September 12th, 2008
In general terms this is very risky and certainly not a play that amateurs should try. Basically, if you choose to reraise with no hand, it is favourable to at least have some sort of draw as a back up plan. This ensures that if you are called, you can still make a good hand and scoop a big pot, but the basic idea of reraising with nothing is to try and win the pot there and then.
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In attempting to do this you should feel strongly that either, your opponent is on a draw themselves, or has a weaker pair that they are trying to steal the pot with. There is also the possibility that you feel they are bluffing the pot entirely, or putting out a feeler bet because they sense some weakness.
It is possible that you have checked and then been raised by your opponent, with them putting out a tester bet to try and pick up the pot. Reraising in this position shows more strength, as long as you have not shown weakness in your posture or expression when you checked in the first place.
The check-raise always suggests strength, but you have to be sure your opponent was raising without a reasonable hand in the first place, to make this reraise.
In short, reraising with nothing requires a lot of trust in your reads, and until you have developed your reading ability and understanding of the game, it is not something I would advise.
But if you do manage to trust these reads and reraise with nothing to good effect then it is a great feeling, as a poker player, as you have clearly outplayed your opponent.
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September 12th, 2008
Recently, I have to say that pocket fours are one of the few hands in live play that have been very kind to me.
Although I am not a superstitious player and won’t attach any extra importance to the hand when I am dealt it, I have made a full house both times when I was last dealt it.
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The first time, I slow played it and managed to win about 3,000 in chips, and the second time, I made a very unusual play and could have perhaps tripled up if I had played it right.
Having flopped a set, and with two other players in the pot, I decided to push all in on the flop. I guess my reasoning was that I had been very aggressive in previous hands and I knew my table image was loose. Both players had top pair with sevens, but with a weak kicker, and both folded. Flicking through the next two cards I saw that both would have hit three sevens on the turn, and I would have made a full house. Lesson learned. I almost always play this type of situation slow, and I should have done then too, but I felt both players could have a piece of the flop, as I limped into the pot preflop in late position. Personally, I always try not to become predictable by playing the same type of hands the same way, and this time it truly cost me.
Perhaps this a perfect example of how you should often slow play big hands, but doing so every time can often bite back. Despite this, I cannot say I definately played the hand terribly, beacuse the logic behind the move was ok, but giving my opponents the chance to improve their hand on the turn would have been the better option.
But then hindsight as they say, knows everything.
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August 15th, 2008
Getting started at fulltiltpoker.com is not a difficult process by any means. Firstly you must download the software which is easy and doesn’t take too much of your time. Secondly you must make a deposit to play for real cash, although you can play for play money to start off if you need to get a feel for the game first. You should find instructions for depositing onsite, and you will also be eligible for a 100% bonus up to $600 too. This should help you begin to build a substantial bankroll to use in bigger tournaments.
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Freeroll, and guaranteed tournaments are often available to enter on www.fulltiltpoker.com which allow new players to play multi table tournaments for great value. There are freerolls on Full Tilt which are aimed solely at first time depositing players and offer excellent prize pools too.
Full Tilt is widely regarded as being amongst the best online sites around and so you should find help and support very knowledgeable and quick if you have need to use it.
You should find the majority of players on Full Tilt friendly and if you are lucky you may even find yourself on the same table as one of their team of distinguished pros. All these things make for a good experience in terms of players getting started.
You can have the software downloaded and be sitting at a table playing poker in no time. As a player, you should find all the usual amenities in place on the site such as hand histories, tournament listings and an easy to use lobby.
So if you feel Full Tilt is your type of site, then you should have no worries about checking out the site and getting started as it is really very easy.
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August 15th, 2008
Texas Holdem is a game in which players can constantly develop their game. No matter what you read or hear, playing the game and putting these strategies into practice is the best way to find out if they truly work for you.
