World Series Main Event Poker

Be one of the first to win a seat at this year’s WSOP®

It’s every player’s dream to take a shot at the World Series of Poker®. There’s the giant prize pool: Last year’s winner Jerry Yang took home more than $8 million after beating 6,358 other players. Then there’s the chance to join the former WSOP® champions in the poker history books.

And, of course, you’ll love the amazing Las Vegas experience the WSOP® guarantees. It’s simply the nuts!

This year’s WSOP® Main Event is going to be huge: The action’s taking place in the Rio’s gigantic Amazon Room, and the field will be so large that the first day is being split into four starting days! To make sure you’re one of the first to grab a seat, play in the early WSOP® qualifiers, where you could win a package worth $10,000 and up, including:

• Your buy-in to the Main Event, worth $10,000
• $1,000 spending money
• Accommodation in a luxurious five-star Las Vegas
• Access to an exclusive VIP hospitality suite
• Transfers from the hotel to the venue

The qualifiers have started already. You can join the action for as little as $2.

Choose your route to the WSOP® with any qualifier tournament structure.

You could be bringing home a coveted bracelet - and millions of dollars - this July.

Good luck!

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The following online poker sites are offering ALL players (including US players), entries into the 2008 WSOP®:

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Full Tilt Poker (US players allowed)

• $10 Million Main Event Mania

Win the Main Event after winning your tournament entry at Full Tilt Poker and FTP will pay you $10 million in addition to your first-place prize money.

• Race to the Main Event

Lace up your running shoes and get ready to Race to the Main Event because Full Tilt Poker is offering you the chance to win one of 50 completely free seats at the world’s biggest poker tournament.

To claim your free $10,000 tournament entry, just look for one of the Main Event Race – Round 1 SNGs
running around the clock. Win one of these SNGs and you’ll qualify to play in one of the Main Event Race – Round 2 Freerolls running four times each day.

Take either first or second place in one of these daily Preliminary Freerolls to advance to our Main Event Race – Finals Freerolls held each Sunday at 16:30 ET (21:30 GMT). Reach the podium in one of these tournaments by placing first, second or third and they’ll reward your performance by giving you a completely free WSOP* Main Event entry worth $10,000.
Full Tilt Poker’s exclusive Race to the Main Event begins on Saturday, March 1st when they’ll start holding daily Freeroll tournaments that will run through Sunday, June 22nd. By the time the race ends, 50 players will have won free seats at the 2008 WSOP* Main Event.

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Poker Stars (US players allowed)

Poker Stars is giving up to $50,000 to qualifiers who make it to a TV table and…wait for it…up to $1 million bonus cash for players who make the Main Event final table.

Oh, and you get a free shuttle to from the Palms to Rio every day, which isn’t anything to sneeze at.

Of course, getting these packages will take a little work on your part. Poker Stars is running a full compliment of
satellites to suit just about any bankroll. Cash satellites start at $2 and go up to $1,050. You can get in through any of the daily Frequent Player Point satellites, too.

Among the most popular qualifiers for all big events are the PokerStars Steps satellites. For the World Series, the Steps satellites start at $7.50 or 500 Frequent Player Points.

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CarbonPoker (US players allowed)

Every day CarbonPoker gives players the chance to earn themselves an entry into the World Series by playing in the lower buy-in satellite tournaments. There are multi table tournament (MTT) and Sit’n'Go satellites starting from as low as $2 buy-in.

Players may buy in at any level or work their way up to the Grand Final events, where either large guaranteed prize pools or $12,500 real life tournament packages are given away.
World Series Satellite Tournament Schedule

• Sit’n'Go - $2, $10 & $55 tournaments registering 24/7, visit the Tournaments > Sit’n'Go > Satellite tab of the CarbonPoker.com software

• $2 MTT - Every day at 06:30, 09:00, 13:45, 16:00, 20:30 & 00:00 CarbonPoker.com time. (GMT-5 / ET-1)

• $10 MTT - Every day at 10:30, 14:30, 19:00 & 21:30 CarbonPoker time. (GMT-5 / ET-1)

• $55 MTT - Every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 18:00 CarbonPoker time. (GMT-5 / ET-1)

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Ultimate Bet (US players allowed)

Here is your chance to qualify for the WSOP 2008! Blinds escalate every 5 minutes. These events will guarantee one seat into the WSOP 2008 Qualifier running daily at 9:30pm EST. Unlimited rebuys for the first half-hour ($5 each) grant 1500 more chips. Note: You must have 1500 or less chips to rebuy. One optional add-on at the end of the rebuy period gives you 3000 more chips. You may add-on regardless of how many chips you have. To rebuy, click on get chips in the lower-right, or you will automatically be prompted when you lose all of your chips and at the end of the rebuy period. Alternates are allowed up to the end of the rebuy period. Good luck!

