Poker News

December 16, 2008


There are a number of ways for people to satisfy their urge to gamble through gambling sites on the Internet. We surfers can sign up for gambling accounts at the numerous different sites that are available to them and start making bets and wagers in a vast array of gambling games on offer. Two of the most popular forms of online gambling are poker and casino games. Most people are familiar with the game of poker as well as the different forms of casino games, including blackjack, roulette, slots and so on. But how do both of these different forms of online gambling compare to each other?

In general, the casino games are more based on luck and focus on the thrills of wagering money on the roll of a dice or the spin of the roulette wheel, whereas poker involves an element of skill and strategy. There are some games such as Blackjack that allow you to use good strategy using odds and mathematics to improve your chances of winning, but the majority of casino games give you fixed odds, where the odds are more often than not in favour of the house. So although casino games can be very entertaining, if you play for long enough you will find that you will be losing more money than you win in the long run.

This is where online poker is a little different, as it is possible to actually to be a long-term winner. This is because with online poker, you are playing against other players, and not against the house. So therefore if you can employ a successful winning strategy against your opponents, there is no reason why you cant win money. There is obviously an element of luck as with all gambling card games, but there is an overriding element of strategy that allows you to be a long-term winner of the game.

There are a number of different poker variants online for players to choose from, including Texas Holdem, Omaha and Stud. Other less popular games like Razz can also be played online, but you will find the majority of players sat at the above mentioned tables playing for real money. Texas Holdem is by far the most popular out of all the poker variants avaialable due to the large amount of media coverage it receives. Therefore you will find that there are many online poker players looking for Texas Holdem strategy across the Internet and in books in an attempt to take their game to a winning level.

The online poker rooms make money via ‘rake’, which is a small cut of each pot that is built between players. So the poker rooms still make money, even if you do as well. Any wins that you make are coming from your opponent’s pocket, and not from the casinos. Therefore online gambling operators are more than happy to provide online poker rooms to the public.

The fact that you can win money from online poker sites makes online poker a favourite for many online gamblers. However, some can find it tedious and frustrating when the cards do not fall their way, so they stick to online casino to satisfy their gambling needs. Online casino can be great fun and attracts a lot of players because of the fact that the games are so easy to play. However, although you can get lucky from time to time and win money, in the long run you should find that casino games would be taking your money.

Overall, online casino is great for people looking for some quick and easy gambling entertainment. Online poker on the other hand is more suited to people looking to test their ability against opponents, in an attempt to outplay each other and win their money. However, it takes time and good strategy to be able to win money from online poker, which is something that not a lot of people have. But if you have the patience and determination, you may well be a candidate to be a long-term winner in the online poker world.

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December 16, 2008


Just as there are many hands in Texas Holdem that will win you a lot of money, there are a number of deceptive hands that may lead you into believing that they are profitable when in real fact they will often lose you decent sums of money from your bankroll. The sooner that you learn about the hands that are costing you dearly, the sooner you can start saving yourself from losing money. This article will address the most common hands that novices play with and highlight the reasons as to why they can be dangerous hands to play.

The ‘any two suited cards’ is a very popular hand that all varieties of beginners like to play. A flush is a pretty strong hand in the game of Holdem, and so if you manage to make one there is good chance that you will win a nice bit of money with it. Therefore many new players to the game will be prepared to enter pots with any two cards as long as they are suited just in an attempt to catch a flush at some point during the hand. There are two reasons as to why playing any two suited cards is dangerous.

Firstly, it is not that much more likely that you will make a flush just because your cards are suited. The probability of making a flush in Holdem is pretty low, and so it does not justify calling bet and raises in an attempt to catch one on the flop. On top of this, amateur players will often continue to call bets and raises with bad pot odds to make a flush on future streets, which just adds to the problem of playing such hands. The second reason is that you can catch half a hand like second pair on the flop, and end up losing money to another player that has formed a better pair than you. So by playing random suited cards you are setting yourself up for two great opportunities to leak money, so don’t do it.

