easypoker Archives

Articles Tagged with: easypoker

Mike Sexton Poker Player Story

This year the poker community lost one of the big voices of poker. The professional poker player and commentator Mike Sexton died at the age of 72. His impressive career has earned him multiple wins, induction into the Poker Hall of Fame and is famously known as The ambassador of poker. This is the story of Mike Sexton.

Who is Mike Sexton?

Sexton was an american professional poker player and commentator. He was an entity in the poker community. Mike commentated The World Poker Tour with actor and former professional tennis player, Vince Van Patten. He got his first and only bracelet in 1998 in the $1.500 Seven card stud split event at the 1989 World Series of Poker.

His impact and achievements did not come unnoticed. Mike Sexton was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2009.

Early life of Mike Sexton

He was born Michael Richard Sexton, in september 22, 1947 in Shelbyville, Indiana. His parents got divorced when he was only four years old. When he was young he was actually far from a poker player. He was a gymnast. He earned a degree as public recreation after changing majors from business from The Ohio State University. He began playing poker during college. He often joked that he actually majored in poker due to the time he spent playing. Besides poker, he also played a bit of contract bridge.

Eventually he went on to join the U.S. Army as a paratrooper. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division in the year of 1970. He never went on to see combat as the division had just returned from war in Vietnam. His past as a gymnast went on to become useful, when he taught himself ballroom dancing in the army. He began teaching it to people. One of ‘clients’ saw a future salesman in Mike and encouraged him to pursue a career as a salesman. This became relevant later on in his life. During this time he got married. Mike spent a short period working as a salesman before returning to his ‘major in poker’.

He took on poker in 1977 as he thought that he would make more money playing poker, then he would as a salesman. This took a toll on his marriage and they eventually got divorced. It took almost 10 years before he really went for it. In 1985 he moved to Nevada and advanced to a full-time poker player.

The ambassador of poker

Mike Sexton has proved himself at the poker table. He has got an astounding 17 career cashes in the World Poker Tour (WPT). He even won as late as the 2016 World Poker Tour in Montreal. His first prize amounted to $317,896.

His bracelet from the World Series of Poker is still one of his biggest achievements. His highest rank in The Global Poker Index is #212. His all time money amounts to a humongous $6,516,421.

His cashes aside, Mike also cemented himself as a known innovator and entrepreneur within the poker community. Mike Sexton used his wits within his business majors to co-found the Partypoker platform. Partypoker became a major player in the realm of online poker and even topped the list of the biggest poker sites in the United States. Although it had a rough patch with a $500k deficit after its launch in 2020. The former salesman sold his shares two and a half years later for $15 million a year. The company went public later on, after four year, for 9 billion dollars. Auch. Mike Sexton is estimated to have lost around half a billion dollars due to his early departure. He never regretted his decision.

Charity

Even though he lost a lot of ‘dough’, Mike donated a lot of money to charity. He has donated way
beyond $1,000,000.

In 2006 he donated his entire winnings and pledged to do so with all following prizes. In 2009, the same year he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, he went a bit further. Together with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher and Lisa Tenner, he created PokerGives.org. The organization is non-profit and facilitates a way of making it easier for poker plates to donate to charity.

His wins, ability to commentate, entrepreneurship and heart for charity earned him the high honour of being recognized as the top poker ambassador at the Card Player of the Year Awards Gala in 2006.
Hence his nickname, The ambassador of poker.

Private life of Mike Sexton

Mike’s early divorce propelled him on to use all of his time on poker, but at the age of 60, he remarried. The lucky woman was a hostess at the Bellagio casino. Her name is Karen and they conceived a child. A boy.

His persona and work ethics has even made room for significant quotes from some of the biggest poker players around. Daniel Negreanu, the poker kid, said: “He’s always put a good face on poker. He’s always been someone who promotes the game in a very very positive way”.

The kind word seems to keep on as Phil Hellmuth once said that “Love Mike Sexton. He has been one of the biggest ambassadors for poker we’ve ever had”.

Sadly, Mike Sexton died on september 6th, 2020, at the age of 72 due to a long battle with prostate cancer. BUT Mike Sexton will continue to live on the Poker Hall of Fame and in history, as best described by Nolan Dalla. “Mike Sexton is simply one of the most important people in the history of the game.”

Are you the next Mike Sexton?

Want to test your skills against your friends in a free game of private digital poker? The EasyPoker app provides both chips, cards and an unlimited amount of games – for free. It’s a digital version of a physical poker set that takes care of everything. And so all you have to do is just play your cards. Get the poker app for Android and iPhone.

WANT MORE POKER PLAYER STORIES?

We’re constantly adding new stories of interesting poker players. You can find them all on our blog.
If you have a suggestion for a story you’d like to read, or something to add to this one, let us know in the comments below. Thank you.

Short Deck Poker – Rules & How to Play

EasyPoker just launched Short Deck Poker – play directly from within the app.

