Archive for the ‘Poker Online’ Category

Pokerroom - Large Prize Pool Tournament Strategy

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

pokerroom.com - Sometimes when you find yourself in a more important tournament than usual, the occasion can cause you to play slightly differently. In general you should always try and play the game that you are most comfortable with, but things do not always work out this way. Whether by nerves, or by your own designs, you can find yourself playing tighter poker in this type of game, which can sometimes see you go deeper into a tournament. The problem you face however, is that you will not have as many chips when you get there.

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Personally I feel that you should play your usual game if you can possiby help it, especially if your usual style of play brings you success. As it happens, I have the biggest live tournament I have played in, happening tomorrow, and I hope the big occasion will not affect my play. Logically speaking, most players will be playing tighter poker and so with a little courage it is possible to exploit this, but I will not be too reckless. I will play my cards as I find them whilst trying to pinpoint players who are nervous about comitting to pots early on.

The extra time between blind levels will however give players more time to find the right hand, which means that if you raise and are called preflop, caution is recommended. Probing bets to try and pick up pots early on could be a way forward, but as with every aspect of poker, thinking on your feet and recting to your opponents play should give a greater chance of success.

fulltiltpoker.com promos

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

fulltiltpoker.com - As a first time promotional bonus offer, Full Tilt give an extra 100% on top of your initial deposit. This is a good offer of course, and in comparitive terms is around average within the industry. Full Tilt are renowned for having one of the strongest teams of pros on their site, and in conjunction with this fact, they offer both cash, and prizes to players who eliminate a professional player from their bounty tourney.

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Also on offer is the chance to win a 12k prize package in a tournament of your choosing on the EPT or the WPT. This is every poker players dream of course, and the added versatility of allowing the option of which event to enter is a nice bonus. Many great value gauranteed tournaments are also scheduled each day with a gargantuan gauranteed of $1,000,000 held each month.

There are other great promotional offers available too, with friend referrals to the site netting you $100 per person you bring to Full Tilt. Happy Hour promotions where players earn points at a much faster rate, along with an excellent V.I.P system make good additions to a list of promotions which is already exciting. There are other promotions and bonuses too, which can be viewed fro the Full Tilt homepage. Promotion wise, there is a lot going on at Full Tilt in the coming months.

pokerroom - What Would Happen to Poker Without Blinds?:

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

pokerroom.com - At first glance, you might think the answer to this is easy because with no blinds to worry about everyone would wait for a premium hand wouldn’t they?. Well… you might think everyone would wait around for pocket aces whilst folding almost all their hands. Not so in my opinion, I feel that the natural compulsion to play and make bluffs, hit hands etc would be too tempting.

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Besides, if a player was disciplined enough to sit there folding every hand until they got pocket Aces, how much action would they get whenthey were dealt them? None. also, if every player was folding ouright, someone would end up raising and simply picking up all the pots every hand, and so I don’t think it would be that simple.

So having considered this, I feel that poker would probably go on in much the same way without blinds up to a point. However, when we got to the latter stages of tournaments, players would become far more careful as they try and get deeper into the money paying places. So in essence the blinds, and the amount they grow to in tournament play, provides a constant reason to get involved in pots and gamble.

As such, they serve an important function to the game. Whatever the situation might be if blinds happened not to exsist, this is not something which will never happen of course. Despite the blinds being dreaded by shorter stacked players as they come round the table, they are a necessary pressure, ensuring that players jump before they are pushed, into a pot.

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pokerroom - Pocket Fours:

Friday, 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.

fulltiltpoker.com - Reraising With Nothing

Friday, 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.

pokerroom.com - Texas Holdem Tips

Friday, 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.

fulltiltpoker.com

Friday, 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.

Wild and crazy play at fulltiltpoker.com

Monday, 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.

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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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pokerroom - Aggressive betting in tournament play

Wednesday, 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.

Pokerroom middle pairs.

Sunday, 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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