After a successful event in Stockholm, Sweden last summer, the World Poker Congress is coming together again in 2007. The 2007 World Poker Congress meetings were announced last week to be held at the Westin Dragonara Resort at St. Julian’s, Malta, from November 29-30.

For the second straight year the keynote speakers for the event will be WPT founder Steve Lipscomb and World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. The World Poker Congress is described as a coming together of both the online and live poker industry to examine ways both worlds can work together to produce growth. With the changes in the landscape of poker both online and around the world in the last year, they should have plenty to talk about.

Some of the notable topics on the agenda at this year’s World Poker Congress include rakes, running tournaments, fraud, and one of the most important to both sides – ways to expand product range in today’s financial climate.

When it comes to the discussions on running tournaments, Jeffrey Pollack might want to take a few notes on ways to improve next year’s WSOP. The 2007 WSOP wasn’t run horribly, but when things went wrong they really went wrong. The bad cards fiasco and the idiotic poker tent idea were just a few of the problems that presented themselves at this year’s WSOP. If the player numbers begin growing again and even more people end up at the 2008 WSOP, there will need to be some big changes made in order to make things smoother for players, dealers and spectators.

The No. 1 thing on most attendees’ minds at the World Poker Congress will likely be how to expand their business. More business equals more money, which is of course what business is all about. Anyone who plays poker should be highly interested in what goes on at those talks. For poker to truly succeed and have a chance at getting fully into the U.S. market on sound legal ground, the best minds in poker need to devise plans and strategies and this looks like the best platform on which to do it.

The ever-changing poker promotion industry has taken another new turn recently. The announcement of Virgin Games’ plans for a crossover tournament in a live casino has gained a lot of attention.

Virgin is the first online company to hold a live event for its players, which will be held at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham, U.K. on November 24th and 25th. With so many online sites only concentrating on the high-roller player in their promotions, Virgin has created something for the average guy or gal to have the opportunity to play in a big-league event for a low price.

The structure of the event has the lower-limit players in mind, and the buy-in is only 105 British pounds. There is no direct buy-in and all participants must qualify their way to the event online. The two-day event will have $5000 added to the event by Virgin, and they are adding bounties that include wine, Virgin vouchers, Experience Days and player points. The event will have a party atmosphere with the hosts throwing around freebies all day.

The professionals have created the Professional Poker Tour that requires all participants to earn their way on the tour by placing in the money and participating in enough events throughout the year. This keeps the lower-limit players out of the picture of those events. This is the first tournament that will require that everyone win their way into the event. The professionals will not be able to just buy in, and the event has the potential to have more amateurs in a big event than ever before, thus increasing the average guy’s chances of placing well.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of online sites recognizing the value in the huge number of low-limit players that are out there learning the game. Providing an experience that can show an average player what it’s like to play in a big event is priceless, especially since the number of professionals will be much lower than the average big tournament. If it’s successful we will get to see more of this sort of thing, and we may see online sites hosting more land poker tournaments to promote their brand.

Charity poker tournaments have been all the rage over the last few years with many professional sports teams leading the way. It’s nice to see NBA and NFL superstars use their celebrity status to fill as many seats at the tables as possible, but smaller non-profit organizations have also tapped into poker’s popularity to raise funds for various charitable organizations. It would make sense then that the online poker world would also follow suit.

Bodog Poker, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet were some of the first to jump onto the scene, with online tournaments being held for causes such as the victims of the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

The causes benefiting from online charity poker tournaments range in size from very personal to global. It’s nice to see that so many large and small charitable organizations have turned to hosting poker tournaments to raise much-needed funds. Equally nice to see are the many professional poker players getting in on the act as well by hosting online and real-world charity tournaments.

One pro poker player in particular stands out: Barry “the Robin Hood of Poker” Greenstein. Greenstein donates 100% of his net tournament winnings to a variety of charities, with the biggest beneficiary being Children Incorporated, a charity that provides for more than 15,000 children in 21 countries. The most recent pro poker player to take the high road is the 2007 World Series of Poker Champion Jerry Yang. Yang won the WSOP Main Event and pocketed the big $8,250,000 cash prize. Yang pledged 10% of his winnings to three different charities ? the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Feed the Children, and the Ronald McDonald House.

