The World Poker Tour (WPT), Season 10 Episode 29 @ "Jacksonville BestBet...

The World Poker Tour (WPT), Season 10 Episode 28 @ "Jacksonville BestBet...

The World Poker Tour (WPT), Season 10 Episode 27 @ " Seminole Hard Rock ...

The World Poker Tour (WPT), Season 10 Episode 26 @ " Seminole Hard Rock ...

Tournament Poker Professional Player Profile: PHIL HELLMUTH JR.

Phil Hellmuth is perhaps better known for his ill tempered outbursts and un-sportsmanlike table antics than his poker skills. Nicknamed 'the poker brat' Hellmuth has s string of well publicized tantrums - many recorded live on TV.

Behind this 'brat' image actually lies one of the world's most skillful and accomplished poker players. Phil Hellmuth is not only the record holder for the number of World Series Bracelets won - he has a string of tournament successes dating back many years in other events too. Hellmuth's total tournament winnings as of 2007 were almost $10 Million.

As well as a keen poker mind Phil Hellmuth is also a great businessman. Capitalizing on his fame with a string of books, videos and his own website. He also writes a regular column for Card Player magazine.

Born in 1964 in Wisconsin, Hellmuth's first experiences will poker came while studying at university in Madison. He dropped out after 3 years to play poker full-time, a move that was rewarded shortly afterwards by becoming the youngest player ever to win the World Series Main Event, beating poker legend Johnny Chan in the process.In 2007 Hellmuth over-took Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan to become the leader in WSOP bracelets with 11 Titles. Phil Hellmuth also holds the record for total number of cashes and jointly holds the highest number of final tables with another poker legend T J Cloutier.

The list of non-WSOP tournament wins and final tables is huge for Hellmuth. While this does not include any WPT wins there are many prestigious championships included in the list. These include winning the NBC Heads-Up Championship in 2005 (defeating Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson), Season 3 Late Night Poker Champion and regular appearances on Late Night Poker and Poker After Dark.While Phil Hellmuth has many critics due to his unprofessional manner at the tables there is no doubt that his record makes him one of poker's all time greats. It could also be argued that his table antics have been 'good television' and helped to increase the popularity of poker over recent years..

The END of ONLINE POKER ROOMS.

There are many different factors which contribute to the continuous fall of the online poker industry. It seems like poker had its peak and now comes a downswing in the popularity of the game.

In the following paragraphs I try to list the most important factors that could have contributed to the end of the poker boom:

1. The decreasing number of players did not let poker rooms have so many bonus and loyalty programs. The number of freerolls decreased, the deposit bonuses did not have the same as good options as before and many loyalty programs had significantly worse giveaways.

2. Online poker became a tougher place to make money for a living. In the beginning of the poker boom many players had no idea how to play the game. The tables were full of fish who gave away easy money. In some years thousands of players learned to play the game on a higher level and there were less and less fish at the tables. No one likes to lose continuously and many hobby players just quit playing. As the slogan of Poker After Dark says: "It is a hard way to make an easy living".

3. Poker rooms lost their reliability. The shutdown of Fulltilt, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker changed the basis of online poker markets. Until that point players did not believe that they could lose their money because of poker room shutdowns. Thousands of players lost their bankroll because of the mentioned poker rooms. At the same time other poker rooms also had withdrawal problems and players could not withdraw money from their account or if they could then it was slow. Withdrawal problems are the biggest influencing factors why players lost their trust in online poker rooms.

4. US players are not allowed to play. Online poker was most common in the USA. Since black Friday of online poker, most sites do not allow American players to play. This decision closes the door for a large amount of the players. Furthermore without these players many tables/games/poker kinds/tournaments do not have enough players and due to the lack of players it is not possible to play some games, even if some remaining players have demand to do so.

5. Legal requirements did not only affect the US market. Governments were surprised at the success of online poker and they did not know suddenly what they should do against the online business. Players did not have to wonder about losing their money. Most of them did not pay taxes and they did not have fear against the law. After some years many countries created restrictions against online poker. Most of these restrictions did not forbid playing but the game did not provide great opportunities anymore.

The online poker boom is over and the number of players is decreasing. How can I finish this article? Poker will remain an important game in the future as well and the very good players will be able to make money no matter what.

If you would like to see deeper analysis with the concrete numbers and chances, please visit our website and take an active part in the analyzing process.

World Series of Poker ( WSOP), WINNERS, Where Are They Now ?

Their names were once on the collective lips of the poker community, but have now become answers to trivia questions. Here's our guide to "Where Are They Now?", World Series of Poker edition.

Jamie Gold (2006 WSOP Champion) Since his record setting $12 million dollar win, and his forays onto High Stakes Poker, Jamie's kept an incredibly low profile in the poker world. The scandal involving his agreement to split the winnings forever gave him a tarnished name in the poker world, and as such, he's played very few tournaments; he only has 8 recorded cashes since his 2006 victory. However, one of those cashes was in this years NBC Heads-Up Championship; could we see the return of the self-proclaimed "Biggest Bluffer in Hold'em History" this year?

Robert Varkonyi (2002 WSOP Champion) The last pre-Moneymaker era WSOP champ, Varkonyi didn't have another cash after his 2002 victory until 2006. He made another deep run in the main event in 2007, came in 2nd in the 2009 WSOP Tournament of Champions (while being called "the Underdog" throughout the tournament by various reporting sites) and this year, took down event 18 at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza.3. His wife has also had nice runs in the WSOP Main Event and some Women's events. With the momentum from his Venetian win, hopefully we can see Varkonyi make a deep run in this years WSOP Main Event. Obviously, Varkonyi's still got the talent to perform in the poker world.

Steve Dannenmann (2005 WSOP Runner-Up) The "fourth best player in his home game" won over many casual observers with his humility and humble nature towards being on the biggest stage in poker. Dannenmann, unlike many player that make the millions of dollars and convert to playing poker full time, actually kept his day job and is still a CPA in Maryland. He hasn't recorded a cash since 2008, so it's safe to say, Dannenmann must really enjoy his day job.

T.J. Cloutier (2006 Inductee Poker Hall of Fame) The last most casual players read about T.J. had nothing to do with his play; it was more about Ebay. He had his 2005 $5,000 NLHE bracelet sold for about $4,000 to CakePoker.com. However, T.J. is still playing poker and has been furiously grinding at this year's WSOP, with 3 cashes so far. He may be stuck a little, if he's selling bracelets, but T.J. is showing at this year's WSOP that he's not going to bleed out of the game; he's still got the game to make it in the money.

Sam Grizzle (2003 WSOP Phil Hellmuth Antagonizer) My first introduction into televised poker was watching Sam Grizzle terrorize Phil Hellmuth with insults and needles throughout the series. Since then, Grizzle has made infrequent appearances on Poker After Dark and WSOP broadcasts, but has no registered cashes since 2009. A notorious backing/staking fiend, it's more than likely that Sam is being staked to play in some of the big games in Vegas; Todd Brunson used to be an ardent backer of Grizzle.