you’re a winning player, don’t be shy and try out our Wise Guys weekly competition. Have fun at the tables and good luck this week!

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No Limit Cash Games: Table Selection

No Limit Cash Games: Table Selection

Some players don’t even bother spending time on table selection but in neglecting this vital part of the game are losing an edge (or giving additional edge to the opposition) before they’ve even seen any cards. It doesn’t take long to make these necessary preparations, which should become habit if we are to make the best of our time at the tables.

Different players prefer different conditions, depending on style, stack size, expected table image and so on, so the main aim when we first log on and are looking to sit down at a cash game is not only finding a good table, but also a good seat (sitting in the wrong place relative to the key players clearly reduces the ‘quality’ – to us – of the table).

Typically (let‘s assume, for example, that we play with at least a 60% stack), having found a table with plenty of action (decent average pot and players per flop figures), we should look at the position of any available seats relative to the varying stack sizes. Ideally, we want position on medium to high stacks and loose/aggressive players, as sitting to the left of the big stacks simply means we have position on the money (chips tend to flow clockwise around the table), and having position on very loose/maniac players allows us to essentially ‘hide’ behind their bets. Note, on the other hand, that sitting to the right of a maniac means we can see how the rest of the table responds before play reaches us, thus affording us trapping opportunities (basically, there’s more than one way to exploit these players); but giving such a player position also means they can disrupt our game.

Of course we can’t have position on everyone, so we don’t mind sitting to the right of a short stack or a particularly tight player because either they won‘t be throwing much money around or won’t be getting involved too much.

Once these observations have helped us find a suitable seat, we should then closely follow the game to see who tends to do what. Who raises liberally, and how do they continue on the flop? Who doesn’t raise enough? Do some play differently depending on position? Do players seem to have no appreciation of position? Are there multiple limpers? Who limps too much, and then folds to even the slightest show of aggression on the flop? Who calls too many raises? Who limps and still calls a raise with mediocre hands? The more we find out the better, and the more we are justified in choosing this table.

Meanwhile, make a conscious effort to keep in mind how others might be looking for the same clues in our own play, in which case we must be aware of how we are perceived based on certain plays, and use this to best establish our ideal table image.

Good luck at the tables (once you have selected one properly…)

AngusD

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€150 “Spring Bank Holiday” Freeroll

€150 “Spring Bank Holiday” Freeroll

Enjoy a €150 Freeroll this ‘Spring Bank Holiday’ courtesy of 32Red Poker!

Tournament Details

Tournament Name	€150 “Spring Bank Holiday” Freeroll
Date & Time	Monday 30th May at 3pm (UK time)
Buyin	100% Free
Chips/Blinds	3000 starting chips, 6 minute levels
Details	No-Limit Texas Hold’em, Knockout
Prize pool	€150

 

PASSWORD: club32

 

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New Player Specials

 

 

 

 

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More US-facing online poker rooms come under fire

The dark clouds of Black Friday continue to hang over US-facing online poker rooms as the US Department of Justice strikes again. Within weeks of Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker being successfully targeted, now domains Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Funtimebingo.com, Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com, Doylesroom.com, Beted.com and Betehorse.com have been seized.

It is significant that in the quest to hunt down sites deemed to be illegal, US authorities went to considerable lengths. In order to infiltrate online gambling, an undercover operation was set up by Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, an arm of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement. The sting revolved around the setting up of a payment-processing business, Linwood Payment Solutions, concocting an online history detailing how the company was 10 years old, with more than a dozen staff and sales amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Numerous internet gambling operators duly became clients, resulting in over $30 million in transactions during the last two years and culminating in the seizure of 11 associated bank accounts (in five different countries) and charges of running an illegal online gambling operation and money laundering being brought against three owners from Canada and Costa Rica.

The controversial Unlawful Internet and Gaming Enforcement Act prompted some online poker rooms to endeavour to operate ‘legitimately’ by pulling out or steering clear of the US while others continued to welcome US clients and, a few years down the line, the latter group are finally feeling the extent to which the US DoJ is able to effectively target them.

In a statement issued this week Maryland US Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.” As the prospects for many US-facing operators darken, those companies who opted to concentrate on the European sector have seen their ranks swell, as customers seek the security of established online poker rooms with no post-UIGEA US connection.

Indeed, while of course it has always been important to properly research poker rooms in order to find one that has the games and tournaments and so on that best appeal as well as a trustworthy reputation, these recent events make it an imperative to guarantee the latter. With global borderlines evaporating and the US demonstrating an ability to punish international online companies to such an extent that accounts are frozen, choosing a no-nonsense poker room that operates within the law (thus having completely secure accounts, for example) and is fully regulated should today be top of the check-list.

I was happy that my favourite room, 32Red Poker, ticked all the key boxes when I started playing there years before UIGEA and, today, am even more so.

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No Limit Tournaments: Call all-in with AK? Maybe not.

AK is a strong starting hand, which is why we like to call it Big Slick (or even Machine Gun…) and are all too willing to send it out into battle with a virtual mountain of chips. However, it is also an over-rated holding that can lead us into all sorts of trouble if we blindly assume it’s too powerful to surrender. It’s worth noting that, while we tend not to get very excited when dealt 33, we’ll put our tournament lives on the line with, say, AsKh, which is a 47% dog against 2c2d – a hand with far less streetwise nicknames such as Quack Quack!

So, apart from the fact that AK can see us facing elimination or losing a big pot at the hands of even tiny pairs, it isn’t a coincidence in the long-run if we investigate our AK losses and find that we keep coming up against AA or KK. Add a third player to the mix and AK is even more vulnerable.