For obvious reasons, most people don’t mind taking on the short stack when they’re in a poker tournament. The thinking here is that the short stacks are easier to eliminate. But not so fast. You need to put a little more thought into these battles.

Short Stack: A player who has a small (or the smallest) amount of chips at the table is said to be have the “Short Stack” or be “Short-Stacked.”

If you’re constantly making the mad dash to take on the short stacks because you think you can eliminate them, you’re really just giving them a better chance of adding to their stack and improving their position. How? A lot of players tend to go all-in quite often once they have the short stack. When they go all-in they could have a monster or it could be a bluff at the pot – most likely it’s a monster. If you want to avoid feeding them your chips, you should avoid calling an all-in by a short stack unless you’re holding premium cards.

And I know what you’re thinking…why not bluff, right? Wrong. Attempting a bluff versus a short stack may seem like a good idea, but it’s not always so. If you’re pretty sure a short stack has missed their draw or they’re also holding junk cards, a bluff is a good way to steal the pot. However, if your bluff is called by a short stack, you’re usually better off folding because they probably have something that you won’t be able to beat. Remember rule No. 1: Don’t feed the short stack chips.

On the other hand, if you’re playing against an aggressive player who has a short stack you should use this to your advantage. If you believe that your opponent is on a draw and the cards just dealt did not improve their hand, you should check and allow the aggressive player to bet into you with a bluff. An aggressive player will usually do this in an attempt to steal the pot. Now’s your chance to pull off a check raise and steal the pot from the short stack.

If the opposite is true and you’re playing against a short stack who is a tight player, you can use this to your advantage. If you know they’re not going to play until they hit a monster hand, you should continually pepper them with bets and raises. If they truly are tight you should be able to steal a number of pots. But watch out when they call because they likely finally stumbled onto their monster hand.

What if you’re the short stack? Playing short also lets you turn some bad games into good ones. If your opponents are all skilled loose-aggressive players, you may be a big underdog playing deep. By the same token, you may actually have an edge if you play short. Learning to play short stacked makes you a more flexible player…and that type of skill gives you deeper insight into the game (and gets you deeper into a tournament).

Examining short stack play offers insights into how stack sizes change things. It’s insight that many No Limit Texas Holdem players who have played deep for years never get.

If you’ve been playing poker successfully for the past few years then surely you must know by now that there’s nowhere in the world that can match the money you can make per hour at an online table.

The reason for this is simple. In a land casino you’re pretty much committed to playing one hand at one table. Playing multiple tables at a land casino is not only impossible (unless you can turn your poker game into a game of musical chairs), it’s also not allowed.

In an online poker room, however, you can play as many tables as your computer can handle. If you average about $50 an hour at one table you could bump that up to $200 per hour if you can maintain the same level of play at four tables. (Word to the unwise though: You can just as easily lose four times your regular amount if your average result at one table is losing $25 per hour.)

But before you get lured into the idea of being able to make more money by playing at more tables, take a realistic look at evaluating how good a poker player you really are. While you may be constantly winning while playing at a single table (and are confident your game can handle the next level), playing two tables a try may be your next step in the process. Once again: exercise patience.

Then again, if you’re okay with playing multiple tables and walking away holding only some of the chips you started off with, then playing multiple tables is only going to gut your stack even faster. And that’s not a good strategy to employ.

Here’s what you need in order to play well on multiple tables: Excellent concentration, good decision-making skills and plain old good poker skills. Since you’ll be flipping back and forth between tables you’ll have less time to study other players, your own cards and the boards, and every decision you make will have to be done faster. Because of this you may want to avoid playing No Limit tables during multiple table play. Successful No Limit play usually takes more skill and knowledge of the other players than Limit Poker. In Limit Poker if you stick with the correct odds and play tight, consistent poker you’ll be able to conquer multi-table play.

Oh and one last tip: When playing multiple tables, turn off the sound on your computer. That annoying buzz that tells you it’s your turn to play when you’re busy at another table can grate on your nerves after awhile.

If you want to be a winning poker player you’ve got to be deceptive. Simply waiting for the nuts and dumping all your chips in the middle will leave you broke in no time. You have to learn as many deceptive tactics as your brain can hold, and learn when and when not to use them. One of these deceptive tactics is the semi-bluff.

