World Poker Tour Ladies Championship down to final table

The World Pokier Tour Ladies Championship kicked off yesterday over the Bellagio with a over 150 female poker players putting up $1,500 to play.

Leading the pack into the final table will be Vanessa Selbst. With $182,200 in chips, Selbst has a considerable lead over the pack, with her nearest competitor being Nancy Todd Tyner with $107,400 in chips.

Selbst built up her lead steadily through two days of play in the championship. She was the chip leader after Day 1 as the playing field made its way down to the top 10 players by the end of the day.

Some of the poker pro casualties in Day 1 included Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Tilly, Evelyn Ng, JJ Liu, Shirley Williams, Anjela Brunson, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Lily Mizrachi, Sabyl Cohen and Maureen Feduniak.

In Day 2, Karina Jett, Erica Schoenberg, Jennifer Carson and Emeline Boich hit the bricks to leave the following ladies at the final table:

Seat 1: Nancy Todd Tyner – $107,400
Seat 2: Janice Kim – $32,900
Seat 3: Cindy Kerslake – $16,400
Seat 4: Vanessa Selbst – $182,200
Seat 5: Donna Varlotto – $68,600
Seat 6: Van Nguyen – $42,300

The final table will take place April 25, the day before the WPT World Championship final table, and be taped for future television broadcast.

The WPT World Championship will start Saturday at the Bellagio. Selbst confirmed she plans to buy into that event as well. Men “The Master” Nguyen is also hoping to duplicate his wife’s success in the Ladies Championship with a win of his own in the World.

UltimateBet to Give Away Record Number of Free Seats to Poker’s Biggest Main Event

Players invited to compete in month-long contest for multiple shots at free WSOP seats

They say you can’t put a price on the World Series of Poker experience. UltimateBet.com is taking that sentiment a little too literally by handing out a large number of Main Event seats for free. UltimateBet.com today announced a new promotion that solidifies the poker site as the best place to win a free seat in the series.

“This is an historic promotion for fans of the world’s greatest game,” stated UltimateBet spokesperson George MacLean. “We’re handing out loads of Main Event seats and online poker fans can win one just by doing what they love – playing poker.”

Annie Duke, UltimateBet’s new Cardroom Consultant, created the Ultimate Main Event Giveaway promotion so that more online poker players are able to experience Texas Hold’em on the world’s biggest stage alongside poker’s best pros.

To qualify for the promotion,UltimateBet players must simply play in any real-money poker Sit ‘n Go, ring game or multi-table tournament at UltimateBet.com between April 24th and May 23rd and climb their way up the Main Event Giveaway leader board.

At the end of the qualifying period, the player who has earned the most RAI$E status points will automatically secure a $12,000 Main Event prize package featuring the $10,000 buy-in and $2,000 for travel accommodations.

But that’s just the start of UltimateBet’s Main Event generosity. Players ranking 2nd through 70th on the leader board will play in an exclusive freeroll that features a prize pool of seven additional $12,000 Main Event packages.

In an effort to send as many players as possible to Las Vegas for the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, UltimateBet is opening the floodgates to even more Main Event seats through a series of freerolls. On Saturday May 24th, the online poker site is holding a 25-seat Guaranteed Tournament where at least 25 Main Event prize packages will be won. Players ranking 71st through 225th on the leader board will win their spot in the $500+30 tournament. Those ranking 226th through 3427th will be divided into five separate freerolls where hundreds of additional opportunities to win a spot in the 25-seat Guaranteed Tournament are on the line.

What to do after your Online Poker Room won you a WSOP seat

You just earned a seat to the biggest poker tournament of the year, maybe the 2008 World Series of Poker, after months and months of sitting in front of the PC, folding all these good hands in your favorite online poker room.

But once you finally take your seat with the top professional poker players of the world, you realize that your no longer inside the comforts of your living room. You realize that everybody around the world will be watching your every move, laughing at you every time you fold a damn good hand. What do you do?

If you want to be a part of the live poker scene, here are some of the stuff you can take note of and hopefully, you won’t look that bad.

Buy a hat and really really dark sunglasses. If you’ve been watching these tournaments on TV, you should know this by now. Wearing these will probably make you feel comfortable and protected from visual scrutiny.

Second, NEVER EVER say one word during a hand. Silence in poker is gold. You can’t possibly give too much information with you keeping your piehole shut. When you are dealt a hand, wait until it is your turn to act, then look at your hole cards. While you’re waiting, watch everyone else look at their cards and try to pick up some tells.

If, for instance, you get your cards and realize that it isn’t any good BUT still not an obvious fold, wait for five seconds before you act. THIS way, your opponents will be left in the dark on what it is you really have.

Of course, the most important thing in playing poker is the fact that you should come up with a betting routine.

What this means is that every time you are going to set chips into the middle of the pot, you need to do it the same way. For example, you could cut your chips down in front of you, stack them and push them forward. Following the same betting routine every time makes it much harder for your opponents to gather information about you.

Simple eh? Trust me, it’s not as easy as it seems.