When to Bet in a Poker Game

article by Kyle Healey (Poker Theory Expert)

You are sitting pretty with pocket Queens and you raise pre-flop under the gun and get two callers. To your amazement the flop comes with a third Queen and you hit your set. Now you have a decision to make do you slow-play the hand or do you simply bet your monster. There are many factors that will play into your decision of whether or not you should bet your monster or not.

Firstly, what do you think of the other players? Will they likely call a large bet right now if you decided to bet? If they would, it strongly suggests that you should bet your monster. If you think your opponent is maybe weak and will fold to your bet, however, you may want to check your hand and try to induce a bluff.

Another consideration to take into hand is whether or not there is any obvious straight or flush draws on the board. If your opponents are likely to hold some sort of draw, betting your monster once again seems like the best move because they will be forced to pay for their draw cards the last thing you want is to let them see two free cards and then fold their hand after you could have got two solid betting rounds in.

You also need to look at the risks of picking each option. For instance, if you slow play your big hand it is possible that your opponents can chase down free cards and outdraw you, when they would have folded if you bet. Those are lost chips for you. Also, if they are planning on chasing you will want to make them pay for the cards and not give them for free. A possible risk of betting out your hand is that you may cancel out an attempt of a possible bluff by an opponent who would likely bet if you slow played your hand.

These are all considerations you have to think of before deciding whether or not to slow play your monster or bet it strong.

When processing the information your given, make a choice you think is right and make your move. You will most likely win a pot when you have flopped a huge hand but whether or not you maximize your chips will depend on exactly how you play it.

For more poker articles, visit hustlecards.com

Fun Facts About Poker

So you play poker... Whether you are good or bad, win or lose, I am sure you do not know all of the following fun facts. These facts are pretty interesting to know, even for any type of player.

• Playing cards were invented in China.
• A fifth suit was added in 1937 but never caught on because people had to buy all new decks.
• At least 65,000,000 Americans regularly play poker, and more are playing every day.
• Dead mans hand is Ace's and Eights
• Getting dealt 10, 2 is referred to as Doyle Brunson because he won back to back World Series with the hand.
• In the 1800's, 2,000 to 2,500 riverboat gamblers played poker on American Waterways, By contemporary accounts, no more than four of these poker players were honest all the time. A straight beat a flush at this time.
• Las Vegas Casinos are not legally obligated to pay off there gambling debts.
• Due to French Influence, Spades represent Royalty, Diamonds represent Merchants, Clubs represent the peasants, and hearts represent the clergy.
• Edmond Hoyle lived to be 97, but died 150 years before Poker was invented.
• Playing cards were introduced in Europe in the 1300's.
• When Columbus landed in 1492 in North America, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, drew pictures on them and played cards.
• Historians generally agree that Bill Hickock was a lousy poker player.
• Groucho Marx got his name from carrying his poker money in a "grouch bag."
• Former President Richard Nixon won $6,000 playing poker in his first two months in the U.S. Navy during WWll. That's equal to roughly $42,640 in 2004 dollars. He used that money as well as more poker winnings to finance his run for the U.S. Congress in 1946, for which he won.
  

Never Slowplay Pocket Aces

The truth is, most of the time you're usually going to either win a small pot or lose a big one with Pocket Aces. It's a big hand. The biggest hand (before the flop, at least). It's very tough to lay down, and it's very tough to know when you're beaten. The key to playing pocket Aces is: Don't get greedy and never slowplay them! Well, almost never slowplay them. There are a few situations where you might consider it, but we'll get into that later. If you follow this advice you will cut down your bad beats considerably. You might be playing in smaller pots, but at least you'll be winning most of the time!

Don't Get Greedy!

Let's begin with our first piece of advice when holding pocket Aces. A win is a win. What is the only reason to slowplay a hand? To make more money by trapping your opponents in for additional bets when you have a big hand. That's sound in theory, but Aces are a very vulnerable hand. You should rarely slowplay a hand at a point where it's still vulnerable. Think about all the hands that can beat you after the flop - two pair, trips, a straight, a flush, a full house, etc. Do you want to let a garbage hand in cheaply that can hit one of these hands?

Poker, especially online poker, is filled with players who like to gamble it up. They throw caution to the wind when they're holding 5-8 offsuit and will call the minimum bet without hesitation. You can make a case (not a very strong one, but a case nonetheless) for them, too. If it's so cheap to get in, why not play every hand hoping to flop a monster? You and I might not think that way, but plenty of people do. You'll also be playing with a good number of people who have a lot of money and are playing poker for kicks. They'll play every hand because the money doesn't mean much to them. Do you want to make it easier on them?

Raise your Aces!

You should raise your Aces preflop most of the time, especially in online play. You wouldn't be making a mistake if you raised them EVERY time. If you're playing NL, raise at least 3 to 4 times the big blind. By doing this, you're making it at least that much harder for your opponents to call you without a hand. You'll still get bad players who will call you without any cards only to break your hand, but at least you're making them think twice about doing it. Don't get greedy. If everyone folds to you, you've still won the pot, right? I'll take winning a small pot over a losing a big one every day of the week.

Never Slowplay Pocket Aces

You've already raised preflop, so when 3 rags come out on the flop, bet or raise it again! Your opponent still might have you beaten, but he could also be on a draw. The worst thing that you could do is check - giving your opponent a free card that could complete his draw. How many times have you been burned by slowplaying your Rockets? Vow to never to do it again! It's just too much trouble. The rare time when I would suggest slowplay is when you hit a full house, quads, or top set without a draw on the board. If you hit one of those, you probably should slowplay and give your opponents a chance to catch up.

Take the following no-limit hand as an example of why you should play your Aces strong. I was on the other side of it this time, but I haven't always been. I had 4-5 suited and I was on the button (last position). Three players called ahead of me and I called the minimum bet. The small blind folded and the big blind checked. Our flop was 3-6-7 rainbow, giving me the nuts! The big blind bets for the minimum, the other 3 players fold, and I raise it to the size of the pot. He immediately reraises and puts his whole stack in! I have him covered and so I obviously call his bet. The turn and river were inconsequential and I drag a huge pot. I had the 4-5 this time, but how many times have you had the A-A in that situation? You must raise your Aces because I fold every time with my 4-5 to a good-sized raise.

Don't get greedy and never slowplay your Aces! Follow these two simple rules and you won't suffer nearly as many bad beats

Life Lessons From Poker

Whereas in blackjack most of my observations came from watching other players play their hands, in poker I've learned the most by observing myself, partly due to the nature of the game (I can't see every decision other people make as I can in blackjack).

Here are some observations I've make from playing poker over the years:

1. You can learn a lot about other people by studying yourself.

Simply by observing myself and watching my own tells, like seeing my hands shake when I looked down and saw pocket aces on the button, I learned to look for those same tells in other players. In low-limit games, virtually anytime you see a players hands shaking as they try to place their bet, it means they have a monster hand. I've thrown away many solid hands after reading this tell, and so far every single time it was the right decision. By observing my own behavior, I could watch for it in other people.

How does this apply to life itself? If you know how you behave when experiencing certain emotional states, you can watch for that behavior in others to gain information (hich can be extremely helpful in certain situations).

For example, if I'm watching someone give a speech, I can observe how I behave when I'm really bored or really interested. Then when I'm the one giving the speech, I can watch for those reactions in the audience. If I see people leaning forward, smiling, and nodding, I know I have a captive audience because that's what I do when I'm captivated.

If you're a salesperson, how do you behave when you watch someone else give a good/bad presentation? If you're a manager, how do you behave when someone tries to delegate something to you and you don't intend to do it? If you're married, how do you behave when you aren't really listening to your spouse?

Observe how your own behaviors reflect various internal states, and then watch for those behaviors in others to gain information. You may be surprised to find that emotional states produce a physiological response that is extremely similar from person to person.

2. You can learn a lot about yourself by studying other people.

This is the reverse of #1. By observing how others behave in poker, and then seeing what kind of hand they have, I can connect their behaviors to information. Then when I see these physiological tells again, I can more easily put that player on a hand.

Many poker players do this. No big whoop.

But how many poker players take what they learn about other players and then apply it to themselves? This means watching for the tells you pick up from other players in yourself, especially when you're heads-up against the player you saw express those tells. So if you see someone looking away from the table when they have a monster hand, make sure you don't look away when you've got a monster.

