Thanks to all of you who took part in last week's freeroll at Pitbull Poker. Considering the prize fund wasn't exactly the best we have ever offered, there was a very good turnout for the tournament.

The winner was Layton (yes you might recognize the name!)

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Mansion Poker are running a daily $100 instant prize draw. All you need to do is log on to your account every day to check whether you are the winner for that day. The idea of course is to get you to visit the site more often but you don't need to do anything other than log in in order to claim the prize. All prizes must be won so if nobody claims theirs it rolls over to the next day.

Although it's the casino branch of Mansion you need to log into, you can use your Mansion Poker ID to see whether you have won. And while you are there, why not play some of these very good freerolls on offer:

$500 Daily Freerolls
Twice daily (Monday to Friday), at 12:00 and 18:00 GMT. 3,000 players limit.

$1,000 Weekly Freerolls
Saturday at 18:00 GMT. 

$3,000 Monthly Freerolls
Take place on the second Friday each month at 18:00 GMT. 

(Note that you need a real money account to qualify for these Mansion Poker freerolls. The $3000 monthly games are for first time depositors who have then earned 25 MANSION Poker Points).

$15,000 Freeroll 
For Silver level players or above.

In addition to the above freerolls, Mansion has a great Lucky Dollar tournament on a  Saturday where you can win your share of the prize fund PLUS and added $2500 from Mansion. All for just ONE dollar entry. This is probably the best value poker game on the internet in terms of potential return for your cash layout and remember that if you do make a deposit and enter the Lucky Dollar, you will be eligible for the freerolls.

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Something new from Hollywood Poker. They have a new game called their New Mad Tilt ALL IN super turbo tourney which they have at a few different buy-in levels.

The idea is that you start with only 100 chips and the blinds are 10/20, which means of course that you need o pick your moment and throw all of your chips in. It's quick and furious and relies more on luck than most other forms of poker. On the other hand if you're not the world's best player it can be a great leveller.

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Poker4ever are giving you the chance to win the 2008 World Series of Poker for a stake of only 1 cent!

You can win a $10,000 seat as well as $5,000 spending money for the Main Event at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas. Qualify by playing Poker4ever's satellites and tournaments starting with a buy-in of 1 cent.

To play, Click here to go to the site, download the software and register.

Then just look for WSOP satellites in the following: Tournaments -> Regular & Lobby -> Satellites -> Sit'n'Go's

Freeroll News 20th January 2008: 

LAST CHANCE FOR THE PRIVATE FREEROLL!

Go to the sign up page for the private tournament.

Sign in, or if you don't have an account just create one - it's free. then start up the poker client - make sure to click the REAL MONEY tab. Now click on Tournaments > Private and look under Jan-20 for Love-Texas-Holdem.

Double click on the tournament and then the Register button, enter the password Reacher and click on the small square beside Freeroll. Click the Submit button then OK at the confirmation message.

That's all! Good Luck with the game.

Freeroll News 13th January 2008: 

Quite a slow uptake so far for places in the first Love-Texas-Holdem private members-only freeroll of the year. Usually that's the way it happens, there's a few sign up at the start but most people leave it to nearer the time of the game. 

I would just say that even although the prize is only $75, it is worth taking part for three reasons. Firstly if there's a good turnout we will get bigger and better freerolls the next time. Secondly other poker rooms watch these events and if they see a good turnout they will be keen to run one too.

Thirdly of course you could win some money!

The tournament takes place next Sunday 20th January at 3:00pm EST.

Full details of how to sign up and the password are below in 9th January news.

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If you're looking for a site with low competition and a good chance of winning some money, you might want to give Cake Poker a try. They have a freeroll system that on first glance looks a little bit complicated but isn't really when you get into it.

What happens is that the run five freeroll tournaments a day which are qualifiers to the main game on Saturday. Each of these qualifiers has seven tickets to the Saturday game as prizes. That makes a total of only about 240 players in the Saturday final, with a prize fund of $500.

Not too shabby odds there I would say.

