The Merge Gaming Network just got a little bigger. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Big Bet Poker is the Network's newest addition. The group of sites already includes ACED, Carbon Poker, Iron Duke, Poker Nordica, Reefer Poker, and Spin32. The Network happily accepts players from the United States.

In a press release distributed by Big Bet Poker on Tuesday, a company spokesperson explained the decision to launch on the Merge Gaming Network: "Merge's continuous growth in liquidity combined with our ability to accept new players from anywhere in the world provides an exciting new option for all poker players." The Merge Gaming Network has grown in popularity due to several high-profile signings. In July, Jennifer "Jennicide" Leigh signed with Iron Duke. Last month, 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Jamie Gold signed with ACED.

Big Bet Poker offers two player rewards system. The first is the standard Merge Gaming player point system. In addition, Big Bet Poker has launched its very own rewards structure. Players can exchange their hard-earned points for cash prizes, entries into sweepstakes, and merchandise. A three-tiered rewards system exists. Players start at the Bronze Level, where they receive 50 points for every $1 in rake. The Silver Level is for players with 20,000 points. They'll receive 75 points for every $1 in rake. The top level is Gold, which occurs when players accrue 100,000 points. Gold Level players receive 100 points for every $1 in rake.

Cash back for points ranges from $2 all the way up to $100, which can be had for 100,000 points. Information on sweepstakes items and merchandise available in exchange for points has not yet been posted on Big Bet Poker's website. Points can be converted to cash as soon as they are earned.

Current promotions center on sending Big Bet Poker members to some of the largest live tournaments in the world, including the World Series of Poker, PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, and Aussie Millions. While players are qualifying for these marquee land-based tournaments, they can hit the virtual felts playing Texas Hold'em, Euchre, HORSE, Omaha, Omaha High-Low, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High-Low, Razz, Five Card Stud, Five Card Draw, Ace to Five Lowball, Deuce to Seven Lowball, and Badugi.

According to traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, the Merge Gaming Network is the 18th largest worldwide in terms of cash game traffic with a seven day running average of 345 players. Its 24 hour peak is 696 and, at the time of writing, which is mid-morning Eastern Time, 336 ring game players have taken to the felts of the Merge Gaming Network. The Network experienced a boom of traffic in January, at one point eclipsing 800 cash game players.

Big Bet Poker is licensed in Curacao. Its software features the ability to deal it twice and rabbit hunt. In addition, players will find a time bank, Quick Start option for joining a table with ease, the ability to expose just one card, and the ability to tag other players. Last month, the Merge Gaming Network's Bad Beat Jackpot was hit for a colossal $1.2 million. Both players in the monumental hand rivered straight flushes. The Jackpot's winner took home over $400,000 in the first time it had ever been hit.

All told, Big Bet Poker officials are looking forward to the relationship with the popular Merge Gaming Network. A company representative explained, "We believe that the software features combined with the outstanding tournament schedule will help us grow BigBetPoker.com into a major player in the online poker market."

The game of poker is warfare of an unusual type. You battle it out with chips and cards instead of armaments and physical strength, using conflicting information to make the best decisions possible. Some players come to the felt with a major part of their arsenal muted; they lack the psychological support to allow them to attack poker properly.

While many people talk about the mathematics, strategy, knowledge of opponents, and heart that it takes to play poker competently, most do not acknowledge that you need to have the psychological abilities to be at the maximum of your abilities. One of those psychological factors is having what I call “The Complete Circle.”

The Complete Circle is made up of three components: support from family, support from knowledgeable poker friends, and non-poker interests. If you have only one or two parts of this circle, you are not reaching your full potential.

The first part, support from family, is perhaps the most critical part of building The Complete Circle. For some in the poker world, they face ridicule and sometimes outright dislike from family members regarding their pursuit into the world of poker. It can be parents, a spouse, or any significant other who, if they do not agree with what you are doing, can cause you to have apprehension at the tables.

For example, look at many of the popular Asian players in the game today. In the Asian culture, gambling is looked at as the bottom of the barrel when it comes to society and can have an effect on the particular person’s game. You can read the stories of many of these Asian players that admit that they lied to their parents about their poker pursuits. It wasn’t until they rectified this situation and received the blessing of their parents that they were able to fully extend their skills at the tables.

