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Sharp Poker Turns Ahead – Are You Ready

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One of the toughest things to do in poker is to handle the “ups and downs” of the game effectively. While some players handle poker’s hairpin turns with ease, many more players are shocked at how volatile the game really is. Just when you think that you’re riding high, you have some setbacks that you have to deal with. Just when you think that you’re far ahead of the competition, a series of “dumb moves” can leave you scrambling for chips.

Maybe the old saying should be amended: all’s fair in love, war, and …poker.

But you’re not in the business of making dumb moves. You’ve found the best game in the world for honing your critical thinking skills. You can either go to the top of the heap in poker, or you can fall from grace in the blink of an eye. Some people say that winning at poker is luck, but there is truly a strong element of skill in the game. Luck can only carry you so much.

Setting the Tone for a Great Poker Game

If you’re trying to navigate the sharp poker turns ahead of you, think about this first: every player has to act on the information that they have in front of them, as well as the cards that they’re working with. More sophisticated players also look at what cards could possibly be held in another player’s hand at the table. This is critical in figuring out how strong your hand really is.

Don’t Forget the Psychological

Poker isn’t just a game of luck or skill alone. It’s also a battle of wits. You might think that you have the strongest hand, and you might even feel confident about that. But do you really have the best hand at the table, or are you going to be pressured by the other players? There’s no need to think that you’re always the strongest hand, but you shouldn’t automatically think that you’re the weakest. There are plenty of players that actually play weak hands strong just to see who will clear out of the pot. Sometimes it pays off big time to challenge them at the showdown to see what they’re really made of.

The place you indulge all of your big poker dreams at can really make a difference in your performance. If you know that you’re at a well-known, high quality casino, then you know that fair play is the name of the game. Unfortunately, plenty of people fall prey to “fly by night” places that don’t treat the player as a valued customer. You deserve better, so make sure that you play at a reputable casino. They know how to keep the poker fun going for a long time!

Summer Is Coming, Tighten Up Your Poker Skills Now

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Do hotshot college students give you pause? With the rise of Texas Hold’Em as THE top online poker variant, there are plenty of people that will be flooding the poker rooms this summer. If you’re relatively new, you might be excited, as there’s some fish that will be swimming your way. Yet assuming that every newbie is a fish would be a fatal error. You must make sure that you’re looking at your skills more than their skills. They will reveal themselves in short order. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to reach for better profits than before. Otherwise you could end up just spinning your wheels, losing money, and losing a bit of sanity as well.

Let’s get down to business, shall we?

If you’re trying to play any type of serious poker online, you need to get a heads up display. This is going to give you more statistics than you have without one, and they’re relatively inexpensive. Not only will they give you data about how well you’re doing, but it’ll also be able to give you some insight on the people that are playing.

Refreshing yourself on poker theory can also make the difference. When you’re in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to make mistakes that can eat away at your poker game long term. There are times where letting someone else have a small pot can open the doors for you to have a bigger win down the road. It also gives you a chance to see how far another player will go to get what they want.

Keeping a deep focus is equally important here. We’re not big fans of multitabling, because it’s hard to concentrate equally on multiple targets like that. If you’re a super veteran and you thrive on that type of challenge, more power to you. But if you’re trying to battle the new wave of players in the summer, you really have to go one table at a time.

Speaking of tables, playing at a room that you already like is better than trying to check out a new place. Yes, bonus hunting is fun but sometimes we like to play where we know how everything is set up. Just our opinion though; you’re free to test out what works for you.

New players can often go “all in” when you least expect it, especially on pots that were a surefire winner for you. Instead of getting angry, just let it go. There will always be bingo players, not just in the summertime. Allowing them to get in your head is how you’ll go down in flames.

Good luck and enjoy the heat — both on and off the poker table!

Big Stack Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

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So you love playing poker, huh? We do too! There’s nothing like being at the table, playing a few hands, and finding yourself the chip leader at the table. The skies are all blue, the grass is a warm green, and the sun’s high in the sky…for now. Yes, we said it — this is only temporary. Let’s be honest for a second: just as the little stack gets all of the heat, the heat shifts to the big stack just as hard, if not harder. Everyone wants to be you, and that means taking you down a few pegs. There are a lot of warnings that you need to consider when you’re the big stack.

