Written By: RSSPoker.com

Kid Poker has done it again! This past weekend, Daniel Negreanu won the British Columbia Poker Championship. The Toronto born player took down a field of 689 players in this $2500 buy-in, NL Hold’em event at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC.

After the event, Negreanu said “”Being Canadian myself, playing and winning the BC Poker Championships is extra special to me”. On Negreanu’s blog, he wrote…

It might have been a relatively inexperienced final table, but they were all good players. It amazes me how much better players are getting and I love it. Sure it makes it harder to win, but I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of playing high level poker in the late stages of a tournament.
This final table went very well for me.

Daniel has had a decent year, also winning the 20th event of the 2008 WSOP - the $2000 Limit Hold’em tournament. That was his fourth bracelet, the most coveted prize in all of poker. Ultimately, Daniel finished 8th in the Player of the Year race at this years World Series of Poker as well, with a total of over $518,000 in winnings. At the 2008 WSOP Europe, Negreanu finished in 5th place, good for £217,200…about $330,000 USD.

While he ranks just 76th on the Cardplayer, Player of the Year standings, his consistently high finishes this year puts him back on track as one of the elite poker players, rather than just a pitch man. After a couple of years attempting to ‘balance his lifestyle’, then last years divorce, Daniel now seems to be refocused on his actual play.

After closing the doors on his own poker room, Full Contact Poker, Daniel signed an endorsement deal with Pokerstars. While he can be found on a multitude of poker products such as video games and books, there is one particular endorsement deal that made me wonder just what the hell is going through Daniels mind lately. Out here in Las Vegas, there is a popular bar/billiards hall named PT’s. While PT’s owns a lot of these clubs here in Vegas, is this really what Daniel should be attaching his name to? The first time I saw one of these ads on TV, my first thought was “is this guy broke or something”?

Whatever the case, as one of the most popular figures in poker, it’s nice to see Daniel winning again. I don’t care to publish articles titled ‘Daniel Negreanu Endorses New Stripclub’ or ‘Daniel Negreanu Signs Deal with Local Dive Bar’…it’s just not something I consider real poker news. ‘Daniel Negreanu Wins Big Poker Tournament’ is so much more newsworthy.

Sorry for the rant, lets get back to the news at hand.

So, Daniel Negreanu took down the British Columbia Poker Championship. While it may not be a WPT, WSOP, or EPT tournament, this is the largest field Negreanu has beaten…ever! This field drew a number of well known players, including Dennis Phillips who took 3rd place at the WSOP Main Event. Also in attendance were Gavin Smith, Liz Lieu, Brad Booth, Lacey Jones, Isabelle Mercier, Gabe Kaplan, and the biggest bitch at the 2008 WSOP, Tiffany Michelle. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Here are the final table results (Daniel Negreanu and 8 players you’ve never heard of)

• 1/ Daniel Negreanu - $371,200
• 2/ Adam Croffut - $238,191
• 3/ Warren Russell - 150,285
• 4/ Vorakbotgh Eam - $118,335
• 5/ Vincenzo Abate - $97,204
• 6/ Tyler Patterson - $76,580
• 7/ Chad Thomsen - $59,675
• 8/ Christopher Dinson - $46,489
• 9/ Mal Hagan - $33,810

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Written By: PokerSite.org

If you like to play poker and have a good time with friends, you should think about holding your own home poker game. Nothing is more fun than getting a group of your buddies together to have a night of Texas Hold’em and good conversation. However, if you’re a casual player it might be intimidating to set up your first home game. This article will walk you through the steps, and give you tips for having a great poker night.

Game Structure

The first thing you need to decide is if you’re going to have a cash game or a sit and go type tournament. If this is your first home game, I’d suggest hosting a tournament because it keeps things simple. You don’t have to deal with players buying in and cashing out sporadically, and there are less issues with chips being lost or stolen.

To set up the actual structure of your poker tournaments, I’d suggest taking the common structures from online sit and go tournaments. Most sites start each player with 1,500 in chips, and 10/20 blinds. Blinds increase every 10 minutes, but you might want to stretch it out to 20 minutes since the dealers will be slower then at an online game. Here is a good example of a structure for a home poker tournament, including starting stack, blinds, antes, and breaks:

Also, for payout structure you should again look to the online poker sites, because they have it down. For a 10 person sit and go, the payouts are usually 50% to first place, 30% to second place, and 20% to third place. However, if you have more players you’ll have to adjust accordingly.

Setting up for the Tournament

Your first task to host the game is to find players. The best way to do this is to invite your close friends or family, because you don’t want any shady characters around, especially if there are significant amounts of money involved. Also, since it’s your first tournament there will probably be a few hiccups, and you don’t want strangers there who might get more upset than they should.

Next you need poker chips, a poker table, and chairs. I suggest setting this all up beforehand, including counting out starting chip stacks for each player. Make sure to have enough tables for all the players. If you’re going to have less than 10 players, you can all sit at one table, and for each increment of 10 more players coming, make sure to have another table with chairs available. The reason to count out chip stacks before hand is to reduce any risk of chip stealing. Put each chip stack in a plastic bag, and give them to the players when they pay you as they arrive.

Make sure to keep all the money on you or in a safe place at all times, especially if there are players at the game who you don’t know well. You might want to pick up a pizza or two and have drinks on hand, just to keep everyone happy especially if the tournament runs late.

Explain the Rules

Before the tournament starts, make sure to explain the rules to all of the players. Tell them about the structure, when blinds will go up, what each color of chip is worth, the payouts, if the dealer has to cut the deck before dealing, etc. It’s important to explain all of this beforehand so there are no issues after the tournament has started.

After the tournament has started, just enjoy it, and give yourself a pat on the back for setting up a great poker tournament. Have fun!

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