Poker Blog
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Thursday, 18 September 2008 |
Study Your Opponents
When playing any game whether its poker or not, you can gain a huge advantage by getting to know your opponent. It's good to get a note pad and to take notes about your opponents; everyone is different so start to think about everybody at the table as a unique person. Unlike playing at a casino, there are very few tells, so examine every detail you can. Ask yourself these questions: How much is the bet compared to the pot. How many players are they raising? How fast is the betting? How many hands have they played before this one? Questions like these can help you determine the strength of your opponent's hand. Every player is different, some players will count to 5 or 10 seconds before making a move every turn to remove this tell from their gameplay. You can also use a 3rd party poker player search that will tell you the current stats and traits of your opponents, these often require a payment to use. If you do your research and you study your opponents you're bound to reap the rewards, just be aware of your own online poker tells.
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
The Most Important Skill In Poker
A few years back, I had a chance meeting with Doyle Brunson at the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas. During our brief conversation I asked what the secret to being successful at poker was. Mr. Brunson said not to be afraid to fold. In my many years of dealing and playing Texas Hold'em, I have found that far too many players donate a great portion of their stack to chase a hand that can come no better than second best. This trend has become far more prevelant with online play than I have ever seen in live play. Anytime you have seen the flop, you should try to ascertain whether or not you have a possibility of having the nuts should you get perfect-perfect on the turn and river. It helps if you can figure out the odds of this by counting your outs and multiplying that number by 2 to get the percentage of your chances of hitting. Should you think you may not attain the nuts, you should also work out the chances of another player getting the nuts. If your odds of getting the nuts is less than the other players, you would be advised to fold and save the donation for another hand or series of hands. With the popularity of online play, far too many players do not pay the proper respect to potential strong hands by trying to chase down a potential winning hand. This is caused by having lower limits online than are usually found in live games. By folding the weak starting hands you will enough chips to allow good payoffs on those winning hands. During tournament play, it is also recommended to fold weak starting hands early on while the blinds are still small and the field is large. On television broadcasts of tournaments, most top players fold a great majority of their hole cards. Through the magic of editing, it looks as if there is action on every hand and that players are going all in a great deal of the time. This also has led some players to forget how to fold. Play tight and pick your spots to be aggressive. By creating a belief in the minds of other players that you do not play weak hands, you will also be able to bluff your opponents and win some chips when not having the nuts. -Marc |
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Giving Yourself a Better Chance |
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
Key Concepts Will Put You In The Right Direction
In upcoming conversations we will be discussing a few strategies for limit and no limit holdem cash games and tournaments but before we get to far ahead of ourselves lets talk about doing a few key things to get you headed in the right direction. Truth is most people that play ,lose and usually for an extended period of time with a few exceptions. We can shorten both the loosing time and the time you spend in limbo or poker purgatory as I like to call it. That’s the period where you think you finally got what it takes to become a poker pro and then you go up and down the ladder like a greasy whack a mole. Now that never really ends but we can limit the fluctuation to some degree just by implementing a few basic rules . Please note I said rules not strategies. These are simply things you must do if you ever want to take the next step in becoming a complete player . First you should review what kind of game you had the most success at up to date and what level you were playing at when you won I’m assuming you have won at some point and even if you didn’t sustain that for long what were the conditions when you did win. Which brings us to the first rule ,play against people you can beat . If that means playing at 10 cent cash game then so be it . It beats losing . One of the most common mistakes people make is graduating before they and their bankroll are ready. Consider this a lot of pros recommend having a bankroll 200 times the big blind in order to get through the rough spots .So to graduate to a 2 /4 table you need about 8 hundred dollars . Now none of us really bothered to load that much before we sat down to a 2 /4 table . I know I didn’t but the point is even as you think your ready to graduate your bank roll probably isn’t . So be patient . Now the next thing I want to talk about is choosing your table . Are you really choosing a table or just jumping into the first one with an empty seat . If you want to play internet poker then take advantage of the opportunities that playing on line affords you . Take the time to look at what the average pot is if the site you play on provides that info on each cash table . Larger pots indicate loose play and you should be taking full advantage of that .Also stay on the lookout for the fish who gave you money last time . See if two or more of these generous players are at the same table . Your better off joining the wait list at a table you know you can beat then jumping into the first table that will have you . The last thing I want to talk about in today’s article is maniacs . Most of everyone’s heavy losses came at the hands of these guys . Been known to put on that hat myself once in a while . What you should be doing when you encounter a maniac is play a very solid straight forward tight game . What typically happens is the maniac coaxes one or two players into playing his game only to find out that their skills are not up to the task . Remember it not your job to dismantle every maniac that come along even if you did manage to take one down once . ITS YOUR JOB TO MAKE MONEY. Keep your eye on the prize and don’t get distracted. In my next article I want to show you where the gold is buried and how to dig for it so watch for it. |
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Top Players Pick from Premier UK Venues for Prestigious Poker Tour |
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
Top Players Pick from Premier UK Venues for Prestigious Poker Tour
Titan Poker's top poker players are choosing from four different British venues as they prepare to play in the UK's largest poker tour.
