Observing your opponent!

Watching the opponents, making quick adjustments and knowing when to give up poker hands and games. Opponents are often predictable. When you first sit down in a poker game most poker players do not scan the table and make notes.

The most important thing that you need to know about your opponents is whether they are capable of bluffing or not and taking down an unexpected pot. Make a mental note of each poker player you have played with previously in the past. Due to the success of poker on television a larger number of players seem be bluffing. This is due to seeing the players on television bluff. They do not realize that the most dramatic hands are for the viewing public and what is more dramatic then the bluff? 

When an opponent who you do not think can bluff check raises you. What do you think he has in his hand? It is close to the nuts. You just have to figure out how close compared to your hand. Second pair may be enough as they might of checked raised with a flush draw trying to get you to lay down your hand. Play the hand over in your head before releasing your hand.

Quick Tips to Improve Your Poker Game

Many of us can’t get enough of poker. It is an exciting game that for once doesn’t rely only on luck – but also a bit of strategy. Unfortunately not all of us are great at it and we require a few good tips that can help us to improve our game.

We have provided several poker tips that will help to improve anyone’s poker game. While these tips are geared to amateurs they can also help to give a few players a refresher course if they have been away from the game for some time.

Don’t Be Afraid To Fold

Many amateurs believe that they have to play every hand. Part of playing poker and winning at poker is to know when to fold. Some people may try to talk you out of this during the game – but that is just their tactic. Ignore them and make sure that you play only what you know you can win with. Or play what you know you can bluff with. Just because you are playing most of the hands doesn’t mean you are winning.

Bluff Like You Know What You Are Doing

Bluffing is an important part of poker and should only be used if you know what you are doing. You can win big if you bluff right – but to bluff just for the fun of it can cause you to lose big also.

Don’t Feel Pressured To Stay In A Hand

One of the biggest mistakes that amateurs make is to think that once they have put a lot of money in the pot they are forced to play out the hand. Throwing away your money just because you ‘feel’ that you have to is not going to win you any money. You will find that you will lose it very quickly. The minute you think you have a losing poker hand you need to fold.

Pay Attention To The Cards

It is very important to pay attention and to know exactly what you have in your hand and how you can use it to your advantage. Now you need to make sure that you pay attention to the cards that are being laid out on the table. You need to see what would work well with the cards in your hand.

Pay Attention To The Players

Observing your opponents is very important. It is a chance for you to try to understand their body language and know when they are bluffing and when they have a winning hand. It is important to study them even when you are not playing the hand so don’t be distracted by anything. When you figure them out you can steal the pot from them.

Stay At Your Skill Level

Just because you won a big pot in the $2/4 does not mean you should switch you to the $5/10. The money is higher because the skill level is harder. You may find that you are not yet ready to upgrade. Before you move up try to be the best at your poker table.

Omaha Poker: A Form of Texas Holdem

Omaha poker is a community card poker game similar to Texas holdem, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards. The exact origination of the game is unknown, but casino executive Robert Turner first brought Omaha into a casino setting when he introduced the game to Bill Boyd who offered it as a game at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget Casino.

Omaha is a nine-card hi-lo poker game that uses a dealer button, blinds and community cards.

Omaha poker is a form of Texas Holdem, except the players are dealt 4 hole cards (face down) as their initial starting hand prior to the flop and five board cards as community cards. The community cards are dealt face up in the center of the table in the same manner as in Texas Holdem with betting after each round.

Players play in turn clockwise. Two players to the left of the dealer button post blinds. There are 3 other betting rounds; the flop, the turn, and the river. The five community cards and their rankings are used by all active players.

After the final betting round, the players remaining in the hand will then show all their cards. To qualify for a winning low hand, a player must have five cards of 8 or lower with no pair using two from their hand and three from the board (community cards). Straights or flushes may be used for the low hand if all the cards are 8 or below.

Texas Holdem: The Most Famous Poker Game

For those that have little experience or players who appreciate the psychological, strategic and mental aspects of poker, Texas Holdem is the poker game of choice. It is, as poker professional Mike Sexton has stated on the WPT, “a game that takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.” There is a great deal of truth in that statement as there are different nuances that confound even those players who have a strong background in this particular variation of poker.

