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Wednesday 23 November 2011

Poker School Online - Home of Future Pokerstars

Intro

The vast majority of online poker players play purely for recreational purposes. They enjoy spending a few hours per week in front of their screens grinding it out at their chosen stakes. Most will play at the micro-stakes level and not get too upset if the lose their two bucks in a 1/2cent game. They will play week after week, month after month, year after year not not worry about improving their game.

However, there is a small minority that will pause to themselves and think that 'If only I spent a few hours a week learning about the game instead of just playing I'd become a much better player'. It was at the exact stage I found myself at in July of 2011. At that time I had such a passion for the game that I really wanted to learn the inner complexities of poker. I began by searching the web for related topics such as 'poker coach' and 'poker training'. After trudging through numerous non-inspiring sites I made one of the best accidental discovery's of my poker life. I stumbled across Pokerschoolonline.com



Pokerschoolonline, or PSO as it's referred to in short, is more than just a poker course or a poker forum, it's a living archive of information covering every poker topic imaginable. Divided by the topic tags at the top of the page members can take part in Live Training session, complete the study courses and ask questions in the forum. That's just for starters, there's blog post, promotions and a host of other stuff too. Here we take a closer look at two of the more popular sections at PSO, the live training sessions and the forum.

Live Training 

These can be found by selecting the 'Live Training' tab at the top of the page. Immediately members will see what Live Training sessions are due to commence. If you click on the 'Calendar' tab you will see a complete overview of sessions for the current week.



If you miss a session then it's not the end of the world because PSO record most of their sessions and post them in the archive section so members can watch them again and again. Members can also submit their Hand History's for review by one of the live trainers which is a really really cool way to get advice on your game.

The Forum

The forum is a place where members can post their opinions or ask questions on every poker topic imaginable. There are different sections in the forum including the likes of a 'hand analysis' section, a beginners questions' section and a 'bankroll management' section. It's important here to ensure that you post your questions in the right section to ensure that it gets a quick reply from someone that has experience in that area.



There's a ton of stuff in there and this would be a pretty long blog post if I was to talk about all the features the site has to offer. I'd highly recommend any poker player with aspirations of making a name for themselves in the world of poker to check out PSO, it would be foolish not too. By the way, did I mention that PSO is completely FREE for members, so what are you waiting for! Click on the Poker School Online logo at the top of this page and it will take you directly to the PSO website. Enjoy and I'll see you there!



Raiser 



Tuesday 22 November 2011

Raiser's Home Game

Scroll down for current league standings.

I've been a member and big fan of Poker School Online since July of this year. During this time I've met a lot of very cool people from all over the world who are very keen on improving there game of poker.

Born from this was the idea to set-up a home game on Pokerstars for members to come in and play in a friendly atmosphere and also share some insights into how the hands were played out. 'The Royal Raiser' club was set-up in the beginning of November.

We kicked off with setting up a six-week league called 'Teamspeak Training League'.

There's only two rules in the league:

1. Hands can only be discussed after they have been played out.
2. Players must be courteous to each other at all times.

With the great bunch of guys that's being tagging along so far I've no concerns that either of these rules  stand a chance of being broken.

It's a play money league for two reasons.It eliminates the can of worms that could arise where people who are not in the know might cry collusion to the idea that a bunch of guys and gals are sitting around a table talking about their hands. It's a learning excersise.

The second and altogether more important reason is that it allows our friends in America to come in, take part and enjoy the banter.

If any of you guys would like to find out more about participating in the league send me a private message at pokerschoolonline.com My username there is royalraise85

League games are played out every Sunday night at 9pm (GMT) 4pm (EST)


Weekly Winners 

Round 1 - AckNotAgain
Round 2 - Adsthepro777
Round 3 - Spike8998
Round 4 - Bill Curran
Round 5 - Bill Curran
Round 6 - TopTheCat

Final League Standings

Click to Emlarge


NEWSFLASH


The final round of the league was won by PSO member TopTheCat. It was Spike8998 won took the overall laurels however after just pipping Bill Curran to the title and the $10 prize.

Thanks to everyone one who came to the games. In the New Year we will be back with a new league and a new prize! Happy Christmas and New Year everyone!


NEWSFLASH


PSO member Bill Curran became the first person to win back to back rounds of the League after a tense heads-up batttle with Round 3 winner Spike8998. It all goes down to the wire in next weeks final round!

Click to Enlarge



NEWSFLASH

PSO member Bill Curran just takes down Round 4 of the league!

Click To Enlarge






Monday 7 November 2011

Pius Heinz Crowned WSOP Champ



Courtesy of WSOP.COM


Pius Heinz Wins the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event ($8,715,638)!

