I was kind of shocked to see that the next Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) is starting again so soon, didn't it just finish? However, satellites are already running and the first event begins on February 9th.

Schedule of games is as follows: (Complete list is not yet up on their website or poker client, games on February 12 and 15th are apparently TBA)

February 9 - DS (deep stacks) NLHE - $216 buy-in
February 10 - DS HORSE - $216 buy-in
February 11 - DS NLHE - $216 buy-in
February 12 - Not yet listed
February 13 - DS 6-handed NLHE - $216 buy-in
February 14 - DS Limit O8 - $216 buy-in
February 15 - Not yet listed
February 16 - DS PLHE - $216 buy-in
February 17 - DS HA (12 minute blinds alternating between Hold'em and Omaha) - $322 buy-in
February 18 - Main Event - NLHE with T5000 starting stacks - $535 buy-in

We'll update on this more once they have made the official announement.

Full Tilt has made some changes to their Iron Man Challenge for the 2007 season. Set up to reward their loyal players, you can earn points based on how much you play that will go towards four possible levels - Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Iron. As per the chart below, you can see how many points you have to earn each day over a specific number of days per month to reach each level:



Once you have achieved a particular level, you will accumulate medals which can be used at the Iron Man Challenge Store where you can exchange medals for cash prizes, tournament tokens/entries, create your own table, etc.

It doesn't end there though. You then have a choice whether you would like to play in monthly Iron Man freerolls, or forgo the freerolls and collect additional medals each month.

If you are interested in participating, I'd recommend checking out the Full Tilt Iron Man info page for all the information, as there are far too many details in this particular promotion to list them all here.

This Sunday, Doyle's Room will be running their Grand Finals Tournament where they will be awarding prize packages (valued at $5000 each) for the First Annual Super System Poker Camp. The excursion will be held in Montana May 19-23rd of this year.

Providing instruction at the camp will be Doyle himself along with Todd Brunson, Mike Caro, and Jennifer Harman, all co-authors of Super System 2.

If you are interested in winning one of the packages, the tournament begins at 5:30pm ET on Sunday, January 7th, and the entry fee is $50. If you don't win your way in but still want to attend, the cost is $4000. Attendance is restricted to 200 people.

For more details on the camp, you can visit their official website via the "read" link below.

I really hate missing out on bonuses - so I am here to prevent any of you from doing the same. Consider this a quick reminder that the PokerStars Fifth Anniversary Bonus Promotion ends tomorrow, January 2nd at 11:59 ET. If you make a reload deposit before that time, you will automatically receive a 25% bonus - up to a maximum deposit of $600 ($150 in bonus dollars max). Since Stars reload bonuses don't happen too often, it is wise to take advantage of them whenever possible.

Also, if you are a new player they are offering a 100% first-time deposit bonus (just to a maximum of $50, though) between now and December 31, 2007 using the bonus code "First2007". (FYI - this is their own bonus code, not an affiliate code.) First time depositors will have six full months to clear the bonus on this particular promotion.

Further details can be found at their site via the "read" link below.

PokerStars has upgraded their VIP program to include a new tier - SuperNova Elite. To achieve this, players must amass 1,000,000 VPP's (VIP player points) throughout the calendar year. Ummm......Oy. The level below, SuperNova, is attained by earning 100,000 between January and December which sounds difficult enough to do as it is.

Anyways, if you never leave your house play a lot of online poker and receive the SuperNova Elite status you will earn free prize packages to PokerStars signature events, collect a 400% bonus on all the Frequent Player Points you earn, as well as enjoy the benefits of every tier beneath you such as using FPP's to buy into major events, gain entries into private freerolls, etc.

Speaking of the VIP club freerolls, Stars has posted the schedule effective between now and March 31, 2007. From their website (and all times Eastern):

• Every day at 12:40, 19:40, 22:40 - $250 daily BronzeStar and higher freeroll - 10 FPP buy-in

• Saturdays at 14:00 - $50,000 Weekly GoldStar and higher freeroll - Free entry to Supernova and Supernova Elite, FPP satellites for GoldStar and PlatinumStar VIPs

• Saturdays at 14:30 - $20,000 Weekly SilverStar and higher freeroll - 100 FPP buy-in

• Last Saturday of each month at 15:00 - $100,000 monthly freeroll - Free entry to GoldStar and up, FPP satellites for SilverStars

You can visit their website for full details / more info on the VIP program.

(Image: PokerStars.com)

As Wil mentioned a little while ago, NBC will be premiering their latest creation 'Poker After Dark' hosted by Shana Hiatt tomorrow, January 1st, and will run a new episode each night Monday - Friday between the hours of 2-3am, plus Saturday nights between 1-2am. For those of you who are not satisfied to simply sit at home and watch, Full Tilt Poker is currently running a promotion where you can win a seat on the show and play against some of your favorite players.

