Identifying a Cheater in Household Games

article by Texas Holdem Poker

First off, if you are playing against a true "mechanic", you're doomed. True card handlers' illegal movements are invisible to any but the trained eye, and you need to have been a part of this craft before you can identify it. Many kitchen table gamblers sometimes choose to falsify a deck of cards because of the glorified image of a "mechanic". They can deceive anyone who isn't looking and that makes them feel like a master trickster. Mastering the art of card handling is like a full-time job that has a training period of decades, though. That devotion is not something that appeals to everyone. Most cheaters depend upon some very, very basic moves that are easy to spot. Below are some basic things to look out for...

Holding-Out
This involves keep a card in your sleeve, on your lap, or anywhere that it isn't visible to other players. The card is acquired from a previous game by throwing one card directly into the muck and keeping the other one. This gives the cheating player an extra card to swap with either of his existing pocket cards. The best defense is to watch a player who keeps his pocket cards under the table, and count the deck in between games.

False Shuffles
If one knows the top or bottom card of the deck, it's not too difficult to shuffle a deck so that either or both of those cards stays at the top or bottom, while mixing up the cards in between. The easiest two types of shuffles that can be used to set the top/bottom card are the riffle shuffle (or dovetail shuffle) and the overhand shuffle. Cheaters will use these shuffles in combination, along with some false dealing to give any player certain cards. A simple way to prevent it is to make sure that another party cuts the deck before the deal. This will still give the dealer only the slight advantage of approximately knowing where the card(s) are in the deck, but this usually isn't a large enough advantage to amount to anything. After the set deck is cut, the dealer also has the advantage of knowing that the former top card of the deck is directly beneath the former bottom card after the cut. That's why we have burn cards.

Riffle Shuffle
A riffle shuffle is when one cuts a deck in twain and flutters the two sections together by applying pressure to the back of the cards while pulling up on the front with your thumb. The thumbs simultaneously release the pressure to make the cards flutter together. Then the two sections are pushed together. The way to cheat, to put it simply (because it is), is to note which half of the deck was the bottom half and which was the top half after you cut it. A handler will make sure the bottom half releases first, putting the bottom card on the bottom. One can also make the bottom half stop fluttering before the top half to make sure the top card stays on top.

Overhand Shuffle
This is the most common type of shuffling. It is when the shuffler holds the entire deck in one hand and throws or pulls part of the top of the deck into the other hand. This is done several times till the deck is completely in the opposite hand. The way to cheat involves a "transfer". In this case, the cheater will be putting the top card on the bottom of the deck, or vice versa, or both. With the first motion, they will pull away only the top card, and make sure that the rest of the cards fall on top of that card, putting the top card on the bottom. With the last few pulls, they will make sure to minimize the cards in a manner so that only the bottom card of the deck remains in the original hand. Then they'll simply throw that card (previously the bottom card) on top of the deck (now the top card).

False Deals
This is a deal where a card besides the top card is dealt. It takes a lot of practice to make it look clean and convincing, though. By practicing these deals yourself for a while, you'll become familiar with the difficulties of doing them. This will make a false deal stand out when you watch a potential cheater deal cards. We'll discuss two types, the bottom deal and the second deal.

Bottom Deal
This is the most prized trick of a gambler. It is simply dealing the bottom card of a deck instead of the top one. The term "Mechanic's Grip" refers to the particular way a deck is held when performing the bottom deal. That's when the left hand holds the left side of the deck between the heel of the hand and the tip of the second finger. The left thumb pushes out the top card in an attempt to disguise the trick deal, while the right hand makes the motions to toss out the bottom card. There are two good indicators that a card handler might be dealing from the bottom. One is that some bottom dealers use a swaying vertical motion to try and cover up the fake deal. The other is that the act of releasing the bottom card can give off a particular snapping sound. If you see or hear one of those indicators, start watching the dealer very closely.

Second Deal
This is usually used when the dealer wants to give himself the top card, so he deals the second card in the deck out to everyone else so as to not lose it. Since this requires the dealer to pull off several second deals in a row, it is not as desirable as the bottom deal. There are several ways to do it, but all of them use a telltale rocking motion with both hands to help disguise the act. Watch for it.

All of the above things are pretty basic. In fact, the false shuffles described above are so easy that even an untrained card handler could pull them off if nobody was really watching (check out this false shuffling video for a video of a non-professional doing exactly that). Always keep in mind the following rules of defense against cheating...

1. Watch the dealer habitually, just as you should be ritualistically watching players when they look at their hole cards. Make sure to watch the hands more than the cards.
2. Anyone who can do card tricks has the potential to do them in a game while dealing. If a card handler shows off some fancy tricks with the deck at any point (which they usually can't resist), then look out!
3. If a player consistently gets great hands when they deal, alarm bells should be going off in your head. Don't label a player with good luck as a cheater immediately though. Watch them. I can't say that enough

Playing Short Handed Texas Hold'em

poker article by Jonny Vincent

We've all seen it a hundred times. That annoying player who, whenever the game gets short-handed, turns into what appears to be a maniac. He's betting, he's raising, he's re-raising - and completely dominating the game. To the beginner, or to those inexperienced in short-handed play, he appears to have no idea of how to play. You wonder, 'What's he doing raising with K7 offsuit - he must have no idea!' But yet he wins - and wins well. What's his secret then?

