Archive for May, 2008
May 30, 2008 at 5:14 pm · Filed under bet, bluffing, button, cards, cash game, check, flop, fold, hand, late position, move, on the button, poker, position, pot, tournament
Position is everything in poker. If you find yourself in late position, or better yet on the button and the table checks the flop round to you, then put in a good sized bet regardless of your cards. around 3/4 of the pot is a good size, depending on how many players you need to push off the hand.
The beauty of this move is that everyone at the table knows you are bluffing, but if they also hold nothing then it makes it easier for your opponents to fold.
If no one is fighting for the pot, then put in a strong bet and take it down.
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May 29, 2008 at 9:37 am · Filed under blinds, cash game, fold, holdem, home game, loose aggressive, mtt, player, poker, pot, pub league, seat, sit, sit down, sng, strategy, table, tight, tips
It’s not often you are given a choice of where to sit at a poker table. If you are playing a busy cash game where you have to queue to sit down, then you are just given the first available seat. If you are playing in a SNG or MTT then you are (or should be) allocated your seat at random.
But there are often occasions where you are able to choose where to sit. Maybe you are playing in a pub league or you are playing at a home game. You can gain a slight advantage if you choose your seat wisely.
In an ideal world, you should be sat with loose-aggressive (LA) players to your right and tight players to your left.
When it comes to the betting round, the loose aggressive player will more often than not do the raising. This enables you to fold your weak and marginal hands with ease, however if you do pick up a good pair of hole cards, then a smooth call to the loose aggressor’s raise will help to disguise the strength of your hand.
If the table folds to you and you are first to open the pot, you can be sure that most of the time the tight player to your left will fold. This is great for narrowing down the field of players that enter a pot with you plus it makes stealing his blind that bit easier to do. On the rare occasion that the tight player raises you back, you know you can get away from the hand without too much damage done.
For a more in-depth look at table position and how important it is, check out our Poker Table Seating Strategy.
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May 28, 2008 at 2:21 pm · Filed under championship, ECOOP, ecoop II, european, holdem, no limit, omaha, online, players, poker, pot limit, prize, titan poker, tournament, winning
Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, has seen unprecedented player interest in its 10-day European Championship of Online Poker ECOOP tournament series. The ECOOP series staged by Titan Poker guarantees $3,600,000 in prizes, but the large number of online poker players participating in the tournaments has driven up the prize pools even higher.
The ECOOP II series kicked off on May 23rd with a No Limit Hold’em event that drew 1,291 players. The following night was dedicated to Pot Limit Omaha Poker players, with a tournament that attracted 576 and awarded more than $100,000 in prizes.
The third ECOOP II tournament awarded $516,300 in prizes to the winning online poker players among the 1,721 who participated in the event. This was higher than the half a million dollars guaranteed in prizes.
The fourth ECOOP II tournament, once again devoted to Pot Limit Omaha players, awarded $165,000 in prizes.
The ECOOP II tournament series continues at Titan Poker until June 1st, when it culminates with a tournament finale with $1,500,000 in guaranteed prizes!!!
Titan Poker players are able to buy-in directly to each of the ECOOP II events or win their seats at online daily qualifying tournaments, which start at just $2 + $0.20.
This is the second European Championship of Online Poker staged by Titan Poker. The first ECOOP series was staged in December 2007 and exceeded expectations by awarding more than $2,500,000 in prizes.
About Titan Poker
Titan Poker is the leading online poker room in Europe and part of the iPoker Network. Titan Poker’s software was developed by Playtech, a public company and leading gaming software developer. Titan Poker guarantees more than $16,000,000 in monthly prizes, has nearly 30,000 online players at peak hours, and awards winning players with entries to the major poker tournaments worldwide. Titan Poker features special jackpot sit ‘n’ go tournaments with progressive prizes and jackpots as high as $100,000. Titan Poker is exclusively promoted by Euro Partners, the worlds largest e-gaming affiliate program. For more information about Titan Poker please visit the Titan Poker About website.
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May 28, 2008 at 11:51 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Its all very well blabbing on about advanced and intermediate poker tips, but it is always important to remember the basic poker tactics that are essential to understand before you move on and take your game to the next level.
Below are very general basic poker tactics that every serious poker player should adhere to.