11:40am no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

1:40pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

2:15pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

3:40pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

4:15pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

5:40pm no limit hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

6:15pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

6:40pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

9:30pm no limit Hold’em
$50+$5 WSOP Qualifier

11:40pm no limit Hold’em
$5+$.5 WSOP Stage1 Qualifier T+R

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The following online poker sites are offering players (EXCEPT the US players), main event WSOP® entries:
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Party Poker - World Series of Poker® qualifier structure

Here’s how you can book your seat early for poker’s biggest offline event through the online qualifiers:
MTT Qualifiers

• $1 WSOP Satellite
  Sub Qualifier Speed Rebuy, Daily
  For every $64 in prizepool, 1 player wins entry into daily $64 WSOP Satellite Qualifier.
• $3 WSOP Satellite
  Sub Qualifier Rebuy, Daily
  For every $64 in prizepool, 1 player wins entry into daily $64 WSOP Satellite Qualifier.

STT Qualifiers

• $2 WSOP STT Sub Qualifier
  Available on demand 24/7

• $14 WSOP STT Qualifier
  Available on demand 24/7

Both MTT and STT Qualifiers will bring you to:

• $64 WSOP Satellite Qualifier
  Daily at 15:40 ET
  For every 10 entrants, 1 player receives entry into weekly $580 WSOP Satellite.

• $550 + $30 WSOP Satellite
  Every Friday at 18:00 ET
  For every 20 players a $11,000 package to the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas is awarded.

• 2 WSOP Packages Guaranteed

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Pokerroom

The $500 + 40 Online Final: Saturdays 22:00 CET
1st Prize Gtd: $17,500 World Series Of Poker* Package
You can buy in directly to the Final or qualify through the following ways:
The Sit & Go Route

Lucky Dollar $1 + 0.10
This is a 20-player turbo tournament with blinds increasing every 3 minutes.
• 1st place - $15 + 1.50 Ticket
• 2nd place - $1 + 0.10 Ticket and $3.40

Stage 1 $15 + 1.50
This is a 10-player turbo tournament with blinds increasing every 6 minutes.
• 1st place - $69 + 6 Ticket
• 2nd place - $69 + 6 Ticket

Stage 2 $69 + 6
This is a 10-player tournament with blinds increasing every 12 minutes.
• 1st place - $500 + 40 Ticket
• 2nd place - $69 + 6 Ticket
• 3rd place - $69 + 6 Ticket

Scheduled Tournaments

Tournaments that pay out $500 + 40 tickets will run with these buy-ins:

$2.00 + $0.20
$5.00 + $0.50
$10.00 + $1.00
$20.00 + $2.00
$30.00 + $3.00
$50.00 + $4.00
$100.00 + $8.00

A ticket to the Final awarded in every single tournament. Please check the lobby for start times. These will be available around the clock.

Easy to play online Poker

Online poker rooms make it easier for the average person to play poker without having to wager vast sums of money, and this is especially true of the free online poker rooms. Whatever your game is though, be it free or not, you will find that knowing some online poker strategy and game plays will be of great help to you.

It is true that with the advent of online poker, more and more people are learning to play poker, and as such it behooves the new player to learn as much online poker strategy as they can. This will not only give them an advantage over the other poker players who don’t use any type of strategy to play, but it also gives you a better starting position, as you will be ready for any contingency.

The main trick to winning at online poker, or indeed any type of poker, is practice and experience. Without either by your side, no amount of knowledge of online poker strategy and game plays will be of help to you.

To that end, it is to your benefit if you spend more time playing the game of poker rather than reading about poker strategies and things. Leave that to a time when you are better able to play poker without having to stop and think about whether or not you have a possible good hand or not!

In short, use online poker strategy and game plays only when you have the knowledge and the know-how to play poker properly.

Another thing that you will want to keep an eye out for when you are looking into these online poker strategy and game plays, is whether or not they are out and out poker cheats, or even whether they are borderline poker cheats.

Either way you will want to be careful when you are dealing with these strategies which fall into gray areas as you could be penalized for having used them, even if you were unaware of what they were to begin with. Remember, ignorance is not an acceptable excuse in most places, and you want to be very careful when dealing with strategies and things which could be construed as cheating.

When all is said and done however, you will find that once you are more conversant with playing the game of poker, using an online poker strategy will be of help to you, but only when you have become conversant with the game.