For example, if you’re the chip leader, be prepared to get bluffed out. If you’re susceptible to dumb plays, then they’ll use those dumb plays to hack away at your chip empire. What’s more is that you’ll even have newbies that will play straight garbage against you. Anything to psychologically unnerve you. But hey, if it works… it works. You need to make sure that you’re always staying one step ahead of these people. You can’t just assume that everything’s going to move smoothly merely because you WANT it to. Poker is about strategy. For the love of everything shiny and wonderful, don’t just play from the gut. For one, you won’t gain anything, and you can lose all of your chips.

Be cautious going all in. If you don’t have the nuts, don’t go all in. I don’t care what you have in your hand. There’s no need to get sloppy merely because you have more chips. Now, when you’ve studied a hand and you really do have something to push in with — PUSH!

Reviewing your game is the mark of a smart player. You’re in the moment when you’re playing, so you won’t catch everything. But reviewing old games at your leisure lets you see the things that you wouldn’t have picked up otherwise. It’s not always easy to look back at your games to see all of your mistakes, but it’s something that you really need to do.

When you’re the big stack, you have a lot of responsibility. Don’t let it go to your head, and definitely don’t get cocky. If you start getting arrogant about it, chances are good that you’re going to find yourself not staying the big stack for very long.

So You Lost a Poker Game – Now What

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Poker is something that you will lose at…occasionally. Even the great poker players, like Scotty Nguyen lose from time to time. Doyle Brunson has lost. Hellmuth has lost. It’s a thing. You’re going to lose. It doesn’t matter how good you are, because poker is also a game of luck. Sometimes the luck is with you, and you’re on fire. But there are times where the luck with someone else. You can either get mad, and ruin your poker playing or get strategic, and work your way out of the funk.

I like to call it the funk because everything just feels rotten. You don’t feel good, you feel like giving up on the game, and you feel like you’re not as sharp as you should be. Well, the truth is that you really aren’t as sharp as you should be. You’re angry. You’re upset. You’re hurting. You wish that you could rewind that. You start thinking about all of the crappy plays that you made. You get upset. You want to fix things but you know that it’s not going to change anything. You worry. You panic. You try to move on but you’re sucked back down with all of your mistakes.

Now, some people think I’m trying to be funny, but I grew into poker thinking this way. I worried how I would look if I had a bad streak. Then I had a bad streak. I realized that I wasn’t as bad as I thought. It wasn’t the end of the world, for one. For two, there were plenty of chances to bounce back. There were weaker players that basically jumped into my table looking for a fight. The poker community isn’t as large and spaced out as you might think. So when someone’s having a bad time, some sharks like to come sniffing around. I was ready for that, and I pulled off some really good wins.

But what you want to know is …what do you do when you lose? That’s the million dollar question. The answer is simple: you move on. You don’t dwell on it. Yes, you want to go over the game and see what you can learn. But beating yourself up is entirely the wrong response. You don’t want to beat yourself up. You don’t want to have other people beat you up. You don’t want to feel like the moron just because you made a different decision. If anything, you want to be able to make the right decisions for the right reasons. There are mistakes made in poker that are truly tough to recover from. Will you recover from them anyway? Of course. Folding a monster hand because you got sucked into a bluff is one of them. But you know what? There’s always going to be poker hands. There’s always going to be chances to win. They’re always going to be another game, another tournament, another opponent that’s happy to try to take you down.

At the end of the day, it’s how you carry yourself. I’ve got good news: you will be amazed at what you can do when you realize that the worst really isn’t as bad as you think it is. The even better news is that as you go through mistakes in poker, you’ll seal them up faster and faster with time. You’ll be that star player that everyone looks up to. But it all starts with learning how to control your own mind. That’s really the long and short of it, so good luck!

Speedy Poker games could be just the challenge that You´re craving

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Are you tired of poker games that seem to just drag on and on? If that’s the case, you really owe it to yourself to start looking at playing a different type of poker. You need to consider playing the type of poker that can definitely lead to you getting the best time possible, making money the entire time. Generally speaking, slow poker rooms aren’t truly “slow” — but they do give you a lot more clock time to make your decisions. This means that you have time to look back on all of the moves that everyone has made, calculating what you should do next. With speedier versions of poker, you aren’t going to have the luxury of a lot of time to act. If you don’t take your turn, you’re going to be passed over and thrown out of the hand. If you’re in the game for the long run, this could really be a bad thing. You just need to make sure that you’re always looking at the bigger picture and figuring out what you want to do.

