Poker Academy Blogs

Among the players present, there was a large part of Maltese poker players, and many Scandinavian players from the local igaming community. The tournament also attracted a few players from neighbouring Italy, and players from countries like Russia, Portugal and France. There were also a few EMOP participants present, who played at the international poker tournament held at the Casino di Venezia, Vittoriosa, earlier last week.

Around seven and a half hours into the game, Arthur Voskanyan and Georg Westin went heads up in the final hand of the September edition of the monthly Malta Poker Events tournaments at the Portomaso Casino. With the blinds at 6k/12k, Arthur pushed all in holding Q10 and waited for Georg to act. Georg called this push right away while holding KQ and proceeded to watch the dealer uncover 96A32 giving him the advantage with his K high. Arthur won €2600 in second position and Georg took home the biggest share of the pot for his placing first - €4000.

1. Georg Westin [Sweden]- €4000
2. Arthur Voskanyan [Russia]- €2600
3. Stefan Lundberg [Sweden] - €1530
4. Therese Harvey [Malta] - €1300
5. Steffan Eric Johnson [Sweden] – €1000

MyPokerAcademy's own poker mentor Ron Rose will participate in the Malta Poker Challenge which will take place at Portomaso Casino in St. Julians between the 7th & 8th of September.

Ron has won a WSOP bracelet in the 2003 seniors' no limit hold'em event, defeating a field of 377 opponents to take home the $130,060 first prize.

He also has two wins in the WPT (World Poker Challenge event and the inaugural WPT Battle of Champions!

Keep you updated!

You’ll find some amazing First Deposit Bonuses at William Hill Poker

As well as our great welcome bonus, you’ll get 5 FREE ENTRIES into the TWO freeroll tournaments for first depositors when you make your first deposit.

You’ll play against other first depositors, making the tournaments an ideal way for new players to sample the thrill of tournament poker – and giving everyone involved a great chance of winning.

Each new depositor will get:

4 entries to Wednesday’s $1,000 New Depositors Freeroll
Wednesdays @ 18:00 (lobby time)

1 entry to the New Depositors Prize Freeroll
Saturdays @ 18:00 (lobby time)

First Deposit tokens will be issued on Wednesdays for all players who made a 1st deposit during the previous week  (Wednesday to Wednesday).

You can now register and play for FREE in these tournaments worth more than $4,000.

New Depositors Freeroll Tournament winners can choose their prize from a laptop computer, Sony Handycam, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Canon Digicam G9 or Samsung Omnia phone.

On receipt of your FREE tokens you can take part in the next upcoming Saturday New Depositors Prize Freeroll and the next upcoming Wednesday $1,000 New Depositors Freeroll. There will be one prize awarded for each New Depositor’s Tournament.

This is a great opportunity to win your first tournament, playing against other new depositors, so make a first deposit today and you could win up to two great prizes on top of your great welcome bonus just for signing up.

All this from William Hill Poker

Click here to enter a freeroll

Chilipoker brings you a unique opportunity to become a Millionaire every month by playing your favourite game on your favourite poker room! The first two $500 + 35 Monthly Million Tournaments with a $1M guaranteed prizepool already have had the dates confirmed. The event has an excellent deep structure and 20 minute blinds. So be sure to markdown September 13th and October 11th in your diary and get your share of the megacake.

Satellite & Super Satellite Qualifications
Qualify everyday for just a few dollars. Those with an impressive bankroll can make their buy-in for $500+$35, although with a comprehensive satellite structure, you can climb up the satellite trail and make the big poker table for free. Qualify NOW on our daily satellites starting August 10th from as little as $0.44 up to $66

Omaha is a game that appears very similar to Texas hold’em, but in fact is quite different. The additional two cards and the restriction that players can only use three board cards creates an entire new array of strategies relevant to Omaha. There is one poker variation that beat all the others – it’s definitely the game where you find most action and good players have a huge edge against lesser opponents.

Get ready all you Omaha High and Omaha Hi-Lo fanatics, Chilipoker is back again this year with an Omaha Poker Rake Race valued at $130,000. There are several qualifying periods during the Omaholic rake race.

The qualifying Periods are as follows:
- September 7th – September 13th
- September 14th – September 20th
- September 21st – September 27th
- September 28th – October 4th
- October 5th – October 11th
- October 12th – October 18th

Each race will have 4 leader boards according to the blinds played:

- $10/$20 and up: top 10 rewarded
- $2/$4 and $5/$10: top 40 rewarded
- $0.5/$1 and $1/$2: top 50 rewarded
- $0.1/$0.2 and $0.25/$0.50: top 50 rewarded

Monday Night Omaha Freeroll Satellite

In addition, tokens to a freeroll satellite for a new Monday Night Omaha tournament (worth $109 each) will also be awarded. 