1. Fold 90% of your hands. You will find that you will win more money by playing with better cards than anyone else. Playing big pocket pairs and Aces with big kickers are a good way to start playing tighter poker. You can loosen up and play a wider range of hands once you understand more about the game and its intricacies.
2. Have patience. While you are sat there folding most of your hands, the game can become quite dull to novices. You need to have the patience and discipline to remain focused on the game at all times whether you are involved in a hand or not.
3. Do not bluff. Bluffing in poker is highly overrated. You will only be able to successfully bluff your opponent once you have studied the game in further detail and understand betting patterns, reads, and tells.
4. Raise or fold. If a hand is good enough to play, then it is good enough to raise. In nearly every situation you should either raise the pot if your cards are good, or fold them if they are pants. Raising will do three things: Show aggression, enable you to possibly win the pot uncontested, give you information about your opponents hand. Calling is nearly always the wrong move to make.
5. Do not slow play hands. If you have hit a dream flop and you are holding a strong hand then bet it out and do not check it. You must remember that even though your hand is winning on the flop, it may not be the winning hand by the river. Betting good hands does two things: it increases the size of the pot if you get called and it can also help you to win the pot without the need for a showdown.
6. Bet in relation to the size of the pot. If you have 6,000 in chips with the blinds at 10/20 and the pot is currently at 70, then do not go sticking in a raise of 500. I know your stack can easily afford it, but there is never any need to risk losing more chips than you stand to win. A pot size bet of 70 will still put your opponent to a question about how good their hand is, but by just betting the pot you are risking less money.
7. Keep an eye on the blinds. This is a tip for tournament play. The longer you play in a tourney, the higher the blinds will rise. You must make sure you are always aware of how much the blinds are at any given point and make sure your stack stays at 10 times the big blind.
8. Do not look at your cards and do not look at the flop. Well, not straight away. When you are dealt your hole cards, they are not going to change. Instead you should be looking at everyone else’s reaction to their cards as they are being dealt to them. You will be surprised how easy it is to spot someone who likes or dislikes their cards. Only look at your cards when it is your action and the player to the right of you has acted. This prevents you from giving off any tells if someone is watching you. Again, as the flop is dealt, do not look at the flop but instead look at your opponent’s faces. Watch for their reaction. Did they hit or miss the flop?
9. Do not drink alcohol. Purely for the same reason it is illegal to drink and drive: It inhibits your judgment and perception of your situation and surroundings. If you play for fun then by all means relax with a drink or two. But if you are playing to make a profit, then stick to the soft drinks.
10. Only play with money you can afford to loose. Poker is gambling. There is as much chance you will lose your money as there is that you will win. You must be financially prepared to lose your stake during a game of poker and not have it affect you. Never play with friends for significant amounts of money as it can affect friendships. If you wish to play online poker, there are plenty of online poker rooms where you can play for pennies to get yourself started. We recommend Titan poker as there are micro-stakes as well as high-stakes games to be played.
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May 27, 2008 at 1:17 pm · Filed under chips, Doyle Brunsen, flop, fold, foldem, folding, hand, hold em, holdem, hole cards, kicker, lose, miss, money, no limit, out kicked, pre-flop, raising, starting hands, straight, suited connectors, top ten, worst
Everyone knows that pocket aces are the best starting hand in a game of no limit texas holdem poker, but are you familiar with what the worst hands are?
Join me as we go on a trip to the land of Texas Fold’em.
1) 7-2
72 is the #1 worst hand of them all. This is based on the fact that you can not make a straight with both cards and if you hit a flush you will have a very low flush at that. Even if you pair one of these two hole cards you are at worst hitting bottom pair with below average kicker, or at best top pair with bottom kicker.
2) 8-2
This hand suffers from the same inadequacies at 72u, however you have an 8 instead of a 7. Which makes things slightly better. But not by much. The only time you will be in front pre-flop is if you are playing against someone having a pop with 72u.
3) 8-3 & 7-3
You are unable to make a straight with 8-3. With 7-3 you are looking for a miracle flop to be in with any chance of winning the pot.
4) 2-6
Even if you make your straight you will not be able to guarantee you have the best hand. Players with suited connectors like 67 will make sure you lose a lot of chips. If you find yourself playing this hand against 4 other players you will only ever win around 10% of the time.
