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 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.