Every player gets two cards and two players - the small blind (half of the stake of the table) and the big blind (the full stake) - place mandatory bets to initiate action. Each player has to determine whether they want to play their hand by, at the minimum, calling the big blind, raising the bet or declining to play and folding. For those that remain in the hand after this round of betting is completed, the first of the community cards come down with a three-card display called the "flop." This is followed by another round of betting and, if any players still remain, another card is dealt, called the "turn" or Fourth Street. Another round of betting ensues and, if there are still players contesting the hand, the final card called the "river" or Fifth Street is dealt. A final round of betting occurs and, once this is completed, if there are players still in play for the hand, they display their cards. The best five-card hand takes what is in the pot and the poker game moves on to the next hand.

This is a community card game because there are five cards on the table that all players use - players can use one, both or neither of their two hole cards to make their best five-card hands. Through strategic play, bluffing at the pot or even table talk, players use every part of their capabilities to try to win the hand. The game can be played in different styles - Limit, Spread Limit (rarely seen nowadays), Pot Limit (where betting is limited to what is in the pot) and No Limit - and different people will excel in different forms of this game. What makes community card games the best is that there is something for everyone.

Most every poker room around will offer a form of Texas Holdem, as it is currently the most popular game around. With that in mind, every Internet poker room will offer Texas Holdem as its bedrock of poker games. For anyone who wants to take an initial dive into the world of poker, Texas Holdem is the route to take.

Internet Poker Strategy---Discipline

Good poker players demand an advantage. What separates a winning poker player from a fish is that a fish does not expect to win, while a poker player does. A fish is happy playing craps, roulette, or the slots; he just hopes to get lucky. A poker player does not hope to get lucky. He just hopes others don't get lucky.

Good poker players understand that a different Internet poker game requires a different discipline. A disciplined no-limit player can be a foolish limit player and vice versa. For example, a disciplined limit holdem player has solid preflop skills. When there is not much action preflop, he or she only plays the better hands. When a lot of people are limping in, he or she will make a loose call with a suited connector or other speculative hand.

A disciplined player knows when to play and when to quit. He recognizes when he is on tilt and is aware when a poker game is too juicy to just quit while ahead.

A disciplined player knows that he is not perfect. When a disciplined player makes a mistake, he learns. He does not blame others. He does not cry. He learns from the mistake and moves on…

The Art of Observing in Poker

Part of the reason why a lot of poker players fail is due to their lack of appreciation on the importance of observation. Poker is not a game where in your actions are automated; the fact is that by keeping your eyes open, before and after the session, you will be able to win more games and make more money.

If you continuously study your opponents you are guaranteed to learn a lot. It's that simple. Most of the time you spend playing you will not be involved in a hand, and you should use that time to observe your opponents. Watch how each player plays their poker hand and use that information against them. It is important to listen to what they say. A lot of poker players will tell you what kind of hand they threw away or why they played a hand in a certain way. Try to figure out what they are holding and put them on hands whether you are involved in the pot or not. Consequently, when you are playing a hand with them, you will know what their checks, bets, calls and raises mean.

Pay equal attention to your own poker game and think of your poker table image at all times. You will notice that some players do not examine the game at all and therefore your table image is virtually non-existent when playing against them. Just as you search for tells in your opponents, look for tells in yourself. When you spot one in an opponent, consider whether or not you are displaying that very same tell.

Observation is key in poker, yet the fact remains that very few adhere to it. It is time consuming, true, but it will pay off. The more time that you spend in observing the game, learning from your opponents and taking stock of your money, the more skilled and polished you will be.

Hand Reading Skills

In order to make fundamentally correct plays, it is important to have some idea about what you are up against. So how do you put your opponent on a hand? Simple: pay attention. Whether you are in the current poker hand or not, you need to pay attention to the action at all times in order to learn what your opponents’ tendencies are. By simply watching the aciton, you will likely be able to find the answers to the following questions:

On the Pre-flop
1. What hands will opponents raise with?
2. What hands will they call with?
3. Do they play conservatively or loosely from early position?
4. How often do they defend their blind to a raise?
5. Do they raise a lot of hands, or are they on the careful side?