When it comes to spouses or significant others, that can be even trickier. A partner, through repeated arguments about the money and time involved in the game, can induce a player to not be at their best. You probably have seen this in action at the felt… a player moves from the table to take a cell phone call, has their significant other badger them about when they will be home or a bill that could be paid with the chips sitting on the table, comes back, and they return on significant tilt.

It is critical to poker success to have your significant other firmly behind you in your chosen hobby or occupation. Why do you think most poker players have significant others that are involved in some way, either recreationally or professionally, with the game? It is not only a situation of “birds of a feather,” but it is also has basis in a firm understanding and support.

The second part of The Complete Circle, support from knowledgeable poker friends, is good for the growth of your game. Instead of ruminating about particular issues such as bad beats, the play of particular hands, or alternative strategies in the recesses of your own mind, having several poker playing compatriots to bounce these questions off of can expand not only your knowledge of the game, but also give you a fresh insight. These friends can come from a multitude of areas. Poker forums, for example, allow players to build a network of confidants.

The final part of The Complete Circle is non-poker interests. Do you truly believe that a radio DJ, after playing music for several hours a day, goes home and does the same? Do you think a mechanic, after grinding over vehicles for a living, goes home and works on his car? The ability to step away from what is a focal point of your life is important to keeping a fulfilling life.

While it is important to have a passion for the game of poker, it is also important to have outside interests that can release your mind from that pursuit. The change of pace is critical to recharging the batteries and perhaps even re-feeding that passion that is important to success. Having anything be a 24/7 pursuit not only leads to burnout, but it also stunts the ability to make adjustments to your mindset and skills to become better.

By having The Complete Circle filled, you will have made a substantive stride towards success at the tables. It will clear your mind, allowing you to focus on the tasks at hand, and will relieve outside pressures that can distract you from your pursuit at the tables. It is a segment of the psychology of poker that you can change to improve your game immediately.

Malta Poker Events – Thursday Satellite - 19.11.09

The action picked up yet again on Thursday the 19th November with Malta Poker Events at the Portomaso Casino, St. Julians. 4 Seats were given out as prizes for the €220 freeze-out taking place on Sunday the 29th November. Winners of the €27+3 freezeout satellite event included previous satellite frontrunners Thomas Harvey, and Tanya Apap.

The tournament structure featured a starting stack of 3,000 chips and a blind structure which increased every 18 minutes. Players were at their seats at 20:30 hrs, and were split up into two separate tournaments according to their indicated preference whilst registering at the Portomaso cash desk - A 10 player tourney in the smoking area and a 24 player multi table tournament at the smoke-free tables of the Centrally-located casino.

Players who busted out early or made it late to the event had the chance of joining in on a 3rd tournament which started at 21:00Hrs. The event was made up of 7 players, and resulted in a win for Ryan Seguna, taking home €132 and Marthese Azzopardi, who won herself €57.

A fourth tournament started at 23:00hrs which was set up as a €20+2 sit’n’go with 3,000 chips and blinds increasing every 10 minutes. The freeze-out tournament which lasted approximately two hours paid out three players who each received €110 [1st], €66 [2nd], and €44 [3rd]. for their efforts.

Last night’s list of €220 ticket winners:
- Thomas Harvey
- Etienne Roe
- Tanya Apap
- Denoudin Gijsbertus

Satellite ticket winner:
- Giovanni Totsolino

Photos may be viewed in the Gallery section of http://www.maltapokerevents.com

The next and final episode of the November satellite tournaments will be taking place on Thursday the 26th November 2009 at the Portomaso Casino, Malta. The event is set to start at 20:30Hrs and is structured as a re-buy tournament. Players will be limited to just one re-buy for the first hour and one top-up before the break, helping increase the pot size, and giving poker players a second chance if they get unlucky in the first stages of the game. The re-buy limit is in place to discourage players from resorting to ‘maniac play’ [constant all-ins] to make it into the money.

Previous editions of the monthly tournament reached an average prize-pool of around €13,000, with €4000 going out to the player who made it into the first place in the money. Last month’s tournament was led by Beatriz Bernal from Spain, in her first ever live tournament at such a buy-in. 