With this in mind, the next time an ostensibly marathon run of awful hole cards ends with the arrival – accompanied with a fanfare – of AK, and there’s been an all-in bet followed by a reraise all-in, for instance, we should opt (instead of Big Slick) for the more sober Anna Kournikova (looks good but rarely wins) or Walking Back to Houston (from Dallas, after losing with AK to AA). At least this makes us conscious of the dangers so that we can properly weigh up the necessary factors before acting.

One such in this situation is that two players have already thought it worth their getting fully involved in the pot, so it won’t be a heads-up race. Let’s say this is not the first time the initial raiser has gone all-in pre-flop, having done so recently with QcJc. If we assign him this hand here, the second player a pocket pair – let’s say 9s9d (an absolutely typical tournament scenario these days) – and we have AhKd, then even here, up against two very average hands, the win expectancies are around QcJc/32%, 9s9d/31% and AhKd/37%. Of course we are favourite for the pot, but interpreting these figures another way shows that nearly 2/3 of the time we’ll lose, which could mean exiting the tournament. Swap the first player’s queen for the Ac and expectancies change to around 25%, 43% and 32% respectively!

However tempting, calling all-in with AK against two players is rarely worth the risk, with a typically ‘good’ scenario making Big Slick only a marginal favourite. You’ve been warned.

Good luck at the tables,

AngusD

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EARLY BIRD FREEROLLS

…because the early bird catches the worm!

Here at 32Red Poker, early risers can catch up to three fantastic ‘Early Bird’ Freerolls every morning between 8am and 10am (UK time).  Read on to find out more…

$10 ‘Early Bird’ Lottery

Join us every morning at 8:15am (UK time) for an exciting lottery tournament where cards are dealt face up every hand and in an all-in situation until the tournament completes.

Tournament Details

Date & Time	Every morning at 8:15am (UK time)
Buyin	100% free
Chips/Blinds	1 starting chip, all-in levels
Details	No-limit Texas Hold’em, knockout
Prize pool	$10

 

$20 ‘Early Bird’ Survivor

You have about 15 minutes after the lottery completes to make some tea and toast before hitting the tables again for our super-turbo Survivor freeroll at 8:30am (UK time).

Tournament Details

Date & Time	Every morning at 8:30am (UK time)
Buyin	1 Redback
Chips/Blinds	3000 starting chips, 3 minute levels
Details	No-limit Texas Hold’em, Survivor
Prize pool	$20

 

$32 ‘Early Bird’ Freeroll

A tiny 32 Redbacks will gain you entry into our $32 Freeroll, every morning at 9am (UK time).

Tournament Details

Date & Time	Every morning at 9:00am (UK time)
Buyin	32 Redbacks
Chips/Blinds	2K starting chips, 6 minute levels
Details	Rebuy 2K chips for 32 Redbacks during the first hour, or addon 5K chips for 50 Redbacks at the break.
Prize pool	$32

 

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Sit & Go Tournaments: Aggression

Just like it has in cash games, the landscape of Sit & Go tournaments has changed a little in recent years, perhaps with a bigger helping of aggression due to the mathematical tools available.
Nevertheless, like a reliable old recipe, a sensibly balanced S&G strategy will still reap rewards today, and it is worth looking at how we can navigate the increasingly awkward journey through increasing blinds and eliminations in order to maximise our ability to make the (top two/three) prizes.

Some players – for different reasons (even the pure gamble element) – like to adopt an all-or-nothing, do or die mindset right from the beginning but, of course, with the blinds still very low and therefore the pots very small at the start of hand, jumping in with big bets for little reward really is tempting fate.

Such aggression might well earn a couple of hundred chips to add to an original stack of 2000, for example, but in practical terms a 10% gain for the potential risk is prone to disaster during the early stages. Occasionally we see this risky, over-aggressive play prove successful and we sit there begrudging these players their early double ups but there are far better ways to use aggression.
However, that isn’t to say we shouldn’t try the occasional good value ‘speculative’ mini-gamble early as the rewards can be considerable for very little investment, as long as we choose our moments and have the discipline to get away from the hand when nothing hits. This is quite different from over-betting to capture meagre rewards (note that this also brings with it the danger of getting effectively pot-committed if we dig too deep). It’s a good idea to keep in mind that we would have to typically steal seven or eight lots of blinds at Level 1 to earn the same amount of chips from a single steal at a higher level.

We can also use aggression to help engineer our desired table image. Consequently we should try to introduce a brand of tempered aggression that might simultaneously pick up a few chips and establish a not-to-be-messed with table image that we can exploit later. How often do we see someone gradually steamroll their way to a massive chip lead with apparent ease and do nothing about it, then afterwards realise that this player was actually steadily accumulating chips by working through the gears yet rarely putting his stack in jeopardy?

It follows, then, that survival is a major consideration in this format, and the target should be to remain in the running so that, when the field has been narrowed down to, say, three or four, you are in with a shout and ready to step up a gear or three.

As the game progresses we should have been able to get a read or two on the remaining players with a view to taking advantage of both what we know of them and their perception of how we have played thus far. The blinds will be too big to ignore (and will need defending), and the short(er) stacks more likely to take chances with any two hole cards, meaning it is time to start throwing our weight around with a decent holding (or nothing when appropriate!) rather than allowing our stack to waste away while waiting for monsters.

Finally, if we battle through to a heads-up stand-off, then there’s no need to worry about being the shorter stack. For example having 20% of the chips heads-up is far better than being second of five with 25% – only two all-in wins is a role-reversal!

Good luck at the tables!

AngusD

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