The Malta Poker Events’ Poker Seminar came to an end last weekend, on Sunday the 18th April. The event was held over two days at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta.
The educational event targeted poker players with an active interest in No-Limit Hold’em was coordinated by local organizers – Malta Poker Events – who are currently leading the live poker scene on the Maltese islands with their mix of community building efforts and live poker games at the local casino poker rooms.The young and dynamic team envisioned the project several months ago, looking for the right mix of knowledgeable speakers, who also possessed the skills to transfer such knowledge to listeners in a fun and entertaining way.
The Malta Poker Seminar was headlined by professional poker player, WSOP Gold Bracelet winner and two-time WPT Champion Ron Rose. Ron, who was also a WPT Boot Camp instructor in Las Vegas, NV, flew in for the event from the USA delivering an entire day of presentations, sharing his experiences playing against other professionals on various televised events with those in attendance. Ron covered many topics during his presentation including poker basics, calculating pot odds, implied odds, betting strategies, mathematics of poker, bluffing, stealing, table image and tournament play – essential tips for those aspiring poker players to improve their game.At the beginning of the seminar Ron presented the delegates with selected scenarios in which each of the delegates was asked to answer a set of multiple choice questions. This was done to determine the delegates’ pre-seminar poker IQs. After Ron’s presentation was over, the same scenarios were presented again, and the delegates’ post-seminar IQs were compared to their pre-seminar poker IQs. A show of hands gave staggering results, as more than 90% of the seminar delegates saw an improvement in their test scores of anywhere from 10 to 40 percent.
Ron was also supported by Ari Pietarinen, The Pokerspokesman, from Helsinki, Finland. The amicable Finnish speaker is another professional in the poker world, earning a living and supporting his family through the success and consistency he has achieved from playing No Limit Hold’em, the world’s favourite card game. His speech about the “transition from an amateur to a poker pro” was a warm and honest delivery; and through his tales of the ups and downs of “going pro,” Ari painted a realistic picture to those aspiring to follow in his footsteps.
“Responsible Gaming” was also included on the Malta Poker Seminar agenda. Here, Malta Poker Events selected Linda Aklundh as the best possible candidate for this delicate subject. Thanks to her experience in the field of psychotherapy, and the training she has followed through her affiliation with Gamcare, Linda’s presentation sustained everyone’s attention for the full delivery, while she gave specific advice on recognizing symptoms of compulsive gambling, and offering suggestions on ways to help relieve such symptoms before they become harder to resolve.
“Poker Out of the Box,” by Norman Darmanin Demajo from the Time 2 Think Foundation, was a fresh interactive delivery which enthralled the audience at the MCC. The brain-tickling presentation focused on how patterns are formed in human beings’ thought processes. Norman’s reflections were solidified by proving [through practical exercises performed by the delegates] how patterns tend to dampen creativity, resulting in a narrower spectrum of choices in the decision making process. The information was greatly appreciated by the poker players who experienced this first hand when trying one of a number of exercises which Norman prepared for this occasion.
Malcolm Tortell moved in with his presentation entitled “Working with Emotions: Maximise Effectiveness and Minimise Interference in Poker” where he defined “going on tilt” as a scenario in which a player experiences increased emotional activity in a situation where this can be detrimental to his chip stack. Malcolm offered advice on how such emotional interference may be dealt with in practical ways such as breathing exercises, getting in the zone, and other methods.
The Malta Poker Seminar was caught on tape and short clips including interviews with all the speakers will soon be available for viewing in the video gallery section of the Malta Poker Events website. Malta Poker Events
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