In a recent update we added support for more types of poker games, including Short Deck Hold’em – also known as 6-plus poker. In this post I will talk about why we choose Short Deck Hold’em and how the Short Deck poker rules differ from regular Texas style of play.

Short Deck Poker – using EasyPoker

First off, Short Deck Hold’em is a Plus feature you will find in the EasyPoker table settings. EasyPoker Plus starts from $3.99 and will allow more customization for your home games, as well as many other features. Our goal is to deliver all “need to have” features for free (such as creating a free game for up to 6 players) and nice to have features are Plus. This includes Short Deck Poker.

Why Chose Short Deck Poker?

Short Deck Poker is becoming more and more popular each month. And I completely understand why. The Short Deck game is eliminating all the low ranked cards. This makes the gameplay more intense and leaves a greater chance of having impressive hands – both for you and your competition.

This small but amazing twist made it an obvious choice for EasyPoker to support the poker style. It’s also very closely related to regular texas hold’em, which fits perfectly in the EasyPoker mindset.

Short Deck Poker Rules

Short Deck Poker is very closely related to Texas Hold’em. With Short Deck Hold’em you play without cards lower than 6 (Ace are still included in Short Deck). This means no 2’s, 3’s, 4’s and 5’s.

Eliminating these cards means that you have a greater chance of getting a full-house than a flush. It’s also harder to get three of a kind than a straight – unlike in 52 cards poker. This is because you only have 9 cards of each suit, so flushes and three of a kind are pretty rare when playing with a short deck.

Short Deck Poker Hand Rankings

As mentioned above the hand rankings are a bit different when playing Short Deck Poker. This is because the mathematical possibilities change when removing the lower cards. The hand rankings are…

1. Royal Flush
2. Straight Flush
3. Four of a kind
4. Flush
5. Full House
6. Three of a Kind
7. Straight
8. Two Pair
9. One Pair
10. High Card

As you can see by the colors, Flush and Full House has switched places. So has Three of a Kind and Straight.

How to Play

You start the game by putting out a small blind and big blind. After that you deal each player two cards with the top down – just like in regular Texas Hold’em. All players need to at least match the big blind in order to continue.

After the initial betting round you lay out the first 3 community cards. Then you have a new betting round. Next you lay out the turn card in the CC, bet again, and then finally add the river card – just like in Texas Hold’em.

In the end all the remaining players need to show their cards in order to find the winner of the pot (keep the mucking rules in mind).

EasyPoker will manage all rules, dealing, blinds etc. for you. Just follow the link to play short deck poker on Android and iPhone or use the buttons below. Just a friendly reminder from me.

Get EasyPoker

EasyPoker will allow you to play short deck
hold’em with friends and family.

How to Optimize your EasyPoker Experience

The EasyPoker app is still in, what we consider, a public beta.

By that we mean the app is certainly playable and awesome, but we’re still working around the clock to optimize and better the app and experience. And we are doing so with our users. Laying the tracks while driving the train, so to speak.

But if you are planning a poker night and want to use EasyPoker there are some actions you can take to avoid potential hiccups in the app.

How to create and launch a game

If you have issues while starting a game, check out this video guide on how to create and launch a game.

Before you Start

Tip #1:

Make sure everyone is on a stable network connection. Bad wifi or internet connection won’t give you a great starting point.

Tip #2:

Make sure you and your friends know how to get a game going. It’s fairly simple, but we’ve made a guide should you need it. The most important thing to remember is that we are not ‘sit and go’. Players can not join a game that has already started – they need to be present in the game lobby when the game is launched.

Tip #3:

Free players can make a game of up to 3 players, and Plus+ members can host up to 12 players. Free players can join as many Plus+ tables as they want – only the host is required to have EasyPoker+.

Tip #4:

Tell your friends to stay in the app as much as possible. While it is possible to leave the app mid game and use your phone to do outer stuff, we see that this is oftentimes the cause for issues. Try not to ‘lock’ your phone as well.

Tip #5:

If a player wants to leave the table – have them do so by force quitting the app. We’ve had user report issues when someone leaves the table by choosing ‘quit game’ from the menu, and while we investigate this we recommend you leave an ongoing table by force quitting the app.

We are of course working on a permanent fix.

If you encounter issues

If rebuy doesn’t appear automatically when a player goes bust, have that player open the in game settings and hit ‘sync table’. This should prompt the rebuy function and send a request to the host of the game.

If someone loses connection you should first have that player open the in game settings and hit ‘sync table’. If that doesn’t clear things up, try playing the current hand to the end, if possible. In most cases, things will sync when a new hand is dealt. If that still doesn’t help, or if you are not able to play the hand to the end, have the player force quit the app. When opening the app again, a pop up will appear with the chance to rejoin the table.

And if all else fails try logging out and back in.

Contact our Support

The EasyPoker support is also open around the clock, both on email and through the chat on our page.

Hope this helps, and good luck on your poker night!