You can also take this concept a step further and use it even more proactively. If you see other people behave a certain way when they have a great hand, you may find it beneficial to exert that same behavior on purpose when you're heads-up against that player and want to bluff him/her out. It's a sneaky way of using that personas own physiological response to feed them false information. Just make sure you aren't too obvious about it, or the other player will catch you. I find it works best as a subconscious signal that alters their intuitive feeling about the hand.

So what's the life lesson here? The lesson is that this kind of manipulation also works outside the game of poker. By learning someones tells, you can consciously exhibit a certain behavior to activate the response you want. Certainly this sounds manipulative, and it is. But by being aware of this tactic, you can reduce your susceptibility to it.

TV commercials use this kind of manipulation all the time. They know all the tells for various emotional states, and they use them to attempt to manipulate your emotional response. This is one reason so many commercials appear logically stupid, but they can still be effective if they include the proper signals that bypass your mind and drive their message into your subconscious.

Think of those drug commercials where they read the side effects (which often sound worse than the symptoms the drug is supposed to treat), but the visual imagery suggests the exact opposite. The characters exhibit the tells of the emotional states the advertiser wants you to associate to their product or service. But those signals often have nothing to do with the product itself. In other words, you aren't being shown the real emotional states the product will induce in you, but far more pleasurable states that probably won't occur by using the product at all.

How many beer commercials show drunk people behaving stupidly?

3. Both intellect and intuition can provide input for making correct decisions.
In poker sometimes logic is correct, and other times intuition is correct. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they don't.

In life, however, you generally have more options than check, bet, call, raise, or fold. Life is more open-ended, and when logic and intuition disagree, sometimes it's best not to choose sides but to listen to both and seek out a third alternative.

When my logic and intuition seem to disagree, I try to step back and see the situation from other perspectives. In the past I'd usually favor my logic, only to find that my intuition was right. Then I'd slide too far the other way, and pay the price of ignoring my intellect. Now I know that both inputs provide information, but they do so by acting upon imperfect data.

In poker you're limited in how much data you can gather. But life offers other extra opportunities for peaking at the cards. You can ask for expert advice while you play. You can take in new information to augment the data your logic and intuition are processing. You can wait for clarity before acting. You can even dive in with your best decision, see what the next card looks like, and adjust course afterwards.

4. Don't be a fish.

Fish are bad poker players who are essentially there to give away their money. They don't bother to develop much skill at the game, so they just play badly. And the longer they play, the more they lose.

Isn't life the same? If you play badly long enough, eventually you lose. Abuse your health, your relationships, or your finances, and you can kiss them goodbye.

Good players learn the rules of the game and build their skills. They eliminate negative habits that would otherwise bring them down.

5. You can make no mistakes and still lose.

In poker you can expect to take bad beats again and again. Eventually you'll take one in a heartbreaking situation when someone draws highly improbable runner-runner cards to beat your made hand.

Life is the same. You can play perfectly and still lose.

There's no security in the cards. The only true security lies in knowing you did your best. Focus on making correct decisions, and let the cards fall as they may.

6. No single hand will kick you out of the game for life.
When you take a bad beat, just take a deep breath and brush it off. It's in the past, and there's nothing you can do about it now.

Stay focused on the present. There's another hand to be played.

7. Do not play J8s UTG no matter how seductive it looks and how certain you are of achieving a multiway pot.
The life lesson here is left as an exercise for the reader. :)

If you're a poker player yourself, I invite you to share your own life lessons from the game by posting a comment

Allen Lin - Best Starting Hands in Poker

I came across this article today from Devlin's Cigars that has started a new poker corner with Norwegian Poker Champion Allen Lin. I have already included a post about starting hands in poker, but I thought I'd get an opinion from one of the greats of the game as well.

Some Hold Em Strategy From the Best

I was around at a friends place last night, passing the time before heading out with a quick game of Hold Em. Keen to test out the new lessons I had learnt from my browsing through the poker archives, we got stuck into it. The game was fairly even, with neither of the four of us getting a clear advantage over the others. As we were leaving, I noticed one of my friends had poker book lying around on the counter. Then I saw the cover image - Daniel Negreanu - and had to take a closer look.

What I discovered was an great source of poker tips and advice from various sources, and an opportunity to apply these skills to my next game. Eager to see if there was anything of this type available on Amazon, I came across this - Power Hold Em Strategy by Daniel Negreanu.

The books only available for pre-order at the moment, but I've already gone ahead and secured mine, and given the articles by Daniel that I have read before, this should be a gem!

Don't Second Guess Yourself

You should never outguess yourself when you are at the poker table. I will give you an example; consider the following hand:

You hold: 6c, 6d,

Your opponent in early position raises 4x to 5x bb and you place him on AK.

Flop: Kc, 6h, 7d

Now you have flopped a set, and your opponent is first to act. He sets out and bets just like you expected him to. You play back at him and re-raise. He immediately re-raises you all-in. At this point you have to call. You can't try to outguess your self in this situation and put him on 77 or KK for a higher set. You had originally put him on AK, and if he has a higher set, you are just going to have to pay them off. At the point where he his re-raising you all-in, you are already pot committed and have to call. There is also a possibility that you misread him and he only holds AA in which case you are dominating that hand as well.

Methods of Improving Your Poker Profits

I was reading through various poker articles on the net today, and came across one that I found quite interesting. This articles examines methods that can be used to improve your poker game for the new year.
You can find this article at Poker Dynasty

Managing Your Bankroll in Poker

In this poker article I will talk about money management, bankrolls, and minimising loses. These are all important concepts when playing poker but they all revolve around the same principals. You must limit your loses, hold on to your winnings, and most importantly always leave your self outs.

You should only play games that your bankroll will allow. If you have 200 dollars to play with for a month you don't want to lose it all in the first week playing a 5-10 no-limit game. The average pot in these games would be about the size of your bankroll. You should play lower limit games that match your bankroll.

Minimise your losses.
I have seen players loose a big hand, go on tilt and loose their whole bankroll in one night. If you ever get angry because of a bad beat or loose a lot of money quickly you should take a break. A lot of mental energy will be used up worrying about your bad luck, this will effect your game in a negative way. I recommend going for a walk or even quit playing for the day. There will always be another game tomorrow.

Protect your bankroll.
Not every player needs a bankroll. If you only play on occasion with extra money you probably don't need to worry about this. But if you are a player who wants to make a good income from poker your bankroll is an asset. Lets say you start with a bankroll of 500 dollars at a poker site. Now after a week of winning you are up to 2000 in your account. You take out 1500 and go buy a new TV. That is fine but if you get on a bad streak you can easily loose the 500 you still have. Then you will have no bankroll and wont be able to play. This happens to a lot of good player, and if they cant play they cant win anymore. This can put an end to your poker profits.

So just remember that poker is a game of swings. You can win a lot but you can also get on a bad luck streak and lose a lot. Just watch your bankroll, manage your money, and always leave yourself outs.

Remember to think about your bankroll before each time you play. Think about what will happen if you loose all your money in your account. Will you want to deposit more money you cant afford to lose? Are the stakes of the game so high it you loose a big hand you will be out of chips? Just think before you start to play about the worst case scenario and you should have less bankroll problems.

For more articles visit - Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

An Introduction to the Poker Freerolls

Are you new to online poker? Maybe you are new to poker period and would like to learn? You know you can play for free at all online poker sites using free chips. This is a great way to tweak your game. Most sites also however host freerolls in which you can win real money prizes with no risk or investment. The site puts up a prize for the top finishers and anyone is free to join these tournaments. These prizes range from $50 to $5000 spread among the top finishers with the biggest recorded freeroll in history being the Paradise Poker Million Dollar Freeroll. This freeroll is so huge that it has been widely advertised on television.

If you feel like your uncomfortable playing for real money just yet or you don't have the bankroll to cover any possible losses, then freerolls are your answer. If you finish in the money you can even snowball that free money into a large bankroll. There have been stories recently of people cashing out over two thousand dollars all off a $35 freeroll win.

For more information visit - Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

From Monsters to Mice

After the flop, much of the strength of your hand depends on the character of the flop. Obviously, if you start with a pair, and make trips, a full house or four of a kind, you have a big hand, these are the Monsters. What is not so obvious is how the strength of your hand changes when you hit a fair hand, but get a flop that may have helped one, or more, of your opponents.

In the rare situation where you have a monster, hope that someone either bets, or catches a card on the turn so they can call your bet. You have an almost unbeatable hand, and the other players are going to be scared off by the flop. Your goal in this situation should be to keep as many players around as possible, and to get as much money in the pot as possible.

