World Poker Tour - Background Image courtesy of the World Poker Tour website The World Poker tour is composed of two different aspects. On one hand, it is an elite high stakes Texas Hold'em tournament drawing both amateurs as well as poker professions. With PlayWPT by World Poker Tour® Create account. Log in with Facebook. Poker table position example. Lets say you're on the flop with a bunch of players in the pot, and you hold a mediocre hand like middle pair. If there's a lot of betting and raising before the action gets to you, you can be sure that your hand isn't the best and you can happily fold without losing any chips. Life as a Poker Media Personality. For the past year, Staples has been traveling the world playing in differing locations including Montreal, Vienna, Croatia, Wales, and is now playing from Costa Rica. He plays on PokerStars, and has been an online team member for two and a half years. CardPlayer.com is the world's oldest and most well respected poker magazine and online poker guide. Since 1988, CardPlayer has provided poker players with poker strategy, poker news, and poker. Oct 25, 2011  Latin American Poker Tour Brazil. First, 98 percent of poker players are men and the women in Brazil are far and away the best in the world. Hands down, no questions asked. If you don't believe me, head down there for yourself. If you don't agree with me, well, get your ass outside of the poker room and venture around. Around the World is a card based drinking game, similar to President, but more complex and at the same time quicker. The game requires one standard deck of playing cards. More decks can be added to accommodate additional players and increase difficulty. The game is also known as Irish Poker, Chico High Low, Monkey Balls, Foam Game, North Carolina, Up and Down the River.

1. Around The World
2. Holding Hands Around The World
3. Helping Hands Around The World

Over the past few years, I've covered a lot of poker tournaments — 48 to be exact. I've had the amazing opportunity to travel the world, meet plenty of interesting people and experience amazing things. The questions I'm so commonly asked are, “Where's the best place you've been?” and “What's been your favorite tournament to cover?”

I'll often respond by saying that all of them have provided their own unique experience that I've enjoyed, but lately I've started thinking about a few that stand out from the rest. I could ramble on for days about each tournament and place, but that would probably get quite boring after awhile. I've done my best to condense choices to just my top five, but it's been a long, hard process and that's why this article has been a bit overdue. I could probably include a few more on the 'best tournaments to attend list,' but it had to be limited.

Please note that one of these events is no longer in existence, but the majority are still running every year. I highly suggest you take the chance to visit them because you don't want to look back with regret at having missed out.

5. World Series of Poker Circuit New Orleans

The World Series of Poker Circuit event in New Orleans was my first gig in this industry, and one I'll never forget. Bourbon Street is simply out of control, and I really love getting back down there for the tournament. We all know that poker players love to have a good time, party and drink. There's really not a much better place to get crazy than New Orleans, and it can turn out to be a really wild time.

Outside of the partying that goes on there, the food in New Orleans is amazing. On top of that, the people are friendly and the weather is warm.

Around The World

This event still runs every year, and I highly suggest taking the opportunity to get down there. The event itself always provides a great poker experience. The players like to gamble and the field sizes are fairly big. Because it's a WSOP Circuit event held at a Caesars property, the staff is top notch and always treats everyone with the utmost respect and generosity.

4. Aruba Poker Classic

When I first read that Ultimate Bet was canceling the Aruba Poker Classic for 2010, I was a bit sad. I was also confused. I just didn't see the reason for such an awesome tournament to close its doors, especially when it was the only live tournament held by the site all year round.

I don't believe I've ever attended a tournament with more amazing weather than there was in Aruba. It was hot, but not humid, the sun was always shining, and the tournament was located right on the beach. When I say beach, I mean white sand and crystal clear water. Water so clear, in fact, that you could see straight through to the floor of the ocean where your toes mingled with the sand.

The Radisson Aruba Resort and Casino where we were staying, was also the host venue and provided us with plenty of all-inclusive services and meals, along with plenty of drinks.

Speaking of drinks, the parties at the APC were the best poker parties I've ever been to. UB and its pros really put on a good show for everyone and every single night there was plenty of craziness to get involved with. From the wild opening party at the pool with endless food and drinks to the festival at Phil Hellmuth's suite on the roof of the resort, to the Dan Band playing not one, but two live concerts — it was all an extraordinarily good time.

