Even the rails are heating up with numerous spectators for these hands.

With thousands of dollars swinging from hand to hand, the mid-day excitement is really hitting its peak.

If you want to see the action, or get in on it yourself, login to CarbonPoker and hit the $25/$50 Tables.

For years, poker players only appeared on TV if it was related to the actual game of poker.  However, we’ve recently begun seeing poker players appear in a lot of mainstream television shows and movies.  Daniel Negreanu appearing in the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, Annie Duke being one of the finalist on “The Apprentice”, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho appearing on the hit CBS reality series “Amazing Race” are just a couple of the latest examples.  Popular poker pro Erik Seidel added his name to the list this week.

Seidel made his mainstream television debut on the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” which revolves around the fictional life of Seinfeld producer Larry David.  The episode that Seidel appeared in was entitled “Officer Krupke”, and Erik is prominently featured in a shot where Larry and his onscreen wife Cheryl Hines are talking at a restaurant about a Seinfeld reunion.

Many have wondered how/why Seidel was on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  The 8-time WSOP gold bracelet winner explained that he is a huge fan of the show, and had been looking for a way to appear on it.  So basically, being able to appear on Curb Your Enthusiasm was a dream for Seidel since he is such a big fan of the show.

It has also been rumored that another poker pro might be making an appearance on a HBO show.  Daniel Negreanu will appear in an episode of the hit show “Entourage” along with fellow poker player/actor Ben Affleck.  Aside from his role as a poker player in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Negreanu also recently appeared in the “Body Issue” of ESPN: The Magazine.  Being on HBO’s “Entourage”, which is a drama based on the fictional life of a movie star and his friends, would only further cement Negreanu’s mainstream status.

The November Promotion at CarbonPoker is awesome. It’s a month long SitnGo extravaganza with points, cash and stuffing — all culminating in a 128-man Heads Up Championship!

Here’s how it works: From November 1-30, Carbon is running specially added Turkey Jackpot SitnGos. Each time you play in one of these events you have the opportunity to earn Turkey Points and build the eventual jackpot.

For official rules, prizes and yada yada yada, check the Turkey Grand Slam Page. This page will also house the official leaderboard, real time jackpot amount and any other info you need.

Half of each Turkey Jackpot SnG will be added to the month-end Jackpot. To kick things off, we’re seeding the prize pool with $2,500 and it’s only going to go up from here.

The SitnGos will cost between $2+20c and $50+$5:

As you can see, there are tons of chances to earn points during November. Remember, only the top 128 players will make their way into the Unique Starting Stack heads up Grand Finale. The more points you earn, the more chips you’ll have for the final.

Get the jump on the rest of the competition and start playing as soon as you see the tourneys roll out.

For those of you already licking your chops for the eventual payout, here’s how it breaks down:

Spoiler alert: EVERYBODY that makes the top 128 will win something.

Result      Jackpot Payout

• 1st – 17%
• 2nd – 12%
• 3rd/4th – 7.5%
• 5-8th – 5%
• 9-16th – 2.5%
• 17-32nd – 1%
• 33-64th – $109 Coupon
• 65-128th – $11 Coupon

Basically we’ll be running twice-daily tourneys that only cost $1+$0.20 to enter. I’ve got you so far, right?

There are a few ways to get into the tourney: $1+$0.20 , 120 VIP Points or a $1.20 Coupon.

Here’s where it gets even better: Daily Guaranteed Cash!

12:15 Server Time – $1,500 Guaranteed

18:15 Server Time – $2,500 Guaranteed

If you’re good, there is excellent opportunities for bonus cash. Finish in the money a few times in the same day or week, and really cash in. Win 2 in a day? That’s going to pay off.

Bonus Cash Prizes For Double Results:
Cash in Back-2-Back Dazzlers: $25 Cash
Reach the Final Table Twice in 7 Days: $50 Cash
Win 2 x Dazzlers Within 7 Days: $100 Cash
Reach The Final Table in Back-2-Back Dazzlers: $250 Cash
Win Back-2-Back Dazzlers: $500 Cash

Watch the tourney list to see when these events are going to be rolling.

Avoid Constant Aggression

Most successful No-Limit Hold’em players employ pretty aggressive style of play.  But the problem with some aggressive players is that they maintain this aggression throughout every playing session and never switch their play up.

When this happens, there are some players who will catch on and call anything just to resist these aggressive charges.  So you’ve got to be able to perceive when others are willing to push you to the showdown and switch up your play.

