Posted by BungalowOfCards on 20th April 2011

As new players roll in CarbonPoker continues to make additions and improvements to its tournaments.  Earlier today over $500,000 was added to the site’s monthly guaranteed and now tournament players will be happy to hear five new Sit ‘n’ Go rooms have been created to give players even more options.

The all-new Sit ‘n’ Go rooms:

Cape Hunting Dog Room (maximum 45 players) – $2.20
Emperor Penguin Room (90) – $2.20
Starling Room (180) – $2.20
Salmon Room (45) – $5.50
Snow Goose Room (45) – $11

With room names like this it won’t be long before CarbonPoker has a complete zoo!  Get into the action with these new Sit ‘n’ Go rooms today.

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 16th July 2010

ShannonChipsShannon Elizabeth will be showing off her skills in a no-punches-pulled $500 Added Bounty Tournament tonight.  With $100 cash and an entry coupon to Sunday’s $50,000 Guaranteed ($109 value) as her bounty, Shannon (player name “ShannonElizabeth”) will be getting even more attention than she’s used to.

If her recent success at the World Series of Poker is any indication (and it is), even CarbonPoker’s best will have their hands full.

The tournament starts in about five hours so don’t miss your chance to take your seat and get to know Carbon’s newest pro.

Details:

Friday 16 July @18:00 Server Time (19:00 EST)
$5 + $0.50 / 550 VIP Points Buy-in

Be sure to hit the comments and let us know how it goes! We at the CP Blog will throw in an additional prize for whoever shares the best story from the tournament.

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Posted by BungalowOfCards on 12th July 2010

burgessUnfortunately the first of Carbon’s Day 3 hopefuls has bowed out after a valiant effort to battle through his short stack wows from Day 1C and 2B.  Corey Boggess–better known as AbrahamBinkin at Carbon’s tables–won his first ever $12,500 WSOP package via the monthly CarbonPoker MTT Leaderboard promotion.

After being down to as few as 4,000 chips going into the evening session on Day 1C, Corey (pictured here with Shannon Elizabeth at the CarbonPoker WSOP Party) managed to stay positive and come out blazing at the table. With a quick double up thanks to his AK holding steady against pocket 10′s, Corey managed to keep the stack growing even when he intelligently released his pocket King’s after an Ace came on the flop.

The double-ups continued into the evening and past the dinner break when Corey’s AK out flopped KK and left him with just over 46,000 in chips. After reaching as high as 132,000, Corey managed to hover around 66,000 for much of the night with blinds at 400/800. Unfortunately though it was his turn to get rivered by a 2-outer and so Corey was faced with the challenge of entering Day 3 with only 38,000 chips.

AbrahamBinkin Bust Out Hand Day 3:

• Blinds – 500 / 1,000
• Aggressive Player in early position makes it 3,500
• Action folds round to SB
• SB folds after some thinking
• Corey in the BB, pushes for final 29,000 chips
• Raiser snap calls Corey’s All-in
• Corey shows JJ and Raiser reveals AcKh
• Flop and turn is a rainbow, all low cards
• The a King on the dreaded river

Congratulations Corey on an outstanding performance to turn that chip’n'chair from Day 1 into 1 of 3 Carbon players surviving till Day 3.  Good luck in the next MTT Leaderboard grand final and look forward to seeing you Down Under for the Aussie Millions!

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Posted by BungalowOfCards on 12th July 2010

World Series of Poker stepsHeading into the Day 2s of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event, a couple things were clear about Carbon’s many players: a) they had done very well to get as far as they had; and b) they were not about to stop there.

True to form, several of CarbonPoker’s players stuck it out through another grueling day and will be looking to build on their success today as Day 3 starts.  The full list is:

Michael Reed 215k

Gabriel Diaz – 110k

Corey Boggess 38k

Michael continues to be Carbon’s brightest light, adding to his stack from Day 2 to leave him in a comfortable 85th spot going into the day.  Unfortunately, brand new signing Shannon Elizabeth was unable to find an opportunity to spin her 10,000 chips into a larger stack on Day 2B, and was busted out.

