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Raising Your Strategic Poker Profile

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Trying to raise your poker game is always a challenge, but it’s a battle worth fighting very single time. Do you really think the pros don’t raise their poker game every now and then? They don’t rest on their former glories all that much, because there’s always somebody bigger and badder coming down the pipe, ready to knock you out of the game. The very nature of poker is very dog eat dog. Even though a lot of people within the community strive to be friendly and helpful, when it’s time for a game they definitely put on their gear and come at you in full force. So you need to ensure that you are always looking at your poker game from every angle.

Take a step back and be honest with yourself — how is your poker game right now? Are you really winning, or are you just breaking even? Doing a little quick math can really make all of the difference. You have to always look at what you’re doing, how it’s being done, and what you plan to do after everything has been dealt with. If you ignore the need to grow in the world of poker, you will only make yourself more and more miserable. There’s no need to feel like it’s impossible to have a great poker game — you just need to get a little more strategic.


Many people play poker by the seat of their pants. If you’re not trying to win money from poker, then that’s not bad. Kill a day and just play if that’s what you ultimately wish to do — but don’t waste your time trying to play that way for real money.

Another point that needs to be said — know when to back out. A lot of newbies think that they should always be roaring into the hands, but that’s not the case. You want to know when the roar and when to, quite frankly, just shut up and hold your peace. Even when you think you have a monster and you’re going to win the big pot, you never know when your three Queens is really going to be stomped by somebody that lucks into getting a full house or worse — a four of a kind!

Strategy isn’t something that’s static at all — it’s always changing, getting stronger and turning you into the great poker player that you were meant to be. However, what you have to remember is that strategy needs to be fed. Don’t sit there thinking that it’s the end of the world if you lose a few games. It’s also not bad if you lose a few games and you have to adjust your strategy. Some players get so hardheaded that they often forget this — there’s no shame in changing things up when it’s not to your liking.

Overall, it is possible to grow your poker game. We’ll write more on this in the future, so make sure that you stay tuned. If you liked this article, don’t worry — we’ve really only touched the very tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more waiting for you on the site in the weeks to come!

The 888 Poker Bonus Is Always Worth Looking Into

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Ah, poker. If there’s one casino game that we find ourselves coming back to over and over again, it would have to be poker. There is something about the intersection of strategy, luck, and skill that just seems to pull us back in no matter what other game that is on our minds. If you’re going to play poker online for serious money, you need to go to a casino that means business. We’re not here to trash talk casinos, honestly — there are a lot of great casinos out there. However, we do think that where you play matters. A lot of players are so hungry to win money that they don’t stop to think about where they play. That’s a short sighted mistake that leads to long term problems.

If you want a quality casino, look no further than 888poker. It’s a casino that has great poker rooms, and plenty of action. Action just refers to the amount of people that play at the casino. You’ll have a lot of poker fans to square off with. That means more opportunities to make money. After all, not every player is going to be Scotty Nguyen or Doyle Brunson. That gives you a lot of chances to catch fish and take their money. Hey, we never said that poker was a nice game — we just said we couldn’t live without it. You have to get a little tough and play well in order to really win money. If you try to make friends in poker, you’ll get creamed. It’s really every man — and woman — for themselves, and that’s the way we like it.


Of course, we can’t talk about 888 Poker without talking about the 888 poker bonus. You got to look into all of your bonuses before you play the game. If you only think about the game without the bonuses, you’re going to leave behind money that could have funded your bankroll.

Every casino player knows that the more bankroll you actually have, the better off you will be in the long run. You just have to claim the money, and there’s no shame in claiming the bonus — why not claim it today?

Fast poker action and plenty of other casino games make 888 Casino worth checking out — but you’ll definitely want to make sure that you take some time to have fun. After all, you only have one life to live, you know!

Can You Really Play Poker Professionally

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One dream that seems to be common among new and veteran gamblers alike online is playing at their game of choice professionally. Since poker is pretty popular, we’ll cover some of what it takes to play professionally.

First and foremost, playing poker professionally isn’t something that you take lightly. When you’re trying to make it your primary source of income, you have to be able to be just that good — there’s no other way to say it. If you doubt your poker skills at all, this is not the time to quit your day job and start playing poker.

You need to think of it almost like starting your own business. If you don’t do that, then you’re going to have a really hard time getting the right attitude about playing poker. It’s something that can really change your life, but it’s also something that can change your life for the worse.


Most professional poker players play a LOT of poker — this is not something where you can play a few hands over a weekend and then rake in the money. You will need to grind it out day in and day out in order to really see any success.

Keep in mind that as a professional gambler, you will have losses. You will have off days. You will have times where you are sick and tired of playing poker. Taking breaks will definitely help you excel in your game.