Not every casino has fast poker, blitz poker, or quick poker action. You need to use a casino review guide to figure out which casinos are going to carry the type of poker that you honestly like. There’s nothing wrong with looking for faster poker, but you do need to make sure that you have a few things on your end.

First and foremost, you need to get used to acting faster in poker. Are you only in the lead in terms of your win rate because you have oceans of time to act? This could end up hurting you more than actually helping you. As long as you’re able to think things through a little bit more, then there really isn’t anything that you can’t do. You just need to make sure that you’re pushing forward at all times, as much as you can push.

When you’re really trying to move things forward, you really can’t go wrong getting your practice games in before you’re risking money. Some people disagree with this, but it’s really for the best. As long as you can start looking at this fast poker business from all sides, there’s no way that you can fail over the long term. But you can’t expect overnight results. That would be silly. You just need to be cautious and tread very carefully.

Keep Your Enemies Close in Poker – Read Them!

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If there’s one big piece of advice I can pass on to the new poker player, it would be to sit down, look at your enemies, and try to read them the best way that you know how. Now, a lot of poker guides say that you should do this, and they’re definitely right. However, a lot of newcomers assume that it’s just hopeless. With so much action happening at the table, it’s hard to remember who’s really folding what. As you become a more advanced paler you might want to invest in software that helps you interpret the data that’s available on every player, including the ability to leave notes on the tough guys that you encounter. As a beginner, I think that you should wait until you understand the gameflow a bit better.

You see, if you sit down at a table and you see a guy shoving hard into the pot, you might have a bluffer…but you also might have a seasoned pro that wants you to think that he’s shooting blanks. He could have a real monster and just be trying to suck you in. It’s important to at least let a few hands play before you really see what your opponents are made of. Some will be pretty light, betting only after the flop has come down. This is a sign that they’re not as confident as they think they are when it comes to their hole cards. The hole cards are the two initial cards that you are dealt from every hand. The other cards will hit the community board and that’s what you’re using to make the best pair possible.

Your enemies may even use the chat window to rattle you. When I was a new poker player, I got this a lot. If they felt that you got lucky, they had no problem rattling you. Other people will make hard decisions about you without knowing you. Remember that all they can see is your gameplay. They can’t tell how you really are. There’s no point in taking people like this seriously. They’re just going to ignore you and do whatever it is that they want anyway. Why get worried about it?

Be sure that you’re keeping an even head as you play. If you’re not a drinker, I don’t recommend that you start. If you’re not a smoker, I don’t recommend that you start. If you’re a recreational drinker, you should save that for a time where you can really enjoy it. Poker is a game of the mind, and it’s really going to require all of your focus — as much of your focus as you can give it. Trying to skip this rule can lead to you getting taken advantage of, and that’s the last thing that you want to have happen anyway.

In the beginning, I worried about what all of the poker players would think of me. I was very much a newbie fresh out of practicing with fake money, but I wanted the real thing. I wanted to make a little bit of money on the side. I had a decent job that I was coming home from everyday, but I really wanted to make sure that I had extra spending money. Times can be pretty hard, you know. There’s nothing that says that you can’t build up a little nest egg of sorts through casino gambling, but it’s harder than it looks.

Weighing your enemies carefully through all decisions is going to be the winning strategy behind good poker, but it’s open for anyone to explore it. Check it out now!

Give Yourself a Challenge – Take on a New Poker Rival

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It’s time to get out of your comfort zone. Now, I know that you’re probably thinking that you’re already out of your comfort zone just by playing poker, but that’s not enough. You need to make sure that you’re always getting a challenge in. Yes, your win-rate might go down but that isn’t the point here. You need to always be sharpening your skills, unless you’re going to be content to stay in the same poker level forever. Now, some people want to grind it out and play microstakes forever. That’s fine. This article isn’t for them, however.