Another type of hand that always manages to cause the beginner poker players a problem is the low connecting cards. These are almost identical to the problems caused by any two suited cards and can help players to lose money over the long run. It is not too likely that you will form a straight every time you enter a pot with connecting cards like 5c 6h, so don’t enter the pot under the false pretences that you will. You will simply be losing more money in the long run, as well as losing money in pots where you catch half a hand and your opponent catches a stronger one. So save yourself some money and fold before the flop.

One final hand that amateur players get overly attached to is a rag ace. Rag aces are simply aces that are accompanied by a low ranking holecard below a Ten. The problem that these hands cause is that players find it difficult to let the hand go after they pair their ace, and so they will often end up losing a lot of (if not all) of their stack to a player that also makes a pair of aces but with a better kicker. The best way to play these types of hands is to exercise a little self-discipline and fold them before the flop. It is unlikely that you will win a big pot with them, but it is likely that you will lose a big one. Save yourself a bit of money by folding and catch out the other amateur players the next time when you hold a stronger ace than them.

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December 16, 2008


It is always great to see a big pocket pair like AA, KK or QQ when you look down at your holecards in Texas Holdem. These top 3 pocket pairs are the best possible hands you can be dealt before the flop, and so you should expect to make a hefty amount of money from them throughout your poker-playing career. However, if you are not careful with these big pairs and if you do not exercise good strategy with them, these types of cards can easily lose you money when not play them correctly.

One of the biggest mistakes novice players make when playing big pairs is that they tend to slowplay them at every opportunity. Whilst it may be a good idea to play very strong hands on the odd occasion in poker, it is far too early to start slowplaying a hand before the flop, and by doing so you will just be allowing your opponents to improve on the flop and on future streets. Therefore whenever you are dealt a big pocket pair you should almost always raise before the flop to thin out the number of opponents and build the pot to increase the amount of money that you can win.

Now although AA, KK and QQ have been lumped into the same category here, I am going to split these hands up into two, and give a few basic strategy tips whilst playing them. I will firstly go through a good strategy for AA, and then I will go through tips on how to play KK and QQ well. The KK and QQ have been grouped together due to the fact that there is the possibility that overcards can appear on the flop, whereas this is not possible whilst holding AA. So lets move onto the strategy for each of these hands…

With a hand like AA, you always want to be looking to raise or re-raise before the flop. It is never good Texas Holdem strategy with AA to limp or simply call a raise because you are missing the opportunity to get more money into the pot with the best hand, and you are giving weaker hands the opportunity to overtake you on the flop. You shouldn’t be worried about the fact that players might fold and you win the pot uncontested at this point, as it is always better to win a small pot than lose a big one.

After the flop you should again look to keep the action flowing by betting and raising. You do not want to give anyone the correct odds to call for any straights, flushes or drawing hands at this point, so make sure you put them to a tough decision for their chips. However, there could be the possibility that one of your opponents has made a better hand than you on the flop, and so you should always be aware of the fact that you may no longer hold the best hand. But in spite of this, you will normally still be ahead and so you should continue to build the pot unless you have reason to believe otherwise.

When playing hands like KK and QQ, you should again be looking to bet and raise before the flop. It is very rare to come up against a better hand before the flop when holding either of these hands, so be happy to be betting and raising to reduce the number of players that will be joining you to see a flop. Many players say that you should never fold KK before the flop because by doing so you are losing money in the long run, and I have to say that I agree. You especially want to be limiting the number of players that you are up against with either of these hands because of the fact that opponents can easily make a better hand than you be hitting an overcard like an Aces to make a bigger pair.

Now on the flop you will be in one of two situations; you will either be facing overcards or you won’t. If there are no overcards on the flop, you should continue to play the hand like you would do if you were holding aces, as both situations are quite similar. However, playing a big pocket pair when there are overcards on the board can be a little tricky. A good way to play is to bet like you feel you still have the best hand, and then evaluate where you stand after your opponent responds. It is unlikely that you will be winning a big pot any more in this situation, and if the pot does get big it is likely that you will be on the losing end. So be prepared to let the hand go if you come up against a lot of action.

