An update on the Phil Ivey race to catch Phil Hellmuth for World Series of Poker Supremacy.

Phil Ivey won a 2nd World Series of Poker bracelet this year, giving him a grand total of 7.

Only 4 WSOP bracelets behind the Poker Brat.

Phil Ivey’s locked in focus at the WSOP is just like Tiger Woods’ locked in focus at a Major.And it all raises one question.Can Phil Ivey catch Phil Hellmuth before Tiger Woods catches Jack Nicklaus?Phil Ivey’s 6th bracelet in the No Limit 2-7 Lowball Event at this years World Series of Poker is something special. We could be seeing Phil Hellmuth’s reign come to an end. One day.Right now, Phil Hellmuth has a substantial lead, 11 bracelets to Phil Ivey’s 6 Bracelets.And Tiger Woods is 4 Majors behind Jack Nicklaus, 14 for Tiger and 18 for Nicklaus.Woods only gets  4 chances each year, Ivey gets 40 plus chances. However, Woods has to beat less then 100 players each time. On the other hand, Ivey has to beat anywhere between several hundred to several thousand players each time.The big edge goes to Woods for one reason. Ivey is chasing the self proclaimed best player in the world Phil Hellmuth, who is still playing every event he can possibly play and is likely to win several more bracelets.

The 2009 World Series of Poker is right around the corner. This year, the powers that be at the WSOP have decided to adjust the buy-ins to compensate for the downed economy. In this way, you will see the middle buy-in amounts of $2,500-$5,000 replaced with less expensive buy-ins ranging from $1,000 – $2,500. Cheaper buy-ins will make the tournaments more accessible to the masses, and so we should expect much larger fields. In fact, the $1,000 buy-in tournament on May 30 is expected to draw the largest WSOP field ever for any event that isn’t the main event. For the big bankrolls, there are a record number of $10,000 buy-in events which are dubbed World Championships.

All in all, there are a record number of bracelet events.

Good Luck at getting that elusive bracelet.

2009 World Series of Poker Schedule

1 May 27, noon Casino Employees Event no-limit hold ‘em (two-day event) $500
2 May 28, noon 40th annual no-limit hold ‘em (four-day event) $40,000 July 28 8-10 p.m.
3 May 29, noon Omaha high-low split eight or better (three-day event) $1,500
4A May 30, noon No-limit hold ‘em (four-day event) $1,000
4B May 31, noon No-limit hold ‘em (four-day event) $1,000
5 June 1, noon Pot-limit Omaha (three-day event) $1,500
6 June 1, 5 p.m. World Championship seven-card stud (three-day event) $10,000
7 June 2, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
8 June 2, 5 p.m. 2-7 draw lowball (three-day event) $2,500
9 June 3, noon Six-handed no-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
10 June 3, 5 p.m. Pot-limit Omaha/hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,500
11 June 4, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,000
12 June 4, 5 p.m. World Championship mixed event (three-day event) $10,000
13 June 5, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,500
14 June 5, 5 p.m. Six-handed limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,500
15 June 6, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $5,000
16 June 6, 5 p.m. Seven-card stud (three day-event) $1,500
17 June 7, noon Ladies no-limit World Championship (three day-event) $1,000
18 June 7, 5 p.m. World Championship Omaha high-low split (three day-event) $10,000
19 June 8, noon Six-handed no-limit hold ‘em $2,500
20 June 9, noon Pot-limit hold ‘em $1,500
21 June 9, 5 p.m. HORSE (three-day event) $3,000
22 June 10, noon No-limit hold ‘em shootout (three-day event) $1,500
23 June 10, 5 p.m. World Championship 2-7 draw lowball (three-day event) $10,000
24 June 11, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
25 June 11, 5 p.m. Omaha/seven-card stud high-low $2,500
26 June 12, noon Limit hold ‘em $1,500
27 June 12, 5 p.m. Pot-limit Omaha high-low split $5,000
28 June 13, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
29 June 13, 5 p.m. World Championship heads-up (three-day event) $10,000
30 June 14, noon Pot-limit Omaha (three-day event) $2,500
31 June 14, 5 p.m. HORSE (three-day event) $1,500
32 June 15, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,000
33 June 15, 5 p.m. World Championship limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $10,000
34 June 16, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
35 June 17, noon Pot-limit Omaha (three-day event) $5,000
36 June 18, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $2,000
37 June 18, 5 p.m. World Championship seven-card stud high-low split (three-day event) $10,000
38 June 19, noon Limit hold ‘em $2,000
39 June 20, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
40 June 20, 5 p.m. World Championship pot-limit Omaha (three-day event) $10,000
41 June 21, noon No-limit hold ‘em shootout (three-day event) $5,000
42 June 21 , 5 p.m. Mixed event (three-day event) $2,500
43 June 22, noon Seniors World Championship (three-day event) $1,000
44 June 22, 5 p.m. Razz (three-day event) $2,500
45 June 23, noon World Championship pot-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $10,000
46 June 23, 5 p.m. Omaha high-low split $2,500
47 June 24, noon Mixed hold ‘em (limit/no-limit, three-day event) $2,500
48 June 25, noon Pot-limit Omaha high-low split (three-day event) $1,500
49 June 26, noon World Championship HORSE (five-day event) $50,000
50 June 26, 5 p.m. Limit hold ‘em shootout (three-day event) $1,500
51 June 27, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
52 June 28, noon Triple chance no-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $3,000
53 June 28, 5 p.m. Seven-card stud high-low (three-day event) $1,500
54 June 29, noon No-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $1,500
55 June 29, 5 p.m. 2-7 triple draw lowball (three-day event) $2,500
56 June 30, noon Six-handed no-limit hold ‘em (three-day event) $5,000
57 July 3 — July 15 No-limit hold ‘em main event $10,000