The secret lies in one word: aggression. The short-handed player must - absolutely must - be able to play a solid aggressive game. Whilst you can do well playing passively in a full ring game, where others do the betting for you, when the game gets short-handed (five or less runners), you must be able to change your playing style and be able to bet aggressively hands you wouldn't even have considered playing in a full game. Unfortunately, if you don't, the aggressive players will run roughshod over you, controlling the betting to their advantage, and you will find your stack diminishing rapidly.

This is often bad news to poker players, as it takes them out of their comfort zone. However, it is also exciting, fun, full of action and - if one develops and hones the unique skills of short-handed play - can be extremely rewarding. Short-handed games have more variance, which means they have more risk - but with increased risks, come increased rewards.

Playing aggressively encompasses more than simply betting or raising more than you would in a full ring game. It's about knowing when you have the best hand (remember, in short-handed play, you must lower both your starting hand requirements and the hands you would take to a showdown) - and about taking advantage of those who play too conservatively. You want - through your aggressive betting - to make these people fold at incorrect times and, in doing so, incorrectly give up their equity in the pot. Roughly two out of three times, the flop won't even give you a pair. The skilled aggressive player realises this, and takes advantage of players who don't. Skilled aggressive players also know how to determine whether they are in front of their opponents, and thus when to speed up and slow down in their betting.

Russ Georgiev, one of the most skilled short-handed players I have ever had the opportunity to converse with, once gave me this piece of advice:

"Realize that anyone that waits for a hand in a short-handed situation will lose many blinds while waiting. Also, when they get involved in betting, the opposition will know they have something and will be waiting to check-raise them and trap them, or let them win the minimum. Short-handed players that win bet their own hands, they don't bet yours. You have to learn to do this yourself. The object of the game is to get the money called when you have the best of it and have free cards given to you with the worse of it. Short-handed is not a game for callers."

"Not having the opposition able to read your style is the difference between winning and losing. The key is being able to have so many different styles that the opposition doesn't know how to combat it. All shorthanded players are aggressive. But in a horse race, the speed of the speed is the one to fear. However, do you always want to be the speed, if the pace of the game is fast enough? The answer is no. The name of the game is knowing how to bet to get the most information about a players hand. Sometimes it is best to lay off the pace and punish him in the last quarter of a mile, meaning the river."

The kinds of skills Russ is talking about here can only come with practice. I can't tell you to raise with K9o from late position without knowing the texture of the game, and the styles of your opponents. Knowing when to raise, which hands to start with and which hands to stay with is something only you can learn with time. The trick to starting out is to not underestimate your hands. Simply start betting, raising and check-raising more, even occasionally when you have nothing. Don't take it too far, especially when you're just starting out, but take yourself out of your comfort zone - you might be surprised at how much fun you have whilst you are learning. And you also might be surprised at how quickly you do, indeed, learn.

If you have had any experience in short-handed play, you will already be starting to comprehend the point's I am trying make here, if not yet understanding them fully. If you don't, that's ok. As I stated before, it takes time and plenty of practice to hone your skills. I like to think I know what I'm doing in a short-handed game, but the more I play, the more I realise how many talented players there are out there and how much better I can, and must, become - it just takes dedication, hard work and confidence in yourself. Just between you and me, really excellent short-handed players absolutely carve me up. I can't compete with them!

Games of Poker: HORSE Tournaments

article by Nicole Gordon

Within the last year, H.O.R.S.E. tournaments have exploded in popularity, both live and online. The World Series of Poker added $2,500 and $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. events to their 2007 schedule in addition to the return of the $50K H.O.R.S.E. World Championship that debuted last summer to much success. $1,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tourneys were spread at nearly every stop on the WSOP Circuit tour this year, and top online rooms Full Tilt and Poker Stars offer over a dozen daily H.O.R.S.E. tournaments and multi-table satellites between them. Standing for Hold'em, Omaha 8 or better, Razz, Stud, and Stud 8 or better, H.O.R.S.E. is a true test of poker skill as it requires players to excel at multiple poker games in order to be successful.

Basic Strategy

The first step in becoming a successful H.O.R.S.E. player is to evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the five different games. In today's poker climate, players will tend to have the most experience with hold'em and the least experience with the three stud games. In the early stages of play it's important to identify which games the players at your table are uncomfortable with and adjust accordingly. Are they folding their way through Omaha 8? Limp-calling too many pots in razz with weak hands? Can I steal relatively easily against their bring-in from late position in stud? These are the tools you'll need to survive the later rounds of the tournament when the blinds and antes are higher. Conversely, remember that the stronger players at your table will be taking the same kind of notes on you. Also, pay close attention to when the stud games change.

H: Hold em:
Many players will come out fast and immediately start raising pots in the first hold'em round. Typically these are the ones that are looking to get some chips in their best game so they can fold their way through their weaker ones. Pots in that first hold'em level will often be large and multi-way relative to the blinds. Of course if you flop a big hand or a big draw early, by all means, take advantage of the situation, but don't go to war against three guys with one pair just because it's limit and it's early. Save those chips... you're going to need them.

O: Omaha 8:
Omaha 8 or better is a game of playing starting hands that have a lot of potential to develop into the nuts. Look to hit a flop hard or aggressively play a big combination draw with outs to scoop both halves of the pot. There's no reason to get fancy this early. Watch for weaker opponents without much O8 experience hitchhiking along for the ride on hands with only one-way draws– they're the ones who are going to pay you off in a big way later on.

