Ruff Poker Blog
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For anyone who knows me it comes as no surprise that I prefer live poker to online poker, and in this article I will go over some of the reasons why I’d rather play in a brick & mortar card-room, as opposed to the virtual poker tables of the Internet.

A poster on Y! Buzz recently asked the very contrite question: What if online poker was taxed and regulated? Following the question was a litany of facts about online poker, including what the tax and licensing revenue could be used to fund such as the CIA budget for a decade, the Postal Service for 12 [...]

With online poker being debated at the state and federal level, proponents of a legalized and regulated online poker industry seem to be taking the wrong tack to try to convince the opposition. The main argument being flouted is that poker is a game of skill, which however true it might be, is a completely [...]

1.      Good players win a lot
The facts: Your edge in poker is extremely small, even for the best players, and this will show itself in your results. Most winning players win around 60% of the sessions they take part in, which means 40% of the time they are leaving a poker game with less money [...]

A decade ago Omaha 8 or better was being touted as the game of future. Unfortunately, this prediction has yet to come to fruition, and even worse for Omaha 8 fans and players is that another game, Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), has taken over the title “Game of the Future”. PLO has even been able [...]

One of the recent trends in poker has been the rise of the online poker industry -I say recent because the industry is just over a decade old. When I began taking poker seriously back around 2001, a lot of the card-room pros were very wary of this “new” poker game, and it wasn’t until [...]

One of the side effects of the rise in popularity of Texas Holdem was the loss of the “Home Poker Game” or as I like to call them, Kitchen Table Poker. Nowadays when people gather around a table in their home for a game of poker it’s usually for a Texas Holdem tournament, when in [...]

Poker is the definition of an enigma, while it is most definitely a game of skill in the long-run, the short-term luck involved in the game can often times be the difference between a player having to grind out a living day after day, and a player who has endorsement deals and money thrown at [...]

When you ask most poker players what got them started in the game one of the most common answers is the 2003 World Series of Poker. Even though the WSOP had been a staple in ESPN’s broadcasting for years, the 2003 version was the first in which ESPN followed each day of play, and took [...]

For most of us there is really no rhyme or reason to why we pick a certain online poker handle; maybe it’s an important date in our lives lie Steve62309; maybe it’s your college mascot; or perhaps it’s just a funny play on words. So, while I put very little stock in a player’s ability [...]