Win Your Way to the Aussie Millions this Saturday
Posted by CarbonPoker on 9th October 2009

MTT Leaderboard CarbonThe main event of the Multi Table Tournament Leaderboard is going off this weekend.

That’s right, if you’ve been a part of this great promo, you’ve got a shot to represent CarbonPoker at one of the live-event highlights of the poker calendar — The Aussie Millions.

All you need to do to get your shot at a seat in Melbourne is dominate the MTT leaderboard. You do this by placing well in any MTT event; the player admin automatically tracks your leaderboard points. The top 100 players on the MTT Leaderboard will be fighting it out this Sunday for the live seat.

  • Saturday, October 10, 2009
  • 14:00 Server Time.
  • Top 100 MTT Leaderboard Players

Want to get in the next MTT Final? Hit up multi table tourneys at Carbon and work your way up the leaderboard. There is another Aussie Millions seat up for grabs, so get on it, mate.

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Naked Poker Players in ESPN Magazine?
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 9th October 2009

Naked Poker ProsIn the newest issue of ESPN Magazine, athletes are baring it all in the “Body Issue”.

While we here at the CarbonBlog have nothing against nudity, we are wondering about the choices of … models (?) for the shoot.

Leading the pack is Jennifer Harman, and then you get three others you probably weren’t expecting to see all in (and all out — hi-0hhhhh) on the poker tables.

As you’ve no doubt seen in the picture, that’s Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen. It’s always good to see poker coverage in ESPn, even if the players aren’t covered.

I guess that photo is NSFW, if you work with people who don’t want to see Phil Hellmuth’s moobs. I probably should have said that first.

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When to Call from the Small Blind
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 7th October 2009

blurred cardsPeople talk about position on the poker table all of the time such as early, middle, and late positions. One position on the poker table that rarely gets discussed is the small blind, which leads to a lot of poor play from this spot – especially when making calls.  Fortunately, you don’t have to fall into the trap of making bad plays from the small blind since this can easily be overcome by using a little strategy.

Making the Call

It’s tough to lay down your cards when a pot is full of limpers and you only need to call half a bet to stay in the hand.  In fact, many people almost always make this call no matter what cards they are holding.  However, a big problem arises when you start calling half bets with such a wide range of hands.  Just because the call is only half a bet doesn’t mean you should throw away chips with 2-7.

And even if you do make the call then it’s always possible that the big blind could raise which makes this a really bad bet when you’re playing out of position the rest of the hand.  If you do call then make sure that you actually have a chance to hit a big hand in a multi-way pot.

Hand Range

It is tough to really create a good range of cards to call with in the small blind.  Obviously with a half bet call you can use a little wider range than normal.  But you don’t want to be making calls with 10c-3c just because there is a possible flush opportunity available.

Suited connectors are always gold in this position (especially in multi-way pots), any hand with an ace will do, and regular connectors are also good to make calls with from the small blind.  As long as you’ve got something which could turn into a solid drawing hand then you should use it.

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Hungary Might Legalize Poker
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 6th October 2009

hungary pokerAs a further sign that poker is experiencing a big boom in Hungary, the nation is now considering legalizing the game so they can regulate it.  The Wall Street Journal reported this story over the weekend, and they believe that Hungary is looking to capitalize off of poker since an estimated 250,000 of the country’s 10 million residents currently play online and live.

However, it’s only been reported that Hungary is trying to regulate live poker, and they hope to make around 1 million Euros right away from dipping their hand into the game.  The only thing that is currently standing in the way of nationwide legal and regulated poker is the fact that not all parties agree on the plan.

Apparently, some people in the government want to put strict limitations on live poker clubs.  Among these limits include a 10 table limit inside of every club along with a cap on the tournament entry fees and cash game blinds.  The Hungarian Poker Association and the Hungarian Gambling Association are both adamantly against the restrictions since they think such limits would scare high profile international players away from Hungary.

It definitely seems like a good argument that Hungarian is possibly going to regulate the game too strictly.  If only low-level buy-ins are allowed in live poker clubs then it will definitely keep rich and famous players from entering any Hungarian events.  On top of this, most of the other players will opt to play online poker since it doesn’t sound like Hungary will look to be regulating this any time soon.