R: Razz:
Though the very mention of razz induces nausea in many a poker player, it is perhaps the most straight-forward game in the H.O.R.S.E. lineup and should be played in the same manner. Start with three cards below an eight, keep track of which low cards have been folded, and let your up-cards do the talking. If you have the best hand or the best draw, bet. If you brick and your opponent catches good, fold. Again, don't get fancy in these early rounds–just focus on accumulating chips. The first round of razz is also a good spot in the tournament to start some serious stealing. Don't forget the power of position and a low up-card even if the two you have in the hole leave something to be desired.

S: Stud:
Again, this is a round where players need to recognize their steal opportunities. The low card brings in the action in stud high, so if it's folded to you and you're sitting on a king up with a ten behind you and a 4 stuck with the bring-in, raise away. Play a good, solid game on this round and the next (stud 8). Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. Because after that, things are going to get a little funky.

E: Stud 8:
Due to its position in the lineup, this game always comes around well into the tournament and some players will be approaching short-stack status by the time the first stud 8 round hits. Hitting the stud 8 round is also a signal that the game is about to change from the low-volatility of a split-pot game with an ante back to the high cost per round and quick pace of limit hold'em. If a player hasn't yet added significantly to his stack, this is pretty much the last level he can wait to hit a big hand.

Practice your weaker games at low limits, then think about giving a tournament a whirl. I can personally recommend the $24+2 $4,000 Guarantees that run each night on Full Tilt and the $11 H.O.R.S.E. MTTs on Poker Stars as great places to start.

Poker Strategy - Playing When Tired

article by Ashley Adams

I've played poker of every sort, including stud well into the night and early morning. I've observed friends and foe alike at the poker table at every hour of the day and night. Without a doubt, from my many observations, the greatest drain on the game of the otherwise solid player is fatigue. Here's how it generally works. I'll use my otherwise successful poker friend Jose as an example.

He and I drive down from Boston to Ledyard Connecticut to play at Foxwoods Resort Casino. It's about a two hour trip - when you account for parking and walking to the poker room. Jim waits for twenty or thirty minutes for a table. Invariably, the game is good. There are many loose passive players at Foxwoods. His tight/aggressive style is usually successful. So he wins a few hundred dollars in his first few hours of play. But as the night wears on, fatigue settles in. He becomes less attentive. He calls when he should fold and calls when he should raise. He loses a few hands in a row and fails to win what he should win on a few hands that he wins. His winnings sink and he is now behind. He is tired, as evidenced by the increasing passivity in his game.

But now he is stuck and so is determined to stay until he is at least even. He must get back to even he tells himself - tired though he is. This becomes his mantra - "get to even - get to even". But his play deteriorates as he gets more and more tired. He is in this zone of inattention - waiting for a monster hand to pull him out of the red - failing to play the same tight/aggressive game that brought him his winnings in the first place. He continues to sink into the red, hour after hour - unable to see his play deteriorate. Finally, when he is completely exhausted and severely stuck he gets up, depressed and wasted - financially and physically.

This happens to many, many players in card rooms all over the United States. It happens because the very weariness that sabotages the poker play of the otherwise winning player also inhibits his ability to see what is happening to his own play. It is like drinking and driving. The same alcohol that hurts hinders your ability to drive, hinders your ability to notice that you aren't driving well. And so drunk drivers convince themselves that their driving is excellent. Some argue that one should not leave or stay in a game based on some predetermined number of hours - rather staying if the game is good or leaving if the game is bad. There is surely something to be said for this.

In general it is a good idea to be flexible enough with your schedule to stay in a good game. The problem is in judging whether a game really is good or not. How perceptive are you after you've been playing to the point of fatigue? How many times do players who are being hammered and who are playing very poorly insist to their friends that they need to stay because the game is "fantastic"? The problem is that fatigue often comes with an inflated estimate of both how good the game is and how good you are playing. The wearier you are, the better the game seems. Reversing your losses seems just around the corner - all the while you're slowly spinning down the drain. Don't let this happen.

Poker Basics - Best Five Card Hand

Q. What does 'the best five card hand' mean?

A. In almost every form of poker, you're trying to make the best five card hand.

For example, in Hold 'em, you have pocket fives.
The board is King-King-Queen-Queen-Two

What is your hand?
You have Kings and Queens with a Five kicker (your pair of fives no longer matters, just one of the fives as your 'kicker' as it is better than the two on the board).

Seven card stud:
Say you have Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine-Eight-Five, all of clubs.
Your opponent has Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine of hearts and a Three and a Four of another suit.

Who wins?
It's a chop, as each of your best five card hands are the same: Ace-King-Queen-Ten-Nine. The fact that you have more cards to your flush than your opponent and that your 6th and 7th cards are bigger than his 6th and 7th doesn't matter.

Best five card hand.

Luck in Poker - Magic or Math?

extract from The Poker Shrink, Dr Tim Lavalli

Just how much luck is there is poker? I have stood with some of the biggest names in poker and heard them toss out numbers like 50% or 10%. More complicated answers often sound like "90% short term but only 5% long term" or "a lot more today with all the donkeys in the game". But not once have I heard any of the great players, or average players or even a single Friday night fish give the only, the one and only correct answer to this question. So what is this ultimate answer?

There is no such thing as luck in poker!

There is variability and variance but you know and I mean you know that over time it all evens out; you know you want the donkey calls all day, every day; even though a four-outer on the river will sometimes knock you out of a tournament. From a psychological perspective I want to argue that any belief in luck is detrimental to your bankroll and to your ability to play your "A" game.

