Ayre, the founder of Bodog, is going to retire.

The company was founded in 1994. They started from a small site offering entertainment and gradually turned into a great casino with a range casino games and sports betting and music business.

Having taken the reduced role of running the poker room, Ayre has sold the company to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, based in Montreal, Canada. The plans to expand in South American gambling market won’t be changed.

PKR, a 3D online poker room that offers various cash games and tournaments, is giving away seats to the $2,500 Asian Poker Tour for only $2.20.

There, players compete in progressively higher-stakes tournaments. The winner can take a $5,000 prize package to the APT held from May 27 to June 1. Approximately 400 players will compete for a massive cash prize.

The qualifiers will run on PKR until the grand final on May 12. (more…)

online casino players can take their chance to win seats at the weekend’s World Poker Crown (WPC) tournament by taking part in a series of one-cent qualifiers hosted by PacificPoker.com.

The qualifiers will be held every hour, but they will be limited to a max of 500 participants and registration will start 30 minutes before the start of every event.

The WPC will start on April 26. It is believed to become one of the largest online tournaments in history. It has a buy-in of $1,050 and a three million dollar prize pool that includes one million dollar for the winner. The tournament is sponsored by 888.com.

Such pros like Dave Colclough, Julian Gardner and Michael Keiner and Shane Warne will take part in the tournament.

The finalists will play live in the final table in Barcelona from May 6 to 10.

Live webcasts of major poker events and a unique collection of poker footage will soon be available for poker fans. The site has recently been launched by online casino PokerStars.com, but at the moment it is undergoing beta-testing and contains a video tutorial in which Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu gives an overview of the site. There, he explains in details how to to use and access the material. Having accessed the material, users will find there subgroups for major events, channels dedicated to each Team PokerStars.com professional player, live-play videos, instructional comments, interviews and behind-the-scenes action for each competitor, Online Action, Sweat the Hand and Fun Stuff categories. Besides, the site contains a searchable database of filters with videos categorizing a player, event or type of hand.

Registered users at PokerStars.tv can either e-mail video links to other players or personalize their favorites by creating their own video channel and selecting their preferences. The feeds from tournaments are available in English, German, Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish.

It has been suggested that Finnish poker players spend €50 million a year on poker sites, but the money run outside of the country. Discussions of the reform of gambling in the country has not taken place yet, thought they are being planned for the end of the year.

Veikkaus, the state-owned lottery and betting monopoly in Finland, could get some of the revenue for itself – “two thirds of €50 million could be attainable”. It’s just the matter of the review of Finnish policy.

The Nevada resident, Michael Binger, is reported to have been the second best player of the year so far, according to Card Player’s latest rankings.

His winning at event 13 of the Five-Star World Poker Classic has helped him to move from the 11th to the second spot. He has managed to do it through regular final table appearances in medium-sized events. So far, his tactics has helped him to earn the second least amount of money this year.

Having scored 3,040, Binger is still far away from being the first – Erik Seidel has scored 3,700. At the same time, Binger cannot feel safe, as Canadian Michael McDonald is just 20 points behind.

Seven players from Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom will represent Titan Poker at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in San Remo, Italy, this month. Daniel Walker, winner from the U.K, and Kenneth Tomming, from Denmark, are among them.

All the players were rewarded with the $10,000 package including $2,500 for flights, accommodations, spending and the free entry to the Main Event.

Titan Poker awards its players with seats at the world’s most famous poker tournaments on the regular basis.

Thus, its players will also be taking part in the WSOP in Las Vegas and the World Poker Showdown in the Dominican Republic later this year.

PaddyPower.com, the Irish site is offering a series of events for the WSOP. The events will be held at Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas in summer (in June and July).

Unless a player is able to qualify for as little as $7, he she may participate in the Main Event with the prize package worth $14,000that includes the $10,000 buy-in, ten nights’ accommodation, the $350 registration fee and $3,650 for flights, accommodation and other spending.

To qualify for the Main Event, players can take part in sit-and-go satellites – entry into the weekly Saturday super satellites – until June 15. The buy-in there totals to $535. Winners will qualify to play in the tournament with the $3,500 package that includes play in the main event of the Irish Winter Festival.

Those players who wish to draw attention to their skills may participate in the Side Event Package. Lucky winners will enter $1,500 no limit Hold’em tournament events on June 13 and 20. Players can qualify via sit-and-go satellites to take part in weekly Saturday super satellites with a buy-in of $215 until May 31.

The winners of four consecutive $24 sit-and-go events with a $20,000 prize will be awarded with the final promotion – the Executive Package including the $10,000 buy-in for the main event, two weeks at the Palazzo Suites of the Venetian hotel for two worth $3,200, tickets to see the Blue Man Group, dinner at the Wynn Hotel, registration fees of $350, return limousine transport from the airport and spending money of up to $5,450.

Canadian Poker Championships will be held May 5 to 13 at the River Rock Casino Resort in British Columbia.

Lots of poker players that might generate a prize pool around $2.4 million are expected to take part in the Championships featuring high stakes poker action in an east versus west format.

The Championships will feature 7 events such as no limit Hold’em, pot limit Hold’em and Omaha high-low alongside special events such as a bounty tournament and a Mother’s Day team tournament.

The Championships to be aired nationally in Canada will turn out to be the first stop for the WPT of Canada.

In No-Limit Texas Holdem games any player may bet how much and whenever he wants. It is very inspiring.

The most important thing here is to find balance between betting too much on the flop and intimidating your opponents, and betting too little and getting many people drawing on you.

On the flop if you have a good hand, it is usually better to bet half of the full pot. When you bet a third part of the pot you may run the risk of other players drawing out on you in No-Limit.

Of course, if your opponent has a flush draw or an open-ended draw, he will get nothing else but poor pot odds with your third of the pot to call. But he may also hold two draws, like a gut-shot draw and a flush draw, and it will be right for him to call as the pot odds aren’t high enough to make him out.

In No-Limit Texas Holdem poker games you are free to decide when you should bet and what the amount. It’s pointless to describe a huge number of situations appropriate for that in this single article. But you may find some pointers below which will be useful to build your strategy on the flop.

Pot-Sized Bets

If you suspect an opponent drawing out on you and exposing your hand to danger, that’s just the right time to bet a pot-sized amount. In this situation you will be ready to bet even more than the pot. As No-Limit Texas Holdem is about implied odds, it is better to be mistaken on the side of caution when betting too big as opposed to betting too small. Giving your opponent poor odds to call for a flush draw, you may be giving him correct implied odds.

Two-Thirds Pot-Sized Bets

Betting is not limited by certain rules in No-Limit Texas Holdem. However, many professional players indicate that they prefer to mostly bet two-thirds of the total pot size. It is the best way to bet when you think a player is on a draw and your hand seems to be a little exposed. Playing such a bet will prevent your opponent from trying to draw on you.

Half Pot-Sized Bets

Betting half the pot is also very popular between pros, especially when they hit trips, two pair or any other strong hand on the flop. It will be just so cheap for your opponents to try for the draw in this situation. The longer they’ll keep trying and playing more money, the more attractive pot will become for you in the long run.