On the final few streets with big pairs you should continue to build the pot unless you are quite sure that you are no longer ahead. If you haven’t improved by the turn or the river, you should remember that you still only hold 1 pair, which is by no means a monster hand. It is important to never get ‘married to the hand’ when you have a big pair, as they are by no means invincible. Always consider the possibility that your opponent could have a better hand than you if they are also playing aggressively by betting and raising too. It is not easy to lay down a big pair, but you have to learn to do so when you genuinely believe that you no longer hold the winning hand.

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December 16, 2008


For hundreds of years, poker has been played in taverns, casinos, pubs and homes across the world within a group of people all looking to outwit their opponents by trying to pick up tells on each other to give themselves an advantage. The tension that can form from high stakes games means that the game of Poker has been incorporated into numerous movies, with some films being completely dedicated to the game. However, over the last few years there has been a new breed of poker joining the poker world, which is the ever so popular online poker game.

Many poker players enjoy playing poker online because of how easy it is to find a good game without needing to leave the comfort of your own home. You can play at almost any stakes you want to suit your bankroll, and you can always find action at your desired game and limit no matter what time of the day. Furthermore, the game speed is much faster online than it is at a live table, as the cards are dealt electronically and there is no need for a dealer to manually shuffle and deal the cards in between hands.

There are a number of online poker sites out there offering their services, so there is no shortage of players, games or tables at your disposal. It is a good idea to compare online poker rooms before making your decision on which one you intend to sign up with, so that you can get the most from online poker depending on your needs.

So far it sounds like online poker has a lot to offer when compared to live poker, but what does live poker have over the online game? Well the one undeniable advantage that live poker has is that you have the chance to sit down face to face with other players for a real poker playing experience. It is great fun playing online, but there is nothing can replace the thrill of battling against opponents in a live arena and experiencing the excitement of the game first hand.

So which version is better, live or online? In my opinion they both have their pros and cons, so I don’t think its fair to say that one is completely better than another. Some players will comfortably say that live is the best because there is no substitute for playing against real people, but this is more just a matter of opinion. On the flip side, there is no substitute for the simplicity and ease of use of online poker, and you will never find as many tables or limits on offer in a casino as you would in online poker. I believe that every player should try and get a healthy mix of online poker as well as live poker, and use this mix to improve their overall game.

If you are solely an online player, it is well worth your while giving live poker a shot, because you will certainly find it to be a very exciting experience. Similarly, if you are purely a live player, you should sign up for an online account and give online poker a try, you may find it more fun than you think. All in all, it is good to keep a bit of diversity in your game and play in both the live and online formats of the game. But whatever you choose to do, just make sure you’re having a good time playing poker, as that’s what poker is all about at the end of the day.

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December 16, 2008


Whenever you play poker, whether it is online or live, you should always be aware of the way your opponents are playing. It is important to try and gather as much information as possible on the other players at the table to help you influence your decisions in later hands. Are your opponents tight or loose? Are they weak or are they aggressive? It is this sort of information that is key to making profitable decisions throughout each of your poker sessions. But apart from thinking about how you see your opponents, what are your opponents thinking about you?

This is also a key question that you should also consider whilst you play, yet it is something that is often overlooked. Knowing how your opponents view you as a player is just as important as having an idea of how they are playing themselves. This is especially true in the game of no limit Texas Holdem where psychology plays an important role. But why exactly is this important? And what effect should this have on your game?

Depending on the way you play, your opponents will be considering how to categorize you just like you do to them according to different playing styles. If you find yourself getting involved in numerous pots and regularly making continuation bets and bluffing, they may well be categorizing you as a loose and aggressive player in their minds. Similarly, if you are only getting involved with a minimal number of pots and only calling and betting when you have the best of it, your opponents will be noting down that you are a tight player that they should probably avoid having too many confrontations with.

