Poker strategy

If you’ve just gotten into a game of poker and you’re in a mood to rake in big bucks, keep in mind you need to have a game plan. Simply put, you need to plan your strategy in such a way that you gain maximum leverage over the other players throughout the session.

Your play at the start of the game will determine the course of your game. You could either be aggressive and active and dominate the game or play it cool and avoid confrontation. However, being passive does not mean that you allow other players to dominate your play. Remember, you’re playing to win.

When you’ve just settled in at the poker table and play has just started, you’ll have around 9 to 10 players with you. These guys are usually very aggressive at the beginning of an online poker game. What they’re hoping to do is build up a big lead over the other players so they can play it cool in the middle of the game and save their energy to bounce back at the end of the game.

You can, in fact, use their strategy to your advantage. Use the continuation bet feature and turn the tables around. You could win yourself a few rewards towards the pot. A continuation bet is an ancient online poker strategy. This bet is made after a flop in online poker tournaments. The player will raise a hand during the game after which he has already gained control of the game.

Taking control of the hand together with a possible position will make your opponents check to you.

As the game continues on, the other players will have no idea whether you hold a monster card or not. At the end of the supposed last card hand and you lay out your bet, your opponents will rack their heads to decide, especially if the continuation bet is large enough.

Your opponents will push head on towards the end of the game, since it is their strategy to be aggressive.

If you are faced with the online poker strategy using continuation bet, an aggressive player must weigh his chances, but usually should not stop being aggressive and must be ready to risk all that he has. You need to see through the other player’s bluff and his continuation bet and dare him in the game. This way, you’ll earn rewards towards the top table and will in the end win the pot.

If you’re using the passive style of play, you’ll have to avoid confrontation. Wait it out and be patient till some of the players are knocked out of the game. You wait for one wrong move and then take them out. The advantage here is, you get to observe your opponents’ play and the pattern of their strategy. You then come up with ways to counter their strategies and win yourself rewards.

Remember that your strategy within the early stages will determine your play in succeeding rounds. You may want to win the game or just earn rewards, either case keeping up till the end of the game is essential.

Poker Mathematics

The very end objective of poker – that of wining the Pot , links Poker to mathematical probability and permutation combination rules. Betting and raising by players depend on their perception of the probability that his / her hand has a stronger ranking than that of the other players in the game as well as the various combinations possible with open cards on the table. The deck of 52 cards used in poker helps in restricting the number of permutation and combinations.

The poker variant being played also has a strong correlation with the mathematics of the game. For example in Texas Hold’em after the flop an individual player has 2 hole cards open along with the 3 community cards open on the desk .This means 5/7 or ~72% of the hand is defined in the first round itself .While in Omaha post the flop 7/9 or 78% of the players hand is defined .

But does this mean that every Poker player needs to be a mathematical nerd. I sincerely don’t think so. A bit of luck and common sense may well suffice.

What is poker tells?

A “poker tell” is any clue, habit, behavior or physical reaction, that gives other players more information about your poker hand. The following are tips and you can apply against novice or advanced players. Remember, in poker game there are many contradictions and exceptions to the rule. Also, experienced pros will give out false tells to fool players.

Watch the Eyes
This is why many pros wear sunglasses or visors/caps when playing poker; they know that the eyes rarely lie.

Facial Expression
Again, many pros try to disguise their entire face by wearing a cap and looking downward. This is to avoid the classic stare-down that poker pros are famous for. They may try to study your face for nervousness (detecting a weak hand), or even look for repetitive characteristics like a body "tic". You may have obvious unhappiness in your face when your hand is weak, and conversely, you may show a contrasting show of confidence when your hand is strong.

Weak is Strong/Strong is Weak
In its most simplistic form, this usually applies to novice players but frequently applies to pros as well. Basically, poker players like to be actors, and when they have a monster hand they tend to look disinterested. Repetitive Betting Patterns.

Betting habits
Usually the most revealing poker tells are based on the way a player habitually bets during particular situations. For example, maybe the player always checks when he has made the nuts, or a player may regularly fold after being re-raised.

History of Poker

There seem to be differences of opinion on the origin of poker. Moreover, there seems to be no clear or direct early ancestor of the game. It is more likely that poker derived its present day form from elements of many different games. The consensus is that because of it's basic principal, its birth is a very old one.

Jonathan H. Green makes one of the earliest written references to poker in 1834. In his writing, Green mentions rules to what he called the "cheating game," which was then being played on Mississippi riverboats. He soon realized that his was the first such reference to the game, and since it was not mentioned in the current American Hoyle, he chose to call the game poker.

The game he described was played with 20 cards, using only the aces, kings, queens, jacks and tens. Two to four people could play, and each was dealt five cards. By the time Green wrote about it, poker had become the number one cheating game on the Mississippi boats, receiving even more action than Three-Card Monte. Most people taken by Three-Card Monte thought the 20-card poker seemed more a legitimate game, and they came back time and time again. It would certainly appear, then, that poker was developed by the cardsharps.