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In terms of tips, I would say firstly to be aware of your position and the extra information this gives you as a player. If most of the players round the table have already acted for instance, you know approximately how many players might fold or re raise if you choose to bet.
This information is intrinsic to your decision making as a player. Also sensing when to bluff at a pot is obviously important, as a player can easily find their chipstack moving backwards if they are choosing poor times to bluff. The same goes for knowing the types of player that surround you. A tight player is more easily forced out of a pot than a calling station of course, so you have to be careful when, and who you are bluffing. In a similar way, playing your big hands is a fine art which can make a great difference to your success in the game.
Sometimes you need to show some false concern and check a hand in order to get maximum profit from it. All this really comes down to putting in as much practice and playing time as possible, along with trying to be as perceptive of your opponents likely reactions to your play. If you can master this, then you should be able to regularly turn a profit from poker, but remeber, there is always more you can learn from those around you. This will be the case regardless of how good you are, or believe yourself to be.
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July 28th, 2008
When playing poker at fulltiltpoker.com there will often be someone around a table who seems a lot more loose and wild with the calls and raises they make.
There can be a fine line between extreme aggressive play, and suicidal non stop raising, you are going to get called by a hand eventually after all.
The thing is with poker at www.fulltiltpoker.com, you don’t have to play this way every single hand to create a loose image, you just need to do so visibly and at little cost to yourself. One way to do this is advertising bluffs. This is somthing I like to use, in live play particularly you can do it maybe once or twice before making sure you show a hand on the next occassion.
One of the verteran great players of poker at fulltiltpoker.com used to show loose tendancies in extreme forms. ‘Crazy’ Mike Caro, was known for sitting at five card draw tables, raising and standing pat with the worst cards imaginable, then checking and showing his cards.
With the right sort of demeanour about you, your opponents are going to either think you are drunk, mad, or incredibly foolish, but the point is, when you get dealt the next few strong hands, you will recoup that small loss many times over from the action you will get.
It is fair to say that playing online poker like this for a short spell early in a game will knock players out of their usual controlled styles, and get them making calls they wouldn’t normally dream of. The profit in such play should come when you suddenly tighten up and make sure you show people made hands when they decide to call you.
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July 16th, 2008
Aggressive betting can often pave the way to building a good chipstack, but it must always be used with great care and judgment. Alongside such tactics you must always be aware of when you are betting into a strong player who will call or re raise.
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The best thing about being aggressive is that you are always testing your opponents, and often they won’t be able to make the call. If they do, your aggressive play leads them to think they will have to call another bet on the next betting opportunity. This in turn makes them less likely to call the first raise.
When raising players often you must always be aware that other players know your image and aggressive nature and will be looking to set a trap if they make a strong hand. With this in mind, always look to push your opponents but read where you think their hand is at any given point.
If your opponent calls or raises there is always a reason why. In some circumstances aggressive play is crucial to closing out a tournament. If you are down to two or three players, you must be trying to press the issue and test your opponents, but I feel it is always best to do this in bursts.
The blinds will be big and coming round fast so if you make some good headway, sit back and fold a few hands. This gives your opponents the pressure of large blinds on their shorter stacks for a while which invariably provokes action and will eventually result in one or other going bust. If I am heads up, I try to be as aggressive as possible and look for half chances to get my opponent all in once they are short stacked.
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June 29th, 2008
There are many instances at pokerroom where you have to deal with a mediocre flop, an (A,J) or (A,Q) turning into middle pair on the flop for instance.
If you are first to act then personally I would put in a strong raise. If your opponent can reraise you, then I would think there is a good chance you are beaten and I would be rather inclined to fold here. If your opponent flat calls then you have some thinking to do going to the turn at pokerroom.com.
You may make a set or two pair here if you are lucky, but if not it is a careful choice between checking then letting the hand go, or firing out again, but always trust your reads of course. If you are second to act on the flop and your opponent makes a small to middle sized bet then I think a reraise will tell you all you need to know about where you stand, and maybe win you the pot at www.pokerroom.com too.