5) 2-9, 3-9, & 4-9
The only positive quality about these hands is the 9. If you pair your 9 on the flop (unlikely), you will have a middling pair but with an awful kicker. The best way to lose a lot of chips is to play a second-best hand, and that is exactly what will happen if you play any of these card combinations.
6) T-2
The legendary Doyle Brunsen hand made famous by him winning two WSOP bracelets with this hand. But do not be fooled. T2 is NOT a good hand. Do not play this hand unless you have the skill and experience of the legend that is the Brunsen. Or unless you like to lose money.
7) 9-5
95 is also known as the “Dolly Parton”. Maybe because of the song, but mostly because it’s ugly trash. Don’t play hands that have special names, or are your “favourite” hands. You should be selecting your starting hands based on strong cards and your table position. Hand selection based on the name of your hole cards is very, very stupid.
8.) 4-7, 4-8, 5-8, 3-6…
Any two low unpaired unsuited cards will rarely win unless you catch that dream flop. But odds are never ever in your favour to see a flop in the hope that you might hit it. For every one time you do hit a full house on the flop with these kinds of cards, there will be 100 times where you miss. Fold these hands. Even if on the small blind, even if you are getting value. If you do connect with the flop in some way, chances are it will be a trouble hand and before you know it you won’t be able to get away and you will find yourself pot comitted.
9) Face card (K, Q, J) + low card, unsuited
This is one of the more common mistakes made by beginners to the game. Picture cards by themselves are not worth anything. Put them with another card of the same rank and you’ve got a playable hand. But hands like J4, Q2, K3 are all Texas Fold’em hands. Even if you do pair your paint, chances are you will be outkicked at the showdown.
10) Ace + low card, unsuited
Another common beginner mistake to avoid is playing a raggy ace. That is an ace with a low kicker. Ok, so its not too bad heads up, and if you flop two pair against someone with AK then you are laughing, but this will not happen often enough to make it profitable to play. If someone is raising pre-flop in front of you, then your best strategy is to fold. Even if you do hit your ace on the flop, chances are someone else has too and more often than not they are playing with a much stronger kicker.
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May 27, 2008 at 9:46 am · Filed under aa, aces, chances, dealing, dealt, holdem, likely, pocket aces, pocket rockets, poker, probability
A simple post for today: How likely are you to have pocket aces?
With 52 cards in the deck, the chance of being dealt one of four aces in the deck is 4÷52. For your second hole card, the chance of being dealt one of the three remaining aces is 3÷51.
Because one event is dependent on the other, we multiply these probabilities together to give us:
(4÷52) × (3÷51) = 0.004525
Multiply this by 100 to give a percentage and we get 0.4525…% chance of being dealt pocket aces.
This is equates to being dealt aces once every 221 hands or as a ratio 1:220.
So there you have it. It’s not that often you will be dealt pocket aces, or indeed any specific pocket pair, so play them wisely when you have them.
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May 26, 2008 at 1:26 pm · Filed under cash, ECOOP, ecoop II, europe, european, hold em, NL holdem, online, poker, prizes, rebuy, satellite, tournament
ECOOP II #4
Monday, May 26, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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ECOOP II #6
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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ECOOP II #8
Friday, May 30, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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ECOOP II #9
Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 19:00 GMT+1
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May 22, 2008 at 4:29 pm · Filed under aggressive, attack, blind, bubble, cheat, chip, final, fold, inflection, inflection point, knock, level, money, notes, online, out, points, poker, sheet, sit-n-go, sng, stack, stats, table, tournament, Uncategorized, win ·Tagged blind, bubble, cheat, chip, final, inflection, knock, level, money, online, out, points, poker, sheet, stack, table, tournament
Here is a quick few points that will see you on your way to more final tables in those low level online poker tournaments that we all like to play. (We’ll talk through a 600 player tournament for example, but this will work for anything down to a sit n go)
1 Don’t feel that you have to get overly excited early on – there is plenty of time to get some genuine hands that you can play and gain some chips without having to try bluffing your way through it. (There will always be a few maniacs early on who will lose everything very quickly)
2 Open up the info/stats box and keep it in view at all times – This will be your eyes and ears of what is going on all around you, as well as how many opponents you still have left to beat
3 Spend the first few rounds folding anything that’s not a decent hand and observing the other players – Make sure that you get busy taking lots of notes about the players around you, these will be valuable when you get moved around different tables and come back to meet the same players