Don’t forget that you also want to sharpen your game when money isn’t on the line. Playing free poker games can help you do that. Freerolls and tournaments that are low cost would also be good. Keeping track of your strategic moves helps you lock in money that would otherwise fly out the door. Analyzing your poker games from start to finish helps you understand not only the type of player you are, but the types of players that you’re meeting on the battlefield.

Don’t hesitate to take breaks or rely on your savings when things get rough. It’s better than burning out and giving up. You also want to surround yourself with positive people. Anytime that you’re taking a big leap of faith, the last thing you want is to be surrounded by people who don’t believe in you. It doesn’t help you run a business, and it certainly won’t help you handle your new life as a professional poker player.

If you want to work on getting sponsored by a casino, you will want to make sure that you’re visible. Pick a good handle and stick to it everywhere you go. Make sure that you socialize with people that are active as well. Someone that wants to be a legend in the industry can’t be another anonymous face. Put up a blog and show your face, talk about your story and what you bring to the table. People invest in characters and they look for stories — so don’t be afraid to share yours!

Can you really make it as a professional poker player? We think so, but it’s up to you to make it happen! Good luck!

Rediscovering The Joy of Poker

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Poker is something that people often play in “waves”. Sometimes they will feel like they’re running hot and there’s no way that they can lose. You’re on a roll and the world feels like it’s starting to actually give you a break for a change. This is a good place and state of mind to be in, but it’s been our experience that it doesn’t last forever. You will eventually start feeling like there’s no way that you can possibly get anything done, and you will ultimately feel like you should stop playing poker. So you leave poker for a while, thinking that someday, somehow, you’ll go back to playing poker. Your friends are still playing poker, and they miss you. Of course, they respect your decision to leave poker for a little while, but there’s going to come a time where you pretty much have to decide whether you’re going to sit on the sidelines forever, or come back with a mighty roar.


Of course, when you haven’t roared in a while, you might find that your “voice” is a little hoarse, so to speak. You might find that you really do need to step back and really look at what’s going on in the world of poker. You might need to figure out how to navigate through poker in a different way. It’s not like you will always win — that would be hard to pull off. Even the professional players that we all know and love have losing streaks. They don’t run off from poker, never to be heard from again. They dive into poker and play hard, taking breaks as needed. They also brush up on their skills and practice hard. You’ll actually find that professional poker players are some of the hardest working players out there. They don’t give up easily at all, and they don’t let their ego get in the way of the game.

Can you rediscover the joy of poker? Absolutely! One way to do that is to get into freeroll events. Casinos love throwing up freerolls because it’s a great teaser move. You’re going to eventually deposit more into the game, and you’ll keep playing. It’s also a very casual way to see where your skills are at since your departure. If you’re rusty beyond belief, don’t worry about it. You can always develop your skills again. You just have to make sure that you focus on the bigger picture and push from there.

What about those casino bonuses? Can you get those even if you’re not new to the world of poker?

The answer? Absolutely! If you are new to the casino, you can qualify for a bonus. Of course, you will want to make sure that you read the fine print but there’s nothing stopping you from at least checking it out, right? Go on and get back out there. Poker is a fun game that has a great mix of challenge and luck. Have fun!

Poker Shame

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The most common emotion that people try to project is sadness, or disappointment. The truth of the matter is, whether you’re willing to admit it, or not. All people like sympathy, and a free pass; and that’s no different at the poker table. People know that they’re being watched, and they know that what is being watched for is emotion and expression. (You always have to remember that most of the time you are dealing with somebody whose perception of emotion and expression is engrained in them by movies and television, and therefore exaggerated.)

Because of this, that’s what they’re thinking YOU are looking for, and people tend to animate (or now that you know better, over animate) themselves in a way that tries to lure you into putting your money in, when they know they’re ahead.

Sadness is one of a few unique emotions that has no universal tells. Sadness in every human being is different. So when you see it, how do you tell if its genuine? Well its real simple. All you have to do is ask yourself, how ridiculous does this person look right now?


If the answer is, everyone looks like that when they’re sad then they’re probably faking it. They may be very slightly irritated, or a bit unhappy, but they are not vulnerable! The reason for this is, when a person becomes overwhelmed with sadness, their conscious view of themselves is at its weakest point. That leads to the inability to control the facial muscles, and allows them to move freely and at random (random to the person, not necessarily the situation.)

Its natural for somebody’s brain to tell the body in this situation to try to attract as much comfort as they can, from anywhere they can. While on the other hand, somebody faking it is going to show the movie expressions. You may see eyebrows raise without being drawn together, wrinkling the forehead, accompanied with enlarged puppy dog eyes. You may see the mouth curl down making a sad face, and what I’ve found to be a solid giveaway is, when somebody is projecting this and sees another person looking, they’ll look down, or purposefully break eye contact. THESE kind of people are trying to draw as much sympathy as possible, but without attracting a lot of attention by projecting what they’ve seen as socially acceptable sad behavior (aka movie sad).

