Antonius Takes Session 2 in Durrrr Challenge

Patrik Antonius has moved into the lead in the Durrrr Challenge with a strong performance today in a 6 hour and 56 minute session.  Patrik was in the black on each of the 4 durrrr challenge tables profiting a total of $228,069 for the day.  This win for Antonius puts him at a profit of $56,177.50 after 2,921 hands over 12 hours and 5 minutes.  Only just over 47K hands left to go!

We’ll keep you posted on the challenge, or you can check it out for yourself by signing up for Full Tilt Poker rakeback and watching the challenge yourself.

Gus Hansen Loses to Theo Jorgensen in GusTV premier Boxing Match

In the Premier event for the launching of GusHansenTV.com Gus was bested by his friend and fellow poker pro Theo Jorgensen by judges decision after three rounds.  Gus who gave himself odds prior to the fight, looked like the aggressor through the first two rounds, but Theo’s extra training may have taken over in the third.  Gus now owes Theo $35,000 for the loss, whereas Theo would have only owed Gus $25K.

GusHansenTv.com is Hansen’s new web blog where you can watch footage of Gus throughout the day.  Gus will be taping himself on the poker tournament trail as well as some online cash game footage against the best players in the world.  Overall the Boxing event was a success with a packed crowd in attendance.  Hopefully there will be a rematch of some sort in the near future.

Play with Gus on Full Tilt Poker.  Get Full Tilt Poker rakeback now.

Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan Strikes first in Heads Up Challenge

The Tom Dwan vs Patrick Antonius heads up challenge has officially begun.  The two have four-tabled $200/$400 PLO Hi for almost 5 hours now and Tom Dwan has managed to build a lead.  Of the 1541 hands that have been played so far Tom has won 853 and is up $134, 911.50.  According to a written agreement in the chat at the end of their last session the challenge will continue tomorrow, February 20th at around 7am EST.

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5 Tips To Help You Beat Full Tilt Tier 1 & 2 Sit and Go’s

Full Tilt’s $8 tier 1 and $24 tier 2 sit and go tournaments can be very good value for the players who are able to use the tournament structure to their advantage.  The fact that 1 out of every 3 players get paid is different than most 18 player tournaments in which only 4 players cash.  The extra two players cashing, along with 1^st through 5^th being the same prize allows you to play a much tighter game in order to hold on for a cash.  Another reason the tournaments can be good value is because the first half of the tournament is played at two tables.  If your table doesn’t play as many hands as the other this means that there is a greater chance of players from the other table busting before players from yours.  A lot of players will just be scheduled tournament players who are used to very large fields and are just looking for tokens to some bigger buy-in MTT’s.  You can take advantage of these players by using the tournaments structure to your advantage.  Here’s how:

Play tight and aggressive early on

Your objective early in the tournament is to stay close to your starting chip count and not play many hands.  If you do get a big hand early of course you should play it and try to gain some chips or double up.  Play big hands aggressively at this stage though.  You do not want to let people catch hands against you and bust you from the tournament at this stage.  Remember to stay tight.  It’s actually possible to cash in these tournaments without every playing a hand.  Extremely rare, but possible.

Slow down your table

You can slow down your table by taking the maximum amount of time allowed for you to make every decision.  The logic behind this is that if your table plays fewer hands than the second table, the second table players will have more hands to possibly bust on, as well as have more blinds being put into the middle.  Obviously once you reach the final table this is no longer beneficial.

All in or fold with 10 times the big blind or less

Once the blinds have increased to a point where you have 10 times the big blind or less you have to start either pushing or folding.  You can no longer afford to call or raise because you don’t have enough chips to make moves after the flop.  At this point the only call you should possibly be making is from the small blind, with no other callers in front of you.

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Watch the blind increases

Once it gets down near the bubble the blinds will be very large.  At this point it would be smart to start managing the blinds are trying to be in the button seat when the big blinds increase.  The 200 chip difference between levels could be the little difference between bubbling and cashing.

Do not be the bubble boy

This goes without saying.  You do not want to finish in 7^th position and have played the entire tourney with nothing to show for it.  If you are a shorter stack near the bubble you should be checking if you or other short stacks will be having their chips forced in first.  If other players will be forced in by the blinds before you, it may be smart to wait and hope that their cards don’t hold up when they are pushed all-in.  If it is you who will be the next person forced in you should be looking to push all-in sooner rather than later.  When choosing when to move in you should take into consideration your position, the other players chip stacks and tendencies and of course your hole cards.  A perfect situation would be pushing from the button with a good hand on players in about 4^th or 5^th who would not want to risk crippling their stacks and doubling you up.