With your biggest hands, you may want to slow play and entice someone else into betting. But, in those rare cases when you have the best hand and other players are betting and raising, join in and help to build the pot. After all, it is almost certainly going to be yours. If the board later pairs, and there us any betting, you may be facing a full house.

Two Pair
Flopping top 2 pair when you have 2 different cards in your hand, is a very strong hand. Top and bottom pair is also a very strong hand. Since you will usually be playing premium cards, top 2 pair will often give someone else a straight draw, and/or a flush draw.

As a result, you should not slow play these hands. Your goal is to force players out of the hand, and charge those that stay. While this hand warrants raises and re-raises, lots of action could mean they have a set. If so, or a straight or flush is possible, you could be drawing to only 4 outs.

If the pot has already gotten large, you should call it down. If the pot is not large, or you are positive that the other player has you beaten, with 4 outs you need pot odds of 11:1 to make the call profitable.

When you have 2 pair, and 1 is on the board, your hand is not as strong as the split 2 pair. Another player may already have trips, or a higher 2 pair. If a card higher than your pair hits the board, it could make someone a higher 2 pair. There could also be other draws out that may beat your 2 pair.

This is another situation to play aggressively, to chase players out, win the pot immediately, or at least make it expensive for players to draw. If you are raised, or check raised, on the turn, you may be up against trips. But, by now, the pot has gotten big. You may want to back off and call, but you shouldn't fold unless you are sure you are beaten, or you are facing 3 bets cold.

Top Pair
Top pair, good kicker is a very strong hand. This is 1 reason to treat Big Slick, Ace and King, as a strong hand. With a flop of King, Eight, Three, and 3 different suits you have an excellent hand. The only card higher than the flop pairs your Ace, giving you top 2 pair. There are no flush or straight draws, so you are only worried about Ace, Ace, King, King, or a pair of Eights or Threes in the hole.

You have a strong hand with top pair in the hole when the flop is 3 cards lower than yours and is un-coordinated. If you are the only one who raised with your pair of Kings before the flop, and the flop is Queen, Eight, Three, 3 different suits, you have a very strong hand. There are no straight or flush draws, it is unlikely that someone has a pair of Queens, so you are worried only about an Ace, or another Queen falling, a pair of Eights or Threes.

With hands, and flops like this, you want to get as much money in the pot as possible, since you are a favorite to win.

If you have Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces in the hole, and get a flop such as Eight, Nine, Ten, or 2 of 1 suit, or the board is paired, your hand is not as strong. Your hand is vulnerable to many cards that can come on the turn or river. Now, instead of a limited number of hands that may beat you, you may be facing a flush draw, a straight draw, or both. With a pair on board, you may be facing trips a full house, or a draw to a full house.

In these situations, you want to eliminate players, and try to win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, you should check and raise, to face several players with calling 2 bets. If you are not sure that someone else will bet, you bet. You can not afford to give players a free draw.

When you start with Ace, Queen, Ace, Jack or Ace, Ten, and pair your Queen, Jack or Ten, you have a hand that is mediocre to somewhat strong, depending on the flop. If your pair is the top pair on board, and the flop has no draws, you have a fairly strong hand. But, it is vulnerable to over cards on the turn or river. Ace, Queen, with a flop of Queen , Six, two, or Ace, Jack, with a flop of Jack, Six, Two, the further down you go with this, the more hands that can beat you. With an Ace, Queen, and an Ace on the flop, you are beaten by someone with Ace, King. With an Ace, Queen, and a Queen on the flop, you are beaten by anybody holding a King if a King falls. With Ace, Jack, and a Jack on the flop, you are beaten by any King, or queen, that pairs someone.

Once again, you want to eliminate players, or win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, check and raise. If you are not sure that someone will bet, bet out. You can not afford to give players a free, or cheap, draw in this situation.

If you make top pair, such as a pair of Eights, or Sixes, with your second card when you have an Ace, you have one of the mice. There are many cards that can fall on the turn and river that will give one of your opponents a higher pair. In addition, if all 3 cards on the flop are lower than a Ten you are often facing straight and/or flush draws.

Another mistake made by low limit players is to treat a pair of Aces, with a bad kicker, as a strong hand. It is one of the mice. You have an Ace and Five of hearts in the blinds and get in the pot cheaply hoping for a flush draw on the flop. Instead, you pair the Ace, and there are no hearts. You have top pair, but the more opponents you have, the more likely it is that someone has an Ace with a higher kicker.

With these hands, if someone bets, fold and save some money. You have 5 outs that will improve your hand, the 3 Aces, and 2 of your pair, or the 3 remaining of your kicker, and the 2 remaining Aces. In order to call a bet in this situation, you need to be getting pot odds of at least 8.5:1. Since you could improve your hand and still lose, you probably want odds of at least 10:1. If there are players to act after you, you need higher odds, to make up for the times that a player to your left raises.

With a pair of Tens or lower, you will usually only have a strong hand after the flop if you hit the third card for your set. Occasionally, the flop will all be lower than your pair, and be un-coordinated. Also, occasionally, you will hit a straight draw with your pair. Most often however, you will hit a card higher than your pair, face some betting, and should fold.

If you do hit your set, you have a very strong hand. You should bet out, or raise if someone else bets. In low limit games, players will often not believe you have a set if you bet, or raise, on the flop. They will expect you to slow play such a strong hand, and not raise until the turn. They will therefore often call all the way with as little as one small pair.

Second or Bottom Pair
These are more mice. In low limit games, someone who bets, normally has at least top pair. If you have 2 different cards in the hole and paired 1 of them, you have 5 outs to improve, 2 more cards of the rank you paired, and 3 of your second card. With a small pair in the hole, you only have 2 outs to improve. Even if you include implied odds, it is unlikely that you will have the odds you need. To make matters worse, you really need better odds to make up for the times you hit 1 of your outs and still lose. You also need higher odds from the pot if there are players still to act after you.

The only time you should call a bet with second or bottom pair is when the pot is big, your second card is higher than any of the cards on board, and you also have a backdoor draw, 3 to a straight or flush.

Reasons to Raise in Poker

There are 5 major reasons to raise:

• To get more money from your hand.


• To eliminate players.


• To get a 'Free' card.


• To gain information.


• To bluff or semi-bluff

1. To get more money from your hand.
This is the simplest reason to raise a pot. Basically when you feel that you have the best hand you are going to raise to try to get more money in the pot. If you have the 'Nuts', the best hand possible at the time this is the only reason you should raise. Sometimes you may not want to raise in this case. You may want to slow play the hand.

2. To eliminate players.
This is a pretty simple concept as well. This is the reason you raise with AA or KK. You want to get people out before they can see the flop. AA and KK do very well against a few people but against a lot of people there's a good chance you will loose after all 5 cards come out. Another time when you might raise to eliminate players is when you flop top pair, example: You hold AK and the flop comes 9 10 K, You now have top pair with the best kicker. Here you would want to get people out of the hand so they don't make 2 pair, a straight, or a flush.

3. To get a 'Free' card.
Well you don't get it for free but it costs you less. You would raise to get a free card if you flop and open ended straight draw or flush draw and were in a later position. See if you were playing 3-6 and you raised on the flop you would put an extra 3 dollars but in most cases the other player or players will check to you assuming you have a better hand. This saves you from calling a 6 dollar bet on the turn, instead you get it for free. You might also want to raise the flop in late position when you have top pair and a weak kicker or mid pair with a good kicker.

4. To gain information.
This is a more complex reason to raise. This move works best on or before the flop. Before the flop you don't know anything about a players hand other than it could be anything but if you raise and a player re-raises then you know he has a good hand. Most likely a hand in Group #1 or maybe #2. If he just calls you know that he probably doesn't have a 'monster' hand. Now lets say after the flop you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker, and your opponent bets into you. Now if you call you couldn't really tell how big of a hand he has but if you raise him and he re-raises you are probably beat at least with a better kicker. This is a way to actually save money. If you called all the way down to see his AK then you have lost a lot more than you have to.

5. To bluff or semi-bluff.
We wont get into bluffing right now. You really wont need to do much bluffing in lower limit games. Most bluffing goes on in higher limit games, No-limit games, and no-limit tournaments. Semi-bluffing however is something you need to know about. Semi-bluffing is betting a hand that probably isn't the best one at the time but can improve with more cards. The real goal to semi-bluffing is to win the pot right then and there. So you only want to semi- bluff when there are only a few player in the pot, you think you everyone might fold after you bet or raise, and you are very sure that no one will check raise you. There are many opportunities to semi-bluff in every game, most of the time they are not the right move though. Remember to semi-bluff accordingly.