4 Keep an eye on the table dynamics – Who has just joined your table? Was it the chip leader? Is it a short stack – these points need to be assessed
5 Always keep one eye on the Blind level clock – How quickly are the blinds going up and is there a critical point when they suddenly could become harsh for you
6 Try to keep up with the average chip stack – This will be noted in the stats – Don’t worry if you are a little short of the target as a double up at any time will see you well above it for a while
7 Be observant and don’t tangle with “Mr Tight” with a mediocre hand – Trust your notes
8 When you start to get towards the bubble you can be slightly more aggressive
9 The rule of 1 and 10 – If you are lucky enough to have the chip lead on your table / or at least a fair few chips more than others, it is important that you try to knock other players out. This doesn’t mean calling anyone down who bets, however, should you find a short stack going all in for $500 and you are sitting there with $5000 or over, you should call no matter what your cards! (Clearly not if anyone else is already in etc) – So if you have 10 times or more the amount of chips that a small stack has gone all in with, go ahead and call them
10 Inflection points! – These are key, and you won’t get anywhere if you do not pay attention to these. The simple way to do it is to keep a constant tally of how many big blind bets you have – (if the blinds are for example $50/$100 and you have $1000, then you have an inflection point of 10, if you have $1200, you have an IP of 12 etc) – When you find yourself getting near to an IP of 10 you no longer have the luxury of being able to call to see the flop etc, you need to either put all your chips in or fold. Keep an eye on point number 5 above also as this could suddenly cut your IP in half and leave you in a critical situation!
11 Attack the middle chip count players when you are in the money – They will be more likely to fold marginal hands as they are not desperate and could still lose a decent amount of their stack should they call you and lose
12 Play to win – It’s often tempting to get blinded out and wait for a big hand when you on or near the final table, hoping that other players will be knocked out and you rise up the money. This is true, however it is unlikely that the few places that you might gain would increase your $$ prize win massively, whereas there is normally always a very good leap in money from around 4th upwards – If you sit tight waiting then you will simply miss out on getting to 4th or above – should there be 9 left etc you should play to win and go for the real cash
13 Unlucky for some – Not you guys with these tips!!! 😀 – Good luck all – let me know how you get on and post any extra tips you might find yourself
Cheers
Duff
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May 21, 2008 at 11:30 am · Filed under bet, call, cheat sheet, chips, draw, flop, flush, flush draw, fold, holdem, late position, no limit, odds, outs, poker, pot, river, straight draw, texas, turn
Lets set the scene…
You are playing a nice leisurely $1/$2 no limit texas holdem poker cash game. You have $200 in chips and you are sat in late position with Jh Qh. Three other players as well as yourself have entered the pot which stands at $30. The flop comes down 3h 4h Ad. Nice, you have flopped four to a flush.
Any heart left in the deck will give you a tasty Queen high flush, so that gives us 9 outs with 2 cards to come. If we look on our poker odds and outs cheat sheet, we can see that we have odds of 1.9:1 to hit another heart by the river.
Early position bets out $20 and the other two players fold. Action is with you. The pot is now $50 and the bet to you is $20.
Value of Pot ÷ Price of Bet = Your Pot Odds:1
So…
50 ÷ 20 = 2.5:1
This means we are getting pot odds of 2.5:1 and our chance of hitting by the river is 1.9:1. So this is a call.
The turn card brings Ks to give a board of 3h 4h Ad Ks. This is even better as now we have more outs for a nut straight draw. Any one of nine hearts for the flush PLUS any one of four tens for the straight gives us 13 outs with one card to come.
With $70 in the pot, first to act now bets the pot for $70. Do we have correct pot odds to call this bet?
There is now $140 in the pot and the bet to you is $70.
140 ÷ 70 = 2:1
Our current pot odds are 2:1. Again, if we look on our cheat sheet, if we have 13 outs and are drawing to one card, we require pot odds of 2.6:1 or greater to call.
Unfortunately we have to fold our flush draw because in the long run, we will miss our card more times than we can win the bet.
You could factor in implied odds, or player table image and argue a call in this situation but this is beyond the scope of this post. The bottom line is this: If you are not getting correct pot odds to call your flush draw, or indeed any drawing hand, then you should fold.
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May 20, 2008 at 5:43 pm · Filed under bonus, calculator, free, money, odds, poker
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Step1: Go to http://scbpoker.com/free and take advantage of the deposit bonus
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