Most of the big weekly tournaments are played on the weekends. The biggest one remains the PokerStars Sunday Million. It is regularly guaranteed at a million and a half now, and the first place winner takes home between $170K and $200K. They also have the $200K Sunday Warm Up before the Million.

Full Tilt Poker has a $90K, $75K, $65K, and a $60K guaranteed tournament every Saturday. Their Sunday event is the $750,000 guaranteed event, which will soon be the Full Tilt Million. They also run $250K, $150K, $65K, and $50K guaranteed events on Sundays.

PokerRoom, Party Poker, Hollywood Poker, and Mansion Poker have $150K events on Sunday. Absolute Poker has their $150K tournament on Saturday. Bodog Poker has a $100,000 guaranteed event on Sundays, and they follow it up with a few $25K last-chance events if you bust out of the big ones early.

The United States has postponed meetings with the European Union which were scheduled for this week concerning online gambling. The EU wants to talk about the UIGEA, and how they feel it discriminates against European operators. The issue is that the law excludes offshore businesses, while local gambling like horse racing is permitted to operate.

This isn’t the first time this law has caused problems. A World Trade decision ruled in favor of Antigua and Barbuda, but the US opted to compensate the two countries and withdraw online gaming from its commitments to the WTO.

Remote Gambling Association made the original complaints, and the EU issued a formal questionnaire into the matter. U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab denied any form of discrimination against European operators, and charges were not based on nationality.

There has been no reason offered for the delays, and no other dates have been set for future meetings.

Pocket aces are a big hand when you’re playing Texas hold’em, but when you’re playing Omaha hi/low they don’t necessarily have the same value. You’re in ok shape for the high hand, but unless you have some small cards with them, preferably suited to the aces, the aces are not worth a whole lot pre-flop. Not enough to risk as many chips as you would in a game of hold’em.

If your aces don’t have good cards with them you probably shouldn’t play them. It will usually lead to a losing situation because there are so many hand combinations that can be made in the game of Omaha. Your aces should have at least one deuce with them if you want to try your luck. And don’t waste any bets when you see situations where you could be easily beat. In Omaha hi/low someone almost always has the nut hand.

The Asian Poker Tour is about to start its second season of action, and you could be there. Bodog poker room is offering satellite tournaments that will put you in Macau for the first event of the season. They have two ways to win your seat - you can play in their regular qualifier tournaments (from July 7 – August 3) to win one of three seats, or play their Seat Giveaway series (the finale is on August 2) to win one seat.

If you win a seat worth $5,300, you’ll be joining Team Bodog in the APT Main Event. You’ll also be staying at the beautiful Galaxy Starworld Hotel and Casino in downtown Macau. The prize includes flight expenses, six nights of accommodations, buy-in to the event, and $500 spending cash. Not to mention the chance to visit a part of the world most people will never get the chance to see.

The WPT has found a way to host more poker tournaments. They have joined forces with Classic Gaming Cruises to host a number of trips with WPT tournaments on board. Trips are scheduled from Alaska, New England, Mexico, and the Caribbean. They run from mid-July until late November and range in price from $429 to as much as $979 for the Alaskan trips, not bad for a week of luxury. Sounds like a great way to soak up some sun and play lots of poker for a week.

The tournaments on the cruises will be satellites into a $10,000 WPT main event. You’ll also be able to enjoy other tournament action as well as cash games. You’ll be able to play poker whenever you want to, especially if your wife likes to play as well. Hurry if you want to play on one of these cruises; cabins are filling up fast.

The attendance at the 2008 WSOP has broken previous records and shown that the game is still in a growth period, despite the attempts of the American government to stop it. This year’s WSOP had a record attendance at 57,793, breaking the 2007 record of 54,288. It also broke the prize-pool record from last year with a whopping $180,960,934 in available winnings.

It also broke the record for the largest poker tournament outside the main event with 3,929 players in the No Limit Holdem Event #2. And players from 104 different countries and territories were represented this year, compared to the previous record of 87.

This shows that poker is still growing throughout the world. Despite the economic and political situation in the United States poker is on the rise with more foreign players entering the scene. It should also experience more growth once the laws are changed in the U.S.

How much you should bet in a hand of poker usually depends on the situation. When you feel that you have the lead in the hand, but there are more cards to come, you should bet enough to deter drawing hands from sticking around. Each situation presents different pot odds, but if you think you have the lead, and there’s a possible draw on the board, you should bet around three quarters of the size of the pot. That makes it a mathematical mistake for the drawing hand to call.

If you have the nut hand after the river, a value bet is the way to go. A value bet is any amount that you think that particular opponent will call. If it’s too big you won’t get paid off, so betting a smaller amount that gets called is better than nothing at all.

Planning your play is important for a couple of reasons. First off, unless you’re a professional you can’t just jump on the computer any time you want to. There’s only so much time in the day to play, so finding the best action when you can play will be a good practice. Inform everyone that might interrupt you that you’re playing poker, and don’t want to be interrupted unless it’s important.

Planning the length of your session is important because you don’t want to play too long. A few hands can easily turn into a marathon session. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the game, especially when you’re winning. If you play too long you’re likely to start making mistakes. Tired poker is not a good way to play, so limit your sessions to time frames where you stay fresh. Otherwise you’ll just dump back everything you have won.

If Barack Obama becomes the next president, can he legalize online gambling? First off, online gambling is not illegal in the U.S., except for a couple of exceptions like Washington State and a few others. The laws against online gambling are aimed at the banks that do business with online gambling sites, not the sites or the activity itself. So if he does change things in the future, he would be making it legal for banks to do business with online gambling sites.

He won’t be able to do it by himself, but he will be able put it to Congress. A Congress that is predominantly Democratic. It wouldn’t take too much persuasion on Obama’s part to make online gambling completely legal. However, it would be in his best interest to gauge public opinion more, before making a move that the Republican government could use against him in the future.

Like most strategy in poker, playing the button properly will depend on your opponents. The button position has the advantage of watching everyone act before he has to, so when no one bets at a pot it’s a high percentage move to bet, regardless of your hand.

If no one has come into the hand, and it’s your play with only the blind positions remaining, it’s a high percentage move to raise the blind players. The money they have in the pot is forced, and they will most often have nothing in their hand. A raise makes them get off their weak cards.

If the blind players to your left are easy pushovers, you’ll steal their blinds again and again. This goes for flops too. If everyone checks to you it’s a good move to bet. If you get called you’ll usually get a free card on the next street.