Cheating is present on most online poker rooms, whether it’s players trying to gain an advantage over the online poker rooms, or even the other players, or the poker rooms themselves trying to trick the players into investing way too much in the poker rooms. Whichever the case, the opposing side is always fighting back. Let’s look at two of the widest spread examples: first, there are players who try to cheat by using a wide variety of programs. From bots to other special programs, they will try to take a peek at other players’ cards, at the community cards, they will try to quickly evaluate their odds, and so on.  On the other side of the game, the smaller online poker rooms also try to cheat. One of the most believable and wide spread conspiracy theory is that online poker rooms will try to rig the cards in order for you to win when you first start to play, then suddenly lose. This way, you can think that you’re, in fact, a very good player, and you’re just going through a bad down swing, and by playing a lot you’ll bounce back. This theory caught on because, if online poker rooms actually do this, it’s a very subtle technique, and it’s designed to get the most out of players in small increments, so that they don’t suspect a thing. But, as many experienced online poker players will tell you, there is no such thing as cheating in large websites, they would have too much to lose.

So, what’s the truth? Well, yes, there are cases of cheating on both sides of the game. But this certainly isn’t the case for the bigger online poker rooms: they have gotten to where they are by practicing flawless security techniques. So, on the largest poker rooms there will always be a lot of people who are making sure that the players aren’t cheating (they will constantly improve their security programs, in order for all kinds of malicious programs to be banned), and that the players who are cheating get banned and never play there again. And, on the other hand, it’s in their best interest not to cheat themselves, because one scandal breaks out and they’re gone for good, no matter what they do to try and bounce back.

And speaking of scandals that broke out in the online poker world, let’s have a look at some of them.

The most famous (and infamous) online poker cheating scandal that broke out is, undoubtably, the Absolute Poker scandal. Back in 2007, one of the most well known online poker room was Absolute Poker, but its fame quickly turned to infamy when a scandal broke out that made worldwide headlines for months on end. To be more precise, it all began in in September of 2007. It started off small, with several forums and poker communities targeting Absolute Poker and claiming that there is a ‘superuser’ which can see everyone’s cards. At first, the website denied all accusations, but the accusations persisted, and one month later the Kahnawake Gaming Commission began an investigation, and sure enough, they found the culprit as being ‘POTRIPPER’. After careful investigation, they had found that all his actions were of a man who already knew what his opponents were holding. Immediately, Absolute Poker denied the accusations, but it was already too late – the website started to be blacklisted and its reputation stained for good. After some internal investigation, and what started as unofficial rumors, Absolute Poker finally admitted to the cheating, and said that it was the work of a dissatisfied former employee, which took advantage of a security flaw and used it to scam people. He managed to do so for a period of 40 days. As a final gesture to save what was left of their good name, Absolute Poker announced that it had strengthened its security, and that all of the funds scammed by the player were returned to the players (about $1.6 million). Although they are still making efforts to bounce back, Absolute Poker’s image was forever stained.

Ultimate Bet is one of the poker rooms that was involved in a similar incident. Back in 2008, they released a statement that they too were confronted with ‘superuser’ accounts, which wreaked havoc in the online poker room for months on end. From March of 2006 and all the way to December of 2007 (although they have later confirmed that the cheating dated back to the beginning of 2005) cheating was flourishing on Ultimate Bet. Again, former employees were blamed for it all, and Ultimate Bet claimed to have fixed the malfunctioning software. Later investigation by the same Gaming Commission revealed that the cheating was done by only one player, from May of 2004 to January of 2008. To this day, Ultimate Bet has yet to refund players. And this time, their image remained stained.

These are two of the most outstanding scandals in the online poker world, but they are not the only ones. However, scandals like these can forever stain the image of a poker room, so everyone tries to do their best to avoid them. To avoid being cheated stick to the bigger sites and stay away from new small sites. If what they offer sounds too good to be true, it proberly is. Some of the most reliable sites, in my oppinion, are sites like Party Poker and Pacific Poker. These sites have been around forever, and you wont go wrong with an account there. For US players, you should check out Carbon Poker.