It was months ago that 6,865 hopefuls entered the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event for a shot at glory. On Sunday, just nine of them remained. Here today, there's only one man standing and that is German 22-year-old Pius Heinz.


Final Table eliminations as they happened.


Sam Holden Eliminated in 9th Place ($782,115)


Anton Makiievskyi Eliminated in 8th Place ($1,010,015)

 Bob Bounahra Eliminated in 7th Place ($1,314,097)

Eoghan O'Dea Eliminated in 6th Place ($1,720,831)




































                              
             
1                  Pius Heinz           107,800,000
2                  Ben Lamb             55,400,000
3                  Martin Staszko    42,700,000


Ben Lamb Eliminated in 3rd Place ($4,021,138)

Pius Heinz had the button.
After Heinz folded, Ben lamb raised all in for 10.9 million. Martin Staszko woke up with the  and made the call. Lamb held the 


The flop came down  and Lamb whiffed so far. He was still looking for a queen or running straight cards to win the hand and double up.
The turn brought the  and there was now two pair on board, but none of that mattered to Lamb. He needed just a queen on the river. All of Lamb's fans stood waiting for the river, but none of them looked or sounded confident at all that Lamb was going to survive this hand.
The river brought the  and that wasn't the lady that Lamb needed to save the day. He was eliminated by the man who doubled through him on the first hand, Staszko, and just two players remained.
For his finish, Lamb earned $4,021,138.


Martin Staszko Eliminated in 2nd Place ($5,433,086)

Martin Staszko had the button, and he open-shoved all in for 39.5 million. This time, Pius Heinz squeezed out a good one, and he made the quick call with his covering stack and a chance to win it.

Showdown
Staszko:  
Heinz:  
The tension in the room became palpable, and the fans from both sides began screaming for their cards.
"Ace! Ace! Ace!" Heinz fans yelled in unison, while Staszko's contingent were cheering just as fervently for their guy. "Staszko! Staszko!" With the theater rising to a deafening roar, the dealer burned a card and ran out the first three cards of the decisive board. It came    .. An awkward moment lingered briefly as neither side had reason to erupt just yet.
After the initial indifference quickly wore off, though, the noise began to grow again in anticipation of the turn card.
It was the , giving Staszko another four outs to the win. He needed to catch any seven, eight, or ten to double back into contention. Ten outs once.
Ultimately, the smiley man from the Czech Republic could not get there. The river  was the final card of the day, and stage right exploded in a frenzy of noise. Heinz rushed over to the rail to be mobbed by his fans, and the celebration has officially begun.
For Staszko, it's the end of a long, hard run. He really did play some fantastic poker for the past two sessions, and going back into July for that matter. When the dust settled, though, his efforts came up just one spot short of poker immortality. The first bracelet will have to wait for now, but Martin Staszko is a name we're likely to be seeing again.
The last image we have of Staszko is of him on the rail, head down, clutched in the arms of those closest to him. The smiley man was suddenly saddened. It's all over now, but he'll will wake up with a consolation prize of more than $5.4 million in the morning. That should help take the sting off a bit.
Updates via WSOP.COM












Sunday 6 November 2011

Pokerstars Cowboys Challenge November

Challenge Over

Here I'm going to keep track of my Cowboy Challenge results for the month of November.

The idea is to play a total of one-hundred $1 45-man Sit n' Goes and double my starting balance at the end.

Starting balance is set at 25 buy-ins or in other words $25 USD.

Target $50 plus. Amount Reached $44.52

Here is a quick graph of my results so far.

Click To Enlarge


Greens are cashes.

