Ladbrokes Poker is now bigger and better! Content for key partners 3 rd Week / March 2009

1. Ladbrokes Poker is nowbigger and better! Content for key partners 3rd Week / March 2009 This week…News Weekly bulletin: VIP OfferArticle from Pro PlayerRoy Brindley 2st Part Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!

2. Weekly Bulletin • VIP Club - Ladbrokes $1,000,0000 Rake Race better than Cash Back: Guaranteed! • From January 2009, Ladbrokes is replacing the Cash Back promotion with a series of monthly $1,000,000 Rake Races, in which we guarantee VIP’s will earn a greater reward for their cash game play than you did under our Cash Back promotion. • We are so confident that you will be better off by taking part in our $1,000,000 rake race, that if the prize you receive is less than what you would have received under our Cash Back promotion, then we will pay the difference. • $20,000 Top Prize • $15,000 - $8,000 for 2nd – 9th • $7,500 - $5,500 for 10th – 14th • $5,250 - $3,500 for 15th – 20th • $3,050 - $2,200 for 21st – 30th - 50th • $2,000 - $1,500 for 51st – 100th • $1,400 - $1,100 for 101st – 150th • $1,050 - $850 for 151st – 250th • $750 for 251st – 300th • Plus amazing cash prizes paid all the way to 3000th place! • After the completion of the March Rake Race, you will receive an email advising you of your Leaderboard prize, how much you would have received under the Cash Back promotion and if applicable the difference credit you have also received. • Click here to check out your position in this month’s $1,000,000 Rake Race. • Good luck! • Ladbrokes Poker VIP • Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival 2009 - Coming soon! • Don't miss the action in Killarney, 2009. Online qualification is exclusive to Ladbrokes Poker. So don’t miss out on a great Irish experience! More info to follow in the next few weeks Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!

3. Ladbrokes Pro Player : Roy the boy Brindley 2nd Part Feeling your way - By Roy Brindley - Ladbrokes Pro Player The first vital ingredient for success has to be ‘feel’ closely followed by its direct relation ‘card sense’. These are an understanding which comes as second nature to those who came out of the womb clutching a deck of cards …or at least started playing a card game of some sorts since infant school. You will probably find ‘feel’ mentioned in numerous books but how install it into your character and into your game doubtlessly varies as everyone has a unique demeanour. Once you get an understanding of the situations going on around you, sense what your opponents are doing and why, you are halfway there. Hone this way of thinking and you will find yourself making calls or performing moves entirely on instinct – invariably correctly - because you have become embroiled in the game you are paying. It’s often called ‘being in the zone’. To culture this almost subconscious understanding, to have this feel for the pace of a game and recognise when something is wrong, out of place, and inappropriate, you cannot essentially “enjoy” your card game in the purest sense of the word. By that I mean you cannot engage in idle chit-chat or have you attention divided between the game at hand and football highlights on a screen adjacent to you. Constant and meticulous attention is required. So why do you listen to music on your iPod when playing, you may ask. Simple, it blocks out any distractions but, more importantly and deeper than that, it enhances your visual senses, allowing increased focus on the happenings around you. “Absolute rubbish,” I hear you say. Maybe, but try this little experiment as I think you will be surprised by the result: Place your favourite film or video in your DVD player, turn off the volume and watch it again carefully. I can assure you without sound, yet being familiar with the words, you’ll see tiny things that you never knew existed. Small glitches, like a person’s hair blowing in the wind one second, but not when the camera is reversed back on the same character moments later. A man’s tie hanging to the right, but then to the left as the camera angle changes. You may even spot things in the backdrop which you have never noticed before. Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!

4. Ladbrokes Pro Player : Roy the boy Brindley 2nd Part Feeling your way - By Roy Brindley - Ladbrokes Pro Player This is all about perception, the ability to see things that, in card playing, can make a lot of difference. Trust me, when you have been playing for ten hours and you are at a tense final table, the ability to interpret a player’s mannerisms is priceless. All of this stuff, feel, perception and body language are related. You could call body language ‘tells’ I suppose but no matter what the terminology, you have to spot them and use them to your advantage. I have a copy of TV’s Late Night Poker series 4 - filmed in 2001 - and when watching it, over and over as I did at the time, I realised even the best can be an open book. In it Phil Hellmuth, faced off against Liam Flood in a pot. Phil held King-7 while Flood had a pair of 8’s. Phil led out (bet when first to act) when the flop came down 4-7-9 and Liam immediately raised. The body language and demeanour of Hellmuth faced with this raise was to sit bolt upright, pulling himself as close to the table as he possibly could. His body stiffened, his shoulders seemed to broaden, I swear he got taller in his chair, and he stared Flood down in this pose for a seriously long time whilst aggressively counting his chips out before announcing “all-in” as the clock was called on him. Flood was forced to lay down his hand and Hellmuth took down the pot with the worst of it. Later, in the same game, Hellmuth held an absolute monster, a flopped two pairs which became a full-house. This time he was silent, impassive and made no eye contact with his opponents. His chips went into the pot almost silently yet quickly. Considering this player is understood to be one of the finest in the world, it shows even the best of them can, sometimes, be read like a book. Getting to that final table is what it is all about of course and being zoned into a game is useless if you cannot play it. What is the best way to learn then? It’s not by reading a book as I’ve already mentioned. It’s by throwing yourself straight into the deep end with a desire to learn, using open mindedness. Actually, if there is one advantage a complete novice player should have, and I think it is the only one, it’s the fact that old dogs cannot be taught new tricks and total beginners don’t come into the ‘old dog’ category. Let me clarify that one. There’s a few old timers on the circuit who always play in the same way, they have clocked up more poker hours than most of us ever will in three lifetimes. However, their game never changes. It’s been the same for the past twenty years and I believe the prospect of them making adjustments to their playbook now is almost nil. Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!

5. Ladbrokes Pro Player : Roy the boy Brindley 2nd Part Feeling your way - By Roy Brindley - Ladbrokes Pro Player So you have to constantly tailor your game to adapt to the players around you. And if what you have been doing for years has been fruitless, your style is clearly broken and needs to be fixed. What do we all want to be? Hopefully the answer is successful, be it for financial reasons or the thrill and satisfaction of victory. Playing and only playing is the way to become a successful poker player. Constantly strive to improve yourself and watch established and successful players closely. Every poker room in the world has a select few players who win more than the others. Most have leagues and leader boards posted which can help a first timer identify just who wins a disproportionate percentage of the tournaments they play and makes the final table more than 50 percent of the time for example. They are your shining light. Watch these players, watch them closely, learn from them. See how many hands they play – you are sure to be surprised how few that actually is. And take note of what starting hands they play, how much they raise, where and when they raise and what passes they make. Soak up this information like a sponge because mirroring their tactics will mirror their success. Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!

6. It is a great time to be an affiliate with Ladbrokes Poker! Contact immediately the Poker Affiliate Team: Simone Pignatelli Email: simone.pignatelli@ladbrokes.co.uk Direct Tel: +44 (0)208 515 5168 Craig Van Flute Email: craig.vanflute@ladbrokes.co.uk Direct Tel: +44 (0)208 515 5784 Ladbrokespoker.com - the home of the monthly $1m rake race, paying 3,000 places!