The bill, known as H.R. 2267 or the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act had 7 Republicans voting for and 18 voting against the bill while 34 Democrats voted for the bill and 4 voted against it. Republican Ron Paul, who so many feel support their freedom to gamble online voted present. That vote leaves many to wonder why he done so when he had showed support in the past. My thoughts are that perhaps he only showed support in the past when he thought he had something to gain by having the online players support when running for office…..

There is still much to be done before H.R. 2267 can become law. So for those that believe in our freedoms, you need to continue letting House and Senate members know that we want online poker and gambling regulated and legalized. The full House needs to vote on it between Sept. 7 and Oct. 8. For a full vote to happen Democrats in the House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), needs to schedule it.

If the House passes the bill, then it can be taken up by the Senate. And if passed there it could be signed by President Obama. If it reaches his desk I feel that it will become law. The man likes a game of poker himself so I don’t think he would have a problem doing so. The largest concern I and many other online gaming sources have is that it all needs to happen this year.  If it doesn’t happen before the end of this year’s legislative session, the process will have to start all over again next year.

Rep. Barney Frank talks on MSNBC about Recent Committee Passage of HR2267

The room is very excited to have the noted actor and poker fanatic on board at CarbonPoker. And I’m sure players will as well, especially the testerone driven males that play at the site.

A rep from CarbonPoker, Peter Hampton says, “We’ve been on the hunt for a face for our brand who is a recognized star and also a respected member of the poker community.”  He states that Shannon is just that person, “Shannon easily meets both criteria, and offers a creative edge that we’re thrilled to have on board.”

Most folk will definitely recognize her from both movies and television. She has starred in such hits as American Pie, That 70s Show, The Grand, Dancing With the Stars and much more.

Play poker and chat with Shannon Elizabeth by downloading today!

She’s not only good at acting though, Shannon has cashed in several WSOP events, and finished third at NBC’s National Heads Up Championship event. She has also represented Team Lebanon at the World Team Poker Event.

Online players can find her playing at Carbon by clicking here to download the room. When players use bonus code “CarolinaGambler”, they get 35% of their rake paid back daily into their players account, and a 200% sign up bonus up to $600!

Stay tuned to Carolina Gambler for further updates on how you can party with Shannon at upcoming events.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was signed into law in October of 2006. This prohibited banks from doing transactions to gambling sites, making it difficult to fund real money games, and leading many gaming sites to outright ban American players.

We at Carolina Gambler finds it ridiculous how the Republican Party (which claims to be the party of less Government) have fought so hard against online poker and gambling, yet online Bingo, Horse Racing and Lotteries are all fine. Not only that, but people can buy all the porn they want, regardless of the type, but not play a friendly real money game?

This fundraising drive is in anticipation of a vote in the House Financial Services Committee on the legislation that will regulate and license online poker, otherwise known as H.R.2267. The goal is to raise $25,000 in support of the PPA’s advocacy and grassroots efforts. All loyal poker supporters, and anyone else that believes the Government has no right to tell people what they can play in the privacy of their own homes, can make a donation to the PPA on July 1st.

Please consider joining the Poker Players Alliance and making a donation. All denominations are welcome, every bit of support makes a difference. A donation of $5, $10, $20 or more will help the PPA reach out to more poker players who can demand that the Members of Congress protect our rights as a free people in a free Nation.

Watch this Special Message from PPA Executive Director, John Pappas

To start it all off, players now get 35% of their rakeback when using code “CarolinaGambler” instead of the old 30%. Also the cap for rake collected at heads up tables has been halved from $1.00 to $0.50 per hand to make CarbonPoker even more popular with heads up players. But that’s not all, check out the following upgrades:

The Three Million Dollar Schedule

Over three million dollars in guaranteed cash each month, not counting live seat giveaways, monthly promotions, and freerolls. Carbon Poker has bumped up the tournament values across the board. The room now features nine daily $200 freerolls and over $90,000 in daily guaranteed prizepools, and the Sunday Deepstack $50,000 Guaranteed is now a freezeout, making it easier than ever for players to get involved in the action.