The Monday night freerolls will be held on the Sunday following the leaderboard results (for example – a player who wins a token in the leaderboard ending September 13th will play in the freeroll on September 20th, which will award seats to the Monday night Omaha tournament, to be played on September 21st. 

February 28^th 2009 - Ranked 1/77 in the €3,000 GTD Rebuy Tourney on Poker Heaven and cashed €1200.00

March 15^th 2009 - Ranked 1/82 in the $2,000 GTD (6-Seater) Tourney on PKR and cashed $650.00

March 27^th 2009 - Ranked 15/190 in the $4,000 GTD (6-Seater) Tourney on PKR and cashed $71.00

March 30^th 2009 - Ranked 1/155 in the $2,000 GTD (6-Seater) Tourney on PKR and cashed $605.00

March 31^st 2009 - Ranked 10/103 in the Grand Prix $10,000 GTD Tourney on PKR and cashed $227.00

April 3rd 2009 - Ranked 11/100 in the Grand Prix $10,000 GTD Tourney on PKR and cashed $180.00

April 5^th 2009  - Ranked 1/46 in the $2,500 GTD Deep Stack Tourney on PKR and cashed $925.00

April 16^th 2009 - Ranked 3/270 in the Daily $17K Tourney on PKR and cashed $1,700.00

April 18^th 2009 - Attended and completed the 2-Day Malta Poker Seminar; present on the Panel were the mathematician, successful businessman and former seat holder at the American Stock Exchange, who holds a WSP (World Series of Poker) gold bracelet and two WPT (World Poker Tour) championships, Ron Rose; online Poker Pro Ari Pietarinen; founder of the Time2Think Organisation and member Creative Trainers International, Norman Darmanin Demajo; Gamecare representative and psychotherapist, Linda Aklundh; and last but not least, freelance psychotherapist and Life Coach, Malcolm Tortell

April 19^th 2009 - After finishing first at a ‘sit & go table’ organized just after the Malta Poker Seminar, Mr Ron Rose agrees to take me on as his mentee and be my poker mentor, indeed an important and pivotal point in my poker career towards achieving the rank of Professional Poker Player

April 25^th 2009 - Participated in the €300 Chilli Poker 2009 Malta Open; unfortunately, this experience did not yield positive results as I was eliminated on Day 1 of the tournament, thus failing to progress into the second and final phase taking place on April the 26^th.

April 30^th 2009 - Made it to the final table in the Dragonara Casino (Malta) €100 Freeze-Out – approx. 35 players

May 7^th 2009 - Ranked 1st in the Dragonara Casino (Malta) €100 Freeze-Out and cashed €1200.00 – approx. 35 players

May 14^th 2009 - Made it to the final table in the Dragonara Casino (Malta) €100 Freeze-Out – approx. 35 players

May 17th 2009 - Ranked 17/1440 in the $10 Freeze-Out Tourney on Poker Stars and cashed $72.00

May 19^th 2009 - Ranked 4th in the Casino Di Venezia (Malta) €10 Rebuy and cashed €60.00 – approx. 35 players

May 29^th 2009 - Ranked 4/272 in the Daily $17K Tourney on PKR and cashed $1,190.00

June 13^th 2009 - Ranked 3/28 in the Saturday $500 Big Shot Tourney on PKR and cashed $2,450.00 – Final table hole cards viewed on PKR TV

June 29th 2009 - Ranked 1st in the Dragonara Casino (Malta) €200 Freeze-Out and cashed €1600.00 – 16 players

June 10^th 2009 - Ranked 4/41 in the $3,000 GTD Deep Stack (6-Seater) Tourney on PKR and cashed $451.00

September 1^st 2009 - Ranked 1/78 in the €3,000 GTD Rebuy Tourney on Poker Heaven and cashed €885.00

October 11th 2009 - Ranked 1/75 at a $75 buy-in a Multi Table Tourney on Full Tilt Poker and cashed $1180.00

October 12^th 2009 - Ranked 1/75 at a $75 buy-in a Multi Table Tourney on Full Tilt Poker and cashed $1180.00   

October 17th 2009 - Ranked 6/148 in the $12,500 GTD Freeze-Out  on Titan Poker and cashed $880.00   

October 27th 2009 - Ranked 1st in the Dragonara Casino (Malta) €20 Rebuy and cashed €1000.00 – 54 players

On April 18^th 2009, I attended and completed the 2-Day Malta Poker Seminar; present on the Panel were the mathematician, successful businessman and former seat holder at the American Stock Exchange, who holds a WSP (World Series of Poker) gold bracelet and two WPT (World Poker Tour) championships, Ron Rose; online Poker Pro Ari Pietarinen; founder of the Time2Think Organisation and member of Creative Trainers International, Norman Darmanin Demajo; Gamecare representative and psychotherapist, Linda Aklundh; and last but not least, freelance psychotherapist and Life Coach, Malcolm Tortell.

