Online Poker Awards (OPA) is proud to present the awards for the best in online poker for 2010. These awards, which were presented in January of 2010, highlight the best online poker rooms, websites, magazines, books, and other resources available to the online poker player.
Best Online Poker Room
OPA: Full Tilt Poker
Public: (Tie) Full Tilt Poker & Poker Stars
Once again Full Tilt Poker wins our award for the best online poker room. FTP has some of the best action going. We give them this award, not because they have the most active players, but because they have the best action of all the great poker rooms. There are rooms that have more players, but none of those rooms come close to the combination of a classy room, great customer service, excellent graphics, and many players at all levels, including a long list of well known pros. In addition, the Full Tilt Poker Academy is a great resource for improving your game, whether you are a beginner or expert.
In the public votes there was a tie between FTP and Poker Stars. To us this is not a surprise since in the OPA rankings Stars came in number two. Stars has been around longer than FTP and has a very good reputation for outstanding support and quality of play.
Best Online Poker School
OPA & Public: Full Tilt Poker Academy
The benefit you get from poker training can be valued by how much it improves your game and how much that means in terms of additional profit or reduced losses. If you spend $250 on poker training hopefully you get it back at the tables. The great thing about the FTP Academy is that it is free and run by some of the best known poker pros. FTP Academy offers a unique interactive experience that allows you to learn from members of Team Full Tilt including Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer and Phil Gordon. You’ll use a library of multimedia content – including video, podcasts, hand replayers, quizzes and tests – which is updated daily and suitable for players of every skill level. You can begin with Lessons on key strategies and techniques, view live Sessions to see the theory in action, take a Pro Challenge online at Full Tilt Poker or put your knowledge to the test with an interactive Sit-N-Learn.
Best Online Poker Software
OPA & Public: Poker Office
Real time analytics are not for everybody, but for many having a wealth of information about your game and your opponents can give you an edge. PokerOffice allows you to track all of your opponents actions as well as your own game, while you are playing, without any need for hand histories or user input. It stores all the collected data and brings you summarized statistics reports, spreadsheets, and graphs of you own and your opponents play. A built in HUD that will overlay statistics, player actions and odds on the actual poker table. And much more.
Best Poker Book
OPA: Super System by Doyle Brunson
This classic book is considered by the pros to be the best book ever written on poker! Jam-packed with advanced strategies, theories, tactics and money-making techniques – no serious poker player can afford to be without this hard-hitting information. Includes fifty pages of the most precise poker statistics ever published. Features chapters written by poker’s biggest superstars, such as Dave Sklansky, Mike Caro, Chip Reese, Bobby Baldwin, and Doyle – two world champions and three master theorists. Essential strategies, advanced play, and no-nonsense winning advice on making money at 7-card stud (razz, high-low split, cards speak, and declare), draw poker, lowball, and hold’em (limit and no-limit).
Public: Internet Hold’em Poker: Plus 7-card stud, Omaha, and other games by Avery Cardoza
This book is separated from the chaff of other online poker books by presenting the reader with real strategies, real options, and easy and fun way to join the millions of online players around the globe. Readers learn the five steps to getting started, how to move money in and out of accounts safely, 21 advantages of playing online, how to play for free or for profit, how to simultaneously play multiple screens and games, and much more including how to make a living online! Internet poker has a vastly different strategy that is only glossed over in other books and key topics like playing for real money and side issues are completely ignored. Other topics include Internet-specific strategies, how to sign up and play, different games and levels available, and how to recognize and protect against collusion.
Best Poker Book: Hold’em
OPA & Public: Winning Low-Limit Hold`em (2nd Edition) by Lee Jones
This is another poker book that has stood the test of time and we can’t say it any better than what Chris Ferguson (2000 World Series of Poker Champion) says: “Don’t read this book! If everyone followed the instructions in this book I’d have to find a new line of work.” If you play low-limit Hold’em, or would like to learn to play Hold’em, this book is for you. It won’t teach you a lot of advanced poker theory, but it will give you a solid foundation with which you can be a winner at low-limit Hold’em. Read this book, study it carefully, and be disciplined: you’ll be able to beat any 1-4, 3-6, or 1-4-8-8 Hold’em game you join.
Best Poker Book: Omaha
OPA: Pot-Limit Omaha Poker by Jeff Hwang
Whether you’re a cash-game professional or a recreational player — and whether you play live or online — this book will arm you with a winning big-play strategy that’s easy to master even if you’ve never played Omaha before. Key topics include: The Big Play Objectives; The Power of the Big Draw; Straight Draws and Starting Hand Construction; Limit Omaha Hi/Lo and Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. Complete with practice situations and hand quizzes, this is one of the most comprehensive Omaha book available.d.
Public: Winning Omaha/8 Poker by Mark Tenner, Lou Krieger
Omaha/8, in our opinion, is one of the hardest poker games to master. This excellent book from two top Omaha players is top notch. Mark Tenner has been playing and winning on a regular basis for 40 years, and can generally be found playing in the highest limit games. For the last several years, Mark has played Omaha/8 almost exclusively. His peers consider him one of the finest minds in the game because of his almost uncanny feel for how Omaha/8 should be played. It is this special gift, along with general expertise, that Mark Tenner brings to this book. Because he is also a skilled communicator, he succeeds in imparting not only tips and techniques but his unique process of analysis and thinking.
Best Poker Book: Stud
OPA: Winning 7-Card Stud: Transforming Home Poker Chumps int Casino Killers by Ashley Adams
Everyone who plays home poker knows how to be a chump. This book will convert you from a chump to a killer. The books takes you through a step by step approach to take you from a losing player, where antes and bad play will chew up your bankroll, to a winning player where you can systematically destroy the chumps who haven’t read this book.
Public: Internet Hold’em Poker: Plus 7-card stud, Omaha, and other games by Avery Cardoza
This book is separated from the chaff of other online poker books by presenting the reader with real strategies, real options, and easy and fun way to join the millions of online players around the globe. Readers learn the five steps to getting started, how to move money in and out of accounts safely, 21 advantages of playing online, how to play for free or for profit, how to simultaneously play multiple screens and games, and much more including how to make a living online! Internet poker has a vastly different strategy that is only glossed over in other books and key topics like playing for real money and side issues are completely ignored. Other topics include Internet-specific strategies, how to sign up and play, different games and levels available, and how to recognize and protect against collusion.
Best Poker Magazine
OPA: Card Player
This is no surprise to any serious poker player. Inside Card Player, you’ll find page after page of informative playing strategy, poker articles by some of the greatest poker players in the game today, upcoming tournaments, as well as major poker tournament results. Poker’s top players provide detailed discussions and opinions on various aspects of the game, making Card Player the most informative learning tool in the poker industry. In-depth articles help readers improve their game and become winning players. Every issue provides all the important headline stories in the poker world and features articles about the hottest players in the game today, capturing the poker lifestyle like no other publication.
Public: Bluff Magazine
Bluff reaches more poker players per month than any other poker magazine. Bluff Magazine truly captures all of the excitement that has made poker the phenomenon it is today. Bluff targets not only the serious player, but also the new generation that has been attracted to poker by the ever-present TV and online presence. From advice on how to play, to coverage of the biggest tournaments, to what it’s like to spend a day with the hottest poker players in the world, Bluff covers all aspects of poker, on and offline. Equally informative and entertaining, Bluff engages long-time players, and today’s new generation of poker pro alike.