The origin of the word poker is also well debated. Most of the dictionaries and game historians say that it comes from an eighteenth-century French game, poque. However, there are other references to pochspiel, which is a German game. In pochspiel, there is an element of bluffing, where players would indicate whether they wanted to pass or open by rapping on the table and saying, "Ich Poche!" Some say it may even have derived come the Hindu word, pukka.

Yet another possible explanation for the word poker, is that it came from a version of an underworld slang word, "poke," a term used by pickpockets. Cardsharps who used the 20-card cheating game to relieve a sucker from his poke may have used that word among themselves, adding an r to make it "poker." The thought was that if the sharps used the word "poker" in front of their victims, those wise to the underworld slang would not surmise the change.

The game of poker has evolved through the years, through many backroom games to the present day casinos around the world. Its history is rich with famous places and characters. For example, during the Wild West period of United States history, a saloon with a poker table could be found in just about every town from coast to coast.

Today, poker is carefully regulated by gambling laws, and saloons have given way to casinos and card rooms, but Poker is played more than any other card game in the world. It has grown into a sporting event, with competitions and tournaments all around the world. Tournaments take place almost every week of the year somewhere in the world.

If you compare the prizes of major sporting events around the world, you will find that the monetary outcome of any given event in poker would (pardon the pun) stack up. Poker today is one of the fastest growing, but hardly recognized sporting events. The pinnacle of the poker world, The World Series of Poker, attracts players from all over the world every year to compete for money and titles as the world's top poker players.

Poker will always be around and will continue to grow and flourish like so many other past times. There will always be a game to play, money to be won, and crowns to be worn.

Aggression in Pot-Limit Omaha

Pot-limit Omaha is the second most common form of poker in the world today. One thing that all the top Pot-Limit Omaha players have in common is aggression. When it’s checked to them, they need a reason to check rather than a reason to bet. Why? Put simply, by betting poker players are more likely to win bigger pots and more of them. They might get caught bluffing from time to time, but they’ll usually have outs.

Betting or raising gives you two ways to win – by having the better poker hand or making your opponent fold. Of course, if you’re too aggressive you’ll find opponents snapping off your bluffs more often, so the poker strategy requires balance and refinement. Getting the right balance is tough but the rewards are huge.

So how do you know when to bet and when to check? It is easy. With big draws, you want to take the pot straight away. If you get called, you will win a bigger pot if you hit. When you’ve got a good made hand you should bet to charge your opponents to outdraw you. When your opponent has shown a tendency to fold too easily you should bet almost always, regardless of your hand, until he catches on. Against a calling station that can’t fold an overpair, you bet everything that beats it and pretty much nothing else. If your opponent likes to chase draws, you should sometimes bet with just top pair or an overpair. You should tend to bet more often in position than out, with the caveat that aggressive opponents will sometimes raise you off your draw, so balance your bets with checks when you can’t stand a raise. It’s a pretty simple strategy that will reap rewards. Add in some hand reading, game selection, tilt control and a bankroll, and you’re well on your way to being a massive winner.

Poker Table Position Matters

Most poker players who have been around the game for a while know that to win a person has to be both lucky and good. It is easy to tell what exactly the luck factor is, however, the skill part of playing poker is more of a gray area. Most players equate skill with being able to correctly read an opponent, or choosing the right hands to play. The truth is that being able to decide when it is a good idea to play a certain hand and when it isn’t, based on where a player sits with respect to the dealer, is equally important.

There are few hands that a player can raise and enter a pot with without giving concern to where he or she is betting. These hands are the obvious ones, such as pocket Aces or Kings. On the other hand, when dealt a hand such as Ace-Eight or Ace-Seven, entering any pot recklessly can result in big losses. With a hand like that, one high card and one average kicker, it is best to only bet into pots with as few players as possible. The problem is that if you call or raise in the wrong position, you have no way of telling how many players will be doing the same.

This is where poker table position comes into play. Someone sitting directly to the left of the blinds will have to act first in the pre-flop betting. In this case, it is probably best to only make a small call with a mediocre-good hand if not a fold. On the other hand, someone sitting to the right of the blinds will be able to full analyze the situation and see how many players enter the pot or what, if any, raises are made. In this position, calling or folding is a much easier decision and it is a good idea to enter the pot if it is not too expensive or overfilled with other players.

Finally, it is equally critical to realize that if you are in fact the player who has to blind, whether it be small or big, then you are in the best position of all. Not only do you not have to give away having a playable hand by entering the pot, but you also get a pass on playing cards that are easily foldable in any other position. Not to mention the fact that the players who blind are the last to act unless there is a raise.