If you feel that it is quite obvious that your opponents consider you to be a certain type of player, you can use it to your advantage by playing differently in future hands. For example, if your opponents think you are tight and only get involved when you have the best of it, you will find that you will have a higher success rate when it comes to bluffing because they will have a good reason to believe that you have a strong hand because of the way you have been playing earlier in the session. Conversely, if you have been playing loosely and have been entering a number of pots, your ability to pull off successful bluffs will be reduced because your opponents are less inclined to think you have a strong hand when you bet.

As a general rule, you should try and play the opposite to the way that your opponents think you are playing. So if they see you as a loose player, you should play tight, and if they see you as a tight player, it will be profitable to loosen up your starting hand requirements. It is never a good idea to fall into patterns when you play poker, so you should always try and change gears from time to time to keep your opponents guessing. If your opponents are unsure of the way you play, you will find that you can make more profit from them than if they know how you play and you continue to play the same way throughout each session.

So the next time you sit down at the poker table, make sure that you are always aware of the way you play and how your opponents will view you as a poker player. Having a good knowledge of your table image at all times is a valauble piece of holdem strategy that can save you a lot of money as well as help you to win money. But be aware that these kinds of impressions are built up over time, and so you should not expect players to have a concrete opinion on your style of play after only a few hands. Whenever you reach a showdown, try and consider the implications of your cards being shown to the table, whether you win or lose. This could help stimulate players to form opinions of your style of play that you can later exploit later on in the session.

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December 16, 2008


Knowing when to bet is an important skill in poker, but an equally or even more important skill is to know how much to bet in each situation. A good knowledge of bet sizing can help save you from making very unprofitable plays, as well as allowing you to maximize the amount of money you can make in each session. All winning poker players have the ability to make the correct size bet when necessary, and so its pretty important piece of no limit holdem strategy that you should learn.

As a general rule to start off with, you should always try and be aggressive and strong with your bets. More often than not, a small and weak-looking bet will not give you any leverage in the hand or give you any information on the strength of your opponent(s) hands. If you regularly like to make minimum bets and raises, you will find that you are almost always giving your opponent the right odds to call you if they have a draw or even a small piece of the board. So you should try and get into the habit of making strong bets to protect your hand when you think that you are ahead and to get more information from your opponents.

The first opportunity you have to make a bet or raise is on the flop. It is here that you have the opportunity to thin out the field when you have a strong hand and make your post-flop decisions easier by reducing the number of players that continue to see a flop. The way to reduce the amount of players in the hand is to make a decent size raise that forces other players into either calling or folding. A minimum raise before the flop isn’t going to make much of an impact, and so you will find that you get a lot of callers. A good preflop raise should be at least 3 times the size of the big blind, with the optimum raise in my opinion being around 4 big blinds.

From here on out, the size of your bets should be in relation to the size of the pot. This means that you should always look at how big the pot is before deciding how much you should bet. If you feel you have the best hand or looking to bluff, you should try and bet around 75% to 100% the size of the pot. This will give your opponents bad pot odds to call for any draw and make them consider folding with decent hands that may be slightly better than yours. Any bet larger than this will make little difference as far as odds are concerned, and you will be risking too much if your opponent has a stronger hand than you and decides to play on.

As a final note on bet sizing, you should make your re-raises strong, just as you do with your standard bets. If a player bets into you and you decide to re-raise for whatever reason, you should be looking to re-raise around 3 times the size of that player’s initial raise. Again this will put them to a tough decision and give them poor odds to call if they are on a draw.

So hopefully as you can see, the key to good bet sizing in no limit games is to stand your ground and bet strongly. If you are too afraid to put money into the pot when you feel you have a winning hand, you should probably take up another hobby. There is no room for fear in poker, and so you should always make strong bets to keep your opponents on their toes and force them to decisions.

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December 16, 2008


Bluffing is an integral part of poker and is a skill that few players master. A bluff is when you make a bet to make your opponents think that you have a better hand than them, causing them to fold despite the fact you have a worse hand than them. This is a very extravagant and exciting play, which is one of the reasons why poker has become such a popular game over the years.

