April 24 2011, Barry Carter

Download Mansion Poker to play in six exclusive $400 freerolls and a $2,000 added league. You don’t even need to make a deposit to play in the PokerNews Social Media Madness, and we have a fun way to score extra league points. The first event is April 25 at 1900 GMT.

It is time to put the fun back in poker, which is why we have teamed up with Mansion Poker to bring you PokerNews Social Media Madness. We have six $400 freerolls, all of which also score points toward a $2,000 added league. All you need to play is a PokerNews referred Mansion Poker account – no need to deposit. Plus, if you like PokerNews on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, you have an opportunity to earn even more league points.

April 25, 30
May 2, 7, 9, 14

The winner of each event will score 50 points, second place scores 49 points, third place gets 48 points, and so on. The $2,000 added league will pay out after all six events to the top 40 players. The top prize is $480.

Check out the PokerNews Social Media Madness League page for more details.

Think you can beat these guys? Show us your #madnessface.

We told you this would be fun. Social Media Madness is a promotion that doesn’t take itself seriously, which is why we are giving extra league points for anyone who shows us their craziest looking poker face. Simply post a picture of your silliest looking poker face to our Facebook Wall or to Twitter using the hashtag #madnessface and we will award you 40 league points. So, if you are trailing in the league, you can make up ground, and if you are doing well, you can extend your lead.

Just make sure you include your Mansion Poker screen name when you post; otherwise, we won’t know who to give league points to. Please note you must play at least one league event to earn the additional points.

If you are not already making the most of PokerNews Social Media, now is a great time to start. We have over 11,000 Facebook fans, over 20,000 Twitter followers, and are ranked fourth in the WeFollow most influential poker tweeter rankings. We have lots of great interactive social media content, including up-to-the-minute news, videos, live reporting, and exclusive promotions just like this one.

So download Mansion Poker and post your scariest poker face now to get a head start in the league. You don’t need to make a deposit, but if you do make sure you use bonus code “PN500” to get a 100% up to $500 first deposit bonus.

If you experience any problems with this or any of our promotions, please contact our Ticketed Promo Support System.

Fri, 04/22/2011 – 14:19 – PokerPages Staff

When betting or thinking of placing your bets in poker, it’s important that you know the basic poker rules of odds. Our guide shows you how often hands come up when drawn straight at random from the pack.

Poker bets often depend greatly on odds and they will affect all rounds of poker betting. Many top players say they don’t use odds, but the vast majority have some grip on how the poker rules concerning when to bet are determined by odds.

A pair is by far the easiest hand to draw in a game of 5 card stud or if drawing 5 cards from a standard deck of 52 at random. It has a one in 2.4 chance of occurring. Next up is the two pair, which is almost ten times less likely to happen, occurring once in 20. It’s worth noting that two pair occurs a little more often in Hold ‘em due to the community card arrangements, but odds for that game are much harder to calculate.

Third most likely of poker hands to appear is the three of a kind. There’s a 46 to 1 chance of three cards of the same index appearing- approaching the odds of drawing a card at random and picking it correctly at around 2%, generally speaking. Next is a big leap to drawing a straight right out of the deck. This will happen every one in 254 times- pretty rare. However, a flush can beat that as it’ll only show up when drawn straight off one in 508 times- a chance of approximately 0.2%, or around 10 times less likely than a three of a kind. A full house has odds of 693 to 1 of appearing. The odds again take a big leap here.

A four of a kind will occur one in 4,164 times, which is around 10 times less likely than a flush and 100 times less likely than a three of a kind. Statistically 100 three of a kinds will be drawn from a deck before a four of a kind will be. But a straight flush can beat that with odds of 72,192 to 1- pretty long odds, and only beaten by the almost impossible to obtain royal flush, where 10 J Q K A appear all of the same suit. This occurs a total of one in 649,739 times.

Visit PokerSchoolOnline to learn more: it’s the Internet’s #1 source for poker learning.