Sit 'n Go tournaments will be running around the clock beginning January 2nd, and the top two finishers in each one will move on to a weekly Round 2 tourney. The top 9 finishers from each weekly tournament will qualify for a tournament held on April 30th, where the grand prize will be a free seat on the show. For more info on how to qualify, you can check out the Full Tilt info page via the 'read' link below.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend other than drinking champagne and watching Dick Clark, Titan Poker is holding the following 'Festive Freerolls' with (albeit fairly small) guaranteed prize pools on both December 31st and January 1st:

New Years $1,000 GP Freerolls will be staged at 11am and 2pm.
New Years Mania $500 GP Freerolls will be staged at 11:30am and 5pm.
New Years Mania $500 GP with 100 Point "buy-in" will be staged at 12pm, 2:30pm, and 4pm.
New Years Mania $1000 GP with 150 Point "buy-in" will be staged at 4:30pm.
New Years Mania $2000 GP with 400 Point "buy-in" will be staged at 3:30pm.

All of the freeroll tournaments can be bought into with Titan's player points.

All week long my email has been flooded with new online promotions - looks like January is going to be a pretty good month for playing poker. Most of the time I tend to ignore the promos out there and just play my regular games, but I've decided that in 2007 I'm going to devote a certain amount of my online time to hunting out the special deals/promotions and a.) try to win a few seats in major events and b.) try for more of the free money out there. That brings me to this - if playing single-table Sit n Go's is your thing, then Doyle's Room has a promotion running throughout January that may be right up your (my) alley.

According to their website, if you:
Win 3 consecutive STT's in a row, you will receive a $20 Bonus
Win 4 consecutive STT's in a row, receive a $200 Bonus
Win 5 consecutive STT's in a row, receive a $2,000 bonus
Place 1st or 2nd in 5 consecutive STT's and receive $100

Granted, this isn't exactly a new concept - it is strangely reminiscent of Titan and Noble Poker's ongoing Fort Knox table challenge actually, but if you are playing SNG's anyways may as well try for some bonus bucks on various sites.

Well, that was fast.

I sat into today's 50FPP freeroll, ready to play some 'go big or go home' poker, with the speedy blind structure and whatnot, and as an exercise in playing a shorter stack (relative to the blinds) a little more aggressively.

So with that in mind, the very first hand I played was K5c, in the cutoff, after two limpers. I figured that it was a chance to work on post-flop play, too, and unless I really hit, I'd be done with the hand.

The SB called, the BB checked. The flop came Kd-7d-5h, and I had top and bottom pair. An EP limper min-bet, and was called in two places. I upped it to 450, figuring that one of these guys hit his king, or was on a flush draw, and would jam over the top of me, so I could jam back, and take a fairly decent hand to war heads-up.

Everything worked out exactly as planned, when the EP bettor jammed, but things got dicey when one of the callers also jammed. Now I was taking top and bottom pair to war -- on the very first hand I'd played, no less -- against two players with a flush draw out there. Well, I've been trying to avoid the Monsters Under The Bed syndrome, and I figured this was as good a spot as any to gamble and triple up. I just couldn't see how I was behind, unless I was against a set, but I've learned in these short stack things that you just can't be afraid of a set whenever someone overbets a not-that-scary board, right? Wouldn't a set want to get some action from someone who hit TP? And none of the preflop action indicated any premium hands, so . . .

I called, and I was way ahead of K8 and I guess slightly ahead of a Q-high flush draw with no pair.

Well, until the board paired 7s on the river and go from looking good to busto just like that. Ouch.

Did I completely fuck up there? I don't think so. Would any of you guys have played it differently? I figure the right thing to do in a massive field turbo is put all your money in when you're reasonably sure you're ahead and you hope for the best. But right now, I'm feeling a little stupid.

The chat today was nothing like yesterday's. There were lots of friendly and kind comments, including several "Welcome to Riverstars" messages, which were actually delivered with good humor, so at least that aspect of the game was enjoyable.

I play again tomorrow, if you'd like to come in and deliver your own kick to my junk

W00t! I cashed in the first tournament I have played online in weeks:

Congratulations!
You finished the tournament in 335th place.
A $0.70 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

And, it only took me one hour and 17 minutes to accomplish that feat. Pretty impressive, eh? At this rate I can pay my rent support my daily Starbucks habit by playing online poker for only about 6 hours each day.

Alright, perhaps I am being a touch facetious - this wasn't about competing for any significant amount of money. I played in the Team PokerStars Freeroll early this evening, and like most multi-table freerolls it was quite a ride. The tournament was capped at 5000 entrants, players started with 1500 chips, and the blinds went up every five minutes. Yes, that is 12 blind increases every hour. Oy. After the first 10 minutes over 1000 players had been eliminated. After 50 minutes the 675 of us who remained were already in the money.

Though I wouldn't want to play this format in a 'real' tournament it was actually fairly ideal for a freeroll - quick and relatively painless. Granted no one is going to get rich playing these, but all in all it was fun. More than that though, it is nice when your poker sites give something back to the players, no matter now big or small the prize may be.

Once again, Poker Stars will be hosting these freerolls throughout each day between now and January 2nd, you can check out their website for more details.

While browsing through the Internets I noticed that CelebPoker is offering a 500% first-time deposit bonus up to $500. Though the offer does initially sound enticing, I think this one would pretty much take the rest of your natural life to clear.