Bluffing has been popularised even further in the advent of TV coverage of some of the major tournaments, where you can see some of the top professional players pulling off elaborate bluffs against one another. However, these coverage shows are usually edited down, and you do not see the build up to these plays and you get the impression that the bluffs were formed on the spot, when in real fact the bluff was probably set up from hours of play in numerous hands. Therefore you can find many online players trying to pull off bluffs at inappropriate times trying to imitate what they have seen on TV, and thus losing money in the process.

A common problem amongst poker beginners is that they try to bluff far to frequently, which costs them a lot of money. You may be surprised to learn that it is not actually essential to be able to pull of successful bluffs to be a winning poker player. If you play your hands well, it is possible to come out as a winner without ever having to risk your chips in a bluff. However, bluffing will increase the amount you can win from the game if you are able to do it successfully. If you are quite new to the game, it is recommended that you avoid bluffing too frequently so that you can find your feet, and gradually find out when a bluff will be successful.

There are times in a poker game where a bluff will be more successful than at other times. If your opponent is showing weakness by checking, then it more likely that you will be able to push your opponent off the hand with a decent sized bet. Subsequently, if your opponent is showing a lot of strength, then it is less likely that you will be able to run a successful bluff because they are showing a lot of interest in the hand. A very common question asked by players new to the game is “When should I bluff?” This is an incredibly general question, but there is a very simple answer to it; you should bluff when you think your opponents will fold.

The art of bluffing in poker is a skill that is acquired over months and years of play, through seeing countless numbers of hands and situations. The more poker you play, the easier it will become to find situations in which you can bluff opponents off of their hands. Bluffing is all about knowing your opponent and knowing the situation well enough to understand that a bluff may be effective. Being aware of live tells and online poker tells will also help with knowing when a bluff will be successful. This kind of knowledge does not come overnight; it simply takes practice to be gain such an understanding of the game.

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December 16, 2008


Your position at the poker table during a hand should have a big influence on the way you play any hand. Your position can determine how much money you win, or even whether or not you actually win the hand. Position in poker is something that is all too often overlooked by newcomers to the game, and sometimes even by some of the more experienced players. To become a solid player, you have to exercise good poker strategy and use position to your advantage. If you are not always trying to keep aware of your position at the table, then you are leaving a big hole in your game.

Your position in each hand is determined by the placement of the ‘button’. The ‘button’ is the dealer’s seat and all actions must take place one after another in an anticlockwise motion from player to player, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer. The group of players that will be the first few to act on each betting round are known as players in ‘early position’, and therefore the players that will be the last few to act on each round are known as the players in ‘late position’. As you might have already guessed, the players in between these two groups are known as players in ‘middle position’. The button is the best seat in the hand because that player will be acting last on every round of the hand, except only for pre-flop.

The players that are in late position have an advantage over the other players at the table because they will be the last to act on every betting round. This means that they are able to see how their opponents act and play their hand before they have to decide how to play their own hand. For example, if a player in late position sees an opponent check before them, they can infer that there opponent has a weak hand, and so they may decide to make a bluff to try and take down the pot. If the positions had been switched around however, the player now in early position will have a harder time trying to run a successful bluff, because they no longer have any information on the strength of their opponent’s hand. Being out of position in any hand can cause many problems, and hinder any good Texas Holdem strategy you might posses.

When deciding whether or not to enter a pot you should always be considering your position at the table. If you are one of the first to act you have to remember that your opponents will have access to more information about your hand on each betting round, and so will be able to have the greater ability to bluff you off of your hand if you show any weakness. Knowing how to bluff in poker is important, but even more important is knowing when to bluff. If you intend to play a hand from early position, you should make sure it is a premium hand to give yourself the best chance of winning. Consequently, you can loosen up your starting hand requirements in the later positions because you will have the advantage of acting last on each round.

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December 16, 2008


A big question amongst many poker players is whether or not you need a good knowledge of poker mathematics to be a winning poker player. The simple answer is that it is by no means essential to incorporate mathematics into every situation, but by doing so you should be giving yourself more of an edge. The maths involved in poker decisions is not complex by any means, and anyone with a standard level of education is able to perform the calculations quickly in their heads whilst at the poker table.