Before I make my argument, let's take an example of what some call luck or bad luck and what should be correctly identified as variance. You know what variance is right?

I quote Mike Caro: "A measure of the spread of a statistical distribution about its mean or center. With respect to poker, the distribution of your results over a set of hands or sessions, or the swings in a positive or negative direction of cash flow. The greater the variance, the wilder the swings; the lower the variance, the more likely a given session results will be close to one's average result."

Now if you play perfect statistical poker then your variance will be based on the times that the "odds" or the "distribution of results" go against you. Or what some would call "bad luck" for you and "good luck" for your opponent.

Now to our example: You and one opponent are all-in on the turn, the cards are turned over, you are ahead and your opponent has four outs. What does this mean statistically?

Well in a 52 card deck you can see 8 cards (4 on the board and 2 each in 2 hands), so there are 44 unseen cards and 4 of them win for your opponent and lose for you. Statistically you will win 40 times out of 44 or 10 out of 11 times.

So no reasonable person should disagree that on average 1 time in 11 they will lose in this situation. Ask any good poker player if they are willing to risk their tournament on a 10 to 1 draw and they will say: "Yes!" Every single time. The question is simple, do you say yes to this propostion every single time? If you do then you understand variance and you reject the fuzzy logic of luck. Furthermore, you understand that sitting down at a poker table engages you in a game that is, in fact, gambling and you are doing this voluntarily.

Now the question arises: Why does a belief in luck have a negative effect on my game? The leak in your game occurs not when you are unlucky (when the statistical variance goes against you) but when you are lucky (when you are the donkey needing the 4 outer or the runner, runner diamonds). You hit your miracle card and you think: "I got so lucky!" Wrong! You got your chips in with the worst of it, you risked your tournament on a 1 in 10 play but because you think "lucky" you do not do the analysis of "Why did I do that?" You don't learn from your mistakes, instead to write off your tournament survival to "Luck."

Tell the truth, do you analyize only the hand you bust out on or do you look carefully as the hands where you got "lucky"? If we truly learn from our mistakes then improving our game must include admitting our mistakes and taking a look at them. Don't blame your losses on luck, it was variance. Don't credit your suckouts to luck but rather take a good, long hard look at how you tempted variance and learn not to do that. Get it in 10 to 1 not the other way around.

Variations of Poker

source: poker news

The worldwide obsession with poker is no accident. Many of us have been playing poker in casinos for years. Many more of us have played poker at home with our family and friends for even longer. In these types of games, players receive a full hand on the initial deal, and then discard some of those cards, which are replaced with new cards from the deck.

Stud Poker Variations
In most types of Stud games, the players are dealt an initial amount of cards, and then one more card each time a betting round is completed until seven (or five in Five Card Stud) cards are dealt. In a few variations, the players are dealt all of their cards initially, and then reveal cards at certain mandated times during the betting rounds.

Shared-Card Poker Variations
In these types of poker, players are dealt a small amount of cards individually, and then cards are placed in the center of the table that are common to all players.
Miscellaneous Poker Variations

These games are all poker games that use a standard ranking of hands, but aren't dealt as any of the variations above.

Non-Poker Variations
These games are card games that do not use the standard ranking of poker hands to determine the winner.

WSOP Academy Announces Ladies Poker Camp

Instead of sending the kids off to camp again this summer, maybe it should be your turn. No, you won't learn to pitch a tent or start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. At the World Series of Poker Camp, you will, however, learn to ramp up your poker game, just in time for the 2007 World Series of Poker. And while you won't earn a merit badge, you may be one of the ten lucky participants to walk away with a seat into the 2007 WSOP Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Event. The World Series of Poker Academy is hosting its first ever ladies-only poker camp on June 8th and 9th at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The two-day comprehensive program will be offering a unique curriculum specifically designed for women.

WSOP bracelet winner Annie Duke will be leading the program along with former FBI agent and poker tell specialist, Joe Navarro. Navarro's regular seminars normally get rave reviews, but he's worked up some special material focusing on female-specific non-verbal behavior for the event. Along with the program's female tailored material, participants will also receive the WSOP Academy's expert No-Limit Hold'em curriculum featuring in-depth seminars, live hand demonstrations, interactive workshops and customized handbooks.

You'll get the full treatment, including hand selection, positional play, pot odds, and the importance of aggression and switching gears. The two day program will conclude with a No-Limit Hold'em tournament, where the top ten finishers will win a seat into the 2007 WSOP Ladies event. Last year's WSOP Ladies event drew a record field of 1128 women and a $1.128 million prize pool. This year's ladies event has the potential to top that. Who needs a merit badge, when you have a shot at a bracelet?

History of Online Poker

Online gambling can be traced back to the mid-90’s when the net first provided online sportsbooks and online casinos to gamblers in the United States. However, the first online poker room was not established until 1998, Planet Poker, which existed as the only online casino for a very short time. Since then, Planet Poker has fallen to the shadows of mega-poker sites such as PartyPoker.com and bodog.com.

