Cardmates Gambling Portal – All About UK Poker & Casinos

​

Alright, mates! Got some cracking news. Henceforth, every Friday active users of our site will be able to join CM Freerolls – exclusive private tournaments hosted on GGPoker. Freeroll guarantees vary from $150 to $600. Dead simple to gain access: start your blog on Cardmates.co.uk, rack up enough Aura points to achieve a particular status.

What’s Aura and statuses? Find all the details via the link.

Friday freeroll deets:

• Tour name – CardMates Freeroll;
• Date – every Friday at 20:00;
• Buy-in – free entry;
• Game – No-Limit Hold'em (NLH);
• Late registration – 30 mins;
• Starting stack – 125 BB;
• Format – 8-max, no re-entry/rebuys.

Please note: the tournaments pop up in the GGPoker lobby about two hours before kickoff (around 6pm). Freeroll tickets get credited on Fridays.

The higher your site status, the quicker you tap into freerolls with bigger guarantees. What to do next once you've achieved a certain status? Check details at the end of this post.

$150 CM Freeroll (Fan)

​

A starting freeroll for new bloggers kicking off their course on our site. Reach "Fan" status on Cardmates.co.uk to gain access.

Getting your first status is dead easy – one only needs 200 Aura points. The first 100 points land automatically as soon as the user registers on our site and completes their profile.

Just set up your blog and share the story of your gambling journey. Let's get acquainted, mates! 😉

$250 CM Freeroll (Expert)

​

Tournament unlocks for everyone who hits the "Expert" status. To achieve it, you'll need to spend a bit more time on the site and charge your Aura with at least 500 points.

Get active in blogs: post new stuff, comment on others. Won't take too long to become an Expert, actually.

$350 CM Freeroll (Guru)

​

One must collect at least 1,500 Aura points to qualify for this tourney – that’s an automatic grant of the "Guru" status. Worth it: fewer participants, fatter prizes.

Aim for longer, top-quality blog posts. The more gripping your pieces are, the more ratings from the crowd.

$450 CM Freeroll (Elite)

​

Next level up – exclusive Friday freerolls for "Elite" bloggers. You need to elevate your Aura meter to 5,000 points to grab this status.

By this point, you'll have enough experience to smash it on Cardmates.co.uk. Make sure to grow your following – they'll get instant notifications on every new post and contribute to your desired ratings.

$600 CM Freeroll (Legend)

​

This is the peak of your adventure on our site. Only those hitting the "Legend" status will qualify for the cream of the crop freeroll – 10,000+ Aura points required.

Yeah, only select and most active bloggers will pull it off. But nothing's impossible – become a true Cardmates.co.uk legend and grab the sweetest perks! 👑

How to join private freerolls

Once you secure your first status on Cardmates.co.uk, you’ll need to register your GGPoker nickname on our site. Click your profile pic and select "Status" to hit a special form that registers usernames. Do it once, and you're always on the Friday tournament lists.

Note: You'll get a notification as soon as you unlock a new status on our website.

Registration for the special GGPoker freerolls is automatic. Find Friday tournaments in the poker room’s lobby using filters: Tourney – Private. Reg opens about two hours before kickoff.

Crucial point! We pass the list of players to GGPoker every Monday. Miss the new status deadline? You'll be able to join the fatter game next week – keep this in mind.

Your epic journey on Cardmates.co.uk is about to kick off! Best of luck, mates!

Additional info:

• Each time you achieve a new status, you’ll be automatically added to the matching freeroll list. This means you won't be able to play multiple tourneys at once, only the one that mirrors your status.
• Any Friday freeroll requires at least 6 players to be run. Once we record eight participants with a specific status, the corresponding event will appear in the GGPoker lobby.
• To rack up Aura points faster and climb statuses, check the table in this article. It’s simple: earn points when other users rate your blog posts and comment on them. Extra points drop as you leave reviews on poker sites/online casinos, or when new bloggers start following you, etc.

Cheers!

I finally decided to take my own advice from my last blog and sat down at the table determined to stay disciplined.