Switching your Play

When you think the table is ready to call all of your semi-bluffs and second-rate hands then you’ll want to switch to a tighter playing style.  This means only playing your strong hands because it will catch a lot of other players in traps.  They’ll think you’re still playing overly aggressive and will try to challenge you which will only allow you to make even more money off of them.

Stay ahead of the Game

You can only fool other players so long with the tight play before they’ll catch on to that as well.  So in order to stay ahead of the curve, you’ll eventually have to switch back again to playing more aggressive.  Making these switches is all about noticing how the table perceives you at any given moment and changing your game accordingly.

Guaranteed money + a relativey small pool of players = a TON of value for poker players. (That’s a little bit of math for you). I’m not saying it’s easy money, but you’ve got a great shot at finishing in the money.

The tourney goes off each and every Sunday at 15:00 Server Time. If you’ve never played, I really encourage it. The cost is $109, VIP Points or a coupon.

All The Tourney Details:

What: $50,000 Guaranteed

When: Every Sunday @ 15:00 (Carbon Time)

How: $100+$9, Coupon or VIP points

If you want to turn this into a freeroll, I’d suggest following CarbonPoker on Twitter or Being a CarbonPoker Facebook Fan. We hold weekly contests where we give away $109 coupons and more.

That’s right, if you’ve been a part of this great promo, you’ve got a shot to represent CarbonPoker at one of the live-event highlights of the poker calendar — The Aussie Millions.

All you need to do to get your shot at a seat in Melbourne is dominate the MTT leaderboard. You do this by placing well in any MTT event; the player admin automatically tracks your leaderboard points. The top 100 players on the MTT Leaderboard will be fighting it out this Sunday for the live seat.

• Saturday, October 10, 2009
• 14:00 Server Time.
• Top 100 MTT Leaderboard Players

Want to get in the next MTT Final? Hit up multi table tourneys at Carbon and work your way up the leaderboard. There is another Aussie Millions seat up for grabs, so get on it, mate.

While we here at the CarbonBlog have nothing against nudity, we are wondering about the choices of … models (?) for the shoot.

Leading the pack is Jennifer Harman, and then you get three others you probably weren’t expecting to see all in (and all out — hi-0hhhhh) on the poker tables.

As you’ve no doubt seen in the picture, that’s Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen. It’s always good to see poker coverage in ESPn, even if the players aren’t covered.

I guess that photo is NSFW, if you work with people who don’t want to see Phil Hellmuth’s moobs. I probably should have said that first.

Making the Call

It’s tough to lay down your cards when a pot is full of limpers and you only need to call half a bet to stay in the hand.  In fact, many people almost always make this call no matter what cards they are holding.  However, a big problem arises when you start calling half bets with such a wide range of hands.  Just because the call is only half a bet doesn’t mean you should throw away chips with 2-7.

And even if you do make the call then it’s always possible that the big blind could raise which makes this a really bad bet when you’re playing out of position the rest of the hand.  If you do call then make sure that you actually have a chance to hit a big hand in a multi-way pot.

Hand Range

It is tough to really create a good range of cards to call with in the small blind.  Obviously with a half bet call you can use a little wider range than normal.  But you don’t want to be making calls with 10c-3c just because there is a possible flush opportunity available.

Suited connectors are always gold in this position (especially in multi-way pots), any hand with an ace will do, and regular connectors are also good to make calls with from the small blind.  As long as you’ve got something which could turn into a solid drawing hand then you should use it.

However, it’s only been reported that Hungary is trying to regulate live poker, and they hope to make around 1 million Euros right away from dipping their hand into the game.  The only thing that is currently standing in the way of nationwide legal and regulated poker is the fact that not all parties agree on the plan.

Apparently, some people in the government want to put strict limitations on live poker clubs.  Among these limits include a 10 table limit inside of every club along with a cap on the tournament entry fees and cash game blinds.  The Hungarian Poker Association and the Hungarian Gambling Association are both adamantly against the restrictions since they think such limits would scare high profile international players away from Hungary.

It definitely seems like a good argument that Hungarian is possibly going to regulate the game too strictly.  If only low-level buy-ins are allowed in live poker clubs then it will definitely keep rich and famous players from entering any Hungarian events.  On top of this, most of the other players will opt to play online poker since it doesn’t sound like Hungary will look to be regulating this any time soon.

Whatever the case is, most of the country’s big poker playing population is hoping that the restrictions on live play aren’t too severe in the end.  But if they are too strict than you can definitely expect to see a big spike in the number of Hungarian online players.