Let's dissect:
The bonus itself is released in $10 increments for every $50 in rake that you generate. The minimum amount of money that you can deposit to qualify for the promotion is $20, and the maximum amount that can be applied to this promotion is $100 (500% of $100 is $500) so with a bankroll of only $100 it can be (should be) assumed that you will be playing some pretty low-limit games. Last time I checked, the rake on micro-limits is pretty insignificant. To play higher limit games you have to either dedicate more of your bankroll to the site while clearing the bonus, or play at levels that are far above your means. Neither of which are a great option for anyone bonus-whoring.

That said though, if you are still interested in participating then you have until January 5th, 2007 to make your first deposit. As with any online promotion certain (very specific) terms and conditions apply so I highly recommend you read those first before proceeding. Some (not all) of these include:

Only One Real Account per player, per household. If you already have multiple accounts you are NOT eligible for the offers in your additional accounts. Any player attempting to claim multiple bonuses for which they are not eligible will have their accounts closed and any winnings on all their accounts will be null and void. All cash outs will be cancelled.

All promotions are available only once per person, family, household address, e-mail address, credit card number, and environments where computers are shared (university, fraternity, school, public library, workplace, etc).

In the event of any dispute, the decision of the Poker Manager or Boss Media AB will be considered full and final. No correspondence will be entered into.

Customers who are residents of China or Korea are not eligible to receive this bonus.

We reserve the right to change the terms of the promotions without notice.

The promoter reserves the right to refuse this offer to any player or to withdraw this / or part of this offer / promotion at any time

Poker Stars turns five this month, which is much, much more than 35 in dog years or a a century in Internets years; it's an opportunity for PokerStars to give something back to its players with the Fifth Anniversary Celebration.

There are a bunch of different promotions going on right now, including:

• Big cash awards, every one million hands for cash game players, and a bonus on top of the cash won if the winner is a VIP player.
• Cash awards to play money players.
• Two $25,000 freerolls for players who have been with PokerStars since 2001.
• 25% deposit and reload bonuses for new or current players, respectively.

So that's all cool, right? But the thing that I'm most excited about are the Team PokerStars freeroll tourneys. Check it out: Throughout the fifth anniversary celebration, PokerStars will host five $1,000 freerolls every day with 10 Frequent Player Point buy-ins. We'll also run one $5,000 freeroll every day with a 50 FPP buy-in. There's a very good chance you'll find one or more of your favorite Team PokerStars members in the field of players. If you knock out a Team PokerStars player, PokerStars will award you a free entry to a $215 Sunday Million tournament.

I'm playing in a whole bunch of the Team PokerStars tourneys, so if you want to come and take a shot at me, here's my schedule (times are Eastern Standard):

• 12/26 - 19:00 $1000 10 FPP Freeroll
• 12/27 - 15:00 $5000 50 FPP Freeroll
• 12/28 - 19:00 $1000 10 FPP Freeroll
• 12/30 - 22:00 $1000 10 FPP Freeroll
• 01/02 - 20:00 $1000 10 FPP Freeroll

All the details can be found at the PokerStars 5th Anniversary Celebration page.

Full Tilt Poker is running two Last Chance tournaments this week to qualify for the 2007 Aussie Millions which will be held in January at the Melbourne Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.

The final $1,000 qualifier will be held today, December 18th, at 9pm EST, and the last $300 weekly tournament will be held this Thursday, December 21, also at 9pm EST. You can buy-in directly to either event, though satellites/super-satellites are still available around the clock starting at $4.40 or as little as 50 Full Tilt Points.

The prize package for this event includes air and hotel in Australia for you and a guest, spending money, and a single tournament entry - total value is approximately $18k.

If you collect books, specifically poker books, you may be interesting in getting your hands on the leatherbound editions of Super System 1& 2 available at Doyle's Room.

To get your set you must accumulate 25,000 "Action Points" within a 90-day period. I'm not exactly sure how fast the points add up at their site, but the general premise is that a pool of action points are generated during each hand, and the larger a pot becomes, the more action points will be accumulated. Points are then distributed amongst all the players involved in the pot on a pro-rated basis. They do stipulate on their website that the maximum number of Action Points that can be earned during any one hand is 300.

Either way, if you are playing at their site anyways, that is a pretty nice gift to get for 'free'.

(image: DoylesRoom.com)

I was reading some websites this morning and it just occured to me that Christmas is only 12 days away. How that happened, I have no idea, but I had better get myself to the mall one of these days soon lest my family disowns me for lack of gifts under the tree. (No, poker swag apparently doesn't cut it anymore.)

At least some people are on top of the season - Full Tilt Poker has announced their Christmas promotion which will run between December 20th and December 31st.

They will be giving away 750 cash prizes totalling $15,000. How do you win? On any given day during the promotion, if you earn 20 or more Full Tilt Points you will be entered into that day's draw for cash prizes. There are also two higher levels of prizes for those that earn in excess of 100 FT points and 300 FT points each day.

In addition, they will be giving away one daily Grand Prize to anyone that has earned at least one (yes, just one) FT point that day. According to their website, the daily grand prizes will include plasmas, iPods, video cameras, etc.

Prizes will be awarded according to the picture above, taken from the FTP website.