Wed, 03/30/2011 – 22:50 – PokerPages Staff

Russian online poker player ‘svetamillion’ was disqualified from appearing in the finale of the ‘Challenge Durrrr’ contest on Full Tilt Poker at the weekend.

The challenge, which offered players on the site a chance to go heads up against Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan for a $1.5 million prize, began earlier this month.

However, the eventual winner ‘svetamillion’ was replaced at the last minute by the runner-up ‘inorej.’

A Full Tilt Poker representative revealed that ‘svetamillion’ had been disqualified from the competition.

“I can confirm that the player who got first place in the Matrix portion of the promo was disqualified. I can also say it didn’t have anything to do with the Matrix itself.”

The TwoPlusTwo forums offered their thoughts on the situation with many believing the player in question may have had multiple accounts or used a different player to control the account.

“A possible explanation would be ghosting by somebody remote, maybe through a gateway or some setup to try to hide it, but it did not work. So villain just gave the login information directly to the ghost and got busted.”

Dwan duly dispatched ‘inorej’ on all four Pot Limit Omaha tables as the new challenger lost out on the chance to take down a life changing sum of money.

However, the contest did raise $40,000 for relief efforts in Japan following the devastating tsunami earlier this month.

Wed, 03/30/2011 – 01:13 – PokerPages Staff

Here is an overview of the rules of Texas Hold’em for the novice poker player.  Texas Hold’em is one of the most popular games of poker around.  Almost all of the big tournaments are Texas Hold’em or some variation of the game.  For the new poker player, understanding the basic rules of playing Hold’em makes watching and learning to play more enjoyable.

Hold’em is played with a 52-card deck.  It can be played with two to ten players.  It is necessary to determine who the dealer is.  Even if playing online or at a card table.  The dealer identifies who places the small and large blinds.  Small blind is bet first by the person to the left of the dealer.  The person to the left of small blind places the large blind, which usually double the small blind.

Now play can begin.  The dealer deals two cards face down to each player.  These are hole cards and can only be used by the person that they are dealt to.  This leads to the first round of betting before any community cards are turned up.  The person to bet first is the person to the left of the large blind.  Then, everyone has a chance to bet.  The first three community cards are turned up.

This leads to the second round of betting.  Once completed the fourth community card is turned up.  This leads to the third round of betting, starting with the first player to the left of the dealer that is still in the game.  When all bets are in and the final community card is turned up, the final round of betting takes place.

Now players have to make the best five cards hand possible with their hole cards and the community cards.  Players that are still in the game, show their hole cards to determine the winning hand.  If two players have the same winning hand, the pot is split.  Otherwise, the best hand takes the pot.  Note that if all others have folded the last player takes the pot and does not have to show the hole cards.

Beginner poker players can learn more about Texas Hold’em and other poker games by visiting PokerSchoolOnline, the best source on the internet for poker related learning.  Afterwards, why not test those skills by playing free at PokerStars.net.  Also, check out the PokerPages sections Poker Information and Poker Articles for more poker betting, tips, bets, and strategies.