Perhaps the one and only problem that online poker ever saw was in May of 2000 when the one time glitch in funds transfers occurred with Poker Spot. They were unable to take in players deposits or payout winnings and inevitably went under. Funds transfers capabilities were then sharpened and e-cash transfer services became stable vehicles for transferring money online.
As online poker gained popularity quickly, so did the televised tournaments that brought thousands of new poker players to the table. These two poker elements worked hand in hand to market each other, not to mention the poker legends that were born online and found their way to the final table at the World Series of Poker. One such player is Chris Moneymaker, who bought in on Party Poker for $40, won a spot at a live tournament, and ended up winning the World Series of Poker.

Perhaps the latest fate for online gambling is the most depressing. In September 2006, Congress passed a law to restrict online gambling in the United States. According to SFGate.com, “shares of the three companies, which all make most of their money from U.S. gamblers, tumbled, losing $7 billion in market value” the very week after the law was passed.
Some are still hopeful that the litigation is not final and there may be another chapter in the future of online gambling and online poker, but for now, pull out the old green felt table cause it’s back to the basement for passionate poker players in the United States.

The likeable Poker Player

article by Ashley Adams

We have all heard about the importance of position in poker. I’ve written articles about it here and read many elsewhere. For Stud and Holdem, you need to play your hand differently depending on where you are sitting relative to the dealer and relative to other players. There’s no question about it.

We’ve also learned - at least I hope you’ve learned - about the strategic importance of being a fun and easygoing sort of person at the table. It helps you to have people who are not agitated, angry, or unduly somber and serious at the table. Carefree, happy, laughing people are more likely to part easily with their money.

But it’s also important, as I’ll explain in this article, to think about your table demeanor relative to your position. In other words, you want to treat different people differently based on where they are sitting relative to you at the poker table. That may sound a little nuts, but hear me out and I think that by the end of this essay you’ll agree with me.

Have you ever read about the importance of getting the right seat at the poker table - how you want to have certain types of players to your right and other types of players to your left? If you missed that lesson, simply put, it’s that it’s generally to your advantage to have loose or aggressive players to your right - while passive and tight players are better off, most of the time at least, on your left. The reason for this is, broadly speaking, that you want to have first go at the loose players, to try and isolate them with raises or bets that make it expensive for other opponents to enter the pot. And you want to have the benefit of seeing what the strong aggressive players do before you commit your money to the pot. You want the passive and tight players after you because neither will offer you much of a fight. So you don’t mind entering before they act -- since they will rarely be either betting or raising when

Think about this. If you had the ability to stop one player from raising you the whole game, whom would you pick? Would it be the player who acted before you acted, or the player who acted immediately after you did? Think about it for a few seconds. Got the answer yet? Good.

The correct answer is that if you could pick one player who would never raise it would be the player immediately after you. You’d prefer it if he played you softly, since he is the first player to go after you enter the pot. He is the one who has first shot at you. If the player to your right raises, you always have the ability to fold right away. But if the player immediately after you raises then you will always have to decide whether to enter a pot with the risk that he will make it two bets if you decide to play. That’s not good.

We all know that soft-playing someone because he is a friend is against the rules. If, for example, you have two Aces and your buddy on your right has two Kings and you decide to check it down because you’re friends, it’s called collusion and it is grounds for getting kicked out of the card room. You knew that, didn’t you?

Well, even so, it happens all the time. Maybe it happens deliberately. But even if it doesn’t, friends often casually just play more softly against their friends. They check when they might otherwise bet; and they call when they might otherwise raise. It’s human nature not to be as tough on our friends as we are on our enemies.

That being said, what can you do at the table that helps you in this regard? Make friends with the guy on your left. Be charming. Make an effort to engage him in conversation. Listen to his stories; compliment him on his watch or his tie or his cardplay. I’m not saying you have to kiss his ass, but go ahead and kiss his ass. It may not make him your buddy, but it may get him to be less inclined to play the same tough game against you as he does against the rest of the field.

What about the other players? Does it make sense to be charming with them too? Sure it does! You’d like them all to be less inclined to raise you or otherwise take shots at you when you’d prefer to just call along, or check along, and see another card for free or cheaply. But it’s not so important to be this way with them as it is to be charming to the player on your left.

As a practical matter, it’s much easier and simpler to pick one person at the table to befriend. It happens naturally anyway. You’ve seen this I’m sure. People are very tribal. Games develop where one end of the table feels slighted that none of them has won a pot for a while. Alliances develop -- unspoken though they may be -- between a couple of players sitting next to each other. We tend to seek out allies when we are in competition within a group.

Exploit this natural tendency by making sure that you pay attention to this player on your left. That doesn’t mean you have to be mean or ignore everyone else. Hey, if you can get them happy and make them friendly, more power to you. But it takes some energy to show a genuine interest in someone. And that energy is best spent on the person to your left.

Oh, and just in case I haven’t been clear about this, don’t ever talk about forming an alliance or soft-playing each other. That would be cheating. Just become friendly and let the natural tendencies of friendly people not to play strongly against each other take hold.~~

Irish Poker News: Europes Biggest Poker Festival

On April 5-9, 2007, the cream of the world´s poker pros will gather again in Dublin for Europe´s oldest and most prestigious no-limit hold´em tournament.

The Irish Open, Europe´s longest established poker tournament, was first held in 1981 by the late, great Terry Rogers. Terry had visited Vegas and befriended legends such as Benny Binion, Johnny Moss, and Doyle Brunson, taking a keen interest in no-limit Texas hold´em, a variation of the game previously unknown outside the US. Upon returning to Ireland, Terry established the Irish Open which became instrumental in spreading no-limit hold´em´s popularity throughout Ireland and across Europe.

