Year 2010 he won $3,000 H.O.R.S.E and collected $329,840 in price money. The year before (2009) he won the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo event which gave him $220,538 and $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball. Prior to that he had 5 other WSOP bracelets which he won between year 2000 and 2005:

Needless to say Mr. Ivey is a fairly wealthy young man who can surely title himself a professional poker player. He has also performed very well in World Poker Tour (WPT), and he has reached the final table of WPT nine times and has participated 12 times.

There are probably as many poker players in the United States as gun owners. (And that is a LOT!) It is a pastime that has been around since the kings and queens (no pun intended) and will be around for a lot longer. There is something to the game that makes it both personal and exciting at the same time. Poker is a player-to-player personal contest to see who will come out on top. It is invigorating, adrenaline pumping, heart racing sport that just does something to you when you are playing.

It becomes a combatant sport in a mental way. If you are the competitive type, love to outthink others and love to win, poker may be exactly what you need. It does not have to be expensive; you can even do it for free online. Almost all of the sites have free play and if you don’t know the game, will help you to learn. It is pretty certain that if you become involved, you will make new friends, learn a delicious new game to play, and have fun while you are doing it.

If you find that you really like it you can always step up and play for money. As with all gambling or games of chance, be careful. Don’t let yourself become addicted. It is like any other form of gambling, it can get in your blood. If you maintain control, you will love the new sport in which you have become a member. It is a great deal of fun and you will like it, so come on in with the rest of us.

When you have a player who is say like Doyle Brunson, who has been around for a really long time. Does he win on his skill or is it all luck? I would have to say that it is his mastery of the game. But is it really? Over this long of a period of time, yes I believe it is his skill. BUT… what about 1976 & 77? He stayed with a 10-2 in a Hold’Em game and won the tournament! Everyone playing the game knows the absolutely worst beginning hand in Hold’Em is 7-2 off suit. Now be honest, 10-2 isn’t that far from 7-2 and there isn’t any other way of saying it. So was he lucky or was it his skill?

Being completely honest, and Doyle is a hero of mine too, he would have to answer the question. Why you ask? Because he was there, we just watched. He had been studying the other players for a long time. Doyle is a very skilled player himself, maybe the best there is. He most likely knew about what the player was going to do. He lives and breathes the game and Alto (76) and Berland (77) suffered the consequences of the famous 10-2 hole cards.

Did he suck out in 76 & 77? Of course he did, but would you have played those hands? If you answered yes, why would you have? In today’s game environment, there are a whole lot of players who watch the TV, and play like they see all of them play. And there is so much more to poker than that. If I had to say what wins the most in today’s poker games, I would have to side with luck. Not that many skilled players out there these days. And how often do the pros win the WSOP?

The only variations that you will find will be in ‘specialty games’. That would be any game where the poker site has started a game with variations, which is rare. And you would notice that most of the new games that do have a different set of rules are mostly involved in regards to time.

Poker has been around for thousands of years without change and most likely will be around, pretty much the same for thousands of yeas longer. Actual changes to the game usually come in the home game arena. You will see wild cards, specialty games such as Southern Cross, 7-21, Chase the Queen and such as that. Although sometimes fun for a change of pace, they are not considered poker games by real poker players.

You can find Roberts Rules of Poker online just by typing in the name Roberts Rules of Poker (there are other Roberts Rules and you don’t need those) and it will pop up right there on page one of the search engine. The latest version is number 11.

As a matter of fact, you will find that the online poker gaming sites use the Roberts Rules more stringently than do the casinos. A casino will have some rules that you will not find in Roberts and their rules are the ones that will apply. After all, it is their casino and you are a guest. Sometimes it helps if you read their rules prior to playing to save embarrassment at the table.

One thing is monumentally different online. Since you are online, you cannot see anyone, hear anyone, or be able to ‘judge’ other player’s strengths and weaknesses. That is a large part of playing the game. Also, players who play online have a tendency to play like they are on TV. If you watch the game on the tube, you know what I mean. When there isn’t much money involved, there is a tendency to bet larger than what you would normally do in order to take down pots.

So what does a guy/girl have to do to qualify for this monster poker tournament? Well of course there is the easy way. You cough up $10,000 and pay the entry fee. That is the simple plan and by far the easiest way to get it done. Most of the professional players you see there year after year do it this way. If you are luck enough to win the tournament, you get a free ride back the next year.

The next way is to play in what are called satellites where you can win a seat to the WSOP. There are usually a large number of these and they are sprinkled all over the United States. You can enter a satellite and if you win it, you have your entry and seat into the big tournament. Now this could save you some serious entry fee money, but you must remember you have to WIN to get the seat. You won’t be the only one at these satellites either.

The final way is perhaps the easiest, and most likely the cheapest. The only problem with it is that you will have to play a lot of poker the accomplish it, it you ever do. This method would be online poker. Almost all of the sites online now have some type of qualifying tournaments for gaining a seat to the WSOP. If you have been watching the WSOP on TV, you know that many of the younger players won their seats to the game online. They talk about it all the time. You will hear that someone at table got his/her entry online for participating in a $40 tournament. And there are quite a few that get in that way. Many of the persons at the last final table will be online winners to the game. At that final table, they are all going to be millionaires when they leave, even in ninth place!

Among Doyle’s many achievements in his life are the books he has authored and the book he wrote entitled “Super System” is considered by many to be the ‘Bible of Poker’. He has since written another entitled “Super System 2” which includes sections by his son Todd (who also plays poker professionally) and Mark Gregorich. One of Doyle’s many endearing qualities is that he believes all gamblers have an obligation to conduct themselves in an honorable manner. He is one of the most respected players in the game.

Doyle has so many accomplishments it would be impossible to put them all down here. He has ten World Series of Poker bracelets, is one of the first three inductees into the Poker Walk of Fame and many others. There is actually a poker hand named after Doyle, which is the 10-2 hole cards. It is from his winning back-to-back titles with a full house, tens full of deuces back in 1976 and 77.
Doyle is currently a regular player on the TV show High Stakes Poker. This is the mother of all poker games with entry requirements of up to $250,000. These are the kind of games poker players dream about. It has been on for about six seasons and shows no signs of slowing down. And as usual Doyle is right there in the forefront playing with the very best of them.