On the Post-Flop
1. What type of hands will they check raise with?
2. Do they play draws aggressively or passively at a poker table?
3. Do they slow-play made hands?
4. Do they ever bluff in a poker game?
5. Do they fold often on the flop, or will they call all the way to the river?

These are ten questions that you will learn the answers to simply by paying attention and making mental notes. And the more you play, the better you will get at it.

How to Play Poker Smart

Everyday there are thousands of beginning poker players joining us…

One of the most important things that you can do as a novice is to play every hand as smart as you can. Of course, that is easier said than done, but a smart poker player will beat a dumb one more times than not. What it takes to become a smart poker player?...

The good thing is that there are several steps that you can take in order to enhance your smarts as far as playing the game is concerned.

The first step to playing a smart poker is to know what you are doing before you ever sit down at poker table at the first time.

Another way to play it smart is to stick with your strategy every game that you play. It is never a good idea to attempt to make changes on the fly if you are new to the poker game.

Finally, playing smart means you never stop learning about how to play poker…
Remember the best poker player in the world use their brains as well as their skills to come out as a winner time and time again…

Basic Poker Terms

Language games are common in almost any endeavor. For instance, the field of medicine has their own terms that only members of their profession relate to. The same thing applies in casino games. Poker, in this case, also has its own terminologies that all players should be familiar with.

There are many basic poker terms by which a smooth poker game is ensured…

A "Buy-in" is the amount of money required before a poker player can sit in the poker table. If the buy-in is $10, all poker players must have $10 or pay this to the bank before they can sit at the poker table.

When playing poker in casinos, there is a minimal charge for the services rendered by the casino to poker players. This is called the rake. The rake is obtained from the poker pot. The poker pot is the collection of all bets made by all poker players in the poker table. The poker winner takes home the pot less the rake.

The flop in poker refers to the first three cards distributed to players. Flops are usually exposed all at once in any game of poker. The limp refers to poker players who bet before the flop. Poker players who equal the highest bid is called to make a "call." While poker players who "raise" must first "call" before allowed to make a raise.

For instance, the Poker highest bet is $5. The poker player "calls" and bets $5 before he can make a "raise" to, for instance, $10.

When a poker player concedes and accepts defeat, it is called a "fold". The poker player, obviously, loses all the chips he wagered in the pot. Poker players who have the best hand is called to possess the "nuts."

Understand all these basic terms and a fat poker profit is surely to you're your way…

Poker is Life

I love playing poker, sometimes win while sometimes lose, just like our life, sometimes happy and sometimes sad. Remember the movie “Forrest Gump” in which Gump’s mother said “Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you gonna get.”

In fact, sometimes life is also like a poker game. In every poker game there is a winner and there is a loser, but what separates the two isn’t just luck, it’s poker strategy. And to take it one step further, the same techniques you use in a poker tournament can be used to succeed in life.

The happiness in life is not based on winning at poker, while the winning at poker is based on the happiness of life.

The following three points are suitable both in poker and in life…Put on your poker face – you never want others to know what you are thinking. Just like in poker, the expressions on your face can give away your thoughts. In the real world if you seem desperate you are less likely to succeed, but if you seem confident you are more likely to succeed.

Look for tell signs – people unknowingly do things that give away what they’re thinking. Although you don’t want others to know what you are thinking, you want to study your opponents so you can figure out what they are thinking. By doing this you will have a better understanding of how to react to their actions so that you can benefit from them.

Place smart bets – if you have a shitty poker hand you probably want to fold. And if you have a royal flush you should go all in. The same goes in life because if the cards you are dealt suck, then you probably want to quit and call it a day.

Use your head – it may be difficult to count cards, but it isn’t difficult to learn from your mistakes. Don’t forget about the mistakes you made in the past or else you may make them again.