If you look back at all the reasons to raise you will see that a lot of the times when you raise you might accomplish more than one goal. You might raise to get a free card but also gain information and get more money in the pot. Its good to have a specific reason or two in your mind before every raise, this way you wont be raising just for the sake of raising.

Final Thoughts on Raising
Next few times you play poker online have a notebook right in front of you. Every time you make a raise write down what the main reason for raising was. Then write down if it was successful or not. After you have about 25 entry's for each of the 5 reasons look through your records and find out what reasons for raising had the most positive results. This will help you decide when you should raise or not.

It is a good idea to do this activity every so often. It will help you keep on your game and raise at the right times.

Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Going on a Run in Poker

One of the greatest feelings in a poker player's world is going on a huge poker run. A poker run is when you have a rush of strong hands and win lots of pots right in a row. Poker runs are a poker player's dream in this respect.

After slumping for a while or going on tilt, hitting a serious poker run can be just what you need to get you going again. I have been sitting at a table where someone has won 10 hands in a row, showing down. Winning this many hands in a row is rare but it does happen and it's a memory to keep.

The only way you can actually go on a poker run is to play any hand directly after you win. There is exceptions of total garbage of course but you get the point. Both online and casino poker have crazy poker runs and the more you play, the more chance you will have to experience this wonderful feeling.

Rocks at the Poker Table

Poker article by Kyle Healey

This article will focus on how to spot and defeat any rock at the poker table. First, I will define a rock as a poker player who plays very few starting hands, yet plays aggressive when he/she decides to play a pot. I was recently playing in a NL 5 & 10 poker game at a local club. After about an hour, I had a pretty decent read on everybody at the table. There was one player who really stood out to me. It was a young guy and he hardly played a hand. He sat there and as this article was created in my mind that night, so was an ultimate strategy against rock players.

He was not only going to be my victim that night he was also going to be my guinea pig, my study guide for how the mind of a rock poker player works.I noticed many things about this guy that were sure signs for anyone who was paying attention, that this guy was a TIGHT PLAYER. The first thing you obviously notice is that they do not play a lot of starting hands. They usually fold, in fact almost always fold unless they are in the blinds or have a strong hand. The second thing I noticed is that this guy kept counting and rearranging his chips every 2 seconds like he was losing them or something. Like seriously man, you haven't played a pot in half an hour why in the world are you still counting your chips they haven't moved!

A third thing I found while studying this guy was that he slouched every hand except for when he had a strong hand! In fact this guy was such a rock that I would call him a robot because he perked up everytime he found 10 10 or up. Now I have to admit, this was a pretty strong NL table and there were also a couple of drunks donating. With that being said, I had to laugh when even the drunk guys folded every time this rock tried to come in with a raise. That leads me into the next section of this article, how to easily handle any rock poker player once you have identified them.

Now that you know what to look for in a rock we can proceed on how to handle them. Like I just mentioned, I could barely help myself from laughing at this guy every time he entered a pot. I knew he had something strong it was written all over his face. The fact is when these rocks enter the pot, they have the goods. If you see high cards on the flop, you can be pretty sure they have got a piece of it or already have a high pocket pair. Just fold pre-flop. Yes I said it and since it is the drop dead only way to play against rocks I'll say it again, Just fold pre-flop. Unless you have AA, AK-AQs, KK, or QQ you are most definitely beat. So just fold.

The funniest thing about this particular guy was, that everyone knew it and folded pre-flop when ever he entered with a raise. It was truly amusing as this guy got peeved and started playing crap hands. But this is where I noticed a new tell of our friend the guinea pig, he would still erect his posture when holding strong hands but when he tried to limp in with crap to throw us off he remained hunched over the table and his drink. At this point you just play off of the rock's tells. You've got to remember that tight poker players are usually tight because they don't like losing money and they like poker to be a mechanical grind slowly increasing their bankroll.
Throw them off one or two hands and a rock turns into something their not, a loose or just frustrated poker player, one that you can take advantage of the rest of the session.

To sum up this strategy guide against rock poker players, firstly you have to identify the tight rocks at your table. This can be done by their appearance, the number of hands they play, how they play them, and even how they stack their chips or hold themselves. Once you have identified them and what kind of strong hands they play, you get out of their way unless you have a premium hand yourself. Proceed to play them like a puppet until they get off their game and take advantage of them the rest of the night

Be Observant at the Table

The number one important thing in poker besides skill boils down to how focused you as a player are at the table and the level of your concentration. You could have superior psychological skills then anyone else at the table and yet they are rendered useless if you are not paying attention.

Top reasons you will be distracted at a poker game:

1. Table Chat

2. Attractive dealer/player

3. Too much to drink

4. Something on your mind

We already know from the opening paragraph that concentration is vital to being a winning poker player. After all, you need to know how each player treats different hands, whether they are tight or loose, passive or agressive.

Now we will deal with the reasons you can be distracted individually. First is table chat... this can easily be avoided - simply do not talk with others unless it is specifically increasing your knowledge of them for this game. The second reason, if you are paying attention too much to a good looking player or dealer then stop and go back to concentrating on
your game. If not, then take a break and go introduce yourself!

The third reason is easily avoided, don't drink too much as it would mess up your game, know your limits. And the final reason , if you have a family or personal crisis on your mind, worried about anything, you should not be playing in the poker game at all.

Money Management

Why You Need to Manage Your Bankroll

In this poker article I will talk about money management, bankrolls, and minimizing loses. These are all important concepts when playing poker but they all revolve around the same principals. You must limit your loses, hold on to your winnings, and most importantly always leave your self outs.

You should only play games that your bankroll will allow. If you have 200 dollars to play with for a month you don't want to lose it all in the first week playing a 5-10 no-limit game. The average pot in these games would be about the size of your bankroll. You should play lower limit games that match your bankroll.

Minimize your losses. I have seen players loose a big hand, go on tilt and loose their whole bankroll in one night. If you ever get angry because of a bad beat or loose a lot of money quickly you should take a break. A lot of mental energy will be used up worrying about your bad luck, this will effect your game in a negative way. I recommend going for a walk or even quit playing for the day. There will always be another game tomorrow.

Protect your bankroll. Not every player needs a bankroll. If you only play on occasion with extra money you probably don't need to worry about this. But if you are a player who wants to make a good income from poker your bankroll is an asset. Lets say you start with a bankroll of 500 dollars at a poker site. Now after a week of winning you are up to 2000 in your account. You take out 1500 and go buy a new TV. That is fine but if you get on a bad streak you can easily loose the 500 you still have. Then you will have no bankroll and wont be able to play. This happens to a lot of good player, and if they cant play they cant win anymore. This can put an end to your poker profits.

So just remember that poker is a game of swings. You can win a lot but you can also get on a bad luck streak and lose a lot. Just watch your bankroll, manage your money, and always leave yourself outs.

Final Thoughts
Remember to think about your bankroll before each time you play. Think about what will happen if you loose all your money in your account. Will you want to deposit more money you cant afford to lose? Are the stakes of the game so high it you loose a big hand you will be out of chips? Just think before you start to play about the worst case scenario and you should have less bankroll problems.

Avoiding Tilt in Poker

Ah, the tilt. If a poker player claims never to have stared faced down the barrel of an upcoming tilt they are either lying or they haven't been playing long enough. This doesn't mean of course that everyone has gone on tilt before, some people have great willpower and take their losses as a loss and leave it at that. To be a strong poker player, it is very important to treat your wins and your losses in the same manner with no emotion. You play the game the same way you did after taking a tough beat as you would after winning a huge hand. All poker pros are not tempted by tilting after a bad beat as they are very seasoned and you should be to.

You must understand that you can't win every hand your in, even if you are heavily favoured. Hands which usually make people go on tilt are hands that you were the favourite or at least thought you were until you were rivered and you lost a big chunk of your stack. Bad beats are going to happen. Face that fact right now, I'll say it again if your brother players cards, if your mother plays cards, if your grandma plays cards We all have bad beats sometimes. It is an inevitable effect of playing texas holdem, or for that matter any kind of poker.

