Well I'm in a good mood today. A stake I gave to another player has paid off for me for the third time. They scored a $500 win and shipped me my money today.

Even though I titled this "art" good staking is more of a science. You don't just hand over a stack of cash to anyone that claims they can play.

A few factors to look for in someone you want to stake:
1) proven ability to win. Not just short term, but you have seen the results that show this...

As I've commented before, I think everything short of all out war has been declared between stars and full tilt. On full tilt's end, they have been upping the ante with bonus offers lately, last month any real money player had a chance to claim $100 (bonus dollars that had to be cleared playing real money tables).

This month they offer the promotion called "Take 2" which is designed to encourage you to play multiple tables. If you do play 2 tables at once, you get double...

Yes you read that right, and no i haven't completely lost my mind. When you have a bonus to work on, your attitude should always be "great, some free money will be added in while I play." Nothing in your game should change, maybe you play some more hands to clear the bonus.

I however have the very unfortunate "luck" that my worst runs correlate exactly with whenever I'm clearing a bonus.

Whatever the bonus amount I clear is, I seem to be sure to...

I wouldn't say war has officially been declared, but it's got all of the signs. The good news is that in this war, no one is getting hurt, instead it's the bystanders that will reap all the benefits. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's finally war between Full Tilt and Pokerstars!

Now of course there have been boarder skirmishes in the past. What we have not seen is an all out war of oneupsmenship. Each of then of course has started offering higher stakes games, more games, and even "series"...

If you have known me long enough, you would know that I much prefer to play in a big field of players in a poker tournament verses a smaller one. Some people think there is basically no difference, but it's an enormous one for me. I'm going to present for you a few of the reasons why I prefer the big fields.

Let me start by defining a few terms. A small field to me is one with less then 50 players, you will spend more then 50% of your time playing at a table with at least 1 empty...