SunPoker releases new website
 Come Soak up the Sun!
We are happy to reveal our brand new website over at SunPoker.com. We put a lot of work into it and are happy with the results. Take a look around and let us know what you think!
We aren't just stopping with the new site by the way; we are working on a new client, new promotions, and a brand new VIP program you will really love. Make sure to watch us grow throughout the rest of 2011 and into 2012. There is a lot of Fun in the Sun happening at SunPoker.
GUKPT – Luton FINAL PACKAGE!
GUKPT Leg 4 in Luton is right around the corner and SunPoker has one more package to give away! Register and grab the final package on Monday, August 8th at 20:00 GMT for just £90 + £9!
http://www.sunpoker.com/tournaments/tourn_GUKPTLuton.asp
Satellites continue all throughout the weekend for less than £1; Winner of the final package will receive a VIP Packages valued at £1,800 each.
The package includes:
- £1,000 + £70 buy-in to the Main Event, Aug 19th – Aug 21st, 2011.
- £284 for 4 night’s accommodation at the Days Hotel Aug 18th – Aug 22nd, 2011.
- £30 for registration fees.
- £416 for flights and spending.
This year the GUKPT Luton will be held at the Grosvenor G Casino in Luton, starting August 19th until the 21st.
Simply connect to your SunPoker account and select GUKPT Luton under the Land Based tab and register!
Stay connected to SunPoker.com as we travel the Poker World!
Summers Tournament
The Summer Sales continue at SunPoker and we’ve put together a set of our most popular tournaments under one category to simplify your gaming selection. Under the Summers Tournaments tab you will notice a daily update in buy-in’s and tournaments ranging from Sit N Go’s to $60k Guaranteed games!
Satellites and Super Satellites will also be listed under this tab and this week you can select from a verity of Guaranteed tournaments.
Games under this tournament start for as low as $0.03 and go all the way up to a $33 buy in, it really is your choice we just made it easier to pick and choose your tournament after all it is summer and we want you to be able to feel the heat at sunpoker.com
French court hands down landmark poker ruling
There was a good news/bad news ruling handed down by a French judge in Toulous this week concerning whether poker is a game of skill or of luck. The outcome saw defendant Jean-Pierre Gleizes, manager of St. Tropez and Les Coulisses convince the court that poker was indeed a game of skill, after being charged with organizing private, unlicensed, poker games. The prosecution immediately appealed the ruling after the verdict was handed down.
The court came to the decision after the defense paraded a number of expert witnesses in front of the court including a poker pro, a math professor, and a chess champion.
The case gets extremely interesting because under France’s current legislation, the fact that poker is considered a game of chance, which is the only types of online gaming permitted under current regulations! So, should the Supreme Court uphold the lower court’s decision casinos and online casinos in France would no longer fall under the taxation laws implemented when France passed its online gaming bill in 2009. Instead the taxation burden would fall on French poker players, as the country would no longer view online poker winnings as gambling winnings, instead they would be taxed as income –a much higher rate in France.
While very few experts think the Supreme Court will uphold the decision, you really never know what is going to happen in cases like these! The court’s decision that poker should not be considered a game of chance is paramount to the case and would exempt Gleizes from France’s illegal gambling laws. |
“Change always comes bearing gifts.” ~Price Pritchett
We hope you enjoy the new look of SunPoker.com as this is just the start of the many new exciting changes coming your way throughout the rest of 2011.
Chasing a flush online
There's an age old debate in poker - should you chase a flush? First of all we need to define what we mean here by "chasing a flush online".
Chasing anything in Texas Hold’em poker is the practice of betting to stay in a hand in the hope that you will make a better hand, even although you might have absolutely nothing at the time. So chasing a flush means; betting that you will get the card or card that you need to complete your flush hand on the turn or river.
Here’s a situation, you've been dealt the Ace and 9 of spades and you've paid to see the flop. The flop is 2s 7s Kd and one of your opponents comes out betting strongly with a fair sized raise, what do you do?
First of all ask yourself what kind of hand you're up against. The possibilities are triples, another flush draw, a pair of Kings or a complete bluff, so as it stands you're only winning against the bluff with your Ace. On the other hand if you hit a spade in the last two cards you have the nut flush and could only lose to a full house or four of a kind.
On the face of it you might assume that statistically you have about a 50-50 chance of hitting your spade, after all there's two cards to come and four suits so there must be about a half chance, right?
Wrong!
You already have two of the spades in your hand and there's another two showing on the table, so you know five cards and four of them are spades. That means you have nine spades left available out of the 47 cards you haven't seen, which is only a 42% chance of catching your flush.
If you do bet on the turn and don’t make your flush, what do you do then? You have probably now become pot-committed, you have put so much into the pot that you might as well bet again on the river unless there’s a big raise or all-in against you, but now your chances of making the flush have dropped dramatically to only 21%.
But what of that other factor, the mysterious internet poker syndrome? What I mean by that is although you statistically have a 42% chance of making a flush, is that what actually happens in reality? If you played the same hand at the same online poker table 100 times would you get a flush 42 times? From my personal experience I doubt it. Flushes seem to come around a lot less often than 42 out of 100 times!
That’s just my own opinion and I’m sure the poker sites would tell you a different story, but the way I see it is 42% is the very BEST you’re ever going to get and you may well have a lot less chance than that of hitting your flush.
Bottom line - Chasing a flush online is a very risky strategy that sucks you in and over commits you, without giving you enough of a chance of pulling out the winning hand. |