It's a shame this tournament series is no longer around, but Aruba is still there and someone should step up and bring poker back to the island near the equator. The biggest suggestion I'd have is for PokerStars to head down there. Heck, we all know everyone has plenty of gripes about the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure being held at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, so why not move it to Aruba? The weather is infinitely better, the water is bluer, everything is cheaper and the overall experience will be much greater.

3. Latin American Poker Tour Brazil

Most of the Latin American Poker Tour events are amazing, but if you have a chance to head to just one, hitting any of the stops in Brazil would be what I'd suggest most. First, 98 percent of poker players are men and the women in Brazil are far and away the best in the world. Hands down, no questions asked. If you don't believe me, head down there for yourself. If you don't agree with me, well, get your ass outside of the poker room and venture around.

Carnival is heavily favored as the greatest party on Earth. Last time I was there, Carnival was a few weeks out, but the parties were still booming. With the samba schools in preparation for the upcoming festival, they hold plenty of practices that were parties in and of themselves, and I'd strongly recommend going to one. With Carnival switching between February and March from year to year, there's a good chance the next time the LAPT is in Brazil that Carnival will be much closer to the event itself. If you plan your travel accordingly, you can hit up both for a really incredible time.

2. Aussie Millions

I've been Down Under several times and there's really no tournament I look forward to more than the Aussie Millions. Part of the reason for this obsession with the Millions is that I absolutely love Australia.

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The Aussie Millions takes place during January in Melbourne and it's the heart of summertime. The weather is gorgeous and that's always a plus when traveling to these events. People are out and about in the city, which is very alive and colorful. The series takes place over three weeks, but it's not the only thing that attracts people to Melbourne during this time and shouldn't be the only thing you do while you're there.

The Australian Open is held down in Melbourne during January. Of course, it attracts way more people than the Millions does, but both are amazing in their own right. Because the Millions is a long series spread out over a few weeks rather than just one big event, there's plenty of time to get out and venture to see a match or two — or three or four. The atmosphere surrounding the Open at Melbourne Park is hardly outdone by many other sporting events in the world.

If you're not taking to the felt or watching some matches on the court, there's still plenty to be done in Melbourne to occupy your time. The endless restaurants along the Yarra are delicious, the nightlife will keep you having a blast until the early hours of the morning and the people are some of the nicest I've ever encountered. Oh, and there's that thing called Australia Day that you need to check out.

The question for most traveling poker players is generally, “PCA or Aussie Millions?” Coming from someone who's been to both, the Aussie Millions blows the PCA out of the water. Sure, if all you're worried about is field sizes, then head to PCA. But if you're looking for overall experience from a series, the Aussie Millions is the place to be. Not to mention, plenty of poker players have already been to the PCA, but not that many have traveled all the way down to the Aussie Millions. My advice: make the trip. In my opinion, it's solidly in second place as the best tournament series in the world, which brings us to number one.

1. World Series of Poker

If you're a poker geek like I am, there is simply no better tournament in the world than the World Series of Poker. I first covered the massive poker orgy in 2008 and don't really see myself missing any of it for the next several years. Heck, I doubt I'll miss one for the rest of my life. Whether I'm still working in the industry, or on to other ventures, I'm sure I'll make my way back to Las Vegas summer after summer to experience the thrill of the “greatest tournament in the world.”

I understand what some of you may be thinking, 'Why would you choose Las Vegas and the scorching summer heat while being cramped up into the Rio over some fun in the sun in Aruba or drinking a beer watching an Australian Open tennis match?' Well, like I said, I'm a poker geek. There's simply nothing I would rather do with my summer than attend the WSOP, and I'm sure the players that keep coming back year after year feel the same way.

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The WSOP isn't just about the poker though, it's about the entire poker experience, and it's the best in the world at that. So many people come out to Vegas every year and a lot of them are good friends of mine. I enjoy seeing them and of course, I enjoy meeting new people. With the event in Vegas, you know the parties are good and nearly nonstop. I probably party too much during the WSOP, but with so many people in town, it's hard not to.

The WSOP is where history is made. Bracelets are often the one thing that everyone talks about when referring to tournament success in the poker world and I'm ever so grateful to be a part of it. I enjoy writing the history books for the game I love so much and I can't see myself doing anything else right now. I know I've got a list of my five best tournaments to cover and places to go, but, honestly, if you have just one chance to go to a tournament series of your choice in your life, the WSOP is the one. The only one.