The first hour was a grind. Every time I managed to build my stack slightly, I'd get pushed right back down. Nothing seemed to stick. An hour and fifteen minutes in, I was down to just 3,200 chips and clinging on.

Then came the turning point.

I picked up K10 offsuit. After already committing 1,000 chips, I was forced into an all-in situation with two other players. At that stage, I felt I had no real choice - it was either go for it or call it a night. If I was going out, I was going out fighting.

Lady luck was on my side. The board ran out beautifully, giving me a full house - KKK1010 - and I scooped the pot. One of the shovers turned over KJ, and suddenly I was right back in the game.

From that moment on, everything shifted. I tightened up, played smart, and focused on targeting the big bluffer at the table. Eventually, I managed to knock him out, which gave me even more momentum.

At the final table, things got tense. "deluded1" nearly knocked me out at one point, but after winning three crucial all-ins, I found myself back as chip leader. Then came the first hand of heads-up play. For reasons only he knows, he shoved with 6-7 offsuit. I looked down at KQ offsuit and made the call. I was ahead, but poker always keeps things interesting. He paired a 7 on the turn, but I managed to make two pair on the flop, and that was enough.

Just like that, the tournament was over. A successful win after being down to fumes earlier in the night. A reminder that patience, composure, and picking the right spots can completely change a game.

Now, I'm already looking forward to next week's tourney.

Im really hoping that the community realise how important they all are at making this community of poker players one of the best on the internet. Ive already read some fun and interesting posts and lots of people have introduced themselves but im hoping these freerolls and the value in them encourage people to post some more meaty poker topics and discussions. Im hoping we can all be kind and understanding and encouraging of each other to find out more about the game of poker we all love by sharing our experiences together. I for one will try and post a bit more and try and start some interesting conversations / topics with people - Is anyone out there wanting to collaborate? Im hoping that this reaches some understanding eyeballs and it gets some people to start bashing on their keyboards and giving this blog stuff a go.

Lets go cardmates!

Noodz.  

Arsenal coming off the back of 2 games dropping points play tottenham hotspurs today. Will they  come out victorious or will they continue to fold under the pressure of a long awaited premier league title? I am an Arsenal fan for my sins and i thought we've had a pretty good season but we still seem to have this habit of not knowing how to secure crucial points against some of the lower minnow teams. Hopefully that wont be the case today as we need to turn up and perform well to overturn the recently in form spurs. Cmon the gunners....!

Most players talk about big hands. Big bluffs. Big calls. They ignore volume.

Tournaments aren’t won in one moment. They’re survived through routine. Register on time. Play your ranges. Take breaks properly. Don’t chase after busting one. Don’t late reg emotionally.

Over a year, discipline beats inspiration.

I’ve had deep runs where nothing spectacular happened. No hero calls. No wild bluffs. Just patience. Picking spots. Folding when ego wanted to continue. People underestimate how boring solid poker looks.

That’s fine. Boring is profitable.

There are many "types" of poker player and many terms used to describe these players. Terms such as LAG , TAG (Loose/Tight aggressive) , Whale (in every pot), Station (sticky player who doesnt fold light) & Donkey ( calls pots & leads/ lead Jams). If you have played poker for as long as i have you will have tried your hand at many different playing styles and strategies but you probably will have worked out a style that works for you. Im pretty confident in my loose aggressive style and my perceived image at any table but i still find some players styles really difficuilt to deal with. what kind of style of poker do you like to play or play against and what players always seem to make the right decisions against you? Good luck at the tables. Noodz

I’m not sure if this fits into the usual online poker blog category, but it definitely fits into poker psychology.

Every week we play a £20 pub tournament. We start with 30,000 chips, and the blinds go up every 10 or 15 minutes depending on how many players turn up. Personally, I think the blind levels should stay the same regardless of numbers, because changing the timing really affects the structure and how deep you can play.

But the structure isn’t the interesting part.

The interesting part is one particular player.

He’s in his late 80s—though I’m not even sure that counts as “old” these days—and every single week he plays 4-5 offsuit. It’s his favourite hand. Not suited. Not connectors with any real strength. Just 4-5 offsuit.

