Sleep Deprivation Leads to Confidence for Online Poker Gamblers

Ask any professional poker player and they will tell you that trust is a key element of winning. Confident that the players believe they will win; tend to do much better in the poker of those who know themselves and their abilities.

A recent study indicates that sleep deprivation may actually be an advantage to poker players. The study indicated that those who have been deprived of sleep will focus more on positive outcomes in whatever they are doing. For poker players, that means a positive outlook in hands and tournaments that could decide the financial outcome for the night.

Twenty-nine participants agreed to be tested in various conditions. The subjects were tested after a full night of sleep, and also when they were kept up all night. The results showed that when a full night of sleep was had, the overall outlook was more negative.

"This study would explain why online poker players prefer to play in the middle of the night," said Gaming Analyst Brad Dawkins. "Sometimes poker players stay at the tables for upwards of eight hours at a time, and many will say they do better after they have settled into a groove on the tables after many hours of play."

In casinos, poker rooms around the world packed into the early hours of the morning. The late crowd fills the spaces, and many professionals, like to play at this time due to competition level. Be confident they will win is not always a good thing for the players.

Poker Celebrities – Tony Cascarino

Anthony Guy "Tony" Cascarino better known as Tony Cascarino was born on the 1st September 1962 in St Paul's Cray England. Tony Cascarino is a former association football player. His father was Italian and his mother English. Regardless of his background Tony Carscarino played 88 times for Ireland. His name was made whilst playing as a striker for a number of British and French football clubs. Tony Cascarino furthered his name by playing for the Republic of Ireland National Football Team.

Tony Cascarino has now retired from football. Tony has also presented on TalkSport radio and written for The Times and the Irish magazine Hot Press.

It is unknown how long Tony Cascarino has been playing poker for but his cashing started back in 2004 and to date he has cashed 12 times with two first place finishes. Tony Cascarino's poker tournament record is as follows:

• Nov 27, 2008 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour - Grand Final No Limit Hold'em 6th $54,795
• Nov 21, 2008 Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 Main Event - No Limit Hold'em 12th $4,400
• Sept 11, 2008 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Leg 7 (GUKPT) Main Event - No Limit Hold'em 1st $99,078
• Sep 29, 2007 European Poker Championships / EPT Event Season 4 Event #7 - EPT No Limit Hold'em Championship 14th $41,993
• Nov 27, 2006 Caribbean Poker Classic No Limit Hold'em 1st $28,400
• Nov 26, 2006 Caribbean Poker Classic No Limit Hold'em 2nd $4,800
• July 29, 2006 Bellagio Cup II Tournament No Limit Hold'em 20th $1,460
• Nov 29, 2005 Caribbean Poker Classic No Limit Hold'em 9th $2,820
• Oct 30, 2005 The Irish Winter Tournament - EPT/Pokerstars Season 2 No Limit Hold'em 17th $786
• Feb 19, 2005 The French Open - EPT/Pokerstars Season 1 No Limit Hold'em 7th $3,866
• Oct 17, 2004 Ladbrokes Poker Cruise No Limit Hold'em 11th $8,000
• Apr 10, 2004 Irish Open No Limit Hold'em 9th $4,469 

The sheer talent of Tony Cascarino meant that he transformed from a successful football player to a great poker player and therefore he features on our list of poker celebrities.

Fantabulous Poker Pots

Over the years, massive poker pots have been won by some of the best poker players across the globe. Due to the sheer size of these pots, i refer them to as fantabulous poker pots.  So which is biggest pot among all the fantabulous poker pots? Well, this was played on the 21^st of November 2009 in the heads up Pot Limit Omaha game between a Finnish pro Patrick Antonius and Swedish online poker player Isildur1, whose identity till this day remains a mystery. The gigantic pot saw a total of $1,356,948 and no it isn’t a phone number, it’s the actual size of the pot that was taken down by the Finnish pro. Hence its no surprise that it tops the list of the fantabulous poker pots.

The previous largest poker pot also involved the anonymous Isildur1, but this time around things were a bit different; his opponent was the legendary Phil Ivey who suffered a bad beat at the hands of the tenacious Isildur1. The Swede staying true to his style of play has recorded some of the most fantabulous poker pots in the history of the online game going logger heads with some of the games greatest like Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius, Ziigmund, etc. Besides the sensational Isildur1, some of the other poker playing greats who have recorded their name in my list of fantabulous poker pots would be Gus Hansen, Brian Townsend, Tom Dwan aka durrrr, etc.

This list below is a testament to Isildur1’s greatness among the Online Poker Gods and cements his name in the list of most fantabulous poker pots of all time.

$1,356,947 - Patrik Antonius (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$1,127,955 - Isildur1 (winner) vs. Phil Ivey, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$878,959 - Patrik Antonius (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$832,940 - Phil Ivey (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$827,960 - Isildur1 (winner) vs. Phil Ivey, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$815,975 - Isildur1 (winner) vs. Patrik Antonius, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$810,984 - Patrik Antonius (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$787,999 - Isildur1 (winner) vs. Ziigmund, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$783,985 - Patrik Antonius (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$774,910 - Patrik Antonius (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$757,998 - Brian Townsend (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$743,933 - Phil Ivey (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$719,908 - Isildur1 (winner) vs. Brian Townsend, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$708,988 - Ziigmund (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

$694,979 - Phil Ivey (winner) vs. Isildur1, PL Omaha - $500/1000

The above was my observation of the fantabulous poker pots that have gone down in the annals of poker history. Online poker has been constantly witness to some of the most fantabulous poker pots and the pot sizes will only keep getting bigger as long as players like Isildur1 are around.