Last year, Dubliner Vincent Melinn took home the €350,000 first prize from a final table that was broadcast live across Europe. The cameras will be there again this year to capture the magic and drama of the Irish Open. In addition there will be plenty of action in the great value money-added side events.

The 26th Irish Open is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated tournaments ever held in Europe. This year ,an expected 700 players will take their seats in Dublin´s luxurious Burlington Hotel for the €2 million-guaranteed main event. The buy-in for this year’s Irish Open main event is €3,300 (+ €200 registration fee), but you can qualify for as little as $1 on PaddyPowerPoker´s monthly shootout tourney. For more Happenings in

Europe, visit CardPlayerEurope.com

TV Poker Been Dealt the Perfect Hand

Televised poker has just been given its best hand ever with new technology which looks set to turn it into mainstream viewing.

Sagentia (until recently Scientific Generics) at Harston has developed special ink and software which will allow invisible infra-red bar codes on the cards to be read via image processing software and then shown on TV. "Televised card games have built a loyal following over recent years, but like snooker, which had to wait for the introduction of colour TV to really take off, televised poker has also been waiting for a breakthrough to realise its true potential as a spectator sport," Sagentia says.

"The traditional approach, involving over shoulder and/or under table cameras, is invasive and costly. Obscured views can result in delays and errors in identifying cards, making captions follow behind the commentary and compromising the 'live' feel of the show." Perlego, which has been developed by Sagentia and their client, iKnowledge, costs a lot less and allows cards to be identified direct to the TV screen from the moment they are dealt. The cards are printed with the special ink, which can be read only via infra red screens placed across a camera lens. They are identified immediately and then appear in screen graphics beside the name of the player, showing viewers which cards he is holding.

iKnowledge says the new technology will make the game much more entertaining for viewers, creating greater tension, and adding an extra dimension, computer forecasting. iKnowledge is part of PA Sport, a leading provider of automated, data-driven TV graphics for a range of televised sports. Sagentia was approached because of its reputation in magnetic tagging.Kevan Moretti, co-founder and commercial director of iKnowledge, said: "Perlego is a dramatic step forward in delivering the fastest and most accurate game play content on-screen."At the same time it offers producers a significant cost advantage for poker and card play productions."

Given how popular poker has become (and the recent creation of many celebrity poker tv specials and tournaments) this could be the big breakthrough for TV poker that fans have been waiting for.

A Card Related Joke

I received this joke today from a colleague. The joke winds up with the protagonist playing black jack, but being a card game (and the fact it got a chuckle out of me) I thought it would be relevant to throw into the poker blog anyway.


Saul is working in his store when he hears a booming voice from above: "Saul, sell your business." He ignores it. It goes on for days. "Saul, sell your business for $3 million." After weeks of this, he relents, sells his store. The voice says 'Saul, go to Las Vegas." He asks why. "Saul, take the $3 million to Las Vegas." He obeys, goes to a casino.

The voice says, "Saul, go to the blackjack table and put it down all on one hand." He hesitates but knows he must. He's dealt an 18. The dealer has a six showing. "Saul, take a card." What? The dealer has -- "Take a card!" He tells the dealer to hit him. Saul gets an ace. Nineteen. He breathes easy. "Saul, take another card." What? "TAKE ANOTHER CARD!" He asks for another card. It's another ace. He has twenty. "Saul, take another card," the voice commands. I have twenty! Saul shouts. "TAKE ANOTHER CARD!!" booms the voice. Hit me, Saul says. He gets another ace. Twenty one. The booming voice goes: "un-bloody-believable!"

Going Back to Basics in Poker

I have recently been playing Texas Hold'Em with a lot of new players. This is great as it gives me the opportunity to play with new people, and its enjoyable for me to be able to teach them how to play and realise how much fun poker really is! With this in mind, I thought it a good idea to create a series of posts that are essentially a beginners guide for new players (or those wishing to brush up) that goes over poker terms, how to play, when to bet and how the game is played.

The Buy-In

1. When you enter a game, you must make a full buy-in for that particular game. A full buy-in at limit poker is at least 10 times th e maximum bet for the game being played, unless designated otherwise. A full buy-in at pot-limit or no-limit poker is 40 times the m inimum bring-in (usually, the size of the big blind), unless designated otherwise.

2. Only one short buy-in is allowed per session.

3. Adding to your stack is not considered a buy-in, and may be done in any quantity between hands.

The Shuffle and Cut

1. In a player-dealt game, the pack must be shuffled and cut before the cards are dealt. The recommended method to protect the integ rity of the game is to have three people involved instead of only two. The dealer on the previous hand takes in the discards and squ ares up the deck prior to the shuffle. The player on the new dealer's left shuffles the cards and then slides the pack to the new de aler, who gets them cut by the player on his right.

2. The deck must be riffled a minimum of four times. The cut must leave a minimum of four cards in each portion.

3. The bottom of the deck should be protected so nobody can see the bottom card. This is done by using a cut-card. A joker can be us ed as a cut-card.

4. Any complaint about the shuffle, cut, or other preparation connected with dealing must be made before the player has looked at hi s hand or betting action has started.

Misdeals

1. The following circumstances cause a misdeal, provided attention is called to the error before two players have acted on their han ds. (If two players have acted in turn, the deal must be played to conclusion, as explained in rule #2)

• The first or second card of the hand has been dealt faceup or exposed through dealer error.