Whatever the case is, most of the country’s big poker playing population is hoping that the restrictions on live play aren’t too severe in the end.  But if they are too strict than you can definitely expect to see a big spike in the number of Hungarian online players.

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The Benefit of Playing Fewer Tables
Posted by CarbonPoker on 6th October 2009

Carbon Poker MultiTableOne thing that people love about online poker as opposed to the live version is that you can play multiple cash game tables at once.  And with the ability to play more tables at once comes the ability to make more money during playing sessions.

But this isn’t necessarily a good thing for some players because playing multiple tables at the same time prevents a person from fully focusing on them all.  So it’s definitely worth asking yourself a few questions before choosing to play 10 tables at once.

Will playing more tables make me better?

The obvious goal of poker is to make money.  So if you can play 6 tables at once and make $10 an hour on each one versus making $20 an hour on two different tables then it would make sense to play 6 tables.  After all, you’re making $60 an hour after you average out the winnings from 6 tables.

However, there is such a thing as improvement in poker and those who improve over the course of a few years may find themselves making in excess of $100 an hour or much more.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to make this improvement and move up in limits if you are playing 6 tables at once.  You can’t pay as much attention to the game and you won’t always develop strong reading abilities when multi-tabling.  If your goal is to move up in limits then you are probably better off playing two or three tables.

What Table Amount is right for me?

The next obvious question is how many tables will be right for you.  When answering this question, make sure that you aren’t using someone else as your model for how many tables you should be playing.  Some people have become famous for playing 25 to 30 tables at once which is an insane amount; just stick to what’s right for you in the end.
If you’re losing money then you obviously need to drop some tables.  Even if you’re making money yet feel rushed and don’t have time to make proper decisions then you should cut down on the tables.  Start out small and move up gradually as you gain more multi-tabling experience.

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Play in a Facebook Fan Freeroll on October 4th!
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 2nd October 2009

facebookHappy Friday, Freerollers.

We all know that you love playing for real money on CarbonPoker – especially when the buy-in comes in at $0 + $0.

This freeroll is exclusive to CarbonPoker Facebook Fans. So be sure to go to the page and click the “become a fan” link. Face it, it’s a Friday — I’m assuming you’re on Facebook anyways.

There are plenty of benefits for being our Fan. We give away $109 Coupons all the time, make announcements and share new things happening at CarbonPoker. You really don’t want to miss out.

****To get into the tourney, you’ll need to check the Facebook Fan Page this weekend for the exclusive password!****

The Tourney Details:

  • $600 Carbon Facebook Fan Freeroll
  • Sunday, October 4, 2009 @ 12:30pm Server Time.
  • No Limit Texas Hold’em
  • 2,000 Starting Stack
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Carbon Player through to Day 2 of the PokerNews Cup in Australia
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 2nd October 2009

imreHere is an update from one of our Australia correspondants. As you know, CarbonPoker was proud to send some online poker winners to the PokerNews Cup – Australia. Here’s what Shane in Melbourne has to report on the action from Day 1A:

With the Carbon team decimated by 2 late withdrawals there was only one runner on day 1A, impser.

After watching a fair chunk of his play today I have renamed impser “The stone faced Estonian”, he is a rock at the table giving nothing away in his demeanor. Hour after hour after hour he can’t be broken.

Through to the dinner break impser was just under the average stack, still well alive but not moving to far ahead.

With the blinds at 200/400 impser limps in from middle position only to have a know blind thief raise it up to 4k. Without blinking impser plonks down a stack of his biggest chips, roughly 20k. The original raiser went into the tank thinking long and hard before folding and showing pocket 8′s. The stoney faced impser didn’t show his hand, never giving away more information than he has to.

After hitting a low of 13k impser had a late rush in the last session of play and has survived day one and with 65k in chips he is just under the average of 69k with 49 players remaining in flight 1A.

So with a perfect 100% record from day 1A expectations will be high when flight 1B kicks off tomorrow!

