The totals so far in the 11 sessions played are: 11,569 total hands played out of the 50,000 hands to be played, with Daniel up a little over $580,000.  $580,000 doesn’t represent a very big hole for Dwan to dig out of when you consider that over $70,000,000 has been wagered so far.

For those unfamiliar with the Dwan poker challenge,”durrrr” is putting up prize money at 3 to 1. If he wins, he gets the amount won at the tables and $500,000 from his opponent. If the opponent wins, they get the amount won at the tables and $1,500,000 from Dwan.

The first match (which has been going on for some time) has Tom Dwan playing Omaha Hi against Patrik Antonius. So far, 39,436 hands have been played out of the 50,000 hands to be played with Tom up a little over $2,000,000. Amazingly, over $342,000,000 has been wagered over those 39,000+ hands.

If you’re not familiar with the challenge, check out the “durrrr” online Poker Challenge that I posted previously that explains many of the rules and details of the challenge.

As of today, there have now been 27,185 hands played of the 50,000 hands to be played as part of the challenge. At this point Tom is ahead by  $779,248.00, even though Patrik won $167,620.50 in their last session where 470 hands were played.

Of course, Tom’s lead is not much when you consider that the total bet so far is over $217,037,000.

The total time played up to this point over the 42 sessions is 3 days 14 hours 50 mins.

It begins with Guy Laliberte limping in with the ace five of hearts. Jamie Gold then calls with the jack of diamonds and seven of spades. Doyle Brunson follows by raising to $11,200 with ace ten of diamonds. Sam Farha calls with king of clubs and jack of hearts and David Benyamine follows by calling with the king five of spades. Laliberte and Gold call.

   Guy Laliberte               Jamie Gold              Doyle Brunson

           Sam Farha          David Benyamine

 The pot is $57,100 going to the flop, which is the ace of clubs, jack of spades and four of diamonds.

Doyle, playing the hand fast, bets $40,000. Farha and Benyamine fold, Guy calls and Gold folds. The pot is now $137,100.

The turn is a deuce of diamonds.

Doyle, with aces and the nut flush draw, bets $110,000 to make the pot $247,100. Guy, who also has aces, but with a lousy kicker and an inside straight draw, doesn’t fold, but raises $200,000 more to $310,000.

This is a great play and against most players holding ace queen or worse, would more than likely move them off of their hand. But Doyle makes an even greater play by calling Guy’s $200,000 raise and reraising all in for another $30,500. Guy calls and the pot is now $818,100, one of the biggest ever on High Stakes Poker.

They agree to run it twice and when a queen of spades hits the river on the first run and a ten of hearts hits on the second, Doyle wins the entire pot,  proving once again why he is one of the best to ever play the game.

Playing card clipart courtesy of Dave Schloss

BetFred.com offers a $250,000 Freezeout tournament every Sunday with a buy-in of $300 + $20 and a $50,000 guaranteed tournament every Saturday with a buy-in of $100 + $9. Every Friday brings a $150,000 guaranteed tournament with the same buy-in ($100+$9) but this one has unlimited rebuys.

If you can’t wait for the weekend you can play in their daily (Monday – Thursday) $50,000 guaranteed tournament for only a buy-in of $50 + $5. And the best news is, you can satellite your way into any of these great poker tournaments.

If you’re short of cash, why not try the $1,000 Freeroll Bounty Tournament? This is a weekly bounty tournament that’s now even bigger because Betfred Poker has doubled the guaranteed prize of this event from $500 to $1,000! This unique event offers players the opportunity to play as the bounty player. In order to do so, you simply need to eliminate the designated bounty player of the previous week. See their site for full details.

BetFred Poker is very user friendly and offers a great deal of information on how to play. Information about hand rankings, what hands to play, rake information, etiquette and a poker glossary can all be found on their site.

You can also find a strategy guide where articles on luck vs. skill and how to go from playing for play chips to real money are available. Of course, they also have information regarding basic strategy, position, knowing your opponents, bluffing, chip stack sizes, blind stealing and more!

BetFred Poker offers Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven Card Stud that come in the form cash games, sit “n” go’s, multi-table tournaments, satellites, heads-up play and freerolls. And, they’ll match your very first deposit up to a maximum of $600 (or currency equivalent) payable in bonus dollars. (Again please see their site for details)

Their $75 Invite-a-Friend bonus earns you a $50 bonus for friends you invite while they earn a $25 bonus at the same time!

Three professional players all call BetFred Poker home: Rasmus H Nielsen, Paul Zimbler and Lynne Beaumont.

Betfred Poker is dedicated to giving their players the best customer service available, that’s why their support teams operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

So if you’re looking for a new place to play online poker, why not check out BetFred Poker?

If you’re not familiar with the challenge, check out the “durrrr” online Poker Challenge that I posted previously that explains many of the rules and details of the challenge.