If you are just looking to have a good time and don’t care much about winning money or playing serious poker, than it is easy to overlook using table position as an advantage. But all the professional players, and the good amateurs, know the importance of using where they are sitting to determine whether or not it is worth playing so-so hands. The more hands you can play in small pots, the better chances you have to win big by the end of the night. So do yourself a favor and don’t mechanically call or fold poker hands.

World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world. First played in 1970, the World Series of Poker has grown in popularity ever since.

The World Series of Poker draws many of the top poker players, but it is not their exclusive domain. Players come from all walks of life and most of the poker players are amateurs. The World Series of Poker often sees many of those amateurs beating the pros.

The World Series of Poker actually consists of a number of poker tournaments of various poker games including Texas Holdem, Omaha, Razz, and Stud Poker. There are also Lowball and Hi-Low split poker games. The World Series of Poker typically has about 45 individual poker tournaments which begin the first week of June and end with the final day of the World Championship Event about mid-July.

The winner of each World Series of Poker tournament event is awarded a gold bracelet (which many players value more than the cash prize). The cash prizes are substantial typically ranging in the low to mid six figures with the first place prize for last year's Championship event setting a new record at $5 million. Poker tournament buy-ins generally range from $1,000 to $5,000 with the Championship tournament having a buy-in of $10,000. Players can also get into the Championship tournament by winning World Series of Poker satellite tournaments.

Harrahs Casino also sponsors the World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit. The circuit is comprised of various poker tournaments held at different Harrahs casino properties nationwide. Poker tournament players earn points toward an invitation to the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions which is held shortly after the conclusion of the regular World Series of Poker tournaments.

Many of the World Series of Poker tournament final tables are taped and televised by ESPN.

Poker Strategy: Understanding Risk and Reward

Pot odds and demanding an advantage fall into this category when playing poker. Poker players are willing to take a long-shot risk if the reward is high enough, but only if the expected return is higher than the risk.

More importantly, they understand the risk-vs.-reward nature of the game outside of the actual poker room. They know how much bank they need to play, and how much money they need in reserve to cover other expenses in life.

Good poker players understand they need to be more risk-averse with their overall bankroll than their stack at the poker table.

When you play in an individual game, you must value every poker chip equally at the table. You should only care about making correct plays. If you buy in for $10, you should be okay with taking a 52% chance of doubling up to $20 if it means a 48% chance of losing your $10.

However, you should be risk-averse with your overall bankroll. You need to have enough money so that any day at the tables will not affect your bankroll too much. If you worry too much about losing, then you will make mistakes at the poker table. You need to leave yourself with the chance to fight another day.

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…

Internet Poker Skill---Psychology

Psychology plays an incredibly important part in Internet poker which means that poker and psychology can’t be separated…A good poker player is not a self-centered player. He may be the biggest SOB you know. He may not care about anyone but himself, and he may enjoy stealing food from the poor. However, when a poker pro walks into a poker room, he always empathizes with his opponents. He tries to think what they think and understand the decisions they make and why they make them. The poker pro always tries to have an answer to these questions:

1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?

Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.

Good poker players know that psychology is much more important in a no-limit game than in a limit game. Limit games often turn into math battles, while no-limit games carry a strong psychology component. Thus, poker tells are much more important in no-limit games.

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.

Patience Tells in Poker Skills

The really good poker players will tell you that one of the must haves for being a good poker player is patience.

Patience is required to hang around in a game until you get just the hand you were waiting for. A good player also needs to be disciplined enough to know which games he can play and which he should quit early. A disciplined player will quickly realize when the edge is lacking, would bother to take notes of how each hand transpired and would take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated. When you have both of these almost half the skills required to be play poker is acquired.

When you are playing poker for money and there is lot of it involved it is imperative that your mind is sharp and thinking is lightning fast. Learn to think on your feet, take mental notes, and use the data in a statistical sense to make each hand as effective as possible. One another very important aspect or skill that is required in a poker player is the ability to keep emotions under check. Your face should not give away what you are feeling. Keep what is called a poker face…it is a skill…

Manage Your Money in Poker Games

Win money is the basic aim in poker games. If you are unable to manage your money，it is impossible to be a steady winner no matter how good you are.

Money management means only playing in games you can afford and knowing how much you are expected to win in the long run. The reason that so many skilled poker players go broke is that they constantly play at limits that are not supported by their bankroll. There will be times when you are just plain unlucky for a longer period of time though you are playing well. You must have a bankroll large enough to handle these expected swings in poker.

For example, you should have a bankroll of 300 times the big bet when playing Limit Hold'em. If you are a winning Limit player and have 100 times the big bet in your bankroll, and you always cash out or use your winnings for other expenses and never let your bankroll grow, inevitably you will go broke.