Thanks,
Ulrik, COO

Poker Hands Ranking Guide

Poker is a well known game using 52 playing cards. But it’s not always clear to me which poker hands are the strongest. Therefore I’ve made this guide to mainly help myself and maybe you.

Poker Hands & Hand Ranking

Check this video for a simple and intuitive explanation.

The cards are divided into 4 suits of 13 ranks each. The four suits are Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds. Traditionally, clubs are listed as the highest of the suits, but officially they all have the same rank in poker.

Aces, poker hands ranking

Poker ranks from highest to lowest

When playing a game of poker, the highest card is Ace (A). The lowest card is Deuce (which is the card with the number 2 on it). Here is the full list of the 13 ranks listed from highest to lowest.

high to low, poker hands ranking

Poker Hands Strength (Highest to Lowest)

I have listed the strongest hands from the highest Royal Flush to the high card standard. But remember; you never play the hand, you play the man.

1. Royal Flush

Royal flush is hands down (no pun intended) the ultimate poker hand. It contains the cards A, K, Q, J and 10, all of the same suit. But don’t get your hopes up. The odds of you getting a Royal Flush is 649,739 to 1. That’s the same as a probability of 0.000154%.

straight flush, poker hands ranking

2. Straight flush

The Straight Flush is like the Royal Flush, except that it doesn’t have to contain the 5 highest ranking cards. That means that the odds of you getting a Straight Flush is simply 72,192.33 to 1. Easy.

Straight flush, poker hands ranking

3. Four of a Kind

Four of a kind is a pretty good hand. Maybe that’s why it’s ranked as the third best hand in poker? It must be. The hand consists of four of the same cards. Oh, like a book in “Go fish”? Now I get it.

Four of a kind, poker hands ranking

4. Full House

I know what you’re thinking. But a Full House has nothing to do with the classic TV series with the amazing Olsen twins. Been there, done that. A Full House is a poker term that means you have a pair and three of a kind, at the same time. Pretty crazy actually.

Full House, poker hands ranking

5. Flush

Even though this poker hand is given the name of a visit to the toilet, the flush has nothing to do with ~~shit~~ excrements. The flush consists of 5 cards of the same suits.

flush, poker hands ranking

6. Straight

(Insert gay joke here). A Straight is five cards of sequential ranks like 2-6, 7-J or 10-A. Be aware that Aces (A) can be both the highest and lowest card in a Straight.

Straight, poker hands ranking

7. Three of a Kind

Andy Warhol once said “One’s company, two’s a crowd, and three’s a party”. I’m not sure he was talking about poker, but damn, he was right. The Three of a Kind poker hand consists of three cards of equal rank. The chances of you having a Three of a Kind poker hand is 46.3 to 1. So it’s definitely not impossible to land this dreamy threesome.

Three of a Kind, poker hands ranking

8. Two Pair

You know that awkward double date where your girlfriend wants you to be best friends with her girlfriends boyfriend? That sucks, especially because her boyfriend has that weird thing or don’t play poker. Luckily, Two Pairs in poker is awesome. The hand consists (funny enough) of two cards of the same rank, plus two other cards of the same rank.

Two Pair, poker hands ranking

9. One Pair

One pair is pretty simple. You just have to have two cards of the same rank. Even my three legged blind dog can pull that off.

One pair, poker hands rank

10. High Card

Are your poker hand so weak that it didn’t meet any of the above requirements? Then I would probably just kill myself. Or you can use the High Card rule. Simply just pick out the person with the highest card in the rank from Deuce (2) to Ace (A). And there’s your winner.

High Card, poker hands ranking guide

Play poker with Friends

Poker is a fantastic game. And now you know pretty much everything there is to know about the poker hands you can play! So why not do a field test?

We’ve created an awesome and free poker app that lets you play face to face poker with your friends anywhere, anytime!

Poker Hands

So, we all know and love how poker was originally meant to be played. With friends and foes, face to face, at a table full of crisp cards and booming piles of chips. And we love to do that whenever we can.

But what if you just want to play a spontaneous game of poker with your friends on the go? Say at boring social events, on a long train ride, at the office or in line for a concert? No one cool walks around with a full poker set on them at all times. You may be able to gather half a deck of playing cards – but poker chips? Come on, man.
This is when you make desperate decisions and start using anything from broken matches to rolled up paper as chips. Stop. Right. Now.
We’ve got you.

Unlike other poker apps out there, EasyPoker mimics a real life game of face to face poker. With our app, you play against friends in the same room – not shady avatars from strange countries like “Asabajadar” – whatever that is.

Do you need to connect a credit card? No. A real life poker set doesn’t come with a credit card solution, so neither does EasyPoker.

EasyPoker really is the easiest way to play a game of face to face poker – anywhere, anytime.

The poker app you and your friends have been waiting for – and we think you deserve.

Click here to download the free app from the App Store or Google Play Store!

Highfive.