Poker Gym is a straightforward poker-training app that caught our eye earlier this year. 

We played around with the software (which is entirely in-browser, btw) for a few hours this week and really liked what the Poker Gym team was bringing to the table.

Poker Gym emphasizes fundamentals and gives players a chance to practice their newfound knowledge on a simulated table.

The training program is broken down into six major components: Counting Odds, Break-even Pot Size, Hand Equity Concept, Combos, Preflop Hand Equity Values and Flop Statistics.

Counting Odds and Break-even Pot Size are free while the other four components cost from $.99 to $2.99 a piece. We tried out the two free components as well as the $2.99 Hand Equity Concept in our review. 

Each component has a learning session, which explains concepts and a practice session where you put the concepts into use at the poker table by completing a quiz. A Poker Gym, so to speak.

To say Viktor “Isildur1” Blom vs. Ben “Bttech86” Tollerene has captured the interest of high-stakes poker fans would be a bit of an understatement.

Tollerene and Blom, two of the biggest winners in the nosebleeds on Full Tilt this year, have been locked in an epic heads-up battle for the last month and it seems like the match will only end when one of them is busto.

It makes the durrrr Challenge look like a senior citizen’s game that occurs once every couple months.

Bttech86 vs. Isildur1 features multi-million dollar swings at some of the highest stakes ever played online. It’s the must-see TV of the online world.

Although it doesn’t seem like Bttech86 will stop playing Isildur1 anytime soon, we thought it would be a good time to look at the numbers between both players this year in a special ThingLink graph below.

Online poker players have been able to take advanced notes for years but new Android App Poker Notes Live attempts to bring that functionality to live poker.

It’s common to see the occasional poker player jotting down notes using a piece of paper or even making quick audio notes using a tape recorder but Poker Notes Live streamlines the process with a graphical representation of your table.

Similar to online poker, you can click an opponent and write down notes about them. Those notes stay around for as long as you want them. You can also assign players names and chip counts.

Taking up just 2.4mb, Poker Notes Live also offers some self-tracking functionality including win-loss ratio per session, buy-in and tips given. You can then email your notes to your desktop computer.

We had a quick whirl with the app and liked how it was implemented but you definitely need some discipline to keep entering meticulous notes, which is how the Poker Notes Live app becomes really useful.

Far Cry 3 is a fantastic open-world shooter but it also has a decent poker mini game that you might not know about.

You can actually play No-Limit Hold’em and it’s an excellent way to raise some quick cash. It’s especially easy to make money if you are familiar with the fundamentals of Hold’em.

There’s also one shortcut you can use to essentially make an endless amount of cash but we recommend spending a bit of time playing the game, because it’s actually pretty decent.

Here’s a quick guide on how to unlock poker, where to play and, most importantly, how to beat the game (this guide works for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game).

Poker bots. The very mention of poker-playing computer programs usually makes serious grinders cringe.

In the past there have been black-hat programmers that developed teams of poker bots that would torment players in lower-stakes online poker games (especially in limit) and ultimately produce a significant profit for their creators.

Online poker site security is a lot better these days and can usually spot rogue bots but it has still left a very bad taste in some poker players' mouths.

Fortunately Neo Poker Laboratory has developed an A.I. they have no intention of ever using in real-money online poker games.

Instead the recently-launched Neo Bot Poker is a free-to-play online poker site where poker fans can test their skills against an advanced opponent.

It’s an interesting project and provides a glimpse into how an elite bot would act.

Tired of losing to the house? Poker players will finally get a chance to BE the house in upcoming video game CasinoRPG.

James Simpson, an avid poker fan, and his company GoldFire Studios is trying to kick-start the ambitious game that will combine role-playing, social gaming and gambling games in a massively multiplayer format.

CasinoRPG has elements that may remind players of classic PC games like Railroad Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon. 

“This isn't Farmville with casinos, it is truly an MMORPG with a focus on poker and other casino games,” said Simpson.

“The game is played in real-time with friends and strangers alike, even away from the poker tables. Whether you are a poker, tycoon, city-builder, or RPG fan, there is something for you in CasinoRPG.”

The game is currently featured on Kickstarter and has already raised nearly $10,000 towards production.

These days it’s rare to see anything truly unique when it comes to poker equipment but that's exactly what David Goldklang has created with his Polaris cards.

A graphic designer, David has been around cards his entire life and always wanted to take a stab at making his own. Earlier this year he finally made it happen.

David collaborated with brother Jordan Goldklang to create a series of cards called Vända. The project, which was funded through Kickstarter, was wildly successful and easily raised enough money to produce the cards.

Not content to rest on their laurels, the pair launched a new Kickstarter project late last month.

The new custom deck, called Polaris, has a celestial theme with both solar and lunar editions. In addition the cards feature four colors, which makes spotting flushes easier for poker players.

Polaris is off to a hot start on Kickstarter and has already raised over $10,000 of its $15,000 goal.

PokerListings had the chance to chat with Goldklang and find out what it was like designing his own set of playing cards:

There’s no denying that PokerStars makes one of the best online poker clients available with plenty of customization but there are always going to be people who want to take it one step farther. 