As of today, there have now been 12,956 hands played of the 50,000 hands to be played as part of the challenge and even though Tom has won more hands than Patrik (6,835 to 6,078) he is down $162,558.00.  Of course, this is not much when you consider that the total bet so far is over $78,644,000.

The total time played up to this point over the 22 sessions is 1 day, 17hours and 14 minutes.

Whichever player is ahead at the conclusion of the 50,000th hand played, even if it’s by by just one dollar, wins the challenge. So, if Dwan wins, he keeps any money he won during the contest and the challenger’s $500,000. If his opponent wins, they keep their winnings and the $1.5 million that Tom has put up.

Here are the rules for the players who accept the “durrrr” Challenge:

• The game type must be No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha
• The stakes must be a minimum of $200/$400
• Once the stakes have been decided upon, they must stay the same for the entire challenge
• Players must reload if their stack falls below 75 big blinds at any time

Patrik Antonius accepts the “durrrr” Challenge
With Dwan giving three-to-one odds to the entire poker world for the “durrrr” Challenge, it’s not surprising that some of the world’s best poker players have already taken him up on his offer. High-stakes player Patrik Antonius was the first to accept Dwan’s challenge with other high stakes players such as Phil Ivey and David Benyamine already in line to accept the challenge too.

Dwan and Antonius will play this challenge out on the digital felt and you can watch on Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt has set up four special “durrrr” Challenge tables in the Omaha Hi game lobby. Action on these tables is expected to be explosive.

As of today, there have been 20 sessions played which has accounted for 12,114 of the 50,000 hands to be played with total bets of over $71,332,000.

If you’re looking for a new place to play poker, check out bwin Poker. They have a very active site with over 26,000 players online even early on a Monday morning.

You can play by downloading their software or “play instantly” simply by registering. You’ll especially like this site if you’re a new or novice player because they offer an in-depth poker school.

The bwin poker school provides all the information you need to play. They have an interactive tutorial where you click through each step of a poker hand as you sit at a practice table with instructions explaining each step, individual videos explaining the game, sections on poker terms and hand nicknames, hand rankings, poker strategy and more!

One very unique item is their EV (which is short for Expected Value) calculator a statistical measurement that essentially reflects the average value of something – for instance, a poker starting hand. The numbers show average winnings with regard to big bets per hand.

Flight Tournaments
Their “Flight” tournaments are another unique concept that enables players to play multi-day events on bwin Poker. Players can choose a straight flight tournament which is a tournament starts at a scheduled time, breaks after a set number of hours and continues at the same time the next day or they can play a forked flight tournament.

This tournament starts on several separate times and dates. A player can choose which flight suits them best and then, just like in a straight flight, play a set number of hours before the tournament breaks. All players who still remain in all the different starting flights then merge into a final flight played at a separate time. This enables huge fields to enter the same event without the event dragging on for days.

And if you’re looking for regular poker tournaments, they have plenty.  Beginning with their “Euro Daily 50+4” which starts at 20:00 GMT every weekday (Mon-Fri), with a guaranteed prize pool of   $10, 000. You can also qualify for the Euro Daily by winning any of the $7+$1 daily qualifier sit & go tournaments.

They also have a “Canadian Daily 50+4” with essentially the same structure as their Euro Daily, which starts at 01:00 GMT, Monday to Friday and has a guaranteed prize pool of $13, 000.

bwin Poker’s “Cannonball” tournament combines the best of two worlds as it provides the kick-start thrill of a turbo tournament, while still allowing for a more normally paced finish. The first six levels are played at 3 minutes per level, then one 6 minutes long level, before moving to the regular 12 minutes per level. Of course they also offer a host of freeroll tournaments.

The bottom line is, if you’re looking to play online poker at a popular online poker site that has it all, check out bwin Poker.

Be sure to read below to find out how to play for $100,000 each week at Littlewoods Poker with just Frequent Player Points!

Littlewoods Poker is another great place to play free online poker or for real money. They also offer a lot of help to the new or novice player with an online poker school with a complete dictionary, a poker hand ranking section as well as sections covering ring games and tournaments. You can play a number of different types of poker games on Littlewoods Poker, from Texas Hold ‘em poker, to Omaha High and Hi/Lo to Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. Unfortunately, it’s not open to U.S. players yet, but that may change in the future.

Play for $100k each week with just FPPs!
For a limited time, you can win your seat to the $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge simply by accruing Frequent Player Points. (FPPs) All you have to do is earn 100 FPPs from Friday to Wednesday in any given week and you’ll be eligible for the ‘FPP Freeroll Challenge’ the following Friday where ten $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge seats are up for grabs.

Promotions
Littlewoods offers a number of promotions on a regular basis. they have a First Depositors’ Freeroll, opportunities to win a $17,000 WSOP package, a $20,000 Guaranteed tournament from Monday to Saturday and much more!

Referral and sign up programs
Littlewoods Poker offers a 100% welcome bonus up to £200. They pay 25% of your welcome bonus instantly before you even sit down at your first table. The other 75% of your bonus is pending and easy to clear by accumulating bonus points.