Since we are assumingly (most of us)are in the game for one purpose to make money, it would make sense that we would play accordingly to maximixe profits. Now let's say you are up $100 off of a $100 deposit, and you take a large blow in a NL game and your stack is down to $120. You've lost $80 in a hand where you were sure to pick up $200 when you went all-in on the flop and had a 10 to 1 advantage. And that fish! He sucked you out on the river right? Well stop right here. This is a classic opportunity for a new player to start tilting. They just lost too much money on one hand that they should have won and they are angry.

Being on a Poker Run

One of the greatest feelings in a poker player's world is going on a huge poker run. A poker run is when you have a rush of strong hands and win lots of pots right in a row. Poker runs are a poker player's ultimate dream in this respect.

After slumping for a while or going on tilt, hitting a serious poker run can be just what you need to get you going again. I have been sitting at a table where someone has won 10 hands in a row, showing down. Winning this many hands in a row is rare but it does happen and it's a memory to keep.

The only way you can actually go on a poker run is to play any hand directly after you win. There is exceptions of total garbage of course but you get the point. Both online and casino poker have crazy poker runs and the more you play, the more chance you will have to experience this wonderful feeling.

Source: Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Why to Raise in Poker

Today we will talk about The secret art of raising. Most people think that you only raise when you have a good hand and you want to win more money. This is correct but there are many other reasons to raise and to be a winning player you need to know what you want to get from a raise and if it is working.

There are 5 major reasons to raise:

To get more money from your hand.
To eliminate players.
To get a card.
To gain information.
To bluff or semi-bluff

1. To get more money from your hand.
This is the simplest reason to raise a pot. Basically when you feel that you have the best had you are going to raise to try to get more money in the pot. If you have the the best hand possible at the time this is the only reason you should raise. Sometimes you may not want to raise in this case. You may want to slow play the hand.

2. To eliminate players.

This is a pretty simple concept as well. This is the reason you raise with AA or KK. You want to get people out before they can see the flop. AA and KK do very well against a few people but against a lot of people there's a good chance you will loose after all 5 cards come out. Another time when you might raise to eliminate players is when you flop top pair, example: You hold AK and the flop comes 9 10 K, You now have top pair with the best kicker. Here you would want to get people out of the hand so they don't make 2 pair, a straight, or a flush.

3. To get a card.

Well you don't get it for free but it costs you less. You would raise to get a free card if you flop and open ended straight draw or flush draw and were in a later position. See if you were playing 3-6 and you raised on the flop you would put an extra 3 dollars but in most cases the other player or players will check to you assuming you have a better hand. This saves you from calling a 6 dollar bet on the turn, instead you get it for free. You might also want to raise the flop in late position when you have top pair and a weak kicker or mid pair with a good kicker.

4. To gain information.

This is a more complex reason to raise. This move works best on or before the flop. Before the flop you don't know anything about a players hand other than it could be anything but if you raise and a player re-raises then you know he has a good hand. Most likely a hand in Group #1 or maybe #2. If he just calls you know that he probably doesn't have a hand. Now lest say after the flop you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker, and your opponent bets into you. Now if you call you couldn't really tell how big of a hand he has but if you raise him and he re-raises you are probably beat at least with a better kicker. This is a way to actually save money. If you called all the way down to see his AK then you have lost a lot more than you have to.

5. To bluff or semi-bluff.

We wont get into bluffing right now. You really wont need to do much bluffing in lower limit games. Most bluffing goes on in higher limit games, No-limit games, and no-limit tournaments. Semi-bluffing however is something you need to know about. Semi-bluffing is betting a hand that probably isn't the best one at the time but can improve with more cards. The real goal to semi-bluffing is to win the pot right then and there. So you only want to semi- bluff when there are only a few player in the pot, you think you everyone might fold after you bet or raise, and you are very sure that no one will check raise you. There are many opportunities to semi-bluff in every game, most of the time they are not the right move though. Remember to semi-bluff accordingly.

If you look back at all the reasons to raise you will see that a lot of the times when you raise you might accomplish more than one goal. You might raise to get a free card but also gain information and get more money in the pot. Its good to have a specific reason or two in your mind before every raise, this way you wont be raising just for the sake of raising.

When to Bet and When Not to Bet

article by Kyle Healey on Hustlecards.com

You are sitting pretty with pocket Queens and you raise pre-flop under the gun and get two callers. To your amazement the flop comes with a third Queen and you hit your set. Now you have a decision to make “ do you slow-play the hand or do you simply bet your monster. There are many factors that will play into your decision of whether or not you should bet your monster or not.

Firstly, what do you think of the other players? Will they likely call a large bet right now if you decided to bet? If they would, it strongly suggests that you should bet your monster. If you think your opponent is maybe weak and will fold to your bet, however, you may want to check your hand and try to induce a bluff. Another consideration to take into hand is whether or not there is any obvious straight or flush draws on the board. If your opponents are likely to hold some sort of draw, betting your monster once again seems like the best move because they will be forced to pay for their draw cards “ the last thing you want is to let them see two free cards and then fold their hand after you could have got two solid betting rounds in.

You also need to look at the risks of picking each option. For instance, if you slow play your big hand it is possible that your opponents can chase down free cards and outdraw you, when they would have folded if you bet. Those are lost chips for you. Also, if they are planning on chasing you will want to make them pay for the cards and not give them for free. A possible risk of betting out your hand is that you may cancel out an attempt of a possible bluff by an opponent who would likely bet if you slow played your hand.

These are all considerations you have to think of before deciding whether or not to slow play your monster or bet it strong.

When processing the information your given, make a choice you think is right and make your move. You will most likely win a pot when you have flopped a huge hand but whether or not you maximize your chips will depend on exactly how you play it

Position on the Poker Table

article by Johnny Profit on Hustlecards.com

Positioning is everything. Why? Why would my position at the table mean anything at all? Position, although highly overlooked, can be the determining factor to win the hand and furthermore increase you ability to survive. Position, (the actual seat number you are occupying at the table) is a crucial instrument that can be utilized to its maximum potential or left unscathed and forgotten about. You table position can increase the strength of your hand regardless of the cards you are holding. If you know anything about poker than you know that a large amount of the time, especially at a shorter table, you are playing the player and not the cards.

As your position decreases, (further from the button) as does your ability to use this to its full potential. Thus, the best possible position you could achieve in a hand is the dealer. As an exception to this rule, if every one has folded, in the sense that you are not legally the dealer but are last to act anyways, this will uphold the strength of your position. Okay, now that we understand where you should be in terms of strength we can see why position is essential.

A large degree of winning a poker hand successfully, regardless of your card strength, is deciphering the strength of the other player's hand. If you can reasonably assume that your opponent's hand is weak than you can buy the pot almost every time, depending on the previous image you have displayed until this point. How can you decipher another's hand effectively? This article will not be able to cover this as it could induce a large novel regarding the psychology of the game. However, I will provide a couple of ways you can start. Back to positioning. You are last to act, there are two players ahead of you and they are the small and the large blind. Every other person has folded, what do you do? Providing that at this point you know nothing about the players in the blinds, maybe this is your first hand, you position allows you to raise in order to attempt to steal the blinds.

Now I must point out here that there are an endless amount of variables. By this I mean situations can occur in which you would not want to make this move. Maybe you know the big blind to be extremely aggressive and you know he will surely re-raise over the top. Maybe you have a very powerful hand and you do not want to take the chance of having the only remaining players fold. Maybe you feel the other players will call your bluff and discredit you from future possible thefts. As one can see, there are an infinite number of circumstances you would have to consider before using this position to your advantage. As any good poker player would agree, judgment is essential to properly executing strategic moves.

Now, take for example you are involved in a hand. You are the dealer and you are left with the small and large blinds. In this scenario, you raised pre-flop but both of the blinds call. The flop comes and it is checked to you.

Your position on the table can prove to be advantageous or result in your downfall. The closer to the button you are, the better your position.

Alcohol and Poker

If you are like me you are always looking for something extra to boost your edge in a game. If I'm playing online, I try to get that edge through table selection. There are generally hundreds of tables going on sites like Party Poker, so it's not hard to find a loose one. But if I'm playing with my friends I generally don't have that option. Now I'm not trying to say I'm unpopular, but getting several hundred games together would be a bit of a stretch.

But luckily there is an easy solution to making even a tight home game juicy. And that would be beer! the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Now if you haven't had the privilege of playing with drunken players you don't know what you are missing. No pair and no draw??? Sounds good enough to call for them. Like they say, if you're trying to beat a game, skill can kill, but liquor is quicker.

