Tom McEvoy was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and learned how to play cards with his father at the age of only five years old. Starting to play cards at such a young age is an advantage for most players because they learn a lot more when they’re children then adults. McEvoy once worked as an accountant after his education was completed, but after being laid off from work he started to focus on playing poker and making a living from the poker tables.
McEvoy has won numerous major events throughout his career including four WSOP bracelets which is quite a number of bracelets for any player. Tom enjoys playing NL Holdem and PL Omaha the most, but has also won bracelets in other poker games proving that he isn’t just a one-dimensional poker player like some others who only play one game well. McEvoy has finished on the final table eighteen times and finished in the money twenty-seven times while playing in WSOP events which are more then almost every other poker player in history.
Tom won his first WSOP bracelet back in 1983 when he won the Limit Holdem event and in the same year he also won his second bracelet in the No Limit Holdem event. As you can see he jumped into the poker scene quickly and became a player to look out for within his first year of going pro. After the awesome year in 1983 he cooled off a little bit until he won the 1986 Seven Card Razz event. His fourth and final WSOP bracelet was won in 1992 when he played the Limit Omaha event.
Tom is also apart of the PokerStar.net Team which is one of the most recognized online poker teams of professionals apart from the Full Tilt Team. There are numerous high name poker professionals who play on Poker Stars and you can watch them playing from time to time. McEvoy lives in Las Vegas currently with his wife and often plays the cash games in the casinos in the city. He also has three grown up kids including two sons and one daughter.
Another cool fact about Tom that many people probably won’t know is that Tom won his first WSOP bracelet through a satellite event which made him the first player to win a bracelet through entering the event through a satellite tournament. Nowadays thousands of contestants enter the WSOP tournaments through satellites, but back in 1983 satellite events were fairly new to the poker world.
After playing poker for years Tom also spent some time writing books so that the new generation of poker players would be able to learn the game better. He has written books about tournament play, satellite play and much more so make sure you do a search on Amazon to see which books you’re missing that were written by Tom McEvoy. Tom isn’t playing much poker these days and likes spending his time watching movies with his wife and spending time with his children.
Posted in Poker.
If you’re new to Full Tilt Poker and online poker in general, and you haven’t played on any of the online poker rooms yet then you’ll be possibly surprised to hear that every poker room offers new players a bonus. In order to become eligible for an online poker bonus then you need to make a deposit into the poker room that you want to play in typically. Once you make your deposit into the poker room of your choice then you’ll become eligible for the poker bonus, but before you can use the bonus money you need to clear the bonus.
In order to clear your online poker bonus from PokerStars you need to be clear the requirements that have been set in place by that poker room. Every poker room have there own rules and guidelines when it comes to clearing your online bonus and you should read these on the poker room you choose before depositing. Some poker rooms have much tougher requirements then other poker rooms and if it’s your first time playing online poker you’ll want to find an online bonus that is fairly easy to clear.
The bonus is cleared once you earn enough points in the poker room you’re playing in. The amount of player points you need to earn differs between every online poker room which is why I mentioned above to look at the requirements before depositing into the poker room. The reason you need to earn a certain amount of points from playing poker in the poker room is because they don’t want people just signing up for the free bonus money and then withdrawing there money from the room.
The whole reason why online poker rooms such as PokerStars.com offer new players a bonus is so that they can draw them into playing in there poker room. The poker rooms have no intentions of paying people there bonus just so that they can withdraw the money and never play a hand of poker. Betting requirements are usually not that stiff in most of the poker rooms and you shouldn’t have a problem clearing the bonus.
Once the bonus is cleared and deposited into your account the bonus is now yours to decide what you want to do with it. You can choose to continue playing poker in the poker room you choose if you like it or you can withdraw your funds and bonus and move onto a new poker room. If you switch poker rooms after clearing your bonus on the first poker room make sure you sign-up for the new depositing bonus on the new poker room.
Many poker players go from poker room to poker room clearing bonuses and then moving onto the next poker room. I don’t suggest this, but it’s possible for you to do this if you’re fairly good at playing poker and you don’t lose your money before clearing the bonus. So remember that your FullTiltPoker.com bonus isn’t going to be able to get withdrawn immediately after signing up to the poker room and you’ll need to meet the clearing requirements set in place by the poker room you decide to play in.