Malta Poker Events

Feels good to win, played like two pros and got lucky!

$7,000 Guaranteed TURBO R/A 2009-10-27 23:05:37 1 Place $5+$0.50 $25.50
Ship It $1,941.25

Pot control is the art of manipulating the size of the pot based on the relative strength of your hand.  “Relative strength of your hand” refers to how strong your hand is in comparison to the likely range of hands of your opponent.  This means that the tighter your opponent is, the stronger hand you will need to play a big pot and the looser your opponent is, the weaker your hand can be to play a big pot.

For example if you have top pair against a calling station fish, you would usually be correct to place bigger bets on the flop, turn and river.  With top pair against a tight nit, it’s more of a judgment call, but you still usually want to avoid a situation where you end up with all of your chips in the middle.

Pot control is one of the most important skills for no-limit players.  By keeping the pot the appropriate size, it becomes much easier to avoid mistakes.  Pot control both keeps you out of trouble and gets as much value for your hand as possible.

There are two parts to pot control:

1. Factors to consider

2. Implementation

Factors to Consider

When practicing pot control, there are several factors one must consider.  The easiest is stack sizes.  As a general rule the range of hands with which you’re willing to showdown with all the chips in the middle should be wider with a 50BB stack than with a 200BB stack.  This means you should be much more willing to put a 50BB stack all in with top pair top kicker than you would with a 200BB stack.

The second factor to consider is the strength of your hand vs. the range of your opponent’s hand.  This is more of a judgment call based on past experience, reads of the opponent, table dynamics, board texture and betting patterns.  There is a lot to consider when trying to figure the strength of your hand vs. the range of the opponent.  This is basically a problem of hand reading.  The more you play and the better you get at hand reading, the easier this step will become.

The last factor to consider is the style of the opponent.  This is closely related to the last factor but I have separated it for one reason.  Two different styles of opponents can have a wide range but you want to practice pot control differently for each one.  If you have top pair top kicker against a bad chaser, you will want to bet the hand aggressively and let him pay you off.  If you have top pair top kicker against a tricky, aggressive player who has a wide range that you can’t read, you will want to practice pot control to keep the pot small.  The aggressive player will be able to put you to difficult decisions in big pots if you don’t have a very defined range of hands for him.

Implementation

Implementation is the actual method you use to manipulate the pot to the size you want it to be.  Implementation can include the decisions of whether to bet or check, raise or call, and sometimes fold.

An easy example of this is the top pair top kicker vs. a calling station.  If you believe the opponent is on a draw or weak hand and will call any bet, it’s a good idea to bet the full pot on the flop, turn, and sometimes the river.  Occasionally, if you feel a weak opponent is on a draw that missed on the river, you can check to him on the river and call a bluff.  Other times you will want to go ahead and bet the river again for value against a weaker hand.

With top pair against an aggressive, tricky opponent, it becomes a little more difficult first on analyzing the factors and second on the actual implementation.  Aggressive opponents make it difficult to manipulate the pot size because they sometimes raise with strong hands and sometimes with draws, making it difficult for you to distinguish between the two.  That’s why I recommend playing for small pots against good aggressive opponents.  They usually aren’t going to pay 100BBs to you with a hand weaker than top pair.

Playing small pots against aggressive opponents means occasionally checking behind on the turn with your top pair and then betting again on the river.  This line is very common and recognizable but it still keeps the pot small and tempts your opponents to call with weaker hands.  It also means sometimes checking the flop – a common scenario for checking the flop is after 3-betting preflop with AK and then spiking a king.  Against certain players, checking top pair here is a correct way to play the hand (occasionally, not every time).  The logic behind this is that good, thinking players can pretty easily put you on AK, therefore making a continuation bet from you unprofitable – they will fold worse hands, and continue with strong hands.

Of course you don’t want to get into the habit of defaulting to a certain line every time you play a hand against tough players.  That would be easily exploited and therefore unprofitable.  The best way to protect yourself against these tough players is to mix it up yourself so that they are uncertain of your holdings and less confident in their reads of you to push you around.

