Planet Mark's Blog. Thoughts, News And Strategy For Poker Tournaments Of All Sizes

Planet Mark's Blog

Will AI Destroy Online Poker?

Stephen Hawking has been in the news again. This time giving us the dire warning that artificial intelligence is an existential threat to the human race. He is not alone, Elon Musk warned against this earlier this year, and the argument goes back all the way to Terminator.

It got me thinking. If we set aside the trivial matter of the destruction of humanity for a moment, is there something more imminent, and more important at stake?

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 12/09/2014 - 07:53

Preview: Million Dollar Guaranteed US Online Tournament

The last few posts have all featured non-US topics, so I thought that I'd balance things today with a topic that should be of special interest to my US readers.

We are less than a month away from big milestone in the recovery of US poker after Black Friday. For the first time in 3.5 years, there will be an online poker tournament with a prize pool of $1,000,000 guaranteed. The date for your diaries is the 14th December (a Sunday). This post gives you a preview of what to expect, and outlines the different satellite qualifiers which are going on right now.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 11/18/2014 - 11:08

A Billion Tournaments!

I’m trying to get my head around this one… and will probably end up having to admit defeat – 1 billion online poker tournaments is just beyond conceptualizing for me. PokerStars have certainly earned the right to have a celebration. Not only with some big extra prize pool MTTs – the excellent ‘Golden Sit N Goes’ are returning too. It all kicks off very soon, with the event running between the 17th and the 30th of November.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Thu, 11/13/2014 - 21:15

The Age of the Online Poker Grinder is Ending

There was a big poker news story last week covering the increases in rake and withdrawal of the popular Battle of the Planets promo at PokerStars. It is always a shame to see player benefits getting reduced, though this was not the main thing that stood out for me. Instead it was the response of the pro grinders which took my attention. On this occasion, I think they are wrong.

The argument goes something like this:

Submitted by Planet Mark on Mon, 11/03/2014 - 10:21

Spin and Go SNGs

Spin and Goes, the new random prize pool Sit N Go format from PokerStars has gone live across all of their sites. The format will be familiar to anyone who has played the Jackpot Sit N Goes at Full Tilt, or the ‘Twister’ games at iPoker. The rake is lower, the prizes bigger, and there are consolations for the runners up…

This post looks at whether these games are really worth playing, which are the best of the 3 now available – and provides some links to help you with strategy + a great offer of tokens to try these games.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Wed, 10/01/2014 - 11:07

Cashing In 100,000 Gold Coins

At the weekend I decided it was time to cash in my pile of Gold Coins, accumulated without really trying over at Titan Poker. I got to 143,000ish, and had been meaning to see what I could get for them for a while. Now, it would be great to share with you a tale of a big fat bonus or Sunday Major entry… alas, it was not to be.

Here is the process step-by-step.

Titan Gold Coins Cashing In

Submitted by Planet Mark on Mon, 09/08/2014 - 13:09

September – My Favorite Poker Month

September is always a great month for poker, and 2014 is no exception. At this time of year poker sites emerge from their summer lull. They kick of huge events, restart their fight for players with competing offers and announce qualifiers for live events in the fall. To top it all, there is the World Championship of Online Poker about to get going.

This post gives you a flavor of what is in store for poker fans this September. You’ll find US and International Events, a couple of interesting offers – and a preview of the WCOOP too.

Submitted by Planet Mark on Tue, 09/02/2014 - 12:33