Another Carbon regular, Steve Goosen, is also still kicking after two tough days, and is sitting at a terrific 240,000.

Day 3 is the first day that all remaining players—a substantial 2,557 still have chips to their name—will be playing together.  Stay tuned for updates and some stories from our players as the day progresses.

All the best luck to our remaining CarbonPoker representatives – make us proud out there!

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 9th July 2010

wsop tablesCarbonPoker’s team of online players are lighting up the felts at the $10K Texas Hold’em Main Event of the WSOP. We are proud to announce the following players have survived Day 1, and are still in the hunt for glory (and cash).

Shannon Elizabeth – 10,600

Nick Gibson – 52,875

Gabriel Diaz – 27,800

Gustavo Vazquez – 20,825

Corey Boggess – 12,650

Michael Reed – 142,125

Steve Goosen and Elliot Smith (CarbonPoker regulars) are also through to Day 2 action of the biggest poker tournament in the world.

We’re proud of all of these players and wish them the best of luck going forward – bring back a bracelet to CarbonPoker!

This year’s Main Event started with 7,319 players – the second largest poker tournament ever held (behind the 2006 WSOP Main Event of 8,773 players).

All of these players equals a massive prizepool of over $68million. The final winner will take home a cool $8.9million.

Good luck to all of our CarbonPoker players. Day 2A of the tournament kicks off today at 12pm PST and Day 2B will be tomorrow at the same time.

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 9th July 2010

freeThose of you who hate the thought of spending all your hard-earned money on tournament fees should take a look at Carbon Poker’s monthly lineup of freerolls.

Carbon offers $50,000 in poker freerolls every month so there is no shortage of free cash to be won here.  The $50,000 is dispersed through nine different $200 freerolls every day.  So no matter what time you play poker during the day, chances are you’ll be able to find a freeroll that fits your schedule.

And you needn’t worry about any strings being attached because there are no hidden, backend, carnie trickster, extra fees you’ll need to pay in order to enter the Carbon Poker freerolls.  Each freeroll is completely free, and the only requirement is that you register before the tournaments start.  This differs from a lot of other poker rooms that advertise tournaments as freerolls, but want nearly all of your VIP points as an entry fee.

Besides being able to play for $200 nine times a day completely free of charge, another nice thing about these freerolls is that there’s lots of variety.  Texas Hold’em, Omaha, H.O.R.S.E., and Badugi are all offered in the various freerolls.

Poker freerolls are an excellent idea for anybody who is looking to build their bankroll without risking a lot of cash.  You’ll not only improve your tournament skills, but you will also win lots of money on the side without risking anything out of your own pocket.  So be sure to look through the Carbon Poker lobby in order to find the freerolls that are running every day.

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 8th July 2010

Shannon Elizabeth WSOPShannon Elizabeth took to the felts for Day 1D of the World Series of Poker – Main Event. The $10,000 Texas Hold’em event is in the final day of first day action.

As reported by the good people at PokerNews, Shannon got out of the way of a big hand early on in the tournament:

“We caught up with this hand on the turn, with the board showing JackD, 10D, AceC, 5C

Shannon Elizabeth led with a bet of 1,000 from the big blind, and her opponent, sitting to her left, raised to 3,000. Elizabeth reraised to 5,000, and her opponent promptly pushed all in.

Elizabeth thought a moment, then folded. Her opponent showed KQ for Broadway as he dragged the pot.

Elizabeth has 24,500.”

We’ll keep you up to date on the latest from Shannon and her latest quest to cash in the WSOP 2010.

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 8th July 2010

michael reed wsopCarbonPoker qualifier, Michael Reed is on a tear at the World Series of Poker. After Day 1 of play for Michael, he’s sitting with 142,125 chips — good for 8th place overall.

Check him out in his official CarbonPoker hoodie at the Rio during the $10,000 Texas Hold’em Main event.

We’ll have the latest from Michael and all the other representatives of Team Carbon all this week. Cheer on the troops in the comments section!