Mathematics can be used in poker to work out the probability of certain cards being dealt at any point during the hand. If we are able to work out the probabilities, we can then determine whether or not it is worth calling a bet to chase after a draw. So obviously if we can work out that a certain draw is unlikely to be completed by the river, we will be less inclined to call big bets to try and catch those cards. Using the probability of completing a draw along with the amount you have to call in relation to the pot to figure out whether it is profitable to chase after a draw is called pot odds.

Pot odds can be worked out calculating the number of outs in relation to the number of cards left in the deck as well as the bet amount we have to call in relation to the size of the pot, then these number are compared to work out if a call is profitable. For example, if we are on the flop and we have a flush draw, there are 9 cards left in the deck to complete our hand. There are 47 cards in total left in the deck, 38 of which will not make our draw, so by putting these numbers together we get a ratio of 38:9, or put more simply, 4:1 odds of making our flush by the next card. Therefore, for every 4 cards that will not make our hand, the other 1 card will. If you find this method difficult, you can use poker odds charts to help you quickly figure the odds out.

The next step is to work out the ratio between the size of the bet we have to call and the total amount in the pot. So if the size of the pot is $50 and we have to call $10 to try and hit our flush, the odds we are being given are 50:10, or put more simply, 5:1. Now when comparing the two ratios, we have 4:1 odds of completing our hand with 5:1 odds to try and hit our hand. This means that the odds are in our favour because the odds we are getting from the pot are greater than the odds we are getting from the cards. Therefore if we make the call, this will be a profitable call in the long run.

As mentioned, mathematics is all about poker in the long run. Just because you are able to work out the pot odds for each individual hand, it does not mean that you are more likely to win the hand. You may lose many hands in a row, but as long as you have the correct pot odds to call each time, in the long run you will come out on top as a winner. Poker mathematics is a great weapon to add to your poker arsenal, and it is good to know when you should and should not call bets for each drawing situation.

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December 16, 2008


To be a successful poker player you have to be able to exercise good bankroll management skills. If you are unable to manage your poker money correctly, you will never be able to become a long term winning poker player. Even if you were the best player in the world, it would be impossible to be able to make money from poker if you did not use good money management skills.

Bankroll management basically involves playing at a certain levels and buy-ins to help prevent yourself from going broke at the poker table. You have to set yourself limits to where you can play poker due to the variance found in every poker game. There are always going to be times where you have runs of bad luck that you cannot control, and you will lose money due to the bad runs of cards, and not necessarily due to any bad play. Therefore there is no use in putting all of your poker money on one table, because there is a good chance that you will lose it all and not be able to continue playing poker.

As a result, it is important that we have a large enough bankroll to absorb the effects of this variance so that we can continue to play poker even when we have very bad runs of cards. In addition, we don’t want to go over the top and play at micro levels with a huge bankroll because it is unlikely that we will go broke, and we want to give ourselves the opportunity to win a decent amount of money from our poker sessions. Therefore there are useful rules that you can follow to make sure that you give yourself the best opportunity to make money from poker without going broke.

In cash games, you should never put more than 5% of your bankroll onto the table at any time. So if you want to play in $1/$2 cash games and intend to buy in for the full amount, you should have a bankroll of at least $4000. This will then give you enough room to take a few bad beats and losing sessions, but still be able to continue playing poker without the fear of going broke. Another way of looking at the 5% rule is to remember that you should have 20 times the maximum buy in of the level you wish to play at in your bankroll. Most online poker rooms offer a wide range of limits, so it is perfectly possible to keep your bankroll under control, no matter how large or small it might be. Alternatively, if you are a tournament player, you should have around 40 buy-ins minimum for the level of tournaments you wish to play in.

It is important to remember however that bankroll management is only useful if you intend to play poker regularly, and that you are a winning player. If you only play poker casually then it is not as important to have a set bankroll, but to just be careful with your money instead. In addition, bankroll management will have no effect on your moneymaking endeavours if you are a losing poker player. However, bankroll management will slow down the time it takes for you to lose the money if you are used to playing at higher stakes.

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December 16, 2008


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December 16, 2008

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