Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
History PokerStars launched
History PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11, 2001. The company began offering real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, which was majority owned by the Scheinberg family of Israel.[11][12] The company was subsequently moved to the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from America.[11] PokerStars holds its licence with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission and also holds government licences in Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy,[13] Estonia and Spain. On February 10, 2012, PokerStars acquired a European Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Commission.[14]
Privately owned, PokerStars
Privately owned, PokerStars has been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible initial public offering or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would have been approximately $2 billion (US) in 2004, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies.[12] PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room at around the time the U.S. Congress passed the