Poker

Protecting the blinds in MTTs

If a player wants to be successful in multi-table tournaments in Texas Hold’em, a number of factors came have to come together. First of all, you have to stick with the right strategy. Secondly, you need to get lucky. Of course, this component doesn’t allow you to improve your odds (aside from wearing a lucky charm or two), but the game of strategy and tactics is entirely up to you. The optimal strategy consists of dozens or even hundreds of small things. Protecting the blinds has a special value.

Get ready for war!

If you decide to defend the blinds in Texas Hold’em, then you have to be ready for combat. Basically, it’s a necessary business – but it’s dangerous nonetheless. You can be sure that almost every opponent will try to snatch a piece of your stack. Virtually any multi-table tournament will make you witness how the player who is in the big blind made the call and subsequently found himself between the rock and hard place. Many poker players do not want to give up their blinds, so they are ready to take unnecessary risks in order not to lose them. During such times, they completely forget about following the strategy and simply battle for blinds. It turns out that most of the poker players are ready to risk losing the war to win a battle, which is fundamentally wrong. The excessive defense of the blinds is a mistake.

Passive blind protection method

The main problem and the danger of blind defense is that the player continues the take action out of position. It’s like the importance of playing in the position no longer standing applied. Being in such an unenviable spot, the big blind must act aggressively. Mike Caro said, a well-known poker author once said: “Money is moving in a circle at the poker table. But it is very hard for me to win when I’m in the big blind. This is a very bad place to be at the poker table. ”

In such a situation, do not rush when it comes to making important decisions.It is better to play passively (check-call) from the big blind. Let the opponents control the hand and simply follow the situation. Depending on the actions of your opponents, you might be able to understand their intentions, so try to read them. It is not necessary to force things and make it your hand, as you could be walking straight into the jaws of a tiger. When playing a passive game, you may just as well protect their blinds. With the help of this trick you control the size of the pot and you don’t have to inflate it. The best situation would be a small pot and small bets coming from your opponent. [Read more…] about Protecting the blinds in MTTs

The Poker Position guide You needed to see Yesterday (Read It Now)

By Martin

Listen, seasoned players: this isn’t your guide. Maybe if you don’t know anything about poker position it might be useful to you, but we’re not talking to you today. Later, we’ll talk about other things that might be of value to you. But for right now, we’re talking to new players that are trying to get that horrible fish smell off of them. You know that smell, right? It’s the smell of desperation, of helplessness, of ignorance. Mind you, ignorance is used here in its most polite form — you didn’t know what you don’t know, and it’s not because you’re stupid. You’re just uninformed of real strategy at this time.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about poker position. If you’re going to play out of position, you’re in for a rough time. If you’re in position, you’re the last person to act on a round. This is the best place to be in a poker game, because it means that you get the most information. Contrast that with early position, where you’re the first person to make a move. If you raise, then you have to realize that other people are going to fold or even go in stronger because you put blood in the water.

Playing tight out of position is the key to making sure that you can stay in more hands. But if you’re playing aggressively out of position, you’re missing out on key information that’s going to make your poker play a lot smoother. [Read more…] about The Poker Position guide You needed to see Yesterday (Read It Now)

Get Your Inner Warrior To Come Out In Poker

By Martin

Now that we’ve talked about enemies, let me stop and talk about one of the most important elements of poker around: you! You have to make sure that you’re completely and totally into the game. Until you really master your concentration, I don’t recommend playing where you’re going to be flipping through tabs. Trust me, I know all about the tab game — I can easily have 30 tabs going at once, and that’s not really something that leads to good poker. When Facebook is flashing and you’re constantly wondering what’s going on… yeah, that’s not really a good time to think about what’s happening in the world.

If anything, the takeaway here is this: unleash your inner warrior. It’s funny how many people will read that last line, nod, but continue to play nervously in poker.

Let me repeat myself, then: unleash, embrace, and empower your inner warrior. There’s something powerful about being able to lose yourself in poker. This is not a team sport. Those people are not going to be your friends or take it easy on you. They are coming to pummel you. They are coming to make sure that you know they are going to take your chips from you. And if you aren’t playing aggressively at least part of the time, you’re going to find that you’re in for some bad times ahead. The best thing that you can possibly do is make sure that you are always looking at the bright side of things. You don’t want to find that you just can’t get things together. You have to make sure that you’re really focused on victory. That’s what the point of poker really is. You’re either winning, or you’re not. Losing money isn’t a good option, is it? You have to resign yourself to the fact that even if you sharpen your poker theory and knowledge, there are just going to be times where you catch a bad beat.