Fortunately there are some extra steps you can take to give yourself a truly unique playing experience.

The easiest way to completely overhaul the look of PokerStars is to just pick up a theme. Generally they cost money and they will change table, cards, card backs, chips and fonts.

They are simple to use, as you just have to click the installation file. We won’t really be covering themes in this guide but there are great communities at tiltbuster.com and pokermods.eu where you can find themes for sale. Beware that the majority are Windows-only.

This thread on TwoPlusTwo poker forum also offers a lot of information on modding PokerStars, provided you can get through the 500+ pages.

If you’re willing to put in a bit of time and effort you can modify individual aspects of the PokerStars client such as backgrounds, chips and the front and back of cards.

Check below for a breakdown of how to modify various features of PokerStars.

After being absent from the poker world for over 16 months, Full Tilt Poker is scheduled to re-open in non-U.S. jurisdictions tomorrow.

In the time since Full Tilt went offline we’ve seen the rise and fall of the Epic Poker Tour, Phil Hellmuth finish second in the WSOP POY race in back-to-back years and the migration of U.S. online poker players to countries where they can still play.

In short: a lot has happened.

It’s been so long and there’s been so much controversy it’s easy to forget what made Full Tilt Poker great in the first place..

Obviously the best thing about Full Tilt Poker’s return is that players (at least European ones) will finally be getting access to their account balances.

Outside of that here are the seven items that have us excited about the Full Tilt Poker revival.

Since the dawn of the computer era man has developed video games of progressively less-pixelated women playing poker and removing their clothing.

In our brand new poker infographic we break down every major advancement in strip-poker gaming technology, from the Commodore 64 to the XBox 360.

Brush up on your strip poker history so you can properly appreciate this proud digital tradition.

Click here or the image below for the full-sized infographic.

Head to the bottom of the page for the code to embed this inforaphic on your site!

Embed This Infographic On Your Site!

Fans of poker know that finding good apps for Android or iPhone can be difficult.

There are literally thousands of poker related apps available and it can be a challenge sifting through a sea of sub-par games.

Fortunately we’ve handpicked five apps that are actually worth the space they take up on your phone or tablet.

We’re looking at less traditional poker apps (sorry Zynga Poker and real-money poker apps) that will appeal to poker enthusiasts.

Most of these apps are free but there are a couple ones that cost a few bucks.

There have never been more ways to play poker and this week’s Positively Nerd Street takes a look at three new ways to get your fix.

Feel free to give us suggestions for future nerdy pieces in the comments.

In today’s Positively Nerd Street we’re going to review three separate poker video games that represent a shift from the traditional online poker model popularized by the likes of PokerStars and PartyPoker.

We’ve got one of the first reviews of the official World Series of Poker app by EA games (one of the first reviews of the newly launched game), Zynga Poker-competitor Pokerist and finally the casual-style Full House Poker on Xbox 360.

Most online poker players know the ins and outs of keeping their online accounts secure.

For new players just getting started in online poker, there are a few basics everyone should know before depositing or transferring money online.

The infographic below goes over the basics of securing your online accounts including your poker account.

If you’re a true PNS reader you’ll know that we’ve rigged online poker to be played using voice-control and Rock Band guitars and drums. Since then Microsoft released the XBOX Kinect and the second we saw it, we knew it would make the greatest poker controller ever.

While the Kinect truly is an impressive piece of technology, the games made for it are childish at best. Luckily many hackers around the world have spent the time to create drivers and applications allowing you to use the Kinect hardware to interface with a windows PC.

From there it was just a short jump to all-out gesture-controlled online poker!

This is one of those ideas that's really cool and makes you wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?"

For a relatively low price you can now buy a DIY kit that will turn your home poker table into a super-teched out RFID-powered poker show set!

Using RFID-equipped cards and chips, sensors embedded below the felt on the table, and a few simple webcams, you can turn your home game into a poker TV show complete with real-time graphics, odds and hole cards.

Check out the video above but like we said, it's devilishly simple.

No other form of poker has quite the “broad audience” of strip poker.

This, of course, makes perfect sense. After all, procreation is fundamental. Even more so than money.

Essentially as soon as man invented the binary number system, he started drawing digital nude pictures.

Early console-based strip poker games may seem awfully pixelated and unsophisticated but they were all necessary steps in the evolution of this important technology.

If you’re a poker player into gaming or a gamer who dabbles in poker, Rockstar Games’ open-world Western, Red Dead Redemption, just got a lot more interesting for both of you.

Now, for the first time ever, it's possible to play iPhone poker for real money without a hack!

I'm sure you've all seen VR images (google maps street view is a decent example), If you haven't here's a link to VR tour of an airplane cockpit.

Now what you may not know, some smart tech geeks have figured out how to take this technology and apply it to video.

Although it's being used in a few places, mostly sporting events, a new website called all360poker.com has started the initiative of posting full 360 degree VR video from a camera placed directly above the center of some of the poker tables at the WPT Bellagio $25k championships.

The site has over a dozen streaming videos, with plans for high-quality downloadable videos to come soon. The camera uses a bunch of coordinated lenses and is operated by a logitech gaming controller.