So if you are organizing a home game, just make sure that the alcohol is flowing freely. In fact you might want to break it out before the game if you are waiting on someone. Often you can even subsidize all of your booze expenditures by having every one toss in a few extra bucks in the buy in.

So now that you've got your friends all liquored up how should you play against them? I recommend playing a loose, aggressive game. You want to see a lot of cheap flops, and when you do hit a hand bet it, because you will get called down. The value of preflop raises decreases if your opponents are drunk, because it is very hard to get them to lay down hands, so you don't want to invest a lot of money before you know what you have. Additionally bluffs are right out. There are very few mistakes that will cost you more than trying to bluff an intoxicated person out of a pot who is more than happy to call you down with A-7

There is some question of how ethical it is to use this method. After all they are your friends right? With that being said I would have no hesitation at all from taking 10-20 bucks away from a guy even if he didn't know which side of the card had the values, but I would cut them off from playing before they lost too much and it would endanger tuition and rent.

Three Concepts of Texas Holdem Strategy

This texas holdem strategy article is aimed at new players. Advanced players, or complete newbies, will probably not find this article very useful.

Concept #1 - Pot Odds
Long-term profits in holdem come from making bets with a positive expectation. You only have a positive expectation when your payoff is higher than your risk. Casinos make money from negative expectation games like roulette. The single number bet in roulette pays off at 35 to 1, but the odds of winning the bet are 37 to 1. The difference between the 37 and the 35 is the casino's profit margin.

You need a basic understanding of how to calculate pot odds while playing in order to determine when to play. You should only play a hand when you have a positive expectation, otherwise you should fold. Basically you compare the number of chips in the pot with your chances of winning the pot when you decide whether or not to play a hand.

Suppose there is $150 in a pot, and you're on the flop with 4 to a flush. An easy way to approximate the odds of hitting the flush is to take the number of cards that will make your hand and multiply that by the number of cards that are still going to be dealt, and multiply that by 2. There are 13 cards in a suit and you have 4 of them. So there are 9 cards left. 9 times 2 more cards times 2% equals 36%, or about 1 in 3. You will win an average of once every three times and lose the other two times. So the pot needs to offer you at least 2 to 1 for you to call a bet. If someone bets $50, you stand to win $200 on a $50 bet, which gives you appropriate pot odds to call.

This basic concept is essential to holdem success. Other concepts to start thinking about are the odds of your opponent folding if you raise. This will change the pot odds. A rule of thumb is that the fewer opponents, the more likely you’ll be able to take down an uncontested pot. Another rule of thumb is that if you have a drawing hand, a big pot, and a small bet to call, then you should call. If the pot's small, and the bet’s big, then you should fold.

Concept #2 - Starting Hand Selection & Position
Position is critical when deciding what kind of hands to actually play before the flop. The rule of thumb is that you play much tighter (have higher starting hand requirements) in early position and play looser in late position. Your advantage in late position is that you can see what the other players do before you decide what to do.

This is a simplification, and a lot of people aren't going to like the way I do it, but I divide starting hands into just three groups. There are definitely sub-divisions and subteleties between these groupsbut starting out, you're basically looking at just three different groups: strong hands, drawing hands, and unplayable hands.

Strong hands are pairs of 10 or higher, plus AK suited. A's and KK's almost always warrant raising preflop, unless you're in early position and you're hoping for someone to raise behind you. AK suited, QQ's, JJ's, and 10's are worth raising with if no one else has raise, they're sometimes worth raising with if someone else has raised, and they're almost always worth calling with.
Drawing hands are hands that need to improve on the flop to win. Pairs of 99's or lower and suited connectors are usually drawing hands, and so are big-little suited. (Big little suited is an ace and one smaller card of the same suit, and it's a playable hand sometimes because of its flush potential.) Suited connectors are adjacent in rank and of the same suit, so they have the potential to make a flush or a straight or possibly even a straight flush. And the smaller pairs go down in value as they get lower in rank. They're normally worth calling if no one’s raised unless you're in early position, when you should usually fold them. Sometimes pairs of 77's, 88's, and 99's are good starting hands to play strongly with too, especially if your opponents are very tight and you could win the pot right there without a showdown.

Concept #3 - What to do on the Flop
Fit or fold is the common wisdom on this subject. You should be in a good position to decide what to do on the flop. I've always played overpairs and top pairs a little too strongly, and that works well at a weak table with calling stations, but you have to be more cautious with better players. The average winning hand in Texas holdem at a showdown is two pairs or better.

If your starting cards were a drawing hand, you need to hit your hand in order to play it. If you had pocket 66's, you really need to hit 3 of a kind to continue playing the hand, otherwise you should fold. 4 to an open-ended straight is playable unless there's a potential flush draw on the board. 4 to a flush is usually a good hand to play. But if you're playing a small pair and there are overcards on the board, you're probably going to have to get away from the hand. Texas holdem is a game of high cards.

This is a very basic introduction to the things you should think about in Texas holdem strategy. There are tremendous subtleties and complexities beyond this introduction, and entire books are written on strategies for limit, pot limit, and no limit Texas holdem. You’re encouraged to start reading them and think about them while you play.

Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Texas Hold 'Em in James Bond 007 Casino Royale

I just went and saw the new 007 movie yesterday, Casino Royale. Aside from being an excellent movie, I thought I'd bring up the part where they play high stakes Hold 'em at Casino Royale. Aside from being an excellent game to watch, it was also an interesting insight into different tactics used by players to win themselves a hand. The bad guy character, Le Chiffre, using mathmatics and odds to work out his players, and Bond using his uncanny ability to read his opponents, and call their bluff.

The amount of money involved in this game was ridiculous, espaecially when the pot reached a total of over 100 million. The type of game played in the movie was updated from the book to the now popular Texas Hold 'Em, and I think it works a treat, keeping the flow of movie absorbing and providing a stimulating game for poker fans and non-fans alike.
What did you think?

Knowing Your Poker Opponents

Following on from the afore mentioned post about Bond reading his opponents, I found this article from hustlecards.com that discusses each type of poker player, and how to play against them:

article written by Graham Easton

There are many types of Texas Holdem Poker player, and, of course, many levels of experience between those players. Texas Holdem the card game is similar to pushing spaghetti around a plate – some will get more, others will get less and the house always takes a slice. The statistics of cards over time dictate that we all have the same opportunities. The key to maximizing our potential gains is to quickly identify your opponent type and skill level. If you can correctly identify your opponent then you will be able to alter your playing style to maximize your win, and just as significantly, minimize your loss.

Let's review the various playing styles that you will come across in an average Texas Holdem Poker cash game. Players will either be:

Rocks
Tight Players
Calling Stations
Maniacs

And within these styles you will find a range of aggression that goes from passive to aggressive. What follows are some strategic hints and tips to help you play against each form of poker player in an online environment.

Rocks
Rocks are the most common type of Texas Holdem Player. They are the easiest to beat and usually are inexperienced new players who think the game revolves around the cards that are dealt. It's also the most natural playing style and so you will come across them regularly. These are the people you should look to play against. Controlled aggression is the way to proceed. Bet at these players when flops look ugly and they'll most likely fold. If they re-raise you in return, step aside and let them take the hand, coming right back at them next round. A rock who has been sitting folding the last 20 hands, only to come out betting, is the easiest read of all. If you can't see them coming then I'd suggest you take up a different game.

Tight Players
Tight players are usually battle hardened. The difference between a tight player and a rock is that they understand the need to come out more often, with the occasional bluff here and there. More importantly they usually use the time spent sitting out, to identify opponent characteristics in order to play their weaknesses. The best of all players sit in this category - Tight Aggressive No Limit Texas Holdem players need to be identified early on and avoided at all cost. Find one and you should re-examine your table selection (yes you should move table). Real life examples of this type of player would be Howard Lederer and Erick Lindgren.

Calling Stations
Calling stations present an interesting playing style and are the second most common type you'll find in online poker. By definition fairly weak, these players rarely take the initiative and thereby have to rely on the luck of running up against an aggressive player while holding the nut or near nut hand. More often than not these people will lose because they are:

1) Playing their cards and not their opponent
2) Have no initiative
3) Regularly rely on card catching strategies

It's worth pointing out at this stage that card catching is a bad idea in almost any circumstances (except as part of a semi-bluff play).