A semi-bluff is not like a regular bluff where your hand is worthless but you try to fake strength and steal the pot. With a semi-bluff you still have a hand of little or no value, but you have a possible draw that could improve your hand. When you make a semi-bluff you’re hoping for one of two possible profitable outcomes. Either your opponent will fold to your bet and give you the pot, or you will hit your draw giving you a winning hand.

Now that you know what a semi-bluff is, here’s how to implement it successfully. First you have to know a few things about your opponents. You don’t want to attempt a semi-bluff against too many opponents and you don’t want to attempt a semi-bluff against an incredibly loose opponent. Just like a regular bluff, a semi-bluff doesn’t play well against more than two or three opponents because it’s more likely that one of them will have a good hand. Against a loose player you’ll never be able to get them to lay down their hand with the bluff, leaving you relying solely on your draw.

When you do attempt a semi-bluff you’ll usually want to do it from a late position. With fewer players to act behind you will have more information on your opponent’s hands, which should lower the chances of one of them raising you. Be wary of players who like to check raise because they can easily bust your semi-bluff.

Most semi-bluffs are made with four cards to a flush or four cards to a straight. When making your semi-bluff try and bet enough so it will be an incorrect play for your opponent to bet according to pot odds. This way you should either win the pot after they correctly fold, or at least have them going against the odds if they call. Either way it should be profitable for you in the long run.

Photo of University to Pro Poker Player

Poker has been one the most popular forms of recreation for university students for at least four or five years now. Lots of us spent more time playing cards than we did reading books, and some played so well that attending class meant losing money. There are many young players today that are finishing university and trying poker out for size. It’s the new ‘backpacking trip through Europe for a year expedition before you start your career’ thing. Smart people recognize the huge amounts of money that are up for grabs for a skilled and intelligent player.

There are a lot of things to consider before one decides to tell their parents that the money they just spent on your education will not start to return anything on their investment quite yet. Choosing to create a future for yourself that has you earning a living by playing poker is no easy feat. Beyond the doubt and raised eyebrows you will face from family and friends, there are many obstacles to face as a professional player.

We’ve all heard the success stories about players still in school amassing a huge bankroll or winning a WSOP bracelet. Phil Hellmuth is the most famous example of a player that went right into poker from university and never looked back. It can be done if you have what it takes. What does it take, you ask? That’s not easily answered, but I’ll say what I say to other players that talk about going pro. If you truly want to be a winning poker player it can be achieved, you just have to be willing to deal with any obstacle you may face in your journey towards that achievement.

Let your bankroll dictate whether you can live off of your play, and be willing to do whatever is required so that everything that needs to be taken care of every month does in fact get taken care of. Learn everything you can and control your emotions. (I say that like it’s an easy task.)

I say it can be your reality if you believe it will be, and you’re willing to put in the effort required to develop your game to the highest of levels.

Photo of Jerry Yang

Jerry Yang beat the odds to become the 2007 World Series of Poker champion and poker’s next big name. He is a part-time amateur player who only had a couple of small cashes in local tournaments in California before becoming the world champ. Yang was born in Laos in 1968 and fled the newly-communist country with his family for Thailand refugee camps, where he lived for four years. In 1979 he moved to the U.S. and later earned a Masters degree in health psychology from Loma Linda University. He has been working as a social worker and is married with six children.

Yang came out firing when the final table started and didn’t stop until it was over. Once he knocked out the first two players he had a massive chip lead of 55 million. He played aggressive big-stack poker for the rest of the event, raising large amounts pre-flop to win the huge blinds, and then made one gut-wrenching call after another when an opponent decided it was time to stand up to him.

Yang is the latest big name in poker who came out of nowhere to become a champion. As much as we all enjoy the top professionals playing for big money, the beauty of this game is that anyone can win if they play for awhile. Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Jamie Gold, and now Jerry Yang all had moderate poker experience up to the year in which they won the main event. A few of them got into the main event via a cheapo satellite tourney, too, because they didn’t have the ten grand to enter.

They are just like most of us, playing online and in local tournaments, working on our game plugging leaks, and going broke again and again - until that special day arrives and all that hard work, those struggles against better opponents, those bad runs, and those emotional relapses comes to an end and you win that big event. Jerry Yang once again showed everyone that poker is for anyone who takes the time to learn the game, and has the guts to put their cash up and compete.