Until then you might as well be playing blindly for all the good utilizing an online poker strategy will do for you. Learn to play poker first, then go in for the poker strategies. This is the first poker strategy that you should learn.

The Ban on Internet Gambling

A Ban on Internet Gambling Is A Ban On Freedom
By Dan Burns

The recent actions of the U.S. House of Representatives have convinced me that 317 of our congressmen need a refresher course in civics.

Mr. and Mrs. American politician, your first job as legislators is to protect the rights of American citizens. Your second job is to make laws that help run the country. Once again, protection of rights comes first, all other business comes second.

The problem — as illustrated by the House passing HR-4411 on July 10 by a vote of 317 to 93 — is the typical American politician considers safety, social order and many other factors to be more important than their constituents’ civil liberties. Our liberty has declined in status from the supreme ideal this nation was founded on to something that is now a secondary consideration.

HR-4411, known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, aims to block American citizens’ access to certain online gambling Web sites. Access to online poker rooms and casinos would be restricted, and those sites would be unable to receive payments from U.S. banks and credit card companies. Online wagering on horse races, fantasy sports and certain state-run lotteries would not be affected.

The bill is sponsored by Congressmen Robert Goodlatte, R-Virginia, and Jim Leach, R-Iowa. They claim Internet betting can be so addictive that people can lose their life savings making wagers online. They also claim it is too easy for minors to make bets on the Internet.

Those points are well-taken and should be considered by parents everywhere, but they’re not sufficient evidence to ban online casinos.

Play Online PokerYou don’t ban something 99 percent of people enjoy because 1 percent of the people who use it have a problem with it. That’s not democracy, is it? Prohibition of alcohol didn’t work. Burning books didn’t work. Banning online gambling is not going to work.

And are we to believe all of the bad things legislators point out about online gambling – the addiction, the handful of people who allegedly launder money through online casinos, etc. – don’t apply to online horse wagering? Most of the people I know who make bets on horse races online (which they will never get a chance to even see, by the way) are more compulsive than the dozens of people I know who like to play a little $2/$4 hold’em before they go to bed.

This idea of legislating morality has got to stop. Americans might look to the government to protect them from foreign invaders, but they certainly don’t need the government to protect them from themselves. What we do in our own home, with our own money, in our own free time is our business and nobody else’s.

When I was learning the ins and outs of America’s two-party system in high school, I learned the Republican Party advocated a “hands off” approach to governance and was in favor of small government. What has happened to them? Now they feel they have to pass laws protecting us from ourselves and deciding how we can spend our money.

If you want to protect me, please begin by protecting my civil liberties. Once you’re sure they are secure, then by all means, legislate away.

As you might have guessed by now, I’m an avid Internet poker player. I am one of thousands of American residents who treat online poker as a part-time job. Any attempt to ban online poker would rob me and my colleagues of something our founding fathers called an “unalienable right” endowed by our creator, which is the pursuit of happiness. Indeed, the financial plans of many young Americans rely on their access to online poker in the next few decades.

I know some of you might be saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Your financial goals rely on poker?” Well, they do.

Imagine being a talented rock musician whose band is about to make it big when your government decides to outlaw rock music. Rock music gets people too excited, the government reasons. Studies have shown many violent crimes occur right after rock concerts, and teenagers who take drugs like to listen to rock music while they’re getting high. Some people, including men and women with families, spend hundreds of dollars a month on rock concerts and albums, they say. That’s money that could be spent on productive things.

This fictional government makes a good case. I guess we should outlaw rock music. No fame and fortune for you.

There is a negative side to every creature, commodity and concept in the world. It’s very easy to make a convincing case to ban anything if you choose to focus on the horror stories. Things such as guns and alcohol, for example, destroy thousands of lives more than online gambling every year, yet they remain perfectly legal.

Banning online gambling is not the answer to solving the problems that arise from it, but neither is leaving things the way they are.

The United States should pass legislation legalizing online gambling, but requiring operators to set up an office within the country. Then regulate the industry and force the owners to pay taxes, taxes, taxes and more taxes. Tax the hell out of them. They’ll pay it, because legal status and an image of legitimacy will be good for business.

This issue is in the Senate’s hands now. Senators everywhere, particularly my senators, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, I encourage you to speak out against this bill on the Senate floor. My congressman Mike Ferguson, R-NJ, did not agree with me, but I’m hoping you will.

If you decide to vote in favor of the Senate’s version of HR-4411, then please do me one favor. Attach an amendment to the bill calling for the discontinuation of “the land of the free” as one of our country’s mottos, because that phrase would no longer be applicable.

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