However, I will warn you — not every bad round of poker is a bad beat. Not at all. You have to make sure that you’re thinking about the road ahead, the bigger picture, and the times where you feel like you’re losing ground. Warriors push on, warriors fight, and warriors look at brighter days. They don’t let a few bad rounds of poker stop them from reaching for victory.

Keep in mind that good warriors also take what they can learn and use from all sources. Getting involved in the poker forums is a good thing. Now, some people tell me that they hate forum drama, so they always forgot the forums. I think that it’s a mistake. What if there are gems in there that you weren’t thinking about? The more that you focus on patterns, the more likely it is that you’ll start learning more about the flow of the game. Not just theory, but … real flow.

Give yourself time to learn from everyone. Try to have your own interests in mind. If someone rubs you the wrong way, just let it go. Remember that these people are from all over the world, come from all walks of life, and have different things going on outside of the poker game. They’re bringing in their emotions and their thoughts from time to time. It’s probably not personal, even if you think it is. Even when they address you directly, it’s probably not personal. After all, they really only know you as a forum character, not the real person that you are. Beat them at poker and see how they react. 🙂

I’m not done yet, but I wanted to switch gears and talk about the joy of the casino. Not sure why to even bother? My next post will shed some light on the subject!

Pay For Your Meal – With Poker!

By Martin

This isn’t a joke: at one specific restaurant, you can pay for your meal by winning big in poker. PokerStars launched a Pay-By-Poker restaurant that works like this: your meal’s price is completely based on how well you do at the table.

For two days, The All-In Kitchen will let poker-hounds play to earn their meals. The event is to highlight the start of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour, a big event with plenty of money to be made.

The All-In Kitchen normally charges over 50 GBP for the average meal, but the Pay-By-Poker diners are in luck! Instead of having to shell out cash, they will play three hands of poker. The chips earned from those hands will pay for the meal. If you really rise to the top of the rankings with over 10,000 chips earned, you get your dinner completely free.

Are the meals worth it? Sample menu ideas include a fantastic crab thermidor and a delicious pear tarte.

The fancy line up and quirky twists are just part of the fun. There will be plenty of people coming in for this event, which tells us some interesting things when we study the topic. You see, plenty of people have said that poker is dead and everyone should move on. Between many big casinos closing their doors to certain countries and even going out of business in other cases, poker players have definitely been feeling a lack of love as of late.

But the future of casino gaming is still bright, as more markets open up every day. The thirst for online gambling has never been higher, but the opponents have also never been louder. Plenty of people are questioning how comfortable we should be with gambling as a whole.

We think that gambling is a fun activity whether you do it online or offline. We hope that the All-In Kitchen will have a packed house with poker players that get to play hard for a free dinner. The thrill of winning is great, but the common interest we all share is what makes playing poker so exciting.

Variations Of Poker

By Martin

Other than No Limit Texas Hold Em, there are many other forms of poker. This article is dedicated to forms of poker other than No Limit Texas Hold Em, and how to play each game.

Limit Texas Hold Em

Like No Limit Texas Hold Em, Limit Hold Em is played with players being dealt 2 cards down, 5 community cards (Flop, Turn River) and 4 betting rounds. This is where the similarities end. Limit Hold Em is played with betting limits, unlike No Limit. In Limit Hold Em, players are allowed 1 call and 3 raises, which caps the action. So if the blinds are 50/100, player 1 can only call the 100. Player 2 can raise to 200, Player 3 can reraise to 300, and Player 4 can cap the action at 400. This means player 1 has to call 300, Player 2 has to call 200, and Player 3 has to call 100.

Another major difference between No Limit and Limit is that in Limit Hold Em the betting limits change on the turn. In Limit Hold Em, when the blinds are 50/100, the minimum bet pre flop and on the flop is 100. This bet doubles on the turn and river to 200. The same 1 call and 3 raise max rule applies to all betting levels.

Some things to keep in mind when playing Limit Hold Em are try to play premium hands and don’t try to play every hand. Just because it is a limit game doesn’t mean you should chase all your draws or play any 2 cards. You’ll go broke doing so. When you have a hand, bet! By allowing players to see free cards, you’re giving them the opportunity to win the hand by catching there card.

A lot of people frown on playing Limit Hold Em because of their experiences playing in casinos. In low limit cash games at casino’s you will find a lot of loose players. They have to change their game in limit hold em tournaments because the blinds will increase regularly, making it impossible to play bad cards for a cheap price.