Poker is Knowledge

Poker is a game but not that simple as it requires many kinds of knowledge that is quite different form what we have learnt in school. In fact, poker is full of competitions just like our life so that poker is a kind of knowledge.

To win in any kind of activity, such as poker game even our life, a player must obtain three kinds of knowledge: factual, tactical and strategic knowledge.

Factual knowledge refers to the basic concepts or rules of the competitive game which is sometimes gained by memorizing. If one is not familiar with the terminology of a competitive game, his goal of winning in it will be impossible. We can imagine how one can win in Texas Hold’em if he can’t distinguish the flop from the turn or the river and how a poker player win in a tournament if he has no idea what a royal flush looks like…

Tactical knowledge is composed of the different actions that are carried out by the player in order to achieve certain goals which can be acquired by practice. So, to gain all the needed tactical knowledge, the poker player must keep on playing.

Strategic knowledge is acquired when the poker player has already mastered the first two types of knowledge. When the poker player has strategic knowledge he sees the whole poker session, which can last for several hours, as one game. With a broader view, his actions are more directed and more planned.

For me, poker is not just a game but also a kind knowledge that teaches me a lot in my life. I will hold on to keep playing and keep learning…

Poker Jokes on Christmas

I spent Christmas Eve with friends last night and we really had a crazy night. We talked a lot during our relaxed time while the following three jokes relating to poker games that friends told me impressed me deeply because I was crazy about poker recently.

No.1---A brain surgeon receives a phone call from a colleague on a Saturday night. "We need another poker player for tonight" the friend says. "I'll be there right away!" the doctor replies with a sense of urgency. As he puts on his coat and makes his way out the door his wife asks him "Is it serious?" and the doctor replies "Oh, very! There are 3 other doctors already there!"

No.2---A homeless man asks another man for two dollars. The man says "Will you use the money to buy booze?" The homeless man replies "No sir, I don't drink." The man then asks "Will you use the money for gambling?" The homeless man replies "No sir, I don't gamble." So the man says "Do me a favor and come home with me. I want my wife to see what happens to a man who doesn't drink or gamble."

No.3---A woman walks into living room and sees her brother playing poker with their dog. "Wow!" she exclaimed, "You must have the smartest dog in the world!" and her brother replies "He's not all that smart. I've beaten him 3 out of 5 games so far."

Today is Christmas and everything should be special and full of joy…so let’s go to have a good time…Have fun!

Christmas Eve

I had a dream yesterday that Santa Claus came to join us on poker table and said, in essence, “I am about to give away a lot of money…” Over the course of next several hours, Santa Claus emptied thousands of thousands dollars out of his bag. At times, there were many players couldn’t believe their good fortune. For some players, the concept of Santa showing up and giving them a holiday gift just seemed...well, too good to be true. Santa even offered some sage advice to players “It's better to be good than lucky...because miracles usually happen on this table”…

When I woke up this morning, I was so happy that I can’t help enjoying the dream until now.

Tonight, on this 2008 Christmas Eve, there will be a lot of people who don’t have to work at all. Shall they enjoy the time sitting together with family members to chat and play poker games like Texas Hold’em, Omaha or Speed Hold’em just like me? Maybe… Children might be the happiest tonight who will be waiting for Santa Claus making his rounds giving gifts to good children.

Happy Holiday, everyone…

7 Card Stud---Old Yet Popular

7 Card Stud, which is personally my favorite kind of poker, was the most popular poker variant in casinos of the eastern part of the United States and also home games all over this country before the popularity of Texas Hold’em.

It is one of the oldest forms of game which 2 to 8 players can play and the initial deal is two cards face down and one card up to each player. Position in this game is not that important as other poker game as the position can potentially change with each flip of a card. The first betting round starts with the highest hand showing or for the first round the high card. Then another card is dealt up and another betting round is repeated until there are four cards face up. Then a final card is dealt down and a final betting round held. The ranking of the hands are the same as regular poker except to take the five best cards out of the ones you are dealt.

7 Card Stud is much more complex and requires greater focus and discipline when playing it compared to Texas Hold’em. No matter what, be confident that you bet…