Day 1C is in the bag, with another full opening session for the tournament.

As of now 2314 players have entered, with 1489 left. After today’s session, we’ll have full information on the field, our Carbon players and how Michael is holding up.

If you want to get to the WSOP in 2011, check out our satellite tournaments, All-In or Fold promos, or just get yourself a ticket!

Other Players in the Top 10

Mathieu Sauriol – 169K

Johnny Chan – 163K

Andrew Liporace – 155K

Josef Monro – 153K

Lauren King – 149K

Barny Boatman – 144K

Steven Goosen – 142K

Michael Reed – 142K

Sean Prendiville – 140K

Benjamin Blair – 137K

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 7th July 2010

sit n goWhen you first start playing poker, lurking around the $1.10 tables seems totally fine.  However, at some point you’ll start to realize that the $5 first place prize isn’t much at the end of a 45-minute sit and go.  This is when you begin wondering how to make some real money with SNG’s.  So in the spirit of making more cash in sit and go’s, let’s look at tips that will bring you more money.

Focus on Time

As mentioned before, $5 isn’t a big payoff when you’re stuck in a SNG for 45 minutes or more (assuming you even get first place).  Even if you play mid-stakes sit and go’s such as $20 + $2 and have a solid ROI of 1.20, you’d still be hard-pressed to make any sort of living by playing one table at a time.  After all, a 1.20 ROI would only give you a $4.40 profit per SNG, which doesn’t provide enough money to make playing a single table worth your time.

So what’s the solution?  You really need to consider multi-tabling at some point in your online poker career.  It’s the only way that you’re ever going to make a substantial amount of money by playing SNG’s.

Don’t Settle for Second or Third Place

Placing third in a sit and go will only get you a little more than your buy-in back while placing second will fall short of doubling your buy-in.  That being the case, you can’t settle for placing second or third because the real money is at the top.  Of course, this doesn’t mean you need to play like a madman when the table gets down to four or five players just to double up.  However, you can’t keep folding in hopes of backing into the money either.  First place gets well over half of the prize pool, and that’s what your goal should be.

Keep your Playing Style in Mind

Obviously just playing a lot of sit and go tables isn’t going to automatically make you a professional poker player; you’ve also got to factor strategy into the equation.  And much of this strategy will hinge on you choosing SNG’s that fit your particular playing style.  If you fancy yourself a highly skilled sit and go player, choosing tournaments with large starting chip stacks and slow blind levels is crucial.  If you’re more of a gambler who wants fast action, Turbo SNG’s will suit you better.

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Posted by CarbonPoker on 4th July 2010

poker tourneyPoker tournaments seem to be the favorite setting for beginner players.  After all, most people get into poker after hearing about the multi-million dollar prize pools offered in tournaments, and satellite scrub accountants-turned millionaires – a la Chris Moneymaker.  But just as in any other form of poker, beginners are prone to big mistakes that are unfortunately repeated over and over again.  Here are a few of the mistakes that beginners definitely need to avoid.

Trying to Double up Early

In order to win a poker tournament, you need to get everyone’s chips.  That being said, too many beginners focus everything on doubling up early on just so they can establish themselves as a chip leader.  Now if the chance arises – such as you getting pocket aces pre-flop and somebody is willing to call your all-in move – then by all means try to double up.  However, don’t force it by going all-in with something like K-Q in the beginning.

Focusing on your own Hand

Another big mistake a lot of beginners make is only focusing on what they hold.  Now you obviously want to be sure and have good cards before making any calls, raises, etc., but you also need to keep in mind what other players might hold.  For instance, if you get a straight on a board of 9h-10s-Jh-3c-Kh, you definitely have a good hand.  However, you also have to consider that somebody else could be holding a flush based on the board.

Going All-in Pre-flop too often

As mentioned before, if you can get somebody to go all-in with you pre-flop while holding aces or kings, this is a good risk to take.  However, don’t get caught up in going all-in pre-flop because you will get burned more times than not.  On a full table, it’s very likely that at least one hand can outdraw you after the flop.

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