Poker Shop - South Africa

Online Poker Tools

If you’re interested in improving your poker abilities, you should be taking advantage of the Internet. Even if you play as much or more live poker as you do online poker, there are online poker tools that can help improve your game fast.

Online Poker Videos

Many poker sites feature videos where top players take you through various hands and explain their methodology. This can be extremely helpful, as you get real insight into what good players think about during poker games while playing complex hands, something you can’t get from watching poker on television or even watching online poker games.

Online Poker Player Trackers

Some websites now have software that keeps track of the performances of all players on certain sites. These are usually sit-and-go performances, so if you are a sit and go player, you can use one of these programs to locate weaker opponents and join their games. Some software even tells you the tendencies of these players so you can exploit them more easily.

Online Poker Calculators

Understanding pot odds and positive expectation plays is crucial in poker. An online poker odds calculator allows you to input various hands and tells you their odds of winning instantly, letting you know for future hands whether you made the mathematically correct play.

Online Poker Forums

Online poker forums provide a great opportunity for poker players to interact and share knowledge. Use forums to post questions, learn answers to other peoples’ poker queries or even share some of your own poker knowledge. These are just some of the online tools available for poker players. Start exploring some poker sites and learn just how much you can do for your poker game online.

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The World Poker Tour

Much of the popularity of poker today, with players from all over the world visiting poker sites, can be credited to the World Poker Tour. In 2003, at the start of the poker boom, those new players who were not introduced to poker through ESPN’s telecast of the World Series of Poker probably discovered it through the WPT.

The Beginnings of the WPT

 In 2003, Steven Lipscomb and Lyle Berman, having seen the popularity of the British show Late Night Poker, knew that the world was ripe for a new poker show. Late Night Poker was played on a special table that showed the cards from underneath for viewers to see and it was a huge hit. The World Poker Tour brought this idea and combined it with the excitement of large-scale tournaments by setting up a poker tournament schedule of $10,000 buy-in events. Prior to the WPT the only really well-known event of this size was the main event of the World Series of Poker.

The Lure of the World Poker Tour

 The WPT was responsible for the widespread introduction of hole card cams, tiny cameras that allowed the viewers at home to know what cards each player was holding. This revolutionized the entertainment value of poker, as people could watch the players’ moves knowing exactly what they had and why they were doing what they were doing. It has also changed the way people think about online poker tournament strategy. Before hole card cams, watching poker was incredibly dull, since it was hard to know exactly what was going on.

The WPT Today

Today the WPT is growing strong, and finishing up its sixth season. Amateurs and professional continue to line up, taking a shot at the millions that can be won with the right combination of luck and skill. Plenty of poker enthusiasts look forward to watching them try.

The European Poker

 Tour Poker really is a worldwide phenomenon. In 2004, John Duthie provided the answer to the lack of a truly International counterpart to the WPT with his European Poker Tour (EPT). The European Poker Tour, like the WPT, is a series of high buy-in poker tournaments in various casinos. In the case of the EPT, the casinos that host the tournaments spread throughout Europe, rather than mostly the U.S.

European Poker Tour Stops

 In Season One of the EPT, tournaments took place in Barcelona, Spain, London, England, Dublin, Ireland, Copenhagen, Denmark, Deauville, France, Vienna, Austria and the grand final in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Although a number of Americans competed, only Brandon Schaeffer won an EPT event in Deauville, although he also came in second in the Grand Final.

Success of the European Poker Tour

The European Poker Tour has been wildly successful. The show is in its fourth season, and the buy-ins have been raised so that they are commensurate with WPT buy-ins. In the beginning, the buy-ins were much lower due to fears of low turnout. Anyone can play in a European Poker Tour tournament if they can come up with the buy in. Interested poker players can visit the European Poker Tour website at EuropeanPokerTour.com for more information about playing poker tournaments in Europe.

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South African poker

While even South Africans themselves admit that their country is still years behind poker superpowers like the U.S. and some European countries, the phenomenon gains in momentum each day that passes. Currently, South Africa is regarded as the hotbed of live and online poker in Africa. Despite all the odds, poker has found a prolific breeding-ground in South African poker players.

 The South African Poker Association, founded in 2004, has taken up the task of spreading poker while sticking close to its internationally accepted rules and variants.

There are various opportunities to play live poker in SA. First off, there is the South African National Poker Championship. Held in Johannesburg, this venue features an interesting qualifying system: satellites are held, in which the buyins are R500, but unlimited rebuys are permitted. If a player reaches 7500 chips he will guarantee himself a seat at the championship. Once knocked out, players can rebuy time and again, until they either manage to clinch a seat or they become convinced they're just not good enough to go to the Nationals.

The South African Poker Tour is another opportunity for poker players to test their skills and to try to add to their poker bankrolls.

With rumors about, that South Africa will soon legalize online gambling, the future for poker never looked brighter in this African country. Obviously, the SA government has learnt from the mistakes the U.S. made by making online gambling illegal, and decided to regulate it instead of forbidding it altogether. Good news for poker players, and those who gamble in online casinos.

The poker boom that will follow this legal move is just a mere question of time, as even with the 2004 national gambling enforcement act in place, poker is a strong presence.

The All-Africa poker championship held at the Piggs Peak casino in Swaziland was attended by a record number of 90 participants from all over the world. The winner walked away with R1 million. All of this hype around the fabulous winnings represents a great marketing stunt for all poker related activities in the country.

Casinos are being built all over the country and most of these establishments do offer live poker to their patrons. In this respect, Johannesburg is at the forefront of live poker operations. With the Gold Reef City Casino, the MGM Montecasino and The Saloon, there are plenty of opportunities for the game-hungry poker player in town.

The Windmill Casino and Entertainment Centre in Bloemfontein also offers Easy poker, besides the usual selection of slot machines and other casino games.

The Carnival City Casino in Brakpan also has Easy poker, and it offers lodging at reasonable rates at the Road Lodge ( right next to the casino)

East London ( the Hemingways Casino Complex), Goodwood ( Grandwest Casino and Entertainment World) and Durban with its Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World are also good destinations for poker.

If you're in the mood for a good private poker game, Kwazulu Natal is the right place for you to be. The Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom offers private game rooms and five-star accommodations.

The Morula Casino and Hotel in Mabopane also has live poker , complete with lodging and dining. These are only a few of the live poker opportunities in SA, there are more casinos out there,  and if you keep your eyes and ears open you'll always find a good home poker game too. Obviously, live poker is in full swing in SA nowadays and when the government lifts the ban on online gambling, online poker will likely also blossom.

The matter of the fact is that one can easily run into SA poker players in online poker rooms even now, and player numbers are sure to sky-rocket in the future.