I’m talking to the players that know that there’s more out there for them than just the basic run of the mill players. But you might be afraid. After all, poker is a psychological game. Some people aren’t ready for that. Other people feel that they can conquer, but then they still don’t take action. Does this mean that it’s the end of the world? Does this mean that there’s no way that you can push forward? Not at all. It’s just time to make sure that you’re in your element here. You don’t want to go overboard. You don’t want to get worked up if you can help it. There’s just a time and a place to move forward, a time and a place to go for new challenges.

Taking on a new poker rival isn’t something that you want to do just for fun and laughter — you need to have a strategy. If you haven’t invested in a heads up display, you need to stop being cheap and just do it. Some people say that they don’t need it, but I think it totally helps you identify who is really on your radar and who is just a fish. Pulling up good stats about the other players in the poker room is a good idea. You can follow them into rooms and possibly take their chips. Be careful though — the other poker players are doing their homework on you. They want to take your chips too. Are you sure that you’re ready to take the action to the next level? This is for real money, of course. So you don’t want to stretch your bankroll beyond what you can handle. If you’re not comfortable with something, you shouldn’t mess with it. That’s really the truth of the matter. I want to see more people taking risks with poker, but risk doesn’t mean recklessness. If you’re a newbie, you don’t take on Scotty Nguyen. However, if you’ve been playing good poker and you see a good set of sharks that would be a fair challenge, it would be a terrible thing if you didn’t engage.

Naturally, it’s a good idea to measure what you’re doing. Look at all of your old game data. Don’t fly blind, when there’s so many different resources to take advantage of. If you have questions on things, don’t be silent — there’s a community board waiting for you. As long as you’re looking to learn, there’s no reason why you can’t get ahead of the game eventually. And yes, you will make mistakes. Mistakes are part of the game. You aren’t always going to win. Get over it. It’s time to take new risks, look at what’s important, and have a good time along the way. What could be better than that?

Shields Up For Great Poker

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Are you trying to get deeper into the world of poker? You’re not alone. In fact, poker is one of the most popular games in the online casino world. There is always someone that’s dreaming about making the big poker money like all of the other people that you see on the World Series of Poker and other places like that. There’s something to be said about being able to step into the world of poker and feel like you have all of the options in the world. When you play with strategy, you definitely do. Yet strategy isn’t going to be enough. Poker is truly one of those games that use the battlefield of the mind, which means that you have to deal with opponents that are going to be thinking about looking at how to drill into your mind. You have to tone down the way you feel and react, because that means that you are going to fall into the trap. If the other players can throw you off, then it means that they’re going to be able to take your chips. I don’t need to tell you that you losing your chips is the last thing that you want to do.

Make sure that you’re playing poker from a state of emotional distress. The truth is that you don’t have to play poker when you’re mad. You don’t have to play poker when you’re dealing with an awful breakup. These are going to be times where you really want to make sure that you try to let go of all of that stress. Otherwise, that stress is going to distract you from making the best decisions possible. It’s better than feeling like you’re going to be stuck with bad decisions. When you make one bad decision, it feels like you’re making more bad decisions. That’s something that you just don’t want to deal with, if you honestly want my opinion.

Let’s see if we can flip things around. First and foremost, you need to make sure that you’re looking at a clear picture of what’s going on. Don’t take poker personal. They are all coming to get you, but that’s something that can be said for every single poker player at that table. You’re not the only one. As long as you keep it from getting personal, there’s nothing that says that you can’t win at the end of the day.

You need to be looking at the way every single person on that table is playing. Are they taking it loose? Are they being too “rock” for the situation? No matter which style they’re playing, you need to make sure that you’re still focusing on taking them out of the competition. The truth is that poker is definitely war. You’re either playing to win, or you’re getting beaten up. That’s just the long and short of it. As long as you’re focused on the bigger picture, there’s really nothing that you can’t do.