• Two or more cards have been exposed by the dealer.


• Two or more boxed cards (improperly faced cards) are found.


• Two or more extra cards have been dealt in the starting hands of a game.


• An incorrect number of cards has been dealt to a player, except the top card may be dealt if it goes to the player in proper sequence.


• Any card has been dealt out of the proper sequence (except an exposed card may be replaced by the burncard without such action causing a misdeal).


• The button was out of position.


• The first card was dealt to the wrong position.


• Cards have been dealt to an empty seat or a player not entitled to a hand.


• A player has been dealt out who is entitled to a hand. This player must be present at the table or have posted a blind or ante.

2. Action is considered to occur in stud games when two players after the forced bet have acted on their hands. In button games, act ion is considered to occur when two players after the blinds have acted on their hands. Once action occurs, a misdeal can no longer be declared. The hand is played to conclusion and no money is returned to any player whose hand is fouled.

Dead Hands

1. Your hand is declared dead if:

• You fold or announce that you are folding when facing a bet or a raise.



• You throw your hand away in a forward motion causing another player to act behind you (even if not facing a b et).



• In stud, when facing a bet, you pick your upcards off the table, turn your upcards facedown, or mix your upca rds and downcards together.



• The hand does not contain the proper number of cards for that poker form (except at stud a hand missing the f inal card may be ruled live, and at lowball and draw high a hand with too few cards before the draw is live). [See Section 16 - ?Expl anations,? discussion #4, for more information on the stud portion of this rule.]



• You act on a hand with a joker as a holecard in a game not using a joker. (A player who acts on a hand withou t looking at a card assumes the liability of finding an improper card, as given in Irregularities, rule #8.)



• You have the clock on you when facing a bet or raise and exceed the specified time limit.

2. Cards thrown into the muck may be ruled dead. However, a hand that is clearly identifiable may be retrieved if doing so is in the best interest of the game. An extra effort should be made to rule a hand retrievable if it was folded as a result of false infor mation given to the player.

3. Cards thrown into another player's hand are dead, whether they are faceup or facedown.

Irregularities

1. In button games, if it is discovered that the button was placed incorrectly on the previous hand, the button and blinds are co rrected for the new hand in a manner that gives every player one chance for each position on the round (if possible).

2. You must protect your own hand at all times. Your cards can be protected with your hands, a chip, or other object placed on to p of them. If you fail to protect your hand, you have no redress if it becomes fouled or the dealer accidentally kills it.

3. If a card with a different color back appears during a hand, all action is void and all chips in the pot are returned to the r espective bettors. If a card with a different color back is discovered in the stub, all action stands.

4. If two cards of the same rank and suit are found, all action is void, and all chips in the pot are returned to the players who wagered them (subject to next rule).

5. A player who knows the deck is defective has an obligation to point this out. If such a player instead tries to win a pot by t aking aggressive action (trying for a freeroll), the player may lose the right to a refund, and the chips may be required to stay in the pot for the next deal.

6. If there is extra money in the pot on a deal as a result of forfeited money from the previous deal (as per rule #5), or some s imilar reason, only a player dealt in on the previous deal is entitled to a hand.

7. A card discovered faceup in the deck (boxed card) is treated if it were a meaningless scrap of paper. A card being treated as a scrap of paper will be replaced by the next card below it in the deck, except when the next card has already been dealt facedown t o another player and mixed in with other downcards. In that case, the card that was faceup in the deck is replaced after all other c ards are dealt for that round.

8. A joker that appears in a game in which it is not used is treated as a scrap of paper. Discovery of a joker does not cause a m isdeal. If the joker is discovered before a player acts on his or her hand, it is replaced as in the previous rule. If the player do es not call attention to the joker before acting, then the player has a dead hand.

9. If you play a hand without looking at all of your cards, you assume the liability of having an irregular card or an improper j oker.

10. One or more cards missing from the deck does not invalidate the results of a hand.

11. Before the first round of betting, if a dealer deals one additional card, it is returned to the deck and used as the burncard .

12. Procedure for an exposed card varies with the poker form, and is given in the section for each game. A card that is flashed b y a dealer is treated as an exposed card. A card that is flashed by a player plays. To obtain a ruling on whether a card was exposed and should be replaced, a player should announce that the card was flashed or exposed before looking at it. A downcard dealt off th e table is considered an exposed card.

13. If a card is exposed due to dealer error, a player does not have an option to take or reject the card. The situation is gover ned by the rules for the particular game being played.

14. If you drop any cards out of your hand onto the floor, you must still play them.

15. If the dealer prematurely deals any cards before the betting is complete, those cards will not play, even if a player who has not acted decides to fold.

Betting and Raising

1. Check-raise is permitted in all games, except in certain forms of lowball.

2. In no-limit and pot-limit games, unlimited raising is allowed.

3. In limit poker, for a pot involving three or more players who are not all-in, there is a maximum of a bet and three raises all owed.

4. Unlimited raising for money games is allowed in heads-up play. This applies any time the action becomes heads-up before the ra ising has been capped. Once the raising is capped on a betting round, it cannot be uncapped by a subsequent fold that leaves two pla yers heads-up. For tournament play, the three raise maximum for limit poker applies when heads-up as well.

5. In limit play, an all-in wager of less than half a bet does not reopen the betting for any player who has already acted and is in the pot for all previous bets. A player facing less than half a bet can fold, call, or complete the wager. An all-in wager of a half a bet or more is treated as a full bet, and a player may fold, call, or make a full raise. (An example of a full raise is on a $20 betting round, raising a $15 all-in bet to $35).