Maniacs
Maniacs are a rare breed of player seldom seen in low limit or tournament Texas Holdem Poker games. They have no fear of losing, indeed it'll look like they want to, and it is this that sets them apart from most players online today. Difficult to play against, these opponents rely on your fear of losing your stack to gain chips. Often seen with large chip stacks relative to the table, Maniacs will bet large regularly, and whatever hand you choose to play, it is likely that you will have to be prepared to go all-in with it. No card catching against these opponents - if you try you will be punished.

The identification of Maniacs is easy, as is your assault on their playing style. Clearly the weakness these players have is that they are susceptible to large pocket pairs (AA, KK, QQ, even AK). The difficulty is that you will likely have to wait a good number of cards before you get to play such a hand. Maniacs are far from stupid (they often evolve in experience terms from Rocks or Calling Stations that have read Doyle Brunson's Super System books and progressed from there. To hit them properly you have to either get lucky early on with the big pair or play enough cards so you are not identified as a waiting Rock (obviously you don't want them to get out of your way when the time is right).

If you beat an aggressive Maniac once, you'll find they go on Tilt really easily, which provides further opportunity for the brave. I recall hitting one for $800 from $200 in 3 hands because he went all-in 3 times in a row with no cards at all. He incorrectly judged that I would fold rather than re-stake my entire winnings on each of the next 2 poker hands. Fortunately for me they were fairly solid starting hands in the circumstances but I can tell you it's not easy going all-in pre-flop for $500 with just King Jack. I'd be mad to do that in any other circumstance but I felt I had a good read on the player type and his hand which turned out to be 92 unsuited didn't stand up.

Hopefully you'll observe playing styles and look to pick off Rocks and Calling Stations. If you come up against a tight (particularly Tight Aggressive) player, with no other easy to beat players around, you should move on. I've been at many tables where the poor players have lost and left, the good ones remain, and one off those triggers the table's break up by saying no easy money here, the only winner will be the rake, lets move on.

If you've not had this said to you, or you've not made the statement yourself then consider that you may be a fish.

Some Fun Facts About Poker

So your a poker player. Whether you are good or bad, I'm sure you probably don't know all of the following facts on the origins of cards and poker. These are pretty interesting to know for any type of player.

• Playing cards were invented in China.


• A fifth suit was added in 1937 but never caught on because people had to buy all new decks.


• At least 65,000,000 Americans regularly play poker, and more are playing every day.


• Dead mans hand is Ace's and Eights


• Getting dealt 10, 2 is referred to as Doyle Brunson because he won back to back World Series with the hand.


• In the 1800's, 2,000 to 2,500 riverboat gamblers played poker on American Waterways, By contemporary accounts, no more than four of these poker players were honest all the time. A straight beat a flush at this time.


• Las Vegas Casinos are not legally obligated to pay off there gambling debts.
  
• Due to French Influence, Spades represent Royalty, Diamonds represent Merchants, Clubs represent the peasants, and hearts represent the clergy.


• Edmond Hoyle lived to be 97, but died 150 years before Poker was invented.


• Playing cards were introduced in Europe in the 1300's.


• When Columbus landed in 1492 in North America, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, drew pictures on them and played cards.


• Historians generally agree that Bill Hickock was a lousy poker player.


• Groucho Marx got his name from carrying his poker money in a "grouch bag."


• Former President Richard Nixon won $6,000 playing poker in his first two months in the U.S. Navy during WWll. That's equal to roughly $42,640 in 2004 dollars. He used that money as well as more poker winnings to finance his run for the U.S. Congress in 1946, for which he won.
  

The Truth About Bad Bets in Poker

Article by Alan Bloomfield

If you play poker you've been there before and you know exactly what I'm talking about. You get your money in the pot as a huge favorite only to lose the hand when your opponet catches that miracle river card.

Most players, including myself, get mad or upset when this happens to them. You say to yourself, or the player that just gave you that bad beat, "How can you call with that hand" or "why were you even playing that?"

Most poker players get upset at their opponent for making a bad call and then winning the hand. In reality, you should be glad that you are playing against such an opponet because they are giving you a great opportunity to win money.

Bad Players Give Bad Beats
Usually the people that are giving bad beats are bad players. It usually takes a bad call or a bad play for a bad beat to happen. If it wasn't for these bad beats, bad players simply wouldn't play poker.

Think about it, if bad players lost every time they got their money into the pot they simply would quit playing. Is this what we really want? The answer is no, because if there wasn't someone out there trying to give thier money away, this game would be impossible to beat. The only people playing would be solid players that never make mistakes. Then the only people making money off of poker would be the casinos.

Not only do the bad beats keep the bad players in the game, in a way it prevents them from improving their game and becoming better players. The luck that's involved with poker can convince a bad player that they might be good. These bad players can have a winning session because of a few bad beats. Then on nights they don't win they can also convince themselves that it was just bad luck that they had a losing session.

Good Players Suffer More Bad Beats
Good players will suffer more bad beats than they will ever give out. The reason is good players get their money into the pot when they are ahead more often than when they are behind. This is the reason why good players are good.

Good players will pick their spots and make better decisions to get their money in as a favorite. When you are constantly ahead and everybody is trying to outdraw you, they're going to get lucky every now and then.

Conclusion
Poker players need to think more long term than they do short term. Think of a poker session as a life long project. Whenever you do take a bad beat and lose a big pot, think long term instead of short term. If you get your money into the pot 1,000 times in that same exact situation how many much money am I going to win? Just an example, if you get all your money in the pot 1,000 times with AA vs. QTo for $300 a pot, you are going to win about 836 times and lose about 160 of them. Over a 1,000 hands you will win about $202,800. So don't get upset over the 160 times you lose that hand and just continue your life long session and wait for you next opportunity.

Playing Poker on a Cruise Ship

Here's an amusing little story from the WPT Mexican Cruise with Daniel Negreanu and Erik Lindgren.

Card Player Magazine, one of the premier poker magazines out of Las Vegas, enlists Linda Johnson (The First Lady of Poker) as the honcho on Card Player Cruises. She has run more than 40 of them and knows her business. More than that, she also knows Card Player Magazine, having been the owner for eight years prior to 2001. She sold out, but kept the rights to the cruises. Good idea!

Her poker cruises go where most cruises go: Transatlantic, the Mexican Riviera, the Caribbean, Alaska, Russia, and South America. On a recent Mexican cruise, most of the players were beginners, booking to see what the poker phenomenon was all about and to pick up some tequila, high quality silver jewelry, and perhaps a sombrero.

There is another kind of poker played on another kind of cruise event that Linda also runs. In conjunction with the World Poker Tour (WPT), an annual No Limit Texas Hold em tournament has been held on chartered just for the poker gang - Holland America ships.

In 2004, Erick Lindgren beat his best buddy, Daniel Negreanu, to snag a million dollar prize on a WPT Mexican cruise. Negreanu didn't hold his defeat against Lindgren: soon after, Erick was Daniel's best man at his wedding to Lori.

Back to the cruise and Erick's victory: to celebrate, he ordered drinks for the house in The Crow's Nest Bar on the ship, the beautiful MS Ryndam. It seemed like a good idea at the time, maybe until Erick woke up the next morning (or was it afternoon?), to discover a receipt for a $22,000 bar tab by his bed. Ouch!!

The Stop and Go Betting Strategy

I think that one under-utilized strategy is stop and go betting. What this refers to is if you have a short stack in a tournament and it is raised to you simply call instead of going all in. Then plan on going all in whatever the flop is. This works especially well if you are the first to act after the flop, i.e. one of the blinds.

The reason that I advocate using this strategy at times is that you may be able to win a few extra hands by inducing a fold where you would have otherwise been called. For instance, if it is raised to you preflop, and you go all in for less than a pot sized bet, you are almost sure to be called. This ensures that all five cards will come out giving your opponent the best chance to beat you. If you are the short stack then surviving is key, therefore you want to maximize your chances of getting your opponent to lay down a hand and winning the pot uncontested.

If your opponent doesn't have a pocket pair, there is an approximately 60% chance that the flop will miss him. So if you fire a bet at him, even a small bet, with all your remaining chips there is a good chance that he will fold and not try to catch the two more cards that might kill you. And if he does call you would be no worse off than if you went all in preflop, i.e. you're seeing all five cards and whomever has the best hand at the end will take it down.