Posted in free-poker.
Video poker is a fairly new game which can be played in online casino and live casinos. You’ll even find video poker machines in restaurants and airports nowadays and many people are playing them. Video poker machines we’re first found in Las Vegas casinos, but now you’ll find them just about everywhere. The game was derived from slot machines, but instead of only needing to be lucky like on slot machines you also need a bit of skill to win on video poker.
Video poker machines are set-up so that over the long-run they make more money then they ever hand out. This makes sense because if they didn’t make money then they wouldn’t be in casinos or other places like they are today. Even though they’re set-up to make money over the long-run people can still make some money off of them in the short-term with some luck and skill.
Video poker is a lot different then regular poker on FullTilt and instead of being patient like in regular poker you need to be aggressive when you play video poker. Only the premium hands payout any amount of money worth winning so when you play video poker you should always be drawing for a flush, straight flush, royal flush or four of a kind. The other hands don’t payout enough to even be worth drawing for and the only time you should win with a hand less then a straight is when you miss your draw.
If you chase two pairs and try drawing for a full house chances are you won’t get it, but if you only keep your high pair and draw three cards in hopes of trips or four of a kind you’ll have a better shot. One of the reason video poker has become popular is because it can help beginner poker players to learn hand values and what types of hands to draw for. Typically you won’t walk away with any money at a video poker machine, but you will leave with some poker experience.
Many video poker machines have different stakes, payouts and bonus structures which you should also learn if you plan on playing video poker. Whichever casino you play in I’m sure has several options so you should find out which one fits your bankroll best and has the best bonuses and jackpots. There are also some guides on the internet which list video poker machines and video blackjack machines from every online casino and you can look at them to find out which casinos offer the best payouts on there video poker.
I don’t recommend playing video poker if you plan on making money, but if you’re trying to learn and become a better poker player then I suggest them. You’ll learn a lot about poker hands, poker hand values and what hands are easy to draw for and what aren’t by playing for free at PokerStars. Don’t get me wrong video poker and poker have tons of differences, but you’ll learn the basics of poker by playing video poker machines at the casino.
Posted in free-poker.
If you’ve just learnt how to play poker then I don’t blame you for wanting to play for free before investing your own money to play. There are several options for new poker players to practice there skills for free before they ever need to commit any of there own money and one of the methods can even win you a poker bankroll which is pretty sweet. I’ve come up with three great options for poker players to play for free and we’re going to take a look at those options right now.
Play at Home with Friends
If you have some friends who are also interested in playing poker then you can set-up a friendly home game without using any real money. You and your friends will all be able to work on your poker skills plus you’ll be able to kill some time while together. Once you all get better you can start playing for real money which makes poker even more fun to play. If possible you should try and make sure that you have your own chips to use because without chips it’s difficult to play poker.
Play for Free Money Online
Many online poker rooms, like Full Tilt Poker, allow new players to play for free money before they need to play for real money. In fact you never have to play for real money if you don’t want too as the poker rooms don’t mind if you use there software to play for free. You won’t be able to win any money and the players will often not play poker properly since it’s free money, but you can still learn a few things. You’ll get to see exactly how internet poker works and you should be able to find a good game once in awhile where you can actually work on your game to become a better player.
Play Freeroll Tournaments Online
PokerStars.com and other online poker rooms offer freeroll tournaments for new players to the poker room where you can compete against other players for real money. These tournaments don’t cost you anything and it’s the only option you have to win money without spending any money. Freeroll tournaments are usually very populated with players though and only a few players usually win money so the chances of winning definitely aren’t in your favour, but you’ll be able to work on your poker skills. If you get lucky and win then you’ll have some money in your poker bankroll which you can use to play some real money tournaments.
You will be able to find poker action everyday using these three options so you have no excuse for not becoming the next best poker player. Spend some time practicing your skills on the free tables and then once you gain some confidence you can head over to the real money tables and start working on making some money. Don’t rush into real money games either as you have your entire life to play poker, you want to make sure you’re good enough to compete at the real money tables before investing your own money. Another cool thing is once you’re ready to deposit your own money the poker room you choose will give you a first deposit bonus to help grow your poker bankroll.
Posted in free-poker.