Rare Journal

When the World Series of Poker was first began in 1970, it was strictly a “boys’ club.” To most poker online players, it was unthinkable that women should compete with men in poker online. But that changed in 1977 when the first ladies-only championship event was launched, and became an annual rite. It grew into the largest women’s poker tournament and draws players from all over the world.

The Ladies’ WSOP tournament was not initially developed to be a first-rate contest, but instead a way to appease the wives and girlfriends of the male contenders in the Main Event. It would also draw more contestants to Las Vegas. There is no record of the number of entrants in the first WSOP Ladies’ Event, which was a seven-card stud game with a $100 buy-in, the lowest entry fee ever in any WSOP event. The top three women made it to the cash, and first place winner Jackie McDaniels won $5,580 and a WSOP bracelet.

The entry fee eventually increased along with the numbers of contestants, which reach 110 in 1991. The following year, the Ladies’ Event entry fee went to $1,000. In 2000, the contest was changed from seven-card stud to a mixed game of Texas Hold ‘Em and Stud, and that format continued through 2003. The change-over to a Hold ‘Em contest took play in 2004, and the field had grown to 200.

The Ladies’ Event really emerged into into the limelight in 2005 when more than 600 women entered the contest. Organizers are adding improvements for the 2009 tournament, which is expected to draw 1,000+ players. The chip stacks start at 3,000 and the blind levels are at one hour intervals, with a maximum of 10 blind levels daily played over three days.

Let’s talk a little bit more about one of the most difficult hands in all of Texas Holdemthe AA.

There’s really so much that goes into playing this pokerhand correctly that it deserves some special attention. Things like betting order, table personality (that is who’s to your right and who’s to your left), your playing style, and numerous other factors come into the mix when you’re figuring how to play this monster.

So let’s start pre-flop. Obviously you’re way ahead of everyone at this point. You’re ahead of everyone, and the only thing you have to worry about is someone having the exact same hand, which is incredibly unlikely. Your obvious move here is to bet and bet hard. Now keep in mind, hard doesn’t necessarily mean big. You go all in here and scare everyone away, you’ve only stolen the blinds. Let’s not do that, this is a hand to make some money on, and we’re gonna play it that way.

Are you in the blinds, first to act, a middle man, or the closer? You’ll have to ask yourself this, and it’s a good idea to know where you stand as far as position goes for every poker hand.

The US is notoriously adverse to online poker, and has pretty much banned credit card companies from accepting US-based business with a litany of anti-gaming legislation. However, a number of gaming companies use legal loop holes and off shore accounts to circumvent this legislation, and continue to do business with US customers.

It’s how the number one and two companies in the world can stay at number one and two, actually. They accept business from US poker players, and in turn are rewarded with a large market share and millions in profits every year.

That could be changing though. One of the big companies, Bodog, was apparently caught up in a government sting in January, and we are just starting to see the results today. More than $24 million in funds were seized from banks that had the money of US online poker players, and now Bodog is responding.

They say there’s no wrong doing here, but apparently an undercover agent took payment from Bodog and that was the catalyst that got things started. Seems like a pretty open and shut case to me. Do you think Bodog was dealt a fair hand, or is there something more to this online Texas Holdem poker case than meets the eye?