Date
T’Ment ID
Finished
Cost
Won
CB
02/11/11
463563945
18/45
1
0
24
02/11/11
463551506
27/45
1
0
23
02/11/11
463519613
11/45
1
0
22
02/11/11
463501794
8/45
1
0
21
03/11/11
464042886
39/45
1
0
20
03/11/11
464030076
35/45
1
0
19
03/11/11
464009300
25/45
1
0
18
03/11/11
463995589
28/45
1
0
17
04/11/11
464475207
28/45
1
0
16
04/11/11
464459204
20/45
1
0
15
04/11/11
464461768
40/45
1
0
14
04/11/11
464440815
25/45
1
0
13
05/11/11
464958173
6/45
1
2.45
14.45
05/11/11
464928939
21/45
1
0
13.45
05/11/11
464897978
15/45
1
0
12.45
05/11/11
464790685
27/45
1
0
11.45
06/11/11
465537289
18/457289
1
0
10.45
06/11/11
465463043
2/45
1
8.80
18.25
06/11/11
465451714
35/45
1
0
17.25
06/11/11
465413064
11/45
1
0
16.25
07/11/11
465894356
5/45
1
3.68
18.93
07/11/11
465935712
37/45
1
0
17.93
07/11/11
465863077
21/45
1
0
16.93
07/11/11
465836914
28/45
1
0
15.93
08/11/11
466457121
40/45
1
0
14.93
08/11/11
466405558
3/45
1
6.75
20.68
08/11/11
466367437
12/45
1
0
19.68
08/11/11
466325804
22/45
1
0
18.68
09/11/11
466798414
32/45
1
0
17.68
09/11/11
466780745
24/45
1
0
16.68
09/11/11
466794615
44/45
1
0
15.68
09/11/11
466809547
14/45
1
0
14.68
11/11/11
467449308
9/45
1
0
13.68
11/11/11
467452487
25/45
1
0
12.68
11/11/11
467431060
10/45
1
0
11.68
11/11/11
467402102
9/45
1
0
10.68
12/11/11
467925814
4/45
1
5.11
14.79
12/11/11
467895176
4/45
1
5.11
18.90
12/11/11
467901085
16/45
1
0
17.90
12/11/11
467836745
3/45
1
6.75
23.65
15/11/11
469268827
29/45
1
0
22.65
15/11/11
469232810
11/45
1
0
21.65
15/11/11
469226735
36/45
1
0
20.65
15/11/11
469195667
14/45
1
0
19.65
15/11/11
469651323
17/45
1
0
18.65
15/11/11
469588955
6/45
1
2.45
20.10
15/11/11
469613954
10/45
1
0
19.10
15/11/11
469587376
21/45
1
0
18.10
17/11/11
470183476
1/45
1
12.73
29.83
17/11/11
470237292
4/45
1
5.11
33.94
18/11/11
470715077
19/45
1
0
32.94
18/11/11
470739204
7/45
1
1.43
33.37
18/11/11
470734818
20/45
1
0
32.37
18/11/11
470709399
3/45
1
6.75
38.12
19/11/11
471559963
4/45
1
5.11
42.23
19/11/11
471531871
14/45
1
0
41.23
19/11/11
471543618
32/45
1
0
40.23
19/11/11
471523743
24/45
1
0
39.23
19/11/11
471526570
30/45
1
0
38.23
20/11/11
472013894
3/45
1
6.75
43.98
20/11/11
472015949
13/45
1
0
42.98
20/11/11
471999608
32/45
1
0
41.98
20/11/11
472001093
37/45
1
0
40.98
20/11/11
471978063
26/45
1
0
39.98
20/11/11
471931929
5/45
1
3.68
42.66
20/11/11
471930779
11/45
1
0
41.66
23/11/11
473402684
9/45
1
0
40.66
23/11/11
473400541
6/45
1
2.45
42.11
23/11/11
473404818
16/45
1
0
41.11
23/11/11
473539495
5/45
1
3.68
43.79
23/11/11
473537827
11/45
1
0
42.79
23/11/11
473536064
19/45
1
0
41.79
23/11/11
473534312
29/45
1
0
40.79
25/11/11
474508764
3/45
1
6.75
46.54
25/11/11
474506521
15/45
1
0
45.54
25/11/11
474510006
27/45
1
0
44.54
25/11/11
474451537
8/45
1
0
43.54
25/11/11
474450286
12/45
1
0
42.54
25/11/11
474452611
16/45
1
0
41.54
26/11/11
474916587
6/45
1
2.45
42.99
26/11/11
474918182
10/45
1
0
41.99
27/11/11
475015631
13/45
1
0
40.99
27/11/11
475018059
31/45
1
0
39.99
27/11/11
475013379
35/45
1
0
38.99
27/11/11
475105735
2/45
1
8.80
46.79
27/11/11
475107082
11/45
1
0
45.79
27/11/11
475101330
8/45
1
0
44.79
27/11/11
475104094
38/45
1
0
43.79
27/11/11
475422423
29/45
1
0
42.79
27/11/11
475424247
33/45
1
0
41.79
28/11/11
475563532
20/45
1
0
40.79
28/11/11
475560745
28/45
1
0
39.79
28/11/11
475545290
28/45
1
0
38.79
28/11/11
475542572
22/45
1
0
37.79
28/11/11
475968054
21/45
1
0
36.79
29/11/11
476025472
1/45
1
12.73
48.52
30/11/11
476571228
11/45
1
0
47.52
30/11/11
476576747
24/45
1
0
46.52
30/11/11
476574434
31/45
1
0
45.52
30/11/11
476436986
18/45
1
0
44.52