$500,000 IN INSTANT PRIZES FOR MAY

This month’s promotion, simply entitled The Race, is a hit with poker players. With tiers that players of all sizes can hit, and up to $12,500 available per player, the question is not so much if you will win, but how much.

Each point you earn moves you up through 15 levels of prizes. As you go from level to level, you win more and more cash.

This is a race, after all, so there are limited prizes at each level. Speed your way through all 15 tiers to win over $25,000 in real cash. Prizes will be paid in real time, so as soon as you win it, you get it! In order to be eligible to receive cash prizes, just click the ‘Activate Race’ button located in the player admin and have made a minimum of at least one deposit between a player’s joining date and up to the 30 May (inclusive), 2010.

Click here to turn your May into payday during The Race, and claim your share of $500,000.

Even though poker is a game of skill and luck, the skill component of the game is much greater than the component of luck. If this were not the case, the same players would not be able to continually out perform their counterparts. In poker, your skill and ability as a player is going to dictate what actions you choose to take or choose not to take over the course of a hand. When you are presented with a decision in poker, there are a number of different choices that you can make and there is almost always only one right choice. If you make the wrong choice, the only way out of it is to get lucky.

To get an edge in poker there are many great poker tools that you can use. If you are a tournament players, then i can highly recommend that you try a powerful tool called tournament indicator which gives you live stats as you play tournaments.

It is important to understand that luck does play an important role in poker. Every player has stories about how they were a huge dog and got a runner runner to win a massive pot off the chip leader and take the chip lead away. On the flip side, we all have the stories about how we played everything perfectly but our opponent totally sucked out on us and we got screwed. These things happen all the time in poker because of the fact that there is an element of luck. In anything where there is an element of randomness, it is mathematically impossible that statistically improbable occurrences will not occur.

Being very successful at poker is going to require a combination of both luck and skill especially when playing in a tournament scenario. In order to win a tournament, you are going to need to play well and get lucky in the process. Regardless of how well you play, if you run into some bad luck you are almost certainly not going to win. On the other hand, there is just so much that luck can help you when you play terribly.

Bonus code: carolina

Because skill is a larger factor to successful poker play than luck is, each player has the opportunity to improve his or her results at the table. You cannot change your luck at the table because it is completely outside of your control but you can change the how well you play. Through hard work, determination, education, and practice you can improve your skills at the poker table. Additionally, the better you play the smaller the role luck plays in your success at the poker table which is good news to anyone that wants to win with regularity.

When asked whether poker is a game of luck or a game of skill the only way to answer that is yes. Poker has elements of both skill and luck and the game cannot exist without both. With that said, skill plays a significantly larger role than luck which is proven time and time again by the fact that you see many of the same professional poker players make the final table at the top tournaments repeatedly. The better a poker player you are the less luck you need to win and being able to rely on something you can control as opposed to something you cannot is a good thing.

You dont need luck to get a 325 Euro free welcome bonus at partypoker.com
Just use the party poker bonus code: carolina and your first deposit will be matched 100% up to 325 Euro.

Click Here and claim your bonus

The final hand saw Baldwin push with A-5 and Williams instantly called him with the ducks. An ace came on the flop, but Williams deuces held when a two came on the turn giving him trips and a cool $1,530,537 !

“When I saw that deuce come, it was amazing,” Williams added. “It was weird, as soon I saw it my mind was like, I just won. I couldn’t speak for a while. It was awesome.”

Williams is a self taught poker player and become known when he won a seat to the 2004 WSOP by playing online and went on to finish second to Poker Pro Greg Raymer. That second place finish awarded him an astounding $3.5 million. He went on to win a bracelet in the 7 card stud WSOP Event in 2006. With this latest win, his total poker earning now exceed $7.8 million. Not bad at all for someone that got there start at an online poker room.