There are a thousand ways to play a weak-ish hand for a small pot so I’m not going to get into them all in this article.  But I hope I have at least given you something to think about the next time you hit the poker tables.  Once you get into the habit of thinking like this, your results will improve dramatically.

played in 2 

1st.  3rd=$10 

2nd. 1st =$25

3rd. 8th

4th. 2nd=$15

5th. 2nd=$15

6th.2nd=$15

 2 more and i get the $200 bonus :D go me ahha

was unlucky not to get to top 2 ran 4th

2/2 out of x5 in my heads up so far even got unlucky but manage to keep cool and still take both out !!!

Cheers Dan

$11mtt i had about 4.1k was comin about 12 th by this stage and then i had ace queen ran into ace king ( i played it terrible was out of postion and just pretty much from there after the way that hand got played out and way i started to tell myself how bad i played the hand and how much i lost just really lost me it really was angry with my preformance and let it get to me big time

3 $11 double ups

now have done 5 for the day played 3 10 handers and 2 6 handers i won 2 10 handers and 1 6 hander but let me tell you this i toke it real bad in both the 6 handed ones had 3.5k in 1 guy shoves all in under gun with 5 to go for about 2k with A 10 i had AK in bb i called and got run down when i think about it now i really shouldnt have put myself in that postion ! and the other 6 handed i had 2.2k and raised 800 and someone shoved so i called he had A Q vs my Ak again ran down kinda was a ruff afternoon as far as beats but other then that i think im playing quite well apart from a few mistakes here and there witch trying to sharp up on !!! any ways thxs for reading

Cheers Dan

Played 1 hand about 15 hands into it when i pick up kings i reraise this guy who instant shoves on me pre with aq of spades flop j 7 2  then he turns 4 of spades witch makes him have draw and blank on river witch gives me a great double up  and sits me well and lol as i was typing this i jsut got 10 9 on button and called flop 10h 10d 8h turn 2h someone bets anthor calls i kinda thought wat behind but had value to make boat so called and river came 9 lol 4.5k happy days :) ill keep all updated on how it turns out im currently coming 3rd!!!

cheers Dan

As far as cashing jp im 3/3 today played anthor 6 Sng came 3rd (was real chiped up and looking god for anthor 1st to be looking good for that big bonus $$$$ but i got involved in 3 races with short stacks witch were all hard to get out of. Unfortanlty i lost all 3 races but still fought back to come 3rd ;) hope to see you on soon

Cheers Dan

Played 2 $11 double ups so far today 2/2 (in 1 of them lost with aces to qj after he rerasied me witch got me down to about 600 but a chip in the chair is all you need ;)  

1st $11 Mtt =$38.90 played a nice solid 4 hours played very well up untill about 2 hours though when had 9s and made a bad cont bet on flop of 10d 7d 5s he called then i followed though after turn was a 2 of clubs witch pretty much had him all in who had 5s and played them well put him on flush draw still after taking a cripple there i mange to controll myself with Jps awseome help over skype as he usally does and keep myself back in it and lost with 4s agaisnt js after ug limped was a bad move at a bad time was quite low but any ways hopefully ppl are keep up to date talk soon !!!

Cheers Dan!

3rd game came 1st $25 (heads up went for quite a while for it being turbo he was such a bad player and just got extremly lucky on me 3 times in a row then i finally won a race witch was long due 6s vs jack 10) also playing a 11 Mtt and have come to great start after floping top 2 with ace 9 and someone repoping me on flush draw and i held witch im happy ill keep all updated thxs for reading !!! :)

2nd 6 dollar sng came 6th (AK hearts Vs q6s hearts played it wrong should have either raised more then 3x blind so bb doesnt feel like being a donk or should have simply checked the flop of 663 was like 500 in there and i only had maby anthor 600 left or so but still all is well for next time ;) thxs for keeping to date

Cheers Dan

Hey im daniel nice to meet everyone and im really happy to be a member here if you got any questions for me dont be shy gonna keep my play updated

1st 6dollar Sng  2nd out of 10 (played heads up quite bad other then that carnt complain :) thxs for the help jp on skype much thanks to you and what you are doin) thxs all for reading

Cheers Dan

I googled my pokername today and found my own poker profile.
Some find this intimidating. I don't just because I know better.

It's great to be part of a strong poker community.

I have some really good friends.

Thanks guys & gals.

See you in Marrakech!