Pot Limit Texas Hold Em

Pot Limit Texas Hold Em is played just liked its no limit cousin, with the only difference is the maximum one can bet is the size of the pot. Lets say preflop the blinds are 50/100, and the there is 150 in the pot ( just the blinds) and player A bets the pot. In order to bet the pot, player A has to call the big blind, then bet the size of the pot. So player A’s total bet is 350, since he has to call the big blind. Lets say after the flop there is 1000 in the pot and player a wants to bet the pot. Player A only has to bet 1000 since there was no outstanding bet to call.

Pot Limit games do allow players to go all in, but the pot has to be large to enough for a player to do so. Your position really affects how you play in Pot Limit games. If you bet the pot from 1st position, the bet is small enough not to scare anyone out. But a pot sized bet from the button will usually be enough to win the pot.

Royal Hold Em

Royal Hold Em is Texas Hold Em with a twist. Royal Hold Em is played with only 10’s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces. This game can be played with up to 6 players. Royal Hold Em can be played in any format, but it’s generally played as a limit game with a lot of action.

Pineapple

Pineapple can be played 2 different ways; Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple. Both games are played like Texas Hold Em, except all players are dealt 3 cards instead of 2. In Pineapple, players must discard one of the 3 cards they were dealt before any betting occurs. In Crazy Pineapple, players play all 3 cards to the flop. One of the players hole cards must be discarded before any betting occurs on the flop.

Both games can be played as limit, pot limit, or no limit games. Crazy Pineapple can also be played as a Hi/Lo game, meaning the best hand wins half the pot and the low hands wins half the pot. Although it’s usually not played as a money game, Pineapple is a good dealers choice game and a way to mix things up

Omaha

Omaha is a community game like Texas Hold Em, with a flop, turn and river. In Omaha, players are dealt 4 cards instead of 2, and thru out the whole hand players must use 2 of their hole cards at all times. Omaha can be played as either a limit game, or as a pot limit game, which it normally is played as. Some online card rooms offer it as a no limit game, but this defeats the true game itself.

Omaha is one of the few games that a player can flop the nut straight and fold because of potentially bigger draws hitting. Lets say Player A flops the nut straight with 2 clubs on the board and bets the pot. Player B re bets the pot, and Player C re bets the pot. Player A can assume both Players B and C are on flush draws and fold his straight since if the 3rd club comes, he’s done for.

Omaha is a game where players really have to read the board, looking for flush draws, and also full houses if the board happens to pair. Hand selection is very important too, since even less hands are really playable in Omaha because of how the game works. Ideally you’d want all cards to work together is some way, like pairs with hi connectors. AAJT double suited is the best starting hand for this reason. [Read more…] about Variations Of Poker

Want Bigger Wins this Summer in Poker – Get Your Heads Up Game Right

By Martin

Summertime poker games can definitely pass the time quite fine, but you want to make sure that you have your wits about you. There will be plenty of players in the game that are easy to beat, which might give you a false sense of confidence. But watch out, as there are players that are waiting for you to have your guard down. That’s when they’re going to strike. They might let you pick off all of the weaker players, only to beat you in the final rounds.

The reality of poker is this: there is a vast difference between finishing first and finishing second. And don’t get us started on the difference between finishing second and finishing third, or any of the other places. The money drops off, leaving you frustrated. After all, if you’re going to put part of your bankroll into SnG tournaments, you might as well get good money out of it.

The nice thing about SnGs is that you don’t have to put too much money into it in order to get a good ROI. You do, however have to be aware of the heads up battle. You don’t want to get all the way down to the end and not have any idea of what to do. If you’ve been taking a break from poker for a while, you might be a little rusty. So here’s a quick guide on what to do, how to play, and your thoughts during the game.

First and foremost, you need to make sure that you’re thinking a bit ahead of each and every hand. Some players feel that you should just react to whatever the other player is doing at the time. But this sets up a rough time for one big reason: you’re not going to be able to discount bluffing. Bluffing can throw off your strategy. A lot of players bluff at the heads up stage. Instead of just going with whatever the other player does, put in some strategy on your own. Push if you have a great hand. This isn’t the time to back down, or try to play a monster hand soft. You must push in when you have something big. Yes, there’s a chance that the other person is going to back down. That’s what you want. You’re basically sending them the message that you’re not to be messed with.

Eventually, someone will make a play that they shouldn’t. This is where the game will ultimately be decided. You want to wait for your opponent to go in when they really shouldn’t. Give them the illusion that you’re at a weak position, and they’ll dive in. Their assumption is that you’re on the rocks, but this assumption will be the end of them.

It can take time to practice this, and that’s okay. Go for some free poker games where you can really practice your strategy. Your perfect strategy will fall into place if you give it some time!