July 31, 2008 -- Titan Poker, the largest online poker room on the iPoker Network, is giving its players the chance to choose from one of four major poker events on the route of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT). The GUKPT will pass through various Grosvenor casino locations in the UK, including Luton, Bolton, Thanet and Blackpool - and Titan Poker is giving its players the freedom to choose which of these casinos to compete in.
Two players from opposite sides of the globe have already qualified for this exciting event by winning $4,000 prize packages to the GUKPT at Titan Poker's weekly online Super Satellites. Sean Allen from Canada and British player Garry Cargill were the first players to claim their seats to this prestigious and thrilling poker event. Now the decision is in their hands. Thirty-nine year old Sean Allen is still deliberating over his options. Garry Cargill, however, wasted no time and has already opted to get straight into the action at Luton's G Casino next month.
Garry said: "I've been playing poker for around two years now and I've been quite successful - but qualifying for the GUKPT is undoubtedly my greatest achievement so far. I'm excited to have this chance to test myself against some of the country's best players and find out just how good (or indeed bad!) I really am. I'm trying not to expect too much but it's very difficult as the money that I stand to win could be life-changing!"
Titan Poker is staging Super Satellites every Thursday until the 28th of October 2008 and, with qualifying satellites starting at just $2+$0.20, the popular poker room anticipates a significant expansion in its GUKPT team before the Grand Finale in December.
Titan Poker regularly awards its players with seats to some of the most exciting live tournaments across the globe. Seventeen Titan Poker players recently competed at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and in the coming months, the poker room will send its players to the Irish Winter Festival, the Asian Poker Tour in Macau and the Sun City Million Dollar Poker Tournament in South Africa.
About Titan Poker
Titan Poker is the leading online poker room in Europe and part of the iPoker Network. Titan Poker's software was developed by Playtech, a public company and leading gaming software developer. Titan Poker guarantees more than $16,000,000 in monthly prizes, has nearly 30,000 online players at peak hours, and awards winning players with entries to the major poker tournaments worldwide. Titan Poker features special jackpot sit 'n' go tournaments with progressive prizes and jackpots as high as $100,000. Titan Poker is exclusively promoted by Euro Partners, the worlds largest e-gaming affiliate program. For more information about Titan Poker please visit the Titan Poker website.
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 |
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Poker is a game of aggression. The more you raise pots, the more likely it is you will take the pot then and there. Passive play sometimes is essential but should only be used to misdirect you opponent. Passive play should only be used when you’re up against a player who is extremely aggressive and you know he or she will bet into you. Raising pots puts your opponent to the test, most of the time your opponent can only call you with a quality hand.
With that point in mind, you can start to put you opponent on a hand much easier if you raise pots. Most people only call raised pots with premium starting hands, so you can deduce what they are holding at a higher percentage then if the pot were not to raise.
Sometime you will get re-raised, in a situation like this the correct play more times then less is to fold, unless you think your opponent is trying to make a move on you. This co-relates to the point that aggression wins pots. If someone is re-raising your raise, you more or less have to give credit for a better hand unless you’re holding a monster.
A lot of people like to slow play there big pockets from early position hoping for a re-raise so they can pump the pot. I can not stress enough that this is a terrible play unless you know an aggressive player will raise. What if the entire table limps behind you? What then? You can not put anyone on a decent hand and your letting hands like suited connectors out flop you. You must raise these big pockets to protect your hand from someone cracking your big pair. Again aggression wins pots.
I hope this article has helped improve your game to some extent, and remember raise raise raise. You have to think of poker as a fight to win someone else’s chips, and we all know you can not win a fight unless your aggressive and come out slugging.
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