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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Written By: MyPokerCorner.com

It truly is Christmas in November because MyPokerCorner.com is hosting their largest private tournament ever on November 23rd. With a low buy-in amount and $2000 added to the prize pool, this is a rare opportunity to make a lot of money without having to face thousands of players. This event will be held at PKR Poker, the world’s best 3D poker room. The buy-in is only $5 +0.50 and the top 25% players get paid. Here’s the fun part: If you finish in the money, you’re sure to make a lot more than to cover your buy-in! First place finish will get paid about 25% of the total prize pool. All other paying positions get equal share of what’s left!

If 75 players register, the total payout will be as follows:

Total prize pool will be 2K + all the $5 buy-ins: Total of $2375

First place gets paid about 25% of that total, making the top prize roughly $593

The rest is divided in equal share for those who finished in the top 25%. So with 75 players, positions 2 - 19 would each get paid almost $100!!!

This is the best $5 you’ll ever spend on a poker tournament because:
• You won’t be facing thousands and thousands of players
• 1 in 4 players will finish in the money and make a significant profit in relation to the buy-in amount
• The money prizes are HUGE because of the added $2000 to the prize pool

So how do you get in on the action? It’s easy!

This tournament is for MyPokerCorner.com players so you need to create your PKR account via this link and make a deposit using one of our 6 PKR bonus codes listed below. You’ll then be eligible to register to our private tournament (Look for Private tournaments-EARLYXMAS in the PKR lobby).

MPC250 - 50% up to $250
MPC50BONUS - $50 free!
MPC600 - 100% up to $600
MPC2K - 100% up to $2000
MPCBOOKERS - 100% up to $300 with MoneyBookers deposit
MPCIDEAL - 100% up to $300 with bank transfer deposit

Read more about our monthly poker promotions at MyPokerCorner.com!

*Note from RssPoker.com administrator: We don’t normally chime in on articles written by our authors, but in this case we wanted to make sure people realize how cool this promotion is. To summarize what the author said, players can enter this private tournament for just $5, with a realistic chance of making around $100 or more. In comparison, a typical tournament of this size would only pay out the top 8 players (assuming this has 75 total entries). Typically, 8th place would pay between $5-10. MyPokerCorner.com is offering you the chance to make roughly $100 by placing in the top 19!! That’s pretty sick, don’t miss this one. To sign up, scroll back up this page to the link that says “create your PKR account via this link”.

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Written By: PokerBonusSource.com

Perks man, give me some perks! Tired of playing at the same old rooms, giving away rake and tournament fees with nothing in return? If you’re tired of making the poker rooms rich, and would like to get something for yourself for a change, it’s time to find a great bonus code and a new room to play at.

While all online poker rooms have some sort of bonus available to new players, some bonuses are better than others. In this article, I’m going to give you some tips on finding a great poker bonus, and a couple of bonuses worth considering. If you’re an experienced bonus hunter, scroll down the page for our current poker bonus recommendations.

The Basics - How a Poker Bonus Works

Think of a poker bonus like you would a brick & mortar casino perk. When you go to a casino and use your players card, you earn casino perks as you play. The same is true for online poker, except that you don’t have to hand anyone your players card. At online poker rooms, anytime you play, you automatically earn the online equivalent of casino perks. While a Vegas casino may give you tickets to see a show, an online casino can’t send showgirls through your internet connection (until hologram poker is invented anyway). So, online poker rooms give their perks in the form of cold-hard cash. If you earn enough bonus cash, you can hire your own showgirls anyway, so we’ll take the cash thank you.

To claim your bonus at an online poker room, most rooms use either a ‘bonus code’, ‘referral code’, or ‘marketing code’. What’s the difference between these terms? Nothing, they’re all the same thing. Cardspike Poker calls theirs a bonus code, while Full Tilt Poker calls theirs a marketing code. As an industry standard, during the new player registration process, each room will ask you to enter a code which will allow you to receive the bonus.

While some online poker rooms offer ‘reload bonuses’ for existing players, they tend to be few and far between. The most common and aggressive poker bonus that players can get is for new players who are making their first deposit. So, once you’ve made your initial deposit and cleared the bonus, it’s not a bad idea to go looking for a new poker room and a new bonus to earn.

The amount of bonus a player can earn is typically based on the amount he or she initially deposits. So, if X poker room is offering a 50% bonus, that means that they will match your deposit at the rate of 50%. So, if you deposit $100, the poker room will allow you to earn up to $50 in bonus. If the bonus is 100%, they will allow you to get a complete match, dollar for dollar.

Poker bonuses also have maximum dollar amounts they will allow a player to earn. For example, X poker room is offering a bonus of 50% up to $200. For a player to be able to earn the entire bonus, they would have to deposit at least $400. If that bonus is 100% up to $200 however, a deposit of $200 can earn you the full bonus.

Poker bonuses typically allow players a certain amount of time in which to clear their bonus. Some sites only allow 30 days to clear their bonus while others may allow 120 days. There are a couple of rooms that have no time restrictions for clearing their bonuses. Always find this information in the fine print before you drop a boatload of cash into a new poker room.

What Else do I Need to Know About a Poker Bonus?

Beyond the percentage and total bonus amount, poker rooms all have their own system on how players earn their bonus. While some rooms have very simple bonus clearing requirements, others can be very difficult to clear. While being a mathematical genius can be helpful in breaking down the requirements of many rooms, there is one general rule that every room follows. In cash games, the higher the stakes you play, the faster you clear the bonus. With that said, a player may need to play 100 hands of $.25/.50 fixed limit hold’em at one room to earn $1 in bonus, while they may only need to play 20 hands of the same game at another room.

