Transitioning from “real world” or brick-and-mortar Texas Hold ‘Em poker playing to online poker can be tough for a lot of us. The vast majority of us played our first hand of Hold ‘Em poker with a physical deck of cards, sitting down at a kitchen or coffee table with our family or friends. In that environment, you can see the players, there is very little pressure involved, and each player can move at their own pace when it is their deal. That is certainly not the case in the online poker world, where gameplay is fast and furious, watching your opponents for tells is not an option, and the pressure of playing anonymous icons in a time-limited fashion can be a little scary.

G Day Mate: The news in the United States has been exceedingly positive in the past half-year concerning online poker, since the United States Department of Justice decided to let each individual state regulate and legislate their own residents’ online gambling activities. Nevada has already passed online poker legislation in that state, and is now in the process of preparing legalized gambling licenses for sale, which they say should be offered in the next 30 to 60 days. California and New Jersey would have to be considered front-runners to become the second state in the US to offer legalized online poker to their residents, but Hawaii, Illinois, Ohio and most recently Colorado are all pushing to enter the online poker pool as well.

With the recent announcement made by the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee that online poker licenses in that state would be available in 30 to 60 days, brick and mortar casino and resort companies realized they needed to be in position for one of those early licenses as soon as possible. Some venerable gaming companies like MGM Resorts International are well ahead of the curve, and have already attempted to ensure a successful entry into what will probably be the first state-run legal online poker experience in the United States. MGM Resorts International is the owner of such notable Las Vegas Strip casino destinations as the Bellagio, the Mirage and the MGM Grand, and they have crawled into bed with an online gaming leader.  

While it may be challenging to trot over to Churchill Downs while simultaneously engaging in sizzling hot poker action, online gambling enthusiasts manage to combine both venues seamlessly at some of the hottest gambling sites offering both a high quality poker room and a robust sportsbook all under one convenient account. Poker enthusiasts involved in brick and mortar poker action are also enjoying a variety of Kentucky Derby poker events, some charitable and some for big time payouts. Its definitely in the cards that poker fanatics also know how to enjoy a good race.

After being on the market for just a few weeks, and free of viable tracking and analysis programs, Full Tilt Poker’s ‘Rush Poker’ has some new accompaniments.  The Full Tilt Poker team was originally pleased with the prospect of leveling the playing field by eliminating the edge provided by poker tracking software programs.  However, I’m sure they fully expected this to be short lived and for the poker tracking software industry to eventually catch up with the new technology.   In regards to poker tracking software, PokerTracker and Holdem Manager are the industry leaders.  Both have released usable patches to allow players to use their software solutions when playing with the Rush Poker at Full Tilt, but it is PokerTracker’s solution that has come out on top.