6. Any wager must be at least the size of the previous bet or raise in that round, unless a player is going all-in.

7. The smallest chip that can be wagered in a game is the smallest chip used in the antes or blinds. Smaller chips than this do n ot play even in quantity, so a player wanting action on such chips must change them up between deals. If betting is in dollar units or greater, a fraction of a dollar does not play. A player going all-in must put all chips that play into the pot.

8. A verbal statement in turn denotes your action and is binding. If in turn you verbally declare a fold, check, bet, call, or ra ise, you are forced to take that action.

9. Rapping the table in turn with your hand is a pass.

10. Deliberately acting out of turn is not tolerated. A player who checks out of turn may not bet or raise on the next turn to ac t. An action or verbal declaration out of turn may be ruled binding if there is no bet, call, or raise by an intervening player acti ng after the infraction has been committed.

11. To retain the right to act, a player must stop the action by announcing ?time? (or an equivalent word). Failure to stop the act ion before three or more players have acted behind you may cause you to lose the right to act. You cannot forfeit your right to act if any player in front of you has not acted, only if you fail to act when it legally becomes your turn. Therefore, if you wait for s omeone whose turn comes before you, and three or more players act behind you, this still does not hinder your right to act.

12. A player who bets or calls by releasing chips into the pot is bound by that action. However, if you are unaware that the pot has been raised, you may withdraw that money and reconsider your action, provided that no one else has acted after you.

13. In limit poker, if you make a forward motion into the pot area with chips and thus cause another player to act, you may be fo rced to complete your action.

14. String raises are not allowed. To protect your right to raise, you should either declare your intention verbally or place the proper amount of chips into the pot. Putting a full bet plus a half-bet or more into the pot is considered to be the same as announ cing a raise, and the raise must be completed. (This does not apply in the use of a single chip of greater value.)

15. If you put a single chip in the pot that is larger than the bet, but do not announce a raise, you are assumed to have only ca lled. Example: In a $3-$6 game, when a player bets $6 and the next player puts a $25 chip in the pot without saying anything, that p layer has merely called the $6 bet.

16. All wagers and calls of an improperly low amount must be brought up to proper size if the error is discovered before the bett ing round has been completed. This includes actions such as betting a lower amount than the minimum bring-in (other than going all-i n) and betting the lower limit on an upper limit betting round. If a wager is supposed to be made in a rounded off amount, is not, a nd must be corrected, it shall be changed to the proper amount nearest in size. No one who has acted can change a call to a raise be cause the wager size has been changed.

The Showdown

1. A player must show all cards in the hand face-up on the table to win any part of the pot.

2. Cards speak (cards read for themselves). The dealer assists in reading hands, but players are responsible for holding onto the ir cards until the winner is declared. Although verbal declarations as to the contents of a hand are not binding, deliberately misca lling a hand with the intent of causing another player to discard a winning hand is unethical and may result in forfeiture of the po t. (For more information on miscalling a hand see ?Section 11 - Lowball,? Rule 15 and Rule 16.)

3. Anyone who sees an incorrect amount of chips put into the pot, or an error about to be made in awarding a pot, has an ethical obligation to point out the error. Please help us keep mistakes of this nature to a minimum.

4. All losing hands must be killed by the dealer before a pot is awarded.

5. Any player who has been dealt in can request to see any hand that has been called, even if the opponent's hand or the winning hand has been mucked. However, this is a privilege that can be revoked if abused. If a player other than the pot winner asks to see a hand that has been folded, that hand is dead. If the winning player asks to see a losing player's hand, both hands are live, and t he best hand wins.

6. If you show cards to another player during or after a deal, any player at the table has the right to see those exposed cards. Cards shown during a deal to a player not in the pot should only be shown to all players when the deal is finished.

7. If everyone checks (or is all-in) on the final betting round, the player who acted first is the first to show the hand. If the re is wagering on the final betting round, the last player to take aggressive action by a bet or raise is the first to show the hand . In order to speed up the game, a player holding a probable winner is encouraged to show the hand without delay. If there is a side pot, players involved in the side pot should show their hands before anyone who is all-in for only the main pot.

Ties

1. The ranking of suits from highest to lowest is spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. Suits never break a tie for winning a pot. Sui ts are used only in stud and then only to break a tie between cards of the same rank (no redeal or redraw).

2. Dealing a card to each player is used to determine things like who moves to another table. If the cards are dealt, the order i s clockwise starting with the first player on the dealer's left (the button position is irrelevant). Drawing a card is used to deter mine things like who gets the button in a new game.

3. An odd chip is broken down to the smallest unit used in the game.

4. No player can receive more than one odd chip.

5. If two or more hands tie, an odd chip is awarded as follows:

• In a button game, the first hand clockwise from the button gets the odd chip.


• In a stud game, the odd chip is given to the highest card by suit in all high games, and to the lowest card b y suit in all low games. (When making this determination, all cards are used, not just the five cards that constitute the player's h and.)


• In high-low split games, the high hand receives the odd chip in a split between the high and the low hands. T he odd chip between tied high hands is awarded as in a high game of that poker form, and the odd chip between tied low hands is awar ded as in a low game of that poker form.


• All side pots and the main pot are split as separate pots, not mixed together

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.