The freeway comes in the form of a PokerNews WSOP Semi-Final Freeroll running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday beginning April 2. Both Monday and Wednesday freerolls kick off at 20:00 EST with Friday freerolls starting at 22:00 EST. These freerolls award the winner with T$270 (entry into one of Bodog Poker’s WSOP Semi-Final Tournaments) and the top five finishers
receive entry to the following $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll. To enter, download Bodog Poker through PokerNews, open a new account and make a deposit.

Not your thing? The toll way can get you there even quicker, with the PokerNews $10+1 Qualifiers. Qualifiers run at 20:00 EST every Tuesday and Thursday beginning April 1. These qualifiers award the top ten finishers with entry into the next $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll. To enter, download Bodog Poker through the links on PokerNews, register a new account and make a deposit.

The first $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll is scheduled for Friday, May 9 at 20:15 EST. To enter, simply download Bodog Poker through PokerNews, register a new account and make a deposit. If players finished in the top five of a PokerNews WSOP Semi-Final Freeroll or in the top ten of a PokerNews $10+1 Qualifier then they will receive automatic registration to this freeroll. Alternatively, players can automatically qualify by earning 250 Bodog Poker Points in the calendar month prior to the freeroll. Remember, all requirements need to be fulfilled at least 24 hours prior to the start of the freeroll.

Should you be one of the lucky winners of a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll, you stand to receive entry to the $10,000 Main Event (Thursday July 3), plus $2,500 cash for travel and accommodation. Winners join the coveted ranks of Team PokerNews and get to take home their very own PokerNews Merchandise Pack. In addition, expect to receive a special invite to the Team PokerNews Welcome Party where you’ll get the chance to meet and rub shoulders with the rest of the team – and if you’re lucky, you might just get to exchange strategy tips with some of the pros.

As always, these freerolls and tournaments are exclusive to PokerNews players. If you already have an existing account with Bodog Poker, you are still eligible to participate in these promotions provided you signed up through PokerNews and have completed all other entry requirements. If you did not sign up through PokerNews, you are ineligible and forfeit claim to any of the prizes. Should you win more than one freeroll, the prize will automatically be transferred to the second place finisher.

PLEASE NOTE:
Every PokerNews WSOP Semi-Final Freeroll and $10+1 Qualifier will be password protected. Check back to this article for all the passwords on Monday March 31.

Don’t miss out! Join Bodog Poker as they offer you the ride of your life and an unforgettable journey to one ultimate destination – the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Ed Note: Bodog Poker also offers PokerNews players a fantastic first deposit bonus of 110% up to $500.

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC (“Harrah’s”). Harrah’s does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerNews Ltd or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.

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“The PPA is fortunate to have a dedicated and active membership base, but we need eyes and ears on the ground to help us,” said PPA Chairman Former Senator Alfonse D’Amato. “With the state directors program, we will have a leader in each state who can update us on local news stories or legislation and who can quickly mobilize their fellow local PPA members to help carry the PPA banner in their home state. We are proud of the state directors we have named today and look forward to working with them.” The PPA continues to close in on the million-member mark that the organization has long touted as its primary recruiting goal.

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The US is currently not a part of the Xenon project, but the IRS won’t confirm or deny whether it uses web spiders for tax investigations. Of course, the IRS has access to a far more valuable information source relating to online gambling revenue. As part of its settlement with the Departiment of Justice, the online payment processor NETeller agreed to “cooperate fully” with the US government to avoid criminal prosecution.

Sweden’s online tax collection efforts continue despite the increasingly complicated status of online gambling in Sweden. This week that country’s Supreme Court ruled that the Court of Appeal must hear the cases against two of Sweden’s daily newspapers fighting for their ability to take advertisements from foreign online gaming companies. The Supreme Court cited rulings by the European Court of Justice that challenge the compatibility of Sweden’s Lottery Law, which bans advertising by foreign gambling companies, with Sweden’s commitments to the European Commission treaty. The European Commission has already issued a “reasoned decision” against Sweden for the country’s online gambling laws, which favor its state-owned monopoly and discriminate against foreign competitors.

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Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose. – David Sklansky, “The Theory of Poker”

Simple, straightforward, valuable, clear…

And wrong.

I know that it may be considered heretical in the religion of poker to challenge this statement. But though there is much in it that is valuable and correct, though many times this may be so, it is surely not correct every or time or nearly every time. And so, as a whole it is wrong. By the time you finish reading this series of articles, I’m sure that if you are open-minded, you will agree with me.

If both you and your opponent always knew the mathematically correct betting action when you and he viewed all of the cards in play, then if you got your opponent to deviate from his correct strategy because you mislead him about your cards, you would gain and he would lose – and vice versa.

Everyone can agree that nearly all of the time, this would be the case when there were no more cards to come. If, for example, it was the river with no more cards to come, and you convinced your opponent by your raise that he should fold, when if he could see your cards he would have seen that he beat you, then you gain and he loses. True. Obvious. Similarly, if there were no more cards to come, and you had two pair, and your opponent’s betting convinced you that he had a flush and you folded, when in fact if you could see his hand you would see that he has a busted flush and you would have correctly called, you would lose and he would gain.

But before the final round, when there are still cards to come, many players would make the wrong play even if they could see their opponents’ cards. And so, paradoxically, if they deviated from that play that they would have made had they been able to see their opponents’ cards, they might be backing into the right play.

It’s weird, I know.

But here’s the simple problem with many players’ stud play. They do not know the correct play – or they do not make the correct play even if they know it – when there are more cards to come. And they make this wrong play not because they are fooled about their opponents’ hands but because they just do not know the correct play in that situation.

Even knowing what their opponent has they fold when they should raise, they call when they should fold, they fold when they should call, etc.

Sklansky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker does not account for that serious problem, and in so doing it misleads players into focusing on mixing up their play and making deceptive plays when they should instead focus on learning the correct betting action based on what their opponent is likely to hold.

For me it’s like giving a spoke wrench to a new owner of a bicycle. He will use this great tool. But because he hasn’t been properly tutored he may well use it incorrectly, knocking the wheels of his bicycle out of true – and ending up needing the help of a bike mechanic.

The saying goes, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” For me, teaching beginning and even intermediate players that they should focus on deception – before they have mastered the fundamentals – often pushes that player’s game out of true… with disastrous consequences.

In future columns I’ll give you some examples of how players often misplay their hands – even knowing or guessing correctly what their opponents have. And then I’ll explain what the correct play is, and why. This, for me, is the critical step that Sklansky and others incorrectly presume poker players already have taken before applying the Fundamental Theorem of Poker.

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To be eligible, players must have already signed up to Poker770 through PokerNews. This is a special holiday freeroll open to PokerNews players, even if they haven’t made a deposit.

So, if you’re eligible, use the password PNXMAS07 to register for this freeroll. Registration opens four hours
prior to the start of this tournament.

PokerNews and Poker770 wish all our players a happy and safe holiday season.

Ed Note: Sign up to Poker770 through PokerNews and take advantage of their first deposit bonus of 100% up to $500, plus exclusive $1,000 monthly freerolls!

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