Here is your chance to join an online poker league.  The Gank Open is set to begin on Sunday, April 5, 2009. The ten week league is open to anyone who wants to play in a fun poker tournament.

The league is ten weeks long. Stats and poker tournament reports are posted every week at www.gankopen.com.

The league is hosted by well known poker pro Brett ‘gank’ Jungblut. During the initial week there is a $25 Bounty on gank (and another $25 on myself (screen name propokerschool).

The weekly tournaments are held every Sunday, at 9 pm EST (21:00 EST).

Buy-in for each tournament is only $5. Invite your friends to join as well.

The Gank Open League tournaments are located on Lock Poker. Lock Poker is one of the fastest growing United States friendly poker rooms. Sign up at Lock Poker using this Link and you will receive 110% Bonus on your first deposit.

Each Gank Open Tournament is listed under the Tournaments —> Private Tab.  The Password for each tournament is goodluck.

Hope you can join us!

The Bluff Challenge on Lock Poker is entering the final week of play. Snooowman has jumped out to a huge lead followed by the only other players with over $1,000 GBecks and gank. Despite the large gap that Snooowman has opened up, GBecks, gank and several others are still capable of pulling off a comeback. At the end of the month there is a $268 buy-in tournament with a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool and a $100,000 guarantee as well. Any Bluff Challenger has a chance to jump to the top of the leaderboard by winning one of those tournaments as long as they still have enough of a bankroll left to afford the buy-ins.

Its a long shot that someone pulls off that kind of comeback, but they don’t call it March Madness for nothing.

Check out the Bluff Challenge standings.

You can also join in on the fun and excitement at Lock Poker which Accepts US Players and get an Exclusive 110% Bonus with 10% PAID UP FRONT! Lock Poker $500 Bonus. Sign Up Code: PPSCHOOL. You can also check out the Lock Poker Room Review complete with over 20 screenshots.

The Bluff Challenge begins in March and could be one of the most amazing competitions in that 20 online pros will try to make the most money in poker tournaments during the entire month and only starting with $200!

With almost a Who’s Who list of Online Poker greatest tournament players the Bluff Challenge will be sick. The likes of Gank, Rizen, Apestyles, Maven, Bodog Ari, Gbecks, Bhanks, Maria Ho, USCphildo, SnowMan Brian Hawkins, JJ Pridigy, Imperium, Peter Jespen, Yellow Sub, Adam Junglen  and others will knock heads as they race for Online Poker Immortality, Online Poker Supremacy, and Online Poker Greatness.  And their poker face on the cover of  the next issue of Bluff Magazine.

You will be able to watch it all unfold at the tables if you register for a free Cake Poker account.

Been playing quite a lot of cash games online lately and doing quite well actually. I wanted to find out approximately how much rakeback I will be getting at the end of this month and from the looks of it it will be a good bonus to finish off February, especially if I continue playing the way I have. Used the rakeback calculator to do the math for me since it is programmed to count all of the percentages for you and saves a lot of time. If you play online you should definitely get yourself a rakeback account since it is basically free money which you will be getting back into your bankroll at the end of every month. Nice to sign into your account and see some free money added just for playing over the past month…

finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in multi-table tournaments. And I am very deep in two tonight.

Pro Poker School is undergoing some changes that hopefully will make the site more user friendly and incorporate the “School” theme into our community. Hope you enjoy the new look and please forgive me for any inconveniences you may encounter during our school-wide renovation.

I welcome any suggestions.

I told my Pro Poker School students about this new Fox TV Show called Lie To Me. The show relates directly to an integral part of poker, reading people. The main detective spots tells on people who he is interviewing to discover if the person is telling the truth or lying. Micro-expressions is what this area of study is called. The expressions often last less then a 1/5 of a second, but long enough so that a trained eye can spot the tell.

Lie To Me is on Wednesday night, 9 pm pacific time on Fox.