Be sure that you’re still following proper poker theory at all times. You don’t want to start just playing from the gut, you know. Some players swear by that, but I don’t think it’s very consistent. That sounds way too emotional in my opinion. There’s some poker instincts that you’ll develop over time. For now, the best thing that you can do is make sure that you keep your own shields up in the poker world. You can do it — I have total faith in your skills! Keep in touch 🙂

Setting the Stage for Glorious Poker Victories

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Glorious poker victories — is that arrogant? Not at all. If you read my last article, then you already know how I feel about poker. It’s all about playing to win. It’s all about getting into the game. You need to make sure that you’re brushing up on poker theory at every opportunity, because it’s not like you’re going to be able to just step into anything that you want to get into. You need to have more strategy than that, little warrior.

To set the stage, you need to be able to practice scanning your opponents. Some people will not do very well at this, and they’ll have problems. But the truth is that until you know what the crowd is doing, you can’t really plan much. You have to be able to assume what other people have. Counting your outs and looking at odds is a good way to get started.

If this sounds foreign to you, don’t worry. Here’s a list of what you need to master:

Odds
Implied Odds
Counting outs
Understanding hand ranks
Pre-flop raising vs. raising on the flop

Again, these are all things that happen after you’ve practiced with them for a while. If you haven’t done your practice work, then you’re going to find yourself in over your head. I didn’t say that this journey would be easy at all. This part is why so many people don’t last in poker. Oh, they come swinging with a loot of hopes and dreams but they realize that hopes and dreams don’t carry you very far. Tons of people get mowed down in poker tournaments, even when they do have strategy.

You need to make sure that you’re mixing up your image. Someone that’s raising all of the time is creating a pattern. If you’re the chatty type that is too busy being the life of the party… STOP. You’re playing poker to make extra money and earn a reputation for being a good player, not to laugh it up during the games. If you want to tell someone they made a good play, that’s one thing. On the other hand, why telegraph who you’re watching? Being silent is honestly the best policy, as much as people hate to think about it like that.

If you’re always in the middle of the conversation, you can’t concentrate. Even though some people disagree, I don’t. I think that if you’re trying to play poker for real money, that should honestly be your focus. I didn’t say that you couldn’t get social after the game, or in the forums.

A word about forums, while I’m thinking about it — forums can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Remember that other people can and will read what you type. If you put yourself out there as a weak player, you might be surprised to find yourself a target when you cross over into the games. Likewise if you mention anything stressful that you’re dealing with. These people are going to be social, but that doesn’t always mean that they’re going to be your friends. You should see it in this light: anything that you admit can really be used against you over time. The best thing to do is be well aware of this at all times.

I know that I am giving you more than what you might be able to handle. But setting the stage for wonderful poker victories doesn’t mean that you just go in when the mood suits you. It means that you approach it as a warrior preparing for battle and nothing less than that.

A New Look At Open Faced Poker

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If you’re dreaming in about playing in the big poker tournaments, chances are good that you’re going to need to learn at least one new variant of poker. That’s where the real money is — you have to be able to play multiple types of poker at the same time with no problem. You just need to figure out where you’re going really go for the action that you crave. Our suggestion would be to definitely check out Open Faced Chinese Poker. The “big dogs” of poker already now about OFC poker, but it’s time for you to learn it. Trust us, it won’t be difficult and when other people see that you can do more than just NLTHE, they will definitely be impressed.

So let’s get into the guts of the matter. What’s so exciting about OFC poker? It’s set up a little bit differently from the poker that you might know. You’re going to get five cards instead of just two, and the person that’s left of the “button” has a big problem: their hand is face up. Of course, your hand is also face up when it gets to you. The dealer then gives you one card to get the rest of the hand in the Chinese format of 3-5-5. Your hand has to be stronger from the top all the way down to the bottom. See how this can get tricky?

Strategy is still forming for OFC poker which is why it’s getting to a lot of poker players. You have tons of sites on NLTHE, but you don’t have that many talking about OFC poker yet.

To be great, you need to pay attention to position more than you might have with the poker that you’re used to. This isn’t a game that rewards sloppy play. If anything, sloppy play can really get you killed. So what you have to make sure that happiness from this point is that you’re always looking through all of your options. Don’t get stuck just spinning your wheels, you’re better than that.

Hunting for a casino that handles OFC pokier isn’t difficult anymore. You can look this up in any casino review guide, and then head on over. If it’s a new casino that you haven’t played before, you’ll be able to get a welcome bonus for the opportunity. Why not check it out today, while it’s still on your mind?