As both employees within this industry and poker players, we are afforded the opportunity to see many places across the globe. Speaking in sheer volume, not many individuals have the opportunity to travel as much as we do and experience the world. I've always been told by my close friends and family outside of the poker world that I need to take advantage of all of these wonderful opportunities and never regret a moment.

My advice to all of you is to do the same. With the recent effects of Black Friday and still no online poker in the United States, now is a great time to travel the world to these amazing live events in some of the coolest parts of the world. Yes, I know that travel can be a grind sometimes, but I wouldn't give up the trips for anything in the world.

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Poker is a family of card games that combines gambling, strategy and different skills. All poker variants involve betting as an intrinsic part of play, and determine the winner of each hand according to the combinations of players' cards, at least some of which remain hidden until the end of the hand. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or 'community' cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and the betting procedures.

In most modern poker games the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet (the blind or ante). In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match (or 'call') the maximum previous bet, or fold, losing the amount bet so far and all further involvement in the hand. A player who matches a bet may also 'raise' (increase) the bet. The betting round ends when all players have either called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the remaining player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one player remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed, and the player with the winning hand takes the pot.

With the exception of initial forced bets, money is only placed into the pot voluntarily by a player who either believes the bet has positive expected value or who is trying to bluff other players for various strategic reasons. Thus, while the outcome of any particular hand significantly involves chance, the long-run expectations of the players are determined by their actions chosen on the basis of probability, psychology, and game theory.

Poker online has increased in popularity since the beginning of the 20th century and has gone from being primarily a recreational activity confined to small groups of enthusiasts to a widely popular activity, both for participants and spectators, including online, with many professional players and multimillion-dollar tournament prizes.

History[edit]

Poker was developed sometime during the early 19th century in the United States. Since those early beginnings, the game has grown to become an extremely popular pastime worldwide.

In the 1937 edition of Foster's Complete Hoyle, R. F. Foster wrote: 'the game of poker, as first played in the United States, five cards to each player from a twenty-card pack, is undoubtedly the Persian game of As-Nas.' By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a direct derivative of As-Nas. Developments in the 1970s led to poker becoming far more popular than it was before. Modern tournament play became popular in American casinos after the World Series of Poker began, in 1970.^[1]

Gameplay[edit]

In casual play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked by a token called a dealer button (or buck). In a casino, a house dealer handles the cards for each hand, but the button (typically a white plastic disk) is rotated clockwise among the players to indicate a nominal dealer to determine the order of betting. The cards are dealt clockwise around the poker table, one at a time.

One or more players are usually required to make forced bets, usually either an ante or a blind bet (sometimes both). The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the chair to his or her right cuts, and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards to the players one at a time, beginning with the player to his or her left. Cards may be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the variant of poker being played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds begins. Between rounds, the players' hands develop in some way, often by being dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.

At any time during a betting round, if one player bets, no opponents choose to call (match) the bet, and all opponents instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand begins. This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of poker, one that distinguishes it from other vying games and from other games that make use of poker hand rankings.

At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown, in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in variants where a player has more than five cards available to them, only the best five-card combination counts.

Variants[edit]

Holding Hands Around The World

Poker variations are played where a 'high hand' or a 'low hand' may be the best desired hand. In other words, when playing a poker variant with 'low poker' the best hand is one that contains the lowest cards (and it can get further complicated by including or not including flushes and straights etc. from 'high hand poker'). So while the 'majority' of poker game variations are played 'high hand', where the best high 'straight, flush etc.' wins, there are poker variations where the 'worst hand' wins, such as 'low ball, acey-ducey, high-lo split etc. game variations'. To summarize, there can be variations that are 'high poker', 'low poker', and 'high low split'. In the case of 'high low split' the pot is divided among the best high hand and low hand.

Helping Hands Around The World

Poker has many variations,^[2][3] all following a similar pattern of play^[4] and generally using the same hand ranking hierarchy. There are four main families of variants, largely grouped by the protocol of card-dealing and betting:

Straight

A complete hand is dealt to each player, and players bet in one round, with raising and re-raising allowed. This is the oldest poker family; the root of the game as now played was a game known as Primero, which evolved into the game three-card brag, a very popular gentleman's game around the time of the American Revolutionary War and still enjoyed in the U.K. today. Straight hands of five cards are sometimes used as a final showdown, but poker is almost always played in a more complex form to allow for additional strategy.