We've got a sample of the video below as well as a bunch of photos we took of the actual camera in action at the WPT at Bellagio today.

Make sure you're on the post page to see everything

It seems just about every pocket these days is home to one form of Smartphone or another - phones which can do pretty much anything ... other than play poker.

The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone offered to the public, but it was the first device targeted to the average person - someone looking for a phone which is as fun and easy to use as it is functional.

Since the iPhone changed the landscape of the mobile phone market, just about every company manufacturing mobile phones has at least one smartphone to offer its customers now.

In a few months Microsoft will unleash the Windows 7 phone on the world in an attempt to displace the iPhone as the king of the smartphones.

While playing poker on these devices is sort of possible (through various remote desktop hacks and such), a native app or in-browser poker support has yet to be offered to the world.

For poker players, all of this is about to change.

About five months ago we did a blog showing how to use your Rock Band guitar to play online poker. After it launched I got a lot of feedback and requests for a similar article using the drum kit. So, naturally, I did just that.

The Rock Band (or Guitar Hero) instruments are basically just large controllers with unusual buttons. Instead of pressing the X button, you hit the big green drum. Since these controllers are conveniently compatible with your Windows PC, it's easy to use them for just about anything you want.

Play Poker with Your Rock Band Drum Kit

It's not hard to do and should take you less than 30 minutes from start to finish. If you just want to see how well it works and already know (or don't care) how to set it up, save yourself a couple of minutes and watch the video at the bottom of the blog.

This all started after hearing, for the thousandth time, someone tell me how pocket aces never hold up online, how the sites are programmed to let people suck out.

As a person firmly rooted in logic, I kind of lose my shit when I hear people spout ridiculous superstition and bullshit as if it's fact. Unfortunately, I've come to learn that telling these people they're being dumb isn't really sufficient as an argument.

Then, I came to realize that since I have never actually run the numbers of online poker myself, I really was unable to say that these myths are false. Without any proof my word is no more valuable than theirs.

So, I set out to get some proof. I decided to take a large number of real-money online poker hands to run statistical analysis on, then compare my results to the perfect math. First, some details:

• Although I downloaded 60gig worth of hand history text files (somewhere in the neighborhood of 47 million hands), my Dell laptop wasn't really able to run queries on a database that large. So for the following myths I used a total of 3,102,773  unique real-money hands played almost exclusively on Full Tilt Poker.
• These hands range from $0.25/$0.50 to $500/$1,000.

For more details on where I got the hands, and how I came up with my numbers head to the last section of this article: Geeks Only - Technical Details.

Regardless of where you play, how many tables you're on or how long your sessions are, every online poker player needs a good mouse.

Even though any simple computer mouse (including those old shitty trackball mice) will technically do the job, getting yourself a serious mouse might be one of the smartest things you can do for yourself.

Aside from reducing frustration and muscle strain, a good mouse can increase your precision and productivity, which has the potential to increase your bottom line.

At the very least all of the mice below will also help you absolutely rape at COD:MW2.

Since we're looking at mouses for online poker I'm ranking them based on the following criteria:

• Precision (both tracking, and mouse movement)
• Comfort
• Well placed fully customizable extra buttons

Because we're looking for peformance the only mice worth considering are the ones marketed towards the gaming crowd. These mice are built for razer sharp precision, and hours of extended play-time.

There are literally hundreds to choose from but don't worry. We've narrowed it down to the the best of the best.

Not long ago we released a list of the Top 10 Poker WordPress Themes.

We restricted the list to strictly poker-specific themes and many of our readers suggested that by limiting our scope we were missing out on some great non-poker themes that would work equally well as poker blogs.

In light of this we've decided to take another look, and not just at poker themes.

First we'll give you a quick intro to setting up a WordPress blog and then we'll look at five of our favorite themes.

There are a sick amount of themes out there but if you want to skip the searching and get right to the blogging, any of the following themes will give you a clean-cut and professional looking site.

Yes, I know there are lots of online or downloadable programs for tracking your poker results, but if you’re old school like me, or just like to do shit yourself, this is the article for you.

Excel is a far more powerful of a program than most people know. It has the ability to do things that you’ve never even thought of.

For example, I once worked as a tech-guy/website developer/network engineer… read GEEK for a large retail company.

One aspect of this company is having multiple locations across Canada and the U.S.A, all with their own inventory and full service physical locations. The business also makes a lot of money from its website selling the same stuff, but online.

Now, to keep shipping times and costs as low as possible, all physical locations ship product for web orders, rather than having one warehouse dedicated to online ordering. This is a cost effective way to operate, but requires some in-depth solutions to inventory management and control.

To manage this we created an excel spreadsheet which automatically updated with the actual inventory count for each product for each store location.

It did this buy parsing the accounting software end of day sales figures. On top of this it stores months of sales results allowing forecasting and trending of product sales, all updated automatically and fully configurable.

If Excel can do something like this, it can certainly handle your poker stats with flying colors, you just have to learn how to use it. Here are some quick tips and tricks you can use to make your spreadsheet a little more rad.

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