Right after the seminar was over, a 10 player sit-n-go was organized and it felt real good to be sitting next to and playing an internationally renowned poker icon. Eventually, one by one, all players were eliminated with Ron Rose finishing up in 3^rd place. I played good solid poker throughout the mini-tourney, although I have to admit that I did suck out on Ari in an all-in, in which a Queen showed up on the turn giving me a KQ two-pair beating Ari’s flopped KJ two-pair. Then again, my game back then was still in its infancy! Sorry again Ari …

Heads-up I find myself with around 3,000 chips against a massive 23,000 chip stack. A few rounds of aggressive poker combined with a weak performance by my opponent soon gave me the chip lead, followed by a pre-flop all-in going my way and handing me the victory. Fantastic feeling; and to put the cherry on the cake, I clearly remember Mr Rose getting up from his seat to shake my hands – “You’re a winner”, he said to me; a statement that kept echoing through my head for quite some time.

That same night, we attended the after-seminar party at Level 22, St Julian’s. The guys were all great and although the attendance was pretty poor, it was fantastic for all those present to highlight the weekend’s events. I discussed my future poker intensions with Mr Rose, who after seriously considering my offer, accepted to become my mentor and lead me all the way to my dream. On that morning of April the 20^th, the eve of my birthday, a new chapter in my life had opened, a new great friendship developed, and my dream unfolded. Indeed my most memorable poker moment!

In this section of my blog, I shall be highlighting some of my most memorable hands ever throughout my poker career. For a change, I thought of letting the negativity go, and therefore not discuss bad beats; I’m afraid I would require an entire web-page all for myself if indeed I need to discuss those as well  Obviously, you are mostly welcome to post your comments and have a mature and open discussion about how the hands have been played, and if you perhaps think they should have been played differently …

May 7^th 2009 – Dragonara Casino – Weekly Euro 100 Freeze-Out Event – Placing 1^st

At the final table with 85K in chips, blinds at 1000/ 2000:

Everyone folds to the small blind

Small blind raises to 6K

I’m Big Blind holding Qd Qs, I immediately raise to 18K

Small blind calls 12K

Flop is 5h Jd 4c

Small blind bets 12K

I raise to 36K

Small blind moves all-in with 50K

I call the remaining 26K

Small blind shows Kd Jd

Turn is 9c

River is 2h giving me the winning hand

June 29^th 2009 – Dragonara Casino – Monthly Euro 200 Freeze-Out Event – Placing 1^st

At the final table with 75K in chips, blinds at 1000/ 2000:

Everyone folds to the small blind

I’m small blind and I raise to 6k with As Js

Big Blind calls 6K

Flop is 2c Kh 8s

I bet 5K

Big Blind calls 5K

Turn is 10h

I fire a second bullet and bet 10K

Big Blind calls 10K – obviously, she must have a King I’m thinking

River is 3s

Have to fire a third bullet or else I let the pot go – I bet 20K

She stares at me from top to bottom, waiting for a sign, my demeanor unchanged – She folds

Phewwwww ……..

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Bluffing
One mistake that players comparing hold’em to Omaha make regards bluffing. While bluffing in limit hold’em is difficult because of the fixed betting limits, bluffing in Omaha is that much harder. The reason for this is that with so many cards in play, someone usually has the nuts or close to it by the river. If you move all-in in a pot-limit Omaha game on the river and someone doesn’t have the nuts, you’ll probably win that pot. Unfortunately, unlike in hold’em, if you’re facing two or three opponents at the end, one of them probably does hold that boss hand.

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Position
While position is important in Omaha, trying to manipulate the table so that loose players are on your right and tight ones on your left, as you might do in hold’em, is more trouble than it’s worth. It will be easy to see from the flop whether it is worthwhile for you to continue with the hand, so knowing what your loose player will do, while important, is not nearly so important as it is in a game like no-limit hold’em.

Omaha is Not Hold’em: Results
If your Omaha results are not as good as your hold’em results, there has got to be a reason. Ask yourself what elements of strategy you are bringing over from your Texas hold’em games and if they really apply to Omaha. If they do not, you’ll want to lose those ideas and replace them with ones that are more Omaha specific.

The Malta Poker Seminar. Held at the Mediterranean conference centre, Malta, on the 18th and 19th April 2009. The educational event targeted poker players with an active interest in No-Limit Hold’em was coordinated by local organizers – Malta Poker Events – leading the live poker scene on the Maltese islands with their mix of community building efforts and live poker games at the local casino poker rooms. More info on www.maltapokerevents.com

{youtube:vYWnxTKrdXg}

A doctor answers his phone and hears the familiar voice of a colleague on the other end of the line. "We need a fourth for poker," said the friend.

