ITH 2006 Internet Player of the Year Rankings

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Poker Plex Adds to Monthly Bonus Plan Cryptologic network skin Poker Plex has changed their long-enduring $50 monthly bonus plan. Beginning October 1, players can earn up to $200 every month as follows: -$20 as soon as players reach 100 raked hands. -An additional $30 as soon as players reach 250 raked hands. -An additional $50 as soon as players reach 500 raked hands. -An additional $100 as soon as players reach 1,000 raked hands. The "raked hand" definition is still the same as the accrual of MPPs, so if the pot is raked less than one full unit it only counts as 0.25 raked hands.

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"Best of ITH" Nominations

It occurs to me that we get a lot of new members to join every day and many of them will never see some of the really great discussions that we have had here in the past. I thought it might be a cool idea for those of us who have been around a while (or even those who haven't!) to identify some of the best threads they've read. They could deal with good strategy, have a funny tone, or just be personally interesting. I think it would be cool to have a resource we can point people to that will have some good stuff for them to read.

I'll start things off with four posts that I like, for different reasons. I'll probably add some more of my favorites later, but these are the ones that I thought of right away:

1. Question for Ed Miller: This was posted about the time Small Stakes Hold'em came out, and I don't think any of us who read it didn't learn something.

2. Matthew WSOP Update: This was the first time we "railbirded" Matthew during the WSOP and it was a lot of fun. We've gotten a lot better tracking his results during the event, but this was the first time and it was a lot of fun. It was also how I discovered the website, so I especially like this one.

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Determining How Much to Bet

There are always two key decisions you must make when taking the initiative in no-limit hold'em while playing a hand. Are you going to play, and if so, how much do you want to bet? The amount of your bet is always very important. If you bet too little with a good hand, you might cost yourself your entire stack. If you bet too much, you might find yourself in a situation in which you are winning only small pots and losing large pots. A key part of the decision in determining how much to bet depends on the pot odds and implied pot odds. 

The column looks at how to use odds and probabilities when deciding how much to bet. Realize that other factors such as psychological warfare are important in no-limit. Sometimes we might intentionally bet a big hand small, hoping that our opponents will sense a bluff and try to make a play at us. At other times, we might bet big, trying to indicate a bluff. Both are ways of using psychology during a hand. Putting the psychological part of the game aside, the first step is learning the mathematical foundation of how much you ought to bet. Once you master the foundation, you can then learn more advanced plays in terms of the psychology to use against each individual opponent.

Protecting Your Hand

The amount you bet on the flop is a critical decision in no-limit hold'em. Let's start with an extreme example just to demonstrate a point: You are heads-up in a major poker championship and are dealt JJ. The blinds are $10,000-$20,000 and you raise to $75,000 pre-flop. A very tricky, loose opponent calls. There is now $150,000 in the pot. The flop comes out J73 rainbow. You both have about $880,000 remaining in chips. How much should you bet?

Of course, there are always lots of factors that go into betting in no-limit, but we are going to look at one of the most critical factors, which is protecting your hand. You have flopped top set and the board is relatively harmless. Assume that you decide to slow-play and bet $40,000. Your opponent calls, and the turn card is an 8. Then, in a flurry, you are both all-in. You turn over your set, only to look in exasperation as your opponent turns over 109 for a straight.

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Little Things

PUBLISHED: Sept. 27, 2006

At the time this article was written, England had just beaten Ecuador 1-0 in the soccer World Cup to progress to the quarterfinals. It was a scrappy game, in which England was the better side but was unable to really put the game away. The headlines in the English sports pages the next morning were mostly negative. "A lacklustre team performance against an unconvincing Ecuador", claimed one major website, with others carrying similar slants. (For those of you who aren't soccer fans, bear with me, I am going somewhere with this).

Thinking back to the game makes me realize what a thin line there is between success and failure, or, in this instance, a "good" performance and a "bad" performance. If England had taken more of their chances and walked away 2-0 or 3-0 winners, then no doubt the press would have been full of praise for the English side, claiming that we were finally fulfilling our potential after a disappointing start to the tournament. They talk about a lacklustre performance, but what they really mean is a lacklustre result.

This is because sports journalists are generally results-oriented and very quick to make sweeping judgments with hindsight. If England had put in a similar performace, but scored one more goal and won 2-0, would that have meant their performance was any better? Scoring one goal is usually the result of a piece of individual skill, a defensive error, or, more often than players will admit, luck. A ball bouncing in the right direction, a deflection wrong-footing the goal keeper, or a shot falling one inch inside the post rather than one inch outside.

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Internet Player of the Year Spotlight: JINXY_MONKEY

PUBLISHED: Sept. 27, 2006

One of the more unheralded Internet Player of the Year (IPOY) contestants, Thayer "JINXY_MONKEY" Rasmussen, is beginning to make a name for himself after flying under the radar for much of the year. A triumvirate of cashes at the 2006 World Series of Poker this Summer netted him just under 18K in prize winnings.

His online efforts, too, are nothing to scoff at. He currently ranks No. 5 in ITH's IPOY chase, bolstered by several cashes on Paradise Poker, PokerStars and Party Poker. A $112,699 effort in the 'Dise Masters IV Main Event stands as his crowning achievement of 2006 - online or offline. All told, he has racked up 66 cashes and 15 final tables this year during his quest for internet supremacy.

Read more of this article & view JINXY_MONKEY'S Bio

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PUBLISHED: Sept. 27, 2006

With the end of the year approaching, and the crowning of the first ever Internet Poker Player of the Year on the horizon, InternetTexasHoldem.com is announcing it will no longer be adding any new regularly scheduled daily or weekly multi-table tournaments (MTTs) to its tracking criteria for the remainder of the calendar year. However, specialty tournaments - such as the current World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) - will be included, and other special events will be given consideration for inclusion into the Internet Player of the Year (IPOY) powered by ITH.

Since Jan 1, 2006, InternetTexasHoldem.com has tracked the most premier MTT Poker tournaments on the internet. Using a unique, objective scoring system, ITH will recognize the first ever Internet Poker Player of the Year at year's end.

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The $5 Million guaranteed Ongame Network Poker Classic , hosted by Ongame Network and played over 25 separate affiliate sites, is now underway. This poker classic is truly one of a kind, combining online play with live play to determine the complete Hold'em champion. The online portion of the No-Limit Hold'em tournament is slated to conclude Nov. 4, when the overall field will be whittled down to 45 total players. The final 45 players will then reconvene to duke it out in a live setting in beautiful Barcelona, Spain from Dec. 2-3.

While in Barcelona, players will enjoy five-star accommodations while staying at the luxurious Hotel Majestic (pictured above left). Which player possesses the total package of poker skill regardless of venue? Find out who will lay claim to being the complete Texas Hold'em champion in just three short months.

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As if by some odd, unforeseen twist of fate, Barry Carter initially visited internettexasholdem.com to follow up on a technical error regarding a column he published for a prominent gambling publication in England. One of his poker columns had inexplicably been credited to someone else - someone unknown to Carter at the time. He intended to get to the bottom of things.

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