Learn to manage your money in poker games and you will be the winner…

Watch Your Opponents When Playing Poker

Watch your opponents closely. A lot of poker players after their game will tell what hand they had and what they were waiting for. Learn to take in such information as it will help you to know how all the player is likely to play. You also need to learn to reflect on what you say while at poker table. Make sure that you are not giving away much even if it is an after the game comment. Remember you are likely to play the same opponents sooner or later.

A good poker player will always be a step ahead of the opponents.

Poker is a lot about bluff and if you have been playing your hand right the chances of you getting caught bluffing is very little. Use bluff sensibly. It is important to play against the tide. If your opponents are playing a very loose game it is at such times that you need to tighten up your game. When your opponents are playing a very tight game play a loose hand. This approach will unsettle your opponents and give you an edge over them. As a player always remain unpredictable do not develop a routine to how you play, remember that others at the table will be observing you. Once in a while show your opponents the hand you have, call it quits saying you would not usually play with such a hand. The next time or in the next game continue to play with a similar hand and make the most of it.

What is Important in Poker

Poker is played for money. Money is how we keep score. But correct play is not judged by who wins the most money. Correct play is a matter of positive expectation on our actions -- and our actions include many more things than merely betting. I don't like to think in terms of "the best players" because that is basically meaningless. The best players though are the ones who play correctly. The best players are the ones who consistently get the best of it the best.

A player who could be or even should be a great winning player is not a great player if he makes losing choices. Circumstances dictate a player's ability. If the best Hold’em player in the world were to walk into a cardroom every day and only play stud, that person could be a poor, losing player, even though he could be more successful than anyone else if he made other choices.

Skill is not some mysterious ability that doesn't ever exist in actual reality. Skill is only skill when it is applied. Some folks who can be great players in some situations are complete fish in others. Some of the most talented poker players are dead busted because they in fact often play poker terribly.

Don't Let Your Mistakes Compound

The fewer bad decisions you make, the more successful you’ll be at poker…

Poker is a game of decisions. It doesn't matter if you're multi-tabling online or playing a single table live, you'll be put to the test often and every decision is important.

You are playing poker - by definition, you win money by making better decisions than your opponents. The fewer bad decisions you make, the more success you will have.

Mistakes are inevitable however. Nobody plays perfect poker, and even the best in the world make mistakes.

If nobody made mistakes, nobody would ever win in the long run. Everyone would just trade money back and forth playing perfect poker while slowly losing money to the rake. That's not my idea of fun. Mistakes are what fuel the poker economy.

So if even the best players in the world make mistakes, what makes them different from you or me?

Great poker players never let their mistakes compound. They take each decision independently and make the very best choice of action they possibly can, whereas when a new player makes a mistake, they often fall off the rails and allow their blunders to multiply.

Categorizing Your Opponents in No-Limit Hold’em

It is extremely important that you are able to assess the quality of your opponents’ play. You have to play very differently against strong players than you do against weaker ones. This is of crucial important in no-limit Hold’em.

There are many very good poker players failing to adjust their strategy when they are in a pot with a certain type of player.

For this the following two general rules can be the guide for us:

Against a low-grade player: You don’t try to get fancy when you are in a pot with a weak player and don’t try to make subtle moves that’ll be far beyond his capacity to understand or appreciate. In a word, you outplay him.

Against a higher-grade player: Sometimes you make an obvious play against a strong player---as you always would against a weak player---and other times you go at it another way and make a play that’s not so obvious. Most of the time, you have to put a play on or out-maneuver a strong player.

Of course, there are even very good players who know that that’s what they’re supposed to do, but knowing something and being able to execute it are two different things in poker games.

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…

Know Your Texas Hold’em

Are you a poker fan? Have you ever had the experience when you have no idea whether to call, fold or check? Let’s learn something together…

Wandering in Texas Hold’em and other poker games every day, play with winning and losing or appreciate other people with learning; many things have come into my mind…

Once you post your blind the money no longer belongs to you. So, don’t waste additional money on marginal hands and also don’t automatically call with the small blind if you have nothing. Saving a half bet will pay for your next small blind.

Deciding whether to continue playing after the flop will also be your big decision. It can also be one of the most costly decisions if you continue after the flop with an inferior poker hand. It is said that the flop defines your hand. Poker Author Shane Smith coined the phrase “Fit or Fold”. If the flop does not fit your hand by giving you top pair, or better or a straight or flush draw, then you should fold if there is a bet in front of you. If you played a small pair from late position and you do not flop a third one to make a set you should throw the pair away if there is a bet.

If you think you have the best hand after seeing the Turn card and are first to act, then go ahead and bet. Many poker players will try to get fancy and attempt to check raise in this position. If the other players also check, you have lost a bet or two. In low limit games the straight forward approach is usually the best as there are plenty of players who will call you. Make them pay. Why give them a free card if you don’t have to?