It was after the second place finish in 2004 that BoDog Poker signed him on as a team member . You can challenge David Williams online by clicking here to download the BoDog poker site.

2010 WPT World Championship
1. David Williams- $1,530,537
2. Eric Baldwin- $1,034,715
3. Shawn Buchanan- $587,906
4. David Benyamine- $329,228
5. Billy Baxter- $246,921
6. John O’Shea- $199,888

As I’ve stated before, I have always preferred the software at Merge Gaming over all the other online poker rooms and have played the original room, which is Carbon Poker now, since their very early beginnings in 05 . The only problem I have ever seen with the room is the small player base.

I have asked fellow players at Carbon if they have noticed an increase in the player base since the merge and the answer is an astounding yes. Shane Bridges from Merge Gaming said “5 pm our time right before the switch 2500 players, 24 hours later 5000. Seems like a move in the right direction !”  I have to agree and other players that I’ve talked to are enjoying the larger playerbase as well.

35% Rakeback + 200% bonus with code "CarolinaGambler"

Shane also says that the ring game action has gone through the roof. “We have always thought very highly of our software, now with more action at the tables it has to be great for everyone.” This has already lead to some larger tournaments as well at the site. On top of the 50k Guaranteed that’s held every Sunday, and other poker tournaments that have some of the best overlays to be found anywhere on the net, they have also thrown in a 100k Freeroll  ! I expect that more tournament choices are soon to arrive.

Here at Carolina Gambler we’d like to say well done to Merge Gaming and we  are very happy to see that they are continuing to head in the right direction to being the best online poker room on the net.

Beginning Feb. 15 and continuing on through March 14, BoDog is giving everyone a shot. All you have to do is download the software and play in any of BoDog Poker’s multitude of Sit and Go Tournaments. This will bring sport lovers and online poker players together in a battle for a grand prize like no other on ant online poker room.Two tickets to all the events along with round trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and $500 to spend on drinks and souvenirs.

Players that make the cash in any of the qualifying sit and goes by March 14 are automatically entered to win the grand prize. Also from the BoDog Poker News Release is the following :

“In addition to the Ultimate Sports Fan Experience grand prize, Bodog Poker will be awarding one player, per week, from Feb. 15 – Mar. 14, two tickets to a major sporting event, including round-trip airfare and accommodations. Each weekly prize will be different than the last, giving players a variety of events to aim for. For the week of Feb. 15 – 21, the winner will be awarded tickets to a UFC Event; Feb. 22 – 28, a NASCAR Race; Mar. 1 – 7, the US Open (Golf); Mar. 8 – 14, a March Madness game. Qualifying for the weekly prize is as easy as playing in any five qualifying Sit and Gos in one week. Winners will be randomly selected every week and players are limited to one entry per week, but there is no limit to the number of times a player can win the weekly prize.

Lastly, every player who makes the cash in at least three qualifying Sit and Gos before Mar. 14 will receive an invitation to one of two exclusive $5,000 freeroll tournaments being held on Saturday, Mar. 20 at 1:05 PM EST and 2:05 PM EST respectively.”

So there you have it folk, make sure to visit BoDog Poker for all the Current Promotions that are running !

Every Wednesday night at Doyles Room players have the opportunity to chat and play with real poker players who not only know how to teach, but win and succeed at the game of poker. There will be hanging a $1,000 bounty on each of Corkins, Caro’s and Doyles heads.

Buy-in for these events is only $27.50 and there are satellites running daily. Even better, all first-time players practically get a free shot at $50,000 in bounty cash because new players get their tournament buy-in back.

Win up to $50,000 with Doyle’s Bounty Multiplier:

• Knock out any one bounty: $1,000 cash.
• Knock out two bounties: $10,000 cash.
• Eliminate our 3 bounty pros: $50,000 cash is yours!

Download the site, then Register in the Poker Lobby: Tournaments > Scheduled > DOYLE’S BOUNTY > 7689106