Stud poker

Cards are dealt in a prearranged combination of face-down and face-up rounds, or streets, with a round of betting following each. This is the next-oldest family; as poker progressed from three to five-card hands, they were often dealt one card at a time, either face-down or face-up, with a betting round between each. The most popular stud variant today, seven-card stud, deals two extra cards to each player (three face-down, four face-up) from which they must make the best possible 5-card hand.

Draw poker

A complete hand is dealt to each player, face-down, and after betting, players are allowed to attempt to change their hand (with the object of improving it) by discarding unwanted cards and being dealt new ones. Five-card draw is the most famous variation in this family.

Community card poker

Also known as 'flop poker', community card poker is a variation of stud poker. Players are dealt an incomplete hand of face-down cards, and then a number of face-up community cards are dealt to the center of the table, each of which can be used by one or more of the players to make a 5-card hand. Texas hold 'em and Omaha are two well-known variants of the community card family.

There are several methods for defining the structure of betting during a hand of poker. The three most common structures are known as 'fixed-limit', 'pot-limit', and 'no-limit'. In fixed-limit poker, betting and raising must be done by standardized amounts. For instance, if the required bet is X, an initial bettor may only bet X; if a player wishes to raise a bet, they may only raise by X. In pot-limit poker, a player may bet or raise any amount up to the size of the pot. When calculating the maximum raise allowed, all previous bets and calls, including the intending raiser's call, are first added to the pot. The raiser may then raise the previous bet by the full amount of the pot. In no-limit poker, a player may wager their entire betting stack at any point that they are allowed to make a bet. In all games, if a player does not have enough betting chips to fully match a bet, they may go 'all-in', allowing them to show down their hand for the amount of chips they have remaining.

Other games that use poker hand rankings may likewise be referred to as poker. Video poker is a single-player video game that functions much like a slot machine; most video poker machines play draw poker, where the player bets, a hand is dealt, and the player can discard and replace cards. Payout is dependent on the hand resulting after the draw and the player's initial bet.

Strip poker is a traditional poker variation where players remove clothing when they lose bets. Since it depends only on the basic mechanic of betting in rounds, strip poker can be played with any form of poker; however, it is usually based on simple variants with few betting rounds, like five card draw.

Another game with the poker name, but with a vastly different mode of play, is called Acey-Deucey or Red Dog poker. This game is more similar to Blackjack in its layout and betting; each player bets against the house, and then is dealt two cards. For the player to win, the third card dealt (after an opportunity to raise the bet) must have a value in-between the first two. Payout is based on the odds that this is possible, based on the difference in values of the first two cards. Other poker-like games played at casinos against the house include three card poker and pai gow poker.

Computer programs[edit]

A variety of computer poker players have been developed by researchers at the University of Alberta, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Auckland amongst others.

In a January 2015 article^[5] published in Science, a group of researchers mostly from the University of Alberta announced that they 'essentially weakly solved' heads-up limit Texas Hold 'em with their development of their Cepheus poker bot. The authors claimed that Cepheus would lose at most 0.001 big blinds per game on average against its worst-case opponent, and the strategy is thus so 'close to optimal' that 'it can't be beaten with statistical significance within a lifetime of human poker playing'.^[6]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'World Series of Poker Retrospective: Horseshoe History'. gaming.unlv.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
2. ^Richard D. Harroch, Lou Krieger. Poker for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2010
3. ^Reuben, Stewart 2001. Starting out in Poker. London: Everyman/Mind Sports. ISBN1-85744-272-5
4. ^Sklansky, David. The Theory of Poker. Two Plus Two Pub, 1999.
5. ^Bowling, M.; Burch, N.; Johanson, M.; Tammelin, O. (2015). 'Heads-up limit hold'em poker is solved'(PDF). Science. 347 (6218): 145–149. CiteSeerX10.1.1.697.72. doi:10.1126/science.1259433. PMID25574016.
6. ^Computer program 'perfect at poker' (2015-01-08), BBC

External links[edit]

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