And here’s the unbelievable part: he wins with it. A lot.

Time and time again, he’ll turn up with some strange two pair or a disguised straight. It’s got to the point where if there’s even a hint of a low straight on the board, people start folding because “he could have it.”

Now let’s be honest—4-5 offsuit is not a strong starting hand. From a theory perspective, it’s marginal at best. You’re not meant to be building a strategy around it.

But this isn’t an online solver environment. This is the same group of people, every week, in the same pub.

And that changes everything.

When you play with the same players repeatedly, poker becomes more about image and psychology than pure hand strength. He’s created a reputation. People expect madness. They fear the low straight. They remember the times he’s shown it down.

So now he doesn’t just win with the hand—he wins because of the story behind it.

Is it technically good poker? Probably not.

Is it effective in this exact environment? Absolutely.

That’s the beauty of live pub poker. It’s not just about ranges and GTO charts. It’s about history. Ego. Patterns. Table myths.

And somehow, an 80-something-year-old gentleman playing 4-5 offsuit every week has built a legend around himself.

Maybe the lesson isn’t that 4-5 offsuit is a good hand.

Maybe the lesson is that in a weekly pub game, the most powerful thing you can hold isn’t your cards.

It’s your reputation. 🃏

Does anyone else have favourite cards ????

Hello all

So last time I was sharing my plans on hitting that £1k mark per weekend. Profit remain same so I suddenly changed my mind and went rogue. Decided to add some sessions during the week. Thought it would help reach my volume targets faster.

Was dead wrong.

The result?

Two losing sessions wiped out my previous weekend’s profits. One short session on Monday and another yesterday, both around 2h. Both ended up losing, around £70 down. Hard to stay sharp when you’re on low energy, even at NL10. Didn’t dither, no, but I was missing important signals. Was missing obvious value bets. Clearly.

So I want to hear from you guys, how the bloody hell you balance poker with a full-time job? Any secret routine that keeps your win rate steady during the week?

Need a new strategy.

Hit A Royal Flush and Folded

I signed up to play a micro sat today. I knew I was going to be a little late to the game and likely miss the first few hands. As faith would have it upon my readiness to play I sit at my laptop and watch the board run out a series of cards that would have turned my hand into a royal flush. What interesting timing to join the tournament. Moments earlier and I possibly would have been an active participant in the hand. Moments later and I wouldn't have seen the hand unfold. Truth be told I had K 6 off-suit UTG so I likely wouldn't have played the hand anyways. Although I just might have considering we were 6 handed and deep. These games are played fairly loosely and I like seeing flops early on when blinds are low compared to stacks. I don't recommend playing K 6 offsuit UTG :) Timing is everything folks - good luck at the tables!

Hey folks!

This Friday, 20th February at 8pm, we’re running another $150 GTD freeroll on GGPoker. It’s exclusively for Cardmates.co.uk members who’ve got the «Fan» status on the site.

Just a quick recap of how our weekly GG freerolls work and answers to the usual questions 👇

• Freeroll tickets are credited on Fridays. Sometimes they land on Thursday, but Friday’s your best bet to check your GG account.
• The tourney shows up in the GG lobby two hours before kick-off. So you’ll see it there from 6pm.
• We send the list of eligible players to GGPoker every Monday. If you’ve got «Fan» status but no ticket, chances are you didn’t register your GG nickname on Cardmates.co.uk in time.
• How to register your GG nickname? Click your avatar ➡️ Go to «Status» ➡️ You’ll see the field where you can add your GGPoker nickname. Simple as that.

If you’ve got any questions about our community freerolls, just drop a private message to our mod: d19932808 (he’ll sort you out).

And here’s the big one. The $150 GTD freeroll is just the start. As soon as we’ve got at least 6 users with «Expert» status, we’ll launch a separate $250 GTD freeroll just for them. After that? $350, $450 and even $600 prize pools are coming.

So don’t forget to posts on Cardmates.co.uk and get rated by other members – that’s the fastest way to level up your status. There are also a few other ways to earn Aura points on the site – you can check all the details over there.

Good luck at the tables and see you on Friday!