On the other hand if you have managed to develop a large stack heading into the late stages of the tournament you should try to coast into the money and not risk your chips.  You should try not to play many pots with other large stacks.  Remember there is no difference in prize money between first and fifth so be stingy at this point and don’t risk your chips.

Sign up for Full Tilt rakeback now and build your poker bankroll by using these poker strategy tips to take advantage of these great value tournaments!

5 Tips to Improve Your Full Tilt Super Turbo Game

Full Tilt’s super turbo sit and go’s have a very unique structure which can make them very profitable if you know how to use this unique structure to your advantage.  In the super turbo’s players start with only 300 chips and the blinds at 15/30, with the blinds increasing every 3 minutes. Full Tilt’s super turbo tourneys can be a good value for the player because the fee is a little bit lower than usual and because a lot of the players who play them do it when they are on tilt because they feel the super turbo’s are just lotteries.  However, I’m here to tell you they are not lotteries and there are many ways to increase your advantage in these tournaments.  Here are 5 tips that will help you beat the Full Tilt super turbo sng games and hopefully increase your poker bankroll.

Ship it in or fold

You start with only 10 times the big blind and this means you should forget about calling and only be pushing all-in or folding.  If you get lucky and double up early to about 20 times the big blind you can start doing standard raises again, but be aware that most of the other players will still be either pushing or folding, which means your raise is still basically as good as putting all of their chips in.  Slow playing with this small amount of chips will not work because the other players will be just as likely to call an all in as they would a minimum raise.  The one exception for making a call might be in the small blind with a monster.  Calling in the small blind can often induce a big blind push because it implies weakness.

Play tight for the first couple levels

Since you start with only 10 big blinds you want to push with a good hand, at least early on.  There are 9 players in the tournament, which means you get to see a lot of hands in the early stages without putting in many blinds.  If players start going out and the blinds increase and start coming faster you will have to change the range of hands you will move in with.  A common mistake in these tournaments is feeling the need to push early and often.   Be patient for the first couple levels and only move your chips in with a quality hand.

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Use your position

Position is extremely important in this tournament structure.  You should be pushing hands from the button that you would have folded under the gun.  An example would be that (Ace, Nine) is an easy fold under the gun, but would likely be a push from the button with no previous callers.

Increase your range short-handed

As the amount of players remaining decreases your range of hands to push with should grow.  The fewer players remaining, the greater the chance that your hand is the best at the table.  For example, 9-handed (A,5) doesn’t look so great, but 4-handed it becomes much stronger.

Avoid the bubble

This is easier said than done, but a 4^th place finish is the worst position possible and they can mess with your head.  If the tournament is down to 5 or 6 players and you have a short stack, it’s time to start pushing from good positions with a wide range of hands and hope to double up or steal some blinds.  Don’t let yourself blind out.  6^th place prize money is the same as 4^th, $0.

You can find Full Tilt super turbo sit and go’s with buy-ins anywhere from $3.50 to $70 at Full Tilt Poker.

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Antonius Accepts Tom “Durrrr” Dwan’s $1.5 Million Heads Up Challenge

If you haven’t heard, Tom Dwan, aka Durrrr, put out a challenge to any player in the world to play him in high limit heads up no limit hold’em or pot limit omaha at 4 tables simultaneously for 50,000 hands.   What makes the challenge really interesting is that if Dwan wins his challenger must pay him $500K, but if Dwan loses he pays the challenger $1.5 Million!  The 3 to 1 ratio shows just how confident Dwan is that he will come out on top, but it is also a very good value challenge for many top poker professionals.

Patrick Antonius was the first player to accept Tom’s offer to play in this heads up Challenge with Phil Ivey and David Benyamine close behind.

Full Tilt Poker has already created “durrrr challenge” tables in the $200/$400 PL Omaha section of their software in preparation for the challenge.  Antonius had the choice and decided to play PL Omaha.  The challenge will start in a week or two and we will keep you posted on the outcomes.  Whatever happens you can be sure that this event will be followed with the utmost attention and will be very good for online poker as a whole.  It’s anyones game as these are two of the best poker players in the world.  One thing that we can be sure of is there will be many big pots with lots of money exchanging hands and some huge bragging rights on the line.  One player will end the challenge with a big increase in their poker bankroll, while the others may be completely crippled.

Catch all the action at the Full Tilt tables by signing up for Full Tilt Poker Rakeback now.

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