If you are a real money player at Cake poker, you also get to play in their $500 1st depositor freeroll, but even better than that, there are some FANTASTIC low buy-in high prize money tournaments going on there.

For example I played a game today with a $1500 guaranteed prize pool with only 171 people registered! The prizes were a bit special too, here's the breakdown:

1st place $405
2nd place $270
3rd place $180
4th place $130.50
5th place $90
6th place $78
7th place $66
8th place $52.50
..
..
30th place $26

So what was the buy-in to play in this tournament? $50? $20? No, just $5+$0.50! $5.50 for a chance of $400+ and a minimum prize of $26 if you get in the money is one of the best deals I've found.

It's a rebuy game which if you're not familiar with them means that if you get knocked out, you can rebuy for the original entry fee, in this case $5. This is a great thing if you're a half decent player. Let all the "maniacs" knock each other out and rebuy - and build up the prize fund for you.

I never rebuy at these tournaments but always do quite well so there's absolutely no need to throw your money around, let the others do that instead.

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An update to last week's PokerStars piece that I wrote last week. I played a few more tournaments just to see if my bad run of cards continued, and quite amazingly it did. In four whole tournaments I didn't get dealt a starting hand better than Ace 10. I'm finding it a huge stretch to believe that this run could be completely random. I know you can get bad runs of cards but for as many hands as that? I don't think so.

My next strategy is to take all but a few dollars out of my account and see if that makes any difference. Then I might try making a deposit back in again. It would be interesting if I suddenly started seeing a change in my fortunes related to the amount of money I had in.

As always, if you've had a similar experience at PokerSars or indeed anywhere else please let me know, you can just reply to this message.

Freeroll News 9th January 2008: 

Here's the news about the first private members-only freeroll of the year I promised you.

The game is on Sunday 20th January 2008 at 3:00pm EST and the prize is $75. 

Here's how to register for the members-only private tournament.

1 Go to the sign up page for the private tournament.

2 Sign in, or if you don't have an account just create one - it's free.

3 Start up the poker client and make sure to click the REAL MONEY tab.

4 Then click on Tournaments > Private and look under Jan-20 for Love-Texas-Holdem.

5 Double click on the tournament then click the Register button.

6 Enter the password Reacher and click on the small square beside Freeroll.

7 Click Submit then OK at the confirmation message.

Good Luck!

Freeroll News 6th January 2008: 

Happy New Year to All of You!

How did you do in the Poker Host $500 freeroll on Friday - did you manage to beat my 21st place of last week? I can tell you this - I certainly didn't! I crashed out at a miserable 390th or something around that, I was too disgusted at the beat I got to check the exact position but it sure wasn't anywhere near the money.

If you want to play in the next weekly Poker Host freeroll, see the site for full details. 

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OK here's something REALLY weird that happened to me last night. I was playing my favorite Sit'nGos a PokerStars and I had the most unbelievable run of bad cards I've ever seen. I played three 45 player tournaments - which I usually do quite well in, final table is normal and I win a good percentage of them - over a period of about an hour and a half. 

That shows you how much I won - exactly zero but I blame it on the truly awful run of bad cards. In all that time I had two pairs of 4s, A10 and A8. That was my best hands. I got a few Kings and Queens but never with better than a 5 or 6.

Even the best players in the world would have struggled to make anything out of these cards, you just can't bluff your way all the way through a tournament - it's impossible.

Now I'm a bit of a statistics buff and I reckon it is extremely unlikely to play for as long as that and get rags ALL of the time. Statistically I must have been due at least a few good hands out of all the time I had played.

Now here's the thing. I had played the previous two nights and had won some money, including a tournament win. I'm not saying there's anything untoward going on but it does seem very strange to get a run of cards like that.

I'm wondering have any of you had a similar experience at Poker Stars or any other poker room online for that matter? I'd love to hear of any of your experiences and I'll put them up here if you send them in. 

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Question - What site is one of the very biggest online and has a freeroll every hour on week days? I love this site and the great news is that it is open to US players too.