The basic point is that you should always be looking for more ways to win than to just shove your chips in the center and let the cards fall where they will. Unless you have an excellent hand it is almost always best to win without a showdown, because even AK has a 33% chance of getting knocked off by a lousy 7-2.

source: Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Not Second Guessing Your Poker Hand

You should never outguess yourself when you are at the poker table. I will give you an example; consider the following hand:

You hold: 6c, 6d,

Your opponent in early position raises 4x to 5x bb and you place him on AK.

Flop: Kc, 6h, 7d

Now you have flopped a set, and your opponent is first to act. He sets out and bets just like you expected him to. You play back at him and re-raise. He immediately re-raises you all-in. At this point you have to call. You can't try to outguess your self in this situation and put him on 77 or KK for a higher set. You had originally put him on AK, and if he has a higher set, you are just going to have to pay them off.

At the point where he is re-raising you all-in, you are already pot committed and have to call. There is also a possibility that you misread him and he only holds AA in which case you are dominating that hand as well.

Avoid Common Beginner Poker Mistakes - Part 1

Poker is becoming more popular these days by the day, it seems that television stations are full of live poker tournaments. Just about every sports game you get to watch on the old tube has banners of online casinos and casino resorts in the background. All of these expenses on advertising seem to be paying off, especially to the online casino industry. According to some reports this industry is at 9 billion a year and is expected to grow up to 15 billion within the next year or so.

Many new players are joining the ranks of older, mature, and more experienced poker players. Poker players that have earned their battle scars, sort of speak. These newbies, or rookies seem to think that just by watching a few games on the television set they know it all. It takes long hours at the poker table to learn all the tricks of the trade. If you are one of these rookies, here are some tips for you to remember and follow. Basically, a list, of the do's and don'ts, because remember one thing, these old foxes at the table can read you right off the bat.

1. One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is playing in tough games. Beginners will often place themselves in games against competition they just can't handle. Rather than playing in smaller limit games, against opponents of comparable skill, they prefer to go head to head with the big boys. Try not to get to over confident right at the beginning, these big boy games are not like the games with your friends at home.

2. Playing too many hands is another common mistake. Rookies play more hands than they should, not understanding the importance of starting with premium hands in premium situations because faking hands does not work all the time. Pick up a book or two before sitting down to play, and you'll understand why 9-3 is a bad hand to start with, whether it's suited or not, there is no excuse for lacking fundamental poker knowledge.

3. Patience, patience and than, some more patience. The lack of patience will always get you. Playing poker means you will go through long periods of sheer boredom waiting for good cards. Rookies often don't have the patience to wait for quality cards out of boredom; they will start playing hands they know they should not be playing.

4. Drinking alcohol while playing is something that you might do at home while playing with the boys. But playing in a tournament or any casino environment you will need to have all of your concentration, and the little talent that you might have acquired until now with you in order to make quality decisions at the table. Remember that the casinos serve free alcohol at the table for a good reason. It will cloud your judgment and will have you making plays you should not have considered making in the first place.

5. Playing too many hours will affect your brain. At some point it will just cease to function well especially after 12 hours of sitting at the table playing poker. It is always best to get some rest, and come back sharp and fresh the next day, most beginners will end up playing too many hours trying to chase their money back or trying to be a pig about it and win some more. In the process, they end up throwing away all their winnings (if they gained some) and even more. Your mind will play tricks on you after playing for to many hours, and you will often convince yourself that you are playing well. Chances are, you might not.

source: Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Avoid Common Beginner Poker Mistakes - Part 2

6. Bluffing too much and too often is an extremely common mistake rookies make. Most new players that have watched too many movies seem to have convinced themselves that poker is all about bluffing. Somehow, they think that if they just keep betting, everyone will fall into their bluff and get out of their way. The opposite is true. Experienced poker players catch on to the habitual bluffer very fast, and they use it against him.

7. Trying to look as the tough guy, or the big shot at the table by playing limits you can not afford is another common mistake. Nothing is more harmful to your confidence, and your bankroll, than gambling with your rent or bill money, basically with money you can not afford to gamble away. Due to the pressure this will create on you, you can not make smart decisions when you are worrying about how you are going to pay the rent if you will lose. It is always best for you to play within a budget you can afford.

8. When ahead at the game, you should not be in a hurry to take your winnings and run. There is no system for figuring out when you should keep on playing and when it is time to pack up and leave. The best is not to make a plan as far as when to leave. Many rookies seem to hit and run after very small wins, yet they continue to play when they are behind. When you are on a winning role, you have a powerful table presence and you should exploit that presence to the max. On the other hand when you are losing, that image at the table is tarnished and can have a negative effect on the way you play the game.

9. Over-blown egos will always get players, especially rookies. Remember that even if you were top tog player at home. The casino and especially the tournament scene is completely different and you are not as good as you might think you are. Once you realize that you do not know everything about poker is the day that you might start learning a thing or two and have a better chance at winning. It is always important to be objective about your poker abilities or disabilities as the case might be.

10. Playing after you have lost a few hands to the point that it damaged your faith or self confidence in your game, is not a good idea. Keep in mind that every poker player losses a few hands. The best thing to do is to just walk away ,clear your mind and come back when your confidence came back. A player that losses his confidence in his game yet continues to play will dig himself further in the hole, since he is not playing with a cool mind, and therefore with bad judgment.

Now that you have read these 10 key points for rookies to remember, let them soak in, memorize the does and don'ts and abide by them.

Source: Poker Articles at Hustle Cards

Drinking Alcohol and Playing Poker - Its Effects

If you are like most people, you are always looking for something extra to boost your edge in a game. If I'm playing online, I try to get that edge through table selection. There are generally hundreds of tables going on sites like Party Poker, so it's not hard to find a loose one. But if I'm playing with my friends I generally don't have that option. Now I'm not trying to say I'm unpopular, but getting several hundred games together would be a bit of a stretch.

But luckily there is an easy solution to making even a tight home game juicy. And that would be beer, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Now if you haven't had the privilege of playing with drunken players you don't know what you are missing. No pair and no draw? Sounds good enough to call for them. Like they say, if you're trying to beat a game, skill can kill, but liquor is quicker.

So if you are organizing a home game, just make sure that the alcohol is flowing freely. In fact you might want to break it out before the game if you are waiting on someone. Often you can even subsidize all of your booze expenditures by having every one toss in a few extra bucks in the buy in.

So now that you've got your friends all liquored up how should you play against them? I recommend playing a loose, aggressive game. You want to see a lot of cheap flops, and when you do hit a hand bet it, because you will get called down. The value of preflop raise decreases if your opponents are drunk, because it is very hard to get them to lay down hands, so you don't want to invest a lot of money before you know what you have. Additionally bluffs are right out. There are very few mistakes that will cost you more than trying to bluff an intoxicated person out of a pot who is more than happy to call you down with A-7

There is some question of how ethical it is to use this method. After all they are your friends right? With that being said I would have no hesitation at all from taking 10-20 bucks away from a guy even if he didn't know which side of the card had the values, but I would cut them off from playing before they lost too much.

- source: Hustlecards.com

Trump101 - Finest Quality

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That’s just basic marketing and good business.

Donald Trump - Trump101

How to Improve Your Tournament Game

Gain experience online
Online tournaments are a great way to gain experience. The poker rooms on the Internet offer tournaments with re-buys or freeze outs, with buy-ins ranging from $1 to several thousand dollars. The size of the buy-in will not affect your basic strategy very much. There may be several hundred players in a "cheap" tournament and it will not be easy to win.

Online games are quicker
Online games are much quicker than live ones - there is no shuffling, no chip counting and so on. You play a considerably higher number of hands per hour and thus gain more experience. The online poker rooms also offer many one or two table tournaments. That is a good way to practice final table play.

Source: WSOP

The Final Table

Final table strategy
When you're at the final table your aim should be to finish in the top three places because usually that's where the big prizes are. The closer you get to the top spots the more aggressive you should be. This is especially effective if you have been playing passively earlier in the game. Your opponents might be trying to outlast each other and that is something you should take full advantage of. Try to steal the blinds and/or antes whenever you get a chance.

Adjusting to stack size
The size of your chips stack influences the way you should act at the final table. If your stack is medium sized or big you should use basic poker tournament strategy to achieve your goal - pick on the small stacks but avoid confrontation with the big stacks if you can. If you have a small stack you have to act before it gets so small that doubling up won't make a difference. You can't afford to be picky - choose a hand a go with it and remember to be the aggressor and not the caller. The exception is if you get a really strong hand - in that case you might slow play in order to maximize the payoff.

Source: WSOP