When you sign on to Littlewoods poker, a voice greets you with, “Welcome to Littlewoods Poker, good luck!” You then move to the lobby and then to an interface that is fun to play on with really nice graphics, a choice of avatars (or none if you like) and an easy to maneuver lobby so you can find the game or tournament you want, quickly.

The blind countdown clock is at the table (which I like) instead of the tournament lobby. There’s also a “Your Best Hand” window helpful for players new to the game. You can even set the sound to have a dealer tell you when the flop, turn and river is being dealt. It all wraps up nicely when you sign out and hear, “Join us again at Littlewoods Poker.”

Littlewoods Poker Quick Review:

Full screen: Yes
Changeable avatars: Yes
Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic and in movie form
Can change the color of the deck: Yes
Can change the layout: Yes
Four color deck alternative:  Yes
Freerolls: Yes
Easy to work betting controls Yes
At this moment:  2089 players
Toll free number for contact support: Yes as well as live chat and email

Patience
The game of poker requires patience. It’s important to wait for good hands to play. One of the mistakes that many new players make is playing too many hands. Playing is fun, so it can be difficult to just sit and wait, mucking hand after hand after hand while you wait for a good hand to show up. There will be times of course, when you will have a spot to make a move with a less than stellar hand, but generally, you’ll want to play good solid starting hands and play them aggressively.

Another place lack of patience shows up is when a player tries to get all their money back playing a hand or hands they shouldn’t, because they lost a big pot due to a bad read or maybe because of taking a bad beat. Going on tilt as it’s called can happen to anyone, because winning and losing can be an emotional experience and winning and losing money can be a very emotional experience. The best players learn to control their emotions. This is because they understand that winning poker is all about making good decisions and you can’t make good decisions if your emotions are in control.

Perseverance
Your attitude at the table plays a very big role in how you will do. Do you expect to win when you sit down to play? Do you still expect to win when you get short on chips? If you’re playing a tournament and start thinking to yourself, “Well, I’m getting short on chips, let me just go in with anything and get this over with,” you don’t possess the attitude to win.

A good player is looking to double up when they get short and they expect to hit that hand that will get them back in the game. There’s an old saying in poker, “All you need to win is a chip and a chair.” Remember, if you have chips, you still have a chance to win. Never give up. Opponents like it when other players are just looking for the door but you earn their respect when you always play tough and play to win.

Psychology
Poker is a people game played with cards, not a card game played with people. Always be focused when you play. It’s no secret that you should focus when you’re in a hand, but you should also maintain that level of focus even when you’re not in a hand.

By focus I mean, watch the players, not the cards. The cards don’t change after they’re dealt, but you may only get one chance at picking up a tell. Watch how someone reacts to his or her cards. Do they sit up a little straighter? Do they glance at their chips? This is valuable information. Of course, this is a little more difficult to see if you are playing online.  Online tells are more about betting and betting patterns. However, always pay attention to the way people bet, whether it’s online or in person. Do they always bet a small amount with bottom or middle pair and a bigger amount with top pair? When you’re playing in a live game, watch to see how other players place their chips in the pot. Do they use the same hand all the time or one hand when they have something and another when they’re bluffing? Do they splash the pot when they have nothing and place the chips in carefully when they have the nuts?

Always be thinking about the other players. What hands do you put them on? In other words, what do you think they have? You should always be trying to put people on hands when you’re in the hand and even when you’re not. If you find yourself bored sitting at the table, you’re either very, very good or you’re wasting opportunities.

Position
It’s important to always be aware of your position at the table in relation to the dealer button. This is another area where beginners make a lot of mistakes. Hands that are very playable in late position are often not playable at all in an early position.

The reason is, if you’re in early position with many players to act after you, you have less information than you would in late position where many of the players have already acted. So choosing which hands to play and how to play them is as much about the cards as it is the position you have in that particular hand.

Practice
If you want to improve, you must play. You can read all the poker books and watch all the videos and television broadcasts, but they can only take you so far. There is no substitute for experience.

If you’re brand new to the game, start out on the play chip tables. I think a one-table sit and go is a good place to start. The reason is, if someone goes crazy and loses all their chips, they’re out, and you don’t have to worry about them reloading and coming back to do it again, like you might see at the play chip “cash” tables.

Once you feel like you know what you’re doing, you can start playing for money. Many online sites will let you play for very low amounts. You can play a sit and go for pennies per tournament. Move up only when you’re winning regularly at your current level.

Another part of practicing is reviewing your books and videos after you have been playing a while. You’ll invariably understand things that maybe weren’t clear the first time you went through those materials after getting some playing experience.

Poker is all about making the right decisions, based on your cards, where you’re sitting and the table and who you’re playing against. Hopefully, the five P’s of poker can help you become a better player and that, will bring you years of enjoyment from one of the greatest games in the world.