"I'll be right over," whispered the doctor. As he was putting on his coat, his wife asked, "Is it serious?" "Oh yes, quite serious," said the doctor gravely. "In fact, there are three doctors there already!"

Poker sharks, small fish and all you poker players, get ready to go professional!

As of September 13th iPoker will run a monthly tournament with a mega $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool!

And William Hill Poker will be the main poker room in which you can take part in this amazing tournement.

Here are a few extra details:
♠ Buy-In: $500+$35.
♠ Satellites started on August 10th, 2009.
♠ First Mega Satellite will start on September 13th, 2009.

Don't waste your time and money on the small tournements, want to become a high roller? click here to do it  at William Hill Poker

Minimaxmod and ipskinner offering 2 similar softs that can offer to solve those issues. 

{youtube:EpaqIJyi4Qg}

They are both offering:

- resizable ipoker tables (yes!)
- color customization (for exemple, black background for HUD stats...)
- card customization (pleasant for the eyes)
- bet button customization (auto-rebuy, curently unavailable on our client)
- chip customization (less of a pixel mess )
- font color

What they are not offering:
- choice of the position
- time bank (logical)

The ECPokerTour, sponsored by Titan Poker, is the most prestigious new live tournament series on the European poker circuit. Renowned for its choice of exquisite European settings, 5-star casino amenities and substantial prize offerings, the ECPokerTour brings you a brand new level of quality and excellence in live poker tournaments around the world. This November we are proud to present you the most exquisite destination that has it all - Malta! Join us for a poker adventure far beyond your imagination!

{youtube:1LpSZVOcoy0}

Make a deposit with Moneybookers and reap the benefits

Make a minimum $20 deposit this month at Titan Poker and get a FREE entry to an exclusive ECPokerTour Malta Satellite.

Use bonus code: myacademy

3 Seats to the ECPokerTour Malta Super Satellite tournament will be won by Moneybookers depositors

Buy-in directly to the ECPokerTour tournament with Moneybookers and get 10% Off the Full Price 

Please see the ECPokertour website for more details

Participate in the freshest Malta poker events this season.

Join a prize pool reaching around €10,000 every month [based on 50 players] marking your monthly poker appointments in autumn 2009.

With non-stop weekly poker action in the coming season, Malta Poker Events and the splendid Casino at the Portomaso are providing poker players with weekly satellite poker tournaments leading up to €220 freeze-out tournaments being held in the months of September, October and November 2009. 

We also included an interesting twist to the schedule with a monthly €45 knockout tournament, which will surely see more forceful plays than those seen in the freeze-out events.

Visit the events section at maltapokerevents.com for the full September Schedule.

Tournament photos and updates will be added to our Photo Gallery at maltapokerevents.com and an assortment of online Poker channels.

Contact us on for more information about the freshest poker action this upcoming season: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Malta Poker Events

The Gap Concept was pioneered David Sklansky, one of the world's premier poker writers. Many of his ideas have had an a big impression on the poker community as a whole. The Gap Concept is quite a simple idea though; it means "you will need a better hand to call an opening bet than you would to open the betting yourself". Therefore if you were first to act with AQ suited, you could then open strongly with a good size bet, but if you had to respond to a bet of that exact size in later position holding AQ suited, then the correct course of action is to fold. You'll see that this concept is particularly important in tournament play

The difference between the strength of the hand needed to call the opening bet and that of the hand needed to make the opening bet in the first place is "the gap". This gap is not solid or fixed, it depends on the type of opposition you are facing. If they are loose then the gap concept narrows, if you face tight players then the gap concept widens i.e. you should only play with a very strong hand. The gap concept is also influenced heavily by the size of your stack, but as a general rule it may be wise to open the betting holding pocket deuces but it is nearly always foolish to call that bet with the same cards.

It should become clear that the gap concept can be used to your advantage in early position. Being under the gun (first to act) you'll be able to ward off any hands that are similar to yours by making an aggressive bet. Most people acting behind you should fold to this early aggression.

However be warned, for the gap concept to work players have to be aware of it! There fore it may be trickier to use it to your advantage when playing online. The average newbie online either doesn't play according to position or hand ranking or simply doesn't understand the importance of it. They would typically play A10 the same way whatever their position was pre-flop.

The Gap Concept works best when you can see that the other players at the table are familiar with it, and are visibly applying it to the game. The general advice is to give people the benefit of the doubt in live poker, play as though everyone is aware of the gap concept until you get evidence to the contrary. If people are consistently not applying the Gap Concept then start loosening up your play and your starting requirements from certain positions. Good luck at the tables!

For more of David Sklansky's concepts and ideas read The Theory of Poker