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on all of impser’s action throughout the PokerNews Cup. GL, man.

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Halloween Promo at CarbonPoker – All Month Long
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 1st October 2009

HalloweenOctober is here and so is another great CarbonPoker Promo.

‘CarbonPoker Halloween: Trick or Treat’, as the name suggests, offers the best tricks and treats of the season, as players work through 15 Levels of tasks to earn cash prizes.

If you played it last year, you’ll know that every CarbonPoker player is eligible and all of your progress will be automatically tracked and updated. It’s going to run from October 1 – 31, so you’ve got the entire month to build up VIP Points.

Here’s how it works:

After getting through the first task of finding a hidden pumpkin logo on one of CarbonPoker’s pages, you’re off and running – trying to accumulate as many VIP Points as you can throughout the month.

As you reach the different stages, you can go to the secure Halloween page (after you’re signed in) and decide whether to keep the Treat or risk it for more (and potentially get the Trick). Either way, you’ll get a cash prize.

Basically, you’re shooting for $2,500 in individual prizes over the month – and you’re only going to hit the top payout by risking some of it along the way.

Think of it like The Carbon Million… only spookier.

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Female Poker Pros Disappoint in Amazing Race
Posted by Comb Over-Under on 30th September 2009

Tiffany and MariaThe poker world was happy to hear about female pros Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the CBS reality TV show “The Amazing Race.”  Unfortunately, the poker world may not be so proud of the pair after their debut on the 15th installment of the Amazing Race.

After leading off the race by saying they were non-profit workers from LA – benefiting the homeless, the girls were off to a pretty good start.

Unfortunately, all of the profits from this charity go towards funding both of the girls’ poker careers.  Eventually, a female fan of the pair saw them at the airport and went on about how great they are at poker.  The bluff got sniffed out and the girls were left looking like asses.

The girls jumped out to an initial lead, but nearly got knocked out when they finished last in the Japanese-game-show-wasabi-bomb eating section of the race. After some duck herding, they were back in resasonable shape.

Overall, I don’t think they come off as likeable. By lying about what they do for a living, and then pretty much getting busted immediately, they make poker players look especially sleazy.  Factor in how annoying they are, and they’re on the fast track to being ‘that annoying team’ that viewers want to see lose.

Tune in each Sunday at 8pm (after a long day of watching football, it’s a good way to get some quality time in with the wife without leaving the couch) to see how the girls do throughout the rest of the action.

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Building a Poker Bankroll
Posted by CarbonPoker on 29th September 2009

cards dice chipsWe hear poker strategists talk about having a bankroll for poker all of the time.  So obviously, the subject of poker bankrolls isn’t an earth-shattering concept.  However, most of the advice is limited to simply telling people they need to have a decent bankroll before embarking on a poker career.

Few poker authors will go much deeper than this which really doesn’t help much in the end.  It’s much more helpful to know how to actually build the bankroll so that you can hit the ground running.  Here are some tips for building that all-important poker bankroll.

Bankroll Basics

As far as building your actual bankroll, you should begin saving your money before actually playing in any real games.  This means simply practicing and learning strategy for however long it takes you to accumulate a sufficient amount of money to play with.  A good rule of thumb is to have at least 200 big blinds for the cash game limit you wish to play at or 100 tournament buy-ins.

Bankroll Mindset

It’s very important that you have a set amount of money dedicated to poker when playing the game.  After all, you don’t want to be using money which is supposed to be set aside for your electric bill.  People who do things like this typically play scared because they are afraid to lose the money they’re using.  And when the time comes, you won’t have the nerve to make all-in calls or crucial bluffs since you are worried about using the money for something else.  So make sure to have a poker-only bankroll so that you aren’t afraid to make the necessary moves when it comes time.

Bankroll Limits

Even the best players in the world have weeks or even months where they play bad and lose money.  With this being the case, you need to have a bankroll that is able to endure long losing streaks, and play at a limit where you can sustain your bankroll over a period of time.  Keep in mind that if you can’t survive a month-long losing streak without going bust then you are probably at a limit that is too high.

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