National Heads-Up Poker Championship

With Poker being ever popular, there has been a flood of events being aired by television networks in the US. The WSOP airs on ESPN, the world poker tour, a worldwide series of poker tournaments broadcast on the Travel Channel. The National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC is one such made for TV event .It is a $20,000 buy-in invitation-only tournament centered around no limit Texas hold 'em.

The participants include many of the world's best poker players. The 2009 edition was a three day event with 64 poker players facing off at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Out of these 64, six spots were reserved for qualifiers – four from online competitions and two from tournaments at Caesars.

There is a slight difference in the way the NHPC is conducted over other poker tournaments. In the NHPC, players are seeded randomly in the first round with players divided in four brackets – Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades. Players winning a match advance to the next round. Here winner of the spades bracket plays the one leading the clubs bracket. The same holds for the remaining two .A best of three final then decides the champion who takes home the $500,000 check. This year Huck Seed emerged victorious taking the event from Vanessa Rousso.

A Brief History of Poker

As has been the case with many games, the origins of poker are unclear. Poker may have had its origins from the 18th century games of brag (England), pochen (“to bluff” in German), and poque (French for “pocket”) all of which had bluffing, betting and poker hand ranking as part of their poker game play.

Poker reached American shores in the 1700s, where it spread and acquired its modern name. Poker was a popular game on Mississippi River steamboats and in the saloons of the Western frontier during the gold rush. The 18-1900s saw newer variants of poker being adopted, the 52-card deck becoming standard and official rules being drawn up.

Modern poker tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began in 1970. Starting with just a handful of players, the tournament grew into one of the largest poker events in the world. Notable champions from these early WSOP tournaments include Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Bobby Baldwin, Doyle Brunson, and Puggy Pearson.

A spot in the WSOP today costs each entrant $10,000. However many players can avoid the entry fee by winning smaller satellite tournaments to get in. The 2003 and 2004 WSOP champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, respectively, won their seats to the main event by winning online satellites. When Late Night Poker first appeared on Channel 4 in 1999, it revolutionized people's perception of poker. Poker in the 21st century has also moved into the E-domain as well with online game rooms filled with whales and newbie’s alike. Great media and internet coverage has invariably led to poker becoming a spectator sport with a huge following worldwide.

What is poker tells?

A “poker tell” is any clue, habit, behavior or physical reaction, that gives other players more information about your poker hand. The following are tips and you can apply against novice or advanced players. Remember, in poker game there are many contradictions and exceptions to the rule. Also, experienced pros will give out false tells to fool players.

Watch the Eyes
This is why many pros wear sunglasses or visors/caps when playing poker; they know that the eyes rarely lie.

Facial Expression
Again, many pros try to disguise their entire face by wearing a cap and looking downward. This is to avoid the classic stare-down that poker pros are famous for. They may try to study your face for nervousness (detecting a weak hand), or even look for repetitive characteristics like a body "tic". You may have obvious unhappiness in your face when your hand is weak, and conversely, you may show a contrasting show of confidence when your hand is strong.

Weak is Strong/Strong is Weak
In its most simplistic form, this usually applies to novice players but frequently applies to pros as well. Basically, poker players like to be actors, and when they have a monster hand they tend to look disinterested. Repetitive Betting Patterns.

Betting habits
Usually the most revealing poker tells are based on the way a player habitually bets during particular situations. For example, maybe the player always checks when he has made the nuts, or a player may regularly fold after being re-raised.

History of Poker

There seem to be differences of opinion on the origin of poker. Moreover, there seems to be no clear or direct early ancestor of the game. It is more likely that poker derived its present day form from elements of many different games. The consensus is that because of it's basic principal, its birth is a very old one.

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to poker in 1834. In his writing, Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He soon realized that his was the first such reference to the game, and since it was not mentioned in the current American Hoyle, he chose to call the game poker.

The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green wrote about it, poker had become the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, receiving even more action than Three-Card Monte. Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game, and they came back time and time again. It would certainly appear, then, that poker was developed by the cardsharps.

The origin of the word poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

The game of poker has evolved through the years, through many backroom games to the present day casinos around the world. Its history is rich with famous places and characters. For example, during the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast.

Today, poker is carefully regulated by gambling laws, and saloons have given way to casinos and card rooms, but Poker is played more than any other card game in the world. It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

If you compare the prizes of major sporting events around the world, you will find that the monetary outcome of any given event in poker would (pardon the pun) stack up. Poker today is one of the fastest growing, but hardly recognized sporting events. The pinnacle of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top poker players.

Poker will always be around and will continue to grow and flourish like so many other past times. There will always be a game to play, money to be won, and crowns to be worn.

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world. First played in 1970, the World Series of Poker has grown in popularity ever since.

The World Series of Poker draws many of the top poker players, but it is not their exclusive domain. Players come from all walks of life and most of the poker players are amateurs. The World Series of Poker often sees many of those amateurs beating the pros.

The World Series of Poker actually consists of a number of poker tournaments of various poker games including Texas Holdem, Omaha, Razz, and Stud Poker. There are also Lowball and Hi-Low split poker games. The World Series of Poker typically has about 45 individual poker tournaments which begin the first week of June and end with the final day of the World Championship Event about mid-July.

The winner of each World Series of Poker tournament event is awarded a gold bracelet (which many players value more than the cash prize). The cash prizes are substantial typically ranging in the low to mid six figures with the first place prize for last year's Championship event setting a new record at $5 million. Poker tournament buy-ins generally range from $1,000 to $5,000 with the Championship tournament having a buy-in of $10,000. Players can also get into the Championship tournament by winning World Series of Poker satellite tournaments.

Harrahs Casino also sponsors the World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit. The circuit is comprised of various poker tournaments held at different Harrahs casino properties nationwide. Poker tournament players earn points toward an invitation to the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions which is held shortly after the conclusion of the regular World Series of Poker tournaments.

Many of the World Series of Poker tournament final tables are taped and televised by ESPN.

World Series of Poker

2009-new year has come and WSOP of 2009 is on its way. I am expecting the amazing time just like all of the other poker lovers.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest set of poker tournaments in the world which is held in Las Vegas every year and it has consisted of 55 events since 2007. The winner of each event gets a World Series of Poker bracelet and a price based on the number of entrants.

The idea of a World Series of Poker began in 1969 with an event called the Texas Gambling Reunion, it was as an invitational event sponsored by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas, and held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno. The set of tournaments that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve into was the brainchild of Las Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny Binion.

WSOP is becoming more and more popular as the number of participants has grown almost every year and in recent years the growth has exploded…

The World Series of Poker of 2009 is coming nearer and nearer. Ask any poker player what their dream is and chances are it is to play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. So, everybody, get ready to the WSOP of 2009…