Another important thing to know is that while some poker rooms pay their bonuses in a single lump sum, others pay their player bonuses in increments. From a players standpoint, it’s much better to go after a bonus that pays in increments. If you go after a bonus that pays in one lump sum, if you don’t clear the entire bonus before the expiration date, you will get nothing in bonus. By receiving your bonus in increments, you will get your bonus as you go.

Instead of writing a novel breaking down every room, I’m going to discuss two rooms that have bonuses I really like at the moment. Both of these bonuses are big, and the clearing requirements are very reasonable.

Full Tilt Poker Bonus

The bonus being offered by Full Tilt Poker is one of the best bonuses available. Using the Full Tilt Poker referral code TILTEDBONUS, players can get a bonus of 100% up to $600! When you combine that with arguably the best poker room online, this is a no-brainer for anyone who doesn’t already have an account here. Here are some of the benefits of the Full Tilt Poker Bonus:

• Huge bonus of 100% up to $600 - Use Full Tilt Poker Referral Code TILTEDBONUS during registration
• Reasonable clearing requirements, not a pipedream
• Paid in increments of 10% of your initial deposit, or $20 at a time, whichever comes first
• Good system for earning points for tournament play
• Full Tilt Poker has easy deposit options and a quick signup process, which means you can be playing within minutes
• Players can cash in their player points for tournament entries or use them in the Full Tilt Poker store to get some cool swag including iPod’s, computer gear, HD TV’s, and a whole lot more
• 120 days to clear as much bonus as you can
• U.S. players welcome

CardSpike Poker Bonus

At CardSpike Poker, players earn Gold Chips as they play. Play more, earn more Gold Chips. The more Gold Chips you earn, the more bonus money you collect. Using CardSpike Poker bonus code PBS500, players can earn a 100% bonus up to $500. CardSpike Poker is on the Cake Poker Network, so traffic is much better than most new poker rooms. Here are some of the benefits of the CardSpike Poker bonus.

• Huge bonus of 100% up to $500
• Poker bonus cash is automatically deposited into your account in increments of $10
• Reasonable bonus clearing requirements
• 120 days to clear as much bonus as you can
• Get a free entry into the $500 New Player Freeroll
• Easy deposit options, including credit cards
• U.S. players welcome

If you’re going to play, why not get some free cash along the way? Give one of these rooms a try and start building your bankroll today. See you at the tables!

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Written By: PokerBonusRoll.com

More people then ever are connecting to online poker sites to play card games against other poker enthusiasts from all over the world. And with this increase in players, online poker sites seem to be setting up bigger and bigger poker tournaments. Online poker sites often use their “flagship” tournaments in marketing drives to lure in players, and it often helps! Take PokerStars for example, they are renowned amongst online poker players as the first internet poker site to run a weekly tournament that guaranteed a million dollar prize pool. Since then PokerStars has grown considerably and has now increased this prize pool to a guaranteed one and a half million dollars.

Poker players will notice that many of the sites “flagship” tournaments take place on a Sunday afternoon. The US friendly poker sites such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cake Poker, start these tournaments at a US friendly time, which often makes the tournaments start very late for European players.

Poker sites not accepting US players such as Titan Poker, PKR Poker and Party Poker schedule the tournament start times around European poker players, as European players are the players they’re trying to attract.

PokerStars Sunday Million

The largest weekly poker tournament, the PokerStars Sunday Million, starts at 9:30PM GMT every Sunday. With a $215 entry fee, it may be a little pricey for most players, but PokerStars offers hundreds of daily satellites to this event which include rebuy tournaments, double shoot outs, triple shoot outs and many other formats. So with a little searching around you should be able to find a cheap satellite offering seats at this prestigious online poker event!

As well as multi table satellites pokerstars also offers sit and go satellites which attract hundreds of players with their eyes set on the elusive Sunday Million seat. The cost of entering these sit and go satellites range in size from $2.20 up through to $70. You can even use your FPP’s (Frequent Player Points) to play in a sit and go satellite. PokerStars offers a number of formats for these sit and go’s including turbo, shoot out and the standard PokerStars sit and go tournament format.

Titan Poker $250,000 Weekly

European poker players looking to participate in a big weekly poker tournament should look no further than Titan Poker. This tournament kicks of at 6:00PM GMT every Sunday, which is ideal for players from the UK and other European countries. With a buyin of $320 you’ll have to have deep pockets or a big bankroll to part with the cash, although there are plenty of satellites running daily.

Titan Poker runs a 6 man sit and go tournament which costs $70 to register for, from here the winner takes away a seat at the $250,000 event and second place wins back their $70 buy-in. This satellite tournament is set up incorporating a quick format, seven minute blinds and fifteen hundred starting chips. Titan Poker also offers numerous other satellites; turbo, rebuy and the standard tournament structure are all offered through the Titan Poker client.

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In this video Daniel Negreanu talks about his schedule, Poker After Dark, Charles O’Barkley Obama, and a Las Vegas show called The Real Deal that requires audience participation. Daniel also talks about an upcoming taping of Poker After Dark and the tough field of players except for the “sucker”, Phil Hellmuth. He also mentions partying with Antonio Esfandiari, getting plastered, and showing up to an airing of Poker After Dark hungover. It sounds like Daniel is adjusting to single life pretty well.

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