This happens by default, because their perception of themselves is active trying to put together the perfect combination of expressions, and they don’t want to project one that will make them look foolish. (It’s a human ego thing, nobody looks bad on purpose.) The bottom line is, nobody is going to be in a hand if they’re legitimately sad. If a person can’t control the muscles in their face when they’re sad, they sure as hell aren’t going to be able to play poker.

Shame on the other hand, is a little different. You WILL see this at the poker table, and it can be very valuable, especially if you’re paying attention to WHEN you see it, in relation to what cards are out on the board. This can help you narrow hand ranges down, and guess whether a person was drawing or not so that next time you know that they’re willing to draw for X amount of the pot, and bet larger.

You’ll usually see this when somebody is really reaching for a draw and it misses, or at the end of the hand when they just couldn’t let go of the good starting hand. This occurs whether they have to show their hand or not (Sidenote: A rule players aren’t commonly familiar with is, whoever has the last aggressive action(last person to bet or raise only), has to show their cards first, or concede the hand (muck) and you don’t unless you intend to challenge it(or they muck)) The most common time I see the projection of shame is when a person turns over a pair of aces or kings, with 2-9 for their kicker. They know that’s a joke to even turn over, and vs. somebody whose been betting or calling/raising the whole way its usually beat. The people who muck most likely missed a draw, or had top or 2nd pair on the flop that obviously didn’t hold up after the remaining 2 cards. [Read more…] about Poker Shame

Poker Guide – Micro Expressions

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Anger vs. happiness motion in the mouth area, was a good example of how similar movements can have meanings that are polar opposites. This should also prove the importance of being able to distinguish the slight differences between them. It is also just as important to realize that not all movements can be categorized into basic, easy to interpret feelings.

Every little curl and twitch means something different, and every combination of them together, further increases the possibilities. The reason I say this is so important is because often when first exploring the use of this skill, its common for a person to make a critical ‘error’ when trying to read the micro expressions of another person.

This isn’t because that person is an exception, or the information they’d learned was wrong or misinterpreted when you read it. Its because you don’t have all of the information.(Don’t feel bad, nobody can acquire, understand, and put to use, everything, all at once.) You probably noticed, I put the word ‘error’ in quotes just now, and that’s because the specific ‘error’ I’m talking about is completely avoidable.


For lack of better words, I’m going to call this type of error ‘filling in the blank.’ Here’s a scenario where this happens. You’ve decided that you want to try to learn to read people’s emotions through the micro expressions, and you’ve spent a little time researching how a few of the basic emotions show on the face. You’ve tested it out on a few friends, or family members with a fair amount of success and decide to have a seat at the table and give it a whirl. It doesn’t take long before you become involved in a hand where you are heads up preflop with an opponent, he 4 bet under the gun, everyone folded to you on the big blind. You are hold As Kc and decide to finish the bet and see a flop. Heres your chance! You think as you watch his face closely as the flop comes out. Nothing, not a single movement on his face. You look down and see that the flop is 7h 4h 2c, and hasn’t helped you, and you check to the raiser. He puts out a bet of about ½ pot, and you decide the flop was weak enough to call it with 2 over cards, and you look back at him to watch his face when the turn card comes out. This time you see movement. One corner of their pressed together lips curled upward(one side) for just a fraction of a second. You do a quick rundown in your head of what you learned, or researched so far.

**Here is the error** “I only saw one corner curl, but that probably doesn’t matter.” WRONG. “Well… it kind of looked like….” WRONG. (Most common} ”Curling lips in general means happy or angry.“ WRONG.

The correct, and hardest thing to do in this instance, is to recognize that you are dealing with an emotion you ARE NOT YET FAMILIAR WITH. This is literally a science and you can’t generalize the information by as I called earlier, filling in the blanks. Just to show you why, lets finish this hand using the more common, of the ‘error’ approaches listed above.

You decide its either happy or angry, and you didn’t see teeth, so you come to the conclusion, he’s happy, so that card must’ve helped him! You then look down to see a 3 of hearts. Normally a blank, but there are now three hearts on the board, and you don’t have any in your hand. You check to him, and again, he puts out a half pot bet. Now your line of thinking has changed, you think hes happy, and a bet that size is surely just trying to get value, so you fold. When you fold, you proudly turn over AK to justify your pre and post flop calls, and ability to get away from a monster hand. But right after, your opponent laughs and turns over Ax10x, also not holding any hearts. You immediately feel your stomach knot and can’t believe all the time you put in learning about facial expressions, just cost you money. [Read more…] about Poker Guide – Micro Expressions