Everyone plays online poker differently but I like to ask the question of my opponent about how strong their hand is, rather than get asked it yourself and have no answer. When it comes to middle pairs in the pocket preflop, I would certainly look to get involved but don’t think this is an extremely strong hand. If you end up all in preflop you are likely to be somewhere close to fifty fifty at best, and if your opponent has a pocket over pair you are in big trouble.
I would get into the pot fairly cheaply if possible and look to either make a set or fold the hand on the flop, read pending. If you are short stacked while playing at pokerroom and need to take a chance soon, then this is an ok hand to go all in with. 50% to win when the blinds are soon going to eat you up anyway isn’t terrible odds, but let your judgement guide as much as anything else.
If you really feel your opponent is strong preflop then you can still fold. Because going up against a bigger pocket pair really isn’t something you want to be doing, no matter how many chips you have left while playing at pokerroom.com.
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June 22nd, 2008
Having any sort of pkr.com game with 9 cards dealt to you is probably not something most are familiar with, but many different sub games of poker have been developed over time and I thought I would share this particular game with you, as it is one which is played and enjoyed locally by myself and others.
We simply refer to the game as "9 card" and it basically involves each player (5 maximum) throwing a small coin (10p in our case) into the pot, being dealt their 9 cards, and arranging them into the best possible, separate, 3 card hands.
The www.pkr.com hand rankings are as follows and run along the same lines as 3 card poker, the top hand is 3 of a kind followed by the straight flush, then the straight, then the flush, then a pair and highcard, interestingly though in our game if you are dealt 4 of a kind in your 9 cards, you win instantly unless someone has a higher 4 of a kind.
The 4 of a kind being dealt doesn’t happen often though and usually the poker players will arrange their cards into a best, a second best, and a worst 3 card hand, and lay them on the table face down, then the players take turns to show their pkr poker best hand.
Whoever wins the best hand then turns over their second best, they must win this also to have a chance at winning the pot, then if they win that second hand, they turn over their final and weakest hand. If they beat everyone on all 3 hands they take the money, if someone beats them on their second or third hand, they have been "blocked" and another coin goes into the pot from each pkr.com player, and another hand is played, with the online poker pot building up each hand until someone wins all 3 of their hands and the pot with it.
PLAY NOW at pkr.com and put this to the test!
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April 28th, 2008
When looking at the earliest origins of poker there are many different games to look at, some of which, only fragments or pieces of scriptures from hundreds of years ago remain to this day, so it is difficult to provide a definitive answer to the question of where poker began, we can however take a close look at the various influences which moulded poker into the game it is today.
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The earliest recordings of anything resembling poker are records of chinese emperor Mu Tsung playing ‘domino cards’ with his wife around 1,000 years ago and in Egypt fragments of painted tablets have been found which may have been used in some kind of game too.
To find any solid evidence of a game played with some sort of cards and hand rankings we have records of a game called ‘As Nas’ in the Persian empire being played with 25 cards in the deck and established hand rankings which characterises the game as having some strong poker elements involved.
Around the time of the 18th to 19th century games using cards had spread across europe with many different symbols depicting suits such as acorns and shields amongst others, but it was in France that the modern day suits of hearts,clubs,spades and diamonds were first used in a game called ‘Poche‘, and from France, settlers in Canada went on to bring the game over to the continent with them. French Canadian settlers some years later are said to have founded New Orleans and of course the game of Poche or, poker as it is now known came with them, from there on the game was played on a large scale on the riverboats travelling up and down the mississippi and spread from there across the rest of America.
These days poker has become a much loved game and is played across the world with many different variations we now know well like, Omaha and Stud, 5 card draw and Holdem, and it can be assumed that the game will develop other variations in the coming years too, but for now the most played game is Holdem, and from small beginnings in the Persian empire and it’s subsequent consolidation in France it has become one of the greatest games known to man.
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